NON-DUALITY
Dzogchen - The Highest Perfection of Vajrayana/Tantra
(Dzogchen translates as the "Great Perfection" or "Great Completion"), also known as atiyoga (utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The primordial ground (ghzi, "basis") is said to have the qualities of purity (i.e. emptiness), spontaneity (lhun grub, associated with luminous clarity) and compassion (thugs rje). The goal of Dzogchen is knowledge of this basis, this knowledge is called rigpa, (also called prajna, vidyā or yeshe). There are numerous spiritual practices taught in the various Dzogchen systems for awakening rigpa.
The term initially referred to the "highest perfection" of Vajrayana deity yoga. Specifically it refers to the stage after the deity visualisation has been dissolved and one rests in the natural state of the innately luminous and pure mind.
The essence of Dzogchen (or maha-ati) is radically simple, and is in accord with the highest teachings of other of the world's great wisdom traditions, particularly Vedanta Hinduism and Ch'an (early Zen) Buddhism. In a nutshell:
{1. SPACE - Everywhere and EveryHere - Infinite/OmniPresent}
If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can't be a place Spirit is not, or it wouldn't be infinite. Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
{2. Since EveryWhere, that means you are ALREADY One with Spirit, Already Enlightened}
Furthermore, it is not that Spirit is present but you need to be enlightened in order to see it. It is not that you are one with Spirit but just don't know it yet. Because that would also imply that there is some place Spirit is not. No,according to Dzogchen, you are always already one with Spirit, and that awareness is always already fully present, right now. You are looking directly at Spirit, with Spirit, in every act of awareness. There is nowhere Spirit is not.
{3. TIME - No Beginning and No End - Eternal Now. You cannot 'attain' Enlightenment}
Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.
{4. Spirit & Enlightenment is right HERE and NOW in your Present Awareness}
Rather, Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be something that you are fully aware of right now. Something you are already looking at right now. As I was receiving these teachings, I thought of the old puzzles in the Sunday supplement section of the newspaper, where there is a landscape and the caption says, "The faces of twenty famous people are hidden in this landscape. Can you spot them?" The faces were maybe Walter Cronkite, John Kennedy, that kind of thing. The point is that you are looking right at the faces. You don't need to see anything more in order to be looking at the faces. They are completely entering your visual field already, you just don't recognize them. If you still can't find them, then somebody comes along and simply points them out.
{5. We are already looking directly at Spirit, just don't recognize it}
It's the same way with Spirit or enlightenment, I thought. We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don't recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition. This is why the Dzogchen teachings don't particularly recommend meditation, useful as that may be for other purposes. Because meditation is an attempt to change cognition, to change awareness, and that is unnecessary and beside the point. Spirit is already completely and fully present in the state of awareness that you have now; nothing needs to be changed or altered.
{7. Buddhahood without Meditation - Nothing you can do, Enlightened awareness is already and fully Present}
And, indeed, the attempt to change awareness is like trying to paint in the faces in the puzzle instead of simply recognizing them. And thus, in Dzogchen, the central teaching is not meditation, because meditation aims at a change of state, and enlightenment is not a change of state but the recognition of the nature of any present state. Indeed, much of the
teaching of Dzogchen centers on why meditation doesn't work, on why enlightenment can never be gained because it is always already present. Trying to get enlightenment would be like trying to attain your feet. The first rule in Dzogchen: There is nothing you can try to do, or try not to do, to get basic awareness, because it already and fully is.
{8. Pointing Out Instructions: A teacher can only help point out what is already}
Instead of meditation, then, Dzogchen uses what are called "the pointing-out instructions." Here the Master simply talks to you, and points out that aspect of your awareness that is already one with Spirit and has always been one with Spirit, that part of your awareness that is timeless and eternal, that is beginningless, that has been with you even before your parents were born (as Zen would put it). In other words, it's just like pointing out the faces in the puzzle. You don't have to change the puzzle or rearrange it, you only have to recognize that which you are already looking at. Meditation rearranges the puzzle; Dzogchen doesn't touch a thing. Thus the pointing-out instructions usually begin, "Without correcting or modifying your present awareness in any way, notice that..."
