What do you think?
Rate this book
The Great Secret of Mind: Special Instructions on the Nonduality of Dzogchen
Dzogchen (Great Perfection) goes to the heart of our experience by investigating the relationship between mind and world and uncovering the great secret of mind’s luminous nature. Weaving in personal stories and everyday examples, Pema Rigtsal leads the reader to see that all phenomena are the spontaneous display of mind, a magical illusion, and yet there is something shining in the midst of experience that is naturally pure and spacious. Not recognizing this natural great perfection is the root cause of suffering and self-centered clinging. After introducing us to this liberating view, Pema Rigtsal explains how it is stabilized and sustained in effortless meditation: without modifying anything, whatever thoughts of happiness or sorrow arise simply dissolve by themselves into the spaciousness of pure presence.
In addition to Pema Rigtsal’s text, this volume includes a short biography of the author written by Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche.
In addition to Pema Rigtsal’s text, this volume includes a short biography of the author written by Dungse Thinley Norbu Rinpoche.
- GenresBuddhismPhilosophy
300 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2012
46 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
December 22, 2022
“Nonduality - sublimely obvious....”
[Note, I have added a star as well as some changes and more excerpts to my original review to reflect my impression after rereading this wonderful book and finding it more relevant – even essential - and helpful than before. Dec. 2021]
This recent training manual written by a relatively young Tibetan abbot (Tulku Pema Rigtsal, b. 1963), wonderfully translated and edited by Keith Dowman, gives us a clear and lucid glimpse into both an ancient culture of Central Asia (the Nyingma tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism), and the essence of timeless transcultural wisdom (Dzogchen or "Great Perfection" teachings).
As the title says, this book is about the "Great Secret of Mind", and specifically, "special instructions on the nonduality of dzogchen", and the inescapable point of nonduality is boundaryless inclusiveness - all stages of the path, all activities we may engage in, all thoughts and emotions we may experience not something other than this nonduality - and the direct pointing out of this (awakening our primordial awareness) is the essence of dzogchen. But there is also a lot of obscuration in the minds of ordinary beings, and so the process of becoming familiar with this simple, unadorned truth depends on the skillful guidance of the teacher....
Tulku Pema Rigtsal is from a remote region of Western Nepal, where he heads a traditional monastery, responsible for both preserving the distinctive qualities of Tibetan Buddhism, and meeting the needs of a younger generation of Tibetans who may be somewhat jaded by their exposure to modern Western ways, and so less than enthusiastic about the traditional (conservative!) and overtly superstitious ways of their ancestors. He is part of the last generation of Tibetans trained directly by the great masters from old (pre-invasion) Tibet, but also exposed to the modern world through his formal education and subsequent travels.
This sounds like just the kind of perspective needed to meet modern Western students needs as well, students who are often drawn in by the exotic qualities of Tibetan culture, but deep down thirst to know its more timeless message. And this straightforward and mostly traditionally presented teaching, although not necessarily "radical Dzogchen" as many of Dowman's recent translations have been, is simply wonderful; profound in meaning, thorough in breadth of presentation, and clear in translation.
Dowman sums this up best in his introduction, by showing that these instructions are given within the context of the gradual path to enlightenment (where 99.9% of all of us really are), but that they also contain the essence of the direct (pathless) approach. Pema Rigtsal's text presents these teachings in a traditional outline of The View (making up the bulk of the text), Meditation as the Path, Conduct, The Attainment and The Four Bardos, using abundant scriptural support (delightfully, much of it from the masters of the recent past hundred or so years) but with a relaxed conversational style of teaching and story telling that is engaging and intimate. To keep this in perspective Dowman quotes the preeminent 14th Century Tibetan dzogchen master Longchenpa as saying,
"Buddha will never be attained on the path of the nine graduated approaches by engaging in their view, meditation, and conduct. Why not? Because in the view of the nine approaches, there is only intellectual conjecture that is sometimes convincing and sometimes not, but which can never induce the naked essence."
While not a beginner's (how-to) book, it is an excellent introduction to the direct and nondual approach of Dzogchen for someone who already has some experience with meditation.
