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This all has nothing whatsoever related to the authentic practice of Dzogchen. Sorry. Just as one example, in Dzogchen, there is never a need to 'let go of emotional upsets'. One simply go into that, whatever that upsets, or anything resembling an arising of something, good or bad, and directly, instantaneously, and effortlessly, liberate whatever it is that arises within the range of the mind-body field. The training of this, or the process of training in this effortless seeing, is trekcho. It transcends even the slightest experiential trips one may be susceptible to. How its done one has to first engage with an authentic lineage. When the training has been exhaustive (like, for example, after completing multiple 3 year retreats) then the next phase of Thogal is introduced by one's root teacher, and gradually, with the lineage blessing through the guru, the habituation of lhag tong effectively takes over by suffusing one's being with perpetual clarity. There is no other way of approaching it as far as authentic Dzogchen practice is concerned. @ Jonesboy - Unless you can verify your past participation in long term Dzogchen retreats before, it will be unwise to speak as if you know what Dzogchen entails, and therefore out of respect should try to refrain from making references to it, just as i respectfully acknowledge claims of what you say you have achieved here.

The unique Uncreated Pure mind, uniquely uncreated, creates all; everything made has the nature of pure mind and the unique uncreated cannot be contrived. ~ Longchenpa

A GIFT FROM THE LADY IN THE BRILLIANT EXPANSEOnce upon a time, at the time of the Primordial Buddha, the first teachings in our present universe arose spontaneously out of the expanse of awakened mind, as the play of self-resounding innate nature also known as dharmata swayambhu nada. How long ago was this? It was longer ago than anyone can count and properly before the planet Earth was ever formed. Due to the particular location of our galaxy among the untold numbers of universes, 6.400.000 Dzogchen tantras appeared here. Some of these tantras were seen to appear from the female buddha Samantabhadri, the universal mother. Her words exist today in the Tantra of the Brilliant Expanse. Her precious words have been echoing through millions of eons since that time thanks to the twelve Dzogchen buddhas of which the last four where human beings, and in our time thanks to the Indian master Padmasambhava. Samantabhadri had taught everything that a spirit would need, in whatever form that spirit is incarnated, including as a human being. Our travel through time and space, world after world, life after life. Especially, she taught how to be truly free and awaken from the grand illusion. Over the millennia, people have followed her words and have used the very special techniques within the Brilliant Expanse to uncover the primordial enlightenment that is the nature of our mind. This tried and proven path of awakening within a single lifetime is to come face to face with our basic nature of mind and continue that until it is uninterrupted throughout day and night. Training in this path is praised by all buddhas as the most effective way of creating merit and clearing away the veils that cover this basic nature. My teacher Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche often said that a piece of glass and a diamond can look alike for the untrained eye and must therefore be examined and verified before being sure. A billion times more important than shopping for gemstones is the process of gaining the right understanding of the nature of mind, with complete certainty free of doubt. This understanding is called the view. It is the training in this view, that is called meditation in the Dzogchen context. This training is not to keep an idea in mind or a special attitude, no matter how deep one may believe it is; it is a training in actual experience, totally free of preconceived ideas. That is why there is nothing more important than getting the view right. Tulku Urgyen once said that meditating with a view that is an assumption, a hazy idea, mere guesswork, or with an unnatural emphasis, is like believing that the first day of the month is the second: every day one has the wrong date, no matter how convinced one may seem to be. Without the correct view, there is no authentic Dzogchen meditation. So, by all means, become clear about the true view in the