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THE MIRRORNewspaperof the InternationalDzogchen Community January/February 1998IssueNo.43

Namgyalgar

UndertheCoralTreeNamgyalgarRetreat

Christmas 1997

byTonyMugg

The afternoon o f New Year 's

Daywas also a celebration of a

beautiful retreat as participants

relaxed in the shade of the Coral

tree.T he Coral tree is a lone and

ancient warrior adorned with

prayer flagsthatgrows on the sad

dle below Rinpoche's house at

Namgyalgar.A wind blew up and

tallclouds werebuildingon them

selves over the surrounding

mountains while retreatants

enjoyed a wonderful feast, pre

pared by Grit Fair, under the

beloved tree.

A Gakyi l meeting prior to the

retreatha d finalized plans, but the

discussion was dominated by our

concern with bush fires. Some

weeks of dry weather had made

everything brittle and the air was

now heavy withvolatile eucalyp

tus oil from thetrees of the forest.

Wehad studied the history of fires

in the district and considered how

best to protect the lives of every

one at theretreat; how to evacuate

one hundred and seventy people

and where.

Water storage, fire pumps and

hoses, notices, warning sirens,

fire buckets, the formation of fire

fighting teams to stay on the land

during a fire so that Rinpoche's

house and the Gonpa could be

saved after a fire front passed

through, were subjects all thor

oughly covered. Throughout the

day, the smell of dryness justified

our fear and care. The thought of

local rain showers before the

retreat was no comfort as a dry

northwest wind can rise so quicklyand mockinglyerase thatgentle

gesture.

As Christmas approached the

weather moderated. It was still

dry. but not so hot. Workers

arrived to help.Alan Gilbert with

the preparations. Brian Snowden

from Melbou rne. Sean from New

Zealand and from the U SA , the

Connecticut Cowboy. Jim Smith.

Al so our gekod Federica and

assistant gekod Bob returned from

their travels with Rinpoche in

India.Their work went well in the

milder conditions and Namgyal

gar looked safe andwelcoming.

Rinpoche arrived from Sydney

happily showing his tiger spirit;

robust, lively and very much at

ease.He looked so wel l .His journey through Tibet and India and

his time in Singapore obviously

enlivenedhim.

With hot weather forecast, the

Gak y i l submitted the concerns we

had about the safety of everyone

inthe event of a fire and gave Rin

poche an outline of our precau

tions. Rinpoche was not too wor

ried, but said our preparations

were important and it was neces

sary to consider everyone's safety.

Rinpoche then observed thatas so

many people were camping at

Namgyalgar,rainwouldbe incon

venient for them, so maybe it

would be betterif the rain came at

the end of the retreat.Through theweek of the retreat, the days were

warm and the air still . One day

was even hot enough for Rin

poche toswim in the ocean.

On New Year's Day the

remains of lunch were being

packed away and the towering

clouds continued to form. Light

ningand thunder surrounded us at

a respectable distance; then rain.

Big, soft, warm drop s of rain. We

al l stood beneath the canopy of

the Coral tree and watched as it

became steadier and heavier.

Two nights later, the air still

moist with rain and as thunder

rolledover the hills,theGak y i l sat

on the verandah of Rinpoche andRosa's house. In a relaxed and

jovia l spirit Rinpoche talked

about the development of Nam

gyalgar and gave us guidelines for

the progress thatwould take place

over the next two years. Rinpoche

was alsoexplicit about the Gakyi l

arranging a series of strong prac

tice retreats to be held at Nam

gyalgar throughout this time. He

looked forward with hope to the

next teaching retreat at Namgyal

gar at the end of 1999.

TheRetreatwithTsokNyiRinpocheatMerigar

bySergio Quaranta

Thisyear I came to the Christmas

retreat at Merigar with the finn

intention to follow the entireretreat.

There was no precise reason for my

decision, since I only knew Tsok

Ny iRinpoche from his photo on the

brochure announcing theretreat.To

meet him in person was a very

pleasant and precious surprise.

From the very beginning, Rin

poche directed his teaching to a very

concrete leveldescribing how we, in

general, continuously focus our

attention externally, becoming

slaves to objects, distancing our

selves more and more from ournat

ural condition and ending up

becoming strangers to ourselves.

Losing contact with that which we

really are is the source of sadness,

anger and depression, in other

words,suffering.

Why do we fall into this trap?

The cause lies in perceivingvision

inthe wrong way. We attribute con

crete substance tothatwhichhas no

absolute existence; we strongly

believe that objects are solid and

real and as a consequence we

believein the realityofour"I".

Here the Master explained that

our mind, "the knower". has two

ways ofworking:one way is grasp

ing,the other is being free from any

action which can produce karma.

Respectively, these ways are noth

ingother than the expression of the

superficial aspect (which we could

call relative) of the mind, and the

profound or essential aspect of the

minditself,whichare not in opposi

tionbut naturally inseparable.

Since we fall into this confu

sion, istherea way to come out of

it? Of course there is. Rinpoche

explained the essential method of

Dzogchenof applying 'non-medi

tation non-distraction'. This

apparent contradiction makes us

understand how distraction itself

is the source of all our problems.

On the other hand, maintaining

presence during any type of

action, whether sitting for formal

practice or any type of activity in

daily life,is the keywhich unlocks

the door of liberation. Rinpoche

put into perspective the concept

we often have, andwhichis only a

concept, of seeing the 'practice' as

something very elevated as

opposed to mundane daily life

which is something to reject. In

Dzogchenit is not

likethat,on the

contrary we cannot reallycall our

selves 'dzogpachenpos' as long as

this separation exists.

The Master spoke at length on

the base, the path, the fruit and the

way of seeing, meditation and

behavior, as well as what ismeant

by awareness with and without

effort. He then gave a complete

explanation on the three ways to

liberate that which arises and

which manifests as reflections

withinour minds.

Tsok Ny iRinpoche asked us to

be simple people, even if we are

complicatedexternally, in thesense

ofdo ing everythingwhichwe have

to do in normal life, but capable of

maintaininga mindwhichis simple

and pure. The Master compared this

simplicity to a wise old man who

lives happily with the little that he

has, without complaining when it

rains or when it is sunny, but enjoy

ingall typeso fconditions.

During the teachings Tsok Ny i

Rinpocheoften stopped to ask us all

questions to be sure that we had

understood the crucial points. Dis

satisfied withvague andphilosophi

cal-type answers, he always showed

us how to precisely recognize any

possible problem or obstacle and

then punctually gave the solution,

the way to overcome it. The numer

ous examples the Master gave to

illustrate various situations were

very amusing, such as the story

about the young man who learns to

drive. At the beginning he is timid

and insecure,withall hissensesalen

withthe tension. But then he gradu

allystarts to feel more secure and is

able to drive in the traffic even while

he is listening to music and hugging

the girl seated next to him.Telling

these stories withhis humorous and

effective gestures the Master indi

cated how we could deal with the

practice and gradually gain confi

dence in it.

The days started at nine in the

morning for many people who met

inthe Gonp a for an hour before the

teaching for a session of contempla

tion. After the afternoon teachings.

Rinpoche's assistant. Lama Tashi.

led a collective practice with

moments of contemplation alternat

edwiththe practice of Vajrasattva.

During these periods Rinpoche

received those who wished to see

himin private to ask personal ques

tions or simply to communicate

their appreciation.

More than once Tsok NyiRin

poche personally led the afternoon

collectivepractice and on one occa

sion asked us to get up and walk

around the Gonpa to experience and

test our capacity to maintain our

presence and remain in the stateof

rigpa integrated with movement.

Everything went very well. The

Master.LamaTashi and the transla-

continuedonpage5

SPECIAL NEW YEAR

PILGRIMAGE ISSUE

C O N T E N T S

2 IMPORTANCEOKTHE DZOGCHEN

COMMINITI

ChgyalNamkhaiSorbii

2 1998 SCHEDILEOF

CHGYAL NAMKHAIN'ORBI

3 ORIGINOF TIBETAN LANGUAGE .AND

CULTORE

AtalkbyChgyalNamkhai Norbii

4 THENATURE AND MEANINGOF

S.ANTl MAHA SANGHA

AdrianoClemente

5 INTERVIEWWITH TSOK NYI RINPOCHE

7 MASTER BIOGRAPH-:":YESHEDO

JimYalby

7 BOOK REVIEWS

9 TASHI DELEC.

WoodyPapara::o

10 APILGRIMAGE TOTHE MIDDLE LAND

Li: Gratiner

12 PILGRIMSINTIBET

MichaelKai:

13 COMMUNITY NEWSITO PG 16)

19 REFLECTIONS:HOW 1MET THE

TEACHINGS

20 PASSTHE PARCEL

JohnShane

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ChgyalNamkhaiNorbu

TheImportance

of the

DzogchenCommunity

There are many newer and older studentsi ntheDzogchen

Community who do nothavea clear idea orunderstanding

about what theDzogchen Community i s,and why it is so

important. SinceIhavecreated the Dzogchen Community,it

is my duty toclarifywhy it is so important.

