Availability of various paths to suit the needs of individuals is a distinction at Thubten Lekshey Ling. The path of Ngondro, Tsa-Lung and Dzogchen is an option for those who are determined to pursue Buddhahood in this lifetime. There are also various Vajrayana meditations for those who are inclined towards mantra, deity and visualization meditations. There is also the study, contemplation and meditation of various Mahayana texts. This enables individuals to approach even their regular activities of life from a new perspective. Then, the performance of those tasks joined with wisdom and compassion becomes the path to enlightenment. And, for those who are looking for just peace of mind within this life, there are various shamata meditations along with teachings necessary to integrate those meditations into life.
The Nyingma Tradition and Dzogchen
In the eighth century, when Nalanda University of India was still at its peak of glory and India was blessed to have many highly realized Buddhist masters, Buddhism was transmitted to Tibet under the leadership of Guru Padmasambhava (Guru Rinpoche), Abbot Santarakshita and the Tibetan Emperor Trisong Detsen. Five hundred Buddhist masters from India travelled to Tibet to help in translation and teaching and thus to make the transmission authentic. This kind of well coordinated effort of translating the entire Buddhism is unparalleled in the history. The school of Buddhism thus established in Tibet during 8th Century is known as Nyingma. Thus, by the time the Nalanda tradition of India faded away, the entire Buddhism as practiced in Nalanda was well-established, preserved, practiced and enriched in Nyingma.
The single most differentiating factor of the Nyingma tradition of Buddhism is the Dzogchen practice. This is the swiftest and the most direct way of awakening to enlightenment. It is the spontaneous and natural perfection of pristine wisdom right at its primordial purity. As HH Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche explained,
“Dzogchen is a state, the primordial state, the state of total awakening that is the heart-essence of all Buddhas and all spiritual paths, and the summit of an individual’s spiritual evolution.”
Unlike other paths of awakening, Dzogchen takes Buddha-nature, the true and naked nature of our minds that is primordially pure, as the very path. We normally do not experience this nature as it is always clouded by conceptual formations and confusion. Dzogchen can not be known without being pointed out by a realized Guru. In His Holiness 14th Dalai Lama’s words,
“Dzogchen practice is unlike other kinds of meditation where we use ‘the mind’. These (other) types of meditation involve using our faculty of mind to its full, and with exertion. In Dzogchen meditation, the practice is done in a non-dualistic manner … the meditation is undertaken at a level where the mind is returned to the primordial and natural state.” [Dzogchen – The Heart Essence of Great Perfection, pp 161]
Though all beings have this same primordial nature, due to confused perceptions. the world manifests in myriad ways of ordinariness and suffering. When one recognizes this primordial nature free from confusion, everything manifests perfectly and Buddhahood is spontaneously attained. For this reason, Dzogchen is known as the effortless vehicle towards natural perfection – free from contrivance and conceptualization. All the effort in the path of Dzogchen is then to sharpen one’s faculties to enter the effortless vehicle, receive the pointing out and then to increase the familiarity with the original state.