by Liz Granger

For the second week inAugust, Merigar was privi-leged to host the second

summer teaching retreat given byChögyal Namkhai Norbu thisyear. The title of the teaching thatRinpoche had chosen was the‘Longsal Namkhai Gyalpo’.Namkhai Gyalpo (byang chubsems nam mkha’i rgyal po, ThePrimordial State of the King ofSpace) is one of the lungs or maintexts of Dzogchen Semde whichRinpoche received from his unclewho had received it from KungaPalden. The teaching given in thisretreat, although closely related tothe original lung, belongs insteadto the Longsal Cycle of teachingsthat Chögyal Namkhai Norburediscovered through dreams overa period of 30 years. The entireteaching was transmitted by openwebcast around the world whileabout 450 people attended theretreat at Merigar.The retreat began with exception-ally cold wet weather for Augustwith participants huddled in rain-coats and blankets perhaps toremind us of the impermanence ofall phenomena, including thewarm Italian summer. During theopening afternoon session,Rinpoche gave an introduction tothe teaching and later participatedin a Ganapuja on the occasion ofthe full moon. During the after-noon the drizzling rain graduallybecame a downpour. But, as hasoften happened in the past, as theGanapuja drew to a close, theclouds parted to reveal a brilliant

sun and a double rainbow framingMt. Amiata as seen from theGonpa.On the second day of the retreat,Rinpoche spoke about the impor-tance of Guru Yoga and howessential it is to go beyond intel-lectual knowledge and acquirereal understanding. He talked insome detail about his studies as ayoung boy and young man andsome of the teachings he hadreceived but said that all of thiswas eclipsed by the direct intro-duction he received from his RootMaster, Chang Chub Dorje. Thenhe went on to recount the threedreams of clarity he had had aboutthe teaching over the years andthe reason he considered that heshould transmit it to his students.During the teaching session onthe third day the Master told thosepresent that real knowledge ofDzogchen goes beyond all limita-tions and can contribute univer-sally to resolving today’s prob-lems of wars and conflicts. Hewent on to talk about workingwith different types of experi-ences and gave some examples.The morning session concludedwith an empowerment of GuruYoga.In the next session of teachingRinpoche explained the first 2verses of the Namkhai Gyalpolung and spoke in depth about thedifferent points of view in theHinayana, Mahayana, Tantra andDzogchen, giving many examplesusing both symbols and talkingabout some of his personal expe-riences. He warned about the dan-gers of mere intellectual study andsaid the understanding of the

Dzogchen view could not bearrived at through logic butthrough experience.On the fifth day of teachingsChögyal Namkhai Norbu gave acomprehensive and detailedoverview of Gonpa or meditationstarting with the concept of medi-tation in sutra and passing on theMahayana and Tantrism in whichmovement is integrated into thecalm state. He dwelt at length onthe 4 aspects of meditation in theDzogchen Semde, passing on to aprecise elucidation of the 4 Da inthe Longde and finally the 4Chogzad of the Upadesha, withstrikingly clear explanations andexamples. In the penultimate session ofteaching, the Master spoke aboutconduct or attitude illustratinghow this differs in different tradi-tions according to the capacity ofthe individual. He said one of themost important types of conductin the Dzogchen Upadesha is thatof the bee, tasting the nectar-essence of different flowers untilit discovers its real nature. Hewent on to say that the rule ofconduct in the Dzogchen teachingis essential to be present in everymoment of our lives, rather thanlosing ourselves to distraction. On the final day of the retreat,Rinpoche spoke about the Fruitaccording to Sutra and lowerTantra, Tantra and Dzogchen. Hepointed out that it is a gradualprogress through different levelsand various Bhumis in Sutra andeven in Tantra whereas inDzogchen the Fruit is consideredto be a single Bhumi, the discov-

RRETREATS WITH

CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU INARGENTINA AND URUGUAY

NOVEMBER 2006 - JANUARY 2007

Buenos Aires, ArgentinaNovember 10 – 12

UruguayNovember 17 – 19

Tashigar South, ArgentinaDecember 4 – 7 Santi Maha Sangha Base Level Exams

December 8 – 12 Santi Maha Sangha First Level TrainingRetreat at Tashigar SouthDecember 26 – January 1

Teaching is the Upadesha of the Introduction to the State of Ati.Closed Web cast

For more information see page 15

B A R C E L O N A S PA I NTeaching Retreat from October 26th to 30th

Longsal Ati’i Gongpa NgotrodUpadesha of Introduction to the State of Ati(A ti’i dgongs pa ngo sprod kyi man ngag)

THE MIRRORNewspaper of the International Dzogchen Community July/August 2006 • Issue No. 81

Teaching:Excerpt from the Ati NadzerRetreat with ChögyalNamkhaiNorbu

Gonpa at Merigar R.PIRO

C O N T E N T S

pg 2 pg 9pg3

continued on page 7

SpecialPracticeCalendarFire DogYear

TheReorganziationProject of YeshiNamkhai andLuigi Ottaviani

DZOGCHEN RETREAT IN BRAZILSÃO PAULO, NOVEMBER 3rd - 7th 2006

with CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU RINPOCHEATI’I NADZER - THE VERY IMPORTANT POINTS OF

DZOGCHEN ATIand other Dzogchen instructions

Details and more information see page 15

JANUARY 2007LIMA, PERU

WITH CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

Shine and Lhagtong in the Dzogchen WayJanuary 19 – 23, 2007

For more information contact: Paula Sablich: paulsablich@hotmail.com

For more information see page 12Web site: www.dzogchen.es

CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU,‘LONGSAL NAMKHAI GYALPO’ RETREAT

MERIGAR, AUGUST 9 - 15, 2006

Good morning everyone.Today is the last session ofthis retreat. First I would

like to give you a little adviceabout how to work with practices.It is very important to be awareand integrate your understandingof the base, path and fruit intoyour existence. We live in time,time is passing and if we do notintegrate the base, path and fruitinto our existence, our knowledgeremains only intellectual anddoesn’t help us very much.

Four MindfulnessesIt is very important to be presentwith the four mindfulnesses inorder to have more concrete inte-gration of these mindfulnessesinto our lives. The first mindful-ness is to know that since we arehuman beings, we have this goodoccasion to follow the teachings;also that we have a teacher, trans-mission and situation, all perfect-ly. As Buddha said, how thefuture will be depends on our pastactions. Our actions depend verymuch on our presence. We needto have the awareness of the pre-cious human condition because ifwe are distracted we don’t makegood actions;The second mindfulness is toknow that we have that good con-dition, but that good condition isin time and time passes veryquickly. For example, you can seethat what we did last year seemslike it happened only yesterday.When we think “What will I dotomorrow?” or “What will I donext year?” it seems only a littlewhile before it is already nextyear. So time is passing veryquickly. We have to understandthat our lives are really very short.A person might think, “I want todo something with my life,” andimagines his or her life will bevery long, but sometimes our lifecan be only one day more, maybeone week, maybe one year more.There is no guarantee. It is muchbetter to be aware and do one’sbest first for one’s own existenceand then to try and benefit others.We also know the mindfulness ofcause and effect, of karma. Eventhough we are just passing time,we are not passing time withoutdoing anything. Our mind neverstops, so we are always accumu-lating many negative karmicpotentialities. We follow ourminds and then we act and pro-duce negative karma. We alsoneed to have mindfulness of thesituation of transmigration.Transmigration is not happy butinvolves many kinds of suffering.In the condition of transmigra-tion, samsara, suffering is end-less. The only way to help andfree ourselves is to follow theteachings, do practice, realizeourselves and help other sentientbeings. So these are what arecalled the four mindfulnesses.

Applying PresenceWe should not only learn thewords and make analyses, butalso maintain a presence of thesemindfulnesses in our daily liveswith the knowledge that we aredistracted and are adding onmany negative actions. If weknow that we are distracted andtime is passing, we are moreaware and things become moreconcrete.

For a student, for example, thereis a duty to finish his or her stud-ies. If you don’t study, in our soci-ety, you won’t be able to do any-thing. If you want to practice andbe free from samsara, you mustdo your duty. Everybody wishesto enjoy him or herself, to followhis or her wishes. But there arealso responsibilities. If there arethese responsibilities, then wemust take them on, or we won’thave this possibility. We must be

aware in daily life.Buddha represented this as za‘chag nyal ‘dug, the fourmoments when we are eating, sit-ting, walking and sleeping. Theseare the four moments in which wemust be aware, even if we are notalways governed by the state ofinstant presence. We can alwayslearn and apply presence. To learnordinary presence we don’t needto go to any special place or tohave any particular circumstance.Applying presence is a much bet-ter way to live in samsara; weneed to always be aware. To beaware means to know how the sit-uation is.

Number OneIn society many individuals livetogether. In this society, the mostimportant thing is our self, num-ber one. If you do something

good, that contributes to societyand likewise, if you do somethingbad, in the same way, it is harm-ful for everybody. We know justlike our self, correspondent innumbers, there is number one. Westart with number one, two, andthree and on to infinite numbers.For each of us, when we are insociety, we are number one. If there are problems, for exam-ple, you do not have to search forthe guilty party. We have strong

egos, and none of us ever thinks,“I am the guilty one,” we alwaysthink, “I am innocent, but there isa guilty one,” and we want to dosome research and discover whothat one is. That is what we do inordinary life, but this is not whatwe should do. If there is a prob-lem, the first one you shouldcheck is yourself. You are numberone, and then you can go on tocheck the other numbers, two,three, and so on. On the other hand, you should notalways think that you are theguilty one. Some people have thisproblem; if there is somethingwrong they always think they areguilty. There is no reason youshould always feel guilty andaccuse yourself. The importantthing is to check yourself, notaccuse someone. If everyone doesthis, things become more relaxedand very simple. That means you

know that there are other people,each with his or her own dimen-sion.

Respecting OthersPart of our awareness is payingrespect to everyone’s dimension.Sometimes when someone is verypowerful, or when we are fallingin love, it seems there is only onedimension, not two. Some peoplewho have a lot of power don’tcare about other people; they only

recognize their own dimension.Also when people fall in love,although there are two people, atthat time there seems to be onlyone dimension. After a few years,though, they discover that thereare two dimensions after all, andthen even being in those twodimensions together is not com-fortable. It’s better that we knowfrom the beginning that everyonehas his or her dimension and thatwe respect that.

World PeaceIf we know how to respect differ-ent dimensions, we can havepeace in the world, peace in thegroup, peace in each person.Many people say, “What shouldwe do to make peace in theworld?” They decide to havesome sort of agreement, and thenthe leaders get together and shakehands, and say, “Now we have

peace!” That is an artificial peace.Maybe it can last one or two orten years, but it is not reallypeace. Real peace is somethingwe can only have if we respecteach other. You see, for example,in nations, in countries. Forexample, China says it has fifty-three minorities. But what doesthat mean, “minorities”?Minorities mean people that aredifferent in their cultures, atti-tudes and languages. Why dothey all have to be calledChinese? That is not payingrespect. Many countries do thesame thing, not only the Chinese. If there is a nationality, culturalidentity, history, language, etc.,we can understand and we mustrespect that. So you can under-stand what it means to pay respectto a dimension. If you pay respectto all different kinds of nationali-ties, people, etc., there will not bea problem; there will always bepeace. We don’t respect someonejust because they want power.

Importance of DzogchenWe are Dzogchen practitionersand Dzogchen practitioners aredeveloping something in thisworld. If we imagine that some-day all the citizens of the worldwill become aware, that is just anice fantasy. In a practical way, itis not so easy, but it also does notmean it is impossible, becausethings are always possible if wedevelop our awareness andknowledge.When I arrived in Italy, for exam-ple, there was not a single personwho knew what Dzogchen was.Of course they didn’t know thesense of Dzogchen and the func-tion of the Dzogchen teachings.Today you see that there are manypeople who know of Dzogchen,and even if they don’t know thereal sense, the practice or theknowledge, etc., they understandthat Dzogchen is somethingimportant, some essence of theteaching. So now everybody says,“Oh, we want Dzogchen teach-ings!” And even different kinds ofteachers who do not really belongto the Dzogchen tradition alsobecome Dzogchen teachers. Thatis the condition, but there is alsothe possibility to develop. Justlike a lottery, it does not meanthat just because I buy a ticket, Iwill win. But there is also noguarantee that I won’t win,because there is always that pos-sibility too.In the same way, we know we arein this society and that society isso limited. In this society if one,two or three people slowly, slow-ly develop knowledge of theDzogchen teachings, generationafter generation, of course therecould be a kind of evolution; it ispossible. So for this reason it isvery important that all those whofollow the Dzogchen teachingsshould try to understand the realsense, get into the real sense, andrespect to each other. This is whatyou should do in daily life, most-ly importantly.

Transcribed and edited by LauriDenyer

2

Ati Nadzer Retreat Excerpt from the June 15th Talk

June 9-15, 2006

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

Rinpoche teaching in the Merigar Gonpa J. GRANGER

A kind of evolution is possible in thissociety if a few people, generation aftergeneration, slowly develop knowledge of

the Dzogchen teachings.

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 3

Mother of All BuddhasTara Retreat at Merigar with Yuchen Namkhai and Costantino AlbiniJuly 12 - 15, 2006

by Liz Granger

In mid-July, about 200 peopleparticipated in a four-dayGreen Tara retreat at Merigar

led by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’sdaughter, Yuchen Namkhai andone of Rinpoche’s most seniorstudents, Costantino Albini. It wasa unique opportunity for many ofRinpoche’s older students as wellas a number of ‘new’ people todeepen their knowledge of thispractice of the ‘Mother of AllBuddhas’ and participate in ses-sions of group practice.Participants in the retreat werealso fortunate to be able to dotheir sessions in front of a smallstatue of Green Tara that had, inthe past, been given by the masterAdzom Drugpa to YuchenNamkhai’s grandfather.Yuchen guided the morning sessions with clear and concise instructionsand advice as we sung the melodies of the invocations together and sheexplained the various stages of the practice. On the opening morningshe spoke at length about how the Green Tara practice is connectedwith her family. During the other morning sessions she patiently guid-

ed the visualization duringthe practice. In the afternoons,Costantino gave more in-depth explanations of vari-ous aspects of the practiceand tried to bring theunruly choir of voices to amore harmonious intona-tion of the verses andmantras. He taught the cor-rect pronunciation of theinvocations to Tara empha-sizing the importance ofthe rhythm and our inten-tion when we do them. Hegave an interesting expla-nation of the eight fears or

hindrances and the way in which they manifest and also spoke on dif-ferent occasions of some of the myths of Tara through different Kalpas.He also spoke briefly about Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s dream in whichhe received the invocation to Tara that we use in the DzogchenCommunity prac-tices. The whole retreatwas a wonderfulcombination of prac-tice and explanationson various levels thatcould be enjoyed byboth new people andolder followers.Yuchen’s story on thefirst day of the retreatabout the connectionthat her family haswith Tara clearlyshowed all those pre-sent how importantthis practice is for theMaster’s family and the Dzogchen Community in general. Thank youYuchen and Costantino and, most of all, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu forsharing your knowledge and experience with us.“Before I explain the Green Tara practice I think it is very important toexplain how this practice is linked to our family. In order to explain thisI will tell you a little story that is the story of my family. Before our master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, was born, his father (mygrandfather) was a young man and had been married to my grandmoth-er for a short time. But he was very ill and had been so for some timeand never managed to get over this illness. And so my grandmother,who often went to visit the famous master, Adzom Drugpa, went toAdzomgar, which was the residence of this master with his disciples,and since she was very devoted to this master - she was his disciple -she asked him for some help for my grandfather. At the beginning my grandfather was quite skeptical about this and wasnot very devoted to this master because he had tried everything and hadgone to other masters and tried other cures but without success. So the master, Adzom Drugpa, performed a ritual for liberation fromnegative provocations. This ritual healed my grandfather and from thatmoment on he became a disciple of that master. During the healing rit-ual Adzom Drugpa also gave my grandfather a different name in orderto protect him from the negative provocations of the Eight Classes.This name was Drolma Tsering. Now we know that in Tibetan‘Drolma’ is the name for Tara, Tara in general, not Green Tara and

Tara Statue from Namkhai Family R PIRO

R PIRO

R PIRO

Costantino Albini

Yuchen Namkhai

The Reorganization Project“Collaboration”Developed by Yeshi Silvano Namkhai from the International Gakyil Luigi Ottaviani from the Shang Shung Institute

“The concept of collaboration is something very wide. We need learning, there is no collaboration wherethere is no possibility to learn and to learn we have to understand our own limits. Rinpoche has alreadyrepeated these things many times during retreats. In order to learn you have to be able to ask. In order to beable to ask you have to know what you don’t know. In order to know what you don’t know, you have to knowwhat your limits are and to know yourself.Everyone has the capacity to create complications in their lives and do complicated things. Making thingssimple is not something everyone can do. So in order to facilitate collaboration you must be able to simpli-fy. In order to simplify you need to make the problems smaller. So if we can start with ourselves and see our-selves more simply then we can do this for other things. The example is if I have a small problem and a bigego the problem becomes very big. Everyone says this, it’s not just something from the teachings.”