On avariety ofoccasions, Ihave tried to explain how

important our Dzogchen Communityis for Dzogchen practi

tioners. Itseemsmany people don'tcarevery much;theythink

thatNamkhai Norbu is givin g importance to the organization

of the Dzogchen Community becauseit ishis own Dharma

Center. Some people say, "I liketo come tofollowyourteach

ing andretreats, but I don't like theorganization of the

Dzogchen Community."With these kinds ofmisunderstand ings, recently some

Dzogchen Ati followers ofmy teaching - notonlystudents

who have been following myteachings occasionally,but

those who have been following all my teachings for many

years such asDzogchen Semde, Longde and Upadesha, as

wellas followingmy SM STrainings - are in a lot ofconfusion

about the way theyview the Dzogchen C ommunity. They are

going more and more inopposition to theprincipleof the

Dzogchen Community and creating their own Dharma Cen

terstohavepersonal positions. Thesepeople justify itsaying

thatthey need more freedom forthemselvesfrom the organi

zation of the Dzogchen Community.

Iunderstandverywellwhatitmeanstohavemore freedom

for oneself. Some people don't feel free inthemselvesi nthe

Dzogchen Community because they feel there is a strong

bureaucraticor control system. If this is so, we shouldnotethat

the Dzogchen Community is notfunctioning in the correct

way, andrememberwellwhatthepurposeisofhaving Gakyilsin the Dzogchen Community. We should correct the errorsof

the people who are taking on the responsibilities of the Gaky

ils. Thisis ourresponsibility. O f course, thepeople of the

Gakyilshould do theirbestto organize the Dzogchen Comm u

nity,but it is not only the duty of the people of the Gakyils.It is

also your duty. Insteado fcriticizing theorganizationof the

Dzogchen Community, you should also try tocorrect things

when you feel thereis something that really does not corre

spond to the principleofthe Gakyil.

It is very possible thata person who has beenfollowing the

teaching of Dzogchen for manyyearsmay be involved invari

ous kinds of activities. Through thatprinciple, one couldneed

such freedom and thereforedevelop their own Dharmacenter.

A ll this is very natural.I am not sayingatallthat people who

follow myteachings cannot open Dharma Centers. Of course,

they can open new Dharma Centers and have their freedom.

What I am saying isthattheyshould not do it whilefalling into

the wrong or opposing direction.

What doesit mean, thewrong oropposing direction?If

someone is following myteaching andtransmission, they

must recognize thatthe Dzogchen Community is theMain

Boat. Even if you are creating someof your ownboats,you

must always beintheMain Boat. That meansnever falling

into an opposing position to the

Dzogchen Community and criticiz

ing it, but feeling truly that the

Dzogchen Community is your own

boat andtaking careof it inthat

way. One should not feel afraidto

createaGakyi l in your own center

because itwould infringe onyour

personal position and power. In this

case,even if your Dharma Center is

not really the Dzogchen Communi

ty, itshould somehow relate to it,

just like other boats can-travel

togethercooperat ing with the Main

Boat. We cancall it: A Dharma

Center Affiliated with the

Dzogchen Community.

When you act as mystudent,asa

member of the Dzogchen Commu

nity, and do Santi Mah a Sangha

Trainings regularly, then you must

understandthatthe Dzogchen Com

munity islike being in aBi g Boat

thatcarries all mystudentsto whom

I have transmitted all my transmis-

G.DALLORTO

sions of DzogchenA ti Yoga,andtakesthem to the finalgoal of

its realization soonerorlater.That means that the Dzogchen

Community isaguaranteeto all mystudents thatthey will get

to the final goal sooner or later wi th mytransmissions of

DzogchenA ti Yoga.

Whenwe areinthesameBig Boatofthe Dzogch en Ati

YogaTransmission, which is called the Dzogchen Communi

ty,theredoesnot exist very much of a need to open a personal

Dharma Center or toabandonour Big Boat. Naturally, some

timesthere can exist specialcasesorreasonswhythere needs

to be other forms ofDharma Centers affiliated withthe

Dzogchen Community;likehaving smallboatsdue to circum

stancesorotherboatscooperating and travelingtogether to the

samegoal. In developing thesekinds of Dharma Centers, we

mustunderstandthat thesecentersmusthot develop in opposi

tion to the Dzogchen Community while using both my teaching transmissions and the Dzogchen Commu nity for their own

interests,like increasing personal position and power.

Icanunderstandverywellthatsomeonecanhave problems

with theorganization ofthe Dzogchen Community, because

we are living in time and circumstances. There can alwaysbe

problems; we do notworry about having problems because

having problems is the natural manifestation of our samsaric

condition. The real problem isneitherhaving nor not having

problems, but havingawarenesswhile inside the problems.

When wehave problems with the Dzogchen Community,

thosetroubles are usually related with people who are taking

responsibility asmembers of theGakyi l of the Dzogchen

Community. The fault is with the individ uals in theGakyi l ,not

of theDzogchen Com munity. When you find these kind of

faults, you also haveaduty tocorrect them. Th ismeansthat

you are also being responsible for the Dzogchen Community;

not only in a general way, butalso for theGakyi l of the

Dzogchen Community. It is not difficult to communicate to theGakyi l ; you can personally contactthepeople ofthe Gakyil

directly or by mail.Today wehaveall kinds of possibilities of

communication:letter,telephone,fax andE-mail.

The Dzogchen Community is for all Dzogchen At i practi

tioners. Itdoesn'tbelong only to the people of theGakyi l .That

N ' A M K H A I N O R B U R I N P O C H E ' S S C H E D U L E 1998

SINGAPORE POLAND MERIGAR, ITALY(continued)

Feb. 27-1 Mar. TeachinginSingapore May22-24 Polish Retreat August14-24 Chgyal

TAIWAN 26-29 VisitPaldanling land Namkhai Norbu

March6-8 TeachinginTaiwan** GERMANY GeneralRetreat

JAPAN(seeps 13) June5-7 GermanRetreat* August28-30 SMS IIILevel Exam

March14-15 ' Tokyo Teaching AUSTRIA September314 SMS IVLevel Training

March20-22 IslandRetreat (Japan) June10 LucidDream FRANCE

ITALY Conference* November20-22 Paris Teaching*

April9-14 MerigarRetreat June12-14 AustrianRetreat Novmber27-29 Karmaling Teaching

RUSSIA MERIGAR,ITALY PORTUGAL

April20-22 Santi MahaSangha June25 HisHoliness December4-6 PortugalRetreat*

BaseLevelExam, SakyaTrizin BRAZIL

Moscow ZhenpaZhidral December12 PublicTalk,SanPaolo

April23-27 SMS 1stLevel training T e a c h i n g December18-20 SITIORetreat*

May1-5 Moscow retreat June26-28 HisHoliness ARGENTINA

May8-10 SMS 1stLevelExam SakyaTrizin Dec.28-4Jan.1999 TashigarRetreat

May 11-15 SMSnLevel Training VajraKilayaTeaching

July24-28 Chgyal

Namkhai Norbu

GeneralRetreat

Venuesto be announced.Use International ContactsListfordetails(seeThe Mirrorissue #42).

**To beconfirmed

meansthatall Dzogchen practitioners are in thesameboatand

they should take careofthe Dzogchen Community just like

their own home. That is how our Dzogchen Community mem

bersmustbe in our Dzogchen Community.

Even so,why aresome ofmy older students opening

their own Dharma Centers? Nowadays in India, Nepal and

many places of the Western world , many new Dharma cen

tersormonasteries are manifesting suddenly and easily like

mushrooms flourishing in therainy days of summer. It

seems like something wonderful for the diffusion ofDhar

ma. Itcouldbe sorelatively,but thereal condition isvery

different from that. So, it isbetter weunderstand alittle

moreclearlyabout the real condition.

For example, when a Lama who ismainly interestedin

receiving money and power, etc., arrives in the Western world

or inaSoutheastAsian country, he can say he shouldcreatea

Dharma Center for the diffusion of the Buddha's teaching. The

Lama can saythathe needsto build a Dharma Center or a

monasteryforagroup o f monks to livein . Of course, forthat

purpose, hecan get some generous donors, orcan receive

directly sumsof money. This allsoundsvery nice,doesn't it?

But in the real sense,mosto fthesekinds of activities arejust

worldlyDharmabusinesses.Theyhavenothing to do with the

Buddha Dharma.

I am not saying that all Lamas traveling in the West and

SoutheastAsiancountries are doing this-we know very welltherearemany good and serious Lamas - but at thesame

time, therearealso some Lamas whoaremostly concerned

with.doing akindof Dharma business. I am referring tothose

kinds of Lamas.

Ifwetakeas an example the kindof Lama whowantsto be

an important worl dly Lama , the first thing thathe does is use

sometechniquethatencouragesmany people to pay respectto

him.Ho wdoeshe do it? Hetriestobuilda smallmonasteryor

a center under his own name and then hetriesto getsome

donors forthat project. Ofcourse, hecan't saythat he is

preparing for his position or worldly power. What heneedsto

say isthat he is working for the benefit o f the diffusion of the

Dharma or for the service of a small community of monks or

nuns.Yes,of course, relativelythereare always some benefits,

such asdiffusing theteaching orhaving benefit for asmall

Sangha, etc. But itsnegativeside for the life of real Dharma is

incomparable.

When he succeedstobui ldhis ownseat,thenhebecomesa venerable Lama. Hehasmorepossibilitieso fdeveloping

still moreo fthese kinds of activities for supporting his own

position. This Lama's seat carries more andmore of a

wealthy position and he has moreandmorepower overthose

dependentpeople. Thus hebecomesamoreandmore impor

tantLama orafamous teacher and has the title of Rinpoche

and so on. This is the realreasonfor creating so many monas

teriesorDharma centersi none'so wnname.Of course, this

technique can be used not only by Tibetan Lamas, but also by

Westernersas well.

