The Dzogchen Primer

by Marcia Schmidt

Tsogyal, as long as you are not free from the beliefs of the lower philosophical schools you will not perceive the true meaning.

  The danger of conceptualizing the self of phenomena is that by such assertion and fixation you will give rise to disturbing emotions. These will cause you to wander in samsara. That is pointless effort even if you were to exert yourself for aeons.

  What type of person denounces the self of phenomena? In general all Mahayana followers denounce it. In particular, it would be a bad sign if we who have entered the gate of Secret Mantra fixate on partiality, as the followers of the Middle Way also denounce it.

  10. The Points to Be Observed

  You should train yourself in the meaning of selflessness of which there are two kinds, aspiration and application.

  The three important points of aspiration to be observed are as follows.

  1. To continually form the aspiration of thinking, May all sentient beings always realize the meaning of selflessness!

  2. To train yourself three times a day and three times a night in rejoicing in others who meditate on the meaning of selflessness.

  3. To always train yourself assiduously in not straying from the meaning of selflessness.

  Secondly, the two points of application to be observed are the outer and the inner.

  The four outer points are as follows:

  1. Not to separate yourself from the master or spiritual friend who teaches the meaning of selflessness until you have realized it.

  2. To give up partiality concerning dwelling place, country and area, caste, enemy, and friend.

  3. To study, reflect and meditate upon the teachings that demonstrate selflessness and emptiness.

  4. Not to fixate on yourself as being a name, family, or body.

  The four inner trainings are as follows:

  1. Not to apprehend names as being things, since all labels and names of outer things have no existence in your mind.

  2. To acknowledge that everything that comprises the world and the beings within it has no self-nature, although it appears, just like dreams and magic.

  3. To seek out three times a day and three times a night this mind that fixates on various objects, although nothing whatsoever exists.

  4. Not to stray from the meaning that is nameless and devoid of extremes. Even though you search your mind, it is not found to be anything whatsoever.

  It is of utmost importance to train yourself diligently in this way. Through exerting yourself in this way, you will annihilate the evil spirit and turn away from samsara.

  11. The Dividing Line between Losing and Possessing the Vow

  The moment of obtaining the inner bodhichitta vow is when you receive the oral instructions from your master.

  The moment of losing it is when you pursue ordinary dualistic fixation without understanding the nonexistence of a self-nature. Since it is lost at that moment, be sure to apply the antidote!

  12. The Method for Repairing When Damaged

  Train in remaining undistracted from the meaning just explained and you will automatically untie the knot of dualistic fixation.

  THE SECRET TRAINING

  Lady Tsogyal asked the master: How should one train in the secret arousing of bodhichitta?

  The master replied: This has eleven points.

  1. The Essence

  The essence of the secret arousing of bodhichitta is to recognize that which is beyond effort since the beginning, the primordial purity of nonarising free from the limitations of thought and description.

  2. The Definition

  It is naturally secret from all the lower vehicles since it lies beyond that which can be indicated by words or thought of by the mind.

  3. The Divisions

  When divided, there are two positions: asserting the universal purity to be nonmeditation and asserting the spontaneously present nature to be primordially perfected as nonmeditation. You should be free from any partiality concerning this.23

  4. The Characteristic of the Practitioner

  The characteristic of the person who engages in this is that he should be of the highest capacity with a mind weary of concrete phenomena.

  Tsogyal, this can only be a person who possesses former training.

  5. The Object from Whom One Receives

  The object from whom you receive it should be one who has realized the single circle of dharmakaya and therefore remains in the state of the effortless great expanse.

  Tsogyal, this can only be a master who has realized the meaning of the Great Perfection.

  6. The Ceremony for Receiving

  The ritual for receiving is the empowerment of awareness-display.

  Abandon your impure mundane physical activities as well as your pure virtuous actions. Remain like a person who has completed his deeds.

  Abandon your impure unwholesome verbal utterances as well as your chanting and recitations and remain like a mute tasting sugar.

  Abandon your impure samsaric thought activity as well as your pure nirvanic thought activity and remain like a person whose heart has been torn out.

  By your master’s mere indication you will thus perceive the primordial dharmakaya of your mind beyond the reach of words and description.

  Tsogyal, this oral instruction of mine is a teaching of liberation simultaneous with understanding.

  7. The Effect of Training

  The purpose of training in this is that without abandoning samsara it is liberated in itself after which the disturbing emotions are spontaneously perfected as wisdoms. Thus it has the quality of bringing enlightenment in the present moment.

  8. The Reason for Training

  The reason for training in this way is that you must possess the nature free from bias and partiality.

  9. The Shortcoming of Not Training

  The danger of not training yourself is that you will fall into the partiality of philosophical schools and have the defect of being intrinsically fettered.

  Tsogyal, if your practice falls into partiality it is not the Great Perfection.

  10. The Points to Be Observed

  1. View as a mere convention that the root of all phenomena is contained within your own bodhichitta awareness, the primordial purity of nonarising.

