What is Dzogchen?

"Since all things are naked, clear and free from obscurations, there is nothing to attain or realize. The nature of things naturally appears and is naturally present in time-transcending awareness.

The everyday practice is simply to develop a complete acceptance and openness to all situations and emotions and to all people, experiencing everything totally without mental reservations and blockages, so that one never withdraws or centralizes onto oneself."Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche

The word Dzogchen in Tibetan means "The Great Perfection." The basic ground of our experience is and has always been a fundamentally pure and unstained awareness a "time-transcending awareness." Through various skillful means and connection with an authentic lineage a realized teacher practitioners of Dzogchen come to recognize this basic awareness (rigpa) and train in stabilizing that recognition.The only thing that obstructs the recognition of rigpa is our habitual mind or 'ego'. Essentially the activity of habitual mind is to automatically and compulsively accept and reject whatever arises in the field of experience. This is the automatic discursive storyline which is constantly running in our minds. It conditions all of our experience and in our habitual conditioning we no longer recognize rigpa. What arises is always fresh and naked awareness, but the machinery of habituated mind conditions that moment of awareness and obscures its true nature. Because of our habitual obscuration we are constantly 'out of synch' with the truth of 'things as they are' and therefore we suffer and create suffering for others. This deluded reality is called Samsara. The whole world seems to operate for the most part in a samsaric mode of being and it is rare to have the opportunity to meet with genuine practitioners of Dzogchen. At the same time it is useful to remember that whatever realm of suffering people or ourselves seem to be stuck in the fresh moment of recognition of rigpa is always the basis for experience. In that sense there is always hope and we can never give up on our Bodhisattva resolve to save all sentient beings..

Dzogchen MeditationRecognizing Natural Awareness"Do not resolve the Dharma,Resolve your mind.To resolve your mind is to know the one which frees all.Not to resolve your mind is to know all but lack the one" Guru RinpocheThe practice of Dzogchen Meditationis based on the recognition of Natural Awareness which is referred to as Thamal Gyi Shepa or Rigpa in Tibetan. Natural Awareness is the true nature of our mind when it is free from habituation. This is the quality of our present experience which is uncontrived and unfabricated cognizance. It has been described as naked and unborn in the sense that it is awareness which is stripped bare of any conditioning or habituation. Ordinarily in our day to day livesour minds are continually involved in habitual thought and projection.This habitual mode of being isgenerally how we operate and what keeps us trapped in acycle ofignorance, delusion andsuffering. Habitual thought,projection and the compulsive fixation on what arises in our minds obscures our recognition of Natural Awareness.Therefore we can understand Dzogchen Meditation asa practice which purifies the mind of habituation allowing us to recognizeNatural Awareness.Since habitual minddepends on constant movement, distractionand the manipulation of what arises in our experience, the fundamentalform of practicein Dzogchen is to sit stilland be undistracted -- to leave whatever arises in our field ofawareness as it is-- that is,not tomanipulate or strategize our thoughts or the sights, sounds and sensations that we perceive. This is called the "resting meditation of a kusulu."

"Keep your body straight, refrain from talking, open your mouth slightly, and let the breath flow naturally. Don't pursue the past and don't invite the future. Simply rest naturally in the naked ordinary mind of the immediate present without trying to correct it or replace it. If you rest like that, your mind-essence will be clear and expansive, vivid and naked,without any concerns about thought or recollection, joy or pain. That is awareness (Rigpa)." Khenpo GangsharTo practice Dzogchen meditationwe sit on a cushion or chairin the meditation posture. The spineisstraight, not leaning to the right or left, front or back-- comfortable and relaxed but upright, alert and awake. The eyes are open either looking straight ahead or slightly downward about six feetin front. We aren't looking around with our eyes or staring intently at anything. We aren't engaging the sense perception of sight particularly.The mouth isopen slightly and the breath naturally goes in and out. The basic idea here is that what we do with our body affects our mind. This posture helps our mind torecognize and'let be' in the present moment which isessentially the complete practice. There is nothing else that we are doing. From the practical point of view it is helpful to set aside a practice space which is tidy and quiet. It isalso helpful to have a meditation timer with a bellrather than using a clock or other device thatone checks constantly. Set the timer and do the practice until the bell rings andthe time is up. A beginner should start with 20 minute periods of practice. Try to do several of these per day. It is essential, however, to find an authentic Dzogchen teacher to clarify one's practice. Hopefully this introduction will serve to give you some idea of the essential points of Dzogchen practice.

