There is only One Place: the Sphere of Oneness

Series: Where to practice the Dzogchen path?

There is only One Place: the Sphere of Oneness

On the path of the Great Perfection, we learn to recognize that all the places where we meditate, in the city or in the countryside, in the world or in solitude, are all tangible manifestations of the sphere of oneness (Tib.: thig le nyag gcig, pronounced “tiglé nyatchik”).

This is the unique place of the “pure and perfect mind” (Tib.: byang chub sems, pronounced “jang chub sèm”) of the first series of Dzogchen. It is the primordial place of the “nature of mind” (Tib.: sems nyid, pronounced “semnyi”) for the second series. This is the place of the “heart sphere” or “heart essence” (Tibetan: snying thig, pronounced “nyingtik”) for the third series.

“This space is the unique place, the unique sphere that will be revealed to us at the moment of death.”

Whatever name we use, it refers to the unique space of our own mind, the origin of the manifestation of our reality and all its phenomena. We discover it all along the path of practice in the Great Perfection tradition, because wherever we are, if we apply the instructions correctly and repeatedly, we always come back to it. If we keep coming back to the perception of the single sphere, it’s because it is the “place” of origin of everything else, and therefore cannot be a place in itself.

If we were to try to describe it in a completely illusory way, we could say that it’s the pure space of our own mind, where all manifestations are clarity-luminosity (Tibetan: ‘od-gsal, pronounced “ösäl”) and bliss-emptiness (Tibetan: bde stong, pronounced “détong”). This won’t necessarily help us if we haven’t had the corresponding experiences. However, it can help us realize that the space in which this experience occurs is everywhere, since it is the very nature of what we are. This space is the unique place, the unique sphere that will be revealed to us at the moment of death. So, during our existence, we prepare ourselves to recognize it by its natural qualities (clarity-luminosity and bliss-emptiness) at the crucial moment, whatever we do and wherever we are.

All the experiences I have, all the places I live in or visit during my life, are the expression, the manifestation, of this unique sphere, the primordial nature of my mind. To ‘reach’ it through contemplation, the Dzogchen path, is, as we say in the Great Perfection tradition, the equivalent of a child rushing into its mother’s lap. The unique place to which we’ve always longed to return.