Adriano Clemente, one of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu’s earliest students, is the main translator for the “Complete Works of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu” and responsible for the translation of the Longsal cycle of Rinpoche’s teachings. After leading the Ganapuja held at Merigar, Tuscany, on August 11, 2020, he gave a short informal talk to those present and in webcast.
When we say that we are Dzogchen practitioners, as Rinpoche said, it is very important that we apply everything we have learned in our condition. So that means not only Dzogchen teaching, the path of self-liberation. But mostly when Rinpoche started to teach he always spoke about observing one’s own condition. This is the gate for entering the Dzogchen teaching and it means that we have to recognize how limited we are in our condition of body, speech, and mind; that everything we try to do is always conditioned by our habits and karmic traces. This is the root of all problems and also the root of why sometimes we do not progress in our practice.
You may remember that very often Rinpoche used to say, especially to those students like myself who had been following him for twenty or thirty years, that we had now become like shravakas. In the Hinayana ‘shravakas’ means ‘listeners’ but of course it doesn’t mean that they just listen and don’t practice. This cannot be. The root of that word comes from the fact that they [Buddha’s disciples] were always around him, listening the whole time to what Buddha was teaching, and receiving his teachings. And this is what we have been doing, some of us for forty, thirty, twenty, ten, five, or just one year, it depends on each individual. We are all different. But now the shravaka period is history. It is gone.
We are now in a different situation and have to take full responsibility for ourselves. After Rinpoche passed away some people were upset or shocked and asked who would be his successor now. This idea is not good from the beginning. If we have a worldly business or organization, then we need a successor, someone to take care, otherwise this business fails. In Tibet it was like that and the monasteries needed successors otherwise the economy of the monasteries would go down. It is the same here for the Community and some people say that the membership is half of what it was last year and that many problems are arising. But we should think well about this. Is it the reason, the main point, why we have been following Dzogchen teaching? It is not. Dzogchen teaching means that each of us can be Rinpoche’s successor if we apply and realize his teaching, like sowing many seeds in a field as Rinpoche did for thousands of people in this world. Then it depends how the secondary causes are, the weather, the water and these kinds of things. Each of us is following his own path in his own way, but we are all travelling in the same direction.
So I think it is very important now that all the Community remains together and that we always try to be present and aware of our situation. In Vajrayana, it is said that after we receive empowerment, it becomes like a snake that enters into a tube (who can only exit at one end or the other, e.g. liberation or lowest states). Why? Because in general after we receive Vajrayana initiation we have to follow all our samayas, our commitments, at the cost of our life. It is the same for us – we have one very important samaya,to be present and aware. In general, in Dzogchen, if we go in a more intellectual way we have four samayas. These four samayas mean to continue in the state of instant presence. This is the main samaya. But if we are not aware, then at least we can be present. That is very possible for everyone. If we are present because we are aware of our situation, then it is not possible that we cannot know if we are doing something wrong.
In general, in Dzogchen we say self-liberation. For example, the invocation to Samantabhadra explains the base, the path, and the fruit for each of the six Lokas,and the path is always explained at the level of self-liberation. But this means that we should have already trained a lot with our mind. Maybe if we are lower capacity we should start with fixation, with shine (zhi gnas), then go slowly and acquire sufficient capacity for that. If, for example, anger arises – somebody provokes me, perhaps I am a husband and my wife provokes me – I become angry, then I reply and fight with her. When anger is already present, it is not possible to self-liberate at that time. Self-liberation is before the arising of anger as emotion. We have to work on the root of that energy which can manifest as anger, and this is not easy at all. That is why liberation is explained in different stages called Cherdrol, Shardrol, Rangdrol, but they are not very easy. Therefore, if we are not at that level of self-liberation, it is extremely important that we work on a level that is easier for us. So, for example, if my wife is provoking me, I am present in that situation in that moment, and even if my anger arises a little, I control it by thinking that if I get angry now, I will reply, I will say some bad words, we will fight, and the result will be negative. It will be useless.
Sometimes even practitioners such as husband and wife seriously fight between themselves, but that way they destroy themselves. This is not only important for husband and wife, but also for sons, daughters, any kind of relationship that we have in general, but particularly in the context of Vajra brothers and sisters. It is very important to keep this presence and awareness continuously. Of course it doesn’t mean that if we get angry and fight one time we should feel guilty for the rest of our lives. We can clarify things with the other person and, of course, we will need to put our big ego, our pride, to one side. But that is possible because pride brings no benefits and only creates problems. We should consider that anger and all the other emotions are something that we identify with ourselves, and this ‘self’ is just this bundle of five emotions together. But we are not this bundle of emotions.
When we do the Ganapuja we say, “Om A Hum, A La La Ho” and before that we say “Samaya Shudde A”. What does “Samaya Shudde A” mean? It is not that now we are purified and in that moment the samaya is purified because I repented and I regret and now that’s it. This is not the Dzogchen way. This confession that we do, this purification, we do in the recognition of our original state, our real nature. It’s like saying that we were dreaming and now we have woken up; we are in this condition; we are awake. That is why it is purified because everything is pure in that condition.
I’m not a person who can give advice to others, but if somebody asks me to say something, I say what I have been feeling since Rinpoche passed away, how I have tried to work on myself, and what is the most important thing. Instructors, who have the Santi Maha Sangha Base commitment, and even just practitioners, should be like an example for others. The real sense is not that these people know more, that they have read many books, and that people think that they know so much and want to be learned like them. This has no value at all. Or [people try to emulate] someone who can pronounce [the practices] well, or who can sing well. These are very relative things. But when we see how a person deals with others, how he/she behaves, if he is patient, if he doesn’t get angry, how he speaks to people, then we can say that we would like to become like him or her. How did they manage to become such a good human being? I would like to become like you. This is a good motivation.
So this is it. If you have some questions, we have a few minutes. Otherwise this is it.