"One can define meditation as a process of letting go, of giving up conflict, not in a passive, spineless sense, but in the sense of being present yet not manipulative. So we are faced with the moment-to-moment alternative of either opening to space, of being in harmony with it, or of solidifying and fixating it."Chogyam Trungpa RinpochePrecious Human Birth, Impermanence and the Motivation for Spiritual PracticeHow much timeshould we practice? Ifwe think about how much time we spendreinforcing our habitual mind on a moment-to-moment basisthen it becomes obvious that we need to spend a lot of time undoing that habit through meditation practice. In the 1960's and 70's many westerners were able to meet Tibetan teachers who had been trained in the Tibetan system as it existed before it was destroyed by the Chinese communists -- Kalu Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and many others. Those men and women who made it out of Tibet --many died in Chinese prison camps-- had spent 12 to 20 years in solitary retreat during their lives with meditation as their only activity. This generation is nowpassing away and it is increasingly rare to find people who have done this amount of practice. Yet, for those of us who met these people their realization was unmistakeable. As the Vidyadhara would say "The proof is in the pudding." Their example is what we need to take to heart now. If we really want to help the world, it is quite clear that we need to practice meditation and attain realization! Most of us are unused to the idea of spending a lot of time meditating. Instead we spend most of our time trying to make money, finding a mate, or engaged in other "worldly activities". If we have not committed to at least 2 hours of formal meditation practice a day -- then we haven't really made meditation practice a priority in our lives. We need to make spiritual training, meditation practice, our main priority if we want to progress on the path. In order to engender the correct motivation for our spiritual practice it is important to contemplate our situation. We possess a certain amount of leisure time and we have the freedom to pursue whatever interests we want. If we wanted to we could devote much of our time to spiritual activities. This is a unique situation called a "precious human birth." It is unique and precious because most sentient beings are not able to actually contemplate the ultimate meaning of their lives -- they are so engaged in the struggle to survive. We have a precious human birth. But it will not last long -- time passes "like an arrow shot from a bow." So this time when we have the leisure to contemplate the spiritual nature of our lives is rare and fleeting. "Death comes without warning, this body will be a corpse."

"Sincerely take to heart the fact that the time of death lies uncertain. Then, knowing that there is no time to waste, diligently apply yourself to spiritual practice!"Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

When we contemplate the fleeting quality of our precious human birth it becomes easier to focus our lives on our spiritual practice-- we recognize the urgency and don't become complacent. This type of motivation is important because we need to do a lot of practice and in the beginning it isn't easy!

We need to sit and look at our minds directly and when we first sit down without any entertainment and become aware of our mind's activity it is shocking to see how crazy our discursive mind actually is. Our first notion of meditation is that this crazy mind is the problem and that we need to stop its activity in some way -- that the purpose of meditation is to repress thinking and dwell in a thought-free state. In fact most people believe meditation is about stopping or repressing discursive thought. Actually discursive thinking itself isn't our main problem. The problem is that because of unawareness or distraction (marigpa in Tibetan) we habitually react to thoughts as they arise in our minds. In this way every thought that arises in our mind habitually conditions and obscures our true nature -- Natural Awareness. In the Dzogchen view, thoughts are simply the dynamic action of Natural Awareness -- like waves are the movement of the ocean. In our confused and distracted state we mistake the thought for something existing on its own apart from the mind or awareness in which it has arisen. In this way we get caught by the thought when we react to it as though it were separate from mind/ awareness. This obscuration quickly subsumes our awareness and we become enveloped in a dream state or realm of habituation -- this is called samsara. It is the function of dualistic projection and habitual fixation. It is like not seeing the forest for the trees.

Perceptions also arise in mind/ awareness and are also subject to the same habitual fixation. What we take to be the "outer world"( i.e sight, sound. touch, taste, smell) also does not exist apart from the awareness in which it has arisen. When seen with awareness which is stripped bare of habitual reaction this outer world is recognized as the expression of Natural Awareness:

"In brief, the basic cause of everything is nothing but your present natural awareness. Therefore the sublime key point is to continuously maintain your natural awareness throughout both day and night without any separation."Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

Any form of authentic Buddhist Meditation is designed to break the habit of this dualistic fixation, not simply smooth it over by making our Samsaric experience more comfortable and less stressful. When we practice Dzogchen we begin to see how our habitual mind operates and to differentiate between the simple, undistracted awareness of the natural state (rigpa) and the distracted state of habitual reaction (sems). Eventually, through meditation training the habitual conditioning (which can be described as habitually accepting and rejecting) is seen through completely. At that point, whether there is thought activity or not the true nature of our mind, Natural Awareness, is no longer obscured. In one sense we wear out or 'cut through' the confusion of habitual reaction to thought and projection. We cut through with our awareness or nondistraction. At that point discursive, habitual thinking becomes like a thief in an empty house -- though thoughts may arise they are not fixated upon by the grasping, habitual mind. The habitual mechanism is broken or disabled through awareness practice."Whatever arises as objects in awareness ~Regardless of what thoughts arise from the five emotional poisons ~Do not allow your mind to anticipate, follow after, or indulge in them.By allowing this movement to rest in its own ground,you are free in Dharmakaya."Guru Rinpoche

Getting StartedOf course reading the profound pith instructions of masters like Guru Rinpoche makes this process sound quite simple -- and it is! Simple to start but very difficult to continue. When we first sit on the meditation cushion there may be a moment of openness. But after several minutes we notice an on rush of "discursive thinking". Meditation practice is like turning up the lights in a dark room. In this case we are turning the light of awareness to shine on our minds and we quickly realize how much discusive thinking we have and we become frustrated by our inability to stay present and undistracted. We seem carried away by every thought that we have. Trungpa Rinpoche refers to this period of training as "hot boredom." We are agitated and bored for entertainment and our mind seems to be wild and untamed.

