2 THEBUDDHADHARMA,PART II, TEACHING BY CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

3 NEW SCHEDULE OF CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

4 RETREATS ON MARGARITA ISLAND

5 MASTER BIOGRAPHY, DOMBHI HERUKA BY ELIO GUARISCO

6 - 8 SHANG-SHUNG INSTITUTE NEWS

21 DAILY LIFE IN THE MIRROR, LOVE & REALTIONSHIPS

22 LIFE AT ZARAGOSA BEACH, MARGARITA

23 REFLECTIONS

24 HOW I MET THE TEACHINGS, CINDY THIBEAU

THE MIRRORNewspaper of the International Dzogchen Community May/June 2004 • Issue No. 68

by John Bidleman

April is a forgiving monthin Baja Sur. The winds arebreeze-like and the sun

can often play hide and seek giv-ing one the impression that thisoften harsh environment that runsfrom kalpa ending hurricanes tooven like summers has suddenlyfound yet another personality.This April was no different asRinpoche sat under the fig treewith twenty or so of his studentsand smiled gently. I asked, “Rin-poche, does this land have a nameyet?” he answered, “Maybe itdoesn’t need a name.”

Rinpoche then began toreveal the nature of a Beyul. Ahidden place where practitionerscould retreat in secret. “LikePadma Kod in South Tibet”, heemailed me later, “it means a kindof earthly paradise with peacefuland lucky landscapes.” The SanMiguel property already has aname (someone reminded me):“Rancho San Miguel de laNaranjas”. And of course it had aname before that and even earlierperhaps, the indigenous people

who populated the area, leavingtheir testament painted on rocks,had a name for this beautiful val-ley which John Olmstead, notedecologist described as a“Hurricane Desert”.

But the nature of the SanMiguelito area is what it is,regardless of what humans call it.The fact that this is a special placeis obvious, but was emphasized toall as Rinpoche walked over hugeboulders tirelessly and at timesgleefully, winding his wayupwards far beyond anyone’simagination of where he wouldgo. Nary, Andres and Scott helpedme clear some brush forRinpoche but it all seemed unnec-essary, as he glided around us onhis way to the water. Surprisingeven the most optimistic of us, hefinally found a pool that suitedhim and began to swim. But notbefore he found some signs.“There are letters in this rock.”He pointed. “You see below here,‘SA’ on this rock.”

Rinpoche’s ability and indeedthe ease with which he navigatedthe arroyo at the West end of theproperty did many people’s heart

good and emphasized his resilien-cy. Once in the pool he lookedaround for Fabio “Where isFabio?”. “He has a kind of prob-lem with this water?” he laughed.After a few jibes and satisfied thatFabio had enjoyed a swim in thecold water, we walked back slow-ly, not from fatigue but rather aslow inspection of the area.

Near the road there is animmense flat white rock wherethe Master stood and gazed.Finally, Rinpoche turned andsaid, “We will have a retreat here,small retreat.” Indeed heremarked on the landscape andespecially rocks and rock forma-tions many times that day.

In a few minutes we were allcongregated and I turned thevehicle around for Rinpoche.Walking back I spoke with ScottSchroeder about the cabin on thefar west-end of the property. Weimagined at some time takingRinpoche there, but reasonedthere was no time what with a tir-ing retreat and his flight being thenext day. But Rinpoche had otherplans. “We will go and see itnow.”

No one had been down thatlong tortuous road since the lasthurricane and it was a “bad road”,even before several hurricanes,one of which was worse than any-one could remember for fiftyyears. “Rinpoche, please allowme to check out the road first andthen I’ll come back for you.”Without hesitation, “Why maketwo trips?”

In a few seconds we were allheading west on Naranjas Roadlooking for a turn-off no one inthe vehicle had ever been on.Rinpoche looked intently at thegranite ridges and rocks as wemade our way down the valley.He remarked several times at thesimilarity to Derge (East Tibet) insome respects. Suddenly we sawanother dirt road that was farworse than the one we’re on. Iturned to look at Rinpoche. “Thisis on our property?” he asked.“Yes,” I said. “Ok, we will go andsee.”

The road was incredibly bad.Bouncing like soccer balls wemade our way beyond the levelportion of the road to a ratherbumpy looking, doubtful stretch

of road. “Rinpoche I don’t like tobounce you around like this, doyou want to go on?” He nodded,“Oh this is good for digestion!”Everyone laughed as we lurchedahead. Naranjas Road washes outevery few years, but has govern-ment contracted roadwork due tothe small number of ranches dot-ting the road. On the other hand,this road is strictly DzogchenCommunity maintained.

As we rounded a corner Istopped the car and froze. We hadjust driven for twenty minuteswith no possibly of a turnaroundanywhere and now we faced anextremely steep incline with twonarrow ridges barely wideenough for tires. I was raised inrural areas where roads werefrightful and I am filled with gleeat the prospect of mud. But dri-ving Rinpoche is different. Hehad just walked far beyond any-one’s expectations and if we getstuck he would have to walkmuch, much farther. He turned tolook in the back seat and then atme. “Rinpoche, do you want toproceed?” He smiled. “InTibet...this is a good road.” I

Baja Beyul, A Visit to the Hidden Place with RinpocheBaja California, Mexico

April, 2004

C O N T E N T S

Baja Land A. MCGHEE

NN EE WW SSCCHHEEDDUULLEECChhooggyyaa ll NNaammkkhhaa ii NNoorrbbuu’’ss

NNeeww SScchheedduu ll ee ffoo rr 22000044--22000055

PPAAGGEE 33

continued on page 24

Continued from Mirror issue 67

The Third Noble TruthThe Truth of Cessation

We can understand that there iscause and effect. What should wedo? If we accumulate negativecauses we have infinite samsaraand infinite suffering is produced.In this case we must stop andchange this. This is the essence ofthe third Noble Truth. Buddhasaid, “Now you should distin-guish what the cause is and try tostop it.” This is the Noble Truth ofcessation. How can we stop caus-es? There are many differentmethods and possibilities becauseof the different conditions of indi-viduals. Some people have morecapacity, others less. When some-one understands, they should tryto apply the method that is bestfor them.

The Fourth Noble TruthThe Path

Hinayana and Mahayana

Buddha started to talk about whatordinary people can do to stop thecause of suffering and taught thefourth Noble Truth of the Path.He presented this like theHinayana teaching. The principleof Hinayana is mainly receivingvows. There are different levelsof vows, but you take a vow andkeep it even if it costs you yourlife. In this way you can controlall negative actions because youdo not commit any. That is theway to stop negative actions.

We have the three aspects ofbody, speech and mind. How dowe control all negativities? Wetake a vow which may stop usfrom doing certain physicalthings with our body, for exam-ple, not killing another being ornot stealing. There are manyactions to abstain from related toour voice, such as not lying, notinsulting others, etc. In general,we talk about the ‘ten virtues’which are related to body, speechand mind. Then there is abstain-ing from activities particularlylinked to the mind, such as nega-tive thoughts about others. If yourintention is not good and youthink badly of others, you maynot do anything bad for other peo-ple, but you accumulate negativi-ty. So it is much more beneficialif you think positively instead ofnegatively. This is the characteris-tic of Buddha’s teaching. Later onBuddha taught and developedMahayana Sutra.

What is the differencebetween Mahayana Sutra andHinayana? Many people say thatMahayana has greater compas-sion and Hinayana has less. Idon’t think that is really true,because when Hinayana Arhatshad realization and developedtheir clarity, they knew very wellthat infinite beings suffer in sam-sara. How can we say that theyhave no compassion? That is notthe point. The point really is ourway of thinking. This is the dif-ference.

In Hinayana, when youreceive a vow, you consider it tobe your path and you follow iteven at the cost of your life. Youdo not commit any action that iscontrary to this rule, this law. Thisis the Hinayana system.

Mahayana is more open. In thesame way, the name of applyingthe teaching in Hinayana andMahayana is different: inHinayana it is called ‘domba’(sdom pa) which means a “vow”for controlling our body, speechand mind. In Mahayana it is‘labpa’ (bslab pa) which means“training”. It is called “training”because in Mahayana it is under-stood that the most importantpoint is related to our intention. Ifwe really have a good intentionand it is necessary, we can helpothers even if our actions do notcorrespond with a vow but gobeyond it. This is Mahayana andit does not have anything reallylike a Vinaya or set of rules. Theymay use the Vinaya of theHinayana, but governed with theintention of the Mahayana.

Mahayana is more open.There is a famous story of a manwho was traveling to an island toget some jewels. At some point anevil man wanted to kill every-body in the group, but this cap-tain, who was a kind ofBodhisattva, discovered the evilintention of that man and killedhim. Afterwards he became wor-ried because he had taken a vownot to kill and he thought, “Oh,I’ve committed a very negativeaction.” Later he went to theBuddha to confess and Buddhasaid, “You did well.” This isexample in Mahayana. SoMahayana is more open, that isthe only difference, and for thatreason uses the term “training”.

Both of these paths belong tothe Sutra teaching, the Sutra tra-dition. Some of you may notknow what “Sutra” means inSanskrit. It means a “conclusionof an event”, any kind of eventwith Buddha. One day, for exam-ple, Buddha was going to Rajghiron the invitation of the king whohad asked him to explain a teach-ing in a specific way. Buddhagave that teaching and when hefinished, all his students, the kingand the local people, were verysatisfied. The teaching of that daywas called “the Sutra of Rajghir-the reply to the King”. That is anexample. In a practical way, whatit means is that Buddha physical-

ly taught and people listened andhad contact with him. They didnot need to be realized in order tohave that contact. It was normaljust like the situation now. Forexample, when you go to see ateacher, you can see him, you canlisten to him, and you can receivea teaching. That is the physicallevel. Similarly, at that periodBuddha taught in that way. This iscalled “Nirmanakaya”, or thematerial level, and the teaching ofNirmanakaya.

SutraThe Path of Renunciation

The characteristic of this teachingis called “the path of renuncia-tion”. What does “renunciation”mean? It means renouncing. Forexample, when you receive a vowin order to become a monk or anun, then you think, “Ah, I’verenounced the ordinary samsariccondition,” and you feel a littledifferent. You feel that somethinghas changed. In general, peoplehave that attitude. Some peoplesay, “I’ve received a vow ofrefuge,” others say, “I took refugefrom this lama, that lama, etc.Now I am a Buddhist.” They feelthat they have changed some-thing. “Yesterday I wasn’t aBuddhist even though I readsome Buddhist books and wasinterested. But today I received avow. Now I am a Buddhist.” Theymay also say, “I have a Dharmaname or Buddhist name.Yesterday my name was George,but today I am no longer Georgeso please don’t call me by thatname. You can call me ‘Dorje’”.They feel that they have changed.

This also happens with mystudents. Many of them, particu-larly new students, ask me to givethem a Dharma name. When I askthem, “Don’t you have a name?”they say, “Yes, I do.” “What isyour name?” They say, “Myname is George.” “Okay, that’syour Dharma name!” In the realsense there is no need to changeanything. What is important isyour understanding. Changing isvery relative.

In the Sutra teaching that kindof attitude is strongly developed.

This is a characteristic of Sutrateaching and the path of renunci-ation. Some teachers also use theterm “the path of renunciation”and “renunciation” when theyspeak about Tantric teaching aswell as Dzogchen teaching. But ithas nothing to do with Tantrismand Dzogchen. “Renunciation”means “renouncing something”.You try to renounce your emo-tions considering them to besomething negative, a bit like tak-ing off dirty clothes. If you’ve gota hole in your sweater, what doyou do? You get rid of it and get anew one. That means you are“renouncing” your dress.

But when you follow Tantricteaching you do not “renounce”anything because Tantrism iscalled “Vajrayana”: “Vajra”means “our real nature”. “Nature”– there is nothing to change. Howit is, we develop that knowledge.That is Vajrayana. So the path ofrenunciation is not Tantrism orDzogchen.

Tantric teaching

When we consider Tantric teach-ing, Guru Padmasambhava gavean example: in Tantric teaching,transformation is just like thenature of gold. In general, weregard gold as something veryprecious and even though it ishidden deep within the earth, itslight shines outside. When peopleknow there is gold somewherethey dig and dig until they dis-cover it and bring it out of theearth. Then gold has its value.When you have a piece of gold,what you do? It depends on cir-cumstances. You could make avery nice statue of Buddha andput it on an altar and offer incenseand flowers. When people gothere, they feel a nice atmosphere.Then sometimes the situationchanges. There might be some-thing like a Cultural Revolutionwhen people don’t want a statueof Buddha but they want the goldand they change the form. Maybethey make something else with it.Someone like Saddam Husseinmight make guns of gold. Orsomeone might want to makesomething useful like a cup ofgold for example, or an ashtray, agolden ashtray. When you havemany important guests you canuse this golden ashtray and it’svery elegant. It’s elegant but nolonger a statue of Buddha; no-onegoes there to offer flowers or can-dles or to pay respect. An ashtrayis for putting dirty things in, sothere are cigarette butts and otherrubbish that people throw there.So you see the situation has com-pletely changed the function, butthe nature of the gold has notchanged at all. That goldenBuddha is now an ashtray. Youcan also change the ashtray backinto Buddha. Now it is a statue ofBuddha, but its nature has notchanged. This is the principle oftransformation.

The Path of Transformation

The teaching of Tantrism is called“the path of transformation”, notthe path of renunciation”. Also aTantric teacher is not like theteacher of Sutra. Sutra was taughtby Buddha Shakyamuni physical-ly, but the path of transformationwas taught or transmitted by

manifestations of enlightenedbeings; by manifestations of theprimordial potentiality of enlight-ened beings. The principle of pri-mordial potentiality is sound,light and rays. Through thesethree the essence of the elementsmanifests. The essence of the ele-ments is the five colors. Thesefive colors manifest dimensionslike a mandala. The manifestationof the real nature of an individualis an enlightened being.Personified deities communicatein a different way (from oraltransmission). Most communica-tions in Tantric teachings areSambhogakaya manifestations.The manifestation itself is thetransmission. It transmits thatknowledge through its clarity. It isnot an oral teaching.

The physical Buddha alwaysgave oral teachings. Buddhaexplained orally and students lis-tened. Transmission throughmanifestation is not the same asoral transmission. Sometimesthere is the possibility to manifestsome words orally. That is possi-ble because they always manifestsome figure, but the words are notthe main point.

We cannot have contact withthe Sambhogakaya. Some peoplesay that they have seen enlight-ened beings, but this is not soeasy. The manifestation ofenlightened beings is alwaysSambhogakaya. In order to havecontact with the Sambhogakayayou must have that kind of real-ization or capacity. It is not veryeasy to see a symbol.

On the tenth day of theTibetan lunar calendar which wecall the “day of GuruPadmasambhava”, we do aGanapuja. When we do theGanapuja, we chant the “Sevenverses of invocation toPadmasambhava”. We considerthe invocation to be very impor-tant because GuruPadmasambhava promised to bepresent for those people whohave faith and devotion, particu-larly on the tenth day. This is akind of promise of GuruPadmasambhava. So on the tenthday when we chant the “Sevenverses”, we imagine GuruPadmasambhava is present. GuruPadmasambhava must be presentbecause he is a GreatTransference manifestation, notsomething like an ordinaryDharmakaya realized being. Butwe are not able to see him physi-cally present. We do not see himbecause we do not have thatcapacity. In order to have thatkind of capacity we must be akind of Mahasiddha.Mahasiddhas have developed thatcapacity and for this reason havereceived many teachings ofAnuttaratantra manifestationsdirectly from the Sambhogakaya.They also have infinite compas-sion. They understand that theseteachings are very important forhaving realization more quickly.

So in order for them to intro-duce ordinary people who do nothave the capacity to have contactwith the Sambhogakaya, theybrought these teachings that intro-duce through oral teaching usingsymbols. For example, in order toshow what the manifestation of aMandala looks like, they con-struct a Mandala. To show what a

2

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T H E B U D D H A D H A R M ATWO NOBLE TRUTHS - PART II

(WEB CAST TEACHING)NAMGYALGAR, APRIL 20, 2003

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

Rinpoche at Margarita N ZEITZ

manifestation of a deity lookslike, there are paintings orthankas.

Then there is introduction.You remember when you receivean initiation you receive thesethings. Initiation means an intro-duction to this dimension. Youconsider your dimension to bejust like this Mandala. There is amanifestation who transmits andthere are those who receive thetransmission. And then you enterinto this visualisation and theteacher empowers you withmantras etc., giving you the pos-sibility to apply that method.Applying that method you canhave that realisation. This iscalled “initiation”.

For that reason it is veryimportant in Tantrism that whenyou receive initiation, any kind ofinitiation, you should understandwhat is going on and what youshould do. Otherwise it only

becomes a kind of a blessing.Then what should you do

after you have received initiation?It is not enough to say, “Oh, Ireceived this initiation.” Whyhave you received initiation fromthe teacher? The teacher has pre-sented the path you are following:transformation, how to enter intotransformation, and how to applythat transformation. After receiv-ing initiation, your commitmentshould be to do that practice,applying that transformation.That way you can have realiza-tion. Otherwise there is not muchsense in receiving an initiation.Sometimes there may be a littlebenefit because of chanting manymantras and it may help a little todiminish our negativity or obsta-cles. But this is very far what wemean by “realization”.

Vajrayana

So that means now you can applythe transformation. When youapply it, it is indispensable toremember that there are twostages in Anuttaratantra. The first

stage is the development stage,which means you gradually trans-form your impure vision into purevision. Your dimension, your self-manifestation, all your functionssuch as the five senses and thefive aggregations everything thatmanifests is transformed into thefive Dhyana Buddhas, the fiveDakinis, the five wisdoms, etc.But you know that the root is thesame, that there are not two dif-ferent roots, pure vision andimpure vision.

For that reason, the symbol ofTantric teaching or Vajrayana isthe “Vajra”. It is not a real Vajra,only a symbolic Vajra. The realVajra is our potentiality, our realnature. But in order to discoverthat and get into that state, wealso need the symbol of the Vajra.You know what a Vajra lookslike. At the center of the Vajrathere is a kind of ball. On the topthere are five points and also on

the lower part. Why are there fiveupper and five lower points? Thelower points represent the fiveaggregations, the five emotions,etc., our samsaric, impure vision.The five upper points representwhat we transform them into,manifestations like the fiveDhyani Buddhas, the five wis-doms, etc., pure vision. These aretwo different aspects but what ismost important is the center.There is a kind of ball and this isour real Vajra nature. From thatcenter two aspects can manifest.Why do we have two aspects? Wehave two aspects because weeither have knowledge or areignorant of it. When we haveknowledge, then we have themanifestation of pure vision.When we are ignorant of that weare conditioned by dualistic orsamsaric vision. So this is called“impure vision”. So impurevision means purifying and trans-forming into pure vision. This isthe Vajrayana system.

Transcribed by Georg MeschedeEdited by Liz Granger& Jim Valby

Teaching ChNN continued from previous page

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 3

If we accumulate negative causes we have infinitesamsara and infinite suffering is produced. Inthis case we must stop and change this. This is

the essence of the third Noble Truth.

Schedule Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

2004 - 2005

2004Margarita Island, VenezuelaJuly 17 – Aug. 1 Mandarava Chüdlen retreatSept. 3 -12 Longsal RetreatOct. 18 - 29 Kalachakra Retreat of AnuyogaNov. 9 - 21 Complete teachings & practices of Lhalung SangdagDec. 5 - 8 Tshedrub (Long life) teaching and practiceChileDec. 19 - 21 Chile RetreatArgentinaDec. 26 – Jan. 2 Tashigar South retreat of Gomadevi, Argentina2005Feb.9 Tibetan Losar, Mandarava practice, ArgentinaPeruFeb.18 - 20 Peru retreatMargarita Island, VenezuelaMarch 9 -10 Santi Maha Sangha Base Level ExamMarch 11 - 15 Santi Maha Sangha 1st Level TrainingMexico City March 25 - 28 Mexico City Easter retreatBaja California, MexicoApril 1 - 4 Baja California, Mexico RetreatUSAApril 13 -17 Los Angeles RetreatApril 27 - May 1 New York City RetreatMay 6 - 10 Tsegyalgar, Conway, Massachusetts RetreatMay 11 - 12 Santi Maha Sangha II Level Exam, TsegyalgarMay 13 - 17 Santi Maha Sangha III Level Training, TsegyalgarRUSSIAJune 3 - 5 Kunsangar, a course of Moxabustion (Limited to persons who know Medicine)June 8 -12 Moscow retreatITALYJuly 1 - 5 Merigar, Italy Retreat 1July15 -Aug. 5 My personal retreat, MerigarAug. 10 -16 Merigar Retreat 2SPAINOct. 5 - 9 Spain RetreatBRAZILOct. 14 - 18 Brazilian RetreatMargarita Island, VenezuelaNov. 4 - 8 Longsal Teaching RetreatNov. 25 - 29 Santi Maha Sangha Base and 1st Level Teachers Trainings, Vajra Dance and YantraYoga 1st and 2nd Teachers’ TrainingsDec. 2 - 8 Tshedrup (Long life) teachingDec. 26 - Jan. 1 Tashigar Norte retreat

Ithink in general when we sayGeköes; the responsibility ofthe Geköes is this place

[Tashigar North]. For example,there are many people coming tothe Gar to find information or tohelp, to do something, and thecontact with them is the responsi-bility of the Geköes. The Geköesshould also look around at every-thing, be aware of what is goingon, and everything that happens inthe Gar.

Of course, the Geköes shouldnot be the boss of the Gar and nei-ther should anyone else; neithershould the Gakyil, the Aloe VeraCompany, etc. There are manypeople responsible: the Geköes,Gakyil, Board of Directors, thosebuilding houses, etc. All of themmust respect each other by collab-orating. No one is the boss ofsomeone else, and as long as noone has that idea there will be noproblem, no competition. Whenpeople are given some authority,such as the Gakyil, the Geköes,etc, they tend to take a positionand immediately want to dosomething that way – this is com-pletely contrary.

The Gakyil, Geköes, and allpeople in authority are doing akind of service – if you have thatidea then there is never any prob-lem and everything goes well.Particularly, the Geköes must bevery patient; this is one of thequalities of a Geköes. If someonehas no patience they really cannot

be a Geköes.Communication between and

within the different groups, notonly during retreats but also ingeneral, is important. Regardingthe capacity to organize some-thing like a big retreat, it is not soeasy for only one person lookaround or to have a task, so otherpeople can be asked to collabo-rate. The Gakyil and people withparticular capacities can collabo-rate and, for example, a sub-com-mittee can be formed to organizesomething particular to be done.

Many people, when they areon the Gakyil, do not have goodtime management. Time is veryimportant and precious. If some-thing needs to be done, or aGakyil meeting is required, thenallowing several days to pass cancause the opportunity to be lost.

It is also very important forthe Geköes to listen to the Gakyil,to not do anything without beingin contact and knowing what theprogram should be. The Geköesmust be informed about every-thing that the Gakyil decides todo because the Geköes is on theland here every day, whereas theGakyil cannot meet daily.

Sometimes when there areimportant and urgent things to bedone and it seems that the Geköesshould take this responsibility theGakyil does not agree and wantsto maintain its authority. If youare going this way, nothing can bedone. Also, when there are urgent

things for the Geköes to respondto immediately, without contact-ing or meeting with the Gakyil,after taking the necessary actionthe Gakyil should be informedimmediately by the Geköes. Insuch a case, the Gakyil should notcriticize the Geköes for taking theinitiative, because if there aretime constraints it is not alwayspossible to wait. I have learnedabout the work of Geköes andGakyil and how such problemscan be taken care of by seeinghow they sometimes arise atMerigar.

Then, in the Gakyil sometimethey say, “Oh, we are Red”, or“We are Blue”, “We are Yellow”– and they don’t collaborate, theydon’t inform each other. In theGakyil everybody must beresponsible for everything.Particularly they must not do any-thing egotistically – many peoplehave that defect, that problem.

If we communicate and col-laborate, everything will go verysmoothly. Not only with theGakyil, but also in any kind ofactivity we should respect eachother and collaborate. I thinkthese things are very important; ifyou are on the Gakyil you shouldremember them and then every-thing can be done in a perfectway. That is what I think.

Recorded and transcribed byDick DruryEdited by Naomi Zeitz

ADVICE FROM CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU FUNCTION OF THE GEKÖES AND GAKYILMARGARITA GAKYIL & GEKÖES SELECTIONMARCH 26, 2004

Margarita Live Web Cast Now Available in MP3

Those of you who were not able to listen to the Margarita live Webcast event on August 18, 2004, can now listen to an archived on-demand audio stream.

