The Four Practices
Categories four through seven (in this order) represent progressive stages of spiritual practice en route to enlightenment. Conze calls them four "understandings"; Obermiller, "practical methods"; Toh, "applications"; and Berzin (who notes the close connection to "yoga," ngal sbyor), "applied realizations."
- 4. Full awakening to all aspects
- (Sarvākārābhisambodha, rnam rzdogs sbyor ba)..........................11 topics
- 5. Culmination clear realization
- (Murdhābhisamaya, rtse mor phyin pa'i sbyor ba)..........................8 topics
- 6. Serial clear realization
- (Anupurvābhisamaya, mthar gyis pa'i sbyor ba)............................13 topics
- 7. Clear realization in a single instant
- (Ekaksanābhisamaya, skad cig ma'i sbyor ba)..............................4 topics
Referring to the above, Dreyfus explains that
- "...the Ornament presents the four practices or realizations, emphasizing particularly 'the practice of all the aspects' (rnam rzdogs sbyor ba), which is treated in the fourth chapter. In fact, that practice is the central topic of the text and may have been an actual practice in which all the aspects of the three wisdoms are brought together... But--and this point is crucial--no teacher I have ever met seems to have practiced this meditation, or even to have been clear on how to do so... Clearly the work's central themes are not practiced in the Tibetan scholastic traditions."
Tibetan tradition lays special emphasis on chapter four, perhaps because it is the longest and most complex, and therefore best suited to commentary and debate.
Read more about this topic: Abhisamayalankara, The Eight Categories and Seventy Topics
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