presence of a competent, experienced Dzogchen master. Well then, for someone who feels unsure, do I actually know the right view, is there no way to progress? Yes, there is. Absolutely. There are 84000 different ways taught by the Buddha, and all of them have one single purpose: to bring dualistic mind closer to knowing its own nature. All these teachings are given out of boundless kindness and wisdom to lead people and other beings in the right direction. Among these 84000 wonderful entrance-doors to our true nature, there is one particular set of instructions, which the masters of India and Tibet have personally practiced, both before and after the preliminary enlightenment experience. I want to give it center stage here, because it is easy to practice and at the same time incredibly helpful. It directly removes not only the emotional veil, but especially the very subtle cognitive veil, the wrong dualistic attitude of samsaric mind. This set of instructions appears in the Dzogchen tantra Brilliant Expanse, taught by Samantabhadri. Within its 129 chapters, the Brilliant Expanse teaches through the voice of Samantabhadri a practice which is today known as ngondro. This practice is deep, directly connected to nondual awakened mind. It is practical, as it is understandable by dualistic mind. It is a perfect bridge between where we are at the present moment and what we really are and have always been. It is a vehicle that takes you there. Each segment of the ngondro gives dualistic mind something to think of with sincerity, kindness and profound admiration followed by a process during which duality dissolves. The ngondro training is therefore an eminent way to ensure that in each meditation session dualistic mind is transformed, uncovering the awakening state realized by all buddhas. This is perfectly reasonable because ultimate refuge, ultimate bodhichitta, ultimate Vajrasattva, ultimate mandala and especially the ultimate guru yoga is none other than recognizing our basic nature, developing its strength through meditation training, and being stable in that throughout day and night. Even if the nondual experience may be for a short moment, a meditator can simply repeat it many times. There are people these days who call themselves teachers of Dzogchen, who hold the unfounded belief that ngondro was invented in India or Tibet. I say, he or she is ignorant of the intent within the Dzogchen tantras on how to deal with dualistic mind. Moreover, anyone who believes that ngondro practice is a hindrance to enlightenment, is ignorant of the myriad skillful ways to influence and transform dualistic mind. To reject authentic teachings that makes use of dualistic mind and encouraging other do so, Tulku Urgyen said, creates worse karma than killing a thousand people because it interrupts the life-force of liberation. Whenever we let be in the present moment the tendencies for the two veils will reactivate almost immediately. This is experienced as formless shamatha, at best, which is the absence of the emotional veil, but not the cognitive. For the most we become absentminded and distracted, followed by thoughts and emotions, which are the emotional veil. The odds are high that without using special methods, as the ngondro for instance, this type of meditation could go on for a hundred years without liberating or awakening from dualistic mind. I personally found while taking the bodhisattva vow in the ngondro training, that to give room in the heart to boundless kindness and compassion, and then to suspend awareness without directing it in any way whatsoever, easily uncovers a gentle and open state of mind. This training cures and heals not only the selfish emotions that ruin peace of mind, but also totally melts away the very thin film of concepts. Whether or not the meditator uses a conceptual framework as a starting point is in itself not enough to decide if a practice is sublime; it is the effect of the technique unfolding in the meditator’s mind that is the deciding factor. It is here the true value lies. As the eminent master Trulshik Rinpoche once told me, “It is not the teaching but the person who should be Dzogchen.” Therefore, the ngondro practice of transmuting dualistic mind into the awakened state is perfect alchemy, is to be treasured as a sublime gift from Samatabhari who taught the Brilliant Expanse. May her methods be practiced and taught all over the world until the next buddha. (shared with permission from Levekunst)

