That made it politically explosive, so in practice Dzogchen was taught to a tiny elite only. The Nyingma lineages, like the Sarma, taught conventional morality, and the lower yanas, to nearly everyone. The Dzogchen texts and doctrines were kept mainly secret.
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Replying to @Meaningness @Malcolm_Ocean and
The political suppression of Vajrayana in the West in the 1980s-1990s was initially a suppression of Dzogchen. Tarthang Tulku taught it openly to non-Tibetan lay people, which was sort of like if a new Pope publicly proclaimed that at its core Catholicism was a pedophile sex cult
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Replying to @Meaningness @Malcolm_Ocean and
I know Trungpa was teaching Dzogchen early, late 60s in UK, but not so much openly, and not to groups (AFAIK) Then he moved to USA and took on a more gradual approach, particularly after ‘72ish IIRC. So Tarthang Tulku was teaching openly to groups? Cool
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Replying to @misen__ @Malcolm_Ocean and
I don’t know as much about Tarthang Tulku’s history as I would like (because it has been suppressed, afaict). I gather he was teaching Dzogchen openly in Berkeley in the mid-70s. Then he made it an esoteric-only teaching (early 80s?), and by about 1990 he effectively disappeared.
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Replying to @Meaningness @misen__ and
I assume that this was due to a series of increasingly credible death threats, but I have zero direct evidence of this. At one time I was trying to make discreet inquiries to see if I could get the story, but those didn’t go anywhere.
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Replying to @Meaningness @misen__ and
I no longer care about being discreet because this is now all ancient history and the players are all dead or retired and no one cares anymore. (I hope.)
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Replying to @Meaningness @misen__ and
The frankest of the Trungpa bios—I can’t remember which that was—includes evidence that his apparent psychotic breakdown at the end was driven in part at least by threats against him specifically for teaching Dzogchen.
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Replying to @Meaningness @misen__ and
There is a large wing of the Geluk Party who see the elimination of Dzogchen as THE CENTRAL RELIGIOUS IMPERATIVE and their Eternal Holy Mission (going back to the 1600s at least).
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Replying to @Meaningness @misen__ and
Or did, up to the early 2000s. Afaict, no one cares anymore.
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Replying to @Meaningness @misen__ and
Whoa! Fascinating glimpse into the history and context
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There was going to be a long historical part of Reinventing Buddhist Tantra about all this. (Because it explains why a modern form mostly doesn’t exist.) It was very interesting at the time, but is now all irrelevant. (I hope.)
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