Simply with confidence

Series: How to practice the Dzogchen path?

Simply with confidence

If the (non-)path of Dzogchen is is to be walked to its Base [1] , if the Base is the result that is always present, and if the meeting with the Great Perfection in reality is the indispensable condition for beginning this path, we have every right to ask: but how does it all work?

It will certainly take years to answer… So let’s be patient! But in addition to this quality, other ingredients will be essential. There’s one that I’m really interested in, though, because I think it’s something that I’m sorely lacking: (self) confidence.

You’ll tell me that it has to do with upbringing, social background, etc.; that I need to work on boosting my “self-confidence” and that this is not the role of a spiritual path, but rather of a psychological approach – preparation for the preparatory path. Fair enough. But let’s say it’s good on this side. Let’s pretend it is.

Still, questions and doubts remain: Is this the right path for me? Am I ready to start? Is this teacher the right Master for me? What about the people around me who practice, or are trying to, can I trust them? etc. etc. And it goes on and on… The mind gets carried away and doubts everything. Everything can be criticized by the conceptual mind (sems); that’s its job. It’s there to doubt, question and analyze. But as Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche often says, if we enjoy the play of our critical mind, we must push it to the limit, not stop halfway, and then criticize the criticism itself and… doubt the doubt. Only then can we develop… confidence!

 “Doubt and questions then give way to confidence. Confidence in the Great Perfection itself” 

The usual translation of the Tibetan word dad pa (pronounced “dépa”, skt. śraddhā) is faith. But confidence seemed more accurate to the Dzogchen Today! translation committee. The Buddhist tradition speaks of three (or four) kinds of faith or confidence (dad pa gsum) that gradually develop on the path. First, we are attracted, magnetized, fascinated by this or that aspect of the master, teachings, practices, etc.; this is living confidence (dwang ba’i dad pa), the initial spark. Then comes the deep longing to continue on this path; this is aspiring confidence (‘dod pa’i dad pa). We ardently wish to continue. Finally, along the way, we come to stabilize full confidence (yid ches kyi dad pa), a real conviction has emerged. It even becomes irreversible, and nothing can reverse it (phyir mi ldog pa’i dad pa).

Of course, it takes time to move from the complexity of questioning to the simplicity of trust. It’s often slowly and gradualy that the veil of doubt dissipates, that the “mental or cognitive obscurations” (shes sgrib) evaporate. The questions that were essential to us on the path (“what stage am I in?; am I practicing correctly?; what about breath, posture, visualization?” etc.) simply vanish. Gone. No longer there. Doubt has dissolved into its own nature: the emptiness-luminosity of a mental event, its essential dynamic nature. Doubt and questions then give way to confidence. Confidence in the Great Perfection itself – in the primordial Master, in the Basis of Reality, the sovereign manifestation of the natural expression of the universal empty essence (ngo bo rang bzhin thugs rje). Nothing less!

This is the fundamental connection to the primordial nature, the very nature of our own mind, which once sufficiently recognized becomes our path. All these traditions then speak of the essential practice, the practice of the heart, to be kept to the end: the practice of union with the enlightened mind (dgongs pa) of the Master (skt. guru yoga; tib. bla ma rnal ‘byor). This bond is the absolute, unshakable confidence in the empty essence and luminous nature of all reality. And Garab Dorje’s Three Aphorisms say it all: introduction, confidence, letting be. There’s nothing to do but to remain in natural relaxation (rnal du dbab pa), the state of contemplation (mnyam bzhag). Then, the primordial self-evidence (rig pa) radiates out — in complete confidence.

[1] The Illusory Path, by Mila Khyentse        BACK