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Post by Owain on Jul 18, 2023 15:35:30 GMT
The Dzogchen Journey
DzoGCHEN: THE GREAT
COMPLETION
The primordially awake mind, peifect
in its own state,
Completely full of the qualities of
enlightenment.
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Post by Owain on Jul 18, 2023 16:51:06 GMT
Dzogchen The Nine- Yana Journey I N DzoGCHEN, we are trying to leap. Ultimately, we leap . beyond any concept of the path and formalities of practice and go directly to the nature of mind. However, in order to leap wholeheartedly into the vast, unconditioned nature of our mind, we must go through the entire Dzogchen journey, which is composed of the nine yanas. Finally, we can transcend the notion of journey altogether. There was never anywhere to go. We just did not realize it. The teachings of Dzogchen contain the supreme views and methods of the whole Vajrayana tradition-there is nothing beyond them. These teachings present the final stage of the path. They are like a giant full stop. There is nothing beyond this full stop but utterly open, vivid space. From the Dzogchen point of view, the nature of our present mind actually contains the wisdom of buddha. The wisdom of buddha is not something we will find in the future. It is right here in the present, not only on this day but in this very moment. We have the heart of buddha. Our basic, fundamental state of mind is completely awake. We have awakening within our whole being, although most of us cannot realize it; we cannot see it right now. That is why we have the desire to search for buddhahood somewhere outside. 178 THE DZOGCHEN JOURNEY THE GREAT EXHAUSTION Ordinarily, our minds are fettered by various facets of egoclinging. However, through the practice of meditation, we are able to transcend all of the coarse and subtle habits that seem to bind us, and we can discover our own natural enlightenment. Meditation uncovers our buddha wisdom, which is currently covered by our emotional disturbances, ego-clinging, and narrow self-centered perspective. The nine-yana journey is a process that gives us the precise and skillful tools to progressively uncover our naturally enlightened state. Each yana leads us deeper into that reality, allowing us to shed more and more subtle layers of conceptuality and fear that we previously would not have been able to even recognize. In this way, meditation brings the wisdom of a buddha. Although we use the term "bring," meditation is not actually bringing anything; it is simply uncovering. The whole purpose of the nine-yana path is to uncover. Paradoxically, we are uncovering the uncovered nature. In reality, it has never been covered because ego never truly existed in the first place. Within the general Buddhist framework of the three yanas-the Hinayana, the Mahayana, and the Vajrayana-the Dzogchen teachings and practices belong to the Vajrayana. In the Hinayana, Buddha taught the means by which we can transcend our personal suffering; and in the Mahayana, Buddha illuminated how to develop the genuine heart of love and compassion that aspires to elevate all beings from the state of suffering to the state of enlightenment. Finally, in the Vajrayana, Buddha pointed out that the true nature of our experience is not the reality of suffering but the reality of joy-great joy and happiness. There is a sense of agonizing bliss in samsara. When we apply the view and instructions of Vajrayana with mindfulness, we can experience great joy right within the experience of tremendous pain and suffering. The only way we will know this is by doing it. If we make an effort, we will have that experience. In Tibetan, dzoa means "complete," "perfect," or "exhaustion," and Dzoachen: The Nine- Yana journey 1 7 9 chen means "great." Thus, dzoachen means "great completion," "great perfection," or "great exhaustion." Each of these meanings refers to particular qualities of both the Dzogchen path and our own mind. "Great completion" means that within this path, everything is complete-nothing else is needed. On a more personal level, it means that our mind, this very mind, is complete right from the beginning. It is complete because nothing whatsoever is missing. Mind is primordially awake and completely full of the enlightened qualities of great wisdom and compassion. "Great perfection" means "perfect in its own state." The path is perfect the way it is, and all experience is perfect the way it is. For example, in searching for a method that we can use to work with a painful emotion that we may be experiencing, we do not have to go outside that raw experience. The antidote is already there, within the experience itself; or, as we often say, "The answer lies within the question." Thus, the path is perfect as it is, and the naked experience of emotions is perfectly enlightened right from the beginning. This approach reflects the tone of the Vajrayana, which is in contrast to the Hinayana or Mahayana attitude that might prompt us to say, "Oh, emotions are suffering. They are bad and we need to abandon them." Here, we say that emotions are pure right from the beginning. "Great exhaustion" refers to the lack of true existence of the afflictive or negative emotions. Right from the beginning, these emotions are primordially exhausted. This is equivalent to the phrases "no arising" and "no birth"· in the Mahayana view of shunyata. Because the negative emotions have no birth, they also have no existence. If we look closely, there is no moment that we can pinpoint? when we can say, for example, "This experience of anger started here." In fact, . when we look nakedly at anger itself, we cannot find anything solid whatsoever. In the same way, all emotions are primordially