Podcast Tashigar Norte

 

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That place where the Gonpa is

 

I will start from the very beginning of the story. Year 2001

That place where the Gonpa is, that is to say a part of that structure that is the Gonpa, was a shed. The place where the tools and the tractor of the farm were kept. And in the back, behind Rinpoche's throne, there is a very strong concrete wall that served as a structural base for that shed.

 There were a lot of sheep and goats that would be sticking their heads out of the top bleating, in the middle of a practice with Rinpoche. It was very comical. (smiles)

This was after the twin towers at the end of 2001, that we came with Rinpoche who sat there looking at the wall and said, "here we are going to paint, I want that wall white and I am going to paint the three phrases, the three statements of Garab Dorje". Direct introduction, not to remain in doubt and to continue in the state.

So, we painted the wall white, and I remember when we started painting, some of us who were there, which were very few of us, but in particular Fabio - laugh - I don't remember but there was another person, who were staring, and Rinpoche looked at everybody and said, "look, we are not tourists here, OK?"

Everybody went to get what a brush, what a broom to sweep. When the wall was painted white, he, with a red paint that he had asked for, because that red color had been specifically chosen, but a particular red.

He grabbed a paintbrush and filled it with paint, however, when he finished passing it, the brush only had paint at the ends, leaving the center without paint, as it had already worn out. Then, he put the brush back in the paint and continued writing. And it occurred to me that I had to fill it in since he had not been able to fill in between the two red lines that appeared at the end. And I went over to fill it in.

Oops. Rinpoche's reaction was very quick, and he told me: "don't touch" ... "it stays like this".

I noticed by watching him very well, that he wrote and did not go back to retouch anything, it was all with a single movement.

Well, the three famous phrases of Garab Dorje are there, the ones that define the three: Sende, Longde and Upadesha, the three aspects of Dzogchen, or the three teachings of Dzogchen.

And at a certain point in the construction of the Gonpa, which was little by little, it was not a one-time idea, we were around that old structure of the shed. This was buried, let's say, behind a new concrete wall, which covers all this and gives it an appearance of continuity, but underneath are those phrases, behind the back of the master when he is sitting on the throne.

 Without going into too much detail, as to where the Mandala is now ...

The mandala was another story, but before the floor in that place was about three quarters of a meter lower, down there we painted a mandala on the concrete, and when we changed the structure for the final structure of the Gonpa, as we see it at the moment, that area was filled with stone and concrete. That is, underneath the current mandala is another mandala.

The actual mandala is made ... that is to say, it is not paint, it is white cement mixed with resins that were resinous in the market, that is to say, they did not know how to work very well, and in particular, the red one was a lot of work, that is to say, it gave us a lot of headaches. At a certain point Rinpoche said, "Well, that red is close enough to what I want. It's not something that's going to wear off like an acrylic paint, that you put on cement and it's going to wear off little by little. It's a dense enough layer, not too much but just enough of white cement with those organic colors. I think it's the only one like that, in the world.

 Then we built the Gonpa, where the roof structure is very particular, we had to invent. We were helped by a group of three local brothers, very nice and helpful, of course they were paid for their work, but they were working there with us. The roof was made with two slopes, to the west and to the east. We made some trusses that are structures composed of two beams connected by rules in equis, anchored with thick bolts. sometimes we had to glue them, based on what those people told us, for that there are products in the market, of two components that result in a strong glue that works well with the wood. The trusses, in general, are very well made. However, when we finished putting up the trusses, and started to cover, the weight of the roof started to open up near where the master sits. I noticed it, I don't think anyone else noticed it, but I went to Rinpoche. I said to him:

"Rinpoche, I think we have a problem. Maybe we have to lower the whole roof, because so and so happens..."

Rinpoche came with me down to the Gonpa, looked at the thing. He was like meditating there, and he told me: "Don't worry, go on. No problem."

I say that again, the master was teaching me something: where a decision did not depend on the usual, let's say, logic, let's say in particular mine, very scientific. But because I have a trust in him, let's say absolute trust, I was unconcerned. Because the first night, after having discovered this, I really did not sleep well, I was very worried.

