Not Not Nowhere

We we studying Longhenpa’s You Are the Eyes of the World during our Wednesday evening gatherings. It is a translation of the Jeweled Ship, a distillation of a larger work on dzogchen, the natural great perfection. The dzogchen tradition approaches awakening through a very simple but profoundly difficult non-process. One simply abides in the naturally liberated mind. Nothing to do, nowhere to go.

Since everything is naturally liberated, it is actually silly to study about dzogchen. But humans do a lot of silly things, so studying and practicing something that has no form perfectly fits the bill. As long as one’s mind is seamlessly blended with bodhicitta, the heart/mind of compassion, we can explore the non-graduated path of pure and total presence without manufacturing a form.

Of course, requires some preparation an the part of the student. This is why there is so much emphasis on completing the Ngöndro practice accumulations. It is a paradox of this tradition to engage in a so-called preliminary practice in order to approach non-practice. It seems strange until one realizes dzogchen is implicit within the Ngöndro.

In other words, it takes practice to liberate oneself from the delusion there is some magical code to decipher within the practice. Then…we practice in every moment without contriving to do anything or go anywhere.