Apech

May I ask who is your teacher and what is his lineage?

May I ask if anyone on here actually practices Dzogchen as their main practice.

Because you are all obsessed with Dzogchen terminology

Rigpa = vidhya which is the opposite of avidhya = ignorance. So I suppose you could translate rigpa as non-ignorance. I think the context of this is the first 'step' in the chain of dependent origination ... which gives rise to suffering based on not seeing things as they really are.

3 degrees quite hot really

Anyway not to be outdone: The Moon and Spring we don’t write about death only about life the dead do not write just as the chicken that's now in the pot didn't know the recipe line after line I write about life I could do the same about the moon or birds or spring but with the ground the sky and the days to come I make a box and when the birds the spring or pleasures manage to distract me poets’ muse though they may be I choose not to write

If you turn the clocks forward in spring ... then you lose a hours sleep surely????? Or am I confused. We don't do this till end of March.

Nice to see you back Vmarco.

That's otter rubbish!

They don't. Yes they do! No they don't! Prove it! Why should I? Make me! Fascist! Nazi!!! Hey compassion, man. Oh yeah. Peace. Sure. Love. What? I said love. Oh fuck off.

Can I just add that it would be very surprising if the TTC and ZZ were not amalgamated and with several 'layers'. Simply because texts from this early period everywhere in the world were just like this. Fixed texts which we call books today are a modern phenomena. It does not undermine their legitimacy in fact it confirms it.

You can buy the book, or not buy the book, or both buy it and not buy it, or neither buy it or not buy it.

Yes I hope he does well in whatever he's doing and finds peace and happiness.

Thank you Mark very interesting. Its easy to forget that the idea of a book with a fixed text is a modern thing.

Happy New Year!!!

You seem to have had some bad experience with teachers. Thinking back, I have had some meaningful interaction with five Tibetan lamas and one English one. They were all without exception open, kind, undemonstrative, helpful and wise. Some of them liked the Tibetan etiquette ... white scarves and bowing and others didn't bother much ... but that was just trappings and made no difference to how they were. I think I must have been lucky. I think like with all human relationships it takes a while for a relationship to develop. Most important, take care of yourself first - be selfish in that sense. Just see if its working for you and if not walk away and try something else.

Yes this is what I have seen translated as confidence to make the distinction with blind faith ... of the Judeo-Christian kind i.e. the idea it is necessary BELIEVE before anything else. Whereas confidence indicates a kind of growing certainty based on experience.

I found this book helpful and also well written as a guide to the ngondro http://www.amazon.com/Not-Happiness-So-Called-Preliminary-Practices/dp/1611800307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393681408&sr=8-1&keywords=not+for+happiness Not for Happiness? by Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse ... who is the Bhutanese Rinpoche who is also a film maker ....the Cup, Travellers and Magicians and so on.

the problem is, I think that people read about guru yoga and so on and then try to force themselves into the position of reverence. Buddhists talk not so much about faith but confidence - that is over a period of time you practice and study and feel the benefit of dharma so it is a genuine feeling of appreciation and so on - and not a contrived feeling of this how you ought to feel. I think its a problem of westerners. Tibetans seem to just naturally love their teachers while westerners fall in love with the idea of being like Tibetans - so its contrived. For this reason being around western dharma practitioners can be very difficult I find. Some teachers unfortunately take advantage of this. Keep away from them. Follow your own heart and instincts in all things and beware cultural entanglement

Just a word for the ngondro practice. I think because it is described as preliminary this can be a bit misleading. In all stages of the ngondro the root guru variously as vajradhara, samantabhadra and so on is the centre of the practice and the practice ends with dissolving the root guru into yourself and sitting in the natural state. So the ngondro as a whole is less like a set of things you have to get out of the way before doing 'real' practice - and more like a circumambulation of the mandala with always reference to the centre. It is as if you are always doing the complete practice but just emphasising one aspect - beginning with prostrations/refuge and bodhicitta. I think it is true that there are people who do not need to do this - its not automatic that everybody does - but I think that if say, you were to jump straight to the end so to speak then most of us would find that we would have to later go back to embed some aspect of the mandala. If you see what I mean.

Nothing is necessary except resting the mind in its natural state (or pick your alternate expression) ... so then why don't we just do that?

Thank you.

No my internet connection is slow so watching them would probably take until April1. Its the end of the discussion when people stop discussing.

@gatito ...no idea why you have posted two videos in the middle of this discussion ... what were you trying to say? @ simple jack I know I am probably confused and senile or something but I find it distracting to try to read long block quotes from another conversation ... is there any chance you could extract the message and just tell us what you want to say? Sorry to be grumpy. I am beginning to feel relief that I practice a different tradition to Dzogchen as I feel it's message is confused. Its quite clear to me that the so called 'lower' yanas and the highest teachings are a spectrum. The difference being that the understanding in the lower yanas is narrower and while still 'true' is limited to a particular attitude or mind-set. The outlook broadens as you progress. So its a bit as if you start looking through a microscope, then a telescope and then ... well I can't think of an analogy. There is a natural progression to it all and it fits with the various capacities of the human mind and so on. Its not that when you get to the highest practice you throw the rest away but that you reassess them in the context of a more direct view or understanding. And its all dharma.

OK thanks for this.