Help us to establish Drala Jong - a Buddhist Retreat Centre in Wales

Help us to establish Drala Jong - a Buddhist Retreat Centre in Wales
Help us to establish Drala Jong - a Buddhist Retreat Centre in Wales

Monday 28 December 2009

See the game

"The only possibility of liberation is to see the game as it is"

p45, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 21 December 2009

Fabulous friction

"Without this 'wearying world' we cannot find enlightenment. Without the responses we would be bereft of the fabulous friction which illuminates our Buddha nature."

p43, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 14 December 2009

Humour

"Humour is crucial because it is fundamental to the nature of the interplay of everything"

p33, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 7 December 2009

The emptiness and form of romance

"Trust and respect are the emptiness and form of romance"

p31, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 30 November 2009

Worry

"Worry is the mind's attempt to stay safe"

p23, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 23 November 2009

Smile

"You simply allow 'smile' to happen. You smile rather than panicking"

p20, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 16 November 2009

One has to change for the better

"… for practice to mean anything, one has to change for the better"

p19, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 9 November 2009

Remain with the taste of confusion

"We need to be willing to remain with the taste of our confusion as the texture of life and allow it to be the random pattern of our everyday lives"

p18, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 2 November 2009

Ambivalence

"...ambivalence is a desirable state for a practitioner"

p12, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 26 October 2009

Between wonderment and bewilderment

"This physical manifestation shimmers between wonderment and bewilderment"

p10, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 19 October 2009

The wonderful efflorescence of the moment

"You just plunge into the entirely wonderful efflorescence of the moment with all its colours, sounds, smells, tastes and textures"

p10, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 12 October 2009

Sadness does not have to be permanent

"If there was no sadness in loss, there would have been no joy prior to it – but that sadness does not have to be permanent"

p9, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 5 October 2009

Relate with the initial display

"Relate with the initial display of what you see – the very first glimpse. After that glimpse, simply abandon the commentary"

p8, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 28 September 2009

Practise with whatever arises

"We practise and we work with whatever arises – without attempting to convert the disorderly nature of existence into something more regimented."

p7, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday 21 September 2009

The nature of mind is non-dual

"Glimpses of rigpa can arise spontaneously through the initial cessation of struggling to maintain the processes of samsara and relaxing into a more open view. We relax and discover with a jolt that the nature of mind is non-dual. We relax and discover in a flash that the nature of view is realised. We relax and discover with surprise that there is a flicker of harmonious natural congruence in activity and being."

p207, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4

Monday 14 September 2009

Realise the potential of non-dual view

"The Four Thoughts teach us everything we need to know to be authentic practitioners. We can embrace the gentleness, kindness, and immaculacy of the warrior. We can embrace the dynamic energy, fierceness, and directness of the warrior. We can realise the potential of non-dual view on a moment by moment basis."

p179, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 7 September 2009

We play with our life experience

"Death, impermanence, things that go wrong, laughter, colour, autumn leaves, light sparkling in puddles, cars breaking down, relationships ending, falling in love - all are the play of existence, the movement and change that is reality. It is only experienced as unsatisfactory when we try to stop movement and change, or see movement and change as painful. Once we have a real understanding of the cause of our experience of samsara as unsatisfactory, we can engage with it in a light-hearted manner. We play with our life experience, rather than feeling like a victim of our circumstances."

p157, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 31 August 2009

Patterning becomes transparent

"Once we are able to dwell in the experience of emptiness between moments of movement in the mind, and even expand the scope of that emptiness, our patterning becomes transparent. It is revealed and laid bare. We can experience the naked empty nature of our perception, and joyfully play with the movement of intention and response."

p133, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 24 August 2009

Impermanence is a cause for celebration

"Impermanence is a cause for celebration. Impermanence is our opportunity to discover presence. Present moments are infinite. They will never end. We will never cease to have opportunities to start again. We will never cease to have opportunities to experience presence."

p109, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 17 August 2009

Honourably upholding the cause of kindness and awareness

"To activate our potential as human, we must live our lives as warriors: fearless, without need of reward or recognition, honourably upholding the cause of kindness and awareness. This is the scarcity and preciousness of human rebirth."

p75, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 10 August 2009

Return to openness

"The most efficacious practice is always that which enables one to return to openness, and to the possibility of the direct experience of the non-duality of emptiness and form."

