THE MIRROR The international newspaper of the Dzog-chen Community Volume 1 Issue 9, June 1991

Tsegyelgar Individual potentiality "We bought the 165 acre parcel after extended negotiations with its owner, but it seemed well worth To learn Dzog-chen means to discover our Dzog-chen waiting for. Naturally, we did not think there Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche spoke about Dzog-chen teaching and its goal in September, 1990, at Merigar. was a problem with access to it..." page 6

Tashigar Spain Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche will "...our primary goal must be to develop this internal connection..." visit Spain. Woody Paparazzo's impressions page 3 and thoughts during a visit to Germany Tashigar. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche will page 6 visit Germany. page 7 Merigar Italy The Merigar summer program An interreligious meeting in which includes special practices Florence page 7 page 5 Poland A letter from Lublin The Year of Tibet page 14 1991 Finland A conference of Nordic The Dalai Lama's scheduled visits Tibetologists inseverai Europeancountries during Marti stones in Tibet. Individual stones potentiated by a sacred syllable. this summer. page 15 The Path of The Buddha. An A practitioner interested in know how to follow it. capacity, and we are all different Nepal exhibition in Helsinki with rare old realisation must not becom e passive In the Dzog-chen teaching Once we understand what the Master Lobpon Tenzin Nam dak. in photographs. but be aware and active. Buddha knowledge is more important than is, we understand what the teaching Kathmandu page 4 Sakyamuni had infinite wisdom and meditation. Meditation is only a is. The teaching is a knowledge page 14 omniscience, which is total means to reach realisation. beyond colour and form. The realisation. He said: "I give you the Meditation can have different teaching is a knowledge that the Australia Dzog-chen Community way, but realisation depends on meanings but it is always only a interested peoplemust discover. The News from Melbourne and Wat INTERNATIONAL you." The practitioners who are means. principle is not that you go to a page 5 VIDEO COMMITTEE interested must follow the path. In You have to understand well what Master, and he tells you what to do. this world there is no Master better We are human beings and humans Following the International meditation really is and how it USA than Buddha Sakyamuni, and he functions, otherwise you become can reason and speak. When we Translation Committee, there has West Coast could not make other individuals passive. There are many ways, just receive a teaching, it is not now been nominated an international Seven years of yantig in Conway realised. This means that you have necessarily something that we must comm ittee responsible for checking as there are so many different to be active; first of all you must individuals and different conditions; follow blindly. page 15 all video related material in the East Coast understand what the teaching is and we have our conditions and our Continues on page 2. Community. California News page 4 page 7 Computer typestyles Tsegyalgar program USSR August 3rd to 11th: practice A Russian letter from Fabio Putting the right horse out front in Tibetan retreat on the land in Buck huid, A..S .I.A.. "Andricovich" Andrico based on a retreat schedule page 5 Projects inGalenteng proceed. From prepared by Norbu Rinpoche. A.S.I.A., Giovanni Boni, who is an By Reíd Fossey Fabio Andrico will be there to Tibetan orchestra engineer, Fulvio Rossi, who will In the last three to four yean the Western teach Yantra Yoga which is an document all the work on-the-spot, humanist has taken a leap into the integral part of this program. page 10 twentieth century. Rather than packing andAndrea Dell'Angelowill be We need to know how many the illustrious scholar's pen and visiting the projects later in the people are coming. Community infamous typewriter, the philologist of Tibetan theatre summer. the future is already astride the "typestyle tel. 413 369 4466. On the 19th of August in Chengdu, jockey", using tools of a far more Every weekend work projects on page 11 they will meet Donatella Rossi and sophisticated nature to creale a stock of the land: Guardians Ilia kang and Phuntsok Wangmo, Rinpoche's non-European fonts for languages from a tool shed under construction; niece and an expert in medicine. Bengali to Vietnamese. tree pruning; bush clearing. Books page 3 page 13 CalltheGekod tel.4136259263. page 12 2 Individual potentiality

Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche examples, but it seems many people the circumstances, and the same is true Merigar, September 21 st, 1990 are notable to understand very well. I of the methods. There are many, many do not mean everybody, because there methods, but the most important thing What is Dzog-chen teaching? First of are also many people who certainly is that a practitioner understands what all it says, "Open your eyes and look at understand. If everyone could a method is used for and in which way what is around you; what the concrete understand, what a marvellous thing it it must be used. A method always has conditions are." In this way you can would be. Also you must not always its own principle, likea way of working understand the teaching, the teacher think that everything is so easy. with an experience. Many methods do and everything. We must see if the Milarepa, after having killed thirty not make it clear. But in the Dzog-chen sense of the teaching corresponds to our people, felt very guilty and thought, Teaching you can understand the condition or not, whether it is useful "Oh, now I must go, and do principle, because knowledge is the for our existence or not. If someone purification to obtain realization, it is principle. Therefore in this way a does not examine this clearly and says, impossible to live like this. I have to practitioner does not become a slave of "Ah, this is the fantastic teaching of find a way to become realized ". Then the method, he canuse the method. You such and such a Master with this title it is said that he went to a Master, and have learned many, many methods and and name", it means he is passive. We the first Master he met taught Dzog- you have also learnt how to apply diem. must not be passive because if we are chen. This Master told him, "If you You must understand their value. Many passive we cannot become realized and meditate in the morning, you will become people come to me to follow the Dzog- if we do not become realized we lose realized in the morning; if you meditate chen Teaching. First of all they ask me, a lot of time and we do not have a lot of in the afternoon, you will become "I have followed other Teachings and that. realized in the afternoon." Milarepa I have learned other techniques, methods thought, "Ah.evcnifldidsomanycvil It is not necessary to be old to die. and ways of doing things, but when I actions, the path is that simple, so there Everyday there are accidents in follow the Dzog-chen Teaching can I is nothing to worry about". So he stayed airplanes, cars, ships and trains and all use them or not?" This kind of person for two days with this Master and the people die. Even if there is not a has the idea, " Now that I follow this concluded nothing. Finally also this precise cause, nobody knows what will Master, I must foUow only the Dzog- Master understood and told him, " You happen We live in this circumstance, chen methods." There really does not had better go to another Master who will so we do not have any guarantee that we exist a label such as the 'Dzog-chen give you something harder." And will live another week or a month or method'. Everything can be a Dzog- finally Milarepa met M arpa who a year. We only believe it, saying, chenmethod. You must understand what always tortured him. Then he felt better "Next year we'll do this and that" and Dzog-chen is, we are Dzog-chen. Wc and finally he managed to purify sometimes we go further and say, "We'll are not methods, we are beings. We Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche himself. But you see how many do this and that in two or three years" . have our state and infinite potentialities. sacrifices he did for so many years. It We are trying to discover this This is also useful because if I do not who follow me think, "I always hear before you become realized. For may be that Milarepa did many evil potentiality. Then what do we need to live other people will live and things this", but even if they have heard it, if it example, if we have the capacity to actions, but I do not think that Milarepa discover this? We have many means, must progress. But deep down we do does not work it means that they have to integrate a Uttle or to find ourselves in was stupid, and we too must not think and these are methods. Therefore we not have any guarantee. listensome more. Even ifwe do not like the state of presence, then it also that it is so easy. Especially when we can use this method or that method. Therefore time is precious, we cannot to listen, this is exactly what we need to becomes manifest in our daily Ufe, an speak of a teaching like Dzog-chen, There is no problem. But wc must not waste it. do. aspect of our body, voice and mind. where there is a possibility to reach a forget the principle. If we do, we only First of all, all our tensions and Everyone needs to work a Uttle on certain knowledge and to develop it, follow this method and that, jumping attachments diminish. There are many Preparing for life himself, otherwise even if we talk about this does not mean that we reach this here and there. Nothing is concluded. practitioners, who instead of reducing In the Tibetan temples there is a silken many teachings, it does not mean knowledge without doing anything. In the Dzog-chen Teaching, first of all or integrating their tensions, do not even flag called "victorious flag" and anything. Many people get interested One must first understand what the we must understand that we have to discover them. Day after day they colourful ornaments all along the when they read a mysterious and very Master is communicating to the student, open our eyes and discover our state. accumulate tension and in the end they columns. All these ornaments move a elegant title and they say, "We have a listen to it and understand it well, Every thingelse is rei ati ve to discovering are ready to explode. little continually and eventually one fantastic teaching!" But where is its bringing it into his existence, then it and realizing this. It is not necessary to It is true that many practitioners do day they tear away, and then no longer substance? The substance is that it becomes real. limit anyone. have a purpose. In the same way we changes. If someone is so interested in practices and then they end up with a pass our lives speaking and then our titles, why doesn't he buy catalogues? psychoanalyst, because they cannot This is one o f the biggest problems of all Uves are spent. This is a real pity Teaching does not work that way; it explode. It means they do not Methods and Dzog-chen beings. Most people, especially because we have indeed many must be integrated in the individual understand the manifestation of tension, The knowledge of the Dzog-chen intellectuals,usually think, "This is so possibilities. Maybe we have met real himself, and be alive. When the teaching and if they do not discover this in the teaching must become a part of our and that is so, it must be that way." In teachings and masters. We have all isalive inthisway.atitleisnotnecessary practice, it means they have to work daily Ufe. What do we do in our daily this way they limit everything. It these possibilities, but we only collect anymore. hard, and understand the teaching well. life? We breathe, we move and we means they never go beyond these limits them, put them in a sack and fill it up. Many "old" practitioners say, 'It is so think. These are three actions in our and always look outside themselves, difficult, I cannot integrate". Of course Then , while preparing, the end of life What is integration three existences and these three actions never at themselves. Thus limited it is difficult to integrate if one never comes. The master gives a direct introduction to must become integrated into the practice. visions develop, so we never discover does it. Integration is not only an idea, There is a saying of a precious Master of the state. What does ' directintroduction' The practice is not only to sit down and our real identity, our potentiality. To or the creation of an idea Firstofall one Shakyapa that life is consumed only in mean? It does not mean reading a book say two or three prayers. learn Dzog-chen means to discover our must find oneself in a very precise state preparing. This is true also for spiritual or making a commentary on a book by So what do we need to learn when we Dzog-chen, that of each individual. of awareness. things. If someone is minimally Garab Dorje or a text Uke a Tantra. It use a method? For instance if we are Dzog-chen is really this. It is very interested in the teaching, it seems he means touching something as if you Many people may lack a basis from the going to learn a method of practice and simple, but also very difficult. If must write a thesis on the teaching. At were being burnt. This must be beginning and, beUeving they can according to this method we must sit in someone knows how to follow a the most he thinks, "One day I want to understood. EspeciaUy people who jump very high, think, "I have this way and think about this, it means Master, understanding what he is do this practice". Tomorrow he repeats already know and have followed the understood everything. This is we are working with an experience, communicating, maybe it is not so this, and the day after tomorrow he teaching may feel, "I am an old contemplation". And then they jump trying to have an experience. What is difficult to find this state, this knowledge. But it is very difficult if someone continues making a collection believing practitioner". You really must observe and arrive at todgal and practices like the purpose of this experience? First of believes that he has got the knowledge that he is preparing. In this way a whole a little what old means in this case. Yantig and other elevated methods all it is to discover knowledge and or feels that he knows a lot about this Ufe is spent preparing. In the end the Each of you should observe your own without substance, and what is secondly, when a certain knowledge is or that, blocking himself and getting next, future life begins before the end of practice. How do you feel when you developing? To grow some flowers in a obtained, to realize this knowledge. further and further away, instead of the preparations. And then when he meet someone who may be unpleasant field you need seeds. First you must Methods are for nothing else. discovering it. This means one has to dies, he still has not finished preparing. or disturbing? Do you really have the sow the field and then you must water So, methods are not the fundamental follow the Dzog-chen Teaching very We must understand this very weU, capacity to integrate this feeling? Do it, and then something wiU grow. If thing, they are relative. Many people well, very carefully, understanding especially in the teaching we do not you feel the same when you meet a you only believe, "I have sown the follow the teaching and think it is like a only have to prepare, but also to apply what we are speaking about and where person you love very much, such as seed" and everyday you pour water on method. That is why people become our own knowledge. we want to arrive. friends, and when you meet someone the field, nothing grows. slaves of method. "A Master gave this The Dzog-chen teaching asks you to unpleasant? If, but with distraction, one Nowadays there are many fertilizers that method, I follow it, I am a slave of it". observe yourself, your existence, your hates or gets angry, with presence one make a plant become enormous in two It becomes ridiculous because a method Collaborate! limitations and conditions. This is in is immediately able to liberate this days. Some people get these kinds of exists to help one develop or to give a An extremely important thing I want to your interest. If someone discovers his feeling, this means that you are fertilizers and say, "Ah, mis is a Chinese certain benefit. A method is like a fork say to all the people who have come to own existence, his own condition and one, that an American one..." Then he practitioners and that practice is to eat, if you have one it is much easier this retreat, new ones, old ones, half-old limits, it is better for him. We Uve in uses so much of these fertilizers that something Uving in yourselves. to eat. If we have a steak to eat, we need ones, everybody: collaborate! You much confusion and we have many nothing grows. A method like the It is not so difficult to understand that a fork and a knife, when we have these shouldn't always think, "I only want to problems. Finally, this way, we can todgal practice is like a fertilizer to the function of the teaching is something two it is much easier to eat. But this listen to the Master" Usually people do discover where these problems come develop contemplation, to obtain concrete. Many people have asked me does not mean it is a principle, this is not often want to ask other people about from. This is why we have to work on realization But if there is no knowledge frequently, "How cani discover if I am only to make it easier. Therefore all the Teaching. Why? Because Ihey ourselves, not only looking at others, of contemplation, what can one develop? realized?" I have said, "You must not methods are like forks and knives, or think, "He is not the Master. I only and reasoning or beUeving in someone. So, first of all, we need to understand worry. If you become realized, you like clothes. When it is hot we wear listen to the Master." Do you know Therefore during our retreat, first of all the basis and work with it very well. will understand it very weU." Before light clothes, when it is cold we wear where this attitude comes from? From we must understand very well what the We must not be confused between an obtaining realization you must develop something warmer, when it is raining that famous Ego. teaching is. I have spoken of this many, idea and real knowledge. I have clarity and you will understand very we put on a raincoat. All things are many times, and probably many people explained many times and also given We think, "I am clever, I am the one well that you are getting there even secondary and can change according to continued on page 3

