This article can be considered as Part 2 of my December 13, 2014 post, “Dzogchen Thodgal (Togal), Namkhai Norbu’s POV Versus Mine,†posted at electricalspirituality.com. In this article, I will expand upon what I wrote in that article. [Anyone is free to repost this article as long as they give me credit for it.]<\/p>\n
If you read Dzogchen texts, you will repeatedly see Togal (the highest Dzogchen practice) defined as “leap over†and\/or “spontaneous presence,â€Â but none of these texts and none of the Dzogchen teachers can explain what this means. I can.<\/p>\n
“Leap over†means to bypass or supersede Treckho, which is the basic practice of Dzogchen.Treckho means to “cut through,†and what a yogi cuts through (with his diamond-like awareness) is “spiritual materialism†(meaning all that is not Spirit, or the Sambhogakaya) until he contacts, and can then commune with, Spirit, or the Sambhogakaya, a.k.a. the “Other Sideâ€.<\/p>\n
But an advanced yogi can bypass or supersede Treckho, directly and immediately “leaping over†spiritual materialism to Spirit itself, the Other Side. Once the yogi “leaps over†to the Other Side, and “locks-in†to the Spirit and begins to channel it, his infused contemplation (which allows him to rest in the Spirit-current) can be described as a state of samadhi-like “spontaneous presenceâ€â€” hence Togal is commonly refered to as “spontaneous presence.â€<\/p>\n
There are “Four Visions†in Togal, and Dzogchen master Namkhai Norbu describes them thus: “The first of the Four Visions of Thodgal is called the ‘Vision of Dharmata’ (or ‘nature of reality’) and the second vision is the further development of the first. The third is the maturation of it, and the fourth is the consummation of existence.â€<\/p>\n
As Norbu’s description makes clear, there aren’t four separate visions; there is a single “vision†that intensifies or matures until it culminates in the Realization, or “Vision,†of the Dharmata: universal Suchness, or Being-ness.<\/p>\n
I contend that Togal is simply channeling the Spirit\/Sambhogakaya, a.k.a the Dharmamehga (or Dharma Cloud) in both Hindu and Buddhist traditions. In Mahayana’s Ten Stages (Bhumis) of a Bodhisattva’s Enlightenment, the final four stages are classified as “pure,†and the first six stages as “impure.†This is the case because the unborn immaculate Clear-Light is “Purity†itself, while disciplines and practices that don’t involve Clear-Light energy are classified as “impure.â€<\/p>\n
When the descent of the Dharmamegha (or Dharma Cloud) into the spiritual Heart-center (Tathagatagarbha in Mahayana, Hridayam in Hinduism) is complete, meaning the Heart-knot has been cut (called the Heart-release by the Buddha), then Bodhicitta (or Buddhahood) is attained. Bodhicitta mean Conscious Light, or En-Light-ened Consciousness, and it is simply the permanent union of one’s consciousness (citta) with Clear-Light Energy (Bodhi), the Sambhogakaya, or Dharma Cloud. As such, despite claims to the contrary by parochial Buddhists, this is exactly the same Realization as in Hindu Yoga, where the yogi’s individual consciousness permanently unites with universal Spirit, or Shakti.<\/p>\n
When the Heart-knot is cut in the Tatagatagarbha, the yogi, or bodhisattva, attains Bodhicitta, and becomes a Tathagata, a Buddha who dwells in, and as, immanent Suchness (or Being-ness) that is coincident with universal Suchness, the Dharmata (the Dharmakaya as the the spontaneously arising Absolute).<\/p>\n
Longchen Rabjam, the great Dzogchen master, defined Togal as “resting in the continuum of the radiance of Awareness.†This is tantamount to a Christian mystic channeling the Holy Spirit, a Jewish mystic receiving the Supernal Influx, and a Hindu Yogi conducting the Shakti-current. Again, Dzogchen is not superior to other forms of pure mysticism; it is just “packaged†and “marketed†to convince its followers\/practitioners that it is.<\/p>\n
What of the Four Visions? Again they simply refer to the depth (or intensity and fullness) of the descent of the Dharmamegha, or Sambhogakaya. The “Clearâ€-Light is clear, meaning it can’t be seen. Rather, it is felt-intuited. “Seeing†the Light is a figure of speech. Yes, one can see all kinds of things (especially in the dark), including “thigle†(spheres of rainbow light), but that is a manifestation of Clear-Light Energy, not the unmanifest Clear Light itself. Figuratively speaking, one gets a Light Body when the fourth “Vision†is attained, but any “rainbow†manifestation is superfluous to this attainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This article can be considered as Part 2 of my December 13, 2014 post, “Dzogchen Thodgal (Togal), Namkhai Norbu’s POV Versus Mine,†posted at electricalspirituality.com. In this article, I will expand upon what I wrote in that article. [Anyone is free to repost this article as long as they give me credit for it.] If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=369"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":373,"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369\/revisions\/373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/integralspiritualmeditation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}