Dzogchen Essentials: The Path that Clarifies Confusion

288 Pages·2004·2.314 MB·English

by  Marcia Binder Schmidt, Erik Pema Kunsang, Tsoknyi Rinpoche

Dzogchen
E S S E N T I A LS
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Dzogchen
E S S E N T I A LS
The Path that Clarifies Confusion
Compiled and edited by
MARCIA BINDER SCHMIDT
Translated by
ERIK PEMA KUNSANG
Introductory Teachings by
TSOKNYI RINPOCHE
RANGJUNG YESHE PUBLICATIONS
Boudhanath, Hong Kong & Esby
2004
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© 2004 Marcia Binder Schmidt & Rangjung Yeshe Publications
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without written permission from the publisher.
135798642
First edition 2004
Printed in the United States of America on recycled acid-free paper
Distributed to the book trade by Publishers Group West / North Atlantic Books
Publication Data:
Schmidt, Marcia Binder.
Dzogchen Essentials: The Path That Clarifies Confusion.
Translated by Erik Pema Kunsang,
Introductory Teachings by Tsoknyi Rinpoche.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 962-7341- 53-8 (alk. paper.)
1. Eastern philosophy—Buddhism. 3. Vajrayana—Dzogchen (Nyingma).
I. Title.
Cover art detail: Padmasattva, Tsikey Gompa
Design: Rafael Ortet
CONTENTS
Preface ix
INTRODUCTION, Tsofyiyi Rinpoche 3
THE QUINTESSENCE OF WISDOM OPENNESS, Padmasambhava 17
PART ONE • RIPENING
1. THE RIPENING EMPOWERMENTS, TSELE NATSO\ RONGDROL 27
2. SOWING THE SEEDS, Padmasambhava & Jamgon Kongtrul 38
3. AWARENESS-DISPLAY EMPOWERMENT, PADMASAMBHAVA 40
4. TRANSMISSION, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche 45
5. EMPOWERMENT & SAMAYA, CHOKYI NYIMA RINPOCHE 52
PART TWO • T HE LIBERATING I N S T R U C T I O NS
6. NURTURING THE SEEDS, Padmasambhava & Jamgon Kongtrul 63
7. THE DEVELOPMENT STAGE, Padmasambhava & Jamgon Kongtrul 68
8. CONCEPTUAL MEDITATION, TSELE NATSO\ RONGDROL 73
9. DEVELOPMENT STAGE, TSELE NATSO\ RONGDROL 78
10. THE THIRD DHARMA OF GAMPOPA, TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE 81
11. THE PRELIMINARIES, DILGO KHYENTSE RINPOCHE 88
12. GREAT VASTNESS, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche 94
13. VAJRASATTVA, TSOKNYI RINPOCHE 103
14. MANDALA & GURU YOGA, TSOKNYI RINPOCHE 115
15. GURU YOGA, ADEU RINPOCHE 120
16. THE GURU PRINCIPLE, SOGYAL RINPOCHE 134
17. GURU YOGA & YIDAM PRACTICE, MINGYUR RINPOCHE 139
18. THE HEALING MEDITATION OF DEVOTION, TULKU THONDUP 142
19. SONG TO MANDARAVA, PADMASAMBHAVA 149
PART THREE • T HE M A IN PRACTICE
20. CREATION & COMPLETION, JAMGON KONGTRUL 153
21. THE DEITY & BUDDHA NATURE, LAMA PUTSE, PEMA TASHI 158
22. VAJRAYANA MIND TRAINING, PADMASAMBHAVA 164
23. THE UNITY OF DEVELOPMENT & COMPLETION, TULKU URGYEN 184
24. DEVELOPMENT & COMPLETION UNIFIED, TSOKNYI RINPOCHE 197
25. THE VAJRA MASTER & THE YIDAM DEITY, PADMASAMBHAVA 204
26. RECITATION, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche 214
27. CAPTURING THE LIFE FORCE OF ALL DEITIES, TULKU URGYEN 216
28. ALL-ENCOMPASSING PURITY, TULKU URGYEN RINPOCHE 232
PART FOUR • T HE C O N C L U D I NG ACTIVITIES
29. TORMA, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche 245
30. FEAST, Tsoknyi Rinpoche 247
31. FEAST SONGS, Kunkhyen Jigmey Lingpa & Dudjom Rinpoche 249
32. DEDICATION OF MERIT, PADMASAMBHAVA 252
Facilitator Guidelines 263
Notes 275
Recommended Reading 280
Contributors 282
Credits 286
viii
PREFACE
Dzogchen Essentials offers an exciting and diverse selection of material,
both new and traditional, for study and practice in the Dzogchen tradition.
