Observe the point of view within yourself

— Namkai Norbu Rinpoche

My teacher said to me, "If you really want to have knowledge of Dzogchen teaching, you must observe the point of view within yourself." The principle is not that you are judging, thinking and doing analyses of different schools or traditions. If you do analyses in that way you will never finish. But if you observe yourself, you can discover your real nature. In this case we can quote the famous Dzogchen expression, "Chig she kun drol', which means that when you discover one, you discover all.

My teacher gave me a very important example of this which I remember very well. You don't learn the point of view as though you were using a pair of glasses. Even though the glasses may be very strong, you are still looking outside yourself. Perhaps if there are very tiny things you may be able to see them better using the glasses but that is always dualistic vision. Instead of using glasses you have to use a mirror. If you look in a mirror you can see your face. That is an example. If you observe yourself, then you discover how your condition is. When we consider our condition we don't jump to some high level and start talking immediately about the nature of mind.

In general people talk about the nature of mind saying, "Oh, this is fantastic, a very profound teaching!". But that is only our consideration because we don't know what nature of mind is. Before we can know what the nature of mind is, it is much better if we try to understand a little about the mind. When we have some knowledge or understanding of mind, then we can do something to discover nature of mind.