Every aspect of our existence

If we view all situations as opportunities to relate with the capacity of the Lama to show us our enlightenment and the patterns of our unenlightenment‚ then everything we do becomes inspiring. Every aspect of our existence is enlivened with the presence of the Lama. 

p215, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Failure and success

If your sense of existence doesn’t depend on anything, then failure and success can be simple failure and simple success.  When failure doesn’t threaten you, then it’s just failure.  You might even be able to laugh about it!

p98, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8

Inspiration

This is something crucial to apprehend.  Inspiration surrounds us continually: in the laughter of seagulls; in passages of music; in the natural beauty of phenomena; in the beauty of the kindness which can flow out of human beings; in the unexpected, spontaneous, and surprising experience of existence.

p313, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Theatre of existence

Love touches people through Art: not simply through the Arts of music, painting, sculpture, poetry, literature, and drama – but through the constantly performing theatre of existence.  Art and the nature of the senses continually imitate, intimate, and initiate each other.

p220, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Thought

Thought itself is not a problem.  Thought is not the deceiving enemy.  I am the deceiving enemy – because I appropriate thought to validate my existence as solid, permanent, separate, continuous, and defined.

p73, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

What we love

We should prioritise what we love – and what animates existence.  To do less is to be less than half alive,  Life sparkles with intrinsic magic that is suddenly and delightfully communicative when you find yourself in love.

p163, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Anything could happen

Anything could happen.  To come to an understanding of my culture and my epoch – I had to be open to anything happening.  If I sheltered myself from the wilder side of existence – I would never be able to teach anyone to live as a tantrika in the West … when, eventually, the time came to teach. 

p147, Goodbye Forever Vol. II, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2021, ISBN 978-1-898185-60-4

Bardo

Between the consciousness of the dying physical being and the consciousness of the reborn physical being –  a dream-like state of consciousness is experienced, and this is called Bardo.  This is a disorientating or frightening experience if the consciousness has had no experience of the empty nature of Mind.  We become embodied once again and begin the process of identifying with physicality in which we ignore the nature of existence as a stream of moments of emptiness, energy, and form.  If we have any feel for the experiential nature of this continuity, we can begin to grasp the importance of engaging in spiritual practice.  Any practice that hones awareness and the ability to allow mind to be free in complete identification with the present moment will be of immense benefit.

p112-113, Spacious Passion Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books, 2006 ISBN: 978-0-9653948-4-0

Some kind of miracle

I was always amazed with the way that phenomena could be brought into being.  Even when I was part of the act of creation – the creation was still some kind of miracle.  There was no God – but every creative human being—every artist—was some kind of god.  Creativity was a natural phenomenon that pulsed in us all – and our rôle as beings was to allow that to surface from the primal ocean of existence. 

p173, Goodbye Forever: miscellaneous memoirs of an English Lama, Volume One Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2020, ISBN 978-1-898185-51-2 

The dance

We are the dance of existence and non-existence.  Unless we know this – Tantra is impossible.  But whether we understand it or not – Tantra is continually performing itself; it is what is happening.  But this is somewhat poetic.  What can such extraordinary statements mean?

p4, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4  

#dralajongquote

A provocative irritant

  As soon as shi-nè is practised with sufficient determination, it is discovered that ‘definitions of existence’ are a barrier to enjoying existence.  The barrier is built of feelings of insubstantiality, fear, isolation, agitation, and phlegmatic tedium.  Shi-nè is a provocative irritant to each of these feelings.  Life also irritates these feelings – but not as definitively.  The dualistic rationale continually seeks definition – so, in a sense, shi-nè causes the relaxation of that continual struggle for self-definition.

p31-32, Shock Amazement: The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.   Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1 

We are not speaking in terms of nihilistic negation

  Form is the dance partner of emptiness – and emptiness cannot be understood apart from form.  Emptiness is the dance partner of form – and form cannot dance without emptiness.  Form could be said to be the apparently tangible aspect of experience and existence – but form is empty.  One can only understand form in the confident absence of tangibility.  That does not mean however that everything is nothing.  When we speak of emptiness as nothingness or voidness, we are not speaking in terms of nihilistic negation—but in terms of nothingness being inseparable from everythingness. 

