The Dzogchen Primer

by Marcia Schmidt

  As a further argument for impermanence, consider the universe in which we live. Usually people believe that the world is solid and real, but this is not true. It will not last forever, and in the meantime it is constantly changing with each passing moment. When the universe finally disintegrates, there will be an end to this world as we know it. It will be destroyed by the “seven suns” and the “one water” until the only thing remaining is space. Since space is uncompounded, it can never disintegrate, but everything within space vanishes—everything! Then a period of voidness will endure for a while until a new universe is formed. It in turn remains for a while—which is the time we are experiencing now—and again disintegrates and vanishes. These four major cycles—formation, abidance, destruction, and voidness—a world goes through constitute a great aeon, and this process is repeated again and again. Nothing material is exempt from this endless process. By our pondering this, our normal tendency to cling to permanence will naturally fall away.

  Also consider the great noble beings who have appeared in this world. All the bodhisattvas of the past as well as all the buddhas who possessed incredible clairvoyance, wisdom, and the capacity to transform an aeon into a second and a second into an aeon have passed away. The bodily forms of great noble beings are not permanent either. Please ponder this.

  Consider the people who possessed great merit, power and dominion. Universal rulers, chakravartins, who wielded the “wheel of gold” controlled all four continents. Those possessing the “wheel of silver” reigned over three continents. Those possessing the “wheel of copper” governed two continents, and those possessing the “wheel of iron” still held command over one entire continent. They had the power to rule over all peoples. They could even dine with Indra on the summit of Mount Sumeru, seated on thrones of equal height, and then fly back into the human realm. But where are they now? They are all gone. Please realize that even people of great might also vanish.

  Next, consider the many causes of death and the few circumstances for staying alive. There are 404 kinds of diseases, 80,000 kinds of attacks from evil spirits, and many other obstacles for life as well. All these surround us like gusts of wind in a great storm, while our life force is like the flame of a candle or a butter lamp. There are very few reasons for this flame to remain without being extinguished. We usually believe that medicine prolongs life, but sometimes medicine administered in the wrong way can become the cause of death. Even the means of healing can cut life short. Please consider the many causes of death and the few circumstances that sustain life.

  It is a small miracle that we wake up each morning. It is said that the difference between being alive or dead is a single breath. If you exhale and don’t inhale, you are dead. That’s all it takes. Nagarjuna said, “Since this is the case, it’s amazing, a wonder, that one wakes up in the morning.” It is not enough to merely hear or read about impermanence; you need to take it to heart.

  In the cycle of teachings given by Padmasambhava called Karling Shitro—the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities Revealed by Karma Lingpa—there is a very vivid image of the inevitability of our death. Imagine that you are standing on a half-inch-wide ledge on a sheer cliff overlooking an almost bottomless abyss, with a roaring river raging below. You cannot bear to look down. Only your toes can rest on the ledge, while your hands grasp two handfuls of grass the size of a goat’s beard. You are hanging on to these two handfuls of scrub-grass that represent your life span and life force. At the same time, impermanence, in the form of two rats representing the Lord of Death and the Lord of Life, gnaw away the grass you are clinging to, piece by piece. Once the grass is consumed, there will be nothing left to hold on to. There is only one way to go: to plunge into the nearly bottomless abyss and the raging river. Your guardian spirits are present in the form of two crows who hover above you, but how can they help your desperate situation? So, you hang on while the rats eat up the grass, blade by blade. You have no chance of survival whatsoever.

  This is our current situation. We as practitioners must vividly imagine Padmasambhava’s teaching, which clearly points out our mortality and inescapable death. Please contemplate this well, because it represents how it truly is. Below is the abyss of the three lower realms. We do not have to think of anything other than that. Then ask yourself, “What can I do?” A true practitioner should take this to heart and meditate on it!

  Our clinging to sense pleasures, the desirable objects of the five senses, causes us to spin around in samsara. Here’s another example from the Karling Shitro regarding attachment to sense pleasures. Imagine you are sentenced to death and have been dragged before the executioner. Your head now lies on the chopping block and he raises the ax in the air above your neck. He’s just about to strike when someone steps up to you and says, “I would like to present you with a beautiful consort, a magnificent palace, and countless luxuries and enjoyable experiences!” How will you feel, knowing the ax is about to fall? Is the prospect of enjoying all these sense pleasures enticing in the least? This example from the Karling Shitro illustrates in a very vivid way the futility of our attachment to the five sense pleasures of samsara. Do we really think they will last? Practitioners, combine the metaphor with the meaning!

  Trust in the consequences of your karmic deeds. All that takes place—the formation of the universe and its abiding, changing, and disintegration—occurs without any creator or maker to initiate it. It is all the result of the karmic actions of sentient beings. This is an unfailing law.

  Next, among the six classes of beings, all the different life forms are basically painful. There is no place of permanent happiness within samsara, regardless of where you are reborn. As a hell being, you suffer from heat and cold; as a hungry ghost, you suffer from hunger and thirst; as an animal, you suffer from stupidity and being enslaved or eaten by others; while as a human being, a demigod, or a god, you still suffer from various imperfections. If you reflect deeply upon these different samsaric states, you will find that none offers any sanctuary free from suffering and pain.

