Four Contemplations that Turn the Mind
You should have uncontrived faith in the practice of listening and contemplation,
the Rimé teachings, and the great holy beings.
Without bias, make determined effort at guarding unerring conduct,
such as observing karmic cause and effect, rejecting and adopting, etc.
Mainly, take well to heart the Buddha's collected teachings in the sutras and tantras, as well as the profound instructions of the supreme scholar-siddhas—not the mere words.
In this way, with the scriptures dawning as pith instructions, the ultimate result of penetrating the crucial points of listening and contemplation is the liberation of your mental continuum.
Thus, train in the four contemplations that turn the mind.
You should undertake the four contemplations that turn the mind concerning this life, saṃsāra, peace, and subject-object dualism.
The precious basis of this human rebirth,
endowed with the eight opportunities and ten resources, is immensely meaningful and difficult to obtain as explained in terms of cause and effect as well as examples.
Death is certain, the time of death is uncertain, and at the time of death
nothing but the dharma can protect you.
Thus, make effort solely at practicing the dharma—not worldly activities.
To turn your mind away from saṃsāra,
contemplate the karmic causes and effects of pleasure and pain and the faults of saṃsāra.
Karmic results definitely increase, you will not meet with the effects
of what you have not done, and nothing that is done lacks an effect.
In general, in saṃsāra, you are continually tormented by the eight forms of suffering:
the suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death,
meeting with what you do not like, being parted from what you like,
not obtaining what you wish for, and encountering what you do not wish to.
And you are further tormented by the three kinds of suffering:
not being able to rely on anything saṃsāric, finding no satisfaction from saṃsāric pleasures, and cycling in saṃsāra without beginning.
Thus, the perpetuating aggregates are characterized by suffering.
As for the method of turning your mind from the happiness of peace:
Give rise to Buddhahood, the object of attainment, from bodhicitta
using the stages of the seven-step cause and effect instructions.
Develop the aspiration of bodhicitta from the superior intention.
Develop that from great compassion,
that from loving appreciation,
that from wishing to repay the kindness of mother sentient beings,
that from recalling the kindness of mother sentient beings,
and that from meditating on the recognition that all beings have been one's mother.
The basis for the arising of unbiased altruism is equanimity towards any and all sentient beings.
Practice loving appreciation for everyone.
Start with your mother and then extend it to everyone.
By striving for enlightenment on the basis of love, great compassion,
and the superior intention, turn your mind away from the happiness of peace.
In order to turn your mind away from subject-object dualism,
develop the discerning wisdom which realizes that the fully purified nature of all things is primordially unarisen.
By examining and analyzing again and again, develop the correct ārya wisdom,
and turn your mind away from the error of subject-object dualism.
~ H.E. 12 th Zurmang Gharwang Rinpoche, March 12, 2021