The Dzogchen practice of Shine and Lhakthong

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oldbob
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Joined: Sun May 06, 2012 8:19 am

The Dzogchen practice of Shine and Lhakthong

Post by oldbob »

:namaste:

The Dzogchen teachings on Shine and Lhakthung are among the first teachings that ChNN gave when he first arrived in Conway in 1982. These are simple practices and an excellent place to start for beginners. In Dzogchen Shine practice you place a Tibetan Ah letter around 3' X 3", more or less, on a stick in front of you, about 18" off the ground. You then concentrate on that image and when your mind wanders you gently bring it back. You start with whatever short time is comfortable for you and then build the time up until you can hold your concentration for several hours. If you don't have a letter Ah, you can use a blue flower or any virtuous object. The key point is to build up your concentration in a relaxed way - never forcing yourself.

Dzogchen Lhakthong is a way to enter eyes-open meditation. You concentrate your eyes in a relaxed way on the far wall, if you are inside, and on the horizon if you are outside. Then you allow your focus to fall back toward you until you are perceiving the visual field in an a non-focused way. Again, you start with a short time that is comfortable for you and then build up until you can hold this concentration for several hours. Again, the key point is to build up your concentration in a relaxed way - never forcing yourself.

Please remember that I am 77 years old now and received these teachings in 1982, 40 years ago, so my memory might not be correct. But these short remembrances might be enough to interest, someone, to listen to the replay of ChNN's teaching tomorrow, or in the future, so you can hear this exactly correctly.

ChNN gave these practices to a group of Mr. Anderson's Gurdjieff students who had no previous experience with Tibetan Buddhism.

I believe that attending the replay of ChNN teaching these practices, tomorrow or in the future, will be of use for beginner practitioners of Dzogchen.

:heart:
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