  Longchen Rabjam meditated for many years in a place called Gangri Tökar, White Skull Snow Mountain, where he even lacked a proper cave. He took shelter for three years under a cliff overhang. His only possession, in terms of bedding and clothing, was a hemp-cloth sack. During the day he wore this as his garment, while at night it became his bedding. This single scrap of sackcloth also served as his seat during meditation sessions. At the entrance to this rock overhang grew a huge thornbush. Whenever he had to go out and relieve himself, the thorns pierced his body in numerous places. While he was urinating outside, he would think, “It’s really uncomfortable having to push past this thornbush every day. I should hack it down!” Then, on his way back in, he would think, “On the other hand, maybe this is the last day of my life. Why should I spend it cutting down a bush? That’s meaningless—I’d rather do something that has real significance, like train myself in the view, meditation, and conduct. If this is my last day, I should spend it practicing. One never knows how much time one has left in life.” So, he would forget about cutting down the bush and go back inside to continue his practice session. This went on day after day, and after three years he attained complete realization. And he never cut down the thornbush. This is an example of how the reflection on impermanence can manifest itself in a great realized master like Longchenpa.

  The whole point of the preliminary practices is to purify the negative karma and the obscurations we have created. This does not necessarily involve the pursuit of physical well-being. Doing prostrations and the other preliminary practices is not a matter of making ourselves as comfortable as possible. Trying to avoid pain is definitely not the style of an honest practitioner. It is the behavior of a Lhasa dignitary, who prostrates on top of a soft mattress with all kinds of cushioning devices on his knees, ribs, and elbows to ensure that the practice will not hurt in any way. This is called “VIP prostrations,” and I assure you that this style does not purify any karma or obscurations wha
tsoever.

  There is another way of prostrating, which is the style of Patrül Rinpoche (author of The Words of My Perfect Teacher). You simply prostrate wherever you are, however the landscape may be. Whether you are prostrating in the main shrine hall or outside atop rocks and grass, you bow down and stretch out, full of devotion, imagining that you are right in front of the objects of refuge. Patrül Rinpoche always practiced outdoors in the vast meadows. He lived in a black yak-hair tent and he would often do prostrations outside while chanting the Sukhavati Aspiration by Karma Chagmey, a prayer to be reborn in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha. Because Patrül Rinpoche never bothered with a prostration board or any cushioning devices, he eventually wore down through the grass and down into the soil, leaving a deep indentation in the ground the exact size of his body. This is how most Tibetan practitioners of the past prostrated. They did not dress up in special prostration gear and glide in an especially soft place so there would be no pain. Many people would draw blood from their hands. I have often seen people skin their foreheads and develop a callus, and sometimes skin their hands and knees. By performing 100,000 prostrations in this way you can definitely purify your negative karma and obscurations.

  When we take a bath, we wash away the dirt and sweat that has accumulated on our skin. In fact, the whole reason for taking a bath is to clear away this accumulation. It’s not that we leave half of it and say, “I took a bath so now I am clean,” when we are still half dirty. In the same way, the point of the ngöndro, the preliminary practices, is to remove the obscurations and become pure. Therefore, the basic guideline for how to practice and how long to practice is the extent to which we have purified our obscurations. There is no real guideline other than total purification!

  The whole reason for doing prostrations is to completely purify misdeeds and obscurations, not to do easy, comfortable Dharma practice. That is not the aim in itself; neither is it self-mutilation. The point is to focus totally on the practice with proper motivation, with full devotion for the Three Jewels and compassion for beings, combined with diligence. This is the main thing. We should not be emerging from our bath or shower still dirty; remember this!

  At the time of the Buddha, which was called the Age of Perfection, it was sufficient to do one complete set of 100,000 preliminaries in order to achieve complete purification. The next two ages that followed were called the “two-endowed” and the “three-endowed,” meaning two and three repetitions were necessary. The fourth period, which we are in now, is called the “period of adhering only to the superficial attributes.” At this time, it is not enough to do two times 100,000 or even three times 100,000 to achieve complete purification. In this age we must do four times 100,000, meaning four full sets of preliminaries.

  Motivation, your attitude, is of primary importance when going through the preliminary practices. This attitude involves devotion for the Three Jewels and compassion for sentient beings, infused with diligence. If you train in the preliminaries with proper motivation they will turn out well: that is the first point. The second point is that negative karma and obscurations are embedded in the alaya, the all-ground. As long as this all-ground with its ignorant aspect is not purified, it will continue to form the basis for further obscurations and negative karma. So, what truly needs to be purified is the basic ignorance of the all-ground.