The mp3 sound track (13.7 MB) has a good sound quality and con-tains both Rinpoche’s voice and the voice of the Spanish translator(this in contrast to the actual live Webcast that consisted of the soundof Rinpoche’s voice alone). It was recorded directly from the signalof the sound system and it was originally sampled at 44,100 kHz and64 kbps. I had to resample the stream to 11,025 kHz and 16 kbps inorder to reduce the file size to acceptable proportions for Internetstreaming (using LAME vs. 3.93 on Mac OS X). Although the actu-al sound of the live webcast (with RealAudio using telephone signal)was quite good, the overall sound quality of this mp3 compressedtrack is still on a higher level.

The mp3-file is now available from the following sites:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~loekjehe/webcast/

http://members.ams.chello.nl/a.jehee/

If you listen to this webcast archived stream, please use the donationbutton to generously offer a (small or bigger) financial contributiontowards the webcasts, as an individual or as a group.

Thank you.Kind regards,Loek Jehee

4

by Kathy Cullen

The AprilRetreat in Mar-garita Island

was one in whichRinpoche taught, forthe first time, a mostprofound and impor-tant text from hisLongsal terma cyclethat concisely laysdown the Dzogchenview, Tawa LodeChenpoi Gongpa. Itis one of two textswithin this cycle thusfar that pertains toview. The otherlonger work, con-tained in Volume 4(the blue book) of thepublished Longsal

Teachings, wastaught for the firsttime in Margarita twoyears ago, and againin Baja at the begin-ning of April. It cov-ers the main points ofthe view. This shorterwork taught here inApril, more brieflyand precisely,explains all of phe-nomenon. We wereall very fortunate tohear this. At the endof the teaching, thetext was offered toTibetologists fortranslation, so it willat some point beavailable for all. It was also a retreat inwhich a number of

Venezuelan peopleattended, older andnew students alike.Rinpoche, as always,went over all aspectsof Dharma and prac-tice in daily life, aswell as giving directtransmission and nec-essary transmissionsfor Community prac-tices. It was good tobe with everyone inthe retreat, in thepueblo, and on thebeach. And the lastday, as we left theGonpa, there was abright rainbow roundthe sun, as seems tooften be the case. It isalways so very beau-tiful.

by Rosemary Friend

About 140people fil-tered into

Tashigar Norte forthe May Longsalretreat. I think wewere all astounded toreceive even morebeautiful and pro-found teachings thanever. It is as if we areedging closer to thesource of an enor-mous beautiful lightblue crystal andviewing and experi-encing all of ourpotentiality from adifferent window ofthis most exquisitelyfaceted jewel. The second and thirddays of the retreatwere dedicated to theteaching of ChodpaRonyom ChenpoiMennag - our atti-tude of how we inte-grate in daily life. Itis about our attitudethat is beyond limita-tion, same flavor –where there is noth-ing to change, wherewe are applying withour circumstance just

as it is. Rinpochedescribed how oftenwe apply with emo-tion and attachmentand there is no bene-fit.For people who havethe capacity to selfliberate thought andemotion, he remind-ed us of how to inte-grate and gave us thebeautiful metaphorsof sun evaporatingdew drops,snowflakes into theocean and wavescontinuously mani-festing.For those withoutthis kind of capacityto self liberate, thenit is useful to go oneby one with the dif-ferent emotions.Rinpoche describedspecific methods ofhow to develop ourattitude with the fiveemotions of anger,attachment, igno-rance, pride and jeal-ousy.The mirror ofVajrasattva, DorjeSempe Melong, filledour next day as wesat together just

inside the construc-tion chaos of theextension work forthe Gonpa. Thisextraordinary teach-ing is part of directintroduction and isvery important forknowledge of instantpresence. New andold students wereintroduced to thestate with the prac-tice of YesheZangthal after whichmany aspects of theview, particularlyenergy, were clari-fied.We are so apprecia-tive to receive moreof the continuousflow of our Master’sheart teachings andwelcome you all tojoin us here whenand if you are able.Our wish is that asour precious Mastercontinues to transmithis essential knowl-edge, that his lifestream continues ingood health and formany years and thatwe do justice to hisimmeasurable gifts.

The Seduction ofClarity

Gomadevi Retreat with’Chögyal Namkhai NorbuMarch 15 – 21, 2004

by Angelica Pottkaemper

Surprise! Surprise!

It was late afternoon on the 11th

of March of the Wood MonkeyYear. I was coming by nationalairline Aeropostal from Caracasand the plane was headingtowards Porlamar airport. Stillabout two thousand feet high upin the air, I spied through theplane window and saw under mea big shimmering green butterfly- Margarita Island had emergedout of the blue ocean. How couldit be so green? So wonderful?

From the experience of myprevious four visits, I had expect-ed the usual grayish, brownish,dusty, insect shaped island. It hadalways made me feel disappoint-ed. I did not admit this, because avoice inside me demanded me tokeep up pure vision and to feelhappy being part of TashigarNorte which happens to be locat-ed on this special CaribbeanIsland.

This time, instead, I lookeddown on this beautiful green but-terfly and felt rewarding satisfac-tion for my previous disillusions.“Nomination for paradise?”,asked the voice. “Wait amoment!” said some other voice.Meanwhile I paid a silent homageto the water element that hadobviously contributed to this mar-velous display of nature.I took all this as an auspicioussign, that the retreat would turnout to be about beauty, that leadsto bliss, or to paradise, since thepaintings of the Gomadevi I hadseen so far were overwhelminglybeautiful and expressed a celestialjoy.

I had asked around of somefriends in Germany if they knewwhat the teachings were about,although my voice reminded menot “to go after titles” asRinpoche tells us always, butnobody had a clue about it.

The beautiful green butterflyand the ugly dusty brownishinsect however, played their roleas the initial stolperstone overwhich I stumbled…

This stolperstone kept metrapped, as I perceived elevendays later. In fact this trap wasone of my favorite strategic loca-tions from which I ruled my littleworld. It was the fortress of allthese kinds of voices:

I like this - but I don’t like that!This is nice – that is ugly!This is elegant – that is clumsy!This is fun – that is boring!This is fortunate – that is badluck!This is intelligent – that is stupid!This is altruistic – that is egoistic!This is sacred – that is mundane!This is nirvana – that is samsara!

So eleven days later – afterthe retreat – I realized that theteachings were directly targetingmy fortress and cutting throughthe eternal battle between “this”and “that”, between the nicegreen butterfly and the uglybrownish insect.

The retreat was about senseperceptions and how we relate tothem.

My “heruka” (decisive expe-rience) about all this happened inthe water element – obviously myconnection to this element wassupposed to be special.

Rinpoche was swimmingwith us in the bay of Zaragosabeach. Its water temperature wasof challenging character – someof us had put on scuba diving out-fits. Through some trick of mykarma I had not thought of pro-viding myself with such a warm-ing device close to the equator, asmore thoughtful people had done.So I ventured out into the waterwithout protection from its ici-ness, deeply hoping I would havesome benefit from it, which mykarma had wisely prepared.

I knew that Gomadevi wasthe symbol for clarity, that shewas the wisdom dakini and themanifestation of the self perfectedstate. We had received a wonder-ful practice from Rinpoche.Although the complexity of thevisualization put me in a kind offoggy realm, at least I imaginedthe immense beauty of all thesevast mandalas filled with dakinis.This beauty was beyond justbeing beautiful, it touched a dif-ferent dimension and offered ahint of bliss. So somehow my ini-tial guess that the teachings wereabout beauty was not completelywithout ground.

But still I was tapping aroundvaguely about the essence of theteachings. I knew, I needed anexperience to make the teachingsvery personal, make them entermy heart. The practice was sup-posed to have this effect, but mycapacity for visualization lackedefficiency. Mostly I was tooobsessed to visualize correctly, somy mind was tense instead ofrelaxed.

Meanwhile I was paddling inthe relentlessly cold ocean. Itreminded me of the film“Titanic”. I saw the last scenes ofthe film, when some survivors of

the catastrophe were hopelesslydrifting in the glacier cold wateron some wooden beams from theshipwreck, before most of themdrowned. Lost in these filmimageries, suddenly, a sentencethat Rinpoche said on the veryfirst day of the retreat, flewtrough my mind, like and arrow:

“Relax: no thinking anymore!”

Immediately I knew that wasmy sentence. These words andtheir meaning were like my per-sonal helicopter that could lift meout of being trapped in myfortress having the battle going onbetween the nice green butterflyand the ugly insect. Excited Iswam closer to Rinpoche. Beingclose, just that moment, I heardhim asking:“What is stench? And what isperfume?” I could hardly believemy ears. Rinpoche was talkingabout my trap – my stone age-oldtrap.

Amazing! Amazing!I looked up into the vast sky

over the ocean…weren’t theresome dakinis showing up? Yes, Isaw them blinking their eyes atme and waving with mirrors,instruments, and feathers, show-ing all their characteristics – onehad – believe it or not - Belgianchocolate in her hand! They werethe dakinis of sense perceptions,symbols of non dual sense per-ceptions.

Stench or perfume? Greenbutterfly or dusty insect? Nomore question. No thinking. Nointerpretation. No reifying. Just asit is.

I felt the cold water and triedto relax completely into it. I triedto get into the coldness of thecold. I tried not to name what washappening to me, but wanted tointegrate into the essence of myperceptions of cold. Not thinkingabout it, the coldness lost itsbeing only cold . It was cold andalso not cold. Rinpoche was veryclose and all the dakinis.

Now I want to leave my trapfortress and fly with my heli-copter to the luminous palace ofGomadevi. Her clarity, which isher beauty, has utterly seducedme….I smell the scent of free-dom.

May our Master live long!

May everybody find their person-al helicopter!

How happy! How Happy!

INTERNATIONALVAJRADANCE PRACTICE DAY

July 7th 2004

Dear All,We are happy toannounce that our pre-cious Master ChögyalNamkhai Norbu, hasindicated July 7th,2004 as a good day to

do an internationalpractice day of the

Dance of the Song of theVajra. On that day, we can

activate all the Mandalas in theworld, doing one or more Thuns of

the Dance of the Song of the Vajra, according to our circumstances,generating the light of this precious Teaching for the benefit of allsentient beings.May our Master have long life and may all of his Teaching beimmensely beneficial for all.

Instructors of the Dance of the Vajra

Easter Retreat at Margarita IslandThe Principle of the View beyond Conceptual Mindwith Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

Longsal Retreat with Chögyal Namkhai NorbuMay 13 - 18, 2004Tashigar Norte, Margarita Island, Venezuela

Mothers and daughters at Gomadevi Retreat (author of this article with her daughter 1st person standing on the left) N ZEITZ

The Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama requested that Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and the DzogchenCommunity do practice for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Each Community needs toinform Tashi Lama at tashilama10@hotmail.com the number of prayers accumulated.Here are the dates and suggested practices:*

July 27th Seven Verses and Siddhi, as many as possible;July 2nd Kongba of Dharma Palas; (Naggon), as many as possible;July 6thLonglife practice with Guru Padmasambhava, as many as possible;July 21stMani and prayer of Tara, as many as possible;November 4th Mani and Prayer of Tara, as many as possible.Dec. 1st -25th

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 5

An Unforgettable Retreatby Paolo Brunatto

Ihad the great fortune to be able to follow the Green Tara Retreat con-ducted by Yuchen Namkhai and Costantino Albini held at Merigarover the Easter period. It is difficult to explain with my inadequate

words what intense feelings I had practicing Green Tara with YuchenNamkhai. I had the sensation that the omnipresent compassion of Tarawas manifesting through the sublime calm and gentleness of YuchenNamkhai.Even the visualizations - not my strong point - were easier and seemedclearer to me. During the retreat the weather was cold and rainy atMerigar and the sky was always cloudy and dark. But when we wentinto the Gonpa and started to practice together with Yuchen, everythingchanged and brightened up and a wave of peace and harmony carried usto the quiet awareness that the Great Mother, Tara, is our state of con-sciousness or, as Chögyal Namkhai Norbu says,”The state of Tara isDzogchen”.Yuchen Namkhai kept almost exclusively to leading the practice andspoke only a little. But her few words, pure and full of a relaxed spiri-tuality, were a great source of inspiration to us. They were the words ofa true practitioner who has developed a silent devotion towards Tara andthus towards the Master over the years.Then there were the explanations and advice on the practice of Taraoffered by Costantino Albini. As always his explanations were limpid,precise, expressed with great modesty and rooted in a rigorous devotionto the Teachings of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.

The Easter Retreat at Merigarby Mandarava Bricaire

With the arrival of Easter this year, first and foremost we cele-brated the Green Tara practice retreat led by Yuchen Namkhaiand Costantino Albini. We were all aware that we were about

to participate in the first retreat given by Yuchen at Merigar and were allvery excited, although few of us realized what a great effect it wouldhave on us.During the first hours of the retreat Costantino gave some explanationsabout the practice, but most of all he presented Green Tara to us in asimple and clear way just as if we didn’t really know who she was.Thanks to his explanation we came to know her, first of all, as the moth-er of all beings. In this very simple way we started to learn about theimportance of the practice. With this thought in mind, Yuchen went over the mudras, the melodiesand meaning of the practice step by step. Together Costantino andYuchen also explained all the other meanings of the practice for exam-ple; the reason Tara is green and not another color. The reason is that,since she is the mother of all, Tara has the same compassion and lovethat a mother has towards her own children and therefore she manifestsimmediately and is ready to help right away. Hence she is as fast as thewind, like the air element, which is green in color.With this thought foremost in our minds we passed the retreat in peace,but with enthusiasm, to see Yuchen and Costantino teaching together insuch a simple yet powerful way. All those present, including the orga-nizers, were very moved and the retreat had a pleasant and quiet atmos-phere. This Tara retreat was also particularly useful and very effective.Some days the weather was good, other days it was cloudy, but it rainedonly on the final day of the retreat as if to thank and greet Yuchen,Costantino and all the numerous participants!

Easter Tara Retreatwith Yuchen Namkhai &

Costantino AlbiniMerigar 2004

September 19th - 21st, 2004A Public Talk on:

World Peace through Inner Peace & a Two-Day Buddhist Teaching

Teachings on the Instructions on the Garland of Views(The only written teachings by Padmasambhava)

Long Life Empowerment of the Combined Practice of Amitayus and Hayagriva

Long Life PracticeThe Glory of Immortality

written by Dubthob Chaksampa

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Miami, Florida, September 2004

Prayers for His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Long Life

This short account of DombhiHeruka’s life has been translatedfrom ‘The Lives of the Eighty-Four Mahasiddhas’. The instruc-tions that follow are taken fromthe collected works of DrakpaGyaltsen, one of the five SakyaPatriarchs. Both translations areby Elio Guarisco.

Virupa initiated a piousking of the region of Mag-adha into the Tantra. He

kept secret both his practice aswell as his attainments. One day, agroup of low-caste musicianscame to his court to dance andsing. The leader of the musicianshad a twelve year old daughter,beautiful and attractive, she pos-sessed all the signs of being a“lotus girl” (padmini).The king asked the father to givehim his daughter. The musicianreplied that they were of an infe-rior caste and that it was unsuit-able for the king to keep hisdaughter.The king was imperative in hisrequest, paid the father a priceequivalent to the weight of thedaughter in gold and took herwith him. She remained at thecourt without anybody knowingthat she was the secret consort ofthe king. After twelve years, peo-ple came to know the truth andstarted to criticize the king for hisrelationship with a woman of alower caste. The king decided toabdicate in favor of his son. Hewent to live in a forest with hisconsort, where he remained incontemplation for twelve years.After sometime misfortune befellthe kingdom to the point that theministers decided to call the kingback. They sent a delegation into

the forest and found the kingabsorbed in contemplation at thefoot of a tree. The members of thedelegation also noticed that hisconsort was drawing water in a

pond from a depth of fifteenmeters while standing on a lotusleaf, without sinking.The king and his consort cameout of the forest riding on a tigerusing a poisonous snake as awhip. The subjects pleaded withthe king to return to power, but hesaid that since he was an outcast,only his death could wash thatconcept away from them. Heasked them to burn him and hisconsort on a fire and said that hewould govern once he wasreborn.The people prepared a huge pyreof sandalwood and set the twoinside. The fire blazed for sevendays and at the end in the place ofthe fire there was a lotus flowerand on the top the king and hisconsort alive and in the form ofHevajra.Dombhipa spoke to his ministersand said, “Rather then a worldly

kingdom, I prefer to govern thespace of knowledge of theabsolute” and left. Among theteachings he left is the followinginstruction.

The Four Part Instruction on theGreat Bliss of the Teaching

Three are the essences, four thecommitments, three the devia-tions and four the ways of settingthe mind. The three essences are: effortless-ness, non-modification and theknowledge that all one’s percep-tions are as one’s mind.The four commitments are: not toabandon the emotions since theyare one’s mind; not to applyremedies because the mind isnon-dual; not to meditate on thereal condition because the mindcannot be defined; not to seek aresult since the very realization of[the nature of] mind is itselfBuddha.The three deviations are: the devi-ation of hoping for enlighten-ment, the deviation of fearing aconditioned existence and, thedeviation of grasping at phenom-enal vision.The four ways of setting the mindare: like a limpid and unsulliedpond, leave the mind in relaxedpresence, without modifying any-thing; like a bird that leaves notrace in the sky, leave the mindwithout any support; like the sunthat is not obstructed by clouds,leave the six consciousnessesrelaxed on their objects withoutstopping them; like a river whoseflow is continuous, at all timesand in all circumstances remainundistracted.

M a s t e r B i o g r a p h yM a s t e r B i o g r a p h y

DOMBHI HERUKATHE YOGI WHO RODE ON TIGERS

Yuchen Namkhai

Costantino Albini

L GRAF

L GRAF

*Om Mani is the Avalokiteshvara mantra found in the book of Sang-qod;Tara mantra is the mantra Omtare tuttare ture svaha; Seven verses is Seven Line Prayer of Padmasambhava in our Thun book; Siddhi isthe mantra of Padmasambhava found in the book of Sang-quod.

6

S h a n g - S h u n g II n s t i t u t e

Study ToursOrganized by Shang- Shung Institute, Austria

One important task of the Shang- Shung Institute isto organize study tours to Asia. We are very pleasedto announce our first tour to Bhutan, in collaborationwith ANDREA-TOURS.

Important note: for summer 2005 we are planning atour to Mount Kailsah

BhtuanInto the Land of the Thunder DragonSeptember 17 –October 3, 2004

General informationThe small kingdom BHUTAN is situated in theEastern Himalaya and known to its inhabitants(600.000) as Druk yül‚ the “Land of the ThunderDragon”. It has preserved one of the most complexcultural identities of the world, where on the basis ofTantric Mahayana Buddhism, the official state reli-gion, a policy of economic self-reliance is practiced,‘National growth of happiness’ (NGO). The land-scapes are of enchanting beauty and great diversity,there is sufficient land and rich natural resources fora small population. Facing the glowing snow peaksat the borders of Tibet long mountain ranges are cov-ered with dense forests in 4000m and the character-istic terraced fields in the valleys descend into thejungles of the South. This provides the backdrop to away of life that combines deep spirituality with thechallenges of the modern world.We have arranged for visits to the great fortresses ofBhutan (Dzong) and have obtained special permis-sion to enter the closed temples compounds. The fab-ulous mask dances in Gangteng Monastery andBumthang, inspired by the visions of the great‘Treasure-Finder’ Terton Pema Lingpa (1450-1521),are the highlights of this expedition into a magicworld. The last days we spend in a Vedic VillageResort at the outskirts of Kolkata. Situated at the bor-der of a beautiful lake, the spa specialises inAyurvedic treatments and offers a completely differ-ent insight into the ‘City of Joy ’

Price3195 Euro.- per personMinimum participants: 10 peopleSingle suppl.: 238 Euro.-This price includes: International flights with Royal

Jordania: Vienna/Amman/Kolkata/Amman/Viennaincluding all taxes. In case of individual arrival atKolkata please deduct 596 Euro.- from the tourprize. Flights with Drukair Kolkata/Paro/Kolkataincl. all taxes, all transfers, entrance-fees, accomoda-tion in hotels (3-stars and 4-stars) with full board inBhutan, half board in Vedic Village and bed & break-fast in Kolkata and qualified tour guidance

Not included: Visa fees for India ( 50 Euro.) and forBhutan ( 20. Euro - to be paid in cash at the airportin Paro), extra options for city tour in Kolkata, Spaand Ayurvedic treatments at the Vedic Village resort,tips and personal expenses.

Tour-GuideDr. Loseries-Leick lives in Graz in Austria. She stud-ied Tibetology, Art History and Anthropology inParis, Shantiniketan (India) and Vienna. She haslived and studied in India (Bengal) for 10 years andduring this time she also received instructions onBuddhist philosophy from Indian and Tibetan mas-ters. As Dr. Loseries-Leick speaks fluently Tibetan,Bengali and Hindi which facilitates an easy andclose contact with local people.

Contact address for further infoamtion regadringthis study-tour:ANDREA-TOURSDr. Andrea Loseries-LeickFranckstraße 31, A-8010 GrazTel./Fax +43 316 32 16 29, mobile: +43 676 6032961Email: andrea.loseries@aon.atWeb: www.andreatours.at

RegistrationIn order to take part in this tour you have to fill out

and sign the Registration-Sheet. You also have tomake an immediate pre-payment of 350 Euro -, therest must be paid until 1st August 2004.

Please send you registration-sheet either by post orby fax to:

Shang Shung Institute AustriaGschmaier 139, A-8265 GroßsteinbachTel.: +43 3386 83218, mobile: +43 676 3221365 Fax: +43 3386 83219E-mail: office@ssi-austria.at

BankdetailsName of the bank: Raiffeisenbank Ilz

Bankcode: 38151Accountnumber: 30387 in the name of Shang ShungInstituteBIC: RZSTAT2G151IBAN: AT193815100000030387When you transfer the money within the EU pleaseuse the BIC (Bank Identification Code) and theIBAN (International Bank Account Number). In thatway the costs of the bank transfer are the same as abank transfer within your country.

Second TranslationTraining at Margarita Island,VenezuelaMay 2004

by Elio Guarisco

The Second Translation Trainingorganized by the Shang-ShungInstitute of Austria started atMargarita Island on May 20th,2004. The training is divided intwo parts: the first that is current-ly under way from May 20 toJune 10 and the second from June24 to July 15. It is being held at anideal place, a three minutes drivefrom the Gar. The place has allthe necessary conditions for thiskind of work: a beautifully builthouse that provides respite fromthe heat surrounded by fruit treesand flowering trees. The front ofthe house has a large porch and aspacious hall where people canwork quietly.It is situated at the innermostextremity of the cup-like mandalaarea of Pedro Gonzales, whichRinpoche chose as the seat of thenorthern South American Gar.Everybody is happy and enjoyingthis particular setting.About ten participants, includingJim Valby are attending the train-ing. Adriano Clemente participat-ed enthusiastically during the firsttwo days of the training.The text being used as the basisfor the first part of the trainingwas suggested by Rinpoche him-

self: a Tantra of the DzogchenSemde, called the WondrousBodhicitta. The text is difficult tounderstand, but at the same timeit is a wonderful and mind blow-ing piece of Dzogchen teaching.All participants are totally enthu-siastic just looking at this text.The second part of the Trainingwill probably continue for fewdays on the same text and thenshift to a more accessible piece ofliterature: a Kongtrul masterpiecein verses outlining the majorpoints of the Kyerim andDzogrim stage of practice in theAnuttaratantra system. This workis particularly beautiful andseems to have been written byKongtrul as a summary of his per-sonal experience of the practiceof the two stages of the Tantra.Full of personal advice on prac-tice, often the text extends toenlightening comments and par-allels to the Dzogchen system ofpractice. It is such a wonderful opportunityto participate such a beautiful set-ting, appearing like a sudden andtemporary flash of lightning inthe sky. The Translation Trainingis the boundless gift ofRinpoche’s kindness, hard torepay, and sustained by Shang-Shung Institute of Austria to who-ever wants to delve into the oceanof meaning of the DzogchenTantras and be an instrument forthe comprehension and thepreservation of the teaching ofnatural perfection.

Message from Shang Shung InstituteUSA, Web Casts

It was so nice to hear that in most cases the web castwas a great success and that, once again, the Sanghaat the four corners of the planet has been united,gathering around multiple speakers delivering inour houses, Gonpas and who knows where else, thesacred wisdom of our Teacher. This incredible addi-tional gift that Rinpoche’s is offering to us is ofunprecedented spiritual and historical significance.We know that these events happen through theefforts and dedication of a number of persons who,through their hard work, transform ideas and goodintentions into realities. We certainly wish toexpress them our thanks and gratitude for makingsuch events happening for the benefit of all of us.However, it it is good to remind the Sangha thatthese events do have an actual cost that is coveredup front by the Shang-Shung Institute in America -that conceived and promoted the web casts projectsince the beginning - counting on the generosity ofthe Sangha’s voluntary donations to contribute tothe expense.Unfortunately, this does not seem to be happeningand the most recent web casts have resulted in lessthan modest contributions, leaving to the Institutethe entire financial responsibility of the web casts

that are operated at a loss.I think it would be nice if that “sense of union” thatwe experience in enjoying the event would also findits reflection in an equivalent collective effort in thefinancial effort for its actual realization. I would,therefore, invite all Sangha members to consider thepossibility of a small donation - a donation of anyamount, for no donation “is a small donation” - toexpress their gratitude and satisfaction for the eventalso in more practical terms. My request is not onlyto individuals who have listened to the web cast ontheir own, but also to groups that have been listen-ing collectively and where a simple “collectionbowl” in the middle of the room and a few wordscould suffice to attract some form of donation.

