Note to reader: This is a universal teaching, cast in Buddhist terminology. Don't miss the point just because you don't practice Buddha Dharma as such.
The Role of Transmission [of the Primordial State] in the Dzogchen Teaching — Chogyal Namkhai Norbu
From the book Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State, Chapter 4, "The Importance of Transmission"
The Body of Light is the supreme realization of Dzogchen. Its function is different from that of a Sambhogakaya manifestation, because a being in a Body of Light can communicate and actively help other beings. It is as if the physical body, its material substance having been absorbed into its luminous essence, continues to live as an aggregation of the elements in their subtle aspect. Manifestations of the Sambhogakaya, on the other hand, are passive, because they depend on the beings who enjoy the vision of them.
Realization is not something one can construct, and does not depend on one's actions or effort. Becoming realized basically means just overcoming one's provisional obstacles, and to this end, the transmission from one's master is of the greatest help. In Dzogchen, the path to overcoming obstacles can be very rapid because, through the transmission, one can easily develop the state of contemplation. From our limited point of view, we can get discouraged thinking that to purify our karma will take many lifetimes. If we could actually, in a material way, see our accumulated karma, the good karma might seem like a small rock compared to a huge mountain of negative karma. How long would it take to purify all that? It might seem that even hundreds of purification practices would only diminish the mountain of our negative karma by no more than the length of a finger.
But karma is not, in fact, a material accumulation, and does not depend on externals; rather, its power to condition us depends on the obstacles that impede our knowledge. If we compare our karma and the ignorance that creates it to a dark room, knowledge of the primordial state would be like a lamp, which, when lit in the room, at once causes the darkness to disappear, enlightening everything. In the same way, if one has the presence of the primordial state, one can overcome all hindrances in an instant.
A practitioner who is just beginning to try to find the state of presence among the confusion of all of their thoughts is like a blind person trying to push a thread through the eye of a needle. The master is like someone who sees and helps that person to get their hands closer to where they need to be. When the blind person succeeds in threading the needle, it is as if their sight had returned to them. This is how it is when one recognizes and enters into the primordial state by means of the transmission.
The example of the sky, the sun, and clouds is given to explain the condition of the individual. The sky is not a definable place; it has no shape or color, and no one can say where it starts or finishes. It is something universal, as is the primordial state of the individual, the void. The base, at the level of the individual, is like the space inside a clay vase, which, even though it is temporarily limited by the shape of the vase, is not different from the space outside, surrounding the vase. This void condition, which is like empty space, is called the essence, and it is beyond all concepts. But in it, there is a continuous clarity that manifests in the individual's thoughts and the various aspects of energy; this clarity is the state of presence, which is like the sun arising in the sky.
The light of the sun is the manifestation of the clarity of the sky, and the sky is the basic condition necessary for the manifestation of the sun's light. So, too, in the sky, two, three, four, or any number of suns could arise; but the sky always remains indivisibly one sky. Similarly, every individual's state of presence is unique and distinct, but the void nature of the individual is universal, and common to all beings.
Lastly, we have the example of clouds, which represent the provisional hindrances that impede the manifestation of our primordial state. When clouds grow dense, it is as if the sun did not exist, but the fact is that the sun has not changed its position at all. Both day and night, the sun is always there, but its rays don't always light up the earth. In the same way, the primordial state of knowledge is always there in the individual right from the beginning, whether one transmigrates or is enlightened, but if it does not manifest, it is because of our ignorance.
When all our obstacles have been overcome, and we find ourselves in a state of total presence, the wisdom of enlightenment manifests spontaneously without limits, just like the infinite rays of the sun. The clouds have dissolved, and the sun is finally free to shine once again.
Realization is not something one can construct, and does not depend on one's actions or effort. Becoming realized basically means just overcoming one's provisional obstacles, and to this end, the transmission from one's master is of the greatest help. In Dzogchen, the path to overcoming obstacles can be very rapid because, through the transmission, one can easily develop the state of contemplation. From our limited point of view, we can get discouraged thinking that to purify our karma will take many lifetimes. If we could actually, in a material way, see our accumulated karma, the good karma might seem like a small rock compared to a huge mountain of negative karma. How long would it take to purify all that? It might seem that even hundreds of purification practices would only diminish the mountain of our negative karma by no more than the length of a finger.
But karma is not, in fact, a material accumulation, and does not depend on externals; rather, its power to condition us depends on the obstacles that impede our knowledge. If we compare our karma and the ignorance that creates it to a dark room, knowledge of the primordial state would be like a lamp, which, when lit in the room, at once causes the darkness to disappear, enlightening everything. In the same way, if one has the presence of the primordial state, one can overcome all hindrances in an instant.
A practitioner who is just beginning to try to find the state of presence among the confusion of all of their thoughts is like a blind person trying to push a thread through the eye of a needle. The master is like someone who sees and helps that person to get their hands closer to where they need to be. When the blind person succeeds in threading the needle, it is as if their sight had returned to them. This is how it is when one recognizes and enters into the primordial state by means of the transmission.
The example of the sky, the sun, and clouds is given to explain the condition of the individual. The sky is not a definable place; it has no shape or color, and no one can say where it starts or finishes. It is something universal, as is the primordial state of the individual, the void. The base, at the level of the individual, is like the space inside a clay vase, which, even though it is temporarily limited by the shape of the vase, is not different from the space outside, surrounding the vase. This void condition, which is like empty space, is called the essence, and it is beyond all concepts. But in it, there is a continuous clarity that manifests in the individual's thoughts and the various aspects of energy; this clarity is the state of presence, which is like the sun arising in the sky.
The light of the sun is the manifestation of the clarity of the sky, and the sky is the basic condition necessary for the manifestation of the sun's light. So, too, in the sky, two, three, four, or any number of suns could arise; but the sky always remains indivisibly one sky. Similarly, every individual's state of presence is unique and distinct, but the void nature of the individual is universal, and common to all beings.
Lastly, we have the example of clouds, which represent the provisional hindrances that impede the manifestation of our primordial state. When clouds grow dense, it is as if the sun did not exist, but the fact is that the sun has not changed its position at all. Both day and night, the sun is always there, but its rays don't always light up the earth. In the same way, the primordial state of knowledge is always there in the individual right from the beginning, whether one transmigrates or is enlightened, but if it does not manifest, it is because of our ignorance.
Enlightenment, or nirvana, is nothing other than the state beyond all obstacles, in the same way that from the peak of a very high mountain one always sees the sun. Nirvana is not a paradise or some special place of happiness, but is in fact the condition beyond all dualistic concepts, including those of happiness and suffering.
When all our obstacles have been overcome, and we find ourselves in a state of total presence, the wisdom of enlightenment manifests spontaneously without limits, just like the infinite rays of the sun. The clouds have dissolved, and the sun is finally free to shine once again.
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