Yeshe Tsogyal asked Guru Rinpoche: How should one keep the mind during meditation? Rinpoche replied: While meditating, let your body and mind relax. Since there is nothing whatsoever to be analyzed, the stream of dualistic mind and the mental states arising from it are interrupted. You do not have to deliberately halt them. While neither keeping nor rejecting anything, let go of all mental activity. Don't think of anything, and don't imagine anything. Your nature is aware, just as it is. Without moving towards anything, let be in your natural state. When remaining in this way, the knower and the known are not seen as separate, so don't think of the object as being there or knower as being here. Do not conceive of something other than those two. Since you neither pursure an object there nor try to stop a thought here, you can allow mind itself to be pure, lucid, and awake, without needing to dwell on anything whatsoever. The flaws that hinder this are excitement, drowsiness, and deep rooted beliefs. Excitement means the mind's act of reaching out towards objects. The way to adjust this is relax your body and mind while keeping your attention collected. Settle it again and again. If you still chase after different thoughts, repeatedly direct your attention toward this jumpy mind. If you are unable to do that and thoughts continue to reach out, investigate this outward movement that is like a cloud in the sky-- where does it come from, where does it move towards, and where does it remain? By exploring like this, allow the thought movements that arise from mind to stabilize again by themselves. As these thought movements are empty, there is no need to tightly or deliberately prevent them. That was the instruction in dissolving excitement and the movement of thoughts. Drowsiness is like being in a dark room or having your eyes closed. To correct this, refresh yourself with activities such as spiritual practices, reflection, or the like. To refresh by means of samadhi, visualize yourself to be space, visualize your spine to be a stack of chariot wheels, and imagine your mind to be like the sky. To refresh by means of instruction, meditate while observing a sense object or while just keeping the senses wide open. These were the instructions in clearing up drowsiness. Dullness is when your mind becomes hazy or absentminded, as if affected by an evil spirit. If that happens, set the practice aside and return to meditating after a while. That was the instruction in getting rid of mindlessness. Deep-rooted beliefs have three faults. Since the training in dharmata is supposed to be habituating oneself by not focusing and not fixating on anything whatsoever, it is a fault if you hold a rigid belief -- let alone all the contradictory concepts, such as "it is such and such" and "it isn't such and such", eternity and void, antidotes to accept in order to reject, or the like. It is also a fault to harbor even a tiny speck of a notion or belief that "all these thing are unreal appearances!" or "all things are inconceivable, so I should meditate on not holding them in mind!". That was the instruction in clearing away rigid beliefs.

In the universal womb that is boundless space all forms of matter and energy occur as flux of the four elements but all are empty forms, absent in reality: all phenomena, arising in pure mind, are like that. Just as dream is a part of sleep unreal in its arising so all and everything is pure mind never separated from it and without substance or attribute. Experience is neither mind nor anything but mind; It is a vivid display of emptiness, like magical illusion in the very moment inconceivable and unutterable. All experience arising in the mind - at its inception, know it as emptiness! ~ Longchenpa

Even the most erudite of teachers with vast scriptural learning can repeat words like a parrot without taking them to heart. But when death suddenly arrives, this will bring only pangs of regret. So rely on the essential meaning of the teachings, my heart-friends! All the countless teachings of the Buddhas, so vast in number, are imparted purely as a means to subdue our own minds. Don't put your faith in words alone! I urge you once again - Let the key points of the deeper meaning seep into your hearts! ~ Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche

sustained by his gut no longer constipated he lets the prune go

peng, ji, lu, an... done calligraphy in the rain what is left undone?

Through being partial towards our lama, lineage and practice, we believe we are upholding them. But to praise our own side whilst disparaging others is the source of attachment and aversion. 'To give all this up' is my heart advice. ~ Longchenpa

http://learning.tergar.org/course_library/mingyur-rinpoches-monthly-teachings/expectations-and-appreciation/

Thank you for clarifying, and i agree with the general premise of whats been said, especially the part in bold. However, there are some Vajrayana schools that put quite heavy emphasis on the continued practice of the prelims as means to stabilise view, meditation and conduct. Rigpa (the group) is one of these schools.

Suffering is of the Nature of Bliss The Buddha taught many times in the Mahayana sutras that the five aggregates, and the suffering that goes along with them, are of the nature of original and perfect purity. There is not the tiniest bit of impurity anywhere within them that needs to be abandoned. Therefore, Mahayana practitioners do not want to be rid of their samsaric existence, but rather they aspire to take birth in samsara in as many bodies, in as many lifetimes as possible to be of benefit to sentient beings. In Vajrayana practice, one cultivates the understanding that the five aggregates are of the nature of the five buddha families and that suffering is of the nature of bliss. Since that is the case, why would one ever want to abandon them? They are of the very essence of enlightenment. ~ Khenpo Tsultrim Rinpoche

Dzogchen draws enough parallels between Dharmakaya and all-encompassing, stainless space. How can one who has established this truth as experience then go forth and adopts a view which consists of acceptance and rejection?

