Dzogchen: The Great Perfection

Selected verses from The Gospel of Garab Dorje: The Highest Secret Teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. Translated by Christopher Wilkinson. Published by Lotus Press.

You are and always have been Infinite Consciousness, the living presence and creative power of the Divine, the vast spaciousness of being, always good, and beyond the grasp of the intellect.

Perfect love being your essence, attainment is already complete, and there is no need to strive at practicing compassion.

Phenomena are not other than the True Condition, the Great Perfection. Without input on our part, phenomena appear and disappear. Self-liberating by nature, revealing the way.

The suffering of sentient beings is only the play of Infinite Consciousness, intrinsically perfect energy, in varied forms.

The Mind gives rise to all appearances. Being unborn, it is indestructible. This timeless space of Pure Being is beyond the reach of thought.

There is no need to conceptualize nor to purify the mind of concepts. The deepest meditative tranquility does not think of itself as this or that.

Real meditation is effortless letting go, into The Great Perfection.

Abiding in spacious consciousness, beyond desire and directed intent, one's condition widens to infinity.

Primordial Enlightenment is the source of All. Its manifestations are marvelous wonders.

Appearances, symbols of the All-Good, never change into something other than Pure Presence. All possible circumstances and all beings in them arise non-dually from this Pristine Continuum.

The True Condition cannot be grasped conceptually, but appears in various ways, according to how one thinks about it.

Blessed are the ones who abide continuously in The True Condition, not discriminating between self and other. They enjoy the magical illusion, while abiding in The Great Perfection.

In truth, nothing arises, and nothing ceases. Equal in all its manifestations, all forms being One in reality, nothing needs to be dedicated in any direction.

The True Condition being intrinsically perfect, there is no need to make offerings. No need for our minds to visualize or intend.

Even an instant of this contemplation is Divine Union. And the satisfaction of this union fulfills all spiritual commitments.

Non grasping is already the perfect offering. Equanimity is already the perfect mantra.

Obscured by active striving, The Great Perfection cannot be realized.

The sky of Mind presents nothing that requires improvement or cultivation, avoidance or acceptance.

We are not peering into the beyond nor hankering for special feelings or visions.

The sky of Mind does not crystallize into anything which could be a source of hope or fear. This being the case we simply sit.

When this becomes our lived experience then all appearances (both inner and outer) are recognized as waves of the ocean of infinite consciousness. We allow them to appear and self-liberate.

Because of its invisible intelligence and equanimity, whatever we intend appears, and because the True Condition is nothing, no-thing, it can bring forth the appearance of anything whatsoever.

When we get involved with vows, techniques, good works, mandalas, stages and paths, we are inadvertently cherishing and holding on to the small self. Striving with notions about purity is a mistaken path.

The light of wisdom, the clear light of awareness, is already perfect. The Alll-Good is endlessly playful. The non-dual reality will reflect itself to us in just the way we think about it. Everything is the energetic play of primordial enlightened mind.

The real significance of desire is the wish to know that all appearances are in fact The Great Perfection...