Sharing the Timeless Joy

From the Archive of VOCL Newsletters

Did you know there are now more than 30 years of Voice of Clear Light newsletters in the Ligmincha archives? Lots of great articles and interviews, sangha sharing, history, knowledge and some beautiful pictures, too. We had fun looking back and choosing some favorites to share with you, now and in future issues. This article is from the printed VOCL Fall 1994 newsletter, written by Bill Gorvine after attending the 1994 summer retreat. So beautiful, and although it was almost 30 years ago, it sounds like it could have been yesterday. Hope you enjoy!

From the very beginning of Ligmincha's recent summer retreat, which took place in July here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, Tenzin Rinpoche encouraged us to do the best we could and not to get stuck in our own feelings of limitation. He knew that for some people the intricacies of philosophical discourse would prove frustrating and deflating; for others the meditations or the ritual performances would become difficult and perhaps seem impenetrable. For all of us there was the potential at any given time that anything, even just being with ourselves, could become problematic. And so he was teaching us, in a very special dzogchen way, how to apply effort and how to relax.

And I realize now, as I try to face the imposing task of capturing something for you of three quite extraordinary weeks, just how valuable his advice really is.

Certainly a large part of our experience simply revolved around keeping a fairly intense teaching and practice schedule, which definitely provided all of us with opportunities to discover and work with these various kinds of pleasant and unpleasant moments. The meditations were generally quite powerful, either outdoors overlooking the mountains or within the beautiful space provided by a 100-year-old renovated church. The meditations for the first two weeks consisted of preliminary dzogchen practices from Heart Drops of Dharmakaya, as well as integration training Rinpoche has developed based on the 21 Seals [21 Nails], a text within the Zhang Zhung Nyen Gyu, from which he regularly taught. We also worked with the Six Sessions practice throughout the retreat. During the last week, when the causal vehicles or more shamanic aspects of Bon were emphasized, we began lha sang offerings for accumulating well-being and prosperity and Sipe Gyalmo invocations for protection.

The teachings were amazingly clear, both when given by Rinpoche or by Professor Anne Klein, who joined us again this year from Rice University. Anne provided lucid and comprehensible accounts of very difficult concepts from sutra tenet systems, this year focusing on Cittamatra (Mind-Only) and Madhyamaka (Middle Way) positions. Some of the most interesting questions centered around the nature of the relationship between subject and object, and just how independent or separate they really are, as well as the process of naming objects, and the value of conceptual, inferential cognition of ultimate truth (emptiness) given the very direct and nonconceptual approach of dzogchen. Considering how difficult these topics are, it really is a marvel that she had any time at all to discuss meditation and compassion, but she did, and beautifully.

Rinpoche described with unique clarity and strength the dzogchen view, utilizing a wide range of means available to him in order to point out the natural state of rigpa, the innate awareness discussed philosophically, depicted metaphorically, and transmitted directly by Rinpoche and his teachers before him. He covered virtually all the topics discussed in his book Wonders of the Natural Mind, everything from the relation of the base (kunzhi) to the individual awareness (rigpa), the three types of rigpa, the three kinds of space, the presence of clarity and compassion in the natural state, and the difference between mind and nature of mind to points of conflict and agreement between sutra schools and dzogchen.

It should be clear by now that we were experiencing a wonderful, yet very demanding, period of study and practice. If it wasn't during a philosophical teaching that we felt discomfort, it was during a long meditation, or during afternoon yoga, or while cleaning the kitchen and thinking about the meditation we were missing. Or for those of us who like philosophy, the problems began when we tried to start fires, make tormas out of lumps of barley flour, or wrap mantras around small sticks.

But we all overcame these sort of "big problems" during the retreat by following Rinpoche's example. He always had humor and resolve in the face of obstacles and oddities, and there certainly was no shortage of these! A select few included: a "very good quality" Sony microphone that, depending on other causes and conditions to produce sound, itself had no power to send his voice to the back of the room; a large proliferation of flies happily assembling to integrate with our experience; two tiny, ancient air-conditioners rattling away during the teaching while some people gripped their chairs for fear of swooning and others slouched with heavy eyelids and dull smiles; a congregation of people wearing egg-carton pig noses quietly awaiting instruction. And somehow through all the many varieties of experience we all were slowly learning to relate more with ourselves and our own minds, and to share our insights and our perspectives with each other.

It is this sharing that stands out to me as the most wonderful thing about the summer retreat. It began with Rinpoche's willingness to transmit to us the knowledge and experience of the teaching as it has been passed through dzogchen masters past and present. Sometimes, however, his sharing also included quite personal stories of his youth, some of which are becoming quite familiar to us now. (Who could forget the donkey eating Rinpoche's Great Bliss?) The openness thus created allowed for all kinds of revelations, from the most intensely personal to the more entertaining. (Now we can all envision Anne Klein sitting in parking lots in her parents' car a long time ago, guessing strangers' names!)

It was clear to me that our sense of community was rapidly growing during this time, and I personally felt privileged to be a part of it. For those of you who came and helped make it happen, a sincere word of thanks. I look forward to seeing all of you, plus all of our new friends-to-be, next summer, if not before.

Bill Gorvine is currently Chair and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. His book Envisioning a Tibetan Luminary, The Life of a Modern Bonpo Saint, published in 2018, presents a study and translation of the life of Shardza Tashi Gyaltsen, one of the most influential figures in contemporary Bon.