The Ten Kinds of Waste and the Ten Necessary Things

Opening Homage

Gampopa begins the Precious Garland with a bow to the masters of the Practice Lineage — the Kagyu gurus whose blessings, he says, are as inexhaustibly immense as the great ocean. This homage is not decorative. It establishes the ground from which every instruction in this text arises: the living transmission from teacher to student, unbroken from the Buddha through Tilopa, Naropa, Marpa, and Milarepa to Gampopa himself.

He tells us plainly why he is writing: having cherished these spoken instructions in his heart for so long, he now sets them down for those who are directly or indirectly devoted to him, as a "precious garland that is the sublime path." The metaphor is deliberate. A garland is a string of individual gems, each complete in itself, yet forming a unified ornament when threaded together. Each category of instruction in this text is one such gem.

The Ten Kinds of Waste

The very first instruction Gampopa gives is a list of losses. Before speaking of what to practice, he asks us to see what we are already losing. This is the physician's method — diagnose the illness before prescribing the cure.

1. This perfect human body, so difficult to find, is wasted by engaging in unvirtuous evil deeds.

2. This perfect human body with the freedoms and riches, so hard to obtain, is wasted by dying an ordinary unspiritual person.

3. This fleeting human life, already short in this dark age, is wasted when spent on pointless activities.

4. Your mind, whose unconstructed nature is dharmakaya, is wasted by sinking into the muddy swamp of samsaric delusion.

5. The sublime master, who leads you onto the path, is wasted when you dissociate from him before attaining enlightenment.

6. Your vows and samayas, the ship to reach liberation, are wasted when broken through frivolous disturbing emotions.

7. The experience and realization discovered within yourself through the assistance of a master are wasted when allowed to dissipate in the jungle of materialistic activities.

8. The profound oral instructions of the siddhas are wasted when bartered like merchandise to ordinary unworthy people.

9. All sentient beings, your own kind parents, are wasted when, out of hatred, you abandon and forsake them.

10. Your youth, when your body, speech and mind are fresh and vigorous, is wasted when spent in ordinary indifference.

The Logic of Urgency

Notice what Gampopa is doing here. He is not beginning with philosophy or metaphysics. He is beginning with a feeling — the raw recognition that something precious is slipping through our fingers. Each item on this list names a treasure we already possess and shows how we throw it away.

The list moves from the external to the internal. It begins with the body itself, then addresses the mind's true nature, then the teacher-student relationship, then the vows, then realization, then the instructions, then other beings, and finally the vitality of youth. Gampopa is mapping the entire landscape of what a practitioner has to work with, and showing that every single element can be squandered.

The fourth point is particularly striking: the mind whose unconstructed nature is dharmakaya is wasted by sinking into samsaric delusion. This is a Mahamudra instruction embedded in what appears to be a simple preliminary teaching. From the very first category, Gampopa is pointing to the nature of mind — the ground of the entire path — while simultaneously urging us to take practical action.

The Ten Necessary Things

Having shown us what we waste, Gampopa now shows us what we need. If the ten kinds of waste are the diagnosis, the ten necessary things are the first prescription.

1. You need to stay independent so as not to lose your true priorities.

2. You need to follow the words of a sublime master with trust and exertion.

3. You need to decide on your master's unerring oral instructions by understanding your shortcomings and virtues through his advice.

4. You need to assimilate the sublime master's realization with discriminating knowledge and persistent devotion.

5. You need to remain untainted by faults in thought, word and deed through being mindful, conscientious and careful.

6. You need to keep your resolve steady and unwavering with the armor of fortitude.

7. You need to be unattached and free from clinging so as to avoid letting the rope to your nose slip into the hands of others.

8. You need to constantly exert yourself in gathering the two accumulations by embracing them with the preliminary, main, and concluding stages.

9. You need to turn your mind towards helping other beings with loving kindness and compassion, both directly and indirectly.

10. You need to avoid letting phenomena stray into concrete materiality by means of discriminating knowledge and understanding.

Independence and Devotion Together

A tension runs through this list that reveals something essential about Gampopa's approach. The first point calls for independence — not losing your true priorities. The second calls for following a master with trust and exertion. These are not contradictions. The independence Gampopa speaks of is not rebellious self-assertion but the inner freedom that allows you to maintain direction despite worldly pressures. And the devotion to the teacher is not blind obedience but the intelligent recognition that you need guidance from someone who has walked the path.

The eighth point introduces the three excellences — the structure that should frame every practice session: beginning with the altruistic intention of bodhicitta, maintaining the main practice free from conceptualization, and concluding by dedicating the merit to all beings. This framework reappears throughout the Buddhist path and is one of the hallmarks of the Kadampa tradition that Gampopa inherited from Atisha.

The tenth and final point again gestures toward the ultimate view: don't let phenomena solidify into concrete materiality. Even at this foundational stage, Gampopa is reminding us that the purpose of all these instructions is to free us from fixation — including fixation on the instructions themselves.