PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Studstill: Cybernetic Approach to Dzogchen 371109. rDzogs-pa-chen-po lta-ba ye-shes gting-rdzogs-kyi rgyud, quotedin Guenther, Meditation Differently, p. 45; Guenther, Meditation Differently,p. 37.110. Guenther, Meditation Differently, pp. 37–38.111. Ibid., p. 28.112. Dudjom Lingpa, p. 89; see also Shabkar Lama, in Dowman, p. 107.113. Guenther, Meditation Differently, pp. 36–37 and 44.114. Karmay, p. 190.115. Dargyay, “Creator God,” p. 41; see Samuel, p. 465.116. In this text, bodhicitta (Tib. byang chub kyi sems) and gzhi are usedsynonymously. (On the identification of bodhicitta, Samantabhadra [Tib.Kun-tu bzang-po], dharmakåya [Tib. chos sku], gzhi, and sems-nyid inDzogchen, see Karmay, pp. 45–46, 128, 131 and 176.) Dargyay argues thatbodhicitta is used here as a synonym for mind (citta) in the Yogåcåra sense.The problem with this interpretation is that “mind” as the creator of thephenomenal world for the Yogacarins is essentially defiled. The “Creator”as identified in this text, on the other hand, represents a pristine andabsolute principle, which may be identified with “awakened mind”(bodhicitta) or gzhi. Though Dzogchen texts may echo Yogåcåra by describingthe illusory appearances of ordinary experience as mental constructions,from the Dzogchen perspective, mind and objects are ultimatelythe presencing of a pure Ground.117. Dargyay, “Creator God,” p. 43.118. Longchenpa, Tulku Thondup, Buddha Mind, p. 60.119. Guenther, Reductionism, pp. 189–191.120. Guenther, Meditation Differently, p. 29.121. Pema Ledral Sal, in Tulku Thondup, Buddha Mind, p. 58. For more onthe emanation from the Basis, see Guenther, Reductionism, pp. 189–91.122. This “return” is purely experiential, since ontologically, “straying” isimpossible.123. Guenther, Meditation Differently, pp. 30 and 36–37; see alsoLongchenpa, in Tulku Thondup, Buddha Mind, p. 62; Chetsangpa Ratna,in Low, p. 57; Guenther, Western Perspective, p. 153.124. In Karmay, pp. 189–190.125. The term kun-gzhi, the “ground of everything,” is borrowed fromYogåcåra, and in the sense used above (following Longchenpa) refers to theYogåcåra concept of alåyavijñåna (Tib. kun-gzhi rnam-shes): the “container”of all cognitive/affective habitual tendencies, the basis of thedeluded mental processes associated with citta and therefore the basis of