A very brief introduction by Lama Kunzang Rinpoche with my own comments in brackets.

It is now in the present century, that for the first time, the West is beginning to learn something of the ancient mystical teachings of Tantra Yoga and nondualist Dzogchen. More and more the term Dzogchen* is becoming known amongst various circles of spiritual Seekers of the Truth in Europe and America. So, what is Dzogchen?

Dzogchen is a tantric teaching concerning the true nature of the human mind. In the ancient Dzogchen Tantras, or secret treatises, it is revealed how through meditation and insight one can learn the way of coming to know one's own true nature. Indeed, Dzogchen in particular shows us that our own true nature or ultimate identity is neither the body nor the consciousness, but rather, an immaculate and absolute original Awareness, which in the Tantras is described as being the Adi-Buddha, the Primordial Absolute itself. Original Awareness - the very ground of being - is essentially nondual, self-luminous, and imbued with blissful love. The yogi or yogini who, through the methods of Dzogchen meditation, awakens to his or her true nature, likewise experiences this profound state of absolute totality, luminosity and clarity, and boundless love. To experience that is to make life meaningful. It is to know the ultimate divine beauty of one's Essence. That knowing is perfect peace. [Words can sometimes create their own barriers, but forget nirvana and samara, what is the experience like? Calling it primordial awareness is probably the best description. It is that awareness as you wake before waking, and as you fall asleep before sleeping. It is even possible to be asleep and still retain this awareness.]

The purpose of the Dzogchen teacher or guru is to guide the spiritual seeker towards a recognition of their own ultimate identity as primordial Awareness and then teach them how to stabilize in the consciousness so that liberation may unfold naturally. The uniqueness of Dzogchen is the way in which it brings about a precise experience of the Enlightened state, which is the direct experience of the Absolute, in this very lifetime. [Dzogchen is indeed unique in having a philosophy of the here and now and empowering the individual to recognise their true nature in this lifetime. It is also astonishingly free of dogma, so much so that Dzogchen exists both within Buddhist and Bon schools and in the West has now almost broken free to become independent of both.]

An important step to understand Dzogchen is to distinguish between the nature of relative consciousness (called *citta* in Sanskrit), and the primordially pure, nondual Awareness (known as *vidya*) which is the essence of mind. As Santideva says in the Bodhicaryavatara: "The Absolute is beyond consciousness; that which is within the realm of consciousness is called the relative." It is this Awareness that the Dzogchen guru introduces to the seeker, and recognizing that is what is called acquiring the Dzogchen View. As the great Dzogchen master Patrul Rinpoche used to say: "The essence of mind, the face of Awareness, is introduced (to the seeker) at the very instant that conceptual consciousness is transcended." [In Hindu and Buddhist philosophy the study of consciousness is of fundamental importance. All the senses and the rational and conceptual mind are seen as consciousnesses, so what are we left with if all those are removed? The answer is our primordial awareness, which once experienced can make our consciousnesses function in their pure forms without being distorted by our fears, beliefs, neurosis or any other psychic knots.]

To approach the teachings of Dzogchen there are preliminary meditation practices. Our late teacher Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche emphasized the importance of these preliminaries when he said: "Without the preliminaries, or foundation practices, the main practice [of Dzogchen] will not resist deluded thoughts, and carried away by circumstances the mind will be unstable." Therefore the Dzogchen gurus introduce the teachings of Dzogchen step-by-step, normally beginning with various preliminaries so as to lead devotees into the profound methods of Buddhist tantra safely and carefully. [This is the advice given to any student of tantra - be careful and be fearless at the same time. However, the question does arise as to whether everyone needs to have a teacher. One other liberating piece of Dzogchen philosophy is that as one is merely discovering one's own natural mind then it seems obvious that one can achieve this oneself, without any fanciful spiritual practices. Indeed, this is possible and Dzogchen in no way excludes this possibility, just that it might be easier with a map and a guide.]

Longer article here.

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