Semde
Semde tradition. The Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism traditionally classifies its Dzogchen teaching into three main divisions: Semde, Longdé and Menngagde.
Semde texts are mostly said to be translations by figures of the early transmission of Buddhism to Tibet like Śrī Siṅgha, Vairotsana and Vimalamitra. These texts emphasize the "awakened mind", which is the true nature of the mind and is essentially pure and perfect, just like Buddhahood. Semde texts critique tantric practice as being based on effort, and instead promote simple and effortless contemplation of the mind and its emptiness, luminosity, purity and inherent gnosis.
Background and history
Earliest sources
The Dzogchen texts which are today classified as "Semde" include the earliest Dzogchen sources currently known. These are generally short texts which appeared in the ninth century and are attributed to early transmission figures like Garab Dorje, Śrīsiṁha, Vairotsana and Vimalamitra. These teachings were influenced by tantric sources like the Guhyagarbha tantra as well as by Yogacara "mind-only" and buddha-nature literature. Various scholars have shown that early Dzogchen teachings developed out of the teachings of the Mahayoga tantras like the Guhyagarbha.Scholars like Samten Karmay and Karen Liljenberg have also argued that other traditions like tantric Shaivism and Chan Buddhism may have had some influence on this early Dzogchen literature. Jean-luc Achard has noted some similarities between Dzogchen practices and the teachings of the Shaiva Vijñānabhairava tantra. Regarding Chan, Liljenberg notes that various documents form Dunhuang indicate that some Dzogchen practitioners were syncretizing Dzogchen with Chan and other early Dzogchen works show that other people disagreed with this trend. This is also supported by the work of the Tibetan scholar Nubchen Sanggye Yeshe. Nubchen attempts to argue for the difference between the two teachings and the superiority of Dzogchen, but he also agrees that much of their terminology is similar. Furthermore, the biography of several Dzogchen masters depict them as traveling to China or even having transmitted Chan lineages.
Liljenberg writes that the main themes of the five early translations include non-duality, universal equality, "non-action", "not seeking the enlightened state", and the fact that there is "no need for meditation or gradual practices to purify or improve oneself" since "there is no path to follow, as the "destination" of enlightenment is already reached, and primordially-immanent." According to the Tibetologist David Germano, early Dzogchen "Semde" texts ignore or deny the validity and relevance of Vajrayana tantric practices and rituals in favor of terse poetic descriptions and direct experience of the awakened mind. As such, he calls these works "pristine Great Perfection", and contrasts them with the later texts of the "Funerary Great Perfection" which embrace the taboo tantric imagery of violence, sex and death. Germano writes that these early sources "are marked by the absence of presentations of detailed ritual and contemplative technique," and by the lack of the "funerary Buddhism" of the anuttarayogatantras as well as tantric sexual motifs and practices.
Some Semde texts, like the Kunjed Gyalpo, even deny the validity and relevance of key elements of tantric buddhism. As Liljenberg notes, the Total Space of Vajrasattva calls tantric practice "a childish pursuit". Sam van Schaik also writes that "later developments in the Great Perfection brought far more complex doctrines and practices, but the early mind series texts stayed close to one central theme: the immediate presence of the enlightened mind, and the consequent use- lessness of any practice that is aimed at creating, cultivating or uncovering the enlightened state." However, not all early Dzogchen sources reject tantric ritual, some of them, like Padmasambhava's Garland of Views, present Dzogchen within the framework of tantric Mahayoga. As such, it is likely there was a spectrum of early Dzogchen methodologies, some more tantric than others.
While the terms "Mind Section" and "Mind Orientation" are not attested prior to the 11th century, they are used by Tibetan and Western scholars retroactively to refer to a class of texts. The most of important of these are the "Eighteen Great Scriptures", which came be to called "mind series" texts at a later date. Five of these texts, the "five early translations", are perhaps the earliest of these, and are attributed to the monk Vairotsana of Pagor. Manuscripts of some of these texts have been found in the Dunhuang caves. They include The Cuckoo of Awareness, The Small Hidden Grain, Questions and Answers of Vajrasattva and Gold Refined from Ore. According to Liljenberg, Gold Refined from Ore may be the earliest of these and could indeed have been written in India.
Sam van Schaik notes that some of the earliest datable Dzogchen texts are The Meditation on the Awakened Mind by Mañjuśrīmitra and various short texts which are quoted by Nubchen Sangye Yeshe's late 9th century Lamp for the Eyes of Contemplation. Nubchen's Lamp itself is a very important commentarial source for early "Semde" Dzogchen, as it quotes numerous early sources, and is also one of the earliest texts which discuss claim that Dzogchen is a distinct vehicle of spiritual practice. The Lamp also lists the “twenty or eighteen minor texts on the mind”, indicating that even as early as the 9th century, these works were beginning to be considered as a group.
