The first time I was a teaching assistant for Trungpa Rinpoche was at Naropa Insitute in the summer of 1974. Before the classes began, I went to his office and asked him how he wanted things done in answering students, leading discussion groups, and so forth. “No Party Line!’ was his immediate and only response.
(If I might add my personal understanding here, and this is not meant as the only or even the correct way of interpreting what the Vidyadhara was saying. What Trungpa Rinpoche considered crucial was for those assisting him to convey their heartfelt inspiration, the way in which the dharma was alive in their life, and what it revealed. He wanted these answers not to rely on a curriculum or doctrine, but to be what arose immediately on the spot.)
