Shared Values and Guidelines of the Rigpa Community

For Rigpa Instructors

Instructors support Rigpa’s vision and mission, and it is the task of Rigpa instructors to take it upon ourselves to be as knowledgeable as required, to be self disciplined and to be kind and warmhearted. We honour the trust placed in us, carrying out our responsibilities to the best of our abilities and with the aim of maintaining the authenticity of the Dharma.

In so doing, we strive to practise transcendent generosity, discipline, patience, enthusiasm, meditation and wisdom, while at the same time pursuing qualities of selflessness, integrity, accountability, openness, honesty, trustworthiness, and leadership.

We will:

  • Reflect deeply on and cultivate our intention of bodhichitta.
  • Maintain our study and practice, instruct only what we have personally studied and practised, and participate in ongoing instructor training where possible.
  • Respect appropriate boundaries between our role as a Dharma instructor and other competing professional roles that we are qualified to hold (such as consultant, health professional, therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist).
  • Accept the decisions made by the relevant instructor teams in our country,
  • including decisions regarding the appropriateness of any aspect of our role as
  • instructor.
  • Disclose to the instructor team any elements of our personal history or current life situation that may have a negative impact on our role as instructor.
  • Handle our personal interactions with students with confidentiality, and where appropriate and agreed with the student, communicate any decisions taken.
  • Ensure that confidential material, for example material about individuals, is
  • handled with care and sensitivity.