Dzogchen study

[Dharmabrother]

what is a good way to study Dzogchen? and a good teacher? or a good center. I live in ohio, United states? i've been researching, and this is some powerful stuff.

how can i attain proper enlightenment, and nirvana, and recieve the siddhi's and all those legendary attainments and feats that legendary lamas could do in ancient times?

I'd like to post more of this in other forum topics.. to Clarify what i mean/

until then.. i have many questions

dharma brother

[Andrew108]

how can i attain proper enlightenment, and nirvana, and recieve the siddhi's and all those legendary attainments and feats that legendary lamas could do in ancient times?

Fortunately your study of Dzogchen will not lead to you gaining all those siddhi's and legendary attainments. The first book you should read before any study of Dzogchen is ''Cutting through Spiritual Materialism'' by Trungpa Rinpoche. After that if you are still interested then read ''Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness'' by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Then after that read ''Crystal and the Way of Light'' by Namkhai Norbu. That should get you started. Just my personal recommendation. Others will have a different view.

[Sally Gross]

Fortunately your study of Dzogchen will not lead to you gaining all those siddhi's and legendary attainments.

Oy .... In my dotage, I cannot climb ladders anymore, and am plunged into crisis whenever a light-bulb in the house I rent (which has high ceilings) blows and needs to be changed. Do you mean to say that I cannot expect (a) to levitate, making the changing of light-bulbs a doddle; or (b) to produce light in Hogwarts fashion, making light-bulbs redundant?

Apologies: I couldn't resist that ...

Less flippantly, when I was a novice in a religious order, I can remember a discussion about great Christian mystics and tales of levitation and the like. The sound and accepted view was that levitation was jolly useful only if one needed to paint one's ceiling, but that it was of no practical use or significance otherwise. In samatha practice in the Theravada tradition, it is connected with piiti (prti in Sanskrit, "rapture" as against "bliss"); but bouncing around (which I have encountered) or floating off (which I haven't encountered) tend to be viewed somewhat disparagingly as signs of unbalanced energy. Noises coming from the room of a meditator whose energy is unbalanced and bounces around while sitting can be rawther alarming and are not necessarily conducive to the clam of people trying to sit in neighbouring rooms.

[treehuggingoctopus]

The first book you should read before any study of Dzogchen is ''Cutting through Spiritual Materialism'' by Trungpa Rinpoche. After that if you are still interested then read ''Progressive Stages of Meditation on Emptiness'' by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso. Then after that read ''Crystal and the Way of Light'' by Namkhai Norbu.

Get Choegyal Namkhai Norbu's "Crystal and the Way of Light" and/or "Dzogchen: The Self-Perfected State" instead. If you happen to be also drawn to Bon, you may want to have a look at Tenzin Wangyal's "Wonders of the Natural Mind", too.

[Wesley1982]

That book and practice the natural state of mind in dzogchen tradition.