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In Dzogchen ground (Tibetan: གཞི, Wylie: gzhi; IAST: āśraya or sthāna) is the primordial state. It is an essential component of the Dzogchen tradition for both the Bonpo and the Nyingmapa. Knowledge of this Ground is called rigpa.
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Etymology
The Tibetan: གཞི, Wylie: gzhi has been rendered as 'Base', 'Basis', 'Ground' and 'Ground of Being' amongst other English glosses. According to Dudjom the original Sanskrit-term is āśraya (IAST; Sanskrit Devanagari: आश्रय; Etymology: आ- √श्रि), but it could also be sthāna.
Sam van Schaik states that gzhi is to be distinguished from kun gzhi. In the Seminal Heart series a distinction is made between kun gzhi, c.q. ālaya, "the base of it all", the samsaric basis of consciousness, of all the samsaric appearances; and gzhi, "the nirvanic basis known as the ground."
Three qualities
According to the Dzogchen-teachings, the Ground or Buddha-nature has three qualities:
(In Goodman & Davidson 1992,) Herbert V. Guenther points out that this Ground is both a static potential and a dynamic unfolding. They give a process-orientated translation, to avoid any essentialist associations, since
ngo-bo (facticity) has nothing to do with nor can even be reduced to the (essentialist) categories of substance and quality; [...] rang-bzhin (actuality) remains open-dimensional, rather than being or turning into a rigid essence despite its being what it is; and that thugs-rje (resonance) is an atemporal sensitivity and response, rather than a distinct and narrowly circumscribed operation.
The 19th/20th-century Tibetan Buddhist scholar, Shechen Gyaltsap Gyurme Pema Namgyal, sees the Buddha-nature as ultimate truth, nirvana, which is constituted of profundity, primordial peace and radiance:
Buddha-nature is immaculate. It is profound, serene, unfabricated suchness, an uncompounded expanse of luminosity; nonarising, unceasing, primordial peace, spontaneously present nirvana.
The Prayer of Kuntuzangpo
Beings are trapped in samsara by not recognizing the ground. The Prayer of Kuntuzangpo from the Gonpa Zangthal states:
From the beginning you beings are deluded
Because you do not recognize
The awareness of the ground