I’m a burnt-out Christian that just recently got involved with an online Dzogchen sangha. I’m at heart an Abrahamic monotheist, and it’s difficult for me to wrap my head around deity worship. Is this the wrong path for me?

Is there something about Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism in general that initiates problems for the practitioner?

A few reasons I ask:

• A lama at a talk I attended had a whole teaching about "karmic debts" and explained that when we step on the buddhist path, we might encounter misfortune because we are paying back our karmic debts in this lifetime. He explained we usually encounter obstacles more gently than we would have otherwise throughout many lifetimes.

• Was just reading something by Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche about Dzogchen yesterday where he described the path as having "major benefits and minor hindrances" (he might have said obstacles or something other than hindrances, but I can't find the page or the book now—it was either in Dzogchen Deity Practice, As It Is Vol. 2 or Vajra Speech).

• Dzogchen Community students have told me different things over the years such as that dharma protectors "will fuck you up" if you don't practice right (isn't that nice?). Somewhat related, I think, Namkhai Norbu used to say that when your practice is good that everything goes smoothly and everything will work out well.

I know people always talk about risks of not following vows or precepts and risks of doing different practices you're not ready for or not authorized to do, but I'm just wondering if there are inherent risks of stepping on the Buddhist or Dzogchen path in general. Is it like signing up for an obstacle course in order to improve yourself?

Lama Lena demonstrated how to do quick glances at tawa while you're in the middle of having a conversation today. She did it together with the student who asked about it. I found it inspiring and helpful. Hopefully it makes sense cued up out of context:

https://www.youtube.com/live/MgRub-ivgWc?si=yVxdJS-SPexs2xH1&t=5424

If not and/or if you're inspired by it, the whole retreat is worth watching. Three Words of Garab Dorje (New Orleans) here.

https://www.youtube.com/@LamaLenaTeachings/streams

I'm accustomed to practicing trekchö in the relatively quiet space of my home, but last night I was at a gameboard night with a local community association, and found that not only did trekchö seem easier in that setting, it seemed much clearer because there was activity going on around me - sound, voices, movement, etc.

I'm curious to know if anyone else can relate to this?

Hi, I‘m new to Buddhism and would like to learn more specifically about Dzogchen. So do you guys have any recommendations for the best books on the topic?

Saṁyutta Nikāya 1.62. Mind.

“By what is the world led around? By what is it dragged here and there? What is the one thing that has All under its control?”

“The world is led around by mind;
By mind it’s dragged here and there.
Mind is the one thing that has All under its control.”

I rememeber Namkhai Norbu used to say you can keep all your commitments and do your practices from other teachers but it's best to do them "dzogchen way" by beginning with A and encapsulating your other practices from with that view and then finish by dedicating merits, presumably the dzogchen way according to his instructions.

I'm just wondering how you can maintain both perspectives at once. If I'm going to Tara as a student visualizing her in front and generating compassion, that's a whole different frame of mind than the one I'm in while doing A or singing SOV.

Along these lines, NN specifically disagreed with the practice of another lineage. He said (paraphrasing), "some people believe this is the mantra of Red Tara, but that is not true." So, I don't know what to think about that, but if I wanted to do Red Tara within NN's lineage and do it "the dzogchen way," there's seemingly an additional conflict there. I know he said elsewhere to do your practices according to whatever your teacher taught, so I've been just using that mantra as Red Tara sometimes and other times as NN used it without worrying much about it, but it is a niggling detail in the back of my head that doesn't help my practice any to wonder about.

Honestly, I think I had some of my best peaceful feeling mind-blowing moments doing Red Tara prior to dzogchen introduction or even having taken my vows. I caught a glimpse of something profoundly empty and clear and blissful that I could feel in my mind and heart, which I became more familiar with after receiving introduction and doing dzogchen practice daily. But it was more mind-blowing and blissfully peaceful those first couple of times it just spontaneously happened after finished Red Tara practice. I bet the difference was that I had a genuine, heartfelt intention in those beginning early days... but dzogchen seems more abstract. I don't sit down to do dzogchen practice with those feelings of being sad for all beings and compassionate and hopeful and going to Tara for help. I go to dzogchen practice with the Intention of not having a lot of thoughts or emotions. So, I feel peaceful and like a clean slate after, but it is different.

And that's why I'm wondering how you can do something like a regular Red Tara practice "encapsulated in dzogchen way." How can you maintain that spacious dzogchen view and generate those emotions at the same time? It seems like generating those emotions cancels out the dzogchen view.

KHORDE RUSHEN- YEAR 3 Dates: Every Tuesday – from June 25 – Sept 10, 2024 Time: 12:00 – 2:00 pm CST (Chicago time) Online – recordings will be made available after the teaching

New students are welcome to attend this teaching, but will be required to go through the videos of the 2022 & 2023 course to get the instructions on the practice cycle.

New students are encouraged to register early in order to gain access the the videos and begin to view them before the course begins in May. There are 50 hours of teachings to catch up with! In addition the full manual is included.

https://www.phurbathinleyling.org/product/khorderushenyear3/

Hi, I'm travelling for a bit and would like to do a mahamudra or dzogchen retreat. Can anyone recommend a teacher or retreat centre in Europe, Asia or America? Thanks in advance

I just don't want to get into advanced topics I've never been taught such as thogal, or anything beyond basic trechko really. Would volume 1 be appropriate in my case?

