Chogshag
Chogshag / Cog bzhag
"Leave as it is"
With atiyoga we reach the culmination of the paths of realization: Dzogchen, or "total perfection," whose characteristic path, being based on the knowledge of self-liberation, does not entail any more transformation. In fact, when we understand the principle of self-liberation, we come to recognize that not even the method of transformation of tantra is the ultimate path. The fundamental point of the practice of Dzogchen, called tregchod or "release of tension," is to relax in the state of contemplation, while the way to remain in this state is called chogshag, "leaving as it is."
chogshag / chokshak / chok shyak
Tibetan: ཅོག་བཞག་
Wylie: cog bzhag
Literal sense: “leave it as it is,” “let it be,” “leave in its own condition”
In Dzogchen, cog bzhag designates a mode of non-contrived resting in which mind, awareness, and appearances are not altered, corrected, suppressed, or improved through conceptual effort. It does not mean mere passivity or blankness. Rather, it indicates an alert, unmanufactured abiding in the natural condition, in which whatever arises is left unmodified and is allowed to resolve without grasping. ([Lotsawa House][1])
The term is especially important in relation to the “four ways of leaving things as they are” (cog bzhag bzhi), a classic Dzogchen formulation applied to view, meditation, conduct or appearances, and fruition. In Mipham Rinpoche’s Key Points of Trekchö, the practice of khregs chod is explained precisely through these four “leavings-as-they-are,” and the text explicitly describes trekchö through formulas such as “the view: like a mountain, left as it is” and “meditation: like the ocean, left as it is.” ([Lotsawa House][1])
For that reason, cog bzhag is best understood not as a separate doctrine from trekchö, but as one of trekchö’s characteristic practical idioms. Khregs chod—often translated “thorough cut,” “breakthrough,” or “cutting through hardness/solidity”—is explained in Dzogchen sources as the settling in which the operations of ordinary mind and discursiveness are exhausted within rigpa. Cog bzhag names the experiential style of that settling: once contrivance and fixation are cut through, one does not reintroduce them by manipulating experience. ([Lotsawa House][2])
Seen more analytically, the two terms emphasize different aspects of the same contemplative dynamic. Khregs chod names the decisive cutting through reification, conceptual hardening, and dualistic fixation. Cog bzhag names the consequent non-meddling: one neither suppresses nor cultivates, neither analyzes nor fabricates, but remains in the natural condition as it is. Thus, trekchö is the breakthrough into primordial purity, while chogshag is the manner of abiding there without alteration. This is an interpretive synthesis, but it is strongly supported by the way Mipham’s trekchö instructions are structured around the four cog bzhags. ([Lotsawa House][1])
A common misunderstanding is to take cog bzhag as spiritual quietism, indifference, or simple “doing nothing.” Dzogchen sources do not support that reading. Mipham’s language stresses a state beyond deliberate modification, but still vivid, lucid, and naturally present. The point is not negligence but freedom from artificial meditation and conceptual interference. In that sense, “leaving as it is” refers not to careless ordinary mind, but to release into the already-present nature of awareness and its display. ([Lotsawa House][1])
In summary, cog bzhag in Dzogchen means leaving mind and appearances in their own condition without contrivance, and in the context of trekchö it functions as a core practical instruction. If khregs chod is the cutting through of fixation into the natural purity of rigpa, cog bzhag is the refusal to re-tighten that fixation by managing, correcting, or reifying what arises. ([Lotsawa House][1])
If you’d like, I can turn this into an even more formal dictionary-entry style version with sections like Definition, Etymology, Doctrinal Context, Practice Function, and Related Terms.
[1]: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/mipham/key-points-of-trekcho?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Key Points of Trekchö"
[2]: https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/dongak-chokyi-gyatso/commentary-on-some-dzogchen-terms?utm_source=chatgpt.com "Some Terms from the Great Perfection"