The Lotus Heart Essence: Avalokiteshvara’s Dzogchen

The stress of our times demands balm. Climate change, political uncertainties, pandemics, global tensions simmering. Spacious compassion for ourselves and others is sorely needed. We know this, yet circumstances can overwhelm our best intentions. We need compassion anchored in reality to withstand today’s tumult. A compassion arisen from wisdom.

Joining compassion with wisdom can take a long time in most styles of practice. In 2016, on a visit to Potu island, off the coast of Shanghai, Ad.zom Paylo Rinpoche, spent a day in spontaneous visions, chanting scribes for hours. At day’s end, he revealed that he had been receiving Avalokiteshvara’s complete Dzogchen teachings. This retreat immerses us in six short Dzogchen texts from this collection: a prayer to compassion embodied; a sādhana; feast (Tshog) practice; prayer to Rahula; liberation through hearing—quintessential instructions; and activities.

In Dzogchen, wisdom is there from the start. We unite heart and mind with the Buddha of compassion within a state of wisdom. Thanks to Rinpoche’s blessing, we are offering this for the very first time in the West. Come join us. Refresh your heart.

Practice text

Text edit: p.10 first line Hri Unthinged compassion’s form, most dear god

Hosts of thoughts grasping at signs dissolve into the UNTHINGED source realm

bottom of p14 in bold Om Awalokishwara Bendzra (added an h ishwara)

Pith Practices

Audio Chenrezig

Audio Mark

Audio Jetsunma Om Mani Padme Hung

Audio Laurel

Extra Simplified Audio Laurel

Prayer book

Laminated sheet

Order a physical copy of the text

“Easy” Performance by Carol Hoy

I.3. Precious Treasury of the Dharmadhātu
Just-there expanse, ground for all that is
Empty essence, unceasing nature:
Nothing’s there, yet everything comes forth.
Swirl and peace dawn from the three forms, yet
Move not from the realm, true land of bliss.
ལྷུན་གྲུབ་ཀློང་ལས་ཐམས་ཅད་འབྱུང་བའི་གཞི།
ང་བོ་སྟོང་ལ་རང་བཞིན་མ་འགག་པ
ཅིར་ཡང་མ་གྲུབ་ཅིར་ཡང་འཆར་བ་སྟེ
སྐུ་གསུམ་ཀློང་ནས་འཁོར་འདས་རང་ཤར་ཀྱང་
དབྱིངས་ལས་མ་གཡོས་ཆོས་ཉིད་བདེ་བའི་ཞིང Verses p. 3, Treasure Trove p. 13

1:1 Signups: Anne and Harvey are meeting with students one on one via zoom. Please sign up for a time slot you’d like. First come first serve. Our lamas will decide for themselves which student they will meet with.

Names for the book.

Names for the book