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.
Why it works
Do-Ngak Chökyi Gyatso defines trekchö, the Thorough Cut, as the way of settling in which all the processes of ordinary mind are exhausted in the nature of rigpa, together with the liberation of thoughts as they arise — the practice the Three Statements describe. It rests on the ground’s primordial purity (kadak). Tögal, the Crossover, passes over stages to reach the summit directly; it is the practice of the four visions, working with the spontaneous presence (lhundrub) of the ground, and Lotsawa House’s Tögal prayer asks for visionary experiences to develop and for the rainbow body. Christopher Hatchell’s study documents these visionary yogas in both Buddhist and Bön Great Perfection, describing meditators who dwell in a dark room or gaze at the open sky. Because tögal works with the body, gaze and light on the basis of stable recognition, it is taught only by a teacher to students already established in trekchö.
How to do it
- Learn the vocabulary accurately: trekchö is about recognition and the self-liberation of thought; tögal is a visionary practice built on it.
- If you have not been introduced to rigpa, recognise that neither is yet your practice, and put your energy into the preparatory practices you can do.
- Do not try dark retreat, sky-gazing or sun-gazing methods from books or videos; ask a teacher whether and when they are appropriate for you.
- If you are a student, ask your teacher what they expect before tögal and follow that, rather than a timetable from elsewhere.
Evidence
Definitions of Thorough Cut (khregs chod), Crossover (thod rgal), primordial purity and spontaneous presence are from Do-Ngak Chökyi Gyatso’s commentary on Great Perfection terms. Hatchell’s monograph translates Nyingma and Bön Great Perfection works on visionary practice and discusses their techniques and physiology. The Tögal prayer by Dzogchen Pema Rigdzin links tögal to visionary experience and the rainbow body. Klein’s handbook chapter and Karmay’s study place Dzogchen in both the Nyingma and Bön traditions. (anecdotal)
This is a description, not an instruction, and deliberately so: the traditions give tögal only to prepared students. Accounts of the rainbow body are the tradition’s own claims about realisation, and no study bears on them.
Sources
- Do-Ngak Chökyi Gyatso. Commentary on Some Terms from the Great Perfection (primordial purity, spontaneous presence, rigpa, Thorough Cut and Crossover), trans. Adam Pearcey, 2016. Lotsawa House.
- Hatchell, C. (2014). Naked Seeing: The Great Perfection, the Wheel of Time, and Visionary Buddhism in Renaissance Tibet. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Dzogchen Pema Rigdzin. A Dzogchen Tögal Prayer, trans. Adam Pearcey, 2017. Lotsawa House.
- Klein, A. C. (2011). Dzogchen. In W. Edelglass & J. L. Garfield (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of World Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Karmay, S. G. (1988). rDzogs chen in the Bonpo Tradition. In The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen): A Philosophical and Meditative Teaching of Tibetan Buddhism, pp. 201–205. Leiden: Brill.
- Karmay, S. G. (1988). The rDzogs chen Tradition as a Link Between the rNying ma pa and the Bonpo. In The Great Perfection (rDzogs chen), pp. 216–223. Leiden: Brill.
Common mistake
Jumping to tögal because the visions sound more advanced or exciting than the plainness of recognition. Every source here treats tögal as resting on trekchö, and the traditions keep its methods for students working with a teacher.
Practice this with IX Coach
More practices for 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Related concepts
- Non-Dual Awareness, Made Practical
Effortless mindfulness and the recognition of open, aware presence
- Shamatha: The Buddhist Practice of Calm Abiding
Training the mind to rest: the nine stages and their modern neurological parallels
- 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
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