It’s inexhaustible

So not to become jaded is simply to appreciate what is there. Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche said that when you appreciate what is there—you find that it’s inexhaustible. You cannot become jaded when you authentically enjoy anything.  

p326, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Siddhis

Different people have different capacities and certain aptitudes arise more naturally for some. Whatever capacity one has however‚ one has the responsibility to use it for good. 

p162, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Capacity to perceive

Wherever you dedicate time to anything, the capacity to perceive in that area, evolves. It’s the same with all the sense perceptions. They can all open up if we allow them free attention.

p128, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Visceral teachers and visceral students

I don’t really know how ‘online teaching’ would function, realistically. There could be no transmission. For transmission to occur there have to be visceral teachers and visceral students. One has to be able to see the eyes of those hearing the oral transmission.

p347, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Into the sphere of Vajrayana

If you push any skill far enough‚ it takes you into the sphere of Vajrayana. It has to – because although Vajrayana is a religion‚ it’s also natural.

p268, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Beyond social convention

So there are choices to be made when you go beyond social convention. To a certain extent—where it only affects you personally—any consequence of going beyond social convention is fine. But when it upsets other people‚ then it’s not really freedom any more – not in the sense of compassionate activity. 

p234, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

The conditioning is going to be stronger

For people who are not in the nondual state however – it might be more helpful to be at a retreat centre, by the ocean, or in a forest. As long as you are dualistically conditioned—if you’re in a place which evokes that conditioning—the conditioning is going to be stronger than in a place that doesn’t evoke conditioning.

p383, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

It would be deranged

Why would you want to persuade anyone to do anything apart from what was going to be beneficial? It would be deranged. With the realised protectors‚ we have the example of terrific power being controlled in such a way as to serve practitioners. 

p246, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Power

Anybody who wants power has a problem‚ immediately. Power is not something to want for itself. Unless it has a function and it’s operative in terms of helping somebody – there’s no point in having it.

p245, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680 

Hallucination

The idiocy of buying into prevalent conditioned perception and relating to arbitrary ideas as if they were truth – is that we can make no sense of the world as it is. We relate to the world more-or-less as an hallucination. 

p213, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Fashions which pass

You have to have a sense of suspicion or scepticism concerning what seems attractive – and this applies to clothing, music, Art, social conventions, politics, and every other area of life. Almost every aspect of life has ‘fashions which pass’. You have to be aware of that.

p313, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

The question can be left in space

Taking tigers as consorts—and breastfeeding tiger cubs—can be registered as one would register music or a painting. It is simply there. I feel this is preferable – and, actually, creatively mysterious. It is more interesting not to know – not to have a fixed idea.  

p198, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Belief and disbelief

It’s better to say I have no way of knowing – therefore I neither believe nor disbelieve. Belief and disbelief are not the only available options – and disbelief is just another belief‚ merely a negative belief.

p198, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

The time is now

So, the time to appreciate anyone is now. It’s not tomorrow. It’s not next week – or with some idea that you'll meet them again in another life. The time is now and the next life is tomorrow.  

p108, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

There's also the possibility...

There’s also the possibility of liking‚or not liking – without concept. Liking and not liking are subjective – and therefore empty.

p220-221, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Programmed by society

 

What does that mean about my appreciative sense? Is my appreciation actually personal to me? Or am I simply programmed by society to like what I like? Most people are conditioned.

p214, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

One cannot escape samsara

Everywhere where there are dualised beings is going to look like samsara – if one is dualised. One cannot escape samsara by going to a retreat centre.

p383, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

The two major considerations

Actually shi-nè and lhatong—stillness and change—are the two major considerations whatever the activity in which you engage.

p184, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Stillness and movement

Shi-nè is the moment of silence – the moment of stillness in which there is no distraction. Lhatong is the moment in which the practitioner integrates with movement – the movement in which the arrow is released or the trigger is squeezed.  The two cannot be divided. 

p183, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680

Challenge

“It’s understood in The Tibetan tradition” added Khandro Déchen “that you can just end up not achieving anything, if there’s nothing that you come up against as a challenge.” 

p166, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680