{9. Who is not enlightened? You hear the birds? You see the sun? Who is not Enlightened?}
I cannot give the actual instructions, as those are the special province of the Dzogchen Master. But I can give you the Vedantan Hindu version, since they are already in print, particularly in the writings of the illustrious Sri Ramana Maharshi. As I would word it: The one thing we are always already aware of is . . . awareness itself. We already have basic awareness, in the form of the capacity to Witness whatever arises. As an old Zen Master used to say, "You hear the birds? You see the sun? Who is not enlightened?" None of us can even imagine a state where basic awareness is not, because we would still be aware of the imagining. Even in dreams we are aware. Moreover, these traditions maintain, there are not two different types of awareness, enlightened versus ignorant. There is only awareness. And this awareness, exactly and precisely as it is, without correction or modification at all, is itself Spirit, since there is nowhere Spirit is not.
The instructions, then, are to recognize awareness, recognize the Witness, recognize the Self, and abide as that.
{10. Still don't see Spirit? Well that awareness is itself Spirit!}
Any attempt to get awareness is totally beside the point. "But I still don't see Spirit!" "You are aware of your not seeing Spirit, and that awareness is itself Spirit!" You can practice mindfulness, because there is forgetfulness; but you cannot practice awareness, because there is only awareness. In mindfulness, you pay attention to the present moment. You try to "be here now." But pure awareness is the present state of awareness before you try to do anything about it. Trying to "be here now" requires a future moment in which you will then be mindful; but pure awareness is this moment before you try anything. You are already aware; you are already enlightened. You might not be always already mindful, but you are always already enlightened.
{11. Pointing Out Instructions continue until you see your True Face or True Self}
The pointing-out instructions go on like this, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a few days, until you "get" it, until you recognize your own True Face, the "face you had before your parents were born" (that is, timeless and eternal, prior to birth and death). And it is a recognition, not a cognition. It's like peering into the window of a department store, and seeing a vague figure staring back at you. You let the figure come into focus, and with a shock realize that it's your own reflection in the window. The entire world, according to these traditions, is nothing but the reflection of your own Self, reflected in the mirror of your own awareness.
See? You are already looking right at it. . . .
Thus, according to these traditions, basic awareness is not hard to reach, it's impossible to avoid, and the so-called "paths" to the Self are really obstacle courses. They prevent the recognition as long as they are engaged. There is only the Self, there is only God.
As Ramana Maharshi put it:
There is neither creation nor destruction,
Neither destiny nor free will;
Neither path nor achievement;
This is the final truth.
{12. Meditation still recommended - So You Don't become an asshole or womenizing 'Guru'}
I should point out that although Dzogchen itself does not particularly recommend meditation, by the time you are introduced to the Dzogchen teachings, you are expected to have practiced to some degree most of the first eight stages of practice, which are all stages of meditation. And it is maintained that meditation is very important and very beneficial for increasing virtuous states of mind, powers of concentration, mindfulness, and insight, and meditation must be pursued vigorously as a training. It just has nothing to do with enlightenment per se. Any enlightenment that can be attained is not real enlightenment. Meditation is a training, and Dzogchen points out that training completely misses the point right in the first step, because it makes you try to move away from your
present and prior awareness.
{13. That which has a beginning in Time is Not Real!}
A Dzogchen teacher might meet with students, and they would come in saying things like, "I just had the most amazing experience. My ego just disappeared and I was one with everything, and time evaporated and it was wonderful!"
And the Master would say, "That's nice. But tell me, did that experience have a beginning in time?"
"Yeah, it happened yesterday, I was just sitting there and all of a sudden ..."
"That which has a beginning in time is not real. Come back when you recognize that which is already present, that which is not an experience, that which does not have a beginning in time. It has to be something you are already aware of. Come back when you recognize that beginningless state. You are giving me beginnings."
"Oh."
But once recognition has taken place in the student, then meditation is used to stabilize the recognition and to help bring it to all aspects of life. And this, indeed, is the hard part. There's a saying in Dzogchen: "Recognizing your True Face is easy; living it and being a good example is hard."
(Dzogchen translates as the "Great Perfection" or "Great Completion"), also known as atiyoga (utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The primordial ground (ghzi, "basis") is said to have the qualities of purity (i.e. emptiness), spontaneity (lhun grub, associated with luminous clarity) and compassion (thugs rje). The goal of Dzogchen is knowledge of this basis, this knowledge is called rigpa, (also called prajna, vidyā or yeshe). There are numerous spiritual practices taught in the various Dzogchen systems for awakening rigpa.