Another important source for early Dzogchen Semde ideas is the work of gNyan dPal dbyangs, especially his rDo rje sems dpa’ zhus lan manuscripts of which have been found in Dunhuang and his sGron ma drug '','' which are widely quoted by Nubchen.
Later developments
The Kun byed rgyal po, which is historically the most important Semde text in Nyingma, is a slightly later composite text possibly dating from the late 10th or the early 11th century which contains within it various short early Semde texts like the Cuckoo of Rigpa.By the 11th century these traditions developed in different systems such as the Kham, the Rong and the Nyang systems, which according to Ronald Davidson "are represented by texts surviving from the thirteenth to sixteenth centuries"). The Kham system was founded by the Kham yogi Aro Yeshe Jungne. This lineage unified the teachings of Dzogchen and the Chan lineage of Heshang Moheyan what was called "the Mental Position system". The Rong lineage is associated with Rongzom.
During the 13th century, Semde lineages and traditions became less popular and were slowly outcompeted by the much more popular Intimate Instruction systems of Dzogchen, especially the Seminal Heart tradition. These new Dzogchen teachings had begun to appear in the Renaissance period and are associated with treasure revealers like Chetsün Sengé Wangchuk and Zhangton Tashi Dorje who claimed they had discovered texts that had been hidden by figures like Vimalamitra.
In the new Mennagde systems, early Dzogchen teachings were first given the classification of "Semde" and were subordinated to the teachings of the Seminal Heart tradition. According to Instruction Series texts, the Mind Series is based on understanding that one's own mind is the basis of all appearances and that this basis, called mind itself, is empty and luminous.
According to the modern Dzogchen teacher Namkhai Norbu, the three series are three modes of presenting and introducing the state of Dzogchen. Norbu states that Mennagde is a more direct form of introduction, Longde is closely associated with symbolic forms of introducing Dzogchen, and Semde is more focused on oral forms of introduction.
Teachings
View
The focus of all these texts is the "awakened mind". According to Sten Anspal, this common Buddhist term has a special meaning in Dzogchen texts. It refers to the true nature of consciousness, "which is essentially identical to the state of Buddha". Anspal writes that according to Semde texts, accessing and abiding in this pure and perfect awakened mind "fulfills and surpasses all the various practices and methods of other Buddhist approaches."Christopher Hatchell explains that for these early Dzogchen texts "all beings and all appearances are themselves the singular enlightened gnosis of the buddha All Good ". The Victorious Emergence of the Peak says that "the diversity Samantabhadra" is “the principal consciousness, the Basis-of-all” which "has never stirred from the expanse of naturally-occurring primordial wisdom" and is "endowed with compassionate energy that completely pervades a thousand realms". This expansive awareness which is often compared to the vasteness of the sky is called the “Great Self” in various Semde texts, including the All-Encompassing Perfection ''. This idea of an innate awakened mind is influenced by the Mahayana Buddhist buddha-nature literature which states that all sentient beings have a pure buddha-matrix or essence.
Mañjuśrīmitra's Meditation on the Awakened Mind'' describes bodhicitta as the “self-nature of experience”, and as the “ultimate nature of experience". Namkhai Norbu writes that in Semde sources, terms like bodhicitta, the very core of bodhicitta, and “the primordial ground of being”, are all synonyms for the Great Perfection, which is "the primordial state of pure and total presence" that is also called “the great hypersphere”, “the all-inclusive state of the individual”, and “spontaneous perfection”.
One of the terms that Nubchen Sangye Yeshe draws on to explain the nature of the ground, the intrinsic state, is "spontaneous presence". According to Esler, Nubchen sees this as the state in which "all the various wisdoms are spontaneously complete". Nuben calls this state "the great excellence in self and others" and compares to a wish granting jewel. Nubchen is also careful to explain that this spontenous wisdom is free of any thoughts, words, or concepts, as well as any sense of existence or non-existence, comparing it to sky-like spaciousness. As Nubchen writes:
According to Keith Dowman, the five translations of Vairotsana focus on simple non-dualism and include no anthropomorphic symbolism and no "abstruse metaphysical infrastructure". Instead, the focus is on the nondual reality of the timeless "unitary light of awareness" which is a naturally perfect "all-inclusive wholeness". This enlightened mind is the ineffable ground of all things. Dowman further describes it as an "ineffable nondual reality that is a unity but at the same time a multiplicity. It is at once the source and the creation. It is inconceivable and inexpressible. It is enlightened mind or luminous mind."