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 3 Individual potentiality A..S .I.A. Projects for Tibetan Culture continued from page 2 someone very exalted, like a who possess the knowledge". It's very commander, or think that whatever the rare to find someone saying, "I am Master says, must be so, closing our by Andrea Dell' Angelo Galenteng where we will stay for about courses in medicine in the hospitals that stupid, I am so limited". This you do eyes and remaining passi ve. The Master A few days ago we received the a week. Then we will continue on to will be constructed, English teachers notdiscover. In the Dzog-chen Teaching is a person who collaborates. Remember invitation from the Department of Chamdo and Khamdogar where we plan and experts who can teach different you have to understand how to observe when you take the Refuge, in Sutra Education for Sichuan province to go to to stop for a week. Then we will return skills. yourself. Therefore even if someone Buddhism, you say Namo Buddha Bhya, east Tibet to visit Galenteng, in Derge to Kanding, Derge and Chengdu. On For example, Joe Zurylo at Conway does not understand something like a Namo Dharma Bhya, Namo Sangha where the school and the hospital will be our return to Chengdu we will make a spoke about giving courses in carpentry method, hecanstill speak to the people Bhya. You take refuge in the Buddha, built. report to the local authorities and then and for using carpentry machinery. This who understand it. Also the "old" who is the one who gave this path, and We are still waiting for the invitation to one of us will have to go to Peking while is a very good idea. people must not think, "Ah, this is a refuge in the Dharma because it is the visit Khamdogar village where the other the others come back to Italy. In the future we hope to be able to new person. I cannot talk about this, path and through the Dharma you can projects will be developed because With the local authorities we have develop projects for reforestation in because it is a secret". It is a secret obtain realization. Then there is the permission must come from the undertaken to begin work on the project several areas in Tibet which have been when it is not the moment to speak. But third refuge, the Sangha. What is the Autonomous Region of Tibet. as soon as possible and to finish it at all deforested. if a person has come here to do a retreat, Sangha in reality? Generally Sangha On the 19th of August in Chengdu, we costs. But things will have to be done you must reason a little. What did he means those who are practising the path, will meet Donatella Rossi and Phuntsok The Chinese officials have said that if gradually confirming the trust that the come here todo? He did not come here those who are in the same boat to arrive Wangmo, Rinpoche's neice and an the project reaches its goals they will Chinese government is giving us. on holiday, but to follow the Teaching, beyond the ocean of Samsara. expert inmedicine. Phuntsokisin charge offer a plaque in honour of Rinpoche. to understand and apply it. Then it is Then if we are all travelling in the same of supervising the work and coordinating On our return to Italy we have to prepare Funding clear he is interested and wants to boat, we must collaborate well. If contacts with the local authorities. the executive project which will include On the financial level we have an urgent participate. If he is interested and is people create problems because of their In the last few years she has spent a lot all the costs. This will be presented to need for funds to organize this mission participating, why mustthings be secret? egoism and spoil the boat, making a of time in Galenteng preparing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in order which will cost around 30 rrrillionltalian In the Teaching there are some kinds of holeinitwe will never arrive. This is the construction materials and most of all to receive financial help. lire and which will include buying books, methods like, forexample, the methods principle of Sangha. It means everyone, treating the local population As far as the Tibetan Village Project sending them, etc of Dzog-chen todgal or many practices and the Sangha also includes the On several occasions Rinpoche has sent goes in India, as a result of the recent We would also like to take about 10 to of Yantra Yoga, which must be Master. It does not mean that the Master her funds for the project and to buy terrible events, the situation has, 15millionlirc to leave with those people communicated only to the people who is left outside. medicine and books. Part of the books unfortunately, become even more who are responsible for the project so have got a very precise and deep basis in have been sent to Galenteng monastery,' complicated. So what is a Master? He is someone that they can buy the materials needed the Teaching, because if a person does part to Ralung monastery and part to who collaborates and helps people and for construction and to resolve various not have a concrete basis and only Merigar. his followers should understand this. Your help is needed urgently problems. reads and docs things from the book, Deep down we all have infinite Three of us will be going to Galenteng In order to carry out the projects we Donations can be sent to bank account then instead of receiving benefit from potentialities that we may not from Italy. Giovanni Boni, who is an need the help of all those who are number 3893.50 in the name of ASIA. these methods, one only plays around understand. Perhaps one day we will engineer, Fulvio Rossi, who will interested. Monte dei Paschi di Siena, and blocks his possibilities to realize understand them and obtain realization. document all the work on-the-spot, and On the technical level we are looking 58031 Arcidosso CR, Italy. and develop. Therefore sometimes for In both Tantrism and Dzog-chen myself. for an expert in health projects and a Further details can be obtained from: these reasons there are some methods Teaching if we really understand well, When we arrive in Chengdu we will person who can look after filing, Andrea Dell'Angelo which arc kept secret until it is the we can see all beings as realized meet the Chinese representatives and addresses and other secretarial jobs. Via della Nocetta, 65 right moment. But to communicate beings. This is the real condition. We travel together with them in two cars. In the future we will probably need the Rome, Italy knowledge is not secret. Communicat­ find ourselves in the relative condition, We will go to Kanding, Derge and then assistance of doctors who can give short Tel.06-6261749, 6223329, 5139229. ing knowledge is the principle of the because we do not understand. We are Teaching. Ifit cannot be communicated, always distracted. why should it be taught? Something needs to be communicated by the Master Forexample, when you open your eyes Shang-Shung Institute and see an object, you immediately and also by die students to the students, The courses should begin in January 4) Tibetan Philosophy and think, "Ah, what a beautiful thing" or "I and so collaboration is very, very 1992 and are intended to provide a Literature; important. There are, for instance, like this, I do not like that". fitting cultural and scientific tool to 5) Esthetic theory of East Asia; many methods like the practice of We do this because we are distracted, approach western material in order 6) Comparative Arts and Poetry. Yantra Yoga or the semdzin, which are this is always a manifestation of specific methods to work with ex­ distraction. to guarantee increasing basic and The course in medicine wi 11 be given perience, that do not necessarily need When our senses are in contact with specialized knowledge of the base by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and to be given by the Master. If someone objects and we are distracted, we and specialities thus widening the willincludearesidentialperiod (full possesses knowledge of these methods, accumulate infinite negative karma. The Shang-Shung Institute in field of reference for those in immersion) which will last for a Soevcnifwchaveinfinitepotential, we he can always collaborate with others. col laboration with the University of attendence. month. Adequate parts of the course remain ignorant of the real condition If Siena is preparing a meeting to The courses will be the following: will be dedicated to the study of allofusreallyunderstand what our real organize a series of courses on Tibetan languageknowledge which Master and pupil condition is, it is not necessary to 1) Tibetan Medicine; is considered indispensible for in We need to have a precise idea about our classify things saying, " This is more culture which will be held both at 2) Tibetan Language; consideration of the relationship important than that." Everything is the University and at the Institute in 3) Iconography and History of depth study. between the Master and the student. We important. Arcidosso. Tibetan Art; must not think that a Master is always Edited by Tuula Saarikoski The Mirror: now

Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche in Spain This present issue is more or less the mailing cost lower? to get the news to you regularly September 27th to October 6th. 1991 third ofa newphase.We havesolved If this makes an idea rise in your every month. The fax is busy, the some problems, we have not solved mind, here are the facts: we use an computers sing, but where are the them all. What has changed is the Apple Macintosh Page Maker photos? Do vou have a good photo Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche will give Dzog-chen teachings in the south of paper, which is now recycled and program; we have a modem; every of a retreat, of Norbu Rinpoche, of Spain next autumn. There will also be sessions of Yantra Yoga, video unbleached. Also The Mirror is page is completely ready for the the Vajra Dance, something that projections and may be also the Vajra Dance. Barry Simmons will give a carrying news of the Community printer. interests us all? talk on Dzog-chen and Therapy. The location is a secluded complex in the from all parts of the world. That has Anotherproblem, maybe bigger than We in the Capannone feel good and mountains close to the town of Turre only 10 kilometers from the sea, about only been possible because of the the mailing, is the financial one. optimistic. We have had much 1 hours drive from Almeria in the north and about 3 hours drive from active response from Communities There will be a time, only short we support, too, the most important Alicante in the south. worldwide. Some big problems hope, when finances may risk the from Norbu Rinpoche, who always remain to be solved, hopefully new The complex offers 40 to 50 rooms each with 3-5 beds. Each room has a continuity of the newspaper. The stresses the importanceof The Mirror suggestions will also come about bathroom and shower. There is also a dorm itory and the possibility to camp Merigar gakyil has supported The as a means of communication; and how to solve them. Mirror, but another system should Hamid Assem, who had the energy in tents or caravans. The first, at least in a practical sense, be found, for although the publisher to create something out of nothing The complex also has a refreshing Olympic swimming pool. is the mailing. Since The Mirror is is formally the Dzog-chen and who is now acting as editorial Prices per day are: made in Italy, which is Norbu Community of Merigar, that is only adviser, with Giovanni Area and 3.000 Spanish pesetas for a room sleeping 3-5 people (full board) Rinpoche's wish, it is also printed in nominal: the newspaperis inEnglish, Anna Eid, the three coordinators 2.500 pesetas for a place in the dormitory (full board) Italy, and thus mailed from Italy. not in Italian, its circulation is mostly between The Mirror and the 2.000 pesetas for a tent (full board). The Italian post is unfortunately not outside Italy etc. Could gakyils or Community in general; welcome known for itsefficiency and we have To cover organizational costs of the retreat a participation fee of 2.000 gars internationally divide the support has come from Kathy been told that sometimes it takes pesetas a day is requested. Mem bers of the Comm unity can pay a participation burden? Firstly it would not be heavy McGrane in California, in the form more than a month for the for one single gakyil and secondly, of faxed suggestions for the lay-out; fee of 1.500 pesetas per day. newspaperto reach the reader.There might not a temporary responsibility news comes, articles are received. In order to be able to organize the retreat, it is very important to make an are possibilities, so far not like that makeCommunity members We have a strong feeling that the advanced booking of 50 American dollars or the equivalent This amount thoroughly studied as the world is feel even more strongly that the most important prerequisites are can be sent by international money order or by cheque (in the currency of rather vast: could the newspaper be newspaper is their own? there to make The Mirror live and the country of origin) to the Comunità Dzog-chen, Merigar, Arcidosso done in Italy but printed in some The editorial staff in the develop also for the next generation 58031 GRJtaty. A note should be attached specifying that the amount is for other country, where distributing "Capannone" at Merigar are now of the Dzog-chen Community, and would be faster and maybe also the the retreat in Spain. heading towards a stable schedule: the next. In all the world. For further information contact-Anna Eid at Merigar. • • :

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 4 THE YEAR OF TIBET Dzog-chen Community Videos

About 18 months ago the video Station Hill Press - USA reinvest in the Dzog-chen section of the Shang Shung Mystic Fire - USA Community, A.S.I.A.,Shang-Shung Cooperative started its work During Istituto Lama Tzong Khapa Cooperative,Shang-Shung Institute, this time 4 video films have been RAI the Tibetan Village Project, etc. produced and distributed: Timeless ISMEO Present, A Lama around the World, BBC - London Cataloguing Yantra Yoga in Italian and English Channel 4 - London All the practitioners of the versions and Tun Medio e Posizioni Italia Tibet Dzog-chen Community should del Londé. Others consider how important it is to The Cooperative has also distributed 5. Research and contact with other catalogue all the existing material the film II Kailash. Several hundred associations, tape libraries and world-wide concerning the Teaching video cassettes of these titles have private individuals^ of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and The Dalai Lama visits Europe been recorded and sold. 6. Finding material on the Teachings the Dzog-chen Community. At present the Shang-Shung video of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche It has no sense that this wealth of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's tentative travel schedule in middle and south section is getting organized more through announcements in video material which is so important Europe from August to October 1991. efficiently. The people involved afe: Community international for all pratitioners both present and Giovanni Area, Paolo Brunatto, publications such as The Mirror future should be managed only by Gualtiero Cocco, Fulvio Rossi, Switzerland 7. Coordinating filming of individuals, even if they are GaetanoRuvolo, Alex Siedlecki and August 18. His Holiness will participate in a conference on inter-religious Teachings or practices at the motivated by the best intentions. So Manuel Tòdaro. dialogue and intercultural understanding at the Paulus Akademie, Zurich, different Gars and asking them to we ask all the people of the as part of the 700 anniversary celebrations of Switzerland. send a copy to the archives of the Community who possess video Shang-Shung video section. material related to the Teaching and the Community, to inform the France Filming by private individuals will International Video Committee or August 22-29. His Holiness will give the Chenresig initiation and teachings not be allowed in order to avoid uncontrolled use of the films etc. the Shang Shung Video Section, as on Mind Training and the Bodhicitta in Dordogne, south France. There will soon as possible, specifying exactly be a public talk on August 24,1991. 8. Selecting and editing of videos what they have. His Holiness will teach on Bodhicaryavatara, the Shantideva text on ontheTeachingsofNamkhaiNorbu Compassion. He will be teaching most mornings and afternoons. Saturday Rinpoche which are tobe distributed As it stands for written material, the afternoon there will be a Peace Day with guest speakers and other religious in agreement with Rinpoche. Dzog-chen Community must have representatives. 9. Selecting the material of other copies of all the video material which On the afternoon of the 25th there will be more general teaching and people which may be authorized for is connected with the Community, question and answers. distribution. either directly or indirectly. The On the 26th there will be Chenresig Wang. ( It is not certain if it will be short 10. The creation of a Consultation Dzog-chen Community is not a commercial company but a spiritual or long.) Archive. Community formed of all those who The Teachings will take place at the ABCD, Laugeral in a large tent. 11. Cataloguing video works with have received the Teachings, and Contribution: 150 French Francs per day. Shang Shung Edizioni advance booking for copies. because of this, "private use" will For further details contact the A.B.C.D. Association Boudhiste des Centres 12. Organizing video reviews. never be made of these copies or de Dordogne, Laugeral, 24290 Saint Léon sur Vézère, France, telephone 13. Selecting those practices where originals and the rights that may be 0033-53507529. Main aims a picture is essential (for example Listed below are the main aims of the Vajra Dance, Yantra, mudra, connected to the videos, whether for reproduction or distribution, will be Italy the video section which, obviously, etc.). taken into account. August 29-30. His Holiness will participate in the 11th Meeting for are related to the "International 14. Maintaining the material in What is important is that a complete Friendship Among Peoples to be held at the Quartiere Fieristico in Rimini Video Committee": hand for eventual duplication. library of all video material can be at 7 pm. A public talk is also scheduled. 1. Viewing and cataloguing existent 15. Master duplication for the material related to the Teachings of Consultation Archive. created and maintained under the best conditions for their security and Austria Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. 16. Filming all the retreats at preservation. September 1 -3. The Dalai Lama will address the Forum Schwarzenbergplatz 2. Viewing and cataloguing special Merigar. whose members consist of prominent Austrian industrialists. events: the Dalai Lama's visit, the 17. Filming expeditions, exhibit­ The creation of a complete catalogue Dalai Lama in Italy, inaugural ions, initiatives and projects that is only possible if detailed Germany speeches at the Gonpa, speeches at are related to the safeguarding of information is available and this October 5-7. His Holiness gives teachings on Kadampa Lhashi Jenang at the the Senate, etc. the Tibetan culture in agreement would be made easier if "The Tibetan Centre in Hamburg. He will also give two public talks. The 3. Viewing and cataloguing with the Dzog-chen Community, International Video Committee" teachings and the talks are scheduled for October 6, 1991. docum entaries which are historical, A.S.I.A., and the Shang-Shung had copies of the material. anthropological, religious or Institute. archeological, diaries of travel in 18. Six monthly publication of a Supplying information Tibet etc., which the Cooperative V ideo News International Magazine We suggest that the following The Path of The Buddha already has or which come from containing, for example, visits from information should be supplied to other archives, associations, tape various Masters, different the Committee: Helsinki, Finland libraries or persons. initiatives, the new Gars, Argentina, litis (if any) The National Museum in Helsinki has opened an exhibition of Tibetan 4. Entering into collaborative Australia, Merigar 2, etc. Topic (s) ritual objects, instruments, thankas and old photographs: The Path of The agreement with the following 19. Planning and producing Possible titles (credits: e.g. director, Buddha. audiovisual archives: documentaries for television cameraman, producer, etc.) Finnish folklorists, anthropologists, artists etc. travelled in Asia at the turn Tibet House - New York transmission which would be an Length of video of the century to find the original roots of the nation and some of them went Meridian Trust - London extra means of financial support to Standard (pal - ntsc - sec am) as far as Tibet Format (vhs. 3/4 inch, Low Band, They brought with them through Siberia and Russia many valuable religious High Band, 1 inch, Video 8, things from Mongolia, China and Tibet, and had contacts with Lamas and International Video Committee Betamax ) took many photos. For some time now the "International Translation Committee" has Date Among these explorers was Fieldmarshal Count C.G.Mannerheim, then an been responsible Tor checking all translations and publications regarding Place officer in the imperial army of Russia. the Teaching and the Dzog-chen Community. The same need has been Origin (who it belongs to) He carried a complete photo lab with him, and took more than 1000 photos felt to coordinate all the video material related to the Teaching and the Copyright (if any) on his journeys to the far east, many of them closely linked with Tibet and Dzog-chen Community, Technical data (any notes on the Tibetans. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche has nominated the following people quality: sound, pictures etc.) Near Peking, he met theXIII Dalai Lama's entourage in exile. Mannerheim responsible Tor the "International Video Committee": Fabio Andrico, Language (specify if there is a was the first European the XIII Dalai Lama had ever met, and they had a long Giovanni Area, Enrico Dell'Angelo and Rosa Tolli Namkhai simultaneous translation as conversation which Mannerheim reports in his memoirs. All the Gaky ils world wide are invited to choose, as soon as possible, an for example during the The Xrv Dalai Lama, when visiting Finland, saw part of this huge photo experienced and long-standing practitioner in their area tobe responsible Teachings at retreats). collection in the Mannerheim Museum, and spent a much longer time than to communicate with the International Video Committee; This information should be sent to: was expected there. His Holiness also remembered from the Potala the All communications and enquiries should be sent to: International Video Committee revolver which Mannerheim had given the XIII Dalai Lama as a present International Video Committee c/o Shang-Shung Edizioni saying, "In some occassion maybe even a man of peace like you will find c/o Shang-Shung Edizioni Merigar, 58031 GR, Italy a good gun useful." 58031 Arcldosso GR Italy Tel. 0564-966039 The Path of The Buddha exhibition will be open until the end of August. Telephone 0564-966039 Fax 0564-966608 Fax 0564-966608

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 5 Azamgar development plans Impressions of Russia by the Azamgar Gakyil We have got about 7 million in funds. We are considering the possibility of This is going to be a decisive year for the At the same time, the last inhabitant of loans or other forms of income or future of Azamgar. Battuira, Mr. Pierino, who owns three financing. At the moment we are developing plans houses in good condition, woods which But in particular we want to ask those to complete the house which will be can be used for their firewood, and people who promised to give their quota used for personal retreats. When it is some land, has decided to sell the lot for of amillionlire to Azamgar to keep their finished it will consist of four rooms, 34 million lire. promise and give their quota. Those each with a separate entry. Work on the Obviously we are going to negotiate to who have given it could, if they wish, roof has nearly been completed but buy this property since it is better not to give another quota or part of one. there is still a lot of work to do such as miss the chance which will allow us to Payment can be sent by bank transfer to fixing the walls, dividing the rooms, have the whole area of Battuira Istituto Bancario San Paolo di Torino putting in windows and doors, paving (Azamgar) as a secluded place, ideal for Filiale di Canelli, account no. 5158 in the floor etc. And there is a lot of material retreats for numerous practitioners. the name of Giuseppe Cul asso, Regione to be transported. For this we will have Even though the funds we have at the Montaldo 43, 12050 Camo CN, Italy. to rent a helicopter. moment are not enough to undertake We are relying on the sense of The estimated total cost will be about 15 both projects, we have decided to buy responsibility of practitioners and hope million lire, keeping the costs to the Mr. Pierino's property. that everyone will do their best. minimum. For this, we really need some money.

