Rudolph Bauer, Ph.D. Diplomate Clinical Psychology, A.B.P.P. The Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center for Phenomenological and Existential Psychotherapy Studies Interface
The experiential language and the experiential view of Contemporary Phenomenology is amazingly similar to the language and view of the ancient Tibetan Meditative Tradition of Dzogchen. Both Dzogchen and Contemporary Phenomenology understand that the unfolding of the lived experience of self- liberation happens through our direct lived experience of Innate Awareness. Moreover, our lived experience of Innate Awareness is our Direct Lived Experience of Primordial Being. Both Contemporary Phenomenology and Dzogchen are phenomenological ontological philosophical traditions. A metaphysical tradition is the thinking of Being mentally and conceptually. A metaphysical tradition is an ideational tradition. A phenomenological ontological tradition is the direct lived experiencing of phenomenological Being and the artful experiential articulation of the lived experience of phenomenological Being personally and symbolically. Both Phenomenology and Dzogchen dramatically understand that in becoming aware of our own awareness we directly experience the field of Luminous Being. Both traditions in their historical unfolding understand that we have two ways of knowing. The knowing of our mind conceptually representationally and intuitively knows the essence of phenomena. The knowing of our awareness non conceptually pre-reflectively experientially directly knows Being. The direct non conceptual experiential knowing of our awareness directly knows the Being of phenomena, the Being of a being. This knowing is direct experiential perceptual non conceptual knowing. This knowing is becoming what we know, becoming what we experience. Both traditions of Dzogchen and Existential Phenomenology emphasize the integration of the knowing of our mind within the knowing of our field of awareness. In this integration of our mind within our field of awareness a person who integrates these two modes of knowing can know the phenomenological essence of a person and the Being of the person. In this integration of our mind within the field of awareness, a person can know the essence of a phenomena and the Being of the phenomena simultaneously. This is the path of natural self- liberation. Self- Liberation This integration of mind within our awareness field is the living medium of self- liberation through our lived experience of life events and life circumstances. Ritualistic experience is not the essence of self- liberation both in Existential Phenomenology and Dzogchen. Self- liberation is profoundly personal and cannot be institutionalized. Self- liberation cannot be dogmatized. Phenomenological Ontological Experience Dzogchen from its earliest manifestation in ancient Tibet was a phenomenological ontological understanding, and a phenomenological ontological praxis. This praxis was based on, and practiced within the lived experience of phenomenological Being. Through our lived phenomenological experience of Being we directly and non- conceptually experience the Purity of our own Being and the Purity of Being of others and Purity of the Being of the natural world. As Dudjom Lingpa the great creative master of Dzogchen would say Dzogchen is learning to experience the Purity of our own Being and the Purity of Being of others and the Purity of Being of the world. The philosophical language of both Dzogchen and Phenomenology were rooted and grounded within the lived experience of our human embodiment of luminous Being. Dzogchen is an experiential philosophy as is Continental Phenomenology. Neither Dzogchen or Contemporary Phenomenology are rationalistic and theoretical metaphysical speculations. Rather both Dzogchen and Phenomenology reflect our experiential knowingness based upon our articulation of our lived experience and our subtle use of experientially near language illuminating the nature and depth of our lived experience of our embodied Beingness. Our lived experience of the embodied Beingness of the World and our lived experience of Cosmological Beingness is infinite in its horizons, vast and multidimensional. The phenomenological perception and phenomenological language of our lived experience illuminates both the nature of phenomena and the nature of the Being of the phenomena. This experiential revelation is the experiential truth of Alethia, the truth of the Un-concealment of Beingness within our human experience of phenomena and appearance of phenomena. Being reveals itself within phenomena and in phenomena as the Being of the phenomena. Both Dzogchen’s experiential methodology and Contemporary Phenomenological methodology are continuously rooted in our human lived experience within the field of luminous primordial awareness. Primordial awareness is our direct non conceptual experiential knowingness of Being within the context of our ordinary human life, and within the context of our human mind and within the context of our human experience of the pervasive Presence of phenomenological Being. In Dzogchen our direct non conceptual knowing of Luminous Being is languaged as Gnosis or Jnana. Gnosis and Jnana mean our direct luminous perception and experiential non conceptual knowing of Being within and through our phenomenological experience. By phenomenological ontological experience is meant our experiencing of phenomena within the union of our mind knowing the essence of phenomena and our awareness knowing the Being of phenomena. Pervasive Presence of Being Both the Phenomenological experience and the Dzogchen experience of pervasive Presence of Being reflects our direct and non- conceptual knowing of the manifestation of Being’s Radiant Luminosity. The Radiant luminosity of Being brings forth our experience of Radiant Presence. Being’s radiance and Being’s luminosity reflects our experience of Pure Translucid Presence. Pure Translucid Presence is within us and Pure translucid presence is within Phenomena surrounding us and encompassing us. Pure Translucid Presence is our direct non- conceptual experience of the Being of phenomena. Pure Translucid Presence is our non-conceptual experience of the radiance of Being self- manifesting as Being within human beings and as human beings. The radiance of Being is manifesting the Being of the world and is the manifestation of beings within the world. Dudjom Rinpoche the great contemporary 20th century Dzogchen Master would often say this about awareness. “Know the one thing that frees everything, Awareness itself, your true nature.” Our awareness is our Being’s experience of directly knowing Being. Our Being knows Being. We have two forms of knowledge. We have and are psychological knowing and we have and are ontological knowing. “Ontologization” of Knowledge The phenomenology of Heidegger and the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau Ponty and Dzogchen philosophy all share in the direct experience of the “ontologization” of our knowledge. Our awareness non- conceptually knowing Being is ontological knowing. Our mind knowing phenomena is psychological knowing, and our knowing Being through our field of awareness is profound ontological knowing. Our Knowing is not only mind’s ideational mental knowing but we also have our innermost awareness’s direct ontological knowing of Being. We understand directly, and within our experiential immediacy, we directly experience Being within the Being of our own being and within the Being of others. This methodological focus of and within primordial awareness is the unveiling of what happens experientially within us and around us as the life events and life circumstances of the Field of Being’s manifestations show forth and shine forth. And from within our direct non- conceptual experiential knowing of Being arises our symbolic languaging of our inner most experience of Being and this experiential articulation brings forth our symbolic conceptualization of the experience of Being and the Being of phenomena. Being is implicit in all human experience. The knowing of Being is implicit in all human experience of phenomena. The experiential non conceptual implicit knowing of Being is intrinsic to our experience of our human Beingness and our own self liberation. Phenomenological languaging is the experiential articulation of the implicit experience becoming explicit experience. In phenomenological languaging our felt sense of experience becomes thought and becomes words. The Gaze Our Phenomenological Gaze is the experiential perceptual process of invisible formless Being becoming visible forms. In Dzogchen this Phenomenological Gazing is called Togal. This focus in both Dzogchen and in Phenomenology is not our intellectual belief in an idea or ideation about Being but