Aro Quotation: 2015

Monday, 14 December 2015

Refuge

"We have to know that ultimate, everlasting happiness will not come if we could just get that new job, adopt a new lifestyle, clinch the business deal, buy a new house, change the type of car we drive, give up the car and buy a bike and trailer, if we become vegetarian or vegan, take more exercise, find our ideal partner, buy a new wardrobe of clothes, or have a change of scene, career, friends. We have to feel this enough to actually start practising and discovering experientially that the cause of our dissatisfaction is something fundamental in ourselves, rather than anything we can manipulate externally. We must realise that there is nothing in our lives we can manipulate and change that will ultimately quieten the feeling of unsatisfactoriness. It is our own relationship with experience that creates unhappiness."

refuge, Ngala Nor'dzin Pamo

Monday, 7 December 2015

Simply being

"You have to address your own level of fear, and that is called compassion – simply being with ‘what is there’. Accepting the whole texture of what you feel without having to act out, or lash out in some primitive bid for self-preservation. We have to trust the texture of what is happening and relax with the ‘rip-tides’ of what we feel. If there’s some space, then that becomes possible. It’s a ride though... but if we reject ‘the ride’... we get ridden... and the spurs bite deep!."

kindness-and-compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday, 30 November 2015

Kindness and compassion

"Kindness is where we start. Compassion means so much more, in a certain sense, than simply being kind. Compassion means kindness, but it also means communication – fierce, florid, and fecund communication. Compassion is openness to infinite pattern and to embodying any aspect of that pattern for the benefit of everyone, and everything, everywhere."

kindness-and-compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday, 23 November 2015

Kindness simplifies situations

"When we make the effort to be kind, we may find that it becomes increasingly effortless. It may begin to flow naturally, and make us glad that we can experience such warmth and openness. A truly kind act is an act of pure appropriateness and therefore whenever we are kind, there will be an element of appropriateness. Life will seem more infused with energy, and there will seem fewer obstructions. Kindness simplifies situations. An act of kindness enables us to side-step our attachment to the past and future – it is a holiday from ‘me-centred concerns’, and as such can be lived moment by moment."

Kindness, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday, 16 November 2015

Spaciousness

"The practise of Letting Go develops awareness. It also develops a sense of spaciousness in the mind and the capacity to observe thought rather than being overwhelmed by involvement with its content."

p129, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

Monday, 9 November 2015

Every day view

"There is no purpose in being able to experience oneself as radiating pure light and have an intense experience of purity whilst sitting on one's meditation cushion, if one cannot display down-to-earth patience, tolerance and respect of others in ordinary life situations."

p125, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

Monday, 2 November 2015

A teaching from Künzang Dorje Rinpoche

"As to how we should meditate, it's important to break sitting into short sessions. Meditation doesn't require sitting for long stretches as if there were value merely in not moving. It's better to meditate for short periods rather than long session that have no result. When drops of water accumulate they gather momentum but each drop is separate. Each drop is unique. Meditation sessions should accumulate in the same way."

p363 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 26 October 2015

Kindness as an illness

"The idea of kindness as an illness with all its attendant concepts of infection and contagion is highly creative. This manner of expression is a brilliant example of how Tantra turns language on its head. It uses violent rage to describe clarity, and sickness to describe health. Sometimes you have to spread the illness of kindness in the guise of desperado and sometimes in the guise of 'thom yor."

p138 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 19 October 2015

Vajrayana

"Every style of perception is utilised by Vajrayana to realise the nondual state. Vajrayana is the method by which everything is accomplished through all possible means."

p9 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 12 October 2015

Vajrayana is not ordinary

"Vajrayana is not ordinary and so ordinary language cannot be used. Vajrayana is the poetry of existence beyond space and time. Vajrayana is every art and you must be practising every art. If you do not practise every art how can you know the elements? And if you do not know the elements how can you know the essence of the elements and open your eyes to great vision?"

p3 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 5 October 2015

Basis of the spiritual path

"At the beginning of the Tantric ngöndro we invoke the presence of the Lama. Since the Lama is the one who exemplifies both the qualities of path and goal, we acknowledge the Lama as the beginning and end of all practice. After having commenced our practice by acknowledging the Lama, we consider the difficulty of gaining human re-birth (in terms of having the conducive circumstances to practice). Human re-birth is the basis of the spiritual path of liberation and is therefore precious and worthy of great respect. If we do not value the situation in which we have found ourselves, then we will not make use of our precious circumstances and a great opportunity will be squandered."