Geshe Tenzin Wangyal goes to USA A year at Rice University, Houston, Texas

The Mirror second week of August, Geshe ISMEO, Rome, and to becom e more Geshe Tenzin Wangyal has recently Tenzin Wangyal will continue involved in the development of the by Fabio Andrico been informed that he has been working at ISMEO, in Rome, to get Shang-Shung Institute, too. Here I am in the famous Baltic city of Riga. granted one year's research his cataloguing work to a good "Norbu Rinpoche wants me to work When I arrived in Leningrad, the people here told me that they had decided scholarship by the Rockefeller point. For two years he has been continuously at the Shang-Shung to start the Yantra Yoga courses here in Riga because at present the political Foundation in the USA. Last year sorting out complicated Tibetan Institute, and that is what I shall do. situation was fairly calm. Geshe Tenzin visited the USA twice, texts that nobody has yet put in So, at the moment I plan to live in In Leningrad I met about 15 people of the Community and after a night's and on his first journey there he was order; they consist of loose folios or Italy and m aybe spend som e periods rest I left for Riga by train. I was accompanied by Vladimir, who inspired invited by Professor Anne Klein of texts without titles, also of Bon of the year at Rice University to and started the Community here in the Soviet Union. Before leaving, Rice University to visit and lecture origin. He has already finished this continue the work with Anne Klein," however, I visited the Hermitage and the Leningrad Museum. Vladimir and in Houston. Now Geshe Tenzin work, and the texts will be listed in Geshe Tenzin says. I took a sleeper on the night train, a trip of twelve hours. Wangyal will go and to do his the general main catalogue of "The Lithuanian Institute of There were several things that immediately struck me during our trip. research there. Tibetan texts of ISMEO. He has Buddhist Studies and the Polish There was little illumination in the dark night, the stations were dimly lit "Mainly I shall be working on my recently started cataloguingthemost Dzog-chen Community wanted me with yellow lights and fires. The almost total absence of music which we own research, on the topic of my important tantric texts of the to come to Lithuania and Poland, are so used to hearing from houses, shops and cars. Here there is almost no Ph.D. thesis that I'm doing for Oslo Nyingma school, the Nyingma which was impossible for the music. There are no shop windows. The shops do not display their goods. University in Norway. Ancient Yungbum. This work he wants to moment because to get the visa They keep them on the shelves inside. Outside the shops, a sign indicates Tantric Deities of Bon is the topic continue after a year in the USA. would have taken too much time. In the type of goods a shop has. and also the title of the work I am "Before I knew that I should get the the future I would like to go there The weather isn't very cold, but it's raining. People say that the cities are doing," Geshe Tenzin Wangyal says. scholarship I had planned to go to and also to other Soviet countries, very polluted and it's probably true. From time to time I can smell smoke "With Anne Klein we also have a Australia, New Zealand and for I have seen that people there and coal in the air. plan to work on texts concerning the Singapore. Unfortunately there is have a real need and want for the The people of the Community here have been very kind to me and given me logical aspects of Dzog-chen, that now not enough time before going teaching. I was in Bulgaria some a lot of attentioa Life for them is not very easy and they just manage to get is Dzog-chen logics. This is a to America," Geshe Tenzin time ago, and more than 500 people enough to eat, and that's not much. In comparison Argentina seems like separate project on behalf of Rice Wangyal says. came on a normal Monday to listen another Switzerland! to me. In the end someone shouted, University." "In May I was able to Finish the Their spiritual history hasn't been very easy either. Their Master Dandaron "Please come back, we need you!" "The third thing I want to do is to teaching that I had began of the was in prison for many years, and during his last imprisonment, he died. For more information about Geshe teach people interested in the Dzog- Zhang Zhung Nying Tig in Bari and The people of the Community here feel a very strong link with Namkhai Tenzin Wangyal's retreats in July in chen teachings. There are a few Venice, in Italy .This summer Ishall Norbu Rinpoche and the Dzog-chen teaching. They see Norbu Rinpoche as Europe: people around Houston, also some still do a couple of retreats in other a pure continuation of the teaching of their Master and they have a real and professors of the university itself, European countries. There will be a Austria, contact the Dzog-chen sincere interest. They are very serious and have a profound respect for the and some practitioners from retreat in Austria, in July, from the Community in Austria teaching. different parts of the USA who have 13th to 20th. After that in Finland, Finland, contact the Dzog-chen Anyway, I am here in the fog and the rain trying to do my best to honor the already been in contact with me in from the 21st until the 27th, and Community in Finland commitment I have assumed, with respect for the sense of the Teaching. order to organise retreats. I have from Finland I shall go to Yugoslavia Yugoslavia, end of July, contact the seen some very beautiful places, for for six days to teach outside Community in Belgrad, Yugoslavia instance in Arizona, where I'd like Belgrad." You will find the addresses on to do retreats, but it is too soon to say Geshe Tenzin Wangyal's future page 16. anything as the plans are still quite plans at the moment are to come Rice University, c/o Prof. Anne Interreligious Studies in Florence open." back to Italy after one year in Klein, Dept of Religious Studies, by Pia Boriili Before going to the USA, in the America, to continue his work at Box 1892, Houston Tx 77251, USA On the 15 th of May, "A Meeting for Peace", an interreligious celebration, took place in Florence, Italy, to commemorate the visit of His Holiness the Dalai Lama there exactly a year earlier. The meeting was held at the Abbey of San Miniato al Monte The Melbourne Gakyil Australia and presented by Don Cristoforo,who is one of the monks Besides the Benedictine monks of the Abbey and many lay people, there were also Tibetan monks from the Florence Mahay ana Centre, the Istituto Lama TzongKhapa The Australian Community, with at Pomaia and the Centro Kunpen Lama Gancen in Milan, as well as people from the inspiriation of Sue Fielding, many other centres present for the meeting. has raised 380.000 lire for the As fruit of the Dalai Lama's visit the year before and the appeal by the Holy Father Khandogar Nunnery Project. during the Gulf War, the idea to found a Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies for a New Humanism at San Mimato has now become concrete. The new Centre will be There is a house for sale at the Wat a point of encounter where various faiths and cultures can debate and listen to The Melbourne Gakyil in Australia has informed us of up and coming activities Buddha Dhamma. dialogue and a section will be dedicated to interfaith studies for world peace The Centre will offer a programme of high quality lectures and encounters within there. The Sydney and Melbourne limited study groups. Fabio Andrico's visit will take place from the 20th of September to the 3rd of Gakyils are looking into the In the future, the Centre intends to develop two projects: urban planning in a holistic October. The proposed program is: possible purchase. 1st weekend, September 20th to 22nd: public session sense and a 3 day healing service at the end of September (as yet unconfirmed). The purchasing of this house-would Friday evening: introductory talk His Holiness the Dalai Lama sent a telegram for the occasion expressing his provide a space at the Wat 2 days of Yantra Yoga teaching for beginners happiness about a meeting for peace. "The human mind is so varied that different Tuesday 24th to Thursday 26th, evenings: the Vajra Dance (for the Community) dedicated to the Community and religious evolutions have been created according to different necessities. We are all 2nd weekend, September 28th and 29th: Community rural retreat its particular character since the searching for happiness and peace of mind and the main obstacles are egocentricity and attachment. In this way each religion has its system to struggle against these Next stage of Yantra Yoga Wat now provides a base for problems." October 1st and 2nd, evenings: the Vajra Dance retreats.

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 6 Tashigar and other thoughts by Woody Paparazzo futurewill hold forourownchildren. flame within us and we must protect In December, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche urged everyone to become and nurture it ourselves. Rinpoche gave a retreat at Tashigar familiar with these ideas in order to I have recently come to understand, in Argentina. Jim Smith and I went collaborate better. withgreaterclarity.thatthe potential as representatives of Tsegyalgar. I also became very much aware of of the Teachings lies in our own There were about 200 people in the fact that the form of Rinpoche's innerunderstanding.This is the point attendance. Perhaps 50 were interactions with his students has of contact through which our real members of the Argentina gradually changed over the years. knowledge grows. What matters Dzog-chen Communities of Buenos Happily, Rinpoche can now most is our ability to maintain this Aires and Cordoba. (There are conserve his energy by teaching connection through the course of communities each with its own during short sessions and resting our daily living. Gakyil in these two cities.) The rest privately much of the time. Those Sometimes we have the attitude that were truly from around the world - students who remember times past the Teachings are something outside Italy, Norway, Poland, England, whenRinpoche spent endless hours of ourselves which we need to Germany, India, Chile, Venezuela, with his students talking, playing immerse ourselves in until we are South Africa, Australia, New and teaching informally, naturally somehow transformed. This Zealand, USA, etc. long for those days of unlimited inwardly passive act of immersing Emerging from the wealth of contact with the Master, but ourselves is sometimes taken as impressions presented to me during certainly we all recognize the benefit "practice". this visit, which was particularly of the new format to Rinpoche's But, I believe our primary goal must meaningful since it was my first health and well-being. be to develop this internal connection experience of foreign travel, is a Now we understand that Rinpoche to the best of our ability. Every The main building of Tashigar thread of thoughts relating to the may be away on personal retreat for moment in which we maintain the interrelationship of the Teacher, the sometime, and thereare indications came to realize that much of what I sharing his energy and vision. But I immediate presence of the Teaching Teachings and oneself. that the form of interaction with took to be ded ication to the Teachings believe we make a mistake if we do through our awareness helps purify During the retreat, Rinpoche spoke students may be different than in was nothing more than ideas, not recognize that our relationship our condition and diminish our often about the role of the Dzog-chen the past. Altogether these attitudes and lofty conditioning. I to the Teachings is not defined by distractioa Community relative to the impressions have brought me to had learned useful skills to help our outward relationship with the Here in Tsegyalgar, we have begun preservation of the Teachings for ponder the role of Teacher, the increase awareness and, in general, Teacher. In fact, it seems to me that to meet together on a regular basis the future and the responsibility we relationship of the student and the had restructured my thinking in ways passive reliance upon the Teacher and exchange our experience of share as practitioners. Teachings, and to contemplate that conformed to a more reasonable only impairs our growth. practice and our relationship to the He spoke about the portion of his impermanence in this regard. view of life. As Rinpoche has often said, for us Teachings. This has been invaluable. book, "Santi Maha Sangha", which I and several others in the Conway Still, I realized that if the moment of the Master is more important than I believe that in this way we can he wrote some years ago, but which community know well the death were upon me, my level of even the Buddha. This is because actually be of benefit to one another. was only recently translated. It experience of separation from the being remained essentially the Teacher is our living connection By communicating on this level, we explains Rinpoche's ideas about how Teacher. Idedicatedmyselffor over unchanged. Perhaps we could all with the Teachings. The Teacher develop and maintain the communites should function, the 12 years to the teachings of the benefit by observing carefully our transmits knowledge to the student transmission of the Teachings in a principles upon which a Gakyil is Andersons. My mind was indelibly condition in order to ascertain with and the student develops this concrete way. We become more than founded, and how preparations can marked by this experience and when some degree of impartiality where transmission through his or her just an association of people who be made to carry the Teachings to the time came that our group broke we truly stand. Of course, there is practice. follow the same Teacher. The future generations. As he explained, apart and our Teacher became nothing better than enjoying contact But unless the student can become Teachings become something living this is not merely an abstract thought. infirm, I was left with precious little with the Master and the feeling of self-sufficient, realization remains between us which we share and Consider, for example what the which I could truly call my owa I contentment which comes with only an idea. The Master lights a develop.

The road to Tsegyalgar communities, tucked away in the woods, only vehicles we allowed to use the road necessity of it, it made the vote swing and occasionally one of them will go were cars or trucks carrying several heavily against discontinuance (92 to public in a big way, and build a Stupa people, supplies, children, or the infirm. 15). (the Peace Pagoda, in Leverett), start There were a few exceptions. We also The town may consider discontinuing buying buildings and businesses (the posted signs asking people to drive maintenance of the road, which it Renaissance Community, in Gill) and slowly, as well as periodically making basically already had many years ago, attract a lot of attention and strangers to announcements to that effect. These or discontinuing the road in such a way the area, which the local populace finds measures worked well. that it is still open as a right-of-way, to disturbing. As we do not have a campground permit, eliminate the town's liability in case of To be concrete, the main problems of however, it was necessary for everyone an accident. Itisnowofficial that we are the retreatende d up being the traffic and to leave at night, and return in the legally cntided to use the road, unless the condition of the road. The neighbors morning. This meant that there was there is some further action. said they felt the quality of their lives always, for those two weeks, traffic at Now that we find ourselves in this had been drastically altered by our certain times of the day. situation, we have no choice but to presence, and they felt helpless and I don't think that any of our gestures of continue to work with it and with our angry, because they chose to live in this goodwill were acknowledged or noted. neighbors. isolated spot for the same reason we As those of you who attended surely We are looking for ways to find a chose it-becauseitwas quiet. Obviously, recall, we had to cross a picket -line to common ground. It is not a question at it is no longer as quiet with our get to the land each morning, and on a this point of whether or not they have a preparations for retreats, construction few occasions had to call the police to valid grievance, or whether or not we and practice weekends. get barricades removed from the road. are disturbing them. We have made several attempts to set Tensions have not lessened. Our There is nothing we can do to change neighbors have continued to complain Tsegyalgar things right. After asking to join the anything, short of putting in a ne w road, Mary Lyons Road Association, the about our presence on the land, as well an immense project that would require a neighborhood group which maintains as expressing concern over by Laurie Marder horse-back riding, hiking and lot of money. We have a very good and makes decisions about the road, and environmental issues. When our community sought land a fe w snowmobiling. We were aware that it lawyer, in case we need one to protect receiving no response, we assumed as At the annual town meeting in Ashfield years ago, we were looking for a quiet, would be a loss to the people of the area, our rights further. And we will be on the much responsibility as we could, ( the town which controls access to our out-of-the-way place to hold ourretreats, if we no longer let them use the land. So lookout for new road possibilities, but repairing potholes and ruts. land because the road passes through it having outgrown our house in Conway. we told people that they were still that is not a very likely resolution. The question remained, what could we on its way in), they requested the town We needed aplace withaprivate,natu ral welcome to use it, as they always had, as Wc are glad to be able to host retreats in do to lessen traffic near these homes to discontinue or abandon the road. This setting. We bought the 165 acre parcel long as we were not there. Buckland, so we hope that in the long during our two week 1990 retreat? Our would have made the road private, and after extended negotiations with its We attempted to get to know our new run, as our neighbors come to know us solution was to get permission to park would have been up to those abutters to owner, butitseemed well worth waiting neighbors before the first retreat on the better as a community, these tensions most of the cars at Mohawk Trail decide who could use it. for. Naturally, we did not think there land in 1989 by having a "pot luck" will case. We would of course be happy Regional H.S., and hire buses to take On the advice of our lawyer, we told the was a problem with access to it, as the picnic with them. Only a few people to answer questions about the situation, people to a drop off point nowhere near town of Ashfield that we would hold the public had gotten to it and the Mary came, and though they were friendly, and take suggestions. So, don't hesitate our neighbors' homes. town liable for the full price of the land, Lyon's Birthplace (the old homestead they later felt that we had been trying to to write if you have ideas! We then got permission from a $165,000, if this came to pass and we site of the founder of Mount Holyoke mislead them about ho w big our retreats landowner to cut across his land on foot, were thereby denied access to our land. College) by car for many years. It had were likely to be, and what out intentions Laurie Marder c/o Tsegyelgar PO Box thereby bypassing entirely the end of This tough stance did make an been used, with the owner's permission, are in general. To put their concerns in 277, Conway, Mass. 01341 USA. the road where most people live. The impression, and though we regretted the for swimming, camping, skiing, perspective, this area has a lot of spiritual