You may ask: "Didn't youcreateyour Dzogchen Commu

nity inthatway?" WhenIwas 3yearsold , and thenagainat 5

yearsold,Ihad already received recognitionas avery impor

tant high LamaorTeacher reincarnation, therefore Idid not

needto construct it. Even though Ihad been recognizedas

such, since the beginning Ihaven'thad anydesiretobecomea

Buddhist teacherin general, or a Dzogchen Teacher in particu

lar. So how couldI havetheidea of preparing tobecomeanimportant Lam a or a famousteacher?

You may know this already, but after many yearsof living

in the West, in Italy, many Italians asked me toteach the Dhar

ma. TheGyalwaKarmapa particularly had asked merepeated

lytoteachDharma to Italian Dharma followers. But I had hesi

tatedforsome years reflecting on it,

becauseI knewthat to give teaching

meant working with the transmis

sion and sinceIwas also still on the

path,Idid not want to play with the

very important transmissions Ihad

received from myteachers.

Finally, when Idecided to pay

respect to the order of Gyalwa

Karmapa, andmake those people

happy who were interested to

receive Dharma teachings, Istarted

to teach principally theDzogchen

Teachings, and at thesame timeI

tookapromise of 27 commitments

for my teachings that they not

become something related toper

sonal interests, etc. Since then I

have always transmitted all my

Dharma teachings ingeneral,and

the Dzogchen A ti Teachings inpar

ticular, while maintaining these27

commitments.

I created the Dzogchen Com-

continuedonpage4

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TheOriginofTibetanLanguage

and CultureAtalkgivenattheTibetanInstituteof PeiformingArtsinDharamsala

byNamkhai'NorbuRinpoche

November1.1997

Today I am very happy to behereat the Tibetan Insti

tute of Performing Arts and wish to express my

appreciationfor the study and preservation of an impor

tantand ancient aspect of Tibetan culture done hereat

the Institute. I consider this work very important.

As you know, the activity you do is related to our

culture.In Tibet we have a different ways ofclassifying

fields of knowledge. For example, we speak about the

ten minor fields and the five principal fields of knowl

edge. Artfalls into one of the five principal fields ofknowledgeunder the nameo fsowa rig pa, whichmeans

artsor handicrafts.

The work of art is related to our threeexistences of

body,speech andmindand when we practice the Dhar-

ma,the foundation of the practice are the threedoors of

body,speech andmind.When we are complete inthat,

we are considered to be sentient beings. Therefore

whenwe practice the teaching we have to rely on the

three doors. They are called the three doors because

whenwe practice the Dharma we obtain liberation in

relationtothese threedoors, sotheseare the doorsthat

leadus toliberation.

Inart, for example, we use our body to express vari

ous moods in a physical way.Even with regard to pro

ducing works of art such as paintings or statues, this

workis done through the doorofthe body.

But thatis not the onlyway of expressing art with

the body. We can express ourselves when we are underthe influence of strong emotions such as attachment o r

hatred and so on. These emotions manifest in our body,

in the expression of our face, the movement of our

hands, etc., and become the object of theatrical repre

sentation. When yo u look at Indian dances, especially

the ancient ones, you can see thatthey are very skillful

in expressing different mental states by means of the

movement of the hands, the eyes, and the body. There

fore, this manifestation of expression through visible

physicalaspectsis very important.

Thenin art we use the door of speech when we are

chantingor singing. As for the way of using the door

of the mind, that is the door that underlies those of

speech and physical activity. These verbal and physi

cal doors through which our innerstates manifest are

veryimportant, especially in the first of the five sci

ences oTSOwa rigpa.

InTibet when we explain or teach about the five sciences, scholars usually saythatthey originated in India.

Forexample, when you speak aboutdra rigpa, literally

meaning "grammar", immediately you think about the

Sanskritgrammar the grammar ofKalapa.theChan-

drapa grammar, thePaninigrammar andSQon. Scholars

usuallyexplain il in this way and itseemsthat besides

this Sanskrit grammar,thereis no other science ofgram

mar or language which is peculiar to Tibet. But this is

not the case. Mere, when we talk about dra rigpa in

Tibetan, we are referring to the ability to use speech.

Dra rigpa refers to the science of using the language:

knowledgeof the words, the grammar, the syntax and

all these aspects of the language.

For Tibetans this mainly refers to

their use of Tibetan language, notonly to Sanskrit grammar. For

example, in our Tibetan language

there are many words that have no

root in Sanskrit, so when we want to

identify this science of dra rigpa,

we have to saythatit refers mainly

to the language and letters of the

writtenTibetan language. The basis

for the spoken Tibetan language is

the letters.

There is some misunderstanding

about Tibetan language which I

found out about through my own

experience. When I first went to

Italy on the invitation of Professor

TuccL I worked with him for two

years.After this I went to teach on

my own at the University. While I.was teaching there, I noticed that

the course of study for Tibetan lan

guage was two years, while for the

other languages it was four years.

At the beginning I was new and

inexperienced, but later I ques

tioned why there were only two

years for the study ofTibetanlanguage required, when

it was four for the study of other languages. The

answer was not clear, so I made an investigation. At

first I thought it was because Imyselfdidn't have any

kind of Western diploma,only an Indian one. Then I

discovered another reason.

Generally Tibetan scholars teach that the Tibetan

language originated at the time of Songtsen Gampo.

around the 8th century.PriortothatnoTibetan language

existed.Scholars used to say thatthe Tibetan language

was created byThonmi Sambhota, the minister of theKingwho wassentto India in order tocreatea written

language forTibet.PriortothatTibet did not have any

writtenlanguage and was presented as "a land of igno

rance" or "a land ofobscurity".Inthatcountry of dark

ness due to the kindness of the Dharma kingof Tibet

who was a manifestation of the Buddhas and Bod-

hisattvas, the sun and the moon finally shone overTibet

and dispelled the darkness. Then the various fields of

knowledgeappeared and developed atthattime.

Western scholars who were studying under the

Tibetans were obviously exposed to that view and

accepted it as being true; the language, the various dif

ferent sciences such as astrology, medicine and so on

were thought to have been introducedexclusively from

neighboring countries such as India and China.There

fore when one holds such aview,naturally, Tibetancul

ture and language become a branch of the other two

major languages and do nof have an original statusoftheir own. A nd Tibet remained like a man without his

own limbs.So atthattime I understoodthatthe two year

course of study was due to this fact.

Then I thought that this cannot be the case, there

must be an originfor Tibetan language and culture in

the country itselfand I started to inquire. Usually we

haven't done thiskindo finquiry in Tibet in thepast.I

had many kinds of texts and scriptures at my disposi

tion so I started to look at them to see ifthere was

some proof to say thatTibetan culture originated in

Tibetitself.

I looked at the Bonpo texts because they indicated

that prior to Songtsen Gampo there was a language

used and it was the language of Shang Shung which

was used in Shang Shung.inTibet.But thatwas a prob

lem because i f the language prior to Songtsen Gampo

was the language of Shang Shung. then it was not the

language of Tibet , but of a different race of people toTibetans.Ifthatwas the case, the problem of the origin

of Tibetan language and culture was still there. So I

started to study the history of the ancient kingd om of

ShangShung.

Now we must remember that there were six clans

which were antecedent to the formation of the king

doms of Shang Shung and Tibet. These six families are

usuallyknown as the sixoriginalTibetan clans. One of

them was known asDraorKhyungand it wasfrom this

clan that the Kingdom o Shang Shung descended.

Therefore because we speak of theoriginalsix clans of

Tibet, from one ofwhich came about the ki ngdom of

VIKRAMAS1LA FOUNDATION

HisHoliness

SakyaTrizinwillgive teachingson

theZhenpaZhidral

(BeyondtheFour

Attachments)

andthe Initiation of

VajraKilaya

June25-28,1998at

Merigar

H. H. SakyaTrizinwas born in

Tsedong, Southern Tibet in 1945.

Heis descended fromtheKhonroy

al family, one of the most ancient

Tibetan spiritualfamilies,and is'the

forty-first in an unbroken lineage of

lamas that stretches back to 1073

AD . He is the head of the Sakya tra

dition, and the title 'Sakya Trizin'

means 'Hol der of the Throne of

Sakya'. He became the head of the

Sakya at the age of seven upon the

death of his father, and has received

an intensive training in

the study and practices

of the Sakya tradition.

Whilst still a child, he

completed a seven-

monthretreat.

Amongst his main

teacherswere: Jamyang

Khyentse Chokyi

Lodro,NgawangLodro

Shenpen Nyingpo.

Chogye Trichen Rin

poche, and Khenpo

AppeyRinpoche.

In 1959, at the age

offourteen, he left Tibet

duringthe Chinesemili

tary takeover and went to India. He

then studied with H. E. Chogye

Trichen Rinpoche, who instructed

him on the Rime collections, the

'Gyude Kundu' (Collection of

Tantras), and the 'Lamdre'.As well

asholdingthethreemain Sakyalin

eagesof Sakya, Tsar andNgor.H .

H. SakyaTrizinholds the complete

teachings of both the Iron Bridge

and Great Perfection lineages of

Nyingma,given by Drupchen Rin

poche and Jamyang Khyentse Rin

poche respectively. He is alsohold

er of the Lamdre teachings, which

cover the Hinayana.Mahayana andMantrayanapaths. He has founded

numerous monasteries throughout

India and East Asia, and estab

lished his seat in exile at Rajpur.

