Nowadays, some people may think that if they do nothing, then they will never make any mistakes. Don’t assume this idea is just something humorous. In fact, the practice of Dzogchen is exactly like this: when the nature of non-doing is recognized, although nothing is done, nothing can go wrong. This is what is called “effortless enlightenment.”Upon hearing this, many of you may now feel drawn to learning Dzogchen—after all, who wouldn’t be tempted by the idea of “doing nothing”?
However, that kind of “doing nothing” is extremely difficult! It is a state of non-doing that arises only on the basis of having realized ultimate wisdom. For ordinary people like us, this is not possible—we must engage in deliberate practice. What we call “doing,” in fact, refers to fabrication—that is kind of dualistic cognition. In our daily practice, we deliberately apply this kind of skillful fabrication to dismantle ignorance.
However, such skillful practice is itself a form of ignorance. From the ultimate standpoint of a realized master, regardless of what one practices—even Vajrasattva,it still is a form of ignorance— don’t jump to conclusions without understanding the meaning and say, “How could you say that? Are you a demon?”If you think that way and accuse me of being a demon, then you are actually the true demon—and a rather foolish one.
Even though practice is also a kind of fabrication, it serves to dismantle other fabrications. In other words,the ignorance within deliberate fabrication is skillfully employed to destroy the ignorance accumulated since beginningless time. As the saying goes, “Two clay bulls enter the sea, and to this day, no trace remains.”At the level of View, this refers to the disappearance of the duality of existence and non-existence.At the level of practice, it means using effective fabrications grounded in ignorance to break apart the primordial ignorance accumulated over countless lifetimes—until, in the end, everything is released and the true nature naturally reveals itself. This kind of deliberate fabrication is not easy, but attempting to avoid all fabrication is even more difficult.
Everyone might think, “I don’t want to engage in any fabrication—I just want to lie down and do nothing.” But let me ask you: can you really do that? Truly “lying flat” requires a foundation; it’s not something achieved on a whim. How can you lie flat when you at least need to eat? And to eat, you must earn money. Besides, you can’t even eat while lying down—you have to sit up, and you need healthy teeth to chew. In short, you can’t just lie flat whenever you feel like it. Many conditions have to be met.
Nowadays, when many people talk about “lying flat,” they’re not rejecting comfort in the way the media frames it. They simply no longer want to be pushed into endlessly striving for more, and instead just hope to secure basic necessities. Yet in reality, even achieving those basics is often far from guaranteed.
Besides, even after attaining material abundance, does that really mean one can lie flat? Perhaps not. One may still find it impossible to “lie flat.” After all, human beings have desires. Imagine that: when you are alone in bed at night and begin to feel uneasy, any attempt to dispel that discomfort immediately prevents you from lying flat. You might start thinking, “When I wake up in the middle of the night, my pillow is cold—how sad! I want to fall in love, I want to get married!” But if the cold pillow bothers you, can’t you simply warm it yourself by sleeping on it? If that doesn’t work, then why are you still unable to lie flat?
Therefore, human beings cannot truly “lie flat.” To completely lie flat is the domain of accomplished beings. The essential instruction of Dzogchen practice is precisely this “lying flat.” Also, in Mahāmudrā practice, there is a method known as “the great corpse pose.” Once the mind becomes self-knowing and self-clear, and all fabrication naturally ceases, one can experience liberation.
As for the internet term “lying flat,” when I first heard it I thought, “Wow, that’s quite a high level of realization!” Of course, that was just a joke. The point is that the true “doing nothing” is very difficult.
