Kadag Trekchö

Kadag Trekchö (Wylie: ka dag khregs chod; alternate orthographic renderings Trekchöd and Tregchöd which approximate the phonetic) is a Dzogchen term and practice meaning "thorough cut" or "cutting through". 'Kadag' (Tibetan) may be rendered as 'purity' and specifically "primordial purity". The Menngagde or 'Instruction Class' of Dzogchen teachings are for instruction, divided into two indivisible aspects: Kadag Trekchö and Lhündrub Tögal. Karma Chagme, however, in a departure from the norm, associates Trekchö with Semde. He further equates Trekchö with Mahāmudrā, which is more typical.

Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche (Schmidt, 2002: p. 38) states:

Trekchö is the thorough cut of cutting through, cutting the obscurations completely to pieces, like slashing through them with a knife. So the past thought has ceased, the future thought hasn't yet arisen, and the knife is cutting through this stream of present thought. But one doesn't keep hold of this knife either; one lets the knife go, so there is a gap. When you cut through again and again in this way, the string of thought falls to pieces. If you cut a rosary in a few places, at some point it doesn't work any longer.

The "string of thought" and "stream of present thought" in the aforementioned quotation is cognate with the noise or 'obscurations' (Sanskrit: Kleśa) inherent within the mindstream (Sanskrit: citta santana). The 'thorough cut' of this 'cutting through' is to re-establish the Dzogchen View of the primordial state of the nature of mind, the essence of the Buddha-nature which is cognate with Dharmakaya.

Trekchöd - Everything is fundamentally without entity. Through no practice yoga one realizes the Great Liberation in its self-manifestation. Togal - Proceeding from the foundation of Trekchöd, it is practiced with six kinds of light which produce the full Enlightenment.

Preliminary practices

Trekchöd has a specific 'preliminary practice' (Wylie: sngon 'gro) which may be rendered into English as "differentiating saṃsāra and nirvāṇa" (Korday Rushen; Tibetan: འཁོར་འདས་རུ་ཤན, Wylie: 'khor 'das ru shan).

Intrinsic awareness

Padmasambhava, Karma Lingpa, Gyurme Dorje, Graham Coleman and Thupten Jinpa (2005: p. 480) define 'intrinsic awareness' or 'apperception' which is a rendering of the Tibetan Wylie 'rang-rig' and the Sanskrit 'svasaṃvitti' or 'svasaṃvedana' according to the precedent established in Indian Buddhist epistemology and in the writings of the lauded logicians Dignāga and Dharmakīrti that this technical:

...term svasaṃvedana refers to the apperceptive or reflexive faculty of consciousness, for which reason it is sometimes rendered as 'reflexive awareness' or 'apperceptive awareness'. However, in the view of the Great Perfection (rdzog-pa chen-po) and in the context of the present work [The Tibetan Book of the Dead], the same term refers to the fundamental innate mind in its natural state of spontaneity and purity, beyond the alternating states of motion and rest and the subject-object dichotomy. It is therefore rendered here as 'intrinsic awareness'. As such, intrinsic awareness gives the meditator access to pristine cognition [ye-shes; jñāna] or the buddha-mind [thugs, citta] itself, and it stands in direct contrast to fundamental ignorance ([ma-rig-pa,] avidyā), which is the primary cause of rebirth in cyclic existence (['khor-ba,] samsara). The direct introduction to intrinsic awareness is a distinctive teaching within the Nyingma school.... This practice is a central component of the Esoteric Instruction Class ([man-ngag-gi sde,] upadeśa[varga]) of Atiyoga, where it is known as Cutting Through Resistance (Khregs-chod).

See also

• Longde
• Semde
• Chöd

References

• Schmidt, Marcia Binder (Ed.) (2002). The Dzogchen Primer: Embracing The Spiritual Path According To The Great Perfection. London, Great Britain: Shambhala Publications, Inc. ISBN 1-57062-829-7 (alk. paper)
• Surya Das (2007). Natural Radiance: Awakening to Your Great Perfection. Sounds True. ISBN 1591796121
• Jigmed Lingpa (2008). Yeshe Lama http://www.snowlionpub.com/html/product_9836.html . Snow Lion