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 26 December 2016

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

Monday 19 December 2016

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

Monday 12 December 2016

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

Monday 5 December 2016

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

Monday 28 November 2016

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

Monday 21 November 2016

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

Monday 14 November 2016

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

Monday 7 November 2016

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

Monday 31 October 2016

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

Monday 24 October 2016

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 17 October 2016

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

Monday 10 October 2016

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

Monday 3 October 2016

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

Monday 26 September 2016

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."

Monday 19 September 2016

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

Monday 12 September 2016

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

Monday 5 September 2016

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

Monday 29 August 2016

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

Monday 22 August 2016

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

Monday 15 August 2016

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

Monday 8 August 2016

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

Monday 1 August 2016

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

Monday 25 July 2016

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

Monday 18 July 2016

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

Monday 11 July 2016

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

Monday 4 July 2016

Karma

"We said that the Aro gTér Lineage teaches karma as ‘perception and response’ – patterns within the continuum of consciousness – rather than the hard-wired system of ‘reward and punishment’ embedded in external reality." Drala Jong,Ngakpa Chögyam, Drala Jong

Monday 27 June 2016

The Aro gTér

"The teachers of the Aro gTér Tradition are not monks or nuns. They are ordained Tantrikas – whose lives are, in many ways, quite ordinary. They may have conventional jobs, or raise children. Many teach as married couples. Their wisdom is embodied in the ways they live everyday life. Facing the same life challenges as their students, they are able to offer advice that is grounded in personal experience as well as profound religious understanding."

Aro Buddhism, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday 20 June 2016

Appreciation is the key

"Drala Jong innately exists in human beings. ‘Drala’ is the appreciative faculty which exponentially enlivens people the more they engage with the world. Appreciation is the key to enjoyment and to delighting in the enjoyment of others. When we learn to appreciate phenomena our sense fields ‘Jong’ begin to sparkle and a sense of generosity is born which connects us with others. Although Vajrayana Buddhism is by no means unknown in the West – the sense in which enjoyment and compassion are mutually interdependent remains unexpressed." Drala Jong, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Drala Jong

Monday 13 June 2016

Wandering mind

"If you mind is wandering, if your attention is not on what you're doing, if you're hang gliding in your imagination while you drive, that could certainly be very dangerous. Have you ever seen those stickers in the back of cars that say things like "I'd rather be windsurfing"? I think that the Buddhist version could run "I'd rather be precisely where I am."."

p162, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7

Monday 6 June 2016

The buddhist path can be bumpy

"Buddhist practice develops kindness and awareness in ourselves, but the path of practice can be a bumpy one-to say the least. As we discover qualities of openness and appreciation, we are also confronted with what we have always been, but have chosen to ignore. We begin to see our territoriality, our aggressiveness, our neediness, our jealousy and our obduracy. We become aware of the sides of ourselves that we find distinctly less "spiritual"."
p.143, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday 30 May 2016

Samsara

"Samsara is a funfair where success rewards you with an inflatable hammer that you cannot use. Samsara is a funfair where any appearance of progress is swings and roundabouts back and forth and round and round. Samsara is play perceived as reality and taken seriously." Drala Jong, Ngakpa ö-Dzin, Drala Jong

Monday 23 May 2016

Changing view

"Tantra begins with experience of emptiness-the pregnant space from which form arises. Form is simply that which arises-and does not need to be viewed in terms of pure or impure. Human bodies are as they are and are available for appreciation. Samsara is not a separate existence to nirvana. They are the same experience-it is view that changes."
p.21, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday 16 May 2016

As it is

"Simply allowing experience to be as it is – is possible for us at any moment. We need only drop preconceptions of who we are, what we want, and how we are going to get it. Enlightenment is thus possible for everyone. Allowing experience to be as it is – is simple in theory – but it is not always easy to know where to begin."
an-uncommon-perspective, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday 9 May 2016

Every area of life is open to being informed by essential vajrayana

"Vajrayana—or essential vajrayana—is an area in which people are already involved whether they know or not. Vajrayana is there in romantic relationships and in the Arts. Vajrayana is there in all forms of creativity and in all human endeavours. We would make that obvious to people by speaking at an essential level about whatever interests them in life. This will be especially important to people involved with the Arts – but every area of life is open to being informed by essential vajrayana." Drala Jong, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Drala Jong

Monday 2 May 2016

Simply form and emptiness

"To be real practitioners we have to be continually open to comparing the map with the actual landscape of experience we find in our silent sitting practice. In spiritual terms, map and maplessness, or map and uncharted territory are non-dual. They are simply form and emptiness."

