One of the Most Important Tantras of Dzogchen Semde
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Open webcast at Merigar West, August 13, 2009
བཞི་པ་ཐ་སྙད་ཙམག་་དུ་བློ་བཞསྟེ་བསྒོམ་པ་ནི།
Now we have the fourth explanation of contemplation.
བཞི་པ་ཐ་སྙད་ཙམ་དུ་བློ་བཞག་
This means that we do not negate or eliminate anything that we have in the relative condition. We just remain in that instant presence and integrate.
གཞག་ཐབས་ནོར་བ་ངོས་གཟུང་སྟེ། འདི་ལྟ་བྱུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་དོན་མ་རྟོགས་པས་བདག་ཉིད་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་དང་བྲལ་བར་སྨྲ་ཞིང་
If we have done contemplation incorrectly, in a different way, it is very important that we recognize this because it always says that being in the state of contemplation means being beyond all concepts. If we have some concepts and consider that these are contemplation, we are going in the wrong direction. In this case it is very important that we recognize this.
འདི་ལྟ་བུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་ཀྱི་དོན་མ་རྟོགས་པས་
In this way we are not in the knowledge of the primordial state.
བདག་ཉིད་ཆེན་པོ་ལ་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་དང་བྲལ་བར་སྨྲ་ཞིང་ཆོས་ཉིད་ལ་ཕར་དམིགས་ཤིང་རྗེས་སུ་འབྲང་བ་དང་།
Even though we speak about the state of Dzogchen, we always consider that this, too, is just a concept.
དམིགས་པ་ནང་བསྟུས་ནས་སེམས་ཀྱི་གཞག་ས་ཚོལ་ཞིང་ལྟ་བ་གསལ་དུ་རེ་བ།
This is a very important point. Some people have their own ideas. I’ve heard some of my students say, “Oh, now I am entering into the state of contemplation.” It seems as if you are not working with what is outside yourselves, what you see and what you have contact with through your senses but you are entering inside yourselves and finding some type of state. That is a wrong direction. Here it is explained very clearly.
གོལ་དུ་དོགས་པ།
There are also people who are always worried about making mistakes. This is also something that is very important for our practitioners. When they learn something, even if it is a very simple practice, instead of working and applying it in a simple way, they think and judge about many details and ask me so many questions. Sometimes I cannot reply because I’ve never thought about those things. People work very much with mind – this is also a wrong direction. When you receive a teaching method, you should try to do it in a simple way, not always worrying about doing everything so precisely. These are called limitations and the principle of the Dzogchen teachings is going beyond limitations. So it doesn’t correspond and for that reason it says here that it is a mistake to worry.
ལས་སུ་རུང་ནས་ནམ་ཞིག་གྲུབ་པར་བྱེད་འདོད་པ།
When you are doing practice you immediately need to have some obtainments and are always concentrated on them. In the real sense, there is nothing to obtain. You have already had all the obtainments since the beginning. That is why when we pronounce the mantra to empower – ‘Jaya jaya, siddhi siddhi, phala phala’ – ‘siddhi siddhi’ means obtainments. It explains that very clearly here.
དམིགས་པ་མེད་པར་སྨྲ་ཞིང་དམིགས་མེད་ལ་དམིགས་པ།
With our mouth we say that there are no concepts, but that is already a concept that we uphold.
དགག་སྒྲབ་མེད་པར་སྨྲ་ཞིང་༴བྱིང་རྨུགས་༴དང་རྟོག་སྤྲོས་སྤོང་བ།
It also states in the Dzogchen teaching that there is nothing to negate and nothing to accept and you say that too, but in the real sense you are always worried about your condition. When you do practice sometimes you have a bit of a sleepy state, other times your condition is a little agitated and then you enter into negating and doing something. རེ་དོགས་ཀྱི་ལྟ་བ་ཅན་ནི་གོལ་ཏེ། So if there is any kind of hope or fear, it is a wrong point of view, དེས་དོན་དེ་མིའཕྲད་པས། people who have this wrong point of view cannot be in the real primordial state. This is how things are explained in the Medjyung tantra and there is a quotation from this tantra:
འདི་ཉིད་ལས། བྱང་ཆུབ་འདོད་པ་དེ་ལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མེད། ས་དང་༴གནམ་ལྟར་རབྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ལ་རིང་
“People who want to have total realization, that means being totally in the primordial state, དེ་ལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་མེད། those who desire that cannot have that. ས་དང་༴གནམ་ལྟར་རབྱང་ཆུབ་མཆོག་ལ་རིང་ Realization is as far from our condition as the distance between the sky and the earth.” So you must not be in any type of concepts. This is the quotation.
