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.
Pourquoi ça marche
Patrul Rinpoche’s commentary explains why the first of the Three Statements begins with relaxing: amid the churning of thoughts that chase after objects, the mind’s nature would not be recognised even if it were pointed out, so the gross thinking has to settle first. The instruction is to rest neither scattered nor concentrated — not forcing focus, not drifting — because a contrived effort only reproduces “mind-made” meditation. He also warns that a beginner resting this way will tend to fix on experiences of bliss, clarity or thought-free stillness, and that quiescence alone is not the point. Josipovic’s research on nondual awareness in Tibetan Buddhist meditators describes a background awareness that precedes conceptualisation, which is one modern way of naming what the settling makes room for — though the research cannot show what a beginner’s settling does.
Comment faire
- Sit comfortably and upright, in a posture you can keep without strain.
- Let the breath be natural. Let the body loosen, especially the face, shoulders and belly.
- Do not hold attention on an object, and do not let it wander off after thoughts — rest somewhere in between, at ease.
- When a thought pulls you away, notice it and relax back without scolding yourself.
- If the sitting becomes pleasant, calm or blissful, notice the wish to hold on to that and let it go too — the calm is a support, not the goal.
- Keep sessions short, and end before it becomes effortful.
Données probantes
The instruction to relax and release the mind, neither scattered nor concentrated, is the opening of the first statement in Patrul Rinpoche’s root text; his own commentary explains that gross thoughts must settle before the nature of mind can be introduced, and warns against getting caught on bliss, clarity and non-thought. Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö’s verse instruction likewise says to meditate by settling naturally in unaltered experience. Josipovic reviews his group’s studies of nondual awareness in Tibetan Buddhist meditation, including findings on the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic brain networks and preliminary data pointing to a precuneus network. (mechanistic)
In the tradition this settling is preparation, not Dzogchen meditation proper, which begins only after rigpa has been recognised. Josipovic studied experienced Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, not beginners, and the abstract describes some of the data as preliminary; it does not test this instruction.
Sources
- Patrul Rinpoche. The Special Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King — Root Text (Garab Dorje’s Three Statements That Strike the Vital Point), trans. Rigpa Translations, 2008. Lotsawa House.
- 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.
- Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. An Instruction on the Great Perfection (prerequisites, view, meditation and action), trans. Adam Pearcey, 2017. Lotsawa House.
- Josipovic, Z. (2014). Neural correlates of nondual awareness in meditation. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1307, 9–18.
Erreur fréquente
Treating a calm, spacious or blissful sit as “being in rigpa.” Patrul Rinpoche warns that meditation which is only resting in the stillness of mind ends in what he calls the samādhi of the gods — pleasant, and no help against anger or attachment.
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Plus de pratiques pour Dzogchen: Rigpa, the Great Perfection and How It Is Practised
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Concepts associés
- La conscience non duelle, en pratique
La pleine conscience sans effort et la reconnaissance de la présence ouverte et consciente
- Shamatha : la pratique bouddhiste du calme mental
Entraîner l'esprit à se poser : les neuf étapes et leurs parallèles neurologiques modernes
- 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