Rinpoche, could you outline your future teaching plans in the United States and the Pundarika Foundations's role?

Presently I am organizing things so that I'll have two or three months, maybe more, to come to the United States each year. I've been teaching now about nine or ten years and I can see a lot of progress by my students since I began coming here. Somehow I have a very strong karmic connection with this country. In that I agree with the Buddhist view that it depends on karma - the students' karma and the teacher's karma. So somehow my karma is not finished in America, so that's why I like to come and teach. Maybe in the future I will see if I can do more solitary retreat. If I do more practice myself, then naturally it will help those who are receiving teachings from me because I will have something more to offer.  It makes me happy to share my knowledge with my students.

For the time being, I want to put my energy more into actual teaching of students than in building a big center. It's not that I'm opposed to having a center - if karma indicated that I would be happy to do so. But I prefer to put my energy into teaching. And besides, there are already enough Dharma centers in America, too many centers I think, and I feel people have a greater need for teaching at this time. As for the Pundarika Foundation, its purpose is organizing my teaching, but I also have a karmic link to projects I maintain in Nepal and Tibet. So the foundation also helps in the maintenance and progress of these projects.

Rinpoche, why do you think the Dzogchen teachings are appropriate for westerners?

I think in general any Buddhist teaching is very suitable in the West. In the West, I think, the human mind is already too much "out", so there's little knowledge of one's own nature. The focus is on everything but your own nature. There is little in the way of traditions or practices or techniques in the West to see self nature because the mind is going out, looking at other things. There are few teachings on the mind here. But in general, the whole Buddhist teaching is for focusing on yourself fist, and then others. Especially in Dzogchen instructions it is made so clear that we need to know the mind and mind essence. There is a very long explanation introducing how to recognize your mind essence and this is something that I think people in the United States need. I believe that Dzogchen can make a major contribution to humanity by helping us see our own nature, then others.

In regard to that, there are those who say that Dzogchen cannot be or should not be attempted until one has done a lot of foundational practice. Is there a particular reason why westerners might be able to benefit from Dzogchen without having first done all that?

In my approach I am not so strict such that one must first have the foundational teachings before receiving Dzogchen instruction. I am not so strict, but I highly recommend that even if you have received the Dzogchen teachings and practice them, you should do ngondro [the traditional foundational practices of refuge and prostrations, mandala offering, guru yoga and Vajrasattva recitation]. Many of my students are doing ngondro. But I don't restrict them to first completing ngondro before receiving Dzogchen teachings. Traditionally it would be done that way, but in the West, doing ngondro alone at the beginning doesn't make any sense, in fact it can make one more neurotic and could prevent a true understanding of Dharma. Students should understand real Dharma as a wisdom path. Then they will naturally realize that wisdom and accumulation of merit are equally important. Many of my students, without my asking them to, have come to me for the ngondro transmission. They see the importance and interdependence of merit and wisdom. So without wisdom, without understanding of the nature of your mind, just doing ngondro alone doesn't make much sense in a western context.

In Tibet it is different. There you have natural faith in reality beyond concepts. But here that has to be shown and proven first. It's the influence of science. Without proof they will not do it. But with ngondro how can you prove it? It is very difficult. How can you prove peace in a place where so many things are happening? How can you prove relaxation? How can you prove non conceptual mind? But when you first realize something beyond conception mind, then the importance of ngondro is naturally understood.

Then you feel that practices such as ngondro, yidam practice, Madhyamaka study and shamatha practice are important complements or supports for Dzogchen?

O yeah. Very much so. If you do Dzogchen and then you study Madhyamaka, that makes a lot of sense. And if you do Dzogchen and then ngondro, then ngondro makes sense and it also helps your Dzogchen improve faster. The realization of mind's nature becomes more sustained and the confusion dissolves faster. Another interesting thing - for those who have practiced shamatha or vipassana for a long time, Dzogchen works very well. They have good sittings, they know what to practice and they know what meditation is, they know what conceptual cultivation is. So when I give a teaching to "let it go," they really know how to because there is something there to let go of. People new to meditation sometimes have difficulty, but sometimes it goes very well for them - it all depends. Sometimes new people do better than old practitioners. So wisdom and merit are equally important. Even if you realize mind nature you have to do ngondro, you have to do all the accumulations. They really help and support each other very nicely.

Rinpoche, do you have to make adaptations in your teaching style to enable westerners to understand the Dzogchen teachings?

I think the teaching itself is the same whether I teach Tibetans or westerners because the Dzogchen teachings are an approach to reality. Reality is reality. There is no separate reality for westerners and another for Tibetans. But the way I teach each is slightly different. Westerners don't have so much natural trust to "let it go" so I need to give them good reasons. All the reasons are there in Dzogchen actually. Dzogchen is vast. In some areas I don't need to explain so much to tibetans because the already understand. And in some areas I don't have to explain to westerners, because they already have it. But the principle is the same. Also I emphasize modern examples. Some of the older ones are 2,500 years old - too old - and they don't function now. So I use the same concepts, but bring them up-to-date.

Rinpoche, what cultural differences between Tibet and the West make it most difficult for the Tibetan Dharma to succeed in the West?

Tibetan Buddhism is very large, very complex, and you really need a lot of intelligence to understand the whole thing.
And in general Buddhism is not based on just belief. And it is not so simple that you can simply believe something and expect,
for example, to be reborn in a pure land in the next life. Buddhism is really very systematic, it's a science, sort of, with reason, positive motivation, an understanding of mind - a whole structure. And also there are no guaranties - especially in Tibetan Buddhism. There is no guaranty that if you do five years of retreat that you will have a very high degree of realization. If you do only four days you might have a very high degree. The state of mind is not really like some kind of physical structure. Buddhism is a wise teaching with many angles, many things to know, with great variety and richness.

All this richness cannot survive in a modern lifestyle, I think. That's because people are too busy. They want something compact, short, and easy - and with a guaranty. In this culture people want something easy, guaranteed, like, "You do ten days of retreat and we'll guaranty this and that. If you become a Buddhist, you will be reborn in a Buddha Realm." But it's not that simple. You could do the practice, but with wrong motivation - so there is no guaranty. That kind of expectation creates obstacles.

So you're saying westerners are less likely to be able to penetrate and be patient enough, because we want everything fast?

Fast, and in this lifetime. Buddhism is sometimes designed into many lifetimes, not only this one. A westerner may expect "everything within one or two years, and now I'm 40 and if nothing happens in five years I'm not going through with it." And also in modern culture you have to study, finish college and only then you might come to the Dharma. Then, after that you study it and it takes a long time. Few people here are born into the Dharma. And then you have to work and support yourself, live a fast-paced life and all this stuff. And that, I think, presents a general obstacle. So some people take one part of Buddhism and its experience and they just teach that.
 

And this wouldn't happen so much in Tibet?

No, not so much. You must know Buddhism in general, as a whole. Without general knowledge of Buddhism, it's very difficult. That is why most of my retreats are five to ten days, rather than only one or two days. I cannot give students very much knowledge otherwise.