Dzogchen View of Tantric Ngöndro, His Holiness Düd'jom Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 28 September 2015

Shi-nè

"Shi-nè equates to the path of renunciation, because one renounces attachment to that which arises in mind. It also equates in Sutra with the path of compassion, because one is also compassionate with regard to that which arises in mind. It is not that I sit there and kill all that arises. If it arises, I allow it to arise. And if it remains, I allow it to remain. If it dissolves, I allow it to dissolve. So I have in this practice endless accommodation for that which arises; I do not stop it from arising; I do not protract it either; I do not become attached to it; I do not contain it; I do not control it. I allow it to perform."

Compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 21 September 2015

Neurosis

"The more you try to force thought out, the more of a problem it becomes. The more you disapprove of your own neuroses, the more of a problem they become. The time to disapprove of them is if they are hurting others; and then in the moment. But one does not go into punishing oneself for having them at other times. If one is aware that one has patterns, then one has to say, I need to have some awareness while this pattern is performing. If I punish myself for having the pattern whilst I am having it, then this actually acts as a screen which hides the neurosis – I can be the good person who is disapproving of the bad habit. That means I never get to see this habit, this neurosis, because I am too busy being the person who is disapproving of it. This is actually a way of maintaining the neurosis."

Compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 14 September 2015

Emotional comfort

"Anyone who believes anything, at some level, makes the choice to believe. If we make the choice to believe because there’s a spiritually materialistic payoff in believing, then as soon as the payoff ceases to function we lose our belief. With rebirth, I would say that there is a grave danger of the payoff being connected with emotional comfort of some kind and that is deadly in terms of an authentic Buddhist practice. Buddhism is not actually emotionally comfortable in terms of the need to experience continuity. If we are to call ourselves Buddhists we have to accept the practice of discovering that we are discontinuous – that the ‘I’ is momentary."

Counting the cars, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 7 September 2015

Artistic perception

"To be involved with the arts is to become involved with all beings because all beings are endowed with sense fields which perceive the arts. Its not only simply the arts as they are commonly understood; it is the nature of artistic perception which is entranced by the totality of phenomena."

p176, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday, 31 August 2015

Discovery of the sense fields

"If we open the eyes of our senses, we cannot avoid the discovery of the sense fields as a magical display. It is not magical in the sense of illusion, because trickery is not involved and nothing unexpectedly leaps out of a hat. Scarves do not change colour, and there are no scantly dressed women in boxes who survive an impossible number of swords."

p177, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday, 24 August 2015

Smile

"We can definitely change the world-but the problem is that we seem unable to smile. When chaos manifests in our lives we can smile-which is the cure for resentful confusion. If your practice of shi-nè facilitates the experience of emptiness, it will also facilitate the capacity to grin at your own chaos-and if you can grin at your own chaos, then you will have authentic pervasive compassion for the chaos of existence."

p241, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday, 17 August 2015

Defined rules

"In contrast with happiness, misery has clearly defined rules but rapture, is a somewhat unbounded state in which clear-cut definitions have no function. In comparison with sadness, joy is far more intangible and unpredictable. We all know the rules and regulations of melancholy but the perceptual patterns of carefree happiness are subtle and difficult to define."

p55, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen, Aro Books Inc., 2010, 978-0965394833

Monday, 10 August 2015

A sense of contentment

"It is not actually easy for most people to rest with a sense of contentment. Most are blighted by addiction to 'ongoing process', and this addiction does not know what to do with itself when there is no longer a need for process to be enacted."

p55, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen, Aro Books Inc., 2010, 978-0965394833

Monday, 3 August 2015

Beginningless empty essence

"When the beginningless empty essence of being gives rise to the vivid display of the nature of being, we manifest physical form, the energy of being. 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, 27 July 2015

Keep letting go

"Whatever it is, whatever arises, you let go. You can just keep letting go. You find yourself attached to it again, it arises, you let it go. The whole teaching around shi-nè is pretty blunt and simplistic – it is just let go. Whatever it is, whatever the problem is, I let go. "

Inspiration and Practice, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 20 July 2015

Whatever arises in the mind

"Whatever arises in Mind – whether desire, anger, pleasure or pain whatever the accidental arising—through direct recognition, residual traces do not linger. Through intuiting this liberating aspect of the total presence, namtogs (rNam rTog – that which arises in Mind) become analogous to images drawn on the surface of water. Uninterrupted spontaneous arising and dissolving has free play. Whatever arises is simply naked presence and emptiness. Whatever moves is the creativity of space, which spontaneously dissolves, leaves without trace."

