THE DRA THAL GYUR

The Dra Thal Gyur is the root tantra of the Seventeen Tantras of the Dzogchen Upadeśa tradition, and one of the foundational texts for understanding the view and experiential instructions of Dzogchen.

In this twelve-week course, Lama Michael Gregory begins a sustained study of the tantra together with Vimalamitra's commentary,  combining translation, textual explanation, guided meditation, and practical instruction.

The Dra Thal Gyur addresses some of the central questions of Dzogchen: the nature of awareness, how appearances arise, how confusion develops, the relationship between awareness and perception, and how saṃsāra and nirvāṇa may be understood as arising without ever departing from primordial purity.

These teachings also have an immediate practical application,  how we recognize awareness when the mind is both active and still, and how we work with irritation, uncertainty, pleasure, relationships, and ordinary responsibilities without regarding them as separate from practice.

LIVE ONLINE • RECORDINGS AVAILABLE • 12-WEEK COURSE

Already a Vajragarbha member? Access this course through your membership.

Some teachings can be encountered in a single evening. Others ask us to remain with them, to study carefully, contemplate their meaning and return to them through meditation.

The Dra Thal Gyur belongs to the latter.

Presented as a dialogue between Indra and the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra, the tantra explores fundamental questions concerning the nature of reality and experience.

How does awareness relate to appearance?

How does the experience of subject and object arise?

What is the nature of confusion, and how are saṃsāra and nirvāṇa understood from the perspective of primordial purity?

These questions are not merely philosophical. The instructions invite sustained contemplation and practice, extending into thought, emotion, perception, relationship and the circumstances of ordinary life.

Throughout the course, Lama Michael returns to the root text and its commentary, joining careful explanation with meditations, modern and personalized applications and contemplative instruction.

The twelve-week course explores important teachings from the Dzogchen Upadeśa tradition, including:

Rangjung Rigpa: Self-Arisen, Unfabricated Awareness

The recognition of awareness as already present rather than something produced through meditation.

Rang Nang Dakpa Chenpo :Self-Appearance and Great Purity

An examination of appearance, perception and the seeming division between a perceiving subject and an external world.

Tamché Rangjung Yéshé: Everything as Self-Arisen Primordial Wisdom

An exploration of the teaching that appearances arise within primordial wisdom, and what this means in meditation and lived experience.

Further topics include the arising of confusion, body and the elements, original purity, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, and the outer, inner and innermost experiential meanings of the tantra.

The course follows the progression of the root text and Vimalamitra’s commentary.

Study of the Root Tantra:

• Translation and careful explanation of passages from the Dra Thal Gyur.
• Vimalamitra’s Commentary: Traditional commentary illuminating the text’s important points and instructions.
• Live and Recorded Teachings with Lama Michael Gregory 
• Immersive Online Learning with Teachable with detailed transcripts, practice guidance, questions and answers and recorded teachings. 
• Live Community Online Daily Meditation Classes
• Explanation of the Dzogchen view and its relevance to meditation and practice.
• Guided Meditations, Live and Recorded: Meditation instructions and contemplative exercises arising from the teachings.
• Practice in Everyday Life: Guidance for continuing contemplation between classes and bringing the teachings into ordinary experience.

The current  course is underway, and enrollment remains open.

Students joining now receive access to the earlier recorded classes through Teachable, together with course materials and the remaining live Tuesday teachings with Lama Michael Gregory.

You can begin studying the recordings immediately and follow the course from its earlier foundations.

Weekly Live Teachings: Tuesdays at 4:00 PM Pacific Time

Lama Michael Gregory has devoted more than three decades to Buddhist study, meditation and retreat, training with eminent masters of the Indo-Tibetan and Theravāda traditions.

His teachers have included H.H. the Dalai Lama, H.H. Penor Rinpoche, H.H. Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, H.E. Gyaltsab Rinpoche and H.E. Thrangu Rinpoche.

His practice has included extensive periods of solitary and group retreat in the Himalaya and Southeast Asia, with training in Mahamudra, Dzogchen, the Six Yogas and classical Theravāda meditation. In 2020, under the guidance of H.E. Thrangu Rinpoche, he served as Retreat Master for a traditional three-year retreat in Southern California.

His teachings bring together traditional Buddhist scholarship, sustained contemplative practice and the practical application of the Dharma within everyday life.

This twelve-week course is the first of a planned series of six courses devoted to the Dra Thal Gyur.

The extended format allows time to study the text carefully rather than reducing its profound instructions to a short introduction.

Across the planned series, Lama Michael will continue translating and commenting upon the tantra while exploring its outer, inner and innermost experiential meanings.

Students may begin with this first course and continue through the series as it develops.

Can I join now that the course has started?

Yes. New students receive access to the earlier recordings through Teachable and can join the remaining live classes.

Do I need previous Dzogchen experience?

Some previous meditation or Buddhist study is helpful, but familiarity with the Dra Thal Gyur itself is not required. The course is intended for students interested in serious Dzogchen study and practice.

What if I cannot attend every Tuesday?

Recordings are provided through Teachable so students can follow the teachings at their own pace.

Is this course included with membership?

Yes. Current Vajragarbha members receive Course 32 without additional course tuition.

Will there be further courses on the Dra Thal Gyur?

Yes. This is the first of six planned twelve-week courses devoted to the tantra.