U. P. India, near to which he

founded Sakya College, the

school of higher philosophical

studies where training is given in

logic,philosophy and psychology.

He is fluent inEnglish, and since

1974 he has made several world

tours teaching in Eur ope, the USA

and Southeast Asia.

R E T R E A T S

vu /1 h

N A M K H A I N O R B U R I N P O C H E

At Merigar

E AS T E R RE T RE ATATM E R I G A R , ITALY

April9t h- 14th, 1998

RinpochewillgiveDzogchenTeachings in distinct sessions for the

new and older practitioners.

Theretreatbegins atThursday,Apr il9th 1998 at 5 pm.

Thecosts are 250.000lire(or 50.000lireper day)withthe usual

reductions for members.

FIRST S U M M E R R E T R E A TAT ME RI GAR, ITALY

July 24th-28th, 1998

TheretreatbeginsFriday July24th, 1998 at5pm.

Thecosts are 200.000lire(or 50.000lireper day)withthe usual

reductions for members.

SEC ONDS UMM E R RE T RE AT AT ME RI GA R, ITALY

August14th-21st, 1998

TheretreatbeginsFriday,August14th, 1998 at 5 pm.

Thecosts are 350.000lire(or 50.000lireper day)withthe usual

reductions for members.

ShangShung, we can basically say that the language of Shang Shung is a

Tibetanlanguage.

Sothe written language of Shang Shung existedfromthe very beginning

of thediffusion of the Bnpoteaching. TheBnposaythatthe writtenlan

guage of Shang Shung was created by Shenrab Miwoche. the founder of

Bnpo.So at thattime I really started to look into many scriptures of the

Bnpo.

After I read many Bnpo texts, the history of Shang Shung started to

unfold before me. Prior to the advent of the Tibetan kings and kingdom,

therewere many generations, at least 18.of the kings of Shang Shung.When

Imade a roughcalculationof the yearscoveringthe history of Shang Shung.

1found outthatit started about 4 000 years ago. Whe n I made thiscalculation

itbecame clear to methatthe history of Shang Shung is almost as old as the

historyofChinaand India.

Later,when we held meetings or conferences at the Uni\ersity to discuss

variousaspectsof Tibetan culture since atthattime1was teaching sub

jects such as astrology, medi cine, etc.1would assertwitha certain arro

gance thisview thatTibetan medicine, culture and otheraspectsol the cul

ture thatwent back much before Songtsen Gampo, and we can findthe proof

of this in the Bnpo texts. Atthat time variousaspectsof the culture were

transmittedwiththe use of the written language ofShangShung.

continuedonpage6

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NotToo TightandT

'sok Nyi Rinpoche is the son of

Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, the

great Dzogchen and Mahamudra

masterwho recently passed away.

He is the third reincarnation of

Drubwang TsokNyi, anoutstand-

ingyogiand Drukpa Kargyumas-

ter and is connected withboththe

Drukpa Kargyu and Nyingma lin-

eages. He usually lives in Nepal

where he is responsible for his

monastery and a nunnery. He isalso the spiritual leader of Gechak

Gompa, a retreat centerfor one

thousand yoginis ineastern Tibet.

He recently gave several daysof

teaching at Merigar and kindly

consented to give this interview

for The Mirror.

Th e M i r r o r :Our first question

has two parts. Firstly you grew up

withyour father who was also one

ofyour gurus and wewould liket o

ask you about this experience. And

then in regard to the West where

there are lot ofdifficulties in rela

tionships between children and

parents, do you have any advice for

parents and children about this

relationship.

Tsok Nyi Rinpoche: Firstly

until 1 was about thir teen I spent

most ofmytimewithTulku Urgyen

RinpocheinNepal. AfterthatI went

to India and I stayedwith Khamtrul

Rinpoche in Tashi Jong. An d the

reason for that is thatpreviously

both the first and the second Tsok

Nyi Rinpoches had very close rela

tionships with the Khamtrul Rin-

poches sometimes Khamtrul

Rinpoche was TsokNyi Rinpoche's

guruand sometimes Tsok Nyi Rin-

poche was Khamtrul Rinpoche's

guru.They had a guru/disciple rela

tionship that changed backwards

and forwards. I went to India from

the time that I was about thirteen

and I stayed there basically for

twelveyears, butwithinthattwelve

years I frequently came back to

Kathmandu and in the presence of

myfather, Tulku UrgyenRinpoche

I requested further instructions and

received oraladv ice and soTorth.

Somy first guru, when we con

sider the Nyingma tradition and

the Dzogchen tradition in particu

lar, is Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche.

After that I met with His Holiness

the previous Dilgo Khyentse Rin-

poche and requested many oral

instructions and initiations, and

having received those he also

became one ofmyroot gurus.Stillas far asTulku Urgyen Rin-

poche is concerned, some sort of

special feeling, some kindof happi

ness and source of confidence,

came about through

being withh im. Not

only through being

with him, but even

now I have some

kind of joyful feel

ing in myheart and

that is only through

the kindness of

Tulku Urgyen Rin-

poche. It's some

thingI gotfromhim.When he was

alive he was really

like a bodhisattva.

He never closed his door to

anyone. He gave teaching to

whoever came from any

where the world. And I

thinkthat thatkindof bless

ingstayswithme. B ut I can

not do that from time to

time I have to close my

doors. But even when he

was reallysickanddying he

stillcontinued to see people.

The doctors tried to close

his doors, but he secretly

continued to give teachings

and advice.

In my relationship with

him I always consider him

to be agreatbodhisattva and

Dzogchen practitioner. I

cannot do as he did, but in

my mind I think that his

activities and way of life

were veryhelpfulto me. Of course

he was my father but I did not have

a real worldly relationship with

him.When I was young our rela

tionshipcame through the teaching

and I realizedthathe was not only

for me but for everyone. I didn't

really mind I didn't need him as

a personal father. So when he

passed away I had thiskindof sad

ness, not as if my personal father

had passed away.

Iwaswithhim at the time of his

death and I saw the process of his

passing away and after that I felt

that a great teacher had passed

away, not my person al father. It's

very funny. We have an equal

responsibility I and all his stu

dentshave a responsibility towards

him as students. It's not as if I and

my father were alone for all our

lives.So when he passed away I felt

very sad, but in another manner

because he was also my teacher.

Whatever teaching I got was mostly

from him,especially the meditation

part of the teaching.

An dto answer the second part of

the question. The relationship

between parents and children is

becoming more and more difficult

NotTooLooseThe Middle Path

AnInterviewwith TsokNyiRinpoche

MerigarJanuary1998

byAndy LukianowiczandLi zGranger, translation by TonyDuff

and somehow I think it is a problem

of freedom. At eighteen years of

age, young people are considered to

be "free" soparentsthinkthatthey

don't have any more responsibility

for them and their children think

they are fully authorized as

grownups. But most of them are not

grownup at that time; their minds

have not grown and they still need

care anddirection. Thisis a modem

kindofproblem.

So my advice is for parents to

consider their children individually

instead of following the system.

The culture has set up a system

which has become solidified into

certain ages and so everybody is

going ahead according to the sys

tem instead offollowing their own

wisdom. What I'm suggesting is

thatinstead of people just following

the cultural system, the cultural

norms that have come into being,

thattheparentson the one hand take

more of a part in givingadvice and

guidingtheirchildren, regardless of

whether they are eighteen or twen

ty-one, whatever the age might be.

At the same time, the children be

trained somehow sothat they don't

have such a strong idea of, "Oh,

nowI've reached this age, I can do

SantiMaha Sangha

continuedfromprevious page

tualSangha.

So the aim of the Santi Maha

Sangha training is to learn how to

integrate the Dzogchen teaching in

our concrete existence according to

the methods of Semde. Longd e and

Mennagcle. And the capacity of

knowledge and integration must be

reflected in the behavior of individ-

uals in order to contribute to the

spiritualgrowth o f the Sangha.This

means thatthis period in the lifeof

the Community is the most impor

tant wc ever had. because it

depends entirely on us whether the

Dzogchen teaching Rinpoche is

transmittingwill be keptalivein its

pure form or not. Now is the time

we should alljoin our strength and

energy for the benefit of the Santi

MahaSangha,thatis the Dzogchen

Community, and especially those

whofollowthis training should not

forget what is its aim and purpose.

The Dzog chen Community has

been devised as a non-authoritarian

gakyil-based structure, in which

thereis place for everybody to par

ticipate and contribute for the bene

fit of all beings. The 'gars' are the

main places where the Dzogchen

teaching is going to be kept and

preserved for the future, and the

Santi Maha Sangha training takes

placethereand willcontinue to do

so in the future. Qualified practi

tioners, therefore, sho uld collab o

ratein the growth of theCommuni

ty because collaboration is one of

the most important samayas we

have. Otherwise we may have

many 'SantiMaha Pudgala' teach

ers and students, but without the

bodhicittamotivation of the Sang

ha, will the teaching have any life

at all in the future?

Retreat withTsok

Nyi RinpochecontinuedfrompageI

tor,TonyDuff,expressed their grati

tudefor the greathospitality and in

particular for thedeliciousfood pre

pared by Silvia and her helpers.