Yeshi Silvano Namkhai, from a Gakyil meeting at Merigar July 2006

Yeshi Namkhai and Luigi Ottaviani have recently introduced a document called “Collaboration” to theinternational Dzogchen Community. This document is a culmination of three years work and is a mod-ern interpretation of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s blue book on the base of the Dzogchen Community

called “The Principles and Guidelines for Practitioners and Gakyil members of the Dzogchen Community”.This book is essential reading for all who are interested to participate in the Community’s life. (see page 19)Yeshi says that in reality Rinpoche’s original approach was a very modern one; so modern that it was not cor-rectly understood by most of the Dzogchen Community in the early 1990’s. It seems that there was no sim-ilar example to refer to. The Dzogchen Community was not yet ready for this highly developed, non-hierar-chical and holistic approach to managing our large and rapidly growing international Community that spanscontinents and cultures; that because of its vastness invites a natural tendency towards a non holistic approachthat can be implicit in the nature of our seemingly broad cultural differences.Yeshi and Luigi want to help create a Community that truly reflects the power and vision of a master andscholar of the stature Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche - a master unique in the world. Yeshi says that theDzogchen Community should reflect the dynamic ‘culture’ of this Master and until this point it has not. It isthe aim of Yeshi and Luigi that through this reorganization project we create an international Community thatdoes that.A main motivation for this effort seems to be that in order to enhance Rinpoche’s health and extend his life,he needs to be able to stop traveling so much. Therefore, Yeshi created a primary and already very success-ful focus of the reorganization: the webcast. The webcast serves as a beneficial tool on many levels. One isthat Rinpoche can stay in one place, which is very good for his health, another is that many people aroundthe world have the possibility to receive transmission and teaching “live” and finally, the webcast can be agood opportunity for communication, collaboration and introduce people to the teachings and encourage peo-ple everywhere to make a commitment through membership.The reorganization project is not about money, but about understanding Rinpoche’s vision and focus onknowledge and culture. Yeshi and Luigi are interpreting Rinpoche’s vision and helping us to understand it;then we can apply our understanding in a practical and functional way. Yeshi talks about the importance of commitment and loyalty to the Community as something of utmostimportance in the reorganization effort. The emphasis on membership as a base is not for financial reasons;he says anyone can make money if they put their mind to it. The emphasis on membership relates to our need to understand the importance of our commitment toRinpoche and the teachings. On this solid foundation everything can flourish. Our Community will becomewhat he calls one ‘culture’; a Dzogchen Community culture based on a common understanding of values,principles, style, expectations, experiences and goals in relationship to our Master and his teachings. Yeshisays, as well, that a positive culture makes any organization and people involved feel better, helps everyoneface difficulties and change, brings enthusiasm, and improves the sense of responsibility.The actual and practical aspects of this project have to do with collaboration and communication using mod-ern technological tools. All of this is explained in the Collaboration document. Community workers and col-laborators will have access to tutorials that will help them enter this technological world with confidence. Ifwe want to succeed by developing and managing our myriad activities, projects and properties around theworld, we need to enter this modern age. Yeshi and Luigi have developed a method and the support to helpus to do that. Their approach is based on problem solving and a well-known business model called theBalanced Scorecard, a holistic approach that focuses on balance and harmony, like the Gakyil system devel-oped by Rinpoche so many years ago. This Balanced Scorecard system was developed by Norton and Kaplanat the Harvard Business School, has had great success for more than thirty years and is still the leading sys-tem in the field today.An important development as a result of the reorganization is that the International Gakyil has been improvedand will function as a support for both Rinpoche and the local Gars and Gakyils. The International Gakyilconsists of people who are experienced and close to Rinpoche, so that he can have their direct support. YeshiNamkhai is now leading the International Gakyil composed by Fabio Andrico for Blue, Karin Koppensteinerfor Red and Mark Fulton for Yellow. The work of the International Gakyil will be to examine and support theDzogchen Community as it tries to fulfill Rinpoche’s wishes and to help us increase our knowledge. TheInternational Gakyil certainly provides important feedback for our Master, but most important overall are theCommunity’s projects and members because the project is the unique moment where expectations meet real-ity and members because they are the Sangha.In conclusion, the Dzogchen Community must realize that this is an important and crucial moment for ourfuture in the teachings. Rinpoche has offered us the possibility to continue through this highly creative, well-developed and impressive Collaboration project. Yeshi and Luigi have worked tirelessly and selflessly to cre-ate something that reflects the vision of one such great master, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, and at the same timebe accessible to all committed members of the international Dzogchen Community who realize the preciousnature of what we have received and want to help in the continuation and preservation of these most mar-velous of teachings for all time.

Naomi Zeitz for The Mirror

continued on page 6

4

Shang Shung InstituteInternational Institute for Tibetan Studies

The Shang Shung Institute of Italy is happy toinform the Dzogchen Community of its upcomingcourses and sales items.

COURSES FOR 2006-2007

TIBETAN KU NYE MASSAGE COURSESIN ITALY

October 3-12, 2006: ARCIDOSSO (Merigar)Venue: Associazione Culturale Comunita Dzogchen Given by Patrizia PicciniCost: 550 euro including course materialEnrolment: Shang Shung Institute, Merigar, 58031Arcidosso (GR), ItalyTel: 0564-966940Email: info@istitutoshangshung.org

September 2006-March 2007: PERUGIA

Given by Michele CorradoThe course consists of 9 weekends on the followingdates:

21 September introduction to Ku Nye at 21.0030 Sept.-1 Oct. beginning of the course21-22 October 200625-26 November 200613-14 January 200710-11 February 200717-18 march 2007

Times: 10am-1pm and 3pm-6pm.Venue: Palestra Aletheia, via Vietnam, Perugia.Cost: 360 euro which includes course material, text,DVDEnrolment: Shang Shung Institute, Merigar, 58031Arcidosso (GR), ItalyTel: 0564-966940Email: info@istitutoshangshung.orgMichele Corrado Tel. 339-1084991michelecorrado@tiscali.itThe last three seminars dedicated to revision, in-depth study and a final qualifying exam are plannedfor September, October and November 2007. Thedates are still to be decided. These seminars havebeen purposely planned for a period in the future sothat students can practice and deepen the knowl-edge they have acquired.

November 2006-April 2007: ROMEGiven by Michele CorradoThe course consists of 9 weekends on the followingdates:

4-5 November 20062-3 December 200620-21 January 200724-25 February 200724-25 March 200714-15 April 2007

Times: 10am-1pm and 3pm-6pm.Venue: Zhenpheling, via Giovanni Miani 5, 00154Rome (near the Piramide underground stop)Cost: 360 euro which includes course material, text,DVDEnrolment: Shang Shung Institute, Merigar, 58031Arcidosso (GR), Italy or posta@zhenphenling.itTel: 0564-966940Email: info@istitutoshangshung.orgThe last three seminars dedicated to revision, in-depth study and a final qualifying exam are plannedfor October, November and December 2007. Thedates are still to be decided. These seminars havebeen purposely planned for a period in the future sothat students can practice and deepen the knowl-edge they have acquired.

For any further information, please contact:courses@istitutoshangshung.org,Tel.: +39-0564-966940

PRODUCTS

Audio / VideoHere’s a list of some of our most popular cd’s & dvd’sas well as the most recent digital remasters.

Amitayus (CD audio): a set of 2 CDs byChögyal Namkhai Norbu with explana-tion and practice of the terma teachingof this long life practice discovered by

Nyagla Pema Dundul. Conway, Massachusetts 1984.120

Ati Lamgyi Ngöndro (MP3 audio):Chögyal Namkhai Norbu's teachingsgiven in Merigar, August 2002 plus anaudio CD of the practice led by Adriano

Clemente is included. Duration: 5 hours 49 min. 120Guru Yoga of White A (CD audio): thepractice sung by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu and repeated three times. Itincludes an extract of the 1985 teach-

ings in Nevada City. 112Santi Maha Sangha: Preliminary Practices

of the Base (CD audio): AdrianoClemente performs the preliminarypractices in a private recording. 112

new! The Thugthig of Jnanadhakkini(mp3 audio): teachings ChögyalNamkhai Norbu gave in Merigar fromthe Longsal cycle of teachings in August

2005. Also contains the practice led by Rinpoche inCrimea. Restricted item: requires transmission of thisspecific teaching. 118

new! 25 Longchens: Preliminary Practicesof the Base (mp3 audio): teachingsChögyal Namkhai Norbu gave related tothe terma of Changchub Dorje in

Barcelona, Spain 2005. Also contains the practiceled by Adriano Clemente. 118

Chöd (DVD): explanation of the practicegiven by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu in Japanin 1993 (in English) and explanation of thepractice given in Merigar in 1990 (in

Italian). Practice guided by Chögyal Namkhai Norbuwith damaru and bell. Advice of Adriano Clemente(Merigar 1999). 125

Shitro (DVD): explanation of the practicegiven by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu inMerigar in August 2003, during a privaterecording. It contains images useful for visu-

alization. 125Three Tuns - Tundus, Tundrin and Tungyas (DVD):Chögyal Namkhai Norbu explains and practices thethree tuns. 125

The Dzogchen Community Video Journal(DVD): a way to feel more in touch with thecommunity and see developments in the var-ious Gars. The Video Journal is published

quarterly (every three months) and is available by year-ly subscription for 1100, includes postage.

new! The Three Paths of Liberation (DVD):The first of a series of six DVDs on the fun-damental teachings of the Santi MahaSangha. From the teachings in Tashigar

North, Venezuela Jan.-Feb. 2006. Contains visualaids such as pictures, photographs, symbols, etc. tofurther illustrat the topics Rinpoche explains. 128

Tibetan Medicine Food SupplementsThe Shang ShungInstitute continues theproduction of "food supple-

ments" made by a laboratory located in Arezzo in Tuscany.They have proved to be very helpful since the very begin-ning. Some of the most appreciated products are:

• Za Ti for agitation, nervousness, insomnia, torebalance rlung: two tablets after each meal and inserious cases two tablets before bedtime as well. 110.• She Shi for digestive problems, acidity, to improvedigestive heat. Not indicated in case of ulcers. 110• Padma 28 (Basic), ideal to improve blood circula-tion and the immunitary system, good preventionagainst brain stroke, heart stroke and cancer. 134• Calmalung: (rGun Brum 7) dry cough, bronchitis.127

The Shang Shung Institute hascollaborated with local farmers ofMount Amiata to produce a line ofmassage oils that correspond to thethree humors (rLung - wind, Trispa-bile & Badkhan - phlegm) ofTibetan medicine and are excellentfor Ku Nye massage. 110

For more details and a complete list of our productssee our online website!

Printed MaterialsThangkha of GomadeviThe SSI has received the author-ization to reproduce posters of abeautiful thangka of Gomadevi byGlenn Eddy. This painting is veryspecial because of the presence ofthe inner mandala. It constitutesa very useful support for the

Gomadevi practice transmitted by Rinpoche twice inMargarita and once in Argentina so far. The posterand a smaller booklet size version, will be availablethis June.Large: 15 small: 12

Primordial Masters Poster new!Dugu Choegyal Rinpoche painted the twelve primor-dial masters of the Dzogchen lineage for Merigarsgompa and is now available as a digital print. It meas-ures 210x22.5cm and is simply breath-taking! 125

T-Shirts with calligraphy from Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu new!Beautiful hand written calligraphy from our preciousMaster. Yeshe - primordial wisdom (blue shirt),Tsering - long life (red shirt), Sherab - wisdom (blueshirt) and Tashi Deleg - good luck (white shirt).While supplies last. 120

CONTACTS

Email:info@istitutoshangshung.org

Tel.: +39-0564-966940Fax.: +39-0564-968110Loc. Podere Nuovissimo58031 Arcidosso (GR)Italy

Article byPaola Zamperini,Shang Shung Institute - USApzamperini@amherst.eduLuigi Ottaviani, Shang Shung Institute - Italyl.ottaviani@istitutoshangshung.orgOliver Leick, Shang Shung Institute - Austriaoffice@ssi-austria.at

Many of our Vajra brothers andsisters have by now becomeaware of the fact that for the past

couple of years, a vast reorganization hasbeen taking place in the Dzogchen Com-munity as part of our teacher’s vision toupdate the very important task of protect-ing, preserving and spreading the incredi-bly precious Dzogchen teachings that hehas been so generously imparting to us forthe past thirty years. Perhaps, though, noteveryone in our Community realizes thatthe winds of change are sweeping alsothrough our Shang Shung Institute as well,so it is about time that we, as SSI represen-tatives, told you a bit about the work wehave been doing in this direction. As some of you may already know, theShang Shung Institute is a cultural non-profit association without political aimsthat was founded by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu with the specific goal to makeknown and protect the frail heritage ofTibetan culture for the sake of present andfuture generations. In Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu’s words, “the Shang-ShungInstitute exists for the preservation ofTibetan culture. Through the Shang-Shung Institute, we are trying to do some-thing to maintain the survival of Tibetanculture and understanding. Shang Shung,the name of the Institute, reflects thesource of Tibetan culture and history - itwas known as a great empire throughoutthe Orient and the study of Shang Shungis extremely important if we are to under-stand the great antiquity, the uniquenature and the universal importance ofTibetan culture, past and present.”Over the years, the Shang Shung Institutehas grown in various ways that have ful-filled its mandate, not only in Italy, butalso globally. As the teachings of ourMaster spread throughout the world, sodid the involvement of practitioners in thevery important mission to bring theancient knowledge of different aspects ofTibetan culture, from literature to medi-cine to language, while archiving existingmaterial on the verge of destruction aswell as the precious teachings of Chögyal

Namkhai Norbu. Thus, the Istituto Shang Shung spawnedits US branch located in Tsegyalgar,Conway, Massachusetts, and anothercounterpart located in Austria.Due to various factors such as geographi-cal distance, local realities, differentfinancial conditions, and other specificcircumstances, each of these threebranches started and carried out its ownindependent projects, specializing to acertain degree in particular fields. Thusthe Shang Shung Institute in Merigar hasbecome the main archive for our Master’steachings; the Austrian branch of SSI is now the heart of the Ka-ter translationproject; while the North American branchhas recently launched the first four-yeardegree in Traditional Tibetan Medicine inthe West. As mentioned before, however,thanks to Rinpoche’s urgings and adviceboth to the members of the DzogchenCommunity and to the Institute, we haveall become aware that we need to worktogether and collaborate more if we reallywant to succeed in our task. As communication technologies haveimproved dramatically over the past fewyears, we have become increasingly ableto communicate even without having totravel in person to meet one another.When we started exchanging more andmore information about the work thateach branch was doing, we found somany overlaps and resonances, which,while showing all that we have in com-mon, also proved to us that if we workedtogether, since we are walking on thesame path, we could achieve a three-foldresult. As Rinpoche stated when he wasdoing fund-raising for the MerigarGonpa, many drops become an ocean,and thus we realized that if we truly wantto fulfill SSI’s mission, we have tobecome a bit oceanic as well. Thus thethree boards of SSI have become one inmany ways. This means that, while beingalways mindful of the different culturaland social circumstances we operate in,our projects will be always collective. Weare about to launch our new website thatwill unite our identity. We are designing asingle membership card for all ourbranches. We are planning culturalevents, such as conferences and exhibitsthat will be the product of our three-foldcollaboration. We want, in short, to makeSSI one of the tools to make Tibetan cul-ture more alive in the world. Of course,to do this we need your help!

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 5

by Fabian Sanders

The fourth session of the translationcourse organized by Oliver Leickfrom the Shang Shung Institute, Aus-

tria, took place at Merigar this past summer.About four years ago, at Rinpoche’s sugges-tion, the Shang Shung Institute began orga-nizing and financing a three year course withthe aim to educate some people in the diffi-cult and demanding art of translating primar-ily Dzogchen texts from the originalTibetan. The responsibility to share his vast knowl-edge in this field was given to ElioGuarisco, whose more than thirty years ofexperience, the fruit of the efforts of hisgreat teachers and his own, and his remark-able ability to work hard, were put at ourdisposal without reserve. Three years andthree courses later, we students were still farfrom competent translators and the needwas felt to continue with this undertaking.For this reason a fourth course was held thisyear at Merigar. Translating is not an easy task. In particularthe Tibetan language is so different fromEuropean idioms that it is nearly impossibleto fully represent all the meanings, nuances,subtleties, or the levels of meaning, interpre-tation and the literary and poetic beauty oforiginal texts in another language.Furthermore, the most apparent quality ofTibetan, is that it is the most suitable vehiclefor the transmission of the Dharma. Thismakes things even more complicated for thetranslator. A thorough understanding ofDharma language in the various contexts -Sutra, Tantra, Dzogchen or the differentschools for example - is absolutely requiredand there should be a reasonable certaintythat the words of the author are never mis-understood. From this point of view the method of trans-lation we have adopted is quite challengingand enlightening (though unfortunately notin the Dharma sense); each one of the par-ticipants translates on his own as much as hecan and at the end of the session we readtogether and compare the results of ourefforts. It is interesting and meaningful that,apart from the natural mistakes of the‘beginners’, the possible correct versionsare often more than one, sometimes similar,sometimes very different in meaning. Herethe experience and knowledge of our tutorsets in to accommodate the proper meaningin the proper context and selecting the mostcorrect interpretation. Sometimes problemsare left open for further investigation or waitfor the advice of some even more competentauthority, ideally Rinpoche himself. But alas! We are but simple individualsunder the yoke of the conceptual mind,biased by unnecessary thoughts that we holddear as if they were our own life-essence,and so our (I should rather say ‘my’) trans-lations are necessarily the fruit of this limit-ed condition and reflect it in every respect.And so it can be a heavy burden to take theresponsibility to say, “I translated a

Dzogchen Tantra” or, “I translated the workof this or that Master”, because our (my)knowledge, let alone realization, can franklynot be reasonably compared to that of thegreat Lamas of the past and present. Will Isurvive the deed of misrepresenting theteachings of the Great Dharma? Yes I will;concepts and words are always misleadingand illusory. We do our best, but readers areadvised that mistakes and misunderstand-ings are always possible. This year’s text is a treaty on the Vajra bodyby Yanggonpa, a disciple of the twelfth cen-tury Master Godrakpa, who is understoodby some to be an ante litteram proponent ofthe non sectarian point of view, known inrecent years as Rimé. In this text Yanggonpapresents the subtle constitution of humanbeings of which, as he explicitly states, hehad direct perception by the power of hisrealization. The aspects of the initial forma-tion of the Vajra body at the time of concep-tion, its development through the ten phasessymbolized by the ten forms of the descentsof the god Vishnu, birth and the subsequentstages of life, are all described. Then theauthor goes on to describe all the subtlechannels, the plexuses (cakras), the cyclesof the movement of the Lung (prana) inthem, in harmony with the breath, the timesof the day, the lunar phases, the yearly pathof the sun and so on. The problems we had to face this year wereof a different sort of those encountered inthe previous sessions. The grammar was nottoo difficult, but the editions we were read-ing are full of misspellings and scribal mis-takes; furthermore the text is scattered withquotes from the Tantras which are very dif-ficult to understand, especially when readout of context and without an authoritativecommentary. Nevertheless this motley crew of futuretranslators got fascinated by the text andfrom time to time people were seen gazingin the serene Merigar sky outside the win-dow in search for a clue, or heard titteringtriumphantly and unexpectedly when thethought arose in them that not only thewords of some sentence had become clear,but the meaning as well. For the first time the group was divided intwo in order to accommodate a couple ofpromising new entries to whom an interest-ing and slightly easier text on dream inter-pretation was assigned. Elio would discussthe translation with them in separate ses-sions. I wish to take this occasion to announceonce again that the first text we translated -well, mainly Elio translated it - On Birth,Life and Death, by our precious Master, hasnow been published in English, and a fewlocal versions should appear soon. I alsowish to sincerely thank Rinpoche and all thesponsors and donors who contributed to thiswonderful project and allowed us to light alittle candle to guide us in the immense pro-fundity of Tibetan Literature.

