A certain sense of the magical about your existence

Kyil-khor is the living sense of being related with your environment – of being aware of the subtleties and nuances of your situation.  There is a certain sense of the magical about your existence when the principle of kyil-khor starts to apply at the level of your senses.  You begin to feel as if you’re actually alive!  The tree we’re sitting under is performing photosynthesis at this moment!  It has some sense of the earth.  We’re here at this moment, being attentive to all this – existing in the presence of everything that’s happening.  It has to do with climbing out of the cocoon of self-orientation.     
With kyil-khor there is both the sense in which everything can be seen as the radiance of our own awareness; and, the sense in which we simply participate in the radiance of everything else.

p80, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Trust

The trust I'm speaking of here is not trust in someone or something.  I am simply talking about trust; your own sense of knowing what you’re doing at a very fundamental level.  This is trusting your own intrinsic goodness.  This is the trust from which you can act on the basis of not knowing.  You have some kind of hunch, some kind of intuition which isn’t simply based on wishful thinking.  The trust is based on the experience of practice, and arises out of the very sane ability to be insane when the chips are down.
 p207-208, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

The electricity of ambivalence

Wisdom and compassion are emptiness and form; they're not separate.  That is the goal of tantra – the unification of emptiness and form.  If the practice of tantra is to unify these, then ambivalence will naturally be a powerful aspect of the path.  As long as there is the appearance of duality, there is the energy of ambivalence: she loves me, she loves me not; she loves me she loves me not …  
Will practice bring me realisation or merely painful knees and ankles?  If the dance of emptiness and form has been mere stagnation – there is no electricity of ambivalence!
Wisdom and compassion are live electric terminals for tantrikas.  You grab them and experience the surge of existence/non-existence as it lights you up like the sun!  Then … maybe you radiate compassion from the empty wisdom space of your being.

p40-41, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Florid, fecund and fiery dance!

Tantra is every nuance of existence and non-existence in ecstatic union – in florid, fecund and fiery dance! 
This is our situation.  This very moment is Tantra, and contains limitless energy.  It’s ruthlessly and seductively uncompromising.  The sheer potency of what we are is overwhelmingly and provocatively inconvenient; but, it is there!
When we recoil from it, through any variety of dread, that is also Tantra.  It’s impossible to hide from our own hiding.  The energy of Tantra is both fight and flight. This is a terrifyingly obvious fact, but we have become ‘expert’ at pretending that we are unaware of it.  We have to remain unaware of it in order to remain unenlightened.  But, wherever we look, the mirror of reality reflects it for us.  

p29-30, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Dissolving paranoia

Trust in the spaciousness of what we are is imperative in the process of allowing paranoia to dissolve into the emptiness from which self accomplishing activity can arise.  As soon as paranoia dissolves into intrinsic space, energy is released, and is able to flow freely.  Being able to act directly without inhibition is a quality that arises out of our recognition of intrinsic space.  This enables movement that is completely committed – and it can travel in any direction.

p172, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8

Emotional heights and depths

Emotional heights and depths exist as ornaments, in the sense that ornaments don’t alter the basic nature of the person who wears them.  You can wear joy, and you can wear sorrow.  When you have the experience of joy or sorrow, you can have the sense that you are not actually totally defined by either. That is to say: who is it who wears this sorrow or this joy?

p50, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8

Spiritual gorilla

Once a leap of daring has been made – it is possible for arrogance to arise.  One might feel a little carried away by one’s achievement and become a spiritual gorilla.  One might start to beat one’s chest – and that is entirely alien to the spirit of the pawo or pamo.  Arrogance is not a functional parameter of heroism.  Authentic heroes and heroines are gentlemen and gentlewomen – they are unassuming, pliant, and spacious.  The pawo or pamo is tender hearted.  He or she has no interest in donning the rhinoceros hide trench coat of belligerent braggadocio and bestial bellicosity.  The pawo or pamo who has renounced the reference point of personal victory becomes utterly fearless without becoming a King Kong of co-emergent confusion and callousness. 

p138, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

A Vicar of Vajrayana

  There is no area of life that is ever separate from practice; whether we’re in a business meeting with the board, eating paella and drinking Prosecco with friends, roaring with laughter at a bad joke, hang gliding across the Grand Canyon, walking in the wind with the hounds on the hill, singing the blues, stringing beans, or attending a dying friend. Whether we’re on the bus, on the stage, or on the run, on a roll, on the mend, or on the make, on the toilet, on the edge, or on our last legs and last breath . . . there is nothing but practice. The essential practice of recognizing the one taste of emptiness and form, of wisdom and compassion, of manifesting the non-dual play of our awareness and kindness at all times.

