Meeting Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche

Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche (sKyabs rJe kun bZang rDo rJe rin po che / སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཀུན་བཟང་རྡོ་རྗེ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་). Here follows an extract from the book ‘Wisdom Eccentrics’ by Ngak’chang Rinpoche who—in 1976—was his first and only Western disciple. It would only be in the late 1990s that he began to be open to meeting Western Nyingma students.

༄When something closer to everyday reality resumed, Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche turned to Khandro Déchen and said “Scholars are of no importance to us. We do not need such people. What is important to us is dam ngag (དམ་ངག་)—the quintessence teaching. Philosophy is for ’thom yors (འཐོམ་ཡོར / idiots) so why should I have anything to say about philosophy? Why should you have to say anything?
Why should we debate with ’thom yors? Knowledge that is merely information is useless. It is only the knowledge-of-direct-experience that is important to us.”

Rinpoche was silent for a while. He then cupped his hand to his left ear for some moments.

“If you hear the sound of the birds outside—if you really hear them—then you’ll hear Guru Rinpoche’s mantra.”

There was then utter silence — but for the sounds of birds twittering.

“If you hear in this way, you will know the result of the development and completion stage. Dzogchen is then possible. These ’thom yors with tengars (mantra beads / mala) in their hands and pious faces – what’s the meditation they are so proud to speak about?
They speak of it with every other ’thom yor who will listen. It is only babble.
Without contemplating the nature of Mind—what is their drüpthab? They’re reciting gibberish. This is called mantra-clinging. This is called making projections and counting discursive thoughts. They’re accumulating treachery rather than contemplation – and this has no good purpose.”

This was an amazing dissertation. Khandro Déchen had hardly known Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche for ten minutes before he treated her as if he’d known her for years.