Romantic relationships

The Aro gTér is a non-monastic lineage that emphasizes householder practice and non-celibate ordination in the style of ngakmas and ngakpas / naljorpas and naljormas.

The lineage is named after its founder, the female visionary Khyungchen Aro Lingma, who comes from a line of accomplished female practitioners that begins with Yeshé Tsogyel – the female Tantric Buddha who founded the Nyingma tradition and established Buddhism in Tibet together with Padmasambhava (also known as ‘Guru Rinpoche’, the male Tantric Buddha).
 

Providing equal opportunities for female practitioners, as well as integration of profound Buddhist practice into family life,  healthy families and romantic relationships are at the core of the tradition.

The Aro gTér  Teachings at the Drala Jong  website. 

Men and women need greater respect & appreciation for each other

  
Family environments which exemplify kindness, openness and an enthusiasm for life, are needed for there to be peace and harmony in the world.  For these qualities to exist as examples for children, men and women need greater respect & appreciation for each other.  The Aro gTér provides insight and methodology which are directly applicable to this need.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen, Lineage holders of the Aro gTér, on Drala Jong: A Buddhist retreat Centre in Wales
 

Accountability: For anyone concerned by revelations of abuse

For anyone who has been concerned by the revelations of abuse in the world of Vajrayana Buddhism, the Lineage Lamas of the Aro gTér Lineage have written a text outlining the five precept guidelines which all Aro gTér teachers, abide by.

“Those who approach the Confederate Sanghas of Aro can expect its teachers to abide by the five precepts – and by the ramifications of the five precepts in terms of their societal implications. Within the ethos of the five precepts, the lineage Holders, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen—and the Aro gTér teachers who are their students—wish to provide the example of generosity, clarity, enthusiasm, creativity, and spaciousness.”

You can read the full article on the Aro Buddhism website.

Accountability  at the Drala Jong  website. 

Vivid displays

      The ocean of Mind is referenceless – yet the play of Mind phenomena allows conceptual navigation.  There is however, no intention or design beyond the energetic play of that which arises within Mind.  Concepts arise in random-order; in arbitrary pattern – and as Mind-phenomena they are simply an aspect of the vivid displays of primordial compassion.    
 
p43, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

Naked perception

     Rigpa is naked perception – a naked flame, which burns with or without fuel.  It is naked in the same sense that an unsheathed knife is naked.  Rigpa is pure and total presence.  Stripped of referential clinging to the illusion of duality, mind is self-divested through bare attention.  The essential reality of what exposes itself, is simply as it is. 

p29, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

A brilliant discovery is made

     Finding Mind to be a referenceless ocean of space allows the dualistic knot of panic to untie itself.  In experiencing this space a brilliant discovery is made: being referenceless is not death.  If immanent incidence can be maintained in natural uncontrived presence—without sinking into oblivious drowse—spontaneous clarity is disinhibited.  Stars appear in the sky and their brilliance is reflected in the referenceless ocean of being.

p36, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

Meditation as civil disobedience

Meditation is our only our weapon against the repressive regime of karma and it constitutes civil disobedience in the form of passive resistance.  By allowing the development of experiential space through the practice of shi-nè—according to the four naljors—we discover our own intrinsic awareness.  The four naljors of Dzogchen sem-dé are the ultimate crimes against the ‘law of karma’ and are punishable by realisation – the final revolution and overthrow of the legal system.

p53, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-06-2

There can be some sense of dance …

The word ‘Tantra’ (Gyüd in Tibetan) means ‘thread’ or ‘continuity’.  The idea of thread here, is that whatever may manifest as our experience of being; the energy of our beginningless enlightenment is there.  From this perspective we need to arrive at a sense in which we can simply flow with the multiplicity of definitions that reality manifests.  There can be some sense of dance there, in which we swim with these currents and relax in these pools of stillness.  Tantra introduces us to the one taste of emptiness and form.  In order for this to be possible we need to develop an ability to actively savour dualistic tension; rather than experience it in some sort of victim role.

p34, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Emptiness and form

We need to observe the way in which we do actually seek emptiness when form becomes too oppressive.  We need to observe the way in which we solidify emptiness and crush our own freedom by attempting to make form come into being too quickly. 
Maybe, it would be interesting to allow things to remain undefined just a little bit longer than we usually do.  Maybe we could attempt to settle into the sense of uncertainty and feel the texture of that.  Some understanding needs to evolve, in which we come to regard experiences of both emptiness and form as beads on the thread of energy that comprises the nature of what we are.

p34, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Our own judge, jury, and prosecution

We actively feel the environment – seeking out anything which will justify our perception as being accurate.  This is karma – and this is the law we’re trying to break through meditation.
Karma is entirely how we perceive the world – moment by moment. So the ‘law of karma’ is not just law – it’s the entire legal system.  Our perception is the legislation and our responses enforce it.  We’re our own judge, jury, and prosecution.   

p52, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-06-2

What does it mean … to ‘approach Tantra’?

