Petit débat entre amis

J'ai mis sur Amazon un commentaire sur le livre de Rachel et Robert Olds, sur la pratique de Thögal. Leur réponse a été pour le moins surprenante, compte tenu du résultat qu'ils prétendent avoir atteint.

A friend of mine offered this book to Tenzin Namdak, actual head of Bön lineage, supposed to achieve rainbow body when he will leave. He didn't seem so much interested and said that the drawings are correct, but "something is missing. They didn't get the fruit", i.e. they won't achieve rainbow body.
Now, the question is "what" ? Maybe we have a first clue, in the fact that their approach is totally naturalist. There is only earth, nature, light... Where are the buddha fields, the revelations, the transmissions, one is supposed to get with the third vision ? Just read the life of Shardza Rinpoche and others. It's totally different.
Apparently it is possibe to get the visions (or a part of them) without getting the real meaning. Because, according to many teachings, there is no "matter" in the universe, only "beings" (what we call matter being alledgedly the "body" of beings, who we can't see because of our obscurations). But in this book, there are no beings, only matter.

Myopia

What's missing in our drawings is the Tibetan/Buddhist/Bon template that is usually etched into the minds of practitioners who hold to those doctrines. The divine intent woven throughout the fabric of being is wider in scope than any template. Templates are self-limiting, based on doctrines and iconography reinforced by visualization practices, which mold habits of perception that intrude into and distort pure perception of the essence of being in the practice of Tögal. If you go into Tögal practice to justify and verify your expectations and beliefs, you will miss the full transformative power of the visions themselves.

You seem to assume that when we use the words Earth, nature, and light we mean that they are inert, solid, and devoid of being. That is your prejudice in relation to those words, not ours. There is no separation between pure essence and the manifestations of its radiance. When your obscurations fall away, essence and radiance are equally holy, this is the transmission, it's called Oneness, the grace of the resolution of phenomena.

The templates are part of the obscurations, let them go, look with clearer farseeing eyes to blend with the divine intent at the heart of all being.

Your comments are symptomatic of a larger madness that has been afflicting human culture for thousands of years, a myopic view of the sacred vision that is this life that has had disastrous results for our planet and ourselves. Please see our essay Divine Treason at www.acircleisdrawn.org.

Dear Rachel and Robert,
Let's just say that Tenzin Namdak said that you didn't achieve rainbow body - which you should have if your practice was correct. Maybe he's wrong.
The other things I have said are only my guess - guess that you didn't fully understand, far from it. I didn't state that earth, nature... as you describe them were devoid of being, but devoid of beings ! I mean that earth as pure consciousness is not the same as earth as a buddha field. There is not only Essence and Radiance. There are Beings, Buddhas, Herukas, Dakinis... Relating with a Buddha is not the same as relating with impersonal consciousness. Buddhism is not clear about metaphysical questions, but christianism is : Essence is nothing without Persons. 
You will probably say that there is no Creator. Tenzin Namdak said that our universe is the creation of Buddha Kuntuzangpo, and that new rainbow bodies could not contradict his rules - so they had to go elsewhere to create their own universe. This Kuntuzangpo seems very like a Person, and not only Essence/Radiance. 
There is nothing especially spiritual in the Essence, it is the core of all naturalist views. What is truly spiritual is the Person or Hypostasis. If you miss it, you just teach a naturalist view, which is not a dzogchen view, since the core of dzogchen is Guru yoga. Relationship with "someone" else, who is also in you heart, since he achieved total union with essence. What the Christians call "God".

Now, I'm really sad that you laugh at me and even insult me, calling me "mad", without understanding what I had to say. Not sad for me, because I'm totally accustomed to people insulting me. But for dzogchen practicioners who have supposedly reached the highest possible state. If the highest state results in being similar to everyone in the world - i.e. not being able to show open mind and kindness when you are criticized, I really prefer the lower state of Bön teachers with their templates.

If I wasn't sure about the Lopön judgment about you, your answer just gave me the evidence I was lacking, and I'm happy that you gave it in public. Because no dzogchen practicioner would entangle himself in such a debate. Clearly, Shardza Rinpoche wouldn't answer a single word to my critic, nor the Lopön. Buddhahood speaks for itself.

Finalement c'est puissant : ils se croient plus malins que tout le monde, y compris les fondateurs de lignées. Voilà donc le résultat d'une pratique qui n'est pas intégrée à l'état naturel : on se croit arrivé au sommet de l'échelle spirituelle alors qu'on ne l'a pas encore trouvée. Et en plus c'est foutu pour eux, car ils ont tiré toutes leurs cartouches.