dzogchen

translates to great completion

wiki page
dzogchen is 1 of 9 stages called yanas (bodies), i compare it to the final summit of mt everest with ngondro being the foundational practices that get you up to basecamp
first you achieve shamatha which is a requirement for vipassana and then you continue
typically you find a guru that helps you with the rest
- Trekchö aka cutting through- one analogy is cutting through the little birdcage your mind is in
- Tögal aka direct realization (of spontaneous appearances)

amazon has over 700 books on dzogchen, not sure I could read all those in one lifetime ☯
i'm starting with these books, translations by alan wallace
- stilling the mind - this is about shamatha - aka (relaxed) awareness meditation aka calm abiding
- fathoming the mind - this is about vipassana - aka the interconnected relationship of objects with impermanence and their emptiness of inherent identity
- open mind - brings together several lineages of dzogchen
- heart of the great perfection (3 volumes) - dudjom lingpa's condensed instructions revealed to him in a dream state, and many commentaries on these

what is better than being totally thought free?
to clear thoughts simply invert awareness on itself, in that moment thoughts naturally disappear, if they do not then you did not invert awareness you left it on the thought
if thoughts or other distractions arise, just repeat this
the more you practice the less priority you give random discursive thoughts and you see them as an affliction that's not necessary then they stop arising

typically because of our vision we identify with a central location behind our eyes & we identify our "self" as being every random thought "in our head"
- this is not the self, people can be born blind or lose their vision and they still have a "self" & you can have moments of clarity with no thoughts and you don't disappear
- often in meditation you center your location at the heart not the brain area, or in dzogchen you "dwell nowhere" because the self is objectless by empiracle observation
a main goal is to have a liberated mind free of random thoughts, by thoughts is meant random stimulus response discursive thoughts which when gone reveals a natural effortless cognizance that is non conceptual, no labels, no words just observation
if thoughts occur it is due to "forgetting" about the cognizance
simply look for this cognizance and the discursive thoughts disappear, you practice this cultivating the ability to sustain an open effortless cognizance permanently