Approaching Tantra is what you’re doing now!  Tantra is not separate from the stream of reality that you are living all the time.  Especially when you allow yourself to enter into confusion – when you regard that as workable ground.  And when, the workable ground is one in which the ‘working’ itself is indeterminate.  That is very much the ground of Tantra. This is what you could call living the view. 

p118, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Perception

No-one else is responsible for how we perceive the world.  We accept and reject society’s influences and the influences of our parents and friends on our own terms.  We fabricate our own perception, and unless we discontinue the process and de-structure our perception, we’ll merely continue to be repressed by our personal totalitarian regime.  The responses we make to our environment will remain the same and we will attract the kind of circumstances which match our perception.

p51, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-06-2

This unwithheld approach

When we embrace our emotions in Vajrayana practice, we begin to operate in a more magnanimous way.  We embrace greater emotions: greater appetite, greater rage, greater passion, greater speed, and greater abandon.  With this unwithheld approach we begin to lose track of our referential ground and our referential boundaries.  Then we have nothing to gain or lose—we simply have the existential fact of what is—whatever it is. 

p148, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

The 'Law of Karma'

Awareness means relinquishing the police state of karmic-vision and assuming personal responsibility.  Karma is the sum total of our perception in all it’s excruciating intricacy.  The ‘Law of Karma’ is different from externally enforced societal law, because ‘karmic law’ is directly consequential and self-implementing.  We perceive the world in a certain way, and react to it in accordance with that style of perception.  This is what is meant by karma.  There’s no injustice in this kind of ‘law’ apart from the injustice to the non-dual state perpetrated by karmic patterning. 

p51, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-06-2

The Buddha of our time

Padmasambhava is the Buddha of our time; for anyone interested in these teachings – this is something that needs to be taken to heart. Padmasambhava is both a personal relationship and a vast sphere of meaning and luminous experience. Padmasambhava is the Buddha whose teachings and practices become more powerful as our condition of confusion as sentient beings becomes more intense. To really practice in the Tantric tradition, Padmasambhava has to be understood.  He has to be understood as embodying the depth of meaning and influence that goes completely beyond the reach and range of the rational mind. Without a sense of the vastness of what is in encompassed by his name, it’s impossible to have a useful relationship with Tantra.

p133, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Inclusivity

There is space for historical academic research, and there is space for the reverential attribution of teachings to various personages.  There is space for people who want to get as close as they can to the words of Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel—and there is space for people who want to go for the essence irrespective of the nearness or distance of its historical origin.  Buddhism is a vast field of wonder for its sincere practitioners, and so many, many, many different methods are encompassed within its parameters.  We feel that it is preferable to come from a position of inclusivity rather than exclusivity.

p51, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

    

Desire

The Vajrayana texts—both Tibetan and Sanskrit—portray Vajrayana as a magnificent banquet of the senses.  Naturally then, as teachers of Vajrayana, we encourage desire.  Desire is the sensory scenario in which lust and liberation are indivisible.  Desire is inseparable from chang-chub sem.  This is both subtle and easy to misinterpret – which is why we place  such emphasis on silent sitting.  Without recognition of emptiness, desire is merely self  orientation.   

p51, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Passion beyond passion

We see desire as an important aspect of the path.  Without desire there is no compassion, as desire is the energy of appreciative communication.  This is not spoken of in Sutrayana or the outer tantras.  From Mahayoga onward – desire is fuel for the fire of discriminating insight.  Desire is the passion beyond passion: compassion.  It was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who first described compassion as ‘the passion beyond passion’.  From an inner tantra point of view, lust is simply the dualized form of the appreciative communication of bodhicitta.

p50, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

  

Awful misunderstandings

To avoid misunderstandings turning into awful misunderstandings, the crucial factor is to believe that the friends you cherish are basically well intentioned towards you and that they are plagued with at least as many misunderstandings as you.  It is not the misunderstandings that are the problem – but the reaction to them.  Misunderstanding without: being hurt, taking offence, anger, peevish resentment, indignation, self-righteous rage, or temper tantrum … could actually be a cause of humour.

p30, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

      

Great expectations

In life situations there is always malleability as long as we have a spacious view.  There are unending possibilities for creativity in our circumstances – but we need an open view to see them.  There are continual challenges which allow us to improvise – but we need an open view to meet them.  This open view, however, is not based on fantasy or fear – it is simply based on being here, without great expectations.

p22, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7