Prof. David Francis Germano - "The Great Perfection (rdzogs chen)"

David Germano teaches and researches Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he is a professor, as well as directs the Tibet Center. He has lived for years in Tibetan communities, where he has studied Buddhist philosophy and contemplation, and done extensive community engagement work. His personal scholarship has focused on the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) tradition in its many dimensions. For over a decade, he led large scale explorations of contemplative ideas, values, and practices in relationship to scientific frameworks and creative applications in higher education in service of facilitating student flourishing. Currently he leads the Generative Contemplative Initiative, which explores contemplation as a generative human capacity with distinctive lexicons, grammars, and contexts and considers how we can design better contemplative futures. The Seminal Heart (snying thig) tradition of the Great Perfection (rdzogs chen) begins with eleventh century Tibetan revelations of extraordinarily innovative new scriptures, becomes dominant among Nyingma lineages by the fourteenth century, and has continued as such into the present. However, the difference in narrative, philosophy, practice, and community between these origins and contemporary realities is extraordinary, though the tradition stresses continuity throughout with the original scriptural sources. These striking transformations are not significantly acknowledged by Tibetan authors, apart from scattered references to discontinued practices, lost texts, and attenuated transmissions; there is even less attempt to explain or theorize these vast differences. I will offer a history and theorization of these changes to make sense of the drivers and significance of these patterns of profound continuity and discontinuity. I will also offer specific markers to utilize to appraise any given Great Perfection tradition relationship to this dominant influence. Instagram: ​ /   / rangjung_yeshe_institute   Soundcloud: /   / rangjung-yeshe-institute   Facebook: /   / rangjungyesheinstitute