"When resting in this way, your mind will not remain in the state of empty and cognizant awareness for long but will become restless, disturbed, or unsettled and will move about like a monkey. This is not the mind-essence. It is called 'thinking'. If you indulge in it, this thinking will recall, make thoughts about, or plan to carry out anything! In the past, this is exactly what has thrown you into the ocean of samsara. For sure, it will throw you there again. Now, wouldn't it be better to stop this insidious, deluded thinking?"Dudjom Rinpoche

In order to tame this monkey mind it is helpful to engage in a progessive approach to meditation training. In general this training entails first developing nonwandering awareness through one-pointed shamatha training. Once this has been developed sufficiently we move into practice which is more open and not dependent the support of a technique to maintain our undistracted awareness . This stage in our training is referred to as resting in "simplicity" or "nonelaboration" in the mahamudra system of the four yogas. "First let the mind follow the in and out rhythm of the breath until it becomes calm and tranquil; then rest the mind more and more on the breath until one's whole being seems to be identified with it. Finally, become aware of the breath leaving the body and going out into space, and gradually transfer the attention away from the breath and towards the sensation of spaciousness and expansion. By letting this final sensation merge into complete openness, one moves into the sphere of formless meditation proper."Trungpa Rinpoche

Again, on a more practical note, it is absolutely necessary in the beginning of our training to practice with a supportive group of individuals who follow the same teacher or lineage. In order to practice and come to realize the Dzogchen teachings one must find an authentic lineage within which to train. As the Vajra Regent once said, "sit with others, sit a lot, and relax." Without a community it is almost impossible to get to the meditation cushion and stay on it for any length of time. Time on the cushion makes all the difference. We also need the auspicious connection with an authentic guru who holds the lineage so that we are less likely to lose our way.

Within our formal practice of meditation -- wherever we may think of our practice on a scale of "beginner" to "advanced" meditator-- there are always moments of complete openness and unhabitual awareness. This is called "knowing the key point of natural awareness" or "knowing the one which liberates all". Identifying these moments within our personal experience is the key point of our training and realization. Actually, it is realization itself. In otherwords, every moment we recognize and let be in unhabitual awareness -- on the cushion or in daily life -- is a moment of genuine realization. This experience is what is pointed out by the teacher to the student not through words but by a direct manifestation of unhabituated, naked reality.Minding the Gap ~ Knowing the Crucial Point of Recognizing Natural Awareness"When your past thought has ceased and your future thought has not yet arisen and you are free from conceptual reckoning in the present moment, then your genuine and natural awareness, the union of being empty and cognizant, dawns as the state of mind, which is like space -- that itself is dzogchen transcending concepts, the cutting through of primordial purity, the open and naked exhaustion of phenomena. This is exactly what you should recognize. To sustain the practice means simply to rest in naturalness after recognizing."Shechen Gyaltsap RinpocheOne traditional practice instruction states that when our habitual involvement in one thought has ended and we have yet to become habitually engaged in the next thought we have the opportunity if we are attentive to recognize uncontrived Natural Awareness. This is a very simple instruction and yet it is the key point of practice. Without knowing this key point our efforts in practice will essentially be worthless. So what is it saying? How does this moment feel experientially? When we are doing our practice there are moments of simple awareness and there are periods of time when we are distracted and essentially caught in a daydream.

"Sometimes in meditation there is a gap in normal consciousness, a sudden complete openness. This only arises when one has ceased to think in terms of meditator, meditation and the object of meditation. It is a glimpse of reality, a sudden flash which occurs at first infrequently and then gradually more and more often. It may not be a particularly shattering or explosive experience at all, just a moment of great simplicity. Do not make the mistake of deliberately trying to force these experiences to recur, for this is to betray the naturalness and spontaneity of reality."

Chogyam Trungpa RinpocheThis is the "Heart Essence" of the Dharma. This simple experience is what all the teachings of the Buddha and subsequent realized masters point to and help us to experience in our own mind. We need to "recognize" this experience within our own mind stream and then clarify and "resolve" this recognition through whatever means -- but especially through diligent meditation practice. Our practiceisthis. And this recognition is called "knowing the one which liberates all". Without really 'resolving our understanding of this we can only have a superficial understanding of the Dharma. We know the words but not the sense-- the many but not the one. The student teacher relationship is based on pointing out this gap to the student."Unless you realize the key point of natural awareness -- that knowing one thing liberates all -- you won't find any certainty in pursuing endless seemingly "important" information."Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

As Dudjom Rinpoche reminds us however, it is not enough to have recognition. Knowing the crucial point of practice we need to train diligently and stablize our recognition.

"You haven't arrived at the state of liberation simply by recognizing awareness. For beginningless lifetimes, we have been enveloped within the cocoon of deluded tendencies. Up until now, we have been spending our lives deep under the shit of this conceptual thinking...Therefore, you should now practice sustaining the continuity of the awareness that you have recognized, and nothing other than that. The great omniscient master Longchenpa said: 'You may have recognized your nature, but unless you become familiar with it, the enemy, thinking, will carry you off like an infant on a battlefield.'"When we sit and practice with unbiased awareness, which is what we do in Kusulu practice, we become aware of these gaps between the distraction of daydreams. That is the gap we are recognizing again and again in our practice. In this way meditation practice can best be understood as a process of familiarizing ourselves with Natural Awareness through recognition of these gaps.

Dudjom Rinpoche writes, as we continue our practice we gain confidence through this process of familiarization that the distraction of habitual thoughts is "self-liberated":

"Just as waves on the ocean subside again into the ocean, gain confidence in the liberation of all thoughts, whatever may arise. Confidence is beyond the object of meditation and the act of meditating. It is free from the conceptual mind that fixates on meditation."

Werecognize the gaps in our habitual fixation on discursive thinking and come back again and again to a basic awareness of being There is no need to apply some kind of conceptual idea of what our meditation should be but rather we 'let be' directly in an awareness of what is-- that is, in awareness that is undistracted by the usual habitual picking and choosing-- accepting and rejecting of what arises. Tsele Natsok Rangdrol writes:

"When it happens that you do get involved in thoughts that recollect the past or entertain the future, then let be directly in awareness. If a thought pattern continues, there is no need for a separate antidote since whatever takes place is liberated by itself."

