' Samkhya Origin of Dzogchen '...

I recently followed up on a comment that a well known translator of Dzogchen texts and teacher of Dzogchen (Malcolm Smith), shared with me. We were discussing the most ancient roots of Dzogchen metaphysics. He made a comment that there is very possibly a link between ancient Samkhya metaphysics and earliest Dzogchen principles.

I am still looking for direct correspondences between the systems, and am totally amazed by what I am finding.

I will share more as I continue my research. However here are some key points:

Samkhya considers each person to be “pure consciousness”, like rigpa. Their term for rigpa would be “purusha”. Purusha is an individual Consciousness that is aware and knows. It is outside of space and time, yet experiences all aspects of manifestation without being altered in any way.

The energetic appearances as mind, thoughts, imagination, emotions, egoic self, actions and perceptions are all the energy of “prakriti”, like the spontaneous energy of rigpa’s tsal or thugje as Lhundrub. Prakriti serves the the purusha, and evolves according to its own energetic dynamics.

Purusha is said to require no being liberated because it can’t be in bondage. It never has karma. Only the egoic “me” generated by prakriti seeks liberation. Liberation is Purusha’s natural state when differentiated from prakriti as egoic self and energetic forms; like a mirror knowing it was never the reflections that appeared in it.

Purushas are individual monads as Leibniz described and are not “all one”. Namkhai Norbu taught that rigpa is always individual and we never merge into being a single great Being. Samkhya is atheistic like Buddhism. There is no over-riding Brahman or God that all purushas merge into, in Samkhya. This could explain why Bon religion and Bon Dzogchen has no connection with Buddhism; it comes from ancient Samkhya, at a time previous to the existence of Buddhism.

I also like their treatment of “cause and effect”, where they say the effect is contained within the cause, and the effect is only a stretched out “extension” of the cause itself, with no separation between cause and effect. This is how quantum field theory sees cause and effect as well, not as independent parts interacting.

There are also many references that purusha is located in the heart and has subtle channels connecting directly to the yes.

“This space that is inside of a person is indeed the space that is inside the heart. It is a plenitude that has not turned outward (apravartin) ... Far above this world, the celestial glow-that shines on the back of the cosmos [and] the back of everything [in the cosmos], in the highest of the highest worlds-is this very glow that is inside a person ... This self of mine inside the heart is indeed smaller than a grain of rice, a barleycorn, a mustard-seed, a millet-grain, or even a kernel of millet. This self of mine inside the heart is greater than the earth, greater than midspace, greater than the celestial realm, greater than these world.”

“...... luminous purusa, illuminated by its own light, is able to see into both this world and the world beyond.”

“MBh 12.290.69-75 describes the visionary ascent of the "true practitioner" of Samkhya in the following terms: By means of gnosis (jnana-yogena), those perfected hermits cross over .... and having crossed over [beyond the world of] birth-a crossing that is difficult-they enter into the clear sky (nabhas). Then . . . the sun carries those true practitioners of Samkhya [upward] with its rays which, penetrating (avisya) them like lotus fibers, convey them toward the [most distant] objects of the senses. There, the conveying wind takes hold of those perfected ascetics ... Gentle, cool, fragrant, and pleasant to touch is that most excellent of the seven luminous winds (maruts), which goes to the shining worlds. It bears them to the higher path of the sky.”

No practices or meditation is necessary because purusha is your current awareness at all times. A commentator on Samkhya wrote:

“They partake [of it] through vidya”. (Vidya is Sanskrit for “rigpa”)

“In one place it was said, in the context of the conversation between Yājñavalkya and Maitreyī, that when there is a transcendence of personality there is no ‘consciousness’ whatsoever. This confounded the mind of Maitreyī and she immediately queried as to how it was possible for consciousness to be absent in the state of liberation. Not so, it is not that there is no consciousness. Consciousness is there, but it is not a consciousness “of” anything particular; it is a general consciousness. Here you have a very beautiful passage, very poetic also in its nature, which tells us that while apparently it is a non-knowing of all particulars, it is a knowing of all things.”

“No Purusha therefore is bound, no one released, likewise no one transmigrates.;
Only nature (Prakriti) in its various forms transmigrates, is bound and is released
— Samkhya-karika 62, [70][71]

“... Purusha consciousness is "complete, free from error, pure and kevala (solitary)".

Garab Dorje also taught a philosophy where rigpa remained unaffected whether thoughts or phenomena were present or not, beyond cause and effect, and instantaneously realized upon being “pointed out”..

Dzogchen text translator and Dzogchen teacher Malcolm Smith wrote to me:

"...In fact, there is even a passage in Dzogchen RR ["Rigpa Rangshar" Tantra] that asserts it is ok to refer to vidya (rigpa) as a self...."

"...If we have to have a soul, it might as well be vidya (rigpa), it is after all, permanent, unconditioned, a knower, stainless, and free from the three realms. But If we don't have to have one, vidya (rigpa) still has these characteristics. It is our essenceless essence."

"Rigpa is just knowing, the noetic quality of a mind. That is all it is."

Longchenpa:

"According to The Highest Continuum: 'That which is the utterly lucid nature of mind is unchanging, like space.'
Basic space, completely pure by nature, is ultimate truth—naturally occurring timeless awareness."


-Jackson Peterson