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Roaring Silence - 10 The Dimension of Nongradual Approach

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Roaring Silence — Chapter 10: The Dimension of Nongradual Approach

Source page for Ch.10 of Roaring Silence — the final chapter of the book’s main body, completing Part Three (Dzogchen — Interface with Totality) and the book’s exposition of the Four Naljors.

Opening Verse

“The perspective of Dzogchen is always that we are all enlightened from beginninglessness. Because of this, inspiration is possible. Inspiration is the power of the enlightened state to make itself known: to itself, through itself, and of itself. A synapse can occur in which we glimpse, for a moment or an eternity, the manifest nakedness of being.”

Key Claims

Structure of the Chapter

  • The final phase of a journey that never began. “Because it had no inception, it has no cessation. This final phase is essentially a continuous simultaneity. We began with linear concepts — but through the experience of the journey, those concepts, valuable as they were when the journey was a journey, have now become obsolete.”
  • The gradualist construct the first nine chapters built needs to be reviewed and dispensed with as the book moves into Part Three’s completion.
  • Before discussing lhun-drüp, the chapter clarifies the meaning of the Four Naljors and the context within which they exist as a method.

The Naljor Etymology

“The word naljor means ‘remaining in the natural state.’ Naljor is a contraction of the words nalma and jorpa. Nalma means ‘natural,’ and jorpa means ‘remaining.‘”

This confirms and precisify the etymological reading already on Naljor:

  • rNal ma (nalma) = “natural”
  • ‘Byor pa (jorpa) = “remaining”

Ch.10 is explicit that while naljor is used in the Tantras to translate Sanskrit yoga (union), in Dzogchen it means “remaining in the natural state.” This is not a loose reading — it is the operative meaning.

Sutra / Tantra / Dzogchen Distinctions

One of Ch.10’s systematic moves — the terms of the Four Naljors are not unique to Dzogchen, so the chapter establishes the cross-vehicle distinctions:

TermSutraTantraDzogchen
Shi-nèShamatha (stabilization)Linked with visualization; “there is a sense in which emptiness and form must be unified""Finding oneself in the space of Mind without content while maintaining presence of awareness”
Lha-tongVipashyana (insight)Linked with visualization”Reintegrating the presence of awareness with the movement of whatever arises in Mind”
Nyi’mèd—Linked with visualization; unification must be done”The recognition of ro-chig, the one taste of emptiness and form”
Lhun-drüp——Unique to Dzogchen. “Spontaneous self-perfectedness.”

Footnote 6 adds a crucial translation-policy note: “Shamatha and vipashyana are simply the Sanskrit words of which shi-nè and lha-tong are the Tibetan equivalents. The Sanskrit words are employed here to indicate Sutric practices, whereas the Tibetan words are used to indicate Dzogchen practices.” The book’s Tibetan-vs-Sanskrit terminological choice is doxographic, not linguistic.

Summary of the First Three Naljors

Ch.10 delivers the cleanest, most compressed summary of the first three naljors’ definitions:

  • Shi-nè is the method of finding oneself in the space of Mind without content while maintaining presence of awareness.
  • Lha-tong is the method of reintegrating the presence of awareness with the movement of whatever arises in Mind.
  • Nyi’mèd is the recognition of ro-chig, the one taste of emptiness and form.

Each is a method; each concerns a specific aspect of Mind (content-absence / movement / non-duality).

Inspiration

“The perspective of Dzogchen is always that we are all enlightened from beginninglessness. Because of this, inspiration is possible. Inspiration is the power of the enlightened state to make itself known: to itself, through itself, and of itself. A synapse can occur in which we glimpse, for a moment or an eternity, the manifest nakedness of being.”

  • Inspiration is given a precise Dzogchen definition: the power of the enlightened state to make itself known.
  • Nakedness of being — jen-par shar-wa (rJen par shar ba). The Ch.4 nakedness register (see Rigpa) extended here.
  • Inspiration is what Dzogchen-talk offers those who have not yet established the base. Before shi-nè / lha-tong / nyi’mèd are known at a personal experiential level, “any concept of Dzogchen as a practice can have little meaning other than as a source of inspiration.” See Inspiration.

