We may continue to see our students or not

It is good to make friends with death.  Whenever the plane takes off, we recite Yeshé Tsogyel mantra.  Whenever the plane lands, we recite Vajra Guru mantra.  This is not for protection or a ‘thank you’ for the protection – but as the recognition that we may continue to see our students or not.

p169, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Tuning oneself

Reciting mantra is a process of tuning oneself like a musical instrument.  One begins to resonate with the power of the mantra.

p414, 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 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

Emptiness is the oven where the bread of vision bakes itself

  After you've received empowerment into the practice of a particular awareness-being, or yidam, the form of this awareness-being will spontaneously arise out of the state of emptiness when you engage in practice.  The form of the awareness-being will also arise in your dreams – maybe even in the steam that arises from your cup of coffee.  It depends on the intensity of your devotion.  There is no process – it simply happens because you have the key; and the key is the Tantric text or the awareness-spell which is sung to instigate this arising.  Your experience of emptiness is the oven where the bread of your vision bakes itself.  The empty state is the perfect environment for endless vision to arise.
p116, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Mantra

"Mantra is the sense of terminal intimacy with the sound – through which one's capacities become ‘self apparent’. Mantra is a ‘carrier wave’ on which the unique frequency of the yidam travels. By reciting mantra, one tunes oneself to the ‘frequency’ of the yidam."

The Bristol Talks, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Singing the mantra of Yeshé Tsogyel

"Singing the mantra of Yeshé Tsogyel is a sem’dzin practice. One is finding presence of awareness in the dimension of sound; it is a meditative practice. The function is that the tune itself has a particular quality that enables one to enter into the state of awareness."

Compassion & The Nine Yanas, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia