Dzogchen and Direct Transmission

By Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

Dzogchen Teachings are related to transmission. We do not learn Dzogchen only through intellectual understanding. In this case, transmission becomes important. What is transmission in Vajrayana teaching? In Vajrayana you need to receive initiations with any kind of practice and teaching. If you don’t receive initiations at least you need to receive the transmission of the lungs of all mantras. It doesn’t mean when you receive a lung all is perfect. A lung is a kind of permission. You can recite mantras and produce the recitation of mantras. To make the recitation complete you need initiation, transmission of lung and instruction - all these three. Then you learn how to do the practice as well. This is generally done in Vajrayana teaching. Dzogchen teaching is part of Vajrayana. Vajrayana, for the most part, is the path of transformation. That is the reason for the initiations. For example, if you are following sutra teaching, you don’t need any initiation. You only need to do something like refuge and, in the Mahayana system, cultivating bodhicitta. You can study and learn everything related to the teachings in a more intellectual way. So you can see the difference.

pranayama

Kapalabhati

Kapalabhati is an exercise for the purification of the nasal passage and lungs. Though this is one of the six purificatory exercises (Kriyas) , it is a variety of Pranayama (breathing exercises).

This is especially used to control the movements of the diaphragm and to remove spasm in bronchial tubes. Consequently, persons suffering from asthma will find this very helpful. It also aids in curing consumption, removes impurities fo the blood, and tones up the circulatory and respiratory systems.

Kapalabhati is the best exercise to stimulate every tissue of the body. After and during the practice, a peculiar vibration and joy can be felt, especially in the spinal centers. When the vital nerve current is stimulated through this exercise, the entire spine will be like a live wire and one can feel the movement of the nerve current.

Great quantities of carbon dioxide gas are eliminated. Intake of oxygen makes the blood richer and renews the body tissues. Moreover, the constant movements of the diaphragm up and down act as a stimulant to the stomach, liver and pancreas.

Before learning some of the higher breathing exercises such as Bhastrika Pranayama, it is very important to master Kapalabhati; Bhastrika breathing is considered to be the best breathing exercise for awakening the spiritual power after the purification of the Nadis or nerves.

Technique

After taking a comfortable sitting position, preferably the lotus pose, take a few deep breaths. See that the diaphragm is moving properly. During inhalation, the diaphragm descends and the abdomen is pushed out. During exhalation, the diaphragm pushes the lungs up and the abdomen goes toward the spine. This constant up-and-down movement of the diaphragm throws the air in and out. Here more attention is focused on exhalation than inhalation.

Sudden contraction of the abdominal muscles raises the diaphragm and in turn a volume of air is forced out of the lungs. This is an inward stroke of the abdomen. As soon as the air is thrown out, relax the abdominal muscles, which in turn allows the diaphragm to descend. As the diaphragm comes down, a volume of air automatically rushes in. Here, inhalation is passive and exhalation active.

Start one round of this exercise with ten or fifteen expulsions. At the end of ten expulsions, take a deep inhalation and hold the air as long as possible. This will add its oxygen value and bring a peculiar, pleasant vibration throughout the body, as though you are bathing every tissue of the body with energy. A few days' practice will convince you of its wonderful, stimulating sensation.

Practice three rounds in the beginning, each round consisting of ten expulsions, and gradually increase the number of rounds to five or six. After a few weeks' practice, increase the expulsion to twenty or twenty five. Between successive rounds, normal respiration is allowed to give the needed rest.

During the practice, concentrate on the solar plexus and eventually the nervous system will become spiritually active. This will be manifested by a throbbing sensation in the spine and a lightness throughout the entire body.

om vajra sattva chittam shreyam kuru hung

Vajrasattva (Vajra Hero, Tib. dorje sempa) "Dorsem" is the buddha of purification. As the "action" or karma protector, he also manifests the energies of all Buddhas.

Kagyu tantric practitioners focus upon Vajrasattva, in the above form as 'Solitary Universal Ruler.' Here the deity is an aspect of buddha Vajradhara. The lions that appear in some representations at the base of the deity's seat show he shares the essential nature of Shakyamuni buddha.

Any negative action can be purified through confession: "there is no harmful act that cannot be purified through confession". However "purification only takes place when you confess sincerely in the right way" that is by first arousing bodhicitta -- that is, focusing with pure intention the desire to aid sentient beings to attain enlightenment without exception. This True Aspiration is, in itself, a purifier of all past misdeeds.

The Four Powers

1. The Power of Support -- you can take Vajrasattva as your support. But, you can also take any spiritual friend or teacher, or any representation of the Buddha. You can just imagine yourself sitting in front of the Buddha and feeling his unconditional kindness beaming to you. . . . you can imagine your dark deeds leaving you as black tar and dissolving, and the wisdom and compassion pouring in as light from Buddha.