We do not need nor should we attempt to apply an antidote when we realize we have been caught in habitual thought. The reason is that at that moment when we realize we have been daydreaming we are actually experiencing a moment of recognition of mind essence. At that moment we are outside of the discursive dualistic thinking and in an open and aware state. Just let be or go to the awareness of breath very simply and directly. Its not useful to berate oneself for being a bad meditator --which is a strong impulse at this point because at that moment all we can remember is that we were daydreaming and not following our breath. We simply have to pay attention to what is arising in our experience with an unbiased awareness. Very literally following the breath is a great way to develop a feeling for this unbiased awareness which leads us to the experience of vipashyana --the essence of Dzogchen. Any attempt to apply an antidote carries with it a huge kind of hangover because we are trying to 'fix' our meditation state which is really just another habitual, discursive thought. The profound fact of kusulu meditation is that we are sitting there doing nothing and occasionally, if we pay attention, we realize that we are sitting there doing nothing! . As beginners it is necessary for us to first work very literally and precisely with the techniques of shamatha/vipashyana -- or stillness and insight meditation. One of the most important elements in the beginning of practice is the development of one-pointed, nonwandering awareness. This is the ability to place our awareness one-pointedly on something without wandering for as long as we want it there.

Traditionally in Mahamudra training this is called "settling the mind in awareness with the support of the breath." We place our awareness on the breath counting both the inhalations and exhalations up to ten and then returning to one. In the beginning we find that we are constantly losing count and drifting off into habitual discursive thought. Each time we become aware of being distracted from the breath we acknowledge that and then return to counting the breath starting with one. Through persistent effort this practice brings us back again and again to a simple awareness of the breath until we can sit with undistracted awareness on the breath and the count for our full meditation session.

The development of this one-pointed samadhi is absolutely essential to the development of one's meditation practice. We need to think in terms of accomplishing the discipline and refinement of one-pointed awareness in our sitting practice of meditation. Without developing the ability to cut through our distracted habitual train of thought we can spend years practicing and never accomplish realization. Often we sit in a subtly distracted state and are unaware of the undercurrent of discursive thought that is running through our minds.

This type of "meditation" is really just hanging out in a stupor and is of no benefit whatsoever. Working very closely with our technique refines our discipline and our awareness and cuts through both subtle and coarse thought patterns. As our practice of one-pointedness develops our awareness becomes more and more refined and settled. We can be completely present with our breath and our count and our awareness becomes settled in a nonwandering and undistracted state.

As part of this practice of one-pointedness it is also taught that we should place the awareness in the lower abdomen approximately four finger widths below the belly button. This place is considered the center of our awareness and when we place our attention there we develop a very steady sense of being that is not startled or distracted easily. It isn't necessary to overdue this. Keep a lighthanded touch but just repeatedly come back to this technique very literally and very precisely. We begin to realize when we are present and when we are not. We develop that sense of presence by diligently coming back and working with our awareness of the breath as it leaves our body and as it comes back in -- very simple and very precise.

Shamatha practice is often described as dwelling in peace -- or tranquility practice but this really is the wrong idea of what we are doing. The point of shamatha meditation is to cut through our attachment to habitual, discursive thought and we do this by working closely with the breath as a focal point for our awareness. Placing our awareness on the breath works as a feedback mechanism. When we lose our awareness of the breath we know that we are engaging in habitual discursive thought. By dealing very closely with our degrees of attention we refine our awareness. We don't become absorbed in a kind of trance state -- but by refining our attention we can tell when we are aware without any distraction. There is a definite sense of "knowing" that Trungpa Rinpoche describes as a "sense of being." Shamatha ,when done with the correct view, allows us to develop our recognition of this 'sense of being.' This moment is the same as the unfabricated, undistracted state. By letting be completely with the breath and giving up any thoughts concerning a goal for our practice quite by accident we find ourselves unconditionally aware in the present moment.

"When the primordially free rigpa is nurtured by innate mindfulness, the rigpa is nuturing or sustaining, watching itself. Mahamudra uses the word watchfulness or keeping guard, indicating a sense of watching. For some people, without some watchfulness or keeping guard, without some mindfulness, there is no abiding and the meditation is lost. Without this support they have no meditation. So it is said "by fabricating mind, one is led to the natural state.'"Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Once we have developed the precision of shamatha with the support of our awareness of breath as our technique then we can loosen our focus on the support and allow our awareness to rest without such a tight focus on technique. At this point in a students development we can begin working with the meditation techniques that Trungpa Rinpoche taught his western students which combine shamatha precision with vipashyana awareness.

"Without bringing forth the natural strength of awareness, a numb and inert state of stillness will never yield any progress whatsoever. So it is crucial to bring forth the steady clarity of awareness. There are many meditators, but few who know how to meditate. It is truly important to utilize the vital points."

