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

Karma

Karma is pattern.  Karma is the pattern through which we apprehend our existential / experiential environment.  Karma evaporates as soon as we see the pattern.

p60, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Existential kaleidoscope

A kyil’khor can be created from coloured chalk dust.  Unexpectedly a wind blows – and the pattern is no longer what it was.  One can grieve the lost pattern – or enjoy the mingling of colours and the strange shapes created by the staggered disintegration.  Life appeared to be some sort of existential kaleidoscope in which the meaning could only be in the moment.  If one tried to extend the meaning beyond the moment – the meaning could become increasingly meaningless.

p167, Goodbye Forever: miscellaneous memoirs of an English Lama, Volume One Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2020, ISBN 978-1-898185-51-2 

Pattern and Chaos

  The fabric of existence is a fluxing web or magical manifestation web of infinite dimensions.  Existence is a fluxing web whose threads are the energy of emptiness and form—of existence and nonexistence.  The style or pattern of individual existence sets up tremors in the web of which individual existence is a part.  One cannot ‘enact’ without affecting everything and, at the same time, being affected by everything.  Pattern affects patterns, creating further pattern.  Pattern evolves out of chaos and becomes chaos again.  Pattern and randomness dance together—ripples in water extend and collide with other extending ripples, a fish leaps to catch an insect, a wild goose takes to the sky, the wind blows, and a child throws a pebble into the lake. 

p82, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7

The development of spaciousness

"Through the development of spaciousness, our patterning can become totally open and transparent"

p146, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2009, 978-1-898185-07-9

Openness to infinite pattern

"Compassion is openness to infinite pattern and to embodying any aspect of that pattern for the benefit of everyone and everything, everywhere"

p131, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Karma

"Karma evaporates as soon as we see the pattern"

p60, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

The Limitless Pattern of Creation and Destruction

"We exist in continual flux. We move, and are moved, in the dance of appearances - in the limitless pattern of creation and destruction. The perceptible and imperceptible seem to make each other a mystery."

p47, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Pattern and chaos

"One cannot 'enact' without affecting everything and, at the same time, being affected by everything. Pattern affects pattern, creating further pattern.  Pattern evolves out of chaos and becomes chaos again. Pattern and randomness dance together ..."

p59, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7