The Sky Beyond the Clouds – A Dzogchen Story

A young seeker, Tenzina, wandered through the Himalayas in search of wisdom. She had studied the great texts, chanted mantras, and sat for years in meditation, yet peace eluded her. Her mind remained tangled in thoughts, like a bird caught in a net.

One day, she heard of a Dzogchen master, an old hermit known as Lama Dorje, who lived in a cave high in the mountains. Determined, Tenzina climbed the steep path and found the master sitting quietly, gazing at the endless sky.

The First Teaching: The Nature of Mind

Tenzina bowed and asked, “Master, how can I find enlightenment?”

Lama Dorje smiled and pointed to the sky. “Look, my child. What do you see?”

Tenzin looked up. “Clouds drifting,” she said.

“Look beyond the clouds,” the master said.

Tenzin squinted. “The sky,” she whispered.

“The sky is always there,” the master said. “Even when clouds come and go, the sky remains untouched. Your mind is like the sky—vast, open, and pure. Your thoughts are only passing clouds.”

Tenzina felt something shift within her, as if a window had been opened.

The Second Teaching: Effortless Awareness

The master then poured tea into a cup until it overflowed. “Why are you still grasping at thoughts? Let them come, let them go. Just rest in awareness.”

Tenzina nodded, but doubt lingered. “But how do I hold on to this state?”

Lama Dorje laughed. “Trying to hold awareness is like trying to grasp the wind. Do nothing. Simply recognize.”

The Three Instructions (From Garab Dorje)

Then, the master spoke three simple yet profound instructions:

See directly the nature of your mind.
Do not doubt what you have recognized.
Rest in that awareness, naturally and effortlessly.

Tenzina closed her eyes. For the first time, she stopped searching. Her thoughts drifted like clouds, yet she no longer followed them. Beneath them, an infinite sky stretched—clear, luminous, free.

The Final Teaching: The Sky Beyond Words
After some time, Tenzina opened her eyes. “Master, I understand.”

Lama Dorje smiled. “If you understand, forget these words. Be the sky.”

And with that, the master turned back to the horizon, watching the clouds pass without concern.

Tenzina bowed deeply. She no longer needed answers.

She walked down the mountain, her heart as open as the sky.

Rigpa – A simple yet profound poem by Long Chenpa:

“To timeless Buddhahood, the radiant essence of pure presence,
To unchanging spontaneity, the vast and boundless vajra-heart,
To the nature of mind—effortless perfection,
Always here, simply being, we bow in reverence.”

Longchenpa’s words are not mere verses; they are direct transmissions of Rigpa, luminous arrows pointing beyond thought, beyond self, into the vast expanse of awareness itself. Each line unfolds in double revelation—a twin beacon illuminating the same truth from different facets.

• “Timeless Buddhahood” and “pure presence” dissolve time, revealing the naked clarity of Rigpa.
• “Unchanging spontaneity” and “vajra-heart” unveil the effortless, indestructible nature of being.
• “Nature of mind” and “effortless perfection” strip away illusion, leaving only what is—pure, self-knowing awareness.

Longchenpa does not speak about Rigpa; his words are Rigpa—arising not from conceptual mind but from the unborn vastness itself. His teachings do not flow from the river of Rigpa’s love; they are the very source, the uncreated, the nondual, the unfathomable—guiding, revealing, dissolving all veils.

To read him is not to learn, but to remember. Not to grasp, but to let go. Not to seek, but to be.

What is Rigpa?

Rigpa is not something to seek, attain, or construct. It is the luminous, ever-present clarity that has always been. It is the ground of being, the unfabricated awareness that neither arises nor fades. In the silence before thought, in the stillness beneath perception, Rigpa simply is.

The Essence of Rigpa:
🌿 Pure Awareness – A knowing beyond knowing, free from concepts, distinctions, or grasping. Not an experience, but the very ground of experience itself.

🔥 Unchanging & Ever-Present – Not a state to be entered, but the reality that has never left. Like the sky obscured by clouds, Rigpa is always there—only veiled by ignorance.

🌊 Beyond Ego & Identity – To recognize Rigpa is to dissolve the illusion of separation, to see reality unfiltered, as it is, beyond self, beyond other, beyond duality.

🔶 The Heart of Dzogchen – The highest teaching, the most direct path. Dzogchen does not lead to Rigpa; it reveals that you have never been apart from it. To see it once is to glimpse the truth; to stabilize it is liberation itself.

Great masters—The Dalai Lama, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche—have all pointed to this truth: Rigpa is not an idea to understand but a reality to be realized. It is not found in words but in the silence between them. Not in movement but in stillness. Not in seeking but in simply being.

To know Rigpa is not to learn.
It is to remember.

What is Dzogchen?

🔹 Dzogpa — Complete, perfect in its essence.
🔹 Chenpo — Vast, beyond all measure.

Together, Dzogchen means The Great Perfection—the truth that all is already pure, complete, and whole. Nothing needs to be added, nothing can be taken away. There is no path to walk, no goal to reach, for that which you seek has never been absent.

It is not something to attain—it is the effortless recognition of what has always been.

Onelove.