Heart Drops of the Dharmakaya (Sharza Tashi Gyaltsen)
A Gross Perversion of the Great Perfection
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Heart Drops of the Dharmakaya: Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition” by Sharza Tashi Gyaltsen, commentary by Yondzin Lopon Tenzi Namdak.]
I’ve read a couple dozen Dzogchen texts, and “Heart Drops of the Dharmakaya” is the worst of the bunch. The text, written by Sharza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1935) and translated by Lopon Tenzin Namdak, another supposed master of Dzogchen, is loaded with faulty information and provides little insight into what Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is really about.
Gyaltsen has no understanding of the relation between phenomenal reality and the human mind. He writes: “Then you will realize that everything is made by your thought – everything comes from there. You have to realize how things are created… All things are created by your thought and mind – and if you look back to the source of your thought and mind you find that it disappears.”
If you believe that the trees, mountains, and oceans were made by your thoughts and don’t exist independently of them, then you will probably appreciate Gyaltsen’s teachings.
Gyaltsen is a muddled thinker and unclear writer. For example, he writes: “”without negative or positive – things should be left as they are. Then all bindings are liberated by themselves.” Unbeknownst to Gyaltsen, bindings aren’t liberated; one’s consciousness is.
Even though this book is subtitled “Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition,” only one third of the book is Dzogchen teachings. The remainder of the book consists of chapters on Gyaltsen (biographical), preliminary spiritual practices, and Phowa and Bardo practices. The only two Dzogchen chapters in the book are on the practices of Trekcho and Togel.
The Trekcho chapter, titled The Practice of Trekcho is peppered with poppycock. For example, Gyaltsen writes: “Therefore the Semde system is only for leading the followers of lowest capacity into Dzogchen, and it is also called the Great Seal (Mahamudra).” This is nonsense. The notes to the text continue the same nonsense: “Mahamudra emphasizes and grasps emptiness…” Mahamudra does not emphasize and grasp emptiness. In fact, in Tilopa’s “Song of Mahamudra,” he “sings, “The void needs no reliance, Mahamudra rests on nought.”
Gyaltsen states that Togel is a higher practice than Treckho. In reality, Togel is inseparable from Treckho. In reality, Treckho is is the practice of Divine Communion, and Togel is reception of the Divine Power, or Light-energy, stemming from the Communion (Presence + Oneness). But rather than describing Togel as channeling the continuum of Radiance (Light-energy), as the great Longchen Rabjam does, Gyaltsen presents forty-two sequential methods. This is nothing short of a perversion of The Great Perfection – which is The Method of the Buddhas, not a collection of forty-two discrete methods. Moreover, Gyaltsen, in alignment with many other ignorant Dzogchen “masters” reduces true Togel (the “vision” of Clear-Light Energy, the Sambhogakaya) to a series of visions that are less than that of the Clear-Light continuum. For example, Gyaltsen describes what he calls “The Third Vision,” involves the appearance of “peaceful and wrathful divinities… not as staues but directly from the natural state in Sambhogakaya or Nirmanakaya forms.”
I wouldn’t ordinarily give a Dzogchen text one star, but this text is such a gross perversion of the Great Perfection, I believe that is all it merits.
[My 1-star Amazon review (NDA) of “Heart Drops of the Dharmakaya: Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition” by Sharza Tashi Gyaltsen, commentary by Yondzin Lopon Tenzi Namdak.]
I’ve read a couple dozen Dzogchen texts, and “Heart Drops of the Dharmakaya” is the worst of the bunch. The text, written by Sharza Tashi Gyaltsen (1859-1935) and translated by Lopon Tenzin Namdak, another supposed master of Dzogchen, is loaded with faulty information and provides little insight into what Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, is really about.
Gyaltsen has no understanding of the relation between phenomenal reality and the human mind. He writes: “Then you will realize that everything is made by your thought – everything comes from there. You have to realize how things are created… All things are created by your thought and mind – and if you look back to the source of your thought and mind you find that it disappears.”
If you believe that the trees, mountains, and oceans were made by your thoughts and don’t exist independently of them, then you will probably appreciate Gyaltsen’s teachings.
Gyaltsen is a muddled thinker and unclear writer. For example, he writes: “”without negative or positive – things should be left as they are. Then all bindings are liberated by themselves.” Unbeknownst to Gyaltsen, bindings aren’t liberated; one’s consciousness is.
Even though this book is subtitled “Dzogchen Practice of the Bon Tradition,” only one third of the book is Dzogchen teachings. The remainder of the book consists of chapters on Gyaltsen (biographical), preliminary spiritual practices, and Phowa and Bardo practices. The only two Dzogchen chapters in the book are on the practices of Trekcho and Togel.
The Trekcho chapter, titled The Practice of Trekcho is peppered with poppycock. For example, Gyaltsen writes: “Therefore the Semde system is only for leading the followers of lowest capacity into Dzogchen, and it is also called the Great Seal (Mahamudra).” This is nonsense. The notes to the text continue the same nonsense: “Mahamudra emphasizes and grasps emptiness…” Mahamudra does not emphasize and grasp emptiness. In fact, in Tilopa’s “Song of Mahamudra,” he “sings, “The void needs no reliance, Mahamudra rests on nought.”
Gyaltsen states that Togel is a higher practice than Treckho. In reality, Togel is inseparable from Treckho. In reality, Treckho is is the practice of Divine Communion, and Togel is reception of the Divine Power, or Light-energy, stemming from the Communion (Presence + Oneness). But rather than describing Togel as channeling the continuum of Radiance (Light-energy), as the great Longchen Rabjam does, Gyaltsen presents forty-two sequential methods. This is nothing short of a perversion of The Great Perfection – which is The Method of the Buddhas, not a collection of forty-two discrete methods. Moreover, Gyaltsen, in alignment with many other ignorant Dzogchen “masters” reduces true Togel (the “vision” of Clear-Light Energy, the Sambhogakaya) to a series of visions that are less than that of the Clear-Light continuum. For example, Gyaltsen describes what he calls “The Third Vision,” involves the appearance of “peaceful and wrathful divinities… not as staues but directly from the natural state in Sambhogakaya or Nirmanakaya forms.”
I wouldn’t ordinarily give a Dzogchen text one star, but this text is such a gross perversion of the Great Perfection, I believe that is all it merits.
