Four Foundations of Buddhist Practice

by Khenchen Thrangu

In this book Rinpoche discusses The Four Common Foundations which are the four thoughts to contemplate before beginning a spiritual practice. The first foundation, precious human birth, explains in detail why practice is important. The second foundation, impermanence, teaches us to find something meaningful in life. The most difficult to understand foundation, karma, is lucidly explained by Thrangu Rinpoche. Because of karma, we can determine if we will have a fortunate or unfortunate future. Then after we have practiced we must return to conventional reality (samsara) and so the fourth reminder is a review of the characteristics of samsara. This book also includes Khenpo Karpo's excellent survey of the points of meditation and practice to round out the four foundations. "Thrangu Rinpoche's fine new book will be a great support to anyone making the effort to study, reflect upon, and put the teachings of the four foundations into practice." -- David Curtis, Director Tibet Language Institute

Genres: Buddhism

98 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Very Venerable Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Tulku, Karma Lodrö Lungrik Maway Senge (Tibetan: ཁྲ་འགུ་, Wylie: khra 'gu) is a prominent tulku (reincarnate lama) in the Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism.

At the age of four he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Eleventh Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku, the abbot of Thrangu Monastery, whose root incarnation was Shüpu Palgyi Sengé, one of the twenty-five disciples of Guru Rinpoche. Forced to flee to India in 1959, he went to Rumtek Monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa had his seat in exile. Thrangu Rinpoche then served as the main teacher of the four principal Karma Kagyü tulkus of that time—the four regents of the Karmapa (Shamar Rinpoche, Tai Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche). In 1976 he began to teach in the West and became the abbot of Gampo Abbey—a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia, Canada—as well as to take charge of the three-year retreat centre at Samyé Ling in Scotland.

He is also the author of the widely studied The Practice of Tranquility and Insight, a commentary on the eighth chapter of Jamgön Kongtrul's Treasury of Knowledge, on shamatha and vipashyana.

Reviews

[Pierre Armstrong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful Introduction to the Preliminaries

This is by far the most easy to digest book on the preliminary practices. I am extremely grateful for the teaching of Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche. The preliminaries, paired with the Tonglen practice (briefly mentioned in this book) has single-handedly change my practice for the better.

[Eunsung · Rating 5 out of 5]

The section about description and helpful suggestions on different Tibet an meditation techniques were super helpful and easy to understand and apply to one's meditation practice.