Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche - Wild Awakening: The Heart of Mahamudra and Dzogchen

I know of no more complete, practical, and accessible guide to the paths of Mahamudra and Dzogchen. One of the most brilliant Tibetan Buddhist teachers of his generation, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche explains with striking clarity and richness the heart of the practice lineage, as, step by step, he leads us through the Sutra, Mantra, and Essence Mahamudra, and the nine vehicles that culminate in the Great Perfection: Dzogpachenpo.

Sogyal Rinpoche, author of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche is an amazing human being. For seven lifetimes he has been a recognized master of Mahamudra and Dzogchen meditation. In this lifetime, he was first in his class at the Nalanda Institute of Buddhist Philosophy. He has studied modern psychology and has an intimate understanding of the Western mind, having lived and taught in Europe and North America for many years. This book he has written is like a shining lamp that illuminates the path to realizing your own basic nature. Read it and let it open you up to the wish-fulfilling jewel of your own true nature of mind.

Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso, author of The Sun of Wisdom

A fascinating and daring description of the tantric journey by one of the very finest contemporary Tibetan teachers. Deeply informed by impeccable scholarship, this book is a profound and subtle evocation of the experience of Mahamudra and Dzogchen that modern people will find clear, inspiring, and compelling.

Reginald A. Ray, author of Indestructible Truth and Secret of the Vajra World

ABOUT THE BOOK

Mahamudra and Dzogchen are perhaps the most profound teachings within all of Tibetan Buddhism. The experience of Mahamudra, or great symbol, is an overwhelming sense of extraordinary clarity, totally open and nondualistic. Dzogchen, or great perfection, is the ultimate teaching according to the Nyingma tradition and also represents the pinnacle of spiritual development. These are the two paths that provide practitioners with the most skillful means to experience the fully awakened state and directly taste the reality of our mind and environment. And yet these concepts are notoriously difficult to grasp and challenging to explain. In Wild Awakening, Tibetan Buddhist master Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche presents these esoteric teachings in a style that reveals their surprising simplicity and great practical value, emphasizing that we can all experience our world more directly, with responsibility, freedom, and confidence. With a straightforward approach and informal style, he presents these essential teachings in a way that even those very new to Tibetan Buddhism can understand.

DZOGCHEN PONLOP RINPOCHE, born in 1965 in northeast India, was trained in the meditative and intellectual disciplines of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism under the guidance of many of the greatest masters from Tibets pre-exile generation. He is a widely celebrated teacher, known for his skill in making the full richness of Buddhist wisdom accessible to modern minds, and devotes much of his energy to developing a vision of a genuine Western Buddhism.

Sign up to learn more about our books and receive special offers from Shambhala Publications.

Or visit us online to sign up at shambhala.com/eshambhala.

S HAMBHALA P UBLICATIONS , I NC .

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

www.shambhala.com

2003 by The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Excerpt from Supplication to the Takpo Kagy by Pengar Jampal Zangpo was translated by the Nland Translation Committee under the direction of Chgyam Trungpa Rinpoche. Copyright 1975, 1980 by the Nland Translation Committee and used with permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

L IBRARY OF C ONGRESS C ATALOGING-IN -P UBLICATION D ATA

Dzogchen Ponlop, Rinpoche.

Wild awakening: The heart of Mahamudra and Dzogchen / Dzogchen Ponlop Rinponche.

p. cm.

Includes index.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2699-1

ISBN 978-1-59030-096-1 (paperback)

1. Mahmudr (tantric rite) 2. Rdzogs-chen (Rnin-ma-pa) I. Title.

BQ8921.M35 D96 2003

294.3443dc21

2003003550

To my guru, Khenpo Tsltrim Gyamtso Rinpoche,

who pointed out the heart of Mahamudra and Dzogchen

Contents

T HESE DAYS THERE IS growing interest in Buddhist teachings and practices, particularly among people who, faced with the rapid and far-reaching changes that science and technology are making in the external world, are seeking ways to achieve a corresponding inner development. Like other spiritual traditions, Buddhism presents many ways to generate, enhance, and strengthen fundamental positive human values such as love and compassion, and it does so by cultivating positive states of mind.

Mahamudra and Dzogchen are among the most exalted teachings of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. The focus of these profound and advanced practices is the very nature of the mind itself and as such they go straight to the point. However, it would be a mistake to think that they therefore offer some kind of shortcut. Without understanding the context of compassion, the awakening mind, and the emptiness of intrinsic existence within which they function, the methods of Mahamudra and Dzogchen would not only be ineffective, but could also be easily misunderstood. On the other hand, cultivating these qualities will lend their practice resolution and vigor. Moreover, as several acquaintances of mine, great practitioners of Dzogchen or Mahamudra, have told me that when their meditation was invigorated by intense feelings of respect toward their lama, they were able to realize the ultimate nature of their minds and were able to gain wonderful qualities, hence a personal relationship with a qualified teacher is a prerequisite, too.

This book by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a teacher and practitioner with close acquaintance with both Mahamudra and Dzogchen, is timely. His thorough account of these marvelous traditions will be a valuable source of inspiration and clarity to many readers. As it is said, if you can purify the open sky of the mind of the clouds of conceptual thoughts, the constellations of omniscience will shine forth.

T HE D ALAI L AMA

A PRIL 16, 2003

N OW THAT WE HAVE taken a human birth endowed with intelligence and discrimination, it is essential that we make the best use of it through exerting ourselves in accomplishing genuine happiness and benefiting others. However, we will be ignorant of how to proceed with respect to these concerns if we do not rely upon an effective spiritual path. Therefore, study of the Buddhadharma, which is rich in paths of skillful means and knowledge, is a most meaningful endeavor.

Though in general the doctrines of Buddhadharma are limitless, the path of Secret Mantra is especially swift and profound, and all of its practices are included within the two stages of creation and completion. In recent times, The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, Karma Sungrab Ngedn Tenpay Gyaltsen, a master endowed with great wisdom and intelligence with respect to the Buddhadharma, has taught on Mahamudra and Dzogchen, the heart practices of the completion stage path of simplicity. These discourses have been compiled and published here by his students. I rejoice in this publication and pray that the enlightened activity connected with these teachings will vastly increase.