These teachings are principally about clarifying confusion, the third of the
Four Dharmas that Gampopa and Longchenpa have made well known.
The Four Dharmas are universal principles and describe, in the words of
Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, "what a spiritual practitioner needs to reach com-
plete enlightenment in a single lifetime." Padmasambhava explained these
Four Dharmas as follows:
You must make sure your Dharma practice becomes the real Dharma.
You must make sure your Dharma becomes the real path. You must make
sure your path can clarify confusion. You must make sure your confusion
dawns as wisdom.
When you have understanding free from accepting and rejecting after
knowing how to condense all the teachings into a single vehicle, then your
Dharma practice becomes the real Dharma.
When, in any practice you do, you possess refuge and bodhichitta, and
have unified the stages of development and completion, and means and
knowledge, then your Dharma becomes the real path.
When you combine the path with the view, meditation, action, and frui-
tion, then your path clarifies confusion.
ix
Preface
When you exert yourself in practice having fully resolved the view and
meditation, then your confusion can dawn as wisdom.
In any case, no matter what practice you do, failing to unify development
and completion, view and conduct, and means and knowledge will be like
trying to walk on just one leg.1
The third Dharma contains the teachings on letting the path clarify the mis-
taken ways we normally relate to perceptions of our environment, our body,
and our sense impressions. Rather than continue the habit of insisting on a
solid reality, we are offered a skillful alternative involving empowerment
and yidam practice: the development stage, visualization of deities, recita-
tion of mantra, feast, and completion stage. Dzogchen Essentials contains
instructions on Vajrasattva practice, mandala offering, and especially guru
yoga. Underlying these practices is the essential intent of integrating them
with the view of the Great Perfection. This is the unique style of Dzogchen
as it was taught by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.
Dzogchen Essentials is for the serious, dedicated Vajrayana student. It car-
ries on from The Dzogchen Primer, which can be used as support and back-
ground material. The Primer succinctly covers the Hinayana and Mahayana
vehicles, including the basis, the buddha nature, inherent to all beings;
refuge; the ten virtuous actions to adopt and the ten unvirtuous actions to
avoid; and the importance of extending oneself through the aspiration and
application of bodhichitta.
Dzogchen is the pinnacle of the Vajrayana, yet this pinnacle is poised
upon the foundation of the Hinayana and Mahayana, and it includes all
the precepts of those lower vehicles, even within a single practice. To quote
Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche:
In Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the training is not to stray from the empty
awareness that is the awakened state of the buddhas. This empty, aware
state of all buddhas, the awakened state, is also compassionate... . By not
straying from the empty and aware awakened state, one automatically
never breaks the precepts of the lower vehicles.2
At the same time, Dzogchen is not for the ambivalent. The path itself is
like a very restrictive package tour; we cannot make our own itinerary,
even though we might be tempted to fall back into old habits of picking
and choosing. As Tsoknyi Rinpoche states, "It does not make sense to grab
at the highest teachings and reject the rest. It is pointless to invent some
Preface
personal idea of Dzogchen to train in. If you do, then Dzogchen becomes
something fabricated, something you have made up. Calling your own
theories Dzogchen is a foolish pretense that has nothing to do with the
genuine, authentic teachings."3
How then do we enter the swift path of Vajrayana? It is by connecting
with a qualified, living master who possesses an authentic lineage, and then
requesting and receiving empowerment and pith instructions. Receiving
empowerment means being authorized, matured, and sanctioned to engage
in these profound practices. As Thinley Norbu Rinpoche says, "According
to the Tantric system, the purpose of empowerment is to receive bless-
ings and power. Many tantras reveal that if empowerment is not received,
accomplishment will never be attained. The essence and root cause of bud-
dhahood is within everyone. However, without the necessary condition of
meeting a teacher who has the wisdom and the blessing of lineage, this es-
sence of buddhahood will never blossom."4 The first section of Dzogchen
Essentials is dedicated to this important topic.