our direct and unfolding lived experience of Being. Our focus within awareness is the deeply personal place of our experience of self- revelation and self- experience of Pure Being within our lived contextual experience of our world. Moreover, within our lived immediate experience of our phenomenological experience of Being, within this experience of Luminous Being is our medium of selfliberation. This medium of self- liberation unfolds through and within the light of our direct experience of Being as our own innermost self. Our experience of our innermost Being is our experience of our ongoing continuity of Being as our very self. Our self is not simply psychological or simply somatic. Our experiential sense of self is our embodied sense of Being infinite in its horizons, vast and multidimensional. Our inner self is not a mental concept as cognitive psychologist like to think. Our sense of self is not an illusion or delusion as some eastern philosophical traditions would have you think. And neither is our self simply an illusion or delusion as the Buddhist Anatman traditions would have you think. All Creative Source: Foundational Dzogchen Text In the transitional and dramatic 8th century AD of Tibet, the early and primal Dzogchen Tantric text The All-Creating Source was written. The text has been translated recently into English by different translators with different titles of the text such as the All- Creating King, The All- Creating Sovereign, The Supreme Source and the Sovereign All Creating Mind. This foundational 8 th century Dzogchen tantric text was a phenomenological and ontological transmission and understanding about our experience of the ontological Presence of Being as the existential path of self- liberation through our direct experience of the Ontological Translucid Presence of Being within us and surrounding us. Presence is one way of describing our experience of Creative Pure Being and the Pure Being of phenomena. Being as Being is always intrinsically Pure. Longchenpa the great Dzogchen Master of the 14th century has written two brilliant and radical commentaries on the text The All- Creative Source or All Creative King or all Creative Sovereign. One commentary on the text is named The Net of The Sun and the Moon: The Concise Meaning of the Tantra the All Creating Source. Another commentary of Longchenpa was The Precious Ship: Instructions for the Practice of the Pure and Perfect Presence:The All Creating Source. The commentary is translated by the Tibetan translator Jim Valby at the request of Namkai Norbu Rinpoche the great contemporary Dzogchen master who recently died. Namkhai Norbu and Adriano Clemente have translated the 8th century text as the Supreme Source. This is a masterful translation and masterful commentary. This work is brilliant in its definitiveness of expression. The most recent translation of this foundational Dzogchen text is by Christopher Wilkinson. The translated text invokes experientially what is being symbolically described. The wonderfully poetic narrative language is user friendly and dramatically opens for us the Dzogchen experience of Luminous Being. Luminous Being is both pervasive and profoundly personal. In Dzogchen our ground of our Being is Ontological Who-ness! Yes. Within the the depth of our Beingness is Who-ness. Our Who-ness is ontological and not simply psychological or social. The earliest translation of this 8th century tantra was The Sovereign All Creating Mind the Motherly Buddha. This Motherly and Feminine version was translated by E.K.Neumaier-Dargyay in 1992. The Sovereign All Creating Mind is expressed within the Archetypal language of the Divine Mother. The language of this translation deeply reflects the relentless Dzogchen deconstruction of early Buddhist philosophy as well as deconstructing the implicit Buddhist Patriarchal sentiment of the “King” of Absolute Knowledge. All of the various translations of this primal foundational Dzogchen text are radical because of the Existential and Ontological position of the text in regards to the earlier and traditional Indian Buddhist philosophical teachings. The Dzogchen text goes far beyond the earlier traditional transcendental Indian Buddhist teachings by presenting the ontological understanding that the nature of our self- liberation happens through our natural phenomenological ontological and existential experience of Being. In describing the text, I will simply use the phrase the All Creating Source and this metaphor will reflect a signifier of all the translations. Phenomenological Ontology of the All- Creating Source This Dzogchen text the All Creating Source deeply reflects our foundational transition from the illusionary web of the transcendental philosophy of Indian Buddhism into the experiential existential realm of the intrinsic and innate immanence of the self- manifestation of the Ground of Pure Being as all phenomena. The Ground of Pure Being is ceaselessly becoming the phenomenological Being of all human beings as all human beings. The Ground of Pure Being is ceaselessly becoming the Being of the beings of the world and the Being of the world itself. The master of ontological phenomenology, Martin Heidegger phenomenologically describes this unceasing self- manifestation of Being as beings as Phusis. The Illusionary Appearance of Phenomena This phenomenological ontological understanding is presented In light of the long history of the unfolding of Buddhist teachings and Buddhist understanding about the nature of the illusionary appearance of phenomena and the unreality of phenomena, and the Being-lessness of phenomena. Guatama’s early philosophical teaching directly reflects this limiting and limited philosophical understanding and experience of human phenomena as Beingless. The profoundly existential All Creating Source presents a phenomenological and ontological view of phenomena as having the same actual essence as the Dharmakaya or Ground of Being. The essence of phenomena as well as the essence of our Ground of Being is Pure Luminous Being. The essence of phenomena as well as the essence of the Ground of Pure Being is Pure Presence. The Ground of Being and the Being of Phenomena are luminous Actualities and luminous Realities. In the light of the All Creating Source, phenomenological appearance is not considered to be a mere illusionary display or illusionary experience or Beingless experience. Phenomenological appearance and phenomenological experience reflect the actuality of the self- manifestation of Pure Being as beings. Phenomenologically and ontologically, Being is not simply deep within the form, Being is the form. Being is not simply within me, within my form, I am Being and Beingness is my form. Being both manifest me and Being is within me as me. My form is a manifestation of Being and my form simultaneously both hides and reveals my Being. Actuality of Appearance, Actuality of Phenomena In Contemporary Phenomenology and in Dzogchen the essence of phenomena is the very same essence as the All Creating Source of phenomena which is the Ground of Being. In the context of the All Creative Source, all phenomena are the self- manifestation of the Pure Ground of Being. The phenomenologist Maurice Merleau Ponty in his final book The Visible and the Invisible presents this ontological understanding of Being manifesting beings. This text is Merleau-Ponty’s masterpiece of Phenomenological Ontology. Actually, his text Visible and the Invisible is actually a contemporary manifestation of Dzogchen. I do not mean to imply that Merleau Ponty has studied Dzogchen but rather the path of his articulated form of experiential phenomenological ontology is an elegant form of Dzogchen phenomenology and Dzogchen’s ontological understanding of Being. Actuality of Phenomena The Pure Presence of the Being of All Phenomena is an actuality of existing-ness and not the naïve impression of the unreality of human existing-ness and the distorted experience of human beings being Beinglessness. Early Buddhist thinking presents Human beings as the personification of the Absence of Being, Absent of the Ground of Being. A human is a Beingless entity of Absence. Rather in Dzogchen and Existential Phenomenology, all phenomena are the Self Manifestations of Pure Being. All human beings as well as all animate and inanimate beings are the Self Manifestations of Pure Being. This understanding implies the Divinity of Appearance and that the drama of self- liberation is through our direct lived experience of the Being of Appearance. The Establishment of Appearance as Divine is described by the 11th century Dzogchen Master Rongzom Zanpo in his wonderful book The Establishment of Appearance as Divine. Self- Liberation Does Not Require Dissociative Drama In both Dzogchen and Phenomenology, Self- Liberation does not