Laughing at oneself

Being able to laugh at oneself is crucial. One has to see one’s contradictions and find them amusing. Once the contradictions are amusing‚ they’re workable. They’re workable because one is not taking oneself entirely seriously. This depends on space – on the emptiness of silent sitting. 

p261, 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

Entirely open to understanding

Vajrayana was no longer something to be learnt word-by-word—fact-by-fact—category-by-category. It was a living coherent organism which was entirely open to understanding – as long as one was possessed of the experience of silent sitting. 

p244, Goodbye Forever Vol III, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books Worldwide, 2023, ISBN 9781898185666

The Tantric joke

   We feel ourselves to be solid, yet we are nervous about our existence.  We feel our world to be coherent at one moment; and at another, the whole fabric of our life-event can seem a trifle questionable.  If we never experience our intrinsic spaciousness – we can only ever experience this alternation as: pain, discomfort, alienation; boredom, panic or dissatisfaction.  But as soon as we begin to practise silent sitting meditation; to stare into the nature of what we are; we become a little suspicious of our life-event. We become intrigued by the transparent ambivalences of our situation. It could be quite possible that things are both not what they seem; and, simultaneously, exactly what they seem. This could be called the Tantric joke, the vajra sense of humour that continually prompts us to ask the questions: What is going on? Why is this solidity so solid and also so insubstantial? Why am I consumed by so much certainty and uncertainty?

p47, Wearing the Body of Visions, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, 1995, ISBN 1-898185-03-4

Keep calm and carry on

   The best way that we know for people to keep calm—or become calm in the first place—is called ཞི་གནས་ / zhi gNas / Shi-né. 

This has been translated in many ways: the most common being Calm Abiding. Literally it means Peace Remain.   We usually translate this as ‘Remaining Uninvolved With What Arises’.  This is the only way there is – or has ever been.  There are many different practices.  There are many different mantras.  There are many different visualisations – but, basically, if one has no basis in ཞི་གནས་ then these marvellous practices will be of no use in any case.
  
So, this returns us to Silent Sitting.  If you are calm then, everyone around you will become calm – simply by knowing that you are calm.  The more people who become calm the calmer people will become.

Posted by Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen to sangha on WhatsApp 14th March 2020

Trust

   Trusting yourself  – in the sense of meditation, is a question of expanding—of slowly expanding the expression of sitting.  Through sitting, self-existent communication is discovered as the nature of the world.  It becomes a completely real world, rather than a world of bewilderment and pain.  You begin to trust yourself because you begin to trust the nature of the elements; the nature of your perception; the nature of your emotions; the nature of your physicality; and, the nature of your psychology.  It is all there to see and it is an open space.

p205, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Naturalness

   I no longer use the word ‘enlightenment’ when I can help it.  It has been horribly overused and does not actually represent a direct translation of a Tibetan or Sanskrit term.  We use the term non-duality.  The word ‘nowness’, as spoken of by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, is important in Buddhism – especially any tradition which emphasises silent sitting.  
We tend to discuss naturalness – but it has the same meaning.  Naturalness is relaxed.  Naturalness is relaxing into the present moment.

p234, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Desire

The Vajrayana texts—both Tibetan and Sanskrit—portray Vajrayana as a magnificent banquet of the senses.  Naturally then, as teachers of Vajrayana, we encourage desire.  Desire is the sensory scenario in which lust and liberation are indivisible.  Desire is inseparable from chang-chub sem.  This is both subtle and easy to misinterpret – which is why we place  such emphasis on silent sitting.  Without recognition of emptiness, desire is merely self  orientation.   

p51, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

Every moment we live ...

If practice is a strong priority we should avoid weakening it by letting our other priorities contend with it.  So we should just sit.  When we get home, we should just sit.  We should sit again tomorrow morning and continue sitting in that way.  Every time we sit should be the first time, and every moment we live should be the last moment.  Remember to make friends with death, and let present sensations flow like sand through your fingers.

p143, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7 

Clarity and motivation

Once silent sitting practice becomes part of your life, clarity will begin to develop.  When you start to gain a little clarity, there will be a much stronger motivation to practice.  Once you see the value of practice in your life, you’ll be motivated to make further discoveries—and then maintaining motivation will no longer be a problem.  Motivation has to propel you into practice—but there it must stop.  If you fill your sitting space with the desire for progress, you’ll stifle your developing awareness.  So letting go of motivation is critically valuable.  When we sit, we should sit without purpose—without hope or fear.

p144, Roaring Silence: Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, ISBN 1-57062-944-7  

Cheerfully and without resenting yourself

Silent sitting is essential.  All you need to do is accept what you are feeling and stop fighting.  You can relax with the situation – and take whatever happens as it comes.  Decisions made on the basis of accepting yourself—albeit temporarily—‘as you are’, can be made more cheerfully and without resenting yourself.  You need to be at ease with how you are at the same time as moving on – and that requires space, the space of silent sitting.    

p137, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, ISBN 978-0-9653948-5-7

“Why can’t you play like a normal boy?!”

Silent sitting seemed to be the heart of it all – and so I sat every day. The idea of sitting was intriguing because I'd sat silently since childhood – and had been harangued about it by my father “Why can’t you play like a normal boy?!” I was always able to sit and stare – without going off into dreams. I’d just observe the colours and sounds of my environment and allow them to drift in and out of my observation. 

It was the idea of silence that eventually led me to Dzogchen as being the heart of everything.  

p26, Wisdom Eccentrics : Rumours of realisation as told by Künzang Dorje Rinpoche with additional tales of the unexpected.  Ngakpa Chögyam,  Aro Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9653948-6-4

Sitting Meditation

"In sitting meditation, we experience emptiness directly as the simultaneous absence of thought and presence of awareness. We experience form as the thought and sensation which arise from the condition of non-thought. We experience non-duality as the nature of Mind in which thought and the absence of thought are no longer mutually exclusive – they have the same taste."

Aro Buddhism, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

We are not sitting in silence for ourselves

"Generosity is vital if we are to give ourselves time to sit and if we are to give all sentient beings our time of sitting. We are not sitting in silence for ourselves; that is crucial."

p124, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 978-1570629440

Become suspicious

"It is important as the basis of Sutra, to become suspicious enough so that we can question things, and the main principle there in terms of practice is silent sitting."

Compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

New to practice

"When you're new to practice, you need to treat yourself a little more gently and take account of the fact that you can easily become distracted."

p160, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 978-1570629440

Silent space

"Sound manifests within silent space, and the function of practice is to discover silent mind."

p159, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 978-1570629440

Dimension of the sound

"Just find the presence of your awareness in the dimension of the sound."

p160, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 978-1570629440

Silent mind

"When mind is silent, there is endless silent space in which sounds sing infinitely separate songs."

p159, Roaring Silence, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Shambhala, 2002, 978-1570629440

Respect

"Silent sitting is the greatest respect you can offer and the greatest influence you can have."

p162, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7