Introduction
The Dzogchen Center was formed in 1991 upon the return of Lama Surya Das from twenty years of intensive study and retreat in India, Nepal and France. He is one of the West’s most highly accomplished practitioners, teachers, and writers on Tibetan and contemporary Buddhism, and a lineage holder in the Dzogchen tradition.
The Natural Great Perfection
The term Dzogchen, ”Natural Great Perfection”, refers to primordial awakening, the “inner Buddha” that is actualized through contemplative practices passed down by generations of Indian and Tibetan masters for well over a thousand years. One of the goals of the Dzogchen Center is to make this path as accessible as possible to all who may find it to be an effective path of spiritual transformation and personal well-being.
Our Work
Dzogchen Center’s work is based on the understanding that all people are capable of awakening to the “Buddha within”, the freedom and perfection of their own natural state, the very state realized by the Buddha. Our purpose is to communicate the possibility and practice of such a spiritual awakening by making the unique and powerful Tibetan practice of Dzogchen accessible to Westerners through individual and social forms that are universal, welcoming, contemplative, and amenable to practice by all people, regardless of religious affiliation. This practice is meditation- and experientially-based, egalitarian, nonsectarian, and community service-oriented. It is socially engaged and ecologically concerned.
Our Community
The Dzogchen Center represents a growing international community of persons who find fulfillment exploring the dawning of awareness in all dimensions of our individual and social lives. The primary vehicles for this transformative, liberating and spiritual work are teachings and practices-chanting, natural meditation, Tibetan yoga, and self-inquiry offered in the context of one-day and weekend workshops and one- to two-week meditation retreats, as well as books, translations, multimedia recordings of the great masters, and other digital and paper publications.