Ngakchungma & Ngakchungpa Ordination
The fourteen root vows
The full display of various ornaments and accoutrements of the gö kar chang lo’i de (gos dKar lCang lo’i sDe), most visibly the white skirt and uncut hair worn by Ngak’chang Rinpoche in these photographs, all symbolise particulars of the Root Vows. These vows are the highest of the Buddhist tradition and embody lifelong refuge in the Root Teacher and the View of the Inner Tantras. Ngakchung ordination and the wearing of maroon robes was introduced at a time when the Fourteen Root Vows had been given to extremely few western Vajrayana disciples.
Ngala Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje comments:
Certain ‘Western Buddhist Teachers’ do not appear to regard it as polemic, to announce that they do not regard themselves as bound by the Root Vows. They say this as though it were a matter of choice rather than the primary condition of Vajrayana. Eventually however, against this background of misapprehension, books and articles referring to the Root Vows began to appear for the Buddhist public. According to Vajrayana, vows are not studied casually – or for the arbitrary purpose of informing oneself. Vows are not even introduced except in the context of actively bestowing them. When the vows began to be available in bookshops for the uninitiated to read and discuss, the Aro Lineage Holders introduced comprehensive teaching on the subject for their disciples. In recognition of the stability of Lamas Nor’dzin Pamo, Rig’dzin Dorje and
’ö-Dzin Tridral in devotion to their Lamas and commitment to the lineage, their investment in retreat experience, study and pilgrimage, they went on to receive full gö kar chang lo’i de ordination with the white and red robes and symbolic ornaments.
At this time Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje wore the maroon shamthab that Ngak’chang Rinpoche himself made at the instruction of Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche, and which he wore for many years and throughout long retreats in India and Nepal. Ngala Rig’dzin Dorje kept this gift from his Root Teacher, with all its memories and associations, after he began wearing the white skirt. He then passed it on to a practitioner seeking ordination in the style of the Khordong gTér (the personal lineage of Kyabjé Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche) which requires maroon robes.
Ngala Rig’dzin continues:
What also catalysed Ngak‘chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen‘s return to the authentic appearance of the tradition was the weight of evidence that the non-celibate Tantric tradition, even in the Nyingma School, was so severely depleted in numbers that it was all but unknown in the West and even less understood. This came to outweigh all the considerations that had led to Ngak‘chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen postponing the full robes instituted by Yeshé Tsogyel. It was thus that Ngak‘chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen came shortly to abandon the maroon shamthab and adopted the white skirt in order to manifest the gö kar chang lo’i de unambiguously in the world. Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen regard this as an aspect of the commitment made to Kyabjé Düd‘jom Rinpoche, to found a home for the gö kar chang lo‘i dé in the West. It was for this purpose that Kyabjé Düd‘jom Rinpoche gave his blessing and the name of Sang-ngak-chö-dzong, Secret Fortress of Mantra, which became the name of the British sangha in which Ngala Nor’dzin & Ngala ’ö-Dzin and I were ordained.