གཞག་ཐབས་མ་ནོར་བ་ནི་གང་ཞེ་ན།
How can one be in a state of contemplation without making mistakes?
བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་རྨད་དུ་བྱང་བའི་དོན་མ་ནོར་བར་ གནད་ཆུད་པའི་མི་ཆེན་པོས། དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ལ་ལྐོ་འཇུག་༴ཏྭི་༴མེད།
For a person who has that knowledge of the primordial state as explained in the ‘Medjung’, དེ་ཁོ་ན་ཉིད་ལ་ལྐོ་འཇུག་༴ཏྭི་༴མེད། there is nothing to enter or to accept.
བསྒོམ་ཞིང་དྭམིགས་སུ་ མེད་མོད་ཀྱང༌། དོན་མ་ནོར་བའི་༴སྒོམ་༴ཐབས་ངོ་དགའ་ཙམ་དུ་མཚོན་པ་ནི།
There is nothing concrete to meditate on. But for a person who has no knowledge of the primordial state, then it is necessary, on the relative plane, to have this kind of explanation.
བསྒོམ་དུ་མེད་ པ་ཉིད་༴ལ་༴བསྒོམ་ཞེས་བཏགས།
For that reason it is called the meditation on which there is nothing to meditate.
སེམས་ཀྱི་གཞག་༴སའི་༴གནས་
To keep [up] the nature of the mind, there is nothing that we consider the state of dharmata.
སེམས་གང་དུའང་མི་འཇོག་པ་ཉིད་ལ་གཞག་༴ཅེས་༴བྱ།
When we say that we are in the state of contemplation, knowing that there is nothing to do or to add,་དེ་བས་ན་གང་དུའང་༴སྒོམ་༴ཕ་པོའི་བློ་ཞུགས་པ་མེད་པ་ལ་ཞུགས་༴ཞེས་༴བྱའོ། for that reason there is nothing, no place or no dimension to enter. However, relatively we say that we ‘enter’ and are ‘in’ the state of contemplation.
འདིཉིད་ལས།
Then there is a quotation from the ‘Medjung’ tantra.
ང་ཡི་ར༴ལ ་སུ་སྦྱོར་བ་ལ། ༴།༴བྱང་ཆུབ་མེད་ཅིང་བསྒོམ་པའང་མེདང་ཡི་༴རལུས་སུ་སྦྱོར་ “Those who are in my dimension, that is, in our own primordial state, བྱང་ཆུབ་མེད་ཅིང་བསྒོམ་པའང་མེདང་ཡི་༴རལུས་སུ་སྦྱོར་ there is nothing particular to say like we are getting realized or that we are now in the state of contemplation because all of these are concepts.” This is the quotation from the tantra. For that reason it is explained in more detail here.
ཅེས་༴གསུངས་པ་དང་། ཡང་།
Then there is another quotation from the Medjung tantra.
སྤྲོང་བ་་མེད་ཅིང་ལེན་པ་མེད། །སེམས་ཉིད་གནས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་མེད་པས། ༴༠༴༴།༴ །༴བསྒོམ་དུ་མེད་པའི་འ་བྱང་བ་སེམས
སྤྲོང་བ་་མེད་ཅིང་ལེན་པ་མེད།་ “There is nothing to abandon, there is nothing to accept,
།སེམས་ཉིད་གནས་ཀྱི་ཡུལ་མེད་པས།་ there is no concrete dimension which we can say is the place of the state of contemplation. So the state of contemplation is that in which there is no meditation.” This is also another important quotation from the Medjung.
