Marksman

Series: Summer 2024

Marksman

No bullet, no weapon, no one…

O beings of the future! When I’m writing this text, it’s the Olympics of 2024, in the years before the end of the world. If you are reading this text, it means that you know how to read, and I am delighted about that, O beings of the future! So the art of reading has been preserved for centuries to come.

But maybe you don’t know what the Olympic Games are?

The Olympic Games were originally a kind of grand festival to celebrate the physical achievements of some very strong or highly trained people. But these days, things have gotten a little more complex, and there’s a lot of talk about money. If you don’t know what ‘money’ is, let’s say it’s a a convention-based exchange system, the promise of a better future that people exchange because they no longer want to help each other directly. If you don’t know what it means to be human, mmm…

“The Forefather, the First; the one who, from the beginning, taught the alpha and omega of an essence that has never varied, never changed, never been invented. ” 

So it’s possible that this text will only be read by people in 2024. So I make wishes for you, O beings of the future who can’t read!

Now in 2024, it’s time for shooting competitions, precision shooting, there are marksmen and… – but never mind. In Dzogchen, there is only one marksman: Garab Dorje.

Garab Dorje is the founder of the Great Perfection lineage. By founder, we mean the Forefather, the First; the one who, from the beginning, taught the alpha and omega of an essence that has never varied, never changed, never been invented. He is the one who focuses primordially on this essence – without construction, without word, without idea – at the heart of all phenomena.

Garab Dorje, sometimes I’ve heard my master call him ‘the Gunslinger’. It’s a joke, of course, but it’s not just a joke, it’s a reality. He’s a marksman, in the sense that he aims right at at the precise point where he explodes this reality. In our hearts. No bullets, no gunpowder, no compressed air, no rifle, no intention, no action. All it takes is one finger. A single finger pointing to the a-focal essence of our entire continuum. It’s liberation at its core, an introduction to the nature of mind.

And even without a finger it works too.

This text could end there, O beings of the future, for if you cannot read, I am fencing a bit in vain – so I’m going to go on with wishes for your benefit, O beings, like fireworks!

Indeed, whether you can read or not, it is said in the Dzogchen that emanations without number will appear to teach the ultimate and primary knowledge: that of discovering the primordial nature of the mind, the knowledge from which all others flow, for it is linked to the ability to recognize the basis of the very flow of knowledge. These masters, humble or noble, rich or poor, athletic or thin-skinned, will have the most diverse appearances and will appear at various points in time, when conditions are favorable, and when certain beings – you perhaps? – will be ready to receive the teaching of the Great Perfection.

So make wishes, beings of the future!

You can read the other articles in the series : Opening ceremony – Nenikekamen! –  Hammer throw – The deep end – High diving  – Great Perfection Rowing