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Bon Dzogchen
their meditation sittings; this energy work is also an aspect of clarity. Also, Dzogchen will include the practices of the dark retreat-of sun-gazing and skygazing. All these vision-oriented, visual practices are done in relation to emptiness; but, in Zen, they are not done. Those are the differences at the path level.
There are also differences between Zen and Bon at the result level. In Dzogchen, there is a lot of practice of what we call the rainbow body; a lot of practitioners have achieved the body of light, or the rainbow body. But in Zen, that too is not a concept, or practice there.
L.M.: Is that a full liberation when you have reached the rainbow body?
T.W.: Yes—though that is not to say that Zen is not a way of complete liberation, also. But the method of achievement is very different. So in Bon, there is the clarity aspect on the base level; there are practices of light on the path level; and the achievement of the rainbow body is on the result level. These are the distinctive aspects—and differences with Zen practice-in the base, and the path, and the result levels, in Bon.
L.M.: What exactly does Bon mean by the terms emptiness and clarity?
T.W.: Bon—the word Bon—means nature; it means existence. It means recitation, reciting-it means many different things. In general, Bon means the indigenous religion of Tibet.
L.M.: How would you do, how does someone do the sky-gazing practice, for instance?
T.W.: Well, first one would have to do a lot of preliminary practices, preparatory practices, in order to do that. One would have to develop a lot of concentration ability. Then once you want to focus on one thing, the mind remains there. For example, people want to stay in one place. Yet when they move to a place, soon they again want to find another place to be. Their mind can never be, or stay, in one place. This means they don't have concentration of the mind.
L.M.: The mind is always moving.
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