What a View!

Gems from a Dzogchen Master

Enjoy these photos from Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche's recent trip to Menri Monastery during Losar, and from Serenity Ridge, interspersed with words of wisdom from his book Healing with Form, Energy and Light.

In the dzogchen view, the goal is already present. Nothing has to be developed, only recognized. The fundamental practices of dzogchen are not aimed at developing anything, not even positive qualities. The practice is simply abiding in the nature of mind in which all qualities are already present and can spontaneously arise.

Dzogchen does not attempt to overcome problems or correct their causes, nor does it renounce problems or attempt to transform them. In the pure dzogchen view, there is no such thing as a problem. When a thought or feeling or sensation arises, it is left as it is. It does not cause a reaction. And if there is a reaction, it is not further engaged.

Serenity Ridge Retreat Center in Shipman, Virginia during New Year's Sang

Salvador Espinosa (photographer), Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche and Rinpoche's son, Senghe

Dzogchen is the great knowledge of space and light. Space is the empty Great Mother from which all things arise as a luminous display, in which all things have their existence, and into which all things dissolve. The luminous display is the play of the five pure lights, the essence of the five elements. The manifestation is all things and all beings and all elements of experience. This is the basis of the dzogchen view.