Dzogchen
Monday, July 31st 2023
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
Dzogchen, Bön teachings, methods, paths, natural state, Kuntu Zanpo, Trekchö, Tögal, view, conduct, activity, Sutra, Tantra, fruit, result, practice, negative emotions, poison, generate.
Tashi Delek,
Today my talk will be about Dzogchen.
Undoubtedly, Dzogchen is one of the greatest teachings of all. In Bön, there are actually hundreds and hundreds of different great teachings, see. But, as Bonpos, we agree that Dzogchen is one of the highest teachings and regarded as the most profound teachings altogether.
But if we go over all these teachings, there are three main different paths, you know. If we want to summarize, we will say, in the shamanic way, Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen. We may also refer to those as different categories. And Dzogchen being the highest one.
From the perspective of Dzogchen, the view, the conduct, the activity, and the fruit are higher than in the tantric practices. And in the same idea, Tantra is highest than the Sutra path. When we assess all these categories, when we look closely at the details of all these teachings, we see, in fact, that they are very distinct. They are very different from each other.
Also, in Dzogchen from the Bön tradition, there are many, many great masters. There are also pure Dzogchen teachings within Bön.
I have seen teachings elsewhere bearing the name of Dzogchen. They took some Sutra, added a little bit of Tantra, and then added some Dzogchen to the mix. What they did, they changed the Dzogchen teachings. But, as I said, in the Bön tradition we have a lot of pure, great excellent Dzogchen teachings. Not all teachings are pure, but there are many pure Dzogchen teachings within the Bön tradition. We have many Dzogchen teachings and instructions as we can also call them. That’s one thing.
Additionally, in the Bön tradition, there are four main Dzogchen teachings. And these are called the Mother Dzogchen teachings.
If we look at these great teachings from ancient times, the great Bön masters came up with different examples, established different methods. These make Dzogchen the greatest of all teachings. For example, Drenpa Namkha, a great Bön master, brought us very important teachings. Among them was the Namkha Trulzod, which is a Dzogchen teaching. From this teaching, Trekchö is a very true instruction where all the visions arise directly from the ultimate natural state of mind. That is what we call Trekchö. In the Dzogchen, there are Trekchö and Tögal paths. So, these are methods, very good teaching methods for training in Dzogchen.
So, what exactly is Dzogchen? What does Dzogchen mean?
There are many methods of teaching Dzogchen, like Tögal. Another way is Trekchö, the way of teaching Dzogchen. I have already mentioned, there are many ways of teaching Dzogchen.
But the main thing you need to know is how to reach, to focus, to practice on the natural state, you know. You can also do yoga, such as the practice of Guru Yoga. Also, the practices of refuge, bodhicitta, the ten perfections, and the two generation stages. But your main focal point should be to practice the natural state of mind. That is the idea, and it will bear fruit. That is the main thing.
In Tibetan language, this is called ning gyü rigpa chig po. This means that it is not necessary to do only the two-generation stage in tantric practices. But of course, some great Dzogchen masters practice the two-generation stages in higher Tantra. There’s no doubt about that.
But when practicing Dzogchen, the main focus is on the natural state of mind. Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say: a person from the West who wants to travel to India. The goal, the main point, the idea of that person is to go to India. Then the person will have to do many things to make this idea happen. The person will have to buy a plane ticket, then to drive or hire a taxi. The individual would also have to wait at the airport for three hours. Then, after the plane lands, you have to go through immigration. So, for the journey to take place and for the person to reach the destination, which is India, many steps have to be taken, a lot of preparation is required. That is the same idea or the same point with Dzogchen. That is the same kind of situation.
In Dzogchen, there is a practice of two generation stages. In Dzogchen, there is a practice of the ten perfections. In all practices, the followers of Dzogchen do this. They did in ancient times too. But, the goal, the main point, the idea, is that you need to integrate in the natural state. You need to practice and prepare to become the most familiar with the natural state. That is the main point, the goal, the idea in Dzogchen.
Now, let us talk a little bit here about the fruit here or we can call it result. The result is sought after in Sutra and Tantra paths.
In our world, there are many different religions. And most of these are looking for the fruit and the result to be received from somewhere else. You accomplish something today and you will receive something else, you’ll receive new things afterwards. In the Sutra and the Tantra path, this is also the same exact idea. And especially in practice like five paths in the Sutra, which is a step-by-step process. After you go through four paths, you will come to the fifth path. That is called fruit. The new result is the one you never had before.
When you practice a path in Sutra, it is not a real path, it is a result, it is a fruit. So, when you get that, it is exactly a new thing, a new result and you’ve never had it in your lifetime. This is also something that Tantra has, but not as strongly as in Sutra. In Tantra, practitioners believe in something new, a result, something they will achieve.
Tantra is the path where your goal is always transformation, change, visualization. So, for example, with certain tantric practices, you transform the whole world. Sentient beings sometimes turn into deities or into God. And all the things you try to change, they come out from the mind. In Tantra, you generate in your mind to transform yourself into deities. And your different visions tool: you transform them into something else. So that’s the basic idea of Tantra. This is a basic description of Tantra. But that’s the main idea.