Donations can be done on line at the link:http://shangshung.org/cgi-bin/merchant2/mer-chant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=SSS&Category_Code=D or simply by mailing acheck made in the name of: SHANG-SHUNGINSTITUTE IN AMERICA to:Shang-Shung Institute In AmericaPO Box 277 18 Schoolhouse RoadConway, MA 01341USA

Thank you, Andrea Sertoli

The Shang-Shung Institute is happy to announce the release ofthe new video of the Vajra Dance, demonstrated by Prima Mai. It con-tains all the Vajra Dances currently practiced in our Community:

The Vajra Dance of the Song of the VajraThe Vajra Dance of the Liberation of the Six LokasThe Vajra Dance of the Three VajrasThe Vajra Dance of the Three Vajras - Irregular form

for both Pamo and Pawo.

This new video shows important updates to the Vajra Dance resultingfrom many in-depth study sessions conducted by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu in August 2002 and 2003 on the Mandala in Merigar, with ourtwo Vajra Dance main Teachers, Prima Mai and Adriana Dal Borgo.

The new video is available in DVD disc format. VHS cassettes can besupplied on request, but we would recommend the DVD since thisformat offers many advantages besides the better video quality, i.e. amenu from which one can select the Dance one wants to watch andslow/fast motion that can be used with ease.

The price is 30 Euros including mailing expenses to anywhere in theworld. A 15 % discount will be applied on orders for 5 or more units.Community Gars can contact us to receive special terms for local re-sale.

You can place your orders online through the SSI Archives web site.For more information or any assistance please write todzogchen.sys@tiscali.it.

Tashi Delegs,The SSI Video Department Staff

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with Translators

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 7

Shang-ShungInstitute

ItalyCourses for TrainingKu Nye instructors

From the moment theDepartment of Medicine startedorganizing seminars of tradi-tional Tibetan Massage, theinterest for Ku Nye courses hasbeen constantly growing. As aresult, a school was set up witha precise structure, manuals,videos, intermediate and finalexaminations and whatevernecessary to train professionalsable to practice Ku Nye inde-pendently. Courses started orig-inally at Merigar, in Milan andRome, but with increasingdemands coming from Austria,Australia and Russia, the ShangShung Institute has also set upcourses in France, Germany,Great Britain and in otherItalian towns like Naples.Due to these numerous commit-ments, at the moment theInstitute cannot accept otherinvitations for Doctor Nida toteach elsewhere because hisschedule is really full. As aresult, it is quite urgent to forma team of qualified instructorsable to:a)Give courses where neededb)Act as supervisors followingstudents in their practice, pro-viding suitable suggestions andchecking their work.

For this reason the Shang ShungInstitute has decided to organizethe first training course for KuNye instructors from June 30thto July 6th at Merigar accordingto the following guidelines:

Courses for instructors areaimed at:- Training individuals to be ableto give Ku Nye courses inaccordance with what has beenlearned during three years ofstudy- Giving an opportunity to thosewho do not wish to teach todeepen their knowledge andimprove their individual workin the field of Ku Nye- Spreading knowledge of thisancient therapeutic art through-out Italy and abroad by creating

assistants for Dr. NidaChenagtsang in order to - Meet the continually growingdemands for Ku Nye instructionaround the world- Offering a concrete opportuni-ty of work to those who are cho-sen as instructors after attendingthe training courses and passingthe exam.

Organization and Structure ofCourses given by Instructors:

Both first and second levelcourses will last for seven dayseach.Instructors will not give thirdlevel courses since the com-plexity of the topic requires agreat deal of experience. Thirdlevel courses will only be givenby Dr. Nida Chenagtsang.In the future, courses given byinstructors will be organized bythe Shang Shung Institute,which will provide teachingmaterial, office work, organiza-tion and all the know-how thathas developed during manyyears experience in organizingcourses. Moreover, the Instituteguarantees that the authenticityof the teachings will be main-tained.Just as with instructors ofYantra Yoga and Vajra Dance,those individuals who are cho-sen as Ku Nye instructors willhold their first course under thesupervision of a representativeof the Institute.

Preferential criteria to considerin selecting future instructorsFluency and clarity in present-ing different topics of the courseto studentsKnowledge of at least one for-eign language.In-depth practical and theoreti-cal knowledge of Ku Nye.Keeping to the topic beingtaught without mixing it withother disciplines.

Contact: Secretary

Shang-Shung Institute, MerigarTel: (39) 0564966941, Email: ssinst@tiscali.it

Shang- Shung Institute

USA

Tibetan MedicineCourse Tsegyalgar

August 20-Sept 3, 2004

The Foundation Course inTibetan Medicine, Year 1,taught by Dr. PhuntsogWangmo at Tsegyalgar,Conway, MA, (USA) has beenrescheduled to August 20th toSeptember 3rd. Two three-hour classes will be taughtdaily.

National CertificationCommission for Acupunctureand Oriental MedicineContinuing Education creditsare available. Tuition is $800.Dorm accommodations areavailable for $15 per night.

Course Outline

Level 1 The PhysicalCondition and its PathologicalAlteration

1st Part1. History of TibetanMedicine.1.1.Origins of Tibetan medi-cine1.2 Translation of medicaltreatises of other countries1.2 The first school of medi-cine in Tibet1.3 The introduction of newelements into Tibetan medi-cine1.4 The schools of Jang andZur: the two traditions in thedevelopment of Tibetan medi-cine1.5 The medical profession inAncient Tibet

2. The theory of the four ele-ments and the three humours.2.1 The four elements2.2 The three humours2.3 The wind2.4 The bile2.5 The phlegm

3. The metaphoric trees of theFundamental Treatise3.1 The root of physiology andpathology3.2 The root of the diagnosis3.3 The root of the methods oftreatments

4. General physiology4.1 Embryology4.2 Physiology and pathology4.3 Physiological characteris-tics

5. Blood vessels and channels5.1 The channels in the embry-ology5.2 The channels of existence5.3 The interconnecting chan-nels5.4 The channels of the lifes-pan principle5.5 The channels in the eso-teric tradition

6 The wind and the thigle6.1 The wind6.2 The thigle or quintessenceof reproductive fluids

7. Metaphors and measure-ments of the human body7.1. Metaphors of the vulnera-ble points7.2 Description of the vulnera-ble points

SSI Italy Program 2004

INTENSIVE ASTROLOGY COURSEJuly18th-August1stIntensive course of Tibetan astrology with Doctor PhuntsogWangmo, resident doctor at the Shang-Shung Institute in the USA.The course primarily deals with the two main systems diffused in thisvery ancient discipline: zodiac astrology and the astrology of the fiveelements. At the end of the seminar the student will be able to calcu-late an astrological chart and understand the fundamental principlesof Tibetan astrologyParticipation Fees: 750 EurosTimetable: h.10-13, h.15-18

SHANG-SHUNG INSTITUTE OFFERS SPANISH COURSEFor those who have already visited Margarita Island or who intend togo, the Shang Shung Institute in Italy is offering a week’s intensivecourse of Spanish. Vera Svanferla who lived in Mexico for twentyyears and uses the most up to date teaching methods will give lessons.The course will be held from the 28th August till the 3rd ofSeptember and how to continue will depend on the needs and possi-bilities of the participants. The aim of the course will be to enable stu-dents to move in the area of Margarita Island with some ease of com-munication.The course will be held after the Tibetan language course at theInstitute at Merigar and will consist of 6 hours of lessons a day.Participation fees: 250 EuroContact: SecretaryShang-Shung Institute, MerigarTel: (39) 0564966941, Email: ssinst@tiscali.it

CALENDAR OF TEACHING ACTIVITIES 2003-2004DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINESHANG -SHUNG INSTITUTE, ITALYMERIGAR: June 30-July 6First intensive training course for instructors of KU NYE first levelfocussed on developing theory in the morning and gaining some clin-ical practice in the afternoon under the supervision of Dr. Nida. Onlystudents chosen by the teacher and the directors of the Institute willbe admitted to the course. The training program will be presentedduring the courseCost: 500 Euro

RUSSIA – KUNSANGAR: July 8-August 4Intensive course of KU NYE & Mantra Healing.

ROME: September 11-12Fifth part of the course of KU NYE first level

MERIGAR: September 18-24Second part of the intensive FIRST YEAR COURSE OF TRADI-TIONAL TIBETAN MEDICINEA four-year program.

MERIGAR: September 25-29Five day intensive course of DREAMS & MEDICINECost: 250 Euro

OCTOBERGERMANY: October 1-10Intensive course of KU NYE FIRST LEVEL

BOLOGNA, ITALY: October 15Lecture on Tibetan medicine and massageLibreria Ibis of Cesare Pilati

ROME: October 16-17Sixth and final weekend of the course of KU NYE first level

FLORENCE: October 23-24Birth and pregnancy according to traditional Tibetan medicineCost: 120 EuroVenue: Lycopodium Studi mediciTel. 055483463

ENGLAND: October 27-31Intensive course of MANTRA HEALING

ENGLAND: November 2-11Intensive course of KU NYE FIRST LEVEL

ROME: November 13-14First part of KU NYE second levelThe course will start with a theoretical/practical exam of admission.Cost: 750 Euro for the entire course of six weekends including allteaching material

NAPLES: November 26-28First part of KU NYE first levelCost: 720 Euro for the entire course including teaching material

DECEMBER 2004 – FEBRUARY 17, 2005: TOUR in AUSTRALIA with Dr. Nida

Course of WRITTEN & SPOKEN TIBETAN taught by Elio GuariscoMERIGAR:August 13-27, 2004

The Shang Shung Institute is organizing a course of spoken and lit-erary Tibetan. The course is open to all those who wish to learn theTibetan language, both scholars and non-scholars. The course willprovide the basis for being able to express oneself in Tibetan or readancient and modern texts in the language.The course will take place in the new reading room of the library atMerigar and will be given by Elio Guarisco who will be flanked byother Tibetan assistants.This initiative by the Shang Shung Institute is the first step in anambitious program of study of the Tibetan language which will con-tinue for several years and which aims to create specialists in the lan-guage as well as Tibetologists.Cost: 500 Euro

Information and reservations:Milan: Elisa Copello tel. 0233607505, email: elisa_cop@libero.it, mob.: 3387027207Rome: Anna Marie Clos: tel. 065885142, email: arura@libero.itAustria & Germany: Oliver Leick: email:oliver.leick@utanet.atMerigar: the secretary of the Shang Shung Institute: tel.0564966941, email: ssinst@tiscali.itKarma Ling: tel. 00330479257800; email: info@karmaling.org , lhundroup@rimay.netEngland: Peter White, pwhite@i12.comNaples: Fabio Risolo, fabio.risolo@libero.it

schedule continued on next page

8

A Flying Start Four-Year Intensive Traditional Tibetan Medicine Course with Dr Nida ChenagtsangShang--Shung Institute, Arcidosso, Italy May 9 – 16, 2004

by Maria Locsei

May saw the first installment of teachings forDr. Nida’s four-year Traditional TibetanMedicine course. There were 14 keen andeager students from all over the world gath-ered at Merigar for 8 days. We were not disap-pointed. In Dr. Nida’s typical eloquent,humorous yet understated style, he opened oureyes to the incredibly rich and diverse worldof Traditional Tibetan Medicine. We gathered in the bright, lofty reading-roomat Merigar, surrounded by hundreds of booksin glass cabinets and intricate paintings of styl-ized trees with colourful leaves on the walls.These trees were to become our intimate com-panions and trusted guides on the path tolearning and memorizing the Four Tantras –the academic basis of Traditional TibetanMedicine (TTM). The trees - with their roots,trunks, branches and leaves – form a visualguide to the divisions and chapters of the writ-ten medical texts and their commentaries.Traditionally, students learn to draw thesetrees by memory, and in so doing, becomefamiliar with the academic content thus sum-marised.Our minds were filled to overflowing with thehistory and origins of Tibetan medicine – therich braid of culture and natural science wovenfrom four major sources: Bön, Buddhism,Observation of Non-human natural phenome-na, and Observation of Human life-cycles. Itsoon became clear that TTM is the distillationof an ancient naturalistic science, a far cryfrom the simple folk medicine or herbal lorethat has been portrayed to the outside world bythe uninitiated. We learned about the mostfamous of the Tibetan physicians: their break-throughs, contributions, and legacies that areto be found in texts and thankas. We marveledat reproductions of the most intricate thankas -paintings of the human anatomy and vast col-lections of herbal lore. It was impressed uponus that the most remarkable and insightfulphysicians were not just good diagnosticians,but also very highly accomplished spiritualpractitioners. We also learned about the ancient Bön tradi-tion, that this was not simply an animistic orshamanistic tradition; but how the Bön practi-tioners were the first meditators, thus giving

rise to a rich spiritual tradition. In addition,Bon gave rise to the Twelve Branches ofScience - two of these branches comprisedMedicine and Astrology. Subsequently, physi-cians specialized in, and elaborated upon thisknowledge, which has culminated in the bodyof knowledge now known as TraditionalTibetan Medicine.We learned about the physical composition ofthe body – the seven bodily constituents, thethree humours, how they circulate through thebody, and how the balance of these humours isvital to maintaining the health of the organism.We also learned about the five elements, thephysical and the much more subtle energeticplay of these purified essences – how theygive rise to and energize the body. It was anawesome exposition of the basic concepts ofthe physical and subtle anatomy of the humanbody.It was also a whirlwind tour of the indigenousculture; showing how TTM is a part of theTibetan cosmology; an integral part of thetwelve Natural sciences, which seeks to under-stand the way that the human organism needsto remain in harmony with the rest of theUniverse in order to maintain equilibrium andhealth. We arrived at the understanding thatthe microcosm of the body represents themacrocosm; the five elements which bringinto being all of the world are the five ele-ments of which we are composed, the subtleaspects of which form the basis of our bodies. This course, which is presented by the Shang-Shung Institute, is the only course in TTM cur-rently running in Europe. The aim of thecourse is to produce fully qualified TTM doc-tors by the end of the four to five years. For theinitial four years, intensive training takes placeface-to-face for one or two intensive seminars

each year, with copious clinical homework setin between times. The final year of trainingwill involve study and practice in a TraditionalTibetan Medicine hospital in Tibet, in theAmdo area. Towards this end, the students arecurrently also undertaking Tibetan languagestudies. This course presented by the Shang-ShungInstitute is the only course in TTM currentlyrunning in Europe designed for a general audi-ence.The aim of Dr. Nida’s course is to pro-duce fully qualified TTM doctors by the endof the 4 - 5 years. The final year of trainingwill involve study and practice in a TraditionalTibetan Medicine hospital in Tibet, in theAmdo area. The 14 students in attendance came from avariety of backgrounds, including midwifery,physiotherapy, teaching, herbalism,Traditional Chinese Medicine, Music therapy,and Western Medicine. Most - but not all - hadsome sort of background in the healing arts.Most of the students had a prior connectionwith Dr Nida, having attending one or anotherof his courses in some part of the world. Thecourse was taught in English (with absolutelybrilliant translation into Italian – many thanksto Alessandra P!) It was a great pleasure to beamong such an internationally diverse, highlymotivated and focused group of students. Dr. Nida is an extremely demanding taskmas-ter! After eight intensive hours of face-to-faceinstruction, he would set us another two hours’homework of drawing trees, analyzing ourlearning-partner’s constitution, shaking upbottles of urine, drawing up detailed nutrition-al plans, or simply memorizing the day’steachings. Not just that, but he would then ver-baly test each of us, individually, in front ofthe rest of the class the next morning. A lesson

7.3 The measures of the bodilyconstituents

8. Human categories

9. Physical decay9.1 The rationale for the indi-cations of physical decay9.2. Prognosis based on omens9.3. Dream prognosis9.4 Prognosis based on theappearance and the humour ofthe patient

2nd Part1 The (primary) cause of ill-nesses2 The (secondary) causes ofillnesses3 The inception of illnesses4 Definition of illness throughthe three aspects: excess, defi-ciency and imbalance of thethree humours5 Classification of types of ill-nesses

The course will provide anexcellent opportunity to learnthe principles of TibetanMedicine directly from one ofthe few Tibetan-trained doc-tors teaching in the west. Thematerial is essential for thoseinterested in studying TibetanMedicine, and recommendedfor all holistic health practi-tioners.

Dr. Phuntsog Wangmoreceived her advanced degreefrom the Lhasa UniversitySchool of TraditionalMedicine in 1988.

For registration and moreinformation contact:

Shang Shung Institute inAmericaTel: (413) 369-4928 Email: will@shangshung.org Web site: www.shangshung.org

in humility and embarrassmentfor many of us! However, thisstrict and structured approach cer-tainly brought about good results– we retained most of that valu-able information!Then there were many lightermoments, such as our very firsturine analysis. One of the strong,healthy and unabashed males inthe group kindly peed into a bot-tle and donated the first sample. Idon’t think most of us had beenquite that close to such a potentsteaming urine before. It wasenough to make the eyes water.“BILE constitution!” we all criedunanimously. It was a very intense, inspiringand enlightening eight days. Ithas been a great pleasure and alsoa great privilege to receive thedistillation of four thousand yearsof Tibetan Medical Knowledgefrom such an inspirational anddedicated teacher as Dr. Nida.Not only does he have a verydirect way of imparting a hugebody of information, giving hisstudents the skills to put thisknowledge to immediate applica-tion, but – most importantly - healso conveys the essence of thetradition and lineage - whichbreathes life into these teachings.We look forward to continuingour studies and practice in orderto soon become fully-fledgedTibetan Medicine Practitioners.Many Thanks to Dr. Nida, Shang-Shung Institute, and ChögyalNamkhai Norbu, for creating thisinvaluable opportunity to studyTraditional Tibetan Medicine!

SSI USA continued from previous page

COURTESY OF S RIECKE

Tsegyalgar BookstoreConway, MassachusettsOur NNew BBooks IInclude

Tibetan Calendar for theWood Monkey Year(2003-2004)$12USPocket agenda containingconcise indications of thepractices recommended byChögyal Namkhai Norbufor special days, astrologi-cal data of the TibetanCalendar and the individ-ual aspects for those bornbetween 1912-2003.Indispensable for findingout favorable and unfavor-able days for daily activi-ties.

The Necklace of Zi$17USThe Necklace of Zi (gzi yi phreng ba) is the revised and extendedtext of a lecture given by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in 1975 to theannual meeting of young Tibetans in Switzerland. Besides ananalysis of the Tibetan history and language this title deals in asimple but very meaningful way with the crucial topic of the har-monious union of Tibetan Dharma and politics.

Dzogchen Teachings in Gutenstein, Austria$17USThis book contains the transcription of the whole retreat held inGutenstein on June 12-14, 1998, including the oral teachings onthe Daki Mantri text of Thangtong Gyalpo belonging to theLongsal Cycle which is the collection of Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu’s rediscovered teachings (see Longsal Teachings, Vol. 1,Shang Shung Edizioni 2001). It contains the Tibetan text and auseful glossary of Tibetan names and words.

NEW!! Guru Yoga of White A by Chögyal Namkhai NorbuThe practice sung by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and repeated threetimes. It includes an extract of the 1985 teachings in Nevada City.72 Minutes.Instituto Shang Shung $21.50 Order#: 10045

NEW CD’S

NEW!! Tsok Gye: The Long Ganapuja by Chögyal Namkhai NorbuThe entire Ganapuja practice, sung by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.The long invocations to Ekajati and Dorje Legpa are included.Recorded during a collecticve practice in Merigar, 1998. 51Minutes.Instituto Shang Shung$21.50 Order#: 10046

NEW!! Ati Lamgyi NgöndroMP3 by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbuChögyal Namkhai Norbu’steachings given in Merigar,August 2002. An audio CDof the practice led byAdriano Clemente is alsoincluded. 5 Hours 49Minutes.Instituto Shang Shung$35.00 Order#: 10047

NEW!! Green Tara CD-ROM by Chögyal Namkhai NorbuThe entire teaching Chögyal Namkhai Norbu gave in Peru in theyear 2002. One can choose to listen and to view Rinpoche’s expla-nation, or follow him while he performs the practice. Drawings ofthe mudras, images for visualization, and the complete text of thepractice are all included. 3 Hours 20 Minutes. For Windows only.Instituto Shang Shung $30.00 Order#: 10048

NEW!! Guru Yoga of White A by Chögyal Namkhai NorbuThe practice sung by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu and repeatedthree times. It includes an extract of the 1985 teachings inNevada City. 72 Minutes.Instituto Shang Shung $21.50 Order # 10045

A vast back catalog of books and other Dharma supplies for theDzogchen Community also available.

To place an order or to request a free catalog please contact:Anna

Tel: 413-369-4473 Email: bookstore@tsegyalgar.org

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 9

International Transmission Day, July 26 & 27, 2004 ***

ANNIVERSARY OF PADMASAMBHAVAOn this day, Rinpoche will transmit and throughout the world people who do the practice at the samemoment will be in the transmission and will thus receive the transmission.

6th Tibetan month - 10th dayCelebration at 8 a.m. Oddiyana time.

Monday 26th July 200417:00 Hawaii20:00 San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver21:00 Denver, Salt Lake City, Pagosa Springs, Edmonton22:00 Lima, Quito, Chicago, Mexico City23:00 Caracas, San Juan, Santiago, New York, Conway, Montreal, Atlanta, Detroit, Havana,Kingston, Indianapolis, Ottawa

Tuesday 27th July 200400:00 Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bermuda03:00 GMT, Reykjavic,04:00 London, Dublin, Lisbon05:00 Johannesburg, Rome, Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Madrid, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Brussels, Geneva,Prague, Salzburg, Stockholm, Budapest, Vienna, Warsaw06:00 Kuwait City, Riyadh, Tashkent, Helsinki, Athens, Ankara, Beirut, Jerusalem, Tallinn, Vilnius,Istanbul07:00 Moscow, Murmansk, Baghdad08:00 ODDIYANA, Islamabad08:30 New Delhi, Bombay08:45 Kathmandu09:00 Dacca09:30 Rangoon10:00 Bangkok, Jakarta, Saigon11:00 Singapore, Beijing, Lhasa, Manila, Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Perth12:00 Tokyo, Seoul,12:30 Darwin, Adelaide13:00 Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney14:00 Vladivostok15:00 Fiji, Wellington, Auckland, Kamchatka

5th Month, 14th day Thu. 1st July 2004This is an important day for the practice of Ekajati, so try to do a long or medium Tun collectively oralone, reciting the heart mantra of Ekajati as many times as possible.

5th Month, 15th day Fri. 2nd July 2004FULL MOON. This is a special day for the Long life practice of Amitayus, so you can do the Long lifepractice "Union of Primordial Essences". The best moment to do it is between 7 and 8 in the morning,if possible, either collectively or alone. If you can, try to a Ganapuja as well.It is also the Dzamling Chisang (Lit. smoke puja of the world in general) so if you know how to do it,you can do the Sanqod (Sangchod) in the morning.

5th Month, 25th day Monday 12th July 2004This is a Dakini day as well as an important day for the practice of Ekajati, so try to do a Ganapuja or aLong Thun collectively with your Vajra brothers and sisters, or a Medium Thun alone. In either caserecite the heart mantra of Ekajati as many times as possible.

5th Month, 30th day Sat. 17th July 2004 DARK MOON. This is a day for purification practices. It is best to do the Purification of the Six Lokaseither collectively or alone, preferably in the early morning. Otherwise you can do a medium or shortTun or a Ganapuja.

6th Month, 4th day Wed. 21st July 2004This is the anniversary of the Dharmachakra (the first turning of the Wheel of the Dharma): the first timethat Buddha Sakyamuni gave the teaching of the Four Noble Truths to his disciples at Sarnath, after hisillumination. To honor the Lord Buddha on this special day you can do a Ganapuja with your Vajrabrothers and sisters.

6th Month, 10th day Tue. 27th July 2004***Today is the anniversary of the birth of Padmasambhava. On this day when it is 8 am in OddiyanaChögyal Namkhai Norbu will give the transmission of Guruyoga with the specific practice linked to theanniversary of Padmasambhava. In this way the transmission will be alive because the transmission hasno distance. Rinpoche will transmit and throughout the world people who do the practice at the samemoment will be in the transmission and will thus receive the transmission. (In Italy, this practice willbe done at 5 am.)It is also the anniversary of Yeshe Tsogyal, the main consort and disciple of Padmasambhava so it willbe beneficial to do a Guruyoga of Padmasambhava with the Long life mantra and a Ganapuja as we usu-ally do, otherwise you can do the Long life practice "Union of Universal Wisdom".