Then, those trusses were covered, with thick veneer, the thickest, so that we had those surfaces completely smooth, without showing the underlying structure, so that it could be painted. That was Rinpoche's wish. For that purpose, he invited Dinma, who is a Tibetan living in Merigar, who has painted the Merigar Gonpa, the tankha of the twelve masters. He brought in his suitcase a lot of stencils with the motifs that are normally painted in those cases, that is, the motifs that you are seeing. Those flowers, those leaves, the animals, I think he had them all in stencils. And he began to draw.

First, we had to organize a scaffolding system, we rented scaffolding everywhere. I don't know how many scaffolding units we had there, maybe there were about twenty, but it was very easy to work there because we had them connected with stairs and corridors.

Dinma with the help of two people, who I think had come with him from Merigar, I don't remember their names, but they were Europeans, did the initial drawings. Then every day something was painted, and because there was so much scaffolding, a certain population was allowed up there. There could be a dozen people at a time. And everybody could participate. I had two hours off, so I would go and paint with the others.

So, today it is white, he would mark the places and you would walk around painting those places in white, respecting the borders. It was a very nice job, with a lot of people, a lot of participation. We were very happy to see the birth of Dinma's floral landscape. It was really a very interesting adventure.

When was this done, I'm not quite sure, but I would say it was around 2010?

(I think in terms of Gonpa, that's it).

 

The circular window of the dining room of Rinpoche's house.

 

The circular window of the dining room of Rinpoche's house.

Throughout the years 2003, 4, 5, and 6, the retreats in Tashigar were numerous. We had two years, if I remember well, when there was a monthly retreat. Some years Rinpoche spent in Tashigar Norte eight, nine, ten, I think once, up to eleven months almost the whole year. That is to say that we lived there, a certain number of practitioners lived in the camping, in the houses, which translated into an affluence in Rinpoche's house. When I say affluence, I mean that there were always people who were strangers to Rinpoche's family. In the kitchen it was to help Rosa, on our teacher's side, it was to help him sometimes to rearrange some things in his office, in his studio. Other times it was to repair or reinstall the internet bam, it was a Movistar bam and we had many problems with those things at that time. We had to invent new solutions all the time. In general, the Red Gakyil, the biku, some of us were there, Raul Baratini, sometimes Rolando and many times me. That day we had been doing something and as many times, we were invited to share the table with Rinpoche at noon. It was a little party for us, although it was always a very quiet party. That day we had lunch with Rinpoche, sometimes we would talk about topics that were not usually discussed at other times like politics. And that day when everyone is leaving, Rinpoche gives me to understand that I could stay with him, to perform a task at the dining room window.

The window of that dining room is a large hole, more than a meter in diameter, which is covered with a very thick, round glass, supported with four stainless steel hooks, forming a kind of rhombus, or cross if you want to see it differently. Then, our teacher quickly gives me to understand that the task is to pass some strings of five colors, the five colors of the elements. Blue, green, white, red, yellow, and you have to pass them around the perimeter and from time to time, the string goes horizontally or vertically to form a cross.

The size of the window means that one person, Rinpoche alone, cannot cover all four hooks at once, and my task, I quickly realized, was to facilitate his movements so that he could do it more continuously.

We didn't talk anymore, after the first explanation of what we were going to do. It was silence, it was a kind of meditation that lasted two, three hours, I don't remember, but it was very long. Very simple, very deeply pleasant. It was really for me a moving meditation. At a certain moment I dared to break Rinpoche's silence.

So, you are doing this so that the little birds are able to detect that there is an object in their way and they are not going to kill themselves against the glass, right? But my question contained: but is there something else?

Then, Rinpoche looked at me with his mischievous childish smile: "yes".

But that "yes", he meant no, that is; "that too". Obviously in the threads there was something else. He did not give me another explanation; I did not dare to ask him for it and I was left with the idea that there was obviously an energetic aspect that for some reason I was not able to grasp.

Perhaps seen from the outside, that little event with the master may seem unimportant. In my memory it remained as a wonderful day, that somehow gave me a lot, I don't know what, but it remained as a very, very fundamental thing, one of the most important things of my experience with Rinpoche.

Truly today, I always treat him as if he were here watching me, I believe he is watching me. I thank him for that day in a very, very particular way.

I'd say about two dozen square tables perfect for playing "Patchen

 

Patchen.

During all those early years there were rites. One of them was Sunday afternoon, which lasted for years.

