Leap, without reservation

"Through the practice of philosophy one might expect to arrive at one's own conclusions about the nature of being - such investigations having been mostly self-referential. Through the practice of the religion of Dharma one discovers that the nature of being has already been understood by one's teachers, and that it can be discovered for ourselves through the methods of practice they reveal. Hence, to fully engage with Dharma, we eventually have to let go of the limitations of our own view - and leap ... without reservation, into Dharma-view"

p3, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books, 2007, 978-0-9653948-4-0

The chance to be real and vivid

"Vajrayana offers those with kindness, honesty, and courage the chance to be real and vivid, at a time when cultural horizons are shrinking. We cannot go forth like Lewis and Clark, in search of the passage west - there are no such new trails to blaze on behalf of others. The only compassionate trail left to seekers of such high adventure is the Vajrayana"

p67, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Freedom of choice is the dominant myth of our society

"The seductive ideal of freedom of choice is the dominant myth of our society, encouraging people to remain essentially adolescent up until retirement age or even death... It's more important to follow your feelings than to actually arrive at any particular goal. We have become more interested in process than result."

p56, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Not just for this life

"The relationship with the vajra master is not just for this life, but is renewed in all future lives until enlightenment is attained. When enlightenment eventually dawns, the student will have become the equal of 'all the enlightened ones of the past'. Until then, the magnetism of this particular vajra master's transmission, the single key to the future, exceeds the inspiration even of the legends of other Buddhas"

p33, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

The possibility of everything

"Once we perceive the small space of our habitual mind, we begin to long for the open vastness we have glimpsed in the eyes of the Lama. We begin to understand that in 'giving up' the dubious freedom of following our dualistic rationale, we are in fact losing nothing and gaining the possibility of everything."

p20, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

More important than this one life

"The relationship between the vajra master and the vajra student should be the most important relationship in one's life as a spiritual aspirant. This is the only relationship that we can have which ultimately leads to enlightenment. ... For a Vajrayana student it is more important than this one life."

p11, Dangerous Friend, Rig'dzin Dorje, Shambhala, 2001, 1-57062-857-2

Nothing but what you actually are

"To receive empowerment is to be struck by lightning in the gentlest possible manner. To be burnt by searing kindness into nothing but what you actually are. ... To wake up, softly startled, at one vivid moment in time. To realise that you have been asleep; and, that suddenly you are both older than the earth and younger than you can remember."

p211, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

The radiant space of choiceless choice

"To enter vajra commitment is to leap from the perfect precipice. To find yourself in the radiant space of this choiceless choice, is the very heart of Tantra. To leap open-eyed into the shining emptiness of the Lama's wisdom display, and to experience the ecstatic impact of each dynamic gesture of the Lama's method display is the essential luminosity and power of the path."

p175, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

The terrifyingly compassionate gamester

"The Lama is the ecstatic, wild and gentle figure who short-circuits your systems of self-referencing. The Lama is the only person in your life who cannot be manipulated. The Lama is the invasion of unpredictability you allow into your life, to enable you to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional processes. The Lama is the terrifyingly compassionate gamester who reshuffles the deck of your carefully arranged rationale."

p141, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, 1-898185-03-4

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