require our detachment and dissociation from our experience of appearance, from our experience of phenomena, from our experience of our world and from our experience of those we love and adore as well as those we hate. Liberation does not require that we separate from our experience or dissociate from our embodied experience of Being-fulness into a transcendental witness consciousness. Liberation does not require that we separate from our mind, from our awareness, from our sensations, or from our affects, or from our sense of ongoing continuity of self which is our ongoing sense of continuity of Being. Neither do we have to dissociate and separate from our desire. Our desire itself is the self- manifestation of Being. Desire is the creative self- manifestation of Being. Liberation does not require that we dissociate from our body, from our desires nor our bondedness to others. Self- Liberation does not require that we separate from our Primordial Who-ness. Self- liberation does not require that we give up our sense of self, and dissociate from our Beingness as Who-ness. Both Existential Phenomenology and Dzogchen do not experience or reflect the Anatman empty drama of Being-lessness and Who-lessness. The Profound experience of Pure Presence is not the Beingless experience of Absence. Liberation is the unfolding experience of the Bliss of Being and not the Absence of Being-fulness. As the wonderful and beloved Dzogchen Master Lama Tharchin once said how we relate to appearance will orient our path of self- liberation. He would also say the essence of Dzogchen is knowing the Nature of Phenomena. No Essential Difference Between Source and Appearance This is the radically important ontological understanding of the foundational 8 th century Dzogchen text The All Creating Source. There is no essential difference between the Ground of Being and human beings. There is no essential difference between phenomena and the Ground of Being. The ground of Being is the Dharmakaya. The Ground of Being is Source. The Dharmakaya is the Ground of Being. Our experience of appearance is ultimately an opening into the experience of Pure Luminous Being of all phenomena. Phenomenological Appearance is the shining manifestation of the Radiance of Being. This same phenomenological understanding is articulated within Merleau Ponty’s magnificent text The Visible and the Invisible. This understanding is also articulated by existential theologians such as Paul Tillich and many other contemporary existential phenomenological theologians. In theological language Dzogchen opens a natural ontological incarnational philosophy and theology. The phenomenological word Flesh is central to the Merleau- Ponty’s phenomenology of our embodiment of Being. In Dzogchen and within Phenomenology there is little difference between phenomenological ontological philosophy and phenomenological ontological theology. Being reveals itself to us in an infinity of ways and forms. In Existential Phenomenology and in Dzogchen there was and there is no essential difference between the Ground of Being and the Being of Appearance. Moreover, there is no essential difference between the Ground of Being and the vast all Creative Infinity of Being manifesting infinite numbers of phenomenological beings. All phenomena and the Being of all phenomena are the nature of the Ground of Being as Source. This same understanding is articulated by phenomenological philosopher - theologians such as Paul Tillich, and Karl Rahner. All appearances are the nature of the Dharmakaya. All appearances are the nature of the Ground of Being. All appearances are experiential actualities and experiential realities. This Dzogchen understanding brings into view and brings into human experience the Divinity of a a appearance. Through the appearance and experience of phenomena human beings can directly experience the liberating Appearance of Being. The Invisibleness of Being becomes Visible Phenomena. Formlessness becomes Form! Through our experience of phenomena human beings can directly experience the self- liberating experience of Divinity, which Divinity is the Luminous experience of Pure Being. This is expressed explicitly in the 11th century foundational text by great Dzogchen master Rongzom Zangmo called The Establishment of Appearance as Divine. The great contemporary master of philosophical Buddhism, Mirpam who died in 1912 would further deepen the understanding and vast view of Dzogchen as being Pantheistic. By Pantheistic is meant that all Being is Divine and all Being is Profoundly Personal. Personal not as in personality but personal as in the foundation knowing of primordial awareness as Luminous Ontological Who-ness. The Dharmakaya or the Ground of Being is luminous Who-ness that self- manifests as everything and everyone. This Ground of Being is not a being and is not an entity. Nonetheless, the Ground of Being is profound Who-ness, profound consciousness. The ground of the Being as Who-ness is not a psychology of mind phenomena but is ontological knowingness. The Ground of Being is Ontological Primordial Who-ness. Our personal Being is our own singular form of Ontological Primordial Who-ness. Our personality is ontic and our who-ness is profoundly ontological. This ontological who-ness is unborn and undying. This ontological Who-ness is Gnosis, Is Jnana, Is Yeshe. In both Dzogchen and in Existential Phenomenology, Reality is profoundly Personal. The nature of Being is the nature of Consciousness as primordial awareness and the nature of awareness is the nature of Being. The Knowingness of Being is the knowingness of primordial awareness. The knowingness of our awareness is our Being’s Knowing of the Being of beings. The Ground of Being is Divine and all of the self- manifestations are Equally Divine. The Ground of Being is Profound Who-ness. Ground of Being: Phenomenologically and Ontologically Longchenpa utilizes the language of the Ground of Being rather than the ordinary Vajrayana language of Dharmakaya. He does this to emphasize the actuality and the reality of the indivisibleness of the Being of phenomena with the Source of phenomena which is the Ground of Being. The Ground of Being is Source. The self-manifestation of the Pure Ground of Being is the Being of Phenomena. Beings and the Ground of Being are in non- dual oneness and in the non- dual sameness within the essential nature of Being. There is no difference between the essence of phenomena and the essence of Creative Pure Being. There is no essential difference between source and phenomenological appearance manifested by and through Source. All Phenomena are the self- manifestation of Pure Ground of Being. All phenomena are Pure Being which Pure Being is self- manifesting in phenomenological forms as forms of phenomenological Being. Pure Being self- manifest as your form and my form, as my being and your being. The Who-ness of Pure Being manifest as the Who-ness of your own Being. A Way into Pure Being is Through Your Own Who-ness The Presencing of Being is the Luminous Presence within and as all beings. The essence of the Presencing of Being and the Presence of all beings is in essence the same nature of Pure Being within, and as all beings. In the most profound understanding of both Dzogchen and Phenomenological Ontology, there is only One Presence as there is Only One Being. All Being and the Appearance of Being is the phenomenological manifestation of the Divinity of the Oneness of Pure Being. The great foundational Dzogchen text the All Creating Source implies that all Being and Being of awareness is Who-ness. All reality is Personal. All Reality is Equally Personal as Pure Being, Pure Knowingness and Pure Who-ness. The Being of all beings is pure non dualistic knowingness as Who-ness. This Who-ness is the knower of Being. This Who-ness is the Being of Primordial Awareness as Who-ness. This Who-ness is not a personality. This Who-ness is not an entity, This Who-ness is the Ground of Being as Primordial Awareness embodied in all human beings. This Whoness is within ‘you as you’. The Who-ness is within all human beings as the Purity of their Being, just as they are. A doorway into the Purity of Being is through our own innermost Who-ness. Self- Liberation as Equality Consciousness The Medieval Theologian Duns Scotus described the Equality of the Being of beings as Univocity. In the Dzogchen tradition self- liberation is not the realization of omnipotence or omniscience as some patriarchal eastern and western religious traditions love to think or dream up. In Dzogchen selfliberation reflects the luminous realization of our luminous experience of Equality Consciousness. Equality Consciousness and Equal vision is the experience of the sameness and oneness of the Being of all beings. Univocity and Equal Vision and Equality Consciousness