To find the natural state of mind that is the great perfection, there is no other
way than through a lama. Furthermore, we need to depend upon such a one
with faith, pure vision, and devotion.The rigzin-lama is he in whom the inexpressible nature of mind effloresces as a
constant illusory display of clear light. Or rather it is he whom we recognize as
buddha:
If we recognize our lama as buddha, then we will receive the blessings of
buddha; if we recognize our lama as a yogin, then we will receive the
blessings of a yogin; and if we see our lama as an ordinary human being, then
we will receive no blessing at all.In this way those of “middling acumen,” those who do not realize the nature of
mind immediately it is pointed out to them, those who immerse themselves in the
religio-cultural modes of the tradition, attain the understanding of the
spaciousness of pure presence where the dichotomy of relative and absolute no
longer occurs. As Rongzompa says in Applying the Mahayana Method,
For those who are unable to remain in the natural state that is the great
perfection, we teach the mode of striving. Even though they practice that
graduated, progressive mode, their view is still based in Dzogchen. Since the
great bliss of the luminous mind is the root of all experience, it has the power
to cure every sickness that afflicts us.Those who cannot abide in effortless Dzogchen are taught the path of
endeavor that requires exertion. In the Dzogchen view, they will also succeed.In this way, a life of meditation praxis is open to all, on any of the nine levels of
approach, each involving a different lifestyle. On the sutric path, Buddhist culture
induces some happiness in this lifetime and prepares those of middling acumen
for death and the advent of the bardos, in which buddhahood may indeed be
attained, and failing that, a better rebirth. Making no clear distinction between the
psychological and the cultural, the nine levels of the Vajrayana path vary
according to the manner of cultural conditioning. The dharma agenda in the
Nyingma scheme of things, therefore, is to provide socially beneficial cultural
activity for people across a range of differing aspirations and personality types. The
specific modes offered are monastic, householder, and renunciate. The activity in
these varying lifestyles, through time, may modify our karma, change our habits,
and thereby induce a better rebirth, but it will not in itself take us an iota closer to
Dzogchen. If and when these monks, bodhisattvas, and yogins and yoginis on the
graduated path become aware of the nature of mind in the Dzogchen view and fall
into the state of nonmeditation, they do not drop the lifestyle that is consistent with
their Buddhist vows. Consonant with the atiyoga precept “without acceptance or
rejection,” they continue on the graduated path of the sutras without changing
anything at all. But in a mind suffused by Dzogchen view and meditation, the