If we remain focused outwardly and enthralled with intellectualizing the view, this is exactly what is meant when the Great Perfection speaks of being “spoiled by concepts and fabrication.”

If we direct our mind outwardly while learning teachings on the view, this is exactly what will happen. But if we look within, into our own mind, we will certainly gain actual experience through the oral instructions of our teachers. We will practice in accordance with the buddhadharma and gain true experience and realization.

– Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche

from the book "The Fearless Lion's Roar: Profound Instructions on Dzogchen, the Great Perfection"

translated by David Christensen

If thoughts are not self, then who decides to rest as open awareness and witness all conditions e.g. thoughts, sensations etc. arise and pass away & not identify with this conditioned phenomena?

Open awareness doesn’t feel like a self it is very neutral, peaceful, unconditioned, unchanging etc. but is it conditioned phenomena “nature itself” that decides to rest in this open awareness.

This really confuses me and I would appreciate any input that can be offered to clear up my misunderstandings. Thanks!

Hello everyone! I’m a long-time practitioner and student of several traditions, including Mahamudra, Dzogchen, and several Hindu traditions. I would love to find a Dzogchen teacher or community in Austin, Texas. I’ve tried searching online, but I haven’t had much luck. I’d love to get involved with a teacher or community which is focused on the deeper teachings. If anyone can help me, please reach out!

Hello - have been a long time Buddhist practioner, primarily in the Kagyu and Shambhala traditions. I have done many retreats, mostly practicing shamatha, and shamatha-vipassna. Lately I have been practicing in the Tara’s Triple Excellence online program. I have also been reading about Dzogchen and following this reddit, and last week I listened to the pointing out instructions from Lana Lena on youtube, and today i listened to part two. I had had an experience at a retreat over the holidays which I thought similar to the insight of the pointing out instructions. We had been doing shamatha-vipassna as taught in the Shambhala tradition, and the retreat instructor had said that our thoughts are like a bull in a China shop - they could be very destructive, but in our meditation we were giving the bull of our thoughts a wide open meadow so they could do no damage. We went back to sitting, this time with eyes raised and taking in our surroundings. I settled down and thoughts started to emerge, and the i had the thought to “notice the meadow” in which my thoughts were arising. Immediately, my mind opened to a vast expense. It was like the separation between inner and outer had dissolved, and this impression continued for the rest of my sit. Later that day, in the same retreat, the instructor led us in a Tonglen practice. At the beginning instruction to flash absolute bodhicitta, I had the same experience of expanse and dissolving. I had never understood that part of the instruction before. Since the retreat, I have been having a similar experience whenever I sit meditation, and seem able to access brief flashes of it at anytime during my day. After watching Lama Lena’s pointing out instructions, which again elicited the same response, I think that what I glimpsed was rigpa. When she said “the doer is the where not the what”, this resonated with my experience in the retreat and my understanding of my reading on Dzogchen since. Am I on the right track? Any advice on that or where my practice might go from here would be greatly appreciated.

My first ever online Dzogchen weekend retreat is coming up in less than a month. I’m not a student of Lama Lena’s, but when I spotted this on her website, it made me wonder if there are any hidden dangers that I’m not aware of. I know that some forms of meditation can be deeply destabilizing for prone to psychosis (schizophrenia/bipolar), but as I haven’t been diagnosed with either I haven’t really been concerned in this regard.

“It is unfortunately true that a heavy seriousness tends to pervade texts on the Dzogchen view; but perhaps that is inevitable in works that purport to resolve our every existential quandary. Yet evidently in the work of providing meaningful commentary and translation of Dzogchen texts something crucial in the heart of Dzogchen is being forfeited. This essence of Dzogchen may be characterized as a lightness of being, humor, and laid back detachment, spontaneous joy and an uninhibited freedom of expression. Perhaps these qualities will emerge here in this work through an understanding of Longchenpa’s intent, but we need to apologize, immediately, for any failure to uphold the cosmic joke, full of joyful laughter, or to induce a dance of cosmic energy involving all life and work, and a pacific play of light that is free of all pain and anxiety. The exemplar of Dzogchen may be anonymous, but he is also the divine madman—or the urban yogi—jumping through decisive moments in life as easily as through the most trivial dilemma, gleefully shouting the absurdity of existence from the rooftops, and asserting the essential beauty of the human predicament. This Dzogchen text should be read as a paean “of joy that loosens every knot, opens up every attenuation, and softens every hardening of the psychic arteries in a resolution of the anxiety that marks human embodiment.”

Excerpt From Natural Perfection: Longchenpa's Radical Dzogchen Keith Dowman

Recently been fascinated with Bön as I’m in a thögal class. Does anyone have any book recommendations for beginners? And any accessible online sanghas to join?

In his Finding Rest in Illusion, Longchenpa says:

"pray that you may train successfully in seeing all things as a dream."

Is "seeing things as dreams" represented in a specific dzogchen practice?

Longchenpa is so pithy, he should be called Shortchenpa!

-Yeshe Nyingpo