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Dzogchen ( 'Great Completion' or 'Great Perfection'), also known as atiyoga (utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism and Bon aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The goal of Dzogchen is the direct experience of this basis, called (Sanskrit: ). There are spiritual practices taught in various Dzogchen systems for discovering .
Dzogchen emerged during the first dissemination of Buddhism in Tibet, around the 7th to 9th centuries CE. While it is considered a Tibetan development by some scholars, it draws upon key ideas from Indian sources. The earliest Dzogchen texts appeared in the 9th century, attributed to Indian masters. These texts, known as the Eighteen Great Scriptures, form the "Mind Series" and are attributed to figures like Śrī Siṅgha and Vimalamitra. Early Dzogchen was marked by a departure from normative Vajrayana practices, focusing instead on simple calming contemplations leading to a direct immersion in awareness. During the Tibetan renaissance era (10th to early 12th century), Dzogchen underwent significant development, incorporating new practices and teachings from India. This period saw the emergence of new Dzogchen traditions like the "Instruction Class series" and the "Seminal Heart" ().
Dzogchen is classified into three series: the Semdé (Mind Series, ), Longdé (Space Series, ), and Menngaggidé (Instruction Series, ). The Dzogchen path comprises the Base, the Path, and the Fruit. The Base represents the original state of existence, characterized by emptiness ( stong pa nyid), clarity ( gsal ba, associated with Luminous mind), and compassionate energy ( snying rje). The Path involves gaining a direct understanding of the mind's pure nature through meditation and specific Dzogchen methods. The Fruit is the realization of one's true nature, leading to complete non-dual awareness and the dissolution of dualities.
Dzogchen practitioners aim for self-liberation (), where all experiences are integrated with awareness of one's true nature. This process may culminate in the attainment of a rainbow body at the moment of death, symbolizing full Buddhahood. Critics point to tensions between gradual and simultaneous practice within Dzogchen traditions, but practitioners argue these approaches cater to different levels of ability and understanding. Overall, Dzogchen offers a direct path to realizing the innate wisdom and compassion of the mind.
The earliest Dzogchen sources appeared in the first half of the 9th century, with a series of short texts attributed to Indian saints. The most of important of these are the "Eighteen Great Scriptures", which are today known as the Semdé)/" itemprop="url" title="Wiki: Semde">Semde and are attributed to Indian masters like Sri Singha, Vairotsana and Vimalamitra . The later Semdé compilation tantra titled the All-Creating King (Kunjed Gyalpo, kun byed rgyal po) is one of the most important and widely quoted of all Dzogchen scriptures.
Germano sees the early Dzogchen of the Tibetan Empire period as characterized by the rejection of normative Vajrayana practice. Germano calls the early Dzogchen traditions "pristine Great Perfection" since it is marked "by the absence of presentations of detailed ritual and contemplative technique" as well as a lack of funerary, charnel ground and death imagery found in some Buddhist tantras. According to Germano, instead of tantric deity yoga methods, early Dzogchen mainly focused on simple calming (śamatha) contemplations leading to a "technique free immersion in the bare immediacy of one's own deepest levels of awareness". Similarly, Christopher Hatchell explains that since for early Dzogchen "all beings and all appearances are themselves the singular enlightened gnosis of the buddha All Good (Samantabhadra, Kuntu Zangpo)", there is nothing to do but to recognize this inherent awakened mind, relax and let go.
During the Tibetan renaissance era (10th century to the early 12th century) many new Vajrayāna texts, teachings and practices were introduced from India. At this time, the Nyingma school and its Dzogchen traditions reinvented themselves, producing many new scriptures and developing new practices influenced by the Sarma traditions. These new influences were absorbed into Dzogchen through the practice of finding treasure texts ( terma) that were discovered by "treasure revealers" ( tertons). These tantric elements included subtle body practices, visionary practices like dark retreat, and a focus on death-motifs and practices (such as funerary and relic rituals, bardo teachings, phowa, etc).
These new methods and teachings were part of several new traditions such as the "Secret Cycle" ( gsang skor), "Ultra Pith" ( yang tig), "Brahmin's tradition" ( bram ze'i lugs), the "Space Class Series," and especially the "Instruction Class series" ( Menngagde), which culminated in the "Seminal Heart" ( snying thig), which emerged in the late 11th and early 12th century. The most influential texts in this period are Seventeen Tantras ( rgyud bcu bdun). The most important scholarly figure in the systematization of these new traditions was Longchenpa (1308–1364).