If we choose to train in the path of Dzogchen, we must be willing to
surrender many of our preconceived ideas about the way things are. We
must confront the possibility that our own mind cannot figure it all out and
face the emotional challenge that we will have to rely on more than our
own sense of reality in order to free ourselves from our predicament. All
of these ideas are carefully explained in the material presented here. They
are also laid bare for analysis as juicy topics for discussion in the facilitator
guidelines. It is good at the beginning to establish a solid intellectual under-
standing about approaching the path of Vajrayana through study and care-
ful analysis. We should verify our teacher's words with scriptural supports
from the buddhas and other fully realized masters. By combining these two
perfect measures, our teacher's words and scriptural supports, we embrace
the third, the perfect measure of our individual intelligence. Next, we get
experience through undergoing the process of practice. Finally, if we have
done these things correctly, we can achieve realization.
At the start of the path, however, we face an odd dilemma: We need to
trust that the methods will work even before we use them. Unfortunately,
we are often more skeptical of the Dharma than we are of our own illusions.
This creates an aversion toward Dharma practice that reinforces resistance,
which is why we need to make a real effort to open ourselves up.
We could call that effort a leap of trust. Unless we make such a leap, we
might continue with our critical attitude and remain unchanged. For me it
xi
Preface
is a little like flying in an airplane. As much as I have tried with my limited
intellect, I have never been able to understand how that huge mass of metal
gets off the ground. However, I do trust that it will, and I get on the plane
and fly to wherever I am going. If I were to wait until I understood the
workings of aerodynamics, I would never get anywhere.
It is the same with the seemingly conceptual practices. At one point, we
take the leap and engage in them, and as we do so, we change. Having inte-
grated practice into experience, we can see differences in how we behave
and how we perceive the world and beings. We loosen up our conceptual
constraints, and our mind-streams become more supple. But first we need
to commit ourselves and practice.
Correspondingly, on a more mundane level, scientists and psychologists
have conducted considerable research into the effects of meditation and
prayer on healing and coping with illness. It is widely agreed that a positive
mental outlook can have positive consequences, especially in these areas.
This topic is beautifully explored in the work of Tulku Thondup in both
The Healing Power of Mind and Boundless Healing. For the practitioner,
then, consider how the profound methods of devotion and pure perception
could be a much-needed alchemical component of transformation. When
we are ready to broaden our "normal" mind-set, we are able to receive the
blessings. As Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche says, "True blessings are the oral
instructions on how to become enlightened in a single lifetime, which you
can receive from a qualified master."5 The next step is to have the merit and
intelligence to employ them!
Here in the West, there is a lot of resistance to visualization practice alto-
gether, including the preliminaries. Uninformed practitioners feel these are
intellectual, cultural applications—completely conceptual. But actually,
development stage practice mirrors the way things truly are. It is an effec-
tive method to bring us closer to the all-encompassing purity that is hidden
from us by our confused perceptions.
As Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche says, "The development stage is like awak-
ening from the dream state; it is manifesting what primordially exists. The
purpose is to purify evil deeds, to prevent ones thinking from falling under
the influence of the disturbing emotions. The purpose of sadhana is to enable
blessings to enter our being and bless our mind-stream. The ritual is not to
please the deities and fill their stomachs with offerings. It is for us to clear
away our negative karma, purify our obscurations, and attain complete en-
lightenment. The correct seeing of mind-essence depends upon this purity."6
Xll