I want to point out that devotion is not really necessary in Dzogchen - it's not so important. My feeling is that for many it also arises as an obstacle. In the sense that a boost of devotion and faith are deemed necessary - well then that would definitely be an obstacle in terms of Dzogchen.Yontan wrote:I guess I'll offer something germane to the OP. I am sure most of us who practice with any dedication for a few years will have some dream experiences, and it can be very difficult to suss out what is wisdom and what is mind. I've had a number of dream experiences that - mind or not - have given me a very real and needed boost of devotion and faith, inspiration.
Why would devotion be an obstacle? It should be seen as a good thing right? Well when you have devotion to the form of the guru you are missing the point of the transmission. You have been caught up in a dualistic fixation that serves no purpose except to keep you spinning. I see a lot of this type of spinning and I have to say that all the teachers I've met care little for it.
Here is a quote from Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso on this subject:
''If one takes the guru's form or the guru's voice to be the guru, one has not seen the ultimate, genuine guru, which is the dharmakaya.'' and further ''The enlightened mind of the guru is ultimately the mandala of dharmakaya, the mandala of mahamudra. One needs to understand and to have confidence in that. The next step is to recognize that the guru's enlightened mind and the abiding nature of one's own mind cannot be separated; they are identical.''
As well as this Namkhai Norbu says: ''In the Dzogchen teaching it is not sufficient to have great devotion.'' and ''Devotion is not the most important thing in the Dzogchen teaching.''
This is not to say that it is wrong to have devotion but instead of furthering an understanding of integration it can be an obstacle to integration. One gets stuck in the dualism of teacher/student and spins around in the 'Dzogchen waiting room' so to speak. Namkhai Norbu always says that in Dzogchen the most important point is to understand your real nature and to work with your experiences. Working with experiences is the inspiration and where the teacher is. It's there all the time.