Chime Sog Thig

Un enseignement de Shenphen Dawa qui remet les pendules à l’heure.

Dzogchen Misunderstanding
I must correct one thing about Dzogchen. Most of you in the West think that by reading dharma books, you will develop understanding of the dharma. While it is natural to read, you will only develop an intellectual understanding. Wisdom, however, must come from meditation. For example, you cannot understand the teachings of the Great Perfection, Dzogpa Chenpo or any of the secret mantrayana teachings through reading. In fact, if you read Dzogchen books, you are likely to harm your understanding when the real teachings are given to you. You will have a preset idea in your mind of what it is, but, I am sorry to say, that most likely it will not be accurate. Why? Why is reading not sufficient? It lacks several things. First, reading secret teachings which you have not been authorized to read is not appropriate regardless of your motivation. Many of you are concerned about privacy in the letters you write, feeling hurt when someone reads them. This is mundane nonsense. What about these texts that are forbidden, rare and have protectors guarding and protecting them? Do you think you can easily read these teachings? Do you think the writers of these Great Perfection commentaries will write it in such a simple way that you will be able to understand what is there? No, you will not be able to do so. These writings hide the real meaning deeply between lines, words and letters. The sentence that you read is not the sentence of the meaning. No, it is not. It is a sentence that is grammatically correct, makes sense and seems to be clear, but it is not. There are secret codes. These codes and keys must be revealed to you in order to read and understand these books and teachings. The codes are not available to everyone. The masters will not give the code to you because what is in that book is their life thread. Nobody is going to put their life in your hands and say “Here is my life thread, do what you want with it.” Also the personal and face-to-face contact of the lama with the student or disciple is missing. First of all, you have a mind-to-mind contact. With that you receive the mind empowerment. Second, when you receive a teaching from a lama or the lama authorizes you to read a book, you receive the speech empowerment. Third, by the lama’s authorization, you have the blessing of the five wisdoms and the blessing of the spontaneous activity. Secretly, the lama empowers you so that your veil of obscurations is removed directly by his presence in front of you. Otherwise, when you read such books without authorization, you damage and do harm to yourself. This harm refers to the inverted or distorted understanding of the Great Perfection luminosities when perceived by the intellect, rather than experiencing the luminosity of primordial wisdom. You will understand these luminosities as a colorful painting that is visually present to your eyes. When books elaborate the various depths of emptiness and the subtle clarifications of the wisdom aspect, you will understand nothing of it. You won’t even understand the first basic emptiness, let alone the other depths of emptiness that are present. My advice to you, if you want this knowledge, is to connect with a teacher. “Connecting with a teacher” means surrendering your ego to the teacher which may not be very easy for you to do. Nonetheless, you won’t burn yourself. I have received the Great Perfection teachings from my father many times. I have met many students who describe to me the visions they have had about the Great Perfection. They think they have realization and a true vision. To me, it looks like they are preparing to go to lower realms because anything that looks bright and beautiful is not necessarily the experience of luminosity or realization. Within that bright and beautiful appearance darkness can also be present. I say “Be careful.” Many things are fine to understand intellectually, but anything dealing with wisdom and secret practices such as Dzogchen is not worth reading about. What about the person who translated what you are reading? Is the translator a realized bodhisattva? Does the translation carry the depth of the meaning toward enlightenment? Just because the translator has an extensive vocabulary and can write very fluently and poetically, do you then think that is realization? No. Realization and the teaching of Great Perfection is so simple that you can miss it because of your complex mind. The Great Perfection teachings are not complex. They are in simplicity. So simple that you will not believe it. You won’t take it to heart because you will say “That can’t be what it is!” But that IS what that is.

(…)

Various techniques and practices develop understanding of what thigle means: watching in the dark, in the sun, in the candle. When you close your eyes you will see a lot of lights moving around. These are ordinary thigle, the ones from cause and condition karma, not the wisdom thigle. Wisdom thigle is not seen by your eyes; it is seen with your mind. Watching thigle is watching the kayas. Should you ask whether Watching the Elements practice available? No, it is not easily available. To receive that practice, the teacher must have tremendous trust and confidence in the student’s ability and purification. Essentially the teacher is giving his or her life cord to you. Nobody gives their life essence away easily like that. The explanation I have given is not a transmission. I’m just giving you a flavor, not the details, transmissions or progressive states. I’m bound under samaya not to do so.