 

Drala-Jong.org: A Vicar of Vajrayana Ngakma Mé-tsal Wangmo
Excerpt from an article published in the magazine Buddhist Door Global 2018.

Discover the pleasure of existence

   The name ‘Drala Jong’ means ‘Sparkling Meadow of Primal Iridescence’.  Of this name,  Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen write:

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.  We would like Drala Jong to be a place where human beings could discover the pleasure of existence – the pleasure that animates the sense fields and revitalises the Arts – and the art of living.

Drala-Jong.org: Sparkling Meadow of Primal Iridescence Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen

Viruses in the fabric of perception

Today—when I teach—if someone doesn’t understand me, I try a few alternative ways of explaining.  If these fail I know that the person must have some philosophical construct— that is acting almost like a computer virus—that I have to unearth.  Most people are not even aware that these viruses exist in the fabric of their perception – so they do not know what they do not understand.  It’s then up to the teacher to identify it.  That is not always as difficult as it may sound – because it’s usually connected with one of the four philosophical extremes: monism, dualism, nihilism, or eternalism.
If a person wants to hang on to any one of the four philosophical extremes as being valid – then Buddhism will either never make sense, or become distorted.
This is what I learned from Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche – and a great deal more.  Each story that follows elucidates some aspect of Buddhism.  Rinpoche’s method was to teach me how to find my own answers – and find them to be Buddhism.

p76-77, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

The ground of experience and perception

 “Basically I see Vajrayana as the essential nature of being an artist. Vajrayana explores the sense-fields as the ground of experience and perception.”
“That sounds almost more like science than religion” commented Penelope – with evident interest.
“Yes...in some ways. Maybe...like science and psychology – expressed through poetry and understood though all the Arts.”

p111, An Odd Boy Volume 4, Doc Togden,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2017, ISBN 978-1-898185-42-0

The real deal

  Dudjom Rinpoche advised me to seek Künzang Dorje Rinpoche out as my main teacher, and so it was that he became my Tsawa’i Lama.  It was from him that I received almost everything I understand of Dzogchen men-ngag-dé - the series of implicit instruction.  
Rinpoche was my vajra master and that meant I was committed to seeing everything exactly as he saw it.  If we differed in view – I was wrong.  I was at his command – for whatever it might be.  I’d put myself—and my sanity—in his hands.  Some people think this is an Eastern mode of tutelage that has no place in the West or with Western people – but in that they are misguided.  The vajra master exists in Christianity and Judæism – and probably in most other religious traditions.
Anyhow, I knew that Rinpoche was the real deal.  I knew it with every goddamn fibre of my being.
 
p20-21, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

Transmission of Dzogchen

I don’t think Rinpoche had any fixed plan when he started relating these wisdom-lays – apart from inciting in me an experiential grasp of ‘principle and function’.  He was to give me transmission of Dzogchen – and for that to be possible, I had to have a mind sufficiently clear of useless philosophical baggage.  Rinpoche obviously enjoyed unfurling these wisdom-lays – but he never recounted them just for the sake of telling a story.  As our time together proceeded, I became increasingly attuned to seeing the motivation of the inhabitants of each account – and, as my perception cleared, so they became increasingly vital and inspiring.

p12, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4
   

Sartorial vivacity

   “You don’t have to be famous to wear the laurels of fame” Meryl proclaimed. “You don’t have to be a Paris fashion designer to design clothes – or to wear what you want to wear.”
Claudette—who’d just walked in—opined “The  essence of haute couture is the enthusiasm of choice.”
“Quite right” I agreed. Claudette could always turn a nice phrase. “Anyone can be an artist of the streets.  You just have to see your apparel as your canvas. Clothing can be the wardrobe of your personal theatre.”
Rebecca nodded decisively “Jean Cocteau said ‘Art produces ugly things which become more beautiful with time. Fashion produces beautiful things which become ugly with time.”
Penelope—sitting in the window framed by strong Winter sun—volunteered “We should all live the Art that we are – otherwise we’re nothing at all.”
“Absolutely” I exclaimed. “We all live in the existential wardrobe department of sartorial vivacity.”

