PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

356Pacific Worldundermining the processes or variables that constitute the system is notonly a process of direct subversion. It is also a process of increasingawareness of stresses already at hand. Either directly or indirectly, Dzogchentends to encourage enhanced awareness of one’s current condition and thepain inherent in a dualistic approach to life that limits the desirable to anarrow range of egocentrically defined conditions (in contrast to an unconditionedappreciation of Reality or the Good itself). This awareness may becultivated in meditative practice, or it may be an outcome of minimizingordinary distractions. Given the distinction between awareness and consciousnessintroduced above, being fully in the moment (“resting” inawareness) through meditation bypasses the mind. But the initial stages ofcultivating this state often involve the discomfort of encountering the moreor less constant subliminal pain associated with the ongoing dissonancebetween our dreams, ideals, fantasies, etc., and actual conditions (bothinternal and external). 204 This enhanced awareness of dissonance and painadds yet another factor to the totality of system-subverting processesinitiated by the Dzogchen path.According to John Collins, “The great variety of spiritual disciplinespracticed in the various religious traditions have at least one thing incommon—the intentional stressing of the organism.” 205 As the abovediscussion shows, this statement applies to Dzogchen. Dzogchen encouragesattitudes and practices that function in direct opposition to theordinary processes of the cognitive system. Since ordinary experience isessentially marked by dualism, Dzogchen’s doctrines and practices “stressthe organism” by deconstructing the most important manifestations of thisstructure, i.e., “self” and “object” related through attachment (the desirable)and aversion (the repellant). The Dzogchen path introduces fluctuationsinto the egocentrically-organized cognitive system and so underminesthe variables that constrain awareness into the dualistic frame ofreference of ordinary experience. Since, from a cybernetic perspective,“instability” is the occasion for “new structure,” 206 upsetting the cognitivesystem has transformative implications. By destabilizing the mind’sstructure, Dzogchen creates the conditions for the emergence of newpatterns of cognitive organization, experientially manifested as newstates of consciousness 207 and a deepening attunement to the interconnecteddynamics of life. 208CONCLUDING REMARKSDzogchen constitutes a sustained assault on the system of factors andprocesses that construct ordinary consciousness. This assault is foundedon the doctrine of the gzhi. As the ultimate and only Good, gzhi entails theconcept of spiritual goal (even if realizing this goal ultimately requires