newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

david123
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newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by david123 »

Hi,

im new to Buddhism and i'm looking to understand to nature of transmission of practices.i have attended a few of Chogyal Namhkai Noru's webcasts and was present as he gave some transmissions at the last day.my question is,is it necessary to receive the transmission before one does these practices? couldn't one get instruction from someone else that does these practices or investigate how to do them?what is the real nature of the transmission,is it more than saying 'ok u can do it?Is it necessary to receive transmission?

Thanks
thewhiterussia
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by thewhiterussia »

Hi,
In my understanding without transmission the practices will not work. In my opinion it is important to receive the transmission of mantras' sounds as the explanation of the practices you can read in the books which are available from the online Shan Shung shop.
I hope it helps :smile:
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lobster
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by lobster »

Transmission is enabling, empowering and elucidating. The blessing exists but of far more importance is the practice of the sadhana, from which the blessing will arrive in time.

I have met people with years of transmission and practically no practice and others with no transmission and years of practice. Guess who makes progress . . .

Most practices are now available to practice without a permit.

:meditate:

Good luck. Go for it. :twothumbsup:
Last edited by Grigoris on Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unverified personal "mantra"
david123
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by david123 »

thewhiterussia wrote:Hi,
In my understanding without transmission the practices will not work. In my opinion it is important to receive the transmission of mantras' sounds as the explanation of the practices you can read in the books which are available from the online Shan Shung shop.
I hope it helps :smile:
What do u mean it will not work?
david123
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by david123 »

lobster wrote:Transmission is enabling, empowering and elucidating. The blessing exists but of far more importance is the practice of the sadhana, from which the blessing will arrive in time.

I have met people with years of transmission and practically no practice and others with no transmission and years of practice. Guess who makes progress . . .

Most practices are now available to practice without a permit.

:meditate:

Good luck. Go for it. :twothumbsup:

Thank you :namaste:
Last edited by Grigoris on Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unverified personal "mantra"
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Rinchen Dorje
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by Rinchen Dorje »

David,
you can think of it using a gardening metaphor. You already possess the fertile ground necessary. The teacher, with a transmission plants a seed. Your practice is like the sunlight, water etc that allows the seed to mature and grow. You cant grow an apple tree etc without the proper seed. Trying to do a practice without transmission is like trying to grow that apple tree without an apple seed being planted.
"But if you know how to observe yourself, you will discover your real nature, the primordial state, the state of Guruyoga, and then all will become clear because you will have discovered everything"-Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche
CrawfordHollow
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by CrawfordHollow »

It really depends on what type of practice you are doing. Some practices require only a lung (reading transmission), other practices require empowerment, lung, and the liberating instructions. Most of the practices that ChNN gives are connected with his main transmission of direct introduction. After you have received this then all you need is a lung to "activate" the power of the mantras, so to speak.

I don't know if you could ever understand precisely why all of this is needed. Suffice it to say that tantra and dzogchen are spiritual practices that are based on the transmission from a student to a teacher. This transmission can take many forms but it is a necessary component if you want to receive benefit from the practice. Like all things, if all of the right causes and conditions are not present then the effect will not be produced.

I am not sure that it is good advice to just go for it and start practicing any practice out there without the proper transmission. Especially in vajrayana, if you try to practice something without receiving the empowerment problems can arise. Empowerments are very profound and they go far beyond just tradition and ritual. Of course, just receiving the empowerment is useless if you don't put it into practice. The seed metaphor is appropriate here.

Empowerments are something more akin to the path of transformation than to dzogchen. You may have heard Namkahi Norbu saying that in dzogchen the most important thing is direct introduction. Direct introduction itself is an empowerment of sorts, just in a very essential way. The point of direct introduction is to see your true nature, to meet rigpa. The teacher plays an essential role in this, because they have stabilized their own realization and have the ability to communicate that. Of course, you shouldn't think of it as something that is just handed over to you. If takes participation on your part, and if you don't recognize rigpa during the introduction then you work with the methods taught be your teacher. So this introduction is also like a seed, and all of the other practices that ChNN gives lungs for is connected to this process.

Anyway, you do need tranmssion to work with
Schrödinger’s Yidam
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

There are several different 'transmissions' that I know of.

The first is a 'lung' (rhymes with 'tune'). That is a simple reading of something, say a text, that breathes life into it, so to speak. A text by itself is considered sterile, but having a living person read it to you, that had it read to him, etc., on back to the origin of the text, brings it alive. The only requirement for the person reading it is that they've had it read to them by someone in the chain.

A 'wong' (rhymes with 'song') is totally different. (a.k.a. Skt.: Abisheika, English: Empowerment) It is given in for a specific meditation, not just a text, and the preceptor has to not only received it from someone else, but they've had to do a retreat and accomplished the practice to (at least a minimal degree) before they can give the initiation to someone else.

