The Dalai Lama and Aro
HH the Dalai Lama with Ngakpa Chögyam, 1981
In web forums, detractors have said that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has “proscribed” Aro, or has made other negative comments about Aro or its Lamas.
This is untrue, as far as I can determine. It is based on a rather wild misinterpretation of an email sent from the Dalai Lama’s Office years ago. The email was about a lama of a different lineage.
If the Dalai Lama has any opinion about Aro, his own staff does not know about it. I wrote to the Office of the His Holiness to ask them:
Greetings,
On the e-Sangha web forum, there is an assertion that His Holiness the Dalai Lama "has proscribed" the Aro gTer. The Aro gTer is a Nyingma lineage. (The URL for the assertion is below.)
I would like to know whether this is true?
Does His Holiness have any official opinion concerning the Aro gTer, or its lineage holder, Ngakpa Chögyam? (Ngakpa Chögyam wrote an authorized biography of His Holiness, published in 1990.)
It appears that the assertion that His Holiness has proscribed the Aro gTer is based on an interpretation of an email apparently sent by Tenzin Wangden from your address a few years ago. (The full email is below.) It concerns Traktung Rinpoche (Stuart Kirkpatrick) "and his associates". Would the writer have intended to include the Aro gTer lineage within these associates?
Thank you very much indeed for your help!
David Chapman
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At http://www.lioncity.net/buddhism/index.php?showtopic=17795 , Karma Gedun asserts that the Aro gTer is "proscribed by HH the Dalai Lama". (You may need to be logged into the e-Sangha forum in order to see this page.)
The Aro gTer web site is http://arobuddhism.org/ .
Ngakpa Chögyam's biography of His Holiness the Dalai Lama is at http://www.amazon.com/Great-Ocean-Authorized-Biogrphy-Fourteenth/dp/B000OIY0K4/
The email that is said to have been sent by Tenzin Wangden concerning Traktung Rinpoche / Stuart Kirkpatrick (who is not the same person as Ngakpa Chögyam) reads:
I am to inform you that regarding this person claiming to be what he is baseless, I have already sent a letter to a person who had ealier inquired about this. I still wish to stress my earlier comment that His Holiness the Dalai Lama has never ratified this person as a reincarnation of any late Lama or Rinpoche. I caution you to abstain from having any links or relation with this person and his associates.
Thank you for inquiring and for the informations you have provided.
with best wishes,
Tenzin Wangden
I received this reply from the Office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama:
I appreciate that you have written to express your concerns. The letter that is quoted in your email only refers to Traktung Rinpoche / Stuart Kirkpatrick not the Aro gTer lineage. Also, I have looked at the Aro gTer's website and I am not familiar with their teaching style or lineage. It would be best if you could send your enquiries to those of the Nyimgma Lineage to determine the authenticity of their teachings.
All the best,
Rinchen Dhondrub
We should not over-interpret this email: it only expresses what he knows and does not know.
I can find no evidence for His Holiness the Dalai Lama having expressed any opinion about Aro, positive or negative. Nor has he expressed any opinion about Ngakpa Chögyam since the time he authorized the biography.
Comments
A Response From Nyimgma Lineage?
David,
I've been reading through your blog/website and have learned quite a bit. You have put a great deal of effort into this site and it shows; thank you for sharing this wealth of information and for sharing your time.
In the response that you received from the office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, was the statement, "It would be best if you could send your enquiries[sic] to those of the Nyimgma Lineage to determine the authenticity of their teachings." It occurred to me that the entire Aro gTer controversy might easily be refuted by following this advice and posting the results. Is this something that might happen in the future?
Best Wishes
Bryon Bean
Not big on bureaucracy
Hi, Byron,
Thanks for your question!
At http://approachingaro.org/support you can read various statements of support from a number of respected Nyingma Lamas.
I think that what the Dalai Lama's Office meant was "this has nothing to do with us—we are an administrative office of the Geluk School—this is an internal matter for the Nyingma."
Unlike the Geluk School, the Nyingma tradition has no central administration. It is not actually a School at all, but rather a catch-all category of disparate lineages that don't belong to any of the Schools. So there's no single entity one could write to who could give a definitive answer. Any Nyingma Lama can authorize their own students to teach; there is no registry kept, or shared procedure for validation.
Before the 1950s, the Nyingma had no organization at all. At that time, they were forced to choose a "Head." The four "Heads" have been highly distinguished Lamas, but by general agreement among the Nyingma, they have done very little—because the Nyingma do not want bureaucracy. The most recent Head died a year and a half ago, and a new one has not been chosen. Reputedly, the last one was chosen on the basis that he spent twenty-two hours a day asleep—he was a master of dream yoga—and therefore could not possibly do anything bureaucratic.
I'm not sure that story is true, but it does capture the general Nyingma attitude toward hierarchy, certification, and institutions.
David
Cutting through the red tape
True story or not it is very funny and just made my day. Thank you for your response.