p123, An Odd Boy Volume 4, Doc Togden,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2017, ISBN 978-1-898185-42-0

Not quite the species of Buddhist you might imagine

  “You’re quite the bon vivant for a Buddhist” Rebecca observed.
Somehow I often understood these French usages by guess work and so I was able to reply without seeming too gauche “I'm maybe not quite the species of Buddhist you might imagine. I don’t belong to a monastic tradition you see...”
“Ah...that’s...a very welcome idea.”
“Yes...I thought so...” I grinned “...my teachers are all family people...”
“Really...?” Meryl queried. “So...it’s not about austerity and abjuring pleasure?”
“No...especially not pleasure – it’s more geared to maximising pleasure through appreciation of the widest possible spectrum of  phenomena – and, encouraging that in everyone and everything everywhere...”

p110, An Odd Boy Volume 4, Doc Togden,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2017, ISBN 978-1-898185-42-0

Cutting through the mountain of our mental distortions and neurotic mind-states.

Practising meditation on your own with only yourself as a guide could be compared to wearing away a rock with water from a gentle stream – the water will erode the rock, but it will take a long time to have any great effect and the effect may lack focus.  Becoming part of a spiritual tradition and working with a teacher is like turning our gentle stream of spiritual practice into a powerful, focused, torrent that will quickly cut through the mountain of our mental distortions and neurotic mind-states.

p151,  Relaxing into Meditation   Ngakma Nor'dzin,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 

The King of the Universe

Pema Dorje was all smiles when he came to take me to my prospective Tsawa’i Lama. 
The mistress of the house ushered us into Rinpoche’s room – and, there he sat like the King of the Universe.  Rinpoche was not the King of the Universe because he was grandly dressed.  He was simply dressed and his Lama’s appurtenances were simple.  He wore a black chuba with an emerald green shirt beneath it.  Both were noticeably faded – but otherwise spotless.  He was the King of the Universe because … it was an indisputable fact of his existence.  Other people have noticed it too and said the same thing.
Be that as it may, I stood there—feeling as if I were suspended in mid-air—and not knowing what to do.
Then all hell broke loose.

p56-57, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

Devotion

As far as I'm concerned devotion isn't measured in terms of empowerments or anything that can be added to your spiritual credit rating.  Devotion is direct understanding – and that never has any need of being displayed.  In spiritual terms this could sound too subtle, too abstruse to understand – but the same phenomenon exists in the world of the Arts.  Almost anyone can enjoy world-class music – but only a proficient musician can know the worth of a world-class musician.  The greater your musical ability the more astonishing a master-musician becomes. 
JS Bach is a composer of marvellously intricate sonic adventures – until you learn something about contrapuntal composition.  Then you gasp.  Jack Bruce said “Bach was my greatest bass teacher”.  So . . . Bach isn’t some dim and distant figure.  Bach is alive and well – and his compositions are as fresh as the present moment.  I'd describe that statement as ‘devotion’ – the gasp born of the inseparable nature of developed musical knowledge and critically inspired appreciation. 

p19, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

Naked nature of perception

   In terms of acclimatising to the undefined dimension of existence – it should be understood that: imagination relies on empty perception; paintings rely on empty planes; sculptures rely on empty space; music relies on silent time; and, literature relies on empty conceptuality.  If the art of freedom is to be realised—if creative potential is to be discovered—reliance on the experience of intrinsic emptiness is the only precursor.
The practice of shi-nè therefore, is the gateway to the art of freedom.
Dzogchen sem-dé moves beyond emptiness and that which arises from emptiness into the sphere in which there is simply naked nature of perception – rigpa. 