Striking the Essence, Dza Paltrul Rinpoche

Monday, 13 July 2015

Basic goodness

"Buddhism is a statement of our intrinsic goodness; and the possibility of discovering that intrinsic goodness. This is the simple answer, but complex questions can arise from that. Giving a simple answer is not always that simple. When I use the word goodness, I am not using it in the sense of nicey-nicey goodness, or piety, or sanctity, or holiness – ‘goodness’ here relates to complete value. This goodness is the goodness of freshly baked bread; the goodness of seeing a field of sunflowers; the goodness of birth and death; the goodness of being present. There is a basic goodness, a basic sanity with which we can connect. We have that – we simply need to allow ourselves the non-referential space to find it."

Ah, but I was so much older then, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 6 July 2015

Lineage

"Lineage, in the Tibetan context, means a body of teachings which comes down through a particular succession of accomplished Lamas. Lineage has a visionary origin and there would generally (but not always) be a set of texts which describe the practices which belong to the lineage. There will be a series of transmissions, a series of visionary practices and a body of teaching which would have been handed down through various masters to their students. That is what constitutes a lineage."

Ah, but I was so much older then, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 29 June 2015

Glimpses of rigpa

"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, 22 June 2015

Opportunity to discover presence

"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."

p107, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

Monday, 15 June 2015

Fourfold refuge

"The inner refuge is Lama, Yidam and Khandro/Pawo. Usually when we speak of refuge, in the Tibetan system we talk about a fourfold refuge which is Lama, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha; this is a hybrid between the outer and the inner refuge. Lama is always put there first because without the Lama, Buddha, Dharma and Sangha do not exist. This is because someone has to exemplify the path. A path is all well and good; but if you cannot see anyone who has lived that, if you cannot see anyone who in some way exemplifies the fruit of that path, then what inspiration is there?"

Compassion & The Nine Yanas, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 8 June 2015

Open-ended opportunity

"Every emotion is an open-ended opportunity. Every feeling or sensation we experience is an expression of enlightenment-a manifestation of our spectrum of radiant energies. Yet almost always, emotions manifest as distorted reflections of those energies. These distorted reflections arise as a result of the way in which we constrict the natural display of the mirror of Mind with our compulsive intellectual contrivances."

p32, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday, 1 June 2015

Refuge

"Buddhism is always the refuge of no-refuge - it is complete. It is open – it is not closed. And it is wakeful – it is not hiding in some way. Sang-gyé kyab-su ché: I establish confidence in the actuality of complete, open wakefulness."

Compassion & The Nine Yanas, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 25 May 2015

Be kind

"Kindness flows naturally from our beginningless non-dual nature. So if we remind ourselves constantly to be kind, we constantly put ourselves in closer contact with our primordial non-dual state."

Kindness, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 18 May 2015

Manifestation of who we are

"The manifestations of who we are in terms of our behaviour in the world and our relationship with our environment, create themselves out of the view of nonduality, out of the experience of the indivisibility of emptiness and form. Hence our practice affects the nature of tangible manifestation, and the nature of our physicality also becomes a manifestation of view."

p55, Spacious Passion , Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-07-9

Monday, 11 May 2015

Nature of meditation

"When we develop confidence in view and learn to relax into direct recognition of nonduality, our speech, thought, sensation, emotion and ideation become of the nature of meditation. The energy of our being is spiritual practice."

p55, Spacious Passion , Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-07-9

Monday, 4 May 2015

Sitting Meditation

"In sitting meditation, we experience emptiness directly as the simultaneous absence of thought and presence of awareness. We experience form as the thought and sensation which arise from the condition of non-thought. We experience non-duality as the nature of Mind in which thought and the absence of thought are no longer mutually exclusive – they have the same taste."

Aro Buddhism, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday, 27 April 2015

Mantra of Padmasambhava

"We sing the mantra of Padmasambhava in three different ways for differing reasons vis-à-vis their effect on the rTsa rLung system. Four contrasting qualities of sound are used in the singing: hard and soft; loud and quiet; fast and slow; high and low. Once the subtlety of the changes in quality of the sound are mastered, the singing of the mantra becomes a powerful experience and a valuable tool in terms of practising with the different characteristics of our own energy."

