Trying to find the essence of what makes a community is quite difficult. In fact, everyone seems to understand “community” and “collaboration” in their own way.

Even in social sciences, there are 94 different definitions of the term “community.” In today’s world, some people idealize the beauty of living close together with others, while other people are wary of belonging to groups and prefer more loose and free ties.

Let’s hear about how Dzogchen practitioners feel in our community. The descriptions below were drawn from the 15 interviews we conducted with practitioners in 2024.

How does the Sangha help practice

Sangha in Sanskrit, or gendun in Tibetan, refers to the community of practitioners who aspire to achieve virtue. As formulated in the Invocation of the Lamp1 we wish “to achieve enlightenment together in a single group” and “to never separate.” These connections can reach multiple levels, on the level of the nature of our mind, but also in our mundane existence.

For the people we interviewed, the Dzogchen Community is a reference point in their life. Having a partner, a close friend on the path or a group of practitioners around us supports our motivation:

“If you are alone, isolated, then your motivation is dropping. … People lose internal motivation because of the circumstances of life, then someone else from the community can pull you back in.” (Slovak practitioner)

Practice is “a very good base for the feelings of belonging to develop,” according to a Russian practitioner. Interviewees expressed a sense of belonging, of being accepted and welcome in the community, even when we are very different.

As Rinpoche said, “we are all in the same boat,” but we did not embark because of common taste, political views or lifestyle, as happens in many groups today. If people feel they are being accepted, despite the differences, maybe as a group we will succeed, at least a little bit, to put our egos or identities aside.

What is a Vajra family 

We consider ourselves family even when we did not know each other beforehand, and we use expressions as Vajra brothers and sisters. This is a metaphor pertaining to a “very deep connection,” of a different layer of our existence than that of our current lives.  Although, alas, all families have “sticky” karma, entangled and difficult to liberate, Vajra families can offer concrete support in life’s circumstances:

“The community is a reference point, both for the collective practice and for socializing. We are particular, so I couldn’t be so open to people who are not from the community … The community is helping in situations of illness, or other problems.” (Italian practitioner)

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the community is a safe haven.  When conflict or even abuse happens, some people might say “how could a practitioner do that?,” following the expectation to be better humans if we are practicing meditation. Interviewees noted that sometimes it gets difficult and frustrating, conflicts can be heartbreaking, and that the boat we are all on can feel “tight and uncomfortable” at times. Hard relational times can help us shed light on our expectations and ideas we are clinging to; they are opportunities to relax our tensions:

“Conflicts arise from every single individual, and as we are individuals, if we improve our relationships with others and try to diminish our tensions, certainly all the conflicts and tensions thereafter will be spontaneously pacified.” (Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, “The Dzogchen Community”2)

Outsiders and insiders

In our community, there are also people who prefer not to enter a group mind, but to be independent thinkers (or non-thinkers 😉). A tightly knit group can seem like a sect and develop closed-minded attitudes:

“We also have to try for a moment to be a little bit autonomous, not to be totally immersed, we also have an external, outside life. Because otherwise we risk wearing blinders,” says an Italian practitioner.

A balance may allow us to maintain a fresh outlook on what we take for granted, especially of ideas and expectations of what people should or shouldn’t do. In communities, many people also suffer from gossip and rumours that are used to reinforce the norms and to enhance conformity.

As in recent years, people with different experiences of the Teachings join our community. We can observe how we manage (as a group) to integrate those different experiences. At the same time, the reach of the actual Sangha – people with transmission – is much larger than we can observe. A community is not a fixed group, but a process created through our actions.

We have seen the different facets of our community, as expressed by the practitioners we have interviewed. Let’s go back to the real nature of the Dzogchen Community, as expressed by Rinpoche:

“In reality the Dzogchen Community is represented firstly by the teachings of an authentic Master who maintains them and secondly by the people who are interested in them; who according to their different individual capabilities, study the Tantras, the Lungs and the Upadeshas of Dzogchen and secondarily all the branches of knowledge linked with the teachings; who try to practice their understanding as much as they can; who collaborate in resolving the most important necessities related to the aims and do their best to help in any kind of work, motivated by the fact, not of having been given the job by someone else, but by their own spontaneous willingness.” (Chögyal Namkhai Norbu, “The Dzogchen Community”)

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