Dzogchen is a specialized kind of meditation
There are several well known teachers of Dzogchen including Gangteng Rinpoche, Namkai Norbu, Tenzin Wangyal and Lama Surya Das. The Dalai Lama has also written a book on Dzogcehn.
The following quote gets at the heart of dzogchen meditation:
Quotes from Tibetan Sound Healing by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
Overview of the Five Warrior Syllables
"Our fundamental awake nature is not produced or created, but is already there. In the way the vast expanse of the sky is present but may be obscured by clouds, we too are obscured by habitual patterns that we mistake for ourselves. The practice of the Five Warrior syllables is a skillful means that can support us to release our negative and limiting behavioral patterns of body, speech, and mind, and make room for a more spontaneous, creative, and authentic expression. In this practice, we recognize, connect with, and trust what is already there. In a relative sense, we begin to practice loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity, qualities that bring great benefit experienced and expressed in our relationship with self and others. Ultimately, the practice brings us to the full recognition of our true self. In the teachings, the metaphor for this experience is a child, recognizing her mother in a crowd - an instant, deep recognition of connection, an experience of home. This is referred to as the natural mind, and that mind is pure. In the natural mind, all virtues are spontaneously perfected."
Dzogchen Meditation is Sometimes Referred to as Skygazing
Through this practice of natural meditative awareness, our innate wakefulness completely unfurls and reveals itself. We gradually release our small, narrow, egotistical, dualistic minds into the nondual, skylike, infinite Buddha mind, while meditating on the expansive, inclusive nature of rigpa: our natural wisdom-mind and innate wakefulness. In this practice, we merge the finite, thinking heart-mind with the absolute, unconditional infinity of essential Buddha nature.
The sky, which represents the element of expansive space, in this meditation practice is without shape or content. No one can say exactly where it begins or where it ends. It just is. This makes it an ideal subject or metaphor for Dzogchen meditation. SkyGazing meditation leads us into a way of being that is in perfect harmony, attunement, and oneness with nature, including everything and everyone around us-and with our own true nature, too. In SkyGazing meditation, we dissolve into the infinite by becoming one with the open sky.
There are three stages to SkyGazing meditation:
Arriving; Intensifying and Allowing.
Lama Surya Das Teaching Dzogchen on DVD
Dzogchen requires no rigid rules or Buddhist beliefs, yet it can awaken us to life immediately-as soon as we begin to practice it.
For centuries, these teachings were secret, unavailable outside the monasteries of Tibet. Yet it is said that Westerners are ripe for such teachings, and so, with Natural Meditation, you can learn dzogchen as it has been transmitted for centuries-in front of a trusted and gifted teacher.
Also on DVD by Lama Surya Das is Tibetan Energy Yoga.
Natural Meditation: A Tibetan Buddhist Practice for Clearing the Mind and Opening to Effortless Awarness
Amazon Price: (as of 07/26/2008)
Dzogchen Defined
According to some schools of Tibetan Buddhism and Bön, Dzogchen is the natural, primordial state or natural condition of every sentient being, including every human being. Dzogchen, or 'Great Perfection' is the central teaching of the Nyingma school and is considered by them to be the highest and most definitive path to enlightenment.Keown, Damien. (2003). A Dictionary of Buddhism, p. 82. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-860560-9. The Madhyamaka teachings on emptiness are fundamental to and thoroughly compatible with Dzogchen.B. Alan Wallace, Genuine Happiness. John Wiley and Sons, 2005, page 203.
Our ultimate nature is said to be pure, all-encompassing, primordial awareness. This 'intrinsic awareness' has no form of its own and yet is capable of perceiving, experiencing, reflecting, or expressing all form. It does so without being affected by those forms in any ultimate, permanent way. The analogy given by Dzogchen masters is that one's nature is like a mirror which reflects with complete openness but is not affected by the reflections, or a crystal ball which takes on the colour of the material on which it is placed without itself being changed. Other evocative phrases used by masters describe it as an 'effulgence', an 'all-pervading fullness' or as 'space that is aware'. When an individual is able to maintain the rdzogs chen state continually, he or she no longer experiences dukkha, or feelings of discontent, tension and anxiety in everyday life. (Compare with nirvana). The polyvalent symbol and teaching tool of Dzogchen is the Gankyil.
The Cure Within
A History of Body Mind Medicine
People suffering from serious illnesses improve their survival chances by adopting a positive attitude and refusing to believe in the worst. Stress is the great killer of modern life. Ancient Eastern mind-body techniques can bring us balance and healing. We've all heard claims like these, and many of us find them plausible. When it comes to disease and healing, we believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs; we must look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter.
