Source Text
Shock amazement also designates a practice: a practice that is simple – yet, perhaps, too simple. Riding a horse is also simple, unless it is found difficult. If it is found to be difficult, then the explanation of a teacher will be necessary.
Dzogchen is the state of referenceless relaxation in the vastness of each moment. It is vast because it is undelineated by time. It is referenceless because the moment is experienced without allusion to past moments or future moments. Dzogchen is the self-existent confidence of being8 which arises spontaneously from beginninglessness. In terms of the experience of the path, the realised state—which is ever-present—seems to arise spontaneously.
Dzogchen approaches our essential nature absolutely directly, but—because it is: too close, too accessible, too present, and too simple—it seems elusive.
Certainly, without the richness and support of a religious tradition, it proves difficult to persevere through times when practice seems ‘unrewarding’. From our experience, one has to belong somewhere. One has to be part of something which is sufficiently larger than oneself. To find support in a higher, deeper, broader context, one requires a context which goes beyond the isolated island of ‘me and my process’.
Inspiration is crucial to maintaining the practice of meditation; therefore there is a need to address the issue of how and from where inspiration is derived.
2 – naljor zhi: approaching the natural state
View provokes or incites natural intelligence. Meditation opens realisation to the view. Action is the pure appropriateness or spontaneity in the state of realisation. Action arises out of view and meditation – when they are realised—inseparably—as the spontaneous appropriateness of the nondual state.
View is pragmatic: when view is experientially integrated, it disappears. View then becomes personal knowledge. This knowledge is similar to breathing – inasmuch as there need be no reminder concerning how to breathe: people simply breathe. View therefore, is a means of employing intellect to transcend intellect. To this end, view must always be tested in the laboratory of experience. This is a creative use of intellect in which the sensation of beingness is confronted. Although intellect can be a masturbatory diversion from life, it is nevertheless, a genuine faculty – and can therefore become unentangled. An exploration of being entangled—and of how being becomes free from entanglement—is an essential precursor to Dzogchen.
To approach Dzogchen, it is vital to understand the meaning of self-liberation. According to the view of Dzogchen, the vehicles of Buddhism are divided into Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen.4 Sutra is the path of renunciation.5 Tantra is the path of transformation.6 Dzogchen is the path of self-liberation.7
Sutra focuses on the experience of emptiness.8 It therefore renounces addiction to form as a definition of being. It renounces attachment to reference points – and releases the need to protract a fixed perception of identity. Tantra focuses on the experience of that which arises from emptiness. It is based on the experience of emptiness and aims to realise the nondual nature of emptiness and form.
AI Summary
Shock Amazement by Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen presents key insights from the Dzogchen tradition. The 10 passages above capture the essential teachings.
Core Themes:
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Key Passages: Highlights 1, 3, and 10 are particularly representative.
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