The Dzogchen Primer

by Marcia Schmidt

  It is said that all sentient beings are buddhas, but they are covered by their temporary obscurations. These temporary obscurations are our own thinking. Buddha nature, rigpa, encompasses all of samsara and nirvana—not just the awakened state of nirvana, but everything, every single thing. The ordinary body, speech, and mind of sentient beings temporarily arose from the expression of the qualities of enlightened body, speech, and mind. As space pervades, so awareness pervades. If this were not so, then space would pervade but rigpa wouldn’t. Just like space, rigpa is all-encompassing: nothing is outside it. Just as the contents and beings are all pervaded by space, rigpa pervades the minds of beings.

  It is essential to start out with a basic understanding of the profundity of what is meant here in order to be able to authentically practice the teaching of the Great Perfection. Unless we know what is what, at least intellectually, it might seem to us as if sentient beings are disconnected, alien entities, and we have no idea of where they come from, where they belong, or what they actually are. They are not disconnected at all. The difference between buddhas and sentient beings lies in the latter’s narrowness of scope and attitude. Sentient beings confine themselves to their own limited little area of samsara through their own attitude and thinking.

  It is said that the difference between buddhas and sentient beings is like the difference between the narrowness and the openness of space. Sentient beings are like the space held within a tightly closed fist, while buddhas are fully open, all-encompassing. Basic space and awareness are innately all-encompassing. Basic space is the absence of mental constructs, while awareness is the knowing of this absence of constructs, recognizing the complete emptiness of mind essence. Space and awareness are inherently indivisible. It is said, “When the mother, the basic space, does not stray from her awareness child, have no doubt that they are forever indivisible.”

  The ultimate Dharma is the realization of the indivisibility of basic space and awareness. That is the starting point, and that is what is pointed out to begin with. It is essential to understand this; otherwise, we might have the feeling that the primordial buddha Samantabhadra and his consort are an old blue man and woman who lived aeons ago. It’s not like that at all! Samantabhadra and his consort are the indivisible unity of space and awareness.

  As you know, the nine gradual vehicles and the four schools of philosophy—Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Mind Only, and Middle Way—are designed to suit the various mental capacities of different people. The term Great Perfection, on the other hand, implies that everything is included in Dzogchen, that everything is complete. Dzogchen is said to be unexcelled, meaning that there is nothing higher than it. Why is this? It is because of knowing what truly is to be as it is—the ultimate naked state of dharmakaya. Isn’t that truly the ultimate? Please carefully understand this.

  The Great Perfection is totally beyond any kind of pigeonholing anything in any way whatsoever. It is to be utterly open, beyond categories, limitations, and the confines of assumptions and beliefs. All other ways of describing things are confined by categories and limitations. The ultimate destination to arrive at in Dzogchen is the view of the kayas and wisdoms. Listen to this quote: “Although everything is empty, the special quality of the Buddha Dharma is to not be empty of the kayas and wisdom.” All other systems expound that all things are empty, but truly, the intention of the Buddha is to use the word emptiness rather than empty. This is a very important point.

  For instance, in the Prajñaparamita scriptures you find the statements, “Outer things are emptiness, inner things are emptiness, emptiness is emptiness, the vast is emptiness, the ultimate is emptiness, the conditioned is emptiness, the unconditioned is emptiness. . . .” “Emptiness” here should be understood as “empty cognizance.” Please understand this. The suffix -ness implies the cognizant quality. We need to understand this word in its correct connotation.

  Otherwise, it sounds too nihilistic to simply say that outer things are empty. If we understand “emptiness” as empty or void, rather than “empty cognizance,” we are leaning too much toward nihilism, the idea that everything is a big, blank void. This is a serious sidetrack.

  The Buddha initially taught that all things are empty. This was unavoidable; indeed, it was justifiable, because we need to dismantle our fixation on the permanence of what we experience. A normal person clings to the contents of his experiences as solid, as being “that”—not just as mere “experience,” but as something that has solidity, that is real, that is concrete and permanent. But if we look honestly and closely at what happens, experience is simply experience, and it is not made out of anything whatsoever. It has no form, no sound, no color, no taste, and no texture; it is simply experience—an empty cognizance.

  The vivid display in manifold colors you see with open eyes is not mind, but “illuminated matter.” Similarly, when you close your eyes and see something dark, it is not mind but “dark matter.” In both cases, matter is merely a presence, an experience of something. It is mind that experiences the external elements and everything else.

  An appearance can only exist if there is a mind that beholds it. The “beholding” of that appearance is nothing other than experience; that is what actually takes place. Without a perceiver, how could an appearance be an appearance? It wouldn’t exist anywhere. Perceptions are experienced by mind; they are not experienced by water or earth. All the elements are vividly distinguished as long as the mind fixates on them. Yet they are nothing but a mere presence, an appearance. It is mind that apprehends this mere presence. When this mind doesn’t apprehend, hold, or fixate on what is experienced—in other words, when the real, authentic samadhi of suchness dawns within your stream-of-being—“reality” loses its solid, obstructing quality. That is why accomplished yogis cannot be burned, drowned, or harmed by wind. In their experience all appearances are a mere presence, since fixation has disintegrated from within. Mind is that which experiences, that within which experience unfolds. What else is there to experience? Mind means individual experience. All experience is individual, personal.

