Anger

Anger should not be confused with energy. One obviously requires energy to address injustice – but anger does nothing but cloud one’s vision.

p310, 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 

Spontaneous realisation

To control one’s anger and refrain from hurtful words and actions in an honest attempt to be aware and kind, is appropriate practice for a Dharma practitioner.  However we must be clear this is not the practice of Dzogchen.  It is not the spontaneous realisation of the nonduality of the emptiness and form of the emotion.

p57, Spacious Passion Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books, 2006 ISBN: 978-0-9653948-4-0 

Awful misunderstandings

To avoid misunderstandings turning into awful misunderstandings, the crucial factor is to believe that the friends you cherish are basically well intentioned towards you and that they are plagued with at least as many misunderstandings as you.  It is not the misunderstandings that are the problem – but the reaction to them.  Misunderstanding without: being hurt, taking offence, anger, peevish resentment, indignation, self-righteous rage, or temper tantrum … could actually be a cause of humour.

p30, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

      

Embracing the sensation of anger

Anger does not help.
Anger merely occludes our ability to see clearly.  With the discovery of space we find ourselves able to respond openly about how we feel.  Tantra does not inhibit us from taking action based on heart intelligence.  If we allow people to destroy us, or our shared environment, we are certainly not doing anyone a favour.  So, in the practice of embracing the sensation of anger, there is a need to rely more on our own intrinsic space, experienced through the practice of shi-nè, than on the neurotic thought processes and habitual responses that usually infest conceptual consciousness.  


p144, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 0-9653948-0-8

Non-dual anger

When ‘subject-object dichotomy’ dissolves into space, anger can no longer exist as anger but transforms into total clarity.  This clarity dispassionately reflects all that it sees.  Nothing is left out.  Nothing is added.  We see the whole picture in all its vibrant detail.  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 is incapable of bias or distortion. 

p145, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, ISBN 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