I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart I said: ‘Who are You?’ He said: ‘You!’ But for You, ‘where’ cannot have a place And there is no ‘where’ when it concerns You. The mind has no image of your existence in time Which would permit the mind to know where you are. […]
I saw my Lord with the Eye of my Heart – Al-Hallaj Read Post »
The ineffable tale of that final simple state: it’s utterly different. It can’t be weighed on a scale, can’t be whittled down. It doesn’t feel heavy and doesn’t feel light. It has no rain, no sea, no sun or shade. It doesn’t contain creation or destruction. No life, no death exist in it, no grief,
Kabir – The Final Simple State Read Post »
Sky empty and luminousbeyond all attachments,Remains.Me, the setting sunresplendent with light,Will not remain at all. I pass behind the western summitTo reappear again soon,Above the mountains of the east. Shabkar Tsogdruk RangdrolRainbows Appear: Tibetan Poems of ShabkarTranslated by Matthieu Ricard Every once in a while I come across a Dharma song that cuts straight through
Sky Empty and Luminous – Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangdrol Read Post »
All and everything emanates from me,so all and everything, whatever appears,is revealed as transmission,revelation of timelessly pure basic spaciousness. Excerpt from The Great Potency of Bodhicitta A quick excursion of context here before sharing the teaching and reflections! The Great Potency of Bodhicitta is a seminal Dzogchen text categorized under the Semde (Mind Series), one
The Great Potency of Bodhicitta – Dzogchen Semde Tantra Read Post »
This post is an exploration of Natural Perfection or Lhungrub in Tibetan (ཀ་དག་) – the third of a series of posts on Dzogchen key terms. Natural Perfection is pointing to the natural, effortless manifestation of phenomena from the ground of being (Gzhi). It is the dynamic aspect of the mind that allows for the continuous arising of
In Dzogchen, what is Natural Perfection / Spontaneous Presence (Lhungrub)? Read Post »
ཨཱ། བདག་གི་སྤྱི་གཙུག་པད་ཟླའི་གདན་སྟེངས་སུ། ། ah, dak gi chitsuk pé dé den teng su Āḥ! At the crown of my head, upon a lotus and moon-disc, དཔལ་ལྡན་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེམས་དཔའ་སྤྲུལ་པའི་སྐུ། ། palden dorjé sempa trulpé ku Is the nirmāṇakāya emanation of glorious Vajrasattva, དགའ་རབ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དཀར་གསལ་སྤྲུལ་སྐུའི་ཆས། ། garab dorjé karsal tulkü ché Garab Dorje, brilliant white and with nirmāṇakāya ornaments, མཚན་དཔེའི་དཔལ་འབར་ཆོས་འཆད་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཅན། །
A Shower of Wisdom – A Guru Yoga of Garab Dorje Read Post »
I turn to Ryokan’s poetry over and over again. For me, nobody captures in poetry the magical essence of the spiritual life, indeed, of life like he does. How wonderous his words, painting pictures – pictures that rest in the heart, illuminating form and emptiness, and their interplay. When all thoughts are exhausted When all
Reflections on Ryokan’s Zen Poems – The Butterfly and the Flower Read Post »
This post is an exploration of Primordial Purity, or Kadag in Tibetan (ཀ་དག་). It is sometimes also translated as “original purity” or “alpha purity.” The concept of Kadag is central to Dzogchen. It refers to the inherent, unconditioned purity of the nature of mind and reality itself. Kadag is not something to be created or attained but is
In Dzogchen what is Primordial Purity (Kadag)? Read Post »
‘Question and answer’ oral instructions of the Wisdom Ḍākinī to Tilopa Shrī vajraḍākinī namo! Tilopa asked the wisdom Ḍākinī: what is awakening [Buddha]? The wisdom Ḍākinī responded: Tilopa! When the mind looks at mind, the ‘looker’ is mind, the ‘looked at’ is also mind. Like space gazing at space, both the ‘gazer’ and the ‘gazed
Severing the Bardo ‘Once and for All’ Read Post »
Inspired by Malcolm Smith’s Wisdom Academy course: Dzogchen: Ten Key Terms I’ve been reflecting a lot recently on the terms he focuses on, as they are so crucial to Dzogchen understanding and realisation. In a series of posts I want to share my favourite quotes from the Dzogchen source texts, so they can speak for
In Dzogchen what is the Primordial Ground or Base (Gzhi)? Read Post »