dharmata

I'd like to go back to Quintessential Dzogchen, the book that is providing me both with material for many hours' worth of reflection, and with a freshness to my meditation practice. Through the trains of thought taken since my first post about this book, I think I lost sight of -- or at least properly due focus on -- the fundamental principle taught by the Dzogchen masters. I would like to reiterate it here, so that it can gel in my manner of thinking: The mind is primordially pure.

What does it mean to say that the mind is primordially pure? It does not mean pure as opposed to impure, in the sense of being cleansed, or naturally beautiful and good. It means that from time immemorial, the true nature of mind has been independent of cause and condition, and as Angela says, "never affected by the conceptualizations and elaborations that create problems for us."

Dzogchen practice consists, after a first recognition of this true nature of mind, in simply remembering. It is the practice of the direct perception of dharmata (the basic nature of reality; the "unformed and unconditioned nature of things which can be realized in personal experience" according to the glossary at Blazing Splendor). No dramatic conceptualizations, no philosophy, no questioning. All we have to do is remember that the mind is primordially pure, in essence empty and unaffected by all that appears to be going on, and to rest in that state.