Trekchö, often called “cutting through,” centers on recognizing and resting in rigpa, the mind’s innate clarity. After receiving a pointing-out instruction from a qualified teacher, awareness settles effortlessly into its own nature. Thoughts and emotions arise like clouds drifting across a clear sky without disturbing the open space that’s already present. Familiar everyday activities—walking, eating, even scrolling through the morning news—become opportunities to notice the luminous, empty ground beneath all phenomena. There’s no need for contrived techniques or complicated visualizations: simply resting in the pure, naked awareness that’s ever-present. Over time, mental knots untangle themselves, much like a sweater slipping off its snag, and the sense of a separate “self” begins to relax.

Tögal, sometimes translated as “direct crossing” or “leap-over,” brings that same clarity into the realm of spontaneous vision. Under carefully regulated conditions—often at dawn or dusk, with specific postures and gazing practices—the subtle light of mind is allowed to crystallize into vivid, self-luminous appearances. Sky-gazing in a dark retreat, for instance, can catalyze rainbow arcs, luminous syllables and mandala-like displays. These aren’t mere hallucinations but expressions of the mind’s own luminosity, revealing the inseparability of emptiness and appearance. Over days of dedicated practice (the recent resurgence of dark-retreat offerings online shows just how hungry modern seekers are for direct experience), these visions evolve—first simple points of light, then expanding landscapes of color, until perception and awareness dance together seamlessly.

Both approaches pivot on trust in what’s already here, without stepping outside ordinary experience. Trekchö clears the ground by slicing through mental clutter; tögal paints the sky with the mind’s own radiance. Together they form a dynamic duo—like sunlight and shadow playing across the mountains—guiding practitioners into a freedom that’s alive, immediate and utterly beyond fabrication.