12/28/2025
Dzogchen Yogi and Yogini - Totally Remaining in Instant Presence
The knowledge of our real nature is called instant presence, or being in the state of rigpa. That is the main point of our practice, but we cannot always be in that state.
Nonetheless, if we have ordinary presence we can integrate instant presence into that very easily.
What is the difference between instant presence and ordinary presence?
Ordinary presence implies a twofold effort: the effort to continue to be present and the effort to be without distraction.
If you are in the state of instant presence, you don’t need any kind of effort. If you apply effort, it means you are no longer in a state of instant presence.
When we are capable of remaining totally in the state of instant presence for hours and hours we are really Dzogchen yogins.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Longchenpa’s Advice from the Heart
Note:
The Tibetan term rigpa (rig pa) has several meanings according to its occurance in various textual and exegetical traditions often based on Sanskrit vidyā, 'knowledge' or the more general meaning 'intelligence'; in dzogchen it means Awareness with a capital A distinguishing it from ordinary or mental presence and awareness.
After many years of teaching in the West, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu came to the conclusion to use the poignant translation 'instant presence'.
Even though the meaning would be definitely expressed correctly by using 'Awareness' innumerable translations such as pure awareness, pristine awareness, timeless awareness, and original wakefulness are frequently used nowadays. Appealing at the forst glance all those 'translations' have in common to add adjectives such as pure accept implicitly a duality of pure and impure and therefore reveal their conceptuality. By adding adjectives all of them remain in the dual realm of mind, in dualistic concepts allien to dzogchen's rigpa, the unique state of of one's primordial nature, and its immediate personal experience.
Erik Pema Kunsang in his work Quintessential Dzogchen, Ranjung Yeshe, 2006, coined the expression 'original wakefulness' and defined it as follows:
Unknowing (marigpa) is not knowing the nature of mind.
Knowing (rigpa) is the knowing of the original wakefulness that is personal experience.
As this 'knowing' appears so close to the general meaning of the Sanskrit vidyā, and 'wakefulness' generally describes the state of being awake and conscious, alert to your surroundings, and not asleep, involving specific brain activity (EEG patterns) and neurotransmitters keeping the brain active - it can also refer to a state of vigilance or sleeplessness, a figurative alertness, at least in my personal experience, the newly coined term evokes an understanding of ordinary awareness dominated by dualistic mind and its mental concepts just as the added adjectives 'pure', 'pristine', 'timeless', and so on.
This becomes very clear by the defination of 'wakefullness', which, essentially, is the opposite of sleep, a condition where you're aware and responsive, contrasting with the internal focus of dreams.
Pema
