Dzogchen (rDzogs chen)

Abstract

Dzogchen is a Tibetan word meaning “great” (rdzogs) “perfection” or “completion” (chen). It refers to a genre of Buddhist texts and associated oral transmissions and meditation practices in Tibet’s Buddhist and Bonpo traditions. In general, Dzogchen texts express the presence of a state of awareness transcending all dualities and conceptual elaborations. Common terms for this kind of awareness are “mind itself” (sems nyid) and “knowing” (rig pa). Dzogchen texts often state that in the presence of this awareness, religious practice oriented toward enlightenment is dualistic and, therefore, not only unnecessary but also obstructive. However, Dzogchen texts and oral transmissions have tended to exist in the context of Tibet’s tantric traditions. Dzogchen is considered one of the three “inner yogas,” which are Mahāyoga, Anuyoga, and Atiyoga. In most contexts, Atiyoga is synonymous with Dzogchen. Of Tibet’s main schools, it is the Nyingma lineages that have produced and transmitted most of the Dzogchen literature, though Dzogchen has also been transmitted in the Kagyü schools and, to a much lesser extent, in the Sakya and Gelug schools as well.

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 (Dbaṇ-phyug-rdo-rje, 2009; Gunaratana, 2002; Namgyal et al, 2004; Ñāṇamoli & Bodhi, 2009), 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, 2015; 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 nonaversion (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 (FA) 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, nonaversion or aesthetic appreciation), important to the practice is a common assumption of the need to cultivate a positive—or at least nonaversive—affective attitude.…”

When mindfulness is therapy: Ethical qualms, historical perspectives.

“…They had also taught that the more proficient one becomes in one’s practice, the less important formal ethics outside practice time becomes—because practice itself was thought to release one’s innate capacity for wisdom and compassion. And they had likewise maintained that one should cultivate a nonjudgmental attitude in formal meditation, and not judge one’s mental states to be good or bad, ethical or unethical (DiValerio, 2011; Dunne, 2011, 2015; Faure, 1994, 1996; Karma Wangchûg Dorjé, 2006; Sharf, 1995, 2014; Van Schaik, 2004; for an alternative opinion outside Buddhist studies, see Shonin, Van Gordon, & Griffiths, 2014).…”

Tibetan Sky-Gazing Meditation and the Pre-History of Great Perfection Buddhism

“…de la sems kyi yul 'khrul snang 'khor ba'i chos te bsdu na gzugs sgra dri ro reg dang chos te drug go/ 'di dag sems kyi bag chags las skra shad kyi rnam par snang ba ste/ gang la snang na 'khrul pa'i sems la snang ba' o/ ye shes kyi yul ni dag pa'i chos nyid nam mkha' lta bu dang/ 'od gsal gyi snang ba sku dang ye shes kyi zhing snang rgya che ba rnams so. As Sam van Schaik notes, if the latter is a gradualist approach, which "is often associated with learning, meritorious works, and the practice of morality, " the simultaneist perspective "is often held to transcend such religious and philosophical activities, in fact to transcend all ordinary activities" ( Van Schaik 2004b). it embraces "no method except direct insight, and no progress over time, only the single moment of realization" ( Van Schaik 2004b, 11).…”