Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl00791)

Responding to another post mentioning Dzogchen, Jerry S. wrote the following:


>	To anyone who may be interested, there is a very
>good book available on the subject:
> THE PRACTICE OF DZOGCHEN by Longchen Rabjam,
>Intro, trans, and annotated by Tulku Thondup, ed. by Harold
>Talbott, Snow Lion, Ithaca NY, 1989. ($22.95)
>Warning:  Not an easy read, but well worth studying
>
>	Jerry S.
>	Member, TI

Snow Lion (free newspaper/catalog, 800/950-0313) has just published the
summer paper, which included the above along with about 20 other books on
Dzogchen.

In the winter '96 issue, there was an extended review of DZOGCHEN: THE
SELF-PERFECTED STATE ($12.95).  It reads a lot like the classic Cutting
Through Spiritual Materialism, with the seemingly-detached beginner in the
esoteric side of life distancing himself from material things for the wrong
reasons, holding onto the little ego and the illusory hope that "something"
will be found which will miraculously allow him to escape all of his
problems.  Dzogchen is based upon a teaching of ""hereness-nowness," holding
the innate state of being as the goal.

Dzogchen means "Great Perfection," and its writings are preserved within
Nyingmapa, one of four main "schools" of Tibetan Buddhism.  The translator
John Shane makes much the same point that Jung did about Theosophy -- it can
be worse than useless if we divorce the *meaning* of the teachings from
their cultural context: there is no one "ultimate Truth", but there are lots
of good teachings available if we remember where they came from and what the
teachers were trying to do with what they had to work with (I'm paraphrasing
a bit, here).  To quote from the review,
  Sometimes... compassion can become something constructed and provisional,
because we don't understand the real principal of it.  A genuine, not
artificial compassion can only arise after we have discovered our own
condition.  ... When we know how to help ourselves and how to work with our
situation we can really benefit others, and our feeling of compassion will
arise spontaneously , without the need for us to hold ourselves to the rules
of behavior of any religious doctrine.

This idea is what Ram Dass meant, I imagine, when he wrote "Thanks are
absurd.  Does the right hand thank the left hand?  You can do nothing for me
but work on yourself.  I can do nothing for you but work on myself."

A bit harsh for those of us who still look for thanks at least occasionally,
but not far off the mark, I bet.

Jim