Yidams
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Orgyen Tobgyal Rinpoche explains the importance of the yidam:
- When we consider all the great masters of the Indian and Tibetan traditions, we find that in every case, their accomplishment came about through their practice of a yidam. They chose a deity and guarded that practice like their very life force, and on the basis of that complete commitment to the path of deity yoga, they practised the stage of generation, the stage of completion, and integrated these arriving at their final realisation of complete accomplishment and enlightenment.
- But nowadays there are people who say, “Oh, what a lot of bother! Deities and mantra, I hate all that. I’m just going to meditate.” And they sit there, and close their eyes, and that’s what they call practice. They say, “I just want to do effortless meditation.” But as Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche said, “Although there are people like that, I’ve not seen them gaining any sign of attainment.”
- In one of the texts of Ratna Lingpa’s cycle of Vajrakilaya practice, there is a passage which recounts how on one occasion Yeshe Tsogyal asked Guru Rinpoche about the nature of kyérim practice. “Do we really need a yidam deity?”, she questioned. Guru Rinpoche replied, “If there is no yidam, where is the source of siddhis? Without siddhi, how could there be enlightenment?”
- In fact, if we look at the great masters of the Indian and Tibetan traditions of Vajrayana practice, we find there is no-one who did not meditate upon a yidam deity.
- In the Nyingmapa school, all the great vidyadharas have had a main yidam deity which they practised. If their practice was of a peaceful deity, it was almost always Vajrasattva. If it was a wrathful deity, it was almost always Vajrakilaya. Guru Rinpoche and Vimalamitra themselves attested to the fact that Vajrakilaya was their yidam deity.
- Nowadays however, the Nyingmapas are perhaps the worst when it comes to practising a yidam on a daily basis. When Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö was giving the Rinchen Terdzö empowerment, he scolded us as Nyingmapa practitioners and said, “You Nyingmapas don’t do any kind of regular daily practice. You don’t even say the Sampa Lhundrupma prayer; you just lie around all day! We Sakyapas must do the path empowerment practice of Hevajra every day , which takes about two or three hours. You don’t do anything. You just lie around. You don’t do any kind of regular practice.”
- He said to us, “If you want yidam deities, you Nyingmapas have more than anybody.” He showed us all the texts of the Rinchen Terdzö, which consists of dozens and dozens of volumes, and said, “This is filled with sadhanas of the three roots—lama, yidam and dakini—but none of you practises any of them.”
- What he said was true. Perhaps the reason is that so many of us in the Nyingma tradition place great emphasis on the Dzogchen tradition and its effortlessness. Often we make the mistake of just paying lip service to effortlessness, while really just being kind of lazy.
- Look at someone like Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. No-one would question that his realisation was higher than anyone’s, and yet day and night he would recite prayers and mantras and do his practice. And he was inseparable from Vimalamitra! Look at the kind of effort that he put into his practice. Then there are others who just don’t do very much of that at all. They just sit there with their mouths open.
- On one occasion, I asked Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, “Is it necessary for someone with realization to recite prayers and mantras?” And he replied, “Someone who has that kind of realisation is like space. What harm could recitation possibly do to space?”And he continued, “To recite even a single mani mantra, or to recite the Vajra Guru mantra a few times, is only going to help. It’s not going to hurt, is it?”
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In Dzogchen, those who do not recognise the Master's introduction of Mind will not be able to do effortless meditation, or resting in recognition of the View. I mean if the View is not even glimpsed in the first place, how to rest in the View?
In such cases, one has to do the two Dzogchen ngondros. So Loppon Namdrol states:
'Dzogchen is always non-gradual: for example, if the student does not "get it", as a reuslt of receiving direct introduction he or she can use the methods of semzin and rushan which are "self-introductions."
N'
...This is not correct-- once you have given people direct introduction, they also receive to things-- authorization to practice guru yoga, for "blessings" and to engage in the preliminary practices for tregchod, rushan and semzin.
