Within the Dzogchen understanding of the Great Perfection, the decisive distinction from gradual approaches lies in how the nature of awakening is viewed. Enlightened awareness is regarded as already fully present, primordially pure and complete, requiring recognition rather than construction or improvement. Gradual paths, by contrast, treat awakening as something to be achieved over time through the progressive purification of obscurations and the systematic accumulation of merit and wisdom. This difference in view shapes everything that follows: one path emphasizes uncovering what is already so, the other emphasizes transforming what is not yet fully realized.

Correspondingly, the methods diverge. Dzogchen centers on a direct introduction to rigpa, intrinsic awareness, through pointing-out instructions that reveal the natural state in an immediate, experiential way rather than through conceptual explanation. Once this recognition occurs, practice emphasizes effortless abiding in that awareness, allowing thoughts and emotions to self-liberate without suppression, manipulation, or elaborate analysis. Gradual approaches, on the other hand, rely on structured sequences of practice—ethical discipline, concentration, analytical meditation, visualization, mantra, and related methods—designed to reshape the mind step by step until realization gradually dawns.

This contrast also appears in the understanding of effort, time, and path. From the Dzogchen perspective, there is ultimately “no path” to traverse, because the goal is present from the very beginning; what is called a path functions only to remove temporary obscurations to what is already complete. Direct realization can, in principle, occur in an instant, though stabilizing and integrating that recognition may still unfold over time. Gradual traditions explicitly frame realization as the culmination of long-term, deliberate cultivation, often conceived as extending over vast periods, with clearly articulated stages and milestones that mark the progressive refinement of mind and the transformation of mental states through antidotes and systematic training.