Guru RinpocheTrungpa Rinpoche is unique among Tibetan teachers in his adoption of group sitting practice for his students. He emphasized the importance of ongoing training in sitting meditation and faulted the contemporary Tibetan approach for a lack of emphasis on group sitting practice. "Tibetan's don't sit" (1975 Vajradhatu Seminary). He clearly felt that the lack of sitting meditation practice resulted in what he called the "corruption" of Buddhism. Tibetan teachers will be quick to point out that just sitting still on a cushion does not mean you are actually "meditating." One needs to really understand the key points of mind in order to develop proper understanding of practice. But as students of Trungpa Rinpoche we think it is nearly impossible to do this without intensive shamatha/vipashyana training -- and this does seem to have been the precedent with many important Tibetan teachers in the past. Often students prepared for pointing out instruction for five years or more by engaging in intensive shamatha/vipashyana practice. Only when the student has prepared properly can they actually receive mind to mind transmission from a lineage Guru.

After an initial period of settling the mind through one-pointed mindfulness practice Trungpa Rinpoche's students then were given instruction on identifying with the breath as it went out. The inbreath is not emphasized or focused on. It simply happens but we do not place our awareness one-pointedly on it. This instruction comes from Gampopa's meditation instructions and is called "mixing awareness with space" and it helps the practitioner loosen their habitual grip on "this" and release one's awareness into the environment or space around us. The 'gap' built in to this form of meditation trains the practitioner in the recognition of Natural Awareness. The focused attention is let go of and awareness rests momentarily on its own. This is training for vipashyana -- which essentially is formless meditation.

A good way to understand this is through an art form like Japanese brush calligraphy which was another form of practice that Trungpa introduced to his students. When we do a calligraphy we focus intensively on the execution of the kanji-- the Japanese ideogram. This is one-pointed awareness just like going out with the outbreath. It is Shamatha. Then when the calligraphy has been completed there is a moment where awareness simply hangs there with no technique or object to focus on. Of course, we can fill this space in many ways with habitual thought but the point of this practice is to recognize and let be in the space of awareness without layers of conceptualization. This is the vipashyana aspect of this practice.

Generally this period of time where we "let be in awareness" lasts for a very short time. As soon as we begin to contrive or manipulate the experience we lose that recognition.It is important not to try to hold on to that moment of recognition. But we can do the practice over and over-- "train in short moments, many times"-- whether in sitting meditation or calligraphy practice or any other form of practice -- and in that way develop our stability in letting be in the space of awareness Trungpa Rinpoche would refer to this as "flashing" on recognition and then "disowning" or letting be in that moment. Certain skillful means have been developed within the Buddhist tradition to train us in recognition and in the stabilization of rigpa or Natural Awareness.

When -- through intensive shamatha training --we have settled in an unmoving awareness we can let go of our hold on technique as a reference point. But as the pith instructions often tell us -- "keep mindfulness on guard." The more tightly we try to control our mind the more restless it becomes -- just like trying to ride a spirited horse. As soon as we let go of that control the mind has nothing to fight against and settles in it's present awareness. If you let your horse go it will stay on the path. However, mindfulness or "watchfulness" is still the key to seeing this process in your practice.

"In truth if you cannot tame your own mind, what else is there to tame? What is the use of doing many other practices? The aim of the whole Buddhist path, both Basic and the Great Vehicles, is to tame and understand your mind."Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

As intelligent college educated westerners we often search for the "best" or highest form of meditation practice because we want "the best." Meditation doesn't really work that way. Practicing shamatha is sometimes considered to be merely a beginner's practice. However, it is necessary to come back to this practice again and again in order to tame our habitual speed and aggression. If our minds are tame then we can do any form of meditation practice completely because the definition of a tame mind in this case is one which is able to let be in the present moment. If we haven't developed this fully present awareness then even if we do the highest practice available in the Vajrayana tradition it will be of little benefit. It is so important to realize that this simple practice is the most profound skillful means for realizing the key point of Natural Awareness. Nothing else is needed and even if we do want to explore the full range of tantric skillful means shamatha-vipashyana practice is always an essential part of our tantric training. We never 'graduate' from the practice of sitting meditation -- there is always further to go and more refinement possible in our practice.

"Letting the mind become peaceful and staying in a meditation state of stillness free from many thoughts is called shamatha or sustained calm. Recognizing the empty nature of the mind within that state of calm is called vipashyana or profound insight. Uniting shamatha and vipashyana is the essence of meditation practice. It is said: 'Look at the mind, there is nothing to see. Seeing nothing, we see the Dharma, the source of all the Buddhas.'"Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheThe process of training in shamatha-vipashyana meditation has been described as sharpening our prajna or "discriminating awareness wisdom." Every time we notice that we have strayed into distraction and come back to the technique we sharpen the sword of prajna. The sword of prajna in this case is the intelligent awareness which is able to tell the difference between being present and being distracted by either spacing out or engaging a discursive storyline of habitual mind. This prajna is the insight of vipashyana. It is the awareness which sees "shunyata"-- emptiness. In the language of Dzogchen it is that which "recognizes Natural Awareness" and it is fundamentally Natural Awareness itself. When we talk about the unity of shamatha and vipashyana we mean the mind that is aware and present and not conditioned by any habitual "thinking". The practice of shamatha/ vipashyana as described by lineage masters is a progressive path of practice that leads us to the direct experience of Natural Awareness. The stillness aspect of shamatha allows the insight of Natural Awareness to manifest. We develop a stability and familiarity with Natural Awareness through our shamatha and vipashyana training. Shamatha should be understood as cutting through our habitual daydream and vipashyana is the recognition of the ensuing awareness which is unconditioned by habitual fixation on what arises in awareness. We can understand every practice in the Buddhist tradition in terms of this definition of shamatha and vipashyana from development and completion stage of yidam meditation practice up to the highest description of Dzogchen Meditation -- trekcho and togal.