nonexistent. From a positive perspective, we refer to this state as primordial purity, while from the point of view of negation, we speak of this as primordial nonexistence. t8o THE DZOGCHEN JOURNEY THE LINEAGE OF DZOGCHEN According to the Dzogchen lineage history, Samantabhadra is the source of the Dzogchen teachings. He is depicted in paintings in the form of a blue, naked buddha. The color blue symbolizes the expansive, unchanging quality of space, which is the ground of all arisings, the basis of all appearances, and the source of all phenomena. The absence of robes symbolizes genuine reality beyond any dualistic, conceptual, or philosophical clothing. That is the dharmakaya buddha: the genuine body of absolute truth. The Dzogchen teachings are transmitted from the enlightened heart of the dharmakaya buddha Samantabhadra to the sambhogakaya buddha Vajrasattva. Sambhoaakaya means "body of enjoyment." This form of buddha represents the qualities of great joy and richness that the enlightened heart possesses. The richness of enlightenment is depicted through the beautiful ornaments of the sambhogakaya buddha Vajrasattva, who is white in color. The color white symbolizes the luminosity and clarity aspects of mind. Dharmakaya itself is deep blue, like deep space, and sambhogakaya is like the moon or the sun, shining in that space. Thus, within ·the space we see light; we see the luminosity, richness, warmth, and clarity that is represented by the sambhogakaya buddha Vajrasattva, who continually propounds the Dzogchen teachings from the sambhogakaya realm, the realm of great enjoyment. The Dzogchen lineage was transmitted from the sambhogakaya buddha Vajrasattva to the nirmanakaya buddha Garab Dorje, who was a manifestation or emanation body of enlightened heart. This nirmanakaya buddha was a human being who manifested in the human realm in the northwest oflndia in an area known as Uddiyana. Through Garab Dorje, the lineage was transmitted to many other masters in India, finally coming to the Lotus Born, Padmasambhava. Also known as Padmakara or Guru Rinpoche, Padmasambhava was the primary figure who brought the Dzogchen teachings to Tibet in the early eighth Dzonchen: The Nine- Yana journey 1 8 1 century, along with another Indian master, Vimalamitra, and a Tibetan master, Vairochana, who had traveled to India to study. Historically, these three are regarded as the primary masters responsible for transplanting the Dzogchen teachings in the land ofTibet. Lineage is very important in the Dzogchen tradition because many of these practices and instructions are not written down in words but hidden in the form of oral instructions. Typically, the vajra master discourages students from writing these instructions down, since they are not meant to be read. They are meant to be heard-listened to, practiced, and discovered in your own heart. The instructions need to bloom in your own heart. You must have your own experience; otherwise, the process is reduced to mere scholarly research. For example, you write a thesis, which is read by somebody else. That person makes his or her own assumptions on the basis of your thesis and then writes another thesis. This process results in a lot of speculation. In the lineage of the Dzogchen teachings and in the Vajrayana teachings in general, there is no speculation. There are oral instructions and then there is practice, and .through the practice we discover the experience within our own hearts. There is a continuous lineage of Dzogchen instructions and practice that comes from Padmasambhava all the way to the masters of our day and time. Within the Nyingma school ofTibet, which is the holder of the Dzogchen tradition, there are two great lines of transmission. One is known as the kama lineage, the oral instruction or ear-whispered lineage, which is handed down in succession from teacher to student: Each vajra master "whispers" the instructions into the students' ears. The kama lineage is known as the indirect lineage because it is passed down· through many generations of oral instructions. The second lineage, the terma lineage, or the treasure lineage, refers to the teachings that ·were written down and then hidden in various places by Padmasambhava, to be discovered or revealed by great masters at a later time. The terma lineage is known as the direct lineage because it is transmitted directly from a terton, or treasure revealer, to a student. 182 THE DZOGCHEN JOURNEY NOT LOSING THE WAY In general, whether we are on the path ofVajrayana Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, or Hinayana Buddhism, the main purpose of spiritual practice is to attain a state of inner peace, mental stability, and freedom. Therefore, when we begin our practice on the Dzogchen path, we need to remind ourselves again and again of our main purpose for making this journey. We should be aware of the sort of freedom we are seeking: We are seeking· freedom from pain, freedom from suffering, and perhaps freedom from the hope of happiness-all of these together. Without a clear idea of this, we will not go anywhere on the Dzogchen path or any other path of spirituality. When we start our journey, our motivation is very genuine, clear, personal, and fresh. Then at a certain point, it becomes a little hazy and we lose our sense of what we are doing. We experience passion, aggression, and jealousy toward others traveling on the same path. We develop all sorts of emotional upheavals and disturbances. When we recognize such circumstances arising on our path, we can see that we are no longer following the path of enlightenment. At that point on our spiritual path, we can fall into the depths of discontent. It is the same old samsaric story of discontent