Contemplate the Lamrim
Rinpoche wrote the following letter to a student who was asking for advice on practice.
My very dear Lorna,
Thank you very much for your kind letter. It has been a little while since I got it. Thank you for thinking about bodhicitta. To have the actual realization of bodhicitta you need to understand the suffering of samsara, for that you need renunciation of future lives’ suffering, and for that you need the preliminary renunciation of this life.
Then, you need to transform the mind into the mind of the lower capable person. This comes from contemplating the eight freedoms and the ten richnesses; how a perfect human rebirth has great meaning and is extremely difficult to find again; and the benefits of reflecting on impermanence and death and the disadvantages of not thinking about these things. This is the essence.
My emphasis for you is the need to contemplate the lamrim. I will send you further advice on how to meditate on the lamrim and daily practice.
With much love and prayers...