Dzogchen

 
Dzogchen, which in Tibetan signifies Total Perfection, is a very ancient teaching which developed in Tibet within the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. It does not belong to a school or religious system; it is a kind of knowledge that Tibetan masters have transmitted without limitation of sect or monastic tradition. Dzogchen teaching can be defined as a concrete understanding of the state of existence, a key that can open individual consciousness, no matter to which culture or religion one belongs. The main point of Dzogchen is the real nature of every being: the primordial state which is free from karma and not conditioned.

In the Buddhist tradition, the origins of the Dzogchen teaching is attributed to twelve primordial masters who lived in archaic times. The Dzogchen passed down to our day within Tibetan Buddhism was first expounded more than two thousand years ago by master Garab Dorje. He was born in the land of Oddiyana, an ancient kingdom sometimes identified with the valley of Swat in Pakistan.

In the VIIIth century of our era, the Teaching transmitted by Garab Dorje was brought to Tibet by great masters such as Vairochana, Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava. In that period, which saw the first diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet and the large-scale translation of Buddhist scriptures from Sanskrit into Tibetan, the texts of Dzogchen were also translated, in great measure from the language of Oddiyana.