Lamrim - A summary of the 84,000 teachings of the Buddha

[WoselTenzin]

Since I first started learning Buddhism, I have read many books and listened to many teachings from various teachers and from various traditions.  All the teachings made sense but somehow I just can't piece it together.  It kind of feels like I have many types of beans but they are all mixed up in one jar.

When I read the Lamrim for the first time, it really blew my mind away.  Suddenly all the teachings I have heard and read fall into place and I felt as though they have been organised under the 24 chapters of the Lamrim.  All the beans in the jar that was all mixed up are now separated and put into a container with various compartments.  For the first time in my life I begin to understand what Buddhism was all about and how to start and progress along the path of practice and the various methods to reach the ultimate goal of full enlightenment. 

The Lamrim is said to have 3 pre-eminent characteristics and 4 pre-eminent attributes:-

3 pre-eminent characteristics:-
1. It is the condensation of all Buddhadharma
2. It is easy to put into practice
3. It's presentation is superior to other traditions

4 pre-eminent attributes:-
1.  We will understand that all Buddha's teachings are not contradictory
2.  All Buddha's teachings should be taken as personal advice
3.  We will easily understand Buddha's ultimate intention
4.  We will naturally become free from the great faults and from all other faults

Reading the Lamrim definitely gives me the experience of the pre-eminent  characteristics and attributes of the Lamrim mentioned above. 

I am sharing my experience of the Lamrim because in case this is the experience you are looking for and have not read the Lamrim, please waste no time in getting your hands on it.  For those who have read the Lamrim, perhaps you would like to share your experience of it so that we can all learn and be inspired by it.
 

[sahara]

Since i was young i like Buddhism very much but of couse i don't know what is Buddhism during that age? just  like WoselTenzin said that all the teachings made sense but somehow just can't piece it together....   i do listened and reading many Dharma book but still find it very hard...... Anyway, I heard about LAMRIM before,but never read it....so happy to read about WoselTenzin topic and  more understand the meaning of the LAMRIM. Thank you . I hope one day i can sharing my experience of the Lamrim and more people can learn and be inspired by it. 
 

[KhedrubGyatso]

The Lamrim is the culmination of 2500 years of transmission beginning from Sakyamuni Buddha ,  through countless Buddhist masters, orally and written and reaching us now in a presentation that is easy to study and understand. A relatively recent text like Liberation in the Palm of your Hand has become more than a lamp on the path . It is like a sophisticated modern day GPS which unerringly guide us all the way to the goal of liberation and enlightenment .
This holy masterpiece  is truly Atisha’s and subsequent commentators’ supreme expression of kindness and compassion for folks like us living in this degenerate age.
Meeting the Lamrim is like the blind turtle which surfaces once in one hundred years from the depths of the vast ocean ,meeting the golden yoke floating on the water surface. What did we do to have such good fortune? How sad if we do not study and practice it and waste away our precious human life.

[vajrastorm]

The Lamrim - Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand- by the great and highly attained  Master Pabongka Rinpoche, is indeed a complete Buddhist 'Bible'. It encapsulates all of Buddha Shakyamuni's teachings of over 2500 years ago and contains the Path and Road-map to Full Enlightenment or Complete Liberation from Suffering.

The Lamrim never ceases to amaze and 'delight' me. No matter how many times I have read or studied it, it always yields fresh 'insights' and 'self-discoveries' of its Dharma treasures.Just by thinking of the great Holy Beings and highly realized Masters who wrote the Lamrim and who later wrote/composed  commentaries on it will already blow our minds.

Lord Atisha wrote the seminal work "The Lamp on the Path to Enlightenment'), and Je Tsongkapa, founder of the Gelug Lineage, wrote the commentary on the Lamrim in the form of  Lamrim Chenmo. Lord Atisha, who had had 552 rebirths as scholarly pandits before this life, studied under many attained masters and even travelled to Indonesia to receive Bodhicitta teachings and training (for 12 years) from the great Suvarnadvipa. Je Tsongkapa studied under many great masters of different lineages and had visions of Atisha and old Kadampa Lamrim  masters who gave him their blessings to write the Lamrim. Je Tsongkapa combined the three Kadampa Lineages into one stream Manjushri also came to him in visions and gave him profound teachings on Sutra and Tantra. In writing the Lamrim, Je Tsongkapa, nevertheless, concentrated on tracing the lineage back to Buddha Shakyamuni. Pabongka Rinpoche's teachings on the Lamrim(including the 24 -day teaching which was transcribed into a book 'Liberation In the Palm of Your Hand' by his heart disciple the great Trijang Rinpoche, following instructions from Pabongka Rinpoche, after he had 'transferred the teachings to Trijang Rinpoche like one vessel into another')was the culmination of ten years of intensive study of the Lamrim under his root guru Dagpo Rinpoche(who made him go to a cave and meditate on each Lamrim topic and questioned him to determine his mastery of the topic before moving on to teach the next topic to him).

By the painstaking and thorough efforts of these highly compassionate Holy Beings, the 84000 teachings have come to us in this degenerate age, complete and in an unbroken lineage from Buddha Shakyamuni. What's more, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand is in the style of a practical discourse and in a 'language' that people of our time can relate to.Just imagine that, with Liberation, you hold in your hand the whole graduated Stages of the Path to complete happiness and full Enlightenment!.Throughout Liberation, Pabongka Rinpoche makes us single-mindedly focus on development of Bodhicitta and the fulfillment of this wondrous "eternal hope"!