“The nature of Dzogchen is such that nothing arising in consciousness is rejected, nothing is accepted, and everything is treated impartially. Whatever is perceived, nothing at all is done to it; thereby all experience whatsoever is known as nondual. Here, all views have been utterly forsaken and completely released in the matrix of luminous mind, self-arisen primal awareness. Unmoving from that space we remain in nonconceptual meditation...” (p. 131)
and,
"The pure presence that was introduced in the section on view is itself the meditation. Wherever a single perception falls, let it hang loosely but firmly, without modifying it in any way, and it rests in naked empty pure presence. If we are unable to abide in this due to the sudden arising of thought, we should just hang loosely in the thought. Then that creativity, like a wave falling back into the ocean, is released into its ground, and thus buddha is attained in alpha-purity. We should engage diligently and one-pointedly in this practice until we become confident, and then, our creativity optimized, we attain confidence." (p.158)
and,
"Let the body rest like a corpse, without movement; keep silent like a mute; leave the mind alone without changing anything. Leave pure presence alone, unmodified, just as it is. Relax, at ease, and hang loosely in the natural state.” (p.166)
and,
“When we rest loosely in the wonderful, naturally occurring pure presence, our awareness of the here and now is not as it was previously; bliss, clarity, and no-thought arise together with pure-presence. If we don not abandon the identification of naked pure presence with mystical experience, then pure presence will always arise with attachment to bliss, clarity and no-thought, and our meditation will never go beyond the three mundane worlds.” (p. 169)
Keith Dowman has a reputation for presenting Dzogchen in a direct bare-bones ‘radical’ style (independent of Vajrayana Buddhism) and I suspect this is why the author chose him to work with, in this way more effectively bridging the traditional with the modern. But whatever the background story, Dowman adapts his style to present these teachings wonderfully (translating and editing with very little of himself showing through)! He also does a good job of putting this teaching into context with his frank introductory remarks, "So finally, The Great Secret of Mind contains secret Dzogchen precepts hidden among excerpts from a manual of sutric Buddhism together with some gems of tantric instruction. Some readers will understand the sutric path of monasticism in which Tulku Pema Rigtsal is situated as the cultural context, and Dzogchen Ati as the mystical experience unfolding within it, unmarked by monasticism. To put it another way, consonant with Mahayana dogma, the temporal sutric path provides the form and the Dzogchen view-cum-meditation the emptiness. The sutric path, determined by karma, provides the time-space context, which in timeless awareness of the here and now becomes the pure presence of Dzogchen."
Or as Pema Rigtsal so simply says, "In reality, therefore, all phenomena are merely mental labels, and in reality not even the smallest thing exists to be cultivated or rejected. Yogins and yoginis who have this view pay no attention to their own level of accomplishment regarding either attachment to the objective, material aspect of nominal experience or to the degree of any emotional attachment. Such yogins and yoginis make no distinction between high and low views, nor do they pay heed to the speed of accomplishment on the path."
Such is a glimpse of "the special instructions on the nonduality of dzogchen."
[Note, I have added a star as well as some changes and more excerpts to my original review to reflect my impression after rereading this wonderful book and finding it more relevant – even essential - and helpful than before. Dec. 2021]
This recent training manual written by a relatively young Tibetan abbot (Tulku Pema Rigtsal, b. 1963), wonderfully translated and edited by Keith Dowman, gives us a clear and lucid glimpse into both an ancient culture of Central Asia (the Nyingma tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism), and the essence of timeless transcultural wisdom (Dzogchen or "Great Perfection" teachings).
As the title says, this book is about the "Great Secret of Mind", and specifically, "special instructions on the nonduality of dzogchen", and the inescapable point of nonduality is boundaryless inclusiveness - all stages of the path, all activities we may engage in, all thoughts and emotions we may experience not something other than this nonduality - and the direct pointing out of this (awakening our primordial awareness) is the essence of dzogchen. But there is also a lot of obscuration in the minds of ordinary beings, and so the process of becoming familiar with this simple, unadorned truth depends on the skillful guidance of the teacher....
Tulku Pema Rigtsal is from a remote region of Western Nepal, where he heads a traditional monastery, responsible for both preserving the distinctive qualities of Tibetan Buddhism, and meeting the needs of a younger generation of Tibetans who may be somewhat jaded by their exposure to modern Western ways, and so less than enthusiastic about the traditional (conservative!) and overtly superstitious ways of their ancestors. He is part of the last generation of Tibetans trained directly by the great masters from old (pre-invasion) Tibet, but also exposed to the modern world through his formal education and subsequent travels.
This sounds like just the kind of perspective needed to meet modern Western students needs as well, students who are often drawn in by the exotic qualities of Tibetan culture, but deep down thirst to know its more timeless message. And this straightforward and mostly traditionally presented teaching, although not necessarily "radical Dzogchen" as many of Dowman's recent translations have been, is simply wonderful; profound in meaning, thorough in breadth of presentation, and clear in translation.
Dowman sums this up best in his introduction, by showing that these instructions are given within the context of the gradual path to enlightenment (where 99.9% of all of us really are), but that they also contain the essence of the direct (pathless) approach. Pema Rigtsal's text presents these teachings in a traditional outline of The View (making up the bulk of the text), Meditation as the Path, Conduct, The Attainment and The Four Bardos, using abundant scriptural support (delightfully, much of it from the masters of the recent past hundred or so years) but with a relaxed conversational style of teaching and story telling that is engaging and intimate. To keep this in perspective Dowman quotes the preeminent 14th Century Tibetan dzogchen master Longchenpa as saying,
"Buddha will never be attained on the path of the nine graduated approaches by engaging in their view, meditation, and conduct. Why not? Because in the view of the nine approaches, there is only intellectual conjecture that is sometimes convincing and sometimes not, but which can never induce the naked essence."
