Many people are practicing the five extraordinary preliminaries diligently. If you ask them, "Why do you practice the five preliminaries?" "If I don't, I won't be allowed to begin the main practice of the Great Perfection." or, "Without practicing these preliminaries, I cannot listen to the teachings on the Great Perfection." These answers may sound reasonable at first glance. However, if you ask further, " What happens if you are barred from practicing the Great Perfection or listening to its teachings?" "Then it will be very hard from me to attain liberation." Ask again, " What would happen if you were to attain liberation?" "I would have no more suffering, nor any defilements" 

If your motivation is as such, there can be no boddhicitta to speak of in your practice. In other words, where can we find bodhicitta, one of the five extraordinary preliminaries, that you are supposed to be practicing? I'm afraid your so-called bodhicitta practice may just be a matter of completing the required mantra recitations. Bodhicitta itself, on the other hand, has yet been aroused in your mindstream. You may think that your practice is to generate boddhicitta, but your aim is actually selfish. This can hardly be the way of a genuine practice of boddhicitta. And your practice of the five preliminaries also inadvertently becomes a Hinayana practice as you have completely missed the point about bodhicitta. 

~Depicted from FROM BELIEVERS TO BODHISATTVAS