Becoming friends with thoughts People with a misconception about meditation believe that all thoughts should cease. We cannot, in fact, establish ourselves in a state devoid of thoughts. The fruit of meditation is not the absence of thoughts, but the fact that thoughts cease to harm us. Once enemies, they become friends. ~ Bokar Rinpoche

Gentlemen, in my limited understanding, i believe Anderson sees Mingyur Rinpoche as having attained to the level where he can transfer his consciousness at will (Phowa) should he so choose, rather than implying he has fulfilled his mission in some form or other, as in resting on his laurels kind of way. Phowa explained: http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Phowa

When you focus on praying with the heart of total devotion and trust in the Buddha by enjoying his loving-kindness, then before long, unconditional love—the Buddha’s blessings and loving-kindness—will take birth in you. You become what you are seeing, hearing, and feeling. As a popular proverb has it, “When you see the face of a laughing person, you too will start laughing.When you see the face of a crying person, you too will start crying.” As an indication of developing loving-kindness in your mindstream, you could suddenly experience an indescribable heat with joyfulness or blissfulness. Tears of joy might stream from your eyes.You could feel every hair of your body rising with a sense of celebrating the new birth of bodhicitta in you. ~ Tulku Thondup

sure sounds that way

The mind is not just 'oneness' or a singular entity because it manifests in manifold ways. It is not a plurality or many things, either, because these numerous manifestations all have one essence. No one can describe its nature saying, "It is exactly like this!" It is indescribable, unutterable, inconceivable, nonarising, unceasing, and nondwelling, like the essence of space. ~ Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche

Though we're conditioned to identify with the thoughts that pass through our awareness rather than with awareness itself, the awareness that is our true nature is infinitely flexible. It is capable of any and every sort of experience - even misconceptions about itself as limited, trapped, ugly, anxious, lonely, or afraid. When we begin to identify with that timeless, pristine awareness rather than with the thoughts, feelings, and sensations that pass through it, we've taken the first step toward facing the freedom of our true nature. ~ Mingyur Rinpoche

"The mind can only measure what it will lose; it cannot measure what it will gain." ~ Kyle Cease

Check out some videos by this really cool character by the name of Kyle Cease. May be on youtube, but definitely on facebook. He has this real down to earth way of explaining why/how people become slaves to their habits, and more importantly, what they can do to effectively and quickly gain freedom from those choices they have made in the past, that remained till the present, dictating their states of being, and which then determines how the future turns out.

Once bodhicitta has been aroused in you, whatever Dharma practices that you do will lead to the attainment of perfect enlightenment. ~ Patrul Rinpoche

A mere indescribable luminosity If what appears to be apprehended does not exist by its very own essence apart from that which apprehends it, then what appears to be the apprehender does not exist either. The reason, here, is that the apprehender exists in relation to the apprehended, not in isolation. Therefore, awareness is devoid of both apprehender and apprehended, in all their various forms. Free from subject and object, by its very own nature awareness is a mere indescribable luminosity. ~ Maitreya

I wonder what would happen if you simply look (as deeply as you can manage) at what is going on, with the least amount of scrutiny, internal dialog and analysis where possible? Just look. Observe. Let the words and meanings, and the attempts at finding meanings, go. Simply watch without this 'I am....', or, 'In my life...' association.

Three kinds of dharma practitioners ........................ There are three kinds of dharma practitioners: firstly, there are those who look like practitioners outwardly, but inwardly they are not real practitioners; secondly, there are those who talk very high, but have no realization at all; thirdly there are those who do not look like practitioners outwardly, but who are in fact genuine practitioners inside. ~ Chatral Rinpoche