Translators working L GRANGER

Shang Shung Institute Update

Errata

Page 5, Mirror Issue 80The title of the retreat on page 5 of the last issue of The Mirror,issue 80, was incorrect and the correct title is Ati Nadzer’sTransmission.

OmissionSome of the photos on pages 12 & 13 of issue 80 were also takenby by Elena Ihilck. Sorry for the omission.

The Translators’ TrainingJune 21 to July 28, 2006Merigar, Italy

6

‘Tsering’ means ‘long life’.Although it is a feminine name,my grandfather used it for therest of his life because the masterhad given it to him and to protecthimself from negative provoca-tions. Since he had become a discipleof Adzom Drugpa he also used togo to Adzomgar and receiveteachings from this master. Andthis master not only gave himteachings, he also gave him astatue telling him that if, in hislife, he needed help, he only hadto do the practice of Green Taraand this practice would help himto realize all his wishes. The statue in this story is the onewe have in front of us on thisaltar. It is here today because ourmaster, Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu, has expressly asked for itto be here on this special occa-sion.Continuing this story, after sever-al years of marriage, my grand-parents had had four daughtersbut no sons. So my grandfatherhad a retreat cabin built near thehouse and invited a famousmonk to come there to do aretreat of Green Tara. This monkspent a year there in retreat doingthe practice of Tara, reciting the21 Praises of Tara, reciting themantra of Tara 100,000 times,until one day he had a dreamfrom which he understood thatthat year a son would be born. Hedreamt that next to the fireplacein the kitchen there was a plantwith three flowers. The biggestflower was bright yellow andwas in bloom while below thisthere were two other flowers thathadn’t opened yet. And in fact,that same year our master wasborn and in the following yearshis two brothers. Of course youcan imagine how happy mygrandparents were.At that time it was common toask a great master what name togive to people’s sons and daugh-ters. But they didn’t do this. Theychose their son’s name on theirown and they called himNamkhai Norbu, which means ‘jewel of the sky’ because forthem, this had been the gift of theTara practice. Of course, later on he was recog-nized and different names weregiven but Namkhai Norbu is theonly name that our master hasused during his life. This (little story) was to explainhow the practice is linked to ourfamily and how it is now con-nected to you because we are allhere together, we have the pres-ence of our master and we havethe statue.”

(Yuchen Namkhai, Merigar, July12th, 2006)

In 2004 ASIA began long distancesupport for Tibetan monksbelonging to the traditional Bud-

dhist and Bönpo study and practicecolleges in Central and East Tibet.From ancient times, Tibetan monas-teries have had an extremely impor-tant role, not only as religious institu-tions but also as centers of cultureand education for youth. The monas-teries were the only institutionswhere children and young men couldlearn about Buddhist philosophy aswell as history, grammar, prose andpoetry and all the various forms ofknowledge such as medicine, astrol-ogy and other aspects of the ancientTibetan civilization.During a laterphase at the practice colleges, theyhad the opportunity to learn andinherit religious traditions and prac-tice the teachings under the guidance ofexpert masters.It is in this context that ASIA has inter-ceded to bring the practice and study col-leges back to their original role of pre-serving and transmitting the ancientTibetan culture through reconstruction orrestructuration of colleges that weredestroyed or damaged during the culturalrevolution. In recent years, the Chinesegovernment has opened up and madesome concessions in the field of religionwhich has brought about a distinct revivalin the activities of the Tibetan monaster-ies. This has been directed, however,almost exclusively to the reconstructionof temples and religious places and to anincrease in the number of monks at theexpense of safeguarding local culturaltraditions. Moreover the lack of olderqualified lamas and monks means thatreligious knowledge cannot be transmit-ted to the new generations

The Interventionof ASIA Onlus

At the request ofChögyal NamkhaiNorbu Rinpocheand according tothe subsequent fea-sibility study car-ried out by ASIA, aproject was drawnup for the construc-tion of accommo-dation for themonks, of templesthat can also beused as classroomsand the supply ofteachings materialsand equipment forlessons.This interven-tion has allowed the older lamas and monks to return to the colleges.The young monks chosen to follow the course of traditional studieshave become part of the long distance support project that ASIA startedin 2004 at the Colleges of Galenteng, Simda Gompa and Dzongtsa.Starting this year, the Colleges of Trama and Seghe Namdrak have beenadded to the project.

Support for the Monks at Simda Gompa: An importantcontribution towards the survival of the cultural patrimo-ny of Tibet.

Simda Gompa, situated in Chamdo Prefecture, in the TibetanAutonomous Region, is one of the most ancient monasteries ofthe Nyimapa tradition in East Tibet.Founded 800 years ago as Dzogchen Gompa, in the past ithoused more than 400 monks and represented an importantcenter for the transmission of the Dzogchen teachings for cen-turies. After being totally destroyed during the CulturalRevolution, in 1985 it was partially rebuilt by the local commu-nity.In 1997, during his trip to Central and East Tibet, ChögyalNamkhai Norbu Rinpoche visited many villages and monaster-ies and after verifying the numerous problems facing the inhab-itants of these areas, asked ASIA to help in the reconstructionof Simda Gompa. Thanks to financial support from the Dutch

Embassy in Peking, in 2002 ASIA set up aCollege for the study of the 10 traditionalsciences, built a library for the collection ofancient sacred Buddhist texts and organizedcourses for students and teachers. The Lamaspatiently began to give courses on Buddhismand traditional subjects, bringing theMonastery successfully back to its originalhistorical role as a religious and educationalinstitution.At present there are 64 monks at theMonastery from all areas of Tibet, Amdo,Kham and the Tibetan Autonomous Region,6 Trulkus (Reincarnations) and some monkswho have obtained the title of Khempo(Doctor of Philosophy) and can teach theyoung students.In 2006 ASIA began a campaign of long dis-tance support with the aim of finding sustain-ers for another 26 young monks at SimdaGompa and for the monks of other Buddhistand Bonpo study and practice colleges. With

192 euro you can providelearning material, food, basichealth assistance and heatingand give a young monk thepossibility to study under theguidance of the older monkswho are the holders of tradi-tional culture and the ancientspiritual teachings of Tibet.

a s i aPROJECT OF LONG DISTANCE SUPPORT FOR

BUDDHIST AND BÖNPO STUDY AND PRACTICE COLLEGES

Simda Gompa Study College

The Library

Young monks in the distance support program

Simda Gompa monastery

Information from: adozioni@asia-onlus.org or www.asia-onlus.org

ASIA Onlus - Via San Martino della Battaglia, 31 00185 Rome, Italy

Tel: 0039-0644340034, fax 0039-06702620

continued from page 3

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 7

book reviews“Blazing Splendor:

The Memoirs of TulkuUrgyen Rinpoche.”

Compiled, translatedand edited by Eric Pema

Kunsang and MarciaBinder Schmidt. Nepal:

Rangjung YeshePublications, 2005.

Distributed by NorthAtlantic Books. (ISBN9627341568, 432 pages

with glossary)

The now deceased TulkuUrgyen is the father of foursons, all of who teach

Dzogchen in the West. TulkuUrgyen was one of a tiny minorityof lamas (including ChögyalNamkhai Norbu Rinpoche) to give“pointing out instructions” to Westerners without first requiring that theycomplete the preliminary practice of ngondro. This is not a book of teachings—at least not in any formal sense. Ratherit is a narrative of Tulku Urgyen’s childhood and adult years in Tibet, aswell as a much briefer section about the years spent in exile. The bookbegins with a section on “Spiritual Roots,” discussing Gampopa, the15th Karmapa, Tulku Urgyen’s terton great-grandfather ChokyurLingpa, his grandmother, his father and his two uncles. The remainderof his life narrative is also organized mainly around gurus and teachershe met. Some of their names might be familiar to a few gray-hairedWestern dharma students. But, most of them are more likely to beknown by Tibetologists. Fortunately, the glossary at the back of thebook has mini-biographies of all the main characters.Within this framework, Tulku Urgyen recounts many anecdotes thatgive the reader glimpses of the culture at the time. One interesting storyillustrates some of the misconceptions that were prevalent. After the

exile, when His Holiness the 16th Karmapa visited Sikkim, thedaughter of one court official was horrified to discover that theKarmapa actually ate food and defecated. Tulku Urgyen com-ments, “They had expected him to be a deity without a real phys-ical body” (p. 326).In addition to having physical bodies, it seems that lamas too canbe vexed by their families. Concerning his father, who was aguru, Tulku Urgyen admits: “One tends to have less appreciationand pure perception for a lama when he happens to be one’s ownfather.” Commenting on his children, Tulku Urgyen says thatwhile Chokyi Nyima could be persuaded best by reasoning, hisbrother Chokling Tersar “was impossible to discipline.” On oneoccasion Tulku Urgyen dangled him out of a window by hisankles, threatening to drop him if he didn’t behave, yet he“remained defiant” (p .327)Of all the teachers and gurus that Tulku Urgyen mentions, the oneof most relevance to Westerners is His Holiness GyalwaKarmapa, who visited the United States and Europe to performthe famous Black Hat Ceremony in the 1970’s. The Karmapa wasvery well known by such lamas as Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, KaluRinpoche, and Chogyam Trungpa (the latter two now deceased).

In the book Tulku Urgyen relates an anecdote about the Karmapa,which I have heard before from someone who claimed to have wit-nessed it. The 16th Karmapa was well known for his aviary and hisaffection for his numerous pet birds. Tulku Urgyen relates that he sawa sick bird of Karmapa’s die, and it did not simply slump and fall to theground, but sat up straight for three hours. An attendant said, “It’s insamadhi,” and stated, “when the Karmapa is around” any bird thatpassed away “sits up for a while after death” (p. 270).In another amusing anecdote Tulku Urgyen relates that the Karmapa“used Khampa slang for swearing,” and on one occasion Karmapa wasso certain of his clairvoyant prediction that he told Tulku Urgyen, “IfI’m wrong, I’ll take on all of your bad karma” (p. 275).

by Paul Bail

Review ofTibetan Treasure

Literature:Revelation, Tradition,

and Accomplishment inVisionary Buddhismby Andreas Doctor

Published 2005 by SnowLion Publications

The terma tradition, whichhas a thousand year historyin Tibet, is but one branch

of a genre of visionary literaturethat goes back to the earliest Bud-dhist writings and beyond. Whatmakes the terma tradition uniqueis its basic premise that it consistsof teachings hidden by Pad-masambhava in the eighth centu-ry. These were written, often in anunknown script called dakini lan-guage, and hidden by his mysticalpowers to be discovered at auspi-cious times by reincarnations ofhis heart students who then‘remember’ the teachings andwrite them down for public con-sumption. Padmasambhavaentrusted the teachings to super-natural beings known as dakinis ornagas who kept them safely hid-den until the time they are needed.The texts are often written onsmall slips of yellow paper whichhave a few syllables of dakini lan-guage inscribed on them. The ter-ton, the person who reveals thetext, is then able to produce a largevolume of texts from these fewhighly charged syllables.The Tibetans consider theseteachings, which often include asadhana or detailed meditationinstruction with mantras, a “shortlineage”. That is, other medita-tion instructions are past downthrough a long succession ofteachers and students while thesecome directly across a great

expanse of time fromPadmasambhava to those peopleat those times in those placeswhere and when these particularteachings are needed.The book Tibetan TreasureLiterature: Revelation, Tradition,and Accomplishment in VisionaryBuddhist by Andreas Doctordescribes the terma texts asenlightened visions of esotericpractice that have the purpose ofliberating those who are diligentin their practice. His book hasthree sections: first his literaryintroduction to the terma traditionas a genre of Tibetan literature,second his translation and com-mentary of a text by LamaMipham (1846-1912) and third atranslation of a terma text byChokgyur Lingpa (1829-1870).The first of the translations, byLama Mipham, is a short com-mentary about the authenticity ofthe various terma texts. It is titled,“An Investigation of TreasureRevealers”. The second text is anactual terma revealed by one ofthe most famous tertons namedChokgyur Lingpa (1829-1870)titled, “The Practice Manual ofCombined Activity: From theSingle Kila of Innermost Mind”and includes a sadhana about

Vajrakilaya, a famous wrathfuldeity in the Tibetan pantheon whois closely associated withPadmasambhava. Each of thesetexts is accompanied by an intro-duction that tells more about theauthors and the texts that are pre-sented in translation. The bookcontains a very useful bibliogra-phy that provides an extensivelisting of books in English aboutthe tradition. This illustrates thegrowing body of literature thatbegan in 1979 with EvaDargyay’s “The Rise of EsotericBuddhism in Tibet”. Anotherbook about the tradition thatcomes highly recommended as adetailed scholarly study from theTibetan point of view is TulkuThondup’s “Hidden Teachings ofTibet”. The basic principle of the traditionis that Padmasambhava, thefounder of Tibetan Buddhism,who is deeply revered by theNyingmapa sect who believes thatduring his time in Tibet in theeighth century he hid terma teach-ing all over Tibet, hid these texts.He then trained a group of twenty-five disciples who were instructedthat during their future reincarna-tions they should find and revealthe hidden texts. They believethese texts are “time sensitive”and were hidden so that theycould be revealed when they weremost needed or would be mosteffective.Then starting in the eleventh cen-tury Sangye Lama became thefirst terton and started a literarytradition and a distinct genre inTibetan Buddhist literature thatcontinues to the present. Fromthen to now literally thousands ofthese texts have been revealed.Some writers claim there havebeen 108 major tertons and 1008minor terton and each terton canreveal any number of texts andmany of then have revealed

numerous texts. As the tradition has developed,with terma now being discoveredin America and other parts of theworld outside Tibet, the traditionhas expanded to claim othersbeside Padmasambhava asauthors who hid texts, particularlyhis consort, Yeshe Sogyal.However, all these texts generallymake the claim of coming fromthe eighth century. Over the years there have beenextensive commentaries regard-ing these texts and various tax-onomies have evolved to catego-rize the different types of terma.One of these systems showedeighteen categories of terma textsand each of these categories haseighteen subdivisions. These tax-onomies have included categoriz-ing them according to whetherthey were found in the earth, thewater, the air, or in the mind of therevealer or even in regards to thecontainer of the text that wasrevealed. It will be interesting tosee how Western scholars react tothis visionary genre and what sortof taxonomy they use to classifythese texts. One obvious classifi-cations for these texts is to distin-guish those that include sadhanasthat contain detailed visualizationinstructions and those that arehagiographic, telling the life sto-ries of the saints There are wonderful stories in thelives of the saints about how theydiscovered different texts and inthese accounts the revealer oftenfinds move than a simple text.Chögyal Namkhai Norbu tells astory of the discovery of a termain his book The Crystal and theWay of Light. He relates how oneof his uncles had announced hewas going to discover a hiddentext, a terma, and told everyone inthe community they were invitedto come along. So when he wentthere was a large crowd that went

ery and understanding of our realcondition once the Master hasintroduced it to us. The Fruit isnot constructed or produced butlike the sun with its infinite rays,although at times it may beobscured by clouds, it is alreadythere and not something created. Rinpoche went on to give somepractical advice to those presentreminding them once again ofthe importance of Guruyoga forkeeping one’s samaya and formaintaining the transmission. Hespoke about diminishing ourattachment by considering every-thing to be like a dream and thentalked about the similaritiesbetween falling asleep and themoment of dying and closed thesession by giving transmission ofdifferent lungs.Among the many people gath-ered in the Temple of GreatContemplation for the teachingwas a young Nyingma Lama,Anam Tulku Thubten, originallyfrom Golok who is currently liv-ing in the US and has a center inCalifornia. Other people wereboth old and new students fromItaly, Europe, the Americas,Australia and different parts ofAsia. The entire teaching was notonly an encyclopedic overviewof the View, Application, Attitudeand Fruit in Dzogchen and in theother Buddhist paths, but wasillustrated with several fascinatingaccounts of Rinpoche’s early lifeand experiences given withChögyal Namkhai Norbu’s greatpower, lively sense of humor andimmense compassion.Thank you from the heart, onceagain, Rinpoche, for the gift ofyour teaching.