Once we have developed our ability to cut through discursive habitual thought with our awareness we can let go of the "object" or technique we have been using in the beginning of our practice. This is what Tsele Natsok Rangdrol is referring to when he says:

"Cast away the fixation of rigidly meditating upon a reference point and instead release your awareness into carefree openness! Decide that whatever you experience is the playful expression of awareness; don't try to improve good or correct evil!"Tsele Natsok Rangdrol

We look directly at what arises without attempting to engage it or repress it and in that way whatever arises is the manifestation of Natural Awareness. At this point in our practice there is no idealized meditation state that we are attempting to acheive by rejecting what we are experiencing right now. Our experience is always perfect and complete as it is when we look directly at it with no attempt to strategize or manipulate it. When we understand how the practice of shamatha works in cutting through our habitual fixation -- the daydream of compulsive reaction to objects arising in our awareness-- then we can understand the way that vipashyana is Natural Awareness beyond accepting and rejecting.

Second for identifying vipashyana, no matter what thought or disturbing emotion arises, do not try to cast it away and do not be governed by it; instead, leave whatever is experienced without fabrication. When you recognize it the very moment it arises, it itself dawns as emptiness that is basic purity without abandonment. In this way you are able to utilize all adversity as the path, and this is therefore called taking adversity as the path.Your realization that objects to be abandoned and their remedies are indivisible, since thoughts are liberated by simply recognizing them, is the heart of Vajrayana practice and is called training in exorcism. At this point you should feel even greater compassion for all those sentient beings who do not realize the nature of their own minds. While you spend your life practicing the methods (upaya) such as the development stage with your body, speech, and mind for the sake of all sentient beings, it is through this type of discriminating knowledge (prajna) that, having utterly purified any clinging to the reality of negative emotions, you will avoid falling prey to them. It is just like remaining unharmed when eating a poison that has been blessed by mantra.It is with this type of practice in mind that the following words were spoken: Neither accept nor reject whatever arises on the path!"Padma KarpoMistaken Views of Shamatha PracticeBoth foundational Schools of Buddhism like the Shravakas and Pratyekabuddhas and non-Buddhist schools of meditation use concentration techniques in an effort to calm the mind. If the view of shamatha is limited to the idea that the practice is only meant to calm the mind or stop thought then we always end up creating more obstacles to realization through our practice. On the one hand,the practice of one-pointedshamatha allows us to slow down the speed of discursive thought and by accomplishing this the practitionercan experienceuncontrived Natural Awarenessif they havehad the "pointing out instructions" from a qualified master and know what to look for. But on the negative side shamatha practitioners can become attached to the 'stillness' of nonthought and mistake that for realization. They may alsocling to the temporary "meditation experiences" of bliss, clarity and nonthought found in the cessation of discursive mind brought about bystopping thought through the application ofconcentration techniques. By using one-pointed concentration to repress the arising of discursive thought many kinds of peaceful and blissful states can be experienced. Because they are pleasureable on a very refined level shamatha practitioners may cling to these temporary experiences. The habitual attachment and clinging to these temporary meditation experiences keeps shamatha practitioners trapped in samsara.

"The meditation of stillness alone doesn't qualify as the authentic meditation practice of Mahamudra. In particular, all the authoritative guidance tests of the Old and New Schools unanimously agree that people who fixate with attachment on the experience of stillness will go astray in their meditation practice."Tsele Natsok RangdrolSimilarly shamatha meditation can temporarily stop disturbing emotions and thoughts and we can experience a blissful peace based on an absorption in a type of concentrated trance .However, the habitual patterns have not been undone, they have simply been interrupted by the mind's preoccupation with something else -- in this case the concentration technique itself. As soon as we stop concentrating on the object of meditation we immediately resume our habitual patterns of thought and our disturbing emotions engage us in another samsaric daydream.

The temporary relief from samsaric suffering is a profound experience and is available through this limited view of the practice of shamatha meditation but this can be compared to the effects of a drug or the blissful experience one has after an excercise work out. This form of practice does not lead to realization but only to further suffering.

The real key to meditation practice is the recognition of the true nature of one's awareness. This is the realization of awareness as "unborn". It is "unborn" in the sense that our awareness is not dependent upon causes and conditions. It doesn't come from somewhere else nor does it go anywhere. It is neither harmed nor improved by the arising of experience and it cannot be called a "thing" in the way that we consider a rock or a physical object a thing. Neither can it be considered to be "no thing" because it is a living cognizance. It is present in every moment of our experience. It is our awareness. It sounds silly to say it but we have never known a moment when we did not have this awareness. We have never had an experience which was apart from this Natural Awareness. What we are doing in meditation is looking directly at awareness with awareness. We are allowing awareness to rest in itself.

In Dzogchen and Mahamudra meditation technique is used to establish an unbiased reference point for awareness. The use of a technique as a reference point in meditation should not be confused with the habitual mind's projection and fixation on habitual reference points. In meditation practice the technique is to be aware of our breath and because of our awareness of the breath we can notice when we have been daydreaming, acknowlege it as distraction and come back to this simple uncontrived" sense of being." This sense of being and our awareness of the breath are the same at this point. At the moment that we notice that we have been 'daydreaming' or when we notice that we have lost our awareness of the breath we have already come back to this unfabricated, undistracted awareness.

