For anyone interested in Dzogchen, there is an upcoming online Dzogchen teaching retreat with Arcaya Malcolm.
Just like to let readers of this blog know.
http://www.zangthal.com/tantra-without-syllables-retreat
When I met Arcaya Malcolm for a dinner in California last year with (his student) Kyle Dixon, he invited me to attend his teaching retreat at Santa Fe this year. Alas, that couldn’t happen because of covid.
But I am also glad it is an online teaching event now since it means more people can access and receive those teachings.
For those interested you can also join Ask the Arcaya facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/387338435166650/?ref=share
And read through these books which serves as introductory reading prior to the retreat
“Crystal and the way of light, by my teacher, Chogyal Namkhai Norbu. As well as his Dzogchen, the self-perfected state.” - Arcaya Malcolm
...........
On the credentials of Arcaya Malcolm:
Did three year retreat, given title Arcaya by Khenpo Migmar Tseten. According to Khenpo, it is a higher title than “lama” in the Sakya school.
One of his Dzogchen teachers, Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, who completed the Dzogchen path and attained full awakening or rainbow body, asked Arcaya Malcolm Smith to teach Dzogchen to others.
Arcaya Malcolm Smith now has a sangha.
Also, from https://www.taramandala.org/all-teachers/13103/acarya-malcolm-smith/
“Ācārya Malcolm Smith met the Dharma in 1989. His principle gurus are H.H. Sakya Trichen, the late Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, and the late Kunzang Dechen Lingpa. He is a veteran of a traditional three-year solitary Tibetan Buddhist retreat. He is a translator and has several published and forthcoming translations with Wisdom Publications. Malcolm was awarded the Ācārya degree by the Sakya Institute in 2004, and graduated in 2009 from Shang Shung Institute’s School of Tibetan Medicine.”
....
Mr. RDT
Malcolm
is experienced (including traditional 3 year retreat, many years of
Trekcho and Thogal practice), knowledgeable (already translated 4 of 17
Dzogchen Mennagde Tantras) and careful about the right view. This
teaching is going to be on Trekcho with a possible follow up on Thogal
for those interested.
1
Mr. RDT
The retreat is
both for seriously interested newcommers and old time practitioners.
1
Mr. TJ
I don't see anything about direct introduction being given or being a prerequisite.
Mr. RDT
Will be given on the first day (afternoon session).
· Reply
· 49m
Soh Wei Yu
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Only two days attendance is compulsory and for a specific timing
The other days you can watch the video within 24 hours
Mr. RDT
Soh Wei Yu
even longer. Malcolm decided the videos will be available until the end of retreat + couple more days.
1
Soh Wei Yu
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Mr. RDT
1
· Reply
· 29m
Writings by Arcaya Malcolm:
Dzogchen
is the heart of all paths, whether of samsara or nirvana, and is the
truth that everyone is trying to discover. What is Dzogchen? We all know
the answer to that question -- it is our real condition.
Everyone,
no matter what religion they belong to, is trying to discover the
truth. That truth exists in the heart of every single sentient being. So
when you discover that truth, there is no need to remain locked in the
limitations of "Buddhist" and "non-Buddhist".
Limitations are what cause all the suffering in the world.
We
cannot change the world for others, but we can change the world for
ourselves. The only way to do this is to evolve beyond the limitations
of religion, ideology, nation, class, race, and tribe. If we go beyond
these limitations through discovering our primordial potentiality, then
we are participating in changing the world.
As
we have seen, for example, the six liberations are not just for
Buddhists -- you don't have to make someone a Buddhist in order to sing
Song of the Vajra for them, for example, or recite the Aspiration of
Samantabhadra -- any sentient being who hears these sung or recited will
have a seed of future liberation planted in their continuum, thos grol
(liberation through hearing). You don't have to make someone a Buddhist
to give them some myong grol (liberation through taste), or give them a
btags grol (liberation through wearing), or show them some image that is
a mthong grol (liberation through sight), or give them some incense
which is a specially formulated dri grol (liberation through smell),
etc.
Of
course I am a Buddhist. But where I used to be a Buddhist before I was a
Dzogchen practitioner, now it is other way around. This is not because
of some intellectual trip. This is based on my practice of Buddhism and
Dzogchen for 20+ years now.
I
can see really clearly that we need to go beyond Buddhist
provincialism. We even complain about sectarianism among Buddhists. We
also war with each other about such things whose Karmapa is the real
one; which is better, gzhan stong or rang stong; is yogacara as high as
madhayamaka or not; is Theravada Hinayāna or not; is Mahāyāna or the
tantras the real teaching of the Buddha or not. If we do not go beyond
these kinds of petty intellectual differences, we will never survive as a
species and we will continue to destroy ourselves.
In
the end it honestly does not matter much whether we put our faith in
Jesus, Krishna or Buddha. There is no perfect faith that leads to
liberation. The only thing that leads to liberation is knowledge of our
true condition. When we know that state, we don't have need of faith
since now we have certainty.
We
do not need to ecumenically pretend that all paths lead to the same
place. All we need to understand is that everyone is searching for the
same thing, the peace and happiness that springs from freedom. We can
overcome all our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe just by maintaining presence and awareness of this fact.
