The aim of Dzogchen practice is the direct recognition and complete stabilization of *rigpa*, the primordial, non-dual awareness that is the true nature of mind. This *rigpa* is described as pure or pristine awareness, empty and lucid, free from conceptual thought and dualistic perception. Rather than constructing a new state or transforming something defective, Dzogchen points to what has always been present at the deepest level of experience. The path, therefore, is one of unveiling rather than fabrication, a process of seeing through obscurations so that this innate clarity can reveal itself.

When this recognition of *rigpa* becomes stable and unbroken, it is said to culminate in complete liberation from suffering. This is not merely a fleeting glimpse but an ongoing, continuous abiding in natural awareness in all circumstances. In such stabilization, the mind’s true, formless reality—often spoken of in terms of *dharmakāya*—is realized as inseparable from wisdom and compassion. The fruition of this realization is Buddhahood, or complete enlightenment, where all obscurations are exhausted and the natural qualities of awareness manifest spontaneously.

From this perspective, the ultimate goal is not some distant attainment but the full realization of what is already present as the ground of experience. Dzogchen teachings emphasize that this primordial nature is unchanging, unobstructed, and inherently free. As recognition deepens and becomes fully integrated, the habitual patterns that give rise to suffering lose their hold. What remains is a way of being in which clarity, openness, and compassionate responsiveness arise naturally, without contrivance.