What we are training in is the recognition of that moment --the moment when our past thought has run down and the future thought has not gripped us yet. There really is nothing more to do when we come back to this simple awareness -- in fact, if we attempt to force ourselves to stay present we taint that uncontrived awareness. The most difficult aspect of our practice is learning to "let be" once the daydream falls apart because there is a tremendous habitual urge to jump on to the next thought. Trungpa Rinpoche's practice instruction is to "touch and go." Through engaging in meditation practice we repeatedly "touch" this moment of uncontrived awareness as a 'sense of 'being.' This is simply the moment that we are fully present with our breath. Then rather than holding it or trying to keep it we let it go -- we 'disown' it. Because this sense of being is really the basis of our awareness we cannot actually grasp it or solidify it in any way. We can't hold on to it -- we can only be it by letting our awareness be without distraction.

Our uncontrived Natural Awareness is only discovered by letting be -- by touching it, recognizing it and then letting it be that way. The Formal practice of 'sitting meditation' as it is called is really just creating the conditions which are more conducive for this recognition and letting be. It is only through doing this type of practice repeatedly that we wear out our tendency to jump to our next habitual distraction. This is called attaining 'stability' in the natural state. Many teachers recommend "short moments many times". but this type of instruction only works when you are in a longterm retreat. If we just practice for short periods between checking our Iphone or facebook page we never wear out our habitual patterns. So we recommend "short moments many times for a long time". Just sit there and wear out the boredom and frustration, the fascination and exhilaration. We only gain confidence in our Natural Awareness through watching every reaction arise, dwell and dissipate over and over again. Eventually we become quite 'shinjanged" -- which is a tibetan meditation term for completely processed out. Our shocking thoughts no longer shock us. We see them just as thoughts. We can see everything that arises in our mind and we no longer react habitually as though the thoughts were real or solid. There is no substitute for intensive sitting practice within a group retreat. That is why we offer 10 day "Heart of the Matter" retreats here at the Center four times a year. Gradually through doing this practice we begin to recognize a quality to awareness that permeates all of our experience. What begins to bleed through is what is called "'vipashyana"-- or "clear seeing." We begin to perceive thoughts, feelings, emotions and objects beyond the obscuration of our habitual fixation. What begins as a gap between discursive, habitual daydreams expands and undermines all of our delusive habitual conditioning. What we first notice only by experiencing the boundary between periods of daydreaming and Awareness begins to expand. Trungpa Rinpoche used the analogy of the vast ocean of Natural Awareness undermining the mainland of habitual mind until it collapses into the ocean. In other words -- the boundaries are undermined by Awareness until there are no boundaries -- just Natural Awareness."There is a children's story about the sky falling, but we do not actually believe that such a thing could happen. The sky turns into a blue pancake and drops on our head -- nobody believes that. But in maha ati experience, it actually does happen. There is a new dimension of shock, and new dimension of logic ... Our perspective becomes completely different."Chogyam Trungpa RinpocheAwakening from the Daydream"When you rest nakedly and naturally in the great openness of this awareness, do not be concerned with your old archenemy, the thinking that reflects, has myriad attribrutes, and has never given you a moment's rest in the past. Instead, in the space of awareness, which is like a cloudless sky, the movement of thoughts has vanished, disappeared collapsed. All the power of [habitual] thinking is lost to awareness. This awareness is your intrinsic dharmakaya wisdom, naked and fresh!"Dudjom RinpocheEven though the basis of our experience has always been the primordial perfection of Natural Awareness, up until we engage in this type of meditation training we have been trapped in an habitual daydream. Everything that arises in our field of awareness is conditioned by an habitual discursive dream state that webelieve is reality. We take our projected habitual thoughts to be our reference points -- the story we tell ourselves of what happened yesterday and the story we tell ourselves of what we will do tomorrow,ofwho we love and who we hate -- all sorts of scenarios and schemes that are just habitual discursive thoughts. In our confused state we take thesehabitual reference pointsas solid and real-- as truly existing outside of our present experience --but of course they don't actually exist apart from the mind which is projecting them. They are just thoughts. The memory we have about our friend is not actually true. Our friend is not actually there. But we react to the thought of our friend as though it were real -- as though he was standing right in front of us. These thoughts have no solidity and no reality outside our discursive, habitual mind.

What happens when we begin to dissolve this fiction through meditation practice? First of all, the world comes alive through direct perception. Every moment of experience is fresh, completely open and we are fully present in that moment. All experience, while unique in itself, has the same taste of wild vividness, presence and boundless space. When the solidity of our habitual reference points dissolves theentire samsaric structure is shaken to its foundation and we experience "Sacred World." One analogy for this realization is the image of the moon reflected in water. Just as the reflection of the moon is not separate from the water in the same way all arising phenomena in our experience are not and have never been separate in any way from Natural Awareness itself. This is experienced as "wakefulness."

At the same time the experience of boundless openness and clarity that we have when the cocoon of habitual reference point has fallen away initially can be a frightening experience. For countless lifetimes we have obscured this fresh present wakefulness with our habitual discursive thought and projection. When we cut through and actually experience this fresh vividness it can be a freaky experience. Part of us is frightened and wants to run back to our familiar habitual world. We become veryaware of impermanenceand ofloneliness. Fear begins toarise along with a feeling of immense space. The habitual reference pointshave begun to fallapart and awareness has expanded.

