Pattern

"One cannot 'enact' without affecting everything and, at the same time, being affected by everything. Pattern affects pattern, creating further pattern.  Pattern evolves out of chaos and becomes chaos again. Pattern and randomness dance together."

p59, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7

Worthwhile cause

"Spiritual practice is a worthwhile cause that can succeed. The path is valuable and the goal is achievable."

p.126, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Unconditional love

"There is nothing more important in life then unconditional love. Allowing phenomena to touch us deeply and to be open for its communication. So that we can become a unique expression of this unconditional love to be at service of phenomena, for everyone, everything, everywhere. There is no higher aspiration."
Aro Buddhism, Naljorpa Bar-ché Dorje

Disembodied consciousness

"When we no longer have the context of our physicality, we can be overwhelmed, and experience fear and confusion in relation to the intangible manifestation of disembodied consciousness"

p110, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2009, 978-1-898185-07-9

Dwell in the experience of emptiness

"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

Intrinsic space

"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

Side-stepping our attachment

"An act of kindness enables us to side-step our attachment to the past and future. It is a moment out; a day off; a holiday from me-centred concerns – and, as such, it can be lived vividly moment by moment."

p67, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

Focus on appreciation

"When you focus on the aspects of your partner that irritate you, that seem inconsiderate, that fail to meet your desires, or that you do not understand or like, you starve yourself and allow the relationship to wither a little. However when you focus on appreciating what you find desirable, pleasurable, interesting, exciting and enjoyable about your partner, then you are nourished by your appreciation and the relationship can bloom."

p.88, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Filtering through

"Meditation experience will filter through into your daily life if you have the confidence to relax and allow it to."

p.194, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

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

Tantra

"Tantric Buddhism employs the urgent energies of agony and ecstasy, lust and hatred, paranoia and greed to transform our confusion into enlightenment. Tantra is radically positive insanity. Tantra is the hot blood of kindness. Tantra conjures with the electricity of being: the shimmering voltage that crackles ecstatically between emptiness and form. Tantra is the alchemy of transformation by which we re-create ourselves limitlessly according to the kaleidoscopic pattern of moments that comprises our experience..”

tantra, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Primordial wisdom

"The greatest inspiration and rôle model for women, in terms of Tibetan Buddhism, is the enlightened yogini Yeshé Tsogyel (Ye shes mTsho rGyal). Yeshé means ‘primordial wisdom’, and Tsogyel means ‘queen of the ocean-like quality of Mind’. She is the female Buddha of the Nyingma School. As a historical figure she is mother of all Nyingma Lineages. Yeshé Tsogyel, together with her incarnation and emanations are an inspiration to women as rôle models, and to men as a teachers."

nrp_ordination_ph_03_picture_eng.php,Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Your own effort

"Awakening cannot be handed to you – the cause has to be created through your own effort. Through discovering the qualities of Padmasambhava by practising Dorje Tsig-dün, you can aspire to liberate the siddhis of Padmasambhava in yourself."

p.11, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Establishing traditions

"I feel that we have to experiment a great deal with the interface between the Buddhist teachings and the social patterns of the West. I feel that the time is ripe for open ended discussions between different groups with widely diverging approaches. I feel that we need to allow everything to remain in flux as long as possible. We really don’t want to settle into a fixed form too quickly. The longer we remain open, the more chance we have of establishing traditions which really address the assortment of societal climates which exist."

Real opportunities for openness

"If you can let go of self protection; if you can admit to yourself your sense of vulnerability; if you can let go of the assumption that you know what the person in front of you is feeling or thinking — then you have real opportunities for openness and kindness."

p.184, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Practitioners practice

"Practitioners practice. It is what they do. Sometimes it may feel that there is no point in sitting today, and then again tomorrow, and the next day...and the next...It is meaningful even when it feels meaningless because it sustains you as a practitioner."

p.154, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Wrathful implements

"The weapons held by wrathful yidams destroy the illusion of dualism. There are swords, lances, axes, spears, flaying knives, daggers – a vast array. It is not that dualism has to be destroyed in all these different ways, simply that we all need different ways to destroy our individual illusions of duality. Our illusions take many different forms; so, paradoxically, many illusory methods are needed to destroy illusion. At the ultimate level, the weapons held by wrathful yidams all perform the same function; whether it is a spear, a lance, or a dagger – duality is murdered.."

nrp_ordination_ph_03_picture_eng.php,Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Encyclopaedia

Practice of kindness

"In our practice of kindness it is valuable not to speculate concerning the motivation of others. Voicing one’s personal criticisms of what we imagine to be the motivation of other individuals is merely the expression of subjectivity."

Kindness, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

The base

"The base, or starting point, of Buddhism is a nagging feeling that something about the way we live is subtly askew – and consequent curiosity about what else might be possible. It is not that there is something particularly wrong with life: dissatisfaction with jobs, marriages, or circumstances. On the one hand, we recognise that such situations can be improved with effort. On the other hand, it seems that no amount of improvement will resolve life completely. We may have experienced some successes, yet there seems to be something tenuous about them. A repeating cycle of identifying areas of dissatisfaction and fixing them is not a history upon which we would reminisce with relish." phases-of-aro, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Relating as the emptiness to the form of Tantra

"Yab-yum imagery is not telling us that we should be making love with the opposite sex. It is about the union of emptiness and form – concepts which are often seen as opposites but which are in reality in ecstatic union with each other. Tantric imagery arises in the minds of Enlightened Masters; and such imagery cannot be extrapolated, inferred, or logically deduced from what went before. We cannot re-invent Vajrayana according to our personal neurotic need to have the world mirror our form. To attempt to create yab-yab or yum-yum imagery on this basis would be patent nonsense. It is to misunderstand the whole point of Tantra; which is that we allow ourselves to relate as emptiness to the form of Tantra."

being-gay-practicing-tantra, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Hung

"Om A'a: Hung:The three syllables rain from the dimension of space — and the precipitation manifests as düd-tsi — a treasury of desirable qualities whose colour, taste, and fragrance are powerful."

p483 Wisdom Eccentrics, Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Truth & Method

"Buddhism is not a religion of truth-it is a religion of method. Its teachings are not overly concerned with expressing truth-but with methods of practice. In a sense, one could actually say that there is only one 'truth' in Buddhism, that form and emptiness are nondual."

p.3, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

The sound of the birds

"If you hear the sound of the birds outside--if you really hear them--then you'll hear Guru Rinpoche's mantra. If you hear this way, you will know the results of the development and completion stages--and Dzogchen is possible."

p449 Wisdom Eccentrics, Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Energy of emotion

"Your experience of sadness exploding into spaciousness could indeed be an experience of allowing the energy of the emotion to change of itself. The ‘connection’ between distracted and liberated emotion is simply the energy of as it is. In a dualistic, distorted relationship with energy, form is forced as an experience, ignoring emptiness. Energy does not change when you let go of manipulation, but your relationship with it changes - you are able to experience energy from the perspective of nonduality, you are able to experience the energy directly."

p.80, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Dwell in the natural state

"Samsara exists because of duality. It can easily cease to exist in the moment through changing your view. Dwelling in the natural state would not mean that you lack the ability to act - your actions would be totally appropriate and compassionate. It is possible to be destructive where the situation requires it without this being out-of-control energy. It is possible to make a stand without justification and self protective posturing. To dwell in the natural state would be to be a Dharma warrior."

p.165, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Karma

The Aro gTér