Divisive logic

Duality—in one sense—is the artificial separation of experience into two fields: ‘perception’ and ‘field of perception’. This divisive logic distances us analytically from direct experience. 

p157, 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

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

Hitting toes with a hammer

The more one realised the patterns of duality the funnier the situation became in terms of one’s experience. There was also sadness when observing those who created their own suffering without any understanding of what they were doing.  He said that it could be like watching someone hitting their toes with a hammer whilst screaming “Will this pain never end?”     

p173, Goodbye Forever Vol III, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2023, ISBN 9781898185666

We do not recognise

The root of delusion is duality – and occurs simply because we do not recognise the essential nature of being. Due to this, the idea of self and other as entirely separate arises – along with all other ‘subject / object’ dichotomies. 

p278, Goodbye Forever Vol III, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2023, ISBN 9781898185666

No way out

Duality is a condition in which every reference substantiates some other reference.  Without the Lama, there is no way out of this infinite cross-referencing.

p227, 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

Bewilderment and wonderment

We oscillate between bewilderment and wonderment, and practice allows us to experience a space where duality and non-duality begin to flicker.

p224, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

On the brink

Non-duality and duality are not disconnected from each other.  If you understand that, then suddenly you’re always perched on the brink of realisation!  Every moment becomes potentiated, because it is seen as a distortion of our intrinsic liberated energy.

p208, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4  

The basic ground of being

The essence is empty.  The nature is clear and unimpeded.  The energy is free of all barriers and is boundlessly compassionate.  We have arrived at what is known as the kun-zhi – the basic ground of being beyond duality and non-duality.

p102, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

A grand illusion

Without the Lama there is no way out of the experience of infinite cross-referencing.  No matter how differently we experience our various explorations into the internalised world of ‘sense-making’, they always add up to the same thing: justification for our need to maintain a grand illusion.  This illusion is duality.

p143, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4 

Division

Duality, in whatever human context, always produces division.  The ways in which ‘division’ expresses itself are endless.  Each way in which ‘division’ expresses itself also provides a method of dissolving that division. 

p416, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Constant companion

This story ... is interesting from the point of view of ambivalence being our constant companion until we no longer perceive in a dualistic manner.  Confidence and doubt continually tickle each other as long as duality exists – even for the greatest practitioners.  This is why it is so important to treat ambivalence as workable ground.

p222, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4 

Simple, ordinary, and direct

Bodhicitta is its own success.  One who has authentically taken the bodhisattva vow is spontaneously pleasant and accommodating – a gentleman, a gentlewoman.  Seriously considering the benefit of others before oneself deflates the pneumatic pressure of duality.  It is extraordinarily simple, ordinary, and direct—saints of all denominations have been doing it for thousands of years.  They all did the same thing.  They let go of self interest (the individual salvation of the pratyékabuddhayana) and are therefore free of the strategising ploys which inhibit cheerfulness. 

p122, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

The flow of whatever is

   Being is continually poised on the brink of effortlessness – but continually creates distractions in order to sustain the sense of divorced individuation.  These delirious, distressing, and dreary deviations from effortlessness are the mechanisms employed to maintain the illusion of duality.  Nonduality, on the other hand, is completely relaxed in the flow of whatever is.

p39-40, Shock Amazement: The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.   Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1 

A natural movement toward non-duality

   The word nyam means meditational experience or meditational manifestation.  When we practice meditative methods of any kind, experiences occur due to the fact that we are not engaged with duality as intensely.  These experiences are valid in as much as they reflect the fact of our engagement in practise.  Nyams are not realisation per se, but they partake of a natural movement toward nonduality.
Nyams—being unstable—have no enduring characteristics.  They are therefore unreliable as indicators of anything beyond the fact that the pattern of dualism has been disrupted. 

p215, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

The dance of sub-atomic particles

   The elements are an array of characteristics which can be understood both in terms of duality and nonduality.  They express themselves at every level at which existence can be understood – yet they go beyond the sense-making remit of quotidian existence.  They travel into the sphere of unconditioned potentiality where language can no longer even hint at meaning.  The elements are the fabric of the Earth and the solar system in which it orbits the Sun.  Beyond that, the elements outstrip the extent to which science can currently see.  There is nothing other than the elements.  The dance of sub-atomic particles is simply the elements performing – arising and dissolving in a manner not entirely different from the way in which they perform within the facets of our perceptual continua.

p196-197, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

All our attempts to establish security fail

   We survey our perceptual horizon and categorise everything that appears on it as: proving our existence in terms of duality; disproving our existence in terms of duality; or as some vague neutrality, which presents no opportunity for manipulation either way.  All our attempts to establish security fail.  Our efforts fail because they are based on maintaining the illusion of duality.    
   There is no way that we can establish the security we’re looking for as long as we operate from the principle that duality actually functions.  In this sense, enlightenment is the continual realisation that duality is not functional. 

p108, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

We are prejudiced against our own natural state

 Fear of otherness lies at the root of prejudice.  From the point of view of duality – nothing is as ‘other’ or dissimilar as the nondual state.  From the perspective of nonduality we are prejudiced against our own natural state.  In the condition of dualistic estrangement – our own beginningless enlightenment becomes alien to us, and we are therefore antagonistic to it in every form it assumes.  From this primitive antagonism every type of prejudice arises. 

p156, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Fear of non-existence

   The discovery of shi-nè confronts fear of non-existence as being both the driving force of duality – and the sparkling through of non-duality.  So—in one sense—it is quite justifiable to mistrust the nature of personal identity.  That mistrust however, is usually aimed in the wrong direction.  The open dimension of being is mistrusted rather than the conceptual criteria by which existence is habitually validated.                                                             

p31, Shock Amazement  : The four naljors and four ting-ngé’dzin from the Dzogchen series of the nature of Mind.
Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books Worldwide, 2018, ISBN 978-1-898185-45-1

View of duality

"From the point of view of duality, emptiness evokes terror. From the view of liberated-being, emptiness evokes delight."

p17, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Working with view

"Being able to work with view means opening yourself to seeing the five-fold expressions of duality as being the warp and weft of your life's experience."

p237, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8