Symbols of ourselves

"We all question our lives at certain moments. This is somewhat unavoidable. Our beginningless enlightenment continually sparkles though, and causes us the irritation of wanting to question what is going on. This happens at various junctures in our lives; and when it does, we are confronted with the inconvenient fact that we are somehow symbols of ourselves. We're not completely certain that we're the real thing."

p93, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

Our complexity is merely a distortion of the energy of enlightenment

"If we are able to enter the empty state, then the complexity of the khyil-khor replaces the complexity of our unenlightenment. We replace the convoluted patterns of our frustration with the khyil-khor's shimmering irridescence. It's at this brink of experience that we realise something outlandishly potent: our complexity is merely a distortion of the energy of enlightenment. It is then that the appearance of the khyil-khor becomes a transformative experience."

p69, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

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

Tantra is constantly performing itself

"Because Tantra is constantly performing itself; in us; through us; and around us - we can either acknowledge it, by taking hold of the bare electric cables of existence and non-existence, or; try to pretend, as hard as possible, that it's not happening."

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

We are the dance of existence and non-existence

"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."

p3, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

The dance of the khandros and pawos

"Our emotions and our personal environment are the dance of the khandros and pawos. To know reality as the dance of the khandros and pawos is to fall in love with them. To fall in love with them is to discover our beginningless enlightenment in the endless empty nature of their dance."

p257, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Glimpses

"There is no sudden breakthrough that remains forever - there are only sudden glimpses. But these glimpses encourage us to see more. And so, gradually, we develop the ability to integrate these experiences of unconditioned being into our lives."

p235, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Indivisibility

"The elements are always equal in their essential pure state. It is not possible to divide the elements, because they are completely interdependent; they are indivisible. We only talk about them as if they were separate, in order to understand something about enlightenment and unenlightenment. As if enlightenment and unenlightenment were two different things."

p195, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Emotional pain becomes pure sensation

"The process of artificially maintaining and intensifying emotional pain with thought is gyroscopic. If we keep a cycle of thought constantly spinning we generate a charge that actively prevents the dissipation of pain. But without conceptualisation, emotional pain becomes pure sensation and is released to dance in the vastness of the open dimension of experience. Without the strait-jacket of concept, pain ceases to be pain and becomes a free and ecstatic energy."

p183, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Self-fulfilling activity

"The wisdom of self-fulfilling activity is free of all hindrances. We can pacify what needs to be pacified. We can enrich what needs to be enriched. We can magnetise what needs to be magnetised. We can destroy what needs to be destroyed. Our activities are self-accomplished; their completion is implicit in their inception."

p163, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

The love affair with emptiness and form

"When the essential nature of the fire element is experienced beyond dualism, we realise that we do not have to seduce the world... Every activity becomes the consummation of the love affair with emptiness and form. We are free of reference points as objects of desire. We burn with the wisdom-fire of centrelessness and realise our capacity to extend our realisation to everyone."

p149, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Clarity

"Non-dual anger is unconditioned clarity. It is displayed by the brilliance and calmness of water. The undisturbed surface of water perfectly mirrors the sky. The crystal clarity of undisturbed water seems incapable of bias or distortion. When water is clear it is barely visible - it seems to possess only the dimensionless reflective quality of its surface."

p135, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Generosity

"The liberated field of energy of the earth element displays the glorious warmth and wealth of earth which is inexhaustible and free to whomever needs it. Wealth and generosity go hand in hand because even if we have very little, we can be wealthy and attract wealth if we have the spirit of giving, which always enables us to find something to give."

p123, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Khyil-khor

"The personalities of the khandros, or wisdom sisters, are the inner energy of everything it is possible for us to feel. This is what we are, or what we could become. Our inner elements are the khyil-khor of the khandros - the iridescent matrix of being. There is no more profound khyil-khor than who or what we are in our world."

p105, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Awareness

"Awareness is the uncontrived, unattached recognition of the experience of movement - the movement of the arising and dissolving of thoughts in the continuum of Mind, the appearance and disappearance of phenomena in the vastness of intrinsic space. There is only the sheer exquisiteness of this movement. This is what we actually are."

p83, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Being

"Being is not attached to reference points. Being does not rely for its existence on any style of perceptual cross-referencing. Trying to pin-point being is like attempting to suspend time and movement - it is not possible, so we might as well simply be."

p73, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Enlightenment

"Every thought, every feeling, every sensation or action is enlightenment; but we do not realise it ... We are never separated from it. There is no need to look for enlightenment in any other place than where we are. It is there, unrecognised, in every moment."

p27, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Spectrum of possibilities

"Our being is a brilliant pattern of energies, a spectrum of possibilities. At every moment we have the capacity to experience the open dimension of what we are."

p3, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Dzogchen

"The perspective of Dzogchen is always that we are all enlightened from beginninglessness. Because of this, inspiration is possible. Inspiration is the power of the enlightened state to make itself known: to itself, through itself, and of itself."

p117, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7

Nyi'mèd

"It is actually not possible to practice nyi'mèd - at a certain stage of practice nyi'mèd simply happens. It happens when we find ourselves moving without design between the states of shi-nè and lha-tong."

p113, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 1-57062-944-7