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 7 Thayer Street Associates A Construction Company with a Difference Merigar program by Des Barry partners of the company, Vern In 1985 three people of the Conway Harrington and Joe Zurylo, and the Dzog-chen Community had the idea of previous partners John Foster and Ernie SUMMER 1991 forming a construction company in a Renner, has made Thayer Street partnership. The company was not Associates into anenormously benefici al formed as an official part, or off-shoot, organ for Tsegyalgar, and many people of the Dzog-chen Community, but was of the Dzog-chen Community. a private enterprise on behalf of the Ve m and Joe arc two very different individualsconcemed. The ideas behind kinds of people, but make a combination the company, however, were very much of energies that keeps the company the product of the practice and lifestyle moving in the right direction. of the partners, who had known each Jim Valby's expertise - brought with June 21 10 & 16 Guru Rinpoche day. Namkhai Norbu othersince the early days of the Anderson him from a multi million dollar Rinpoche will give the complete Gurdjieff group. construction company - ironed ou t many transmission of Mandarava. The founder members of the company laborer by the company within three aspects of job costing, taxes and June 22 7 - 10 & 16 Intense practice of Mandarava. overheads. Vern takes care of finding were John Foster, Vern Harrington and days of arriving in Conway - a June 23 Karma Yoga. Joe Zurylo. The first jobs that the phenomenal shock both physically and the jobs, liason with sub contractors, Full moon. Long Life practice of company undertook were in the Amherst culturally. Paolo Simonato, likewise, and generally making sure that the June 26 8 Mandarava. area, and gradually the company's was drawn into the fold, to be unleashed customer is happy. From time to time, reputation grew for quality work at a on massive demolition projects, hair he does strap on a tool belt and hammer Karma Yoga to revitalize Merigar. June 29-30 good price. Among the many concerns raising roofing stints, and hammer nails along with the carpentry crew, of TSA, apart from making money in a flailing framing jobs, when he landed on who are employed as sub contractors, Long Tun with intensive practice of competitive market, was to use the Columbia's shores and decided to stay and are generally not part of the July 4 19 Ekajati. Dzog-chen Community. company as a means to contribute to the to sample the American style of life. General purification of Merigar. As a counterpoint to Vein's public Tsegyalgar Dzog-chen Community. Another way that the company decided July 6-7 Dakini day. LongTun with an intensive This was accomplished in a variety of relations and marketing, Joe takes care to make a positi ve input to the Dzog-chen July 7 19 practice of Ekajati. ways. Community was to give your reporter of on-site supervision, and a large share of the physical work of all major July 11 8 Full moon. Six Lokas Purification. For one thing, a great deal of building the opportunity to work as a paid construction projects, including July 13-14 Karma Yoga. material was donated to the Community translator, one day a week. In this way I excavating, concrete work, framing, when there were work projects going on was able to translate the English version July 15 19 Anniversary of Dharmachakra. siding, and anything else of the hundred to repair and restore the old house in of Norbu Rinpoche's root text of Sand Ganapuja. and one problems that arise every day in Conway. Tools were loaned to those Maha Sangha, and Rinpoche's work on July 20 18 Practice retreat starts. the world of construction, that gj ve ample who came to help who were not the Bardo Thodrol. Santi Maha Sangha July 21 3.30 The anniversary of Padmasambhava. illustration of the first noble truth. carpenters, in collaboration with the has been published by Shang Shung B ecause of the partners' commitment to Long Tun with Guruyoga of other construction workers of the Edizioni, and the Bardo Thodrol, we are the teachings, those who work for Thayer Padmasambhava Community, notably Emie Renner, Jim trying to make available through Station Street Associoates can be sure that when 19 Ganapuja with intensive practice of Smith and Woody Paparazzo. Shelves Hill Press, in the near future. there is a major retreat at Tsegyalgar, Long Life dedicated to all Masters. were built, bathrooms improved, and In 1989, Jim Valby joined the company there are no problems of having time to various repairs and improvements made as an accountant. Such was hisexpertise Continuation of the practice retreat go; and also there is plenty of flexibility to the Yangtig cabin. The building of that he took years of amorphous July 22-25 Practice retreat. for finding time to do personal retreats. Rinpoche's cabin on the new land was paperwork, and sorted and galvanised it July 26 10 & 16 Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche will give There are very few companies in the also a result of the collaboration of all into a real set of account books, teaching on Judien. world with a similar vision the construction workers of the acceptable to even the most meticulous The company has certainly gone through July 27-28 Judien practice. Community, not only Thayer Street of mathematical wizards. many changes. Associates. This dazzling heirloom of accountancy August 3-4-5 10 & 16 A course of the Dance of the Vajra. he has passed on to me, so that I may As the company became established and Financially, it has grown and shrunk wade through the mi asm i c wonderland August 5 19 Dakini day. Ganapuja. started to grow, it became a source of and grown again, along with the tides of of computer spreadsheets, ledgers and August 10-11 Karma Yoga. employment for many in the Dzog-chen the economic times, and the fortunes job cost accounts - mazes and labyrinths August 10 7 Full moon. Purification of the Six Lokas. Community. Ernie Renner joined the and misfortunes of particular projects. worthy of that great imaginist writer of company in 1987, as a partner and As in any human endeavour, there have August 16 10th Anniversary and inauguration of Argentina, Jorge Luis Borges. remained with TSA for about a year been moments of stress and tension, but Merigar. Jim worked at TSA on a part time basis before setting off on his own agaia The everyone of the Dzog-chen Community, August 17 Party for all the children at Merigar. while he continued with his "hobby" of company lo go - a triangle with the letters who has been associated with the August 18 translating texts fro m Tibetan to English Karma Yoga. TSA, and a very discrete gakyil - was company has had a work experience Because of the availability of office August 19 19 Ganapuja. designed by Kathy Smith, who also that is unique. equipment such as the computer and the August 24 18 Start of practice retreat works as a laborer for the company from fax machine, the office of TSA has TSA has been a place where many of the August 25 8 Full moon and Anniversary ofTsarchen time to time. Gaby Harrington worked become an important hive of community have been able to put the with the company, suffering the eternal Lo s al Gyatso and Pema Karpo. Long international and intercoastal teachings into practice in everyday life, itch of installing fibreglass insulation, Life Practice. communication for the Dzog-chen combining professional and competitive in the hot and stuffy attics of Amherst. August 31 End of practice retreaL Community. construction projects, in the tough On arriving from Italy in 1986, your market of America, while maintaining reporter found himself employed as a The vision of the current owners and awareness of the real situation September 1 Karma Yoga to revitalise Merigar.

California Community News Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche

Land update Practice weekend in Germany The California Community is in the The California DzogChen Community will have a Practice Weekend at the Jikoji September 13th to 15th, 1991 process of selling their land. Many Zen Center in the Santa Cruz Mountains, Friday, June 14th at 6:00 pm to Sunday, June 16th at 5 pm people have responded to an ad placed September 13 in the newspaper. The cost is $50 including food for overnight. $ 15 per day for day use including food. Please call in advance: Kathy McGrane at 415-548-2024 for information and Public lecture on Tibetan Culture, Cologne. registration. Upcoming practice dates September 14 June 24. Monday. Gakyil meeting at Margret Bradford's. 70 Flora Court Pleasant Hill, 415 798-8748. Potluck 6:30, meeting 7:30p.m. Morning: Dzog-chen Teachings at Kamalashila Institute, Schloss July 13. ALL DAY practice at the Ulgen's in Sonoma. 19100 Old Winery' R<*. Wachendorf. 5353 Mechernich, tel. 02256-850. Sonoma. Call Marsha at 707-996-8955. 3.30 pm: "Early History of Tibet", Gustav-Heinemann Haus. Aug. 8. Thursday. Gakyil meeting at Carol Field's, 755 Euclid Ave., Berkeley. Waldenburger Ring 44, Bonn. During the period of August 27-Septembcr 10, Fabio Andrico from Italy will be September 15 visiting us to teach Yantra Yoga and the Song of the Vajra Dance. Special teaching 10 am lecture "The Great Perfection, Dzog-chen in the Nyingma of the latter for Norbu Rinpoche's students and general public Yantra Yoga classes School and Bon religion". Bonn. as well. Afternoon: Dzog-chen Teachings, Kamalashila Institute. Yantra Yoga Classes: Taught by Eugenio Amico ongoing in San Francisco. Call Eugenio at 415 586-2703 for informatioa For further information contact: Tsewang Norbu, Computer Tibetan Deutsch-Tibetische Kulturgesellschaft e.V. (Konigswinter), Steve Goodman (415-653-3872) is selling a Tibetan-English Dictionary for Fritz-Pullig Str. 28, D5205 St. Augustin 2. Germany. computer (PC) which has 35,000 words. Call him for information Tel. 02241-203610.

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 8 Tibetan tradition of astrology based on the combination of five elements and twelve animals

astrology is present in this system, part of Tibetan astrology, the latter Astrology of as introduced into Tibetan astrology. must not be considered as a simple Garzis derives from the famous derivation of Chinese and Indian Kalachakra Tantra (the Wheel of astrology. On the contrary, it has an Time). Kalachakra is not simply independent origin, a complete astrology, but is rather an astrological system being already explanation through astrology of in existence in the ancient K ingdom the condition of the individual, the of Shang-Shung, situated in Western external universe and the elements. Tibet near Mount Kailash. The Tujor: 'tu* (dus) means time, 'jor' system's basic components are the (sbyor) combinatioa Sotujormeans twelve animal signs (non zodiacal, the combination of time, that is the analogous to the twelve Chinese Zodiac. Tujor is a 'zodiacal' kind of astrological animal signs), astrology which studies the combined with five Elements and movement of the sun through the nine numbers, from nine to one twelve houses. called mewa, (sme ba). Nagtsi: 'nag ' (nag) means black, ' tsi ' This autonomous Bon tradition (rtsis) means astrology, black derives from the famous sageTonba astrology or ' astrology of elements'. Sherab (Ston pa gshen rab) who This kind of astrology mostly came lived 500 years before Buddha Shakyamuni. Later from the reign by Rita Leti from China. of the Tibetan King (Srong btsan Western astrology, Chinese The reason why the Chinese kind of sgam po) in the seventh century astrology and now Tibetan astrology is called 'black astrology onwards, Tibet had direct contacts astrology: whoever enters this path ' is really very simple. India is by both with China and India. In this wishes to know what the differences, definition the white country. In period much Chinese astrology was peculiarities and similarities are. The Tibetan, 'India' is called Gyagar introduced (one of heavenly bodies have been observed ('gya' country, 'gar' white). from all latitudes for millenia by Moreover, Indians have always Songtsengambo's wives was very different cultures. This has worn white clothes, and the Chinese and expert in astrology). obviously led to different points of Brahmins ate 'white' food (without The Kalachakra was introduced departure, directions and meat) etc. So in contrast, China has from India in more recent times. interpretations on the part of the always been the black country. In This brief historical introduction is observer interested in understanding fact, in Tibetan, 'China' is called intended to make clear from the the interaction between the cosmos Gyanag ('gya' country, 'nag' black). start certain areas of confusion and man. In contrast to India, in China all which are likely to arise, when The Tibetan tradition of astrology is types of meat have always been talking about Tibetan astrology in vast, eclectic and extraordinarily eaten and at the time of the general, and in particular the rich rich. Its roots lie in the ancient Emperors, all the ministers wore and fascinating collection of Kingdom of Shang-Shung and in long black false-beards etc. astrological data which go to make theBontradition.anditsubsequently So this is why the Chinese kind of up the 'Tibetan calendar', the received and integrated influences astrology is called Nagtsi 'black' fulcrum of indispensible tool for and contributions from the Chinese astrology as opposed to Kartsi every astrological interpretation. and Indian astrological traditions. 'white' or Indian astrology. ('Gar' But this subject requires an article In fact there are various kinds of means white (dkar) as well as to itself. constellation (skar)- the calligraphy astrology in Tibet. A brief analysis The description below refers to is slightly different, but the of their names provides a good Nagtsi astrology, that is black pronunciation is the same). introduction to their substance: astrology, or astrolgy of the Nagtsi astrology is based on the 'kartsi' (skar rtsis), 'tujor' (dus Elements, Tibetan Jungtsi (byung combination of five Elements and sbyor) and 'nagtsi' (nag rtsis) are all rtsis). astrological systems which derive twelve animals (Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, from different Tantras because like The Five Elements Monkey, Bird, Dog and Boar), Tibetan medicine, astrology is Jungtsi astrology involves five which must not be confused with considered a sacred science, that is Elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Iron the twelve signs of the Zodiac. This to say a science which canharmonize and Water. Each of these is kind of astrology allows one to man with the universe. symbolically represented by a understand the prana, that is the Kartsi: 'kar '(skar) means specific colour or geometrical shape. energy of a person in both its internal astronomy,'tsi'(rtsis) means The rectangle represents Wood and Earth and its stability are represented and external contexts. astrology. This is the astrology of by the square. Its colour is yellow, a A lthough the black and white system corresponds to the colour green and astronomy: astrology based on the the Element of Air. Whenever Wood symbol of richness (yellow is the positions of the constellations. (based on the position of the is talked of in Tibetan astrology, we colour of gold) and abundance. So Kartsi is principally astronomy, Elements and the constellations refer to what in the West is known The semicircle and its colour white the study of the stars. Much Indian respectively) both form an integral as the Element Air. To understand indicate the element Iron. Iron or this, it is necessary to think of Wood Metal (another name for the same Water, with its constant fluidity and not as an inert material, but as a element) belongs to the Earth and is its capacity to take any shape, is living tree. A tree grows and born in the Earth. represented by a figure without develops day by day, forever When one talks about Earth, one is corners, the circle, and by the colour changing and moving. This referring to something large and blue. incessant growth and mobility, this heavy. When one talks about Metal, Mother and Child energy and capacity for one is referring to something hard, These five Elements form a development are the internal concentrated and compact, which harmonious system, and are the characteristic or hallmark of the however is to be found within the material foundation of all existence. Element Air. This is why the tree, element Earth. This is why, when Their order is not accidental: a Wood, by analogy is presented as considering the Elements in general, specific relationship in fact exists its symbol. The colour green and Iron sometimes disappears as a between all the individualElemenls. the rectangle also rem ind one of the distinct Element, and becomes part This relationship is first and tree. of the Earth. The Kartsi system of foremost one of 'generation' or, as The triangle and the colour red astrology for example only the Tibetans say, the five Elements represent Fire, with its attributes of recognizes four elements: Air, Fire, move ' from Mother to Child '. Wood heat and force of expansion.The Earth and Water. is the Mother of Fire, Fire is the

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 9 and nine numbers. It is considered a science which can harmonize man with the universe.

the Elements Wood is the Child of Water, Water positive life together - whether the Child of Metal, Metal the Child things exist between their Elements of Earth, Earth the Child of Fire, and which faviour union, or which create Fire the Child of Wood, which in conflict turn is the Child of Water, and so on. From an external point of view, This is what is meant when one says relating the individual's Elements that two elements have a to the Elements which govern a Mother-Child relation This relation particular moment - be it a certain is generally considered to be positive year, month, or day - it is possible to (particularly when the Mother understand the degree of ease or Element is seen with respect to the difficulty to be expected. Very Child, a little less the other way precise calculations can be made round), that is to say a harmonious for any day, so as to decide which relationship of agreement between day is the best for a particular two Elements. activity. Furthermore, astrology in general The four relations is especially used by doctors. A Altogetlier, four different sorts of doctor must know astrology, relation exist between Elements: 1) otherwise he cannot understand the Mother, 2) Child, 3) Friend, 4) condition of an individual and Enemy. Every ElementhasaMother certain diseases cannot be cured. physical and mental tendencies Element (from which it was The Elements taken into determined by an imbalance in our generated), a Child Element (which consideration in the Jungtsi Elements, thus allowing us to it generates), a Friend Element astrological system are not the same progress spiritually. (which helps its manifestation, and as those used in other astrological All reality, both material and subtle, is the Son of the Son), and lastly an systems and inB uddhist philosophy. is composed of five Elements.These Enemy Element (which tends to This set of Elements, however, is Elements govern both our inner and destroy it, and is the Mother of its adopted in Tibetan medical theory. outer worlds. They relate both to own Mother Element). In fact, each Element has its own the concrete physical world and to Taking as an example the Element function and a precise inner characteristics. They Fire, we can say that the Mother of correspondence within the physical determine the quality of energy and Fire is Wood, The Child of Fire is body. According to the Tibetans, tendencies of the mind. And finally Earth, its Friend is Iron and its Enemy disease arises when there is an they are a subtle essence, light and is Water. unharmonious situation within the colour. A true understanding of this individual - discora between the concept means entering into the Friend and Enemy Elements. heart of reality. Many ways of using The relation between any two The predominance of a particular this knowledge exist on many levels. non-adjoining Elements in the Element gives a person specific Like a stone thrown into the water, generative cycle taken together is characteristics, tendencies in which produces ever larger circles, considered to be a negative, attitude and energy, both within and the knowledge of the five Elements unharmonious, conflictual without is an essential nucleus which relationship between two Elements. Knowing all this allows one to expands well beyond visible limits. It is to be noted how aFriend-Enemy operate in an appropriate and precise A Short Introduction to Tibetan relation is never reciprocally way in one'sown existence. In Tibet, Astrology of the Elements, by Rita advantageous or reciprocally astrology is not an end in itself. It is Leti, translated from Italian by disadvantageous. For example a rigourous operational science. Robin Cooke, reprinted from Water is an Enemy of Fire (in fact it Nothing is left to chance. There are Merigar-magazine, November puts it out), but Fire is a Friend of precise techniques for intervening 1987. Water (its sets it in motion, expands and restoring the equilibrium. Maria Rita Leti has a degree in it, as in the Doling process). Together with the knowledge of Philosophy from Florence This way of relating the Elements each discord, exists the method to University and has studied oriental amongst themselves is not the only harmonise it. languages and civilization at the one possible. For instance in Kartsi This is true not only as regards the University of Oriental Studies in astrology, completely different material circumstances we live in - Naples. considerations are made when although the opportunity of She has been interested in Tibetan analysing the Elements of the choosing the most favourable astrology for many years and has constellations or the Elements that magma capable of transforming moment for our actions so as to live deepened her knowledge under the govern any particular day. itself into a solid black rock as soon in harmony with time should not be guidance of Namkhai Norbu But in any case, the relations between as it emerges from the mouth of a ignored. But even more valuable is Rinpoche of whom she is a long the Elements form the basis of all volcano! the knowledge of our personal time student. astrology. Analysing their Earth generates Metal - deep down Elemental situation through which At present she lives and studies in relationships one can often in the bowels of the Earth, this hard we can understand and correct Arcidosso, Grosseto. intuitively understand the result of Mother of Earth, Earth is the Mother and shining Element which is both their meeting. What happens, for of Iron, Iron is the Mother of Water malleable and compact is born. instance, when Fire and Water are f.: son and finally Water is the Mother of To say that Metal generates Water is put together? Or Fire and Air? (The n.: enemy Wood - thus the circle closes and the to refer to a characteristic which Air helps the Fire to grow etc.) a.: friend cycle starts again.. To understand was well known to alchemy: the The relations between the Elements m.: mother what all this means (and at the same property thatmetalshaveof melting, govern all existence. Their time to remember the correct becoming a liquid, thereby giving rise to the fluid Element, of which agreement or disagreement within succession) all you need to do is to individual components determines consider the physical characteristics Water is the symbol par excellence. Water generates Wood: here the tree the areas of life and the types of of each Element. The fact that Wood situation in which a given individual generates Fire is obvious; Fire returns, whose sap and vital essence draws indispensible nourishment will tend to find most difficulty and generates Earth - and what is our from water - and without water no danger, or conversely will find the own Earth, like other planets, if not form of vegetable life can exist. going easy. the result of the cooling of a flaming This cycle of continual generation sphere? And the Earth we tread on By relating the Elements of two can also be traced in the opposite each day is none other than the outer people it is possible to understand direction. In this case we say that crust of a nucleus of incandescent whether or not they can easily live a