དེ་ཕྱིར་སེམས་གནས་པ་དང༌། རྟོག་པ་དང་། བསམ་པ་དང་། དམིགས་པ་སླངས་ཏེ། མི་གནས་པ་དང་། མི་རྟོག་པ་དང་། བསམ་དུ་མེད་པ་དང་། མི་དམིགས་པའི་དོན་རྣམས་༴ཆེད་༴དུ་མི་ཋེད་དོ།
For that reason we don’t do anything to remain with our mind. This means that when we are doing shiné, for example, we do fixation that is for calming the mind, but that is not the primordial state, it is working with concepts using mind, fixation etc. Also when we have ་རྟོག་པ་ thoughts, བསམ་པ་ judgments, མི་རྟོག་པ་ any kind of concepts, then we abandon all these things and try to obtain མི་གནས་པ་ not remaining (or staying somewhere), མི་རྟོག་པ thoughtlessness, བསམ་དུ་མེད་པ་ being without judgments མི་དམིགས་པ conceptlessness [but] we do not get attached or force ourselves to do something like that.
དེ་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན།
Why should we do things in that way?
གནས་པ་དང་༴རྟོག་༴བསམ་དམིགས་པ་ཉིད་རང་འབྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཉིད་རང་མ་འགགས་པར་རིག་ནས། གང་སྤངས་ལ་གང་ཞིག་དང་དུ་སྐངས་ལ་བསྒོམས་ཏེ། སྤང་བླང་མེད་དོ།
All these desires we have to remain in the calm state, all our thoughts and concepts are, in the real sense, part of our wisdom when we have real knowledge, our wisdom without interruption. གང་སྤངས་ལ་གང་ཞིག་དང་དུ་སྐངས་ལ་བསྒོམས་ཏེ། So there is nothing to accept or reject in the relative condition in a dualistic way. This is very important because some people think that in the primordial state all actions are blocked. That is a wrong idea. It is not like that. You remember that when we talk about Enlightened Beings like Buddha Shakyamuni we say that they are omniscient which means having wisdom of quality and quantity. All our thoughts and concepts, everything enters into this quality and quantity of wisdom. We do not block anything and become like a small piece of stone. This is important and here it is explained very clearly.
བདག་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་སོ་སོར་གྲུབ་ན། བདག་ཉིད་༴སྒྲོམ་༴པ་པོས་ཆོས་ཉིད་ལ་ལཇུག་གི། ཆོས་དང་གང་ཟག་མ་སྤངས་པོར་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཉིད་དུ་༴གཅིག་༴པའི་ཕྱིར་ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་བསྒོམ་པ་མེད་དོ།
When we consider that our condition and our real condition of dharmata are separate, or something with different aspects, then they become like subject and object. But it is not that way. When we are in the state of dharmakaya, which means we are in the primordial state with its infinite qualities of wisdom, then, of course, we become omniscient, not without thoughts. When we are in our real nature, our thoughts and concepts do not manifest in an ordinary way – བསམ་གཏན་ལ་ལས་སུ་ཁུར་བུར་གྱུར་ཏེ། བདག་གིས་བསམ་གཏན་བྱས་པར་ཐལ་བས་གཟུང་འཛིན་གྱིས་བཅིངས་པར་ངེས་སོ། and here it continues – otherwise they become like subject and object. སྐྱེས་བུ་དམ་པས་གདེང་ཚུད་ན། For people who have the fortune to discover their real nature and know how to be in their real nature, there is nothing to do, to put in order or to coordinate with the mind. སེམས་ལ་ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་བསམ་གཏན་བྱར་མེད། སེམས་སྐུའི་འོད་ལ་བཞུགས་ཤིང་གསུང་གི་ཟེར་ལ་རོལ་པས། The nature of mind is in the dimension of the light of the dharmakaya so its aspect of voice, all energy manifestations, are like light rays manifesting from sunshine so then it is the way of manifesting of the rolpa energy. ཐུགས་ནམ་མཁའི་༴དཔང་༴པོ་ལ་རྡོ་རྗེའི་གཟོང་དང་འདྲ་སྟེ། The mind is just like the state of the vajra which is like the condition of the sky.
ཀུན་ཀྱང་༴སྒོམ་༴པ་པོའི་རིག་པའི་ཡེ་ཤེས་འགྲོ་འོང་མེད་པར་རང་སྣང་བའི་སྐུ་གསུང་ཐུགས་ཀྱི་བདག་ཉིད་ཡིན་པའི་ཊིར།
For one who applies that meditation everything is an aspect of the three dimensions of body, speech and mind. བསྒོམ་ཋ་༴སྒོམ་༴བྱེད་ཀྱི་ལས་མེད་པར་ནམ་མཁའ་ངང་གིས་གསལ་ལ་མི་གཡོ་བ་ལྟར། There is nothing to meditate on and nobody who is meditating [one is completely] beyond these concepts.