SEE THE GLOBAL TIMETABLE ABOVE

6th Month, 14th day Fri. 30th July 2004This is the anniversary of the Third Karmapa, Rangjung Dorje (1284-1339), a disciple of RigdzinChenpo Kumaradza and a famous master of Dzogchen Upadesa. On this day it is good to do Akar LamaiNaljor, Guruyoga with the White A, collectively or alone.

6th Month, 15th day Sat. 31st July 2004FULL MOON. This is the anniversary of Gampopa, the main disciple of Milarepa, founder of theKagyupa School and author or "The Precious Ornament of Liberation". It is, therefore, an excellent dayto do Akar Lamai Naljor, the Guruyoga with the White A. It is also good to do the Long life practice"Union of Primordial Essences" of Guru Amitayus and, if possible, a Ganapuja.

july 22004 sspecial ppractice ccalendar

10

m e r i g a r

WEB CAST AT

MERIGAR MANDARAVA RETREAT

WITH

CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

JULY 17 TO AUGUST 1, 2004

From July 17 to August 1, 2004,at Merigar, we will have theopportunity to link up to the webcast of the Mandarava Chüdlenteaching and practice retreatgiven by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu at Margarita Island. Wewill be publishing further detailsand information for those whowish to follow the retreat as soonas we are able to.Merigar UpdateMandarava Web Cast Retreat &Camping

As was briefly announced onJune Merigar Letter, we confirmthat the retreat led by our MasterChögyal Namkhai Norbu onMandarava Practice associatedwith chüdlen in Tashigar delNorte, from July 17th to August1st, will be entirely audio broad-casted on the web at Merigar.Single practitioners or groups ofthem will be able to connect andfollow the live Teachings. Thetechnical details will be commu-nicated later, as soon as AmbientiWeb Consulting fixes the lastdetails.In Merigar the retreat can be fol-lowed in the Gonpa, with transla-tion into Italian language. A dailyguided Thun of Mandarava longlife practice will also be orga-nized in the morning, 8:30 to9:30AM.People, who wish to, can take thechüdlen pills, available from theMerishop, at the price of 17 Eurofor the number of 12, necessaryfor the all retreat. It will be alsoavailable a simple meal, suitablefor the chüdlen practice, fromMerigar kitchen. The participat-ing members will be asked tomake a free offer to contribute forMerigar expenses.Since in the same period there isalso the Santi Maha Sangha BaseLevel, Yantra Yoga and VajraDance retreat with Jim Valby,Prima Mai, Rita Renzi and LauraEvangelisti, it would be extreme-ly useful to know how many peo-ple are planning to come and fol-

low the web cast. So we are kind-ly asking the local responsiblemembers to spread these informa-tion widely, collect the list ofpractitioners who wish to come toMerigar and communicate it to<merigaroffice@tiscalinet.it>,specifying those who intend topractice the chüdlen.Following you can find the retreatschedule, with Margarita hours,for Italy you need to add 6 hours.

The retreat will be from July 17thto August 1st.July 17th — 5-7 PM Introduction of the RetreatJuly 18th — 10-12 AM Mandarava Tshedrub InstructionJuly 19th — 9-12 AMGiving Lama Khadro’i Zhallungand collective practice withchüdlen;July 20th — 9-12 AM Srogthig Instruction no. 1 andcollective practice with chüdlen;July 21st — 9-12 AMSrogthig Instruction no. 2 andcollective practice with chüdlen;July 22nd — 9-12 AM Srogthig Instruction no. 3 andcollective practice with chüdlen;July 23rd — 9-12 AM Srogthig Instruction no. 4 andcollective practice with chüdlen;July 24th — 9-12 AM Srogthig Instruction no. 5 andcollective Practice with chüdlen;July 25th — 9-12 AM Srogthig Instruction no. 6 andcollective Practice with chüdlen;July 26th — 9-12 AM Srogthig Instruction no. 7 andcollective Practice with chüdlen;

At 11 PM Worldwide GuruyogaTransmission;

July 27th — 10-12 AM Tshedrub with Srogthig Lungjyorand Chüdlen;July 28th — 10-12 AM ‘Tshedrub with SrogthigLungjyor and Chüdlen;July 29th — 10-12 AM Tshedrub with Srogthig Lungjyorand Chüdlen;July 30th — 10-12 AM Tshedrub with Srogthig Lungjyorand Chüdlen;July 31st — 10-12 AM Giving Tshewang;

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

C O M M U N I T Y N E W S

MERIGAR PROGRAM 2004

PLEASE NOTE THAT IN THE LAST ISSUE OF THE MIRROR THE DATES OF TWO ACTIVITIESON THE PROGRAM WERE INCORRECT:

THE SMS RETREAT SHOULD BE JULY 16-AUGUST 12 NOT JULY 17-AUGUST 15.

THE IN-DEPTH VAJRA DANCE COURSE WITH PRIMA MAI WILL BE HELD NOVEMBER 26-30 NOTOCTOBER 1-5.

THE MERIGAR GAKYIL APOLOGIZES FOR THE MISPRINTS.

June 25-27 Course of explanation & construction of the Namkhawith Cristiana De FalcoThe course starts at 6 PM on Friday June 25.Cost: 75 Euro with discounts for members.

July 3-13Retreat of explanation & practice of the Guru Yoga of Garab Dorje & the Semdzinwith Costantino AlbiniCost: 225 Euro with discounts for members.

July 7Worldwide practice of the Song of the Vajra DanceThis practice day is included in the retreat program.

July 16-August 12Complete retreat of the Santi Maha Sangha Base Level, Yantra Yoga & Vajra Dancewith Jim Valby, Prima Mai, Laura Evangelisti & Rita Renzi.A few places are still available. * (see page )

July 27World Transmission Day – Anniversary of Guru PadmasambhavaGuru Yoga of Padmasambhava practiceThe practice starts at 5 AM

August 18-25Retreat of explanation & practice of Mandarava Long Life combined with Chüdlenwith Nina RobinsonExplanation of the Tibetan pronunciation by Cristiana De FalcoThe retreat starts at 10 a.m. on Wednesday August 18.Cost: 200 Euro with discounts for members.

August 28-29Yantra Yoga Course for Beginnerswith Laura EvangelistiThe retreat starts at 10 AM on Saturday August 28.Cost: 70 Euro with discounts for members.

September 1-7Course of explanation & practice of the Song of the Vajra Dance (part 2) with Prima MaiThe course starts at 5 PM on Wednesday September 1.Cost: 245 with discounts for members.

September 18-19Course of explanation & practice of the Liberation of the Six Lokas DanceThe course starts at 5 PM on Saturday September 18.Cost: 50 Euro with discounts for members.

September 25-26Retreat of Shitro practice & Karma Yoga practiceThe retreat starts at 5 PM on Saturday September 25.

November 26-30In-depth Course of Song of the Vajra Dancewith Prima MaiThe course starts at 5 PM on Friday October 1.Cost: 175 Euro with discounts for members.

ENROLLMENTIf you wish to enroll for a course, seminar or retreat, please contact the office to book a place and sendadvance payment of 25 Euro to confirm your booking via postal order at least 10 days before the beginningof the course, indicating the course you are confirming your place on. The postal order should be addressedto: Associazione Culturale Comunità Dzogchen – Merigar – 58031 Arcidosso GR. - Italy.

You should make your booking with the office sufficiently ahead of time since courses that do not reach aminimum number of participants will be cancelled.To take part in the activities of the Association you need to be a member. A first installment of 15 Euro forthe ordinary member’s card will be required before taking part. A first installment alone does not entitle youto the discounts for members.Discounts for paid up members are: 20% for ordinary members, 40% for sustaining members and 50% forstudents and retired people on a low income.

For further information, contact: Merigar Office

There’s Still Time Participate in the Base Level Santi Maha Sangha Practice Retreatwith Jim Valby, Prima Mai, Laura Evangelisti and Rita RenziMerigar, ItalyJuly 16 - Aug12

There are still two or three places available for the retreat on the Baseof Santi Maha Sangha, Yantra Yoga and Vajra Dance, which will beheld at Merigar from July 16th to August 12th by Jim Valby, PrimaMai, Laura Evangelisti and Rita Renzi. Anyone interested to partici-pate as soon as possible should contact:MerigarEmail: merigaroffice@tiscalinet.itTel: 0039-0564-966837 from 10:0 0AM to 1:00PM except onWednesday

MERIGARDzogchen Community in ITALY

58031 Arcidosso GR, ItalyTel.:++39 0564 966837

Email:merigaroffice@tiscalinet.it

Web site:http://web.tiscalinet.it/merigar

IMPORTANT NEWS FROM MERIGARCamping discontinued on Merigar Land

Dear practitioners of the Dzogchen Community,We would like to inform you of some important news regarding thesummer activities at Merigar. Last year the local authorities con-firmed that they no longer allow any kind of camping on the Merigarland. They had allowed camping up to last year on the basis of a spe-cial license that was granted to us on the condition that we wouldrespect the prohibition for the future. So the Merigar campsite no longer exists. This means that no onemay stay on the land with a tent, camper, van or caravan. The onlyplace where people may sleep is in the dormitory. The Gakyil ofMerigar is looking for alternative possibilities with the local camp-sites (see Camping Update in article to the left) and for other cheapsolutions. We will update the information about the results of ourresearch. In the meantime, we ask you to kindly help us to spread thenews, in order to avoid people having expectations that we won’t beable to fulfill. We realize this will be a disappointment, but it isbeyond our control.

Thank your for your collaboration,The Merigar Gakyil and the Geköes

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 11

At 5 PM Full moon Ganapuja and so on;

August 1st — 10-12 AM Conclusion of the Retreat

July 26th, preceding theWorldwide Transmission Day,there will be an explanation of theGuru Yoga practice, which willtake place at 9AM in the MandalaHall. Next day, July 27th, at5AM, there will be the DirectTransmission of Guru Yoga in theAnniversary of GuruPadmasambhava; all interestedpeople are invited and very wel-come.

July 27th is also a day in whichthe international DzogchenCommunity, with the coordina-tion of the Greek Gakyil, willpractice the 24 hours GuruDraghpur mantra, therefore themorning Mandarava Thun will besubstituted with the practice ofGuru Draghpur, in the MandalaHall, from 8:30AM to 10:15 AM.

CAMPING UPDATENow a more practical announce-ment. You know that it is not pos-sible to camp on Merigar’s landany more. We have been able tonegotiate discounts with the twocamp sights in the area. Peopledon’t need a reservation but inorder to obtain the special fare;they need to show evidence oftheir participation to Merigar’sactivities. The secretary will issuesuch paper on request.

Camping AmiataVia Roma, 15 - 58033Casteldelpiano - GR - ItaliaTel. 0564-956260, Fax. 0564-955107, Email: bernabei@amia-ta.orgWeb site: www.amiata.org(distance from Merigar about 6km)We agreed on a discount of 10% with this camping:Examples of reduced fares:- one person with one tent 11,16Euro/day- two persons in one tent 16,74Euro/day- four persons staying in the samepitch in one or two tents 29,88 Euro/day

Camping Lucherino (with swimming pool)Località Luccherino, 58047 -Monticello Amiata (GR) Italia

Tel. & Fax 0564-992975, Email:meichu@tiscali.itWeb site: www.lucherino.nl (distance from Merigar 12 km)We agreed on a discount of 13% with this camping:Examples of reduced fares:- one person with one tent 13,48Euro/day- two persons in one tent 19,57Euro/day

- four persons staying in the samepitch in one or two tents 31,75 Euro/day

At both campgrounds you areallowed to park with a mobilehome, and it also possible to takeyour dog along.

We thank you for your coopera-tion and are looking forward towelcoming you at Merigar!

The Gakyil of Merigar

IMPORTANT INFORMATION REGARDING

THE MANDARAVA RETREATWEB CAST

WITH CHOEGYAL NAMKHAI NORBUJULY 17 – AUGUST 1, 2004

Dear All,As many of you already know, from July 17th to August 1st, 2004,we will have the possibility to receive the live audio web cast of theentire Mandarava retreat held in Tashigar del Norte, MargaritaIsland, by our Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.

This is a first-time event on two respects: it will be the first web castever of an entire retreat (including also Guru Yoga Transmission),and it will be delivered using the communication network whichMerigar is setting up for serving the Dzogchen Community world-wide.Merigar will deliver this entire retreat web cast as a service to allCommunity Gars, Gakyils and members worldwide. It will be freeof charge.In order to listen to the web cast the following qualifications shouldbe present:1) To have received the Guru Yoga transmission2) To be a member of the Dzogchen Community

Those practitioners who have received transmission but are not yetmembers will be asked to fill in a registration form in order to haveaccess to the connection page, and will be reminded of the impor-tance and benefits of becoming members.

If persons who have not yet received transmission (“new” practi-tioners) are seriously intend to follow the Mandarava web castretreat, they can be allowed to participate collectively in a Gar orcenter where group attendance is organized so that they can receivehelp and assistance.

They must also pledge not to miss the worldwide Guru YogaTransmission on the 26th of July. These conditions, which havebeen approved by Rinpoche, allow “new” practitioners to take partin the web cast retreat.

Additional services may be available (according to local circum-stances) to those who will participate collectively in this way at aGar or center, i.e. translation into the local language and practicaladvice by more experienced practitioners.

Although the web cast in will be free of charge, an offering may beasked by the organizing Gar or Gakyil to meet the expenses of orga-nizing the group attendance.

The Mandarava retreat will include the use of Chüdlen. Each indi-vidual practitioner will need no. 12 Chüdlen pills during the retreat.To receive authenticated Chüdlen pills you can write to Merigar at:Email: merigaroffice@tiscalinet.it.

The address (URL) of the Web cast page will be communicated toall Gars and Gakyils and published on Norbunet well in advance ofthe event.

Thank you for your attention,Tashi Delegs,

The Gakyil of Merigar

The Longlife and Chüdlen practice ofMandarava, Dakini of Immortality and theSphere of the Vital Essence of the Vajra(A retreat to be led by Nina Robinson at MerigarAugust 18-25, 2004)

by Nina Robinson

In April, twenty years ago, our precious Teacher, Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu went on pilgrimage to Nepal to do the longlife practice ofGuru Amitayus, according to the terma of Nyagla Pema Dundul

(Nyag bla Padma bDud Odul), the Master of several of his Mastersamong which Chang Chub Dorje and Ayu Khadro. Leading a group ofdisciples, Rinpoche stopped at the sacred cave of Maratika where GuruPadmasambhava and his consort, the Princess Mandarava, had practicedthe longlife practice of Amitayus that gave them realization of immortal-ity.During the pilgrimage, Rinpoche had many wonderful dreams. On thetwenty-fifth day of the second month of the Tibetan calendar, hereceived in his dreams and in his visions, the terma of the longlife prac-tice of the Dakini Mandarava.In 1985, during a retreat of teaching and practice at Tsegyalgar in theUSA, Rinpoche received the terma of all the ingredients of the SevenNectars recipe to use in the Chüdlen practice related to the Mandaravalonglife practice. The marvelous story of the revelation of these Teachings and the teachings themselves were translated by JacobellaGaetani who was one of the fortunate disciples who participated in thepilgrimage to Maratika (published by Shang Shung Edizioni 1999). Themain reason for doing the longlife practice, like all practices in general,is to obtain total realization which is beyond the concept of time,beyond death and birth, and is the real Immortality. However, in orderto attempt this, we need more time, a longer life, free from obstacles andwith all the favorable conditions – health, well being, the opportunity topractice, etc. The longlife practice reinforces all aspects of our vitalityand our protective energy and improves our circumstances. In theDzogchen teachings, it is considered important to do at least the sim-plest form of Chüdlen from time to time because it helps to develop ourclarity.During the August retreat, we will try to learn about the different aspectsof this practice: the visualizations, the melodies, the mudra, using theobjects and ritual instruments and the breathing, visualizations and dietof the Chüdlen practice.There are three ways of doing the Chüdlen practice: Nirmanakaya style,Sambhogakaya style and Dharmakaya style all of which should be prac-ticed very gradually. In the Nirmanakaya style, the diet is very simple:barley and brown rice with a little fresh butter and a little good qualityhoney. One drinks water. No heavy food or intoxicating substances. Inthe Sambhogakaya style one only uses the nectar or the pills while inthe Dharamakaya style one feeds exclusively from the essence of theelements. In order to practice the latter you need to have quite highcapacity! We will, of course, follow the Nirmanakaya style.Those who wish to do only the long life practice and not the Chüdlen,will have a good opportunity to stay in contemplation while the othersdo the breathing, etc., and can eat and drink normally. There will be thepossibility to practice Yantra Yoga in order to be more confident aboutdoing the breathing and the khumbaka and there will also be the oppor-tunity to practice the Dance of the Vajra.The retreat begins at 10 am on August 18th. There will be 3 or 4 ses-sions a day. We will learn and practice the short and long practice com-bined with the Chüdlen and we will also do the Mandarava Ganapuja,the long short and long form.

P U B L I C A T I O N S

by ChögyalNamkhai Norbu

In this classic work,Rinpoche clearly explainsDzogchen and thenreveals what is meant bythe practice of Dzogchen.

“A fine introduction to Dzogchen for theWestern reader.”—THE TIBET JOURNAL

150 pp. • 5 line drawings$14.95

Our FREE Newsletter and Catalogcontains over 2000 books, audio tapes,

videos, visual art, and ritual items from the Tibetan tradition.

800-950-0313email: Tibet@SnowLionPub.com www.SnowLionPub.com

DZOGCHENThe Self-Perfected State

Web cast continued from previous page

i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o m m u n i t y n e w s

12

Prima Mai’s Teaching Schedule of the Vajra DanceSeptember – November, 2004

September: 1-7Merigar/ItalyVajra Dance2nd Part Beginners, with Prima Mai or Rita Renzi

September: 3-6Kunselling/UKPurification of the Six SpacesBeginners, Supervision course of Cindy Faulkner (To be confirmed)

September or October/November:Tashigar Norte/VenezuelaPurification of the Six Spaces /Om Ah Hum Dance TT 1st level course with Prima Mai and Adriana Dal Borgo (To be confirmed)

November: 26-30Merigar/ItalyVajra Dance Advanced Course

e u r o p eNew Books in Portuguese

Zer-nga The Practice of Seven Sem-dzinThe Yoga of Arya Tara The Three Sacred Fundamentals (Khorde Rushen, the externalrushen and the Purification of the Six Lokas)

Please contact: dzogchenbrasil@uol.com,br .

KUNSELLING RETREAT SCHEDULESummer/Autumn 2004Wales, UK

The UK Gakyil would like to announce the following events at ournew retreat center Kunselling in Wales:

August 2-8Dance of the Vajra Second Part with Stoffelina Verdonk

August 20-29Santi Maha Sangha Base with Jim Valby

September3-6Dance Retreat of the Six Spaces, Cindy Faulkner under Prima Mai’ssupervision

October 27-30Dr Nida will be teaching Mantra Healing in London

November 1-9Kum Nye Massage First Level with Dr Nida

We also offer comfortable facilities for individual and dark retreat.

For further details email: rowanwylie@hotmail.com or call 0044 1223473 528

Santi Maha Sangha Base Level Practice Retreat with Jim ValbyKunselling, UK

Dates: Friday August 20, 10AM, until Sunday August 29th, 2PM Venue: Kunselling Retreat Centre, in Powys County, mid-Wales.

Regarding the course Jim says:“We will study & practice the essence of Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchena presented by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in his “Precious Vase”. Wewill have 4 sessions each day: 9-10:30AM, 11-12:30, 4-5:30PM, 6-7:30PM. During the 4-5:30PM session each day we hope to practiceYantra Yoga and/or Vajra Dance. In the evening session we will studyDzogchen Tantras ending with an abbreviated Chöd practice.”

For updates and details see: www.dzogchencommunity.org

Cost of the Course: GBP400 (600 Euros) full board residential withdiscounts for members.The non-residential cost will be GBP200 (300 Euros).In case of hardship, working discounts may be available subject toagreement.For those interested in attending, please ensure your place by bookingas soon as possible. A non-returnable deposit of GBP80 (120 Euros)residential, GBP40 (60 Euros) non-residential is required. Checks tobe made payable to “Dzogchen Community UK”. Deposits must be received by August 1st, after which date verbalbookings will be considered invalid.

To book contact:Peter White35 Finchams Close, Linton, Cambridge, CB1 6NDTel: 07900 496909Email: peterwhite@i12.com

Detailed course information Thomas Beaver: Email: booboobello@yahoo.co.uk

SUMMER AT DEJAMLING

Dear all,

If you’re staying in Europe this summer, you’re warmly welcome inDejamling - our Dzogchen Community center in the South France(near Montpellier, in the beautiful Cevennes mountains)!

There are some of our High Season Activities:

JULY1st - 7th - The Vajra Dance of the Song of the Vajra RetreatContact: Stoffelina VerdonkTel : +33 5 65 49 53 89 Email: stoffelina@wanadoo.fr

July 7th - The International Day of the Vajra Dance of the Song of theVajra

July 24th - 31st - Mandarava Long Life Practice Retreat(With the web cast from Margarita if technically possible & the VajraDance practice)

Contact: Joan Ponsich, joan.ponsich@tiscali.fr, Tel : +33 1 43 89 43 89or Nadia Poureau, cadette@club-internet.fr

Hope to see you soon in Dejamling!The French Gakyil

CONTINUATION OF GURUDRAGPHUR 24 HOURNON-STOP PRACTICEWORLDWIDE.

Dear Sangha members,As you may have seen for your-selves by now, we (the Greek DZCommunity) has found that theseries of Guru Dragphur 24hournon-stop practice sessions, whichwere held recently by ourDzogchen Community world-wide, have been quite helpful toall of us.However, as you might also havenoticed, samsara is not somethingthat can be totally overlooked, oris it such an easy thing to copewith. And, perhaps, it’s no break-ing news to say that our localDzogchen Community of Greecehas been faced with severalsevere obstacles for quite a longwhile now. This results, not onlyoften making our collective prac-tice difficult, but also makes theassistance of newcomers almostimpossible. There’s no need to elaboratemuch on this issue here since, asit can be witnessed, these kinds ofobstacles are more or less thesame as the ones that other localDzogchen Communities are alsofacing. Yet, it has also been quiteevident that most of these so-called obstacles are not reallyanything concrete in themselves,but rather, they are coming fromthe perplexed patterns of attach-ment and aversion that are per-forming in our very own minds.We thought that perhaps if wecould continue this practice,which aims especially towardsthe elimination of those two rest-less delusion provocateurs, thenmaybe we might as well becomea little bit more able to deal suffi-ciently with the particulars of thesituation.We asked Rinpoche if he thinksit’s a good idea for us to organizeanother series of sessions and wereceived a warm, positive answer.Therefore, we immediately setout to make it happen.

This next series of 3 GuruDragphur 24hour non-stop prac-tice sessions are:

- SEPTEMBER 23, Thursday- OCTOBER 23, Saturday

We DO need your active partici-pation and support.Everyone who has received thetransmission of Guru Dragphurfrom Chögyal Namkhai Norbu iswelcome to join in. We surely hope that this actionmay also inspire other DzogchenCommunities around the globe totake turns in continuing this seriesof sessions in the future, whenev-er they feel that it’s mostly neces-sary and appropriate to them. Inthis way, the focus of benefit maybe directed to every next localDzogchen Community that willundertake this organizing. Andthrough this, perhaps, everyonemay experience (and betterunderstand) that we are all inter-connected and interrelated to eachother, as the vital parts of the verysame one big mandala.Please send your hours of partici-pation (this time in GMT timezone) to: liber@up2u.grDetails about the participationcan be found at:http://www.tsegyalgar.org/fea-tures/24h.htmlAll weekly updates will be postedon Tsegyalgar website andNorbunet.

New Web Site Lithuanian Dzogchen Community

The Lithuanian Dzogchen Community is developing a web site wherebasic information is also available in English.If you are administrating web site of your community and you havereference list of all communities around the world, please includeLithuanian community to the list as www.dzogcenas.lt.Thank you!

YANTRA YOGA COURSE for beginners with ELKE GLANDER in Germany

July 16th - 18, 2004 for beginners, Krankengymnastikpraxis Preuss,Herzog-Spitalstr. 5 in München.The course will start on Friday at 19:30 and end on Sunday at13.00.Fees will be 95 Euro for non-members, 80 Euro for members, book-ing in advance (until 15.6.) 85 Euro for non-members, 70 Euro formembers (also 70 Euro reduced).Please remit to the account of the DzogchengemeinschaftDeutschland e.V., Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf, Knt.-Nr.: 11047891,BLZ: 30050110, IBAN DE 40 3005 0110 0011 047891, SWIFT/BICDUSSDEDDXXX

For registration, accommodation & more information please con-tact: Regine Zettler, Regine-125@gmx.net, tel: 0049-(0)89-74298244

Yantra Yoga with Fabio Andrico, June 29 – August 14, 2004

Riga, Latvia

DANCE OF THE VAJRA PART TWOUK

The UK Gakyil is pleased to announced that Stoffelina Verdonk willbe teaching the second part of the Dance of the Vajra at Kunsellingfrom Monday, August 2nd to Sunday, August 8th This course is opento those who have already learned the first part from an accreditedteacher.

