The Importance of the Dzogchen Community

There are many newer and older students in the Dzogchen Community who do not have a clear idea or understanding about what the Dzogchen Community is and why it is so important. Since I have created the Dzogchen Community, it is my duty to clarify why it is so important.

On a variety of occasions, I have tried to explain how important our Dzogchen Community is for Dzogchen practitioners. It seems many people don't care very much; they think that Namkhai Norbu is giving importance to the organization of the Dzogchen Community because it is his own Dharma Center. Some people say, 'I like to come to follow your teaching and retreats, but I don't like the organization of the Dzogchen Community.'

With these kinds of misunderstandings, recently some Dzogchen Ati followers of my teaching - not only students who have been following my teachings occasionally, but those who have been following all my teachings for many years such as Dzogchen Semde, Longde and Upadesha, as well as following my SMS Trainings - are in a lot of confusion about the way they view the Dzogchen Community. They are going more and more in opposition to the principle of the Dzogchen Community and creating their own Dharma Centers to have personal positions. These people justify it saying that they need more freedom for themselves from the organization of the Dzogchen Community.

I understand very well what it means to have more freedom for oneself. Some people don't feel free in themselves in the Dzogchen Community because they feel there is a strong bureaucratic or control system. If this is so, we should note that the Dzogchen Community is not functioning in the correct way, and remember well what the purpose is of having Gakyils in the Dzogchen Community. We should correct the errors of the people who are taking on the responsibilities of the Gakyils. This is our responsibility. Of course, the people of the Gakyil should do their best to organize the Dzogchen Community, but it is not only the duty of the people of the Gakyils. It is also your duty. Instead of criticizing the organization of the Dzogchen Community, you should also try to correct things when you feel there is something that really does not correspond to the principle of the Gakyil.

It is very possible that a person who has been following the teaching of Dzogchen for many years may be involved in various kinds of activities. Through that principle, one could need such freedom and therefore develop their own Dharma center. All this is very natural. I am not saying at all that people who follow my teachings cannot open Dharma Centers. Of course, they can open new Dharma Centers and have their freedom. What I am saying is that they should not do it while falling into the wrong or opposing direction.

What does it mean, the wrong or opposing direction? If someone is following my teaching and transmission, they must recognize that the Dzogchen Community is the Main Boat. Even if you are creating some of your own boats, you must always be in the Main Boat. That means never falling into an opposing position to the Dzogchen Community and criticizing it, but feeling truly that the Dzogchen Community is your own boat and taking care of it in that way. One should not feel afraid to create a Gakyil in your own center because it would infringe on your personal position and power. In this case, even if your Dharma Center is not really the Dzogchen Community, it should somehow relate to it, just like other boats can travel together cooperating with the Main Boat. We can call it: A Dharma Center Affiliated with the Dzogchen Community.

When you act as my student, as a member of the Dzogchen Community, and do Santi Maha Sangha Trainings regularly, then you must understand that the Dzogchen Community is like being in a Big Boat that carries all my students to whom I have transmitted all my transmissions of Dzogchen Ati Yoga, and takes them to the final goal of its realization sooner or later. That means that the Dzogchen Community is a guarantee to all my students that they will get to the final goal sooner or later with my transmissions of Dzogchen Ati Yoga.

When we are in the same Big Boat of the Dzogchen Ati Yoga Transmission, which is called the Dzogchen Community, there does not exist very much of a need to open a personal Dharma Center or to abandon our Big Boat. Naturally, sometimes there can exist special cases or reasons why there needs to be other forms of Dharma Centers affiliated with the Dzogchen Community; like having small boats due to circumstances or other boats cooperating and traveling together to the same goal. In developing these kinds of Dharma Centers, we must understand that these centers must not develop in opposition to the Dzogchen Community while using both my teaching transmissions and the Dzogchen Community for their own interests, like increasing personal position and power.

I can understand very well that someone can have problems with the organization of the Dzogchen Community, because we are living in time and circumstances. There can always be problems; we do not worry about having problems because having problems is the natural manifestation of our samsaric condition. The real problem is neither having nor not having problems, but having awareness while inside the problems.

