The desire for happiness

Theories based on the desire for happiness would have us believe that anything is possible.  According to Vajrayana however, the desire for happiness is not concomitant with knowledge of the nature of happiness.  The desire for happiness and happiness itself are mutually exclusive within any dualistic paradigm.  This is due to the fact that attempting to achieve happiness is undertaken in a manner which undermines the possibility of attaining happiness. 

p15, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon 2nd edition, Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2021, ISBN 978-0-9653948-7-1  

Taking a shine

    When attraction and desire are awakened—and especially within the romantic sexual dimension—two things happen simultaneously: we shine, and we also perceive the shining quality of our focus of desire—we start to see being ‘in the pink’.  This is also why people’s pupils dilate.  The pupils dilate in order to see more of the shining quality.  This shining quality is the lustre of the primordial state as it manifests within the dimension of nirmanakaya.

p225, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7
   

An eager maniac

When we speak of employing desire, we’re speaking of the functioning of energy.  The intrinsic energy of desire is none other than the enlightened state.  This is what is meant by transformation or transmutation in Tantra.  To be a tantrika you have to be a good warrior; you have to be able to use whatever is at your disposal in terms of what you are – in terms of how you happen to be.
So if you’re an egomaniac, then you become an eager maniac.  You let your Lama make fun of your egomania; and you give up your investment, either in being embarrassed by it or in being defensive about it.
Your ego, or egomania, then becomes an aspect of your energy with which the Lama conjures.  There is nothing with which the Lama cannot conjure if the student is prepared to follow through – if the student is open to that process.

p125-126, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

  

Desire

The Vajrayana texts—both Tibetan and Sanskrit—portray Vajrayana as a magnificent banquet of the senses.  Naturally then, as teachers of Vajrayana, we encourage desire.  Desire is the sensory scenario in which lust and liberation are indivisible.  Desire is inseparable from chang-chub sem.  This is both subtle and easy to misinterpret – which is why we place  such emphasis on silent sitting.  Without recognition of emptiness, desire is merely self  orientation.   

p51, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Passion beyond passion

We see desire as an important aspect of the path.  Without desire there is no compassion, as desire is the energy of appreciative communication.  This is not spoken of in Sutrayana or the outer tantras.  From Mahayoga onward – desire is fuel for the fire of discriminating insight.  Desire is the passion beyond passion: compassion.  It was Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche who first described compassion as ‘the passion beyond passion’.  From an inner tantra point of view, lust is simply the dualized form of the appreciative communication of bodhicitta.

p50, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

  

Desire and neurosis

  It is not so important to see desire as neurotic or not neurotic – it is only important to observe your behaviour and the reaction to that behaviour.
If you seem to be upsetting people and causing problems then the desire is likely to be neurotic.  If your behaviour evokes delight and merriment then your desire is likely to lack neurosis.
     p185, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Romance lures us into spiritual practice

Desire habitually promotes self-seeking.  The desire which drives romantic pursuit is no exception to this – apart that is, from the fact that something else occurs.  When we are drawn to the person we desire for ourselves – we communicate our desire to the one we desire.  In so doing – we are unsuspectingly drawn into spiritual practice.  The practice, into which we are enticed, is that of wisdom and compassion.  We begin to display unusual open-mindedness and uncharacteristic kindness – but what is more extraordinary, is that we feel inexplicably unthreatened in so doing.

p146, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Desire promotes the spiritual qualities of wisdom and compassion

Samsara presents opportunities for realisation – simply by virtue of samsara's failure to function.  Samsara is a self-defeating self-frustrated cycle, which is unsuccessful even within its own terms.  Because duality cannot function successfully within its own parameters – it cannot help but provide opportunities for realising nonduality. 
As soon as we seriously examine samsara – we begin to find it somewhat implausible; and that, is an intriguing discovery.  The Nyi-da Mélong (a Dzogchen tantra from the Aro gTér) takes this intriguing discovery as one of an array of interwoven themes.  The Nyi-da Mélong explores the texture of romance from the perspective of the manner in which desire itself promotes the spiritual qualities of wisdom and compassion.

p146, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Desire

"Without desire there is no appreciation - and without appreciation there is no bodhicitta"

p52, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7