In Dzogchen, “natural awareness” (rigpa) is spoken of as the primordial, unconstructed state of mind that is present from the very beginning, whether it is recognized or not. It is described as pure and unconditioned, the fundamental nature of mind that remains undistorted by conceptual thought or emotional obscurations. This awareness is not produced by practice or by causes and conditions; rather, it is always there as the ground of all experience. Because it is ever-present, the path does not aim to create something new, but to reveal what has never been absent.

This natural awareness is characterized as both empty and cognizant: its essence is emptiness, lacking any solid, inherent existence, while its quality is clear, vivid knowing. These two aspects—emptiness and knowing—are inseparable, so that awareness is at once open and luminous. It is said to be beyond ordinary dualistic perception, free from the split between subject and object. Thoughts, emotions, and perceptions arise within it like reflections in a mirror or clouds in the sky, yet they do not alter or stain this basic awareness, which remains untainted regardless of what appears.

Natural awareness is also described as self-arising and self-liberating. It dawns spontaneously and effortlessly, without deliberate cultivation, and when it is recognized, the obscurations that seem to veil it can dissolve within it of their own accord. This is sometimes expressed as self-arising wisdom: awareness that recognizes its own nature without needing to be constructed or improved. In this sense, the essential movement of practice is a shift from manipulating the contents of mind to directly recognizing and resting in this underlying, non-dual awareness.

Within this perspective, the distinction between ordinary conceptual mind and natural awareness becomes crucial. Ordinary mind operates through grasping, rejecting, and elaborating, while natural awareness is the unchanging, luminous field in which all such movements occur. To “abide” in natural awareness does not mean to freeze experience or block thoughts, but to remain without distraction or fabrication in that ever-present clarity that is already free. This recognition is regarded as both the path and the fruition: the journey consists in repeatedly recognizing this innate awareness and allowing its purity and unconditioned nature to become ever more evident.