James Low - Dzogchen and Buddhist Teachings

Dissolving Obscurations in the Innate Openness of Presence

A Dzogchen retreat with James Low in Wilga, Poland, held May 21–24, 2026. The teachings were given with Polish translation.

"From the point of view of dzogchen, collaboration and participation are much more important than dominance and control. That is to say, we relax and find ourselves within the field of our participation. The world reveals itself as we reveal ourselves – nothing is fixed and everything moves together. The field of experience is responsive yet will always slip out of our attempts at total control. The one who wants control is the one who is already in duality."
~ James Low

Credits
Polish translation: Bartek Czajkowski
Camera: Olaf Brockmann
Retreat organised by Olga Maj, Jagoda Tobota, Konrad Świtała and Robert Hnat

Links
Retreat event page
Audio recordings of this retreat
Podcasts of some teachings
Future events
Instagram of excerpts

Watch the original video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0tOnuUhFdg

Chapters

00:00 Why are we here? Reflecting on intention and Dzogchen as freedom

07:31 Thoughts, mind and the search for the thinker

18:17 Choices, habitual formations and the limited field of knowing

29:03 Hierarchies of meaning and the ego as interpretive system

36:19 Buddha's four sights and the eight worldly concerns

45:57 Buddha's six years of striving and awakening under the tree

1:02:56 Arising and dissolving of appearances; non-artificial presence

1:14:26 Buddha's awakening, emptiness and dependent origination

1:23:23 Gradual teachings, Buddha as doctor and trusting thoughts

1:37:48 Language, names and constancy as constructed

1:52:13 Situational nature of experience: water and ice example

1:57:44 Perceiving others in public space versus objectifying them

2:07:58 Naming, defining and shifting identity in samsara

2:16:53 Airport in Warsaw: experience as projection, not a thing

2:23:57 Am I a thing? Definitions received from education

2:29:09 Refuge and the bodhisattva vow to help all beings

2:35:50 Judging others and turning variety into hierarchy

2:47:58 Seven-line prayer and indebtedness to all beings

2:56:10 Light dissolving body, speech and mind into the ball of light

3:07:55 Why we rely on the guru: dissolution of subject and object

3:17:19 Mind as it is: cataract and lamp examples

3:28:13 Properties of the base; presence versus consciousness

3:36:04 Self-arising presence is free from concepts: the tea example

4:09:41 Origin of delusion: lack of presence of the base

4:16:26 Lack of presence and the dissolution practice into light

4:25:36 Water and ice: fixation and the sense of a separate self

4:39:30 Primordial trauma and forgetting the source

4:45:52 Practising from vulnerability: Padma light and dissolving

4:58:07 Absorbing the meaning of the text into oneself

5:07:56 First obscuration: the five poisons

5:13:05 Second obscuration: conceptual knowing

5:23:15 Invasion and abandonment, opacity and the separate self

5:29:09 Freedom of choice and the ego's need for privacy

5:39:37 Co-emergent presence and co-emergent ignorance

5:52:59 Naming and labelling as an act of power

6:03:44 Six realms of samsara and karma as a trace

The Illusion of Perception

A teaching by James Low on Dzogchen and Tibetan Buddhism, given to a practising audience.

This episode is an extract from the longer teaching "Wisdom and Compassion", given in Macclesfield in March 2025. You can watch the full teaching here: https://youtu.be/jtjlM1CYuN4

Watch the original video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38Qp3DnR4QY

Chapters

00:00 Phenomena arise and pass: we see light, not the wall

03:24 Hearing sound: we organize it through our templates

October 2001. James Low teaches on "The Integration of Stillness and Movement: the approach of different buddhist paths" at Kamalashila Institute in the Eifel region of Germany.

"Most of us who have been involved with buddhism for some time will have reflected a lot on impermanence, but it is never something to treat lightly. It is the royal road to an understanding of stillness and movement." ~ James Low

Contents:

Stillness and movement

The Four Basic Reflections: back to basics

Precious human birth

Impermanence and death

Karma

Ice or water, depending on the conditions

Going it alone

Samsara: banging into things

Taking refuge

Resources:

