Authorized to teach

Hi, Al.

Much of the web negativity about Aro is like this. "I heard that someone heard a Lama say that Aro is evil because Ngakpa Chögyam stole his underpants."

This is pure gossip. It is trivial to invent, and impossible to refute. The Lama is either not named or is dead. The person who supposedly heard this is almost never named, and when they are named they are unreachable.

For reports like this to have any credibility, they have to be accountable. If you say "Yesterday, I, Al Billings, heard Lama Karma Rama say that Ngakpa Chögyam stole his underpants," then we can go to Lama Karma Rama and ask him if he said that. If he didn't, then you look bad.

However . . . If there really are any lamas that have a beef with Ngak'chang Rinpoche, I think they should contact him and discuss the matter like grown-ups. (I know that in your case, the unnamed lama was not claimed to be actively dissing anyone, but there are such stories.) He is a friendly and reasonable man. If no satisfactory conclusion can be reached, they could put a public statement on their web sites. I would consider it dishonorable for other lamas to publicly diss him behind his back.

I have allowed your comment, to make the point that third-hand gossip is nonsense. In future, I will delete any comments of this sort, as "mi kha" – Tibetan for gossip. Please see the comment policy.

Regarding the Dalai Lama and his office: they have not said anything about Aro. Please see http://approachingaro.org/hhdl .

Perhaps it is relevant that Lama Surya Das reports (http://www.mandala.hr/5/6-surya.html), concerning the Dalai Lama: "Regarding the notion of transmission and authorization of teachers, His Holiness stated that it is actually the students who empower the teacher, rather than - as so often stated - a formal certificate or ceremony performed by a member of the hierarchy."

David

Hello, and thank you for your questions. Sorry for the delay in posting your comment and my reply. I have had to do some research to find answers for you. This is rather long, but I hope it will be useful to others as well.

Unfortunately I have not met Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Samphel myself. I have talked with about a dozen Aro students who have. My fellow students have visited them in their home, with our Lamas, on many occasions over many years. They have received extensive teachings from Künzang Dorje Rinpoche. His teaching includes empowerments, tsog, detailed practice instructions to groups and individuals, philosophical explanations of view, and discussion of Nyingma history, particularly concerning the white-skirt lineage. I have not heard that the phrase "I am Ngak'chang Rinpoche's Lama" was said; but I would not expect that. Many years into a Lama-student relationship, it is taken for granted. I have heard that Künzang Dorje Rinpoche has recently given specific instructions on teaching, and the future evolution of Aro, to Ngak'chang Rinpoche in the presence of students.

I do not know why there is a discrepancy between what you have heard and what I have heard. I believe the Aro students to be credible individually. And, there are so many who say the same things that a coordinated lie seems unlikely. I have posted one report and will put a few more up over the next few weeks.

I have posted a letter of authorization from Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche. The original copy of this, and of most other letters of endorsement, seem to have been lost. (I’ll explain why in a moment.)

[Update: Since I originally wrote this comment, Ngak’chang Rinpoche has located several of the letters in a storage box. I have posted scans, and refer to them in the revised text of this page.]

I have also posted a scan of an endorsement from Kyabjé Dung-sé Thinley Norbu Rinpoche. It is in Tibetan and bears his letterhead and signature. I expect that some will say it is a forgery. No one in the Aro sangha could have done that, though. Some of us can read Tibetan, slowly, with a dictionary, but none of us can write it. Actually it would be difficult for anyone to imitate his English literary style, and probably that goes double for his Tibetan.

As you know, he is the son of Dudjom Rinpoche, who originally authorized Ngak’chang Rinpoche to teach. Presumably he would not have written this if he thought that Ngak’chang Rinpoche was lying about his father’s instructions, or if he thought there was anything else significantly wrong with him or his teachings.

As for why original copies of letters have been lost. Ngak’chang Rinpoche had no permanent residence for most of his adult life. He spent as much of his time as he could with his teachers in the Himalayas, returning to Britain to work whenever his money ran out. He lived as cheaply as possible on both continents, in order to maximize his time studying and practicing. When he began teaching full-time, he was supported by a small number of apprentices, and so again had very little money, and no real home. He writes that “My mother stored my things in her garage and much that was left there rotted. Paper material became so manky that a lot of sheets glommed into each other in a fungoid manner and so she threw them out as being irretrievable.”

He also just does not care about certification, and therefore paid no attention to collecting documents. For the sake of those who do care, I wish that some more originals of letters could be found. However, I also do not care, for reasons I’ve explained elsewhere. It is easier for me to have an opinion of Ngak’chang Rinpoche than of his teachers; so his teachers’ opinion of him isn’t helpful to me.

I had to do some detective work to find an answer to your question about the changes in the pages on Kyabjé Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche on aroter.org. (I had not noticed the change at the time; it’s great to know that people outside our sangha pay such close attention.) The short version is that the whole section on Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s five root teachers was removed pending a planned reorganization. The change affected all five equally. There wasn't any change in the relationship between Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and Aro at the time this happened.

The details are long and boring, but I spent a couple hours finding them, so here they are!

The Internet Archive Wayback Machine keeps old versions of web sites indefinitely. The old versions of aroter.org are at http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://aroter.org.

The change occurred between the October 12 and October 21, 2004 versions. On the October 12 version, there is a front-page link for a whole series of pages on Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Sam’phel. It is missing on the October 21 version.

The reason for this can be found if you look at the “Photographic Folios” index page as of the two dates. On the 12th, there is a link for “Root Teachers of Ngak’chang Rinpoche”; it is missing on the 21st. If you follow this link on the 12th, you will find that it has links for each of Rinpoche’s five main teachers. Each of those links leads to an index page that lists a whole series of pages on that teacher. The front-page link for Künzang Dorje Rinpoche leads to his section in the photographic pages.

All this is missing on the 21st. It was not just Künzang Dorje Rinpoche that was affected; it was all five root teachers. The front-page link for him had to be removed because the pages it pointed to were removed.

This was done because the webmaster planned a total overhaul of the information about Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s root teachers. (The organization as of the 12th was somewhat random and confusing.)

During the planned overhaul, only one page was available concerning each of the five. These were accessible only from links in Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s biography. The page for Künzang Dorje Rinpoche is identical on the 21st to the version of the 12th.

The webmaster got to be busy with other things, and the planned overhaul never happened. Eventually instead aroter.org morphed into the Aro Encylopaedia. The pages on the five root teachers were then restored in pretty much their original form.

Best wishes,

David