Aro Buddhism, Ngala Nor’dzin Pamo

Monday, 20 April 2015

Spaciousness without passion

"Spaciousness without passion has no possibility of compassion as an interactive quality. Passion without spaciousness becomes blind or blinkered obsession - a completely claustrophobic view that gives rise to highly limited and limiting activities."

p103, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Monday, 13 April 2015

Compassion

"Real compassion, from the perspective of Dzogchen, is nonduality. One cannot have compassion without wisdom – compassion can only be compassion where there is wisdom, where they are nondual."

Compassion & The Nine Yanas, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 6 April 2015

Extending the experience of meditation

"It is important to take the understanding that has been discovered during this meditation practice out into our lives. This understanding needs to move beyond our meditation cushion to be a real experience. Friend, Enemy, Stranger has a 'feel good factor' that puts us in danger of becoming satisfied with the comfortable feeling of equanimity discovered through the practice."

p101, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

Monday, 30 March 2015

Reference points

"Our view is the basis of all our expectations of life, our interpretations of circumstances, and our responses to the experiences we encounter in our lives. Our view governs how we are as people in the world and causes us to create an inter-penetrating network of reference points-that is, things that support our view of the way we think things are."

p99, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

Monday, 23 March 2015

Having Devotion

"Much is said of 'devotion' in Tibetan Buddhist circles. The general idea is that you're supposed to have it. If you don't have it, there's no way forward. Because of this, many people try to have it without having it having them."

p18 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 16 March 2015

A teaching from Künzang Dorje Rinpoche

"The most important thing with Dzogchen is presence of awareness. There are all kinds of obstacles to presence of awareness. The first is the obstacle of laziness and the second is forgetfulness. Even having received pointing out instruction we tend to forget. The third obstacle is depression Depression means blocking thought-the state where thought no longer arises."

p362 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 9 March 2015

If one considers oneself to be a Vajrayana practitioner

"A teaching on Seven Line Song is only valuable if it is seen to be valuable. It cannot be seen as being valuable outside the context of Vajrayana practice. If one considers oneself to be a Vajrayana practitioner, then Dorje Tsigdun will have a depth of felt importance before a word of teaching has been uttered. This is important, because if one has the right attitude it is even possible to gain some further understanding of Dorje Tsigdun from a deranged dolt like Ngakpa Chögyam. There are some aspects of this teaching which may appear simple or quite meaningless, if they are not understood through the emotional charge of devotion. You could try to hear this teaching in the ambience of the devotion you feel for your own Lamas and the traditions they hold."

Seven Line Song, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 2 March 2015

Vajra Relationship

"If you prioritise your own concept of kindness, then you are not in vajra relationship. But even within vajra relationship it is acceptable to ask questions and to expect that the answers will be in conformity with the principles of dharma. This is a bit tricky because now it sounds as if I am saying that you get to judge whether or not what you are asked to do accords to the principles of dharma, which is not exactly what I mean. The thing is, there is no perfect solution to this problem except to be careful whom you choose as your vajra master. Within the practice of vajra relationship there is no room for doubting the vajra master."

Vajra Command, Ngakma Shardröl, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 23 February 2015

Devotion to the Lama

"The idea in Vajrayana is that devotion to the Lama is the fulfilment of all the other vows because the Lama only lives to benefit beings and one could not ever do better than to carry out the Lama’s plans. That would be the best fulfilment of the bodhisattva vow as well. If one is still in the stage of thinking that one’s own interpretation of the vows is more valid than that of the Lama, this is not yet vajra relationship."

Vajra Command, Ngakma Shardröl, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 16 February 2015

Tantra is continually performing itself

"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, 9 February 2015

Simply observe

"If you can simply observe the initial flickering of unsatisfactoriness, if you can remain with the freshness and clarity of what you experience rather than the commentary, you will not require misery."

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

Monday, 2 February 2015

Awareness is uncontrived

"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, 26 January 2015

Non-dual anger

"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, 19 January 2015

Paradox

"Paradox is the heart of Tantric understanding, and once we being to get a taste for what it means at an experiential level the amazing world of what we actually are starts to open up to us.

p42, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8