Quotes About Dzogchen

When you sit in meditation, relaxed and open, everything arises, all of samsara and all of nirvana. Everything is contained within the spacious mind. Is this the Buddha? You can read many dzogchen texts which say that your own mind is the Buddha. This doesn't mean that your ego formation or your sense of self is the Buddha. Rather, within the openness of your awareness there is space for your ego, and the qualities which are arising there are held inside the infinite clarity of the mind.

Where the past has ceased and the future has not yet arisen, In the unimpeded state of present wakefulness, Rest in the manner of mind looking into mind. No matter what thoughts may arise at this time, They are all the display of the single mind essence. As the nature of space is unchanging, You will realize the all-pervasive mind essence to be changeless. This is the Great Perfection (dzogchen), the ultimate of all vehicles, The unexcelled meaning of the self-existing Mind Section.

the true meaning of Dzogchen: the already self-perfected state of our primordial nature, which needs no "perfecting," for it has always been perfect from the very beginning, just like the sky.

From the Dzogchen point of view, that does not mean that one's relative concept of ego is something to get rid of. The practitioner needs to understand it for what it is. The ego exists only on the relative level and does not have real inherent existence. After becoming enlightened, the aspect of the relative existence of ego is still there, not changed.

To attain enlightenment, according to Dzogchen, is not to go beyond the conditioned mind as much as knowing and understanding that the conditioned aspect is a manifestation of the unconditioned.