Dudjom Lingpa & Heart of Great Perfection

Dudjom Lingpa &

Heart of Great Perfection

Although I practiced in that way, when I encountered even a minor issue, I would lose my own grounding in the nature of existence and revert to ordinary states. For example, when I was alone and naked in the wilderness, if I were to become frightened when various ferocious animals and savages let out terrifying roars, I would be no different than an ordinary person. In that case, there would be no way I could be liberated in the intermediate period by way of such meditation. But with heartfelt faith and reverence I prayed to my guru, the Lake-Born Vajra, “Please grant me right now practical instructions for handling such circumstances!” Falling asleep with immense devotion, in a dream I had a vision of Orgyen Dorjé Drolö* appearing from an expanse of blazing fire and light, and he chanted the lyrics of this Hūṃ song: [479]



*Orgyen Dorjé Drolö refers to Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava



Hūṃ Hūṃ! Supreme being, Vajra of Pristine Awareness,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! do you understand the common thread of the three realms of saṃsāra
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as dualistic grasping at the apprehender and the apprehended?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand both the object and the subject
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as two thoughts?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand the joys and sorrows of this life and future lives
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as delusive experiences?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand daytime appearances, nighttime appearances, the physical world, and its sentient inhabitants
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as experiences of light and dark?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand the joys, sorrows, environment, and friends of this life
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as dream experiences and delusive appearances,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! and know that they are equally unreal?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! As vast as the physical world and its sentient inhabitants are,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! they do not extend beyond the expanse of space.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Although space has no periphery or center,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! it does not extend beyond the expanse of pristine awareness.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Buddhafields and excellent buddhas
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are the face of your own ground, the nature of existence.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do not mistake the buddhas as being autonomous.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! I shall cut off the errors of the māras above.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Enemies, demons, bad companions, and your surroundings
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are delusive experiences of conceptual, dualistic grasping.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do not regard them as anything other than reification.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! I shall destroy the errors of the māras below.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Daytime and dream appearances
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are reified and clung to as names and things. [480]
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Even though you know emptiness for yourself,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! do you understand thoughts as aspects of your own nature?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! While you understand all of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa
Hūṃ Hūṃ! as the primordial expanse of the absolute space of the ground,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! do you understand them as nondual displays [of pristine awareness]?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Appearances of these creative expressions slip into the essential nature of uniform pervasiveness,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! releasing themselves into that expanse.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand that there is no practice of meditation?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Inwardly there is the bondage of grasping at the “I.”
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Outwardly there is grasping and clinging to objects.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Meditation in between is immaterial.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Do you understand that the gateways of
Hūṃ Hūṃ! outer and inner conditions obscure the face
Hūṃ Hūṃ! of the Great Perfection of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa?
Hūṃ Hūṃ! First, by investigating, understanding will come.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Next, by meditating, experiences will arise.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Finally, by resting, realization will come.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Once realization has occurred, it is nondual with simultaneous liberation.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Objects and subjects together
Hūṃ Hūṃ! are awakened in the mother’s space of the great expanse.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! My emanations and I
Hūṃ Hūṃ! have never been separated.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Their essential nature is the illusion of my own creative expressions.
Hūṃ Hūṃ! Like the dissolution of the apparitions of an illusionist,
Hūṃ Hūṃ! they are nondual in absolute space. Phaṭ Phaṭ!

With those words he became nondual with me, and an experience arose of my great appearances pervading all of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa. From that time onward, [481] due to this sign, I knew that these were pith instructions for collapsing the false cave of appearances.

To expand on this just a little, (1) seek out the source of names, (2) destroy grasping at the permanence of things, and (3) collapse the false cave, which is primordially liberated within your own mindstream, by knowing and realizing all of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa.

1. Seek Out the Source of Names

By investigating and analyzing the tenacious grasping of saying the name “I” and grasping at the thought “I am,” you find that the basis of designation of everything—including the flesh, blood, and bones, throughout the exterior and interior of the body, and from the crown of the head down to the soles of the feet—is nonobjective and empty. Then continue to expose the error by also seeking out each of the specific names of the head, feet, arms, joints, and so on. As for the way to investigate all manners of establishing names and conventions in the external environment, by seeking out the name house, for example, in terms of its exterior, interior, upper, and lower areas, and its clay, stones, and so on, it disappears by itself. Earth becomes pottery; and the names of the upper and lower sections of stones, the tops and bottoms of trees, and so forth naturally disappear from where they are, and through transformation and modification they become water mills, stoves, pillars, and beams. Water becomes tea, fire becomes the flame of a butter lamp, air becomes a gust in a bellows, and so on. Reveal the fallacy in each of these cases that the bases of designation of such transformations, cessations, and disappearances [482] cannot be ascertained.