2. The Power of Regret -- this comes from a true feeling of remorse for all negative actions done in the past. You feel remorse and, concealing nothing from the Buddha, confess them with strong regret, for nothing can be purified without strongly felt regret.

3. The Power of Resolution -- remembering the faults, resolve never to commit them again, even at the cost of our life.

4. The Power of Action as Antidote -- offset the negativities through accomplishing as many positive actions as you can. These can range from the symbolic, such as doing prostrations; psychological, such as rejoicing in the merit of others, or actual, from putting out water for wild animals in your neighborhood, donating to charity and helping others in practical ways. Or ...

"One day a meditator, a disciple of the peerless Dagpo Rinpoche, told his teacher that he felt regret when he remembered that he had once made a living from the sale of sacred books.

"Print books," the Master told him. So he set to work, but found that his work got him involved in many distractions. Disillusioned, he went to see his teacher.

"Printing these texts brings up too many distractions," he said. "Is it true that no method of confession is more profound than remaining in the essential nature?"

The Dagpo Rinpoche was delighted and told him he was perfectly right. "Even if you have committed negative actions as colossal as Mount Meru itself," he said. "They are purified in one instant of seeing that nature."

The visualization of Vajrasattva, and indeed all phenomena, arise from the unaltered state and return to it.

"There is indeed no deeper way to cleanse oneself of past misdeeds than to meditate on bodhicitta and to maintain the flow of the unaltered state."

And so no matter what practice one does, that is the essential point.

We may want to end our purification/confession with this prayer:
"I have heard the beneficial instructions, but have left them as words. I have practiced them a little, but have been fooled by distraction. Bless me and all phantom beings like me, that we may extract the essence of the generation and perfection phases."

Purusha Prakrti _arte sonoro

Samkhya es una de las escuelas filosóficas de la India y es vista como uno de los más viejos y ortodoxos sistemas del hinduismo. Esta filosofía ve al universo como parte de dos realidades eternas : purusha y prakrti. Se trata entonces de una filosofía dualista caracterizada por una manera de ver la vida que contempla al universo como una evolución de dualidades distintas (luz-oscuridad, masculino-femenino, etc.).El espíritu como principio autónomo y trascendente es aceptado por todas las filosofías Hindúes, a excepción de los budistas y de los materialistas. El purusha (espíritu-yo) es inexpresable, es aquel que ve, aislado, indiferente, simple espectador inactivo, puro y eterno. Entonces, como es que el espíritu puede dejarse acompañar por la experiencia psico mental del individuo?.En la escuela Samkhya, el purusha esta indefectiblemente ligado al prakrti (materia y vida psico mental), y esta atadura del yo y de la vida se encuentra fuera del tiempo. La única certidumbre que podemos tener de esto es que el hombre se encuentra en esta condición desde los tiempos más antiguos. La prakrti es tan real y eterna como el purusha, pero a diferencia del espíritu, es totalmente dinámica y creativa.El yo será prisionero del cuerpo en tanto el purusha sea confundido con el. El espíritu puede ser liberado (moksha) en el momento en el que se da cuenta de que es diferente de la materia psíquica, y ciertas practicas milenarias como el Yoga han podido desarrollar técnicas para poder llegar a esta liberación.

seguir leyendo en http://www.artesonoro.net/composiciones/PurushaPrakrti.html

The Cuckoo's Song of Total Presence

      In Tibet's ancient shamanistic tradition the cuckoo was a magical bird, the king of birds.  As the cuckoo's first call is the harbinger  of spring, so the six verses of the Cuckoo's Song of Total  Presence introduce the total presence of the nature of mind.  

      The six lines of the Cuckoo's Song  are also known as the Six  Vajra Verses.  They are considered to be the root text of the  Dzogchen Mind Series tradition out of which the entire view,  meditation and action of Dzogchen may be extrapolated. If the  meaning of the verses in Tibetan is simple, the expression of  that meaning in English is no simple matter.

The nature of multiplicity is nondual

and things in themselves are pure and simple;

being here and now is thought-free

and it shines out in all forms, always all good;

it is already perfect, so the striving sickness is avoided

and spontaneity is constantly present.

Turned into prose, based on the Dochu commentary, it says:

All experience, the entire phantasmagoria of the six senses, the diverse multiplicity of existence, in reality is without duality. Even if we examine the parts of the bodhi-matrix in the laboratory of the mind, such specifics are seen to be illusive and indeterminate. There is nothing to grasp and there is no way to express it. The suchness of things, their actuality, left just as it is, is beyond thought and inconceivable and that is the here and now. Yet diversity is manifestly apparent and that is the undiscriminating, all-inclusive sphere of the all-good buddha, Samantabhadra. Total perfection has always been a fact and there has never been anything to do to actuate this immaculate completion. All endeavour is redundant. What remains is spontaneity and that is always present as our natural condition.