p28, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

A vibrant, creative state of awareness

Day dreaming is not conducive to discovering mind without thought, and the nature of this empty state may be misunderstood through believing that day dreaming is meditation.  In Letting Go we are not aiming for a dampened down, thought suppressed state.  Mind without thought is a vibrant, creative state of awareness.  It is vivid with an electric sense of being awake in the present moment.  Even momentary glimpses of this vibrant state will begin to open our experience of ourselves.

p139,  Relaxing into Meditation   Ngakma Nor'dzin,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8 

Access to the teachings of wisdom eccentrics

For anyone who wants access to the teachings of wisdom eccentrics – it’s found within the world we know.  Trying to find it in a Land of Snows you may never see is impractical.  Even to look to India for wisdom eccentrics is no longer as possible as it was in the 1970s.  Those days are more or less gone.  The non-dual inspiration however, remains – often in unexpected places.
The wisdom eccentrics of these lays discovered the nature of Mind as human beings. 
Rinpoche instructed me to “Tell these stories to your students.  Make a book – but tell the stories in the language of the West – so that people will enjoy them and understand them.  These are not just stories from the past – they are stories for practitioners everywhere in all times”.

p8, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4


  

Direct experience of who we are

   
By letting go of thought we can discover the space of mind without thought.  Through Letting Go the arising and dissolving of conceptual mind can be revealed as a wave that surges and breaks on the surface of the deep, still ocean of fundamental mind.  Through discovering the quietness of fundamental mind we can gain direct experience of who we are, what we are and where we are, rather than trying to discover this through the ebb and flow of concept.

p134, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2010, ISBN 978-1-898185-17-8

Emptiness is the oven where the bread of vision bakes itself

  After you've received empowerment into the practice of a particular awareness-being, or yidam, the form of this awareness-being will spontaneously arise out of the state of emptiness when you engage in practice.  The form of the awareness-being will also arise in your dreams – maybe even in the steam that arises from your cup of coffee.  It depends on the intensity of your devotion.  There is no process – it simply happens because you have the key; and the key is the Tantric text or the awareness-spell which is sung to instigate this arising.  Your experience of emptiness is the oven where the bread of your vision bakes itself.  The empty state is the perfect environment for endless vision to arise.
p116, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Not having an opinion

It is often considered weak-minded not to have an opinion – but, from the perspective of practising emptiness, it might be considered weak-minded to be unable to resist forming an opinion. If the urge to establish an opinion can be resisted, the emptiness of simply not knowing can be formlessly investigated. There are many occasions in life where it might be valuable to recognise that there is insufficient information upon which an opinion could be based. This could be termed ‘the emptiness of open-mindedness’ or ‘the emptiness of having a certain level of information – but being able to resist compulsively establishing concrete conclusions’.

p52, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Having a good sob and then turning to face the raw texture of it all again

  I’m talking about the courage it requires to be alive, and to relate to the world in a real and caring way.  To be alive, and to take responsibility for what you feel.  By courage, I mean that you have to have a certain level of love, dynamism, and integrity.  Really; just to be able to cut out the kvetching, whinging and whining – the ‘poor me’ mode.  I’m not talking about feeling sorrow or having to cry; life can be tragic at times – for all of us.  I'm talking about acting as if it were unfair and wallowing in that; rather than having a good sob and then turning to face the raw texture of it all again, saying “Right!  Let’s have some more!”  It’s important not to hide from life.  It’s important not to play it safe too much.  This could be the last hour of your life.  It could be the last day, week, month or year. . .

p239, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

If I knew that this was the last year of my life

  You could,  occasionally, simply ask yourself: “What decision would I make if I knew that this was the last year of my life?”  This could be a practice of looking at your life; especially in terms of major decisions.  For certain other decisions you could reduce the time scale to one month.  Having the support of your Lama and vajra family, can be really crucial in this.  Your vajra brothers and sisters are very important in terms of actualising your own courage when life gets a little too ferocious.

p240, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Irrational

  There’s no reason why the word ‘irrational’ couldn’t have a positive meaning.  It obviously can have a positive meaning if you put it into a suitable context; but on it’s own it tends to sound like something you wouldn’t want to be.  I think that allowing the irrational into your life is a very exciting idea!  People are quite often obsessed with sense-making, even though the sense they make often makes no sense at all from the perspective of realisation.  Let’s be irrational now!  Let’s practise together!

