Its a very simple mater. Dzogchen is just another name for the oldest thing.
The question is not what we need for Dzogchen - that answer is nothing, because every possible 'construct' you can possibly imagine, every form of order or design, every expression of one card upon another, is what is keeping us from Dzogchen realisation.
Why is that? It's no big mystery. It's quite plain and simple - we have two sides of the brain.... you work it out.
The question rather, is what do we do with the ordered part?
What do we do when we have to look after the body, navigate this world from birth to death. That is the big question - what do we do when we come back from nirvana?
But there is still another question, and listen carefully to this one: is it perhaps possible to combine our
Dzogchen and Chagchen, our primordial with our ordial, our capacity to see the world as it is before we flowered it up with our thoughts, and our capacity to think in profoundly clever and insightful ways?
You see there are a few issues dangled before us: death, being one of the best places to begin. Is it possible to build a ship that can sail around the mighty crags of The Gatway?
Picture a ship upon an ocean.
The problem with Dzogchen, is that it dismantles the importance of everything. Then we have to say, "How then do we act?" Because we have to act, or we die ... which is fine of course.
If nothing has significance or importance any more, how can we act with passion and vitality?
Simple, we choose an action, and act it out as if it did matter. We 'act', as if it were the most important thing on earth, throwing all our being behind it... while knowing full well...
What act do we choose? Now that is a good question. Well it doesn't matter - good or bad, healthy or destructive, kind or cruel - it can't really matter because we are only acting for the 'how' we act, not the 'why'.
But there is another factor which unavoidably creeps in. As we experience Dzogchen, even if only for fleeting moments - as we make our
veil thin, we become highly sensitive. A consequence of this is that we seek beauty, because it's pleasurable. In a world of meaninglessness, we lean towards feelings which give us great pleasure. Not always of course - sometimes we have to follow a road through darkness, but left to our own devises there is a natural attraction to using our magical body to experience the thrill of beauty.
That is why you find most enlightened people in our history, using their active time to enhance the beauty and health of the world and the people around them. And if you look carefully you learn two things:
One is their interpretation of
beauty.
Second, is the weirdest of things: how they strive for health and beauty with all their will and love, but somehow, when you look closely, you see they actually don't really care. You see it when they walk away after their time is done. This is so hard for people to grasp - surely if they care then they care?
Nope, they care but they don't care. And that is how they also feel about you also. Look carefully at this ... very carefully.