On Sunday afternoons at half past three, Rinpoche would walk down from his house to the dining hall. The dining room had been the old chicken coop, where the egg production was, with a structure to house a few hundred hens. We had transformed it into a dining room, with a kitchen in the back and about twenty ... I'd say about two dozen square tables perfect for playing "Patchen".

Across the street from that dining room still in existence, is the master's bathroom. And for us the practitioners, the residents, it was the bathroom next to the Gonpa.

Then on Sundays, Rinpoche would come down, he would enter with a ceremonial attitude his torso facing us... How beautiful was our Rinpoche! ... he would enter and sit at a table in the lower part, usually facing the center.

In general people would try to go and play Patchen with the master. This was played on fours and anyone who wanted to would sit down. Not everyone was interested in Patchen, but those of us who were interested occasionally liked to sit at the table with the master, then there might be a little dispute to participate.

Well, I'll get down to business ...

That day Antonio, another person and me, we had had a slightly more abundant meal, we had had a few beers and we arrived a little late. When I say late, I mean that the teacher had already entered the dining room, and when I arrived, there was still some space at Rinpoche's table, something very rare. I asked permission and was able to sit in front of Rinpoche at the table where we were going to play Patchen. By then, those beers I had drunk were already in my bladder and I needed to go pee in the bathroom. At that time, I had prostate problems and it wasn't good for me to be holding it in for too long. So, at the end of a game I said: "Excuse me, I'm going to the bathroom" and I got up and went to the bathroom.

Yeah. When I was peeing quietly, there was something, I wasn't feeling entirely pleased with myself.

I went back to the table, and there, when I sat down in front of Rinpoche, Rinpoche turned his head not to look at me and said in Italian: "I don't want to play with him" ... imagine, I don't want to play with him, he wasn't even saying it to me, he was saying it to the others. Then I understood everything. I was absent and it was obvious. Rinpoche would play from three o'clock, sometimes until ten o'clock, many times at six, or seven or eight. And Rinpoche would also get up to go to pee, but when Rinpoche did that, he would call to someone passing by: "Look X, sit down in my place and play this turn of the game for me, try not to lose. And he would go to pee quietly.

I, being so important, had gone to pee, leaving the teacher waiting to continue the game.

Of course, when I realized all this, I felt some embarrassment, but... Rinpoche was telling me that he didn't want to play with me and I defended myself for a few seconds, then Rinpoche, raised his head, and to Grisha who was passing by he said: "Grisha, sit in Michel's place". Of course, I had to get up. I was very embarrassed, and to tell you the truth, I was with that unhappiness, inside, for a few weeks....

Well, on Sundays I went anyway, to the dining room, to be with the others, to see Rinpoche, and each time, with some embarrassment. But, little by little I managed to understand deeply, what it represented of the ego, that small mistake. Not so small in the measure of being the master, but I was able to observe my ego in a more evident way.

Little by little the wound healed and I came on Sundays a little more normal, a little happier to be there, although I did not dare to come to Rinpoche's table.

One Sunday that I arrived a little bit late again, about three months later or maybe more, I entered the dining room and Rinpoche was already seated at a table with two other people, I think Gilberto was there and when Rinpoche saw me, he called me: "Michel, do you want to play with us?", this time he did not tell me in Italian, which he knew was not my favorite language... (laughs). He told me in English – “please sit down- It was the happiest day of my life!

the teacher had forgiven me, if he had forgiven me, this meant that he justified, I don't know from what point, that I had done the necessary work to observe what had happened to me. And my unhappiness was transformed into a transcendental happiness...

on the beach with the "Shariputra".

 

... during all that time, the time of the preparation of the Longsal retreat, the main activity in general, that is to say predominant every day, was the beach in the morning.

It was usually early; I would say at 9:00 a.m. In general, one was waiting for Rinpoche on the beach.

That morning maybe, I had arrived a little bit earlier, or Rinpoche took a little bit longer. I was doing the short thun between two little boats, between two [peñeros] that were on the sand not in the water. I was protected, that is to say, that I was not very visible. and Rinpoche arrived with Fabio, I don't remember if Rosa was present. When he passed in front of the peñeros, he stopped, turned around and looked at me and said something like: "Michel, what are you doing? here, we are normal people. We don't want to be seen as weirdos here! So, practice is at your house." - Something like that, not his exact words, but very definitive.