Because of the atmosphere o fmerri

ment and collaboration, when the

Master said good-bye I was not the

onlyone to feel a bit moved, but the

sadnesswas lightened by the aware

nessthat somewhere, sometime, in

the space withoutlimitsof the Dhar-

makaya, wewillmeet again.

Onceagain thank you Tsok Nyi

Rinpoche and many thanks to our

Master who made all this possible

through his work and his infinite

kindness.

whatever I want,"

but they, too, accept

parental direction

and advice for a

. longer period. So

individual care

needs to be devel

opedmore.

Th e Mir ror :

You are part of a

young generation

of lamas most ofwhom were bom

outside Tibet in

India.Manyof you

have studied English and

are able to communicate

with Westerners. Do you

feel a greater facility in

teaching Westerners

through this being able to

communicate directly?

Tsok Ny i Rinpoche:

You know I don't really

think about it that way;.

Dharmaflourishingor not

flourishing doesn't really

depend on those type of

things. To know English

and to know other peo

ple's cultures is not, I

think, important. The

most important thing is to

have a good understand

ingof Dhar ma and to prac

tice yourself. There are a

lot of Masters who don't

speak any English and they don't

know anything about Western cul-

ture, still they do very well in the

West. And if they don't want to do

anything in the West, they are doing

verywellin Tibet,India.Nepaletc.

The main activity comes from

the Dharm a itself. Of course if they

know some English it's easier to

relate, but the main thing is under

standing the teaching itself. If they

have a very good understanding of

the teaching and maybe some good

realization,even if they don't know

the culture of any other country or

any English still they will do very

welland be able to help very much

just like Khyentse Rinpoche or

Dudjom Rinpoche.Ijust know alit-

tle bit ofEnglish and Western cul-

ture, but this does not mean that I

canreach as many people or give as

many great blessings as Masters

suchas them.

Of course thebestthing is to be

avery gTeat master withgreatreal

ization as well as knowing about

other cultures and languages.The M i r r o r : During the teach

ingyo u spoke about integrating and

thatyou have to have something to

integrate in order to integrate itwith

everydaylife.Ho wcan we be aware

when we are integrating, when we

have something to integrate and

when we've lost it and are just lost

in everyday life? An d could you

give some advice on how to bring

this kind of rigpa or awareness into

everyday lifeand into our everyday

thinkingprocess.

Tsok Nyi Rinpoche: Actually

to really discuss this properly we

have to talk about mind and mind's

essence which means that we have

to talk about rigpa and the liveli-nessof rigpa. buttheseare not suit

able things for discussing in a

newspaper. Nevertheless, what it

comes down to is that what one

needsto be able to do isthat within

the state of the view whatever

afflictions arise one needs to be

able to liberate them. Or putting it

backwards you need to be able to

liberate whatever afflictions arise

and you need to be able to stay in

thestateof the view to dothat. It's

notthatyou're going together with

afflictions. It's notlikethis.

Forexample if athiefcomes, in

order to integrate it means you need

to liberate the thief. It's wrong if

you join the thief thinkingthatyou

are integrating with him because

you are not going against him. In

this way you are not liberating the

thief, you are just going together

withhim and doing what he wants

todo.That is not integration.

Isee a lot of people likethis allthe time. They have desire and they

follow it, doing whatever desire

wants them to do consideringthat

this is integration. That is not inte

gration. That is making desire

stronger and joining with it. Inte

grating means that whatever of the

afflictions come, whether it is

anger, passion, aggression, whatev

er, you know and you are not car

ried away by it . You are also not

fighting it. Somehow you see the

reality of the afflictions so they are

just released by themselves. If you

can do that then you are not afraid

ofanything and you become likea

hero. Because wherever you go

appearance is there, so you are notreally rejecting appearance, you are

dealing withit. So you can explain

itinthatkindofway.

Thisis one ofthesetwo kinds of

Buddhawisd om because you know

the key point of the affliction so

even if it comes it doesn't matter for

youbecause you knowthatthe root

of affliction has no real solid exis

tence. But at the same time you are

expert in how to deal with the cir-

cumstances.

So as I said before, to explain

thiskindo fthingwe need to use the

terminology of mind and mind's

essence and so forth, but in my tra

ditionand my way of doing things

until someone has stayed with me

for say, 8 or 9 days in retreat and

heard the whole explanation from

top to bottom, then it's not appropri

ate for them to hear about these

things at all.

The M i r r o r : Rinpoche, this is

your first time inMerigar.How did

you likeit?Apart fromthe food.

Tsok N yi Rinpoche: Actually

I've been to Europe a few times

even though I've not come here

before. Coming here what I see,

having been to Europe and other

places, is that people are quite

relaxedhere, their minds are quite

easy and because it's like that I

really like it here. If you don'tknow well you think people don't

understand because Italian people

don't show so much expression on

their faces, at least in terms of

what we've seen, but when you

ask a question they understand

perfectly.So because ofthatI also

learned about a different culture

and at the same time the openness

made me happy.

Thenwh en I heard about Norbu

Rinpoche'sactivities especially in

Tibet, that made me very happy.

I've heard a lot about Namkhai

NorbuRinpoche buthereI came to

his seat at Merigar and met the

director of ASIA and heard how

he's he lping childre n in Tibetbuilding hospitals and schools in

remote areas where they need it.

not just in the main tow n. It's not a

political thing, it's just helping in

Tibet. When I heard about this 1

was very happy.

Sothewhole thing has made me

relaxed but not in a stupid way.

So especially for people here,

take care very well not too tight

and not too loose, middle path.

The M i r r o r : Thank you very

much.Rinpoche.

THE MIRROR JANUAR Y/FEBRUARY 1998 5

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OriginofTibetanLanguagecontinuedfrompage3

Nowadays in Tibet we use twodifferent forms of the written language. We can say that the formwith the big letters was created byThonmi Sambhota. Prior to theKing Songtsen Gampo since itseems that there was no language

specificto Tjbet, we must have beenusingthe language of Shang Shung.Of the two forms thatwere used inShang Shung,maryigwas thewritten language of Shang Shung usedinTibet prior to Songtsen Gampo.

No w in Tibetan language wehave two written forms, lichen,with the big letters and umedwhich is a formof cursive writingto write quickly. Cursive writingdefinitely had its origin in themaryigscript of Shang Shung.

GenerallyI have agreatconsideration for the books of GedunChoepel. but concerning the language I am in disagreement with

him. He says that the umed, thesmall letter script, came about as aresult of writing the big lettersquickly. I cannot agree with this.For example, the Bhutanese use aquick form of the big letters, buteven though it is a quickform, theyalwaysremain big letters. Howev erquicklywe write theuchen(big letters), theywil lnever becomeumed(small letters) of the other scriptthat we use in Tibetan. With theuchen, we usually start from theright and go to the left but with theumedwe mai nly write the lettersfromleft to right. So it is akindof acontradiction to say that if youwrite the big letters quickly they

can transform into small letters. Atthat time I asserted at my conferences that the small letter camefrom the maryig, the letters of themar script of the Bnpo, even if Ididn't haveal l the proof.

There were many other professors and I was junior to them andthey started to say,"Oh, he's ajuniorprofessor, he's also young and he'sspeaking with such an insistenceand arrogance of hisviewthatdoesnot agree with the view of manygreatTibetan scholars.A l lthegreatTibetanscholars of thepastsaidthatat the time of Songtsen Gampo,ThonmiSambhota went to India andbrought back the scriptthat became

the Tibetan script " Many peoplestarted todislikeme but since I am aTibetan and I had in mind to preserve my own culture, I asserted myview withthat aim.

In any case because.I had thatin mind. I definitely made up mymind to pursue my investigationuntil the end.

I continued to pursue my studies and the very first outcome of myresearch was the book I wrotecalled. The Necklace of Jewels. Inthis book I quoted many sourcesfrom the Bnpo texts on the originofTibetanculture and language.

After I had written the book Iwas reluctant to send it to apublisher because I heard some criticismfrom some of the people who hadread the book: the monasteries andso on who were accusing me ofmakingpropaganda for the Bnpos.Although I had written it. I withheldits publication thinking that itwould be the source of agreatdealof criticismfor me.

ThenI thought that actuallythatis not the way to do it because i f Idon't put forward my view on theorigin of Tibetan culture nobodywill, and we Tibetans will be damaged by this. I thought thatmaybe itwould bebetterto present this book

to His Holiness the Dalai Lamafirst, although I was still a littleafraidbecause in some way itcouldbe interpreted as acriticismtowardthe Buddhist teaching.

AfterI senthim the book I got ananswer immediately from him. Inhis letter he told me, "You areTibetanand thisviewabout Tibetan

culture comes from a Tibetan. Weneed this type of view in modemtimes and I appreciate it very much.If you wish. I will have this bookpublished."Then I was quite happybecause if the Dalai Lama himselfwas in favor of thepublicationof thebook other people would not havemuch chance to criticize me. So itwas decided that the Library ofTibetanWorks andArchives wouldpublishit.

For some reason the book wasnot read by many people, I thinkbecause I wrote it in scholasticlanguage, the language of the collegewhere they study dialectics anddebating inTibet.I didthat becauseI thought it would appeal more toTibetan scholars, but this did notfavor the common people so I

decidedto write a shorter formo f itso I wroteThe Necklace of Zi.

Fromthatpoint on I enlarged myanalysisofTibetanhistory. Gradually I came to find many reasons andmuchpro of for my assertion.Nowadays to find reason for the assertionis quite important. I found a sourcefor the proof of the existence of theShang Shung language.