p244, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Courage

   ‘Courage’ is a form-related word, or an active-compassion related word.  Courage certainly means the ability to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’; but it also has the sense of really owning your capacity to love and care for others.  We often stifle the great capacity for love that we have, through our fear of losing all sense of boundaries – as if we needed boundaries!  Courage is very much linked with compassion.  Compassion, at the level of our intrinsic nature, is linked with all our activities – especially our activities of personal interaction.   


p243, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Vajra-romance

The elements are the symphonic texture of vajra-romance.  They are also the cacophony of neurotic attachment.  The cacophony however, only exists in terms of duality, because from the point of view of the infinite purity of the phenomenal world – symphony and cacophony are undivided, and it is this fact which makes vajra-romance an immense opportunity.  Even within our confusion we partake of the realised state.  
Nondual reality sparkles through every aspect of our being and the Khandro Pawo Nyi-da Mélong Gyüd is a key to direct knowledge of this state.  For the khandro and pawo each point in time is a pivotal point – a point at which the elements can be allowed to become ballet, or a point at which form-attachment cripples any nuance of movement.

p230, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Romance is orchestrated by the elements

The five elements are ubiquitously at play.  They play within the display of phenomena.  They play within the entire reach and range of the sentient spectrum. They play through our physicality; through our intellectual faculties; through our emotions and imagination; through visionary dimensions – down to the subatomic structure of being.  They play within the spheres of essence, nature, and energy – within ‘duality and nonduality and the infinite purity of the phenomenal world.’  By virtue of this, it should come as no surprise that every relationship is comprised of the performance of the elements – and, that romance is orchestrated by the elements. 

p229-230, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Love

We can only share the experience of love if we relinquish our definitions of who we are and what we propose to become.
Love is there when the artificial divisions between us dissolve into the iridescent spectrum of our beginningless nature.  The love which radiates from our primordial state cannot help but sparkle through: no matter how insecure, frightened, isolated, anxious, or bewildered we become.
To fall in love, and to realise one’s beginningless nondual nature, have tantalising similarities.  They reflect each other.  The Khandro Pawo Nyi-da Mélong Gyüd is a teaching that elucidates the nature of this reflection in a manner which has the capacity to change the world.

p4-5, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3
   

Our senses are the communicative quality of the elements.

Our senses are the communicative quality of the elements in which the dance of existence and non-existence allows ‘self’ and ‘other’ to be both separate and non-separate.  Spaciousness gives birth to ideation; wind carries sound, vibration, and the possibility of hearing; fire ignites vision; fluidity encourages fragrance and tasting; and substance phenomena allow touch.  Our intellectual faculty is comprised of elemental patterns – as are our emotions.  The sub-atomic structure of being is the play of the
thig-lés – the five essential elemental expressions of emptiness from which everything comes into being.

p197, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

This rare disease—kindness

  Whenever I remember this story (told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche), I look at my life for symptoms of this rare disease—kindness—and whatever signs of health I exhibit cause me to stimulate new areas of infection.  The most saddening aspect of life for me, is to witness immunity to the disease of kindness either in myself or others.  Although I initially preferred the first story, the second has caused me to reflect a great deal on the nature of kindness – and how it can be encouraged in the world.  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 it head.

p138, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

The real nature of experience

We artificially separate experience into two fields: ‘perception’ and ‘field of perception’.  The term ‘perception’ applies to the way in which we register the presence of the world through our sense faculties.  The term ‘field of perception’ applies to the world that we perceive.  With divisive logic we distance ourselves analytically from direct experience.  We lose our ‘knowing’ and end up 'knowing about’'. 
Our perception and field of perception are mutually self-creating.  What we see incites a reaction which influences how we see it.  How we view things changes how they are.  Enlightened Mind is divisionless.  Our perception and field of perception are completely and utterly interconnected, and this fundamental indivisibility is the real nature of experience.

