Kunzang Yab Yum

Dzogchen Key Points¹

       Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

      Our basic nature is essentially identical with the ground. It has two basic aspects: primordial purity (kadag) and spontaneous presence (lhundrub). Our mind’s empty essence is related to primordial purity, while its cognizant nature is linked to spontaneous presence.

      Spontaneous presence literally means “that which appears and is present by itself.” Besides our cognizant nature, it includes the deities that are experienced in the bardo as well as all the Tögal displays. In the same way, the pure wisdom realms that unfold out of the expanse of the three kayas, which is the state of rigpa devoid of clinging, are also experienced as a natural presence. To rephrase this, all the self-appearing and naturally present Tögal displays, the kayas and wisdoms, which unfold out of the state of dharmakaya, free of grasping, manifest from the primordially pure essence and spontaneously present nature, kadag, and lhundrub.

      This lhundrub quality also pertains to samsaric experience. Spontaneous presence includes everything that “appears automatically,” due to ignorance of our true nature: the worlds, beings, the three realms, the six classes, and all the rest of samsara. These all appear automatically; we don’t need to imagine any of them. In other words, the samsaric states that unfold out of the ignorant dualistic mind are all experienced vividly and clearly. Mind and its objects—the perceived objects in the three realms of samsara and the perceiving dualistic mind with its three poisons—all unfold within the arena of dualistic mind, sem. We don’t need to visualize our world. The sems experiences include the different experiences of the six classes of beings, which are visible yet intangible. Currently our “impure” samsaric experience is clearly present and quite tangible. We can touch the things around us, right? In “pure” awareness, known as the kayas and wisdoms, experience takes place in a way that is visible yet insubstantial. This immaterial or nonphysical quality means that the experience is something you can see but not grasp—like a rainbow.

      The sambhogakaya buddhas and realms unfold, visible yet intangible; they are insubstantial like a rainbow in the unconfined sky of dharmakaya. After you first recognize your basic state of primordial purity and then perfect its strength and attain stability, your body returns to rainbow light. In other words, within this very body, your realization is equal to that of sambhogakaya. All the inconceivable adornments and sceneries belonging to sambhogakaya are then as visible as rainbows in the sky. Unlike sentient beings in samsara’s three realms, who experience things in a material way, the displays of kayas and wisdom are immaterial and unconditioned. Have you ever heard of a sambhogakaya buddha needing to visit the toilet? That’s because they are insubstantial, not material. The six types of beings, on the other hand, must defecate and urinate after they eat. That’s direct proof of their corporeality. Deities are in an incorporeal state, celestial and rainbow-like. You can’t eat rainbows and then shit them out! With a rainbow body, there is no thought of food; but ordinary sentient beings, who have material bodies, can’t go without food. If they do, they die of starvation. The materiality I am speaking of here has three aspects: the material body of flesh and blood, the material disposition that needs food as fuel, and the material mind that is born and dies, arises, and ceases. The deities’ immaterial purity lies beyond those three, beyond every kind of materiality. This is why we say their bodies are made of rainbow light. In short, samsara is material substance and nirvana is insubstantial.

      We hear the deities described as having bodies of light and living in an insubstantial mansion in an immaculate realm—but that is only how it appears from our point of view. The notion of being beyond corporeality is an adaptation to the habitual tendencies of samsaric beings, because we live in material places, in material houses, and have material bodies. From the deities’ point of view, there is no such concept whatsoever.

      The complete aspects of the Dzogchen empowerments authorize the yogi to embark on Tögal practice. But without cutting through with Trekchö, one doesn’t directly cross with Tögal. Trekchö means that you have the basic state of primordial purity pointed out to you, at which point you must recognize it and then train in stabilizing that recognition.

      The way to approach Dzogchen practice is this: Begin with the ngöndro, the preliminaries; follow that with yidam practice, for instance, the recitation of the peaceful and wrathful deities of Kunzang Tuktig; then continue with the actual training in Trekchö. Later, as an enhancement of Trekchö, there is Tögal practice. All these Dharma practices should be applied. When training in Trekchö, leave your mind free of clinging. When practicing Tögal, though there is no clinging, one still applies four key points.

      For all dharma practice, you need preliminary steps, just like laying the foundation when you construct a house. We begin the Dzogchen path with the ngöndro for this reason. Throughout innumerable past lives, we have created immeasurable negative karma and obscurations. The ngöndro purifies every misdeed and obscuration created through our physical, verbal, and mental actions. Having gone through a complete ngöndro, you come to the main part next, which is like building a palace upon the solid foundation. It may have many stories, but no matter how many there are, they will now all remain stable. The main part is composed of two stages: development and completion. Development stage, in this case, is the visualization of and recitation for one’s personal yidam deity. Yidam practice is then followed by the completion stage, which is Trekchö.

      Trekchö means recognizing that our essence is primordially pure. The basis for Tögal is recognizing, at the same time, that our natural display is spontaneously present. Then, recognizing that the natural display, the spontaneous presence, is insubstantial and devoid of any self-nature is the ultimate path—the unity of primordial purity and spontaneous presence, which we call the unity of Trekchö and Tögal. Trekchö and Tögal correspond to the two aspects known as the “path of liberation” and the “path of means.” By combining Trekchö and Tögal in the Dzogchen system, you experience the natural displays of the peaceful and wrathful deities within this lifetime, without having to wait for the bardo. Since the entire path has been traversed during your life, there