The Dzogchen Primer

by Marcia Schmidt

  The empty quality of things means the openness that allows for the thing to come into being, to unfold, to be present. You can move your hand around in midair because the space is open, right? Another word for this open quality is “empty.” Here’s another example: this stick I’m holding in my hand can disintegrate. It has a perishable nature, right? The fact that its existence is impermanent proves that it is empty in nature. These examples provide a rough idea of what the empty quality means in this context.

  Our nature—and now we’re back to talking about mind, this mind right here—is something that is basically both empty and cognizant, indivisibly. What happens in a normal moment of perception, when we are looking at a flower, for example, is that our basic identity, this unconfined, empty cognizance, becomes confined in the moment of perceiving. Somehow the empty quality becomes limited to being the perceiver, while the cognizance of the perceived, of what is present, is confined to being the object. The original unconfined and empty cognizance becomes apparently split up into perceiver and perceived, subject and object.

  Of course, this isn’t really the case; it just seems like that. This mistaking of what seemingly is as being real is confusion. That is what confusion really is: mistaking something that seems to be for what it isn’t. At the same moment, one fails to recognize what actually is. Delusion is this ongoing, moment-to-moment conceptualizing activity of fabricating a subject and object that don’t really exist.

  It’s as if we see a colored rope lying on the ground, mistake it for a snake, and panic. The rope and the snake look alike, and because of not directly seeing what is what, we become confused. On the other hand, when we recognize that the rope is simply a rope—when we recognize it for being what it is—the notion that it is a snake vanishes. That is only possible because the snakeness doesn’t exist in any way whatsoever in the rope. Therefore, that which so terrified us was merely a construct created by our own thoughts.

  That is why it is said that disturbing emotions have no real existence in the ground itself. Disturbing emotions, which are the basic cause of samsara, only come about during the path through mistakenness, through delusion. Path is synonymous with being confused. Path is to be mistaken. Ground is our basic state, which is pure in nature. It’s because we don’t know this purity—because we don’t acknowledge it—that we confuse it with impurity. So, confusion occurs on the path. When this confusion is cleared up, that’s called fruition.

  Among these three, where are we right now? We are at the path stage—being confused. Why do we practice the Dharma? Because we have the basic state, the essential nature as ground. It is like the oil present in sesame seeds, which can be released with the proper procedure of pressing. It’s not something completely nonexistent or imaginary, like oil in sand. All that is necessary is to acknowledge what we have as what we have. We need a method for recognizing this, and such a method does exist.

  What do we need to recognize? We need to recognize our basic state, the ground. This basic state encompasses enlightened body, speech, and mind—body present as essence, speech present as nature, and mind radiantly present as capacity. Because the enlightened body, speech, and mind are already present as the identity of the ground, as a mere dependent relationship with that, right now, when we are on the path, our identity is one of having a body, a voice, and a mind.

  To go back to the example, without the rope there wouldn’t be the notion of snake. In fact, it would be impossible to have the notion of something being this snake if there wasn’t a rope. In the same way, enlightened Body, Speech, and Mind, in the form of essence, nature, and capacity, are already present as our basic state, the ground. Only because of this is it possible to be mistaken about what we are. In a country where there is no rope, you would never mistake a piece of rope for a snake, because there would be no basis for misunderstanding.

  Let’s go one step deeper into exploring our confusion. Because we’ve failed to acknowledge that the enlightened body is present as essence, it has turned into a physical body. The enlightened body as essence lies beyond arising and disintegration, birth and death. It has not been acknowledged, and now it appears in the form of something that takes birth and later dies. It is the same with our voice and mind.

  To reiterate, the path stage is one of confusion. We are on the path right now, and this confusion needs to be clarified. The method used to clarify confusion on the path is threefold: view, meditation, and conduct. This is where recognizing rigpa comes in.

  This rigpa that needs to be realized is actually an aspect of the ground, an aspect of our dharmakaya nature. But rigpa can also be considered something to be recognized during the path. In this regard, path and ground are identical in essence. It is only a difference of one’s essential nature being covered by confusion, or not covered by it.

  When recognizing the naked state of rigpa, we are like this [Rinpoche shows a piece of blue cloth]. This is the ground, but it is covered by the path [Rinpoche covers the blue cloth with pieces of white, green, red, and yellow paper]. You can see there are many different types of coverings, including emotional obscurations and cognitive obscurations. The notions we have—first “I,” as in “I am,” which is followed by “my,” “mine,” and so forth—these notions are like opaque veils that cover the basic ground.

  There are various ways to remove these obscurations, including the meditation practices of shamatha and vipashyana, the development stage, training in the completion stage with attributes, utilizing the key vajra points of channels, energies, and essences, and so forth. A single meditation technique removes a single layer of obscuration. When at some point we arrive at what is called the first bhumi, also known as the “path of seeing,” realization dawns in our stream-of-being. Gradually all the covers are removed, so that eventually the ground is totally revealed. That is the realization of dharmakaya.