Later figures who also revealed important treasure text cycles include Karma Lingpa, (1326–1386, who revealed the Bardo Thodol), Rigdzin Gödem (1337–1409), Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798), who revealed the influential Longchen Nyingthig and Dudjom Lingpa (1835–1904).
According to the fourteenth Dalai Lama, the term dzogchen may be a rendering of the Sanskrit term mahāsandhi.
The term initially referred to the "highest perfection" of Vajrayāna deity yoga. Specifically, it refers to the stage after the deity visualisation has been dissolved and one rests in the natural state of the innately Luminous mind. According to Sam van Schaik, in the 8th-century tantra Sarvabuddhasamāyoga, the term refers to "a realization of the nature of reality" which arises through the practice of tantric anuyoga practices which produce bliss. In the 10th and 11th centuries, when Dzogchen emerged as a separate vehicle to liberation in the Nyingma tradition, the term was used synonymously with the Sanskrit term ati yoga (primordial yoga).
Ma rigpa ( avidyā) is the opposite of rigpa or knowledge. Ma rigpa is ignorance, delusion, or unawareness, the failure to recognize the nature of the basis. An important theme in Dzogchen texts is explaining how ignorance arises from the basis or Dharmata, which is associated with ye shes or pristine consciousness. Automatically arising unawareness ( lhan skyes ma rig pa) exists because the basis has a natural cognitive potentiality which gives rise to appearances. This is the ground for samsara and nirvana.
The Mirror of the Heart of Vajrasattva explains that Dzogchen is "great" because:
According to modern Tibetology, this Doxography schema actually developed in the literature of the Instruction Series (c. 11th century onwards) as a way to distinguish and categorize the various Dzogchen teachings at the time. According to Instruction Series texts, the Mind Series is based on understanding that one's own mind is the basis of all appearances and that this basis, called mind itself, is empty and luminous. The Space series meanwhile is focused on emptiness (Skt. śūnyatā, T. stong-pa nyid). Finally, the Instruction Series itself is seen as the most direct kind of realization, without the need to meditate on emptiness or mind. Over time, the Instruction Series came to dominate the Dzogchen tradition and it remains the series that is most widely practiced and taught while the other two series are rarely practiced today (with the exception of a few masters like Namkhai Norbu).
According to Namkhai Norbu, the three series are three modes of presenting and introducing the state of Dzogchen. Norbu states that Mennagde is a more direct form of introduction, Longde is closely associated with symbolic forms of introducing Dzogchen and Semde is more focused on oral forms of introduction. Germano writes that the Mind Series serves as a classification for the earlier texts and forms of Dzogchen "prior to the development of the Seminal Heart movements" which focused on meditations based on tantric understandings of bodhicitta ( byang chub kyi sems). This referred to the ultimate nature of the mind, which is empty ( stong pa), luminous ( 'od gsal ba), and pure. According to Germano, the Space and Instruction Series are associated with later (historical) developments of Dzogchen "which increasingly experimented with re-incorporating tantric contemplative techniques centered on the body and vision, as well as the consequent philosophical shifts his became interwoven with."
The Path comprises three key elements: view, practice, and conduct. The view focuses on gaining a direct understanding of the pure nature of the mind. Practice involves meditation techniques and specific Dzogchen methods. Conduct means integrating these practices into daily life.
The Fruit represents the ultimate goal – realizing one's true nature and achieving Buddhahood. This involves discovering the inherent state of the base and integrating all experiences with one's awareness of it. Ultimately, it leads to complete non-dual awareness, transcending egoic limitations, and dissolving dualities.
Herbert V. Guenther points out that this Ground is both a static potential and a dynamic unfolding. They give a process-orientated translation, to avoid any essentialist associations, since
The 19th–20th-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar, Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal, sees the Buddha-nature as ultimate truth, nirvana, which is constituted of profundity, primordial peace and radiance:
Garab Dorje's three statements were integrated into the Nyingthig traditions, the most popular of which in the Longchen Nyingthig by Jigme Lingpa (1730–1798). The statements are:
Nyingma Dzogchen literature also describes nirvana as the "expanse" or "space" ( klong or dbyings) or the "expanse of Dharma" ( chos dbyings, Sanskrit: Dharmadhatu). The term Dharmakaya (Dharma body) is also often associated with these terms in Dzogchen, as explained by Tulku Urgyen:
The Dzogchen View of the secret instruction series ( man ngag sde) is classically explained through the eleven vajra topics. These can be found in the String of Pearls Tantra ( Mu tig phreng ba), the Great Commentary by Vimalamitra as well as in Longchenpa's Treasury of Word and Meaning ( Tsik Dön Dzö).