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 10 The article is reprinted from Brass Bulletin, the international magazine for The Tibetan Ritual Orchestra brass players, issues 62 & 6311988, with the permission of the author by Daniel Scheidegger leprosy victim is unsuitable - black dots integral part of the Tibetan monk's life. Tibetan ritual music forms an essential in the bone indicate this diseas, the Very young novices can be heard part of the TibetanBuddhist rite, which, thighbone from someone who died of practising the conch hom. Eight-year simply expressed, is concerned with the hunger is not usable either - such bones old novices are allowed to beat the large conscious control of positive and are very light, with a low fat content. drum during the rite. The oboe and the negative energies by means of ritualised A suitable bone, on the other hand, is long 'metal alpenhorn' are not studied hand movements, magic sounds and white, heavy, shiny and not bent. S biking before the age of thirteen, however, graphic representations of divine power one hand on the mouthpiece should because o f the great physical effort these I will try to give you an overall view of produce a hollow sound which resonates wind instruments require. The double Tibetan ritual music as I experienced it briefly. cymbals are generally studied at the while learning its instruments. Several The bone horn 'kang ling' is held same age. If a monk plans to become a year's stay in the valleys of the diagonally outwards from the left comer leader of the ceremony, he must be very Himalayas enabled me to gain an of the mouth At first I wis shown how familiar with the double cymbals as this appreciation of this primeval sound to shake my left hand to produce the instrument usually leads the orchestra. world. The Tibetan lamas' natural vibrato so characteristic of this All inali, it can be said, these instruments helpfulness allowed me to acquire a instrument but after a while I had to stop are not hard to play. Monks are not feeling and appreciation for the meaning this and try to produce the vibrato using professional musicians: music is only a of these sounds. the breath alone. part of their rite. They do not aim to It is certainly difficult to form a picture A bone-hom player never plays more produce musical virtuosos since every of Tibetan ritual music with only than four notes in an orchestral piece. monk, even those who are not very recordings to go on (several records are Sometimes only three, or even only one gifted musically, should be able to available). One also has to imagine the is needed. communicate with the Buddhas through large monastery buildings with their The Drums sound. A harmonious feeling of fellowship is the basis. The phenomenon bizarre brightly coloured murals, the air In addition to these wind instruments of a 'star' would be alien in such a filled with incense and the solemnity of the Tibetan ritual orchestra also has two setting. Gifted oboists or experienced the officiating lamas. different kinds of drums: first the cymbals players are certainly prized but An encounter with Tibetan culture can 'damaru', a double-headed rattle drum not revered. give us some ideas of the elemental with little beads which strike the hand­ power contained within a sound. held drum as it is moved back and According to the Tibetan tannic tradition The Tibetan ritual orchestra consists of forwards; and second a double-headed there are peaceful and fear-arousing wind instruments, cymbals, bells and drum called 'nga' played witha wooden aspects of the Buddhas. While the drams. Stringed instruments are used beater . peaceful Buddha aspects represent the only in folk music. 'Nga' is the Tibetan name for the big state of existence of the Buddhas From the musical point of view all the double-headed ritual drum The size of themselves, the fear-arousing Buddha rituals can be divided into two groups: this drum varies enormously, the aspects relate to the method of removing ' nga chog ', drum ri tuais, and ' tril cho g', diameter of the largest being as great as obstacles, to the dynamic process of handbell rituals. In a drum ritual the the height of a grown man It is played attaining enlightenment. All die Tibetan drum accompanies the ritual singing with a sickle-shaped wooden beater. ritual instruments can be related to these and the handbell is played by the abbot. During the rite the drummer follows the two aspects of the 'Buddha energies', In a handbell ritual all the monks use a For a long time Tibet was a forbidden land which favoured rhythm of the cymbals. The drum is the peaceful or the fear-arousing. When the monks play, they are naturally aware handbell to accompany the recitations preservation of a unique form of music. almost always played in a regular and no drum is used. rhythm, speeding up briefly only at the of the symbolic significance of their Bell rituals favour the activation of a tube made of bamboo and told to blow recognised by his lively execution of end of certain sections of the rite. musical instruments. The sound is peaceful cosmic energies or the growth into a glass of water in such a way as to these fine points. A sure command of It therefore did not take me long to leam perfectly integrated into their magical- of positive qualities. make the exhaled air form bubbles that circular breathing is also necessary as to play this instrument. All the same, in mystical thinking: it is the audible part The drum rituals on the other hand were always the same size. The slightest no breaths may be taken throughout the the Tibetan monasteries it is considered of their complex tan trie rites. concentrate on the acquisi ti on of magical irregularity of breathing was piece. barbaric just to 'thump the drum'; a The following instruments are generally powers or the destruction of negative immediately reflected in the size of the It is not necessary for the two 'gya ling' subdued sound is considered assigned to the peaceful 'Buddha energies. bubbles. The principle of circular players - they always play in twos - to desiderable. Novices as young as eight energies'. The Dung Dzhen breathing is simple: while you breathe play in exact unison. On the contrary, years old learn this instrument in order - the 'dung kar', the conch hom The first wind instrument I learned in through the nose, air previously stored slight deviations are prized theyenliven to become familiar with the rhythm of - the oboe-like 'gya ling' during my stay in the Tibetan in the cheeks is blown out through the the melody. the many recitations. - and the 'silnien', double cymbals. monasteries of Nepal was the 'dung', a small aperture of the mouth. Thiscnables The Dung Kar In addition to wind instruments, drums The fear-arousing ' Buddha energies' are kind of metal alpenhorn up to three the player to hold a note for a very long 'Dung kar' is the Tibetan name for a and bells the Tibetan ritual orchestra symbolised by the following metres long. Blowing these long horns time. conch horn made from a natural conch also has cymbals, called 'rolmo'. These instruments: are double cymbals, tuned to requires great strength. I learned to play It took me about two weeks to overcome shell in which a small hole has been - the 'nga', the big drum approximately the same pitch: the slight this 'metal alpenhorn' during the winter the reflex that prevents breathing in and bored for blowing. This instrument, - the 'kang ling', the bone hom pitch difference produces a buzzing months, the best time to play this giant; out simultaneously. By that time I could which, like all the wind instruments in - the 'rolmo', double cymbals sound. The many overtones this playing it during the hot summer is not produce bubbles of a constant size in the Tibetan ritual music, is played in pairs - the 'dung dzhen', the long metal hom instrument can generate are fascinating. to be recommended. First I was taught glass. To perfect this technique they and produces only one note. It is not - and the little 'damaru', rattle drum. Its sound fills the whole building with the 'dor' the lowest note, as good then fill the glass with Tibetan butter tea only used during the rites.but also has an When we hear music, we immediately long resonating vibrations. intonation on the ' dor ' makes produ c ti on or yoghurt: trying to form a bubble important signalling function in calling try to classify it - rock, jazz, folk, Unfortunately recordings do not of the other two notes substantially under these new, more difficult the monks to the ceremonial buildings. classical, etc. We scarcely ever hear the reproduce this effect well. easier. conditions makes the cheek muscles When the young novices have been direct sound, but rather a 'rock sound' strong and capable of storing enough particularly well behaved - when they The 'rolmo' is normally played by 'om I was also advised not to eat any yoghurt or a 'classical sound'. It seems to be air. have not got up to too much nonsense, tse', the leader of the ceremony and the or pepper during my 'apprenticeship' hard for us to hear music without as these foods slacken the lips and binder The next step was to learn the fingering labelling it. Clearly, unprejudiced good tone production. A further problem of the 'gya ling' compositions. listening has to be learned so that when which almost every 'dung' player Traditionally a kind of bamboo recorder you suddenly really hear this strange experiences is that of cracked lips, as is used for this but a simple wooden music,you make a surprisingdiscovery: playing the ' dor', the lowest note, makes stick will suffice as the 'gya ling' pupil the apparent strangeness disappears and the lips vibrate violently and strike only has to follow the teachers' finger gives way to a striking familiarity. You against the metal mouthpiece. When my movements and to try to imitate them as begin to understand that this so-called lips cracked I was told to keep playing; exactly as possible. It is interesting that exotic music is not strange in itself and gradually this made them strong and learningthe 'gya ling'is done by visual, that it is an expression of unac rivaled resistant. not auditory imitation, a remarkable fact levelsofconsciousnesswithinoursclves. It has become clear to me after many Basically a 'dung' player needs only fora musician. Afterleamingafew 'gya Tibetan traditional musical notation for the conch horn player. years of research that a simple three pitches: 'dor' the lowest note, ling' pieces on the bamboo flute, I had to accumulation of facts about a so-called 'gyang' the middle note, 'ti' the high practise playing the lowest note on the that is - they are allowed to blow these conductor, as it were, of the Tibetan exotic type of music cannot bring about no te. The pitch of these three notes is not 'gya ling' using circular breathing. I conch horns and so signal to all the ritual orchestra. was told a 'gya ling' player should be a deeper understanding of it. absolutely fixed. monks and laymen that an important It was some time before I could hold able to hold the lowest note on this Undoubtedly the happiest result of my Like all the wind instruments in the rite is beginning. these large, heavy cymbals in a relaxed instrument for up to fifteen minutes encounter with Tibetan ritual music is a Tibetan ritual orchestra, the Tibetan The Kang Ling way. The upper cymbal is held with the without a break. newly developed awareness within me 'metal alpenhorn' 'dung' is always In addition to the 'metal alpenhorn', the right hand and the lower one with the that strives to hear what the music is and played in pairs. It is important that the Playing the high notes requires a great oboe and the conch horn the orchestra left. First I learned how to move the not what we assume it to be. two instruments are in tune. A deal of air, so it is scarcely possible to also calls for a bone horn The 'kang lower cymbal slowly back and forward. composition for the 'dung' consists of hold them for very long. In fact the high ling', as it is called in Tibetan, is made After a few weeks I had to increase the Daniel Scheidegger was born in 1956 various combinations of these three notes are used only at the musical from a human thighbone, the mouthpiece tempo without letting my hand become and has a Master of Music teaching notes. climaxes of the pieces. being of metal and the lower end of the stiff. diploma. He has worked in Tibetan The Gya Ling Most ' gya ling' players favour a regular bone often being bound with leather. As with the 'rolmo', the 'silmen' is also monasteries in India and Nepal for Learning the 'gya ling', the Tibetan vibrato. Great attention is lavished on Tibetan writings on this instrument state a double cymbal but its sound is bright three anda half years under the aegis of oboe starts with practising circular the many ornamentations of the main the qualities a usable thighbone should and rattling. the Creative Music Foundation, New breathing. For this purpose I was given notes: indeed a skillful player is and should not have: the bone from a Studying musical instruments is an York.