  It’s generally believed that this process takes a tremendously long time. There must be a more direct method than gathering merit and purifying obscurations through three incalculable aeons! The Dzogchen approach to removing obscurations and uncovering our basic nature is indeed direct and quick. The Dzogchen view involves cutting through to primordial purity. The Dzogchen teachings have three sections: mind section, space section, and instruction section. Within the instruction section there are two aspects: kadag trekchö, the cutting through of primordial purity, and lhündrub tögal, the direct crossing of spontaneous presence.

  From the Dzogchen perspective, everything that covers or obscures the pure basic ground is called thought, or conceptual mind. Regardless of whether it is karma or habitual tendencies, it is contained within conceptual attitude. Trekchö is the thorough cut of cutting through, cutting the obscurations completely to pieces, like slashing through them with a knife. So the past thought has ceased, the future thought hasn’t yet arisen, and the knife is cutting through this stream of present thought. But one doesn’t keep hold of this knife either; one lets the knife go, so there is a gap. When you cut through again and again in this way, the string of thought falls to pieces. If you cut a rosary in a few places, at some point it doesn’t work any longer.

  If you cut Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s head off, and cut his arms and legs off, and continue cutting, cutting in this way, at some point there is no longer any Tsoknyi Rinpoche. If you only cut off Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s head, you can say here is Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s head and here is his body, those two pieces. But if you cut the head up again and say here are the cheeks and here are the eyes and so on, soon you won’t be able to call those pieces a head any longer. And if you cut those pieces up really finely, if you mince them up completely, finally there are no separate things left at all. Eventually it becomes emptiness. There is only the name left of Tsoknyi Rinpoche; there is no thing to attach that to. If Tsoknyi Rinpoche is not that famous, after a few generations even the name vanishes as well. Everything vanishes, even the name.

  Confusion needs to be chopped into pieces in the same way. The conceptual
frame of mind is not one solid lump; it’s not a single concrete thing. It’s actually made up of small pieces that are connected in a vague sort of way. You can call that vague sort of connection karma or habit or the thinking mind. But if you know how to really recognize, a gap immediately appears. Then it’s like your obscurations have been removed, allowing a little piece of your basic nature to be visible. So it gets covered again, and again you need to recognize rigpa. You’ll find that as you chop more and more, the ability of the obscurations to return actually becomes less and less.

  Even if only a little piece of the basic state is visible, if it is the genuine, real thing, that is the recognizing of dharmakaya. But whether we actually recognize or not is dependent solely upon ourselves. The Dzogchen teaching on how to recognize is available and is being taught. But how it is applied by a person is something entirely up to the individual. One cannot say that everyone recognizes or everybody doesn’t recognize—exactly who recognizes and who doesn’t is not fixed. We can know that for ourselves.

  We need to recognize in a way that is not mixed up with concepts, with attachment, with clinging, with resting or dwelling on something. And in a way that is not mixed up with analysis either. Everything is perceived, yet we are not stuck in the perceiving. This is a very important sentence: “Everything is perceived, yet we are not stuck in the perceiving.” The natural expression of the basic essence of mind can move or manifest in two different ways. One is as a conceptual frame of mind, a thought. The result of that is confusion. The other is the expression showing itself as intelligence or knowledge. That becomes original wakefulness, which results in liberation.

  I’m using the word conceptual a lot here. A concept is a thought formed about a subject and object. A conceptual attitude is based on this holding-on-to of subject and object. The subject and object can be many different things. Most obviously, they can be material objects that we see or hear. For instance, when looking at this mandala plate in front of me, the mind fixes its attention on the plate as an object. Through the medium of the eyes occurs the visual cognition of the mandala plate by a perceiver, the subject, and inevitably some thought is formed about it. The process is the same for all the senses. That is an example of conceptual mind at work.

  There is another, more subtle way conceptual mind operates. Basically, conceptuality implies duality—duality of this and that, of subject and object. This does not only refer to external material things: it could also be that the previous thought is the object and the present thought is the subject. Conceptual also implies the notion of time, whether it be in the gross materialistic sense of an external interaction or the more subtle internal sense of one thought looking at the previous thought or looking back into a past memory. While it’s not overtly dualistic, there is still some lapse there, some sense of time. The sense of time is always conceptual. Something that is temporal is always conceptual; thus, the notion of time is conceptual. The notion of time is a conceptual state. Is that clear?

  Now I will introduce what is meant by the path. Path here refers to not knowing the basic nature—thinking of our basic state as being something other than what it actually is. That is called path. Path is delusion. This delusion or confusion essentially means we fail to know our basic nature as it is, and instead mistake it for something else. That is the confusion: not recognizing what is to be what it is, but regarding it as something other. Mind, as the nature of mind, is fundamentally pure. When we fail to recognize the identity or nature of what knows as something pure, free, egoless, and insubstantial—and when we instead regard the nature of this knowing as being “me” or “I,” and hold on to that concept—this is a small view, and it is confused, mistaken. Introducing the idea of me/I is mistaking our essential nature for something that it isn’t.

  At some point, by means of some method, we are introduced to our basic nature and recognize what is to be as it is. When confusion has thoroughly been cleared up, that is fruition. When this mistakenness is dissolved, where does it go? Nowhere, because the confusion never existed in the first place. If the confusion were a real entity, then when it went away we could follow it and see where it went. But it wasn’t real at all.

