Training the Mind

Michael Erlewine -- Archivist Popular Culture

3 min readNov 21, 2025

By Michael Erlewine

There is something that I believe I can make clear or at least clearer. It has to do with what dharma practice is all about. If you can understand it, and make use of it, this could be an impetus as to how (and why) you might approach it sooner than later.

Dharma practice comes, in essence, in two major parts, what are called “The Preliminaries” (dualistic) and “Non-Meditation (non-dualistic).

The preliminaries include these practices:

‘The Common Preliminaries’, ‘The Extraordinary Preliminaries’ (Ngondro), ‘Lojong practice’, and the ‘Special Preliminaries’, usually followed by various ‘Deity Practices, and then a real leap via what are called the ‘Pointing-Out Instructions’ as to the nature of the mind, which is called ‘Recognition’. The Preliminaries are all dualistic (subject and object), while the ‘Non-Meditation” practices are non-dualistic, and completely immersive.

When Recognition (non-duality) is finally realized and takes place, there is no further need for the preliminaries once we recognize the actual nature of the mind and how to work it . Once we are familiar with the nature of the mind and how it works, from that point onward we are busy working the mind. No more need for the preliminary practices.

The function of all the preliminaries is just that, preliminary dharma training, like the Ngondro, which is a kind of dharma boot camp, helping us to get in shape to undertake the pointing-out instructions and hopefully receive them. And the Ngondro is not for the weak of heart.

When I first heard about Ngondro, I was sure it was a throwback, something from the Middle Ages, and there was no way I was about to do 100,000 of this and a 100,000 of that, for starters. However, after a few years I found myself foundering under my own guidance in dharma practice, subject to my half-baked tutelage. It was then that I found myself willing to undertake the Ngondro, getting the permission to begin it, and empowered with the reading instructions, and all that.

If we want to eventually tackle the non-dual practices, the non-meditation practices like Mahamudra and Dzogchen, we are going to have to get in mental, physical, and emotional shape, which is what Ngongo and the other preliminaries require. It is no different than physical exercise and getting in shape, only here we are working with the mind.

For some reason, we Americans believe that our mind, just as it comes out of the box is good to go. None of the Asian people believe that. The mind admits and even requires at least as vigorous training as our body.

I ended up doing the Ngondro twice, and after that doing a number of deity practices, and finally, thanks to my Tibetan lama, my root guru, I was introduced and became familiar with the actual nature of the mind, which is called ‘Recognition.”