Everything seems to fall apart

Our lives do seem to go through phases when there is more emptiness.  Everything trundles along nicely for a while and then suddenly everything seems to fall apart.  Emptiness happens.  Do not read significance into this – it is just what is happening now.  Recognising this emptiness and attempting to relax with it is heroic.  This is practice.

p188, Illusory Advice Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books, 2015, ISBN: 978-1898185-37-6 

Simple, clean and straightforward

Everyone relapses into neurotic patterning all the time.  Regret is useful, but shame simply adds another layer of neurosis to plough through.  Regret the relapse and move on.  Shame is actually holding on to it and not allowing yourself to move on.  Regret the action and let it go – this is simple, clean and straightforward.

p175, Illusory Advice Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books, 2015, ISBN: 978-1898185-37-6 

Relationship with the teacher in Vajrayana

  The relationship between teacher and student is fundamental to Vajrayana.  Within the theatre of this relationship you can become transparent to yourself, and through becoming transparent, your constricted sense of being is liberated.
Devotion to the Lama enables the student to be empty in relation to the Lama.  This allows the Lama to conjure with the form of the student’s neuroses to mirror them, so that they become transparent for the student.
If one is open to receiving transmission, then a great deal can be achieved in such moments.  Huge shifts can be made in an instant.  This is only possible within a relationship based on confidence in the teacher and openness in the student.

p59 and 62, Illusory Advice Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books, 2015, ISBN: 978-1898185-37-6 

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

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

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

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

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

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