Everything Is Light: The Circle of Total Illumination

by Keith Dowman

This tantra, The Circle of Total Illumination, is a definitive expression of the apex view of Dzogchen. It presents a view that translates existentially into the Great Perfection. It is a root tantra, an explanatory tantra, a text that is the key to all other Nyingma Dzogchen tantras. It is definitive also in that it presents the nondual nature of mind just as it is, in our hearts, without any prevarication. Keith Dowman has again brought an exceptional vital text to the attention of lovers of Dzogchen, a text that in its very secrecy teaches the essence of the Nyingma tantras. Dzogchen is the very essence of the lamas’ dharma; and the core of Dzogchen is to be found in the Nyingma atiyoga tantras. It can provide initiatory ambrosia, relaxing into a circle of total illumination. Cradled in the Vajrayana, this Dzogchen tantra is like the Garuda that flies immediately it hatches – we are immediately initiated into the spaciousness of Dzogchen. Everything Is Light, with The Circle of Total Illumination at its core, is an essential guide to experiential understanding of the apex Dzogchen tantras. It is the open sesame to the jewels in the teasure cave of Dzogchen atiyoga. It is the thread that brings the mind out of the labyrinth of tantric dialectic and recursive mind games. It is a tantra for our time, that can be approached not as an alien literary artefact excavated from a time bubble, but with our own cultural and personal existential reference points. In Keith Dowman’s brilliant translation, an essential Dzogchen tantra is presented through a revitalized and poetic language, which is accessible to the layman while maintaining the visionary integrity of the precepts. He has replaced the tired jargon of academic Buddhism with a vital vocabulary that we can all appreciate. Further, the Tibetan-English, English-Tibetan and Numeral Glossaries are invaluable tools for anyone reading the Dzogchen tantras with the original language in mind. These equivalencies should become standard for translators of the tantras. Publication of this text will surely raise the hackles of timorous critics who would maintain the principle of traditional secrecy, keeping the text to themselves and their conventional institutions, regardless of the crying need for its meaning and value within a larger social context. To a more generous audience, the principle of self-secrecy allows revelation of self-evident meaning to anyone who is karmically prepared. As the tantra portrays itself, ‘This reality-text was spoken to to carry us over the ocean of samsara; to untie the knot of conflicting emotion; to dispel intellectual doubt; and to give us meaning and purpose. It severs the vicious circle of rebirth, establishes us in sublime vision, leads us onto the supreme path of freedom, bestows authority through vision, conveys the meaning of all secret precepts, and establishes the value of the eight lower approaches.’ ‘We are now going to expound the key to all the The Circle of Total Illumination, which is an elucidation of the terminology of the Great Perfection, providing pith instruction on all approaches to enlightenment, the crux of all lineal transmissions, and the key points of all secret pith precept.’ ‘It is a verbal lamp, a circle of total illumination, shedding its golden light of ultimate significance upon all tantra. As the ultimate key, may it unlock their hidden meaning, so that the retinue and future followers can read them and understand them.’This is a great garuda of a tantra that glides effortlessly and compassionately across the vast vault of mind’s nature. Bhaka Tulku Pema Rikdzin. My wish is that this work brings great benefit to all Dzogchen Practitioners. CG Namkhai Norbu

Genres: Buddhism

317 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 5, 2022

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The Title Says it All!"

“Free from the neurosis of compulsive striving,
Spontaneity is always immanent;
With buddha at the core of our being,
Goal-oriented thought is quieted;
Meditation veils the sublime –
Buddha unveiled, everything is light. “
(Tiklay Kunsel, Chapter. 79, p.186)

This is a book of Radical Dzogchen for the 21st century transposed from the distant past of 11th/12th century Tibet. It may well be an ancient teaching connected to an ancient tradition, but it is one loosened into the modern world and ethos. As Dowman makes clear in his forward, this loosening is what makes it radical today.

“Intractable belief, particularly religious belief, seems to be an expression of existential insecurity, an escapist bolt-hole, and an easy option for those emerging from the hell of samsaric addiction. The belief in Buddha and the Bodhisattvas taught by lamas, like that in Jesus Christ and the Saints taught by the priests, belongs to the little ones, karmically deleted from the list of players in the cosmic lottery that has rainbow body as the prize. Radical Dzogchen is the distilled essence of Vajrayana, a doorway into the experiential nondual reality of being human, and as such engenders no belief and no argument. This translation and it’s introduction are my best contribution to an understanding of that realization.” (p.14)

Despite the title this is not light reading. It is dense and profound, although Dowman's translation does make it flow well and preserves the spontaneous, even playful, nature of the subject. His 44 page intro is perhaps more directly to the point and easier to digest, and gives a great overview of the subject historically, philosophically, linguistically and culturally.

“In the Dzogchen view, the distinction between provisional and definitive meaning is of crucial import; the definitive precept points directly at the nature of mind, facilitating experiential confirmation of it. Provisional precepts, on the contrary, provide a cause of change to the ambient conditions, change that may or may not be considered a desirable advance on the previous stance… Further, the provisional precepts of the lower approaches are causal, designed to achieve an antidote effect… which allows a greater degree of light to shine through….. The motivation is thus altruistic and designed to change the world for the better. To the contrary, Dzogchen, with nonaction as its defining attribute, is ultimately accepting, providing the definitive nondual view.” (Dowman, p. 38)

As is common with Tantras the compositional structure is mostly a question and answer dialogue between student (Vajrapani) and teacher (Vajradhara – the personified dharmakaya) in 97 short chapters. And as Dowman says in his into, “Vajradhara is accommodating” to those who believe the delusional steps of a spiritual path. The paradox of this text is that it goes on to include an over view of the path in comprehensive detail (while simultaneously undermining its validity by elaborating the dzogchen view). As such, this is the kind of book that is easy to dip into randomly for inspiration and as a refresher.

Ultimately this text is an example of a traditional explanatory tantra, that has been added to and amended over time, which is dense with meaning, and so able to benefit readers on whatever level they need. It’s all a vivid reflection of the classic description of how students of the various acumen are liberated; those of the highest are liberated just from the title alone, those of middling ability through diligent study and practice in this lifetime, and those of lowest in the bardo (gap) between lives or in the next life depending on their karma…

“The Tiklay Kunsel is clear in its intention at the outset: it sets out to reflect the highest visions of Dzogchen tantra, not to inform the intellect of truths whereby enlightenment can be achieved. If truth is verbalized, it is the radiance of the creativity of pure presence that has meaning; if the form of the moment is divorced from its radiance and given any extrinsic significance, it becomes a demonic intrusion from an alien environment, or the obtrusion of an underlying ego seeking to protect itself from dissolution in universal present awareness. Thus, mere intellectual understanding is not only an obstacle to present awareness; it is an error that leads us deeper into dualistic mire, and confines us there.” (Dowman, p. 60-1)

Finally Dowman gives both a succinct clarification on this text and a tantalizing hint of a more essential edition to come;

“A final word: if the Tiklay Kunsel were to be torn apart and the Mind Series essence that is presented in Everything is Light: The Epitome (a forthcoming publication by Dzogchen Now! Books) understood as the original form of the tantra, the remainder of the text could be construed as additional material that was attached to the core to produce the final version of the text, or as it now stands, in the 11th/12th centuries.” (p. 46-7)

Needless to say, this particular text is a rich and complex artifact of both history and the radical essence of our mind's intrinsic nature.

[Pekka Harju-Autti · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book. In these Dzogchen tantras the inner world toward nondualistic state of mind is so vividly explained. Many of the chapters ring like a bell to the reader. Not easy, sure, but great life-changing potential!