Merigar Retreat continued from page 1

with him. The place where theuncle indicated the text was hid-den was way up on a sheermountain face. The uncle was alarge man and had to have fourother men help him to get up themountain. He finally stopped andsaid the text was hidden in thesolid rock just above them, hetook a knife and, after a fewmoments of silence, threw it ashard as he could. Amazingly theknife stuck in the smooth rockface. He said that this was wherethe text was hidden. Some of themen fashioned a ladder out of atree trunk and one of themclimbed up to where the knifewas sticking out of the rock.When he pulled the knife out aportion of the rock came out withit. He called out and said therewas a smooth round ball hiddenin the rock. He was instructed notto touch it, several people held ablanket out under the ladder andthe young man used the knife topry the ball out and let it dropdown into the blanket. The unclethen wrapped the ball in a whitescarf. He held it up for just amoment and everyone could seeit was a luminous white globeabout the size of a grapefruit. Thetext was obviously hidden insidethe globe. In the tradition of sacred orcanonical literature of Buddhistfor a text to enter the canon it hadto be directly connected to theBuddha. The Pali texts are theoldest surviving canon of theteachings of the Buddha fol-lowed by the Mahayana canon,which was followed by theTibetan or Vajrayana canon.While the Pali canon makes the

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8

GLOBAL TIMETABLE

ANNIVERSARY OF ADZOM DRUGPA9th Tibetan month – 25th dayWednesday 15th November 2006

01.00 Wellington, Auckland02.00 Hawaii03.00 Fairbanks04.00 San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver05.00 Denver, Salt Lake City, Pagosa Springs,Edmonton06.00 Chicago, Mexico City07.00 New York, Conway, Montreal, Atlanta,Detroit, Havana, Kingston, Indianapolis, Ottawa, Lima, Quito08.00 Caracas09.00 Buenos Aires, Sao Paolo, Rio de Janeiro,Santiago12.00 GMT, London, Dublin, Lisbon13.00 Rome, Berlin, Oslo, Paris, Madrid,Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Brussels, Geneva, Prague, Salzburg,Stockholm, Budapest, Vienna, Warsaw14.00 Helsinki, Athens, Ankara, Beirut, Jerusalem,Vilnius, Johannesburg15.00 Moscow, Murmansk, Baghdad, Kuwait City,Riyadh, Tashkent16.00 Kabul17.00 ODDIYANA, Islamabad17.30 Delhi, Bombay17.45 Kathmandu18.00 Dacca19.00 Bangkok, Jakarta, Saigon20.00 Singapore, Beijing, Lhasa, Manila, HongKong, Kuala Lumpur, Taipei, Perth21.00 Tokyo, Seoul22.00 Brisbane, Vladivostok22.30 Adelaide23.00 Kamchatka, Melbourne, Sydney

claim to be the historical record ofthe teachings of the Buddha givento his followers while he traveledaround India even these texts havea rich visionary tradition where alarge part of the canon are teach-ings that are given by the Buddhabut are not associated with hishuman disciples. Rather they areteaching he gave at the request ofthe gods and in some cases hewent to the god realm to deliverthese teachings and in others thegods came to visit him where theyrequested certain teachings. Insome cases some enlighteneddeity gives these teaching and theBuddha is simply present whenthey are given. The texts of the Mahayana tradi-tion did not begin until centuriesafter the death of the Buddha butthey use this same literary deviseto attribute their texts to theBuddha. One very famous exam-ple is the Heart Sutra which is atext given by the enlighteneddeity figure of Avolokitesvarawho appeared while the Buddhawas sitting in meditation.Ananda, who was present at thetime, took the opportunity toquestion Avolokitesvara who waskind enough to deliver the teach-ing we call the Heart Sutra. There is, of course, a divisionbetween those Tibetan Buddhistswho accept these texts as part ofthe canon and the skeptics whoare unwilling to accept the texts atface value as teaching ofPadmasambhava. TheNyingmapa School has been themost enthusiastic in accepting andcultivating this tradition. By thetwelfth and thirteenth centuriescritics had arisen in other schoolswho attributed the texts to“demons and Gyalgong spirits”and declared that those who studyand follow these teachings areafflicted by “leprosy and psychot-ic fits”. The critics have arguedthat these texts do not have, “spir-itual continuity with India”. TheNyingmapa apologists argue thatthere are demonstrable common-alities with Indian Mahayanatexts and these texts simply con-tinue an ongoing tradition of rev-elation and that since the teach-ings are from Padmasambhava,who gave initiation and empower-ments regarding these teachingsto the twenty-five students whowent on to reveal them, that theydo, in fact, have continuity withIndian Buddhism. Nonethelesseven within the Nyingma tradi-tion there are those who admit,“spiritual fraud is a real possibili-ty”. The apologist hold that these hid-den texts are mnemonic devisesand that the contents of the vari-ous revelations are validated bytheir “soteriological value”, i.e.that those who practice the teach-ings revealed in these textsbecome enlightened masters thusdemonstrating the validity of thetexts. Other defenders take thetact that all teachings, like allother things, lack any intrinsicexistence and ultimately fold backinto the dharmakaya, the ultimatespiritual realm. And from thisthey conclude that claims basedon the recorded documents of his-tory are ultimately no more realthat those from esoteric sources,that historical claims have nomore validity than those revealedin enlightened vision. Finally theysay that all sacred literature origi-nates from a non-historical frame-work and that “ultimate authenti-cation” rests on acceptance by

religious authorities and the devo-tional community of followers.Thus these are not texts like otherbooks written, either hagiographicor about religion or history, butare scriptures revealed from thehigher realms of the liberatedenlightened awareness.Lama Mipham’s text is about theauthenticity of these scripturesand the possibility of fraudulentelements presented by imposters.He points to some warning “redflags” that distinguish the fraudu-lent tertons from those who areauthentic. He writes from a pointof view within the tradition andfully accepts the premise of therevealed texts. However, he alsorealizes and points out that therehave been imposters and thatthere are signs that indicatewhether a terton is real or not.These include things such as; (1)the names of wealthy patronsappear in the text usually embed-ded in some prophetic exclama-tions, (2) they present their textsto the highest religious authoritiesand lobby for its acceptance, (3)they find attractive women whothey indicate are religious emana-tions suitable for becoming con-sorts, and (4) they denounce anyadversaries as “deceitful demons”.So, if fame, wealth or womenappear to be the object of their questit is a sure sign you are dealing withan impostor. There is a story by a well knowNyingma Rinpoche who tells of ahunter who was high in the moun-tains outside his village. He wassitting with his gun watching foran animal when he saw a lamafrom his village making his wayup the mountain far below. As hewatched the lama came up themountain till he came to a veryrocky place and where he pokedaround and hid something amongthe rocks. The hunter was curiousso after the lama left he wentdown and searched among therocks and found that the lama hadhidden a small statue that waswrapped in an expensive katag, awhite ceremonial scarf. Thehunter was very aware of whatwas going on so he carefullyremoved the statue and defecatedin the katag and returned it to itshiding place. Back in the villagehe learned that the lama haddeclared that he had a vision andwas going to reveal a hidden trea-sure. The lama invited the wholevillage to come along and every-one followed him up into themountain to the spot where he hadhidden the statue. When they gotthere the lama did some ceremonyand then in a very ceremonialmanner reached into the hidingplace and pulled out the katag.Hecarefully unwrapped it in the pres-ence of the whole village and afterthat he earned the name, “TheRevealer of Shit”.Mipham’s final recourse to deter-mine if a terma is authentic is theword of a “powerful person” whois a recognized spiritual leaderwho declares that it is valid. Oneis left with the “leap of faith”since authentication is beyondobjective verification. It is inter-esting to note that he places someof the blame for fraudulent textson the “deceit of gods anddemons”, so even his criticism iscouched in language that acceptsthe basic premise for the transmis-sion of these texts from the spiri-tual realm. He goes so far as toname tertons that he considersauthentic; among them are NyimaOzer, Guru Chowang, Ratna

Lingpa and Karma Lingpa, allfrom earlier times. He says thateverything you need to know isincluded in the texts these tertonsrevealed and that it is much betterto stay with their revelations thanto accept the teachings being pre-sented by “new” revealers. The last section of his book dealswith Chokgyur Lingpa whorevealed thirty-nine volumes con-sisting of over a thousand titles.He gives a brief biography ofChokgyur Lingpa who was nearlyilliterate and, like many tertons,revealed his first texts at an earlyage and went on to reveal thirty-seven major earth treasures.These included many objects suchas mirrors, statues, sacred sub-stances, skulls and objects such asPadmasambhava’s crown, ear-rings, onyx boxes and garments,even undergarments, worn byPadmasambhava. Many of thesewere revealed in public with largecrowds in attendance. The teach-ings he revealed were given bydeities such as Tara, exalted mas-ters of the past such asVimalamitra and of course fromPadmasambhava himself. Heworked closely with two othervery famous teachers of his time,Jamgon Kongtrul Lodro Thayeand Khenyse Wangpo and thethree of them were influential inthe Rime ecumenical movement.He shows how the biographies ofChokgyur Lingpa tell as much ormore about his past lives as theydo about his historical life. In some cases there are ex postfacto prophecies revealed in thetermas. For example a textrevealed in the sixteenth century,which purports to have originatedin the eighth century, providesprophecies about events in thethirteenth century! The texts ofteninclude exaggerated religiouspolemic with statements such as,“hearing the name of this teachingputs existence in tatters” andclaims that reading the text,“gives rise to undefiled wisdom”.One association he makes butdoes not deal with in any detail ishow the sadhanas that form thebasis for the visionary practicesthat characterize Vajrayana medi-tation are from these revealedtexts. In this manner any instruc-tions for what to visualize in apractice and the mantras that areused in that visualization comefrom these visionary texts and it isjust this visionary aspect thatgives spiritual authority to thepractice. It seems readily apparent thatthese are religious epics not his-torical annuals and that while theymay contain elaborate accounts ofthe lives of people likePadmasambhava and YesheSogyal their value, as history isvery limited. The techniques forwriting the texts have some simi-larities with the more modernphenomenon of automatic writingand even channeling. Althoughthese seem to be experiments thathave had no lasting effects andhave produced little of literaryvalue. While the terma have a tra-dition of one thousand years and ahuge body of literature that ismythic and epic in many ways.We in the west are just getting ourfirst glimpse into this vast corpusas some of its major works arebeing translated.

Reviewed by J.M.White

Review of Tibetan Literature continued from previosu page

WORLD WIDE TRANSMISSION DAYSABOUT THE WORLDWIDE TRANSMISSION

Newcomers who want to participate in the worldwide transmissionmust be truly interested in the Teachings transmitted by our Teacher,Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and practiced in our world wideDzogchen Community. Participants in this Transmission should try toreceive Teachings from Rinpoche in the future. After having receivedthe Transmission, they should also try to train and collaborate with theSangha of the International Dzogchen Community of ChögyalNamkhai Norbu Rinpoche.Originally, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu had the idea of a “Transmissionat a Distance” because he wanted to help people in different situations,who could not travel at that time to meet the Teacher. TheTransmission will enable them to practice the Dzogchen Teachingstransmitted by Rinpoche without needing direct contact with theTeacher at that time.

Here is a summary of how the Live-Video-Empowerment works:

To receive the World Wide Transmission, new students need to partic-ipate with an experienced student who will host both the preliminaryexplanation as well as the actual practice. A long-time student ofChögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, well in advance of the event,should give the explanations.Hosts of Empowerments with the videotape should be members of theInternational Dzogchen Community.For new and interested persons, it is important to have seen the expla-nation by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche that is also on the video-tape, in advance. They should also have the possibility to clarify anydoubts about the practice on the videotape with some serious, dedicat-ed older students of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche before theEmpowerment.Exactly at the given time (see timetable) at your place, you start theTransmission Video at the starting point of the part of the Anniversaryof Garab Dorje. At that moment – worldwide- students and newcom-ers start to practice this session of the Thun together, which ends withthe dedication of merits.

Please contact your local Community for details.

purification practices so try to do “Purification of the Six Lokas” asmuch as possible. You should also try to do a Ganapuja with your Vajrabrothers and sisters.

TIBETAN NEW YEAR – FIRE BOAR

Special Practice Calendar continued from previous page

7th Month, 30th day Fri. 22nd Sept. 2006

DARK MOON Annular solareclipse. This day is ideal forpurification practices. Try to doeither the Purification of the SixLokas or the Namchos ShitroiNaljyor, the Yoga of the Peacefuland Wrathful Manifestations,either collectively or on yourown. Try to do a Ganapuja aswell, if possible.

8th Month, 10th day Mon. 2nd Oct. 2006

This is a special day of GuruPadmasambhava; therefore youcan do the Guruyoga ofPadmasambhava. If you havetime and the possibility you cando a Ganapuja with the Guruyogaand the Long-life practice ofGuru Padmasambhava togetherwith your Vajra brothers and sis-ters. Otherwise you can do theLong-life practice “UniversalWisdom Union”.

8th Month, 15th day Sat. 7th Oct. 2006

FULL MOON This is an impor-tant day to do the Long-life prac-tice of Amitayus, “Union ofPrimordial Essences”. It is best todo it early in the morning and aGanapuja in the evening.

8th Month, 19th day Tue. 10th Oct. 2006

This is an important day for thepractice of Ekajati, so try to do aLong Thun with your Vajra broth-ers and sisters, or if that is notpossible, you can do a MediumThun alone reciting the heartmantra of Ekajati as many timesas possible.

8th Month, 25th day Mon. 16th Oct. 2006

This is a Dakini day and also theanniversary of two great Dzogchenmasters, Rigzin Kumaraja, whotransmitted the Dzogchen teach-ings to Longchenpa and to the thirdKarmapa, and of Rigzin TsewangNorbu (1698-1755), a greatDzogchen master of theNyingmapa School. It is thereforean excellent day to do AkarLamai Naljor, the Guruyoga withthe White A. If you can do it inthe morning, that is best. Then, ifyou have the time, you can do aMedium or Long Thun later in theday, with an intense practice ofSimhamuka, or a Ganapuja, ifyou have the possibility.

8th Month, 27th day Wed. 18th Oct. 2006

This is an important day for thepractice of Ekajati, so try to do aLong Thun with your Vajra broth-ers and sisters, or if that is notpossible, you can do a MediumThun alone reciting the heartmantra of Ekajati as many timesas possible.

8th Month, 30th day Sat. 21st Oct. 2006

DARK MOON Thismonth, the 30th day isdouble. This day isexcellent for practisingthe “Purification of theSix Lokas” if you knowhow to do it. Otherwiseyou can do the Medium orLong Thun or a Ganapuja.

9th Month, 3rd day Wed. 25th Oct. 2006

This is the anniversary of RigdzinJigmed Lingpa (1729-1798), agreat Dzogchen master who wasthe author of many books, amongwhich is the Longchen Nyingthig,which he wrote after having con-tact with Longchenpa throughvisions. Therefore, on this impor-tant day, you should try to doAkar Lamai Naljor, the Guruyogawith the White A.

9th Month, 9th day Tue. 31st Oct. 2006

This month the 10th day is miss-ing. This is a special day of GuruPadmasambhava. It is also theanniversary of the 16th GyalwangKarmapa and of Tertön Sogyal, aprevious reincarnation of SogyalRinpoche and discoverer of manyterma. It is therefore a good day todo the Long-life practice of GuruPadmasambhava “UniversalWisdom Union”, which is includedin the Medium or Long Thun. Youcan do this in the usual way or, ifyou have the possibility, you cando it with a Ganapuja.

9th Month, 15th day Sun. 5th Nov. 2006

FULL MOON This is a day ofthe Buddha and a good day to dothe Long-life practice ofAmitayus, “Union of PrimordialEssences”, either collectively orindividually according to yourpossibilities, in the morning andin the evening a Ganapuja.

9th Month, 22nd day Sun. 12th Nov. 2006

This day is the important celebra-tion of Buddha Shakyamuni’sdescent to earth from the realm ofthe Divinities. It is called“Lhabab Tuchen”, the Great Timeof the Descent of the Divinities. Itis an ideal day to do a Ganapujawith your Vajra brothers and sis-ters. If there are none nearby, youcan do a Short or Medium Thunon your own.

9th Month, 25th day Wed. 15th Nov. 2006

The 25th is a Dakini day and alsothe anniversary of the greatDzogchen Master Adzom Drugpa(1842-1924), a previous reincar-nation of Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu. He was a disciple ofJamyang Khyentse Wangpo and a

mas-ter of great masters such asChangchub Dorje and AyuKhandro. Therefore, when it is 7pm in East Tibet on this day,Chögyal Namkhai Norbu willgive the transmission ofGuruyoga with the specific prac-tice linked to the anniversary ofAdzom Drugpa. In this way thetransmission will be live becausethe transmission has no distance.Rinpoche will transmit andthroughout the world people whodo the practice at the samemoment will be in the transmis-sion and will thus receive thetransmission. This practiceshould be done at the appointedtime together with your Vajrabrothers and sisters or, if that isnot possible, alone. (In Italy, thispractice will be done at 1 pm.)

SEE THE GLOBALTIMETABLE (see previous page)

9th Month, 30th day Mon. 20th Nov. 2006

DARK MOON This is a goodday to do Namcho Shitroi Naljor,the Yoga of the Peaceful andWrathful Manifestations, in themorning. It is also an importantday for the practice of Ekajati, sotry to do a Long or MediumThun, reciting the heart mantra ofEkajati as many times as possible.

10th Month, 10th day Thu. 30th Nov. 2006

This is a special day of GuruPadmasambhava, the day onwhich he arrived in central Tibet.It is considered that on this day, atthe end of the 8th century, KingSongtsen Gampo, the ancientking of Dharma, vanished dis-solving into a statue ofAvalokiteshvara. Therefore it isgood to do the Guruyoga ofPadmasambhava with the Long-life mantra and a Ganapuja.Otherwise you can do the Long-life practice “Universal WisdomUnion”. If it is possible, the bestmoment to do the Guruyoga isearly in the morning between 7and 8. You can do the Ganapujalater in the afternoon.10th Month 11th day Fri. 1st

Dec. 2006

This is an important day for thepractice of Ekajati.

