Dzogchen Inquiry

Dudjom Lingpa taught that all apparent existence is a display of the mind itself. This principle is not just Dudjom Lingpa’s wisdom but is also the essential doctrine of Dzogchen. It is the notion that things are not as real as they appear to us. The “realness” of everything we are experiencing, including the mind itself, is fundamentally a construction of our mind. 

This is not just a lofty theory—it is a wisdom that we can bring into life and live by. It is also much more aligned with the true nature of reality than what our mind perceives every day. When we are able to truly embody and live this wisdom, we feel liberated because we see that many of the conflicts in our  lives, as well as the fundamental sense of self, are not intrinsically real. They are just a powerful play happening in the theater of our mind. 

Those who lived with such wisdom are considered mahasiddhas according to Tibetan culture. Dudjom Lingpa was a true mahasiddha who was a living testimony to this wisdom, embodying it in his life. He has been described as someone who was fearless. Often, our fear comes into being when we believe that the self, the problems, and the struggles in our lives have intrinsic existence. When someone truly realizes that they are all just big stories in their own mind, they become liberated and fearless. When our consciousness is not frozen by fear, then love, joy, and compassion shine naturally, just as the sun shines when it is no longer veiled by the clouds. 

There is an inquiry in Buddhism that leads us to the understanding that the way we experience everything is merely the mind entertaining itself with its own mental constructs. The power of this analytical method is summarized by the phrase, “nothing stands in the face of inquiry.” It means that there is nothing that really is solid when we inquire into its true nature; everything collapses as if it has been an illusion all along.

There is nothing that really is solid when we inquire into its true nature; everything collapses as if it has been an illusion all along. 

This method of inquiry is an uncompromising invitation to a daring adventure into the secret of all phenomena. We are invited to inquire not just into mundane things but also into things that  we worship and revere as the highest, as the sacred. Basically, everything we believe to be true collapses right there in the face of such deep inquiry, like a house of cards. 

One time, I was leading a weekend retreat in Southern California and talking about this inquiry. During a break, a woman approached me and said, 

“This sounds like a phrase from Alice in Wonderland. Alice looked at the Queen of Hearts and said, ‘You’re all nothing but a pack of cards!’ At that moment, the Queen and her court of playing cards collapsed.” 

I think this is a wonderful analogy for the power of inquiry. 

“Who Am I?”

It may not be challenging for us to inquire into something we are not particularly attached to because it is not a big deal to us whether it is real or not. But if something is especially dear to us, it might be too challenging to even question whether it is real or not. Perhaps what is most dear to us is our very identity. There are some radical ways to let go of that identity. It is said that some creative Dzogchen masters sent their students into the mountains, wandering along the riverbanks, to look for themselves by calling their own name out loud. 

At first, you may not take this whole thing too seriously if someone asks you to do this. But if you end up doing this inquiry, make sure you are alone, as it could be spooky for people to see you walking around, calling your own name. They might think you are losing it. 

Imagine your name is Joe, and you walk around calling “Joe!” You could even spook yourself in the beginning, but it could have the power to shake the very idea of who you are in your mind. Once you get into the deeper inquiry of who you are, you may see that every iota of your identity is the mind’s invention and is found neither outside nor inside. 

I think I am Anam Thubten, yet even that is not true in an ultimate sense. If I look deeply, there’s no Anam Thubten. People call me Anam Thubten all the time, and I believe I truly am Anam Thubten. In my mind, it is already well established and out of the question that I am not. But I wasn’t born with this name. Anam means “Big Sky” in Tibetan. Thubten was the name given by my abbot when I was ordained as a monk, and I still carry that name, even though later I became a layperson. Thubten means buddha-shasana, or “Buddha Dharma.” 

When you become a monk, you always receive a new name, and all the names are fancy. They never give you a bad name. When you become a monk, they give you names like “Ocean of Dharma,” “Lamp of the Buddha,” “Light of the Dharma,” and so forth. They never give inauspicious names like “Ocean of Stupidity” or “Castle of Hatred.” All the names that they give are really good. 

The truth is that Anam Thubten is a persona that society and I created. It is purely a mental construct, and there is no truth in that identity whatsoever. 

Then who am I? Most probably, we may think, “My name and role in society are mental constructs, but at least I’m a person.” 

But what does “person” actually mean? If we keep inquiring, then we may feel that we are just a whirling bundle of particles governed by the laws of physics. If we continue to inquire, then what is a particle? What is physics? 

And who is even perceiving all of this? This is similar to the Dzogchen inquiry of trying to find the self in our body and not finding anything that we can point to as the self. 

Then we may come to the realization that all reality is just a display of our consciousness, and we may feel that consciousness is real. It is the last thing that we can hold onto to soothe ourselves from the terror of existential collapse. 

But Dzogchen doesn’t let us indulge in this delusional comfort of having something to latch onto, like an ontological pacifier. Traditionally, as part of Dzogchen training, we are invited to inquire into the existential nature of the mind and consciousness itself…

Inquiry Into the Mind

The true nature of mind can be experienced by an inquiry that is taught very precisely in the Dzogchen tradition. Usually, it is done in a formal setting like a meditation retreat, where you take time away from your daily life and work on the inquiry without other distractions until an authentic insight shines forth. 

The inquiry can begin with the same meditation posture that we already described. Then we may turn our attention to the mind itself intuitively and search for the mind by asking these three questions: 

Where does it come from? Where does it reside? Where does it go? 

Each one can be elaborated: Does it come from outside oneself, from within, or from different parts of the body? 

Does it reside outside, inside, or in different parts of the body or organs? See if it is located there. 

We can ask the same questions about where the mind goes. 

We can elaborate on this inquiry by looking for the color, shape, and size of the mind. 

Finally, we will come to the powerful conclusion that there is not one single phenomenon that is the mind. There is no “thing.” Then the very foundation of the mind collapses in that state of not-finding, or “no root and no ground.” 

At the same time, as we already said, the mind is not totally nonexistent, or we wouldn’t be experiencing anything. Yet arriving at the state of not-finding helps us let go of our grasping to our perceived reality and many of our painful, contracted experiences and thought patterns. Once we realize the mind is empty of solid existence, letting go of grasping at experiences becomes natural.

The mind is not totally nonexistent, or we wouldn’t be experiencing anything. Yet arriving at the state of not-finding helps us let go of our grasping to our perceived reality and many of our painful, contracted experiences and thought patterns.

This state of not-finding may not sound inspiring because it is a negation, but through that, the egoic self and the contracted sense of reality can collapse on their own, just like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland. This is because the mind is always sustaining them, so when the mind collapses, they all collapse too.

♦

From Releasing the Knot of the Mind © 2026 by Anam Thubten. Reprinted in arrangement with Shambhala Publications, Inc. Boulder, CO. www.shambhala.com