Rest in natural great peace
This exhausted mind
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought
Like the relentless fury of pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsāra.
Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje
Natural Great Peace
So clear, so direct. This is the start and the end of it.
Rest in natural great peace, the nature of mind, Rigpa.
The beginning, middle and end of Dzogchen
How do we start in Dzogchen? We are introduced to this natural great peace. We are directly pointed to a recognition of Rigpa which is primordially peaceful as it lies entirely beyond the sufferings of Samsara. This is the view, this Tawa.
What is the path of Dzogchen? Simply resting in this recognition, nothing more. You don’t need to cultivate anything. You couldn’t change or improve this natural great peace even if you tried! Once you are introduced to the nature of mind then all you need do is rest there. It’s not a path of renunciation. There’s nothing we need to give up. All of life is available to us with the Dzogchen path. All of it can be integrated. All of it reveals the true nature of mind.
Rest there in this empty luminosity. Rest in whatever manifestations arise. Rest as they naturally cease. Never straying from that nature, however diverse their appearances. This is Gompa – meditation, and Chopa – conduct.
The path of Dzogchen has no start, or end, if this path is resting in that which is timeless. The timeless is beyond change – time and dimension arise within it.
So what then is the end of result of Dzogchen? No more than this natural great peace. You start here, you end here. It does not partake of starting and ending. It lies beyond all of that – timeless, pristine, empty awareness. Unoriginated, untainted, unending.
The end of endless suffering
When dwelling in Marigpa, this ignorance of our true condition, we take all appearances as solid and real. They bewitch us and are the cause of seemingly endless suffering. We then believe we ourselves truly exist as the mirror of seeing these objects. If we believe our thoughts and emotions then we will be condemned to endlessly yearn, and search and grasp after mental states and circumstances. Samsara feels this way, like an spinning hamster wheel, on and on and on, searching for an end to an itch we seem unable to scratch. Perpetually just out of reach. Something always remains unsatisfactory, even when there is pleasure or peace.
This exhausted mind
Beaten helpless by karma and neurotic thought
Like the relentless fury of pounding waves
In the infinite ocean of samsāra.
How poignantly, yet beautifully Nyoshul Khenpo describes this sense of dissatisfaction we have with life. Whether it’s the constant effort of trying to arrange an unceasing array of pleasurable experiences, one after the other – how most of us live. What an impossible task, yet most of us seek only this. So much effort expended, yet so little peace.
Or whether it’s the suffering of searching, the suffering of the seeker, who’s seen there is no way to string the pearls with unending pleasant experiences, and has set off on the search. The spiritual path can bring its own dissatisfaction, as we feel desperate to reach the end. Yet not so with Dzogchen where we taste the end at the start, and simply rest in that recognition, no more, no less. End, start, path – all like illusions.
Rest in natural great peace
Rest in natural great peace
Just this. Let go of this relentless battering, and rest in that which lies beyond all change.
Primordial, pristine purity. Our pristine mind, which is our natural home. Naked. Simple. Unoriginated.
Natural great peace.
Liberation.
Come home.
External Links
Natural Great Peace by Nyoshul Khenpo Jamyang Dorje: Lotsawa House