When we have problems with the Dzogchen Community, those troubles are usually related with people who are taking responsibility as members of the Gakyil of the Dzogchen Community. The fault is with the individuals in the Gakyil, not of the Dzogchen Community. When you find these kind of faults, you also have a duty to correct them. This means that you are also being responsible for the Dzogchen Community; not only in a general way, but also for the Gakyil of the Dzogchen Community. It is not difficult to communicate to the Gakyil; you can personally contact the people of the Gakyil directly or by mail. Today we have all kinds of possibilities of communication: letter, telephone, fax and E-mail.

The Dzogchen Community is for all Dzogchen Ati practitioners. It doesn't belong only to the people of the Gakyil. That means that all Dzogchen practitioners are in the same boat and they should take care of the Dzogchen Community just like their own home. That is how our Dzogchen Community members must be in our Dzogchen Community.

Even so, why are some of my older students opening their own Dharma Centers? Nowadays in India, Nepal and many places of the Western world, many new Dharma centers or monasteries are manifesting suddenly and easily like mushrooms flourishing in the rainy days of summer. It seems like something wonderful for the diffusion of Dharma. It could be so relatively, but the real condition is very different from that. So, it is better we understand a little more clearly about the real condition. For example, when a Lama who is mainly interested in receiving money and power, etc., arrives in the Western world or in a Southeast Asian country, he can say he should create a Dharma Center for the diffusion of the Buddha's teaching. The Lama can say that he needs to build a Dharma Center or a monastery for a group of monks to live in. Of course, for that purpose, he can get some generous donors, or can receive directly sums of money. This all sounds very nice, doesn't it? But in the real sense, most of these kinds of activities are just worldly Dharma businesses. They have nothing to do with the Buddha Dharma. I am not saying that all Lamas traveling in the West and Southeast Asian countries are doing this - we know very well there are many good and serious Lamas - but at the same time, there are also some Lamas who are mostly concerned with doing a kind of Dharma business. I am referring to those kinds of Lamas.

If we take as an example the kind of Lama who wants to be an important worldly Lama, the first thing that he does is use some technique that encourages many people to pay respect to him. How does he do it? He tries to build a small monastery or a center under his own name and then he tries to get some donors for that project. Of course, he can't say that he is preparing for his position or worldly power. What he needs to say is that he is working for the benefit of the diffusion of the Dharma or for the service of a small community of monks or nuns. Yes, of course, relatively there are always some benefits, such as diffusing the teaching or having benefit for a small Sangha, etc. But its negative side for the life of real Dharma is incomparable.

When he succeeds to build his own seat, then he becomes a venerable Lama. He has more possibilities of developing still more of these kinds of activities for supporting his own position. This Lama's seat carries more and more of a wealthy position and he has more and more power over those dependent people. Thus he becomes a more and more important Lama or a famous teacher and has the title of Rinpoche and so on. This is the real reason for creating so many monasteries or Dharma centers in one's own name. Of course, this technique can be used not only by Tibetan Lamas, but also by Westerners as well.

You may ask: 'Didn't you create your Dzogchen Community in that way?' When I was 3 years old, and then again at 5 years old, I had already received recognition as a very important high Lama or Teacher reincarnation, therefore I did not need to construct it. Even though I had been recognized as such, since the beginning I haven't had any desire to become a Buddhist teacher in general, or a Dzogchen Teacher in particular. So how could I have the idea of preparing to become an important Lama or a famous teacher?

You may know this already, but after many years of living in the West, in Italy, many Italians asked me to teach the Dharma. The Gyalwa Karmapa particularly had asked me repeatedly to teach Dharma to Italian Dharma followers. But I had hesitated for some years reflecting on it, because I knew that to give teaching meant working with the transmission and since I was also still on the path, I did not want to play with the very important transmissions I had received from my teachers.

Finally, when I decided to pay respect to the order of Gyalwa Karmapa, and make those people happy who were interested to receive Dharma teachings, I started to teach principally the Dzogchen Teachings, and at the same time I took a promise of 27 commitments for my teachings that they not become something related to personal interests, etc. Since then I have always transmitted all my Dharma teachings in general, and the Dzogchen Ati Teachings in particular, while maintaining these 27 commitments.

