Distraction and Dzogchen

Dualistic systems see "distracting thoughts" as something "other" than rigpa and recommend avoiding being "distracted" by such through a slight effort at remaining attentively present.

But in non-dual Dzogchen, "distraction" is itself rigpa appearing as those "distracting thoughts".

ALL thoughts and resulting actions are rigpa in action. Knowing this, what's the point of a meditative practice or an effort to select out some mental states as being more optimum than others?

In the Great Perfection could some phenomena be more or less perfect than others? Relax, your enlightenment project was completed before it even got started!

Attempting to maintain mindfulness as an antidote to distraction, is itself a distraction from the Natural State.

From another thread:

Yes, I too know most of this.. I was there, but in Conway, and Norbu mentioned Tenzin tried to “take” some of Norbu’s disciples. And… Norbu was angry with John for announcing in a break, about his new book on Bon Po thogal.

No, I was taught Bonpo thogal by the Menri Lopon
at Tenzin’s center, Serenity Ridge. As per Shardza, it’s identical to Nyingma but with some additional postures. I believe the key is the exposing the eyes/brain to direct sunlight is what transforms consciousness. The thigles are just a distraction. I was taught sungazing by my Sufi teacher in Kashmir and sungazing by my Kabbalah teacher in Israel. Both claim the Body of Light results. Same with the Taoist Maoshan tradition; who I believe Vimalamitra learned thogal from.

In general, ALL this seeking and special practices are just more self-centered egoic grasping and selfing, seeking for immortality and supernatural experiences, all quite exciting for the egoic mind (as generated by the neurons)?.

Longchenpa makes an astonishing commentary on a portion from the Dzogchen Semde root tantra, the Kunje Gyalpo. I have included both Longchenpa's commentary and the relevant text from the Kunje Gyalpo. Quotes are from Longchenpa's The Precious Treasury of the Basic Space of Phenomena, published by Padma Publishing. My comments are beneath the KJG quotes below.

"Spontaneously present meditative stability, settled in its own place, is understood to be ongoing, like the flow of a river, without having to be deliberately cultivated. Within that context, everything arises as the true nature of phenomena, and so there is no error or obscuration, no dullness or agitation, no distraction or even the lack of it, because any object of distraction arises as the display of that nature."

From the Kunje Gyalpo:

To ignore what is inherent and seek afar for something else,
eagerly trying to arouse the bliss that requires no effort... there is no greater debility than this.
Undistracted meditative absorption is a stake that tethers one to reification.

With respect to what is and always has been , there is no distraction, nothing to be lost.

Undistracted meditative absorption seduces one with hope.

Such are the Mahayana approaches based on either causes or results,
which reveal what is provisional....
With respect to what is and always has been, there is no distraction, no loss.

The state in which nothing need be done transcends all effort and achievement."

Jackson: Notice above where Longchenpa says "any object of distraction arises as the display of that nature." In other words, whatever you are distracted by is itself the display of Rigpa and so you are actually still noticing Rigpa's display.

As an example, when you are simply present to the here and now observing the sky, while observing the sky, a strong distracting thought or image enters your mind. Suddenly you are no longer in the here and now noticing the sky, but rather you are observing this thought. This is in traditional Mahayana vehicles of meditation considered to be distraction and is taught to be avoided and corrected. One is taught to stay in here and now awareness. But Longchenpa is saying those distracting thoughts are themselves just as valid as the sky as 'objects of experience'. Those thoughts are also occurring in the here and now, so when you are observing thoughts or images you are also fully in here and now presence. Both the sky and thoughts are equally Rigpa's pure display.

So in this way it is understood that distraction is impossible. If this extremely subtle and vital point is understood, all effort at trying to maintain an undistracted state drops away. All experiences of every kind are equally the display of Rigpa. Then one may ask: Well, ok ... then what exactly do I do when practicing Dzogchen? Great question! But it must remain unanswered, or else the answer will be turned into a new something to do. In Dzogchen the notion that there is something to do or practice is considered an illness. You are already Rigpa Awareness, what would be the point of doing something in order to become what you already are?