10th Month, 15th day M o n .4th Dec. 2006

FULL MOON This day isconsidered to be the day to

honor the Lord Buddha ingeneral, and it is one ofthe best days to do theLong-life Practice withthe Dakini Mandaravain particular. Generallythe best moment to dothis kind of practice is

between 7 and 8 in themorning but if you don’t

have this possibility, then doit in the afternoon or later in the

evening when you are free. It isalso a good day to do a Ganapuja.

10th Month, 25th day Fri. 15th Dec. 2006

Today is a Dakini day and theanniversary of Tsongkhapa(1357-1491), who made a synthe-sis of the previous schools andfounded the Gelugpa School. It isa very beneficial day for reinforc-ing the energy of the universe sotry to perform a Ganapuja withyour Vajra brothers and sisters. Ifthere are no other practitionersnearby you can do the MediumThun on your own, transforminginto the Dakini Simhamuka andreciting the heart mantra as manytimes as possible.

10th Month, 30th day Wed. 20th Dec. 2006

DARK MOON This is an excel-lent day to do purification prac-tice so try to do the Purification ofthe Six Lokas and a Ganapuja inthe evening.

11th Month, 7th day Wed. 27th Dec. 2006

This month, the 8th day is miss-ing. This is a special day fordoing the practice of Ekajati sotry to do a Long Thun, collective-ly or alone, reciting the heartmantra as many times as possible.

11th Month, 10th day Fri. 29th Dec. 2006

This is a special day of GuruPadmasambhava called PadmaGyalpo: it is the day on which hearrived in the capital of Oddiyanaand became prince to KingIdrabhodi. Therefore it is anexcellent day to do the Guruyogaof Padmasambhava with aGanapuja.

11th Month, 15th day Wed. 3rd Jan. 2007

FULL MOON Today it is impor-tant to try to do the Long-lifepractice of Guru Amitayus, Unionof Primordial Essences, in theusual way, and, if possible, aGanapuja.

11th Month, 25th day Sat. 13th Jan. 2007

This is a day of the Dakinis ingeneral, so if you have the oppor-tunity practise a collective

Ganapuja, with the transforma-tion of the Dakini Simhamuka,and recite her heart mantra asmany times as possible.Otherwise you can do a MediumThun either collectively or per-sonally.

11th Month, 30th day Fri. 19th Jan. 2007

DARK MOON This is an excel-lent day to do purification prac-tice so try to do the Purification ofthe Six Lokas and a Ganapuja inthe evening.

12th Month,10th day Sun. 28th Jan. 2007

This day is the anniversary ofGuru Padmasambhava’s corona-tion as Prince of Orgyen at theinvitation of King Idrabhodi. Wecan perform a Ganapuja collec-tively or do the Long-life prac-tice, “Universal Wisdom Union”either collectively or personally,according to circumstances.

12th Month,11th day Mon. 28th Jan. 2007

This is a good day to do aMedium or Long Thun with anintensive practice of the mantraof Ekajati.

12th Month, 15th day Fri. 2nd Feb. 2007

FULL MOON This is in generala day for honoring the LordBuddha, and in particular an idealday for the Long-life practice ofGuru Amitayus, “Union ofPrimordial Essences”. If possibletry to do a collective Ganapujawith your Vajra brothers and sis-ters in the evening.

12th Month, 18th day Mon. 5th Feb. 2007

This is the anniversary of thegreat Dzogchen master LongchenRabjam (Longchenpa, 1306-1363). On this very important daytry to do the Guruyoga AkarLamai Naljor, Guruyoga with theWhite A, either collectively orpersonally.

12th Month, 25th day Mon. 12th Feb. 2007

Dakini Day. This is very positiveday for reinforcing your energyand creating a stronger contactwith the energy of the universe sotry to do a collective Ganapujawith your Vajra brothers and sis-ters. If that is not possible, try todo a Medium Thun alone. Ineither case recite the heart mantraof Ekajati as many times as possi-ble.

12th Month, 30th day Sat. 17th Feb. 2007

Today is the last day of the FireDog year. It is a special day for

S p e c i a l P r a c t i c e C a l e n d a r F i r e D o g Y e a rO c t o b e r 2 0 0 6 - F e b r u a r y 2 0 0 7

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 9

continued on previous page

PASSAGES

DIED:It is with great sadness that theDzogchen Community ofMerigar announces that LuciaBoschetto died on August 30,2006. She was thirty-seven yearsold and was from Venice, Italy.Lucia met Rinpoche in 1998 atMerigar.

The letter A indicates events that are particularlyindicated for those having their first contact with theDzogchen Teaching.For people who are genuinely interested in theTeaching, it is indispensable to meet the Master. Thisis possible by following one of his Teaching Retreatsor by participating in one of the worldwide DirectTransmission days.Regarding the webcasts, we would like to specifythat the term “closed webcast” means that in order tobe able to access it, one must be a member, while“open webcast” indicates that it is a teaching that canbe accessed by anyone directly through the Internet.However in order to follow the Teachings at a Gar or aLing of the Dzogchen Community, it is indispensable tohave a membership card.

SEPTEMBER

Wed.27–Sun.1 OctoberAdvanced course of the Danceof the Vajra - the Six Spaces ofSamantabhadra & the Danceof the 3 Vajras, regular &irregularLed by Prima MaiThe course starts on Wednesday 27 September at16.00Cost 200 Euro with discounts for members

OCTOBER

Fri. 6 - Sun. 8 OctoberSMS First Level explanation and practice retreatLed by Jim ValbyThe retreat is reserved for those who have passed theBase Level examCost 120 Euro, with discounts for members.

A Fri. 13 – Sun. 15 OctoberYantra Yoga 1st Level course of explanation andpracticeLed by Tiziana Gottardi and Sergio QuarantaThe course starts on Friday 13 October at 16.00.Cost 120 Euro, with discounts for members.

Wed. 18 - Sun. 22 OctoberDance of the Song of the Vajra Course for advancedstudentsLed by Prima MaiThe course starts on Wednesday October 18 at 4pmCost 200 Euro, with discounts for members.

Thu. 26 – Mon. 30 OctoberAudio and video Webcast from Barcelona of the

Teaching Retreat on the “Longsal Ati’i Gongpa Ngotrod” Upadesha ofIntroduction to the State of Ati With Chögyal Namkhai Norbu(Closed webcast)

NOVEMBER 2006

Thu. 2 – Tue. 7 November Dance of the Vajra Course for Beginners - Part 1With Adriana Dal BorgoThe course starts on November 2 at 4pmCost 240 Euro, with discounts for members.

Wed. 15 November At 10.00A Explanation of the Padmasambhava Guru Yogapractice

At 13.00Audio and video webcast of theWorldwide Transmission ofGuru Yoga on the occasion ofthe anniversary of MasterAdzom Drugpa with ChögyalNamkhai Norbu

Sat. 25 – Sun. 26 NovemberIntensive retreat of Chöd practiceThe retreat starts on Saturday 25 November at 10am

DECEMBER 2006

Fri. 8 DecemberChögyal Namkhai Norbu’s birthday

Fri. 8 – Sun. 10 DecemberIntensive practice retreat Long-life Practice of theDakini Mandarava

Tue. 26 Dec. – Mon. 7 January 2007Audio and video webcast fromTashigar South, Argentina of the TeachingRetreat on “Ati’i Gongpa Ngotrod: UpadeshaOf the introduction to the State of Ati” With Chögyal Namkhai Norbu(closed webcast)

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m e r i g a r w e s tDzogchen Community in Italy

Merigar West58031 Arcidosso (GR)

ItalyTel. 39 0564 966837

Email: merigaroffice@tiscalinet.itWeb site: www.dzogchen.it

NEW VAJRADANCE CLOTHES AVAILABLENOW!

There are new Vajra danceclothes at the very affordablecost of 170 euros. If you areinterested please contact:<vddress@yahoo.com>. TheVajra Dance Clothes can beused for special occasions likethe Worldwide Day of theDance of the Vajra, but if youknow the Dance well you canuse the clothes for a completeThun of practice and not justfor training.

Those who have experienceddancing with them have said itis a very special experience ofintegration, especially if thegroup is complete on the Mandala.

Payment can be sent to:Monte dei Paschi di Siena (Bank) - Arcidosso (GR) – ItalyIBAN: IT36M0103072160000000708609BIC: PASCITM1G99Account nr. 7086,09 in the name of Adriana dal BorgoAddress: c/o Federica MastropaoloVia Sangemini 96 - 00135 Rome ItalyTel: 0039.320-0731650Email: vddress@yahoo.com

CALENDAR OF EVENTS AT THE MERIGAR WEST COMMUNITYOctober 2006 - January 2007

Namkha course with Liane Graf

C O M M U N I T Y N E W SI N T E R N A T I O N A L

N ZEITZ

Advanced Vajra Dance with Adriana dal Borgo September 1 - 6, 2006

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 11

I N T E R N A T I O N A LC O M M U N I T Y N E W S

Dear Members,

We would like to inform you about the election of the new Gakyil of Merigar, which tookplace on August 15, 2006 at the Gonpa in the presence of Master Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.

The New Gakyil

Blue GakyilLucia Antonelli (director)Marzia SpinelliRita Renzi

Yellow Gakyil Giorgio Dallorto (vice-director)Anna Prisco

Red Gakyil Fabio TommasoniAntonio Di GiammarcoYvonne RichterMigmar (advisor)

New GeköFabian Rawnsley

The Master reminded us very clearly about the commitment of the Gakyil to collaborate withAmbienti Web and with all the Lings and Gars, emphasizing the importance of continual com-munication among those who take on this responsibility. He also advised us to establish therole of a permanent advisor, Migmar, for the Red Gakyil who would be a constant referencepoint and who is an expert in the functioning of the Gar. First of all the new Gakyil of Merigar would like to thank the members of last year’s Gakyilfor their work and then, in an attempt to pursue the direction indicated by our precious Master,to propose as an objective improving communication with the Lings, the Gars and membersin general.With regard to this we would like to remind you that the Gakyil is at the service of theCommunity and that anyone who would like to give advice, express doubts or has questionscan write to the Gakyil at <gakyil@dzogchen.it >.If people have doubts concerning the practice, the Gakyil will see to it that the question is for-warded to the official teachers or to a person within whose competence it falls; if, on the otherhand, they are organizational suggestions or ideas, they will be examined and taken into con-sideration. We would particularly like to mention that in winter Merigar is a place of practice open to allthose who would like to hold retreats. If a group of practitioners would like to organize a shortretreat, they can communicate beforehand (about a week in advance) with the Gakyil who willindicate a suitable space.

Greetings to everyoneThe Merigar Gakyil

New Gakyil and Gekö of Merigar

Advanced Yantra Yoga & Variations course with Laura Evangelisti at Merigar August 3 - 7, 2006

Advanced Kumbhaka course with Fabio Andrico at Merigar August 18 - 20, 2006

Kumar Kumari Course with Laura Evangelisti at Merigar September 4-5, 2006

Advanced Vajra Dance and Teacher Training Course with Prima Mai and Adriana dal Borgo

Mandarava and Tsalung practice retreat with Elio Guarsico August 18 - 23, 2006 Merigar S PARK

SMS Level One Training Merigar with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu August 25 - 29 2006 N ZEITZ

E JOUAN

N ZEITZ

R PIRO

DIEDAugust 26 at 6am, our Vajra Sister PradoMelchor passed away in Talavera de LaReina (Toledo), Spain. She was ill withcancer. Starting from this evening a prac-tice of Shitro will be held every day at8:30pm until the practitioners of Talaverade La Reina do a complete cycle.

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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

ACCOMMODATION SERVICE AT MERIGARINFORMATION FOR PEOPLE WHO INTEND TO COME TO MERIGAR FOR RETREATSOR TO FOLLOW COURSES

If you are looking for accommodation, airport transfer, local car hire or only logistic assistance, youcan contact the following information and reservation service:

Accommodation Service

(Information available in English, German, French and Italian) Information service and reser-vation of accommodation during retreats, local transport, & logistic solutions:

Christina von GeispitzheimEmail: accomodationservice@libero.itTel: 0039 0564 957542Mobile phone: 0039 339 1370739

We cooperate with local hotels, family pensions, residences, agriturismo, Community members whohave rooms or houses to rent or sublet. Also we can advise on car rental (at airports or locally), onthe best itinerary and time tables of trains and buses, and we have now a circuit of residents whooffer various useful services like transfer from the airports, local taxi service, translations, baby sit-ting, etc.

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RETREAT WITH CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

BARCELONA, SPAIN OCTOBER 26 to 30, 2006

Longsal Ati’i Gongpa NgotrodUpadesha of Introduction to the State of Ati

OTHER ACTIVITIES

October 27-30, from 8 to 9:30am: Vajra Dance course of The Three Vajras

with Adriana Dal BorgoOctober 27-28, from 6 to 7:30pm:

Introduction to Yantra Yoga with Fabio AndricoOctober 27-30, from 8 to 9:30am:

Yantra Yoga advanced practice with Laura Evangelisti

MORE DETAILS:

The retreat will be held at C.E.M. La Mar Bella AvingudaLitoral Mar, 86-96, 08005 Barcelona.

Bus 41 - Subway L4 (yellow) Stop Poble Nou.

Complete retreat: 200EuroDiscounts:

50% reduced members,20% ordinary members,

100% sustaining and meritorious members.To attend the retreat you must be a member of the Dzogchen

Community

REGISTRATION AND INFORMATION

On-line at the Cultural Association of the Dzogchen Communityin Spain web page: www.dzogchen.es

BORN:Viktoria and SebastianKozlowski welcomed theirnew baby Marta Nikita intothe world on July 26th 2006in Poland.

Asociación Cultural de la ComunidadDzogchen, Spain

NEW WEBSITE:www.dzogchen.es

YELLOW GAKYILyolanda_amarillo@dzogchen.esmasha_amarillo@dzogchen.esrosa_amarillo@dzogchen.es

RED GAKYILadela_rojo@dzogchen.esraquel_rojo@dzogchen.esjose_rojo@dzogchen.es

BLUE GAKYILlella_azul@dzogchen.espeter_azul@dzogchen.es

ramon_azul@dzogchen.es

DIED:Guido Innocente died with clarity andgrace in London on September 7, 2006.Please remember our precious Vajrabrother in your practice.

by Yvonne Richter

In July there was a lot of activity in the FrenchCommunity center located in the beautifulCevennes Mountains of Southern France. Dejam

Ling is special, not least because it holds a handwrit-ten copy from Rinpoche of his Longsal TermaNamkhai Gyalpo. It is quite isolated and cannot bereached by public transport, but once you are thereyou will love it.Courses started on the 2nd of July and went on with-out interruption until the 18th. The warming up wasan intensive Yantra Yoga course on the preliminarygroups with Emily Coleing. This was followed by a2 day workshop with Michael Katz: 35 practitioners,mostly French, walking around with sunglasses,adorned with fancy children’s toys and trying to feelthat everything is a big dream. Thirty-five people area lot for Dejam Ling, but for only two days it wasmanageable. The SMS retreat started on the morning of the 7th

and lasted 10 intensive days. There were 15 practi-tioners from 10 countries around the globe, some asfar as USA and Australia. In addition there was asmall group to help with the retreat and with KarmaYoga on the land. In total we were 18 more or lessgrown up humans, 1 five-year-old boy- who wasshooting everybody with his water pistol- and 1 catwho showed up right before the courses started.The schedule was very full. In the morning,Stoffelina Verdonk taught the Dance of the ThreeVajras – the regular as well as the irregular version.The mandala was quite crowded; a lot of Pawoswished to lean the Dance, maybe because Jim wasgiving a good example. On the 10th Day, we had afantastic complete Thun of the irregular Om A Hum.Also the cat was participating, but until now hasn’tquite mastered the steps!During the day we had 3 sessions with Jim of 1.5hours each. About 60% was practice, alternated by

explanation, with a lot of opportunities for a goodlaugh. Jim continues to emphasise that we shoudn’tbecome fanatic by doing only SMS practices andsacrificing other important practices like VajraDance and Yantra Yoga. To complete the practices ofthe Base (7th Lojong) and to go on with the otherSMS Levels, we must learn Kumbhaka, so we wereinspired to learn Yantra Yoga in the evening. Emilytaught us mainly the 8 Movements and the RhythmicBreathing. Jim was a great example again when hejoined us doing Yantra Yoga. We are super fit nowafter walking up and down the steep slope to reachthe beautiful Vajra tent covering the Mandala, wherewe did Vajra Dance and Yantra Yoga.Our Santi Maha Sangha sessions were held in theGonpa of Dejam Ling, a big cosy living room withyellow walls, blue-sky views, wooden floor andmany carpets and cushions. You will feel very com-fortable if you ever visit Dejam Ling.Now it is the 17th , and most of the SMS family hasgone but Emily’s students of Yantra Yoga havereturned and we are learning the 1st and 2nd groupsof Yantras together with a 3 year old girl and ofcourse the cat. SMS training at Dejam Ling first started with BaseLevel Training in 2003, held by Jim Valby and thenby Constantino Albini in 2005. We have continuedwith the 1st Level in 2006 and hopefully we won’twait until 2009 for Jim to show up again. Thank youso much! We have been a harmonious Vajra family these days.Thanks to Stoffelina, Emily, Catherine “The Angel”and to Laurent Maurice, assistant to the FrenchGakyil. Special “Merci” to the whole French com-munity for this great opportunity.Dejam Ling is such a great place to do personalretreat that 2 practitioners decided at the last minuteto stay on, in spite of a now empty fridge and no car.Our parting words to them were: “Don’t eat the cat!”