The term initially referred to the "highest perfection" of Vajrayana deity yoga. Specifically it refers to the stage after the deity visualisation has been dissolved and one rests in the natural state of the innately luminous and pure mind.
The essence of Dzogchen (or maha-ati) is radically simple, and is in accord with the highest teachings of other of the world's great wisdom traditions, particularly Vedanta Hinduism and Ch'an (early Zen) Buddhism. In a nutshell:
{1. SPACE - Everywhere and EveryHere - Infinite/OmniPresent}
If Spirit has any meaning, it must be omnipresent, or all-pervading and all-encompassing. There can't be a place Spirit is not, or it wouldn't be infinite. Therefore, Spirit has to be completely present, right here, right now, in your own awareness. That is, your own present awareness, precisely as it is, without changing it or altering it in any way, is perfectly and completely permeated by Spirit.
{2. Since EveryWhere, that means you are ALREADY One with Spirit, Already Enlightened}
Furthermore, it is not that Spirit is present but you need to be enlightened in order to see it. It is not that you are one with Spirit but just don't know it yet. Because that would also imply that there is some place Spirit is not. No,according to Dzogchen, you are always already one with Spirit, and that awareness is always already fully present, right now. You are looking directly at Spirit, with Spirit, in every act of awareness. There is nowhere Spirit is not.
{3. TIME - No Beginning and No End - Eternal Now. You cannot 'attain' Enlightenment}
Further, if Spirit has any meaning at all, then it must be eternal, or without beginning or end. If Spirit had a beginning in time, then it would be strictly temporal, it would not be timeless and eternal. And this means, as regards your own awareness, that you cannot become enlightened. You cannot attain enlightenment. If you could attain enlightenment, then that state would have a beginning in time, and so it would not be true enlightenment.
{4. Spirit & Enlightenment is right HERE and NOW in your Present Awareness}
Rather, Spirit, and enlightenment, has to be something that you are fully aware of right now. Something you are already looking at right now. As I was receiving these teachings, I thought of the old puzzles in the Sunday supplement section of the newspaper, where there is a landscape and the caption says, "The faces of twenty famous people are hidden in this landscape. Can you spot them?" The faces were maybe Walter Cronkite, John Kennedy, that kind of thing. The point is that you are looking right at the faces. You don't need to see anything more in order to be looking at the faces. They are completely entering your visual field already, you just don't recognize them. If you still can't find them, then somebody comes along and simply points them out.
{5. We are already looking directly at Spirit, just don't recognize it}
It's the same way with Spirit or enlightenment, I thought. We are all already looking directly at Spirit, we just don't recognize it. We have all the necessary cognition, but not the recognition. This is why the Dzogchen teachings don't particularly recommend meditation, useful as that may be for other purposes. Because meditation is an attempt to change cognition, to change awareness, and that is unnecessary and beside the point. Spirit is already completely and fully present in the state of awareness that you have now; nothing needs to be changed or altered.
{7. Buddhahood without Meditation - Nothing you can do, Enlightened awareness is already and fully Present}
And, indeed, the attempt to change awareness is like trying to paint in the faces in the puzzle instead of simply recognizing them. And thus, in Dzogchen, the central teaching is not meditation, because meditation aims at a change of state, and enlightenment is not a change of state but the recognition of the nature of any present state. Indeed, much of the
teaching of Dzogchen centers on why meditation doesn't work, on why enlightenment can never be gained because it is always already present. Trying to get enlightenment would be like trying to attain your feet. The first rule in Dzogchen: There is nothing you can try to do, or try not to do, to get basic awareness, because it already and fully is.
{8. Pointing Out Instructions: A teacher can only help point out what is already}
Instead of meditation, then, Dzogchen uses what are called "the pointing-out instructions." Here the Master simply talks to you, and points out that aspect of your awareness that is already one with Spirit and has always been one with Spirit, that part of your awareness that is timeless and eternal, that is beginningless, that has been with you even before your parents were born (as Zen would put it). In other words, it's just like pointing out the faces in the puzzle. You don't have to change the puzzle or rearrange it, you only have to recognize that which you are already looking at. Meditation rearranges the puzzle; Dzogchen doesn't touch a thing. Thus the pointing-out instructions usually begin, "Without correcting or modifying your present awareness in any way, notice that..."
