The Ground

When most of us think of spiritual practice, we imagine it like another project. A skill to master, a special state to attain, a goal waiting at the far end of devotion, discipline, and effort. We think practice begins with adding something new to our lives.

Dzogchen begins differently. It begins not with what we add, but with what we recognize. It begins by introducing us to the ground that is already here.

Garab Dorje’s Essential Point

The first teacher of Dzogchen, Garab Dorje, gave the essence of the path in just three instructions, known as The Three Words that Strike the Vital Point:

Direct introduction to one’s own nature.
Decisive certainty in this recognition.
Confidence directly in the liberation of rising thoughts.

There is your own nature, and there is perception of other things. The two united, this is recognition of the ground. 

That is the whole of it. The ground is your own nature, already present. Recognition is the doorway. Gaining certainty is the path. Continuity is the fruit.

Garab Dorje distills it in his own words:

“This awareness, which is not established as existent, arises unimpeded in its various self-display.
All phenomenal existence therefore manifests as the field of dharmakaya.
This arising naturally subsides, and in this point the wisdom of all sugatas resides.”

Awareness itself is empty, yet everything arises within it. Appearances are unimpeded, but they naturally resolve back into the ground of being. To recognize this, to know awareness as both empty and luminous, is to recognize the ground.

Beyond Samsara and Nirvana

Longchen Rabjam, the great 14th-century master, described the ground with unmatched clarity in the Excellent Path to Enlightenment:

“The ultimate expanse of the true nature of reality is neither samsara nor nirvana. It is beyond all delineation, it falls into neither of these two extremes but provides the ground for the manifestation of both of them. It is referred to as the ultimate expanse, the ultimate truth, the final point of all realization, the last of all exhaustions, the final destination, the primordial dharmadhatu. And this is none other than self-arising, self-knowing timeless awareness. It is self-knowing awareness itself, free of all mental activity. It is free of all delimitation and falls into no extremes. It is what the teacher introduces you to, it is not to be looked for anywhere else.” 

This is why the ground cannot be improved or diminished. It is not bound by the suffering of samsara, nor confined to the peace of nirvana. It is the spacious expanse of being within which both appear. And it is none other than your own self-knowing awareness.

The Secret Essence Tantra (Guhyagarbha) says it plainly:

“The nature of mind is perfect buddhahood. Nowhere else should buddhahood be sought. Even though they looked for it, not even the victorious ones would find it somewhere else.”

There is no other place to search. No other ground to discover.

Resting in the Ground

How do we taste this in practice? Longchenpa offers simple guidance in his Essential Meditation Guide:

“When you refrain from conceptually apprehending the mind of the present instant as this or that, thoughts simultaneously arise and vanish all on their own. And as they disappear, rest without contrivance until the next thought appears. When thoughts occur, do not get caught up in those whose nature you fail to recognize. Just rest freely, rest openly, and let them go without holding onto them. It’s as though you are putting things into a vessel that is open at the bottom. Get used to awareness that is open, immediate, naturally free, and unhindered, without conceptualizing it by thinking “This is it.”

When thoughts arise, don’t fight them or follow them. Let them pass through like water through a sieve. What remains is the immediacy of awareness, spacious, naturally free. That openness is the ground of being itself.

Longchenpa echoes this in Natural Openness and Freedom of the State of Equality (Nyamnyid Rangdrol):

“When you see that mind’s pure, uncreated nature is beyond all action, all exertion. When you gain mastery in leaving it just as it is within its natural state— rree and open from the outset— you will realize primordial and spontaneous presence.”

The ground is not created by effort. It is revealed when effort drops away.

Living from the Ground

When you recognize your own nature, you recognize the ground. It is the one place of freedom, the source and resting place of every experience. Knowing this, you gain trust in it. Just as a snake tied in a knot unties itself, the tangled activity of seeking and striving loosens on its own, and you settle in the very ground.

The ground is not elsewhere. It is not something to acquire. It is awareness itself, fresh in every moment. The task is not to manufacture it, but to return again and again to recognition, until resting in it becomes natural.

Practice Takeaway

Pause right now. Relax your body, your breath, your mind. Let thoughts arise and fade away without chasing them. Notice the spacious field of awareness that remains–open, uncontrived, present. This is the ground.

Rest here for a moment. This simple resting is the ground of the Dzogchen path, not something to achieve, but recognizing what has always been present.