Dzogchen and Buddha-Nature

Dzogchen & Buddha-Nature

"The view of the Great Perfection is that now, as we consider all sentient beings, we consider that they all possess the essence of the sugatas, the foundational buddha nature. This is the basis of all sentient beings. From the time of becoming a sentient being until the time of becoming a buddha, all beings possess this nature. There is no one who does not possess this nature—it is utterly all-pervasive. It is not the case that buddhas, who obviously possess this nature, are better than sentient beings, who also possess this nature but are considered not to be as good as buddhas because they are sentient beirigs. There is actually not even a hair’s-worth of difference between a buddha and a sentient being when it comes to the buddha nature. The foundational nature possesses all of the qualities of enlightened body, speech, mind, pure qualities, and concerned activity of an enlightened being. Without exception, all of these qualities are perfected in the buddha nature."
~ Yangthang Rinpoche, Introduction to the Nature of Mind, 1994

What can we add here:

Yeah i'm pretty stumped here. I'm starting to think that maybe what we want to bring into the fold here would be more along the lines of masters / teachers talking about the ultimate way of understanding Buddha-nature, i.e. from the point of view of the highest vehicle (dzogchen / mahamudra). But then we're talking about something else than what Sean was commenting on: the lack of textual sources for Tantra / Terma (?).

What else...

• Video / Audio teachings merging the topics?
• Songs of realization: Shabkar?
  • I'm assuming we don't want to add all dzogchen books that mention BN to the site, so if we were to quote The Life of Shabkar here, would we just refer/link to the publisher page for it? Just a citation? This would be the first instance of referring to a work without having a page for that work here on BN.
• Excerpts from books and papers on
• Doug Buddha nature paper mentions Longchenpa.

From the Masters

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche

1920 ~ 1996

Empty cognizance is our nature. We cannot separate aspect of it from the other. Empty one aspect of it from the other. Empty means “not made out of anything whatsoever”; our nature has always been this way. Yet, while being empty, it has the capacity to cognize, to experience, to perceive. It’s not so difficult to comprehend this; to get the theory that this empty cognizance is buddha nature, self-existing wakefulness. But to leave it at that is the same as looking at the buffet and not eating anything. Being told about buddha nature but never really making it our personal experience will not help anything. It’s like staying hungry. Once we put the food in our mouth, we discover what the food tastes like. This illustrates the dividing line between idea and experience.

[...]
We must grow up, just like a new-born baby. The infant born today and the adult 25 years later is essentially the same person, isn’t he? He is not someone else. Right now, our nature is the buddha nature. When fully enlightened, it will also be the buddha nature. Our nature is unfabricated naturalness. It is this way by itself: like space, it does not need to be manufactured. But we do need to allow the experience of buddha nature to continue through unfabricated naturalness.

 

~ As the Clouds Vanish, Tricycle, Winter 1999 [1]

Yangthang_Rinpoche

Yangthang Rinpoche

1930 ~ 2016

In our present circumstances we can also consider, first, that the mind of all sentient beings is buddha, that all sentient beings possess the buddha nature, which is their very essence, and second, that we have all obtained the precious human rebirth. With these two things together the teachings are allowed to be transmitted and received.

[...]
The "mind nature teaching", the "practice experience", and the "meditation" are all different names for the same thing, which essentially is that all sentient beings possess the foundational buddha nature. How is it that they have come to possess this buddha nature, which is, in fact, their innate presence, their inherent essence? How is it that this is the fundamental nature of all living beings? This is what the lama reveals to the disciples in what is called the "sem tri", which is an introduction to the mind's nature. After receiving this introduction, through training and through one's ability to naturally comprehend, when one ascertains the nature as it is, this ascertainment is called "the view". The view is then the primary practice. Maintaining the view for months and years, with enthusiastic effort, is called "meditation". While one is engaged in meditation, the unfailing ability to observe one's behavior according to cause and result is called the "conduct". When view, meditation, and conduct reach their resultant stage through the effort of the practitioner, then in dependence upon the capabilities of the practitioner—be they superior, mediocre, or inferior—the corresponding result will occur. In the superior case the result will be the dharmakaya realization, in the mediocre case realization will occur at the moment of death, and so forth. The threefold practice of view, meditation, and conduct, and the results achieved thereby, are the subject of this type of mind nature teaching.

 

~ Introduction to the Nature of Mind, Yeshe Melong Publications, 1994