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Date Posted: 00:09:26 05/18/03 Sun
Author: Carris - 25 Mar 2003
Subject: Dzogchen and One truth

The truth is one, the methods are many.

If one has realized or has seen it for only a brief moment it is enough to fuel ones practice for 20 year or more.

Is there a premature opening, or is it a blessing to realize what is called the self by some and the nonself by others? Of course what a person does with a blessing is a personal matter and depends upon his or her culture and conditioning.

The following insert was posted here before. Dzogchen practice by the way was adapted by Tibetan Buddhists, but originated in old India well before the partition in which is now Pakistan. It was also known in Afganistan.

It appears that Lahiri Mahashay traveled the same path in regard to seeing the truth for a short time and with continued practice went past his Hindu conditioning and experienced his truth more and more clearly untill it became his natural state.

Dzogchen

The following piece is a composite of two interviews with Surya Das, one
conducted by Fred von Allmen (copyright 1989), and one by Wes Nisker
with Catherine Ingram. Additional portions of the interviews also appear
in the Fall 1992 issue of Inquiring Mind. This piece was provided to Mt.
Kailas BBS by Ann Parker, Boston area coordinator of The Dzogchen Foundation.

Q: We would like to talk about your practice in the Tibetan tradition
of Dzogchen or the Great Practice.

Surya Das: Dzogchen basically deals with the innate intelligence
or intrinsic awareness which all beings possess. It means seeing non-
dualistically rather than in the usual dualistic object-subject dichotomy.
By definition, delusion is dualistic, while non-duality is ultimate
wisdom. Dzogchen doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Buddhism. It is the perfect nature of all things.

Q: It is said that in Dzogchen "the view" is of ultimate importance.
Explain what is meant by view.

Surya Das: In Dzogchen the view comes first, and is crucial. The view
is the outlook that everything is primordially pure and perfect just
as it is. One might also say that the view is like vast space, without
center or periphery, infinite and open. It's the big view, the overview of
overviews. We call it the view from above. Dzogchen is like swooping down from above.

The Dalai Lama once said that Dzogchen is the practice of Buddhas, not the
practice of beings.

Q: How does Dzogchen enable people to recognize their true nature?

SD: It is said that a practice like Dzogchen depends upon someone
being "introduced" to the ultimate nature. The word "ngotrod" in
Tibetan means "to be introduced" but it also means "to identify". So introduction doesn't just mean somebody tells you about it; it means you've
recognized it yourself. You've seen the sun break through the clouds, for a
moment at least. The clouds might obscure the sun again, just as the mind
obscures the innate awareness, but the important point is that we have
recognized the ultimate nature with certainty; we have actually come to see how things are.

Q: And this practice of Dzogchen is for Buddhas, not for ordinary beings?

SD: Remember we are all Buddhas. There is a great story about a
cook in Adzum Trungpa's tent camp. Adzum Trungpa was a great master, and
one day his cook, who was unlettered and untrained, burned his hand in the
fire and "woke up". He came running to the master and told him what he had
realized. Everything fell apart in that moment of burning his hand; he had a
total satori breakthrough and non-dual experience. He realized who he was
and the nature of all things. The master said, "That's it!" And the cook
said, "Now what?" And the master said, "Keep cooking." That cook became a great yogi, and he just kept cooking. But he had that big view, which is not intellectual. it's not a philosophical
view. It's your intuitive highest wisdom. It's your gestalt,your overview, which
is prethought, really. It's how you see the world.

Q: So Dzogchen has nothing to do with knowledge or sophistication, or
with this or that school or tradition?

SD: That's right. If you want to entitle this interview "We are
all Buddhas" I think it might be appropriate, because Dzogchen is
beyond "isms" and "schisms." It's beyond Buddhism. We're all Buddhas, some asleep and some awakened. A sleeping Buddha and an awakened Buddha are both Buddhas by nature. And our only task is to awaken to our true nature. That's Dzogchen teaching, in my own words.


Mike

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