p31, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8

We do not employ the term mindfulness

The word ‘mindfulness’ is not a bad translation of dranpa (dran pa—smriti in Sanskrit) but it is more accurately translated as ‘resting in recollection’.  Recollection does not mean thinking about a past event—but ‘being present with what has been received as teaching’.  The word ‘awareness’ is not an equivalent for ‘dranpa’ – because ‘awareness’ relates to rigpa or non-dual awareness.

p63-64, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Tantra is simply, the one taste of all sensation

   In Tantra, sensation is the path. That means every sensation: hot and cold; pleasure and pain; sharp and blunt; agony and ecstasy; hope and fear; falling in love and having a panic attack.   Neither aspect of these polarities are ends in themselves. Tantra is simply, the one taste of all sensation.  To practise Tantra is to ride the energy of duality.
No-one can be called a yogi, yogini, or tantrika, if they cannot experience pleasure and pain – and experience the one taste of the energy that is the ground of both experiences.

p10-11, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Force results either in hilarity or frustration

The practice of shi-nè involves the renunciation of attachment to form as a reference point.  Through shi-nè we learn that we cannot force thought.  We need to be completely purposelessly welcoming. Whatever thought arises simply moves in its own way.  Any approach involving force results either in hilarity or frustration.  One needs a sense of humour about one’s condition.  One catches oneself trying to force meditation – repeatedly.  All we can do, however, is watch ourselves in the process of trying, until trying wears itself out with trying in the open space of awareness.  This is patience in terms of shi-nè – as we speak of it from the point of view of the Four Naljors of Dzogchen sem-dé.

Aro Encyclopaedia Index: The Ten Paramitas, Khandro Déchen  

Karma: the personal police state

Our karma is entirely how we perceive the world – moment by moment. So the ‘law of karma’ is not just law, it is the entire legal system. It ranges from the inception of the legislature to the nature of law enforcement and punishment. Our perception is the legislation and our responses enforce it. We are our own judge, jury, and prosecution. We sentence ourselves, gaol ourselves, and execute ourselves. This is the only entirely accurate legal system – but its accuracy only exists within its own frame of reference.
Meditation is our only weapon against this repressive regime and constitutes civil disobedience in the form of ‘passive resistance’. By allowing the development of experiential space through shi-nè – through letting go and letting be – we discover our own intrinsic awareness. The Four Naljors of Dzogchen Sem-dé is one of the ultimate crimes against the ‘law of karma’ and is punishable by enlightenment – the final revolution and overthrow of the legal system.

Aro Encyclopaedia Index:  Karma: the personal police state Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Power

   I have thought about this question of power many times, since my discussions with Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche. I have realised that power has got very little to do with power to – but rather, power not to.  It is not a question of supernormal abilities.  It’s a question of being prepared to die in the next moment – to be totally insignificant. The power to be unafraid of looking like an idiot.  The power not to care about what people think or say.  It is not a question of being physically, intellectually, or emotionally strong – but of being open to annihilation. Everything has to matter—and not matter—at the same time.

p242, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  
Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

Boredom is actually the threshold of discovery

It is said that meditation isn’t, because it’s not an end in itself.  It is said that getting used to is, because the enlightened state is already there and we simply have to become accustomed to that.  So, meditation is getting used to the enlightened state, cooperating with the enlightened state.
What’s important is simply being.  We simply get used to the condition in which thoughts are not present or in which they arise and dissolve.  Boredom is actually the threshold of discovery.  This is just the point at which something interesting could happen—if we simply continue to sit. 
p24, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7

Bringing practice into everyday life

To integrate practice into everyday life, you can let go of the sharp divisions between the times when you’re sitting and the times when you’re not sitting.  You should allow the spaciousness you discover in your sitting to overflow into your ordinary life experience.  You can start by allowing the postpractice period to be a time when you remain completely with whatever you’re doing.
If you sit for an hour, make sure that you have at least fifteen to thirty minutes for the postmeditation period.  When you get up from your sitting session, stand up slowly and with awareness.  Continue to find the presence of your awareness in whatever sensation arises—but avoid conceptualizing about the process.
You could get up and make a cup of coffee.  You could do the washing up.  But whatever you do, simply be with what you’re doing.