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 11 Sister Goddess M In 1982, from February to May, I by Clara Pagnozzi wasstudying inlndia.atf ieTibclan A Ce Lha Mo , the traditional name of settlement of McLeodGanj. I was Tibetan Theatre, means Sister Goddess able to deepen my interest in and refers to the feminine protagonists Tibetan theatre thanks to the kind of the dramas. The protector saint and help given by the members of the father of the Tibetan tradition is Grub Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. Chen Thang sTong rGyal Po (Thangtong Gyalpo), bornin die regionot'Tsang, Ol In particular I want to thank the bartse,inl385. He is the protector of all Director of the School, 'Jam actors, Lha ba , and his statue is usually dByangs Nor bu, and the teacher surrounded by many offerings of barley Nor Bu Tsche Ring, who offered and incense, and placed in the shrine in their time toclarify all my questions the middle of the big tent where the about the origins and the performances are held. characteristics of the Tibetan Tibetan people tell many stories about performing tradition. These teachers the founder of the theatre. One of these and their students very kindly legends tells thatThangtongGyalpo was building a greatbridge in a village helped showed me their costumes, scripts by all its inhabitants, but during the first and musical instruments and invited 'night some demons came and destroyed rae to assist in their rehearsals, all their work. This happened again and musical concerts.dancingshowsand again, and finally he decided to sing conferences about theatre. I saw songs and dance together with some many traditional theatrical actors. The demons, distracted by their performances, and read many show, did not obstruct their work original Tibetan texts in the Library anymore and the bridge was completed. ofTibetan Works and Archives, and Another legend tells that he wanted to build strong bridges across the during the summer in Delhi, I dangerous rivers of the Himalayan studied at the Library of the Tibet mountains to help all the pilgrims and The Rig Nga Kha-droma, actresses wearing a head dress depicting the jive Buddhas. House Museum." Clara Pagnozzi. travellers, and in order to collect the necessary funds and convince the people the right side, while, in front of them, all InthcLhaMo theatrical tradition, there In the traditional Tibetan opera, the 'Gro 'i Bu Mo 'Gro Ba bZang Mo'i to cooperate in the project he organized the women dancers, uniting their are three different musical executions: equipment on the stage is very simple: a rNamThar. Many people say it describes the first dramatic performances. hands on their foreheads, raise the narrative songs, alternating songs, and divine or mortal character is transferred the real life of the Indian King in the Another legend I heard from the old coloured fans on the sides of their crowns instrumental music. Each dramatic to heaven using a chair while the Naja region whose palace is still Tibetans in Dharamsala, tells about the and finally put an end to the purification company has two musicians: the first actresses move a white cloth visible. In this story the demoness Ha Goddess Arya Tara who was so moved rituals singing an offering chant. one plays the double-faced drum made symbolizing the sky. To create the Cang, first wife of the king and a hard­ by the prayers of the pilgrims who wished On the stage of yak leather with a long wooden effect of a river a blue material is used hearted woman without any compassion to reach the holy mountain Gangs Rin When the real performance begins, the handle that is beaten by a sickle-like and simple decorated structures towards other beings, is defeated by Po Che ( Mount Kailash 'Precious main actors retire to change their stick, while the other plays the Tibetan represent boats, horses and stupas. two enlightened brothers, sons of the Glacier'), but were badly obstructed by costumes, while the young performers wide semi-circular brass plates. Four plays dakini 'Gro Ba bZang Mo, the good a river, that she offered Thangtong and the 'Kha Gro Ma' who arc not There are many different kinds of All the theatrical performances have a wife of the king. Gyalpo seveniron rings to build a bridge. playing important roles and form the traditional dances performed during the religious background, and the most In the beginning the evil woman wants The 'Dance of the Seven Brothers' that chorus, stay on the stage together with A Ce Lha Mo dramas. In order to show famous narrate the adventures of the to kill the good queen and her two he created celebrates the seven rings the head of the actors. Singing a special different feelings, the actors perform old kings, or immortal heroes. beautiful children but the good mother given by the Goddess. tune he gives a brief account of the characters ticgesturcs: respectisplayed In the past there were many famous flies to the Dakini kingdom of the north There arc many biographies about this show, describing the characters and the by prostrating on the ground with joined companies and each of them had their and, thanks to her magical powers, she father of Tibetan Theatre. The most background of the drama. hands, sympathy and affection by own particular scripts, with a defends her children in the shape of a famous is 'The Biography of The At the end of the performance there is embracingeach other with the right arm, characteristic style, the old Master snake, a monkey, two vultures and a Builder of Iron Bridges' ( 'mTshungs another ritual: some ceremonial white joy for a meeting or despair for a coordinating while the young actors fish Typical of these dramas is the Med Grub dBang Phyng Leags Zam silk scarves are placed on the statue of departure are shown by putting a hand bring new ideas under his supervision celestial help which cones in dreams, Po'i rNam Thar'l by Ngag Gi dBang Thangtong Gyalpo and afterwards given on the companion's shoulder and leaning I would like to briefly introduce some magic jewels and prophetic omens, and Phyng . In all these works.Thangtong to each musician and actor by some the heads gendy towards each other, of these famous stories I studied in the sudden meeting of characters with Gyalpo is always depicted as a great women wearing traditional Tibetan deep sorrow appears when the actors India. no more hope to see each other again. Master, who after completing his studies clothes. All the actors begin a short kneel down and humbly bending their The third famous drama is Chos Kyi under more than one hundred teachers The first drama is Cho Kyi rGyal Po heads, keep their eyes down, enemies rGyal Po Dri MedKun IDan Gyi rNam and spending many years inmeditation, Nor Bu bZang Po, from the Buddhist fight bea tingeach other's hips and when Thar , which also comes from the began to teach the doctrine, discovering canon bka' gyur: Depicting one of the someone is killed his face is covered Buddhist canonic texts and narrates the many ancient texts, gTer Ma , and former lives of Buddha, this drama is with barley flour while he escapes tenth and last great reincarnation of Lord teaching many Vajra Songs. He travelled said to have been the first performed at making the audience laugh. During the Buddha: Dri Med KunlDan. Thispnnce to India, Kashmir, Bhutan, Ladakh, the Lha Mo festival, in the XVTH performance there are usually many used to gather all the beggars in the yard Mongolia and China and many of the century. sketches and jokes played by the minor of his palace and give them money and tradi tional healing ri tuais are still re ferred There are two kingdoms in India, one of actors and the traditional Indian gifts. In the drama, the parents of the to him. He is traditionally considered as which isin a state of disorder. The king character called A ksa ra amuses the prince, thinking only about material a follower of the rNying Ma Buddhist of the Nagas asks the hunter to destroy people. Among the most famous dances riches, are incapable of offenng any School, a famous gChod Pa and Dzog the spell, promising him the wish of the Tibetan traditional theatre, I want spiritual comfort, but the noble pnnce Chen Pa, and depicted with long white fulfilling gem The hunter goes to visit to mention the Dzog-chen dance decides to offer everything he has got hair. the wise man living by the lake and following the rhythm of a drum and for the benefit of others and during an thanks to his gift of a magic cord, he becoming faster and faster ending with extremely hard exile he even leaves his Purification ritual catches the celestial princess he loves. frenetic whirling movements. wife and children Finally heevenoffers In the traditional A Ce Lha Mo , all the Following the advise given in a dream The rNgon pa usually wear a big his eyes to a blind beggar. performances start with a purification of the wise man, the hunter gives the triangular mask with a silver ornament, The fourth drama is sNang Sa 'Od 'Bum ritual. Usually the statue of the Saint is princess to the king as a gift, but the representing a sun and a moon, on their Gyi rNam Thar which tells about the carried onto the stage and put in the beautiful girl makes all the 500 queens forehead. They wear coloured brocade famous heroine Nang sa, whose shrine, while all the actors perform a very jealous. clothes covering their hair and shoulders, historical life was spent inGyantse near ritual dance and give offerings, These envious women create evil plots and on the top of their masks there is a Lhasa, where a market is still held in her according to their different roles. There with the helpof the family priest, making jewel, Nor Bu , the gift of the Naga honour. Nang sa is a 'das log. one of the is always one dGe rGen , the Director the princess suffer badly and sending Deities of the ocean to the hunter The famous Tibetans who come to life for a Master, two rGyaLu, the Masters of the the King Nor bZang far away on a false 'KhaGroMa usually wear anomament second time, to spread spiritual teachings ceremony, chosen from among the old dance singing a chant while some of mission The precious celestial queen in their hair depicting the five Buddhas and help all human beings, explaining actors, the dancing women, mKha' 'gro them toss offerings o f barley and wheat. flies away to the divine kingdom of or their symbols, with stri pesof coloured the reality of the death process to them. ma and the Hunters, rnGon Pa , with Finally the dGe rGan stands on a chair gandhars to escape the women's plot materials hanging down This is the In this drama the typical Tibetan black masks. The male dancers, wearing and looking upwards sings a song of and when the King comes back same crown used by many monks peasants' life is clearly depicted and long white sleeves and carrying coloured thanks together with the other actors. victorious he immediately starts looking performing ritual dances. These female particularemphasisisgivento the theme sticks, perform many acrobatic leaps The Tibetan music played during the for her. Then he goes back to the wise dancers wear rainbow-coloured paper of the impermanence of our life and the and very fast pirouettes on one leg, theatrical performances is very simple: man who gives trim the ring of the fans on their ears which arc also used importance of the nght use of our while the women gracefully circle it consists mainly of a drum, the metal celestial consort, and he sets out to face on the masks in the dances of skeletons. precious time. around, performing harmonious plates of a gong and human voices, These fans represent the rainbow body. some very hard adventures in order to movements with their hands. Then the which play the most important role. In The actress playing the role of princess reach her again. He wins thanks to his The article is an abbreviation of an music becomes more and more frenetic, the tradition of Central Tibet there arc wears a great hair-piece withmarvellous religious faith and the celestial queen accademie study by the author, who is a the dancers follow the rhythm and sing two styles, an ancient one, with a very flowers and a colourful silk mantle. The comes back to the earth to reign together graduate student at the University of together, while the rNgon Pa and the slow dance and deep delicate vocals, ministers wear tall cylindrical hats with with trim, giving peace and happiness to Oriental Studies in Naples, Italy rGya Lu exchange witty remarks. Male and a modem one, with a freer energetic red silk fringes. the whole country. Translated from the Italian by Nina dancers arc arranged in a semicircle on dance and high-pitched sounds. Another characteristic drama is mKha' Robinson.

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 12 New publications by Shang-Shung Useful Tool

During the last few months, This is the famous and long-awaited The present aim of Shang-Shung by Jim Valby of the Tsegyalgar Dzog-chen Community Shang-Shung Edizioni's book book on Boa Edizioni is to reach a production rate of I like to read Tibetan books, so I've spent lots of time looking up words in production has slowed down. This is H Santo Seduttore (provisionary title), 10-12 titles per year. various dictionaries. For eight years I wrote the definitions on individual due to the fact that our publishing house translated by E. Guarisco, edited by E. This is the minimum of production pieces of paper (they get lost and aren't in alphabetical order), in notebooks is trying to develop its internal Guarisco and L. Anfolsi, with an required to maintain a real presence as a (hard to lose, but the words still aren't in order), and on index cards organization, adopting new methods, introduction by Namkhai Norbu publishing house, to justify distribution (time-consuming to put in order, big bulky boxes). For four years I entered preparing more people to work and Rinpoche. This is about the life and efforts and expenses, to render the words and definitions on various mainframe computers where I studied creatingorder in our accounting system. songs of DrukpaKunleg, translated from promotion possible and permit the In spite of this delay, we shall be the original Tibetan text. people working in the cooperative to or worked. This was a great improvement, but these computers were often publishing the following books in the We also plan to publish the following have the economic possibility to continue busy, slow, hard to use, far away or expensive. • next months: titles: to work. For the past eight years I have used a home personal computer. My ever Nascere e Vivere, second edition, by New editions of Santi Maha Sangha and Shang Shung titles will be published in growing 35,965 word Tibetan-English dictionary displays any definition on Namkhai Norbu, edited by G. Vitiello. Do As You Please by Namkhai Norbu English by Shang-Shung Imprint of the computer screen within one second. When there's an unknown word, I Drung, Deu, Bon, by Namkhai Norbu, and La Collana di gZi, by Namkhai S tati on Hill Press and by the international look it up ina dictionary, make a computer note of the page number, and later edited by A. Clemente. Norbu. Dzog-chen Community. type that word and all associated compounds into my dictionary. Then I never have to spend more that a few seconds looking up that word again. Hurray! This saves lots of time, and allows me to concentrate more on the BOOK REVIEW: book I'm reading. But there are some serious shortcomings with my dictionary. It does not- vividly that you can breathe it, smell it, Bizarre but amusing taste it and touch it. contain any examples of word usage, so I must understand the context and The most intriguing part of the book select the appropriate definition. The dictionary does not indicate the source Alexandra David-Neel: consists of the description of the Bon for the definition (sources include Jaeschke, Das, and the glossaries of many Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic tradition. The villains of the story are English language translators), so it's'difficult to meet rigorous scholarly Neville Spearman, Jersey, 1983 the B on priests who try to lengthen their standards. There are about 2000 cross references (indicated by SA), but I Translated by Vidar L'Estrange lives by sucking in the putrified remains must know possible alternative spellings from reading experience. At the of their willing v lOims. suggestion of my friend Bob Kragen, I recently made a version available for Alexandra David-Neel says in the If you wish to indulge in love, Tibetan use by others. Unfortunately this version has the unbelievable shortcoming prologue that she hesitated for a long atmosphere, mystical doctrines and some that users cannot add their own words and definitions. time before letting the book out because suspense, read Alexandra David - Neel's Here's an example from my dictionary: Tibetan Tales of Love and Magic. It was of these details. And she assures the Word? ye shes written over 40 years ago, but has not reader that her information is based on completely lost its charm and excite­ facts which she gathered near the jnana, (exalted, primordialjwisdom, (primal transcending, original, unitary, ment. In 1983 it was translated into Mongolian border. She did not consult authentic, pure, absolute, a priori, genuine, spiritual, ever-fresh, pristine) any Bonexperts, her information comes English and was published by Neville awareness, pristine cognition, mystic illumination, gnosis, understanding Spearman. from some unnamed Buddhist lamas. I, as many other western students of the by peak experience, (intuitive, transcending, comprehensive, true) Alexandra David - Neel is an author of Alexandra David-Neel Dharma, have had an opportunity to knowledge, SA mched pa'i ye shes, mnyam nyid ye shes, me long ye shes, many books. She lived most of her life in meet ou (standing Bon mas te rs including chos dbyings ye shes, bya sgrub ye shes, sor rtog ye shes. Tibet, where she studied Tibetan the century. an authority like Lobpon Namdak Next time I'll describe the contents of a book I'm reading with the help of Buddhism and culture, and she was the Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic has no contrary to Alexandra David - Neel who this useful tool. first European woman to become a full big revelations to somebody who is bases her "knowledge" on hearsay and fledged Tibetan Lama and an initiate of familiar with Tibetan culture and superstition. We need not be intrigued various esoteric practices. Her best religion The story itself is simple and by her rclevadons but instead have a known works are My Journey to Lhasa lacks regretfully the doings of a great Yantra Yoga booklet revised giggle and go on reading. For others, and With Mystics and Magicians in Ti bet. saga à la Karen Blixen The hero is who do not have background, Tibetan Tibetan Tale of Love and Magic is a strong and handsome, the heroine is Tale of Love and Magic is really not the A new Yantra Yoga booklet according to the teachings given by Namkhai minor work, supposedly meant to feeble and beautiful, the romance is best source of knowledge and for sure Norbu Rinpoche based on the text of Vairocana is now available in both entertain the exotic loving public of the passionate and sensuous and it ends does not give an accurate picture of English and Italian. The preceding version (available only in Italian) has thirties. It belongs to the genre of Pierre tragically. If you don't care so much for Bon. Loti and other bizarre and mystic lotus romance and so on, the rest of the book been checked and revised by experts from the International Translation eaters so fashionable since the turn of is quite enchanting. Tibet is there so Leena Larjanko Committee of the Dzog-chen Community. The booklet, which will be in a photocopied version, contains the preliminary movements, the tsigjong, lungsang or eight movements and tsandul and the first and second group of positions with appropriate breathing. Merigar Use of this booklet is intended for those who already practise Yantra Yoga but who need an easily consulted handbook, limited to the fundamental Library grows exercises but brought up to date. The Italian version is available from: Shang-Shung Edizioni, 58031 Arcidosso GR, Italy. The English version is available from: i arai The California Dzog-chen Community, c/o Norman Lundell, 122 Pleasant Recently, the Library at Merigar, Shang Shung Edizioni Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95062, USA. which is situated in the "capannone", received many Tibetan texts from both India and China. From China the Library received Kalachakra Initiation for World Peace part of Rin chen gter mdzod, an YANTRA YOGA important collection of terma. The His Holiness the Dalai Lama will give the Kalachakra Initiation in New Library of Tibetan Archives in York City on October 21st to 23rd. Dharamsala, India, has started to This rare and historic event will take place during October 1991 as part of send some copies of Tibetan texts the celebration of the Year of Tibet. from their Archives. His Holiness will give preparatory teachings on the Path of Compassion They have promised to gradually from October 16th to 19th. send copies of their entire Library to The Namgyal monks will perform ceremonial dances as part of the Merigar and this was the first preparations for the Initiation on October 20th. shipment. His Holiness' teachings will be preceded by five days of teachings on The shelves at Merigar are greatly Nature of Mind given by preeminent lamas from each of the five Tibetan lacking books in English on religious traditions Teachings, Tibet, Tibetan culture, medicine, astrology, and Dharma October 11th Venerable Lobpon Tenzin Namdhak, Bon tradition books in general. October 12th Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche, Nyingma tradition If readers are able to donate any October 13th Venerable Tenga Rinpoche, Kagyu tradition volumes of these kinds to the Library, October 14th Kyabje Sakya Trizin Rinpoche, Sakya tradition they will be very welcome since October 15th Venerable Tara Rinpoche, Gelug tradition there are not sufficient funds to buy (Sogyal Rinpoche will translate for Venerable Trulshik Rinpoche) them. The Library is also interested PAL system, in Italian or English available for $ 40 US (postage included) to in receiving any scientific articles Shang Shung Edizioni, 58031 Arcidosso GR, Italy . If you would like to receive registration information, please send your name which have been published on these NTSC system, in English only, for $ 35 US toTsegyalgar, PO Box 277, Conway and address to: Tibet House, 3rd Floor, 241 East 32nd SL, New York, NY same topics. Mass 01341, USA 10016. Tel. (212) 213-5592.