At a certain point SongtsenGampohad an illness related to thenerves of the legs. HisBnpo priesttoldh imthatthis was not an illnessthat could be cured with medicinebut was a curse of the Bnpo priestsof Shang Shung (because he had

killed their King, the last king ofShang Shung,Ligmigya).SongtsenGampo invited a Bnpo mastercalled Nangsher Lhodpo fromShang Shung to take away thecurse and when it was taken away,as a reward Songtsen Gampo gavethem a document givingsome landto the Bnpo to continue to preserve their culture. That documentis stillpreserved today inDolanjiinIndia. It is written in the ancient

language of Shang Shung. And sothe Bon culture continued and

among the sacred objects therewasa seal by this King in the ShangShungmaryig scriptwhich today is

in Dolanji.If we lookat the historyofTibet,

there are many texts that state thatprior to Songtsen Gampo Tibetanswere using the language of ShangShung.Ifyou lookat the workwritten by Pawo Tsuglag Trengwacalled The Feast of theSages,youcan clearl y see thatSongtsen Gampo sentThonmiSambhota to Indiabecause Tibet needed its own language and writing. It means thatifhesentThonmiSambhota tocreatea language thatis specific to Tibet,it indirectly proves that Tibetanswere using another language whichwas not their own. The languagethatTibet was using prior to Songt

sen Gampo was the language ofShangShung.

Evenin the biography ofVairo-cana it is clearly mentioned thatThonmi Sambhota modified theTibetanscript.Modifying the scriptmeans that therewas a script to bemodified, because you cannotmodify something that does notexist.In the history books SongtsenGampo himself was called "onewho is learned in the five sciences"buti fTibet,prio r to Songtsen Gampo, was really a land of darkness,how could there be someonelearned in the five sciences? Itmeans that at that time there were

already fields of knowledge such aslanguage and so on.

An d when Songtsen Gampo sentThonmi Sambhota 10 India, if hecamefroma land of ignorancewithout any culture, unable to understand the language, he would haveneeded alongtime to learn Sanskritand study the language in order tobe able to communicate and eventuallybring back a new script. If youlookat history youwillknowthathe

didn't stay thatlongin India. So forthese, and many other reasons, we

will find that this story sayingthatThonmi Sambhota came from aland without language and so on is

not credible.People say that it was possiblebecause Songtsen Gampo andThonmiSambhota were manifestations of bodhisattvas and they d on'tneed such alongtime as us to learnthings; they just learn immediately.I'm not sayingthat they were notbodhisattvas. Who can say? It issaid that Songtsen Gampo was anemanation of the bodhisattvaAval-okiteshvara. We can believe that.But if he was really an emanationof the bodhisattva and had the ability to know everything,there wasno need to sendThonmi Sambhotato India. Thinking this way iscalledreasoning.

Therefore it is clearthatin Tibetpriorto Songtsen Gampo we had aculture and a language. I think it isvery important for us Tibetans toassert this. Therefore I saythatourTibetanculture has its own originsinthekingdomof Shang Shung.

There are many aspects ofTibetan culture which have beenimported from countries surroundingTibet,but the basic source of ourculture comes from Shang Shung.We have many documents of TunHuang,which are very ancient, andprior to the introduction of Buddhism, thatspeak of medical therapies such as moxabustion and so on.

These texts find their origin in theShang Shung script in the ShangShung region. Moreover, inscriptions on metals were found inNorthern India and many scholarstried to find out which languagethey were in thinkingthat it was alanguage in existence in NorthernIndia. When the inscriptions werestudied in the West, scholarsdetermined that this language was thelanguage o f Shang Shung. No w it is

possible to reconstruct the languageof Shang Shung to see how it was

shaped.

Lastyear when Iwas inChina, I hadthe opportunity tospeak with someChinese scholarswho went into theSouthern region ofTibet. They foundinscriptions therethatthey determinedto be in the language

ofShang Shung andwhileI was inChinaI saw a book de scribing theirresearch and findings. They werevery happy because they had finally found evidence to confirm theassertion of the existence of thelandof Shang Shung.

Because ofall theserecent findings showing the existence of thelandof Shang Shung,thereare notmany professors whocriticize me.On the contrary, they are all doingstudy and research on the languageand culture of Shang Shung.Manyscholars and Tibetans requested meto write a book on the history ofTibetand the source of our culturethat would serve the purposes offuture generations of youngTibetans. I've written this book inTibetan, The Light of Kailash, on

Shang Shung and Tibet, which Ihave now given to the AmneMachenInstitute to print.

WhenI was younger I had manyideas to do this andthatfor Tibetanculture and I've done what I can.Now. I've become old and I'm stilldoingwhatever is in mypossibilityto help the preservation of Tibetanculture.An d if this ishelpfulto youIam very glad.

That isallI have to say today.

Translation byElio Guarisco

Transcriptionby Liz Granger

Issue 8 includes:

'The Pathis

under your Feet

David Schneider,

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Tea-time reflections

Dzongsar Khyentse

Rinpoche

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so Istarted to look at them to see if there was some proof

to say that Tibetan culture originated in Tibet itself

6

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Lives oftheGreat Masters

YeshedoorJnanasutra

byJimValby

Thishagiography of Jnanasutrais adapted from Longchenpds

account in his"rdzogs chen snying

thig gi lo rgyus chen mo rin poche". The story of Jnanasutra'sbirth, education, andmeeting withhis Master Shrisingha waspresent-ed inMirror issue#42.

Jnanasutra wept bitterly saying"Oh, oh, alas! If the teacher theflame of the lamp goes out, whowill remove the darkness of theworld?"Shrisinghahimself passeddown his last testament entitled"Seven Nails" into the palm ofJnanasutra's hand saying

"The books on the InnermostEssentialsare in apillarin Tashitri-go's Samle Shrine. Go live in theBhasingCemetery."

The cemetery was quite a dis

tance east of Budhgaya.From theNorth, a river flowed down from ablackmountainwhichlookedlikeasleeping black elephant. From theSouth, the scent of sandalwoodtreesarose from a mountain whichlooked likea standing yellow tiger.Inthe Westtherewere Garudanestson a mountain which lookedlike alion leaping through the air. In theEasttherewere herbs on a mountainwhich lookedlikeBrahma's face.

The Sonam Dzogpa Stupa wassituated in the central area whichpossessed whatever was necessaryand desirable. It was constructedwith copper, iron, and jeweledmaterials. Its main axis contained a

serpent-like sandalwoodtreewhosehighest point Conned a canopy withplentiful lotus leaves. The middlesectiondescribed acircle withoverlaid rings of sky-blue jewels. Thebottom section was sided with tierswhichresembled a closed lotus.

The lowest tier was completelysidedwiththeKingSenghatree.Allthe branches of the treewere intertwined, just like a woven net ofturquoise stones which formed anintricate lattice-work. O n the lowertiers were many animals whichlivedin the cemetery surrounded bymany goddesses. The area above

that was surrounded by manyfemale lay devotees who held fans.Above that there were many fami

liesofmagicalbirds.A shrine gate with crystal

images of worldly divinities wassituated within hearing distancedirectly south of the Stupa. Withinthe gate was Yama of the Bardowho was black with tangled hair,fangs, and a perpendicular eye onhislargebelly.He was surroundedby a thousand wicked worldlyMamospirits.

Above Yama was situated theDivine LordTsundhari who shakesthe world.He rode naked on a redasswithhis bloo dy hair dragging onthe ground. Smoke issuedfrom hiseyes, fire flamed from his mouth,and a trident in his right hand

impaled human corpses. He held aflask in his left hand and was surrounded by 800 groups of demonswhose duty it was to suck bloodfrom the living.A swell thereweresome tormented spirits who hadbrokentheir commitments.

There were some incrediblygreedy corpses on top of a hugepile of new and old corpses. Butsome beings who lived in thecemetery enjoyed the various fruitsofthe treesand did not desire fleshand blood.

In the East, amidst homes ofmoisthumanheadseverywhere, theaccomplished Palgi Lodro wastotally naked and rode a Garuda

traveling throughout the 3 realms.She had 5 dark red faces and a garland of skulls around her twistedplaitofhair.Her5righthandsheld awheel, a lotus, a spear, a babycorpse, and an arrow. Her 5 lefthandsheld a monk, alion,a wolf,adagger, and a bow, She was adornedwith various cemetery paraphernalia and attended by a 1000 Dakinisof peaceful demeanor who livedthere.

Inthe South,yellowSemm a. thequeen of the Dakinis, rode onTsogdag. She had one head, 2hands, and wings of turquoise and

lapislazuli stones. Naked and ferocious, she held a skull filled withsow's beer in her right hand and thesymbols of realization in her left.Her eyes were squinting, her facescarred, and she was surrounded byagroup of 1000Dakinis.

Inthe West, naked Barma Ch en-mo, withher hair tucked-up, held aVajra in her right hand and a longleash in her left. She rode an animaland was attended by 1000 Dakinis

ofapowerful type.IntheNorth,green nakedKuntu

Zangmo with freely-flowing hairheldan owl in her right hand and afalconin her left. She was ridingona wolf and was accompanied by1000Karma Dakinis.

In the Northeast was MekerLoggi Trengwa Zinpa. He wasnaked, green, and had his hairtucked up. He held a string ofswords in his right hand, pointed afingerof his left hand, was riding abuffalo, and was surrounded by 7murderousMamospirits.