It was clear that any action ... although, of course we were a very particular group, hippie and all this, but let's say, within an accepted social classification. But not as practitioners of a particular religion. No no no no, the teacher didn't want that.

In general, there are many things, that have to do with the beach.

We often did "Shariputra" -(laughs)- "shariputra" was throwing water and water with the hands, to new people, newcomers, who stood in the center of a circle that we formed together with the master. There were many people who came and came, from outside for the Longsal retreats and for the other retreat, the one that would be before, the retreat for the instructors.

Then, the new people would stand in the center and we would half drown them by throwing water on them. That was "Shariputra".

It was generally associated, before or after with bathing. I already told you that every morning we went to bathe, and as Zaragoza is a cold-water beach, apparently, because the winds come from behind. The trade winds come from the land and push the water that has warmed up in the sand, pushing it towards the open sea, and that water that moves away is replaced by cold water coming from the bottom. Because, while the water at Playa El Agua is warm, in Zaragoza it is cold. And, everyone, including Europeans, Fabio, and Adriano in particular, had a hard time getting into that cold water.

It was hard for me but I didn't say it, and I always tried to enter the water with the teacher. But the teacher saw that I was suffering when I went in. That day he said to me, "Michael, don't feel the cold. Be the cold." - well, believe it or not, but from that moment, from that day, and for years, now I don't know if it still works for me, but for years I was able to enter with the master in the water without feeling the cold. At least, not in the way I felt it before.

Yes, then, that capacity of integration, you would say to me, if I am an accomplished person, it is not very extraordinary for me to do this. I mean, I think it would be a consequence of a spiritual realization, right? But I don't think I'm at that level. (laughs).

But I was able to receive that direct transmission of being able to bathe without feeling the cold.

Then, little by little we would swim further out, passing the last little boats like El Lorena 2, I remember the name of that little fishing boat, but much bigger than a normal sardine boat.

We would go all the way out there. When we arrived, everybody would do the plancha and the Song of Vajra and then, we would come back and maybe do the "Shariputra".

That was more or less the tradition we had at that time, it was very, very nice.

Not everybody would hold until the end of the Song of Vajra because of the cold, and some would go back earlier but in general, people would come and go back with the teacher, throwing sand, laughing, and finishing on the beach with the "Shariputra".

It was the end of 2001 and Rinpoche was preparing two retreats.

 

It was the end of 2001 and Rinpoche was preparing two retreats. The instructors' retreat and the Longsal retreat, the first retreat.

In general, at that time, we felt, I think with some reason, that the Longsal retreat could not be for just anybody who showed up. At least what I thought I understood from Rinpoche. Almost daily one came to ask Rinpoche what needed to be done with all this.

In that preparation I remember one thing that was very, very, very, important to him...

He said to me: "Apparently... you know that my students in Russia are very important. It is the place where my teaching has attracted more people ... there are hundreds, maybe thousands. There are two people there who are particular, whose names are Igor and Grisha, and those people apparently, are having difficulty getting into Venezuela. You have to make arrangements, get advice for those people, to get the necessary visa..."

Well, that was done, that could be solved well. One who participated in this from the Russian side was Gosha, who from that moment on, was an absolutely extraordinary help.

But what I want to tell here is, that in that preparation, at one point it became clear to Namkhai Norbu, and I think he told me at one point, that he was connecting with the Guardians of the teaching, with Ekajati, and at one point, he got the authorization for that retreat to be open. And in fact, it was so open, that over three hundred people attended.

When it became clear that it would be a retreat of this size, we the Venezuelans had to take into consideration, that we still, don’t have the infrastructure to receive them. How, are we going to do it?

Rinpoche knew the depot, where the sheep were, where the tractor was, the shed

So, he told me: "we are going to use the shed because it has a roof, but we need to increase that surface...".

We made a calculation, more or less, of one hundred and twenty square meters. It was not a surface that he gave us, we just saw it on the ground.

How do you do this? I'm going to show you how to make a Tibetan tent."

So, we learned well, I in particular, I learned with him that you had to put ropes in. He said: "buy a good canvas, tie a kind of canvas tubes, where we were going to sew a strong rope, that would be the one that would support the efforts. It had to be tied.

Then, we had to buy the canvas and make a surface of one hundred and twenty square meters.