'Direct introduction' is another. I'm not going to talk about that.

There's more to it than that, but that is the Reader's Digest version of the idea. Take that as a initial understanding and be ready to modify it as you get more of an education in it.
Last edited by Schrödinger’s Yidam on Thu Jun 13, 2013 7:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
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Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
CrawfordHollow
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by CrawfordHollow »

Sorry,

something weird just happened. The important thing is to work with the transmissions that you have received. Any practice that you have received a lung for will work for you because you have received that transmission. The transmission is connected not only to the realization of the teacher but also to the lineage of teachers that they have received the practices from. There is a powerhouse of blessings that can be tapped into.
david123
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by david123 »

thank you for your replies,they have been helpful. :namaste:
Schrödinger’s Yidam
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

What do u mean it will not work?
Dharma is supposed to work. You're supposed to change.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
david123
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by david123 »

how often is direct introduction given in the webcasts? :namaste:
thewhiterussia
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by thewhiterussia »

the next direct transmission is given on:

18 July 2013


Thursday, 18 July 2013 04:00
Direct Transmission - Anniversary of Guru Padmasambhava :: Direct Transmission

with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu




28 November 2013


Thursday, 28 November 2013 12:00
Direct Transmission - Anniversary of Adzam Drugpa :: Direct Transmission

with Chögyal Namkhai Norbu




16 March 2014


Sunday, 16 March 2014 03:00


:namaste:
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heart
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by heart »

david123 wrote:how often is direct introduction given in the webcasts? :namaste:
Quite often I would say and then there is also the three formal occasions each year.

/magnus
"We are all here to help each other go through this thing, whatever it is."
~Kurt Vonnegut

"The principal practice is Guruyoga. But we need to understand that any secondary practice combined with Guruyoga becomes a principal practice." ChNNR (Teachings on Thun and Ganapuja)
david123
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by david123 »

Thanks guys. :twothumbsup:
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by Schrödinger’s Yidam »

The analogy I use a lot of times is the passing of the Olympic Flame from runner to runner.
1.The problem isn’t ‘ignorance’. The problem is the mind you have right now. (H.H. Karmapa XVII @NYC 2/4/18)
2. I support Mingyur R and HHDL in their positions against lama abuse.
3. Student: Lama, I thought I might die but then I realized that the 3 Jewels would protect me.
Lama: Even If you had died the 3 Jewels would still have protected you. (DW post by Fortyeightvows)
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wisdom
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by wisdom »

Perhaps I'm wrong, but my opinion is that the "nature" of transmission is selflessness. The emptying of one receptacle into the openness of another, both the pouring out and the making room being acts of selflessness (the emptiness nature of things).
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by kirtu »

smcj wrote:The analogy I use a lot of times is the passing of the Olympic Flame from runner to runner.
wisdom wrote:Perhaps I'm wrong, but my opinion is that the "nature" of transmission is selflessness. The emptying of one receptacle into the openness of another, both the pouring out and the making room being acts of selflessness (the emptiness nature of things).
Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche said in a question and answer session in Bhutan (from an online video of the event) that empowerment is like introducing a person with amnesia to their actual identity. Your actual name is Joe (or Vajrasattva) and these are your things, etc. It can take a person a while to get used to that. However this is the case you really are Vajrasattva or Avalokiteshvara or Tara, etc. ultimately because you have Buddha Nature. However, your Buddha Nature has to be reawakened and developed.

The person bestowing the empowerment has to also meet specific requirements. For one thing they have to have practiced the actual practice and they are supposed to have received signs as well (actual results that manifest in specific ways). Additionally they are transmitting the blessings of the lineage. Vajrayana and Dzogchen operate on the basis of blessing and this is a real factor.

Kirt
Last edited by kirtu on Thu Jun 20, 2013 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: removed parenthesis
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Yeti
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by Yeti »

"People are fond of saying all sorts of things about others behind their backs, mentioning their names again and again. Instead of slandering others in this way, “slander” the yidam: utter his name repeatedly by reciting his mantra all the time." - Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche - Zurchungpa’s Testament - Shambhala Publications
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Re: newbie trying to understand the nature of transmission

Post by pineblossom »

For me 'transmission' is very much like what the RC Church teaches - that the connection with the Eucharist is real and that the wine and bread convey more than water and dough. Superstition needs to be confronted for what it is - superstition.

There is nothing transmitted other than the teachers knowledge on certain subjects.

But there is another aspect to transmission and that is the matter of hierarchy. It is a bit like progressing through university - you enter at the undergrad level and work your way through to post graduate levels. It is a way of stopping people running before they can demonstrate that they have learnt to walk properly.
Not all those who wander are lost
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