Translation by Alan Wallace

Great Perfection (Dzogchen) by Mingyur Rinpoche

Great Perfection (Dzogchen)

by Mingyur Rinpoche

with Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and 

Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche

See also these texts in this blog:

• Secret Instructions on Space Gazing (Nonmeditation)
• Great Perfection (Dzogchen) by Mingyur Rinpoche
• Meditation and Nonmeditation by Mingyur Rinpoche

“What does this word mean,” I asked, pointing to the tibetan word kadak.

“Oh, that’s a very important term,” he replied, pleased to see my interest. “Do you remember what I told the students last night about the mind’s true nature?” the truth was that I didn’t understand much of what he said when he taught, so I looked down and shook my head in embarrassment. Seeing my reaction, he patted me gently on the shoulder and said, “there’s no need to feel embarrassed. When I was young i had to learn the meaning of all these words just like you.” he then paused for a moment and looked at me with such affection that all my fear and embarrassment dissolved. “What i taught the students last night is that our true nature is completely pure and good. the word you asked about, kadak, means ‘pure from the very beginning.’ it might not always seem like this is the case, but there isn’t the slightest bit of difference between your true nature and the Buddha’s. In fact, even an old dog has this original purity.”

“What does purity mean?” I asked. “Purity means that our true nature is already perfect and complete,” he continued. “None of our confusion and fear can change this inner purity. It doesn’t get worse when we suffer or improve when we become enlightened like the Buddha. We don’t need to add anything to it or take anything away, nor do we have to do something to get it. it’s here with us each and every moment, like a diamond in the palm of one’s hand.” “If our true nature is so wonderful,” I asked, “Then why do we suffer?” “That’s a good question,” he answered. “The problem isn’t that we need to get something that we don’t already have, or that we have to get rid of all the things we don’t like. The Buddha can’t magically appear and take away all our suffering and confusion. The problem is that we don’t recognize what we’ve had all along. We get so caught up in the drama of our lives that we don’t see the radiant purity of our own minds. This nature is with us even when we feel scared, lonely, and angry.”

I looked up at my father’s kind face as he spoke these words and a feeling of tremendous love and respect welled up from deep within me. I still didn’t fully grasp what he was trying to teach, but i started to open to the possibility that there was more to life than all the thoughts and feelings that crowded my young mind. What he had just introduced me to was the ground of the Great Perfection, the inner reality that we discover on the spiritual path.

With this newfound confidence, I continued to meditate on my own. Though I still didn’t have a direct experience of what my father was trying to teach me, I soon found that by focusing my mind on something, I could experience a glimpse of tranquility. Despite this development, I still thought of meditation as something that would help me get rid of the parts of myself that I didn’t like. I sincerely hoped that meditation would lead me to

happy, peaceful states of mind where panic and fear could not touch me. As I would soon find out, however, what my father was leading me to was much more radical than that.

For the next few months I continued to visit my father every day, and he taught me more about the Great Perfection. Oftentimes we wouldn’t talk at all as we sat together. My father would simply sit in front of the large window and gaze off into the sky as I sat quietly by his side and tried to meditate. I desperately wanted his approval, so I always did my best imitation of what i thought a good meditator should do. I sat bolt upright and tried to make it look like I was absorbed in some deep experience, while in actuality I was just repeating a mantra in my mind and trying not to get lost in thought. Occasionally, I would open my eyes and peek up at my father, hoping that he had noticed my good meditation posture and ability to sit still for so long.

One day, as we sat together in silence, I glanced up at him in the middle of my meditation and was surprised to find him gazing down at me. “Are you meditating, son?” he asked. “Yes, sir,” I said proudly, filled with joy that he had finally noticed. My answer seemed to amuse him greatly. he paused for a few moments and then said gently, “Don’t meditate.”

My pride vanished. For months, I’d been doing my best to copy all the other meditators who came to be with my father. I learned some short prayers, sat in the right posture, and tried hard to still my turbulent mind. “I thought I was supposed to meditate,” I said with a shaky voice.

