There are also groups of committed practitioners in Washington, Oregon, New Mexico and southern California. To contact these communities, visit our links page.
The Northern California Community organizes weekly group practices at the Dondrub Ling Center in Berkeley. Special events, practice explanations, Santi Maha Sangha Study Groups, Vajra Dance, Yantra Yoga, and weekend workshops are held as well. These ongoing practices enable participants to develop and integrate the teaching into daily life and to support each other in practice. Anyone who has received or intends to receive transmission from Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche is welcome to participate and learn. Click here to visit our calendar page.
The International Dzogchen Community
A network known as "The Dzogchen Community"
has been established to facilitate collaboration amongst the worldwide
community of those inspired by the teachings of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu.
Through this affiliation, Rinpoche's students are able to continue to
practice the teachings individually and collectively, while integrating
them into their ordinary lives in the world.
The core community first developed in Italy in the 1970's at Merigar,
now the international seat of the Dzogchen Community. The teachings have
continued to spread around the world. Many centers ("gars" in Tibetan)
now exist in North and South America, Australia, Asia, Russia and Western
Europe. These gars are centers where students can meet, study and practice
together, organize personal or collective retreats, and participate in
courses and cultural events. Each gar is organized by its own governing
body, known as a "gakyil" made up of local interested practitioners. Membership
in the community is welcomed but not mandatory.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is
a Dzogchen master of Tibetan Buddhism highly trained in the Buddhist traditions
of meditation, philosophy and medicine.
At his birth in 1938 at Geug, in the region of Dege (Eastern Tibet), Chögyal
Namkhai Norbu was recognized as the reincarnation of the great Dzogchen
teacher Adzam Drugpa (1842-1934). When he was five years old he was further
recognized by the XVIth Karmapa as the mind emanation of Drug Zhabdrung
Rinpoche, a prior reincarnation of the master Padma Karpo.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu studied with some of the most important masters
of his time and completed the training required by Buddhist tradition
in both Sutra and Tantra. At the age of sixteen, he met Master Rigdzin
Changchub Dorje, who introduced him to the authentic knowledge of the
Dzogchen teachings.
In 1960 he was invited to Europe by the great Tibetan scholar Guisseppe
Tucci and appointed Professor of Tibetan and Mongolian Language and Literature
at the Oriental Institute, University of Naples. Since his retirement
from the University of Naples, Rinpoche has traveled extensively throughout
Europe, North and South America, the former Soviet Union and Asia transmitting
in a direct and open way the precious treasury of Dzogchen teachings.
He teaches in English, Italian and Tibetan according to the audience.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu is author of many books
and articles including The Crystal and
the Way of Light (Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd), Dzogchen
the Self-Perfected State (Penguin Group), The
Cycle of day and Night (Station Hill Press), and The
Supreme Source (Snow Lion Publications).