Source Text
Semdzins ‘hold’ the mind momentarily, during which time the window to the nature of mind is thrown open or enlarged and nonmeditation proceeds. The most efficient function of the semdzin may lie in the discharge of a misguided effort to inhibit the natural flow of nonmeditation.
Those three purposes are pacifying the mind, releasing attachment and revealing the nature of mind. This categorization, appearing somewhat intellectually partial and arbitrary, need not be accepted uncritically dogmatically and practised accordingly. Indeed, once the twenty-one semdzins have become familiar according to Longchenpa’s rubric they can be utilized at will, all equal as gateways into the nature of mind and the basis of experimental meditation.
A powerful head of energy may be built up behind the dam of discipline, and particular mindforms may be engendered, such as high awareness with varying degrees of bliss, radiance, thoughtlessness and/or emptiness. But these experiences are secondary and irrelevant to the central concern, which is nonmeditation. In this way the semdzins remove obstacles to naturally-arising nonmeditation rather than create the conditions for it.
Dzogchen, in the case of every semdzin, the already extant, undeniable, nondual refuge is the outcome.
If they provide a non-temporal gap through which the natural light of the mind may shine, they will have proved their worth. If the dangerous elevation of the positivistic effects of the semdzins to concepts of ‘meditation’ and ‘practice’—always imminent — becomes acute, then it is probably best to ignore their practice and move on immediately to Dzogchen nonmeditation or the Dzogchen preliminaries. The dangers inherent in making practice of the semdzins a habit may well provide the reason why Longchenpa spent so little time in their exegesis. If this warning is taken to heart and the semdzins are rejected as ‘method’, if they are spurned as steps up to a diving board, as it were, from where we can launch ourselves into the nature of mind, take also the warning that it is as equally dangerous to use them as support along the way when we find ourselves in an apparently inescapable dualistic dug-out. The answer to both situations is the complete relaxation that is nonaction, ‘or doing nothing’, rather than a return to the already rejected positivistic methodology of vajrayana.
Dzogchen is not an escape from the maelstrom of everyday life; it is the total acceptance of whatever comes down, whatever it may be, so that total unitary identity is assured—no particle remaining separate and unassimilated—and simultaneously at one with the nature of that experience, which is the nature of mind.
Concentration is primary in this semdzin. Concentration— ‘fixation on an object’—is the basic method of bringing the mind back into its natural place, which is a calm place. This is shinay in Tibetan, which literally means ‘peaceful place’ (shamatā in Sanskrit). The focal function in the exercise is dominant. But at the same time, we are watching a moving object. There is a dynamic sensory element to the meditation. The breath and the energy are tied to the object.
AI Summary
Dzogchen Semdzins by Keith Dowman presents key insights from the Dzogchen tradition. The 7 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
- [To be expanded]
Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 7 are particularly representative.
This entry was generated from Readwise highlights. Expand with additional context as appropriate.