Like walking through a minefield

   Life is a little like walking through a minefield – you never know when you might step on something—a circumstance of your life—that will explode a programmed pattern of perception.  If the cause is not encountered the reaction will not occur.  One of the principles of the monastic path is to regulate the secondary causes—in terms of life circumstances—as much as possible to avoid triggering unhelpful reactions that deepen patterning.  The tantric path however says: ‘Bring it all on!’ so that you have the opportunity to transform distorted perception and response into enlightened perception and response.

p169, Illusory Advice Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books, 2015, ISBN: 978-1898185-37-6 

We are prejudiced against our own natural state

 Fear of otherness lies at the root of prejudice.  From the point of view of duality – nothing is as ‘other’ or dissimilar as the nondual state.  From the perspective of nonduality we are prejudiced against our own natural state.  In the condition of dualistic estrangement – our own beginningless enlightenment becomes alien to us, and we are therefore antagonistic to it in every form it assumes.  From this primitive antagonism every type of prejudice arises. 

p156, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

The otherness of emptiness

     Vajrayana is based upon the experience of ‘the otherness of emptiness’ – so otherness holds no fear for those who practice according to the principle of transformation.  Tantrikas develop vajra pride which—because it is founded on emptiness—allows the possibility of assuming infinite forms of otherness: otherness of colour, otherness of shape, otherness of gender, otherness of disposition, and limitless other varieties of otherness.  Every variant of vajra otherness is a glorious manifestation of the nondual state as it sparkles through the appearance of every permutation of our humanity.

p155-156, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Blue is blue

  The context of Vajrayana is one in which symbolism is self evident: blue is blue; green is green; red is red; white is white; yellow is yellow; raven caws; wolf howls, frog croaks, bull bellows; scorpion arches its tail; cockerel crows; snake hisses; pig shrieks; sky is azure; sky is grey; sky glimmers with stars; horse whinnies; rain is refreshing; leaves are green; tears are wet; skin is soft; espresso steams; brandy leaves a pleasant burning sensation on the palate; wind moves; snow flurries; water sparkles —— meaning is no longer hidden within the search for meaning.

Ngak'chang Rinpoche, posted on Telegram to apprentices, 21st February 2020, 
and The Bristol Talks: Ngak'chang Rinpoche on Vajrayana Topics on the Aro Community website.   

Glimmer with limitlessness

   The more one understands the symbolism of Vajrayana, the more one understands that everyday life IS Vajrayana – and, when that begins to become apparent, one’s life commences to glimmer with limitlessness. 

Empowerment performs itself all the time: at the bus stop; on the peak of a mountain; in the cinema; in the midst of a Finnish forest; in the bath; on Freak Street in Kathmandu; on horseback in the Laughing Water range of the Rocky Mountains; and, on the factory floor. 

This may sound banal, or profound, but the profundity of it is often too subtle to see. 

One has to authentically understand the context of Vajrayana if one is to stand a chance of everyday life exploding into symbolic meaning. 

Ngak'chang Rinpoche, posted on Telegram to apprentices, 21st February 2020, 
and The Bristol Talks: Ngak'chang Rinpoche on Vajrayana Topics on the Aro Community website.