Atiyoga
Atiyoga (Skt.; Tib. ཤིན་ཏུ་རྣལ་འབྱོར་, Wyl. shin tu rnal 'byor) — the highest yana within the classification of nine yanas of the Nyingma school. Atiyoga is synonymous with Dzogchen.
Also known as Non-Dual Tantras (Skt., advitiatantra) outside The Nyingma Tradition; Ati Yoga belongs to the Inner Tantras and constitutes level 9 of the Nine Vehicles. These teachings are also known as Dzogchen (Tib., rDzogs-pa ch'en-po) and as Primordial Yoga (Tib., gdod-ma'i rnal-'byor).
This is the level of all the Dzogchen, Lamdre, and Mahamudra teachings, and represents the highest possible achievement, the unification of path and goal that leads one to true Buddhahood. On this level, one learns about the equality and union of the two earlier stages (7 and 8) and in practice, emphasis is put on entering the state of absolutely non-discriminating contemplation (Tib., ting-nge-'dzin; Skt., Samadhi).
Initiations:
In addition to the initiations of the previous stages, the practitioner now receives the fourth or Word Initiation (Tib., tshig-dbang, Skt., caturthabhiseka), which empowers her or him to receive and understand this "Highest Yoga Tantra".
Texts and Teachings:
The Dzogchen/Atiyoga teachings, introduced into Tibet by Vairochana, Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava, consist of three classes or series of texts:
9.1 Semde (sems-sde) Mind Series
9.2 Longde (klong-sde) Space Series
9.3 Mannagde (man-ngag gi sde) Secret Instruction Serie
Overview Given by Alak Zenkar Rinpoche
The third of the Three Inner Tantras. It emphasizes, according to Jamgon Kongtrul the First, the view that liberation is attained through growing accustomed to insight into the nature of primordial enlightenment, free from accepting and rejecting, hope and fear. Garab DorjeThe more common word for Ati Yoga nowadays is 'Dzogchen.' The Ati Yoga teachings first appeared in this world to Garab Dorje in the country of Uddiyana to the west of India.
According to The Narration of the Precious Revelation of the Terma Treasures by Longchen Rabjam (p. 87-88), the great master Padmasambhava described the teaching of Ati Yoga in the following way before imparting them to Yeshe Tsogyal:
"It is an instruction unlike any I have given in the past, the summit that transcends all of the nine gradual vehicles. By seeing its vital point, mind-made views and meditations are shattered. The paths and levels are perfected with no need for struggle. Disturbing emotions are liberated into their natural state without any need for reform or remedy. This instruction brings realization of a fruition within oneself that is not produced from causes. It instantly brings forth spontaneously present realization, liberates the material body of flesh and blood into the luminous sambhogakaya within this very lifetime, and enables you to capture the permanent abode, the precious dharmakaya realm of spontaneous presence, within three years, in the domain of Akanishtha. I possess such an instruction and I shall teach it to you!"
Ati Yoga is a synonym for Great Perfection and Dzogchen.
The vehicle of Atiyoga, or ‘Utmost Yoga,’ is so-called because it is the highest of all vehicles. It involves the realization that all Phenomena are nothing other than the Appearances of the naturally arising primordial Wisdom which has always been beyond arising and ceasing.
Entry Point
One’s Mind is matured through the four ‘expressive Power of awareness’ empowerments (Tib. རིག་པའི་རྩལ་དབང་, rigpé tsal wang), and one keeps the samayas as explained in the texts.
View
The Primordial Buddha Samantabhadra
The view is definitively established by looking directly into the naturally arising Wisdom in which The Three Kayas are inseparable: the empty essence of naked awareness beyond the ordinary Mind is the Dharmakaya, its cognizant nature is the sambhogakaya, and its all-pervasive compassionate energy is the nirmanakaya.
Meditation
The Meditation consists of the approach of cutting through resistance to primordial purity (Tib. kadak trekchö), through which the lazy can reach Liberation without effort, and the approach of the direct realization of spontaneous presence (Tib. lhundrup tögal), through which the diligent can reach Liberation with exertion.
Conduct
The conduct is free from hope and fear and adopting and abandoning, because all that appears manifests as the display of reality itself.
Results
Perfecting the four visions of the path, one gains the supreme kaya, the Rainbow body of great transference (see Rainbow body), and attains the level of glorious Samantabhadra, the thirteenth Bhumi known as ‘Unexcelled Wisdom’ (yeshe Lama).
