Find a qualified teacher and understand what transmission is
Recognition of rigpa is traditionally introduced by a qualified teacher — so the honest practice before it is learning what that means and seeking one carefully.
Warum es wirkt
Garab Dorje’s first statement is introducing directly the face of rigpa, and Patrul Rinpoche says that if the view has not been introduced and recognised there is nothing to maintain in meditation. In the practice lineage, he writes, the master introduces the nature of mind upon the dissolution of conceptual mind — not by argument, and not as an idea. Tsoknyi Rinpoche, asked about do-it-yourself Dzogchen, says that transmitting the teachings needs a proper setting, an authentic teacher and sincere students, and that you definitely need an authentic master; he also says the student is responsible for checking a teacher carefully, the way one checks gold. Do-Ngak Chökyi Gyatso cautions that these powerful instructions depend on the student’s capacity and can mislead when misapplied.
So gehst du vor
- Learn the basics first: read a reliable introduction and the root texts that are openly published, so you know what you are looking for.
- Find out which lineage a teacher belongs to and from whom they received the Dzogchen teachings they give.
- Watch how they and their community behave over time. Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche names compassion, devotion and a keen sense of impermanence as the true signs of accomplishment, and fame and influence as superficial ones.
- Take time. Attend open teachings before seeking transmission, and ask what preliminaries the teacher expects.
- Be wary of anyone promising instant awakening, asking for secrecy about harm, or discouraging you from checking.
- When you receive instruction, practise what you were given, and keep the commitments you were asked to keep.
Evidenz
The centrality of the introduction is the first of the Three Statements and is argued at length in Patrul Rinpoche’s commentary. Tsoknyi Rinpoche’s remarks on authentic transmission and checking teachers are in a 1999 Tricycle interview published with an excerpt from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, who lists the true signs of accomplishment. Do-Ngak Chökyi Gyatso’s memorandum argues that Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen instructions are aimed at particular individuals and should not be pressed on everyone from the start. Lotsawa House marks some Dzogchen texts as restricted to those who have received the requisite empowerment, transmission and instruction. Teachers also adapt how they present Dzogchen: Esler describes Khenpo Sodargye teaching it to Chinese students through Chan sources. (anecdotal)
Lineages differ on how much preparation they require before the introduction. This page cannot evaluate any particular teacher or community, and the checks listed here are general prudence, not a tradition’s formal criteria.
Quellen
- Patrul Rinpoche. The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King — Commentary (Patrul’s own commentary on the Three Statements), trans. Rigpa Translations, 2008. Lotsawa House.
- Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Tsoknyi Rinpoche (1999). As the Clouds Vanish — an excerpt adapted from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche’s Rainbow Painting (Rangjung Yeshe Publications), with an interview with Tsoknyi Rinpoche. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Winter 1999.
- Do-Ngak Chökyi Gyatso. Memorandum on the Subject of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen Instructions, trans. Adam Pearcey, 2014. Lotsawa House.
- Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. Principles of the Dzogchen Practice of Khordé Rushen, trans. Adam Pearcey, 2018. Lotsawa House (marked there as a restricted text, for those who have received the relevant instruction).
- Esler, J. (2026). Aligning Chan with Dzogchen through the Śūraṅgama Sūtra: Khenpo Sodargye’s strategies for presenting and teaching a ‘Chinese’ sūtra through a ‘Dzogchen perspective’. Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 55(2), 145–168.
Häufiger Fehler
Treating a moving talk, a book or a video as the transmission itself — or, in the other direction, chasing one pointing-out after another. Patrul’s second statement warns against hankering after new instructions, like keeping the elephant at home and looking for its footprints in the forest.
Übe das mit IX Coach
Weitere Übungen für Dzogchen: Rigpa, the Great Perfection and How It Is Practised
- Settle and rest: neither scattered nor concentrated
Let body and mind settle into an easy, uncontrived rest — the ground Patrul Rinpoche says has to be calm before anything can be introduced.
- Look for the mind: where a thought comes from, stays and goes
Examine your own mind the way the Dzogchen preliminaries do — searching for where a thought arises, where it stays and where it goes.
- Let thoughts free themselves, like writing on water
The third of Garab Dorje’s statements: neither suppress nor follow a thought, and recognise it so that it leaves no trace.
- Short moments, many times
Train in brief, genuine moments of non-distraction repeated through the day, rather than long sessions you strain to hold.
- Bring the view into conduct: view, meditation and action
Let what you understand in practice shape how you act — with the bodhisattva’s care for others, and without the hope and fear that usually drive you.
- The white A and guru yoga: what the “Ah” practice is
In Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s community the white A guru yoga is called the essence of Dzogchen — and it is received with transmission.
- Understand trekchö and tögal, the two main practices
Know what the “thorough cut” and the “crossover” are, why tögal is kept for advanced students, and why neither is learned from a page.
- When open, objectless practice starts to feel unreal: ground first
If resting in open awareness leaves the world feeling dreamlike or you feeling absent, come back to the body and ordinary life first, then talk to a teacher.
Verwandte Konzepte
- Nicht-duales Gewahrsein, praktisch angewandt
Mühelose Achtsamkeit und das Erkennen offener, gewahrer Präsenz
- Shamatha: Die buddhistische Praxis der ruhigen Verweilung
Den Geist zur Ruhe trainieren: die neun Stufen und ihre modernen neurologischen Parallelen
- Śūnyatā: Emptiness and the Two Truths in Madhyamaka
Nāgārjuna’s Middle Way: why nothing has a fixed essence, and why that is not the same as nothing
- Bodhicitta: The Awakening Mind and How It Is Cultivated
The intention at the heart of Mahāyāna Buddhism, and the classical ways Tibetan teachers train it