On this path, one of the most pervasive challenges is the tendency to confuse conceptual understanding with direct realization. The view of primordial perfection can easily be reduced to a philosophy, a set of ideas about rigpa, rather than a living recognition of awareness itself. This over-intellectualization often leads to attempts to “create” or “achieve” the natural state, instead of recognizing what is already present. Related to this is the subtle habit of maintaining an inner observer, a subject that stands apart from experience, which keeps the dualistic structure intact even when the language of nonduality is used. In such cases, mental fabrications are mistaken for the authentic view, and a “thing” called rigpa is reified as an object to be found or possessed.

Meditation practice itself presents its own obstacles. Practitioners may fall into dullness, blankness, or heavy fogginess and mislabel this as resting in the natural state, equating the absence of thought with realization. At other times, agitation and discursive thinking dominate, making it difficult to distinguish the moving mind from awareness. Powerful meditative experiences—clarity, bliss, spaciousness, visions—can become objects of attachment, taken as signs of attainment rather than transient appearances. This grasping at particular states, including attachment to non-conceptual states, obscures the simple, lucid openness that Dzogchen points to.

Another recurrent difficulty lies in the emotional and karmic domain. When practice deepens, unresolved patterns of anger, desire, fear, and other afflictions may surface with greater intensity. Without clear guidance, these can be either repressed or over-identified with, instead of being recognized as the dynamic display of awareness. Fear of emptiness, or of complete letting go of familiar reference points, can also arise, generating resistance to the very freedom that the teachings describe. Doubt and skepticism about one’s capacity for realization, or about the efficacy of the path, further weaken confidence and continuity of recognition.

The role of guidance and foundation is crucial in addressing these challenges. A lack of proper introduction to the nature of mind from a qualified teacher, or insufficient devotion and trust in authentic lineage, makes it easy to confuse ordinary states with rigpa and to wander in conceptual elaboration. Neglecting ethical conduct, renunciation, bodhicitta, and preliminary practices can lead to a fragile basis for practice, often accompanied by subtle pride or spiritual materialism—using the “highest” view to bolster identity or feel superior to other paths. Prematurely abandoning gradual methods, or practicing inconsistently, tends to produce instability rather than genuine maturation.

Finally, there is the challenge of integration. Recognition may occur in formal meditation yet be lost amid daily activities, strong emotions, or difficult circumstances. Practice can become compartmentalized—“Dzogchen on the cushion, ordinary confusion in life”—rather than a continuous thread through all experience. Over-efforting, trying to force recognition, and under-efforting, collapsing into indifference or spacing out, both interfere with the natural, uncontrived presence emphasized in this tradition. The art lies in repeatedly recognizing and sustaining short glimpses of awareness, allowing view, meditation, and conduct to gradually come into a single, seamless continuity.