In the Southeast, naked, pale-blue Shabari, with freely-flowinghair, held a large rotting corpse inhis hands, rode a hungry elephant,and was attended by 7 servants whodidthe organplucking.

In the Southwest, Trag Ching-mo,pale-blue,withher knotty hairtied in the back, carried the lionstandard in her hands, screamed" H U M " , rode a corpse in the moonlight, and was attended by 7 flesh-eating female spirits.

In the Northwest, dark brownChagmedmawith a single strand ofhair twisted right to left, one eyewhich saw 3000 worlds simultaneously,one tooth whichchopped offthe root of life for vow-breakers,retained allviciousdiseases at once

in her single hand. Her one breastsimultaneously nourished allbeings, while her one leg encompassed both samsara and nirvana.She was attended by 7 female deathspiritswho desired flesh andblood.

As well,therewere innumerablekindsof quadrupeds and n untoldnumber of magic female spirits presentinthe cemetery.

South of these, in the jeweledcenter, Jnanasutra sat in lotus positionupon tieredstepsof a jumpingtigress. He was offering the sublimemudra under an unfolded parasol ofpeacocks amidst various ensignsand fans. He was teaching the veryexplicit Secret Innermost Essentials

to the Dakinis.At that time Vimalamitra him

self was riding a blue ox in theThachung Cemetery, holding aparasol of fans in hishandswithhisouter robe hanging over his rightshoulder. Once when he was reallyinto his practice, the Dakini PalgiLodroexhortedhimfromthe sky:

"Ohyouluckyone! Ifyoudesirethe profound Innermost EssentialInstructions more than you didbefore, go to the forest of the greatBhasingCemetery."

Withgreateffort.Vimala joyfullyjourneyed to the Bhasing Cemetery and developed an extraordinaryintensified reverence for Jnanasutra

whowas sitting as described above.Despitetheir previous equality andthe fact that Vimala had once beenthe Guru's teacher, Vimala did not

judge who was more important, butprostrated before, and circumambulated Jnanasutra. Offering giftsVimalasaid:

"Indeed you aie a real person!Since you certainly embody teachingswhich are unlike any previousones.1 wish tofollow in your footsteps."

Nodding his head. Jnanasutra

continuedonpage8

BookReviews

T H E M IRROR:

Advice on the PresenceofAwareness

Namkhai Norbu

TranslatedfromTibetanintoItalianandeditedby AdrianoClemente.

TranslatedintoEnglish byAndrewLukianowicz.

1996, StationHillOpeningsBarrytown, N.Y. 99 pp.

Th e Only RealAlternative

THEMIRROR: Advice on the Pres

ence of Awareness by NamkhaiNorbu.Thisbook shou ld be read byanyone interested in making thepresentlifeworthlivingand preparingfor its inevitable end. Itteachesus how to get out of the cage wehave built, and inside which weinsiston existinghow to become,in an ultimate way, a free,autonomous person. In a few pages,

this extraordinary Dzogchen textshows how to regain that freedomof beingwhichis potentiallyavailable to us all. "Freedom" in thiscase means astatei nwhich one isno longer conditioned by dualism,by the passions, and byone'smental habits and beliefs. Instead, oneproceeds from pure presence,uncontaminated clarity, in knowledge of one's own state. ChgyalNamkhai Norbuwrote this book toexplaintheprincipleof such awareness and the practice of continuouspresence, theonlyalternative to therules,models and limitations of thevarious religious attempts to gaintranscendence.

The knowledge Dzogch en transmits is not merely intellectual, norconfinedby the principles of a religious or philosophic position. Itconcerns the reality of our experiencein itsimmediacy.Thoughts andpassions, for example, are not to berejected or transformed but simplyrecognizedas the energy of ourprimordialstate.However, this way of"self-liberation", as the authormakes clear, is not mere distractionor indiscriminate surrender toimpulse.There may be no mies, butthere is self-disciplinethe mostradical kind, based not on controlbut self-observation, not onimposition but onresponsibility. Presenceis the opposite of distraction, andwithout distraction we recognizewhat is, and act from that awareness, without making judgments orhavingtoblockourownactions.

When we live the teachings inour activi ty, they affect us deeply,provokereawakening, and promoteourevolution.A nd this without thecreationof a further cage, for example a monastic or otherwise religious structure to contain and guideus. Compassion, for instance, inthis view develops out of awareness, out of clarity, rather thanbeing instilled by precept and constructedwitheffort. If we know our

ownfeelings andcondition,we willunderstand others. Similarly, practicing awareness, we recognize thecircumstances and situations o f ourrelative condition as they arise.Thus we take positive action, alsotoward ourselves, not because ofmies and punishments, not out ofguiltor the fear of error, but becausewe see and respect limits, opportunities and needs. Dharma is theunderstanding of how things are. ofwhat is the case, and not. as thenineteenth century translatorswouldhave it. "the Law."

Here, awareness is healthily

complete. There is a "felt sense",but also an explicit knowledge ofour nature. Awareness, as describedin thesepages, is not only"experiential" (as in current Americanusage) but equally implies cognition. Since the purpose of awarenessis to live what we are, feelingand sensation are not enough; conceptual understanding (for example, that we exist as body, energyandnind,and all this means) playsacomparably important role.Experience, even of our state,takes usnowhere without understanding,whilewords and ideas without sensory and perceptual experience donot constitute "direct transmission"and real knowledge.

In psychological terms, naturalmind possesses, in seamless unity,both conceptual and organismic,bodily awareness. Modem, neuroticman splits them, in anxious reactionto the chronic emergency, innerand outer, in which he lives. Tocope with an overwhelming situation he tries at least to "feel" whathe does not understand, or to intellectually master what he is unable

to grasp by feeling. ChgyalNamkhai Norbu,and themastersofthe Dzogchen teachings who camebefore him, find underlying unityself-evident and offer many methods Cor the profound relaxationwhichmakes it possible.

With the same boundless simplicity, presence is understood andexplainednotonlyin terms of"hereand now," as in current fashion, butwithopenness toallthreetimes. Forexample, spontaneity must not preclude thinking, prior to action, ofprobable consequences. In thenatural serenity which ChgyalNamkhai Norbuteachesus tocultivate, there is harmony between

past,present and future. By failingto give adequate weight to eachdimension, our contemporary culturerisks destroying the continuityof life.However splendid the marble, a bridge must connect bothbanksofthe river.

Analogously, awarenessembraces thespiritualand the material, and meditation itself, inDzogchen. accepts and integratesthe external world. There is notonlysitting, but alsoaction.Practicingwithout distraction, the space ofmeditationexpandsuntilthereis nodistinction between meditation anddaily life. The master warns, inthesepages, against the fantasy andconfusion which sometimesembroil practitioners. We can saythat everything is illusion, like adream. But even a dream is real,while we sleep. "As long as wehave a body, we must respect all ofitslimitsand its needs."

Inhis transcribed oral commentary, publishedherewith the original written text.Chgyal NamkhaiNorbuexplains why it isdifficult tofind material about the vitallyimportant principle of awareness:"...in all the Buddhist teachings,from the sutras to the tan tras, the

continualonpageS

THE MIRROR JANUARY/FERRUARY 199 8

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Inthe Presence of the MasterAbriefaccountofChgyalNamkhaiNorbus

recenttravelsinHimachalPradeshandtheretreatinDelhi

by Li zGranger

After giving teachings in Kathmandu atthe beginning of September, ChgyalNamkhai Norbu spent several weeks visiting

various pilgrimage sites in India sacred to

BuddhaSakyamuni.During the month of October, he passed

many days at Tso Pema ("Lotus Lake" in

Tibetan or Rewalsar) in Himachal Pradesh, a

pilgrimage place sacred to Padmasambhava.

Located an hour's bus ride away from the

main town of Mandi which marks the place

where the Kangr a andKul luValleysmeet,the

small lake is set like a jewel amongst the

foothillsof the mountains. The area consists

ofa tiny villa ge and market andthreeTibetan

monasteries, aswellas a largeSikhtemple, all

set around the shores of-the lake and is popu

lated by local H indus, Tibetan monks and

nuns and a continuous flow of pilgrims. A

well-paved path encircles the lake where

from sunrise to late evening pilgrims can be

seen passing, fingering their malas or spin

ningtheir shining prayer wheels. O n one sideof the lake is a wide paved area where people

can make food offerings to the numerous and

enormous fish who, unafraid, wide-mouthed

and almost flingingthemselves out of the lake

in their eagerness, jostle each other for the

offerings thrown to them by pilgrims . Often

tribes of small brown monkeys crouch wide-

eyed at thesamespot for a forgotten biscuit or

evendareto snatch one from apilgrim'shand

while an occasional cow wanders by to

receive her offering, too.

Scrambling and panting up a longsteep

series of stone steps about an hour's walk

from the lake, one arrives high above the v i l

lage on grassy peaks almost hidden by the

passing clouds wheresheepandgoatswander

with their tinkling bells and hawks swoopdown into the valley below in search of prey.

This lofty and sacred place is where Pad

masambhava meditated withMandarava, and

pilgrims visit their sacred caves where a tow

ering gildedstatueof thegreatMaster can be

seen. The cave adjoining his has a smaller

statueof Mandarava and at different places on

the rocky slopes one can see the signs his

footprint and shoulder print left on the rocks.