and grasping. We are not happy with what we are doing; we want something more. For example, we may have a good teacher who is instructing us in the practice of shamatha, but we become dissatisfied with our shamatha practice. We feel that shamatha is for begimiers, and we want something more. Then perhaps we are given vipashyana meditation and we are still not happy with that. Next, we might be given a Vajrayana practice to do. We do the visualization and recite the mantra, but still we .want more and more and more. When we are practicing sitting meditation, we feel that we need to be reading certain books, so we jump from sitting to reading. When we are reading and studying the profound teachings of Vajrayana or Mahayana, we think, "Oh, I'm missing my sitting practice," and we want to go back to shamatha. We jump around among these activities, fueled by our fluctuating desire and discontent. Dzoechen: The Nine- Yana journey 1 8 3 If we continue with this approach to our spiritual path, then eventually we will end up back where we began our whole journey. In that case, we are doing exactly the same thing in our spiritual practice that we do in our everyday samsaric, neurotic life except that we have a better label for it: spiritual practice. We feel that we are members of a special club, which is called spirituality, and that it is a little better than the regular club, which is called samsara. However, aside from the labels, there is not much difference in our whole being. Nothing is changing internally. If we become caught up in such patterns of activity, then we are not leading ourselves toward any genuine result or achievement. Therefore, before we begin our journey, we should be clear about our motivation for undertaking the path, and we should have a clear understanding of what it means to follow it. We should know what we are seeking from a particular tradition, such as Dzogchen. THE NINE STAGES OF THE PATH Within Vajrayana Buddhism, there is a great diversity among the traditions, lineages, and masters, each of which emphasizes a different perspective in regard to the progressive stages of meditation. Nevertheless, many people are drawn toward the practice of Dzogchen because it seems very simple. It might seem like a shortcut, with few prerequisites. However, a general overview of the Dzogchen approach to the progressive stages of meditation shows us that we basically travel through nine different stages of learning and meditation. The Dzogchen journey is not necessarily about simply jumping into the ninth yana, which is the state of Ati yoga. We must go through nine stages of meditation in order to reach the final destination, the state where we exhaust all our unnecessary garbage. This is the point where the journey ends in the giant full stop. If, in order to reach our destination, we had to walk all the way, then we would have a long and difficult journey. However, with reliable transportation of some kind, such as a motorcycle or a car, our journey becomes much easier. On the Dzogchen journey, the nine VEHICLE YANA DESCRIPTION I. VEHICLE OF I. Shravakayana Yana of the "hearers" DIRECTING THE CAUSE (Hinayana) -Path of self-liberation OF SUFFERING Causal vehicle: Sutrayana 2. Pratyekabuddha- Yana of the "solitary realizer," teachings that work directly yana (Hinayana) or "self-buddha" with the causes of liberation -Path of self-liberation 3. Bodhisattvayana "Greater yana" (Mahayana) -Path of the bodhisattva and the liberation of all beings II. VEHICLE OF 4. Kriya Tantra Tantra of activity AUSTERITY AND Tantra of activity -Purification practices AWARENESS (ENTRANCE emphasizing the outer TO THE VAJRAYANA) activities of body and speech Fruition vehicle: three outer tantras 5. Upa or Tantra of character or behavior Charya Tantra -Purification practices emphasizing the activities of body, speech, and mind equally 6. Yoga Tantra Tantra of union -Path of transformation emphasizing inner practice more than outer conduct; unifying the extensive relative and profound absolute truths III. VEHICLE OF 7. MahaYoga "Great yoga" OVERPOWERING -Development stage pracMEANS tice emphasizing the creation Fruition vehicle: three of a visualized deity as an inner tantras expression of the clarity aspect of the primordial mind 8.AnuYoga "After the great yoga" -Completion stage practice emphasizing the dissolving of the visualized deity by means of the wisdom aspect of primordial mind 9. AtiYoga "The peak of yoga practice" (Dzogchen) -The perfection and completion of all qualities ofbuddhahood Dzoschen: The Nine- Yana Journey 18 5" yanas are different types of vehicles that transport us with little difficulty from one stage to another. The nine-yana journey is divided into three sets of three yanas. The first set of three yanas is called the causal yana, or the Vehicle of Directing the Cause of Suffering. This set includes the Hinayana and the Mahayana. The second set of three yanas is called the Vehicle of Austerity and Awareness, and includes the Vajrayana tantras. The last set of three yanas is called the Vehicle of Overpowering Means, and includes the final stages ofVajrayana practice. Since each of these three sets has three yanas, these comprise the nine-yana journey. Each of the nine yanas presents us with methods that allow us to go more deeply into the nature of our own heart and into the very nature of reality. The progressive practice of these instructions can lead us to experience complete enlightenment in this very lifetime.
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Post by Owain on Jul 18, 2023 18:08:39 GMT
Dzogchen Buबुद्धddhism is the 🇧🇧omp m ore Compassionate than हिन्दु राष्ट्र hinduiwm
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