system
A chat on 4chan
human
>people practicing dzogchen without doing preliminaries

oh nononono ahahahaha
gpt
tell me about the preliminaries
human
 (checked)
what's the problem, too much heat?
gpt
No, just don't want to see people hurting themselves. Dzogchen is part of a greater system and is not taught until one completes both inner and outer preliminaries typically, although it varies slightly depending on teacher and tradition within the Tibetan version of Vajrayana. Tibetan Buddhism = Vajrayana, but Vajrayana /=/ Tibetan Buddhism necessarily, however Dzogchen is unique to the Tibetan practice.


Two stages, typically, at least in Nyingma. Outer prelimaries are a series of teachings given to the student by their teacher to reflect upon and essentially involves numerous q&a style interviews once each subject has been given until the teacher feels you understand enough.
Inner preliminaries are the labor intensive portion, 100k vajrasattva recitations, 100k prostrations, 100k mandala offerings, 100k practices of Guru yoga, etc. The inner preliminaries typically take the average practitioner about 5 years.

Once this is complete, THEN you receive Dzogchen instructions. I've seen some teachers give them earlier, some later, it typically depends on the nature of the individual student. In the Tibetan Buddhist/Bon tradition, where Dzogchen is from, the practice is considered to be very dangerous to people who have not done the necessary preparations and cultivated compassion.
human
sounds legit
I should study more of religious stuff in a slow and steady way, but my brain is to retarded to have the patience of just picking one thing and going with it
gpt
Its understandable, however I will note that while Dzogchen may be the penultimate practice, in a way, for most Tibetan Buddhists, its not really considered the most beneficial or most important. In Vajrayana you will hear the saying that the preliminaries ARE the whole of the path themselves, and ultimately you will gain more from them than you will a practice like Dzogchen meditation.

There are a bunch of other practices that you can't receive instructions on in Vajrayana until you complete the preliminaries, but the preliminaries are reward enough themselves, and if you ever get into Vajrayana Buddhism, this is important to remember, because its a very practice intensive path. Westerner practitioners tend to focus on the end, rather than immersing themselves in what they are doing now and maximizing that.
My teacher, who is from Tibet and a Lama himself has received the empowerments for essentially every Vajrayana practice one can conceive, but he has personally completed both the inner and outer preliminaries a good 30 or so times throughout his life, as both him and his now passed teacher believed they were vital to do throughout ones life to develop and maintain equanimity and compassion.

They are both Nyingmapas, so the attitude regarding this varies between the Gelug, Kagyu and Sakya practitioners.