རྟོགས་པའི་གདེང་ཅན་གྱིས་རང་གི་བློ་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ཅིར་ཡང་མ་བསམས་པས། རང་བཞིན་མ་བཀག་པར་མི་གཡོ་བའོ།
Everything manifests its qualifications through its wisdom, without interruption, but at the same time it is not something like our ordinary dualistic vision, because dualistic vision interrupts and creates problems for us to be in our real state. རྡོ་རྗེ་སློབ་དཔོན There is a quotation from the root tantra about this.
མ་སྐྱེས་༴པ་ཡི་༴ཆོས་རྣམས་ལ། །ངོ་བོ་མེད་དེ་བསྒོམ་པའང་མེད།
“All phenomena unborn from the beginning, there is nothing that is their essence and there is nothing to meditate on. ནམ་མཁའི་ཚུལ་དུ་རབ་འབྱོར་བས། Just like the dimension of space. So this is called Samantabhadra, everything is fine.”
ཞེས་གསུངས་ཏེ། དེ་ལྟར་བསྒོམ་པའི་ཚེ། དབང་པོ་རྣམས་ཕྱེ་༴བཙུམ་༴གང་ནའང་བླང་དོར་མེད་དོ།
This quotation means that when we are applying that, doing meditation, དབང་པོ་རྣམས་ཕྱེ་༴བཙུམ་༴གང་ནའང་བླང་དོར་མེད་དོ། for meditators there is no difference or limitations whether all their senses are open or closed. For example, if you open your eyes you can see, open your ears you can hear. If you close them, you cannot. There is no difference, which means you should not be conditioned by these things. Sometimes we say that when Dzogchen practitioners are in the state of contemplation, their eyes are open. Then some people think that it is a kind of rule of Dzogchen teaching that the eyes should be open. But it doesn’t mean that. Just like in the practices in tantric style, there are many complicated visualizations and it is much easier to close your eyes [to do them], and for that reason practitioners close their eyes. Here it says that it is not always necessary to close your eyes. You can open them and have sense contacts with objects. But it depends. Sometimes you close your eyes and can still be in the state of contemplation. You could be resting on the bed with your eyes closed and in the state of contemplation, so it is not necessary you open your eyes. This is an example. It means you should not be limited this way. And this is not only valid for the eyes but for all the senses.
འདུག་༴སྦྱངས་༴ཀྱང་གང་ལྟར་བྱས་ཀྱང་དོན་ལས་མ་ཉམས་ནའང་དམན་པའི་ངོ་དགར་༴སྐྱིལ་༴མོ་༴ཀྲུང་༴དང་༴ཙོག་པུར་༴དཀའ་ཐུབ་མེད་པར་གནས་སོ།
Then the position. You can stay in any kind of position. There is no difference in order to be in the state of contemplation. But for people with lower capacity who are starting to learn, we give them some information on the position such as crossed legs, or with the knees drawn up to the stomach in the position of the rishi. You can also do this. By doing this it is easier to control your energy and when you control your energy you have fewer problems with your mind and it is easier to control it otherwise it disturbs you getting and being in the state of contemplation. For new practitioners this is useful and it is also not limiting. In general in the Dzogchen teaching we say that there is no need to have a particular position and then people think that all positions are negative. It is also very important to understand the condition of the individual.
༴ཡོངས་༴་ཨ་ཏི་ཡོ་གའི་བསྒོམ་པ་མཚན་མ་དང་ཆོས་ཉིད་ལ་སྤང་བླང་མ་བྱས་པར་གང་དུའང་མ་བསམས་མ་བཀག་པས་ཆོག་མོད།
For people who have knowledge of Dzogchen teaching there is no need for these kinds of relative limitations in order to follow the practice of Ati Yoga.
འགྲོ་རུང་འདུག་རུང་ཉལ་རུང་སྡོད་རུང༌། ལོངས་སྤྱོད་བདེའང་རུང་། སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཡང་རུང་། སྐྱོན་དུ་ནི་གང་ལའང་མ་བལྟས་པས་ མཚན་མའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་མི་འགིགས།
When walking, sitting, sleeping, standing etc., when feeling that it is a happy or easy moment, or a sorrowful and difficult one, སྐྱོན་དུ་ནི་གང་ལའང་མ་བལྟས་པས་ མཚན་མའི་སྤྱོད་ཡུལ་མི་འགིགས། a Dzogchen practitioner can integrate everything and these are not particular defects. But of course for people that do not have this capacity, they become obstacles.