Rushan and semzin are methods used to discover on one's own the knowledge introduced in the direct introduction.
Of course, I always think is it better than people have grounding in Abhidharma before they practice anything-- but that is in an ideal world...
...Rushan and Semzin are used to find the gdangs of one's rigpa after direct introduction if one did not recognize it at that time or to renew one's acquaintance with it, if you will...
- Namdrol
As for Yidams: depending on which teacher you follow, some Dzogchen teacher may not require you to do that, but Yidams are very common Vajrayana practice so it is not uncommon for Vajrayana practitioners to have some kind of Yidam practice.
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Some writings by Lama Surya Das:
Dzogchen Meditation
In the beginning, meditative awareness is like a small flame, which can easily be extinguished and needs to be protected and nurtured. Later, it is more like a huge bonfire, which consumes whatever falls into it....Then the more thoughts that arise, the more awareness blazes up, like adding logs to a bonfire! Emaho! Everything is food for naked enlightened awareness! - Dzogchen Master Jigme Lingpa
Emaho is the shortest Dzogchen teaching. It means wondrous, Amazing! Dzogchen masters always say it. The word expresses a tremendous sense of joy and wonder. Love of life in all its forms is a by-product of spiritual development. Let's not forget that joy is an important ingredient in a meditation practice. The aspiration for enlightenment can be happily balanced with appreciation of just where we are. 
People often ask how Dzogchen differs from concentration or insight meditation. As we learn to meditate, we typically go through three distinct stages. The first stage of concentration meditation initially implies real effort as we learn to hold our attention on an object of meditation.
In the second stage, we have trained the mind; we are able to hold a concentrated state for longer periods of time. Our directed attention stays wherever we place it.
In the third and final stage, we have really mastered the art of focused attention. In this stage we are able to relax, yet we remain almost effortlessly concentrated and undistracted. The weighty gravity of our heightened awareness keeps us centered. Our attnetion remains nautrally in place, like a calm and reflective clear lake when no winds or undercurrents move it.
Concentration practice is extremely helpful as a foundation for the more advanced, deeper, broader, and more inclusive awareness and discriminating insight practices such as the advanced forms of Vipasssana, Zen, and Dzogchen. Concentration techniques help us to get where we are going.
However, concentrated states of mind are put together, fabricated, built-up through intensive, continuous, one-pointed focusing practices. Whatever is put together inevitably falls apart. Like muscle tone, concentration disappears when it isn't used. However, the insight, wisdom, and understanding we can realize through meditation training does stay with us. This greater perspective becomes part of us.
A rushen Meditation
Discerning Differences
Part of the unique preliminary practice for Dzogchen is called rushen. It includes analytical contemplations that emply the rational powers of the mind; in these contemplations we use the well-honed, focused mind like a sharp tool to penetrate further into reality. This special self-inquiry helps us recognize the essential nature of mind. The word rushen literally means " discerning the difference between" --traditional images are separating the wheat from teh chaff or a kernel from its husk. We use the practice of rushen to distinguish between the dualisms that confront and confuse us; between samsara and nirvana, between bondage and freedom, between small mind and Big Mind, or Buddha-mind; between finite and conceptual mind and infinite awareness; between finite self and our true Buddha-nature.
Now let's use the self-inquiry part of rushen practice. Let's penetrate further into heart and soul, and perceive the essential nature of mind. We can use investigative self-inquiry to unmaske ouselves and deconstrct the illusory prison that ego built, thus gaining insight and the wisdom of awareness.
Exploring the age-old question "Who am I?" is an open-ended inquiry that takes us beyond thoughts and mere concepts. This is one of the very best pracitces to help you get to know your true nature, beyond your illusory conventional self. Recognizing our natural mind, Buddha-nature, helps us live freely in the present moment, without preconceptions about what we'll get out of it. Let's discern the difference between the ego, which strategizes and manipulates, and the spontaneous natural heart-mind. The heart and mind are beautiful in their natural state. We can afford to leave them alone. The better we come to know and accept ourselves, the more at home and profoundly at peace we can be, wherever we are. Whoever we may be.