Exercise 9

The chapter’s only exercise, and the book’s final numbered exercise:

“Sit comfortably with your eyes wide open. Remain alert but without tension.”

Follow-up Exercise 9 (explicit continuity with Ex.1 in Ch.2):

“This exercise is similar both to the concluding exercises in the previous chapter and to exercise 1 in chapter 2. This is a deliberate device on our part. It is designed to clarify certain points in an experiential manner: We begin with mind as thought. We discover Mind without thought. We return to thought as Mind.”

The three-stage movement the book’s exercises were quietly tracking:

  1. Mind as thought (pre-practice; Ex.1-era condition)
  2. Mind without thought (shi-nè → lha-tong stabilization; mi-thogpa as ground)
  3. Thought as Mind (nyi’mèd / lhun-drüp; thought arising as meditation; one-taste discovery)

The final phase is a return — but to the same place, now seen differently. “Thought as Mind” is the nongradual fruit: thought is no longer a problem to be overcome but recognition of Mind’s own movement.

The Apple Tree Story

Ch.10 records a formative exchange between Ngakpa Chögyam and his teacher Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche:

“In your experiencing, which is moving — the leaves or the wind?”

“It’s my mind which moves, Rinpoche.”

The question rhymes with one from Kyabjé Chatral Rinpoche: “Is it phenomena which move, or the mind which perceives them?”

Both are pointing-out questions — cousins of the Chan flag-and-wind koan — designed to expose the reader’s registration of Mind’s movement as the precondition of all perceived movement. The chapter’s commentary: “Movement within emptiness characterizes the nature of both Mind and reality. Realization is the reintegration of presence of awareness with whatever arises as the experience of being.”

The Nongradual Argument

The chapter’s central structural move:

“It is not completely possible to present the Four Naljors in a linear manner because our experience does not necessarily conform to the linear model.”

  • If one is practicing shi-nè and experiences the arising-and-dissolution of thought into emptiness with sustained presence of awareness, there is no difference between that state and nyi’mèd.
  • “There is no reason that the state of nyi’mèd shouldn’t be realized without passing through all the intervening stages. There is no reason it is not possible to move from shi-nè into lha-tong without having to pass through stabilized shi-nè.”
  • Stabilized shi-nè is harder than lha-tong or nyi’mèd for some people. The gradualist presentation is misleading about relative difficulty.

Sparkling Through

“Enlightenment continually sparkles through. It sparkles through the unenlightenment that we continually fabricate from the ground of being. Because enlightenment continually sparkles through, anyone with or without meditative experience can have flashes of lha-tong or nyi’mèd experience.”

  • Sparkling-through is the positive phenomenological term for nongradual recognition.
  • Common triggers: illness, near-death experience. These can “short-circuit” the continual effort of unenlightenment-fabrication.
  • The practitioner’s task is to cooperate with the sparkling-through — “by disengaging from referentiality and continuing with presence of awareness.” Life-induced glimpses are hit-or-miss; the practitioner’s disciplined cooperation is the reliable channel.

Why the Linear Description Is Still Necessary

“Although the process is not necessarily linear, it has to be described in that way. This kind of description operates in the same way that a series of words operates within a sentence. From the relative perspective, you cannot start with the meaning; you have to start with the first word of the sentence and proceed to the second, third, fourth, and so on. At the end of the sentence, the meaning becomes apparent.”

  • The sentence metaphor — linearity is an artifact of exposition, not of experience.
  • Lhun-drüp is the meaning at the end of the sentence. “Lhun-drüp is the knowledge that is there at the end of the sentence. If we forget, or get distracted from the meaning of the sentence, we may have to review the word order again.”