{9. Who is not enlightened? You hear the birds? You see the sun? Who is not Enlightened?}
I cannot give the actual instructions, as those are the special province of the Dzogchen Master. But I can give you the Vedantan Hindu version, since they are already in print, particularly in the writings of the illustrious Sri Ramana Maharshi. As I would word it: The one thing we are always already aware of is . . . awareness itself. We already have basic awareness, in the form of the capacity to Witness whatever arises. As an old Zen Master used to say, "You hear the birds? You see the sun? Who is not enlightened?" None of us can even imagine a state where basic awareness is not, because we would still be aware of the imagining. Even in dreams we are aware. Moreover, these traditions maintain, there are not two different types of awareness, enlightened versus ignorant. There is only awareness. And this awareness, exactly and precisely as it is, without correction or modification at all, is itself Spirit, since there is nowhere Spirit is not.
The instructions, then, are to recognize awareness, recognize the Witness, recognize the Self, and abide as that.
{10. Still don't see Spirit? Well that awareness is itself Spirit!}
Any attempt to get awareness is totally beside the point. "But I still don't see Spirit!" "You are aware of your not seeing Spirit, and that awareness is itself Spirit!" You can practice mindfulness, because there is forgetfulness; but you cannot practice awareness, because there is only awareness. In mindfulness, you pay attention to the present moment. You try to "be here now." But pure awareness is the present state of awareness before you try to do anything about it. Trying to "be here now" requires a future moment in which you will then be mindful; but pure awareness is this moment before you try anything. You are already aware; you are already enlightened. You might not be always already mindful, but you are always already enlightened.
{11. Pointing Out Instructions continue until you see your True Face or True Self}
The pointing-out instructions go on like this, sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for a few days, until you "get" it, until you recognize your own True Face, the "face you had before your parents were born" (that is, timeless and eternal, prior to birth and death). And it is a recognition, not a cognition. It's like peering into the window of a department store, and seeing a vague figure staring back at you. You let the figure come into focus, and with a shock realize that it's your own reflection in the window. The entire world, according to these traditions, is nothing but the reflection of your own Self, reflected in the mirror of your own awareness.
See? You are already looking right at it. . . .
Thus, according to these traditions, basic awareness is not hard to reach, it's impossible to avoid, and the so-called "paths" to the Self are really obstacle courses. They prevent the recognition as long as they are engaged. There is only the Self, there is only God.
As Ramana Maharshi put it:
There is neither creation nor destruction,
Neither destiny nor free will;
Neither path nor achievement;
This is the final truth.
{12. Meditation still recommended - So You Don't become an asshole or womenizing 'Guru'}
I should point out that although Dzogchen itself does not particularly recommend meditation, by the time you are introduced to the Dzogchen teachings, you are expected to have practiced to some degree most of the first eight stages of practice, which are all stages of meditation. And it is maintained that meditation is very important and very beneficial for increasing virtuous states of mind, powers of concentration, mindfulness, and insight, and meditation must be pursued vigorously as a training. It just has nothing to do with enlightenment per se. Any enlightenment that can be attained is not real enlightenment. Meditation is a training, and Dzogchen points out that training completely misses the point right in the first step, because it makes you try to move away from your
present and prior awareness.
{13. That which has a beginning in Time is Not Real!}
A Dzogchen teacher might meet with students, and they would come in saying things like, "I just had the most amazing experience. My ego just disappeared and I was one with everything, and time evaporated and it was wonderful!"
And the Master would say, "That's nice. But tell me, did that experience have a beginning in time?"
"Yeah, it happened yesterday, I was just sitting there and all of a sudden ..."
"That which has a beginning in time is not real. Come back when you recognize that which is already present, that which is not an experience, that which does not have a beginning in time. It has to be something you are already aware of. Come back when you recognize that beginningless state. You are giving me beginnings."
"Oh."
But once recognition has taken place in the student, then meditation is used to stabilize the recognition and to help bring it to all aspects of life. And this, indeed, is the hard part. There's a saying in Dzogchen: "Recognizing your True Face is easy; living it and being a good example is hard."