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 13 Computer science The Typestyle Jockey: Putting the Right Horse Out Front in Tibetan

By Re id Fossey through the typist's signalling the "LaserTIBETAN", developed by Mark was completed in 1983, under the These keyboarding procedures seem In the last three to four years the Western beginning of a stack and typing in the Giacone and Dr. Philip Barton Payne. direction of Geshe Lobsang Tharchin more time-consuming and difficult to humanist has taken a leap into the appropriate sequence. LaserTIBETAN shares the same with a team of volunteers headed by remember than the graphic entry system twentieth century. Rather than packing The secondevenhandicrprograin,called graphic inputcntry system as LTibetan, Stephen Brzgulis. of the Macintosh. the illustrious scholar's pen and the "Wylie Editor" created by Chet with numerous keystrokes and an Even though an early starter, the TTPS infamous typewriter, the philologist of Wood in the same year, automatically extended character set But similarly program sported a rather sophisticated Round the Club House the future is already astride the "typestyle generates the appropriate Tibetan again, it does not share the same key design, including an alphabetic keyboard jockey", using tools of a far more character or character stack when the board or internal representation as its entry system following the Wylie Along with the numerous typesyles and sophisticated nature to create a stock of typist keys in the appropriate Wylie predecessor. transliteration, and the ability to so forth thathave proliferated the market, non-European fonts for languages from transform Wylie documents created there are also the beginnings of some Bengali to Vietnamese. outside the TTPS editor into Tibetan important projects in the field of the The graphics based Apple Macintosh, script. Indian and Tibetan studies, of which I introduced in 1985, quickly became the Unfortunately however, this front- will name but a few. leading typestyle jockey in the field of runner had a number of limitations. The Maharishi Vedic University has indology, making way for at least five Perhaps its biggest drawback was that it just come out with an optical character Tibetan typestyles and numerous was limited to a dot-matrix typeface and rccognitionprogram(OCR) for Sanskrit, possibilities for transliteration. Recently, could only function with a one dot- saving untold number of manual labor however, with the improvement of matrix printer. hours (but not neccessarily hours of graphics capabilities for the IBM-PC, a editing) from entering texts by hand. new breed of IBM-compatible fonts is The Nalanda In the Tibetan arena, there has recently emerging to challenge Apple's Two researchers from the Nalanda been completed the first part of an on­ stronghold of recreating the South Asian Translation Committee, Gerry Wiener going project conducted by the monks word. and Tony Duff, later took up the design at Sera monastery near Mysore, India, With such a line of contenders available of the TTPS and improved the program under the direction of Michael Roach, at the finger tips of the Asian scholar, it to include on-screen Tibetan characters to put a large portion of the Tibetan would seem that indology had taken a and laser print capability in a typestyle BuddhistKanjur and Tanjur on-line, the step into the future and that automated just released six months ago called first ten texts being released last year in translation lay only a mouse click away. "Tibetan!" (with a well derserved a series of 12 discs, with two catalogues Unfortunately, however, despite the exclamation point I might add). of the Kanjur and one catalogue of the numerous and readily available Furthermore, they also extended the Tanjur as well as a full bibliographic typestyles at the indologists's disposal, TTPS capabilities to work within the listingof the Library of Congress Tibe tan there has not yet developed a context of the popular word-processing accessions. comprehensive standard character set program. Word Perfect, rather than the Dr. Betsy Napper, from the University for defining how these various typestyles somewhat sparse word handling milieu of Virginia, has recently completed the should be encoded and manipulated of the TTPS editor. re-editing and entry of Melvyn within the computer environment. "Tibetan!" also adds an alphabetization Goldstein's Modern Colloquial Tibetan Texts created in one typestyle cannot program to the works and supports into computerized form Spanning both easily convert into another typestyle, Sanskrit roman diacritics on-screen and Tibetan and Sanskrit as well as several and similarly programs designed to transliteration. And since it does not share the same off. other languages, Professors Thurman manipulate these texts, for storage, The Wylie Editor is also useful in that it internal representation, lacking are the One of the few disadvantages of the (Colombia) and Lancaster (UC retrieval, alphabetization and so forth, allows one to convert entire documents useful Wylie Editor, Tibetan Editor and Nalanda, is that, so far, it only functions Berkeley) have recently applied to the cannot be easily used interchangeably. typed in other word processors with Tibetan Sort features. in the context of one word-processing National Endowment of the Humanities As a result of the plurality of the Wylie transliteration into Tibetan Laser TIBETAN is also quite lacking system, Word Perfect, and does not yet to put the entire Buddhist canon onto typestyles available lacking a common characters. ini ts ability to representmany important support the full range of mantra and CD-ROM, and we may verily wish them character set, western indological A few limitations of both of these character stacks required for normal transliterated Sanskrit character stacks. well in this pursuit scholarship may find itself in serious programs, however, is that they only Tibetan use, as well as much of the Also the Nalanda system supports only New developments in the general field danger, if it has not done so already, of operate in the environment of their own s penali zed mantra and Sanskrit stacks. one model of laser printer, the Hewlett of computer science have recently placed putting the cart before the horse. text editor programs (something like a Orthographically, LaserTIBETAN Packard Laser Jet Series II and higher. a number of potent tools at the The purpose of this article, therefore, is simple word processor). seems to attempt to imitate the Work is underway, I am told however, philologist's disposal and we may look to narrow the field of contenders and As such they are not able to be traditional Tibetan "wood-block" style, to expand the typestyles and allow the forward to a number of possible benefits give a track record and rundown of the implemented within the context oflarger varying in length and shape of some of Nalanda program to function under the in the future stemming from these. various typestyles available in Tibetan. word processing programs or data based its characters and vowel markers. Windows environment, which would Most notably, in the IBM world there programs familiar to the Tibe tan seno lar. Unfortunately, it does not succeed well mean that the Nalanda could be used has been released in the last few years The Tibetan Paddock One further useful feature of the in its mimicry and a good number of LTibetan family is a "Tibetan Sort" characters appear malformed, if not The LTibetan program developed by Robillard as a incorrect. The first Tibetan horse out and running Desk Accessory to sort and alphabetize in the Macintosh field was the dot-matrix Tibetan characters created within The Thimphu typestyle "Tibetan" created and released LTibetan and related typestyles. There is soon to be released another by Pierre Robillard in 1985 together A Desk Accessory in "Maclntalk" is a Tibetan, or properly Dzongkha with a supplementary typestyle term describing programs readily (Bhu tañese) family of typestyles for the "Mantra". These were later transformed accessible throughout the Macintosh Macintosh together with a Tibetan/ in 1987 by a Laser typestyle dubbed environment Bhu tañese Macintosh system "LTibetan" with its counterpart, TibetanSort can thus be executed within The typestyles of this family will be "LMantra". the context of larger word processing available in two dot-matrix versions, The members of this typestyle family and database programs. named "Thimphu" and "Punakha" within nearly any program operating on the data based program "Word exhibit an intricate and beautiful modelled significantly after Robillard"s the IBM. Cruncher", for creating indexes and orthography that would please all but The Rockwell typestyle and a laser Thimphu typestyle Work is also underway to adapt the concordances. the most finicky lama, reproducingqui te Another Tibetan typestyle out early in modelled after original calligraphic Nalanda foruse withotherlaserprinters. Released just this year, the program elegantly not only the complex multiply the race was the Tibetan typestyle samples and advice from Bhu tañese "IT' (the Interlinear Text Processing stacked ligature of the Tibetan written "Tibetan 11/3" created by JohnRockwell calligraphers. The Atisha System) for the Macintosh, offers the language and its mantra forms, but also of the Naropa Institute in 1985. As such, the postscript typestyle Another late-breaking typestyle linguist not only database capabilities, most of the characters of the While Rockwell's typestyle was a brave demonstrates a much more refined appearing in 1989 was the Atisha Word but also possibilities for creating tags transliterated (Tibetan) Sanskrit in its attempt in a difficult field, there were orthography than other Macintosh and Processing system developed by Peter for interlinear grammatical and manifold conjunct forms. significant problems with the initial IBM typestyles, reviewed so far, which Ebbatson. morphemic analysis. HyperCard, While the Robillard type foundry does phase of its development, though have copied the form (and errors) of This Tibetan typestyle was designed to available for both the Mac and th: IBM, ample justice to the Tibetan script, one remedied since its initial release. metal press typesetting. accommodate a general word processing offers exciting possibilities for text of the major drawbacks of the typestyle For example, one was required to Both the system and the typestyles system called CH IW RI TER, which is a management as well as audio and visual is the complicated and exceedingly large manually "push" vowel markers into developed for the Bhutanesc muchless sophisticated word processing language training. number of keystrokes required to master place through the use of a "pixel bar" in government, will be released within the program than Word Perfect, though Thisarticle isa portion of a much more the full range of possible character order to get the vowel markers to rest in next few months by Peter Lofting of considerably cheaper. extensive paper written by Mr. Fossey combinations. their proper place. LaserQuill of Windsor. The Atisha system supports the Hewlett and appeared for the first time in the Fortunately, the problem of an Also, it was not able to write a complete Packard line of laser printers as well as 1990 Report of the Nordic Institute of overwhelming number of keystrokes has Tibetan word unless the lines above The TTPS other postscript based laser printers and Asian Studies published in been ammeliorated significantly by the and/or below the line were clear. Some fierce D3M Competition^ The a large number of dot-matrix printers. Copenhagen, Denmark. introductionof the two programs created TTPS, the Nalanda and the Atisha The Atisha exhibits an impressive Unfortunately we were unable to print to lighten the typist's burden. The LaserTIBETAN An early IB M attempt at computerizing number of Tibetan characters and Mr. Fossey's paper in its entirety. The first, the "Tibetan Editor", designed Recenüyreleasedby Linguist'sSoftware the Tibetan script was the creation of conjunct formats, though requiring an Anyone interested in a copy of Mr. by Robillard in 1988, automatically this year, is a new contender on the the Tibetan Text Processing System extensive number of keystrokes to Fossey's paper is encouraged to achieve its aim creates an appropriate character stack market for Tibetan with the name (TTPS ) that began as early as 1977 and conciaci The Mirror.

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 14 MERIGAR Guiding and dedicating the practice Simhamukha Transmission

On the 7th of June, Dakini day, Rinpoche gave several explanations and that doing so would become an about 250 people from Italy and of the various parts of the initiation. obstacle to their practice. different parts of Europe gathered He told those present that he him self After the initiation there was a together in the Gonpa at Merigar to had received the transmission from shower of rain which some receive the Simhamukha initiation three different sources and had done considered to be a blessing. from Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche. a personal retreat of this The morning after, we gathered The weather was unusually windy Simhamukha practice for three together in the Gonpa to do this and wet and people hung on to their months. He added that those who Simhamukha practice with Norbu umbrellas as they trundled down receive the initiation should not Rinpoche. During this session he the road to the Gonpa. consider that this made them capable also explained the ways in which a During the morning session, Norbu of giving transmission themselves Simhamukha retreat can be done.

Karma Yoga Weekends

This summer at Merigar we have been Work still to be completed: actively engaged in Karma Yoga cleaning around the Capannoni, weekends. enclosing the stair area at the Gonpa, cleaning the wooded area and bringing This has included gardening, building, by a Practitioner repairing and a general cleanup of the up the wood to Merigar to use for our Every so often we practitioners should stop and observe ourselves. We grounds and buildings. oven (for bread, etc.), should observe ourselves without being afraid of finding faults or errors. Specifically the activities have included : varnishing the wood at the Capannone, cutting the grass (several times because Gonpa, the windows at the house, In one of these moments of observation we may ask ourselves what is our it's rained a lot), replacing the windows at the Capannone. attitude, our state of mind when we gather together to do a practice or a tun. beginning to repair the road to Merigar As you can see, much work has been Courier service. The reasons why we are all on this path are so obvious that there is no point done and there is always something in speaking about them. But apart from these obvious reasons and the 2, sewing covers for the Tibetan books Please, before travelling to in the Library, cleaning the area around more to do. indisputable reason of final realization, what do we, with our human point the Capannone, cleaning the wooded The people participating are enjoying Italy from the U.S., contact of view which meets so many difficulties so easily, try to develop when we area near Rinpoche's retreat cabin, with the activity of physical work and the Sara Renner Handley, the consider doing any type of practice? a lot of help from Rinpoche, rescuing opportunity to work together. What are we trying to make better? the cherry trees from overgrowth, It is also gratifying to help to replenish secretary atTsegyelgar, to see planting flowers in the forest, making a and give back to Merigar, since it has if there are important messages In short, let us observe our state of mind when we prepare to do a practice. vegetable garden and putting a fence provided us with so many years of a or small items or letters to be The sensations, the hopes, the promises and the wishes that each one of us around it, removing stones and laying beautiful environment where we have feels and renews from time to time during the practice are numerous, very grass in front of Rinpoche's house, been able to receive the precious transported. Telephone: 413 personal and the fruit of our sensitivity. repairing and organizing the tool shed Dzog-chen teachings. 369 4713. Yet among all these sensations, there should be some which are common to behind the Merigar house (a seemingly There will be several Karma Yoga All other countries can contact all practitioners, such as a positive state of mind, an attentive attitude, a mammoth undertaking), repainting the weekends at Merigar during this joyful sensation and a form of sincere offering and devotion. Stupa that is now radiant in the long summer. See the Merigar program their Gakyils for the same This is because we are about to be in touch with the Master, the Illuminates, awaited sunlight. page 7. service. the Dakinis and many other beings whose dimensions we do not know. If we consider our practice to be also an offering, we can improve our type Tibetan Bon culture of attitude. We can make this offering with great kindness and generosity which comes from the depth of our heart. In this way we can consider that the beings to whom we dedicate the practice, including the Master, are all by Tuula Saarikoski not allowed in Nepalese schools for a although if the boys want to become present in front of us even before starting the practice! Lobpon Tenzin Namdak, who was the long time, this opportunity was badly monks or not is their own decision In a Therefore it is clear that the person who leads the practice makes a double last principal Teacher of Menri needed. It can also serve Tibetan boys monastic system education is only for offering and that is why is it is very important to guide the practice even if monastery inTibet, and now the Lobpon who live near the border but on the other boys." of the Bon monastery in Dolanji, near side, since the Chinese educationsystem Recently, in April and May, Lobpon it is not done perfectly. Simla, in India, still continues to work is stall not functioning very well, and Namdak travelled in Europe with Geshe Our attitude when we do a practice is far more important than whether we on behalf of the Tibetan Bon refugees Tibetans in Tibet have very little Nyima, who is principal of the do the practice in a perfect way. both in India and in Nepal. possibilities of going to school, at least Kathmandu school and one of the first When we do the collective practice (not the tundus etc.), it would be a help "There are about 80,000 Tibetans, in the countryside. geshes (highest academic degree, and a great kindness for the practitioners, the practice and oneself if the scattered around India. The majority, "There is not that problem in India, corresponding to a western Ph D.) from personleading the practice would recall the attention of the other practitioners about two thirds, live in South-India, in because the Indian gorverment supplies Dolanji. Lobpon gave teachings in to what they are doing in two or three words, from time to time. five or six different districts. Indian schools for all children, both girls and Austria, Italy, both in Rome and Merigar government cut down forests to make boys, and also Tibetan is taught. In and in England, in London and Devon. Guiding and dedicating the practice is a form of love and an offering to the farming land for them, and they are still India the main problem is how to make From Italy, Lobpon Namdak flew to Teaching, the Master and the other practitioners. mostly farmers. They live in a climate the ancient Bon culture survive. As the England, and from there to Amsterdam, If you wish please send your questions about your doubts and uncertainties that is rather too hot and damp, and the Bon are poor and cannot travel or make Holland, where he had been invited by to The Mirror. We shall try to clarify them together. altitude is very low being near the sea. contacts with foreign organisations or the Dzog-chen Community. Reprinted from the Merigar Letter n° 59 The Tibetans who live in North-India, humanitarian groups, Bon colonies have Lobponhas no w returned to Kathmandu near the Himalayan range, and have a so far received very little help from in good health, and will stay mostly direct contact with Dalai Lama's exile outside. Among the Tibetans, the Dalai there, in Nepal, until his next journey, CongmtulationsandcübtstzüúhesfnmTheOÁir^ Community government in Dharamsala, have which will be to the USA, in October. Lama and many other leaders of the to "Elio Çuarisco and His bride, 'Dolma, a Tamanß gid, vÂost people art of Tibetan adapted themselves more easily, as the Tibetans see the necessity of survival of origin and live in Qfepal and the north of India. climate is more like theirown," Lobpon the Bon culture as part of the Tibetan Namdak says. culture in general. That support we have. Lob pon Tenzin Namdak The couple art building a cosy 'cottage" in the kills ofSonady, n'est'Bengal, zJiert 'Elio isstillnJorkingon the translation project of the 'Shes bya faut fa/as'ofJamgon "In Nepal there are several thousand But mostly the basic economy of the at Merigar Bon schools comes from local Bon KpntrulLodra Taye, an encycleopedic zuorfa Tibetan refugees, but no exact figure is by Adriano demente setdements, which are not well off Long lift and happiness to them both. available. Tibetans who are not Buddhist After almost two years Master Lobpon themselves," Lobpon Namdak explains by religion but Bon are a very small Tenzin Namdak has returned to Merigar. the general background of his active minority, in India and Nepal altogether The teachings started on the afternoon work. about 3000 to 4000 people. In the of May 3rd with a general introduction Lublin, Poland Body a area there has been a strong "Now the Bon religion and culture begin to the Tannic tradition of Boa May 12th, 1991 population of the Bon for many to be better known in the west, but The nextday Lo bponNamdak continued centuries." achieving financial support is still not witha filli analysis of the Tannic practice Dear Community, Tashi Delegs, easy."At the moment there are 60 boys "They are a minority, and they are very methods, kyedrim and dzogrim. Thank you for your letter of January 25th and the issues of the Mirror. I have poor. After we established the Bon in Dolanji and 15 at the school in Lobponalso trans mi tied a short Sadhana made contact with some of the friends from Cracov, and received a book on Yantra monastery and settlement in Dolanji, a Kathmandu, where building is of Meri linked to the formal initiation Yoga. possibility to get a high level monastic proceeding well, but means for having which he had already given at Merigar I am not very fast in learning Yantra Yoga, and am still practising some Hatha Yoga, education was settled in India, but the more pupils are still lacking. One boy's in August 1989, and only a week before which I am more familiar with. Nepalese Bon, who live near the borders boarding and education costs in Rome. On May 5th, at the request of I recall the phrase of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche that says that when we concretely of Tibet, were too poor to be able to approximately 20 US dollars a month. Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, Lobpon discover ourexistance, this is much more important than practice and vital to our life afford to send their sons to Dolanji." "For the girls the only possibility to get Tenzin Namdak concluded by giving in society. So, I am trying to observe myself without self condemnation. So Lobpon Namdak managed to buy education is to go to normal Tibetan the Lung of the whole Shang-Shung Lastly, we received some training of Shambala from Trungpa, and I am happy to land in Nepal,inKathmandu, and started schools. So far we can only educate Nyin gyud, the oldest and most announce that Lama Tenzin Namdak is going to visit us at the end of June. a school and a Bon cultural centre there. boys as we hope to keep our religion authoritative Dzog-chen text in the Bon Best wishes to all of you. Since teaching in Tibetan language was alive by preserving the monastic system. tradition. Marek Macko

