Aro Quotation: buddhism

Showing posts with label buddhism. Show all posts

Monday, 13 September 2021

Buddhism and Blues

There was something about being seated on a motorcycle that fitted both Buddhism and Blues – especially a chopped easy-rider motorcycle. I had to concentrate in a relaxed manner – alert, yet not anxiously alert. Being aware of the manœuvres of other motorists—which were not always precise—was a form of open-ended vigilance. It was delightful that anything could be meditation if one was open to that dimension of experience.

p168-169, Goodbye Forever: miscellaneous memoirs of an English Lama, Volume One Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2020, ISBN 978-1-898185-51-2

Monday, 25 December 2017

What is Buddhism?

Buddhism is a statement of our intrinsic goodness; and the possibility of discovering that intrinsic goodness. This is the simple answer, but complex questions can arise from that. Giving a simple answer is not always that simple. When I use the word goodness, I am not using it in the sense of nicey-nicey goodness, or piety, or sanctity, or holiness – ‘goodness’ here relates to complete value. This goodness is the goodness of freshly baked bread; the goodness of seeing a field of sunflowers; the goodness of birth and death; the goodness of being present. There is a basic goodness, a basic sanity with which we can connect. We have that – we simply need to allow ourselves the non-referential space to find it.

Aro Encyclopaedia Index: Ah, but I was so much older then – I'm younger than that now. Ngak'chang Rinpoche interview 1993

Monday, 17 October 2016

Tantra

"Tantric Buddhism employs the urgent energies of agony and ecstasy, lust and hatred, paranoia and greed to transform our confusion into enlightenment. Tantra is radically positive insanity. Tantra is the hot blood of kindness. Tantra conjures with the electricity of being: the shimmering voltage that crackles ecstatically between emptiness and form. Tantra is the alchemy of transformation by which we re-create ourselves limitlessly according to the kaleidoscopic pattern of moments that comprises our experience..”

tantra, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday, 1 August 2016

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

Monday, 27 June 2016

The Aro gTér

"The teachers of the Aro gTér Tradition are not monks or nuns. They are ordained Tantrikas – whose lives are, in many ways, quite ordinary. They may have conventional jobs, or raise children. Many teach as married couples. Their wisdom is embodied in the ways they live everyday life. Facing the same life challenges as their students, they are able to offer advice that is grounded in personal experience as well as profound religious understanding."

Aro Buddhism, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Monday, 6 June 2016

The buddhist path can be bumpy

"Buddhist practice develops kindness and awareness in ourselves, but the path of practice can be a bumpy one-to say the least. As we discover qualities of openness and appreciation, we are also confronted with what we have always been, but have chosen to ignore. We begin to see our territoriality, our aggressiveness, our neediness, our jealousy and our obduracy. We become aware of the sides of ourselves that we find distinctly less "spiritual"."

p.143, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nord'dzin and Ngakpa ö-Dzin

Monday, 7 March 2016

Mechanistic rather than emotive

"Buddhism does not really deal with the concept of 'sin' it simply deals with the mechanisms of confusion, and the means of liberation. There is no guilt attached to being confused, and no sense of deliberative 'wickedness'. The terms 'attraction', 'aversion' and 'indifference' have been chosen because they are mechanistic rather than emotive-they describe the machinery of dualistic perception."

p45, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Monday, 13 July 2015

Basic goodness

"Buddhism is a statement of our intrinsic goodness; and the possibility of discovering that intrinsic goodness. This is the simple answer, but complex questions can arise from that. Giving a simple answer is not always that simple. When I use the word goodness, I am not using it in the sense of nicey-nicey goodness, or piety, or sanctity, or holiness – ‘goodness’ here relates to complete value. This goodness is the goodness of freshly baked bread; the goodness of seeing a field of sunflowers; the goodness of birth and death; the goodness of being present. There is a basic goodness, a basic sanity with which we can connect. We have that – we simply need to allow ourselves the non-referential space to find it."

Ah, but I was so much older then, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 6 July 2015

Lineage

"Lineage, in the Tibetan context, means a body of teachings which comes down through a particular succession of accomplished Lamas. Lineage has a visionary origin and there would generally (but not always) be a set of texts which describe the practices which belong to the lineage. There will be a series of transmissions, a series of visionary practices and a body of teaching which would have been handed down through various masters to their students. That is what constitutes a lineage."

Ah, but I was so much older then, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Monday, 23 March 2015

Having Devotion

"Much is said of 'devotion' in Tibetan Buddhist circles. The general idea is that you're supposed to have it. If you don't have it, there's no way forward. Because of this, many people try to have it without having it having them."

p18 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Monday, 3 February 2014

Buddhism is a vast field

"Buddhism is a vast field of wonder for its sincere practitioners, and so many, many, many different methods are encompassed within its parameters."

p108, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Monday, 18 June 2012

Being asleep

"In Buddhism our confused and neurotic condition is often compared to being asleep-because our relationship with reality is more like being in a dream than being awake. We lack awareness because of our habitual patterns so that we are like confused and unresponsive sleepwalkers."

p152, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

Monday, 4 June 2012

Buddhism is not an imposition on reality

"Buddhism is actually very pragmatic. Buddhism is not an imposition on reality. It’s not a constructed philosophy that forces human beings to proceed according to rigid directives that take no account of the diversity of experience."

Interview 6th of June 1994, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, 06/06/1994