The pattern breaks down

At some point in any sequence of ‘forms’ – ‘emptiness’ will happen. If this was not the case – everything would be predictable – everything would be ‘form’. There’s going to be some point in any evolving scenario‚where the pattern breaks down. 

p363, Warp and Weft of Wonderment, Ngakma Mé-tsal, Aro Books Worldwide, 2024, ISBN 9781898185680  

Honour

You need to keep agreements with yourself, and with others.  I think this is really fundamental.  You need to be able to stick to some course of action; to see it through in spite of difficult circumstances.  You need to be reliable.  You need to be form for others; rather than being emptiness for them.  That’s one meaning of compassion.

p192, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4  

Infinite variety

‘Infinite variety’ speaks of the limitless, transient nature of form – the way it continually arises out of emptiness and dissolves back into emptiness,  Infinite variety means that there is nothing about the way in which form arises that is predictable according to dualistic perception.  

p102, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4 

A superbly complete portrait

The form of the yidam is essentially instructive.  Through assuming this form, we learn to experience ourselves as possessing limitless capacities.  The limitless nature of our capacities is described by the many different forms in which yidam can be practised.  Each form is a particular avenue of approach to the experience of enlightenment.  Every image is a complete portrait of the enlightened state.

p97-98, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4 

Dangerous territory

Emptiness happens.  Dangerous territory is wherever the rules do not apply – and that can be anywhere.  Rules are form – but then emptiness happens.

p161, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4  

Sky mind, cloud mind

In our attachment to this specific physical form, we have forgotten that mind does not depend on physicality.  Through attaching all experience to the sphere of our physicality, we limit our awareness of the nature of Mind.  Practice enables us to experience Sky mind, rather than remaining trapped in cloud mind with its referential need to grasp at physical form.

p112-113, Spacious Passion Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books, 2006 ISBN: 978-0-9653948-4-0

The inseparability of sameness and difference

In terms of emptiness – we are indeed all one.  Your emptiness.  My emptinesss.  The emptiness of everyone.  They are all ‘one’ in all being the same.  Emptiness however, is one aspect of reality.  The other aspect is form.  Form is that which continually arises from emptiness.  In terms of form, we are certainly not all one – we are all different.  Nonduality is the inseparability of this sameness and difference.

p25, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon 2nd edition, Khandro Déchen and Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2021, ISBN 978-0-9653948-7-1

There is a gap there

If we want to cultivate some understanding of what is meant by emptiness, we have to look for the reflections of emptiness within the mirror of the world of form. We need to look at the moments when our experience is transitional; when one sequence of events seems to conclude, and the beginning of another has not yet become obvious. There is a gap there – and that gap is emptiness.

p33, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Then the mind begins to awaken

The rider must focus on the horse.  In this way, the rider is empty in relation to the form of the horse.  Through this relationship, the horse is able to respond fully, and achieve its potential.  The meditator learns emptiness in order to clarify the relationship with form, and thereby discover the nonduality of emptiness and form.  Then the mind begins to awaken.  

p10, Battlecry of Freedom  Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2019, ISBN 978-1-898185-46-8  

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

The principle and function of mantra practice

The principle of mantra practice is transformation.  Mantra is the form quality of emptiness, and the visualisation is the emptiness quality of form. Within Tantra the two are united as a means of transforming our dimension of being into that of the yidam.
Mantra functions through repetition in terms of overwhelming the conceptual sphere – we become entirely engrossed with the quality sphere of the yidam in terms of light and sound.
There is no room for ‘me’ there. I have to let go of the ‘me project’. As soon as I let go of the ‘me project’, the yidam irradiates my experience with referenceless enjoyment in which there are no compulsory projects.  One becomes the yidam and both sees and hears the world as the yidam.

Aro Encyclopaedia  Index: Dzogchen and Tantra: question and answer session.  Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen

Courage

   ‘Courage’ is a form-related word, or an active-compassion related word.  Courage certainly means the ability to ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’; but it also has the sense of really owning your capacity to love and care for others.  We often stifle the great capacity for love that we have, through our fear of losing all sense of boundaries – as if we needed boundaries!  Courage is very much linked with compassion.  Compassion, at the level of our intrinsic nature, is linked with all our activities – especially our activities of personal interaction.   


p243, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

The open-mindedness and kindness of lovers

The lover's open-mindedness equates with wisdom inasmuch as lovers cannot remain lovers if they become closed-minded with each other.
The lover's kindness equates with compassion inasmuch as lovers cannot remain lovers if they entertain the possibility of causing each other pain or distress.
Kindness is elicited by the kindness of one's lover, and one's own kindness achieves reciprocal responsiveness: kindness escalates and becomes addictive.  Through the self-orientation of our grasping, self-orientation loosens of itself, and dissolves within the fluidity of the needs perceived in one's lover.

p147, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3

Multiplicity and Divergence

 
Buddhist nonduality allows multiplicity and divergence.  At the level of emptiness – we are indeed all one: your emptiness and my emptiness—the emptiness of everyone—is the same.  However – emptiness is only one aspect of reality.  The other aspect is that which continually arises from emptiness: form.  At the level of form – we are certainly not all one, we are different.  Nonduality is the inseparability of this sameness and difference.

p23, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon http://arobuddhism.org/books/entering-the-heart-of-sun-and-moon.html, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen,  Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-3-3 

Relating as the emptiness to the form of Tantra

"Yab-yum imagery is not telling us that we should be making love with the opposite sex. It is about the union of emptiness and form – concepts which are often seen as opposites but which are in reality in ecstatic union with each other. Tantric imagery arises in the minds of Enlightened Masters; and such imagery cannot be extrapolated, inferred, or logically deduced from what went before. We cannot re-invent Vajrayana according to our personal neurotic need to have the world mirror our form. To attempt to create yab-yab or yum-yum imagery on this basis would be patent nonsense. It is to misunderstand the whole point of Tantra; which is that we allow ourselves to relate as emptiness to the form of Tantra."

being-gay-practicing-tantra, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Simply form and emptiness

"To be real practitioners we have to be continually open to comparing the map with the actual landscape of experience we find in our silent sitting practice. In spiritual terms, map and maplessness, or map and uncharted territory are non-dual. They are simply form and emptiness."

p69, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Sense of self-existence

"Because the world around us is the ‘form’ in which we attempt to establish our sense of self-existence, reflections of emptiness tend to be interpreted as ‘disturbing’."

p49, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books Inc., 2010, 978-0965394833

Hung

"Hung is the heart syllable, the seed syllable of Padmasambhava. Hung is also the seed syllable of Yeshé Tsogyel. Hung is the primordial union of emptiness and form; the understanding of which, in itself, encompasses refuge and bodhicitta. There is no refuge and bodhicitta greater than the comprehension of the non-duality of emptiness and form."

Seven Line Song, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Finding presence of awarness

"Ultimately, finding presence of awareness in the dimension of the moment is the experience of nondual emptiness and form. Within this experience, all manifestations become the ornaments of spontaneous presence and are experienced as purely appropriate, natural, uncontrived, and free."

p147, Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2009, 978-1-898185-07-9