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 15 A letter from the dark

by Kathy Smith "That's very dedicated of you," she the warmest and most humid month This July will mark the beginning of said, "but don't you think that a of the Massachusett's year. The the seventh year that the Tsegyalgar peaceful, quiet atmosphere is more cabin feels hot, the air is still except Yang-tig cabin has been open. Even important than sweeping dust on for the occasional floating "mosquito before Rinpoche's consecration of the floor?" And of course, she was from hell". Unfortunately, it, people were drawing energy from right. After that, I continued to clean sometimes people think this is the and contributing energy to this small but with the knowledge that I must permanent situation. In August the pioneer cabin in the woods. In the maintain a light, relaxed and days cool down and the rooms fall of 1983, Rinpoche spoke to us inconspicuous presence. The dust become very available. Fall, winter of a special practice that he had could wait. and spring are the best retreat introduced to his then small group Normal patterns of activity had to seasons. The wood stove heating in Italy. For certain reasons or be re-examined. If people needed to system makes the cabin a year round secondary causes, this practice did be taken care of and couldn't see, possibility. Also there are many not develop there at that time. Also, then I had to anticipate their times when one can do a retreat there needed to be a place, a small movements ahead of time. All things completely alone, without even a house of specific construction and must be conveniently placed and mosquito! conditions to do this practice. Being easy to operate. Along with my own I feel very grateful to the Community inspired by this, Joe Zurylo offered ideas, many other people were able for m aking this Yang-tig attendant's his Conway land to Rinpoche for Kathy Smith, attendant of the Yan-tig cabin to contribute helpful suggestions job possible for me. Over the years, the future of this Yang-tig practice. from their own experience. There is I have met many wonderful people Joe had been having thoughts of his as we all did a practice and made contrast, could make a dirty sink a subtle joy in this collaboration of from all over the world. For a brief own on building asmall retreatcabin offerings to the Guardians. I think shine. Big deal! But now, thinking practitioners who shape something time we share the. intimate because there was no room or we all had the sense of history in the back, maybe she was unknowingly concrete in the Teachings for the experience of real collaboration. privacy at our group house. making, personal and otherwise, as reading my future usefulness. benefit of those who will follow. Because of the nature of the retreat, Rinpoche accepted and went to the we stood on the cabin's deck, Meaning can be found in unexpected Something is taken, yet something pretence is left on the doorstep and 11 acres to find a location. The site surrounding the buried treasure. The places and the Teachings do not is given. The energy of the efforts trust must take over. I take this role was chosen at the land's highest soft notes of the Song of the Vajra insist that one's capacity come made both in the practice of Yang-tig very seriously because each person point at the base of a long dead tree were drifting upward to the Dakinis directly from career development. and the support of it seem to collect I take care of is an active renewal of where the lines of three-pronged who were sitting in the trees and on And so, I offered my services as yearly. It resonates in the cabin, you my samaya. Also, it gives me a tree clusters intersected. the clouds. The summer after that cabin attendant. can feel it and be inspired by its chance to combine the practices I Next, what to design? Rinpoche presence each time you do a retreat we were ready for the first group of Since there was not a real job have learned in the past with those I suggested a small house with eight Generally, when people first come six, led by Norbu Rinpoche, to take description or role model beyond am learning now. The Gurdjieff rooms each 6 feet by 6 feet But, we to the cabin, they are a little the cabin on its maiden voyage. food, water, heat and transportation, teachings taught me that awareness said, many western people are over apprehensive. After all, a trip in the When Rinpoche told us that the the details of the job were mine to can happen when sitting calmly or 6 feet tall and wouldn't be able to lie 'almost' Bardo is not to be taken Yang-tig cabin would need an solve. Questions naturally arose. working in the world. We actually down. True, he said, so we will have lightly. Also, they think that I will attendant to bring food and organize What could I feed people in the did very little sitting practice. six rooms. And so, carpenters, escort them to the door, push them the schedule, I felt that maybe I dark? Rinpoche suggested Instead, our methods gathered designers, people with good ideas in the right direction and wish them could help. The cabin was in my sandwiches as a simple way to put experiences of self observation while and active imaginations merged. The good luck. Instead, they receive a backyard and so my kitchen would the food groups into an easily edible gardening, dancing, cooking, design of four upstairs rooms, two full "lights-on" tour. People can see be the closest Water power came package and maybe soup in the babysitting or building things. These downstairs rooms, wash place, tea the different rooms, choose one and from our house which is about 600 evening. How do I behave and are the activities of our everyday place, heating system, septic, learn where everything is and how feet away in the woods. We had the communicate in the dark, no body existence and if we can practice ventilation, water and safe passage to use it. Food packaging, window nearest phone and transportation language or eye contact here? The then, all moments will have the not to mention total darkness proved operation and communication is drop-off point. At that time, I was interpretation of sounds became potential of awareness. I try to bring to be exhilarating. Many "concrete explained. I have found that the raising an eight-year old son and important in understanding how this knowledge to my "wordly job" concepts" had to be thrown out to more comfortable and familiar wanted to spend more time at home. someone was doing. Was their signal of cabin attendant as I also study think in a new way. Popular people feel with their new dark This also seemed like the perfect knock loud or soft? Were they Dzog-chen. I have had great support Mechanics magazine had no kits or surroundings, the more quickly they chance to merge worldly needs with sighing, laughing, coughing, from all of you in making this rare proven blueprints for a dark cabin can integrate and benefit. When valuable group practice. I had belching, or drinking too much water situation my practice. Also, many so the entire project became an people have nothing to worry about, remembered that years before, after or not eating their soup? All these thanks to Rinpoche for the endless exercise in collaboration and more of the "worry" energy can go doing some cleaning for my teacher, things became clues to the flow of blessings that we all share! integratioa into the contemplation of viewing Mrs. Anderson, she had told me understanding of how the person on I am looking foward to taking care oneself in the dark mirror. with a sparkle in her eye that I cleaned the other side of the door was doing. of all of you in the future! If you By the following spring, we were There is a misconception of many and took care of things well. This At first, I tried to maintain the cabin wish to do a retreat please call or ready to build. The foundation went people that the cabin is filled all the praise had an opposite effect at the as a regular household, cleaning and write to: in and in July, the deck went on. time as it is in July when Rinpoche time. I was embarassed and organizing it daily. One day I was Kathy Smith Rinpoche filled a clay pot with visits. This is not the case. Because depressed that while other women sweeping the dark hallways with a R.FX). #1 mantras, relics, and the donations of time is short and plane tickets are were making themselves known in pushbroom when Nancy Simmons "something valuable" from the expensive, people try to combine a Conway, Ma. 01341, USA graphic art (my chosen field) at a took me aside and said, "What are retreat participants that year. This Yang-tig retreat with the larger Tel. 413-625-9263 time when women were breaking you doing?" I replied that I was collective treasure was buried under retreat at Tsegyalgar. July is usually Please give me at least one week's out from the "old mould", I, in trying to keep the cabin clean. the foundation of the Yang-tig cabin notice before your planned retreat.

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JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9 16 The Six Vajra VerSeS Chapter 5. Long Commentary On The Second Two Verses Dzog-chen Communities all over the world ARGENTINA OREECE •. TAIWAN R.O.C Buenos Aires: EvahgelopulosLiakos D.CUwliieV ! Jixinva xes midog yan Dzog-chen Comminuta 10 Potythechmou Street 9FL No. 350 Sec. 2 nambar nanzad gundusan c/o RRamponi 10433 Athens ; Patch Road Ave. F. Lacro» Taipei 1395 9MO Pito DT060 HOLLAND Even though there is no thought 1426 Bueno* Aere» Françoise Van Deo Berg USA what is called 'just as it is', , Johannes Verhulstraal 44" Tsegyalgar Tendit: 1071 NE Dzog-chen Community These various appearances which Dzog ch«R Commnnita Amsterdam Tsegyalgar, PO Bon 277 are created are c/o Hugo Aníbal Palacio Conway, Mass. 01341 ultimately good (transcending Espagna 883, 7000 Tandil ITALY relative good and evil). Mengar: California: AUSTRALIA Commuti Dzog-chen Dzog-chen Community What is 'as it is'? Victoria: Merigar c/o Norman Lundell Patricia Chandler Arcidosso, 58031 GR 122 Pleasant St. 471 Canning St Sautt öuit, Ca. 95062 Jixinva means as it is, without N. Carlton, VIC. 3054 Azamgat: correcting, changing or influencing. • AldoOneto Hawaii: Changing or influencing is an New South Wains: Via Canaletto 10 Swan Indien Community Dzog-chen Milano 165 Kunhaks Street activity carried out by the mind. c/o Hamish Gregor Kaiula, Hawaii 96734 Throughout our lives, we enter into 6 Grant St. JAPAN mental reasoning and analysis. Woodford, NSW 2778- Masuda ToshiaJri USSR; Reasoning is not part of peaceful 5-6-7 Kichyoju Kita- Moscow, AUSTRIA Machi • Vladimir Maikov living. If you want to relax, you have Dzog-chen Österreich 1101 Musas bino-shi Sovietskaya 14-7 i to go beyond this and find yourself Postfach 60 A Tokyo, 180 Zheteznodorzhny in your condition as it reallyis . This 8200 Gielsdorf Most ow region is one of the principal things in the MALAYSIA BRAZIL Community Dzog-chen Latvia:: practice. The fourth agreement of De Sona dovi* Malaysia Thann Nye Min Dzog-chen Centre meaning in Dzog-chen is thus Rua República Do Peru 8669CKkbang tCechil Street Lenina 62-3 related: Garab Dor je 481/606 Rio de Janeiro 7S2O0 MeUka Riga drandonla midon nesdonla don 226050 Latvia DENMARK NEPAL (drang.don.la. mi-rton. nges.don.la. Abhidarmakosa? What happened is Mongolian language and literature. Community Dzog-chen Ian Baker rtoa) Whenever I did not understand that Buddha accepted and entered c/o Jens Rasmossen S LT: Box 1373 VENEZUELA The whole phrase means, 'do not something I went to him, so we into people's understanding in order Puegard Atte 5 Kathmandu Caracas: rely on drandon', which means not spent a lot of time together. But we to communicate with them. That is 2770 Hastrup Ingrid Bettet V : NEW ZEALAND Apnrti^ 60580 Cnncao what things seem to be according to what we mean by drandon, altering got into arguments sometimes. FINLAND South Island: A - 1060 Caracas what people say, but on how things He said to me ."What do you think of into the meaning of things to carry Kaisa Liiss Puonti : Lize Brooks really are. this round earth business?" I said, people through. Visantie 19 PO Lktle Akaloa Menda: Don means 'meaning'. Dran can be "I do not think that it is very strange. In the Buddhist teachings, we speak 05400 Jokela Banks Peninsula Dzog eben Community understood in the following way. of drandon and nesdon. Sontfa bland Apartado Postal 483 . I myself believe iL" He said, "For FRANCE • : Metida 5101 : If someone is a bit unfriendly to me, goodness sake, it is impossible to The Buddhist Sutra is the vehicle of Perpignan::.•: '$y.ïy Auckland: somehow I make him my friend. have a round earth! If you believe in drandon, the vehicle of the cause, to Isabelle Bienfait Marin ftahejúni ; : WEST MALAYSIA Whether it is a matter of giving him that sort of thing you do not believe carry people into understanding. 9 Rue Jean Racine 8/148 Howe Si Chong Kwok Kee Perpignan 66000 Freemans Bay, Auckland 11-A Jalan Jujor a present, or saying some pleasant Dzog-chen teaching, however, is the in the Buddha's words!" I said, « 1/5 T. Bakti Ampaag words, psychologically I make him "Who says that I do not believe in vehicle of nesdon. Nesdon means Plouray: NORWAY-: Selangor feel that he is wonderful person. the Buddha's words?" He said, 'real', the 'true meaning*. Dzog-chen Association Commu«ily Dzog-chen Perhaps I enter into the person's "Well, look at the whole It is called the true meaning because La Fontaine Neuve Gordon Cranmer YUGOSLAVIA 56770 Plooray 4157 Utstein Kloster Belgrad: culture and habits. I might not like we enter into the real meaning Abhidannakos*. Jovanovic Zelika smoking because I know it is bad for The explanation is there, how could without changing anything, as it is. GERMANY SOUTH AFRICA Zeleni Venae 1 me. But if I am with somebody who you possibly believe in a round Jixinva means this. This is not a Marta Heinen Darryl Van Blerk Beograd likes smoking, I might get on with earth?" I tried to argue a little, but knowledge about the final stage of Stephan Blastmanasu. 25 11 Upper Rose St 7743 Furtwangen Newlands, 770Ò Capetown Chang-chub Community him by try ing a cigarette. That means meditation. This is something very felt that it was impossible, so it was Dzog-chea I am entering into that person's better to leave him alone. I was important to discover. GREAT BRITAIN SWITZERLAND PO Box 19 habits, at least, in order to afraid that if I argued too much, I When people learn Tantrism, they Richard Eagleton Aline Winterberg 62250 PTUJ Slovenia 72 Woodland Gardens Scbwaraenburgstr. 6 communicate with him. would not be able to study learn a lot of subtle definitions and London, NW 103UA 3007 Bern We know what causes the six lokas, Mongolian with him. when they speak about the nature of each of which has its particular A few days later, he snowed me a the mind, they think they are karmic vision. We know that whole exercise book he had written reserving it as a final point toarriv e Sakyamuni Buddha, for example, out with the argument disproving at. entered into the karmic vision of the round earth. In Dzogchen, when we speak about individuals in order to be able to He told meto take the book home to jixinva, we are not only speaking communicate with them. He did not read what he had to say and wanted about the nature of the mind, we are argue about what people believe ata to tell me totel l him what I thought. also speaking about our existence as relative level. You will know if you He was sure that if I read this book it is. THE MIRROR have studied some Buddhist when I went home, I would discover The real understanding of the philosophy, such as the that I was m is taken. I can understand existence of our body, voice and Abhidharmakosa in particular, that that mentality perfectly, because mind is not the conceptual idea of The international newspaper of theDzog-chen Community there is an explanation of kham there are a lot of people who think 'the nature of the mind,' and we founded by Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche (khams), the universe, or Dhatu in the same way. have to find it in the state of jixinva. Sanskrit, which is about the world But the truth of the matter is that the When there is this knowledge of Published by Associazione Culturale Comunità Dzog-chen. with Mount Meni and the four Buddha entered into and jixinva, that is called Dzog-chen. The Mirror, Merigar, P.O.Box 47, 58031 Arcidosso GR, Italy. continents etc. Many pandits, communicated through the culture Tel. and fax 0564-966608 . particularly learned monks who are and habits of the people. In the Excerpt from The Six Vajra Verses rather conditioned and limited by Abhidarmakosa, the whole An Oral Commentary by Namkhai Direttore responsabile: Raimondo Bultrini words, think that this is the specific explanation of Dhatu, of the Norbu Rinpoche Editorial desk: Hamid Assem (editorial adviser), Tuula Saarikoski Buddhist view of the cosmos, as universe, is typical of the culture Edited by Cheh-Ngee Goh (managing editor), Liz Granger (editorial and administrative expressed by Buddha. When you that existed well before the arrival Published by Rinchen Editions secretary), Naomi Zeitz (international correspondence), Tiziana speak about the round planet earth, of Buddha in India. Buddha did not Singapore, 1990. Gottardi (layout and subscriptions), Alex Siedlecki (photo editing). as we do today, they say ."How can take birth to provoke a revolution in that be possible?" India. Buddha knew very well that Printer: Tipografia 2A, Arcidosso When I arrived in India for the first these were concepts one believes in, Deadlines for editorial time, I was in Kalimpong for a few that is why he said that until final © 1991 Ass. Cult. Comunità Dzog-chen. months, where there was an able and realisation, everything is illusory. material Registrato presso il Tribunale di Grosseto al a 5/1990 del 26 Aprile learned Mongolian gexes But if Buddha did not believe in Articles, interviewa, letters, 1990 artwork, etc., the 8th of each month. (dge.bshes). This gexes interested anything real and did not confirm - News, the 15th of each month. mea great deal and I was a very good anything, why did he make such This newspaper is not for sale friend of his because I was studying an explanation as in the

JUNE 1991 ISSUE 9