If you need to have some god to pray to:

Pray to your 80 billion neurons, because they create your every thought, your dreams, your plans, your intentions, your memory, all sights, sounds, flavors, odors, sensations, feelings, ideas, emotions, your mental health, body movements, your sense of self, your behaviors, your actions, your ability to understand language, to speak in words, to laugh, to cry, to fall in love, to make love and have a positive outlook on life and to enjoy just being alive!

? Om Tat Sat, Neuron, Neuron Bodhi Svaha! ?

In Dzogchen, we don't modify, change, reject, delete, add, purify or alter anything in experience. We leave all "inner" and "outer" phenomena or appearances exactly "as-is". We also don't hope for a betterment or fear a possible detriment.

Whatever appears, however it appears is left as-is. In this way it is realized that all and every experience is already It. That's why there are no "levels" in Dzogchen.

How much effort does it take to experience "experience"?

JP

“Because the organs are complete, then the light body endures. In the same way that a shadow always accompanies the body, there is a light body existing wherever the phenomena of the dharmatā arise.” This is the dawning of the dharmatā bardo. If one is going to be liberated in the dharmatā bardo, then now gradually stage by stage there will be the stages of dissolution into inner radiance by means of the eight gateways; and that will lead to the exhaustion of spontaneously present phenomena in the inner radiance of basic space, and liberation will occur. If there’s not going to be liberation, then there is still the opportunity to awaken and take one’s breath in the natural nirmāṇakāya realms. Or one can move on into the bardo of becoming because one is still in a magical mind body; one will see the six realms of beings, and one will aspire to go into one’s next state of rebirth. While in the dharmatā bardo, this body of light still has the phenomena of the sensory organs being complete; the faculties are complete. All different kinds of phenomena are occurring and particularly the phenomena of being embodied, but it is a light body; it exists based upon that. It’s rather similar to awareness maturing as a kāya. We can say that it is similar to that, but it’s posited to be a light body.”

For the benefit of students of Dzogchen

After Death, and the Bardo

Dzogchen Khenpo Namdrol Rinpoche:

“This spontaneously present wisdom presence is in your heart, and also this rigpa (Awareness) is in the chamber of your brain.”

“After that moment, awareness comes up and out of the light channel that is like a silken thread and is connecting between the heart and the eyes through the channel of the water luminosity that sees from afar, gyang zhak chu yi dronma, which is this luminosity that is actually connecting up from the heart through to the pupils.”

“Rigpa moves up through that (and goes out through the eyes) and comes out into the basic space of the sky.”

Now, the corpse and rigpa are definitely separated, and this is the moment when the phenomena of the dharmatā bardo dawns.

It is abiding in all of your light channels throughout your body; it is abiding in your eyes. Because it’s abiding now within you in this way, basically everywhere, that’s what’s going to arise in the dharmatā bardo. When the four elements of the ordinary body dissolve and the body dies, that’s the time that rigpa separates from the body. So, this aspect of rigpa now becomes arising, you might say metaphorically, appearing in the basic space of the sky; and that’s when dharmatā bardo phenomena begin to arise from within rigpa. I would like to bring in a quote from the Precious Treasury of the Supreme Vehicle because it is such an authentic source for you to gain more confidence in this explanation, and it’s only beneficial to hear the words from this treasure. That quote was read, and to interpret it: the five winds dissolve at the time that we die. These five prāṇas dissolve; they vanish into basic space. When there is no longer the karmic wind in our lungs, then what happens is that the triune wisdoms in the heart—this rigpa and rigpa’s radiance, this aspect of cognizant awareness—go into the lungs. But the karmic wind of the lungs is no longer there. Now, the radiance of awareness is free to exist there, and it is existing connately with what was the source for the arising of dualistic phenomena. But at the time of death, because the five winds dissolve, then the wind in the lung also dissolves into basic space. Now, one is free from the karmic wind; one has been set free from that. Therefore, the awareness of the heart can go through that pathway; and actually the mind and the mental events, including the ālaya or the basis of all, are all temporarily arrested. “Temporarily arrested” means that they are rendered dormant. It is at that moment that rigpa’s cognizant radiance is abiding solely that we experience what is called the chi sid chö ku, which is the dharmakāya of the moment of death. If there is a strong awareness that can be sustained at that time, one can be liberated in the dharmakāya of the moment of death because the mind and all of its mental events are rendered dormant and temporarily arrested. There is now a separation between saṃsāra and that which transcends saṃsāra, so it’s only a transcendental state. And the nature of the dharmakāya of the moment of death is dawning, so there is a possibility for liberation at that moment. After that moment, awareness comes up and out of the light channel that is like a silken thread and is connecting between the heart and the eyes through the channel of the water luminosity that sees from afar, gyang zhak chu yi dronma, which is this luminosity that is actually connecting up from the heart through to the pupils.