ཡོན་ཏན་དུ་གང་ལའང་མི་བྱེད་པས་གཞིགས་ནཱས་ཆོས་ཉིད་དུ་མི་བསྒོམ། བདག་དང་ གཞན་དུ་སྣང་བ་ཀུན་ཡེ་བསྟུ་མི་དགོས་པར་གཅིག་པས། བདག་གི་༴གདན་༴ས་ནས་ཆོས་ཉིད་ལ་ཕར་མཻ་དམིགས།
When we have this kind of knowledge then we do not hope to obtain and have all of these qualifications and བདག་གི་༴གདན་༴ས་ནས་ཆོས་ཉིད་ལ་ཕར་མཻ་དམིགས། being in our real primordial state we do not concentrate on the condition of the dharmata because that also becomes a concept.
སྤྱོད་ལམ་གང་ལྟར་བདེ་བར་འདུག་ལ། བསམ་དུ་མེད་པར་ཉལ།
When we do practice, any kind of comfortable position is OK. You remember that when we do practice, I always say that if you want to sit cross-legged that is OK. If you have difficulties you can sit on a chair or rest on your knees in Japanese style. There is no difference. Only it is important to keep our backs straight to coordinate our energy at the relative level. You see all these explanations come from these sources.
སམ་དུ་མེད་པར་ཉལ། མི་བསམ་བསམ་མེད་དུ་ལོངས་སྤྱོད། འགྲོ་ཉལ་འདུགབདེ་སྟུག་བསྔལ་ཡང༌། གར་ཡང་མ་བསམས་པས་རྟོག་པ་ངང་གིས་མེད་དོ།
We do not limit any kind of activities of daily life, and we can integrate them. དེ་ལ་གཟུང་འཛིན་ཐམས་ཅད་མ་སྤངས་པར་མི་རྒྱ་བས་འཇིག་རྟེན་པར་མ་གོལ་ལོ། For that reason we are not conditioned by dualistic vision, even though we have it and live in a normal human condition. We shouldn’t worry about falling into the ordinary condition.
ཡུལ་སེམས་སོ་སོར་མེད་པས་མ་འགགས་པའི་སྒོམ་བར་མ་གོལ་བའོ།
We also do not fall into the consideration of subject and object etc., so we also do not fall into the wrong direction.
གང་ལ་ཡང་སྤོང་ལེན་མེད་པས་ཉན་ཐོས་རང་རྒྱལ་དུ་མ་ལྟུང་ངོ་།
There is nothing that we accept or reject and we do not fall into a dimension like the state of the Hinayana.
རང་རང་གི་ལྟ་བ་ཕྱོགས་ཅན་གྱི་གཞུང་ཚུགས་སུ་ལྟ་༴སྒོམ་༴མེད་པས་ཐེག་པ་གང་དུའང་མ་གོལ་ཏེ།
Even though there are many different kinds of points of view, because every school has a different point of view, we do not particularly accept or enter into those limitations so we do not fall into that kind of direction.
རང་བཞིན་མི་༴རྟོག་ ༴པར་འདུག་པས་ལས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་མེད་དོ།
We are beyond any kind of mental concepts so we do not have any of these types of problems.
ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱང་མ་སྤངས་རང་ས་ན་གསལ་ལ།
We do not refuse anything. Even if we do not refuse, everything is clear in our clarity.
དེ་ལ་ཕར་བལྟ་བའང་མེད། ནང་དུ་བསྡུས་ནས་བལྟ་བའང་མེད། Even if everything is in our clarity, we do not do anything in particular, or enter into concepts or accept something and enter into that concept.
དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་རང་རིག་ཡིན་ཡང་ཡིན་པར་མི་བསམ། Even if everything is part of the potentiality of our primordial state, we have no concept of that.
མི་བསམ། མི་དམིགས། མི་རྟོག་པར་མ་འདྲེས་པར་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པ་ལ་
When we do not think or do analyses etc., when we do not enter into these kinds of limitations but do not interrupt our clarity, everything is clear and དེ་ཉིད་དུ་དམིགས་པའིབསམ་པ་མ་ཞུགས་པ་ནི་ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པའི་བསྒོམ་པ་ཅེ། that is the state of meditation of omniscience.