The Dzogchen tradition contains numerous systems of practices, including various forms of meditation, tantric yogas and unique Dzogchen methods. The earliest form of Dzogchen practice (the Semde, "Mind" series) generally emphasized non-symbolic "formless" practices (as opposed to Deity yoga).
Later developments led to the main Dzogchen practices becoming more infused with various preliminary and tantric methods like deity yoga, semdzin (holding the mind), rushen (separating samsara and nirvana), and vipasyana ( lhagthong), which are all seen as skillful means to achieve the basic state of contemplation of the primordially pure state.
The key Dzogchen meditation methods, which are unique to the tradition are trekchö ("cutting tension") and tögal, along with unique Dzogchen teachings on awakening in the bardo (intermediate state between death and rebirth). In trekchö, one first identifies the innate pure awareness, and then sustains recognition of it in all activities. In tögal ("crossing over"), a yogi works with various gazes and postures which lead to various forms of visions (in dark retreat or through sky gazing).
The most comprehensive study of sky-gazing meditation, known as tögal or thod rgal, has been written by Flavio A. Geisshuesler. Although the term thod rgal is generally translated as "Direct Transcendence" or "Leap Over," Geisshuesler argues that the expression really means "Skullward Leap" as it consists of the Tibetan words thod ("above," "over," but also "head wrapper," "turban," "skull") and rgal ("to leap over"). In the larger Tibetan cultural area, it is the most elevated part of the human body—the skull or, its extension in the form of a turban-like headdress—that allows the religious practitioner to gain access to the source of vitality located in the heavens. Both the head and the headdress have deep resonances with animals—particularly deer and sheep—which are central for the sky-gazing practice because of their ability to ascend and descend vertically to move in between various realms of existence.
This process is often explained through three "liberations" or capacities of a Dzogchen practitioner:
Advanced Dzogchen practitioners are also said to sometimes manifest supranormal knowledge (Skt. abhijñā, Tib. mngon shes), such as clairvoyance and telepathy.
Some exceptional practitioners are held to have realized a higher type of rainbow body without dying (these include the 24 Bön masters from the oral tradition of Zhang Zhung, Tapihritsa, Padmasambhava, and Vimalamitra). Having completed the four visions before death, the individual focuses on the lights that surround the fingers. His or her physical body self-liberates into a nonmaterial body of light with the ability to exist and abide wherever and whenever as pointed by one's compassion.
For example, the works of Jigme Lingpa contain criticisms of methods which rely on cause and effect as well as methods that rely on intellectual analysis. Since Buddhahood is uncaused and transcendent of the intellect, these contrived and conceptual meditations are contrasted with "effortless" and "instantaneous" approaches in the works of Jigme Lingpa, who writes that as soon as a thought arises, it is to be seen nakedly, without analysis or examination. Similarly, a common theme of Dzogchen literature is the elevation of Dzogchen above all other "lower" (
In spite of these critiques, Dzogchen cycles like Jigme Lingpa's Longchen Nyingthig do contain numerous practices which are not instantaneous or effortless, such as tantric Mahayoga practice like deity yoga and preliminary methods such as ngondro (which are equated with the path of accumulation). Furthermore, Jigme Lingpa and Longchenpa also criticize those who teach the simultaneous method to everyone and teach them to dispense with all other methods at once.
In response to the idea that the gradualist teachings found in the Longchen Nyingtik texts contradict the Dzogchen view of primordial liberation, Jigme Lingpa states:
This division of practices according to level of ability is also found in Longchenpa's Tegchö Dzö. However, as van Schaik notes, "the system should not be taken too literally. It is likely that all three types of instruction contained in the threefold structure of YL ''Yeshe would be given to any one person." Therefore, though the instructions would be given to all student types, the actual capacity of the practitioner would determine how they would attain awakening (through Dzogchen meditation, in the bardo of death, or through transference of consciousness). Jigme Lingpa also believed that students of the superior faculties were extremely rare. He held that for most people, a gradual path of training is what is needed to reach realization.
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