p69, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 25 April 2016

Living the view

"Living the view is perhaps some of the most fundamental practices in the Aro gTér Tradition. We practice living the view to encourage the entire context of our lives to become our practice. Living the view is the interface between our formal practice and our everyday lives."
p.77Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday 18 April 2016

Drala is the living ambience of the world

"Drala is the living ambience of the world in terms of the personality of a place. If you take a walk in a wood—and you’re not entirely preoccupied with thought—you may well have a sense of connectivity. You may feel that the trees reciprocate within the sense fields." Drala Jong, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Drala Jong

Monday 11 April 2016

The mind

"The mind cannot be controlled and forced to behave. The mind will do what it does based on your individual patterning. The more you try to force a pattern out of the mind, the more prominence it will have to your life. Similarly you will not succeed in forcing a pattern into the mind even if it would seem preferable to your existing mind-state."
p.145Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday 4 April 2016

Inviting others in

"We cannot expect people to know we are in need just because we feel completely raw and think this must be obvious. Everybody is dealing with their own issues all the time. 'Not asking for help' may easily be interpreted as 'not needing help'. Everyone feels they are the centre of their own little universe. If you want people to become involved in your universe, you have to invite them in-and also be willing to accept invitations."
p.79, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday 28 March 2016

Intrinsic ethics and morality


"If a person is kind and seeks the happiness and well being of others as a natural response to being alive then ethics and morality will be intrinsic. You simply have to like people, animals, and the whole slew of limitless phenomena."

p15 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday 21 March 2016

State without thought

"The reason for continuing to practice in order to arrive at a state without thought is that it provides the space to unlearn our neurotic relationship with thought. If we return to the idea that meditation isn't getting used to is, we can see that the process, or space of unlearning, is getting used to the referenceless quality of being."

p93, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7

Monday 14 March 2016

Singing power into being

"The sounds of the vulture’s flight are methods of practice. The great white vulture, glides effortlessly above the reach and range of concept. Through these movements, Mind finds itself in its own free Space. The vulture has no fear of terrible heights, because the sky is her natural home.”
retreats/singing-power-into-being, Khandro Déchen

Monday 7 March 2016

Mechanistic rather than emotive

"Buddhism does not really deal with the concept of 'sin' it simply deals with the mechanisms of confusion, and the means of liberation. There is no guilt attached to being confused, and no sense of deliberative 'wickedness'. The terms 'attraction', 'aversion' and 'indifference' have been chosen because they are mechanistic rather than emotive-they describe the machinery of dualistic perception."

p45, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 29 February 2016

Measuring Devotion


"Devotion isn't measured in terms of empowerments or anything that can be added to your spiritual credit rating. Devotion is a direct understanding and that never has any need of being displayed."

p19 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday 22 February 2016

Courage to dance with the tension

"Vajrayana requires the courage to dance with the tension of the moment-of not knowing the who, what, why or how of that moment. You have to let go of always trying to control yourself and your situation, and leap into the present moment."
p.204, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday 15 February 2016

Spectrum of fluid

"It is important to experience our emotional energies simply and directly. Our emotions are a spectrum of fluid and fluent energies, and experiencing their energy fields is the purpose of our exploration."

p7, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 8 February 2016

Reflections

"One of the most enlivening, exciting, and fulfilling discoveries we can make as human beings is finding that our emotions are actually reflections of our awakened enlightened potentialities. The complete unexpurgated range of what we feel is a spectrum of ecstasy."

p7, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday 1 February 2016

Awakened mind

"The awakened-mind warriors delight in unbounded wealth because their appreciation is unlimited. Appreciation generates generosity which knows no limits. It is unobstructed by the self-referencing territorialism which generates manipulative pusillanimity. Awakened-mind warriors need no territory. Their refuge is the security of insecurity. Their refuge is the territory of intrinsic space, which is self-validating without the requirement of reference points."

The Ten Paramitas, Khandro Déchen, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday 25 January 2016

Generosity

"The Paramitas ultimately are actions which are free from the crimp of duality-actions which arise spontaneously from the non-dual state. They are the actions of the bodhisattva the awakened mind-warrior who has gone beyond the confines of referentiality, and who dwells within the meaning of ocean and its ornamental waves."

The Ten Paramitas, Khandro Déchen, Aro Encyclopaedia

Sunday 17 January 2016

The Song of the Owl Headed Dakini

"Dharma never tires of explaining itself through those committed to teaching. To everyone who has questions or incomprehension, Dharma re-clothes itself in fresh terms. No book of truth can contain Dharma – because Dharma speaks to every style of confusion; and the styles of confusion are as variegated as the cultures, societies, and epochs in which we live. The Song of the Owl Headed Dakini is a stirring anthem to freedom and to the sheer glee evoked by direct insight into the nature of reality.”
the-song-of-the-owl-headed-dakini, Ngak'chang Rinpoche