ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the highest level of existential insight: the state of existential balance arising when a practitioner realizes the nature of their mind and reality. In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of Dzogchen, this state is described as abiding in pristine awareness, which eliminates afflictive sources of self-construal together with afflictive perceptions of reality. At the same time, the practitioner’s mind manifests five kinds of primordial awareness. Neuroscientific findings of brain activation associated with non-dual awareness are considered. The implications of this state for our understanding of the existential drive and human potential for existential well-being are also discussed.
