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