༴གཉིད་༴དང་བྱིང་༴རྨུགས་༴དང་རྒོད་ཕྱར་དུ་རང་དགར་མ་༴གཏོང་༴། དེ་ལ་སྐྱོན་དུ་མ་༴བལྟ༴།
Sometimes when we are too conditioned by sleepiness, and we have a sleepy state, not clarity, or we are too agitated, we are not particularly conditioned by these things and we do not remain in the concept that these are negative things.
དཀའ་ཐུབ་མེད་པར་རང་༴སྡོད་ཅིག༴
We do not sacrifice anything. This seems a little contrary to the Mahayana system in which it says Bodhisattvas make sacrifices for the benefit of others. Also in the Hinayana style they have very much this Kathub (dka’ thub) which means sacrificing. In the Dzogchen teaching it does not say that you have to make sacrifices to have realization. Also in Tantrism sometimes they also make lots of sacrifices. You can understand this by reading the wonderful biography of Milarepa. What Milarepa did was always positive and very good but his way of practicing was in a tantric style. He used to put a butter lamp on his head to do meditation because if he fell asleep the lamps would fall down and he would have a problem. That is an example of making a sacrifice. Then he remained all his life on the mountains with nothing to eat but vegetables. This is also called sacrifice. But the Dzogchen teaching does not say that you should live on the mountain and make sacrifices and live without food. But it also does not say that you don’t have to make sacrifices – of course sometimes in circumstances it is necessary to make sacrifices. The Dzogchen teaching says that you have to work with circumstances. If it is necessary to make sacrifices in that moment, then of course you make them.
There are many different types of sacrifices we can make but in the Dzogchen teaching we don’t need to make any sacrifice. We need to learn how we can discover our real nature. How we can have that capacity to integrate. If we have no capacity, to discover it, to learn about it we need to do practice in a limited period of time. Sometimes we need to do a personal retreat for a week, two or three weeks, one or two or three months. We consider three months a very long time, and we never say it is necessary to do a retreat for three years, three months and three days. This is the tantric tradition. Of course if somebody likes to do this, Dzogchen teaching doesn’t say that you shouldn’t do it.
For example in the Dzogchen teaching we have three series – Semde, Longde and Updesha. Longde is mainly if you have doubts, for not remaining in doubts. This is the main point of Dzogchen Longde. First there is the Dzogchen Semde and direct introduction with which you try to discover your real nature. This is a more gradual way for people with less capacity to be able to discover it. In the Upadesha we have a series of teachings called Dzogchen Yangti. The Dzogchen teaching is called Ati which means primordial state and is considered to be a very important teaching – the supreme path. Yangti is considered to be even more important than Ati. What we find in this is things like a dark retreat for developing our capacity of integration more quickly, so it means we integrate, apply this practice for some weeks and some months and then when we have the capacity we try to integrate it in our life without limitations. This is the Dzogchen way.
Sometimes there are practitioners like my female teacher, Ayu Khandro. When she received Yangti teaching she became very interested in it and considered it was the path for total realization for her. She dedicated her whole life to doing this practice in dark retreat. There are no limitations that you cannot do that, but there is a normal wider path that we can follow and learn in general.
There are many quotations from the root tantra to explain this.
སེམས་ལ་མིགས་པ་བདག་མེད་པ་
The mind – when we are in the nature of mind there are no concepts, but if we are in the mind, it always creates many different kinds of thoughts. Most people are conditioned by mind and for that reason in the Dzogchen teaching we have many practices like rushen and different types of semdzin first of all to distinguish what is the mind and what is the nature of mind. We do not follow mind. Mind is useful at the beginning for applying some types of methods,་something related to teaching and instructions and we work with that. But we do not go after our thoughts, our imagination and all the thoughts that arise.
Many people say that they have problems because they are agitated, confused or always feel afraid. All of these things come from the mind. Mind creates many different kinds of tensions and day after day we accumulate tensions. Even though we accumulate a lot of tensions, the mind is never satisfied and creates more and more.