are the languaging of the experience of sameness and oneness of all beings as Pure Being. Duns Scotus the great medieval theologian advocated this ontological understanding of equality consciousness as Equal Vision. There is no hierarchy of Being as beings in both the Dzogchen tradition and within the Existential Phenomenological Ontological tradition. Being by analogy as expressed by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, does not exist. Being by analogy is a hierarchal and a patriarchal framing of Being. Being by analogy is also an ontological reflection of the relentless political and cultural framing of the Caste system within philosophical forms of Patriarchal Ontological Hierarchy. The Patriarchal Ontological Hierarchical View of Karmic Causality Dzogchen and existential phenomenology deconstruct the patriarchal view of concrete operational karmic causality that is often expressed in eastern philosophical and religious traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. The patriarchal religious hierarchal view often presents a deterministic view of karmic ontological causality. If you are poor and suffering within the cultural position of eternal poverty, you karmically deserve this wretched position because you were “BAD” in your past life. This life of poverty and suffering reflects your karmic results of you own personal actions. You caused this result in this life from your action in your past life. Of course, how can karmic continuity be life after life as within Buddhism you are totally temporary as non-self. Non self or absence of self reflects the foundational Buddhist understanding of Anatman which is the emptiness of non -self and the corresponding absence of Beingness of our illusionary self. This means there is no actuality of you as self, and there is no continuity of you as self, and there is no continuity of being-ness of self, since there is no beingness of self to start off with. In Buddhism there is only Absence of self and absence of Beingness of self. You are an illusion. You are only a temporary-illusionary phenomena lacking actual Being since you are a Being-less-ness illusion. When you die you are a goner and your “karma” does not go with you since there was no you to go with, and there is no you in the future. There is no real or actual you in Buddhism. You are a temporary illusion or least some people would have you to think that way about your existential Being in this world. This is a distorted view of lived experience and creates a sense of “As If “reality. In this beingless and non- self-context, the Karmic cause and Karmic effect ontological drama continuing life after life makes no sense whatsoever and has no meaning whatsoever. This ongoing continuity of Causal karma of self is simply phantasmagoria in a non- self-context or Anatman context. This belief in karmic cause and karmic effect from life to life and death to death creates a profound and dark experience of having a deterministic destiny which locks our present lived experience into ontological lock and ontological fixated-ness. In the absolute karmic causal-context there is no spontaneous events of human experience. All of our current lived experience is determined by our Karmic causality in the light of our past life lived experience. This causal karmic view and karmic causal understanding lack’s a realistic sense of reality in the Buddhist context of Anatman assumption. There is no actual self that actually experiences karmic causality and causal effect within Buddhism. The Anatman view which is so foundational in Buddhism challenges karmic causality and karmic effect since there is no continuity of self, life after life and death after death. Karmic causality and karmic effect is illusionary just as our primordial sense of self is illusionary and delusionary in Buddhism. Karmic causality and Karmic effect cannot exist without a self who is the experiences the karmic causality and karmic effects. This is why the Buddhist emphasis that ethical experience be understood in the light of Karma is distorted. There is no self of self-agency in Buddhism. The world and human experience is completely and absolutely deterministic. Moreover, for traditions such as Hinduism as well as Buddhism, this ever present dramatic and traumatic understanding of the absolute karmic assumption and karmic experience of reality both reflects and brings forth explicitly the political-religious experience of Patriarchal Domination in Buddhism and in Hinduism. The concretized karmic philosophical view is that there is a one-to- one relationship between karmic cause and karmic effect. This view of our pass karma is karma completely dominating and causing our current lived experience of our life. Our pass karma predicting and causing the events of our current lived experience results in our tragic deterministic framing of our personal life, the deterministic framing of our cultural political life and the deterministic framing of our spiritual religious life. Even Love is deterministic. This deterministic karmic causal framing of our lived experience can dominate and even destroy our innate vital experience of our experiential self- manifestation, and destroy and dominate our experiential power of self- determination. The belief in karmic causality can destroy and dominate our sense of our experiential selfagency. Again, we see the master slave relationship and Karma is the master. This karmic absolute deterministic framing of our lived experience brings forth the experience of profound helplessness and profound hopelessness in regards to our own self determination and the self- manifestation of our own Being. Our lived experience of the karmic theocratic political domination results deeply and profoundly in the lack of our sense of personal self- agency and collective sense of self based on Equality Consciousness and Equal Vision. The ontological power of self- manifestation is directly and completed related to our power of selfliberation. The profound ever-present innate and intrinsic freedom of selfliberation becomes contained and contaminated by Patriarchal Hierarchal Theocratic traditions of The One Who Knows Absolutely. The Knower of the One Who Knows Absolutely can be a single person, or collective institutional or a collective body politic. Human Beings easily believe that they must find the One Who Knows who can provide a salvific experience within their desire for self -liberation. The theocratic political domination of the union of Royalty and Spirituality is ritualistically played out within religious hierarchal traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism and Christianity. The hierarchal patriarchal union of Royalty and Spirituality is manifested in Patriarchal Religious and Spiritual leadership. Being the Patriarchal One Who Knows absolutely is a dramatic manifestation of the theocratic union of royalty and spirituality. The union of the Theocratic Hierarchal personal status can bring forth a devotional version of the master slave relationship. This devotional version of the master slave relations is to be found in many forms of human collectives: cultural, political, religious and spiritual groups. The Distortion of Karmic Causality Many religious hierarchal traditions such as Buddhism and Hinduism have suffered from this deterministic view of the concretization of karmic causality. Karmic causality is a concretized understanding of causality that seems to be ontological but actually lack’s ontological actuality. Our contemporary philosophical understanding of the infinite complexity of multidimensional causality does not support the karmic framing of causality life after life and death after death. This does mean that we do not live life after life and death after death. This does not mean that our own awareness and the Being of our awareness is not unborn and undying. The focus here is the distortion of Deterministic Karmic Causality on our lived experience of self- liberation and self-manifestation of our Being in the world. Existential Dzogchen as well as Phenomenological Ontology challenges the deterministic concrete operational view of the relationship of karmic cause to karmic effect. This concrete operational thinking of the one- toone cause and effect thinking is described by Jean Piaget the great cognitive developmental psychologist, as the developmental cognitive thinking style of a latency age child. Philosophical Buddhism and Philosophical Hinduism when focusing on ethical experience often directly focus on this deterministic concrete operational cognitive thinking style of karmic cause and resultant karmic effect. This simply says you do good and you get good. You do bad and you get the bad. This is simply not true. The goodness of people does not protect them from terrible