Crocodile Dzogchen

Series: Where to practice the Dzogchen path?

Crocodile Dzogchen

The advantage of the Great Perfection is that you don’t have to go looking for it anywhere other than where your mind is. Even if most of the time we don’t know what it really is, that’s not a problem: we can be Indiana Jones fans and still try our best to walk the path of the Dzogchen.

When I met the Great Perfection, who had the appearance of a human being, and a French one at that, I felt like a mad dog: to go on an adventure with a precise goal, that’s what I had always dreamed of!

I felt like Short Round, who would soon find himself in the Indian jungle with Professor Jones after their plane crashed. Not completely reassured, but ready to go to the ends of the earth (and especially to get out of trouble) with an enthusiasm that was sometimes a little too overflowing.

Shouldn’t we have gone to the Himalayas, where the tradition took root in the 8th century? Learn about Tibetan culture (or Ladakhi’, Nepalese’, Bhutanese’) to be sure of meditating correctly? Understand all the shimmering hangings, clothes and rituals, so as to imitate them as closely as possible?

This touch of the exotic fascinated me for a while – not very long, in truth. I soon realized that all this may be attractive, but it has little to do with the Great Perfection, which is practiced with one’s own mind and the Master’s instructions. Nothing else is needed, except a few basic qualities that develop with the View on the path: diligence, patience, perseverance, patience, compassion, patience, vigilance, patience, strength, patience…

“When we’re excited about this new discovery, the canoe vibrates and the rapids threaten to capsize us. With the Master’s words in our hearts, we let go and the flow of the natural state emerges.”

So, without spending a penny on equipment or plane tickets, we board the frail dinghy that is our mind. Lost in the jungle of habitual conditioning (a coffee to wake up), social pressure (kids are life) and our entourage’s vision of existence (career-ownership), we float downstream as best we can, not really knowing where we’re going. It’s hectic, for sure.

At first, the river carries us along, but we have no control over it and remain focused on our ignorance of navigation: we discover an infinitely rich and frightening world of sensations, thoughts and emotions. Then, little by little, as the mind calms down, we begin to lift our heads and observe the landscape. All around us, there are many things worth looking at (including the crocodiles drifting alongside us, just waiting for something to happen). This goes on for a while and then, like everything else, we get tired of it. Then, with concentration firmly established, these appearances disappear to make way for their true nature.

This is where penetrating vision begins. When we’re excited about this new discovery, the canoe vibrates and the rapids threaten to capsize us. With the Master’s words in our hearts, we let go and the flow of the natural state emerges.

Slowly, in everyday life as well as on the meditation cushion or the chair, we become familiar with the direct perception (we believe) of the nature of mind.

Until a shock propels us into the river: the rubber dinghy that is our mind has just burst against the trunk of the blessing of the Lords of the primordial evidence.

Our mind, so dear to us over the years, is gone. Better yet, it never was.

We find ourselves naked, and wet, within the fundamental experience. Even the crocodiles are gone.

And so another training session begins, with exactly the same taste of adventure as the previous one. Because, in reality, it’s always the same thing that’s going on: either fundamental karmic tendencies, or primordial nature.

On this essential path, we understand that the adventure, the river, the raft, the jungle, and the crocodiles have never been anywhere but in our mind, which is none other than the unique sphere.