In the West, Tantra has seemed very tempting to the emotionally and intellectually wild. This has been especially true among those who have inferred indulgence in full-blown hedonism to be the path. However, although there is some connection with hedonism, with its characteristic quality of not holding back, this view is seriously lopsided. Tantra is not concerned with seeking extremes.
It avoids utilising experience of any kind as a means of concretely defining the nature of reality.
p8-9, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4
Monday 27 March 2017
Monday 20 March 2017
Cheerfulness
If we cannot laugh at ourselves – we cannot laugh with others or cause others to laugh. Laughter is a gift – and causing laughter is an act of kindness. Laughter requires space – space to see the ridiculous in our situations as beginninglessly enlightened beings who create the illusion of duality. That is really rather funny. It is also rather sad, tragic – but that very paradox is what puts us at the pivotal point of the precious human rebirth.
p47, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7
p47, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7
Monday 13 March 2017
Just be in the present moment
In the practice of shi-nè—remaining uninvolved—if thoughts come and go, simply allow them to lap like the tide. If you get caught up in a thought-story and lose the presence of your awareness in the movement of breath – just return to it as soon as you become aware of having drifted off. There is no need to get angry or irritated with yourself – these reactions are just opportunities to indulge in referentiality. Maintain an open, humorous and relaxed attitude. Expect nothing. Be attached to nothing. Reject nothing. Just be in the present moment.
p83 and p85, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8
p83 and p85, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8
Monday 6 March 2017
The empty nature of sensation
Tantra doesn’t exclude hedonism, but neither does it encourage it. It is very much the ‘middle way’ that characterises all Buddhist vehicles.
Tantra is not concerned with seeking extremes – even though extreme sensation can be cultivated as a powerful aspect of the path. Fundamentally, Tantra neither seeks extremity nor avoids it. The intrinsic power of any sensation becomes manifest through our realisation of its empty nature.
p8-9, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4
Tantra is not concerned with seeking extremes – even though extreme sensation can be cultivated as a powerful aspect of the path. Fundamentally, Tantra neither seeks extremity nor avoids it. The intrinsic power of any sensation becomes manifest through our realisation of its empty nature.
p8-9, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4
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