p51, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 3 August 2009

The still potential of the-nature of-mind

"Cloud mind is the ebb and flow of conceptual mind, and Sky Mind is the still potential of the-nature of-mind. Clouds arise in the sky, flit across it and decorate it, but do not limit or define the vast empty blueness of the sky. Sky always has the potential for cloud to arise. Cloud is a natural aspect of sky, but sky is not limited by cloud. Sky exists irrespective of cloud, but cloud cannot exist irrespective of sky."

p19, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 27 July 2009

Leap, without reservation

"Through the practice of philosophy one might expect to arrive at one's own conclusions about the nature of being - such investigations having been mostly self-referential. Through the practice of the religion of Dharma one discovers that the nature of being has already been understood by one's teachers, and that it can be discovered for ourselves through the methods of practice they reveal. Hence, to fully engage with Dharma, we eventually have to let go of the limitations of our own view - and leap ... without reservation, into Dharma-view"

p3, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday 20 July 2009

The chance to be real and vivid

"Vajrayana offers those with kindness, honesty, and courage the chance to be real and vivid, at a time when cultural horizons are shrinking. We cannot go forth like Lewis and Clark, in search of the passage west - there are no such new trails to blaze on behalf of others. The only compassionate trail left to seekers of such high adventure is the Vajrayana"

p67, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Monday 13 July 2009

Freedom of choice is the dominant myth of our society

"The seductive ideal of freedom of choice is the dominant myth of our society, encouraging people to remain essentially adolescent up until retirement age or even death... It's more important to follow your feelings than to actually arrive at any particular goal. We have become more interested in process than result."

p56, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Monday 6 July 2009

Not just for this life

"The relationship with the vajra master is not just for this life, but is renewed in all future lives until enlightenment is attained. When enlightenment eventually dawns, the student will have become the equal of 'all the enlightened ones of the past'. Until then, the magnetism of this particular vajra master's transmission, the single key to the future, exceeds the inspiration even of the legends of other Buddhas"

p33, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Monday 29 June 2009

The possibility of everything

"Once we perceive the small space of our habitual mind, we begin to long for the open vastness we have glimpsed in the eyes of the Lama. We begin to understand that in 'giving up' the dubious freedom of following our dualistic rationale, we are in fact losing nothing and gaining the possibility of everything."

p20, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Monday 22 June 2009

More important than this one life

"The relationship between the vajra master and the vajra student should be the most important relationship in one's life as a spiritual aspirant. This is the only relationship that we can have which ultimately leads to enlightenment. ... For a Vajrayana student it is more important than this one life."

p11, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Monday 15 June 2009

Nothing but what you actually are

"To receive empowerment is to be struck by lightning in the gentlest possible manner. To be burnt by searing kindness into nothing but what you actually are. ... To wake up, softly startled, at one vivid moment in time. To realise that you have been asleep; and, that suddenly you are both older than the earth and younger than you can remember."

p211, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 8 June 2009

The radiant space of choiceless choice

"To enter vajra commitment is to leap from the perfect precipice. To find yourself in the radiant space of this choiceless choice, is the very heart of Tantra. To leap open-eyed into the shining emptiness of the Lama's wisdom display, and to experience the ecstatic impact of each dynamic gesture of the Lama's method display is the essential luminosity and power of the path."

p175, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 1 June 2009

The terrifyingly compassionate gamester

"The Lama is the ecstatic, wild and gentle figure who short-circuits your systems of self-referencing. The Lama is the only person in your life who cannot be manipulated. The Lama is the invasion of unpredictability you allow into your life, to enable you to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional processes. The Lama is the terrifyingly compassionate gamester who reshuffles the deck of your carefully arranged rationale."

p141, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 25 May 2009

Symbols of ourselves

"We all question our lives at certain moments. This is somewhat unavoidable. Our beginningless enlightenment continually sparkles though, and causes us the irritation of wanting to question what is going on. This happens at various junctures in our lives; and when it does, we are confronted with the inconvenient fact that we are somehow symbols of ourselves. We're not completely certain that we're the real thing."

p93, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 18 May 2009

Our complexity is merely a distortion of the energy of enlightenment

"If we are able to enter the empty state, then the complexity of the khyil-khor replaces the complexity of our unenlightenment. We replace the convoluted patterns of our frustration with the khyil-khor's shimmering irridescence. It's at this brink of experience that we realise something outlandishly potent: our complexity is merely a distortion of the energy of enlightenment. It is then that the appearance of the khyil-khor becomes a transformative experience."

p69, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 11 May 2009

The Limitless Pattern of Creation and Destruction

"We exist in continual flux. We move, and are moved, in the dance of appearances - in the limitless pattern of creation and destruction. The perceptible and imperceptible seem to make each other a mystery."

