The Heart of Dzogchen
The pointing out instruction is letting go.
Awareness looks, sees and drops.

Traditionally, the gesture (non-verbal) for the pointing out instruction is: the teacher holds his/her palms up to show looking out. They then turn the palms to face inward, to show seeing. They then drop the palms onto the thighs, to show dropping. That’s it. That is the pointing out instruction. But it sounds so ordinary that it just doesn’t register…pity.

Ordinariness is satisfying in that there is absolutely no pressure. This is why we constantly miss the point of the pointing out instruction. The pointing out instruction really, really, really is looking, seeing and dropping…letting go…not following…not being captured by anything impermanent.

All that is left is….!

That is what the Dharma is all about. Nothing complicated and nothing elaborate. It is precisely because it appears to be so ordinary that the mind does not see it or trust it, and therefore we look for something more mysterious: we need convincing so, in the relative world, it comes with elaborations and complications, and is built up so that everything can then be destroyed.

All that is left is…!

What is?
That which is real.

What is ‘real’?
Pure awareness.

What is ‘pure awareness’?
Is-ness.

What is, ‘is’?
To be.

What is, ‘to be’?
Pure awareness.

There’s no getting away from pure awareness, is there?
It is absolute ordinariness, without embellishments.
It is the heart of the Dharma.
It is the heart of Dzogchen.