Malcolm wrote:Jikan wrote:We thought it appropriate that Khenpo's email should basically have the last word.
In this case it was an evasion, and I can understand why, since the correct answer is actually no, one cannot receive an empowerment from a recording.
Privileging someone's answer because of their title, in absence of any clear scriptural precedent or reasoning is pretty lame.
It would follow then that you can't give a or receive a transmission in the dream state either, yet Nyala Rinpoche Rigdzin Changchub Dorje told CHNN when CHNN asked for transmission that he had been given the transmission already by dream, it was given in a dream before they met, only thing is CHNN had his own doubts about receiving it that way why? because it was not "his dream". CHNN gives this true story many times during Open Webcast as you know.
Just because CHNN didn't have that dream himself and the Terton had the dream does not mean that Terton Changchub Dorje wasn't able to give him that transmission that way, or that he did not give the transmission that way, because when your Terton teacher says you got it you should try your best not to doubt it, try to go beyond limitation, whether it was Changchub Dorje's Dream or not does not matter if Nyala Rinpoche Rigdzin Changchub Dorje says to the student (in this case CHNN was studying with his teacher Changchub Dorje and was "the student") that you got it, you should try not to have doubts about it, instead CHNN insisted on being given the regular route of waking time formal somewhat elaborate empowerment like what he was used to back at "College" from the Terton, and as you know "College" refers to when CHNN was in the Sakayapa Monastic "College", so giving the formal empowerment the way CHNN understood empowerment at the time, was a request he had made of of Changchub Dorje even after he was told he already was given the transmission, and in actuality it was not so easy for Changchub Dorje to do.
So imho when Dayton Ohio Sangha had no doubt that Garchen Rinpoche could give empowerment by the recording, it was as if they were taking him at what they understood to be Rinpoche's word. Even CHNN couldn't take Changchub Dorje at his word when they first met, he could not believe he was given empowerment before they met already in the dream state, and that imho is because he didn't have a whole lot of mileage at the time with a Dzogchen master his teacher Chang Chub Dorje, it was because CHNN was still becoming Changchub Dorje's student, still learning, and understanding what it meant to be Dzogpachenpo, so he had a major big doubt, but I feel after a while of knowing Changchub Dorje that CHNN of course knew 100% that Chang Chub Dorje could give empowerment in the dream.