The full residential price is 437 Euros (376 Euros for members) avail-able to the first 16 applicants.Non residential 225 Euros (180 Euros for members) A few campingspaces are available. In cases of financial hardship concessions areavailable subject to negotiation with the Gakyil.

To secure your place please send a non-refundable deposit of 83 Eurosfor residential or 45 Euros for non residential.Cheques should be made out to Dzogchen Community UK andaddressed to: Rowan Wylie, 29 Almoners Avenue, Cambridge CB18NZ. Telephone 01223 473 428.Should no place be available your check will be returned.Please let me know if you will be learning the male or female part.

Rowan Wylie (Red Gakyil)

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T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 13

New French Gakyil

YELLOWMarie-Hélène FOA (treasury) <mhfoa@free.fr>

REDJean-François AYME (President) <jf.ayme@tiscali.fr>Hubert KOTOWICZ <kotohub@yahoo.com>Michel TOUVERON <michel.touve@tiscali.fr>

BLUEMargot BERTRAND (secretary) <margotbe@free.fr>Nadia POUREAU <cadette@club-internet.fr>

GAKYIL HELPERS

BlueFrancois Calmes <fcalmes@free.fr>Laurent Stemmler <lstemmler@free.fr>Anne Lambiel <alambiel@club-internet.fr>Beatrix Orbaiceta <bea.orbaiceta@wanadoo.fr>Marie Christine Dauge <mchdauge@noos.fr>Eric Maestracci <ericvar2001@free.fr>

YellowLaurent Maurice <lmaurice@orange.fr>

RedLaurent Soen <stoffelina@wanadoo.fr>Anne Zuker <anne.max@free.fr>Hélène Lafage <hmsmf@ohotmail.com>Ermanno Lagana <e.lagana@voila.fr>Catherine Duez <catherineduez@autre-provence.com>Christian Cabassut

The New Gakyil of Finland

BLUEMika Sillanpäämsillanp@messi.uku.fi

REDReija Liljareija.lilja@labour.fi

YELLOWmarja.sakari@kiasma.fi

The Dzogchen Community Contact Person in FinlandMarja SakariRysäkuja 5 A 600980 HelsinkiFinlandTel. 358-9-3415334Email: marja.sakari@kiasma.fi

New Gakyil Styria/Tirol Elected at the Autumn Retreat in Salzburg on11/8/03

Blue Gakyil - Siegi Schwaiger Email: siegi.schwaiger@utanet.atRed Gakyil - Gabi Leik Yellow Gakyil - Oliver Gstöttner Email: oliver.gstoettner@chello.at

Longde Cabin AvailablePaldenling, PolandAs one of our practitioners is finishing his long retreat, the LongdeCabin in Paldenling is free. Everybody is welcome.

For people interested in doing a retreat there, we have prepared a webpage with relevant information:

http://www.dzogczen.pl/longde/

Vajra Dance of the Song of the Vajra, Part OneJuly 3-9, 2004Vienna, Austriawith Rita Renzi under the supervision of Prima Mai

The course will start on July 3rd in the afternoon, and finish on July8th at noon with a Ganapuja. The afternoon of the 8th and the whole9th of July will be reserved for intense practice.

Costs: 170.- Euros135.- Euros for members100.- Euros for people with little money

If you wish to come, please register, and please, as the number of par-ticipants is limited, we would ask you to pay 30 Euros in advancetogether with the registration to:

Kontono, 44.846-4, Meinl Bank BLZ 19240, SWIFT MEIN AT WW, To the name of Hannes Binder. (Viennese Yellow Gakyil)

For further information, registration and accommodation please con-tact Elisha Koppensteiner at:Email: elishanana@hotmail.comTel: 0043/676/796 83 16 (is a cellular phone so quite expensive to call,

Vajra Dance and the Dance of the Liberation ofthe Six Lokas, AmsterdamOrangerie in Abcoude, 10 km. from Amsterdam in the Netherlands

Friday, September 17 – Sunday, September 19th, 2004The schedule is:Friday 19.00 till 22.00 hr.Saturday 10.00 - 22.00 hrSunday 10.00 - 15.00 hr.We finish with a Ganapuja at 16.00 hr. Including breaks for drinks and food (bring your own).

For registration, description of itinerary, low fees and accommodationin Amsterdam please contact:Ans Swart, Tel: 0031-020-6162763, Email: ansswart@dds.nl

Retreat of Vajra Dance practice in SwitzerlandAugust 7-14, 2004

Dear Vajra Brothers and Sisters,

The Geneva Dzogchen Community is pleased to announce a VajraDance practice retreat in Switzerland.The retreat will take place in the old Chartreuse de la Pardieu nearBulle from 7 - 14, August 2004, and will cost 15 Swiss francs (10Euros) for the location of the hall.Accommodation cost 36 Swiss francs (23 Euros) for a double roomper night and per person and 45 Swiss francs(28 Euros) for singleroom. Possibility to put 3 tents for 19 Swiss francs (11 Euros) per person.For more details please contact:Jocelyne Carasso Tel: 00 33 (0) 450 35 1142Email: jocelyne.carasso@wanadoo.fr.or Monique LeguenTel: 00 41 (0) 22 797 37 21

The MirrorNewspaper of the

InternationalDzogchen Community of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

Main Office:PO Box 277

Conway, MA01341USA

Tel: 413 369 4208Fax: 413 369 4473

Email: Mirrornk@cs.com

European Office:The Mirror

MerigarArcidosso58031 GR

ItalyEmail: lizmirror@tiscalinet.it

Tel: 39 3298865292 Fax: 39 0564- 968 110

Editorial Staff:Naomi Zeitz,Tsegyalgar

Conway, MAUSA

Liz Granger Merigar

Arcidosso, Italy

Literary Editor:John Shane

Advisors:Adriano Clemente

Anna EidBarbara Paparazzo

Des BarryJim Valby

Layout & Design:N. Zeitz

Illustration:Wood Monkey

Bepe Goia

Web Site Managers:Malcolm Smith

John Herr

Printer:Turley Publications

Palmer, MAUSA

Distribution:Tsegyalgar at

Conway,MA, USA

Subscription Rate/6 Issues:$35US available

throughTsegyalgar

35 Eurothrough Merigar

Visa and Master cardwelcome

All material ©2004 byby The Mirror

Reprint by permission onlyWe reserve the right to edit

all subsmissions

MERIGAR ACCOMODATION AND RECEPTION SERVICE

FOR PEOPLE WHO INTEND TO COME TO MERIGAR FORRETREATS OR COURSES OR JUST VISITING AND PARTICI-PATING IN ONE OF MERIGAR’S PROGRAMS

If you need accommodation in a local hotel, boarding house, or a pri-vate room with other practitioners or if you want to rent an apartmentor a house for a week or longer we have our own accommodation ser-vice to help you.

We can also advise on transport from the airports, give train schedules,information and booking of rental cars and other questions related toyour travel to Merigar.

We speak English, French, German and Italian:

MERIGAR ACCOMODATION SERVICEChristina von GeispitzheimEmail: merigar-reservations@libero.itTelephone office: 0039 0564 957542Mobile phone: 0039 339 1370739

P A S S A G E S

MARRIED

Raffaella Blasi and Mateusz Kocylowskiwere married at the Town Hall in Arcidossoon June 5, 2004, in the company of familyand friends. The wedding party celebratedthe new “sposi” at a local restaurant, danc-ing the tarantella to the foot-tapping tunesof a troupe of Neapolitan musicians and

enjoying the romantic melodies of a groupof Rumanian travelling musicians.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o m m u n i t y n e w s

Tsegyalgar Summer & Fall Program2004

JULY:July 1st - 6thSanti Maha Sangha Base Level Practice Retreat with Jim ValbyKhandroling Karma Yoga (as part of SMS practice retreat) July 1-6th,2-4PM

July 7th

The International Day of the Vajra Dance of the Song of the Vajra:

July 9-13 (3 to 5 days) Mandarava Retreat with Nina Robinson (People can stay for 3 or 5 days)

July 17-August 1st* see schedule below

Mandarava web cast direct from Margarita Island

July 26th Video Anniversary transmission

AUGUST:August 6-8 or August 20-22 (exact schedule/dates will be announcedsoon)Vajra Dance retreat with Anastasia McGhee (Tentative)

SEPTEMBER:September 10-14Chöd Retreat with Constantino Albini

September 18-19 Introduction to Contemplation with Constantino Albini Workshop in New York City

14

The Russian MirrorThe Dzogchen Community of Kharkov (Ukraine) is going to publisha Russian version of “The Mirror”. We have asked Rinpoche and hesupports this idea.

The editorial board will consist of 3 people:

- The editor-in-chief - Valery Botsula (the elder Kharkov DK, was oneof initiators of the invitation of Rinpoche to Russia in 1992);

- The associate editor - Mironenko Igor (3-rd level SMS, practicingsince 1994);

- The associate editor Larissa Radcheko (practicing since 1996).

r u s s i a & k u n s a n g a r

Kunsangar NewsOur dear friends!Kunsangar sends its warm regards; many kind words and wishes toachieve maximum progress in practice to everybody!This current year was not easy for us. We faced plenty of external diffi-culties similar in many respects to the problems of Tsegyalgar. We didnot understand right away that the cause of our bad luck was within our-selves. Trying to be in the state beyond all the limitations, we did notalways realize the external factors. Last year all our efforts were focusedon adapting Kunsangar to rules and regulations of the country, and atthe same time keeping the minimum tax payment. The main goal for uswas to keep Kunsangar as the place where Dzogchen teachings wouldbe being maintained and transmitted. It really took a great deal of time,effort and financial resources to change the situation.At the present moment, the Gakyil is working on elaboration of furtherstrategy of life in Kunsangar, taking into account the principal problemsand past mistakes. Nevertheless, Kunsangar was functioning (except fora three-month period) almost all this time as the place of teachings andpractice.For a period of time, all retreats took place in Moscow instead ofKunsangar. It can be said that this complicated situation erased misun-derstanding and the lack of co-ordination in relationships between peo-ple, which easily arises under such circumstances. We discovered thatwe were all together in one boat and that the teaching was the mostimportant thing for us. The Moscow Dzogchen Community held a SantiMaha Sangha Base Level retreat with Igor Berkhin, including YantraYoga with Victor Krachkovsky. In December we had an unforgettableretreat of the Dance of the Song of the Vajra with the enigmatic Adrianodal Borgo and “our” Ludmila Kislichenko. By a strange configurationof circumstances, the retreat was held in the Theatre Center onDubrovka where the dramatic story with hostages had happened. TheMandalas were kept in a room from which the terrorists were leadingtheir video recording, and we were dancing in a foyer of the same hallwhere, in October 2002, tragic events that shook the world took place. Retreats in Kunsangar recommenced from the middle of January 2002.At the time of the Losar celebration, we had a Santi Maha Sangha BaseLevel retreat with Igor Berkhin and the theme was “Karma”. It was verycold (- 25 C) and beautiful outside; everything was snowed under up toour knees. We were walking on small narrow paths made by someonewho had been walking there before. Russian winters are severe... andagain…Spring. Everything is rising, the birds are singing, the trees are fillingwith sap and the flowers are blooming. In Kunsangar there were about50 people on the day of Garab Dorje. We go on…At present, the most important tasks are the right arrangement of docu-ments on realty and land, as well as obtaining Kunsangar’s financialindependence. Now we are coming closer than ever to the necessity ofright work on the external level, taking into consideration all our “spe-cific Russian peculiarities”. The Kunsangar Gakyil has already offeredthree financial programs that may help Kunsangar become self-sustain-ing.One of these programs is a regular voluntary sponsorship. Our idea is toattract as many members of the Community as possible who wouldinvest a certain voluntary sum every month, with the intention to sup-port the place of the Teaching transmission. On the last Saturday ofevery month, the yellow Kunsangar Gakyil presents a complete reportabout their expenditure. There are nearly 30 such people. We are alsoelaborating some other programs. We hope to meet with YesheNamkhai to discuss a question of financial independence under thefavorable circumstances of place and time. We have a lot of projects. Atthe end of this year we plan to build a public swimming pool atKunsangar. We hope it will become another Kunsangar adornment andadditional source of financing. A “planting of greenery” project has now begun in Kunsangar. NearRinpoche’s house and Gonpa, amazing “northern” roses, other perenni-al and annual flowers and herbs were planted. A little bit later you willsee these beautiful sights in photographs and we hope you will enjoythem.From the very outset, Kunsangar was a not-for-profit organization andacted as a Charitable Fund “Dostoyanie” dealing with social, culturaland health related activities. The Russian Dzogchen Community wasleading, and keeps on leading by means of CF “Dostoyanie” charitableactivity, in the field of social assistance, mostly in the territory ofPavlovsky Pasad Region. This is done basically by supporting estab-lishments of social and cultural spheres: schools, children’s homes, hos-pitals. At the present moment we are rendering charitable aid to invalidsand a country youth center. They wrote about us with gratitude in a localnewspaper and a few articles were published with warm words of ouractivities.We resumed collaboration with The Social Questions Committee of thePavlovsky Pasad administration. In August, 2004, the Charitable Fund“Dostoyanie” plans to give, on a charitable basis, the “Pine Forest” thatbelongs to its premises and territory of cultural and sanitary center, tothe summer ecological international camp under the auspices of theEuropean Union program, “The Youth for Europe”. The realization ofthis project, we hope, will help us to solve many problems connectedwith our interaction with our external surroundings.Of course, we co-ordinate all the strategic projects with Rinpoche. Hispatience is endless and there are not enough words to express our thanksand infinite love for the Precious Source.Thanks to all practitioners of International Dzogchen Community forsupport and participation.

On behalf of Kunsangar Gakyil, Natasha Maximova

17 July 5-7PM18 July 10-12AM19 July 9-12AM20 July 9-12AM21 July 9-12AM22 July 10-12AM23 July 9-12AM24 July 8-12AM

25 July 9-12AM26 July 9-12AM27 July 10-12AM28 July 10-12AM29 July 10-12AM30 July 10-12AM31 July 10-12AM1 Aug. 10-12AM

SANTI MAHASANGHA

Base level PracticeRetreat with

Jim ValbyTsegyalgar, Conway,

MassachusettsJuly 1-6, 2004

Tsegyalgar, The DzogchenCommunity in America, ispleased to announce that JimValby will lead a Santi MahaSangha Base Level PracticeRetreat in Tsegyalgar, Conway,July 1-July 6, 2004.Dr. Jim Valby has been a studentof Chögyal Namkhai Norbu since1982. Jim is an authorizedinstructor for the Base Level ofSanti Maha Sangha. Jim earnedhis doctorate in Far EasternStudies under Herbert V.Guenther at the University ofSaskatchewan and translatesDzogchen Tantras. He presentsthe methods for practice withgreat clarity, warmth, and humor.

ProgramDate: July 1st (Thursday) - July6th (Tuesday)

Practice session: 8:30-10am,10:30am-noon, 5:30pm-7pm

Vajra Dance & Yantra Yoga prac-tice hours will be confirmed.

Who may attend: The Base Level Training is opento all interested persons who havereceived transmission fromChögyal Namkhai Norbu.

Cost: $150 for the 6 days or $25/dayPre-registration is recommended.Thank you. Tel: 413-369-4153 Fax: 413-369-4473 Email: secretary@tsegyalgar.org

Accommodations:

Dormitory: $10/nightPlease contact: Cindy the Geköesto reserve space at:Email: geko@tsegyalgar.org

Shopping, cooking and cost formeals will be shared onsite.

Dorm is limited to 20 people.

For more information how to getto Tsegyalgar and all about otherAccommodation please visit thislink:http://www.tsegyalgar.org/fea-tures/InfoPractical3.html

ADDRESS:Tsegyalgar, The DzogchenCommunity in AmericaP.O. Box 277, Conway, MA01341

Moscow Web SiteDear Friends,Welcome to the new web-site of Moscow Dzogchen Community(MDC)“Rinchen-ling”:

http://www.dzogchen.ru/mdo/

Here you can find both in Russian and English the information aboutMDC and the latest news. There is a small photo gallery as well.With best regards,Moscow Dzogchen Community “Rinchen-ling”

Tsegyalgar, Dzogchen Community in America,18 Schoolhouse Road, Conway, MA 01341

Tel: 413-369-4153 | Fax: 413-369-4473Email: secretary@tsegyalgar.org

t s e g y a l g a r ee a s t & w e s t

Tsegyalgar Mandrava WebCast Hours

Kunsangar142500 RUSSIA, Moscow region

Pavlovskiy Posad, RUPS,a/ya 13, BF “Dostoyanie”Nina Rusanovich, Secretary

Tel /Fax: 7 096 43 21156Tel: 7 901 900 36 46

Email: kunsang@gar.legko.ru

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T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 1515

Chokyi Nyima’s 2004 East Coast Teachings

Friday night, July 9; Saturday, July 10; and Sunday, July 11.

The Friday Night Teaching: The Dharma Belongs in Everyone’sHeart7:30 PM Karuna Center, 25 Main Street, Northampton, Massachusetts.

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche will speak on how to enrich our own livesand the lives of those around us by cultivating the five noble quali-ties: forgiveness, contentment, rejoicing, the good heart and mind-fulness. All five qualities are within the realistic reach of each of us.

The Saturday & Sunday Teachings: The Essence of Dzogchen.Saturday, July 10: 11:30 AM -1:30 PM & 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM Sunday, July 11: 10:00 AM - 12:00 noon & 2:00 - 4:00 PM

At The Dzogchen Community in America18 Schoolhouse Rd. Conway, Massachusetts.

Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche will give a special teaching on VitalEssence by Shakya Shri. This text covers the most important pointson Dzogchen in a very practical hands-on fashion. Rinpoche hasremarked about the text, “You could gather information and knowl-edge on Buddhism for decades and yet not understand this simpletext. On the other hand, this short text is enough to reach completeenlightenment in just one lifetime.”

The cost for Friday night is $25 and the cost for Saturday and Sundayis $125.

The registration address is:CNR Teachings P.O. Box 332 Northampton, MA 01061.

KARMA YOGA AT KHANDROLING, BUCKLAND, MASSACHUSETTSSummer 2004

This season at Khandroling, we will begin with preparing the site forthe new universe size Mandala, so that the actual construction cancoincide with the Santi Maha Sangha practice retreat. Here are thedates we will be coordinating work there. (There is a bulletin board togive instruction for those working at other times.)

June 29- July 6Construction of the Mandala (laying down 2X4’s, carrying & 3/4”plywood and pounding it together with sledge hammers, screwing theplywood down).Karma yoga of SMS participants from 1:00 PM-4:30 PM, but morehelpers are needed all day these days to get it done. When done, peo-ple can prime it, lay out the Mandala, and paint it (Vajra DanceRetreat Aug 6-8)

July13-15Use excavator to clear cabin sites and dig holes for concrete piers.Setting up forms and pouring concrete into them.

July 20-22Build a cabin and a thödgal cabin, rehab the tool shed at the pond intoa handicap accessible cabin, and finish the bathhouse.

July 27-29 -continuedAug 3-5 - continuedAug 10-12 -continuedAug 17-19 -continuedAug 24-25 -continued

Weekends in the Fall -continued

SantoTsegyalgar Red Gakyil

MANDARAVA Retreat in Khandroling Tsegyalgar, Conway, Massachusettswith Nina Robinson (Merigar)JULY 9-15, 2004

Tsegyalgar, The Dzogchen Community in America, is pleased to announce that Nina Robinson, ofMerigar, will lead a 3-6 days MANDARAVA CHÜDLEN retreat, in Khandroling.The requested number of registrants necessary for organizing this retreat was reached in a record 24 hours.Chögyal Namkhai Norbu warmly supported our initiative.We hope that others who are interested in participating but who still have not registered will do so soonto give us some idea of how many people to expect, allowing us to better organize it for you. Please register even if you live in Conway area!!

When: July 9-153 days (extendible) to 6 days.Where: At KHANDROLINGDue to the purification character of this practice, we decided to organize it to take place in the cleanestenvironment. Our first choice is Khandroling (Tsegyalgar), second, (in case of a bad weather), theSchoolhouse (Tsegyalgar).

Who may participate: all interested practitioners who have received Mandarava transmission fromChögyal Namkhai Norbu are we invited to join us.

Cost: $100 (3days) | $180* (6 day) // $30/day* payment plans will be available for all those with financial difficulty.Pre-registration is recommended. All donations welcome. Tel: 413-369-4153 |Fax: 413-369-4473 | secretary@tsegyalgar.org

Food: Shopping, cooking and cost for meals will be shared onsite.Note: Mandarava diet may be applied as part of this retreat.

Accommodation: Dorms*: $10/night Khandroling camping: $5

Please contact: geko@tsegyalgar.org to reserve space.* Dorms are limited to 20 people.

For more information on how to get to Tsegyalgar and all about other accommodations, please visit thislink: http://www.tsegyalgar.org/features/InfoPractical3.html

MANDARAVA weekend retreat

At this weekend retreat, we will be guided in the Short & Long Mandarava Practices together withmudras, use of instruments, making of the dadar, application of Chüdlen Practice, etc.Further information will be soon communicated to all participants registered for this retreat.

Nina Robinson is a long-time student of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Nina was asked by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu to lead the Merigar Mandarava Retreat over Easter of 2003 and has been invited to various placesin Italy and all over the world to lead Mandarava practice retreats. We will benefit from her experience,which she will share with us.

If you wish to participate please register by calling Tsegyalgar Office:413-369-4153 or by email to bluegakyil@tsegyalgar.org as soon as possible.

Tsegyalgar, Dzogchen Community in America,18 Schoolhouse Road, Conway, MA 01341Tel: 413-369-4153 | Fax: 413-369-4473Email: secretary@tsegyalgar.org

Dance of the Song of the Vajra with Anastasia McGhee September 3-8, 2004Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

The Dzogchen Community of New Mexico is very pleased to announce that we will be hosting a begin-ning course in the Second Part of the Dance of the Song of the Vajra, taught by Anastasia McGhee, 2nd-level local instructor, in early September of this year in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

WHEN: September 3-8, 2004 (precise schedule to be announced later; on workdays, teaching sessionswill be in the evening to allow more people to attend) WHERE: Santa Fe, New Mexico COST: Sliding scale US$165-225 (pay what you can within that range; if you can pay more than the min-imum, that would be very helpful)CONTACT: Julia Deisler, Email: jmdeisler@aol.com

TO REGISTER: Send check or money order for $100 US (deposit) or for the entire amount to: The Dzogchen Community of New Mexico c/o Julia Deisler PO Box 1838 Santa Fe, NM 87504-1838 USA

(Checks should be made payable to The Dzogchen Community of New Mexico.)

Note: Registration is limited to 20 people.

In order to practice the Dance of the Song of the Vajra, a practitioner should already have received thetransmission of the Dzogchen Teachings and the “Lung” of the Song of the Vajra from Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu.

Green Tara in CaliforniaGreen Tara Practice at the Dondrup Ling Center

Wednesdays 7PM 8:30PMWed July 14, 2004

Contact: Stephanie Kim 707.319.7600

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16

New Gakyil, Baja California, Mexico

All the personal details of the people on the New Gakyil of Baja California, Mexico have been removed from this article due to security issues that have arisen in November 2014.

Stayed tuned for Baja driving instructions courtesyof John Bidleman in future

issues of The Mirror.

b a j a d a y s

photos by Anastasia McGhee

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Yantra Yoga in Santa Fe, New MexicoAugust 19-22, 2004

The Dzogchen Community of New Mexico is pleased to announcethat Lynn Sutherland will be teaching a course in Yantra Yoga August19-22, 2004, in Santa Fe, NM. We will review the preliminary practices that are essential for build-ing a strong foundation for Yantra Yoga. Then we will focus on theFirst Series (The Four Characteristic Conditions) and, time permit-ting, the Second Series (The Four Profound Applications). Emphasis will be on cultivating presence and awareness while devel-oping and deepening our understanding and experience of the breath,within both the yantras (movements) and the pranayamas (breathingpractices). WHEN: Thursday 19 August through Sunday 22 August 2004,beginning Thursday eveningWHERE: Santa Fe, NM (exact location to be announced)COST: US$100-150 sliding scale; pay what you can within thatrange. (If you can pay more than the minimum, that would be veryhelpful.)CONTACT: Julia Deisler at jmdeisler@aol.com TO REGISTER: Send check or money order for $50 (deposit) orwhole amount to THE DZOGCHEN COMMUNITY OF NEW MEXICOc/o Julia DeislerPO Box 1838Santa Fe, NM 87504 USA

Checks should be made out to THE DZOGCHEN COMMUNITYOF NEW MEXICO

In order to participate in this retreat, a practitioner must have alreadyreceived the transmission of the Dzogchen Teachings from ChögyalNamkhai Norbu and have prior experience with at least the EightMovements.

