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 25 March 2019

Confusion

No one enjoys confusion, but as long as we cling to our dualistic vision, we will always translate not knowing as ‘confusion’.  We don’t like confusion because within the space of confusion definitions become vague and intangible.  That makes us feel insecure.  Accepting or relaxing in that insecurity is in itself a practice. 


p143, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7  

Monday 18 March 2019

Clarity and motivation

Once silent sitting practice becomes part of your life, clarity will begin to develop.  When you start to gain a little clarity, there will be a much stronger motivation to practice.  Once you see the value of practice in your life, you’ll be motivated to make further discoveries—and then maintaining motivation will no longer be a problem.  Motivation has to propel you into practice—but there it must stop.  If you fill your sitting space with the desire for progress, you’ll stifle your developing awareness.  So letting go of motivation is critically valuable.  When we sit, we should sit without purpose—without hope or fear.

p144, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7  

Monday 11 March 2019

Promises

Only make promises to yourself that you know you can keep, otherwise you’ll never have confidence in yourself and you’ll find that you won’t be able to make promises to yourself at all.  Being able to make promises to yourself is keenly meaningful.  It’s a way of giving your life real direction and enabling something positive to happen – especially if you link your promises to the wish for the liberation of everyone everywhere.   

p144, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7
  

Monday 4 March 2019

Embracing the sensation of anger

Anger does not help.
Anger merely occludes our ability to see clearly.  With the discovery of space we find ourselves able to respond openly about how we feel.  Tantra does not inhibit us from taking action based on heart intelligence.  If we allow people to destroy us, or our shared environment, we are certainly not doing anyone a favour.  So, in the practice of embracing the sensation of anger, there is a need to rely more on our own intrinsic space, experienced through the practice of shi-nè, than on the neurotic thought processes and habitual responses that usually infest conceptual consciousness.  


p144, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8