Notfar fromthesetwo caves is another which

isreached down a narrowflighto fstone steps

and where Guru Rinpoche also spent time

meditating. Today one can see a claystatueof

the Masterthereas wellas his eight manifes

tations.Manyyogis andyoginisliveand prac

tice up in the numerous caves here and the

area is cared for and maintained by theDrug-

paKagyu monastery at the lakeside presidedover byLamaWangdor.

According to historical sources, during

GuruRinpoch e's travels in Zahor (as this area

was previous ly known), he gave teachings to

the King's daughter, Princess Mandarava.

People started to gossip about them and when

it was reported to the King, became enraged

and impri soned his daughter in a pit of thorns

(a cave shrine in the town ofMandithatisstill

worshipped today by local Hindus) and con

demned Guru Rinpoche to be burned alive.

But the Master transformed the pyre into a

lake at the center ofwhich he appeared on a

lotus. The King named him Padmasambhava

('Bomfrom a Lotus').

In this special place, Chgyal

Namkhai Norbu spent many days

andpartof this time in the company of several of hisstudents who

had followed himthere.He and his

wifeRosa were hosted in an apart

ment at the invitationof the Nying

ma monastery and were frequent

guests of Lama Wangdor at the

nearby Drugpa Kagyu monastery.

He was a familiar figure in the

streetsof the tinyvillageand walk

ingaround the lake.

Rinpoche's students were for

tunateto accompany him on various

occasions, assisting him to hang

strings of five-colored prayer flags around the

lake and sometimeswalking withhim around

the lake. On two occasions we all had dinner

together in one of the few restaurants with

space enough for us all to sit: once on theoccasionofRosa's birthday.

One day we accompanied Rinpoche on

hisvisitto the sacred caves above the lake as

guestsofLamaWangdor and had lunchthere

with them on the roof of the small temple.

After lunch Rinpoche himself guided us

around the rocky terrain and showed us the

different caves as well as the footprint and

shoulder print of Gum Rinpoche. We just

managed to squeeze into the GuruRinpoche

cave where we sat and kneeled around Rin

poche gazing at thegreatgoldenstatueas we

sang the Song of the Vajra. During the walk

ingreatgood humor he paused and pointed to

some marks on a rock and said that when

Padmasambhava went down to the lake to

drink,in order to get up to his cave more easi

ly he manifested as Dorje Drollo riding atiger. The marks were the claw marks of his

tiger on its landing.

Our last stop therewas the Gonpa where

the monks and nuns did a Choed practice

and a Ganapuja.Afterthis most o f us started

the long walk back to the village just before

itgot dark.

FromTso Pema, Rinpoche, accompanied

by Rosa,FabioAndricoand Catherine Braud,

traveled by car to McLeod Ganj, just a few

hours drive from Tso Pema where they

remained for several days. Perched above the

town of Dharamsala and situated at almost

2000metersabove sealevelon the first slopes

of the Western Himalay an range, amongst

towering pines and icy streams, this small ex-

colonialcantonment is home to H is Holiness

the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government

in exile, as well as the Library of Tibetan

Works and Archives, several monasteries

among which Nam gyal monastery and the

BuddhistSchoolo fDialectics.It is also home

to hundreds of Tibetans, both those bom in

India andthosenewly arrived, akindof 'little

Tibet' where one hearsTibetan music being

played, standard restaurant fare is momo and

thugpa (Tibetan soup) and the smell of

incense is carried on thechillmountain air-

The day after his arrival Rinpoche had a

private audience withHis Holiness the Dalai

Lama.Another day the restof us, along with

several hundred other people and after a long

queue to leave our passport details with the

security, were finally admitted into the

grounds of Hi s Holi ness ' residence where,one at a time in single file, we were able to

greetand shakehandswith the small stooped

smiling figure and receive a red protection

cord from one of the attendant monks. A

powerfulblessing in such abrief moment.

During the days that followed Namkhai

NorbuRinp oche gave several talks in Tibetan

at different venues inMcLeodGanj.This was

organized by Tashi Tsering of the Library of

Tibetan Works andArchives.The first day he

save a morning conference at the TIPA

(Tibetan Institute of PerfonningArts) and lat

er in the day a talk on "TheRoleof language,

culture andreligionin a nation's survival" at

the Amne Machen Institute. The following

I Tashit was the Hindu holi

day of Diwali the

festivalof lights, and the

car taking us along the

serpentine roadway

from Mandi to Tso

Pema was suitably dec

orated; a garland of marigolds was draped

around the windshield and small bouquets

by Woody Paparazzo

were affixed wherever they could be. The

flowers,togetherwiththe statueofShiva, tri

dent and incense holder on the dashboard

transformed the car into akindo frollingtem

ple. After so many planes, rickshaws, and

trains, in our long trip halfway around the

world, it was a fitting vehicle in which to

arrive at our destination the Zigar

Monastery.

We pulled into the sandy courtyard at the

monastery late in the afternoon, and soon sev

eral young monks began to appear as we

unloadedbaggage from the car. I glanced up

to catch a glimpse ofTsultrimwhom I imme

diately recognized from the photos he had

sentover the years of our correspondence.

Some eight or nine years ago, Lama

Wangdor Rinpoche came for the first time to

Conway, Massachusetts to give Dzogchen

teachings. Later he asked people to help sup

port his work by sponsoring one of the

monks, nuns or y ogis in his small communityat Tso Pema. MywifeBarb ara and I offered to

do so and thus began our long-distance

friendship with Zigar Tsultrim ayogi l iv

ing then in one of the holy caves of Pad

masambhava near the monastery. Tsultrim

was no longer young when we first contacted

him, and now his short bris tling hair was

entirely white.

My heart fluttered as I hurried to greet

him.Whe n our foreheads touched, it was as if

a currento felectricity flowed between us.

We were shown into the monastery up

thesteepback stairsthatturned back on them

selves several times and were a little tricky

due to the Indian peculiarity ofmixing steps

ofdifferent heights. Throug hcolorfulbanners

which served as a door, we entered the large

room on the upper floorof the monastery that

served as a gathering place for the monks. We

were received by Wangdor Rinpoche, and

enjoyed a simple meal with tea. (Toasted

cheese sandwiches were a delight and a sur-

T" " \ _^I _ prise after a week of rice

L/G1G2 m d vegetables!) WeO shared photographs of

our home, the Commu

nity "schoolhouse" and

the environs ofConway.

Through an interpreter,

we expressed what was quite unnecessary to

say: how happy we were tomeetat last.

Over the years, we had received

many lettersfromTsultrim, but the lan

guage barrier presented l imitatio ns on

our correspondence. His letters, often

written by others, were brief but always

reiterated how he prayed every day for

our happiness and "success at every

step". Even though we asked to know

something of his personal history, he

never revealed much about himself.Lat

er, fromLamaWangdor, we learnedthat

he had livedas an ordinary layman, and

late in his life, after his family obliga

tions had been met, he dedicated himself

to meditation. Eventually, we came to

acceptthat,forTsultrim,the details of his

"story" were of no importance. The essen

tialknot of our relationship was a simple one:

he accepted our helpwithdeepgratitude, and

in return, he did hisbest to send good influ

ences our way through prayer and sincere

wishes for ourwell-being.

Fromthe perspective of our modem West-

em culture, one might think this relationship a

bit superficial. Eventually, I came to under

stand that, in truth, the bond between us was

deepand extraordinary. From opposite poles

culturally and geographically we were

bound by the common thread of our aspira

tions and our respect for one another.

In the days thatfollowed,we took all our

meals together with Tsultrim.Generally, we

didn't bother trying to converse through the

awkwardness of an interpreter. We were con

tentto simply be together.Our time at Zigar

Monastery was filled with many wonderful

experiences including one night of unbound

ed exuberance as we joined inwiththe young

monks led by 14 year-old PalgaTulku and shot off innumerable rockets, firecrack

ers, sparklers, pinwheels, etc., etc., in a rol

lickingcelebrationo fthe festivalof lights.

At the end of ourbriefstay, we celebrated

with a special meal of momo's which the

monks prepared for us. Tsultrim offered us

gifts and glowedwithjoy i n presenting them

to us. It was very sad to leave. The unspoken

understanding wasthatTsultrimwil l likelybe

gone before we can make a return trip. But.

this meeting brought us all such joy. We'll

always cherish the memory.

(Postscript: There are still many monks

at Zigar monastery and meditators in the

holycaveswhoneedsponsors. In particular,

an 18-year old monkfrom Bhutan named

Rinzin hasaskedus tohelphim find aspon

sor. Ifanyoneisinterested,we would behap

py tohelpmakethe connection. Sendames

sage to The Mirror or write us at

woodyp@javanet. com.)

day he spoke to a hall fullo f monks at the K i r -

tiJegpa Dratsan and in the evening vis ited the

Tibetan Children'sVillagewhere he was their

dinnerguest.The third day he gave a talk at

the Amne Mach en Institute on "Th e Status of

Womenin Tibetan Society".

Throughout his stay in McLeod Ganj it

was afamiliar andjoyful sight, especially for

many of hisstudentswho had not been with

him for some time, to see the Master passing

through the streets there dressed in a bright

orange track suit and a big bro wn Tibetan hat,

his long hairheldbacki na ponytail.

A couple of days before the Delhiretreat

of November 7th-9th. which was organized

byTibet House, the CulturalCenter of H. H .

the Dalai Lama.Rinpo che left for the capital.

Theretreatwas held a few ki