All the Questions and Answers from the Zooms July 2020-2021, Videos with translations

Q&A Zoom Sessions starting from July – 10. December 2020

James Low had invited questions from people watching his Zoom sessions.
He received around 50 questions which he answers here.

We publish and update the recordings of these Q&A sessions with their translations as they come to us. Therefore the content of this page is growing!

Thank you to all those involved in the recording, translation and preparation of this video for us all.

Questions Part 1

00:00	Are preparatory practices (ngondro) necessary in dzogchen?
08:54	Duration and frequency of the practices
15:57	Can I trust the meditation experiences which arise?
25:32	Do I need to have a teacher or access to a teacher to be able to talk with someone?
26:33	Can a stable result be achieved?
28:20	The different kinds of conscious and the nature of obscuration
36:21	How to to deal with the afflictive emotions, the kleshas?

Questions Part 2

00:00	Energy channels, chakras and dzogchen
04:10	How is it for animals and beings in other realms and how was it before language developed?
10:07	If everything is the play of the mind, how does the ego fabricate things? What occurs when that stops?
16:47	Is it helpful to consider Kadag as absolute truth and Lhundrup as relative truth?
18:50	How to keep deepening direct experience so that we move from intellectual comprehension to lived presence?
26:11	Vipashyana (or vipassana) practice (or lhagtong in Tibetan), the style taught by Goenka, and its relation with dzogchen
34:04	Are there aspects of dzogchen compatible with other practices of different vehicles?

Questions Part 3

00:00	Trekchö and Thögal
04:26	Do we have to tame our mind? Who is the tamer?
08:40	If I experience all this as me, will I get overwhelmed?
10:28	I can’t find my own nature and I don’t know how to do it
17:01	How to face the strong waves of fear which can arise when I open myself to the spaciousness of the ground situation?
21:54	If the mind is very disturbed, how should one behave?
27:17	Is the world independent of the mind?
30:49	What is the difference between dharmadhatu, dharmata and dharmakaya?

Questions Part 4

00:00	Since we can easily disturb each other, how should dharma practitioners communicate?
10:16	The three levels of transmission, specially the symbolic transmission
28:26	How do we make progress, if we have no time to be with teachers or go on long retreats?
38:24	Kindness, tonglen and non-duality

Questions Part 5

00:00	Lack of dignity in practice, life and self-care; loss of sense of value
05:02	How can I open to my mind and not rely on thoughts?
17:17	How to know if a teacher is authentic and is a personal relationship with them necessary?
23:20	Can we get transmission through Zoom?
27:25	Do we need preliminary practice (Ngondro)?
42:59	How to deal with demands and provocations of everyday life?