Rigpa moves up through that and comes out into the basic space of the sky.

Now, the corpse and rigpa are definitely separated, and this is the moment when the phenomena of the dharmatā bardo dawns. There’s no longer the support of a body, there’s no bardo of becoming, and there’s no corporeal body. But there is the phenomena of a body, which is considered to be or posited to be a body. It is as the Dra tal gyur, the Reverberation of Sound, root tantra states:

The great Buddhist teacher and Dzogchen master, Longchenpa wrote:

Your mind is the Buddha Mind,
With thoughts it is the samsaric mind,
That same mind without thoughts, is the Buddha Mind

An Ode to Madhyamaka

No Separate Places nor Separate Times

Nirvana and samsara won’t be found in separate places nor in separate times: the empty nature of samsara is itself nirvana. Not seeing the empty nature of nirvana is itself samsara.

Pure Awareness and afflicted mind won’t be found in separate places nor in separate times. The empty “knowing” nature of the afflicted mind is itself Pure Awareness. Not seeing and knowing the empty nature of Pure Awareness is the afflicted mind.

The ego-self and no-self won’t be found in separate places nor in separate times. The empty nature of the ego-self is indeed the no-self. Clinging to the empty nature of the no-self is indeed itself, the presence of the ego-self. The imagined non-existence of the one, is the imagined existence of the other.

Wisdom and ignorance won’t be found in separate places nor in separate times. Seeing the empty nature of the ignorant mind, is itself wisdom. Not seeing the empty nature of wisdom is indeed ignorance not seen.

Obstacles and release won’t be found in separate places nor in separate times. The empty nature of obstacles is their own release. Not seeing the empty nature of freedom and release, we are bound and obstacled by our own freedom and shackled without release.

We won’t find peace and turbulence in separate places nor in separate times. The empty nature of turbulence is itself our long sought peace. Not seeing the empty nature of our peace, we turn peace into turbulence, like crashing waves that never seem to cease.

The Buddha Mind and samsaric mind won’t be found in separate places nor in separate times, seeing the emptiness of the samsaric mind, is the appearance of the Buddha Mind, as all karmic thoughts self-release.

Not seeing the true nature of our current state of mind, we hope for a future transformation and release; by clearly seeing the true nature of our current condition, as being the Buddha Mind itself, all seeking and suffering cease.

Listen to this video below closely! It’s the heart of the Dzogchen “view”.

Life, however experienced or however occurring, is always an unfolding of non-stop Perfection. This is the Dzogchen view, hence nothing to change or strive for. All mental, emotional, physical states and events are primordially perfect just as they are!

Perfection can’t be enhanced, so total relaxation and utter laziness is perfect practice! Relax! The path leads to what already is our daily life, without needing something further to be accomplished!

Your life was already always perfect!

How can one attain what is already occurring as one’s ordinary life? Hence no effort is required.

Since the Great Perfection is all there is, and unfolds all by itself, no individual selves exist to intervene through thought or action, yet thoughts and actions occur dependently!

In Dzogchen and Sufism, each moment is perfect however it appears; with no exceptions!

Trusting in this Perfection, under all conditions, the Natural Bliss of Being fully becomes a felt Reality!

https://youtu.be/CT4fFjY5CKk

YouTube

Dzogchen by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

A Dharma teaching on Dzogchen by HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. From www.nyingma.com Created with http://tovid.io