Namgyalgar North, Australia, Day 3, March 20, 2102

This teaching is the advice of my teacher Khyenrab Chokyi Ozer, who was a student of Zhenga Rinpoche. Khyenrab Chokyi Ozer was a very important student of Zhenga Rinpoche and also a Dzogchen practitioner. He was very learned and most scholars from the different traditions in Tibet are in his lineage as students. So you can see that Khyenrab Chokyi Ozer was a very important teacher. Khyenrab Chokyi Ozer gave us these teachings and instructions, particularly tsigsum ned-deg, the text written down by Patrul Rinpoche, and when he finished the teaching he gave us this advice. It was only a few words of advice of what you should do for the future on your path, but even though there were only a few words the indications are very precise.

The Three Transmissions

First it says that with three transmissions, and you know what the three transmissions are, you receive these transmissions and in that way you can receive direct introduction in the Dzogchen way. Through this you discover your real nature. When you discover your real nature you receive a real piece of the teaching and the enlightened beings and you discover what your real nature is.

We have body, speech and mind, the three gates, and we know how to deal with this and first we receive transmission and discover our real nature. We need to work with experiences and when we experience direct introduction we discover our real nature through that experience. So it is not only introducing us to our real nature, but when we are on the path we are living in circumstance and circumstance is related to our body, speech and mind. Everything is connected to these different experiences. So with these experiences, day after day, we are integrating more and more, and we can have total realization. So that is why the second part explains how we develop of our visions, how we develop our experiences, and then in the third part, which I explained yesterday, we discover the three kayas, the dharmakaya, sambogakaya and nirmanakaya, and it explains the qualifications of the enlightened beings; everyone has that potentiality in their real nature.

Once we discover that and we are in that state, everything slowly matures and we manifest all the qualifications of the three kayas. So there is no need that to construct anything based on something known before. We have already recognized and are recognizing and we are in the state and manifesting; the sun is shining in the sky, there are no clouds and we can see the full manifestation of the sunshine. In the same way, when we have overcome all our obstacles, then all manifestations become something real, not only imagination. So this is how we mature our practice.

Three Statements of Garab Dorje – Tsigsum

Part four, which we have today, is related to the three statements of Garab Dorje; tsigsum means the three statements of Garab Dorje. Garab Dorje taught Dzogchen teachings to various students all his life. That means he taught many different kinds of tantras; original tantras like dra thalgyur tantras, seventeen related tantras, the infinite tantras of Dzogchen semde and the many tantras of Dzogchen longde. All these tantras were taught in ancient times by different kinds of teachers. These tantras no longer existed in the time of Garab Dorje, Everything on the earth had disappeared and we did not have these tantras. Then the enlightened beings manifested Garab Dorje to give this teaching, so every day Garab Dorje taught students and communicated this teaching and then one by one all these tantras that we now have appeared. Now we have many, many Dzogchen tantras and they were all taught by Garab Dorje. These tantras are the teachings of Buddha and Garab Dorje and how Garab Dorje taught in his life.

Lungs and Tantras

There are many incomplete tantras, but the essence of a tantra, the most important point, is given in the lung. There are so many dimensions in the universe and so many tantras and teachings, particularly explanations of the Dzogchen teaching. For example, there are thirteen more developed dimensions called the thirteen thalwas. Thalwa means dimension where there are Dzogchen masters and teachings, so many Dzogchen teachings developed in these thirteen thalwas. Garab Dorje introduced all these kinds of teachings to the human condition but some kinds of tantras are very large and have many words, so he did not succeed to completely introduce them – and then there is the essence. For example, the kunjed gyalpo is a very long tantra; it is one of the Dzogchen semde tantras considered the root tantra, and in the kunjed gyalpo there are many chapters. There are more than eighty chapters, for example, and one of these is the rigpai khujug. Vairocana translated it first, the number one Dzogchen teaching, but what is the rigpai khujug? It is one chapter of the kunjed gyalpo; a very short chapter and only six verses. In these six verses it makes us understand the base, path and fruit of the Dzogchen teachings. Each two verses explain base, path and fruit.

The rigpai khujug is an example and we have many of these. We call them lungs in the Dzogchen teachings; it is not called tantra because tantra is complete. What we call tantra in the Vajrayana tradition generally needs ten qualifications. There are, for example, initiations, actions to receive transmission, instructions on how to do practice, samaya, all ten arguments. When there are ten complete arguments it is called a tantra, a root tantra. When there are not all ten arguments it is called a secondary tantra and when there are none and just explaining one or two aspects, it is more like an explanation. Some are called she-gyud, for example, which means a tantra for explaining; explaining many arguments in this and that tantra, what the tantra presents and the main points. For this kind of tantra it is not necessary to have the ten qualifications but it is sufficient to have some arguments. When it explains more generally, this is called she-gyud.

So these are the characteristics of tantra. Lung means coming from Tantra, the main point. For example, rigpai khujug is a lung and there is also a very important teaching tantra that Garab Dorje is always chanting called dorje sempa namkha che. When Garab Dorje was a very small baby he was always chanting that tantra. There are three or four larger tantras associated with it. These are really tantras, but what Garab Dorje chanted is a lung, not a complete tantra. The lung is the most important parts from a tantra put together and it becomes a teaching. Garab Dorje had this in his memory and chanted it when he was very small. So this is a very concentrated, essential teaching of Dzogchen.