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Dejam Ling Santi Maha Sangha 1st level Training with Jim Valby

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MARRIEDRafal Borkiewicz married Dorota Kukla on June 24,2006 in Boston Massachusetts, USA.

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Santi Maha Sangha BaseLevel Retreatwith Jim ValbyMarch 17 – 27, 2006St Petersburg, Russia

From May 17 to 26 in St.Petersburg, Russia, therewas a Santi Maha Sangha

Base Level retreat with Jim Valby.The retreat was near St. Peters-burg, in the picturesque place ofthe Karelian Isthmus. Though theweather was quite cold and rainy,the atmosphere of the retreat waswarm and interesting, like in anyother retreat with Jim. And thematter is not only that Jim, as usu-al, gave his explanation in livelyand easy manner, and his transla-tor Igor Berkhin did a very preciseand good translation. At this retreat Jim touched on acouple questions that are veryimportant for all practitioners.One of these questions – what isthe direct introduction and howwe should work with it? From thevery beginning we are in theDzogchen teaching, we know thatthe enlightened knowledgeincludes all our experiences andall manifestations, pure andimpure - already present in theprimordial state’s wisdom. Jimgave a very precise explanation ofwhen we spend our time onsearching for enlightenmentsomewhere out of our own stateor we believe that there is a pureand impure dimension, which wehave to purify, that we block thepossibility to work with the trans-mission in that way and we createobstacles for our own primordialstate. If we achieve a success inour practice and we feel proud of

this progress, we also block thepossibility of manifestation of theprimordial state for ourselves.Thinking of this, we remembereddifferent wrangles between Vajrabrothers and sisters and we under-stood that all these dualistic con-ceptions of our mind are justblocking the possibility to discov-er our state of rigpa. There was also a very interestingexplanation by Jim about how wedo the practices. We shouldn’tthink that the practice is somekind of formal ritual or a competi-tion of who is faster to attain real-ization, or whose realization isbetter. We stay in the real sense ofwhat we are doing, in direct trans-mission, in a state of Dzogchen.In any practice we are goingbeyond the dualistic idea of sub-ject and object, relaxing more andmore in our primordial state andnot accumulating tensions of ourego. The interesting thing is that inmost of the practices, such asPurifying of Six Lokas, we canuse different approaches of Sutra,Tantra and Dzogchen. We at leastpurify all to emptiness, like it is ina Sutra, and we transform like inTantra and, finally, we self liber-ate like in Dzogchen, though out-wardly in time we are doing thesame action of purifying. AlsoJim explained that we shouldn’tjust purify abstract lokas; wenotice that we have these passionsin fact, which are the causes ofthese six lokas and purify them.Summarizing all the aforesaid, themain thing, as Jim explained tous, is the introduction in our stateof rigpa and staying in it, guidednot with our fantasies, but work-

ing with oral, symbolic and directtransmission of Dzogchen. Jimsaid that we don’t taking refuge inour experiences or in somethingelse conditioned by time. We aretaking refuge in a direct instantpresence of rigpa and improvingour capacities. Without that all theactivity of the Community andGakyil will resemble simplebureaucracy. Jim talked a lot about Yantra Yogaand that it is a method of attainingrealization and not just physicalexercises. And in the Yantra Yogacourse, marvelously leaded byinstructor Victor Krachkovsly,practitioners had a possibility tostudy or get deeply into thismethod of attaining of our pri-mordial state. Jim said that hedoes Yantra Yoga routinely him-self, underlining it importance inhis own practice. It is clear that all Jim teachesabout is based not on theoreticalknowledge, but on his own expe-rience. Jim was just sharing hisexperience, that’s why his expla-nations were always interestingand lively. Though there were alot of people on the retreat, therewere a little more than sixty prac-titioners regularly. And those whowere on this retreat were reallylucky, because they had wonder-ful possibility to extend theirunderstanding. The organizationof the retreat was good, withfundraising for Merigar East andhalf of the money from this retreatwill go to buying a Gar in Crimea.We hope that Jim Valby’s retreatswill take place at the Crimea Gar,because the benefit from it for allpractitioners is incontestable.

The spring was a little latethis year in Ukraine andparticularly in Crimea, so

the stormy Black Sea and thedamp wind met us in the MalyiMayak village. It was the sameplace where Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu last year has conducted aretreat on the precious teaching ofJnanadakini from LongsalThugtig. Therefore it was the per-fect location for having a Mandar-ava Chudlen retreat with NinaRobinson.About a hundred practitionersfrom Ukraine, Russia andLithuania gathered to practice thiswonderful and powerful terma ofRinpoche for two weeks. Nina’sexplanations were very clear andprecise, and her loving kindness,endless sense of humor and deepexplanations brought up the realinspiration and understanding ofthe practice in all the participants.And her stories about how theDzogchen Community was start-ed, how Merigar was built filledus all with the feeling of belong-ing and continuity of theCommunity since its early days inseventies and eighties and tillnow.It was a wonderful time and placefor the practice - the air was fresh,the sea was clear - so clear thatdolphins came very close to theshore. I remember Nina especial-ly enjoyed to watch them playingin the waves as their white bellieswere glittering with gold in therays of the setting sun. Thenightingales in the evening

seemed to be singing the melodyof the practice together with us. We did three thuns of Mandaravapractice a day, and besides thatViktor Krachkovsky gave thor-ough explanations on YantraYoga, which made a great supportin learning the Chudlen breathingpractice.At the retreat Nina gave us twopostcards, one for Merigar Westand another for Rinpoche - so thatall of us could send our regards tothe Community and gratitude toour Master for this preciousteaching. After two weeks the retreat assuch was over, but the practition-ers stayed and continued the prac-tice, because we had anotherwonderful occasion to followDzogchen teaching — listening toRinpoche’s explanations of AtiLam Nad Ngondro. It was impos-sible to find a fast Internet con-nection for receiving video, so wehad only the audio signal viaGPRS. Luckily the signal wasstable and we managed to listento all the retreat and did the prac-tice of Purification of Six Lokaswith Vajrasattva collectively, aswas explained by Rinpoche.These three weeks in MaliyMayak (which literally meansSmall Lighthouse) gave to every-one the unforgettable experiencesof the practice, which might real-ly serve as a lighthouse, showingus the way towards the real senseof the Teaching of our Master.

Tsegyalgar WestBaja Mexico

Dzogchen Community West Coast755 Euclid Ave.

Berkeley, CA 94708USA

Email: cbass@prodigy.net.mxcarolmfields@aol.com

Web site www.bajasangha.org

Tsegyalgar, Dzogchen Communityin America,PO Box 277 Conway, MA 01341Tel: 413-369-4153 Fax: 413-369-4473Email: secretary@tsegyalgar.orgWeb site: www.tsegyalgar.org

BORN:In early September of 2006,Evangeline Andasia DeanTruitt (big, bouncy and bub-bly) was born to Sam andKim Truitt, joining her sisterIndiana Truitt along upperHudson Valley, New YorkState, USA.

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23 people attended the Mandarava Retreat with Nina Robinson at Khandroling,Tsegyalgar Buckland, Massachusetts, USA (both photos above)

A Wonderful Springtime in Crimea!Mandarava Chudlen Retreat with Nina Robinson April 20th - May 6th, 2006

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I N T E R N A T I O N A LC O M M U N I T Y N E W S

LUMBINI GARDENSA privately-funded, intentional, and residential community beingformed by members of the Dzogchen Community, in Baja CaliforniaSur, Mexico.

Lumbini Gardens is a privately funded, intentional, and residentialcommunity being formed by members of the Dzogchen Commu-nity, in Baja California Sur, Mexico. It has a few memberships

still available. Currently we are forging ahead rapidly with plans for ourmodest houses and 10-acre permaculture garden next to the little townof La Ribera, 3 minutes from the beaches of the Sea of Cortez. We would like to invite additional potential members to explore theopportunity of joining Lumbini Gardens, though spaces are definitelylimited. We have a total of 20 memberships, some of which are sharedamong several individuals. We expect to begin planting our garden inNovember of this year and to commence construction of our first hous-ing cluster in 2007. Our current membership is very diverse, with members of differentages, single individuals, and families, retirees and professionals. Whatwe all have in common is that we are members of the DzogchenCommunity, students of Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, dedicated to thepractice and preservation of the Dzogchen teachings, very interested increating a beautiful, affordable, and ecological living environment onthe rural outskirts of La Ribera, and interested in participating in thedevelopment of the Baja Gar (Tsegyalgar West), which is 45 minutesfrom Lumbini Gardens.We encourage those who are considering joining us to check out ourwebsite (lumbinigardens.org), and if interested, to visit the site. LaRibera is shown on google.earth - we have the 10-acre open field at theSW intersection of the La Ribera and Cabo Pulmo roads at the begin-ning of town.Costs thus far: $6,575 to purchase a share; upcoming, $6,600 in gen-eral assessment which can be paid as a lump sum, or over one or twoyears in monthly payments. The assessment will cover improvementspreparatory to building, some garden expenses, building of common-use buildings, such as a Gonpa/kitchen, creation of parking area, waterstorage tank, etc. We project that houses (maximum of 1,300 sq. feet)will cost somewhere between $15,000 and $25,000 to build, dependingon the building materials and methods chosen and the size of house.Over time there may be additional assessments, depending on groupneeds.Members are expected to take part in most of the monthly conference

calls and to try to make their way to the occasional face-to-face meet-ing, as well as to become part of a working committee.We are in the process of developing our governance processes in accor-dance with Diana Leafe Christian’s “Creating a LIfe Together -Practical tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities.” Weare also in the process of selecting our decision-making protocol, asinformed by C.T. Butler’s book, “On Conflict and Consensus.”If you are interested, please contact the head of our MembershipCommittee, Janet Janka at: jankalafrance@comcast.net

SANTI MAHA SANGHA BASE LEVEL RETREATat Tsegyalgar West in Baja Sur, MexicoDecember 15, 2006 to January 8, 2007

JIM VALBY will teach the SANTI MAHA SANGHA BASELEVEL, covering Sutra, Tantra, and Dzogchen, two sessions a day.

ANASTASIA MCGHEE will teach THE DANCE OF THE THREEVAJRAS (regular version) at the beginning of the retreat.

BODHI KRAUSE will teach THE DANCE OF THE 6 SPACES OF SAMANTABADRA after Christmas.

LYNN SUTHERLAND will teach YANTRA YOGA, including theYantra Preliminaries, the First and Second Series of the Main Practice(pranayamas and yantras) and the Vajra Wave.

Auspiciously, from December 26 to January 1, 2007, we will alsohave the WEBCAST of Rinpoche’s retreat Longsal Ati’i GongpaNgotro, the Upadesha of The Introduction to the State of Ati. Allinclusive cost (retreat, campsite, food and airport transportation) is$350US/Week, $60US/Day

Dzogchen community membership discounts apply. (40% sustaining, 20% regular, 5% introductory)

Pre-Registration and Inquiries contact: tomaasm@yahoo.com

by Sean Quinn

This past August,Tsegyalgar hosted anintensive Santa Maha

Sangha retreat at Khandrol-ing. Practitioners fromaround the globe came toexperience this sacred land.The retreat was structured sothat there were 4 days of 4sessions, one Vajra Dance,one Yantra Yoga and 2 SantaMaha Sangha. Early morn-ings at the dew covered Uni-versal Mandala, the ever-cheerful Bodhi Krause greetedpractitioners. For the Base Levelretreat, Bodhi guided the studentsthrough the dance of Om Ah Hum.It was wonderful observing folksnew to the practice experiencingthe dance. The opportunity tolearn the steps on the UniversalMandala where the dance wasrevealed is a rare treat. The energy,as always, is electric on the man-dala. With much gentle guidance,Bodhi was able to get some ofthese stiff beings to be fluid,almost graceful, with the Dance. After a light breakfast (ah thetsampa!), Jim Valby expoundedon practices from the Precious

Vase. There were morning andafternoon sessions, with time inbetween for a delicious, filling hotlunch and a swim in the cool pondwaters. In each session, Jim gaveinsight into how to work with theMaster’s transmission. Jim, in hisdelightful style, explained clearlyhow the practices are to developcapacity. These methods are forgetting familiar with primordialpresence, not to obtain enlighten-ment. As the teachings state,everything is already the wisdom.The essence is transmission. The late afternoon session was forYantra Yoga. Naomi Zeitz taughtfor the Base Level retreatants and

Oni McKinstry instruct-ed the Level One stu-dents. The sessions wereheld on the UniversalMandala up in the openair. It was very special tobe instructed on the eightmovements and thebeginning Yantra on sucha magical space. Theweather was ideal; nei-ther too warm nor toocool, but comfortable.The biting insects did notinterfere with the instruc-tions

There were a few students whowere new to Rinpoche’s teach-ings. One could see how deeplyJim’s presence and clarity in artic-ulating concepts that are beyondwords and symbols touched them.Bodhi, Naomi, and Oni were verykind and helpful, as always, tothose of us less experienced in thepractices. Many thanks to all whoparticipated in this program. If allgoes well, this Santa MahaSangha Retreat will be held againat Khandroling next summer.Please mark your calendars andmake your way here to experiencefirst hand the beauty and themagic of this special space.

The Tsegyalgar Bookstore is excited to report thatthe new Snow Lion reprint of teachings from TheMirror entitled “Dzogchen Teachings,” is now avail-able through our online store through the followinglink:

http://www.tsegyalgar.org/cgi-bin/merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=T&Product_Code=SL163&Category_Code=book

or by going to the “Books” section at http://www.tsegyalgar.org/bookstore/bookstore.html

Dzogchen TeachingsPublished by Snow LionThrough these concise, clear, direct, and preciseexplanations and instructions not available else-where, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu makes these pro-found teachings accessible to everyone. All the chap-ters contain beneficial instructions for both begin-ning and advanced students regardless of which tra-dition they may follow, and insights into the genuinemeaning of important subjects related to Sutra,Tantra, and Dzogchen.Order Number: SL163Price: $16.95

Drajyor#232E$8.00PUBLIC BOOKThe Word “drajyor,” or “writing of the sounds,”refers to the writing of the different syllables thatcompose words so that we can pronounce them cor-rectly. In this book Chögyal Namkhai Norbu illus-trates in detail his own system for transcribing theTibetan letters to enable the practitioners of theDzogchen Community to pronounce correctly theinvocations of the practices and the most recurrent

words of the teaching. The final Phonetic Indexindicates the correct pronunciation of every Tibetansyllable.*You can buy this book from our online store fol-

lowing links from:http://www.tsegyalgar.org/bookstore/bookstore.html

On Birth, Life, and Death#227E$24.50PUBLIC BOOKThis book presents the basic principles of traditionalTibetan Medicine that enable the reader to graspsome of the main points regarding Birth, Life, andDeath. This book, produced thanks to a close col-laboration with the Ka-Ter Translation Project ofShang Shung Institute-Austria, also contains thewhole original Tibetan text.

*You can buy this book from our online store follow-ing links from:http://www.tsegyalgar.org/bookstore/bookstore.html

Sang Offering and Serkyem of the Eight Classes#234E$12.00RESTRICTED BOOKThis book contains explanations by ChögyalNamkhai Norbu of the Sang Offering written byAdzom Drugpa and the Degyed Serkyem practicecomposed by Nub Sangye Yeshe. The Sang ritepurifies the obstacles and negative forces linked tothe place in which one lives, because the localguardians and their energy also influence the individ-ual. Serkyem is a rite for making contact or com-municating with the Eight Classes and particularlywith the local guardians. The texts of the practicesare included.

*This book is not included on our online store, and isonly available through phone, fax, or email sales.

If you would like to place anorder for one of these books, orany other, please email, fax, orphone in to me the followinginformation:

1. Your billing and shippingaddresses2. Your VISA or MC numberwith expiration date (it is notsecure to send this information inan email)3. The list of items you would

like to orderAll of our contact info is below.I look forward to hearing from

you!

Anna BartensteinTsegyalgar BookstoreP.O. Box 82 Conway, MA 01341USATel: 413-369-4473 (Ph/Fax)Email: bookstore@tsegyalgar.org

Santi Maha Sangha Retreats at Khandroling, Tsegyalgar

Santi Maha Sangha Schedule of Jim Valby

2006

October 6-8, 2006 Merigar West, Italy, SMS First Level

Nov 3-5, 2006 Kundrolling, New York City, SMS Base

Nov 10-19, 2006 Seattle, Washington, SMS Base

Dec 4-12, 2006 Tashigar South, Argentina, assist for SMS Base Exam & Level One Training

NEW BOOKS AVAILABLE AT THE TSEGYALGAR BOOKSTORE

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 15

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s o u t h aa mm ee rr ii cc a Tashigar South

Comunidad DzogchenTashigar

Calle pública S/NTanti 5155

Pcia. de CórdobaArgentina

Tel & Fax: 0054- 3541-498 356Email: tashigarsur@gmail.com

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Namgyalgar Dzogchen Community in AustraliaPO Box 14 Central Tilba

NSW 2546 Tel/Fax: 61 02 4473 7668

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

Tashigar NorthFinca Tashigar

Prolongación de la Calle BolivarValle de Pedro González. Isla de

MargaritaTel: 00 58 295 415 5800

Email: tashinor@mail.dzogchen.ruWeb site: www.dzogchenvenezuela.org

The Brazilian Dzogchen Community is very pleased to announce:

DZOGCHEN RETREAT IN BRAZIL: SÃO PAULO, NOVEMBER 3rd - 7th 2006

WITH CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU RINPOCHEATI’I NADZER - THE VERY IMPORTANT POINTS OF DZOGCHEN ATI

and other Dzogchen instructions

São Paulo, November 3rd - 7th 2006Hotel Della Volpe

Rua Frei Caneca, 1199Phone (hotel): +55-11-3549-6466

Cost of the retreat:Full participation: R$300 (= aprox USD 140 or 110 Euros, at today’s official rates)

or R$100 per day

The main retreat is from 10h to 12h.