[dondrup]

Lord Buddha’s 84000 teachings are so vast and profound.  Unless beginners have the great fortunes and merits to meet qualified spiritual guides, they will have great difficulty knowing where to start their spiritual practice.  Beginners are most likely to lose their way as there are so many Buddhist traditions and schools to follow.  Knowing Lamrim even at the intellectual level can help us understand and appreciate the similarities and differences of the various Buddhist traditions and schools available today.  We will be able to know where we came from, where we are and where we will be going to after studying Lamrim.

Lamrim can be described as the site-map of a website or the table of contents of a book.  It gives you a framework of all the teachings and practices taught by Lord Buddha 2500 years ago. Lamrim is comprehensive, complete and systematic. 

Lamrim is authentic, proven, approved by all the scholars of Nalanda University where its author, Atisha originated from.  Lamrim has been passed down in an unbroken lineage since Buddha Shakyamuni to Pabongka Rinpoche and Trijang Rinpoche and all the present spiritual guides in the World today.  Hence we don’t have to look elsewhere to find the path to Buddhahood because if we study and practise Lamrim, we will definitely attain Buddhahood. 

We can go on and on to praise the good qualities about Lamrim …
 

[buddhalovely]

Lamrim is a special set of instructions that includes all the essential teachings of Buddha Shakyamuni arranged in such a way that all his Hinayana and Mahayana teachings can be put into practice in a single meditation session.

It was compiled by the great Indian Buddhist Master Atisha, who was invited to Tibet by King Jangchub Ö in AD 1042, and who spent the rest of his life there spreading pure Dharma.

There is a completely pure and unbroken lineage of these Lamrim instructions from Buddha Shakyamuni up to our present day Spiritual Guides.

Many great Kadampa Teachers have said that it is far more important to gain experience of Lamrim than it is to attain clairvoyance, miracle powers, or high social status.

This is true because in previous lives we have often possessed clairvoyance and potent miracle powers, and many times in the past we have been in the highest positions in the human and god realms, but despite this we continue to experience uncontrolled rebirth and physical and mental suffering caused by anger, attachment, jealousy, and confusion.

If we gain deep experience of Lamrim there will be no basis for these problems; we shall be completely free of all of them.

First we must understand the value of Lamrim. Then by joyfully and patiently doing the meditations we shall gradually experience the fruits of Lamrim practice.

Eventually we shall attain freedom from all suffering and the unchanging peace and happiness of enlightenment.

There are 21 Lamrim meditations, which are usually practiced in a three-week cycle as a daily meditation practice:

1. Our precious human life
2. Death and impermanence
3. The danger of lower rebirth
4. Refuge practice
5. Actions and their effects
6. Developing renunciation for samsara
7. Developing equanimity
8. Recognizing that all living beings are our mothers
9. Remembering the kindness of living beings
10. Equalizing self and others
11. The disadvantages of self-cherishing
12. The advantages of cherishing others
13. Exchanging self with others
14. Great compassion
15. Taking
16. Wishing love
17. Giving
18. Bodhichitta
19. Tranquil abiding
20. Superior seeing
21. Relying upon a Spiritual Guide

[RedLantern]

Lamrim means"the stages to the path of enlightenment"Atisha gathered 84,ooo teachings into 21 meditations Lama Tsongkapa wrote the commentary on 21 meditation.The lineage of lamrim originated from Buddha Shakyamuni himself.These teachings were compiled and brought to Tibet by Atisha.The teachings of Atisha were given a new life by L.Tsongkapa.
We have very rare and incredible opportunity to learn these sciences of the mind by accomplished teachers who have sacrifice so much.We have to learn to stop our suffering,to help others alleviate than suffering.

[biggyboy]

Studying, understanding and practising the Lamrim has a deep impact on me for after reading so, it has given great insight into how one's life sufferings and its cessation can happen if one practises them truly and whole heartedly.  With the practice, experience and understanding, one would find the joy of life in the midst of sufferings without grasping hard on 'why life is so unfair' (for example).

Ven. Chodron on the importance of Lamrim:
"Prayer and aspiration are not enough for deep transformation; reasoning is necessary. Transformation comes from studying the lamrim, thinking about the topics, and doing analytical meditation on them. With a firm grounding in lamrim, we'll be able to work with our mind no matter what is going on in it or around us. When we do this, our Dharma practice becomes so tasty! We don't get bored practicing. It becomes very exciting and fascinating."

[DSFriend]

I rely tremendously on the Lamrim and the more i read it, the more i find that i need to read it so much more carefully.

Unlike ordained sangha members where their lives are dedicated to a disciplined monastic routine of studying and contemplation, lay people lack tremendously in such discipline. Our lives are full of distractions.

Most study for intellectual stimulation as the lack of discipline to contemplate prevents us from putting the essence of the dharma into practice. "Studying" the dharma then can become an "escape" instead and can be a tremendous disadvantage when we think we are practicing when we are really not. Having a teacher is extremely important to guide us and keep us in check.