The Method: Dzogchen Meditation

The word “Dzogchen” is derived from the Tibetan “Dzogpachenpo.” “Dzogpa” means “complete,” and “chenpo” means “great.” While these teachings are nuanced and complex, in essence, after receiving “pointing out” instructions from a qualified teacher, the practitioner works through stages of meditation to realize the “self-perfected state of our primordial nature.” Dzogchen has been called “the cream and heart juice of all teachings.”

The first stage, Trekcho, is the persistent cutting through the psychic karmic debris that obscures the primordial awareness within all of us; resistance, resentment, arrogance, pride, vanity, discursive thoughts of judgment and disapproval, delusion, jealousy, and hatred. The second stage, Togal, is a direct dissolution of all karma.

The Treckho stage is required to reach the Togal state. Togal is considered instantaneous, immediate realization with an intense, “point-blank” quality. “It requires enormous discipline, and is generally practiced in a retreat environment. It cannot be stressed too often that the path of Dzogchen can only be followed under the direct guidance of a qualified master,” said Sogyal Rinpoche, author of the “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying.”

There are mixed accounts of the origins of the Dzogchen method; the shamanic Bon tradition that predated Buddhism in Tibet says the teaching came with the Bon founder, Tonpa Sherap, 18,000 years ago. Other masters have said that Dzogchen teachings were received from off-world beings further back in time than is conceivable. As far as Tibetan Buddhism is concerned, the practice came to Tibet via Padmasambhava and has been passed down in an unbroken lineage since then.

In a review of “Rainbow Body and Resurrection” by Michael Sheehy, the author writes: “In Dzogchen cosmology, the cosmos is envisioned as being utterly open and translucent. Movement ensues when the element of air stirs up wind that oscillates rapidly into fire; from fire emerges water, and from water, the solidity of rock and earth are stabilized. With this gravitational collapse into the elemental forces that comprise the cosmos, a spiraling reconfigure matter into worlds wherein embodied beings form.” Think of high vibratory states slowing down until they become dense matter.

While descriptions seem academic and conceptual, there is a simplicity at the heart of Dzogchen (although this explanation is overly simplistic — apologies to Dzogchen students and masters everywhere). From that view, all that we perceive, including our own bodies, is formed by the “Legos,” or building blocks of reality — earth, water, fire, air, and space.

The elements dance together to create an infinite variety of appearances, but beneath the physical lies the true nature of the elements as light/energy. Those who achieve realization via Dzogchen are able to perceive the essence of everything, including themselves, as pure light in perpetual motion. The rainbow reference comes from the colors of the elemental lights; white (space), red (fire), blue (water), green (wind or air), and yellow (earth). As Sheehy says, “Under certain circumstances, the cosmic evolutionary process of matter’s gravitational collapse into solidity can turn itself back into a swirling radiating configuration. Tibetan traditions suggest that meditative technologies can reverse this process of collapse,” or journey from high-vibratory energy to dense matter. In other words, successful Dzogchen practitioners can reverse the manifestation process, refining dense matter to pure light/energy. Notably, some form of elements can be found at the foundation of every tantric, esoteric, alchemical, or shamanic tradition.

Types of Rainbow Body

In commemoration of the death of his teacher in 2013, Dzogchen Khenpo Choga Rinpoche wrote to his students, “My precious teacher, Lama Karma Rinpoche, has passed. I received the extraordinary news from my friends in Tibet that the sacred body of my kind teacher has dramatically shrunk in size. Lama Karma was about 5’9” tall, but two weeks after he passed, his seated body has now shrunk to about 8”, which means his body, including his skeleton, shrank nearly 80 percent.”

Choga Rinpoche went on to explain that his teacher had attained the “Small Rainbow Body,” referring to the shrinking of Lama Karma’s body after death — but “small” is not “lesser.” Choga Rinpoche wrote, “According to Dzogchen tantra, this kind of miraculous display is a sign that he has attained the supreme accomplishment of the buddha in this very life.

“If his body continues to shrink and totally disappears, this miracle will be categorized as Light Body, or Atomless Body. This light body can happen gradually or instantaneously, with or without an eyewitness.”

Further on, Choga Rinpoche described the “Medium Rainbow Body,” saying, “The Dzogchen master’s body dissolves as rainbow light of many different shapes, colors, and different sizes of rainbow spheres, rainbow rays, and rainbow ribbons until the physical body has totally dissolved into rainbow light, leaving nothing besides hair and nails.” Rinpoche cites the examples of Master Nyaklha Rangrik Dorje (“His body is still preserved and is the size of a hand”) and Tasha Lamo, a woman practitioner whose body shrank to about four inches in 1982.

Rinpoche made it clear, though, that all these miracles are signs of “the same supreme accomplishment. Their attainments are exactly equal. These practitioners have attained Buddha in this very life,” he wrote.

While these manifestations are fascinating, we must remind ourselves that genuine practitioners do not attempt attainment for the sake of public spectacle or self-aggrandizement — their common motivation is a profound commitment to the freedom and happiness of all beings. Any merit gained by the dissolution of karma is dedicated to the benefit of the “other” rather than the self.