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

Haunted

We are all beginninglessly aquainted with nonduality, and therefore haunted by our ever present prior condition.  We all look for our ever-present prior condition, whether we know it or not.

p218, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7 

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 

It’s actually quite funny

The vow to lead the extraordinary life of the changchub sempa is the determined commitment to practice, not for ourselves – but for all beings.  We make the vow to renounce the atttainment of nonduality until all beings realise their nondual nature.  It’s a paradox.  In fact it’s actually quite funny.  The expansive good heart and open warmth we generate through our intention, projects us inevitably towards our goal – through the practice of giving up our goal.

p80-81, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

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

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  

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

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

Vajrayana

"Every style of perception is utilised by Vajrayana to realise the nondual state. Vajrayana is the method by which everything is accomplished through all possible means."

p9 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Intellectual elaborations are not important

"Kindness is as close as we can come to a moral approximation of awareness. Having a good heart goes further than anything in terms of empathising with the nondual state. Intellectual elaborations are not important."

p49, Rays of the Sun, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-06-2

Energy of practice

"When view is open and clear, and the energy of our being is the energy of practice, activity naturally arises that is congruent with the realisation of nonduality."

p55, Spacious Passion , Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1-898185-07-9

The human condition

"The human condition is one in which we are simultaneously beginninglessly nondual and dualistically distorted"

p13, Moving Being, Khandro Déchen, Aro Books worldwide, 2009, 978-1-898185-05-5

Dzogchen approach

"Dzogchen approaches everything from the perspective of the primordial nondual state"

p12, Moving Being, Khandro Déchen, Aro Books worldwide, 2009, 978-1-898185-05-5

Prejudice

"Vajrayana begins with the premise that duality is a state of prejudice against nonduality"

p156, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen, Aro Books Inc., 2010, 978-0965394833