DOCTRINE and PRACTICE in the DZOGCHEN TRADITION This Chapter Has Two Goals
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CHAPTER FOUR DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE IN THE DZOGCHEN TRADITION This chapter has two goals: (1) to present selected doctrines and practices of the Tibetan Buddhist1 tradition known as Dzogchen (rdzogs-chen), and (2) to briefly discuss how these doctrines and prac- tices may affect the consciousness of the Dzogchen practitioner (an extended discussion of this second topic is reserved for the last chap- ter). With respect to the first goal, my intent is not an exhaustive survey of Dzogchen’s history, doctrines, and/or practices;2 the com- plexity of the tradition makes a complete discussion of Dzogchen impossible here. Dzogchen has been practiced in Tibet for at least eleven hundred years by both Buddhists and Bonpos. Its doctrines and practices have evolved through various different oral and tex- tual transmissions. And though Tibetans have created refined sys- temizations of Dzogchen teachings, these systems are themselves nuanced, complex, and elaborate. For these reasons, this chapter is necessarily selective, focusing on identifying, and to some degree con- textualizing, a few core themes of the tradition. Dzogchen, in simplest terms, is a philosophical and meditative tradition of Tibet. Its name is an abbreviation of rdzogs-pa chen-po. rDzogs-pa may be variously translated as “to be complete,” “full,” “exhausted in,” etc. while chen-po means “big” or “great.”3 Herbert 1 Dzogchen is not exclusively Buddhist, but is also practiced in Tibetan Bon. Some Tibetan Buddhists claim that Dzogchen is not Buddhist—that it is really a disguised form of Hindu theism. While Dzogchen is a departure from more con- ventional Buddhist teachings associated with Nikàya and Mahàyàna Buddhism, and may even have elements interpretable as theistic, this is completely irrelevant to the fact that Dzogchen has been (and is) practiced by Buddhists as a Buddhist tradition. 2 To my knowledge, the best and most comprehensive scholarly discussion of Dzogchen is Samten Gyaltsen Karmay’s The Great Perfection (rDzogs-chen): A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching in Tibetan Buddhism (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1988). See also David Germano, “Architecture and Absence in the Secret Tantric History of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen),” The Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 17/2 (Winter 1994): 203–335. 3 Gareth Sparham, trans., Dzog-chen Meditation, a translation of the Rdor sems thugs kyi sgrub pa’i khrid yig rab gsal snang ba, by ‘Jam-dbyangs-don-grub, Sga-rje Khams-sprul, 126 chapter four Guenther has suggested several English renderings of the term: “ulti- mate completeness,” “sublime wholeness,” “impeccable entirety,” and “supercompleteness.”4 The most common translation—and the one that will be used here—is Great Perfection.5 According to John Reynolds, the Great Perfection “is so called because it is complete and perfect (rdzogs-pa) in itself, with nothing lacking, and because there exists nothing higher or greater (chen-po) than it.”6 The “great- ness” of Dzogchen is associated with the distinctive nature of its doc- trines and path. For example, Dzogchen posits innate and natural perfection as the individual’s “ever-present” and permanent condi- tion and maintains that the simplicity of immediate awareness, uncon- ditioned by any concept, symbol, practice, etc., constitutes a direct path to realizing this perfection.7 Among Tibetan Buddhists, Dzogchen is primarily associated with the Nyingma School, where it is considered the most advanced of the Nine Paths or Yànas (Tib. theg-pa) of Buddhism.8 The Nine Paths explained in Tibetan by Khamtul Rinpoche. Bibliotheca Indo-Buddhica Series, no. 133 (Delhi, India: Sri Satguru Publications, 1994), 1. 4 Guenther, From Reductionism to Creativity, 184. 5 Because Tibetan Buddhists of the Nyingma School believe Dzogchen to have originated in India or the quasi-mythical kingdom of U∂∂iyàna (or O∂∂iyàna in some sources), the term rdzogs-chen is considered to be a translation of an original Sanskrit term, variously reconstructed as mahàsandhi, mahasanti, mahàsampatra, and mahàshànti. John Myrdhin Reynolds, trans., Self-Liberation Through Seeing with Naked Awareness (Barrytown, NY: Station Hill Press, 1989), 4; Sonam T. Kazi, introduc- tion to The Oral Instruction of Kün-Zang La-Ma on the Preliminary Practices of Dzog-ch’en Long-ch’en Nying-Tig, by Kün-zang La-may Zhal-lung, trans. Sonam T. Kazi (Upper Montclair, NJ: Diamond-Lotus Publishing, 1993), xxvii; Sparham, Dzog-chen Meditation, 4; Tulku Thondup, trans., The Dzog-chen: Preliminary Practice of the Innermost Essence; The Long-chen nying-thig ngon-dro with Original Tibetan Root Text, by Jigme Lingpa [’Jigs- med gling-pa, b. 1730] (Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1982), vii, x. Because of the absence of any Dzogchen texts in Sanskrit, the Indian origins of Dzogchen have tended to be questioned by modern scholars. See pp. 136–7 below. 6 John Myrdhin Reynolds, trans., The Golden Letters: The Three Statements of Garab Dorje, the First Teacher of Dzogchen, attributed to Garab Dorje [dGa’-rab rdo-rje], with a commentary by Dza Patrul Rinpoche, entitled The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications, 1996), 21. 7 Dilgo Khentse Rinpoche, “Maha-Ati,” in Psychology 107 Class Reader, compiled by Eleanor Rosch (Berkeley, CA: By the compiler, University of California, 1993), 379; Reynolds, Golden Letters, 22. 8 The esteem accorded Dzogchen is by no means universal among Tibetan Buddhists. Some non-Nyingmapas (i.e., members of either the Kagyupa, Sakyapa, or Gelugpa Schools) have been highly critical of Dzogchen, claiming that it is either not really Buddhism or that it is a covert form of Ch’an. Reynolds, Golden Letters, 218, 220, 263. See also Geoffrey Samuel, Civilized Shamans: Buddhism in Tibetan Societies (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1993), 463. On the other hand,.