Sometimes mind also collaborates with our energy channels and then you can have experiences of visions and sounds that come from that energy. Then you think that it is not only mind but something concrete that you can་see or hear talking in your ear telling you what to do or not to do. Some people even ask me if they should follow these things or not, thinking it is a bad spirit that is talking in their ear. There are no spirits. It is only the function of your energy. Now mind is associated with this energy and making you have more problems. For this reason you shouldn’t always go after your thoughts.
Of course, if it is something necessary, for example, you think what shall we have for lunch today? Shall we go home and cook or eat out in a restaurant? That is not fantasy. That is something concrete. Of course we should think but fantasy means you have nothing to do and are just fantasizing – what is he doing, is he doing something bad for me, what is he thinking, is there a person doing་some black magic etc. All these kinds of things are called fantasy created with our mind. Sometimes it seems real. You must be careful about this and not always go after thoughts. Try to relax in your dimension, and not become a slave of your mind. In this case you can control it and know that it is nothing more than your mind. So this is what you should do. Here it says that if you are in your real nature, you do not have that problem, but when you are dependent on or dominated by your mind, your confusion is endless.
Then there is another quotation:
ཐམས་ཅད་མཁྱེན་པ་བསྒོམ་པའི་མཆོག །ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ནི་དམིགས་སུ་མེད།
This means that when we are omniscient, that means in our real nature, we are not conditioned by all our visions, even if they are ordinary dualistic visions. When you are in your real nature, it doesn’t mean that your visions disappear but they are an aspect of the wisdom of omniscience. This is the supreme meditation and །ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ནི་དམིགས་སུ་མེད། there is nothing concrete we consider to be a concept of this.
ང་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྙིང་པོར་ཞུགས་པའི་ཚེ། སྟོང་པའི་ཆོས་ལ་སྟོང་པའི་ཡུལ་མེད་དེ། མི་གནས་སོ།
When you are in the primordial state, in what you call the phenomena of emptiness, there exists no subject or object of emptiness. མི་གནས་སོ། Even not being in that concept. ཞེས་འབྱུང་བས་གསལ་ལོ། Then we can understand that.
དེ་ལྟར་༴སྒོམ་༴པ་པོས་འདོད་ཆགས་དང་མ་བྲལ་བས། ཡེ་ཤེས་གསལ་པོ་༴ཞིག་༴འདོདཔ་དང༌།་ བསམ་པ་ཅང་མེད་པ་འདི་འདུ་ཤེས་མེད་པའམ། འགོག་པར་ལྷུང་སྙམ་པ་དང༌། ཐེ་ཚོམ་ཟ་བར་འབྱང་བ་ནི། སྔར་བསལ་ཏེ། འདི་ལ་བདག་མེད་པ་༴ཞིག་༴གས་མ་བསམས་པར་འདུག་སྟེ། ཡུལ་སྣང་བ་སྤྲོས་སུ་དོགས་པའི་བདག་གཞན་གྱི་འཛིན་༴རྟོག་༴མེད་དོ།
When we are in our real nature, any different kinds of ordinary emotions we have are part of our wisdom and we do not fall into our ordinary emotions. And when we are in the primordial state we also do not worry and think that it is like the Hinayana type of Gogpa (‘gog pa), which means blocking all thoughts and there is nothing, only a kind of dimension of emptiness in which some kinds of practitioners remain for centuries and centuries. You shouldn’t worry about falling into this when thinking or judging does not arise immediately.
འདི་ལ་བདག་མེད་པ་༴ཞིག་༴གིས་མ་བསམས་པར་འདུག་ཅེ། ཡུལ་སྣང་བ་སྤྲོས་སུ་དོགས་པའི་བདག་གཞན་གྱི་འཛིན་༴རྟོག་༴མེད་དོ།
When there is nothing, with this kind of fear then you are creating some concepts of that.
ཉམས་སུ་བྱ་ན། ཕྱི་ནང་ཇི་ལྟར་སྣང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་རང་རིག་པས། ཀུན་ཤོང་ཡེ་༴ཕྱལ་༴ཀློང་ཡངས་ཀུན་གསལ་བ་ལ། བསྡུས་པའི་བཀག་པ་དང་། རེ་དོགས་མེད་པའོ།།
This is another explanation of not having hope or fear.
Editing by J. Winkler, F. Sanders and L. Granger
Photo by Liane Graf
Reprinted from The Mirror issue 100, September – October, 2009
