Dzogchen-The Ultimate Teaching Of Buddhas

Chapter 23  How to realize our true intrinsic awareness

1      When we have been introduced to our true awakening nature, we can really begin to practice non-dually.  Why is that?
Entering into our own intrinsic awareness, things appeared nakedly and we are unhindered by the delusion of mental judgments or conceptual frameworks.  Self-perfected in itself is every single thing that manifests.

2      Is this intrinsic awareness really the basis of attaining Buddhahood?
I don’t think so.  It is not a process of “seeking”, instead, more precisely it is “the Three Buddha-bodies” or “kāyas” (Trikāya) we perceived as total present and complete, the essence of the inherent nature of awareness.

3      I used to see in this way; the Truth Body (Dharmakāya) as total space and all-pervading reality; the Enjoyment Body (Sambhogakāya) as the aggregate of merits of the Buddha which exists as transcendent in divine Akaniṣṭha, the highest level of existence; and the Emanation Body (Nirmanakāya) as various manifestations for the sake of helping fortunate sentient beings exist in condition of time and space.  As yet, manifests in so many different forms and in so many different realms of existence, whether the Emanation Body that apparently I query, reveals as totally present and perfect at the moment, if the Truth Body and Enjoyment Body whom are perfected and completed so far are established as inseparable.

You’re fooled and deluded by just what you say.  What has constrained by time and space is the production of confusion of our mind as the Emanation Body, the impeccable gross form body, displays as anything beneficial to beings taken in by bewilderment.  How can there be any discrimination on the Buddha’s part?  Viewed from the essence of Dzogchen, the Three Buddha-bodies in actuality are fully present in our true innate awareness.

In truth, the intrinsic awakening is empty, it is the Dharmakāya.  Its nature is pure and clear, that is Sambhogakāya; manifests in a way that transcends obscuration, stain and interruption, that is Nirmanakāya.  The Three Buddha-bodies are not something we need to find outside.  Not only the Buddha nature but also the Three Buddha-bodies, since beginningless time, they are not elsewhere but naturally present within ourselves, the awakening mind.
In the sūtra system of Mahāyāna, the realization of the Three Buddha-bodies is appraised as the fruit, which provides accommodation for dualistic thinking of demarcating both the origin from aim and the cause from effect.

From the perspective of Dzogchen, when the intrinsic nature of awakening is nakedly manifested, the qualities of the Three Buddha-bodies are already perfected naturally.  It is actually nothing other than the real Buddhahood in which there is no distinction to be found between the Three Buddha-bodies and the intrinsic nature of awakening, for all are of one single essential nature.

4      How can we apply to enter the innate nature of awakening?
View, meditation, action and fruit are all already spontaneously present, whatever thoughts momentarily arise (including those projections of our six sense faculties) are the clarity of our intrinsic nature, free of being directed and confused by diversity of forms and colors.  Gaze at the empty space, once mixed with any hesitations.  Recognize and reflect, through your intrinsic nature of awakening, the true meaning of all worldly appearances of phenomena, nakedly.

5      You are telling us a direct guide to live simple.
Apart from the expression of simplicity, it is a key aspect of “emptiness”, “luminosity” and “all-pervading enlightened mind” to describe your taste of life.