Longchen Rabjam (1308-1363) is generally considered the foremost Tibetan Dzogchen guru\/scholar in history. I’ve read a number of translations of his books, and I have not found a single one wherein he describes Thodgal (Togal) as does the poster Eliot (see his comments to my articles “Dzogchen Thodgal (Togal): Namakhai Norbu’s POV Versus Mine†at ElectricalSpirituality.com, and “The Demystification of Dzogchen Thodgal (Togal), Part 2†here at IntegralSpiritualMeditation.com.) The fact is, Rabjam describes Thodgal (Togal) and the Four Visions in essentially the same way that I do.<\/p>\n
I have no interest in the spurious, reductive brand of Thodgal (Togal) championed by Eliot and current Dzogchen teachers such as Jackson Peterson (author of “The Natural Bliss of Beingâ€). Genuine Thodgal\/Togal has nothing to do with visions that one gets while gazing at the sun or meditating in dark caves or rooms. I’m not sure what Tibetan guru invented this nonsense (no doubt to “privatizeâ€\/â€secretize†the practice), but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was Jigme Lingpa (1729-1798).<\/p>\n
According to Eliot, “As for Longchenpa [Longchen Rabjam], he did indeed speak of Togal, Tigles, Vajra chains and so forth. However these have been excised from the publicly available texts with which you are familiar in order not to confuse the average uninformed and uninitiated reader.â€<\/p>\n
More nonsense, I say. Doubtless a story concocted to cover up the fact that Rabjam never taught this brand of visionary Togal (which has nothing to with real Togal, which is about the realization of the Dharmata, which is the same Reality as Hindu Sat-Chit-Ananda.<\/p>\n
In his text “A Treasure Trove of Scriptural Transmission, Rabjam describes Togal as  â€resting in the continuum of the radiance of Awareness.†There is nothing in this book regarding visionary phenonena, which are utterly superfluous to the true Vision of Reality, the Dharmata. <\/b><\/p>\n
If you click on the link below, you will be taken to a few Google Book pages from the tome “The Practice of Dzogchen: Longchen Rabjam’s Writings on the Great Perfection.†If you read the sections entitled “The Attainment of Four Visions and Ten Stages†and “Attainment of Thregchod and Thogdal,†you can compare what Rabjam says with what Eliot says. You will also see that Rabjam describes Thregchod and Thogdal similarly to the way that I do.<\/p>\n