Rigdzin Gödem - The Invocation of Samantabhadra (Kunzang Mönlam, spoken in English) скачать в хорошем качестве

Rigdzin Gödem - The Invocation of Samantabhadra (Kunzang Mönlam, spoken in English)

The Invocation of Samantabhadra (Kunzang Mönlam) is one of the most concentrated and radical expressions of the Dzogchen (Great Perfection) vision. Outwardly framed as an aspiration prayer spoken by the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, it is inwardly a reflexive utterance of awakened awareness recognizing itself. In Dzogchen, Samantabhadra is not a historical or celestial figure but the name for primordial buddhahood itself—the dharmakāya as timeless, self-arising awareness (rigpa), prior to the distinction between saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, delusion and liberation. The prayer therefore does not address an external saviour or petition a future attainment; it functions as a wake-up call issued by buddha-nature itself, calling sentient beings—who are nothing other than awareness in a state of non-recognition—to recognize their own face. In this way, devotion, instruction, and realization converge in a single performative act. Doctrinally, the Kunzang Mönlam offers a complete Dzogchen account of ground, path, and fruition in compressed form. From the single ground of primordial awareness arise two possibilities: recognition and non-recognition. When awareness fails to recognize its own self-appearances, the dynamic energies of wisdom manifest as the five afflictions and saṃsāra unfolds; when those same appearances are recognized as self-display, the afflictions are revealed as the five wisdoms and freedom is immediate. The prayer repeatedly articulates this pivotal moment, insisting that liberation occurs not through gradual purification or accumulation, but through instantaneous recognition. For this reason, the text speaks from the standpoint of fruition, declaring buddhahood as already present and delusion as merely adventitious misrecognition rather than an ontological flaw. Historically, the prayer belongs to the Northern Treasures revealed by Rigdzin Gödemchen and appears as the nineteenth chapter of the tantra Samantabhadra’s Unobstructed Awakened Mind, explicitly described as an “aspiration of great power” through which beings are said to be powerless not to awaken. Its placement as the culmination of a complete Dzogchen system underscores its function not as preliminary devotion but as crowning instruction. Linguistically, its non-dual, non-referential style is designed to undermine conceptual grasping rather than to explain doctrine discursively. Practically, this accounts for its central role in daily recitation: the prayer itself is understood as a liberative medium, effective through hearing, reciting, or remembering it. In this way, the Invocation of Samantabhadra exemplifies the Dzogchen claim in its most uncompromising form—that awakening is not achieved by becoming something else, but by recognizing what has always already been the case.