suffering. Goodness alone does not protect us. You may have noticed this terrible truth. And, being “bad” does not mean you are going to suffer because of your badness. You may have noticed this truth. Does badness make you unhappy? Does badness have its own Bliss? Both Dzogchen and Phenomenological Ontology focus on the creative unfolding of primordial Being’s spontaneous self- manifestation of events and self- manifesting as timeless awareness in time and within time. This is an ontological source of self- liberation. Spontaneous Manifestation The phenomenology of spontaneous manifestation reflects both the Dzogchen and Phenomenological Ontological view of the Creative and spontaneous manifestation of our ontological Being. This focus on creative manifestation of Being and the drama of human beings is the focus of the great foundational Dzogchen text The All Creating Source that was described in the beginning of this paper. This ontological view of our Ground of Being ‘s spontaneous creativity of self- manifestation goes far beyond the concretized view of immediate one to one karmic cause and karmic effect and absolute karmic determination of our lived experience. This limited and limiting view of causal determination cannot hold or understand or experientially know the power and complete immediate vastness of the power of ontological self- manifestation. The view of causal determination is a mind alone understanding. The view of self- manifestation is an ontological perception of primordial self- manifestation of the field of Being and reflects the direct perception and direct knowing of awareness which is wisdom gnosis. This limited and limiting view of causality is mind alone knowing and reflecting a mental, concrete viewing of reality and phenomena. The limited and limiting view of karmic determination of our lived experience leaves no room or space for self- liberation whatever the lived experiential context of our life. In the relentless framing of Absolute Karmic causality our self- liberation will seem to become more and more dependent upon the One Who Knows Absolutely. There is this dramatic devotional dependency on the Patriarchal Person that arises in the Patriarchal Culture and Patriarchal Tradition of the Person or People ‘Who Knows Absolutely’. Human beings seem to love the delusion of omniscience and omnipotence. The existential phenomenological view of ontological manifestation as articulated by ontological phenomenologist such as Heidegger, Merleau Ponty and Jean Luc Marion expresses the infinite complexity of the multidimensionality of primordial Being. This multidimensional Being brings forth the mysterious convergence of the infinity of Being’s selfmanifestations of the liberating experience of the event of Being and our direct experiencing of the event of self- liberation. The profound experience of the primordial manifestation of Being becoming persons is not bound whatsoever by the illusion and delusion of Karmic Causality. There is neither phenomenological evidence or scientific evidence of such a phantasm as causal karmic reality going beyond death and birth. The concrete causal karmic reality view has not the breathe and depth of the wisdom knowing of Spontaneous Self Manifestation of Being of beings and the actions of beings. Self- liberation is not a function of Karmic Causality. Self- liberation is the drama and the personal experience of personal Self- Liberation just as we are. Self- liberation is not a deterministic event. Self- liberation is a noncausal event by nature. Causality and self- manifestation are not the same actuality. The experience of becoming self-liberated is in fact the drama of self- manifestation of the Beingness of our own Being which is Being itself. As Dudjom Rinpoche says please take the “power into your own hands” Lacanian Thought About Patriarchal Domination For Lacan the determinate causal karmic view reflects the experience and projection of our primitive patriarchal phallic superego structure that often dominates our human experience of Beingness and our own in- depth experience of and our primordial symbolic archetypal structuring of our consciousness. Jacques Lacan was the great French Psychoanalyst of The Symbolic Unconscious. Lacan elaborated how our human superego structure reflects both our internalized personal history and also reflects simultaneously the patriarchal symbolic archetypal structuring of psychological experience. This archetypal structuring and personal history become culturally the vehicle and psychological source of our archetypal experience of a Patriarchal God and or Patriarchal Phallic Father God and or the Patriarchal Master God and or the Patriarchal Eternal Judgement God. This patriarchal symbolic archetypal structure configurates our personal superego of patriarchal sadistic judgmental-ness, and also configurates our symbolic experience of social cultural patriarchal caste system. Symbolically and existentially the patriarchal archetypal symbolic realm brings forth our personal desire for the archetypal patriarchal figure of the One Who Knows Absolutely, and thus invokes the devotional master slave relationship. These dynamic forces of the symbolic archetypal unconscious bring forth the hierarchal caste system that dominates so much of human life. The karmic ethical view of the karmic cause and the karmic effect completely supports and requires the patriarchal religious and patriarchal political domination of culture. Beyond the Patriarchal Superego The Pure Being of the Being of beings is beyond right and wrong, good and evil, better and best and truth and falsity. The contemporary French philosopher Deleuze and the Jewish philosopher Spinosa also elaborates the Univocity of Being within the context of the immanence of Being within the experience that all beings are Pure Being. In Existential Phenomenology and in Dzogchen the truth of Being is Univocity or the sameness and oneness of Being. To experience the truth of the oneness of Being is self- liberation through Equal Vision and Equality consciousness. The truth of Being is the truth of the lived experience of our own Being as Primordial Awareness. Or as the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa “You and I are indivisible”. Our experience of self- liberation is the experience of dualistic phenomena within our experience of our nondualistic experience of the oneness of Being and the corresponding experience of our non- duality of Being within our experience of dualistic phenomena. As the Dakini said to Dudjom Lingpa “You and I are Indivisible.” There is the liberating simultaneous experience of dualistic phenomena and within our experience of non- dualistic Being. Lived Experience and Direct Knowing In Dzogchen and in Phenomenology, the ontological truth of lived experience is not a function of our patriarchal superego which structure reflects our internalization of family systems and our experience of the primordial Archetypal Symbolic Realm of the Master Slave Relationship. Our emphasis is on our direct experiential knowing and our direct perception of the ethos of the ontological situation of the field of Being. The experience of direct knowing and direct perception is the view of gnosis and jnana that opens for us and reveals for us, and to us, the ethos of situations rather than our relentless dependency on our mentalistic judgement of our super ego of our mind being the source of our ethical action. Our direct non- conceptual knowingness of our mind awareness union perceiving the essence and nature of the situation and the Being of the situation as our source of direct knowing and direct discernment of the ethos of our lived situation. Our direct knowing of our awareness knows The Being of the situation manifesting the ethos of the event of situation. Truth As Alethea Both Dzogchen and Phenomenology focus on ontological truth not as judgmental drama of our mind but the self- revelation of the Luminosity of Being and the Radiance of Presence of Being within our ontological field of awareness. Phenomenology reflects the experience and understanding of the unveiling of what is hidden. The nature of Being is both concealing and revealing experientially. In this context the path of self- liberation is the path of our unfolding experience of our life events and life circumstances experienced within our field of Luminous Awareness as Luminous Beingness. The truth of Being is our foundational experience of our Timeless Awareness manifesting in time. The Phenomenological Guru The Guru is The Essential Illuminative Nature of Our Field of Awareness. In Dzogchen the Guru is not a Patriarchal person but the power of Being’s self- revelation of its nature to and within all beings. Phenomenologically, the Guru is the Logos of Greek philosophy and early Christian