I created the Dzogchen Community for the purpose of the continuation and maintenance of my Dzogchen Ati transmission. This Community is only for those people who are interested in my Dzogchen transmission and who are interested in maintaining the Dzogchen transmission which I have sincerely and purely transmitted to them. I am not limiting other Dzogchen teachers and their teachings by not integrating them into the Dzogchen Community. Of course, if there are some serious Dzogchen teachers and teachings, I always integrate that into the Dzogchen Community and always will. You can understand that by the paintings of Dzogchen teachers that are painted in the Gonpa of Merigar. That is how I work.

Today the name 'Dzogchen Teaching' has become very marketable. It is for that reason that I am very, very doubtful to consider all who carry the name of 'Dzogchen Teaching' as something to be integrated into our Dzogchen Community. For that reason it is very difficult to believe that these kinds of Dzogchen teachings are correct or are really the Dzogchen Knowledge Transmission.

I have tried to transmit the essence of all three series of Dzogchen Ati, which are the very essential knowledge of Dzogchen Ati transmissions that I received from my precious teachers such as Rigdzin Jangchub Dorje, Ayu Khandro Dorje Paldron, Togden Ogyen Tendzin and so on, more than 15 Dzogchen Masters, to my students who are seriously interested. Most of you know that I have transmitted mainly Dzogchen Ati Teaching and its transmissions for some 15 years or more, which means that for all this time I have been dedicated and worked seriously with the Dzogchen Ati transmissions.

Of course, then you can understand that I also have a great responsibility for my Dzogchen Ati transmissions. For that reason, I formed the Dzogchen Community with all my students who are in this same transmission boat. You can understand why I created the Dzogchen Community, and that the Dzogchen Community does not exist for my personal interest or for creating an important position of power for me. Everybody in the Dzogchen Community remembers, they know very well, that I never made any kind of missionary life. I worked in the University for nearly 30 years. It doesn't mean that I liked being a University professor all those years. What I learned in the Dzogchen teaching is that a practitioner of Dzogchen should accept how the circumstances of one's life are manifesting.

Of course, one can understand that if there is some terrible situation, one can try to find what the cause is and try to modify this situation. That is also clearly explained by Buddha Shakyamuni in the teaching of Sutra; that the way of overcoming the samsaric suffering is not struggling with it, but discovering what is the cause of suffering. Of course, when one discovers the cause, there is always the possibility of modifying. Otherwise one can accept just how it is: I have that circumstance and I accept it as it is. For that reason I worked that way instead of being in a position of a Dzogchen Master. I am not saying that the position of a Dzogchen Master is negative, but if there is some personal interest for being that way, then it could be negative definitely. Therefore you can understand very well the real purpose of the creation of the Dzogchen Community from the beginning. In short, the Dzogchen Community is:
How we collaborate with each other and between all our Dzogchen practitioners;
How each practitioner goes deeper or progresses in the real knowledge of Dzogchen;
How each practitioner integrates the knowledge of Dzogchen in their real condition;
How all practitioners are traveling together to the total realization;
How we can maintain a real and pure transmission of Dzogchen Teaching for the future generations;
How we can have a guarantee of the correct continuation of the Dzogchen Ati Teaching.
So, the Dzogchen Community was established as the safeguard for the continuation of the Dzogchen Ati teaching and its transmissions. How I started it is the same way I take care of it continuously. It doesn't depend on how long I live, but until the total realization of all who are interested on this path and are seriously related with my transmission.

For that purpose, the Dzogchen Community has a characteristic way of being. Its structure is different from all other kinds of Dharma Centers and that is called the Gakyil. And that is why the Gakyil exists in the Dzogchen Community. If one has the real knowledge of Dzogchen Ati, then he or she must have the knowledge of the value of Dzogchen Ati transmission. Having this knowledge, then one can have total understanding of the value of the Dzogchen Community. Then it is not so difficult to understand the value of the Santi Maha Sangha Trainings and how they are related with Dzogchen Community.