  For instance, the fact that one yogi’s delusion dissolves doesn’t mean everyone else’s delusion vanishes as well. When someone gets enlightened, that person is enlightened, not everyone else. When a yogi transcends fixation, only the deluded individual experience of that one person dissolves. Please think about this. There is, however, another aspect called “others’experience,” or the “general experience” of sentient beings.

  In all of this seemingly solid reality [Rinpoche knocks on the wood of his bed], there is not a single thing that is indestructible. Whatever is material in this world will be destroyed in fire at the end of the kalpa; there is no exception. This fire then vanishes by itself. [Rinpoche chuckles.]

  Try to spend some time on Nangjang training,10 and you will discover that all of reality is insubstantial and unreal. By means of Nangjang training, we discover that all experience is personal experience, and that all personal experience is seen as unreal and insubstantial when not fixated upon. In this entire world there is no created appearance that ultimately remains. Seemingly external visual forms do not really remain anywhere. These mere perceptions are dependent karmic experiences. All of relative reality is by definition dependent upon something other, upon causes and conditions, isn’t it? When explaining relative phenomena, you have to mention their causes and conditions; there is no way around that. In the end, we realize that their nature is ultimately beyond causes and conditions. What is “ultimate” cannot possibly be made out of causes and conditions.

  Only the authentic state of samadhi can purify or clear up this self-created confusion. More appearances and further fixating will not destroy this. This profound state is present in each individual, if only they would know it! The ultimate nature is already fully present. It is given names like dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya. Our deluded state hides this from us, but really it is this that destroys the delusion. Isn’t this really amazing! [Rinpoch
e chuckles.]

  Once we attain stability in samadhi, delusion is destroyed, since samadhi dismantles the entire drama of delusion. In other words, this mind has basically created the delusion, but by recognizing the nature of this mind we clear up our delusion, since at that moment no delusion can be re-created. If everyone could just understand this! This is amazing! [Rinpoche laughs.] It is the mind itself that creates this whole delusion, but it is also the mind itself that can let the whole delusion collapse. [Rinpoche laughs again.] Besides buddha nature, what else is there to be free from delusion? Buddha nature is the very basis for delusion. It is also that which dissolves the delusion. Please try carefully to understand this! This is something you can understand!

  Delusion seems to separate all sentient beings from their buddha nature. But it is this very buddha nature that clears up the delusion. It is basically a matter of recognizing it or not. We speak of those who were never deluded: the buddhas and the hundred sublime families of peaceful and wrathful sugatas, including Buddha Samantabhadra. When failing to recognize, one is deluded. Delusion dissolves the very moment you recognize the identity of that which is deluded.

  Delusion is like becoming possessed by a spirit during a seance, when someone starts to suddenly hop around and do all kinds of crazy things. This is exactly what has happened to all of us. Sentient beings are possessed by the “spirit” of ignorance and the 84,000 disturbing emotions, and they are all dancing around doing incredible things. They have undergone all different kinds of pain and misery for so long, aeons upon aeons. But it is a self-created possession. It is not really something from outside. Buddha nature has lost track of itself and created samsara, but it is also buddha nature, recognizing itself, that clears up the delusion of samsaric existence. The moment of recognition is like the spirit leaving. All of a sudden the possession vanishes. We can’t even say where it went. This is called the collapse of confusion.

  We have undergone so much misery—oh my! Spinning around on the wheel of samsara, we have suffered so much trouble! Roaming and rambling about among the six classes of beings, of course we have suffered! [Rinpoche laughs.] A yogi is like a formerly possessed person whom the spirit has left. While “possessed,” this mind thinks and acts in delusion, but the very moment you recognize the nature of this mind—rigpa—the possession immediately vanishes. [Rinpoche laughs.]

  Adapted from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, As It Is, Volume I, (Boudhanath: Rangjung Yeshe Publications, 1999), “The Basis, the Buddha Nature.”

  3

  THE GROUND

  Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche

  The most important aspect in Buddhism is mind, and mind means attitude. We need to form a genuine attitude about engaging in the Buddhist path. Once we’ve decided to enter it, we should think, “What a fortunate situation I’ve encountered! I’m very happy about this, and I’ll make full use of it. I’ll use this situation not merely to make me temporarily happy or to achieve something for myself, but in order to diminish my disturbing emotions and progress toward enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings.” This kind of attitude is something we need to train in.

  Having formed this attitude, we need to work on realizing that everything is pure just the way it is. Everything is intrinsically free and perfect, and this is not merely our imagination. The very nature of all things is an original purity. Whether we are talking about the nature of mind or the nature of all things, it is basically pure. This purity is not somehow separated from the impure aspect of things. Nor is it some product that we need to create or achieve. It is a natural purity, already present. Do you understand this principle? This is very important.