Gnosticism. The Guru is the phenomenological, ontological process of the self- manifestation and self- revelation of the truth of Being by and within beings. This process is within all beings and not the singular possession of any one person. The power of Patriarchal Archetypal Leadership as a singular Person brings forth the context that Hegel describes as The One Who Knows Absolutely. This Being the One who knows absolutely is the Superior position of Salvific domination and easily invokes the eternal Master Slave relationship. This is the illusion of self- liberation through domination and through total obedience and submission. This is the devotional configuration of the master slave relationship. In truth the Guru is within everyone and anyone. The Guru is the unfolding process of self- liberation as self- illumination. The Guru is not a singular person. The Guru is the very nature of our ontological field of awareness, the ontological field of our Being. The Guru is the luminous self- revelation of Being within beings. The Guru is the inner essence of our own Being, the Guru is our own innermost who-ness. The Guru is our innermost wisdom and inner guide of our innate primordial awareness. The Guru is wisdom gnosis. The Archetypal Dimension of Being as Guru Archetypal Psychology reveals the Archetype of Guru as the Logos, as the Process of Self Revelation of Pure Being, Pure Gnosis, Pure Jnana, Pure Yeshe. The Guru is the Pure Direct Knowing of Being within all Human Beings! The Patriarchal Archetype is the Archetypal Patriarchal ‘One who Knows Absolutely’ and who Dominates by obedience and submission. The two archetypal configurations are not at all the same. In-fact these two different archetypal configurations are in profound Existential opposition. The Relentless Archetypal Merging of Guru Archetype and Patriarchal Archetype Sadly, and without wisdom many western and eastern spiritual and religious traditions join and merge these two archetypal dimensions to increase institutional power. In Dzogchen this archetypal merging is Ma Rigpa. Ma Rigpa means Ignorance and lack of Wisdom Gnosis. This Archetypal merging causes vast suffering and vast stupidity. This merging rather than invoking self- liberation brings forth the continuation of spiritual slavery and the endless master slave relationship that human beings suffer endlessly. Many religious people suffer the devotional master slave relationship even with their God. Dzogchen Is Non-Patriarchal and Non- Hierarchal The Dzogchen experience as expressed in the 8th Century text The All Creating Source is in essence non- Patriarchal. Dzogchen frees itself and continuously frees practitioners from the endless and relentlessly Institutional and Patriarchal domination of human experience. Patriarchal domination hides the truth of Being and the reality of the immanence of Being within all beings and as all beings. Patriarchal domination usurps the essential self- agency of self- liberation. Patriarchal domination usurps the nature of the Guru as the power of the human being’s personal selfrevelation of Being. The Patriarchal tradition and Patriarchal Institutionalization is an obscuration of the nature of Being and the nature of Self liberation as Equality consciousness and Equal Vision. Self- liberation is neither omniscience or omnipotence. Omniscience and omnipotence is a grandiose aspiration that contaminates our human experience of equality consciousness and equal vision. The aspiration of omniscience and omnipotence distorts our aspiration for Self-Liberation. The presentation of the Guru being a person who is both omnipotent and omniscient is sadly another form of human grandiose aspiration and human ignorance. Being a great and holy person does not require omnipotence or omniscience. Being a great and holy person requires Equal Vision and Equality Consciousness. The Phenomenology of Spirit: A Phenomenological Study of Domination This One Who Knows Absolutely is simply the endless grandiose human aspiration of omnipotence and omniscience. Hegel’s phenomenological view is expressed in his masterful phenomenological work The Phenomenology of Spirit. In Hegel’s wonderful phenomenological text, the Phenomenology of Spirit he describes how the human aspiration of omnipotence and omniscience is support for our aspiration of salvific Patriarchal Domination. Dzogchen is continuously freeing persons from the Patriarchal illusion of omnipotence and omniscience and the domination of the One who knows Absolutely. Patriarchal Illusion and Domination Religious Patriarchal illusion and domination usurps the self- agency of the followers of the One Who Knows Absolutely and brings forth the devotional master slave relationship. Both Phenomenology and Dzogchen emphasize the experience of ontological self- agency and the experience of ontological self- manifestation reflecting the essential power of self- liberation. As Dudjom Rinpoche says in his beautiful text Calling the Lama from afar. “Please take the power of invocation into you own hand”. In this metaphor He is saying take the power of self- liberation into your own self- agency and self- manifestation. Patriarchal Infallibility Is illusion both within Dzogchen and within the existential phenomenological understanding of human beingness. In the realm of Patriarchal Absolute Knowing and would be omniscience and omnipotence, there is the corresponding injunction that outside of this tradition or this “church” or this “culture” or this “group” there is no salvation. This understanding is of course arrogant, omnipotent and an unending distorted form of human grandiosity and sadistic love of political domination. Papal infallibility is an excellent example of this distorted form of Leadership. Self -Liberation In Dzogchen and in Existential Phenomenology, Self- liberation is not the attaining of omniscience nor omnipotence. Self-liberation is the experience of Equal Vision and Equality Consciousness of profound ontological Whoness. Our direct experiencing of Being is the experience of Una Voce. The Being of all beings is Pure Who-ness. The Being of all beings are in oneness and are indivisible as the non- duality of Pure Who-ness. To Become Being is self- liberation of becoming who we are. The Existential Phenomenological and Dzogchen Transition from Transcendence to Immanence The 8th century moment of the All Creating Source reflected the Creative Dzogchen’s phenomenological transition from the dissociative methodology of rationalistic transcendental philosophy into an embodied immanent phenomenological ontology of Pure Being. Pure Being becomes all beings and Pure Being becomes all phenomena. Pure Being and the Being of all phenomena are of the same essence, the same nature. The Pure Being of all beings are of the same essence and same nature. Pure Being and all beings are within the essential oneness of the same nature. Ultimately there is only Being who self- manifests as many, infinite beings of Being. Pure Being itself is not a being. During the 8th and 9th century Cei in India, in Tibet and in Persia, there was a transformation within eastern philosophical traditions from being foundationally an aesthetic experience of deprivation and detachment within the solipsistic transcendental context, to the natural phenomenological mysticism of the embodiment of the immanence of Pure Luminous Being ‘just as we all are’. There is a beautiful Nyingma prayer: “May I experience all phenomena as the dharmakaya”. There is no difference between the manifesting and the manifested. There is no difference between the manifesting source and the manifested phenomena. There is no separateness between source and phenomena. To experience this oneness is to experience self- liberation. Absence of Hierarchy Within Dzogchen and Phenomenology There is the absence of ontological hierarchy within this phenomenological ontology of the Divinity of Being as all phenomena are the Divinity of Being. Our phenomenological ontological world is the Divinity of Being as World Being. All Cosmological manifestations are the appearance and self- manifestation of the Divinity of Pure Being. Patriarchal traditions are essentially hierarchal both socially and ontologically. Patriarchal traditions are often reflected in the transcendental philosophical context. Traditions reflecting the immanence of Being are non- dualistic and reflect Equality Consciousness and Equal Vision. Traditions of immanence deconstruct transcendental hierarchal states of Being and the hierarchal states of beings. Traditions of immanence deconstruct Patriarchal Traditions of the One who knows absolutely and the corresponding master slave relationship which is often presented as liberation through obedience and submission. Continental phenomenology and Dzogchen both reflect the unfolding Field