Bodhicitta777 on Nostr: From a friend: The Metaphysics of the Great Perfection Teaching (Dzogchen) In the ...

From a friend:

The Metaphysics of the Great Perfection Teaching (Dzogchen)

In the ancient texts of the Great Perfection teachings, this view is consistently presented and was codified and further explained by a great Dzogchen master from the 14th century, called Longchenpa.

It's taught that there is a Universal Ground of Being called the Dharmakaya. It’s called the “Zhi” in Tibetan Dzogchen, which is like an infinite empty space and which intrinsically has a quality of consciousness inseparable from the space itself known as Buddha Nature.

Within that space, the universal ground space or Zhi, there is an infinite energetic potential which manifests as the physical universe, which is its own energetics, the display or ornamentation of the Zhi itself, like the ocean’s waves.

This is similar to how the subconscious dreaming mind dreams of a personal self in a dream as well as the dream world and dreamed landscapes of our dream.

All of that dream display is being choreographed and projected from our subconscious, dreaming mind with none of it being independent of the dreaming mind itself.

Likewise, the Zhi or Ground of Being is manifesting the physical universe, our individual consciousness (shespa), and all that occurs as inseparable from the universal Basis itself, the Dharmakaya.

Like waves on the water of the ocean, the waves are inseparable from the ocean, and likewise, the universe is inseparable from the Zhi; they are all manifestations of the same energetic potentials.

They are called “appearances of the Base”, Zhi Nang in Tibetan.

Because the Ground of Being or Dharmakaya and its energetic potentials are flawlessly pure and perfect, the entire universe is also flawlessly perfect, however it appears AS our ordinary life experiences.

As the Zhi manifests the entire “external” universe, it's manifesting an almost infinite number of spheres of individual consciousness which are neutral in nature, called “shes pa”. They can either recognize themselves as being the ground consciousness or Zhi itself appearing as one’s localized individual consciousness, or not recognize this.

If they recognize this, they are what's called Rigpa, the consciousness of a Buddha
aware of Itself .

Otherwise, that consciousness doesn't recognize itself and sees the external universe around it and all of its mental phenomena as being “other than” itself, other than the Zhi or Dharmakaya.

As the waves on the ocean are not independent and separate from the ocean itself, not seeing the underlying nature of the ocean as manifesting AS all the waves, including itself, and all of the phenomena it perceives, a dualistic dimension of confusion and suffering arises: called samsara.

A conceptual subject/object dichotomy is superimposed by the conceptualizing mind upon the non-dual Reality, the Dharmakaya.

It's all just the ocean; it's all just the Zhi that’s appearing AS everything in the universe; individual consciousnesses, minds, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, bodies, brains, neurons, plants, creatures, matter, atoms and quantum fields.

But in the condition of “not knowing” its own nature, the cognitive nature of the original “neutral consciousness” (shes pa) develops into a darker, heavier type of consciousness, called the dualizing mind, sem or manas and ego. But when Knowing itself it is the Buddha Mind.

In not knowing itself, it functions as a conceptualizing and thinking mind (sem) in terms of its dualistic, egoic relationship with the universe and its own mental energetics (thoughts). It then seems to exist in a dualistic state and the external universe appears as something “other than” itself.

However, its own egoic thoughts and various mental states, are all still part of the ocean of the ground or Zhi, but are being seen as being “something other” than itself. This produces the dualistic experience called samsara.

This is the Dzogchen teaching of the Great Perfection that Longchenpa points out in all of his writings.

There is a monistic wholeness to the totality as it's all a manifestation of the single ground, this universal Dharmakaya. The all inclusive totality of Reality or Zhi is known as the Thigle Chenpo or Great Hyper-Sphere.

All sensory objects of perception are themselves the Buddha Nature as the “Appearances of the Ground of Being” manifesting, as well as your own individual consciousness
arising from that same Ground (Zhi) as the “perceiver” of those appearances of the universe itself and all inner states.

Whereas the “individual” units of consciousness are truly individual in their individual state, but in recognition of their being the Zhi, there's a releasing of that individualized contraction, through which the individual consciousness knows itself as being this non-conceptual, non-dual Ground of Being, Zhi or Dharmakaya. This is like an ice cube that realizes it is itself the water it has been seeking all along.

That's the actualization of ultimate non-dual bliss and wisdom (yeshe) that one who is engaged in the Great Perfection teachings comes to know directly.

Questions?