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 17

As many of you know, we havebeen given a wonderfully large(3,000 acres) and beautiful pieceof wild ranch land in BajaCalifornia Sur, Mexico, near thetowns and beaches which aremost attractive to tourists and toex-patriots who have retiredthere. Small groups of ruralvaquero families live scatteredthroughout the valley where theland of San Miguel is located. Itis a forty-five minute drive to theinternational airport from theproperty on a rural, dirt road,which is sometimes challenging,and periodically can be closedduring the rainy season (August -mid-October).Currently, we are in the processof planning the completion of 22one-room casitas already on theproperty, the water system, thetoilets, and other related build-ings. We are looking for 2-to-5 mem-bers or close friends of theDzogchen Community whowould be comfortable living inthis wild and unspoiled land-scape, and who would be able tocommit themselves to a stay of aminimum of 6 months, butpreferably a year.

QUALIFICATIONS:1. Those applying must speakSpanish and are preferably bilin-gual in Spanish and English.

2. Having a history of attendingretreats with Rinpoche and prac-ticing with other DzogchenCommunity members—highlypreferable.

3. Familiarity and ease with thedesert outdoors—able to use anouthouse, water filtration, tent ortent cabin or unfinisheddwelling; drive a truck or vanwith clearance and 4-wheel driveover rough roads; cook on acamp stove; be away from townfor days at a time; O.K. with wildanimals such as large lizards,wild pigs, wandering cows anddonkeys, and the occasionalsnake; are physically hardy andable to do physical work, walkdistances on rough desert trails,etc. A plus if you own your owncamping equipment. A double-plus if you own a high-clearancevehicle.

We know that for some people,this describes a paradise, but forothers, this is not what they had

in mind. Our land is just startingto be settled and developed, andthe people who are there in thebeginning need to be the out-doors type.

4. Prefer those with easy-goingpersonalities, who will enjoyconversing positively and casual-ly with the locals in the area, willnot be overly paranoid or worriedwhen something new or chal-lenging comes up, and who liketo work.

5. Skills which are of use in thisenvironment: garden and plantcultivation; eco-touring; hospi-tality; construction; healing andhealth; familiarity with water andsolar systems; tent and deckinstallation; shopping for sup-plies; cooking; engineering orfix-it mechanical background;trail-building; leading practices;supervision of workers; generaloutdoors background; generalmanual labor background; andinterfacing with the culture atlarge in Baja which is friendly,and low-key.

COMMUNITY WILL PRO-VIDE1. Vehicle(s), gas, and repairs fortransportation to and from, aswell as around, the property.2. Food expenses.3. Assistance with visa, carinsurance, etc. 4. A sheltered place to live on theproperty.5. Personal support—we have avery friendly and supportivegroup of people in Baja who areworking on the land project, andwho like to practice together.They are very familiar with alldetails of living in Baja. This is awonderful group to work andpractice with! Plus, there is a fullBaja Gakyil, with members alsoin California and Mexico City, aswell as Baja. 6. Retreats with Rinpoche—oneis scheduled for April 2005, andone may be scheduled earlierthan that. 7. Yantra Yoga and Vajra DanceRetreats with certified membersof the Dzogchen Community(projected for November 2004 inBaja).

DUTIES:1. Provide support for and takepart in work-parties and projectsbeing conducted on the land.This requires working very

closely with the local membersof the Dzogchen Community andGakyil, also requires some super-vision of local workers.2. Provide a friendly continuouspresence on the land, as caretak-ers and observers, and interfacewith visitors and neighbors, act-ing as positive representatives ofthe Dzogchen Community. 3. Keep Gakyil and localCommunity informed of landand road concerns, suggestions,observations on trespassing,fencing, cattle, wild animals,changes due to weather, resourceuse, water flows, neighbor con-cerns, guest accommodation andmanagement, etc.4. Manage eco-tour and campingguest traffic, and assist in devel-oping these programs. 5. Help to ready the land forevents to be held there by theDzogchen Community.6. Meet and practice regularlywith the local DzogchenCommunity.7. Carry out defined roles con-scientiously and consistently:such as cooking and shopping;obtaining supplies; hospitalityand management of guests; phys-ical work of all kinds; building;gardening and plant care; settingup communication system; man-agement of workers, etc.8. Those working on the landwill be expected to commit to ajob description and to have peri-odic discussions with the localGakyil members about theirprogress.

If you are interested in thisopportunity, please send a com-munication of interest to one ofthe following people, and includea resume or history of your back-ground with the Community andyour work and skill background,as well as what you wish to gainfrom this experience. We wouldlike to hear from you by July 31,2004.

Contacts:Carolyn Bass, cbass@prodigy.net.mx Andres Orvananos,bubulu49@yahoo.com.mxCarol Fields,carolmfields@aol.com

Thank you,The Baja Gakyil

$25,000 Challenge Grant for Baja, Californiaby Carol Fields

The kind anonymous donor of the last two years’ challenge grants hasnotified us that there will be another very generous challenge grant thisyear for the Baja Winter Gar Project, in the amount of $25,000. We mustmatch this amount to release the money. We have been very successfulin matching $20,000 in previous challenge grants over the last year.So, let’s all row the boat here for a spectacular result of $50,000 thisyear for Baja!!!!!!!

Land Update:We are currently collecting contractor bids for the completion of the 22casitas on the San Miguel land, to be solar-powered, plus activation ofthe water system and cistern. There are tentative plans to sponsor forestservice ecological workshops for the local residents dealing with preser-vation of trees and shrubs and finding alternatives to cattle grazing. Weexpect to hold our first compost toilet workshop soon!

We are planning to have the next Baja retreat with Rinpoche in April of2005, on the land, and will need to have camping facilities, parking, tentcabins, the teaching space, working kitchen, and hopefully, the casitas,prepared. Several high-clearance vehicles will be needed for thoseresiding on the land, and we have put out a notice to find 2-5 “pioneers”to be the first Community members to live on the property. The goodnews is that the highway engineers are intensively conducting furtherrepairs this month at multiple spots on the Naranjas Road, which leadsto the property.

To be part of this spectacular project (see pictures at http://bajasang-ha.org), please send your contribution made out to the DzogchenCommunity West Coast, and mark it “Winter Gar Fund.” Address it to:Dzogchen Community West Coast, 2748 Adeline, Suite D, Berkeley,CA 94703 Contributions are fully tax-deductible in the U.S. and will bepromptly acknowledged.

The success and joy of this venture now rests in your capable hands! Many thanks for your support in all its forms!

The Baja Gakyil (gakyil@bajasangha.org)

To Baja California, Mexico from EuropeA Journey Made in 2003

by Cristina von Geispitzheim

The airline I flew was Iberia; the route was from Rome to Madrid, where I changed aircraft to MexicoCity. In Mexico City I made a nice stop over for a day and than took Aeromexico to San José del Cabo.Without a stop over in Mexico City it is also possible to proceed directly from Rome to San José del Cabo,but it becomes a bit long and all the way it would be about 22 hours on the road. The cost was 650 Euroround trip, which is quite convenient considering the long distance from Rome to Baja California.I checked out other solutions, for example passing through Houston or Dallas, with Continental or otherAmerican carriers, and from Europe it is possible with British Airways. From Europe the most convenientfor timing and cost was Iberia. Also it was a very comfortable aircraft on the route Madrid-Mexico City,the seats seemed bigger than most other companies and they have a contract with Aeromexico to guaran-tee this booking.

Mandarava Chüdlen Retreat from Margarita IslandJuly 17 - August 1, 2004 California Schedule

What:The entire Mandarava Chüdlen Retreat from Margarita Island will belive web cast for the first time ever.

Where:Dondrub Ling, the home of the Dzogchen Community West Coast2748 Adeline Street Suite DBerkeley, CA 94703Phone: (510) 644-2260

When:

Registration:At the door, $20 per session.Advanced enrollment, $15 per session.Advanced enrollment for the entire course, $180 = 16*15* 75%Advanced enrollment must be received by June 24.

Please make checks payable to:Dzogchen Community West Coast. Please put “Mandarava” in thememo line.Please send checks toDzogchen Community West Coast, 2748 Adeline Street Suite DBerkeley, CA 94703Contact person for this retreat is:Stefanie KimTel: 707-319-7600Email: shk108@aol.com

Other Items of Note:Chüdlen pills will be available.The price has not yet been determined.

PIONEER SETTLERS NEEDED FOR BAJADZOGCHEN COMMUNITY LAND

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g e t t i n g f r o m h e r e t o t h e r e . . . . .

July 17 Sat 5-7 PMLocal time: 2-4 PMJuly 18 Sun 10-12 AMLocal time: 7-9 AMJuly 19 Mon 9-12 AM Local time: 6-9 AMJuly 20 Tues 9-12 AM 6-Local time: 9 AMJuly 21 Wed 9-12 AM 6-Local time: 9 AMJuly 22 Thurs 10-12 AMLocal time: 7-10 AMJuly 23 Fri 9-12 AMLocal time: 6-9 AMJuly 24 Sat 8-12 AM Local time: 5-9 AM

July 25 Sun 9-12 AM Local time: 6-9 AMJuly 26 Mon 9-12 AM 6-Local time: 9 AMJuly 27 Tues 10-12 AMLocal time: 7-9 AMJuly 28 Wed 10-12 AMLocal time: 7-9 AMJuly 29 Thurs 10-12 AMLocal time: 7-9 AMJuly 30 Fri 10-12 AM 7-Local time: 9 AMJuly 31 Sat 10-12 AM 7-Local time: 9 AMAug. 1 Sun 10-12 AM 7-Local time: 9 AM

How to Use the Ritual Drum by Prima Mai

During our visit in Tashigar Norte in Venezuela/Margarita islandin March 2004, on several occasions Rinpoche explained howto use the small ritual Drum. To make it brief, I believe it was

not the first time Rinpoche gave this explanation, but it was the firsttime I understood it in a more concrete way.When you have the chance to practice together with Rinpoche, it’sgood to closely observe his movements performing mudras and/orusing ritual instruments even when you think you know more or lesshow by heart.Rinpoche also mentioned that when doing Naggong, to end this cycleone plays the Drum (action) with one single beat and not with manybeats, as if one is playing the ritual bell.Besides respecting the indication offered in practice texts of using adifferent force with the swinging sounder, the Drum turns towardsoneself during practice phases of ‘invitation’. The swinging sounderis played inwardly and the borders of the outfacing part of the Drum,which has a higher and sweeter sound.During practice phases of ‘offering’, the Drum is facing to the left ofyour right side. The swinging sounder is now playing the part closerto the center of the Drum, which will have a deeper and compactsound.During practice phases of ‘action’, the Drum is also facing towardoneself. The swinging sounder though, is playing outwardly and inthe center of the Drum, which sounds the deepest sound on the Drum.

Hopefully these diagrams will help clarify:

18

Fireflies Seen and Unseen in the Andean Night A Santi Maha Sangha Retreat with Jim Valby and Friends

by Jerri Bassi

Ihad spoken with Rinpoche at 6AM the morning ofmy departure for Merida, and when I told himwhere I was going Rinpoche immediately painted

a picture in my mind of flying into this fairly narrow,high Andean valley where jets cannot land. I feltgood knowing he knew where I was going, and setoff for the airport on a warm, breezy Margarita morn-ing.

I arrived to the little Merida airport and after awhile saw Jim’s face appear on the other side of theglass screen while I was waiting for my bag toappear out of the darkness of the baggage area. Jim’swarm and knowing face was soon joined by RowenaHill, our Andean Mountain host, who had the wis-dom to acquire an old mountain home some thirtyyears previously.

There I was, having arrived in time to climbaboard one of three Jeep’s that would take us to dis-cover more of the teachings, the mountains, eachother and ourselves. We were nine people includingCleris, our very experienced driver. My bag wasthrown leisurely atop the jeep and we headed out tothe outskirts of Merida where we met with the sec-ond Jeep; we were now fifteen. Here we collectedwhat we needed and the usual extras and continuedon an upward journey above Merida and around thefamous mountain, Pico Bolivar that stands at 5170m.We drove up through farmlets and country houses,banana trees, mountain frangipani, bullocks andmules.

When we arrived at a mountain farm/coffeehouse we met our third Jeep with Rowena’s son,Andres and grandson, along with Catharine and ourfood, for the forthcoming seven-day retreat. Now wewere complete and confident together, traveling inconvoy for the next three hours, down a steep valleyand up a narrow ridge to the end of the road. Theroad was rough in places and on several occasions itseemed like the best decision was to walk and let theJeeps and their drivers negotiate very difficult ter-rain. We needed to check the wheels on several occa-sions, swap tires with folk on the way who knew

Cleris and eat lunch in the midst of forest trees withleaves almost the same size as the wheels. We werebeing introduced to the sensitivities and the dangersof traveling in this enormous land of high peaks andsteeply farmed valleys.

We reached the end of the road and as plannedteamed up with several other folk and four muleswho carried most of our food and gear along a trackfor another hour before we all reached the farmhousesafely; it was close to dark. Our time there wasgreatly assisted by Philomeno, who managed themules amongst many other things and his wifePancha who was constantly available.

What a process, arriving into such a new envi-ronment, the other side of Pico Bolivar. The worldalways seems different from the other side! We soonsettled into our rooms, set the fires and cooked ameal. Settling into retreat time means simplifyingand relishing the time to observe the mind and aris-ing experiences.

Whilst sitting on the grass banks surrounding thehouse, the night was revealing its shadowy forms.Then fireflies appeared and disappeared in a randomdance of light. Relaxing in this experience I discov-ered why I had made this effort to attend this SMSbase retreat. My attention, to applying the practicesin new environments and understanding rigpa, issomewhat like these invisible creatures of the night.There is light and there is dark and yet I never sawthe firefly itself. Here our intention was to study andpractice, to know and test what we know in practice.Jim’s teaching is rooted in deep commitment, knowl-edge and experience. His humorous style made peo-ple want to do more practices. His melodiousTibetan songs to the Maestro moved me profoundly;at that point I found myself wanting more and couldrelax in the soulful gift I was receiving.

Some Semdzin practices took us off separatelyhigh on the ridge, in the ruins of old rammed earthbuildings, on rocks in the river or in little grazingpaddocks. One day a large cow came in to see me inresponse to my soundings, she thought there was aninvitation to something. By the time she came up tome she was an imposing size, but my experience offear soon abated and she chewed grass for a while.The quiet of the valleys is still happening as I writethis piece at home. Such a treasure.

Thank you Jim for saying yes so often, thank youRowena for your persistence, and thanks toRinpoche for being our guide.

New Gakyil, Geköes & Secretary of TashigarSouth

YellowMario Cech (Treasurer)Maria Garcia Ruvira

BlueMarta TrilloDiana MontenegroDaniel Simonelli

RedMartin Bortagaray ( President)Jose Poncio

New Gekoes: Luis Olivera

Secretary: Rosa Altamirano

Santi Maha Sangha Practice Retreat Peruwith Jim ValbyOctober 30 – November 10, 2004

The Dzogchen Community of Peru is happy to host a SMS PracticeRetreat with Jim Valby in Lima from October 30 to November 10,2004.Anyone wanting to participate please contact:subelaunde@yahoo.com

TASHIGAR NORTHVajra Dance Courses

August 4 - 11 Dance of Song of Vajra (Part 2)

with Adriana dal Borgo

Dance of the Liberation of 6 Lokaswith Carmen Rivas:

July 2 - 6

s o u t h aa m e r i c a tt a s h i g a r nn o r t h && ss o u t h

Tashigar NorthCalle Bolivar Nro 32

Valle de Pedro GonzalezMunicipio Gomez, Isla de Margarita

VenezuelaTel: 0058 4165800

Email:tashinor@mail.dzogchen.ru

Tashigar North Gakyil:tashinor@gruposyahoo.com.ar

Tashigar SouthRosa Altamirano – Secretary

Comunidad DzogchenTashigar

Calle pública S/NTanti 5155

Pcia. de CórdobaArgentina

Tel & Fax: 0054- 3541-498 356Email: tashigar@dcc.com.ar

inviting

offering

action

Happy Retreatants at SMS Base Retreat in Merida, Venezuela

i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o m m u n i t y n e w s

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 19

namgyalgar && ppacific rrim

Mandarava Retreat in MargaritaDiet and behavior information:

Diet: light food, like rice and cooked vegetables, boiled or grilled fish,fruit juices and coconut water. If somebody feels hungrier or has spe-cial needs it is possible to eat more.

Proper food will be available in the Gar’s kitchen for retreat

Behavior: it would be very important not to drink alcohol, not to gettired with physical efforts, not to lay down under the sun and not tosmoke.

The cost of the retreat is 180US$, it would be very good for theCommunity if people pay in dollars. It is recommended to register atthe Tashigar Norte some days before retreat starts. People will get theChüdlen pills at the moment of registration.

Warm greetings,

Tashigar Norte Gakyil

Namgyalgar DzogchenCommunity in AustraliaPO Box 14 Central Tilba,

NSW 2546 Tel/Fax: 61 02 4473 7668

Email: namgyalg@acr.net.auWeb site: www.dzogchen.org.au

Namgyalgar Gakyil, Australia

BLUEJan Taylor (Vice-President)Paul MortensenKamalesh Raeannon

YELLOWPeter Phipps (Treasurer)Ivan Barker (Co-Treasurer)

RED Joanna Tyshing (President)Jean Mackintosh

Vacancies exist on Red and Yellow. Expressions of interest to join the Gakyil can be lodged with the President or secretary.

Namgyalgar Updates

AudioVisual ArchiveThank-you to Phil and Veneta for their earlier work on the archive.Many thanks to outgoing member of the AV committee: Charles.Easter SMS Retreat

An SMS retreat led by Angie Gilbert on the contemplation of the FourImmeasurables and Chöd practice was held at Namgyalgar over Easterand attended by 25 people who benefited from Angie’s clear, conciseexplanations. At the retreat, Mathew Long gave Yantra Yoga instruc-tions and Jean Mackintosh guided Vajra Dance practice. Some practi-tioners traveled from as far away as Perth and Brisbane to attend theretreat which overall was very successful and enjoyed by all partici-pants.Annual General Meeting The AGM was held at Namgyalgar during the Easter SMS Retreat andattended by approximately 30 people.At the meeting the 2002-03 audited financial accounts were tabledalong with reports from the President, Treasurer, Secretary and Gakyil.This was followed by an open discussion regarding the situation andfuture of Namgyalgar with suggestions being made concerning possibleincome generating ventures which could help the Gar become moreself-sufficient, and ideas about how to attract more people to visit,attend practice retreats and settle near the Gar.

Namgyalgar Projects :Dark Retreat CabinThe foundations of the dark retreat cabin have been laid and work is inprogress, set to be completed within the near future. This cabin willhave a dual function with a small light retreat room for Longde practiceas well as the dedicated dark retreat section.

Geköes CabinPresently minor modifications to the design of the cabin are being final-ized for submission to the Council for approval. Construction on thecabin is expected to start by mid-winter this year.

Gonpa ShrineA design for a shrine table in the Gonpa has been accepted. This projectis seen as part of the completion of the Gonpa and will be built as soonas funds are available. Donations to help finance the shrine’s construc-tion are most welcome.

Future Gakyil meeting dates :July 24 in MelbourneSept 25 at the Gar

Namgyalgar Retreat Program2004

Aug 12th - 22nd AugMichael Katz Tour

Sydney Lecture: August 20th

7 – 9 PM The Buddhist Library 90 - 92 Church St CamperdownWorkshop: August 21st

9.30 AM – 4 PM Rigpa Fellowship 3/822 GeorgeSt Sydney

GeelongLecture: August 14th

7 – 9 PM The Lindell Theatre

Geelong HospitalBellarine St Geelong

MelbourneLectures: August 13th & 19th7 – 9 PM Melbourne University Private442 Auburn Rd. Hawthorn Workshop: August 15th

9.30 AM – 4 PM Faulkner Park65 Toorak Rd South Yarra

Lecture $20 per person Concession $15Workshop $100 per person Concession $80

Saturday Sept 25th 2004 SMS retreat at Gar

Namgyalgar’s Easter Practice RetreatEaster, 2004by Antonia McGarity and Viki Forscutt

ASanti Maha Sangha and Yantra Yoga practiceretreat, led by Angie Gilbert and MathewLong, was held at Namgyalgar over the East-

er weekend in April, the theme of which was “Work-ing with behavior, focusing upon the cultivation ofBodhicitta and letting go of the ego”.

The retreat was attended by approximately thirtyenthusiastic practitioners, some of whom traveledlong distances to participate, making it one of thelargest practice events at Namgyalgar for some time.Though there was only a small gathering of people atthe Thundrin practice to open the retreat on Fridaynight, the numbers swelled the next day with thearrival of many more Vajra kin from near and far. Ithad been some time since the Gar’s infamous bushkitchen - which just seems to go on and on - becamea hub of Vajra family social activity. Once again,huddled together inside this rustic “humpy” nestledamidst the eucalyptis trees, brothers and sistersenjoyed lively conversation and catching up witheach other over tasty, healthy meals which theyshared in the preparation of.

Aimed at helping to overcome the ego-riddendualistic self, each day of the retreat included ses-sions on the contemplation of the FourImmeasurables, Chöd and Yantra Yoga. Gently andcalmly SMS teacher Angie Gilbert spoke aboutEquanimity and Loving-kindness which was con-templated in the context of the Short Thun. In herdirect way, Angie also led people through explana-tions of the Chöd punctuated by the Guru Yoga versewith Machig Labdron. Angie’s skill of structuringthe retreat in such a way as to hold everyone’s atten-tion and inspiration, aided by her measured leadingof the practices, was much appreciated by all inattendance.

In the context of cutting the ego and developingthe heart, the new teacher Mathew Long led theYantra Yoga which was very refreshing and relaxing.Complimenting the main practices of the retreat,each day before the evening meal, several peopledanced the Song of the Vajra around the Mandala ledby Jean Mackintosh. In the evenings, after dinner,people gathered around a large open fire in the gaze-bo to do Chöd practice, before snuggling into their

sleeping bags in the tents and caravans poised uponthe hillsides.

On the last night of the retreat, following a bar-becue, the remaining retreatants ventured out fromunder the trees and away from the gazebo fire ontoan open field to do the Chöd. With torches in hand,seated around a fire beneath a starlit sky, people dida vigorous Chöd that included an extremely shortform taught during the retreat. In the early morningon the last day a Sang practice - which is becomingmore popular at Namgyalgar - was performed at theSankhang, not far from the new retreat cabin situat-ed near the coral tree in the saddle. The retreat endedwith a final Thun on loving-kindness followed by aGanapuja that included the Marme Monlan thatreminds us of inter- dependence and potentiality.Coincidentally as the balimta was being offered, alarge old goanna lizard that came strolling purpose-fully along, paused for a moment outside the Gonpa,then turned and scuffled off, hauling itself up a wallthrough the Vajra Garden.

Scheduled into the retreat was the AnnualGeneral Meeting at which the audited financialaccounts were presented, along with reports fromNamgyalgar’s office bearers. Following the officialbusiness there was an open discussion regarding thesituation and future of Namgyalgar. In particularpeople talked about the need to have a long-termvision for the Gar and how financially viableschemes might be created to help sustain it. Issueswere raised about the lack of people and under-uti-lization of the Gar, about its isolation and how faraway many practitioners live from it. This led into alively brainstorming session in which people sug-gested possible income-generating activities andways of attracting and assisting more people to visit,attend practice retreats and settle near the Gar. Ideasabout practitioners possibly living together either onthe Gar or nearby in shared accommodations ofsome sort, with a view to supporting each other andpracticing together in their older age, were flagged.The Namgyalgar Gakyil is now considering ways tofurther investigate and explore some of these ideas.

Overall it was a most positive and enjoyableretreat in which a cluster of Vajra kin greatly bene-fited in deepening their practice and understandingof the teachings, and reconnecting with each otherand with their wonderful victorious Gar.

P A S S A G E SBorn:Arya DewaPhipps wasborn inMelbourne onMarch 22,2004, to thechants on theM a n t r aHealing CD

and into the arms of overjoyed parents Suzana Dewa and PeterPhipps. Arya smiles wide-eyed at her brother Gabriel, her sister Sylviaand her dog Oki, sleeps snuggled between her mum and dad, and issimply too beautiful for words. She reminds us of things that we’veforgotten and are trying to unlearn our way back to. As our Tibetanfriends say, Arya still remembers everything and knows a lot morethan we ever will in our human lifetime. It is for this that we not onlyadore her but also deeply respect her.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l c o m m u n i t y n e w s

Namgyalgar Gakyil Update

April 2004

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu visit 2005Rinpoche has informed the Namgyalgar Gakyil that he will not be vis-iting the Asia - Pacific region in 2005. In light of this the Blue Gakyilis planning a retreat program for summer 2004 - 05 for the Gar whichwill be publicized when confirmed

Tibetan Medicine ProgramDr. Nida will conduct Tibetan Medicine courses in Australia betweenDecember 2004 and February 2005 which include: Ku Nye MassageLevels 1: 2: 3, Mantra Healing Level 1 and Dream Analysis. The fullprogram will be publicized when finalized.