p153-154, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7

Creative potential and vibrant emptiness

Imagination relies on empty perception.  Painting relies on empty planes.  Sculpture relies on empty space.  Music relies on empty time.  Literature relies on empty concepts.  If we are to realise the art of freedom, if we are to discover our creative potential, we need to rely on the experience of our instrinsic vibrant emptiness—the beginningless ground of what we are.
The gateway to the art of freedom is the practice of shi-nè—our method of approaching the white canvas of Mind.



p49, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7

Motivation without a drag factor

Attuned intent is motivation without a ‘drag factor’.  It’s streamlined—aerodynamic.  It gives you access to incredible power and capacity for accomplishment of whatever needs to be accomplished.  In order to accelerate into the unimaginable, we have to let go of the ballast—jettison the habits of view that create drag factors. 
The drag factor is the thing that slows you down.  Mixed and conflicting motivations produce a drag factor and inhibit our development and growth as human beings.  As long as there’s a drag factor, we experience frustration and the unsatisfactory outcome of our wishes or intentions, whatever they might be.  Attuned intent is unmixed motivation, motivation without conflict—single-pointed motivation.
 p145-146, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7

The vajrayana view of wealth

The awakened mind warriors delight in unbounded wealth because their appreciation is unlimited.  Appreciation generates generosity which knows no limits.  
The Vajrayana view of wealth is grounded in the understanding that one owns everything that enters one’s sense fields. We own whatever we appreciate, to the extent that we appreciate it and for the duration that we appreciate it. We do not require personal ownership in order to own. Our ownership does not restrict the ownership of others, because our ownership is simply that of appreciative faculties.
This non-possessive, non-controlling absence of tenure is called ‘vajra greed’ or ‘non-dual greed’ – greed on behalf of others. Greed on behalf of all beings is both the maximum possible avarice, and the ultimate expansion of generosity.       

Aro Encyclopaedia Index: The Ten Paramitas, Khandro Déchen  
 
 

We have to begin with that which presents itself

One begins with the accidental nature of what is occurring—and accepts that as the nature of one's current reality. 
We do not have to begin with clarity, because clarity is inherent in every situation.  We simply have to begin with that which presents itself.  This will include our mistakes and the mistakes of others.  It will include errors, omissions, miscalculations, appropriations, misappropriations, faux pas, indiscretions, and oversights . . . 
Clarity is a groundless experience, but one that we can only realise when ground and groundlessness are realised a non-dual.  When we accept confusion as the rich ground from which clarity can be discovered, we can cease being our own enemies. 

p3, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Drinking the wine of the situation

Simply allow the given situation to be what it is.  Simply avoid the urge to convert it into something else – that is to say, do not attempt to translate it in terms of an educational process.  Simply see it.  Simply perceive it.  Then simply allow it to abandon itself. 
If you experience something and then allow the experience to abandon itself, you will provide space in which felt-knowledge and phenomena merely take their own course.  Self-abandonment is the yeast in the fermentation process in which mind gives rise to wine – rather than whining. 

p76, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Appreciation, natural etiquette, and unpretentious elegance

What I try to encourage is appreciation.  True appreciation is, of course, natural elegance.  Fundamental appreciation of phenomena—in the very nature of their appearance—is all that is needed.  There are the phenomena which we apprehend, the phenomena of our being, replete with the sense fields which animate that being.  Elegance is composed of delight and fearless embracement in which we are not gluttonous, timid, or torpid.  Every deranged default impetus is overridden with the sense of splendour, the sense of exquisiteness, the sense of immaculacy. 
From the point of view of Dzogchen, the beauty of genuine decorum lies in the non-manipulativeness of its natural etiquette and unpretentious elegance.  We should all therefore aspire to appreciate what is beautiful in each other–whatever the clothing or absence thereof.

p196, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7


 

Bedazzlement

Space exists but we tend to miss it.  We miss space because we are always looking for it.  A vast dimension exists, but we never seem to see it.  We tend to be too concerned with the microscopes and telescopes of conventional credibility, but we never gaze at immediacy with our naked eyes.  If we simply looked we could find the specialness of reality.
All we need to do is gaze tenderly at the living bedazzlement of existence.  We could just simply gaze at whatever arises and enjoy the immense vision.  We would then realise that celebration is taking place in the vastness of inner and outer space.

p198, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7