Lhun-drüp — The Fourth Naljor

Ch.10’s most load-bearing new material:

“Lhun-drüp is our spontaneous self-perfectedness. It is the fourth Naljor… Lhun-drüp is the integration of the experience of nyi’mèd with every aspect of being. We move beyond practice. There is no method with lhun-drüp apart from continuing in the nondual presence of awareness in the efflorescence of every moment.”

  • Spontaneous self-perfectedness — the standard gloss for lhun-grub in Dzogchen literature.
  • Integration of nyi’mèd with every aspect of being — this is the register of lhun-drüp: nyi’mèd is extended beyond the alternation-field into all aspects of living.
  • Beyond practice. Lhun-drüp is not a practice; it is the dissolution of practice-as-distinct-from-life into the efflorescence of every moment.
  • The only method is non-method — continuing in nondual presence of awareness in the efflorescence of every moment. No technique, no exercise, no gesture-to-perform.

See Lhun-drüp for the full page.

The Ten Paramitas Q&A

The chapter’s extensive Q&A walks through the Ten Paramitas (pa-rol tu chin-pa chu, pha rol tu phyin pa bCu) as applied to the Four Naljors:

  1. Jinpa (sByin pa) — generosity. “Generosity means allowing space in which shi-nè can bring us into the experience of the empty state. In lha-tong we have to have the generosity to allow namthogs to arise again.”
  2. Tsultrim (tshul khrims) — honor (their retranslation of the usual “ethical discipline”). “Honor means doing what one says one will do. It means sitting when one doesn’t particularly want to sit.” KD: they prefer honor “because there are sometimes puritanical ‘religious’ implications involved with ethical discipline.”
  3. Zopa (bZod pa) — steadfastness (usually “patience” or “tolerance”). “Maybe zopa is only adequately expressed by the three together.”
  4. Tsöndru (brTson ‘grus) — vitality (usually “effort”; they avoid effort because it carries a sense of burden).
  5. Samten (bSam gTan) — meditative stability. “The stability of one’s meditation is based upon the ground of generosity, patience, and vitality.”
  6. Shérab (shes rab) — knowledge or insight. “Shérab simply comes about through one’s involvement. There is no choice; flashes simply begin to occur. This is the point at which the experience of nyi’mèd percolates through the structure of the Tantric preliminaries.”
  7. Thab (thabs) — skillful means. “This is the point at which we recognize that these practices really are the heart of the matter… These ngöndros are no longer Tibetan practices. They are part of what we are and what we are becoming.”
  8. Mönlam (sMon lam) — wish-path or aspiration (usually “prayer”; KD: “the direction of aspiration”). “Our own liberation seems possible, and so the liberation of all other beings begins to gain the momentum of inevitability.”
  9. Tob (sTobs) — power or strength. Listed but not developed in the Q&A.
  10. Yeshé (ye shes) — primordial wisdom. Listed but not developed in the Q&A.

The Three-Sphere Mapping

A key technical claim inside the paramita Q&A:

“In terms of Dzogchen, patience, vitality, and generosity are the three spheres of being: emptiness, energy, and form — chö-ku, long-ku, and trül-ku (dharmakaya, sambhogakaya, and nirmanakaya).”

Mapping:

  • Patience (zopa) ↔ chö-ku / dharmakaya / emptiness
  • Vitality (tsöndru) ↔ long-ku / sambhogakaya / energy
  • Generosity (jinpa) ↔ trül-ku / nirmanakaya / form

See Three Spheres of Being.

Dzogchen Purification

NCR inserts a definition of Dorje Sempa purification as it operates in Dzogchen:

“Purification has different meanings according to the vehicle under discussion. In Dzogchen, the word relates to something that happens on its own. It means seeing it as pure because it already is pure. Here the word ‘pure’ means ‘nondual,’ and the word ‘purification’ pertains to a method of realizing the nondual state that has always been there. There is nothing to purify apart from the notion that there is something impure.”