While not a beginner's (how-to) book, it is an excellent introduction to the direct and nondual approach of Dzogchen for someone who already has some experience with meditation.
“The nature of Dzogchen is such that nothing arising in consciousness is rejected, nothing is accepted, and everything is treated impartially. Whatever is perceived, nothing at all is done to it; thereby all experience whatsoever is known as nondual. Here, all views have been utterly forsaken and completely released in the matrix of luminous mind, self-arisen primal awareness. Unmoving from that space we remain in nonconceptual meditation...” (p. 131)
and,
"The pure presence that was introduced in the section on view is itself the meditation. Wherever a single perception falls, let it hang loosely but firmly, without modifying it in any way, and it rests in naked empty pure presence. If we are unable to abide in this due to the sudden arising of thought, we should just hang loosely in the thought. Then that creativity, like a wave falling back into the ocean, is released into its ground, and thus buddha is attained in alpha-purity. We should engage diligently and one-pointedly in this practice until we become confident, and then, our creativity optimized, we attain confidence." (p.158)
and,
"Let the body rest like a corpse, without movement; keep silent like a mute; leave the mind alone without changing anything. Leave pure presence alone, unmodified, just as it is. Relax, at ease, and hang loosely in the natural state.” (p.166)
and,
“When we rest loosely in the wonderful, naturally occurring pure presence, our awareness of the here and now is not as it was previously; bliss, clarity, and no-thought arise together with pure-presence. If we don not abandon the identification of naked pure presence with mystical experience, then pure presence will always arise with attachment to bliss, clarity and no-thought, and our meditation will never go beyond the three mundane worlds.” (p. 169)
Keith Dowman has a reputation for presenting Dzogchen in a direct bare-bones ‘radical’ style (independent of Vajrayana Buddhism) and I suspect this is why the author chose him to work with, in this way more effectively bridging the traditional with the modern. But whatever the background story, Dowman adapts his style to present these teachings wonderfully (translating and editing with very little of himself showing through)! He also does a good job of putting this teaching into context with his frank introductory remarks, "So finally, The Great Secret of Mind contains secret Dzogchen precepts hidden among excerpts from a manual of sutric Buddhism together with some gems of tantric instruction. Some readers will understand the sutric path of monasticism in which Tulku Pema Rigtsal is situated as the cultural context, and Dzogchen Ati as the mystical experience unfolding within it, unmarked by monasticism. To put it another way, consonant with Mahayana dogma, the temporal sutric path provides the form and the Dzogchen view-cum-meditation the emptiness. The sutric path, determined by karma, provides the time-space context, which in timeless awareness of the here and now becomes the pure presence of Dzogchen."
Or as Pema Rigtsal so simply says, "In reality, therefore, all phenomena are merely mental labels, and in reality not even the smallest thing exists to be cultivated or rejected. Yogins and yoginis who have this view pay no attention to their own level of accomplishment regarding either attachment to the objective, material aspect of nominal experience or to the degree of any emotional attachment. Such yogins and yoginis make no distinction between high and low views, nor do they pay heed to the speed of accomplishment on the path."
Such is a glimpse of "the special instructions on the nonduality of dzogchen."
March 11, 2015
Excellent treatise on the nondual essence of becoming fully human. The nuts and and bolts of self-actualization, requires the discipline to live life meditatively; for me it was a blueprint to personal resurrection.
June 4, 2022
This was my introduction to Dzogchen, and unfortunately, a lot of it went over my head. It is definitely not a beginner's guide; a wide knowledge of Buddhism going in would have been beneficial. The author references Buddhist lists upon lists and obscure terminology throughout that, if explained at all, often came many pages or chapters later. This made it difficult to follow for me. I believe the book was successful, however, at getting its main points across. And as a result, I definitely have a much better understanding of Dzogchen. And if nothing else, it has inspired me to seek out some of Longchenpa's writings.
April 1, 2022
A death that is not physical
Such is release of constraining intellect of corporeal conditioning though release here means... a maturity of awareness of mental prowess that does not require... I,me,mine
Such is release of constraining intellect of corporeal conditioning though release here means... a maturity of awareness of mental prowess that does not require... I,me,mine
March 26, 2024
An excellent read. Many short sections talk about Dzogchen basics. Particularly good for newcomers to Dzogchen. An interesting feature are the many quotes from sutras and tantras, which are listed at the back of the book.
July 29, 2017
Incredibly skillful discourse and translation by this combination of teacher and translator (I read only one language, so I can comment from only one angle, but that angle was luminous)!
December 18, 2013
Quite a complete summary of the philosophy and system of Dzogchen, one of the highest forms of Buddhism as practiced exclusively in Tibet. Many quotes are given by Dzogchen and meditation masters (from Tibet) which back up the author's explanations and descriptions of what Dzogchen meditation and philosophy entails. Very good introduction and summary.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews