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 Nondual Highlights  #2361 - Monday, January 9, 2006 - Editor: Gloria Lee  

Peace is every step.
The shining red sun is my heart.
Each flower smiles with me.
How green, how fresh all that grows.
How cool the wind blows.
Peace is every step.
It turns the endless path to joy.
 
--Thich Nhat Hanh

From Nyoshul Khenpo's book: Natural Great Perfection (pp 115-116)

The True Dzogchen yogis have an open accomodating heart and mind
excluding nothing from their perfect mandala of pure perception.

Brimming over with Wisdom, unconditional love, and empathy,
they do not need to adopt any particular way of looking or acting.
They do not need to abandon or reject anything either. This is called
the spontaneous activity, or carefree ease of Dzogpa Chenpo. It is
not something we can easily imitate. Yet to whatever extent we can
recognize and participate in it, great benefit ensues for oneself and
others.

posted by Jax to Dzogchen Practice

Cheju Do Buddhas, Korea

http://www.sacredsites.com/asia/korea/cheju_do.html

Of all the ways you can think of, none has a sixteenth part of the value of loving-kindness. Loving-kindness is a freedom of the heart which takes in all the ways. It is luminous, shining, blazing forth.

Just as the stars have not a sixteenth part of the moon's brilliance, which absorbs them all in its shining light, so loving-kindness absorbs all the other ways with its lustrous splendor.

Just as when the rainy season ends and the sun rises up into the clear and cloudless sky, banishing all the dark in its radiant light, and just as at the end of a black night the morning star shines out in glory, so none of the ways you can use to further your spiritual progress has a sixteenth part of the value of loving-kindness. For it absorbs them all, its luminosity shining forth.

-Itivuttaka Sutta
From "The Pocket Buddha Reader," edited by Anne Bancroft, 2001.

HEARING THE GIBBONS CALL IN PA GORGE

As I lean
On my oar, gazing
At the cloud-line, purity
Emerges, deep and lonely,
From the Gorge.

When the mind
Doesn't have anything
On it, there's no sorrow
Inherent in repeated calls. They bear
The dew where every peak is distant,
Dangle in space where a slice
Of Moon shines
Bright.

Whoever
Hears it like this
Can finish a poem
By dawn.

Wen Chao

70

as flowing waters disappear into the mist
we lose all track of their passage
every heart is its own Buddha
ease off; become immortal

wake up: the world's a mote of dust
behold heaven's round mirror
turn loose: slip past shape and shadow
sit side by side with nothing-save Tao

From Stones and Trees: The Poetry of Shih-shu

(late 17th century-early 18th century)
Translations by James H. Sanford

http://www.yakrider.com/Resources/excerpts/theclouds.htm

For Those New to Buddhism and Dzogchen

Buddhism is really quite simple to understand. Let me try:

In Buddhism, we discover within ourselves, a fundamental consciousness, that is perfect and pure from the very beginning of beginningless time. This pure and perfect consciousness is beyond our ordinary "thinking" or discursive mind. It is not something we create, attain or manufacture through meditative or religious practice. This pure and perfect consciousness is already fully present and complete right now... in you, as well as all sentient beings. The goal of Buddhist practice is to have the "experience" of this pure and perfect consciousness for yourself. Note "experience". You don't learn "about", but rather "taste" the presence of this pure and perfect consciousness to be your own true nature, your actual and authentic Being. Like jumping in the water directly, beyond reading and studying books or "thinking about" the topics of water and swimming.

A teacher is anyone who has had a thorough and unmistakable "experience" of their own pure and perfect consciousness, and now shares this "knowingness" with others. Hopefully, the teacher will be able to orient others to have this "experience" for themselves, if they are ready and open.

A very deep and thorough "experience" of one's own pure and perfect consciousness is known as "enlightenment"... coming to know one's own true nature as it is. We call this pure and perfect consciousness "Buddha-Mind" or "Zen-Mind" or in Tibetan Dzogchen: "Rigpa".

Once we have this "experience", we practice by immersing ourselves in this present pure and perfect consciousness more and more. Eventually, we are in this consciousness more often than we are in our ordinary "thinking mind". The problem is that our "thinking mind" has created a self-image of itself. This conceptual self- image is our sense of "me" or "I" in our "thinking mind". We call this false or fantasy self, "ego". Our true self, on the other hand, is the pure and perfect consciousness in contrast to our "ego". But interestingly, this "true self" has no concept of a "self" itself. It has no shape or form nor any material components that continue through time. It has no boundaries nor location in space and time. However, space and time and all things are included in it! See, I told you... simple!

Actually, this point is not that difficult to understand conceptually. Take the example of water and waves. All of reality is like one great ocean. One's Being has two aspects, figuratively speaking: open, infinite and vastly spacious Awareness and the Energy of that space-like Awareness. Get it? Ocean equals vast space-like Awareness and it's Energy is the waves within and upon the ocean. Kind of like in theological terminology: God and Creation. But don't get caught up in that analogy too much. In any event, the waves and the water are "one" thing... as you can't separate the waves from the water. In life, ALL that we "experience" is waves. The Awareness or Perceivingness (the pure and perfect consciousness i.e. Buddha-Mind) is the water. Since the water and it's waves are "one", we then can see that our Awareness(water) is "one" with it's field of perception (waves) or experience, internally or externally experienced, beyond any possibility of duality. Well, at any rate, you come to realize that too, as a first hand experience.

In Dzogchen, we say the pure, vast space-like quality of Awareness is "kadag" (primordial purity). At the same time, we call the spontaneously arising Energies (waves) "lhundrub" (spontaneous energy arisings). These two aspects, "kadag" and "lhundrub" are inseparable. Like water and waves. This inseparability of "kadag" and it's energy manifestations, "lhundrub" is known as "yermed" (inseparable). In Dzogchen, in all of reality, of all possible universes, there is nothing outside of this unified field of "kadag" and "lhundrub". Now here's the interesting part, your own, currently existing, pure and perfect consciousness is this very "kadag" Awareness! And all dimensions of your experience are (internal and external) this "lhundrub" Energy! And this complete reality is known the Great Perfection or in Tibetan "Dzogchen". We come to realize non conceptually, that we ARE Dzogchen, the Great Perfection!

Current Dzogchen practice is divided into two parts. The first corresponds to realizing the "kadag" aspect, known as "trekchod". The second part deals with realizing the "lhundrub" aspect, known as "thogel".

So there you go, Buddhism and Dzogchen in a nutshell.... and then some!

Hope that helps!

Jax, posted to Dzogchen Practice

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