“Meditation is a lie,” he said. “When we try to control the mind or hold on to an experience, we don’t see the innate perfection of the present moment.” Pointing out through the window, he continued, “Look out into the blue sky. Pure awareness is like space,

boundless and open. It’s always here. You don’t have to make it up. All you have to do is rest in that.”

For a moment, all of my hopes and expectations about meditation dropped away and I experienced a glimpse of timeless awareness. A few minutes later he continued, “Once you’ve recognized awareness, there’s nothing to do. You don’t have to meditate or

try to change your mind in any way.”

“If there’s nothing to do,” I asked, “Does that mean that we don’t have to practice?”

“Although there’s nothing to do, you do need to familiarize yourself with this recognition.

you also need to cultivate bodhichitta and devotion, and always seal your practice by dedicating the merit so that all beings may recognize their own true nature too.

The reason we still need to practice is that at first we only have an understanding of the mind’s true nature. By familiarizing ourselves with this understanding again and again, however, it eventually transforms into direct experience. Yet even then we still need to practice. Experience is unstable, so if we don’t continue to familiarize ourselves with pure awareness we can lose sight of it and get caught up in our thoughts and emotions again.

On the other hand, if we are diligent in practice, this experience will transform into a realization that can never be lost. This is the path of the Great Perfection (dzogchen).”

With these words, he stopped talking and we both continued to rest in pure awareness, gazing off into the deep blue sky above the Kathmandu Valley.

…

One of the main questions I had at the time concerned the results of the Great Perfection, so one day I approached Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche to ask for clarification. “To attain buddhahood,” I began, “the sutras say that we have to purify obscurations, perfect the ac-

cumulations of merit and wisdom, and slowly refine our practice of generosity, discipline, and the rest of the six perfections for an incredibly long period of time, but my father and

Saljey Rinpoche taught me that buddhahood is actually right here in the present

moment. They said that if we strain and strive for some enlightenment in the future, we actually move farther away from this pure awareness. Don’t these two presentations contradict each other?”

“Not at all,” rinpoche replied. “ In fact, all those things that we uncover slowly on the sutra path are actually inherent qualities of pure awareness. The Great Perfection is an effortless path in which you accomplish everything without doing anything. Recognizing the empty essence of awareness perfects the accumulation of wisdom, while recognizing its spontaneously present clarity perfects the accumulation of merit. The union of this emptiness and clarity is the union of the two accumulations. Moreover, this approach is

also the union of the development and completion stages that we practice in deity yoga, and of skillful means and knowledge. Once you realize the nature of mind, compassion spontaneously manifests. Seeing the potential that all beings possess, you will naturally

feel respect for them and want to help them to realize this true nature for themselves.

You will also experience genuine devotion for the teachers who introduced you to pure awareness and fully appreciate their accomplishment. So you see, all the qualities of

enlightenment are right here with us. We don’t need to look anywhere outside of the present moment.

“Actualizing these innate qualities,” he continued, “Is the best result we could hope for. Flying in the sky, reading minds, and other magical powers are no big deal. These days, we can do most of these things anyway through modern technology. I’ve flown all around the world with hundreds of people in a giant metal tube, so what’s the big deal if you can levitate a few feet? The precious fruition of the Great Perfection manifests when we’ve familiarized ourselves with pure awareness to such a degree that we never waver from that state. There’s nothing more to hope for than that.”

Khen Rinpoche’s words trailed off as he finished his explanation, and he stopped talking.

together, we sat in silence, resting effortlessly in the beauty and simplicity of the present moment. The words of these great masters stay with me to this day. When people ask me about the Great Perfection, I have nothing more to say than to repeat these simple teachings, which were entrusted to me like a great treasure by my kind teachers.

Basics of Natural Awareness (Dzogchen) Part 1

Basics of Natural Awareness 
Part 1 (Dzogchen)

Here, I'd like to present some information of the basics of great perfection (tib. dzogchen) as passed to yours truly by the great mahasiddha Vimalamitra. I've mentioned these two aspects of natural awareness or knowing awareness (tib. rigpa) briefly here. Later I will add another text on this topic covering two more aspects of rigpa.

