THE MIRROR The International Newspaper of the Dzog-chen Community Issue 21 Decorating the Merigar Gonpa IN THIS ISSUE TEACHING by John Shane liberation in the minds of Helping the dead and Friday the 23rd of April was those who pass under them. dying one of those beautiful spring Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche days in Tuscany when the himself will be the Director Chögyal Namkhai Norbu landscape around Merigar of the project while Chögyal page 2 seemed lit with a magical light, Rinpoche, a master of the and the fields of the Drugpa Kagyupa school and surrounding countryside were thanka painter has j ust arrived NEWS alive with birdsong in the fresh at Merigar to carry out the Australian land morning air as members of work of painting the figures the Community gathered in of the lineage of the Dzogchen project launched the Gonpa to perform a Masters during the time he page 4 practice for the Inauguration has kindly agreed to stay at of the work of decorating the Merigar. structure. Namkhai Norbu Batodalay Dugarov, a thanka Conway accepts Rinpoche was in fine form, painter from Buryatia will Tseygalgar offer and there were present a fair also soon arrive with his son, number of people who had another painter, and will add pageS remained after the end of the his expert knowledge and Easter retreat to participate. skill. Merigar library With Rinpoche leading us we Nickolai Dudka, a young practised a medium tun th an ka painter from Kiev who appeal followed by a sang ritual, the was trained and lives in page 6 cypress smoke billowing up Buryatia has already arrived from the sankhang outside the at Merigar, after Gonpa towards the clear sky, unfortunately being held up Tashigar opens offering to the Guardians and by a two week delay in asking them to help the work Moscow due to visa membership to go well. We followed this difficulties that caused him page 8 with a rite of lungta to re- An example of mantra to ornament the Gonpa to miss the Easter retreat. His authenticate the prayer flags, and a underneath to show through, will be there. skilled collaboration will be very rite to authenticate namka, as well European Gakyil written the Song of the Vajra in Around the large beam that runs valuable. An international group of as many repetitions of the Naggon, phagpa script (the name of a Sakyapa right round the inside of the structure painters and artists including Wilvin the heart mantras of the Guardians. meeting master who became the master of an to support the dome there will be the Pederson from Norway and Felix Afterwards Rinpoche spoke with us Emperor from the Yuan dynasty), forms of the Masters of the Lineage Dawe of the UK is already busily at page 3 informally, and explained his vision and some root tantras of the of the Three Series. work finalising drawings which will of what he wishes to have painted Dzogchen Semde, Longde and Outside, each of the sides facing in be transferred onto the Gonpa inside and outside the Gonpa, and Upadesa in the Nyan-gyud (sNyan- the eight directions will have the shortly. how it should be done. FEATURES rgyud) script. In addition the syllablesof the Eight Classes painted A team of four people was form ed to He told us that inside the dome of on the beams above the windows, coordinate the work: Isabel Wagner, Temple of the Great the roof, on a pale blue background different manifestations of the while there will be mantras above Andreas Hannig, Claudio Maritano that will allow the grain of the wood transformations that are used in the Liberation Anuyoga system will be painted the doors to place a cause of and Franco Branca (who is the caretaker of the Gonpa). Isabel, who An interview with Namkhai is a picture restorer by profession is Norbu Rinpoche Dugu Chögyal Rinpoche at Merigar studying the technical aspects ofhow page 9 best to bind the pigments in the paint so that the work will be durable and On leaving Tibet in 1959, the not fade. Theravada and 8th. Ven. Dugu Chögyal A team of practitioners, wearing Dzog-chen Rinpoche eventually settled at heavy gloves and with masks Tashi Jong in Himchal Pradesh, covering their noses and mouths, Laurence Mills India, where a community of has been busy in the warm sun since page 10 practitioners formed around his the Inauguration sanding off the root guru, the 8th. Khamtrul varnish from various surfaces of the Interview Rinpoche. Like most of his Gonpa to prepare them for previous incarnations, Chögyal repainting. with N. Dudka, Rinpoche is a highly gifted artist, The balustrade around the deck that surrounds the building has been thanka painter and he very kindly accepted given a coat of paint and is now red page 11 Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche's and yellow instead of the colour of invitation to participate in the natural wood. The rest of the painting of the Merigar Gonpa. structure will be transformed in the Bodhisattva in He will spend two weeks at same way until the whole Gonpa is borderlands Merigar this June, and has resplendent with colours, forms and Elio Guarisco Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Chögyal Rinpoche conferring over somepromise d to return again in writing, all manifesting various aspects of the teaching. page 12 designs for the Gonpa (photo Mario M agli etti) September. 2 Helping the dead and dying by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu This article is part of a transmission which they received transcription of a teaching given by during their lifetime. So it can be Chögyal Namkhai Norbu on the very important to make them morning of April 15th, 1993, during understand the condition and the the Easter retreat at Merigar. nature of the bardo. If the person was a good Shitro is an important practice practitioner and knew how to do for helping those who have died; it something more, then one should involves helping others through the prepare a piece of paper on which practice of Vajrasattva. Even if no the letter NRI is written Remember one in particular has died we can that among the Six Lokas, NRI is wish to help all sentient beings the symbol of the human realm. So through our practice of Vajrasattva, if it is a human being that has died, and through our good intention you must write NRI on the paper, towards all beings we can accumu­ but if, for example, it is your dog late good actions. But even if we that has died and you want to do a have such good intentions, it's purification for him or her, then you difficult for all the other beings to should write TRI on the paper receive the benefit in this way, because that is the symbol of the because in order to receive it there animal realm. must be a concrete relationship Below this syllable you should between us and them. If there isn't write the name of the person for such relationship it's very difficult whom you want to carry out the for the other beings to receive the purification. And afterthatyou write benefit. But at least we can dedicate all the obstacles and negative karma our practice to the many people both and then SHINTAM KURU YE living and dead with whom we've SVAHA which means "may it be had a relationship during our many purified", and you put this piece of lives, and thus it can be beneficial. paper in front of yourself. That's one way of doing it. If you are doing this as part of a It is generally very important for Shitro ritual, then you put it in front practitioners to know how to help of the mandala. If that is too those who have died when they are complicated for you then you can do doing the Shitro practice; and a simple Shitro practice in the way certainly the Shitro and Vajrasattva that we usually do, writing on the practice is one of the main practices paper as described earlier, and fixing for helping them, but there are also the paper to a stick to keep it still. many other things that one can do. Avalokiteshvara Khorva Dongtruk (calligraphy Namkhai Norbu Rinpocne, drawing Felix Dawe) The paper and the writing are like a When you are working with a support for the consciousness of the person who is in the process of dying, 108 medicines mixed with important at all. If the person is a good dies and one should leave him alone dead person, because that you have to understand what kind of relics authenticated by long practice practitioner and they have in order to give him space to realize consciousness no longer has a body. a person they are. They may be of mantras etc. You can give it to the maintained their samaya and are him se If. That ' s another thing Idon't Without this, we don't know where someone that we know and like, and dying person to taste. This can good at meditation, then they may know how we can do in the Western the consc iouness is, and so we don't whom we want to help, but if that sincerely help, not directly, but it remain in their meditation for three world. know how to comunicate with it. If person has never been interested in will put a certain cause so that in a days after death, or sometimes even If one is not a particularly good we have made the support then we the teaching, and has never believed future life they may have the capacity more.