Longdé

Longdé (T. klong sde ཀློང་སྡེ་), or "space class," is one of three divisions of the Dzogchen teachings according to the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The other two divisions are Semdé (mind class) and Mengakdé (instruction class).

Tulku Thondup states:

Longdé, the cycle on the ultimate sphere, teaches that the awareness and clarity aspect of mind is emptiness. The meditators of Longdé still maintain a trace of grasping at the emptiness. So they are free from both the things from which to get free and the means by which to attain freedom, but are still holding on to the emptiness; thus Longdé does not introduce one to the naked primordial wisdom, which transcends mind.

John Pettit states:

The space class (klong sde) emphasizes the emptiness aspect of the awareness and clarity aspect of mind. It is said thus to eliminate the fault of the mental class, which is clinging to the clarity of awareness. The space class understands phenomena simply as the ornament (rgyan) of gnosis, while the mental class understands phenomena in terms of the arising of the creative display of awareness. The limitation of the space class is that it has a slight preference for the aspect of emptiness. Both the mind and space classes still depend upon a modicum of rational analysis to introduce gnosis.

Texts

See:

• Longdé, Texts, Wikipedia

Alternate translations for longdé

The Tibetan term longdé (klong sde) is translated as:

• space class (John Pettit)
• cycle on the ultimate sphere (Tulku Thondup)
• space section
• space category
• space series

Sources

• Pettit, John Whitney (1999), Mipham's Beacon of Certainty: Illuminating the View of Dzogchen, the Great Perfection, Wisdom Publications 
• Tulku Thondup (1999), Masters of Meditation and Miracles, Boston: Shambhala 

Further reading

• "The Practice of Dzogchen", Tulku Thondup, Harold Talbott editors, Snow Lion Publications, Ithaca NY, 1989. ISBN 1-55939-054-9
• Anspal, Sten (2005). The Space Section of the Great Perfection (rDzogs-chen klong-sde): a category of philosophical and meditative teachings in Tibetan Buddhism. Thesis. The University of Oslo. Source: [1] (accessed: Thursday April 15, 2010)

External links

• Space_Section, Rangjung Yeshe Wiki
• Longdé, Wikipedia