p49, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

The dance of sub-atomic particles

   The elements are an array of characteristics which can be understood both in terms of duality and nonduality.  They express themselves at every level at which existence can be understood – yet they go beyond the sense-making remit of quotidian existence.  They travel into the sphere of unconditioned potentiality where language can no longer even hint at meaning.  The elements are the fabric of the Earth and the solar system in which it orbits the Sun.  Beyond that, the elements outstrip the extent to which science can currently see.  There is nothing other than the elements.  The dance of sub-atomic particles is simply the elements performing – arising and dissolving in a manner not entirely different from the way in which they perform within the facets of our perceptual continua.

p196-197, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

The Vajrayana that is already there

 Knowledge of Vajrayana is intrinsic to human beings, in the sense that Vajrayana is our condition.  It is the thread of continuity which runs through every aspect of what we are.  In this sense Vajrayana may be invisible – but it is also sharply and poignantly perceptible.  The Lama shows us the reality that Vajrayana is already there as the basic energy of our existence.

p68, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

The desire to be in charge

    The nature of existence continually helps and hinders the search for definition in a completely impartial manner.  The problem is the desire to be in charge of the defining process.  This is a highly complicated procedure – but it is so customary, that it is hardly noticed.  Rather than allowing continual re-definition (and occasionally lack of definition), the prevalent impetus is to attempt domination of the mutually defining and un-defining process which constitutes the flux of reality.  

p32, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

Naked awareness

   The need to continually confirm personal identity seems hard-wired – because there is a continually observable engagement in the activity of seeking existential assurances.  This is the dualistic penchant for unnecessarily clothing naked awareness in concepts. 
Non-duality is the state in which emptiness and form manifest as a seamless alternation in which each are aspects of the other – and have the same essential experiential flavour. 

p29, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

Meditation isn't ...

   When it is said that ‘Meditation isn’t’ – it means that meditation is not a method of doing.  It is a method of not-doing.  There is no involvement in doing anything – there is simply the maintenance of presence in motiveless observation.  When it is said that ‘Getting used to is’ – it means simply getting used to – being.  This requires acclimatisation to the undefined dimension of existence – getting used to being referenceless.

p28, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

 

Florid, fecund and fiery dance!

Tantra is every nuance of existence and non-existence in ecstatic union – in florid, fecund and fiery dance! 
This is our situation.  This very moment is Tantra, and contains limitless energy.  It’s ruthlessly and seductively uncompromising.  The sheer potency of what we are is overwhelmingly and provocatively inconvenient; but, it is there!
When we recoil from it, through any variety of dread, that is also Tantra.  It’s impossible to hide from our own hiding.  The energy of Tantra is both fight and flight. This is a terrifyingly obvious fact, but we have become ‘expert’ at pretending that we are unaware of it.  We have to remain unaware of it in order to remain unenlightened.  But, wherever we look, the mirror of reality reflects it for us.  

p29-30, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Discover the pleasure of existence

   The name ‘Drala Jong’ means ‘Sparkling Meadow of Primal Iridescence’.  Of this name,  Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen write:

Drala Jong innately exists in human beings.  ‘Drala’ is the appreciative faculty which exponentially enlivens people the more they engage with the world.  Appreciation is the key to enjoyment and to delighting in the enjoyment of others.  When we learn to appreciate phenomena our sense fields ‘Jong’, begin to sparkle, and a sense of generosity is born which connects us with others.  Although Vajrayana Buddhism is by no means unknown in the West – the sense in which enjoyment and compassion are mutually interdependent remains unexpressed.  We would like Drala Jong to be a place where human beings could discover the pleasure of existence – the pleasure that animates the sense fields and revitalises the Arts – and the art of living.

Drala-Jong.org: Sparkling Meadow of Primal Iridescence Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen

Naked nature of perception

   In terms of acclimatising to the undefined dimension of existence – it should be understood that: imagination relies on empty perception; paintings rely on empty planes; sculptures rely on empty space; music relies on silent time; and, literature relies on empty conceptuality.  If the art of freedom is to be realised—if creative potential is to be discovered—reliance on the experience of intrinsic emptiness is the only precursor.
The practice of shi-nè therefore, is the gateway to the art of freedom.
Dzogchen sem-dé moves beyond emptiness and that which arises from emptiness into the sphere in which there is simply naked nature of perception – rigpa. 

p28, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1