There will also be Yantra Yoga and Vajra Dance classes for beginners and explanations of the practices inthe afternoons.

Information in English about the retreat and about São Paulo at the website: www.dzogchen.com.br

TASHIGAR SUR, ARGENTINA

December 26 2006 - January 1 2007CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

RetreatLongsal Ati’i Gongpa Ngotrod

UPADESHA OF THE INTRODUCTION TO THE STATE OF ATI

Buenos Aires – ArgentinaNovember 10th – 12th 2006

TEACHINGS FOR THE THIRD MILLENIUM

Information and registrationEmail: gakyildebuenosaires@yahoo.com.ar

Montevideo – UruguayNovember 17th – 19th2006

PRECIOUS DZOGCHEN TEACHING

Information and registration:Email: clibello@adinet.com.uy

TASHIGAR SUR SCHEDULE

Yantra Yoga Course – 2nd LevelCourse on 3rd and 4th groups of Yantras and their Pranayamas, with Amare Pearl, under supervision of

Fabio AndricoDecember 14th to 17th - 2006

Yantra Yoga Course – 1st Level:Intermediate Course on 1st and 2nd groups of Yantras and their Pranayamas, with Marisa Alonso

December 18th to 22nd – 2006

Vajra Dance Course:Course on the Dance of Liberation of Six Spaces

Beginners Course with Nélida SaporitiDecember 18th to 22nd – 2006

Yantra Yoga Course with Fabio AndricoCourse on the understanding and application of breathing

January 3rd to 5th - 2007Course on the understanding and application of kumbhaka

January 6th to 7th – 2007

Information and registration:tashigarsur@gmail.comwww.tashigar-sur.com.ar

We have shared with youthe building of Tashigardel Norte, and many of

you have visited the Gar for teach-ings. We are still growing andbuilding and developing everyday. We reflect on the accom-plishments here and sometimescannot remember when there wasonly a dream. The reality is con-crete, functional, multi-dimen-sional and fabulous. The Gonpa holds up to 500 peo-ple, the Comedor is a wonderfulplace for hanging out, meeting,eating (TdN café food is fantas-tic!) playing bagchen, dancing.The Churuata is a magical placefor Yantra Yoga and other specialpractices. The gardens are lushwith tropical flowers and treesblossoming everywhere. Thewhole TdN property is nowserved by a wireless internet con-nection. The aloe is healthy andjuicy. The residential part of TdN(called “The Village”) has pavedstreets and 19 beautiful homeshave been completed. We haveour own wastewater treatmentplant for sewage disposal. Wehave our own fresh-water systemas well. We have a security fence,entry gate, Gar and PCTN offices.Rinpoche’s house sits on a gentle

slope with a stunning view of thesea. The Gakyil is now planning aswimming pool for Rinpoche,and has recently constructed aprivate road from the entrancegate to Rinpoche’s home. But even more than the list ofaccomplishments above, wewould like to communicate to youwhat we have experienced as theabsolute joy of TdN andMargarita. It is just gorgeous! Itis a happy and peaceful place. It isa place alive with practice. It is aplace of retreats, a regular sched-ule of daily and weekly Dzogchenpractice. It is a place only 5 min-utes from a wonderful beachwhere we gather and swim andsing together the Song of theVajra, and then finish with sillysplashing and playing Shariputrawith the Master. Sometimes thereare all-night bagchen tourna-ments. There are musical concertswith special compositions writtenespecially for the occasion. Wehave had samba, salsa and tangocontests, and amazing Tibetansinging presentations. We areworking hard, but we are alsohaving more fun than anybodybelieved possible. Please join usin this incredible experience!

NEW SINGAPORE GAKYILBlueMr. Leow Chin Keat (President)leowchinkeat@yahoo.com.sgTel: (65) 97222295

RedMr.Chuw Kum Kee (Secretary)kumkee@yahoo.com.sg

Tel: (65) 91528681

Mrs.Maria Delaney(Committee member)mariataitai@yahoo.comTel: (65) 62450978

Yellow/BlueMr.Wen Fung Ringo (Treasurer)ringoboon@yahoo.com.sgTel: (65) 81233556

TASHIGAR DEL NORTE – FUN IN THE SUN!!by Diane Campbell

DIEDRuth Lopez In her brief but intense passagethrough this dimension, RuthLopez met Namkhai NorbuRinpoche and the DzogchenTransmission in July 2004 atMargarita Island. Ruth was 25years old. Her travels throughLatin America had begun threeyears before and lasted more thantwo years until, in El Salvador, on August 12, 2006, she went tosleep with a mild stomach pain and she never returned to her phys-ical body. May she continue her trip to Total Realization withplenty of the blessings of the Transmission.

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ARGENTINATashigarComunidad DzogchenTashigarCalle pública S/NTanti 5155Pcia. de CórdobaTel & Fax: 0054- 3541-498 356Email: tashigarsur@gmail.com

AUSTRALIANamgyalgar DzogchenCommunity in AustraliaVicki Forscutt - SecretaryPO Box 14 Central Tilba, NSW 2546 Tel/Fax: 61 02 4473 7668Email: namgyalg@acr.net.auWeb site: www.dzogchen.org.au

GarGeköes of NamgyalgarTel: 61(0)2 4473 7770Email: garnet@acr.net.au

AUSTRIAHomepage: www.dzogchen.at

Dzogchen Community of ViennaElisha KoppensteinerTel.: 0043 1 208-22-32 or0660/817-13-28Email: dzogchen.wien@gmx.at

Dzogchen Community Austria,RegionsOliver F. LeickGschmaier 139, A-8265Gr.SteinbachTel/Fax: 03386-8571 or 0676-3221365Email: office@ssi-austria.at ,oliver1506@aon.at

BELGIUM Katia Lytridon 16, rue Paul Goedert L-3330 Crauthem LuxembourgTel: 352 366591

BRAZILDzogchen Community of Brazil -São PauloWeb site: www.dzogchen.com.br

General Contact:brazil@dzogchen.com.br

Blue Gakyil: Otavio Lilla –otavio@dzogchen.com.brRed Gakyil: Regina Marques –regina@dzogchen.com.brYellow Gakyil: HeloísaPaternostro –helo@dzogchen.com.br

CANADAPeter Dimitrov VancouverEmail: pacrim@axion.netTel: (604) 684-4446

Eve-Marie Breglia107 Armadale Ave.Toronto, ONT M65-3X3Tel: 416 767 5252Email: chod@rogers.com

CHILELorena HumeMarchant Pereira 1775A-22-Providencia. SantiagoTel: 056-2-474-4782Email: lorenahume@yahoo.com

CZECH REPUBLICDzogchen o.s.U Bozich Bojovniku 3Prague 2 Tel: +420 603 529 784Email: blue@dzogchen.czyellow@dzogchen.czred@dzogchen.czWeb site:

http://www.dzogchen.cz

DENMARK Anne-Grethe NyengFax: 45 33 11 32 43Email: nyeng@mail.dk

ESTONIAEstonia:Svetlana Kollyakova Email: skol@eer.ee

FINLANDMika SillanpaaKuhankeittajankatu 2250190 MikkeliFinlandEmail: Mika.Sillanpaa@uku.fi

FRANCE Association DzogchenDejam Ling, Le DevesF30570 St Andre de MajencoulesTel: 33-(0)467824490Web site: www.association-dzogchen.org

GERMANYDzogchen Gemeinscaft c/o Helga BetzHelga BetzLindemannstr. 12D-40237 DüsseldorfTel+fax 49 (0)211 682657Email: office@dzogchen.deWeb site: www.dzogchen.de

Red gakyil: rot@dzogchen.deYellow gakyil:gelb@dzogchen.deBlue gakyil: blau@dzogchen.de

Oddiyana Shang Shung Edition:oddiyana@dzogchen.de

GREAT BRITAIN Amely Becker15A Langdon Park RoadLondon N6 5PSTel: 020 8348 6253Email: amely@globalnet.co.ukUK web site: www.redsandstone-hill.net/dzogchen/

GREECEHellenic Dzogchen CommunityGeneral contact email address:info@dzogchen.grWeb site: www.dzogchen.gr

Individual members to contact inAthens:Alessandra Baniasco, (+30) 2108015419Dimitris & Anna Daskarolis,(+30) 210 3466861Nicholas Liber, (+30) 6977806369Panagiotis Stambolis, (+30) 6936866070Phannie Xenou, (+30) 6977630540

Individual members to contact inThessaloniki:Thanos & Dina Svoronos, (+30)2310 828183

HOLLAND Web site: www.dzogchen.nl(under construction)

Martin Landsman, GroningenEmail: mlandsman@planet.nlAnnalen Gall, Amsterdam <Email:annalen_gall@hotmail.com

HUNGARYZsolt Somogyvari Szalmarozsa ter 8.Budapest, H-1161Email: dzogchenhu@yahoo.com

ISRAELAlex Polak Tel: 00972-52-6020374 Email: polakalex@hotmail.com

Yael Rotbard Tel: 00972-52-2682291Email: bygy@zahav.net.il

ITALYMerigar Comunita Dzogchen Secretary - Anna De SoleArcidosso, 58031 GR, Italy Tel: 39 0564 966 837 Fax: 39 0564 968 110 Email:merigaroffice@tiscalinet.it

AdzomlingMoreno MarcatoVia Culasso 214053 CanelliAT 0141Tel: (39) 0141 831002

ZhenphenlingDzogchen Community of RomeVia G. Miani 500154 ROMETel. 0039 06 57300346Email: zhenphenling@tiscali.it

JAPANMs. Tsugiko Kiyohashi5-11-22-301 ShimomeguroMeguroku, Tokyo 153-0064Tel&fax (home): +81 3 37127507

LATVIAPadmalingGertrudes 5a, Riga, LV-1010Email: padmaling@dzogchen.ru

LITHUANIADorjeling Lithuanian Community DorjelingEmail: Lithuania@dzogchen.ru

Web site: www.dzogcenas.lt

Algis LukoseviciusArchitektu 176-44LT-04206 VilniusTel: +370-614-18056

LUXEMBOURGKatia Lytridou5, rue Joseph ProbstJunglinster L-6148

MALAYSIATham Wye Min 8669C Klebang Kechil 75200 Melaka Tel: 60 35 6162

Kwok Kee Chang 11-A Jalan Jujor, 1/5 Taman, Bakti Ampang Selangor, W. Malaysia Tel: 60 3 9847167

MEXICO Mexico City LingTabasco #67 (between Meridaand Frontera streets)Colonia RomaMexico CityTel: (011 52 55) 5511 0550

Carolyn Bass, Yellow Gakyilcbass@prodigy.net.mxAngela Mijares, Red Gakyil ang-iemaiden@hotmail.comMonica Patiño, Blue Gakyilmonica_patino@hotmail.comTel: 011 52 55 581 303153A Cerrada de Juarez #33-1Colonia Tinajas ContaderoMexico City 05370

Tsegyalgar West/Baja GarScott Schroeder, Gakyil PresidentEmail: ecobaja@prodigy.net.mx

Tel: 011 52 624 15 07407Rodrigo VillalobosEmail: rodrigosky@hotmail.comTel: 011 52 624 14 77525

Jardin de los NaranjosApartado Postal 39523400 San Jose del Cabo, BCSEmail: rickmutch@yahoo.comTel: Skype name isbajagar_office

NEPALVikki FloydG.P.O. Box 8974CPC 069ThamelKathmanduRes.Tel: 00977-1-4270106(after 8.00 p.m.)Email: vikkifloyd@hotmail.com

NEW CALEDONIAAs. Dzogchen NC.378 rue Hypollite Passy98835 KoutioDumbeaNew CaledoniaTel: (687) 24 16 69Email: maclaigar@lagoon.nc

NEW ZEALAND NZ Dzogchen CommunityP.O.Box 90450Auckland CityEmail: nzgakyil@yahoo.co.nz

Paora Joseph Email: paora1@hotmail.com

Gabrielle KearneyEmail: rana@pl.net

NORWAYGordon Cranmer 4157 Utstein Kloster MosteroyTel: 47 4 514705

Community Web site:http://go.to/dzogchen.no

PERUSusana Belaunde Calle Teruel 341 Miraflores, Lima Email: subelaunde@yahoo.com

POLANDWspolnota Dzogczenul. Bruna 1/6802-594 WarszawaEmail: dzogczen@dzogczen.pl

PaldenlingLysa Gora 16838-230 Nowy ZmigrodTel: 48 887957944Email: paldenling@wp.plWebsite: http://www.dzogczen.pl

Cezary WozniakUl. Emaus 3330-213 KrakowTel: 012/4252700, mobile609222211Email: cwozniak@bci.pl

PORTUGALVitor PomarFonte Salgada 713-Z8800 TaviraPortugalTel: 081 323780Email:vitorpomar@mail.telepac.pt

Lydia FerreraRua da Nazare 2Vila Facaia2560 Torres VedrasTel: 351 61 911235

RUSSIAN FEDERATION Kunsangar 142500 Russia, Moscow region,

Pavlovskiy Posad, RUPS,a/ya 13,BF DostoyanieSecretaryTel: 7 096 43 21156Tel: 7 095 740 79 98Email: kunsang@dzogchen.ru

Moscow DC RinchenlingEmail: rinchenling@dzogchen.ru

St. Petersburg DC Sangeling Email: sangyeling@mail.ru

Baikal DC NamselingContact person AlexanderVyaznetskovtsev: Email: yantra@buryatia.ru

Samara DC. Contact person Viktor Krecker: Email: krecker@samtel.ru

SERBIA/EX YUGOSLAVIAJelena ZagorcicVojvode Stepe 28011000 Beograd381 11 462555Email: ela.z@EUnet.yu

Ivana Radicevic KaramanOtona Zupancica 3611070 BelgradeTel: 381 11 604115Email: dakini@EUnet.yu

SINGAPORE 1) Management Committee format are:President - Edmund Tai KwokWah Email: mailto:edmundkwtai@yahoo.com.sgTel: (65)64811308, (65)96373010

Vice President - Michael Foo SeeJinEmail: mfoo@caribbean.com.sgTel: (65)96155886 ]

Secretary - Wong Hee KunEmail:frogwong@singnet.com.sgTel: (65)93672288 ]

Treasurer - Fan ChinEmail: fanchin@singtel.comTel: (65)96711138 ]

Vice Treasurer - Lee Chee TeongEmail: teong@starhub.net.sgTel: (65)91397862 ]

Committee Member - Ms SandraLee Siew HwanEmail: san138a@yahoo.comTel: (65)97928853 ]

Committee Member - Sam ChanTeng JiangEmail:chantengjiang581@msn.comTel: (65)81136131 ]

SOUTH AFRICADarryl van Blerk104 Park Road,Walmer EstateCape Town7925, South AfricaTel: 27-21-4470129Fax: 27-21-4221265 Email: zebrad@intekom.co.za

SPAIN Dzogchen Community, SpainApt. Postal 4622028028 Madrid

Lella Guidotti c/o Tenor Masini20 BajosBarcelona 08028Tel: 00 34 93 4111563 / Mobile639311640 Email: kungaa@wanadoo.es

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

continued on next page

by Emmanuel Jouan

Since an early age I have had accidents.Many times I fell from my bike, orlooking at the right I didn’t see an

object coming from the left, hit my head,etc. I have had many such incidents andtherefore after a while pain became like a“companion”, trying to tell me to be morecareful, not to be so distracted in the samemutilating manner!I was living close to the sea in the 80’s anddiscovered windsurfing, which radicallychanged the perception I had of my body.At that point I was eventually able to usemy body doing a quite physical and plea-surable activity, going in the waves, thewind and obviously every now and thensome fantastic falls, but relatively lessharmful than what I was used to before.Also I went several times with some friendsfor skiing holidays, but for me it was morean opportunity to be with my friends inwonderful mountain places, an elementwhich I did not know so well. Eventually ithad to happen, I fell quite severely inFebruary of 1992, close to the Mont-Cenisin France. I was going quite fast and in acurve I could not avoid a bump. My skiescrossed but they did not detach from theshoes as they should have, therefore

through the twist I was transferred to myknees, tearing the anterior cruciate liga-ments of my right knee. Even the skis weredestroyed, and yes, it did really hurt.After visiting several incompetent doctorsand waiting too long, it became necessaryto carry out an operation in order to “weld”the ligaments together. The seven yearsafter this operation were seven years ofpain. I finally visited a very good surgeonand he told me that the first operation hadbeen a mistake and that a second one wasnecessary, explaining to me what it wasabout and I accepted immediately. Threedays after the second operation the pain wasgone. After six weeks of intense rehabilita-tion I could walk normally. For one year Iwas doing 1km in the swimming pool justwith the legs in order to strengthen my kneeand muscles weakened by six years of inac-tivity. At that point, I was living in Cape Town,South Africa, where I had taken up surfing.It is there that I discovered the existenceand coming visit of our Master to CapeTown in November 2000. From as far as Ican remember I was always looking forsomeone that was not parent, not friend, notgirlfriend, never knowing who I was look-ing for, but always carrying on the search.The first day of the retreat all my doubts,questions and images from the past foundtheir answers. At the end of the session ofthe second day, I made a second importantdiscovery: Yantra Yoga, which Fabio ledafter Rinpoche’s teachings. I would havenever thought that such an activity wasopen to me with my past as a “handi-capped” person. I tried nevertheless, and forone month I practiced the eight movementsevery day. It was wonderful! Even if I wasnot so supple, it was still deeply relaxing todo using my body, following the rhythm ofthe sequence and paying attention to thebreathing.I understood immediately that it was a pow-

erful practice, which contained all the littleI had understood of the teaching. I also real-ly had a sense that I wanted to learn it cor-rectly.Thanks to good circumstances, I was ableto go to Argentina to go and do an advancedcourse until the third group. During thiscourse, on top of the two daily sessions, Iwas doing Yantra in the early morning, a lit-tle bit like a fanatic, but for me it was sopowerful to be able experience the practicethrough the body, which up that point hadbeen more of a torture instrument.Two months after this initial course, I had askateboard accident in Paris; I was goingfast on the streets and a stone suddenlystopped me, I flew two meters in the air andlanded with my right shoulder directly onthe angle of the pavement. That waspainful.I really wondered if I was so unfortunate tohave just learned Yantra Yoga, and immedi-ately destroy any possibility of practicing it.After few days I left for Margarita whereRinpoche was staying.I let my shoulder rest for a while, but Icould not resist long trying to practiceYantra again, and it proved fine. I just hadto be slightly slower, to listen to the reac-tions of my shoulder. In fact I have neverseriously given up practicing Yantrabecause I also trained in rhythmic breath-ing. That way after a year without trauma Irecovered and persevered in the practice ofYantra Yoga. One year later, back in Tashigar Norte, Iwent to meet the practitioners who were inPedro Gonzalez and together we went onthe land to pick mangoes. I jumped and onlanding I twisted my left ankle badly. HereI was, immobilized for one month, sippingcoco juice in the hammock! With the adviceof Laura Evangelisti I took up practicingYantra Yoga again, and now five years laterand no major accidents on the way, I keepon practicing. Now on a good day, I can

remain 10/20 minutes in the lotus positionwithout too much trouble. Of course,because of my condition, some positionsare quite uncomfortable, but now that Iknow the system of Yantra Yoga better, Iknow which positions and variations topractice as an alternative for any given typeof hold.Considering my capacity to attract physicalproblems, I also dedicate myself to seatedpractice, which initially was difficult forme. Now I realize that the root of all myaccidents is distraction and Yantra helps meto focus on those three aspects of my body,voice and mind in a very spontaneous anddirect way. When we do Yantra it is veryeasy to notice one’s own distraction sincethe movement is coordinated with thebreathing and follows a precise rhythm. Forme this is a key point of Yantra Yoga.I want to thank Rinpoche for his immensegenerosity and for presenting us with thepossibility of practicing Dzogchen and alsothe teachers who make Yantra Yoga a livingtradition.