  This original purity is not to be regarded as a product, a creation of something new, something that is not already present. It’s not like that at all. Original purity is not something created or accomplished. We may imagine that because we so obviously experience impurity there must be purity somewhere else that we can get to, as if we are in a foul-smelling room and we imagine a beautiful fragrance in another place. That’s not it. This purity does not fall into any category; it belongs to neither samsara nor nirvana. In this context, it is not as if samsara is some impure state and nirvana is some pure place somewhere else. The purity of our intrinsic, innate nature is present throughout all states—not falling into the category of samsara, not falling into the category of nirvana, but pervasive throughout. I will talk more about this later.

  This term, innate nature or basic substance or basic element, buddha nature, essence of all buddhas—this is what buddhas actually are. This is what the purity is, and this is what the training is in, what the Dzogchen training is all about.

  Ground, path, and fruition—all of these terms are basically about this innate nature, which is not confined to only samsara or only nirvana. Our basic state is something that is present in every situation, whether samsaric or nirvanic, without belonging to either. In a way one could say it’s the shared or common ground of these two states. So that is the purity, the purity of the basic state. The most important thing to understand at first is the ground, the basic state.

  This nature, what is it? It is pure. Purity. Is this something that we can accomplish? No, it isn’t. Does it belong to samsara? No. Does it belong to nirvana? No. Yet it’s present throughout all states. That basic nature is what we should fully realize. It’s difficult to find an accurate example of how this innate nature really is. One comparison that is often used is space. Space is not limited to being only between the walls and the pillars, not just between the floor and the ceiling—space is throughout everything.

  I would now like to define the word mind. The Tibetan word is sem. Basically it means that which knows, that which thinks that things are “nice” or “not nice.” Because there is some sense of knowing, there is some identity, some property of that which knows. Exactly what is it, how is it? In essence, it is your innate nature, which is all-pervasive, ever-present.

  Most important is to remember we don’t have to think of mind as a concrete “thing.” It’s really more a quality of knowing—of knowing and thinking. This word mind is going to be used a lot, but please remember every time you hear or read it that it simply means some act of knowing or thinking. It’s really pretty simple. Knowing, just that.

  There are many ways that knowing takes place. There can be dualistic knowing, or knowing that is free of duality. In either case, our mind is simply knowing. The word sem means dualistic knowing. Maybe you feel like a lot of words are being thrown out at you right now, but please just catch them and keep them. We will put them together later.

  Now let’s look at ground, path, and fruition. The basic nature is described as something that does not belong to either samsara or nirvana, and yet is present throughout all states, whether samsaric or nirvanic. It doesn’t belong to either, yet is all-pervasive. Ground is something that is present as the very nature of this knowing mind. You can say this knowing is something that is empty and yet cognizant. These two aspects, emptiness and cognizance, are indivisible—you can’t separate them. Sometimes three indivisible aspects are described: empty in essence, cognizant by nature, and unconfined in capacity. This indivisible nature of mind is always present and it is called by different names: the natural state, the basic nature, the real condition, the enlightened essence, or buddha nature. Regardless of what name it goes by, this is what is meant by ground.

  Path, in this context, is called confusion. From the Buddhist perspective we are not talking about only one lifetime of confusion, but innumerable lifetimes. The primary confusion is this: not recognizing the basic state, the ground, to be as it is, one confuses it or mistakes the basic state for being something other. An example would be if I mistook the rosary that I am holding in my hand for something else, believing it to be a snake, or a piece of rope, mistaking its concrete physical form, smell, texture, and so forth.

  This process of solidifying that which obscures our basic state has gone on for many, many lifetimes, not just fo
r a short while. Our confusion is long-term. It’s through training in the view, meditation, and conduct that we rediscover what is already present. Through training, we are reintroduced to the basic state.

  Ground means the nature of our mind, our basic state, which has the capacity to be enlightened, to be awakened. By “enlightened” we mean able to be free. Everyone has this kind of potential. That is our ground.

  The ground is the nature of things.

  This nature, dharmata, is self-existing.

  This dharmata nature is not fabricated.

  It’s not something that was once constructed.

  It is not something that originally didn’t exist and was then created.

  It is not something that we can improve or modify in any way.

  It simply is what is.

  What naturally is.

  The natural state, itself.

  Not made by the Buddha.

  Not made by sentient beings.

  Not made by the four elements.

  It is a nature that just is, by itself.

  The Buddha did not come into this world and create this basic nature. Everything is naturally pervaded by emptiness. Likewise, mind is naturally and always pervaded by a nature that is empty and cognizant. By “everything,” I am referring to material or concrete things as well. They’re all permeated by an empty quality, and it is this very quality that allows things to come into being. That empty quality is still present even when things exist. In the same way, all states of consciousness are permeated by a nature that is both empty and cognizant.