Courtesy

People should try to avoid making suggestions to each other in terms of health, or anything else for that matter.  We’re an old-fashioned English couple. We believe in courtesy – and it is discourteous to offer opinions when no one has solicited them.  

p269, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

An apparitional array

The elemental neuroses do not have to be obliviated – they could remain as an apparitional array. They could manifest as vajra appetetite, vajra alertness, vajra appreciation, vajra cynicism, and vajra composure.

p240, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4  

Active compassion

Each of the six classes of tantra expresses this appreciative interactive empathy according to progressively subtler and increasingly vivid criteria. We begin by cultivating compassion – only to learn that compassion – is none other than the innate energy of the natural state.

p133, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Not Art in the literal sense

The Arts lie behind everything we’ve ever done. We do not necessarily mean Arts in the literal sense. We mean that which lies beneath the Arts: the space from which the Arts arise. 

p124, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Being human

Dzogchen is unique in that it deals with the fundamental experience of being human at the most essential level of perception.

p186, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Laughing at oneself

Being able to laugh at oneself is crucial. One has to see one’s contradictions and find them amusing. Once the contradictions are amusing‚ they’re workable. They’re workable because one is not taking oneself entirely seriously. This depends on space – on the emptiness of silent sitting. 

p261, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

The ultimate acknowledgement

Kindness gives confidence to others. Kindness encourages self-respect and authentic dignity. Tantra is the hot blood of kindness. In essence – vajra commitment is the ultimate acknowledgement of that.

p67, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Authentic practice

Craft is authentic practice when it is successful. Success necessitates the development of integrity, honesty, scrupulousness, accuracy, authenticity, genuineness, and reverence. These qualities are as important to meditation as they are to craft.

p64, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

The edge

Power is not necessarily concerned with having great capacities – but knowing the limits of one’s capacities and being willing to go to the edge. 

p46, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Being alive

Engage with the sense fields. Become authentically involved with the senses. Being alive is being surrounded by colour, sound, fragrance, and texture. 

p38, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

The essential method

The essential method is to be free in the nature of chaos. We always look for pattern in order to understand anything – but that kind of understanding is manacled to mundane meaning unless one can allow understanding to be amorphous, nebulous, unstructured, formless, or unformed. 

p32, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Divisive logic

Duality—in one sense—is the artificial separation of experience into two fields: ‘perception’ and ‘field of perception’. This divisive logic distances us analytically from direct experience. 

p157, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

First and last

Every time you sit should be the first time. Every moment you live should be the last moment. 

p99, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Affectations

One doesn’t have to be humile to be unpretentious. Humility and hauteur are both affectations – and best forsaken. It is simpler to describe what one can do and what one cannot do – but only when asked. 

p76, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

It is there in the target

Target practice—with bow, rifle, or hand gun—is a valuable way of taking awareness into the physical dimension. One sees the proof of one’s ability to be present and undistracted. It is there in the target. 

p151, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Entertaining uncertainty

The experience of spaciousness can arise through entertaining uncertainty – and by failing to feel threatened. 

p263, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4  

Uncontrollable lust

It is far more interesting to have absolutely uncontrollable lust for everyone everywhere to get everything they want. When lust is contracted into just being me and what I want – it’s a rather sad, sorry, sterile affair.

p253, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

The style of one’s responses

We cannot be responsible for many things – but we are all responsible for how we feel about what happens. To embrace emotions as the path, one must take responsibility for the style of one’s responses.

p230, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Pottering

Pottering can accomplish a great deal – but one has to surrender all sense of achievement and live in the moment.  

p182, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Sporadically supervised aimlessness

Tidying is an aspect of pottering – but true pottering is more sporadic. It is a haphazard mode which often facilitates discoveries and unexpected creativity.

p182, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Worldwide, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4