Transcription on Dang-wa, Rol-Pa and Tsal

Transcription on the four basic reflections and refuge

Full transcript

Audio recording

Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5IOUHAwWvw

Chapters

00:00 Observing the mind and its movements

10:34 Precious human birth

18:27 Fragmentation of self and the creation of karma

29:13 Death and the continuation of awareness

34:16 Samsara and fluidity: ice and water as metaphor

43:22 Purification as preparation for death

59:20 Balancing energy through diet and daily habits

1:10:55 Betraying the Buddha nature in ordinary experience

1:17:16 Phenomenology of existence versus the stories we tell

1:23:34 The need to relax in practice

1:31:30 Space as the ground of all elements

1:37:09 Relaxing into space versus wind

1:44:23 Machig Labdrön practice: structure and purpose

1:51:02 The necessity of devotion in tantra

1:56:56 Recognizing awareness free of subject and object

2:29:45 Questions and housekeeping

2:34:58 Articulating the process of becoming caught in thought

2:41:31 Thought as ornament: the dharmakaya to sambhogakaya

2:49:53 The ego eats thought

3:02:56 Using deity practice to transform samsaric identity

3:09:13 Samaya: the commitment to maintain practice

3:23:19 The meaning of great happiness (dewa) in tantra

3:30:15 Pure vision and the recognition of fault in Dzogchen

3:39:53 Recognizing one's own nature (ngo rang drol)

3:49:09 The mind is not conditioned by human existence

3:55:45 Investigating how we create our own entanglement

4:09:25 Commitment in tantra versus flexibility in Dzogchen

4:15:30 Distinguishing sacred practice from superstition

4:20:10 The three statements of Garab Dorje

4:35:19 Chöd: the practice of cutting attachment

4:43:23 Cutting attachment to the body in meditation

4:49:37 The visualization of offering the body

4:55:44 The dharmakaya visualization in Chöd

5:01:58 Clarifying the view: beyond thought and expression

5:16:26 Working with fear in meditation

5:22:15 Walking meditation: mindfulness and presence

5:35:51 The Eight Consciousnesses and the Root of Ignorance

5:42:30 Practicing Purification Without Judging What Arises

5:51:46 Lhundrup and rangdrol: instant arising and self-liberation

5:59:47 Receiving Compliments and Insults Without Losing Awareness

6:04:48 Dang, Rolpa and Tsal: The Three Modes of Energy

6:11:52 Tsal: particularities of manifestation and the crystal

6:18:33 Spontaneous activity and leaving no trace

6:30:20 Practicing when tired as preparation for death

Teachings by James Low in Granada, Spain, on "Emptiness and Dzogchen," based on Vairocana's text "The Song of the Cuckoo" (31 October - 02 November 2014).

Original audio in English with consecutive Spanish translation by Juan B. García Lázaro.

"Dzogchen is concerned with knowing your own nature. There are many different paths in Buddhism and gradually they became organised into different styles or families. Some are gradual, others less so, but generally it is a matter of knowing what suits you best." ~ James Low

Full audio recordings available at: https://simplybeing.co.uk/audio-recordings/year/audio2014/emptiness-and-dzogchen-granada-2014/

Instagram of excerpts: https://instagram.com/SBSangha_JamesLow

Podcasts of some teachings: https://simplybeing.co.uk/news/podcasts/

Learn more about future events: https://simplybeing.co.uk/events/

Original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMiuPdVZUsA

Chapters

00:00 Session 1 • October 31, 2014

1:25:00 Session 2 • October 31, 2014

2:23:40 Session 3 • November 1st, 2014

3:45:11 Session 4 • November 1st, 2014

5:14:35 Session 5 • November 1st, 2014

6:39:05 Session 6 • November 1nd, 2014

7:48:49 Session 7 • November 2nd, 2014

8:30:12 Session 8 • November 2nd, 2014

9:05:35 Session 9 • November 2nd, 2014

In this teaching from May 9th, 2026, James Low explores patience and non-duality as a means to avoid reactivity to provocations. This session was delivered via Zoom with Romanian translation by Viorica Constantinescu.

Note: The cuts in this video result from the removal of periods of silence during consecutive translation from German.

Versions in other languages:

English: youtu.be/DlLVFctvy4Y

English without silence cuts: youtu.be/mwy3vxTHU58

German: youtu.be/L0MxibNpB3o

Russian: youtu.be/99o7s9XPxUc

Spanish: youtu.be/-eAMBC9c_Ok

Portuguese: youtu.be/w9-JGF6xmuE

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Eskawata Kayawai - The Spirit of Transformation: youtu.be/muIExL2Qly0

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Resources:

Instagram excerpts: instagram.com/SBSangha_JamesLow

Podcasts: simplybeing.co.uk/news/podcasts

Future events: simplybeing.co.uk/events

Watch the original video on YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=8Z7L6-L-ZGI