Dzogchen Essentials: The Path That Clarifies Confusion

Rating:
Summary: A Ruse or Just a Mistitled Work?
Review: I received this book today with the hope that it contained primary texts on the practice of Dzogchen. To my misappointment, instead I found a hodge podge of various "tantric" or "vajrayana" materials consisting of ngondro or foundational practices, general information on generation and completion stages, a few randomly placed songs of realization, etc. However, there was little Dzogchen materials. What I did find is that the title "Dzogchen Essentials" meant not texts or materials on "Dzogchen", but materials taken from the "Dzogchen Tradition" meaning the "Nyingma" and related traditions. It appears that Dzogchen which is a profound and serious practice tradition has fallen prey to popular trends or fads. Just like the word "tantra", it is now over used and is in fact being abused to sell or package Tibetan and related materials that have a possible undual flavour or esoteric content beyond conventional or basic Mahayana practices. Too bad, the book's title and pre-reviews held out so much potential for a possibly excellent publication. It appears the editor has done this before in an earlier work called "Dzogchen Primer". In that work there are good materials, but it is certainly not a "primer" on Dzogchen. It has tantra, mahamudra, etc. and just a few Dzogchen oriented materials. I wish authors would not just try to take advantage of the public, especially in the presentation of books of this genre that purport to be authentic treatises on a specific and serious subject area. One side comment -- If you want a book on general overall Vajrayana intructions, its not bad. However, if you want Dzogchen, look else where for books by Namkhai Norbu, John Reynolds, Longchenpa, Jigme Lingpa, Dudjom Rinpoche and others. There are many and they are authentic Dzogchen texts and practice materials, etc.