But why do we believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant history describes our commitments to mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories that have allowed people to make new sense of their suffering, express discontent with existing care, and rationalize new treatments and lifestyles. These stories are sometimes supported by science, sometimes quarrel with science, but are all ultimately about much more than just science.
The Cure Within: A History of Mind-Body Medicine is available now in bookstores.
Anne Harrington is also the author of Reenchanted Science and the editor of
The Placebo Effect and The Dalai Lama at MIT.
Quote from the Way-of-Light Yahoo Group on Dzogchen
This is a quote by Jax who runs a yahoo group called way-of-light.
Try this 8 Minute Meditation
8 Minute Meditation: Quiet Your Mind. Change Your Life.
Amazon Price: $10.36 (as of 07/26/2008)
This book is an 8 week program on meditation for beginners where each week the book teaches you a different meditation technique. The program has you meditate for just 8 minutes a day every, which taught me to concentrate on my meditation more while building a habit of meditating every day. Although I have tried some Zen meditation in the past, the techniques I learned in this book gave me better tools to meditate. After completing the book I have been able to keep up with my meditation practice. If you would like to build a lasting meditation practice in your life, I highly recommend it.
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TENZIN WANGYAL said: In the Dzogchen tradition, the very reason people are introduced to form practice is to introduce formless practice, the nature of mind. The master introduces you to yourself. In formless meditation, we abide without any judgment, without observer and observed, abiding in the boundless view. Spontaneous meditation and flexible action is what formless meditation really is. In the process of doing it, we experience emptiness, clarity and bliss. However, if we grasp for these, they do not work. You have to be aware but not grasp, which we call self-liberation.
Formless meditation is ultimately about self-liberating the observer. No one is grasping, because there is no observer to grasp. Everything is effortlessly self-liberated into space. This is the experience of emptiness, which in turn leads to fearlessness. With nothing there, there is nothing to fear. Yet there is also unceasing clarity: the flow of life never stops, experiences never stop. Everything is lively and fully there, without anybody doing anything.
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Fetching RSS feed... please stand byGreat Dzogchen Products
Healing with Form, Energy, and Light: The Five Elements in Tibetan Shamanism, Tantra, and Dzogchen
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 07/26/2008)
Mind Beyond Death
Amazon Price: $17.13 (as of 07/26/2008)
Quintessential Dzogchen: Confusion Dawns as Wisdom
Amazon Price: $12.24 (as of 07/26/2008)
The Supreme Source: The Fundamental Tantra of the Dzogchen Semde
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 07/26/2008)
Blazing Splendor: The Memoirs of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
Amazon Price: $19.77 (as of 07/26/2008)
Wonderful Dzogchen Videos
Dzogchen Teachers Link List / Buddhist Web Links
- Ligmincha, Charlottesville, VA
- Tenzin Wangyal offers dzogchen meditation retreats at Ligmincha in Virginia, and also at Chamma Ling in Crestone.
- Wisdom Loving Mother Blog
- This blog covers news on Tibetan Buddhism, essential oils, and feng shui
- Garchen Institute
- The Garchen Institute, P.O. Box 4318, Chino Valley, AZ 86323, or call 928-925-1237.
- Lama Surya Das Center
- Dzogchen means the innate great completeness. It points to our own innate wholeness, our own true Buddha nature, our untrammelled spirit, perfect and pure from the beginningless beginning. It is what we call the Buddha within.
- Namkhai Norbu
- One of the current famous Rinpoches who offers dzogchen teachings is Namkhai Norbu.
- Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
- TWR is my teacher and focuses mainly on dzogchen meditation. So check out this lens.
Vote on Your Favorite Dzogchen Resource
Recalling a Buddha: Memories of HH Karmapa XVI
The Life & Death of an Awakened Being. The more...0 points
An Introduction to Dzogchen
Hand-painted images with meditation instructions f more...0 points
Quintessential Dzogchen: Confusion Dawns as Wisdom by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche
This hands-on guidebook adapts the Dzogchen path f more...0 points
Vacation in the Sacred Land of Bhutan
Land of the Thunder Dragon
If you want to travel to a Buddhist country, please try Bhutan. I'm hoping you will not support the Chinese when they are performing genocide against Tibetans.
Besides Bhutan is absolutely WONDERFUL! They want "Gross National Happiness" - what a great idea!
Check out my other Squidoo Lens on Bhutan
Your Feedback on Dzogchen
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NewRiver
Interesting! Thanks for joining Links Plexo Group! Posted February 21, 2008 |
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HypnoTrance
Hi Posted February 17, 2008 |
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Mobiiart
Wonderful lens. This dharma seems to be one of the most intriguing of them all. So much mystery. I can't wait for you to expand this lens. 5/5 Posted January 31, 2008 |
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