Chögyal Namkhai Norbu closes the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebrations
At the end of the Thirtieth Anniversary Celebrations for Merigar, the festivities concluded at the Temple of Great Liberation at Merigar West in Tuscany, Italy. During the closing ceremony on July 19, 2011, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu gave the following message.
I want to say thank you to everybody, all Dzogchen Community people, everywhere, and also to local people in the area. I am very happy about everybody’s participation and I also want to say thank you to everybody because it is very important that we collaborate so that everything manifests in a positive way.
The aim of the Dzogchen Community is, you know very well, that everybody in this world becomes a little more aware and responsible in that way. We know how our human condition is - we have so many kinds of limitations, the limitations of the individual that we call ego and that develop in our country, in our family, in everything, in aspects of politics, of economics, even in the spiritual path. In the real sense that is the source of all problems.
For example, we say the Dzogchen Community. The Community doesn’t mean a group of people in general. Community means people who have awareness and collaborate together, knowing what the main point is. We say Dzogchen Community. What is Dzogchen? It means our real nature. Everybody has their real nature and we are trying to understand that and trying to do our best. This is what is called Dzogchen Teaching and is what I have tried to teach for thirty years. Many people already have that kind of knowledge. When we have this knowledge it means that we go a little beyond our limitations.
Everybody always says we need peace and if there is no peace we cannot find happiness. But how can we have peace? There will only be peace when there is the evolution of the individual. What does evolution mean? Evolution means that we know how our condition is and how many different kinds of limitations we have relatively. If we are not conditioned by them, it means finally we are getting into our real nature. This is the principle of the Dzogchen teaching.
Dzogchen means our real nature and teaching is for discovering that and being in it. Anyone who is in this knowledge is in evolution. It is not like revolution, which means we are thinking and judging and making a programme. We think that there is something wrong, something negative that we have to change and think that revolution is the solution. In the real sense that is not the solution because 2500 years ago Buddha explained the teaching of the four noble truths. The root of the noble truths is cause and effect. When we have a problem it is an effect, not a cause. If we fight against it, we will never win. But if we are aware, we can learn that its cause exists and that there is a possibility to modify and change that. This knowledge is already the base of evolution. Even if only one person has that knowledge, gradually it will develop.
For example, when I arrived in Italy the first time, there was not a single person, not even a university professor, who knew what Dzogchen was. But if you observe today you can see how many people know about Dzogchen teaching in the Western world. This means that evolution has started and is going ahead. When I arrived I was alone, but today I am not.
We are in time and time is going ahead. After 100 years probably not one of us will still be in this world. But if there is evolution it will go ahead until the end of our globe. This is something very important for generations and generations. We cannot only think of ourselves. We must also think about our families and about future generations. For this reason it is very important that we know and are in this knowledge.
This is the reason I am very happy that you are collaborating and many people have made sacrifices and come here from far away. So I want to say thank you to everybody. And I am also very happy that people from the area around Arcidosso have been participating in our festival. They know that this is something useful and positive. This is very important for us. So I want to say thank you to everybody. And there is not much more to say.