Chogyel Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente rendered the  Six Vajra Verses like this: in The Supreme Source:

The nature of the variety of phenomena is non-dual Yet each phenomena is beyond the limits of the mind The authentic condition as it is does not become a concept Yet it manifests totally in form, always good All being already perfect, overcome the sickness of effort  And remain naturally in self-perfection: this is contemplation.

Chogyel Namkhai Norbu's commentary divides the six verses  into three verses of two lines.  The first couplet describes  the ground of being and the view, relating to the Mind Series  of instruction and to Garab Dorje's first Incisive Precept  which is introduction to the nature of mind.  The second  couplet describes the path, the nature of meditation,  relating to the Space Series of instruction and Garab Dorje's  second incisive precept which is conviction of the reflexive  function of liberation.  The third couplet describes the  product, which does not differ from the ground and relates  to the Secret Precept Series and to Garab Dorje's third  incisive precept which is confidence in the process.  

Based on Chogyel Namkhai Norbu's commentary, John Reynolds  (Vajranath), Nyingma scholar and yogi, made this discursive  translation:

Even though the nature of the diversity (of all phenomena)   is without any duality, In the terms of the individuality of the things themselves,   they are free of any conceptual elaborations. Even though there exists no thought or conception of what   is called the state of being just as it is, These various appearances which are created are but   manifestations of Samantabhadra. Since everything is complete in itself, one comes to abandon   the illness of efforts And thus one continues spontaneously in the calm   state of contemplation.

Professor Samten Karmay found a version of the text  amongst the cache of material that Sir Aurel Stein found  in Tun Huang and which was concealed in the tenth century,  thus validating its age and form  His rendering is this:   

All the varieties of phenomenal existence as a whole   do not in reality differ one from another. Individually also they are beyond conceptualization. Although as "suchness" there is no mental   discursiveness (with regard to them) Kun-tu bzang po shines forth in all forms. Abandon all the malady of striving, for one has   already acquired it all. One leaves it as it is with spontaneity. 

The first Tibetan Dzogchen master, Pagor Vairotsana, received  the Six Vajra Verses in the eighth century from Shri Singha,  his Indian Guru, in the land of Uddiyana.  This text was amongst  the first translations he made at King Trisong Detsen's court at  Samye in Tibet.  It is considered the root transmission text of the  Mind Series of Dzogchen instruction and is the first in the list of  the eighteen transmission texts of the Mind Series tantras.  The  copy of it found amongst the stash of Tun Huang manuscripts  hidden in the tenth century and recovered earlier this century,  authenticates its age and form.

Here is the Tibetan text:

sNa tshogs rang bzhin mi gnyis kyang Cha shas nyid du spros dang bral. Ji bzhin pa zhes mi rtog kyang rNam bar snang mdzad kun tu bzang Zin bas rtsol ba'i nad spangs te Lhun gyis gnas pas bzhag pa yin.

OM SWASTI!

Un Fragmento de un Tantra de Dzogchen

Así como una abeja busca néctar
en todo tipo de flores,
busca en todas partes la enseñanza;
tal como un ciervo encuentra
un lugar aislado para pastar,
busca el aislamiento para digerir
todo lo que has acumulado.
Vive como un león,
completamente libre de miedo,
y [finalmente] como un loco
más allá de todo límite,
ve a donde te venga en gana.

yantra yoga

Tsa lung^[1] Trul khor (lit. "magical movement instrument, channels and inner breath currents") known for brevity as Trul khor (lit. "magical instrument" or "magic circle") or "Yantra Yoga" as Chögyal Namkai Norbu Rinpoche has translated the Tibetan term into Sanskrit, is a Himalayan tantric discipline which includes breathwork (or pranayama), meditative contemplation (or dhyana) and precise dynamic movements (or Body work) to centre the practitioner (as bindu is core to mandala) and to engender the body-mind precision of a keened instrument. Trul khor hones the practitioner's faculty and supports the mindstream re-emergence of natural body-mind or primordial awareness or rigpa (cf. Dzogchen) by employing the energy of 'tummo' (Tibetan) to purify.

Trul khor traditionally consists of 108 movements, including bodily movements (or dynamic asana), incantations (or mantra), breathwork, and visualizations, all timed to heart rhythms. The flow or vinyasa (Sanskrit) of movements are enlikened to beads on a mala. The body postures (or asanas) of ancient Himalayan yogis are depicted on the walls of the Dalai Lama's summer temple of Lukhang. Trul khor is the fruitful distillation of the confluence of centuries of ancient Bön movements, Indian yogic traditions, and Chinese movement forms (that developed into disciplines such as Tai Chi Chuan and Taoist disciplines).

Himalayan physical yogas vary between lineages and the complexity of the practices are not disclosed until a deep level of samaya is realised by the practitioner.