  2. View that this bodhichitta awareness is primordially enlightened, since it does not possess any constructs such as a watcher or an object to be watched.

  3. Recognize that whatever type of thought or fixation arises within the state of this awareness is primordially empty and luminous awareness itself.

  4. Recognize that whatever outer appearances may arise do not possess any identity whatsoever from the very moment they are experienced, and therefore do not transcend being the display of dharmata.

  5. Experience the nonduality of objects and mind as the innate great bliss, free from accepting and rejecting, affirming or denying.

  6. In particular, experience all disturbing emotions and suffering as the sacred path of enlightenment.

  7. Realize that sentient beings, from the moment they are experienced, do not possess any true existence and therefore that samsara is the primordial purity of nonarising and does not have to be abandoned.

  8. Realize that everything experienced as kayas and wisdoms is contained within your mind and therefore that buddhahood is beyond being accomplished.

  Do this and you will become the successor of Glorious Samantabhadra.

  11. The Dividing Line between Losing and Possessing and the Method of Repairing When Damaged

  Here, there are no such efforts since you are primordially never separated from this throughout the three times.

  EPILOGUE

  Tsogyal, I have condensed the meaning of all the sutras, tantras, scriptures, and oral instructions into these outer, inner, and secret ways of arousing bodhichitta.

  Put them into practice!

  Bring them into the path!

  Take them to heart!

  Be in harmony with their meaning!

  They are the root of th
e Mahayana teachings.

  Thus he spoke.

  This was the Mahayana training of bodhichitta entitled “The Teachings on Taking the Arousing of Bodhichitta as the Path.” It was written down in Mönkha Senge Dzong.24

  Completed.

  Treasure seal.

  Concealment seal.

  Entrustment seal.

  From Padmasambhava, Dakini Teachings (Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1999), “Bodhichitta.”

  24

  THE BODHISATTVA VOW

  Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche

  Before we commit ourselves to walking the bodhisattva path, we must first walk the Hinayana or narrow path. This path begins formally with the student taking refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha—that is, in the lineage of teachers, the teachings, and the community of fellow pilgrims. We expose our neurosis to our teacher, accept the teachings as the path, and humbly share our confusion with our fellow sentient beings. Symbolically, we leave our homeland, our property, and our friends. We give up the familiar ground that supports our ego, admit the helplessness of ego to control its world and secure itself. We give up our clingings to superiority and self-preservation. But taking refuge does not mean becoming dependent upon our teacher or the community or the scriptures. It means giving up searching for a home, becoming a refugee, a lonely person who must depend upon himself. A teacher or fellow traveler or the scriptures might show us where we are on a map and where we might go from there, but we have to make the journey ourselves. Fundamentally, no one can help us. If we seek to relieve our loneliness, we will be distracted from the path. Instead, we must make a relationship with loneliness until it becomes aloneness.

  In the Hinayana the emphasis is on acknowledging our confusion. In the Mahayana we acknowledge that we are a buddha, an awakened one, and act accordingly, even though all kinds of doubts and problems might arise. In the scriptures, taking the bodhisattva vow and walking on the bodhisattva path is described as being the act of awakening bodhi, or “basic intelligence.” Becoming “awake” involves seeing our confusion more clearly. We can hardly face the embarrassment of seeing our hidden hopes and fears, our frivolousness and neurosis. It is such an overcrowded world. And yet it is a very rich display. The basic idea is that, if we are going to relate with the sun, we must also relate with the clouds that obscure the sun. So the bodhisattva relates positively to both the naked sun and the clouds hiding it. But at first the clouds, the confusion, that hide the sun are more prominent. When we try to disentangle ourselves, the first thing we experience is entanglement.

  The stepping-stone, the starting point in becoming awake, in joining the family of buddhas, is the taking of the bodhisattva vow. Traditionally, this vow is taken in the presence of a spiritual teacher and images of the buddhas and the scriptures in order to symbolize the presence of the lineage, the family of Buddha. One vows that from today until the attainment of enlightenment I devote my life to work with sentient beings and renounce my own attainment of enlightenment. Actually we cannot attain enlightenment until we give up the notion of “me” personally attaining it. As long as the enlightenment drama has a central character, “me,” who has certain attributes, there is no hope of attaining enlightenment because it is nobody’s project; it is an extraordinarily strenuous project but nobody is pushing it. Nobody is supervising it or appreciating its unfolding. We cannot pour our being from our dirty old vessel into a new clean one. If we examine our old vessel, we discover that it is not a solid thing at all. And such a realization of egolessness can only come through the practice of meditation, relating with discursive thoughts and gradually working back through the five skandhas. When meditation becomes a habitual way of relating with daily life, a person can take the bodhisattva vow. At that point discipline has become ingrown rather than enforced. It is like becoming involved in an interesting project upon which we automatically spend a great deal of time and effort. No one needs to encourage or threaten us; we just find ourselves intuitively doing it. Identifying with buddha nature is working with our intuition, with our ingrown discipline.