On the other hand, in Dzogchen, Kuntu Zangpo is actually your fruit, the fruit is not something new to you. Kuntu Zangpo is present in each and every sentient being: we all already have it within us. The only problem is that we are have emotions, negative emotions. We are not enlightened beings. We are not Buddha, you know.
Sometimes people will ask me this question:
“But what is the point, Geshe La? You said we already have the fruit, we already have the result, we have already completed our Dzogchen. So, what is the point of practicing? Why do we need to keep practicing?”
My answer to that question is quite simple: as human beings, we have not realized the natural state of our mind. We have not familiarized ourselves with the natural state. We have not become familiar with that practice. We haven’t. We couldn’t integrate it, you know.
For example, when you get angry (anger here is an example). All the visions are energy of the natural state of the mind. In the Tibetan language, we call this Tsal. Zhi Tsal.
Zhi means base, in Tibetan language.
And Tsal means energy, energy of the base.
Because we have not integrated it, or familiarized ourselves with the natural state, when emotions like anger, attachment, jealousy, and ignorance arise, we tend to follow those emotions. In fact, we never really left the natural state, but we forgot the natural state of our mind. But we follow these false visions. This is where it gets tricky. Especially in Dzogchen, as I have already told you, the problem is that we have not recognized the natural state of our mind.
And every day we get very, very close. We are almost within reach of the natural state. Even when we are asleep, it is there with us, you know what I mean. I’m talking about the fruit of Dzogchen, the result of Dzogchen. Dzogchen is always with us all the time. We have never been separated.
In a nutshell, the challenge with Dzogchen is we have no recall of it. We did not recognize it. But in Sutra, in Tantra are not about recollection. They have to generate, they need to do something, to create something new to get the fruit. So, this is the big difference between Dzogchen and Tantra, Sutra.
In the next section, we’ll briefly discuss the Sutra and Tantra, their main ideas. This will help you to understand the major key point about Dzogchen. What Dzogchen is and why it is the highest teaching there is.
But, when we read the pages of this teaching, when we open the first chapter, we can find there a mention of poison. Poison within the three different teachings paths: Tantra, Dzogchen, and Sutra.
The three stories in this text are examples of three different people, each with poison in them.
The first example is about the first person. This person thinks and says: “Oh, I have this poison. I must put it underground. Or maybe I should throw it in the water. Or maybe, I’ll sweep it under the rug because it’s dangerous. I am absolutely terrified of this poison.”
That example is the very idea of the Sutra path. It’s the idea that negative emotions and negative thoughts are poisons. The Sutra path is the path of renunciation. It teaches us to stop, to refrain from negative emotions. Also, in the Sutra, you have to generate good thoughts but, your goal is also to stop negative emotions. So, this is the idea that is demonstrated in the story of the person who is afraid of poison, the first person.
And then comes the second individual: “Oh, there is poison there. But I don’t want to put it underground. I don’t want to throw it in the water. I have to transform it. I have to add something else in this poison. Then, I have to change it. Then, I can use it“.
In order to help you understand this example, you can think about doctors. Doctors have been making a lot of medicines for a long time. But to make them, they put poisons in the medicine. Then, it’s no longer poison for us because they changed something about it. They put something else in there. They have transformed the substance. This is the idea about Tantra.
Tantra is the path where your goal is always transformation, change, visualization. So, for example, with certain tantric practices, you are transforming the whole world. The sentient beings who left are transformed into the deities or into God. And all the things you try to change, they come from the mind. In Tantra you generate in your mind to transform yourself into deities. Same thing about your different visions: you transform them into something else. So that’s the basic idea of Tantra. This is a basic description of Tantra. But that’s just the main idea.
Now, as for the third person in our metaphor about Dzogchen, the poison is still there. In this case, the person says: “I don’t want to bury the poison. But I don’t want to transform it, nor change it into something else. And I don’t need the poison either. That poison is here and there. But I don’t want to capture it or to interact with it. There’s no need to have any contact with it. It’s simply here. I am not following it. The poison is simply there. Whatever the poison, I leave it as it is.”
See, that’s exactly what it means in Dzogchen. When, for example, negative emotions arise. Throughout the day, you might be upset or angry. But you don’t want to follow that emotion. Neither do you want to stop feeling it. You also don’t want to turn it into something else. You just allow it to arise. It is okay. It just arises. You are aware of it. But you also leave it there. This is what Dzogchen is.
We also have a good example of this in ourselves. Sometimes in the sky, there are clouds. Clouds in the sky occur naturally; daily, clouds can come and go. But no one cleans the sky, you know. The clouds might have disappeared, but nobody did anything. This is how it is done. The clouds rise, they come, and then they vanish in the sky. Of course, they do. This is exactly the same idea as in Dzogchen. Our emotions arise, they also come out of the natural state. If you don’t follow them, they will disappear, and if it doesn’t bother you, they will just come in. So, let them go, you know. Let them in. Or let them vanish in the natural state. So that’s the main idea of Dzogchen.
So that will be all for today. It was supposed to be an introductory talk on Dzogchen.
However, I think I will come back and talk about Dzogchen again. Or maybe I could give more details, some guidance, or some step-by-step instructions later. For the moment, however, this was only general information about Dzogchen.
So, thank you very much.
– Geshe Tenpa