Dzogchen / As it is [4]

~Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

As you know, the nine gradual vehicles and the four schools of philosophy- Vaibhashika, Sautrantika, Mind Only, and Middle Wayare designed to suit the various mental capacities of different people. The term Great Perfection, on the other hand, implies that everything is included in Dzogchen; that everything is complete. Dzogchen is said to be unexcelled, meaning that there is nothing higher than it. Why is this? It is because of knowing what truly is to be as it is- the ultimate naked state of dharmakaya. Isn't that truly the ultimate? Please carefully understand this. 

The Great Perfection is totally beyond any kind of pigeon-holing anything in any way whatsoever. It is to be utterly open, beyond categories, limitations and the confines of assumptions and beliefs. All other ways of describing things are confined by categories and limitations. The ultimate destination to arrive at in Dzogchen is the view of the kayas and wisdoms. Listen to this quote: "Although everything is empty, the special quality of the Buddhadharma is to not be empty of the kayas and wisdom." All other systems expound that all things are empty, but truly, the intention of the Buddha is to use the word 'emptiness' rather than 'empty.' This is a very important point. 

For instance, in the Prajnaparamita scriptures you find the statements, "Outer things are emptiness, inner things are emptiness, emptiness is emptiness, the vast is emptiness, the ultimate is emptiness, the conditioned is emptiness, the unconditioned is emptiness ... " 'Emptiness' here should be understood as 'empty cognizance.' Please understand this. The suffix '-ness' implies the cognizant quality. We need to understand this word in its correct connotation. 

Otherwise, it sounds too nihilistic to simply say that outer things are empty. If we understand 'emptiness' as empty or void, rather than 'empty cognizance,' we are leaning too much towards nihilism, the idea that everything is a big, blank void. This is a serious sidetrack. The Buddha initially taught that all things are empty. This was unavoidable; indeed, it was justifiable, because we need to dismantle o~ fixation on the permanence of what we experience. 

A normal person clings to the contents of his experiences as solid, as being 'that' - not just as mere 'experience,' but as something which has solidity, which is real, which is concrete and permanent. But if we look honestly and closely at what happens, experience is simply experience, and it is not made out of anything whatsoever. It has no form, no sound, no color, no taste and no texture; it is simply experience- an empty cognizance. 

The vivid display in manifold colors you see with open eyes is not mind, but 'illuminated matter.' Similarly, when you close your eyes and see something dark, it is not mind but 'dark matter.' In both cases, matter is merely a presence, an experience of something. It is mind that experiences the external elements and everything else.