Dzögchen Meditation Training

By: Lama Surya Das

Narrated by: Lama Surya Das

Length: 7 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's Summary

Things are not what they seem to be. Nor are they otherwise. (Lama Surya Das)

You don’t need to spend a lifetime purifying and perfecting yourself in order to touch the bliss of enlightenment. Your essential state of being is already one of pure awareness and incorruptible, innate wakefulness. The question is, how can you access this awakened state? How can you free your luminous true nature? 

Directly experience your primordial true self with Dzogchen meditation

One of Tibetan Buddhism’s most guarded and revered secret teachings, Dzogchen offers a swift and direct path for touching upon your essential nature and scaling the pinnacle of enlightenment in this lifetime. In the West, few understand this path as deeply as American teacher Lama Surya Das, and in Dzogchen Meditation Training, Surya Das draws on his nearly 50 years of experience to present an immersive training in the art and practice of Dzogchen. 

Also known as the Great Perfection, Dzogchen is grounded in wisdom and compassion. In this six-part series, Lama Surya Das takes you on a journey home to your primordial state of being, the true self that is pure awareness. In this practice-oriented training, you’ll awaken your natural radiance in a way that encompasses - rather than denies - the world and all it means to be fully human. An advanced program that is accessible to everyone, Dzogchen Meditation Training presents a powerful, in-depth series of meditations and inquiries for coming into deeper communion with all of life and uncovering the treasure trove inherent in your authentic radiant nature.

©2019 Surya Das (P)2019 Sounds True

Mostly a waste of time, unfortunately.

Lama Surya Das is a lovable teacher and character, yet this work is highly informal and improvised. Being about Dzogchen, the instructions here should be very straightforward (just be and pay attention to what's happening. No effort, nothing to do), yet Surya Das manages to ramble incessantly using Buddhist jargon, running rounds and rounds around the point, but hardly getting to it, which is funny because Dzogchen is about stripping Buddhism from all adornments and going straight to the essence, exactly the opposite of what Surya Das does here. A big part of this book are just these long chains of Buddhist pre-packed phrases in between the very few bits of actual instructions. Lama Sarya Das suffers from what I like to call Buddhist Tourette syndrome: "just sitting here, in the -here it starts- nowness, presentness, not pastness, not futureness, the Buddha, the You-ddha!, right here, ever present, never absent, Buddha awareness, shining-lotus-in-the-palm-of-your-hand, ever-present awareness, infinite Buddha, beyond time, beyond space, beyond personality, beyond you, no personal story, no narration,,," and so on. This is not an exageration. So, while it is nice to listen to Surya Das, this book is a waste of time given its very improvised, informal form, with basically 5 minutes of instructions enveloped in hours upon hours of rambling.

Superb

Excellent overview, enjoyable, and free of getting bogged down into Buddhist terminology and history. With a light touch and not intellectualized, Lama Surya Das kindly, enthusiastically shares the spirit of the view with insight and compassion. After reading books on Dzogchen and Mahamudra over the last twenty years, this provided a transmission that reading has not provided me. So thankful to have been gifted with this graceful, expert guidance.

Blessing

True gift and blessing. Genuine and authentic transmission to actually start practicing. Thank you Lama. ❤️🙏🏻

One word A M A Z I N G!!!

You know when some people really know what they are talking about? Well Lama Surya Das certaily know what he is talking about. However instead of manking a big deal out of the whole awakening deal, he makes it quite simple. He has a lot of energy and that should strike most listeners as very strange way for a master meditator to talk. But his message is very deep indeed. This is certainly the kind of book to listen many times, so you can get the whole message

Coolest Buddhist Ever

Lama Surya Das is just the most down-to-earth guy, with sharp wit and goofy humor. If you like a bit of fun with your meditation, this is your monk! Lighten up! Awaken your inner Buddha! Be you, duh.

Waste of time.

Awful presentation and content. I'm sorry to give this review but really not useful at all. Probably I have started with high expectations, I wish I could return it.

like a modern American merchandise

I am struggling to identify what is the meditation technique per se and what is the product he is selling. The quitting moment was when he started saying "joking"

Great!

I bought this book to see if my own experiences of Being Enlightened were in fact true, and Lama Surya Das totally hits the nail on the head. Listening to this book was like meeting a friend for the first that can relate to what I experience everyday. He gave some useful tips for furthering my practice as well, so I am very appreciative of this work. Definitely a book worth multiple listens. Sincerely, you are Buddaful!

EMAHO!!! I'll Have what SHE'S having!

EMAHO All IS AT EASE FOLLOWING THE BREATH IN MINDFULNESS FOLLOWING YOUR BREATHING AS ISNESS. LOVE 🕉 PHAT 🧘‍♂️ WHO? WHAT? WHERE? YOUDA THE BUDDHA! RESPECT FOR ALL BEINGS ALL AS ONE. EMAHO GLORIOUS!!! I'LL LISTEN TO OVER AND OVER! AS THUS I ALREADY HAVE. 🐎

Flowing teachings intended to be listened to

I've been a Dzogchen and Zen practitioner for a number of years, but I hadn't read nor listened to anything by Lama Surya Das before. He does a great job of blending teachings and pointers with natural just being meditation practices, structured over 6 sessions that connect into view, meditation and action. If you are new to meditation and Buddhism you will still be able to engage with this, no complex terminology or specific understanding required. However, you will probably get the most out of this if you have some experience of meditation and specifically non-dual practices. It's not a narrated book but flowing teachings intended to be listened to, which was great. Recommended.

A big pile of words

Must rank as one of the most disappointing books out of perhaps a few hundred I have listened too. I was looking for inspiration and got confusion. Clarity and got muddled. Wisdom and felt even more mystified. The content is spiritually equivalent to listening to your local radio station. Same useless crap talked about again and again, so much it makes you despair that their is any thing like discriminating intelligence in the universe. One is subject to torture of a peculiar or self promoting kind. An endless list of similes. A book of items with no description. Throw away morality, phrases and pointless meanderings. It's like getting a box of jigsaw pieces made up of 50 different pictures. There's is nothing I could get from this. Just let it be. Blue sky thinking. Self acceptance. A glimpse can Change your whole life. That would be good. I got enlightened you can too. What!!!! Even me! Holy cow....ues, I've walked in the dung of the cows of India... Seva, don't be troubled as it says in a good book.... And on and on it goes. Fucking crap. It's not even soothing or hypnotic. It's bad, very bad. Perhaps I expected too much. Get the 3 pillars of zen instead. Light years ahead.