Things to Keep, Things to Give Up, and Things Not to Reject

The Ten Things to Keep

Having established what is wasted and what is needed, Gampopa now turns to the practical question of environment and relationship. What should a practitioner actually hold close?

1. Keep to a sublime master who is realized and compassionate.

2. Keep to a hermitage that is remote, pleasant and blessed.

3. Keep to companions who have a harmonious view and conduct, and who are trustworthy.

4. Keep moderation, remembering that too many articles to sustain life can involve unwholesome deeds.

5. Keep to the oral instructions of the lineage of accomplished masters, without prejudice.

6. Keep to what is of benefit for both yourself and others with regard to material things, medicines, mantras, and the profound causation.

7. Keep to food and the "path of means" that is in harmony with your physical constitution.

8. Keep to spiritual practices and behavior that help your experience.

9. Keep to disciples who are worthy, trusting and respectful.

10. Always keep mindful and conscientious during the four daily activities.

The Architecture of a Practice Life

This list is remarkably practical. Gampopa is describing the architecture of a life devoted to practice. The master comes first — always. Then the place. Then the companions. Then the moderation in material life. Then the instructions themselves. Then health and sustenance. Then the practices that actually work for you. Then the students you might guide. And finally, the thread that holds it all together: mindfulness in the four activities of walking, sitting, eating, and sleeping.

The fifth point deserves special attention: keep to the oral instructions "without prejudice." This is Gampopa speaking as the unifier of lineages. Having received both Kadampa and Kagyu transmissions, he knows that sectarian attachment to one tradition over another can become a subtle obstacle. The instruction is to follow what works, what is authentic, without the bias that dismisses wisdom because it comes from an unfamiliar source.

The Ten Things to Give Up

Gampopa now turns the lens to what must be released. If the previous list described what to embrace, this list describes what to let fall away.

1. Give up, no matter what, a teacher who is mixed up in the eight worldly concerns.

2. Give up evil companionship and supporters who harm your attitude and experience.

3. Give up a hermitage or place of meditation that is distracting or harmful.

4. Give up sustenance acquired through stealing, robbery, or deceit.

5. Give up aims and activities that harm your attitude and experience.

6. Give up food and behavior that harms your physical constitution.

7. Give up all attachment that binds you with greed to desirable things.

8. Give up frivolous behavior which may cause others to lose trust.

9. Give up meaningless aims and activities while walking and sitting.

10. Give up hiding your own faults while proclaiming those of others.

The Mirror of What to Keep

These two lists — what to keep and what to give up — mirror each other precisely. Where the first says "keep a realized master," the second says "give up a teacher mixed in worldly concerns." Where the first says "keep a blessed hermitage," the second says "give up a distracting place." Gampopa is teaching through contrast, ensuring the practitioner cannot mistake one for the other.

The first point is perhaps the most striking: give up a teacher involved in the eight worldly concerns — gain and loss, pleasure and pain, praise and blame, fame and obscurity. This is extraordinary advice from a tradition that deeply values the guru-student relationship. Gampopa is saying that devotion to an authentic teacher is essential, but that following a false one is worse than having no teacher at all. The qualifier "no matter what" leaves no room for rationalization.

The tenth point — give up hiding your own faults while proclaiming those of others — targets one of the most common obstacles in spiritual communities. It is the ego's favorite game: using spiritual knowledge to judge others while remaining blind to one's own patterns.

The Ten Things Not to Be Rejected

This is one of the most distinctive and profound categories in the entire text. It reveals the Kagyu perspective that separates Gampopa's instructions from a purely renunciant approach.

1. Don't reject compassion, since it is the basis for helping others.

2. Don't reject experiences, since they are the natural radiance of your mind.

3. Don't reject thoughts, since they are the play of your innate nature.

4. Don't reject disturbing emotions, since they are the reminders of wisdom.

5. Don't reject sense-pleasures, since they are the water and fertilizer for experience and realization.

6. Don't reject sickness and suffering, since they are your spiritual friends.

7. Don't reject enemies and obstructions, since they are inspiration for your innate nature.

8. Don't reject whatever comes naturally, since it is a sign of success.

9. Don't reject any type of "path of means," since it is a stepping-stone for knowledge.

10. Don't reject the physical activities of a spiritual nature which you are capable of accomplishing.

11. Don't reject the intention to help others, even if your powers are feeble.

The Heart of Non-Dual Practice

After two lists focused on adopting and abandoning, Gampopa suddenly shifts the ground beneath us. Don't reject thoughts. Don't reject disturbing emotions. Don't reject sense-pleasures. Don't reject enemies. This is the Mahamudra view breaking through the structure of graduated instruction.

The fourth point — don't reject disturbing emotions because they are reminders of wisdom — encapsulates the entire Kagyu approach to transformation. In the sutra tradition, the klesha (disturbing emotions) are treated as poisons to be abandoned. In the Mahamudra and Vajrayana view, they are recognized as the energy of wisdom in distorted form. Anger, when its fixation dissolves, reveals mirror-like wisdom. Desire reveals discriminating wisdom. Pride reveals the wisdom of equanimity. Jealousy reveals all-accomplishing wisdom. Ignorance reveals the wisdom of dharmadhatu.

Gampopa is not saying that you should indulge in disturbing emotions. He is saying that the practitioner who has received proper instruction should not flee from them in terror but should learn to recognize their nature. The emotion itself is not the problem — fixation on it is.

The fifth point — sense-pleasures as water and fertilizer — is equally radical. Far from dismissing sensory experience as inherently defiling, Gampopa treats it as nourishment for realization. This is the "path of means" approach: using the energy of experience rather than suppressing it.

This list also includes eleven items rather than ten, a small detail that shows Gampopa prioritizing completeness of instruction over structural symmetry. The final point — don't reject the intention to help others even if your powers are feeble — is pure bodhicitta instruction. The aspiration to benefit beings is never wasted, regardless of your current capacity.