Good posts all!
On grips and gripes and cabbages and kings.
Real Teachers speak on many levels to the recipients of their talks.
ChNNR is a Real Teacher and so teaches in this way. Five people may take away five different meanings from the same words.
You, yourself, may hear a different meaning, each time, when listening to the same teaching over many years.
What applies, and is useful, to one person does not apply or is useful to another. This is reality.
For some, "Dzogchen has no rules," makes perfect sense and they work with circumstances, respecting the dimensions of others.
Then everything is perfect as it is and there is never a possibility of breaking Samaya.
http://www.dharmawheel.net/viewtopic.ph ... 20#p127794" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;"
Others cringe at the thought of something secret being publicly revealed, that their teachers have told them to keep secret, so even saying a "secret" word is forbidden.
[When I first learned of ChNNR it wasin 1979, through seeing a poster that advertised he was teaching Dzogchen at Columbia University. My mind-set was that no one can study, or even hear the word Dzogchen, untill they finish Nundro and Lama, Yidim, Khandro practices. So I didn't go to hear him speak. Looking backwards, I feel that I was just limited by my strict view of things. I didn't get to meet Rinpoche until I prayed very hard to the Universe to meet a Teacher who fully integrated the Teachings into their daily life, then I was provided a free trip to the Sardinia retreat of 1980 and found what I was looking for.]
So some people don't hear, "Dzogchen has no rules," they hear, "you shouldn't make idle gossip about "secret"things on public web-sites like DW."
Each view is exactly correct because the truth about things is like trying to describe the part of the elephant that you are holding, as the entire elephant.
What is true and useful in one set of circumstances is not true and useful in another. That said, it is always wise to respect the limits of others.
"View wide as the sky and actions small a a mustard seed."
Teaching Togal openly, without the keys that unlock the practice could be harmful to someone's eyes - so Togal is never taught without the guidance that you never look directly in the sun. In the same way, the Dark Retreat is not taught without the guidance that you can stop any time you want, and that you should not push yourself beyond your limit.
There is no harm in mentioning the word Togal, or Dark Retreat, or a general qualification about these practices. If someone believes this, then they should follow their hearts and be happy with this as their path.
It becomes a little tricky when you have the responsibility to make a judgment call about removing or leaving in place, a post that quotes from a "restricted" book, you need to look at the big picture of what will do the most good or help the most people. I think the mods made the right decision to allow the quote from the "precious vase" because leaving it did no harm. There was nothing secret in the quote.
The "breathing" and YY tapes (unrestricted) show all the types of breathing. These have been taught openly in many retreats. Anyone showing up at a YY class, DI or not, specific lung or not, member or not, was freely given that information.
Then there is the issue of whether DW is a "public" space. To get to this post on DW, someone had to go to the DW Board Index, scroll down to the Bodhisattvacarya section, and then click on Dzogchen. This is at least 3 volitional acts. For me this demonstrates a "sincere interest." For me, showing a sincere interest is the qualification that allows for entry beyond the public level of things.
Up till just recently the DC ruling on whether someone could buy a restricted book or cd, was that you needed to be a "member" of the DC. This made sense because becoming a member was one way of showing a sincere interest. For many years, this is how it was. Then it was added that you had to have received the Longsal wong or have been present at a Lonsal retreat, on the subject of the book/ cd, in order to be able to buy a Longsal book - such as Mandarava.
I believe that this is the official pronouncement of Rinpoche. I've checked with other old-timers and they agree. Of course Rinpoche can change things any time he wants to.
[whether this corresponds to current practice in the many SSI stores is a separate matter.]
It should also be noted that anyone who can read Tibetan can access all of the "secret" teachings in their native language. So perhaps we should all go study Tibetan.
Long life to the Master - in good health and with success in all things. All good things for everybody.
ob