  The bodhisattva vow acknowledges confusion and chaos—aggression, passion, frustration, frivolousness—as part of the path. The path is like a busy, broad highway, complete with roadblocks, accidents, construction work, and police. It is quite terrifying. Nevertheless it is majestic; it is the great path. “From today onward until the attainment of enlightenment I am willing to live with my chaos and confusion as well as with that of all other sentient beings. I am willing to share our mutual confusion.” So no one is playing a one-upmanship game. The bodhisattva is a very humble pilgrim who works in the soil of samsara to dig out the jewel embedded in it.

  From Chögyam Trungpa, The Myth of Freedom (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 1976), “The Bodhisattva Vow.”

  25

  THE TWO TRUTHS

  Thinley Norbu Rinpoche

  The space of appearance, or dharmadhatu, is free from all conceptualization, so there is no basis to the “two truths” (b.Den.pa gnyis). However, not all beings recognize this state which is free from conceptualization. In order to help beings recognize it, the Buddha distinguished between those with deluded and undeluded minds by explaining the two truths: relative truth (Kun.rdzob bden.pa)a and absolute truth (Don.-dam bden.pa).b

  In order to accommodate the differences in the minds of individuals, the Buddha explained the two truths according to different systems.

  According to the general Hinayana, relative truth is all phenomena, including the gross phenomena of the five skandhas. Absolute truth is the realization which comes from examining the five skandhas to find where the self or ego dwells. By examining, one realizes that this ego does not dwell anywhere, that it does not exist, and that the mind and all phenomena are composed of instantaneous indivisible particles. This is absolute truth according to the general Hinayana.

  According to the Sautrantika (mDo.sde. pa) school of the Hinayana, relative truth is that objects do not function. Absolute truth is the essence of the functioning of phenomena.

  According to the Yogacara (Sems.tsam.pa) school of the Mahayana, relative truth is parikalpita (Kun.brtag) and paratantra (gZhan.dbang). Absolute truth is parinispanna (Yongs.grub).

  According to Patrül Rinpoche, relative truth is deluded mind and its objects, and absolute truth is that which is beyond the body, speech, and mind.

  According to Mipham Rinpoche, within relative truth, the body can function, speech can be spoken, and the mind can understand. Within absolute truth, bodies are beyond function, speech is beyond expression, and the mind is beyond cognitive thought.

  There are many other explanations of the two truths which will not be given here. One should examine the various systems carefully and decide which of them one wishes to follow.

  The following is a brief explanation of the two truths of the Mahayana according to general Madhyamika and higher Madhyamika, and also according to the Vajrayana.

  1. GENERAL MADHYAMIKA

  The essence of relative truth according to general Madhyamika is the deluded mind and all phenomena which are the objects of deluded mind; it is whatever is true for the deluded mind.

  According to this system, there are two divisions of relative truth: “inverted relative truth” (Log.pa’i kun.rdzob), which does not function, like the reflection of the moon in water, and “actual relative truth” (Yang. dag kun.rdzob), which is like the moon in the sky, which can shine and illuminate the darkness.

  According to general Madhyamika, actual relative truth has four characteristics. It is:

  Collectively perceived (mThun.par snang.ba): For example, water, fire, sun, and moon are perceived similarly by everyone;

  Capable of effect or function (Don.byed nus.pa): For example, the earth can support all human beings;

  Produced by root cause and condition (rGyu.rkyen gyis skyes.pa): For example, when a seed, which is the root cause, and water, warmth, and air, which are the contributing circumstances, come to
gether, a plant grows; and

  Nonexistent when examined (brTag na dben.pa).

  The absolute according to the lower Svatantrika school (Rang.rgyud ’og.ma) of general Madhyamika is “self-awareness wisdom” (rang.rig. pa’i ye.shes). This is the realization that there is neither subject nor object. All is beyond thought or speech; all is just like a mirage.

  2. HIGHER MADHYAMIKA

  Inverted relative truth according to higher Madhyamika is all individual viewpoints and the conceptual doctrines of nihilists and substantialists. These are inverted relative truth because they do not function for the abandonment of samsara and the attainment of nirvana.

  According to this view, all personal phenomena are inverted relative truth. For example, when a person doing devotional practice is in an unrealized state, all phenomena arise as inverted relative truth. But from the attainment of the first state of bodhisattvahood onward, during both actual meditation and after-meditation’s phenomena, all arises as actual relative truth because all is unobstructed and is realized as illusion.

  According to higher Madhyamika, actual relative truth also has four characteristics. It is:

  Collectively perceived, like the eight examples of maya: magic, a dream, a bubble, a rainbow, lightning, the moon reflected in water, a mirage, and a city of celestial musicians (gandharvas);

  Capable of effect or function, because with the realization that all phenomena are like the eight examples of maya, samsara can be abandoned and nirvana can be attained;