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In these challenging times, we are very pleased to continue The Mirror’s main activity of international communication for the Dzogchen Community of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Our Rinpoche has left us so many gifts to apply in order to continue the precious legacy of unsurpassed Dzogchen Teaching and also has instilled in us the supreme value of communicating and caring for each other throughout this vast Vajra Family. Therefore, The Mirror continues to do its part in maintaining contact with each other through its editorial activity of interesting and timely articles, stories and photos. With that sentiment, together with the hope for your safety and good health, we present to you Mirror 147.
Beginning with a beautiful cover tribute to Green Tara painted by our gifted Wilvin Pedersen, after presenting our editorial, we open with the continuation of the ongoing Ati Yoga Teaching of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with Day 3 of the 2017 Dzamling Gar Ati Yoga retreat, to a marvelous teaching by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu from Merigar West 2002, that appeared originally in Mirror 62, The Four Verses of Advice from Ugyen Tendzin:
KYE HO!
Intelligent being, listen!
If you practice the Dharma according to the real
situation, all becomes virtuous.
The instant presence of your primordial state
Is self-perfected in its very nature.
This is marvelous!
We proceed to another teaching of timely advice from Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, an excerpt from an informal talk given by Rinpoche on his birthday, December 8, 2012, in Tenerife, after a session of Khaita Songs entitled: “Not Giving Too Much Importance to Problems.”
We move along to updates and information from Ati Yoga Foundation, The Shang Shung Institute School of Tibetan Medicine, new publications from Shang Shung Publications, and ASIA.
We feature a lively and informative interview with Thubten Rabgyi, Gekö, and Urara Taoka, director and yellow Gakyil of Dzamling Gar, together with an article by Anca Rusu, Dzamling Gar Accommodations Manager, about the current situation and hopes for the future of our International Gar in Tenerife, Spain.
We have various reports starting with a report by Dorothea Franck titled “Mandarava Retreat in Stormy Times”, on the annual Mandarava Retreat at Dzamling Gar at Losar, a moving letter from the Merigar West Gakyil written to the Community at the beginning of the virus outbreak, an update on the work being done on the Merigar West Gönpa, an obituary for architect Anna Simonelli Fiori, the architect of the Merigar West Gönpa, a report on the 10th Anniversary of Dargyäling, Cologne, Germany, by Saadet Arslan, a fascinating report on the Australian bushfires by Vicki Forscutt, the secretary of Namgyalgar, and an article by Griselda Galmez on the 30th Anniversary of Tashigar South.
We then offer an in-depth feature on chülen, starting with a transcription of a talk given by Menpa Phuntsog Wangmo in February 2020 at Dzamling Gar, “Taking in the Essence of the Elements”, followed by an interview done by Oliver Leick with Dr. Tenzin Sherab, a doctor of Tibetan medicine, about making chülen for the Dzogchen Community, and completed by scholarly insights and information in an article called “Some Remarks on the Chülen Tradition in Tibetan Literature” offered by scholar Jamyang Oliphant. We offer a reprint of the Life of the Great Master, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, 1820 –1892, by Steven Goodman, from a series of “Lives of the Great Masters” that appeared in The Mirror in 1995.
We are introducing a new feature entitled “Pictures from the Past”, a series to recount memories of experiences, retreats, travels and moments spent with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu during his travels and teachings across the globe and we inaugurate the series with a story and photos from Enrica Rispoli about travels to Tibet with Rinpoche and family in 1982.
There is a story from Dorota Dylka, photographer, as a Community Artist, and two stories from Alexey Evteev and Kirian Regan about their first meetings with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. There are some lovely photos from around the globe of Losar festivities and the issue is completed by a stunning piece of calligraphic artwork of the Song of the Vajra by Giorgio Dallorto on the back cover.
We hope this will entice you to download and enjoy the rich variety inside this issue that reflects the nature of our Community and that it will help keep you in touch with the Dzogchen Community from wherever you are practicing social distancing and quarantine.
We wish that everyone stays safe and healthy in these very unusual times!
The Mirror Staff
