Within Dzogchen, the triad of ground, path, and fruition is best understood as three perspectives on a single reality: primordial awareness, or rigpa. The ground is described as the fundamental nature of mind and phenomena, already pure and complete. It is characterized as empty in essence, luminous and cognizant in nature, and dynamically expressive as compassionate energy. This ground is said to be primordially pure and spontaneously present, meaning that all the qualities of awakening are inherent rather than produced over time. From this standpoint, nothing needs to be fabricated; the basis of enlightenment is already fully in place.

The path, then, is not a process of constructing something new but of directly recognizing and sustaining this ground. It begins with the master’s pointing-out instruction, through which rigpa is introduced in an immediate and experiential way. Practice is described as “non-meditation”: resting in naked awareness without contrivance, allowing thoughts and emotions to self-liberate like writing on water. Within this, two principal methods are emphasized. Trekchö, or “cutting through,” undermines all grasping by resting in the empty-luminous nature of mind, while Thögal, or “leaping over,” works with the spontaneous display of appearances to reveal the inherent presence of the ground more vividly. The path, in this sense, is simply the continuity and deepening of recognition.

Fruition is the complete and unobstructed presence of what has been the ground from the very beginning. It is described as the stabilization of recognition, where rigpa is no longer interrupted or obscured, and all adventitious stains are exhausted. At this point, the primordial purity of the ground is fully realized, and its spontaneous qualities manifest without hindrance. This is spoken of in terms of the full expression of the three bodies of a buddha—empty essence, luminous nature, and compassionate display—though these are understood as natural expressions of the same primordial awareness. From the Dzogchen perspective, ground, path, and fruition are thus not three separate stages but one reality seen with differing degrees of clarity: the ground is enlightenment as it is, the path is not losing sight of that, and the fruition is that same reality shining without any further obscuration.