of Being as the spontaneous realm of Immanence and Equality Consciousness. THE CONTEMPORARY NARRATIVE OF CONTINENTAL PHENOMENOLOGY The contemporary narrative of Continental Existential Phenomenology is a story that begins with Professor Brentano teaching Husserl and Freud at the University of Vienna in the early 20th century. Brentano taught both Husserl and Freud that our mind is not a physical form and that our mind as psyche may not be seen as a form and our lived experience of mind can be experienced directly and immediately in formlessness. Our mind is not a thing, our mind is no thingness. This no thingness does not mean our mind does not exist. Our mind is formlessness and cannot be seen but nonetheless can be experienced. This psychic reality of mind as formless and form influenced both Freud and Husserl in their experiential phenomenology of mind. Form and Formlessness Brentano elaborates how many unfortunately think the mind does not exist or the self does not exist because if you focus within yourself, you may not find the form of mind and you may not find a visible form of the self. Many equate formlessness as nothingness or as non- existent. This is the tragic assumption of concrete minds and concrete philosophies. Such a tragic assumption forecloses the experience of psyche and forecloses the direct experience of Being and the direct experience of our inner most self. Again our mind knows forms and our awareness directly knows Being, formless Being as well as the Being of forms. Our sense of our own Being is our sense of our self. Concreteness With such a limiting and concrete thinking prejudice, there is a concrete foreclosure of range and depth of human experience. Within such foreclosure of lived experience, there will naturally arise the existential conclusion that all life is suffering. This is what Dzogchen describes as Ma Rigpa—profound ignorance. This ignorance of the nature of Being has at times dominated many traditions within eastern philosophy including early Buddhism. Pure Being is formless and actual and Pure Being is self - manifesting the form of all beings as their own Being and their own self manifestation of Being. We participate in the manifestation of Being and the transmission of the field of Being. Being is manifesting us as beings and we beings are participating in manifesting Being. Husserl and Intuitive Knowing of Essence of Phenomena Husserl began his studies of the experience of our minds by illuminating the mind’s direct intuitive perception of the essence of phenomena. Husserl’s study of this intuitive knowing of the essence of phenomena took place within the context of his study of Transcendental Phenomenology and Transcendental Consciousness. Over time he studied our intuitive knowing and intuitive experience of Transcendental Pure Consciousness. As Husserl would often say “What is the wonder of all wonders! Pure Consciousness and the Doorway is our own subjectivity.” Husserl experienced and studied experientially our direct perception of the essence of phenomena through our mind’s perception. Phenomenological Ontology Within a relatively brief time period in the unfolding of the historical context of continental phenomenology, transcendental phenomenology transformed and evolved into a Phenomenological Ontology as articulated by Husserl’s brilliant student Martin Heidegger and the French philosopher Maurice Merleau Ponty. Also, two other students of Husserl played a significant role in this “Ontologization” of our human knowingness as innate primordial awareness. In Heideggerian phenomenology our awareness is called Da Sein which is our knowingness knowing Being experientially and nonconceptually. Eugene Fink and Edith Stein both assistants of Husserl participated in this bringing forth the phenomenological ontology of the Person. The Who-ness of Being is the Who-ness of Person. This Who-ness is profoundly ontological and not simply psychological. Merleau Ponty studied Husserl unpublished works which were contained at The University of Louvain (Leuven) and which were later expressions of Husserl’s phenomenology of the embodied intersubjective view of philosophical immanence. These unpublished papers of Husserl reflected a phenomenology of the embodiment of awareness, as well as an intensely relational view of consciousness. The relational view of consciousness was expressive of phenomenological immanence and phenomenological oneness within the non -duality of Being within all beings. Embodied Experience of Being In Husserl’s later unpublished works, Husserl went beyond transcendental witness consciousness and the Luminous process of dissolving of witness consciousness into Pure Consciousness. Husserl’s later phenomenological study focused on the relational embodied experience of embodied Being within human beings and between human beings. In his later unpublished work Husserl integrated the actuality of the experience of Immanence within the realm of Transcendence Praxis. Historically, over endless centuries, the many forms and various traditions of transcendental eastern philosophy have manifested and have spread throughout the world. Transcendental philosophy presented many and various views of transcendental contemplation and transcendental experience and transcendental philosophical understanding over the world and over many centuries. In essence transcendental philosophy attempts to go beyond experience, go beyond phenomena, go beyond embodiment and going beyond witness consciousness and considers reality to be only Pure Transcendental Being. Everything else is illusion or delusion. There is only Pure Consciousness disembodied from phenomena. This transcendental experience can be a form of solipsistic self- liberation. From Transcendental Detachment to Phenomenological Embodiment This phenomenological embodiment of Experience is primarily the embodiment of experiential awareness. The embodiment of the field of awareness is also the embodiment of the spaciousness of awareness, and the embodiment of the vital energy of awareness and the embodiment of trans-lucidity of awareness within our own embodied form of Being. The embodiment of our awareness is our embodied presence of Being. There follows the completion of our embodiment through our embodiment of our mind, our embodiment of our thinking, our embodiment of our feeling, our embodiment of our sensation, and of embodiment of our memory, and the embodiment of the power of our imaginative view of multidimensional Being. This same transition from transcendental detachment to phenomenological embodiment took place in Tibetan Buddhism were there was the transition from the tradition of transcendental philosophy to the embodiment of Being of Dzogchen. Embodiment of Being Within our sense of embodied awareness is our sense of embodied Beingness. This sense of embodiment is neither concrete like nor dense and heavy and neither a congealed experience. Neither is this embodiment ethereal or abstract or airy. This embodiment of Being is within our human grounded-ness and within our human Beingness ‘just as we are’. This embodiment brings forth gnosis and jnana and the union of mind and awareness. This embodiment of Being reflects the experiential union of Phenomena and Being= Phenomenological Being. Phenomena are now the experiential doorway into Luminous Being. The Dissociative Experience Within Transcendental Praxis Transcendental philosophy is dissociative in its detachment methodology. This foundational detachment process brings forth a dissociative understanding of relationship between phenomena and consciousness. This dissociative understanding invalidates the actuality and reality of phenomena. This dissociative view invalidates the Purity of the Being of Phenomena. This unhappy dissociative view invalidates the non -duality of Being within the duality of phenomenological forms. This dissociative view invalidates the experience of the profound oneness which is simultaneously within the profound differences of phenomenological appearance. The Transcendental View is constricted and constricting of our experience of Being and Being’s self- manifestations as all phenomena and as all beings. The Transcendental View is confused and confusing about the embodiment of Being and the Radiance of Being and the Purity of Being within all phenomenological beings as phenomenological Being. The transcendental view is a distortion of our lived experience of Being in the world. The transcendental view distorts the validity and the divinity of appearance and the divinity of our direct experience of the Being of phenomena. The transcendental view is fearful of phenomena. The transcendental view ultimately thinks that you must transcend phenomena in order to experience pure awareness, pure Being. Transcendental philosophy is influenced