We often describe our path as consisting of four aspects or phases, which we refer to as the Four Dharmas of Gampopa. The first of these is the mind turning to, or going to, the dharma. Actually, this is very, very easy. It usually happens in one of two ways: either we experience some kind of adversity, some kind of crisis, or we meet and feel inspired by some holy being. The problem with either of these conditions is that the desire for freedom, the desire for dharma that we give rise to, in either situation is really as ephemeral as morning frost. If it is cold and there’s enough moisture in the air, frost will form on the ground. But as the sun rises, it will melt. It will vanish.
In the same way, whether our minds turn to the dharma through inspiration by having met a holy being, or through the condition of some kind of crisis, day by day our inspiration, our desire for freedom, will dissipate and eventually disappear, like frost. And this is true, regardless of it was a joyous feeling of inspiration or a miserable crisis of suffering, that brought us to the dharma. Most of us have experienced this. There are a few people who give rise to the desire for freedom from samsara because of their previous merit, habits, without the need for a crisis or extraordinary situation of inspiration. But they are very rare. Almost all of us are subject to some kind of condition.
In any case, this first of the four dharmas — the mind turning toward the dharma — is not very stable because something has caused your mind to turn to the dharma. When that cause or condition disappears your mind will turn back away from it. Most people do not practice dharma when things are going well. When things start going well and you are getting most of what you want, you start to question whether samsara is really as bad as they say. And you start to find that you have more time to enjoy the things you are getting that you want, than you do to practice.
So the first line [The Basis of Dharma, page 114 in The Treasury of Eloquence] when it says, “In order to establish the basis of dharma,” really refers the second dharma of Gampopa, dharma becoming a path. Dharma only becomes a path when you transcend the influence of sporadic conditions, when your inspiration, your desire for freedom, become stable or fully establish, independent. Now the only way to do this, to stabilize our initial inspiration, is through diligent and rigorous contemplation of the four thoughts that turn the mind. Because by contemplating these things, you internalize that sense of crisis, and that sense of inspiration, making them part of you so that you are not dependent upon changing circumstances in the external world.
[From a teaching on the Songs of Barway Dorje, Part 10, by Bardor Tulku Rinpoche. Translated by Lama Yeshe Gyamtso.]