Commitments

“… people say in America: “we share everything”… the Gyalwa Karmapa sent two or three letters to me saying, “Oh, you should teach... In the end I decided to accept…  I said, “OK, we do a retreat,” and then people of the Karmapa in Rome organized. There were only a group of ten people. We did a long retreat, which continued for maybe two or three weeks… I was thinking again and again, “Now I am teaching; I am responsible for transmission. I am really giving transmission. They are following transmission. How will I do?” Also until that point, I never felt, “I am a teacher”. I always thought, “I am a student; I am a practitioner”. That is all. So then if I am a teacher, which kind of teacher do I want to be?.. I took nine commitments...

1st commitment. I will never teach or do meditation or application or anything only for the interest of myself. I will never do that. Also I will try to make my students understand not to go in this direction.
2. I never to teach only to get some money or material. And also if my students go in this direction, I do not teach them; And my friends, if their aim or their intention is that, I will not collaborate.
3. Kurti means to receive honor like saying, “Oh you are becoming an important person, high teacher, high level, etc.” I will never teach even a single word of Dzogchen teaching. I don’t teach for that principle. In the same way it is also for my students and my friends.
4. Nyendrag means fame. You see, many, many people do that. Even if they build a monastery, for example, in India or Nepal, they say, “Oh we build a monastery because we need a base of teaching, also a base for Sangha to live there, etc.” My commitment means that I will never go in this direction.
5. I do not teach to create a kind of power, my position. Many people have this idea. It is very easy when there are some possibilities that people easily fall in this direction. So that’s why I have this commitment.
6. I will never increase the Dzogchen teaching and spread it everywhere with jealousy and comparing with some other teachers and traditions. So that is not my principle. This is the sixth.
7. Ngagyal means pride. We think, “Now we are important. Dzogchen teaching is a superior teaching, better than this. For that reason we need more position” Also that is not the principle. So if we have this kind of intention, also that is the wrong direction.
8. Tradog is concrete real jealousy. In general this is very easy between centers and centers, groups and groups, of teaching. Even in Buddhism, there are so many jealousies. And we apply many things with this intention and application. So I am always being aware, and I don’t deal with this principle.
9. I will not act with my attachment saying, “Oh, I like Dzogchen teaching because this is what I practice. For that reason I want to also make people understand that this is a special teaching, etc.” That attachment is not the principle.

So these are nine principles mainly related with worldly actions in general. That means how it must be for myself, for dealing with my students, and also with my friends. I don’t collaborate with people who are interested in these kinds of things. So this is also important. I know for example many people, even if they say, “Oh we are doing very important dharma. We want to collaborate.” But then I check a little, is it really a pure intention or not?

Sometimes people also propose even though they don’t say, but they manifest that kind of collaboration. In our society it is very strong. For example I spent almost thirty years in the university. I know very well the rules of the university, official rules and in particular how professors must collaborate. If we don’t collaborate, we cannot have any possibility. They block everything. In Italian we say mafia, the mafia of university. So the mafia also really exists in the dharma. They do not call it mafia, but the way of collaborating and the way of applying intention is just the same. So for that reason I don’t want to collaborate with any people like this.

That means if someone does not correspond to my commitments, even if they want to be my good student, I am not confident with them. If someone wants to be a very good friend and collaborator with me, but if they have intention contrary to my commitments, I will never collaborate with them with confidence.

I will not only keep these commitments only for a few days, but until I have total realization relationships with people, relationships with students, will always exist, so I will keep them.

So this means I know I have these commitments. And sometimes maybe we can be distracted. But after a few seconds, a few minutes, a few hours, we notice that we are distracted and we are doing wrong, that this does not correspond with my commitments. When I know I did something wrong, then I am sorry and I purify because I have that commitment. If I know and I do not pay respect, then my Masters, Dakinis, and Guardians, you can break my heart. So this is my request...

To remember these commitments of mine, I wrote them down in 1978. In the year of the Fire Snake I wrote this down. So these are my commitments. So it is important that you know this. And if you know this, then you also know how to collaborate with me in a correct way. And you also know how you yourself should be in the Dzogchen teaching, and in my transmission, what I transmitted. So this is something very important.”

~ Chögyal Namkhai Norbu was born in Derghe, eastern Tibet, in 1938. As a child he was recognized as the reincarnation of the great Dzogchen Master Adzom Drugpa (1842-1924) and later by the sixteenth Karmapa as a reincarnation of Shabdrung Ngawang Namgyal (1594-1651), the first Dharmaraja of Bhutan.