The outer world is simply there; we are simply here

The space of being and the space of existence are both separate and non-separate – therefore they reflect each other. They reflect each other either as duality or as non-duality; depending on whether we attach to form or whether we allow form and emptiness to dance.

p135, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Dance

We need to arrive at a sense in which we can simply flow with the multiplicity of definitions that reality manifests.  There can be some sense of dance there, in which we swim with these currents and relax in these pools of stillness.  Tantra introduces us to the one taste of emptiness and form.

p34, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4 

 

Perception

To live the view is to be open in perception – open to seeing emptiness and form at play.  This is something which cannot be constructed and imposed.

p352, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

The Lama

Without the Lama, Vajrayana cannot function.  The Lama is the source of wisdom and method, embodying the divisionlessness of emptiness and form. 

p319, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Awareness-imagery

Every aspect of the awareness-imagery of Tantra has arisen through the spacious passion of vision.  ‘Spacious passion’ means the non-dual experience of wisdom and compassion (emptiness and form).  It is the active communicative quality that is indivisible from the experience of emptiness.  The word ‘spacious’ relates to the empty or unbounded aspect of the non-dual state.  ‘Passion’ relates to the energy, that spontaneously arises from the state of emptiness, in terms of infinite variety.

p101-102, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4 

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 

Devotion

 

Devotion is letting go of the importance we place on the stresses of life, and embracing total responsibility.  It is release from the bondage of neurosis into identification with honour.  Devotion has the deliciously ambiguous, inexpressible quality of Vajrayana itself.  It is emptiness and form.  It is allowing oneself to dissolve into emptiness in relation to the Lama and arising in the form of the Lama’s pure view.  It is freedom from the bondage of referentiality.

p224, Spacious Passion Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books, 2006 ISBN: 978-0-9653948-4-0

The dramatic dimension of dance

Buddhist Tantra explores the nondual matrix of emptiness and form.  It delves into the dramatic dimension of dance.  When the nature of the dance is realised, extrication from the vast and subtle sexual embrace of each shining moment becomes unfeasible. 

p22, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon 2nd edition, Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2021, ISBN 978-0-9653948-7-1  

The dance of emptiness and form

What then exists for those who are drawn to pursuit of realisation – but who remain unattracted by the option of detaching from ordinary everyday society?  What exists for those who experience spiritual value in their interaction with the world?  The answer is that Vajrayana exists – not necessarily the Vajrayana of liturgical recitation – but the essential Vajrayana, which expounds the dance of emptiness and form within every nuance of experience.

p44, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3 

Earth, water, fire, air, space

    Earth is the nondual quality of solidity and intangibility.  Water is the nondual quality of permanence and impermanence.  Fire is the nondual quality of separateness and inseparability.  Air is the nondual quality of continuity and discontinuity.  Space is the nondual quality of definition and lack of definition.  As soon as we attempt to split the qualities and adhere only to the form qualities of the elements, we create samsara.  The form qualities of emptiness cannot be split from the emptiness qualities of form.

p27, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

We are not speaking in terms of nihilistic negation

  Form is the dance partner of emptiness – and emptiness cannot be understood apart from form.  Emptiness is the dance partner of form – and form cannot dance without emptiness.  Form could be said to be the apparently tangible aspect of experience and existence – but form is empty.  One can only understand form in the confident absence of tangibility.  That does not mean however that everything is nothing.  When we speak of emptiness as nothingness or voidness, we are not speaking in terms of nihilistic negation—but in terms of nothingness being inseparable from everythingness. 

p49, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Complete freedom from inhibition

Chö-ku, long-ku and trül-ku, exist as a singular field – the fourth, or indivisible sphere of being.  This is known as dorje-ku (indestructible sphere) or ngo-wo-ku (essence sphere).  Chö-ku, long-ku and trül-ku manifest as three inherent modes of access to the unitary experience of reality.  But the experience of realisation sees no boundaries or divisions between them. 
Dorje-ku is the absolute undivided quality of enlightened nature.  This is the sphere of complete freedom from inhibition – the sphere of indestructible reality, in which dualistic fixations have no ground.
Whatever arises in this condition becomes an ornament of the enlightened state, in the instant of its arising.  From the pan-dimensional principle of tantra, in order to actualise this state – to become trül-ku – we need to unify emptiness and form though entering the sphere of energy.

p55-56, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4
   

Naked awareness

   The need to continually confirm personal identity seems hard-wired – because there is a continually observable engagement in the activity of seeking existential assurances.  This is the dualistic penchant for unnecessarily clothing naked awareness in concepts. 
Non-duality is the state in which emptiness and form manifest as a seamless alternation in which each are aspects of the other – and have the same essential experiential flavour. 

p29, 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

Emptiness and form

We need to observe the way in which we do actually seek emptiness when form becomes too oppressive.  We need to observe the way in which we solidify emptiness and crush our own freedom by attempting to make form come into being too quickly. 
Maybe, it would be interesting to allow things to remain undefined just a little bit longer than we usually do.  Maybe we could attempt to settle into the sense of uncertainty and feel the texture of that.  Some understanding needs to evolve, in which we come to regard experiences of both emptiness and form as beads on the thread of energy that comprises the nature of what we are.

p34, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

The electricity of ambivalence

Wisdom and compassion are emptiness and form; they're not separate.  That is the goal of tantra – the unification of emptiness and form.  If the practice of tantra is to unify these, then ambivalence will naturally be a powerful aspect of the path.  As long as there is the appearance of duality, there is the energy of ambivalence: she loves me, she loves me not; she loves me she loves me not …  
Will practice bring me realisation or merely painful knees and ankles?  If the dance of emptiness and form has been mere stagnation – there is no electricity of ambivalence!
Wisdom and compassion are live electric terminals for tantrikas.  You grab them and experience the surge of existence/non-existence as it lights you up like the sun!  Then … maybe you radiate compassion from the empty wisdom space of your being.

p40-41, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

A Vicar of Vajrayana

  There is no area of life that is ever separate from practice; whether we’re in a business meeting with the board, eating paella and drinking Prosecco with friends, roaring with laughter at a bad joke, hang gliding across the Grand Canyon, walking in the wind with the hounds on the hill, singing the blues, stringing beans, or attending a dying friend. Whether we’re on the bus, on the stage, or on the run, on a roll, on the mend, or on the make, on the toilet, on the edge, or on our last legs and last breath . . . there is nothing but practice. The essential practice of recognizing the one taste of emptiness and form, of wisdom and compassion, of manifesting the non-dual play of our awareness and kindness at all times.

 

Drala-Jong.org: A Vicar of Vajrayana Ngakma Mé-tsal Wangmo
Excerpt from an article published in the magazine Buddhist Door Global 2018.