The Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind
Contemplations that inspire renunciation and dharma practice.
The four thoughts are: precious human birth, death and impermanence, karma and its effects, and the defects of samsara. These turn the mind from worldly concerns toward liberation.
These four thoughts are the root of all dharma practice.
The four thoughts create the motivation for sincere practice.
Lam Rim Texts
Written about in
- What Tibetan Buddhism says about grief
Gampopa places death and impermanence second among the four contemplations that turn the mind toward practice, after precious human birth. Grief is not treated as an interruption of the path but as one of its four doorways.