The reader may keep in mind, that the author's knowledge of dzogchen has not been derived from the exponents of the traditional orthodox Tibetan dzogchen but directly from the mentioned master or masters. In this text, I compare the teachings received by yours truly with a traditional presentation of dzogchen by H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama.

Rigpa

Rigpa which could be translated as "knowing awareness" is a term often heard in Tibetan buddhism and dzogchen. This term, rigpa, points out to a distinct state of our awareness which is natural, unobstructed and always present. Rigpa is described as the "ground" of our being. For a meditator, these description give clear hints of what this rigpa actually is. When elements of thought and emotion subside, the ground of awareness becomes revealed. This is the primary purpose of meditation and spiritual practices, to know ourselves as open spaciousness, as awareness, devoid of any entity.

Dalai Lama* on rigpa: "Generally speaking, when we use the word sem, we are referring to mind when it is temporarily obscured and distorted by thoughts based upon dualistic perceptions of subject and object. When we are discussing pure awareness, genuine consciousness or awareness free of such distorting thought patterns, then the term rigpa is employed".

Aspects of rigpa

In traditional Tibetan dzogchen, rigpa is presented in four different ways. Pure awareness is said to have four aspects to it. Terms of the first two aspects used in traditional Tibetan dzogchen are:

1. Gzhi rigpa - Basis of knowing (gzhi - basis, rigpa - knowing)
2. Ngobo rigpa - Essence of knowing (ngobo/ngowoi - essence, rigpa - knowing)

From Dalai Lama's book* we can find the next translations of these terms:

Gzhi-ground
Rigpa - awareness, pure awareness
Gzhi rigpa - ground awareness/rigpa
Ngobo rigpa - essential awareness/rigpa

As the meanings of these terms are difficult to grasp, I'd like to translate them in the light of my own experience, as transmitted and received from my master.

The two aspects of rigpa can be described as:

1. Thoughtless awareness (gzhi rigpa) and
2. Thoughtless awareness imbued with life and love (ngobo rigpa)

As an experience

First, we have a state of awareness which is devoid of any sort of thought or emotion (gzhi rigpa). Here, thoughtlessness should be taken literally as "no mental content" at all. This thoughtless awareness is the ground or basis of our being, again devoid of entity. Getting to know awareness without any mental stuff is sort of the first "relief" that a beginner of meditation meets with. But again, for it to qualify as gzhi rigpa, according to Vimalamitra, it has to be entirely without thought. This can be accessed briefly, for a second or two, by most beginners and the longer one continues to practice, the more sustained it becomes. The key is to return to it again and again.

The second aspect of ngobo or ngowoi rigpa, is based on the first one, throughtlessness, but has an additional flavour to it, that of extremely sweet lovingness. When speaking of lovingness or lifeness of rigpa, it should be remembered that the love which is referred to here is not gross emotion common to biased mind but rather very subtle one combined with extreme clarity of awareness. Thoughtlessness, emotionlessness, sweetness and clarity are simultaneous. So, the first rigpa is thoughtless and the second is both thoughtless as well as imbued with pure aliveness, pure sweetness. 

It's pretty simple and anyone can glimpse it briefly for their benefit. However, despite of the simplicity of it, it should be said that when speaking of a really comprehensive recognition of rigpa, one has completely and permanently extinguished the confused mind (purity of mind). This is the minimum requirement for it. In the Open Heart Bhumi Model, this would refer to the 6th bhumi or higher.

Conclusion

From this explanation we can come to understand that these aspects of rigpa are not something lofty or distant. Rather, these aspects of pure awareness are the ground of each of us. When in one way or the other the obscured dualistic mind (tib. sem) is momentarily bypassed, the knowing awareness reveals itself and recognises itself. With further practice, this natural recognition becomes extended while the obscured mind gradually looses it's grip. For a fully blown master (mahasiddha/buddha) this state is uninterrupted.

I hope this explanation sheds some light on these commonly used terms.

Thank you for reading. 

- Baba Kim Katami




Open Heart
www.openheart.fi

*Dalai Lama's book: Dzogchen, Heart Essence of the Great Perfection, Snow Lion.

Related links

• http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.fi/2016/01/full-list-of-my-teachers-and-masters.html
• http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.fi/2016/02/loving-kindness-and-awareness.html
• http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.fi/2016/01/my-connection-with-living-buddhas.html  
• http://openheartopenheart.blogspot.fi/2016/02/stages-of-spiritual-attainment.html