by early forms of gnostic thinking that saw phenomena as obscuring Being since phenomena reflected the creation of a demiurge. Transcendental experience does not experience phenomenological being as of the same essence as source and as an opening of Being to experience the Being of the being. Dzogchen is phenomenological in method and phenomenological in view and phenomenological in the praxis of experiential self- liberation. The interface between Dzogchen and Phenomenology reflects the intrinsic relatedness between these two traditions of experiential wisdom. Continental Phenomenology reflects Dzogchen in its ontological vision the oneness of Being and phenomena, the oneness of Being and awareness, the multidimensionality of Being and the multidimensionality of awareness. The experiential methodology of Dzogchen reflects the experiential methodology of Phenomenology which is the direct experience of the lived experience of our Being in the World. Transitional Space and Time Historically, during 8th century Tibet there was this amazing movement away from detachment and dissociative methodology of self- liberation through experiential transcendence. There was an unfolding of luminous self- liberation through our human embodied experience of the innate immanence of Being within us and within all beings. Dzogchen and Contemporary Phenomenology Go Beyond Dissociative Transcendence Both phenomenological and Dzogchen methodology are grounded in the direct non conceptual pre-reflective knowing of Being and the direct embodiment of Luminous Being through the phenomenological circumstances and phenomenological events of life, just as it is and just as we are. Both Dzogchen and phenomenology are grounded within the lived experience of human beings, and within the multidimensionality of our lived experience both of phenomena and the Being of the phenomena. Thus, the path of self- liberation becomes the events and circumstances of our lived experience. Religious Ritual is useful and yet ritual is not the essential element of the drama of self- liberation in the Heart Essence Tradition. Dzogchen and Phenomenology emphasize the lived experience of phenomena as the lived experience of Being itself. Phenomenological Ontology and The Drama of Experiential Innate Immanence In 8th century Tibet the Dzogchen experience of phenomenological and experiential innate immanence began to manifest as a phenomenological ontology which opened up for everyone the natural experience of experiential self -liberation through the direct non conceptual knowing of Pure Being and the direct knowing the Pure Being of Forms, the Pure Being of Phenomena, the Pure Being of Presence and the Pure Being of lived experience. This experience of the Pure Being of forms is both within us and is surrounding us, and is us, and is the world sustaining and containing us. This Trans-lucidity of Pure Being is the Pure Being of everyone and everything and everywhere. The Pure Being of forms is the Pure Being of Phenomena. Through our direct luminous non- dualistic experience of phenomenological forms as the appearance and the manifestation of the light of Pure Being, our self - liberation naturally happens. Dzogchen naturally self-manifested as our phenomenological direct knowing experience of Pure Being and Pure Being’s self- manifestation as our own Being and as the Being of all beings. Dzogchen is the path of our experience of self- liberation through our natural dramatic experiencing of Being within the Phenomena of all beings as Pure Being. We are liberated through our direct translucid experience of phenomenological Being within all beings as all beings including that of our own Being. This phenomenological ontological understanding and corresponding existential praxis manifested within Dzogchen’s meditative awareness tradition in 8th century Tibet. A similar existential manifestation of a phenomenological ontological understanding that arose during this time period of the 8th and 9th century was Kashmir Shavism in Kashmir, India. Abinavagupta was the great master of Kashmir Shavism and the master of a living phenomenology of the Luminous Being of beings. A similar manifestation of a phenomenology of the luminous Being of beings also took place a bit later in time within the Sufi tradition of Ibn Arabi in Andalusia and Suhrawardi in Persia. Herbert Guenther and the Integration of Continental Phenomenology within Dzogchen Herbert Guenther was a great contemporary scholar and translator of Tibetan Buddhism and Dzogchen. Guenther was also a scholar of Continental Phenomenology. Guenther was a translator of Tibetan text and he often translated Dzogchen texts in light of Continental Phenomenology. Herbert Gunther also described how there was a profound existential influence by the early Gnostic Christian traditions of Luminosity and Translucidity on and within the early Tibetan Dzogchen Tradition. He thought Early Christian Gnostic traditions influenced the Dzogchen experience of the Ground of Being as Luminous Light. Herbert Guenther brilliantly integrated contemporary phenomenology within the phenomenological existential text of Dzogchen. Herbert Guenther was a master of comparative thinking and comparative philosophical thought. He understood how there was a natural interface of Dzogchen and Contemporary Phenomenology. All Phenomena are the Dharmakaya, All Phenomena are the Ground of Being The great Nyingma Dzogchen prayer declares “May we experience all phenomena as the Dharmakaya”. This invocation is saying, “May we experience the immanence of primordial Being within our own Being, and within the immanence of the Pure Being of all phenomena, and within all phenomena.” This is self- liberation through immanence. Immanence is liberation through equal vision and equality consciousness of all phenomenological beings as Pure Being. All phenomena are the expression and self- manifestation of Pure Being, Pure Presence. Actually, there is only One Pervasive Presence infinite in its horizons and vast and multidimensional. No One Culture or No One Religious Tradition Owns Dzogchen Namkai Norbu the great Contemporary Tibetan master of Dzogchen would so often say Dzogchen does not belong to any one religion, or any one culture. No one owns Dzogchen. Dzogchen does not belong to Tibet or Buddhism. The Dzogchen understanding is found in many different traditions and cultures. Dzogchen is not a religion. Dzogchen is a phenomenological ontological praxis. As was described earlier, Herbert Gunther consistently indicated how Dzogchen has an intimate relationship to the early Christian gnostic tradition of Light and the Luminous Trans-lucidity embodied within human beings as human Being. Herbert Gunther also consistently expressed and articulated Dzogchen in the experiential language of contemporary phenomenology. He often illuminated Dzogchen teaching in light of the phenomenology of Heidegger and the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau Ponty. Gunther’s comparative thinking and comparative understanding illuminated Dzogchen’s freedom from early Buddhism’s philosophical Anatman assumptions and the Patriarchal preoccupation of the One Who Knows Absolutely. Herbert Gunther spoke to and taught the intimate interface of Dzogchen and Phenomenology. Gunther presented Dzogchen as an Existential Phenomenological Philosophy. Dzogchen focuses on the lived experience of becoming aware of awareness and living within the field of Being which is the medium of self- liberation. No One Own’s Phenomenological Understanding and Phenomenological Thinking No one owns phenomenology and phenomenology does not belong to any one culture or any one time or any one person. Although occasionally grandiosity does possess here and there a would be illuminated professor who believes they are the one who only truly knows phenomenology. Of course, there are many forms and traditions of phenomenology just as there are many forms and traditions of Existential Dzogchen. Patriarchal Dogmatism destroys the actuality of the phenomenological experience as the source of self- revelation. Dogmatism transforms the experiential articulation of lived experience into a concrete belief system of ideational acceptance. Direct experiential knowing of our lived experience of Being is the path of self- liberation in both Dzogchen and Contemporary Phenomenology. End of Part 1 Rudolph Bauer, PhD Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, A.B.P.P. Washington Center for Consciousness Studies and The Washington Center of Phenomenological and Existential Psychotherapy References Bauer, R. The Absence of Self: An Existential Phenomenological View of the Anatman Experience. The Journal Philosophical Investigations, Vol. 13. Issue 28. Fall 2019. Bauer, R. 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