When
we have overcome our own limitations regarding religion, ideology,
nation, class, race and tribe, then we can work with any circumstances.
If one is attached to some limitation, there is no way one can work well
with circumstances. One can only work with circumstances by seeing what
one's limitations are.
When
we overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe then we are more free. We are more free to celebrate life,
sorrow at death, wonder at creation, we are more free to enjoy our lives
and the lives of others.
When
we overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe we are more free to celebrate the threatening "other", to
celebrate the beauty of human diversity and difference, which is the
strength of our species.
When
we overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe we are more free to act wisely, to cherish this beautiful
planet we live on and all the richness of life, the plants, the animals,
the rocks, minerals, oceans, mountains, rivers, and lakes it offers
us.
When
we overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe through knowing our own state through personal experience the
universe and all the beings in it are revealed as an astonishing panoply
of spheres of light and color, sound, lights and rays that has no
boundary nor center.
When
we overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe through knowing our own state just as it is, we have no need
to ensure any creed, no need to confirm any ideology, no need to control
anyone or anything -- we can let the free be free as they have been all
along whether they know it or not.
When
we overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe thorugh direct and perfect knowledge of our own state, then,
if we have the capacity, we can introduce others to their own state
without regard to religion, ideology, nation, class, race and tribe.
If,
for example, Dzogchen teachings are only for Buddhists, how can we ever
hope to overcome our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class,
race and tribe? How can enforcing limitations of religion, ideology,
nation, class, race and tribe ever be useful in the project of
overcoming our limitations of religion, ideology, nation, class, race
and tribe?
Dzogchen
teachings are for all who are interested. Because the ancient peoples
of Zhang Zhung and Tibet were interested in Dzogchen, Dzogchen spread
there before the formal advent of Buddhism in that country. Originally
Dzogchen was not a formal part of Buddhism. It spread through a very
small lineage of practitioners. This group of practitioners, beginning
with Mañjuśrīmitra, saw that Dzogchen was the essence of what the Buddha
was trying to communicate. So they spread it slowly. Later, because
Padmasambhava, Vairocana and Vimalamitra brought it to Tibet and some
Tibetans too understood it was the essence of the Buddha's teaching,
they kept it in secret and it slowly spread among Tibetans. Then, in the
11-12th century, when the Nyingmapas gained self-awareness as an
independent school, they adopted Dzogchen as their official "position"
in competition with the new translation trends and incorporated it into
their school. But by this time, Dzogchen had completely died out in
India. But Dzogchen, as is proven by its presence in Bon, is not
strictly the provence of Buddhism. Though the Bonpos revised their
teachings to bring them into line with Buddhist teachings, Zhang Zhung
Nyengyud is an authentic line of Dzogchen intimate instruction that do
not depend on Garab Dorje. Therefore, in the same way that early masters
of Dzogchen were free from limitations of religion, ideology, nation,
class, race and tribe and taught Dzogchen to whoever came to them, we
should also endeavor to overcome our limitations of religion, ideology,
nation, class, race and tribe.
We
must not consider the Dzogchen teachings as belonging to any religion,
ideology, nation, class, race or tribe. Instead, as practitioners of
Dzogchen, we should endeavor to overcome our personal limitations of
religion, ideology, nation, class, race and tribe through knowing our
real state just as it is. When we know our own state just as it is, we
can engage with people wherever they are without ourselves throwing up
any barriers of religion, ideology, nation, class, race and tribe. So I
suggest it is very important for Dzogchen practitioners, including
myself, to overcome any limitations of religion, ideology, nation,
class, race and tribe. We already have the means to do this -- we simply
need to will to do it. If we ground ourselves in the deep natural
transformation that comes from recognizing and integrating with our
primordial potentiality, then we can go beyond the limitations of
religion, ideology, nation, class, race and tribe. By going beyond these
limitations (as well as the limitations of conceptuality, imputation,
paths, stages, realizations, attainments, buddhas and sentient beings)
through recognizing our own innate state that is originally pure and
naturally perfected,
we can move freely through the world and meet everyone and everthing
from the authentic space of recognition of great original purity of all
that is.
།རྒྱལ་བ་ཀུན་གྱི་གསང་ཆེན་མཛོད།
།བླ་མེད་རྫགས་ཆེན་བསྟན་པ་ནི།
།ཇི་ལྟར་མཁའ་ལ་ཉི་ཤར་བཞིན།
།རྒྱལ་ཁམས་ཡོངས་ལ་དར་རྒྱས་ཤོག
May the secret treasury of all victors,
the unsurpassed Dzogchen teachings,
spread widely through all dimensions
just like the sun rising in the sky.
If
you are a Theravadin, Dzogchen seems similar to Vipassana, if you are a
Vajrayanist, Dzogchen seems similar to Mahamudra. If you are Zen
pracitioner, Dzogchen seems similar to Zen. If you are a Mahayanist,
Dzogchen seems similar to Madhyamaka and so on.
The reason for this is that Dzogchen is the essence of all Buddhist
practice. Dzogchen is the gem, these other practices are the facets.
Dzogchen encompasses them all, exceeds them all, and brings them all to
their fullest expression.
Posted
17th November 2010 by
Malcolm