Cultivation is the conscious effort to increase good karma and avoid bad karma through body, speech, and mind in normal everyday life. Without it, every method remains ineffective. It forms the foundation for any true progress on the path.
Why Many Practitioners Fail
Many practitioners meditate for decades, recite mantras, and perform rituals without their minds truly changing or actual realization occurring. Why is that?
In His Dharma discourses, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III explains this widespread problem with great directness. The cause does not lie in the methods, but in what they often lack: the foundation of self-cultivation. Anyone who continues to lie, act out in anger, or harm others in everyday life while simultaneously reciting mantras is like someone pouring water into a container full of holes. The practice simply drains away.
Building the Foundation: The Eight Fundamentals
The path has an internal logic. Anyone who skips steps, in the words of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III, only creates empty and illusory states of mind. Everything begins with the understanding of impermanence and leads through firm belief, renunciation, and abiding by the precepts, all the way to bodhicitta. None of these steps may be taken out of order or anticipated.
Using Everyday Life: Daily Practice
Cultivation does not primarily take place on the meditation cushion. It is the work of dealing with others daily, with one’s own anger, and with one’s own habits. In His Dharma discourse Learning from Buddha, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III gives precise instructions on how practitioners should orient their minds in the morning and critically examine themselves throughout the day.
Correcting the Course: The Mirror of the 128 Views
To ensure that one does not unknowingly stray from the right path during this daily work, a clear standard is needed. H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III has given a Dharma discourse describing 128 evil and erroneous views. They serve as a mirror to continuously check one’s own practice, as well as the path one is following.
Using the Foundation: True Dharma Practice
Those who sincerely cultivate themselves in everyday life and correct their errors build a strong, pure foundation. However, H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III teaches that cultivation alone is not enough to break the cycle of samsara. For that, specific Dharma practice is required, which uses this foundation to generate actual power of realization.
Walking the Path Together
Recognizing one’s own blind spots is rarely achieved alone. Therefore, the Sangha, the community of practitioners, is far more than just a support system: it is the place where this cultivation becomes practical. In our regular practice community, these very Dharma discourses of H.H. Dorje Chang Buddha III serve as the standard. In small groups, we honestly and committedly reflect on our progress and errors, without giving advice to one another, but with a clear view of ourselves.