Guide
Complete Retreat Guide
Dzogchen Meditation Retreat
with Chakung Jigme Wangdrak Rinpoche and Anam Thubten
May 13 to 15, 2022
Dear Friends,
Thank you for joining the Dzogchen Meditation Retreat with Chakung Jigme Wangdrak Rinpoche and Anam Thubten, May 13-15 2022. As a participant of the retreat, the materials and guidance included here are for your personal use only; please do not share.
Materials to support your practice and how to make offerings
Guidance
Chakung Jigme Wangdrak Rinpoche provided these responses to questions that arose during the retreat:
Poti Lung Wang is the name of the empowerment.
Dzogchen preliminaries: འཁོར་འདས་རུ་ཤན་, Korde Rushen
Pointing out instructions: ངོ་སྤྲོད , ngo trod
The Song of Realization by Dudjom Lingpa comes from the collected works of Dudjom Lingpa, specifically from a collection known as the advice or counsel.
A few individuals had specific questions and requests:
For those who requested the lung for Dudjom Lingpa’s name mantra, if you wish, please recite the supplication prayer to Dudjom Lingpa instead.
The Poti Lung Wang confers permission to engage in Dudjom Lingpa's teachings, but not all Dzogchen teachings. And of course, it is only for your own practice and study, not to share with others or teach to others.
If you received lung and tri for Troma, and having received the poti wang, if you recite the Troma practice, you will not break samaya. However, there is a special Troma empowerment; if you intend to practice Troma, then it's good to get the Troma empowerment specifically.
During empowerment, of course it's best to repeat the refuge and Bodhicitta vow correctly. But if you didn't, it doesn't mean you failed or you didn't get the empowerment. Whether you got the empowerment is dependent on your focus, your state of mind, your faith. If you had all that, you got the empowerment.
Dzogchen preliminary practices:
Many asked about the specifics of Korde Rushen practices, but remember, Rinpoche gave an overview of these practices, and purposefully did not go into details. To practice, it would be necessary to do so in a Korde Rushen retreat where one month, 15 days or a full week would be dedicated to the practice. At such a time, it would be meaningful to review the posture and every action, every detail of the practice.
As an example, breathing through the mouth while meditating is a Dzogchen-specific practice. It doesn't mean you have to always breathe through your mouth at other times, or in other practices.
There is a daily practice for those who were present for the full empowerment and for the full teaching, and that is sustaining the essence of awareness and doing so regularly. That’s the practice and the essence that encompasses all other practices.
Questions about personal practice and meditation experiences:
Remember, as Rinpoche said during the teaching, all sorts of experiences will arise, all sorts of phenomena, mental phenomena and meditative experiences, and whatever arises, do not follow after them.
Don't become attached to them. Don't fixate on them. Recognizing them as the phenomena that arises in meditation, don't attach a lot of importance or meaning to them. Just continue to sustain the essence of awareness as they arise. They will arise, sustain the essence of the arising. As they dissipate, let them dissipate. Sustain the essence of the arising, sustain the essence of awareness.
As you meditate, you will have a lot of experiences that will lead to more questions. You'll get a lot of these kinds of questions. But the most direct answer is this: whatever arises, whatever phenomena arises, don't fixate on them, become caught up in them, get attached to them. Just continue the practice of sustaining the essence of awareness. That's the best way to address all of our questions.
Dzogpa chenpo teachings are unlike other Dharma teachings. In other teachings, first you listen, and then you have time to ask questions; you undergo an analytical process and examine. But with Dzogchen, it's a pointing out instruction, and it's about sustaining the essence of mind. And it's not about asking questions. The questions are concepts. The reason why we have questions now is because we have concepts. It's mental activity, it's not sustaining the essence of mind.
There is a tradition of offering one’s realization to the lama, and that comes later, after practicing in retreat for many months. Or if in the course of practice, if someone hits a roadblock or is unsure about a specific practice or how to do something new, then they can ask the Lama for advice. But if it's an ideation, a way of thinking about experiences or abstract ideas, then that's what it is: just ideas, just concepts. When we indulge the questions, it can become very academic. That's why it's better not to indulge questions too much in the Dzogchen context. It's about honoring the dzogchen process, which is non-conceptual. It's about sustaining the essence of mind.
Your participation in these teachings and your on-going commitment is deeply appreciated. Thank you for joining this mandala.
With warm regards,
The Abhaya Fellowship and Dharmata Foundation Volunteers