When we are starting different levels of Santi Maha Sangha examinations, we ask, 'Are you a Dzogchen Community member?' Of course it doesn't mean, 'Do you have a Dzogchen Community Card, or did you pay some money to have the Dzogchen Community Membership Card?' If that was so, there would be no sense in having a Dzogchen Community Membership. It means that one must understand how important the Dzogchen Community is and how one must be responsible for it. That is the real sense of Dzogchen Community Membership. If you are a Dzogchen Community member, then there is no reason to create another Dharma Center in your name; you already have the Dzogchen Community. You should take care of it in the way I have done until now and am continuing.

You may know already I have had some problems of feminism in the Dzogchen Community of Australia. I am not sure still if it has been overcome or not. Anyway, it is a very heavy and dangerous concept for me. In my teaching, originally taught by Garab Dorje, what we should learn is:

'RGYA CHAD PHYOGS LHUNG BRAL BA' that means more or less: 'Not falling into any concept of limitations' and Guru Padma Sambhava said: 'SNANG BA YAB LA STONG PA YUM, GNYIS MED A TI RDZOGS PA CHE' which means more or less: 'The vision is yab and its emptiness is yum, the non dual state is the Ati Dzogchen'.

I have always understood the concept of sex or the male and female principle in just that way. In the state of Dzogchen, of course, we must be totally beyond the concept of sex. Then you can have the idea, 'Why then do all these Sambhogakaya forms like male or female exist?' The above statement of Guru Padma Sambhava makes it clear. Of course, relatively, we have our dualistic vision, like subject and object, male and female, samsara and nirvana and so on. Even if we have these kinds of relative, dualistic visions, and in the pure vision, the visions are manifesting like the Sambhogakaya forms of divinities and their nature is emptiness manifesting its energy, then relatively they are manifesting different aspects. But in the real sense, they are beyond dualism since the beginning and their real condition is inseparable. Relatively, of course, we have our sex of male and female, but we know it is only in the relative sense. Even in the relative sense, I am not saying either male or female is more important and another is less important. An individual does not exist who is only either male or female, but an individual has both aspects of male and female. For example, the two sides of a human body have solar and lunar conditions. So there is no sense in accepting and rejecting or not paying respect to each other. A very simple example: when we are walking we need both legs; we cannot negate one of them and if we do, everyone could understand that there is not any sense in that.

We are only pretending to be a Dzogchen practitioner if we still hold on to these concepts. It means that we are being really very, very far from a real understanding of Dzogchen Ati Knowledge. And our practice is not Dzogchen, but is only progressing with samsaric concepts.

We can understand what feminism means in a political sense. I am not saying that people cannot be involved in politics. Of course, whoever has a political conviction and is mainly interested in doing political activities, they can do as they like. But someone who is a follower of a teaching like Dzogchen Ati, for those kinds of people, the teaching has nothing to do with political principles. The teaching dealing with political activities is the most dangerous for damaging the teaching and its transmission

Since we have the responsibility of saving the pure Dzogchen Teaching and its transmission, then we must notice that dealing with the concept of feminism is a dangerous thing related to saving the pure Dzogchen Teaching. Therefore I don't want anybody who is still keeping this kind of feminist ideology in mind, and at the same time is a Dzogchen Community member, to come to me to present the Santi Maha Sangha Level III examination. If someone is coming in that way, I will ask them not to come to the Santi Maha Sangha Level III Examination. Everyone is free to come to me and follow my Dzogchen teachings and if they are coming seriously, then I say they are always welcome. I don't care at all if I have many followers or not. That is not my principle.

Of course, if there are many serious followers of the Dzogchen teachings I am happy, because they can have real knowledge of Dzogchen Ati and they can contribute this precious knowledge to many sentient beings. If there are crowds and great numbers of people that is fine. But seriously interested people are rare, and in this case, I prefer to be alone and quiet. In short, if someone wants to deal with me or with my Dzogchen teaching, then that person really should be honest in the real sense of the Dzogchen Teaching. That is something that I really need.

Many Tashi Delegs to you all.

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