  To achieve complete purification is the main point, not only when doing prostrations and taking refuge, but also during the other preliminary practices. After performing the visualization, try to remember the view of Mahamudra, Dzogchen, or the Middle Way. At times, try to prostrate and chant while remaining in mind essence. This will increase the effect of the practice. It is said that when a practice is done correctly, with mindfulness rather than just doing it mechanically, the effect is multiplied 100 times. If the practice is carried out while in the state of samadhi, in other words while recognizing mind essence, its effect is multiplied 100,000 times. Since many people have great interest in recognizing the nature of mind, we need not set this aside while doing purification practices. On the contrary, we should unify the two aspects of practice: the accumulation of merit and the accumulation of wisdom.

  By combining these practices with the recognition of mind nature, we combine the accumulation of conceptual merit with the accumulation of nonconceptual wisdom. By the accumulation of merit with a reference point, you manifest the twofold rupakaya and purify the obscurations of disturbing emotions. By the accumulation of wisdom free from reference point, you realize the immaculate dharmakaya and purify the ignorant all-ground. The way to do this is, after bringing to mind and visualizing the objects of refuge, to look into who is performing this practice. If we can do a full prostration without losing the view of mind essence, that single prostration is equal to 100,000 prostrations. It’s how we practice that makes all the difference.

  For example, reciting the 100-syllable mantra only once while resting undistractedly in mind essence has the same value as distractedly reciting the 100-syllable mantra 100,000 times. So, how one carries out the practice makes an enormous difference. By looking into mind essence while prostrating, we are able to purify not just our obscurations and negative karma, but also the very ground of ignorance upon which all obscurations and negative karma are based.

  Even though you may have already done a great deal of Buddhist practice over the years, if you want to attain realization, do not hold yourself back from doing as many of the preliminary practices as possible until you are totally purified. It is not the number that matters, but the degree of purification. The way to maximize this is by combining the accumulation of merit with the view. So keep the view you have been introduced to, whether it be the view of Mahamudra, the Middle Way, or Dzogchen, in mind when you are performing the preliminary practices. No matter which of the three great views you choose to practice according to the Tibetan tradition, each includes the preliminary practices.

  A famous quote sums up the whole reason for these practices: “When obscurations are removed, realization occurs spontaneously.” The only thing that prevents realization is our obscurations and negative karma; and the preliminary practices remove them. When the mind is totally stripped of obscurations, realization is like a wide-open, clear sky with nothing to obscure it in any way whatsoever. Habitual tendencies are like the smell of camphor—even when it is washed away, a faint odor lingers. It is the same with the obscurations that lie latently within the all-ground. Another famous quote says, “It is delusion to depend on any other method than these practices for removing obscurations, gathering the accumulations, and receiving the blessings of a realized master.”

  What is more valuable—a single diamond or a room full of glass beads? Similarly, our practice does not depend on quantity, on the number of repetitions we accumulate in order to get the practice over with. It is not at all relevant to make it known that we are one of those amazing individuals who have completed five or ten sets of preliminaries. Some people practice with distracted minds, rushing through the motions as quickly as possible as though it was a mechanical chore. Their sessions are carried out looking right and left, without paying any attention to what they are doing. What is necessary is to focus body, speech, and mind one-pointedly on the practice—that is what purifies the negative karma and obscurations. This is the real thing, the authentic diamond as opposed to a mere roomful of glass beads.

  My root guru, my uncle Samten Gyatso, did this himself. Throughout his entire life, he never missed a single day of doing 100 prostrations. He made the ngöndro part of his daily practice, even when he was old and very sick. He walked with the help of two canes, one in each hand, so that people used to say he walked on “four legs” like an animal. Yet, he still managed to do 100 prostrations each day. The ngöndro that he adhered to was the preliminary practices for Chetsün Nyingtig.

  Samten Gyatso died when he was sixty-four. I do not know what he practiced as a little boy. But from the time I met my uncle and from what others could
remember about him, he never, until the day he died, spent a single day without going through the preliminaries. My father, Chimey Dorje, did the ngöndro practices for both Chetsün Nyingtig and Künzang Tuktig every day. Even though the ngöndro preliminaries are extremely simple, they are, at the same time, also extremely profound. I suggest that you do the preliminary practices every day; this will be both excellent and very beneficial!

  To reiterate, once you have taken the four mind-changings to heart, you will have formed a solid foundation and Dharma practice will not be at all difficult. If not, it is like trying to build a house without a foundation. The great masters of the past, especially those in the Kagyü lineage, have said, “Because they are the foundation, the preliminaries are more profound than the main part.” Lay the solid foundation that results not merely from having “done” the preliminaries by going through the motions, but from having taken to heart the four reflections and the four or five times 100,000 preliminaries. Then you cannot help practicing in a genuine way. But simply having repeated the mantras and having the idea, “Okay, I did it,” will not be the foundation for higher practices.

  Whoever truly takes to heart the preliminaries is said to act like a wounded deer who flees to a place of solitude, not just “acting” like a practitioner in the eyes of others. Milarepa said, “I fled to the mountains to practice in solitude because I was frightened of death. Through practicing, I realized the nature that is beyond birth and death. Now I have captured the stronghold of fearlessness.” That is how to practice.