Namgyalgar’s 10 year anniversaryThe Gakyil is planning a celebration for Namgyalgar’s 10thAnniversary to be held at the Gar in early 2005.

Namgyalgar Gakyil ChangesMany thanks to outgoing Namgyalgar Gakyil members Steph Kerr,Lily Giblin and Maggie Camfield, for their generous contribution tothe Community. Welcome to new Gakyil members Jean Mackintoshon Red and Kamalesh Raeannon on Blue.

Dreaming and Awakening2004 Australian TourDr. Michael KatzEditor of Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural LightAuthor of The White Dolphin

Sponsored by the Dzogchen Community of Namgyalgar

Tour dates: Aug 13th - Aug 21st, 2004

Sydney Lecture: August 20th7 PM - 9 PM The Buddhist Library90 - 92 Church St CamperdownWorkshop: August 21st9:30 AM- 4 PM Rigpa Fellowship3 /822 George St, Sydney

Geelong Lecture: August 14th7 PM - 9 PM The Lindell TheatreGeelong HospitalBellarine St Geelong

Melbourne Lectures: August 13th & 19th7 PM - 9 PM Melbourne University Private442 Auburn Rd. HawthornWorkshop: August 15th9:30 AM - 4 PM Faulkner Park65 Toorak Rd South Yarra

Dr Michael Katz is a psychologist (B.A. Lafayette College, M.A.;Psy.D. New York University) who has studied Ericksonian hyp-notherapy, Reichian therapy, Gestalt, Embodied Dream Imagery andpsychodrama. He has practiced Tibetan Buddhism and Dzogchenmeditation since 1974, and is a long-standing student of ChögyalNamkhai Norbu, a Tibetan master of the Dzogchen tradition. He edit-ed and wrote the “Introduction” to that master’s definitive book,Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light. He has also written anovel, The White Dolphin, which publicizes the plight of marinemammals. He currently lives in New York City and since 2001 haslectured and led workshops throughout the USA and Europe on luciddreaming for personal growth. This will be his first visit to Australia.

Publications:Norbu, Namkhai, Dream Yoga and the Practice of Natural Light,Ithaca, NY,Snow Lion Publications, 2002. 2nd edition, Edited and introduced byMichael Katz.

Katz, Michael, The White Dolphin, Psychology Help Publications,2001

LecturesLectures will outline how Dream Yoga and the practice of the “natur-al light” fit into the context of Tibetan Buddhism as well as delineatethe various psychological systems used in dream work. Dr MichaelKatz will instruct on exercises drawing upon both Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu1s Dzogchen tradition and psychological methods that assist usin actively and creatively working with dreams. The exercises taughtat the lectures will not require attendance at a workshop in order to beuseful. However the workshops will deepen and extend the dreamwork.No pre-registration is required to attend the lectures, please pay at thedoor on the night.

20

by Dorothea Franck

V. Vajra-familyIt is obvious that most of thethings I said in the previous partsof this essay are not necessarilyspecific for the exchange betweenmembers of the Sangha. Theirrelevance rather derives from thefact that communicating with fel-low students, while sometimesstrangely easy, at other times canbe particularly difficult. It seemsas if we meet all our best friendsand our best “enemies”. In thisrespect it very much resembles afamily, where in case of differ-ences emotions tend to rise high.There is an additional problem.Just because we realize theimmeasurable value of theseteachings and hence the profoundcommitment for its pure preser-vation, we feel justified in gettingvery worried and angry if othersinterpret the Masters words in a“wrong”, i.e. a different way. Ofcourse, we do have to communi-cate our concern when we see thatthings go wrong. But we have tomind the famous words of Atisha:“The Dharma has to be applied inthe way of the Dharma”! Thismeans in the first place that wehave stay relaxed and remainopen in the communication. Thisis the more difficult the more thethings at stake really seem to mat-ter. But being present and relaxedis more important than any othermatter, because in a noisy, angryinner state the soft inner voice ofour intuitive wisdom can hardlycome through.

“God is on our side – theGuru is on my side”Let’s stay with the family com-parison. As children, we all want-ed to be daddies or mummiesfavourite. We all want to be rec-ognized and loved. We want tofeel special, deserving a specialrelationship with the parent or themaster. In cases of conflict wewant to feel: Daddy/God/theGuru is on my side!Also if we feel not respectedenough by Sangha members, wefeel deep indignation. How can aVajra brother or sister do this tome! And we might feel jealouswhen we see the master give spe-cial attention or show a smile toanother person, and not to us, andthink like a spoiled child: Thisisn’t fair! Just like we cried whenour brother or sister got a (seem-ingly) bigger piece of chocolate! Behavioral advice usually goesprimarily to the “active” person:do not hit your brother or sister,do not hurt the other person, beaware of the needs of others. Butthe maturity of the receiving sideis just as relevant! For example,when you feel hurt: don’t assumetoo quickly bad intentions. Weshould look for the reasons whythe other person might feel justi-fied to raise a critical voice, andcheck our own sensitivities andsore spots, where we get defen-sive or furious or deeply hurt.This is a very efficient way togain insight into our trigger spots:the weak point where past experi-ences, and particularly a lack ofself-acceptance, causes dispro-portionately emotional respons-es. If you manage to considerthese not too pleasant situations

as a kind of discovery procedurefor blind spots, they are still notpleasant, but at least no longeruseless. When we make the comparison tothe family situation, we must notwe forget that the analogy is onlyhalf-true. While we studentsmight feel and behave somewhatsimilar to how we did as children,our Master is not like an ordinaryparent. Even if in a given disputemy opinion might contain somereal understanding and theteacher even confirms this insome way, the Guru is never “onmy side” - nor for or againstyours, because he is not on anyside. He is impartial, non-dualis-tic and non-judgemental. He hasa special, i.e. a specific relation-ship with every one of us. Whilewe know this rationally, it is hardto really base our emotions andbehaviour on this conviction.Nevertheless we can remind our-selves of it when necessary,because there is an immense dan-ger there: that the spiritual con-nection to a teacher rather feedsour ego than destroying it. We might also suffer from theopposite syndrome, feelingextremely insecure, unworthy,unlovable, stupid and immaturein front of the master, naked andtransparent in all our misery.Sometimes in the proximity to themaster we feel like the lost soncoming home, at other momentswe feel like under an X-raymachine or cut open on the oper-ation table, all our shortcomingsand hidden flaws totally exposed.I am sure we are totally “seen”,

in more ways than we can imag-ine. But at the same time we haveto realize that we seriously under-rate the compassionate capacityand impartiality of the master ifwe feel judged and rejected. Whywould we follow a teacher if wewould not find special qualitieslike unlimited compassion inhim? The case of insecurity causes per-haps fewer problems towardsother Sangha members, but it is amirror image of the problem ofthe spoiled child. In both caseswe project our own limitationsand fears onto someone who isbeyond these limits.

Hard cases:Breathing with a snake

There are other ways of commu-nication in the Sangha than talk-ing and arguing. Doing practicetogether is also a way to commu-nicate, and a highly relevant one.The co-ordination of the actionsof body and voice also co-ordi-nates the energies in the group. Thinking specifically ofRinpoche’s advice to co-ordinateour breathing at certain parts ofthe collective practices, because itcreates a kind of resonance or linkbetween us, a strange memorycame to my mind.A long time ago I was visiting aneccentric pop musician and hisfamily in England. He especiallycherished a pet snake, which waslying motionless in the middle ofa large terrarium. It didn’t seem totake notice of us trying to get itsattention. The owner claimed thesnake would recognize him and

respond to him in special wayswhen he takes it out of its box.Somehow, I had a hard timebelieving this, and I tried to findout whether I could get anyresponse from the animal. It was-n’t interested in our gestures,even when I ticked on the glass.But I decided to spend some timein front of the terrarium andwatch it. After a while, I saw thatthe movement of breathing wasslightly noticeable in the coiledup body. It had a very strange wayof breathing: inhaling seemedslow and normal but the exhalingwas not one continuous smoothmovement but it went in bits andpieces in a strange, irregular, stut-tering rhythm. Looking for a wayto feel closer to the snake I start-ed to imitate this and followed thesnake exactly with my ownbreathing. Nothing happened forquite a while. But then all of asudden the snake made a dramat-ic quick movement and shot itshead forward to the glass on theside where I was standing. Itraised its head and opened themouth moving the forked tonguetowards me. I almost jolted. Butthen I steadied myself and juststared back, after all, there wasthick glass between us. Weexchanged glances for quite awhile. I was convinced that thesynchronized breathing hadbrought about this contact. So if the co-ordination of such abasic process provides a kind ofcontact between species, howmuch more should this be thecase among humans? As I saidearlier, trying to understandanother being is like visitinganother planet. But the teachingsoffer methods to bridge the gap. Communication with a snakemight indeed seem a hard case.But among our fellow humanbeings there are definitely per-sons we find hard to love andrespect. Well, in extreme caseswe have to find extreme reme-dies. I received a lesson recently thatwas profoundly painful and beau-tiful as well. Death is an existen-tial situation which functions likea crystal-clear mirror. I had theprivilege to attend a dear old auntof mine in her very last days.Asking myself: when did I reallyhelp her and when did I fail, Irealized that it was all a questionof good listening - especiallywhen there is no more talking.There was a profound contact.But there were also momentswhen I was hiding my helpless-ness and hidden panic behindbusy action like pushing her to eatand drink when she had clearly nodesire to do so. It’s like skatingover thin ice: we fear to breakthrough a hole when we stop andstand still. While in fact we couldbreak through the hole and learnto fly!Besides these insights I received agift. I realized that you can lovemore profoundly than ever whenyou are a witness of dying. We allknow the old rule “de mortibusnihil nisi bene.” (Only speak wellof the deceased.) This not only awise rule of conduct but also arealistic observation. Whensomeone has died and even morewhen we see someone dying, weare naturally inclined to see the

Communicating within the Sangha Part III

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continued on page 22

Love is probably the mosthighly prized, most soughtafter human experience

after sex. Or maybe for theromantic, the top of the heap.Love has many forms and existswithin a variety of contexts, somemore conditional than others.There is the love of the parent forthe child, the child for the parent,the lover and the beloved, love ofcountry, love of God, love ofnature, animals, art, food, choco-late, etc., etc. You name it and welove it. And then we relate to theobject of our love. Weobjectify it, weidealize it, welong for it, wegrasp at it, wejudge it, wecling to it, wef a n t a s i z eabout it, we’resuffocated by it,sometimes we leave itor it leaves us, and we suffer. Wehave wars based in nationalismand “love of country”. We hurtothers through the exclusivity ofour “love”. We create hugechasms of separation because ofour “love of God”. We can findour muse and great creative inspi-ration through love. We canachieve enormous feats in love.We can become totally one point-ed and totally distracted in love.Love is a strong basic humanemotion that feels infinitely good

and can plummet us into thedeepest depths of despair.Love is all-powerful. It can healthe sick. It can calm the mad. Itcan drive one mad. It can grow aflower. It can soothe a hunger andquench a thirst. Mothers sacrificetheir own lives for love. It caneven raise the dead.It is interesting to really examinelove and the feeling - where lovecomes from, where it goes, whereit resides in the body, etc.Examining love is a great practicefor a practitioner. Love contains

and inspires great dualism andin its purest form, an

all-embracing andprofound com-

passion. Howwe use love isi m p o r t a n t .What do we

want to dowith our love as

practitioners? Bylooking at love we can

examine the many facets of ourhabits of attachment and aversionand come out the other side witha purified and more universallove - unconditional love andcompassion. Like our teachers.What we love in our teachers istheir capacity to live in the stateof unconditional love and pro-found compassion and to transmitthat state to us. That is true love.

Naomi Zeitz for The Mirror

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 21

Respecting OthersRome, November 21, 2000Mirror Issue # 56

Knowing how to respectthe value and character ofeach thing is a part of our

awareness. First of all, a practi-tioner should know how to respectthe individual and, above all, oth-er practitioners, because eachindividual has his or her dimen-sion. We have a great many prob-lems with this. We are constantlyforgetting to respect the dimen-sion of others, particularly peoplewho are in couples.

When both people in the cou-ple are young and lovely theneverything goes wonderfully.They are blinded by their passion

and think they are like one indi-vidual and see all aspects ofthings in the same way. A yearlater it’s a little like that, and aftera few more years they are a littledisillusioned and discover thatthey don’t exactly see eye to eye.At the beginning [of their rela-tionship] they want to be seatedon the same chair when they areeating, even if they break thechair! After two or three yearsthey definitely want two differentchairs, and after a few more yearsthey want two different beds.After a while, one house isn’t bigenough and they want two.

After all this time, all theyhave really discovered is that theyare two individuals, each withtheir own dimension. If, from thebeginning, they had acknowl-

edged that they were two individ-uals with their own dimensions,their own ways of seeing andbeing but wanted to collaborateand be together, then they wouldhave respected each other – espe-cially if they are people who arefollowing a spiritual path andhave a sense of these values. Inthis way, if they live long enoughto become old people then theywill be two old people who willbe sweet to each other and respecteach other. But today that’s veryhard to do.

Even if it’s not that way, it’svery important that we under-stand that each person is an indi-vidual with his or her own dimen-sion and way of seeing and being.

w o rd s o f C h ö g y a l N a m k h a i N o r b uLove, Relationships & t h e Te a c h i n g s

To Develop LoveHis Holiness the Dalai Lama

Excerpted from Mirror 8, 1991

“Many people say that human nature is violent, but I often jokingly saythat observing our bodies, our fingernails and our teeth, etc., we cancategorize men as docile animals. Also if we closely observe men’snature and the very existence of human communities, I think they arisefrom the need for human contact and love. Even scientists say that thefirst couple of weeks are extremely important for babies with regardsto their relationship with their mother. This shows how even biologi-cally man needs affection. I think that affection, love and benevolence,are fundamentally important.”

Love & Relationshipsby Paul Bail

The need for love. The need tofeel related to someone or some-thing. This drives so many behav-iors, some relatively sane, somerelatively “insane.” So muchmoney spent, hours of sleep lost,tears shed, lies told, moments ofhope and fear, all in the name oflove. We hide parts of ourselvesthat we think will be unaccept-able, so that we can be “loved.”How crazy! And the traits that ini-tially attract us to a lover are oftenthe very things that later annoy us.How strange! And yet, we nevertotally give up on chasing love. Love is another topic I can getwoefully confused about, right upthere with sex! Does love require another person,in order to manifest? When I amfully present, in that moment, isn’tthat love? Or, at least, the groundand potentiality out of which lovecan emerge? And when two peo-ple are fully present to each other,that’s the essence of love, isn’t it?That seems simple enough, butthen it gets more complicated.There can be a moment of pres-ence with someone I’m passingon the street, and a moment ofpresence in a committed relation-ship. I’d better not get these twomixed up, or there may be reper-cussions! “Instant karma,” as theysay!Some relationships seem more“special” than others do, and thisis part of the manifestation.Sometimes I have worried overthe idea that exclusive relation-ships are “attachment.” I got lostin the concept that attachment was“bad.” But, there are many typesof special relationships in ourmaterial life – parent and child,student and teacher, lovers, life-partners. Each of these has itsown rules and codes. The codesare constructions, but so what?We can use constructions, can wenot, knowing them to be such? Inthe provisional world in which welive, some constructions are “bet-ter” than others — nourishingfood, a warm dry place to sleep,kindness and love in relationships.While love, or any preference, is“attachment,” clearly we can dis-tinguish between possessive, con-trolling, selfish love and a moreopen, honest, unselfish love. Andevery relationship is a mixture ofthese, at various moments.And then again, there aremoments of peace, when all dis-tinctions become forgotten for themoment. Between craziness, andsatisfaction, and peace – this ishow my life swings.

Love & MarriageAn offering by Barrie Simmons

Afew weeks ago, while in New York for the marriage of our sonNoah and his Sandra, I came upon the quotation attached, whichseems to me to make great sense, in a book by Tom Malone. He

was one of the pioneers, with my friend Carl Whitaker, of an approachwe call “experiential psychotherapy.” In one of history’s extremeironies, they worked out their very humane way of helping in the mentalhealth clinic at Los Alamos, part of the secret installation where theAtomic Bomb was first being built. For years, they worked with ostensi-bly incurable schizophrenics, achieving remarkable results. Then theydeveloped a deep and effective mode of family therapy, which hashealed thousands. NB: Nancy and I are celebrating our 50th weddinganniversary on December 16th of this year.

From THE WINDOWS OF EXPERIENCE by Thomas P. Malone:

“To stay married we have to...Realize that marriage is ongoing hard work. There is no other way to bemarried. Understand that we marry the missing parts, the rest of us.Being married to oneself would not only be a bore, but would almostguarantee our premature demise as a person. Realize that we have tolearn from the ways in which we differ. The task is a significant portionof our motivation for marrying this particular person. Decide that we aregoing to stay in the marriage. It is astonishing how few people everdecide that. Realize that we are responsible for our own happiness andunhappiness. Know that if our spouse is having a bad time, we havesomething to do with it even though we may not be “responsible” for it.Bring something new of our person into the relationship every day. Ourliving together healthily involves a constant renewal. Know without anyreservations that the greatest gift we can give our spouse is our genuinelove of ourselves. The greatest gift we can give our children is our loveof each other. Know that if we want something, we must give it. If wewant our spouse to tell us about himself or herself, we must tell themabout ourselves. If we want our spouse to listen, we must listen to ourspouse. Accept the fact that despite being male and female, both of usare both masculine and feminine. Realize that play makes marriages.Without joy and laughter, marriage is simply an incessant dying. “

.....suggested by Barrie Simmons

daily llife iinthe mmirror

SINGLE WHITE FEMALE DZ PRACTITIONER SEEKSCYBER LOVER FOR EXCHANGE OF WELL-WRITTENLOVE NOTES.

Age irrelevant, looks irrelevant, unbearable personal habits that wouldnormally drive a lover away, not an issue here as it is preferable thatwe never meet. Fear of intimacy not an issue, fear of commitmentcould be if you don’t think you could commit to a few minutes writ-ing per day. Sexual preference not an issue either as I will accept lovenotes from all sexesand sexual persuasions, but let me say up front, that depending on theresponse to this ad, even though I cannot absolutely guarantee I willbe monogamous, you will feel like you are the one and only in my life.I may however with your permission, share your love notes with otherDZ practitioners like myself who while they may be strong, beautiful,radiant people in the prime of their lives, live each day untouched bythe sweet words or tender hands of another’s love. And while these men and women may be great practitioners and knowthat love is a dream, love is a projection, love is a samsaric drug or justtoo godamned painful to ever go there again, they still long for somesimple love words to thrill them, to light the flame of Eros in theirhearts, so that they may go to their meditation cushion with a littleskip in their step and greet the day thinking “ someone cares about me,someone desires me, someone wants to talk to me, someone wants toshare the innermost secrets of my soul!”However please be aware that love notes will only be responded to ifit is apparent that some thought has gone into them. The common andgeneric “love you” that is uttered at the end of every phone call andemail message will not be accepted. Use of erotic imagery andmetaphor is encouraged while pornography is not (initially) encour-aged.While a high quality of writing is sought, schmaltz and corny lan-guage will be tolerated and love notes submitted in broken English, inanother language or from an unusual world location will be at anadvantage because of the exotic nature of their origin. Married menwho respond to this ad will be encouraged to write love notes for theirwives instead. If you find the thought of a cyber love letter exchangetoo intimidating but you still want to take part, why not write lovenotes to yourself and just cc me in. I won’t respond to you directly butwill send my response on to someone else, they can send theirresponse to another, and so on, and in true Dzogchen style, the bene-fit of your love can be shared among many without you even know-ing it.This is my latest solution to the question of loving in a post global,post love/hate world. Maybe you have a better idea. I’d love to hear about it. I look forwardto receiving your first love note post haste, (seriously and not serious-ly) yours

LoveLetterWriter, jnana@ozemail.com.au

ErrataOn page 2 of the last Mirror, issue 67, Georg Meschede of Munich,not Marie Krupp, transcribed the Web Cast Teaching. Apologies toGeorg.

The Santi Maha Sangha Retreat dates with Jim Valby in Merigar are:July 16 – August 12, 2004

The correct email of Carmen Rivas on Margarita Island, Venezuela ismarcarmenrivas@yahoo.com.ar

next topic family & parentingdeadline: July 16

22

beauty and the goodness of this person and this person’s life. We see the whole picture now, not the tempo-rary irritations or shortcomings. I made the vow to myself that I will apply this insight to people who are moredifficult to love for me than this beloved old auntie. It seems like a morbid fantasy, but in fact, when you wantto feel more accepting and loving toward a person you really don’t like, imagine them on their deathbed. Your heart will open up. The other day I heard a translation of a beautiful Iranian song. It sings about two windows caught up in a wallat a fixed distance. They were hoping for the wall to collapse so that the distance would vanish, knowing thatthe fall of the wall would mean that they too would break. Isn’t this a perfect image for our own process,where in the end, all our walls will crumble and our limitations dissolve in Big Space?

by Monica Wittib

The activity in the morningat Zaragosa beach buildsup slowly until midday.

When I come down for breakfastafter the practice at about9:30AM, the tall smiling Cabanaman is taking out the sun shades,getting the lounge chairs ready,and pulling the speedboat to theshore across the only tiled path-way on the island surrounded by“uba de playa” or “guagacom”trees. A small stone wall separatesthe white sandy beach from thepromenade. While I head alongthe row of houses to Roger’sRestaurant, Conde stops to kissme good morning and to wish mea good day, the shop owners waveout of their houses, the fruit-juiceseller says “hola”, Joaquin, one ofthe necklace vendors, prepares thejewelry on the stone wall, invitingthe passers-by to view his trea-sures and buy at such a good occa-sion.

I order eggs, cheese, arepas(corn flour cakes) and walk backto get a small paper cup full ofcappuccino con vanilla out of themachine in the corner shop. Ishare the cheese with the whitecat that begs for food with its blueeyes. Small groups of practition-ers stroll in, lingering here andthere, saying hello to others, cran-ing their necks to see what isgoing on and if Rinpoche isalready at his usual place or in thesea. The places in the shade of thepalm trees are soon taken andsome sit on the low stone wall.Someone puts Rinpoche’s whiteplastic chair into the shade of thesunscreen that forms a protectionfor two seats. You can hear Petracall, “Empanadas, empanadas”,in her sing song style, before sheeven appears, holding the big potin front of her belly. It containstriangles made of dough, filled

Dear friends

I’m sending you a little detail here from my life on the islandof Margarita where life often seems easierthan anywhere elseit is colorful with music anddancing in the streetsat this time people of PedroGonzalezare celebrating their patron SanPedrowho protects the fishermen

all the streets and housesare beautiful decorated withpaper and plastic flowershandmade boats and so on...people here are poor but cheerfuland friendlypart of the daily picture of lifeare old huge american carsoften without number platespart of the radiator is missingand sometimes even the doorsoften people repair their cars inthe middle of the roads

cows are walking along thestreets alonesometimes I feel like in Indiaone sees four people togetherriding on one bicycleand it is hotalways hotone feels happy if the windblows a bit strongerwe eat fish and chicken andarepasfreshly baked corn tortillasand a lot of papaya mangos andcoconutthe ocean gets warmer every dayin wintertime the water is prettycoldthe locals go swimming for firsttime around Easter

One day we spent long time onthe beachit’s eveningthe colors of the houses on thebeachthe palm trees and the flowersare glowingin the last sunraysthe atmosphere makes us feelinghappythe sun surrounded by goldenrayschanging into a bigger growingred ballslowly sinking into the oceanIt is calm on the beachthe restaurants are closedpeople have left

Suddenly some children areshoutingand pointing to the far end on thebeachthere in the distance a huge seaturtleat least 2 meters longis slowly moving walkingtowards the beachit’s looking like a big movingrock

I’m amazedhad no idea that something likethis is still existingwe walk towards the end of thebeachwhere some people from the vil-lage already are standingin a distance watching the spectacle respect-fullywhispering with each other

The huge water turtle slowlymoves forwardsearchingafter a little while she starts todraw a big circle

we are getting excitedhow old could she be maybe 200 or 300 years oldwho knowsshe is very impressive

slowly it is getting darkabove us the starsand some light from the waningmoonI’m happy to be here participat-ing

The turtle has found her placedrawing circles with her big finsthen she scratches (scrapes) intothe sandshoveling deep holes andremaining seated

We can move closerShe is totally busy depositing hereggs

there will be a hundred to hun-dred and fiftyas the local people saynot all will surviveThe turtle is under protection ofthe civil nature guardwe hear that some people mighteat her eggs and meathere two men feel responsible

We are very close and stay quietsomehow howevervoice has spread the eventso more people are coming

She is still depositing her eggsand nothing seems to disturb hershe seems to be deeply involvedin what she is doing

after a long while she slowlyraises herselfshe snorts (blows)breathes heavily and deeply“she is crying” I hear a childsaying

with her huge fins she shufflesthe sand around her to cover the place where she hasbeen sittingdrawing again a circle

Two cars arrivetheir headlights irritate hersoldiers come to keep guard

She tries to find her way back tothe seathe eggs are lying half meterunder the sandthey will be dug out, that’s whatwe hearand brought to safe placethere after two months the turtleswill slip out

It seems that she doesn’t find her way back tothe seawe worry a bitand wish her to find her wayhomeFinally she reaches the border ofthe watershe walks along the oceanwalks a bit into the oceanit seems that the lights from thevillage irritate her

Five strong men decide to helpher inand so she reaches the depths ofthe sea

Here I’m sitting in the internetcafeit is terrible coldthe air conditioning is blowing

with affection and lots of regards

Anna Eid

S o m e R e f l e c t i o n s o f L i f e a t Z a r a g o s a B e a c h , M a r g a r i t a I s l a n d , Ve n e z u e l a

Communication in the Sangha continued from page 20

Zaragosa Beach, Isla Margarita

with cheese, fish or chicken andfried in oil. You eat it right thereby the stone wall and if you likeyou can put some green hot sauceon top of it. Ignazio clears thetable from my breakfast and pre-pares the others for lunch, puttingsalt and pepper, cutlery, and nap-kins on each table.