International ContactsList

T H E M I R R O R J U L Y / A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 17

SWEDENAlexander & PernillaDobronravoffUlrikedalsvagen 6i #201224 58 Lund, SwedenTel: 046 13 70 34 Mobile: 073 655 1968Email: pernilla_liedgren_dobron-ravoff@hotmail.com

SWITZERLANDSwiss German RegionPeter EiseneggerEmail: garuda@bluewin.chTel: 0041(0)419170245

Swiss French RegionFabienne Rey-DucEmail: farey68@hotmail.comTel: 0041(0)273232393

Swiss Italian RegionJulie Breukel MichelEmail: julie@lungta.chTel: 0041(0)917309991

TAIWANPeter C.Y. PanEmail: stupid@ms1.kcg.gov.tworstupid.pan@msa.hinet.net.

THAILANDGeoffrey Blake & LynneKlapecki33 Soi Lang Suan - Ploenchit RdBangkok 10330Tel: 66 (0)2255-5150Tel: 66 (0)2254-9061Email: gblake@mozart.inet.co.thAlex SouterBangkokTel: 09 039 3992 or 02 742 1965

UKRAINE Kiev DC, Ukraine kiev@dzogchen.ru

Donetsk DC, Ukraine donetsk@dzogchen.ru

Kharkov DC Karmaling, Ukraine karmaling@dzogchen.ru

USATsegyalgarEd Hayes -Secretary P.O. Box 277 Conway, MA 01341Tel: 413 369 4153 Fax: 413 369 4473 Email: secretary@tsegyalgar.orgGakyil: gakyil@tsegyalgar.org.Web site: www.tsegyalgar.org

AlaskaPeggy LeslieDzogchen Community of AlaskaPO Box 240063Douglas, AK 99824Tel: 907-364-2733

Pat MartinDzogchen Community of AlaskaPO Box 35805Juneau, AK 99803Tel: 907-780-6643

ChicagoLynn Sutherland5717 N. Washtenaw Ave.Chicago, IL 60659Tel: 773 784 4168Email: lynnsuth@aol.comDzogchen Community WestCoast Dondrup Ling2748 Adeline St. Suite D

Berkeley, CA 94703Tel: 510 644 2260Email: aha@dzogchencommuni-tywest.orgWeb site: www.dzogchencommu-nitywest.org

Miami, FloridaDzogchen Community in MiamiEmail: info@dzogchenmiami.orgWeb site:www.dzogchenmiami.org

Dominik NicevaTel. (1) 305-726-9035Email: ndominik@earthlink.net

Dzogchen Community of NewMexico Marta MacbethP.O. Box 9211Santa Fe, New Mexico87504Tel: 505-986-1573Email:rubystone1215@hotmail.com

ColoradoLidian KingPO Box 1014Crestone, CO 81131Tel: 719 256 5263Email: lidian@fone.net

Kundrolling - New York City151 W. 30th St., #403, NYCTel: 212-564 1024Email: nycdzogchen@aol.comMaya Stolkiner, Email:maystol@yahoo.comKathy McGrane, Email: kathymcgrane@hotmail.comMichael Katz, Email:zak10016@yahoo.com

New York City DzogchenCommunity c/o Jane Fulton220 East 72nd Street#20B New York, NY 10021Email:janefulton100@hotmail.com

HawaiiDzogchen Community of Hawaii c/o Leilani Sim-Godbehere, 48-495 Kamehameha Hwy., Kaneohe, Hawaii 96744 Tel: (808) 239-1165Email: simgod@hawaii.rr.comsunbear@aloha.net

Susan Indich 129 Kaelepulu Dr. KailuaHawaii, 96734 Tel: 808 261 3469 Fax: 808 524 4342Email: indichcoll@aol.com

Jerene81-1081 Keopuka Mauka Rd.Kealakekua Hi. 96750Tel: 808 323-9714Email: jerenela@hawaii.rr.com

Melinda Sacarob 87-3139 Mamalahoa Hwy.Capt Cook Hawaii 96704Tel: 808-328-9473

VENEZUELATashigar NorteFinca TashigarProlongación de la Calle BolivarValle de Pedro González, Isla deMargaritaTel: 00 58 295 2580 332Email:

secretary@tashigarnorte.org Web site: www.dzogchen-venezuela.org

Carmen Rivas, Gakyil PresidentPO Box Apartado Postal 123Juan GriegoMargarita, VenezuelaEmail:marcarmenrivas@yahoo.com.ar

Pablo Lau Rivera Lhundrubgar Pba. Res.Pedermales Av. Paez Montalban II 1021 Caracas Tel: 58 2 4421434 Fax: 58 2 340643 Email: ablola@hotmail.com

Elias Capriles Apartado Postal 483Merida 5101 Tel & Fax: +58 274 2440026 Email: elicap@cantv.net

Merida Dzogchen CommunityApartado Postal 483Merida 5101 Fax: +58 274 2440026

T H E T H E R A P E U T I C A S P E C T S O F YA N T R A Y O G A

international community contacts continued from previous page

?If there are any errors in

the international contactslist please

contact mirror@

tsegyalgar.org

Emmanuel falling once again N ZEITZ

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HOUSE IN THE MIDDLEOF OLIVE TREES, VERYSOLAR AND PANORAM-IC POSITION, FOR SUM-

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Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

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This book contains the main doc-uments and teachings on theDzogchen Community thatChögyal Namkhai Norbu wrote orsaid during the last twenty years,therefore it is very useful to allpractitioners interested inDzogchen teachings and especial-

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The Opening of the Gate to the State of AtiTashigar South, 26th December2000 – 1st January 2001

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“I received this teaching in a dream from my master ChangchubDorje, but the teaching is not his, it is from Guru Padmasambhava,and explains in a very simple way how we can enter into the knowl-edge of Ati.One night I dreamed I was in the place where my master ChangchubDorje lived and in the dream I said to him, “In eastern Tibet there is abig revolution, no one can lead a normal life anymore, and now allthese turmoils are breaking out in central Tibet too, so even if we wantto practice we can’t, and if we want to learn the teachings and practiceDharma we don’t get much chance: what can we do in such a situa-tion?” My master replied, “I gave you an essential teaching, con-densed, just right for this kind of situation; it is called Ati Gojed; atimeans primordial state, knowledge, go means gate, jed means to open,and so it means how to open the gate of knowledge. With this teach-ing you can not just receive the knowledge but you can apply it”.

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20

by Giorgio Dallorto

When I was about 23years old I was workingfor the Fiat Company

that was the biggest automobileindustry in Italy at the time withabout 100,000 employees. Thecompany was based in my home-town, Turin, and I worked as aclerk in an office there. I was atechnical designer so my life con-sisted of drawing 8 hours a day, 5days a week, 11 months a yearwith a view to receiving a goodpension and a watch when I was60.My interest in Oriental spirituali-ty arose in a roundabout wayfrom a desire to do some kind ofphysical activity in my free time,but not just emphasizing thephysical aspect of the body butworking more with energy. SinceI was doing sedentary work Iwanted to do something to get mybody more fit. Then a friend ofmine who had read a book aboutHatha Yoga suggested that I try it.I chose Hatha Yoga because itwas bodywork but also workedwith energy in a holistic way. Andanyway, at the time, there was lit-tle choice in the type of bodyworkavailable to the general public.So I started to do a course with anIndian teacher in Turin. In Italy hewas quite a famous Indianteacher, George Dharmarama. Iused to do Hatha Yoga at the gymwith him or his daughter and asmall group of people and gradu-ally began to collect a few bookson Hatha Yoga. Among themthere was one book by TheosBernard, a young American.Unfortunately he was killed in thelate 40s or early 50s in the disor-ders in Kashmir when Indiagained her independence and wasdivided and when Tibet was still

free. Anyway, it was a beautifulbook about Hatha Yoga, and inthe preface to the book it wasclearly stated that one of theIndian masters who had beenTheos Bernard’s teachers hadsuggested that if he really wantedto know the roots of Hatha Yogain general and to meet a real yogi,he should go to Tibet. This reallystruck me because this Indianmaster was saying that if one real-ly wants to know about Yoga, oneshould look for a Tibetan master.It was this preface that reallyplaced a little seed in my mind. Just before Christmas 1977, I sawan advertising leaflet at the placewhere I practiced yoga sayingthat there would be a Tibetanlama giving Buddhist teachingcalled ‘The Thirty-SevenPractices of the Bodhisattvas’during a retreat in Pomaia inTuscany. When I saw this leaflet Ithought it would finally be myopportunity to meet a real Tibetanlama. This teacher was calledGeshe Jampel Senghe, a Gelugpamaster who was living in Rome.So instead of going skiing for aweek, as all my work colleaguesusually did, I went to IstitutoLama Tzong Khapa in Pomaia forthe first time to follow a teachingretreat given by a Tibetan master. Although I wasn’t aware of it atthe time, Geshe Jampel Senghetogether with Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu was one of the first Tibetanlamas to reside in Italy and theywere close friends because theyworked together at the IsmeoInstitute for Middle and FarEastern Studies and both hadbeen invited there by the famousTibetologist Prof. Tucci. The Istituto Lama Tzong Khapawas located in an old villa thatlooked like a castle in the Tuscancountryside and was founded by

Lama Yeshe from the Gelugpatradition. The retreat lasted for afew days and even though Iunderstood very little, I wasimpressed by the devotion spring-ing out from the body of the mas-ter and by the depth and the rich-ness of the teaching as well thedevotion that this master showedtowards the Three Jewels. I actu-ally took refuge in the ThreeJewels at that time. So after this retreat I started onmy spiritual quest.Then through the kindness ofsome personal friends, Aldo andCristina, who at that time had arestaurant called ‘Dorje Tibetano’in Milan, I received a leafletabout a retreat with ChögyalNamkhai Norbu who was to givea teaching at Campomolino inPiemonte, Italy in August 1978.This was to be the third big pub-lic retreat given by Rinpoche afterthat of Subiaco in the summer of1976 and Prata in 1977.So even though I had planned togo on holiday to Spain thatAugust – a popular holiday desti-nation for office workers – Ichanged my mind and decided tofollow the three-week retreat tobe given by Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu in the Italian Alps.

At the beginning of August myfriend Giuseppe and I loaded upmy old Fiat 600 car with supplies,and drove up through the coun-tryside of Piedmonte, theValgrana Valley up to the tinymountain village ofCampomolino not far from theFrench border.In my mind I still have a veryclear memory of the first time Isaw Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Hewas with Barrie Simmons andhad just arrived at the little squarein front of the new Town Hall in ajeep. He jumped out. He wasdressed in regular clothes – I wasused to seeing Tibetan masters inrobes and this was the first time Ihad seen one wearing westernclothes. He was young, handsomewith finely marked Tibetan fea-tures and I was very struck byhim. He had a magnetic look andpower and I understood rightaway that I felt a close connectionat first sight. At that time we were mostly abunch of young longhaired peo-ple (except for me) in our twen-ties and even younger and weused to follow the teaching in asmall room in the basement of theTown Hall. The Master gaveteachings in Italian to just under100 people. Among all those pre-sent I particularly rememberLaura Albini who was always sit-ting in the first row of followersright in front of Rinpoche. Wewould do a long thun in the morn-ing and another in the eveningand then there were morning andafternoon sessions of teaching.For me it was a kind of fullimmersion course because thesessions were long and intenseand the whole retreat lasted threeweeks. Sometimes between sessions ofteaching I played table football

with Yeshi, the son of the master. Everyone was camping in tentsup on the hillside above the vil-lage along the banks of a littlestream, a bit like a nomadencampment or gar. We wouldwash ourselves in the stream inthe morning and people wouldcook on open fires in front oftheir tents. It was a bit wild andquite damp because it rained a lotthat August. One evening Iremember we all went walkingtogether with the Master to anearby hill above the village ofColletto. From there if you followthe path in the direction of ColleMargherita, after about 20-30minutes of walking there is agroup of houses called Batuirathat would later become the placeof our hermitage and would becalled Azamgar and later AzamLing. On the top of the hill aboveColletto there was a littleMadonna and we went up thereand sang the Song of the Vajra atnighttime under the starry Augustsky. This was my memorable firstmeeting with Chögyal NamkhaiNorbu that would set my feetupon a clear path. Over the yearsI have followed the Master andhis many retreats both in Italy andaround the world and when cir-cumstances brought about somechanges in my life, I left my 9 to5 existence in an office in thenorth of Italy and came to liveand work at Merigar. Now 28years later I have the good karmato still be close to my root masterbecause I live not far fromMerigar, the main European Garand I am able to dedicate mydaily life to the DzogchenCommunity working in theMerishop and with the MerigarGakyil. This gives meaning to mylife.

HOW I MET CHÖGYAL NAMKHAI NORBU

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

THE VAJRA ARMOR Teachings on the HealingMantra called Dorjei Kotrab

Euro 7.00

In 2006 Chögyal Namkhai Norbutransmitted several times the veryprecious healing mantra calledDorjei Kotrab. He explained:“Knowing that this is a veryimportant and very essential heal-ing mantra, Padmasambhava sin-gled it out among all the differentkinds of mantras and concealed itas a terma at Namke Trak, andlater Dorje Lingpa discovered it.If you know this mantra you don’tneed to go after ‘mantra healing’anymore, because this is thesupreme ‘mantra healing’. Withit, you can benefit others, as wellas protect yourself.”This book contains all the com-plete and precise instructions thatare needed to use it properly and

correctly. It contains also animportant mantra and an invoca-tion to avert negative conse-quences to your health in particu-lar circumstances linked to a spe-cific date.

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

ORAL COMMENTARY OFTHE ROOT UPADESHA ONTHE VAJRA BRIDGE OFLONGDEMerigar, July 5th -9th, 2002

Euro 13.00

The method of Dzogchen Longdecalled Dorje Zampa – meaningVajra Bridge – has many differentexplanations, but it is used a lot inthe Longde practice, and it ischaracteristic of this teaching.What does Vajra Bridge mean?

Some people say that it is thebridge between our physical bodyand the Body of Light, becausemany Dzogchen Longde practi-tioners realized the RainbowBody. When our real physicalbody dissolves in its real nature,that is, in the lights of the five ele-ments, the manifestation of thatdimension is called RainbowBody. This is one concrete expla-nation of the term. Another expla-nation of Vajra Bridge is relatedmore to the method of teachings.The Dzogchen Semde worksmainly with direct introduction;the Dzogchen Upadesha, sinceone already has knowledge,works mostly towards integratingin that state; the DzogchenLongde is between these twomethods, so it connects them likea bridge.

Chögyal Namkhai Norbu

DZOGCHEN TEACHINGSOral Commentary on theLongsal Terma

INTERNAINTERNATIONALTIONAL GAKYILGAKYILNEWSNEWS

New International Gakyil

Since August 2006 the International Gakyil has taken up its work again!

We now even have a President and two members in Yellow!

YYellowellow International GakyilYeshi Silvano Namkhai, Italy, and Gakyil President,

yeshi.namkhai@tiscali.itMark Fulton, USA, mark_fulton@hotmail.com

BlueBlue International GakyilFabio Andrico, Italy and World, fabio.andrico@tiscali.it

Red International GakyilKarin Eisenegger-Koppensteiner, Switzerland,

garuda@bluwin.ch

The projects of the International Gakyil will need a lot of col-laboration from the Dzogchen Community in the next six

months.

It would be very helpful if all contact persons of the Gars andGakyils for Ambienti Web and the IG (International Gakyil)would send their names, email addresses and telephone num-

bers to the Red International Gakyil as soon as possible.

Many greetings to allKarin Eisenegger (red IG)

new books available from shang shung editions

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