We didn't have the money, we had almost nothing at that time. And Rinpoche told us, "We don't have the money, well, let's go to the casino, let's go get money in the casino. At the Hilton."

One night we went to the Hilton. Rinpoche, Fabio ... well, the little group, to bring money. (laughs)

I never win anything in that kind of thing. That night, the little pharaohs on the slot machines, on my machine, started to sing. I had almost all of them lined up on my machine and there was music coming out, a hostess also came out of nowhere with a checkbook in her hand, I'm just exaggerating. That night at the casino, we won, we lost, but we won about two or three times. Because it wasn't just me and we went back to Tashigar, that night, with $250 that we didn't have two hours before.

For me that was one thing ... again ... when you are with the master, who has a preset plan in his head, it's another kind of events that happen ... it's another life ...

That marked me a lot ...

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I would say that in the next stage, we were at August 28th.

 

I would say that in the next stage, we were at August 28th.

Carmen Teresa went to Italy for a while, for a dance course. I stayed with David, and we spent the days in Pedro Gonzalez. In the house there was almost nothing, as obviously there was no air conditioning then, we went from one communication center to another, looking for air conditioners.

I could be working all day long, and therefore, to prepare from there the arrival of our Master and everything related to his visit.

So, we had been surprised one morning by the news of the fall of the Twin Towers.

For me, and from my experience, all this is intertwined with the birth of Tashigar North.

Namkhai Norbu arrived in October, a month, or less than a month and a half after the fall of the towers. We were witnessing a shift, a shift in energies, a shift in patterns, a shift in our spirituality for us huge.

And that feeling of ... joy for the luck that we had, to participate in the construction of a new Gar of such an extraordinary teaching as Dzogchen.

At that moment we realized that there was another person on the island, another Frenchman, we were not the first. He had arrived before. He was Emanuel Juane and he had arrived from South Africa and was living in the beach house, which owns a practitioner, who lived in Caracas.

 In October then, our master disembarked. We had rented him a relatively comfortable house, on the boulevard that leads to the boardwalk of the Zaragoza beach. We also rented another house across the street for his companions, in particular for Fabio and other practitioners who might arrive later.

So, Rinpoche's house became the center of operations, on the street leading to the boardwalk.

What I want to tell is ... (smiles) ... how it marked at least the memory of those present.

Those present were at that moment besides Rosa, Namkhai Norbu and Fabio, the three of us, our family; there was also Emanuel Juane, there was Lory from New York with her daughter, and there was also Raul Baratini who came from Argentina, we didn't know each other, he had met in Buenos Aires at the beginning of the Dzogchen community, and from Caracas he had communicated and was there that day. He was working in Vancóc but that day he was with us, that day was a November day and there was a sea of absolutely dreadful without rain. There was no storm, no wind, nothing like that. Sea of swell, in this case was huge waves.

As every day, we went with Namkhai Norbu to the beach. That day we could not very easily pass the creek coming from the lagoon, there was no walkway or anything like that in that year (2001).

Once we were able to get across to the beach, it was obviously almost impossible to swim. Rinpoche sat and played to get a little bit closer to the water along with everyone else. I with my son stayed a little higher because I was very, very afraid that something might happen to David. Suddenly, a wave bigger than the others came as if to grab our teacher, wanting to take him away. In that place the beach is very steep. Emanuel and Raul were struggling in a way, that almost resulted in a fracture, may be a crack in the foot, that I think it was Emanuel's.

Well, nothing happened. The water, the sea deposited Namkhai Norbu back almost where he was, and I went down in an attempt to help the others. When I stood next to the master to ask him if he was okay, he just looked at me laughing like, I say, like a whale... that is, laughing out loud.

I could not understand how a human being, could laugh in that situation, when we had been so close ... to something very serious.

I had to withdraw because my reaction was to vomit, and I had to withdraw so as not to vomit his feet. The shock was so great that it really left a mark on all of us present, the few of us who were there.

Soon after, Rosa, Fabio and Carmen Tereza, who had gone to Porlamar, returned.

I knew that Rosa was used to checking the astrology of the day. I said to her, "Did you see today how the astrology of the day was?

She said to me, Oh! Michel it couldn't be a better day, in the year I think it is the best. I just walked away thinking, if it had been a normal day, what would have happened?

But also, when one is with the master, things don't follow a logical path, do they? ... they follow the path they have to follow...

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