The bustle and noise come toa sudden standstill and everybodygets up as Rinpoche appears. Heheads directly for his chair wherehe only shortly sits down to takehis red cap and T-shirt off andapply sunscreen. Gustavo (a.k.a.Chocolate) starts to run busilyaround taking orders for pinacoladas and cocadas after theswim. After that, Rinpocheimmediately walks into the seasurrounded by the disciples, Nowsomething begins what I call the“deep-blue-sea teaching” forthose who are prepared to stay inthe relatively chilly ocean forabout an hour. There will bejokes, or games, just talking withfriends and stories that oftendevelop into profound teachings.

One day Rinpoche was mus-ing about the pelicans who restquietly on a small fishing boatswith their big beaks folded downon their breasts, eyes darting hereand there looking for fish.Occasionally these prehistoriclooking creatures swoop up intothe sky with their enormouswings and dive precisely into thesea, scooping up fish and swal-lowing them whole. Sometimesyou can see the fish wiggling infear inside the beak. The pelicandiscussion with Rinpoche wentsomething like this: What mightthey think of us human beingswho take away all their prey andeat it without working for it?What might they think when theycircle around our heads - do theyfor a moment consider us their

prey? Perhaps out of their exis-tence over thousands of yearsthey wonder what funny creatureshave come to live on this planet?Let us all swim out to “PelicanIsland” and stay there with thepelicans without water and food.We will catch fish like they do,although they will surely thinkhow funny those beings are, inwhat strange way they eat fish.

For a while, Rinpoche liesvery still on his back on thewaves, stretching his arms andlegs apart, singing the Song of theVajra and sometimes chantingmantras quietly. The ones whocan withstand the cool water joinin and others swim around tryingto keep warm. Then the circle ofpeople slowly swims to the shorewith Rinpoche.

In between swims withRinpoche, and sometimes thereare several, there are the dailymusical serenades and strawbands, more stories, discussionsof world politics, and salutationsof comings and goings. ThenRinpoche puts on his red cap andT-shirt, gathers his belongings,washes his feet in the bucket ofwarm water waiting for him andstrolls to the car with Fabio. Thelocals from Playa Zaragosa alsostop and call their greetings. Lifehas changed since Rinpoche andhis students arrived in Margarita.

The people disband into smallgroups, some for lunch on thebeach, some go home, some runto Juan Griego or Porlamar foremail and shopping, some lookfor rides, and some remain on thebeach to improve their tan orswim some more. And that is thetypical day in the life at PlayaZaragosa, Isla Margarita, withChögyal Namkhai Norbu.

A Day in the Life at Playa Zaragosa, Isla Margarita with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

R E F L E C T I O N S

T H E M I R R O R M A Y / J U N E 2 0 0 4 23

orm & Emptiness: The Dalai Lama teaches the Heart Sutra • Meredith Monk on

dharma and creativity • Attending to the Deathless, by Ajahn Amaro • Forum: Bhikkhu

Bodhi, Jeffrey Hopkins and Jan Chozen Bays debate the law of karma • Community Profile: Foundation for the

Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition • Five teishos by Maezumi Roshi on breathing, energy

and the practice of qi gong • Dharma Dictionary: Thanissaro Bhikkhu defines satipatthanna

• Thich Nhat Hanh explains why sangha is a deep spiritual practice • Norman

Fischer on the controversy over “Nanchuan Cuts the Cat” • Roger Jackson reviews The Third

Karmapa’s Mahamudra Prayer • Readers’ Exchange: Being a Buddhist parent • Forum:

Robert Thurman, Joseph Goldstein and Judith Lief on the need for more full-time practitioners •

Mahamudra teachings by Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso • Ajahn Chah on awakening “the One

Who Knows” • Diversity Practice at Spirit Rock • Pure Attention: A conversation with

S.N. Goenka • Eido Roshi on the “True Man Without Rank” • Ask the Teachers: What

do I do when my practice isn’t working? • Dharma Dictionary: Charles Muller defines yogacara •

Unpublished teachings by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche • The centenary of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi • Sharon Salzberg

on the meaning of faith in Buddhism • Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche on the three kayas

• The inspiring story of Dipa Ma • Gehlek Rinpoche on the practice

of taking and sending • B. Alan Wallace on purity of the dharma •

Forum: Understanding Master Dogen • Vipassana teachings by U Pandita • From

Servants to Practitioners: Jan Willis on why things are getting better for the nuns of Ladakh

These are some of the great teachings and articles that have appeared inBuddhadharma: The Practitioner’s Quarterly. It’s the new practice-oriented journal

for Buddhists of all traditions. Four outstanding issues for only $19.95. Brought to you by the publishers of the Shambhala Sun.

Call toll-free 1-877-786-1950 Or go to www.thebuddhadharma.com

Price in Canada: $29.95 CDN. Foreign: $29.95 USD. 4 quarterly issues. Allow 4-6 weeks for delivery.Buddhadharma: The Practitioner's Quarterly, PO Box 3377, Champlain, NY 12919 USA Fax 902-423-2701

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F

Dream Yoga and Death

by Michael KatzMerigar, August 2003

Iam looking out over the hills of Tuscany. The sun is rising in a cloud-less sky. In the distance is Merigar and I can also see the Maestro’shouse from the “pensione” we have rented. Last night as I drove

home from dinner at a friend’s house, a white owl flew near my car andlingered. I am reminded that I had a very similar experience with a whiteowl while visiting Hawaii a few years back. I had also presented a courseon dreams there. Now I ask myself is this a dream.

It is the second consecutive summer that I have presented a sort oftraining on Dream Yoga at Merigar and now I am staying on so as toparticipate in a Santi Maha Sangha course with Rinpoche. I feel a greathonor to present this material at Rinpoche’s invitation as his dreamtransmission is the heart essence gift, which he gives us his students.Although my capacity in comparison to his is like a candle to the sun,I hope to communicate something useful as Rinpoche has only twoarms

There is something gnawing at me since the Dream course con-cluded, perhaps it is related to the strong emotions that welled up with-in me as the course ended. I feel an urgency to write. As I begin thetheme becomes clearer.

Two of the participants in this year’s course were struggling withcancer. One of them had remarked that all other fears are insignificantto the fear of death. As I write I remember back now nearly fifty years.My mother is tickling me and I am nearly crying with laughter. Theseyears have passed impossibly fast and now it is I tickling my son almostto tears. I recall the year spent with Rinpoche in New York City as herecovered from leukemia. I think also of my teachers DudjomRinpoche, Khyentse Rinpoche, Chogyam Trungpa and Lama Gonpowho have passed. I am wondering if the white owl might be a personalreminder that death is our shadow.

It is our condition that we become so involved in our complicatedlives we forget the need to prepare for our death. Perhaps we forget thatSamsara is an ocean of suffering and the preciousness of the humanrebirth. I also prefer to put these considerations off. After all, tonightthere is the fine wine of Montalcino, but there is also the voice of theMaestro whispering about that famous tomorrow, a tomorrow that maynot come. There are also the students struggling with cancer, the yearswhich pass more and more quickly, and the white owl.

It is something like thirty years I am practicing the Dharma. I haveforgotten even the name of so many important secondary practices. I amattempting to work with instant presence. Instant presence as LamaTarchen once reminded me, is something relatively easy to pick up butdifficult to carry. In the lives of the MahaSiddhas there are stories ofthose who upon receiving a direct introduction became instantly real-ized. Guru Padmasambhava, for example, achieved the great transfer-ence in his life. When I look in the mirror I don’t believe it will happento me. On the other hand I still have hope that I might do something atthe time of my death.

According to the teachers there are two particular opportunities forliberation at death. These correspond to the Chonyid and the Sidpai bar-dos. The opportunities at these times are directly related to the Practiceof Natural Light, and the Dream Yoga practices respectively. For exam-ple, if one is successful with the practice of the night, one’s familiaritywith “instant presence” may allow one to integrate with the natural lightof our intrinsic nature. The famous unification of the “mother and son”wisdoms.

The other possibility for some sort of liberation is at the time of themanifestation of hallucinations, which occurs during the process of theSidpai bardo. If we are successful in realizing that our nighttime dreamsare illusory we have a strong base for realizing that the hallucinations ofthe Sidpai bardo are unreal.

There are also the more relative but still profound benefits of thedream practices for psychological healing. To illustrate I recount thedream of one of the participants of the recent Merigar course. “She isexamining photos with members of her family when she notices thatsomething is missing from several of them. She realizes that what ismissing are the images of the children. As she is struggling with cancerthe inability to bear children has weighed upon her. Noticing that thephotos are somehow strange she suddenly realizes that it is a dream.Now lucid she subsequently finds herself in a shadowy room somethinglike a root cellar and in front of her is a vampire. She realizes this is thevampire who tormented her many times in recurring dreams during herchildhood. A vampire that preyed upon her sucking her blood butalways leaving her with enough life so as to be able to return and preyupon her again. Now in the dream she confronts the vampire and tellsit that she is not afraid. She takes it by the neck and chokes it. As shechokes the vampire it deflates like a balloon.

The central place that dream experience occupies within Rinpoche’stransmission and the unique opportunities of this practice leading to lib-eration at the time of death means that the importance of these practicescannot be overestimated. It is for these reasons that I am personallyinspired by the practices of the night, and that I am hoping there will inthe future be increased possibilities for training within our world wideCommunity.

COMING BACK FROM THE BARDO

by Alicia Caballero

On December l995, the day after Christmas,my parents and I were traveling by car fromAsuncion, Paraguay to Cordoba, Argentina,

1.200 kilometers. Mid way into the journey we had aterrible accident en route.

We left Asuncion when the sun rose. I drove untilmidday and then my father took over. I was tired andlaid down in the back seat. My mother was sittingbeside my father and they were talking when I felldeeply asleep. The next memory was a strong throb-bing at my forehead and everything became dark. Ifound myself in the middle of a dark space, like anight without stars. I was very, very confused:“Where are the people? Where are my parents? Whatis that?” I looked to my front, back, left, right, down,up, there was nothing. I didn’t know what to do.Never in my all life was I so desperate.

Up, in front of me, a light appeared, like a sun. Itmoved toward me and soon it reached me and wentthrough me. I was in the middle of the light and feltcompletely at peace.

At that time, a video was going inside my mindand I started seeing all my life in it - from the lastscenes lived that day after to the past, day by day. Iwas looking at scenes I had forgotten with many,many details, some I didn’t like. So many parties,dancing, enjoying and then driving drunk on theroad. I felt ashamed and started crying.

The light was looking at the video with me, likea Presence, and more than that it seemed to knoweverything about me. It was like God, so powerful,so wise, and so compassionate. It didn’t judge me.The clarity of my mind was judging me relentlessly.It was at my twentieth year, in high school, when Irecognized the process: “I’m dying!” and realizedthat I had wasted my time and didn’t fulfill the goal.I begged: “ I shall do it! I shall do it! Give me anoth-er opportunity”. Someone heard and the videostopped and started going ahead, quickly. I sawscenes of the future – I suppose- places that I’venever been, people that I never met in terrible suffer-ing. For example, I saw women running along adesert, holding their children in their arms, firefalling from the sky over them, wearing strangeclothes, and their heads covered by shawls.

I recognized just one place: the north of

Argentina where it was completely dry, cracks in theearth, people wandering thirstily looking for water. Iheard a voice in my mind: “The next years the fateof beings will be decided, there are many peoplewho are still in the dark and should reach the Path.You must do your work.” It asked me: “Will youremember?”I said, “Yes” and a luminous journey began to some-place. When it finished I felt at home, inside thebody. I had a wonderful meditation, no thoughts, nofeelings, no perceptions, and no intention, just con-sciousness.

After a while I realized I didn’t have contact andI worked hard to recover sight, sound, all the senses.I tried to open the eyes but I couldn’t see, I becameto nervous and moving in my bed: “the computer isnot working” I said, my brother - who is a physician- was at my side, “ Don’t worry Aly, we’ll fix it” Ohmy God, I couldn’t see but I recognized that voice. The sixth day of I sitting in my bed I started asking,“Who am I? Where am I? Amnesia, I couldn’tremember anything, but I knew very well one thing:“I’m a practitioner and remember my promise, “I’lldo it”.

Coming back to my house I thought it was anightmare, and could not believe the whole story, butit came back every night in my dreams. I thought Iwas becoming crazy, so decided to write to Rinpocheasking his advice.He answered:

“ Oh, yes that represents the nature beyond thehuman condition, it seems terrible but that is a realsituation, so it’s important to be aware that way”. It took me one year to recover, because I had a cere-bral hemorrhage, blood going inside the brain, but Iwas lucky because it stopped at the last cover (mem-brane) and because the second vertebral bound wasbroken too, it took a long time recover the body’snormal functions.

I told this story to my relatives and close friends,but they didn’t care very much, may be they didn’tbelieve me. So I think, “It better to shut my mouthand not talk about it anymore”.

But, this beautiful summer night at Tashigar,Naomi and I were talking about Death and I told her.She convinced me it was important to share with ourVajra Brothers and Sisters. So, here it is.

Thanks for listening, dear friends. It helps meremember my promise.

24

HOW I MET CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBULuminous MindMeeting the Masterby Cindy Thibeau

Luminous Mind first set meon the path to meet Chö-gyal Namkhai Norbu.

Deep in the heart of a cold Mainewinter night, snuggled in my bed,I was reading a book by the beau-tiful Kalu Rinpoche called“Luminious Mind”, and in it wasa short chapter on Dzogchen. Itreally sparked something in meand I thought, Dzogchen, that’swhat I want to study and practice!That same night I mentally askedfor a teacher in my life to guidemy practice.

As winter turned to spring Ifelt a strong urge to make achange, to go and do extendedretreat, but where? I lookedthrough Dharma magazines andwhile reading Shambala Sun Isaw a pretty advertisement forGampo Abbey. Having read andreread and loved ChogyamTrungpa and Pema Chodron’sbooks, that seemed like a good

connection. I went to thelibrary and downloaded anapplication for retreat toGampo Abbey and sent it in. Afew weeks went by and Ireceived a telephone call andhad a phone interview. Anotherfew weeks later I was acceptedfor a six month retreat startingin September.

In the meantime a friendhad called and proposed that Icome and work for her in hercenter in Colrain,Massachusetts where she heldvarious teaching workshops onalternative healing. I consid-ered it and decided to close mymassage practice and go to workfor her for a few months beforegoing to Gampo Abbey in thewilds of Nova Scotia. Also duringthis time period I received a copyof the Snow Lion paper and onthe front page were pictures of aman doing some interestingmovements along with an articleabout Yantra Yoga which wasbeing taught at LingminchaInstitute in Virginia. It really cap-

tured my attention and I reallywanted to go. At the end of thearticle was a telephone numberand an address in Virginia. Icalled and a woman namedAndrea answered the phone and Isaid I was interested in the YantraYoga course being offered. Shesaid, “We’re not offering YantraYoga this year, that will be nextyear.” I said, “But this article inthe Snow Lion says it is beingoffered this summer atLingmincha Institute.” She said

“You are calling Tsegyalgar,The Dzogchen Community inAmerica in Conway,Massachusetts.” We finally figured out Snow

Lion had made a mistake andput Tsegyalgar’s number inplace of Lingmincha’s number.Lucky me! Andrea thenexplained that they sometimesoffered Yantra Yoga courseswith two wonderful teachersfrom Italy and would I likesome information about theirteacher, Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu and a list of his booksalong with a complimentary

copy of the Mirror. I said “Sure”and several days later a packetcame. I noticed that on the list ofNamkhai Norbu’s books was“The Supreme Source” one of thesame books I had just orderedfrom Snow Lion. Hmmm, funnycoincidence. Also in the Mirrorwas a short story about the posi-tion of Geköes in some far awaycountry. How interesting, Ithought. I would love to do that.

So after many years of living

in Maine I started pulling uproots, getting rid of some belong-ings and storing others, to preparefor my journey. A few days beforeI was to leave I looked at the mapto find the best route to Colrain,Massachusetts. As I circledColrain I noticed that Conwaywas just a short jaunt down theroad from Colrain. Wow! What acoincidence, I thought. I’ll haveto drop by there sometime. Well,one day I did drop by Tsegyalgarand I met Andrea (the secretary atthe time), Damien (the geköes atthe time) and Bob, and Bob spentseveral hours showing me aroundthe Gar and talking about theteachings, and they invited me toa Ganapuja. It all felt quite magi-cal. I came for a video transmis-sion. I started doing karma yoga.Gampo Abbey started becoming adistant memory. The followingJune Rinpoche came toTsegyalgar. I met my Teacher.

Cindy is the current Geköes ofTsegyalgar.

walked ahead a stretch to reconnoiter and we continued onour way.

After one hour we arrived at what has been termed asthe “Squatter’s Cabin”. It is situated on an arroyo and hasa spring running just above it. It is constructed of wovenPau D’Arco and Palm leaf. Fabricated almost entirely oflocal natural materials, it was just large enough for a smallcooking area and a mattress. A corral tree and fruit treeswere nearby. The location is easily the most remote placeI’ve been in for years.Enclosed by mountainwalls on three sides, it hada nice exposure to thewestern sky. Lookingaround I noticed thatbelow the house thearroyo formed a smallcanyon with the vestigesof flowing water. Thehouse lay on a narrowledge overlooking thearroyo. Nathalie tookdown some notes as Iwalked away from thehouse down a path wherethe ledge opened up andfollowed the arroyo.While it seemed an ideal retreat cabin I couldn’t help butwonder how much time was involved in just survivinghere. Certainly trips to town for food and other supplieswould consume an entire day each week. As Fabio, Naryand Nathalie started to arrive at the vehicle, Rinpochelooked up above the ridge tops and said, “This is nice, wewill keep it.”

On the way back we ventured down another shorterroad that was a back entrance to the main arroyo he had tra-versed earlier. As Rinpoche began to take in the scope ofthe more than 3,000 acres, one got the impression thatwhile he was pleasantly surprised; he also seemed like healways knew about this place. Carol Fields had related herfeeling that as she filled him in with the details of the long,sometimes arduous process of the land decision and thentransfer, he always seemed already completely aware ofeverything.

Later that night, under a full moon, the Mandala wasunfurled and dancers traced the sacred path for all.Ludavina handed me a fire-made burrito and later, on hisway to bed. Rinpoche seemed a bit tired but satisfied. Hisearlier remarks about a Beyul rung like a bell in my headas I fell off to sleep.

Beyuls are historically valleys that are hidden frompeople with ordinary vision. Nyingmapa tradition says thatPadma Sambhava empowered 108 of these havens, placeswhere there was peace and prosperity and where spiritualprogress was facilitated. “Lotus-land” or Padma Kod issomewhere on the border of East Tibet and northeast India,perhaps Assam. Terma, or hidden teachings, describing theway to Pemako were revealed by Rigdzin Jetsun Nyingpo(1585-1656) and also by Rigdzin Dudul Dorje (1615-1672).

There is much lore surrounding Beyul’s (spas-yul Tib.).

At the root of the Shangri-La myth popularized by JamesHilton’s Lost Horizon, is the Tibetan Buddhist tradition ofthe “hidden valley.” This term has been applied to both leg-endary locales, such as Shambala, and to well-knownplaces, including Rolwaling, Khumbu, and all of Nepal. (Infact, the Tibetan name for Nepal is “Beyul”). While theidea is new to the West as such, there is always the idea thatthe Beyul exists not just in Tibet, but in places on the entireplanet. Perhaps we see the extension of other dimensions in

this concept.The Tibetan tradition of hid-den valleys is generally tracedback to Padma Sambhava.The story is that, foreseeing atime of chaos, he and his stu-dents wrote their teachings inbooks (ter-ma; collectively,the Rinchen Terzu) and thatthey hid underground or in acloak of invisibility, to remain

there until his futurereincarnations (theTertons ) rediscoveredthem. He further pre-dicted that in a time ofwar, Tibetans wouldtake refuge in “hiddenvalleys” deep in themountains. Among theidentified valleys areKhumbu, Rolwaling,and Khanbalung (saidto lie somewhere tothe south of Khumbu).Several of the redis-covered texts, includ-ing Dorje PagmeSabthig, GongpaSangthel, andKhanbalung Lamyig,describe Khumbu andKhanbalung, giving directions how to get there from Tibet.According to Buddhist traditions, Guru Rinpoche actuallyvisited Khumbu. At one point he flew to Akar-phug , a cavein Khumbila above Khumjung. Though Khumbu was thencovered with snow and glaciers, Guru Rinpoche predictedthat Khumbu valley would be a beyul. Khanbalung is a hid-den valley where people will age slowly. It has not yetbeen opened to people and sits at the center of a ring of hid-den valleys, like the center of a mandala. There are manyways to get to it from all around. Khumbu is one of theseroutes.

The Vimalaprabha is the source of a prophecy that isalso attributed to Padmasambhava, and often rendered into

contemporary English as: “When the iron bird flies and thehorse runs on wheels, the Tibetan people will be scatteredlike ants across the face of the Earth, and the Dharma willcome to the land of the red men.”

Now that Dharma has come to the West in a full sense,is it surprising that the attributes of recognition have fol-lowed?

The recognition of a Beyul in the West is more of a callto participation than it is one of fantasy or speculation.Beyul’s, at their core, have always been about Communitywhether it be Mahasiddhas or simple mountain people.Community where there are no limits. Where even theearth itself participates.

In the early 1900s, The Statesman carried the report bya British army officer of a very tall, lightly clad man withlong hair who, when he noticed the Major, leaped down anextreme vertical slope and disappeared. The Tibetans backat the encampment showed no surprise at the Major’s expe-rience, but simply explained that he had seen one of thesentries of the local “Beyul”.

But Beyuls have a more pragmaticaspect than just legendary. Today, inwhat is called by some, the “DzogchenHoly Area” (Central Khams-Derge’),you will find what is perhaps Tibet’scultural and Buddhist center. Near themountainous region of this area you willfind about a thousand natural caves thatare still populated by practitioners ofvarious disciplines. This area has beenactive throughout history (and beyond).At Gangtro Barma, the SnowMountain’s middle lake cave,Padmasambhava lived for three years.He concealed many Dharma treasures inthis area. Many practitioners haveattained enlightenment there. DzogchenKhenpo Choga Rinpoche has sincerebuilt a statue of Padmasambhava inthis cave. At the Beyul Jong caves,many secret yogis achieved realization.Padmasambhava discovered a sacred,hidden Dakini city in the Galaxy Lakeof Beyul Jong. There is also EkajatiLake, Rahula Rock Mountain, VajraSadhu Cave and Padmasambhava’sFootprints. While we see a rich tapestryof legend and history, one can also find

it as an area still very much used by practitioners and alocal population that supports them.

So while history and imagination regale us, we alsomust be aware that there is a development possible, not justin the individual but also importantly in the Community asa whole. The Baja Community, while new, has alreadyreceived a directional gesture from Rinpoche.

The worldwide Dzogchen Community ultimatelyshares what we do with that. As the world progresses inmany directions we as practitioners have a responsibility toprocure the resources for the continuation of the DzogchenTeachings we have received. The Baja Beyul is definitely abig piece of the future.

B a j a B e y u l continued from page 1

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New Baja Gakyil

Fig Tree on the Land

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