At the outset, the yogi should rely on the preconditions for serenity, which make it possible to achieve serenity quickly and comfortably. There are six of them:

1. Dwelling in an appropriate area

The area should have five attributes: (a) easy access, so that necessities such as food and clothing may be readily attained; (b) being a good place to live, where there are no wild beasts such as predators, no enemies, etc.; (c) being on a good piece of ground, in that it does not breed sickness; (d) offering good companionship insofar as your companions are ethically disciplined and like-minded; (e) being well-situated inasmuch as there are not many people about in the day and little noise at night.

2. Having little desire

You do not strongly crave more or better robes, etc.

3. Being content

You are always content to have even the poorest robes, etc.

4. Completely giving up many activities

You give up base activities such as buying and selling; you also abandon excessive socializing with householders and renunciates, as well as pursuits such as medicine and astrology.

5. Pure ethical discipline

You do not violate precepts, doing deeds that are wrong by nature or by prohibition, either in the case of vows of individual liberation or in the case of bodhisattva vows. If you do violate them through carelessness, you restore them promptly with regret in accordance with the teaching.

6. Completely getting rid of thoughts of desire, etc.

In the case of desires, contemplate their disadvantages in this lifetime, such as their leading to being killed or imprisoned, as well as their disadvantages for the future, such as their leading to rebirth in miserable realms.

From Tsong-kha-pa’s The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 3, Translated by Lamrim Chenmo Translation Committee, Joshua W.C. Cutler, Editor-in-Chief, Guy Newland, Editor, Boston and London: Snow Lion, 2014, pp. 28-29.