  Among these three, ground, path and fruition, ground is purity, pure. Path is confusion, and fruition is being free from confusion. If anybody asks us what spiritual practice is about, we should reply that it is to clear up confusion. If someone asks what is confusion, what are you going to say?

  STUDENT: Conceptual thought.

  RINPOCHE: What is conceptual thought?

  STUDENT: Delusion.

  RINPOCHE: What is delusion?

  STUDENT: Thinking something to be what it isn’t.

  RINPOCHE: How do you know what is to be what it is? What is the use of being free from confusion? What is wrong with confusion?

  STUDENT: It is suffering, and knowing that is the path.

  RINPOCHE: The Buddha said that, didn’t he? Okay, let’s hear from somebody else: what is the use of being free from confusion? How many of you agree that we are confused? Why are we confused? Why do you accept this?

  STUDENT: Although we intellectually understand what you said about things to be as they are, we don’t have the personal experience.

  RINPOCHE: One more answer?

  STUDENT: Not getting what we want causes pain.

  RINPOCHE: Just because what you want doesn’t happen, does it mean there is something wrong with what you want? Who decides how things should be? Who knows whether that’s right or not?

  TRANSLATOR: Can I just interject that when Rinpoche uses the word trül, I translate it in three different ways: delusion, confusion, or being mistaken.

  RINPOCHE: There is being confused and there is being free. What do you understand by being free?

  STUDENT: No thought.

  RINPOCHE: That’s one point of being free.

  STUDENT: Not falling under the power of habitual tendencies.

  RINPOCHE: Good.

  STUDENT: Being awake and having an open heart.

  RINPOCHE: How do you explain being awake and having an open heart?

  STUDENT: Doing virtuous activities for the benefit of beings and avoiding the negative.

  RINPOCHE: These are all aspects of freedom. Free of confusion means being free from the bonds of karma, whether it be good karma or bad karma. To be free and independent. Freedom means independence, a state in which one is totally unassailable, not impeded or obstructed by anything. Not even the tiniest little thing can obstruct your freedom in the least. That you can call true freedom.

  Feeling at peace is of course a freedom, or at least has the flavor of freedom, but real freedom, total freedom, means to be completely independent, not subject to or conditioned by anything whatsoever. In the complete realization of the three kayas—dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, nirmanakaya—one is free to send out one hundred billion nirmanakayas simultaneously or not, as one pleases. One is also able to dissolve all of them at will. To be totally in charge, to have full mastery over all that appears and exists in this way—that you can say is complete freedom, total freedom.

  In order to attain this freedom, we need to abandon conceptual mind. Honestly, conceptual mind belongs to the path; it is mistaken, it is confused. Conceptual mind is temporal, it belongs to time, it is bound, it is bondage. This is something to think about.

  You are probably all tired by now after all this discussion. Relax, make yourselves comfortable! Be unoccupied, but not in a dry, rigid way, being very stiff and unmoving, not like that. Try to be unoccupied and kind of moist with some inner joy, so that a little smile can come out, like that.

  Adapted from Tsoknyi Rinpoche, Carefree Dignity (Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1998), “The Ground.”

  4

  RE-ENLIGHTENMENT

  Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

  Unfortunately, all sentient beings are not one; they don’t become enlightened when one person does. Individual karmas and habitual patterns are innumerable, an
d just because one person has purified his wrongdoings, obscurations, and habitual tendencies does not mean that everyone else has purified theirs. Ultimately, everybody has to travel the path themselves and purify their own obscurations. The buddhas of the past were not able to liberate all sentient beings, not even Avalokiteshvara. But, if one does attain enlightenment, through the power of one’s compassion and vast aspirations, one will slowly be able to guide an incredible number of sentient beings toward enlightenment. In particular, when a practitioner attains the rainbow body it is said that 3,000 sentient beings attain liberation simultaneously with the manifestation of the rainbow body.

  There are a few cases in the past where many people attained enlightenment simultaneously because they already had the karmic continuity of former practice. In the country of Uddiyana 100,000 people simultaneously achieved enlightenment. But these cases are very rare.

  There is no other way to reach enlightenment than by recognizing buddha nature and attaining stability in it. Buddhas of the past did that, and the present-day practitioners who will be the buddhas of the future will do so by recognizing their own nature and attaining stability in it. There is no other way. Nobody else can accomplish enlightenment for us or pull us into liberation. It is completely up to ourselves.

  For example, if there were a group in which everybody received the pointing-out instruction, recognized the nature of mind, exerted themselves diligently in practice, and grew accustomed to the buddha nature, certainly the whole group could attain enlightenment within this very lifetime. But people have different capacities and different karmic dispositions, so it is never 100 percent certain how many actually recognize the buddha nature in the correct way upon having it pointed out. Nor is it ever fixed how many will truly exert themselves in practice after having recognized the buddha nature. For this reason, it is not 100 percent guaranteed that everybody will accomplish enlightenment in one lifetime.