Dzogchen

Abstract

Dzogchen, often translated as “the great perfection,” is a tradition of meditation practice and poetic literary expression in Tibetan Buddhism. Though its origins lie in Indic Buddhism, Dzogchen developed a distinct form of practice and literary expression only in Tibet. In general, Dzogchen texts evoke and discuss a state of awareness present in all living beings that transcends dualities and conceptual elaboration. Common terms for this state of awareness are “mind itself” (sems nyid) and “awareness” (rig pa). Dzogchen literature often states that in the presence of this awareness, religious practice oriented toward enlightenment is dualistic and, therefore, not only unnecessary, but also obstructive. Nevertheless, Dzogchen is usually integrated with other forms of Buddhist practice. The Dzogchen tradition encompasses a variety of literature and practice; the most common way of categorizing this is a division into three classes, the mind series, the space series, and the instruction series. The mind series contains most of the early Dzogchen literature, and more recent material in the same style. The space series enjoyed only limited popularity, and little is known of it today. The instruction series, by contrast, increased in popularity from its appearance in the 11th century and in time supplanted the mind series and the space series, ultimately becoming the predominant form of Dzogchen. The practice of Dzogchen requires an authorized teacher and the ritual transmission of key texts, as well as an “introduction” to the nature of the mind given by the teacher to the student. The main scriptural sources of Dzogchen practice are texts held to be translations collected in semicanonical compendia, treatises by Tibetan scholars, and revealed texts known as terma, usually said to have been concealed in the 8th century by the tantric master Padmasambhava. Dzogchen is a living tradition, taught within all of the main Tibetan Buddhist schools, though it remains closely associated with the Nyingma school. Within the latter, Dzogchen is considered to be the most advanced of Buddhist meditation practices, placed at the top of a ninefold categorization of Buddhist practice, the “nine vehicles.” Known in this context as atiyoga, “the utmost yoga,” it is the highest of the three “inner yogas,” the other two being mahāyoga and anuyoga. Dzogchen is also at the pinnacle of the teachings of Tibet’s Bonpo religion, which shares much of its doctrine with the Nyingma school and has in recent years been formally identified as one of the Buddhist schools of Tibet.

Investigating the phenomenological matrix of mindfulness-related practices from a neurocognitive perspective.

“…Overall, this model is especially inspired by the formal practices of mindfulness found in various contemporary contexts, including the many mindfulness-based therapies now in use as well as Buddhist practices in various traditions. Sources for this account are primarily the written instructions and descriptions found in the psychotherapeutic literature (Kabat-Zinn, 1990; Segal, Williams, Teasdale, & Kabat-Zinn, 2012), Buddhist traditional accounts (dBaṅ-phyug-rdo-rje, 2009; Gunaratana, 2002; Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi, 2009; Namgyal et al, 2004) and contemporary meditation manuals (Goldstein & Kornfield, 2001; Suzuki & Chadwick, 2011), along with scholarly analyses of traditional practices (Anālayo, 2003; Bodhi, 2011; Dreyfus, 2011; Dunne, 2011, 2105; Gethin, 2011; Sharf, 2014; Van Schaik, 2004). As conveyed in Figure 1, points plotted in the model’s multidimensional space are thus hypothetical, in that they are not yet supported clearly by phenomenological data gathered from practitioners.…”

“…Although this explicit emphasis on loving-kindness does not appear to have been an element in Burmese practice itself (Fronsdal, 1998), traditional textual sources do maintain that, for meditation practice, one must sustain an attitude of “non-aversion” (Pali, adosa )—a term that can be interpreted to mean loving-kindness (Buddhaghosa, 1976). In the Tibetan practices that can be construed as styles of mindfulness, such as one-pointed focused attention meditation and Dzogchen meditation, a session of formal meditation inevitably includes the cultivation of compassion (Van Schaik, 2004), and although some other Buddhist traditions such as Zen may not explicitly thematize compassion or loving-kindness, they often use aesthetic appreciation as a means to generate the appropriate affective context for meditation practice (Carter, 2007). Thus, although mindfulness meditation can be embedded within a wide range of affective frames (such as acceptance, loving-kindness, compassion, non-aversion or aesthetic appreciation), important to the practice is a common assumption of the need to cultivate a positive—or at least non-aversive—affective attitude.…”