As Trungpa Rinpoche points out, the barrier that comes up at this point isa reaction to that largerawareness of space -- the habitual reaction to this feeling of groundlessness, of no habitual reference point --is generally fear.The way we work withthis fear and groundlessnessis to let be and open out into it without attempting to change it or manipulate it. Welean intothe direct experienceand continue to open and cut through any habituation or defense mechanismswith greater openness andawareness:"Clarity of awareness may in its initial stages be unpleasant or fear-inspiring; if so, then one should open oneself completely to the pain or the fear and welcome it. In this way the barriers created by one's own habitual emotional reactions and prejudices are broken down. When performing the meditation practice one should develop the feeling of opening oneself out completely to the wholeuniverse with absolute simplicity and nakedness of mind, ridding oneself of all protecting barriers."Chogyam Trungpa RinpocheBeyond Meeting and Parting: Meeting the Guru's Mind"Awareness is first pointed out by your master. Thereby, you recognize your natural face, by yourself, and are introduced to your own nature. All the phenomena of samsara and nirvana, however they may appear, are none other than the expression of awareness itself. Thus, decide on one thing -- awareness!" Dudjom Rinpoche

There are many ways to receive the'pointing out instruction' of Natural Awarenessin theTantric tradition. But it is very important that we rely on an authentic lineage and the blessings of a realized Master. "Receiving the Blessings" means that when we are in the presence of someone who has completely removed the obscuration of habitual reference point we can recognize a particular quality to our experience. What we experience in their presence may not coincide with our conceptual idea of what "Awakened Mind" should feel like. In fact, quite often our neurosis can be heightened or we may feel completely freaked out for no apparent reason. Many times we feel very exposed and naked. We feel it and we come to recognize the feeling through repeated encounters with the guru's mind. Later on in our own practice or just walking down the street we can recognize that again and again. Our heightened neurotic response generally is our habitual mind attempting to cover over the gap or the naked awareness of the unhabituated mind of the guru. At the point of encountering this naked mind we might be tempted to run for cover -- and quite often we do -- but some part of us recognizes the Awakened Mind or Natural Awareness in that experience.

In the Tantric Tradition we bind ourselves to that naked mind through yidam practice and guru yoga. The meaning of the samaya vow is that having recognized the nature of the Guru's mind as our Awakened Nature we commit ourselves to never turning away. We bind ourselves completely to the Awakened Nature of the Guru and the Lineage he represents. This is what it means to depend on and have devotion for a realized master.

There are ,of course, many people who are buried under layers of habituation who will not experience the Guru's mind or not recognize it when it is right in front of them. In the beginning of practice it is necessary to have faith -- just do your practice and clear away these habitual obscurations. Its very helpful even in our cynical age to trust the words of our lineage Gurus! Some people in this life will never realize the nature of the Guru's mind but will mistake it for something else. This boils down to 'precious human birth." Believe it or not, the crazy people who recognize this mind are the lucky ones! Working on faith and devotion and pure perception is of the utmost importance on the path of Dzogchen and Mahamudra.

"In order to truly recognize your nature, you must receive the blessings of a guru who has the lineage. This transmission depends upon the disciple's devotion. It is not given just because you have a close relationship. It is therefore vital never to separate yourself from the devotion of seeing your guru as the dharmakaya buddha." Shechen Gyaltsab, Pema Namgyal

Depending upon the openness and receptivity of the student, the genuine "pointing out instruction" can be through words, through thesymbolic transmissionof Tantric initiation,or through directmind-to-mind transmission. Actually, we say that transmission can occur through these three means but really all genuine transmission is "mind to mind." The skillful means may be getting slapped by a sandal in the face or the sound of a bell ringing or the taste of good gin. It doesn't matter. The Guru's mind is the mind of the Buddha and of the lineage of genuine masters who have thoroughly realized unhabituated mind -- enlightenment.In this wayhe or she is a living manifestation of the Buddha. At the same time having experienced this directly, a disciple is bound to maintain this realization. This is called maintaining one's samaya vow.

The principle of samaya, or sacred bondage, becomes extremely important once we have taken abhisheka. The definition of yidam as the sacred bondage of ones mind was discussed earlier. When we receive empowerment to practice the sadhana of Vajrayogini, we take on that samaya, or bondage. We bind ourselves to indestructible wakefulness, committing ourselves fully to maintaining sacred outlook throughout our lives. This is done by identifying oneself completely with the vajra sanity of the teacher and of Vajrayogini. One is inseparably bound together with the teacher and the yidam; and, at this point, ones very being and ones sanity depend on keeping up this commitment.Trungpa Rinpoche

The Guru's mind is completely unhabituated Natural Awareness and that is what we recognize in the Guru. Thereafter, we meet this mind every time we recognize and 'let be' in Natural Awareness in our practice or in our daily life. When there is a genuine meeting between an authentic teacher -- one who has realized Natural Awareness and completely stabilized that realization -- and a worthy student -- someone who has ripened themselves through faith, practice and devotion -- this authentic transmissioncantake place. We are so lucky to live in a time and place where this genuine meeting is still possible. It is a very rare situation. As practitioners we must continue to practice the main point. When we do this the Guru's mind is always'beyond meeting and parting.'As Dudjom Rinpoche wrote

"My own guru said to me:I have no thought besides the guru.I have nothing to chant besides supplication to him.I have nothing to practice besides nonaction.I simply rest in that way.Now I am in a happy state -- open, spacious, and free from reference point.For accomplishing the permanent goal of one's wishes,The profound instruction of Dzogchen is enough in itself."