Practice self-inquiry now by asking yourself: Who or what is experiencing my present experience? Is it my body? Do the eyes and ears hear? (Remember a corpse has eyes and ears, but it doesn't see and hear.) Where is the experiencer, the perceiver? Is it my head? my torso? my ehart? Perhaps within the body and also all around it, like a nimbus, an astral body or a luminous sphere?
Mind is the knower. Consiousness animates the sense odoors, perceiving all that transpires through the gates of the senses. What is the essence or nature of this mind? Peer into the nature of your own mind in this very present moment. Know the knower. See the seer, and be free.
Does the mind have a particular shape or form? A color? A size or weight? Is it always the same or simply a stream of consciousness, a collection of various mind-moments and mental events--like the ever changing weather, dependent on fluctuating circumstances and conditions? Do I have one mine, several, or many? Is it separate from the mind of another being and of all others--or is it connected? Is it perhaps part of universal cosmic consciousness?
In a moemnt of no thought, how is it, and what is it? When one dies, where does it go? Can you tell me? Can you say? Where do your thoughts come from? Where do they go when they pass on? Where does thinking stem from? Try to say something about this. the effort could be extremely revealing. Your could have a close encounter with yourself. Who is thinking, hearing, seeing, wondering? Who am I? What am I? What is happening right now, this immediate instant?
Turn the mind back upon itself with this laserlike question:
Who is experiencing your experience right now? And then let go of thinking. See what comes up. Sense directly.
Dzogchen Five - Element
Meditation
Dzogchen meditations often empahsize nature - the awesome mystery and splendor of it all. Mother Nature is like a great goddess. In the Diamond Skydancer Tantra, the Great Kakini says, "The whole universe is my body, all sentient beings my soul, my heart-mind." The salient principle in this meditation is merging into five elements of nature --water, earth, fire, air, and space. This helps us return to our natural, innate Buddha-mind. Let's meditate, let's contemplate; let's unify ourselves with these elements. The element of water with its cooling nature and natural flow is a good way to begin.
We can practice this meditation by the ocean, a laker, a river, or a pond. We can even p ractice this meditation while washing the dishes. The sound of water could be the tranquil lapping of waves against a dock, the dripping of a faucet in a kitchen sink, the melodic flowing of the water in an aquarium, a waterfall, or the thundering surf. The vision of water may range from a shimmering puddle to the Pacific Ocean. Water is water. The natrual element is the same.
Merging and dissolving the natrual elements helps us to go beyond ourselves. We enter into the dimension of that element, unifying ourselves and the universe. In this way we transcend our separate selves and realize our primordial nature.
Listen to the "white sound" of water. Enter into the contemplative space, the flow, the reflectiveness of water. Concentrate on the sound of water. Let it wash everything else away. Just focus on listening to the sound. Dzogchen meditation calls for the senses to be left in their natrual state. And the state is Natrual Great Perfection, Dzogchen. Let the sound of the water wash over you, wash through you. Leave your senses open, sensitive, and receptive. Enter the resonant spiritual dimension of pure sound.
Open your eyes. Look at the water. Let all thoughts fall into the water and dissolve into the lake of your mind, like snowflakes settling and dissolving in the ocean. All waves of thought and feeling, and emotion and energy, gradually slow down and dissolve, like gentle ripples in a stream or in the placid sea of natrual awareness. The ocean's waves come and go; watch them until you forget yourself and become one with the waves.
Contemplating the waves - just listening - let everything else be washed away. Enter into non-dual dimension of just being. Be that sound, flow with the water. Relax into the natural state of the water element as if worshipping the spirit of nature or the deity of water. All of the elements are like embodied deities. Attend to them. Rest in their shrines. Be one with them. Enter into that sacred dimension right now.