This is a view-level clarification with cross-vehicle significance.

The Three Footnote-Level Technical Payloads

Ch.10 carries three footnotes whose content is doctrinally substantial and deserves direct integration into the wiki:

Footnote 3 — The Four Ting-ngé’dzins

“The actual practice of Dzogchen Sem-dé is called the Four Ting-ngé’dzins (meditative absorptions, or samadhis). These comprise of nè-pa (undisturbed), mi-gYo-wa (unmoving), nyam-nyid (undivided) and lhun-drüp (uninhibited spontaneity).”

This is a major structural revelation — the Four Naljors are ngöndro for Dzogchen Sem-dé; the actual Sem-dé practices are a separate set of four. The correspondences:

Four Naljors (ngöndro)Four Ting-ngé’dzins (actual Sem-dé)
Shi-nèNè-pa (undisturbed)
Lha-tongMi-gYo-wa (unmoving)
Nyi’mèdNyam-nyid (undivided)
Lhun-drüpLhun-drüp (uninhibited spontaneity)

The terminological parallel is structural — the Ting-ngé’dzin names echo the Naljor names but indicate completed/stabilized absorptions. See Four Ting-ngé’dzins.

Footnote 5 — Mahāmudrā Four Yogas

“Also called the Four Naljors of Mahamudra. Shi-nè equates with tsé-chig (rTse gCig), one-pointedness; lha-tong equates with trö-dral (sPros ‘bral), freedom from conceptual elaborations; nyi’méd equates with ro-chig (ro gCig), one taste; and lhun-drüp equates with gom-méd (sGom med), nonmeditation.”

The “Formless Mahamudra” mapping:

Four Naljors (Dzogchen Sem-dé)Four Yogas (Kagyüd Mahamudra)
Shi-nèTsé-chig — one-pointedness
Lha-tongTrö-dral — freedom from conceptual elaborations
Nyi’mèdRo-chig — one taste
Lhun-drüpGom-méd — nonmeditation

This confirms the Ch.9 forward-reference on One Taste — nyi’mèd’s ro-chig is the Mahamudra third yoga. The correspondence is doctrinally significant: the Kagyüd’s “Formless Mahamudra” and the Nyingma’s Aro gTér Sem-dé ngöndro are the same four stages under different lineage names.

Footnote 4 — Kyungchen Aro Lingma

“Kyungchen Aro Lingma (‘khyung chen A ro gLing ma), 1886–1923, was a female Nyingma gTértön (discoverer of visionary revelation teachings).”

Supplies dates and gender — the gTértön is female, not the typical case for Western-accessible Tibetan Buddhist lineages. See Aro gTér.

Structural Placement

This is the final chapter of the main body. Subsequent content in the book consists of:

  • Chapter 11 — Appendix 1: Questions and Answers
  • Chapter 12 — Appendix 2: The Confederate Sanghas of Aro
  • Chapter 13 — Glossary

So Ch.10 is the book’s last developmental chapter — it delivers the fourth naljor, the nongradual argument, and the integrative frame for reading the whole book. The book’s forward trajectory from Ch.1’s shi-nè to Ch.10’s lhun-drüp is now complete.

Editorial Notes

  • Only Exercise 9 is given for the fourth naljor — and it is structurally identical to Exercise 1. This is the book’s way of closing the circle: the end-of-sentence meaning is already present at the beginning, if one could read it.
  • The Ten Paramitas Q&A is not fully completed. Tob (power) and yeshé (primordial wisdom) are listed but not developed. The book may be signaling that these two land only in lhun-drüp itself — beyond what the discursive Q&A can articulate. Or the Q&A was edited for length. Either way: the wiki’s Ten Paramitas page notes the asymmetry.
  • “We move beyond practice” is Ch.10’s most significant claim. It recasts the preceding nine chapters as setup for the dissolution of practice into life. The full trajectory: Ch.1 (practice must begin) → Ch.10 (practice must be dissolved into life).

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