Dzogchen - Keith Dowman

"Dzogchen is 'The Great Perfection', the apogee of Tibetan Tantric Buddhist meditation accomplishment. It is the Buddha's enlightenment in rainbow light.

Dzogchen is also a path of existential praxis which is the quintessence of all Tantra. But it cannot be taught or learned. Either you get it or you don't. It is the school of Buddhism with greatest affinity to the sanity of twenty-first century mystical aspiration."

http://www.keithdowman.net/dzogchen/index.htm

http://www.keithdowman.net/dzogchen/garuda.htm

The Dzogchen Lineage

"The Dzogchen lineage begins with Garab Dorje who may have lived around the 7th century in Uddiyana, the mountainous area north of Gandhara. Garab Dorje received the transmission of Dzogchen directly from the deity Vajrasattva. As a youth he is said to have defeated 500 scholars in debate, and then retired in retreat until the age of 32. At that time, alone in the mountains, he began to receive over a three year period, the 6.4 million verses of the Dzogpa Chenpo. These he taught to his primary student Manjushrimitra."

http://wutai.wordpress.com/2006/12/19/the-dzogchen-lineage/

Dudjom Rimpoche's Personal Advice on Dzogchen Praxis

"What if you are able to break out of your chain of thoughts? What is awareness like? It is empty, limpid stunning, light, free, joyful! It is not something bounded or demarcated by its own set of attributes. There is nothing in the whole of samsara and nirvana that it does not embrace. From time without beginning, it is within us, inborn. We have never been without it, yet it is wholly outside the range of action, effort, and imagination."

http://www.keithdowman.net/dzogchen/dudjom_counsel.htm

Dzogchen View of Karma by Lama Ngala Rig'dzin Dorje

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyDaznDqjhc

Lama Ngala Rig'dzin Dorje gives a teaching on karma from the Dzogchen point of view. More information can be found at http://www.arogadzong.com and http://www.arobuddhism.org.

Buddhism and Dzogchen by Elias Capriles

Buddhism and Dzogchen by Elias Capriles (Again Available!)

No cosmic justice

"Dzogchen is unique in biting the bullet and admitting that there is no Law of Karma. According to Dzogchen, there is no cosmic justice. Dzogchen does not deny karma altogether, but denies that its operation is certain, eternal, external, constant, or universal. The Dzogchen view is that karma is a matter of habit—and therefore empty. If we habitually act in particular ways, we tend to view the world in corresponding ways. If we act aggressively, out of anger, our victims are likely to retaliate. Then we will find the world dangerous. Our anger and paranoia are likely to increase, and this may escalate indefinitely. If we are generous, others may be inclined to reciprocate. So we live in a world partly shaped by our actions and perceptions. However, there is no guarantee in this."

http://approachingaro.org/no-cosmic-justice

A Dzogchen-shaped hole inthe culture

"Because God never existed, the hole in Western culture is not God-shaped. Nietzsche stared into that hole and saw emptiness; but where there is emptiness, there is also form. Dzogchen is the non-duality of form and emptiness. There is a Dzogchen-shaped hole in the heart of our culture. Perhaps now we can put the puzzle piece in place."

http://approachingaro.org/a-dzogchen-shaped-hole-in-the-culture

Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life

"Simply plunging directly into meditation in the moment now, with our whole being, free from hesitation, boredom or excitement, is enlightenment."

http://tibetanaltar.blogspot.com/2009/02/everyday-great-perfection.html

4 Modes of Liberation - Patrul Rinpoche

"
CHERDROL - Liberation through bare attention.

Liberation by way of recognizing thoughts.
"Like meeting a person whom we have met before."


SHARDROL - Liberation as soon as it arises.

Thoughts liberate themselves as soon as they arise.
Thoughts are immediately carried along by their own momentum of arising into the natural state and liberated.
"Like a snake unknotting itself from it's coils."
"Like drawing on the surface of water, the picture disintegrates as soon as it is drawn."


RANGDROL - Self-liberation.

Liberation is automatic, spontaneous, effortless, instantaneous.
Thoughts arise into their immediate and spontaneous liberation; their very arising is their liberating.
By-itself-liberating.
"Like a thief entering an empty house and finding there is nothing to steal."


YAYDROL - Primordial Liberation.

Rigpa itself, which has never been otherwise than totally liberated from the very beginning.


These are taken from Patrul Rinpoche's commentary on the 3 Vital Points of Garab Dorje (Glimpse, Maturation and Stabilzation). Garab Dorje was/is the first Nirmanakaya or living master of the Dzogchen Lineage."

Dzogchen Practice in Everyday Life by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

"When engaging in meditation practice, we should feel it to be as natural as eating, breathing and defecating. It should not become a specialised or formal event, bloated with seriousness and solemnity. We should realise that meditation transcends effort, practice, aims, goals and the duality of liberation and non-liberation. Meditation is always ideal; there is no need to correct anything. Since everything that arises is simply the play of mind as such, there is no unsatisfactory meditation and no need to judge thoughts as good or bad."

http://www.nyingma.com/dzogchen1.htm

Dzogchen - Dr. Alexander Berzin

"Moments of conceptual thinking (rnam-rtog), specifically moments of verbal thinking, simultaneously arise, abide, and disappear, as does writing on water. No effort is required to dissolve them, which is the meaning of the term automatic liberation (rang-grol, self-liberation). Thoughts automatically free themselves, in the sense of disappearing simultaneously with arising. When we abide in this state of simultaneous arising, abiding, and disappearing, we abide in the “natural state of the mind.” It is sometimes described as the space in between milliseconds of thought or as the open space underlying thoughts."

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/x/nav/n.html_1870389411.html

Dzongsar Khyentse on Dzogchen

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-7BP-RDJspM

"Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche talks a little about dzogchen and meditation practice. "

Dzogchen - Keith Dowman

'No-one going no-where'


http://www.keithdowman.net/dzogchen/

Keith Dowman's writings on Dzogchen

Being present and working with circumstances

"... When we learn and know something about Dzogchen, we should integrate. Integration is practice, and this practice is very important once we have this knowledge. We always say we should discover our real nature; it is not sufficient to learn pujas, visualizations of deities, or how to chant mantras, etc. These activities have benefit, but they do not take us directly on the path. Life is very short, so we must do concrete practice in daily life. Otherwise we can have some nice fantasies, and if we always go after and develop fantasy, we do not realize in the end. It's a pity because we know the principle of the teachings and we should learn something concrete."

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, Mirror, October 2008

http://www.tsegyalgar.org/mirror/

The Garuda

'The first thing is Dzogchen vision which sees what really is -- the nature of mind itself. This is the natural state of being, where the mind makes no distinctions and judgments. This state of awareness is called rigpa. Rigpa is naked awareness of the wholistic here and now. We cannot actually express this awareness and there is nothing to compare it to in order to describe it. It is certainly not the ordinary state of emotional confusion and conflicting thoughts, but neither is it nirvanic cessation. This state cannot be produced or developed, and on the other hand it cannot be stopped or extinguished. We can never be free of it and nor can we fall into error in it. It is impossible to say that we actually exist at that moment but we cannot say that we do not exist. This experience is neither of infinity, nor of anything specific.'

http://www.keithdowman.net/dzogchen/garuda.htm