p47, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 4 May 2009

Tantra is constantly performing itself

"Because Tantra is constantly performing itself; in us; through us; and around us - we can either acknowledge it, by taking hold of the bare electric cables of existence and non-existence, or; try to pretend, as hard as possible, that it's not happening."

p29, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 27 April 2009

We are the dance of existence and non-existence

"We are the dance of existence and non-existence. Unless we know this - Tantra is impossible. But, whether we understand it or not - Tantra is continually performing itself; it is what is happening."

p3, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday 20 April 2009

The dance of the khandros and pawos

"Our emotions and our personal environment are the dance of the khandros and pawos. To know reality as the dance of the khandros and pawos is to fall in love with them. To fall in love with them is to discover our beginningless enlightenment in the endless empty nature of their dance."

p257, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 13 April 2009

Glimpses

"There is no sudden breakthrough that remains forever - there are only sudden glimpses. But these glimpses encourage us to see more. And so, gradually, we develop the ability to integrate these experiences of unconditioned being into our lives."

p235, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 6 April 2009

Indivisibility

"The elements are always equal in their essential pure state. It is not possible to divide the elements, because they are completely interdependent; they are indivisible. We only talk about them as if they were separate, in order to understand something about enlightenment and unenlightenment. As if enlightenment and unenlightenment were two different things."

p195, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 30 March 2009

Emotional pain becomes pure sensation

"The process of artificially maintaining and intensifying emotional pain with thought is gyroscopic. If we keep a cycle of thought constantly spinning we generate a charge that actively prevents the dissipation of pain. But without conceptualisation, emotional pain becomes pure sensation and is released to dance in the vastness of the open dimension of experience. Without the strait-jacket of concept, pain ceases to be pain and becomes a free and ecstatic energy."

p183, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 23 March 2009

Self-fulfilling activity

"The wisdom of self-fulfilling activity is free of all hindrances. We can pacify what needs to be pacified. We can enrich what needs to be enriched. We can magnetise what needs to be magnetised. We can destroy what needs to be destroyed. Our activities are self-accomplished; their completion is implicit in their inception."

p163, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 16 March 2009

The love affair with emptiness and form

"When the essential nature of the fire element is experienced beyond dualism, we realise that we do not have to seduce the world... Every activity becomes the consummation of the love affair with emptiness and form. We are free of reference points as objects of desire. We burn with the wisdom-fire of centrelessness and realise our capacity to extend our realisation to everyone."

p149, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 9 March 2009

Clarity

"Non-dual anger is unconditioned clarity. It is displayed by the brilliance and calmness of water. The undisturbed surface of water perfectly mirrors the sky. The crystal clarity of undisturbed water seems incapable of bias or distortion. When water is clear it is barely visible - it seems to possess only the dimensionless reflective quality of its surface."

p135, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 2 March 2009

Generosity

"The liberated field of energy of the earth element displays the glorious warmth and wealth of earth which is inexhaustible and free to whomever needs it. Wealth and generosity go hand in hand because even if we have very little, we can be wealthy and attract wealth if we have the spirit of giving, which always enables us to find something to give."

p123, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 23 February 2009

Khyil-khor

"The personalities of the khandros, or wisdom sisters, are the inner energy of everything it is possible for us to feel. This is what we are, or what we could become. Our inner elements are the khyil-khor of the khandros - the iridescent matrix of being. There is no more profound khyil-khor than who or what we are in our world."

p105, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 16 February 2009

Awareness

"Awareness is the uncontrived, unattached recognition of the experience of movement - the movement of the arising and dissolving of thoughts in the continuum of Mind, the appearance and disappearance of phenomena in the vastness of intrinsic space. There is only the sheer exquisiteness of this movement. This is what we actually are."

p83, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 9 February 2009

Being

"Being is not attached to reference points. Being does not rely for its existence on any style of perceptual cross-referencing. Trying to pin-point being is like attempting to suspend time and movement - it is not possible, so we might as well simply be."

p73, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 2 February 2009

Enlightenment

"Every thought, every feeling, every sensation or action is enlightenment; but we do not realise it ... We are never separated from it. There is no need to look for enlightenment in any other place than where we are. It is there, unrecognised, in every moment."

p27, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 19 January 2009

Spectrum of possibilities

"Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are."

p3, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 12 January 2009

Dzogchen

"The perspective of Dzogchen is always that we are all enlightened from beginninglessness. Because of this, inspiration is possible. Inspiration is the power of the enlightened state to make itself known: to itself, through itself, and of itself."

p117, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7