Rev. Danny Fisher

Today’s quote is from Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, the great Dzogchen master and author who has spent much of his life establishing seats of the International Dzogchen Community around the world. This is it:

Realization or illumination is not something we construct or build. If we consider realization as something we build then it becomes something made up of aggregates or something impermanent. If we create something within time and through action, we can never get beyond time. In our real condition the base is beyond time, beyond consideration, explanation, beyond everything. That is why at the end of his life Buddha Shakyamuni explained everything as emptiness with the teaching of the Prajnaparamita. Even at the end of his life he said there was no wisdom, no path, and no realization. Why did he negate all these things? We always enter into concepts. If we say “wisdom” then we have a concept and if we remain in this concept, we have a problem. Realization must be beyond all this.