Help us to establish Drala Jong - a Buddhist Retreat Centre in Wales
We are given new names when we take refuge. I was given the name Chö-ying Gyamtso by Lama Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche and the name Ögyen Togden3 by Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche. So my name is now Chögyam Ögyen Togden.4 The first two names are contracted into one.
Chö-ying Gyamtso means ‘ocean of space’ and Ögyen Togden means … well … ögyen means many things. It means Padmasambhava. It means Uddiyana—the North West of India—the place where Padmasambhava appeared in the world. Hence ögyen can mean the space from which Vajrayana arises. Togden means yogi.
ögyen Togden therefore means a person who is practising in the tradition of Padmasambhava – in other words, a Nyingma. If you put it all together it probably describes me as ‘the Nyingma space-case’.
Names are teachings in themselves – and I have therefore always attempted to develop the positive aspect of spaciousness rather than the absent-minded aspect. The name you are given is chosen through an understanding of how you are and what your potential is. The name you are given says a great deal about you – and about how you can develop. Having a new name is your death certificate. It means that your old way of being has died.
Your new name is a symbol of the recognition that the vicious dance of grabbing, biting, and disregarding—attraction, aversion, and indifference—is a waste of time. Having a new name is symbolic of being born into the family of practitioners. It means that—from this point on—we will be working with whatever happens in our lives.
Unfortunately, having attended a refuge ceremony has become a mark of commitment in itself – and some people tend to divide each other—vis-à-vis refuge—into those who have and those who have not. Some people seem to have the idea that those who have not officially taken refuge are necessarily less advanced or less committed.
When new students are seen to go through the motions of taking refuge, older students then begin to relate to them differently – because now they are obviously people who are committed and will therefore support the Buddhist centre.
This club-mentality is not in sympathy with the open minded view of Buddhism. You have maybe heard of a club-foot?
You can live with a club-foot and lead as happy a life as anyone else – but a club-mentality is debilitating. It does not matter what our qualifications may be.
It does not matter how many teachings we may have attended. It does not matter how many empowerments we have received. What matters is how kind and open we are becoming.