Refuge

"We have to know that ultimate, everlasting happiness will not come if we could just get that new job, adopt a new lifestyle, clinch the business deal, buy a new house, change the type of car we drive, give up the car and buy a bike and trailer, if we become vegetarian or vegan, take more exercise, find our ideal partner, buy a new wardrobe of clothes, or have a change of scene, career, friends. We have to feel this enough to actually start practising and discovering experientially that the cause of our dissatisfaction is something fundamental in ourselves, rather than anything we can manipulate externally. We must realise that there is nothing in our lives we can manipulate and change that will ultimately quieten the feeling of unsatisfactoriness. It is our own relationship with experience that creates unhappiness."

refuge, Ngala Nor'dzin Pamo

Simply being

"You have to address your own level of fear, and that is called compassion – simply being with ‘what is there’. Accepting the whole texture of what you feel without having to act out, or lash out in some primitive bid for self-preservation. We have to trust the texture of what is happening and relax with the ‘rip-tides’ of what we feel. If there’s some space, then that becomes possible. It’s a ride though... but if we reject ‘the ride’... we get ridden... and the spurs bite deep!."

kindness-and-compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Kindness and compassion

"Kindness is where we start. Compassion means so much more, in a certain sense, than simply being kind. Compassion means kindness, but it also means communication – fierce, florid, and fecund communication. Compassion is openness to infinite pattern and to embodying any aspect of that pattern for the benefit of everyone, and everything, everywhere."

kindness-and-compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Kindness simplifies situations

"When we make the effort to be kind, we may find that it becomes increasingly effortless. It may begin to flow naturally, and make us glad that we can experience such warmth and openness. A truly kind act is an act of pure appropriateness and therefore whenever we are kind, there will be an element of appropriateness. Life will seem more infused with energy, and there will seem fewer obstructions. Kindness simplifies situations. An act of kindness enables us to side-step our attachment to the past and future – it is a holiday from ‘me-centred concerns’, and as such can be lived moment by moment."

Kindness, Ngak'chang Rinpoche

Spaciousness

"The practise of Letting Go develops awareness. It also develops a sense of spaciousness in the mind and the capacity to observe thought rather than being overwhelmed by involvement with its content."

p129, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

Every day view

"There is no purpose in being able to experience oneself as radiating pure light and have an intense experience of purity whilst sitting on one's meditation cushion, if one cannot display down-to-earth patience, tolerance and respect of others in ordinary life situations."

p125, Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor'dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, 978-1898185178

A teaching from Künzang Dorje Rinpoche

"As to how we should meditate, it's important to break sitting into short sessions. Meditation doesn't require sitting for long stretches as if there were value merely in not moving. It's better to meditate for short periods rather than long session that have no result. When drops of water accumulate they gather momentum but each drop is separate. Each drop is unique. Meditation sessions should accumulate in the same way."

p363 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Kindness as an illness

"The idea of kindness as an illness with all its attendant concepts of infection and contagion is highly creative. This manner of expression is a brilliant example of how Tantra turns language on its head. It uses violent rage to describe clarity, and sickness to describe health. Sometimes you have to spread the illness of kindness in the guise of desperado and sometimes in the guise of 'thom yor."

p138 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

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

Vajrayana is not ordinary

"Vajrayana is not ordinary and so ordinary language cannot be used. Vajrayana is the poetry of existence beyond space and time. Vajrayana is every art and you must be practising every art. If you do not practise every art how can you know the elements? And if you do not know the elements how can you know the essence of the elements and open your eyes to great vision?"

p3 Wisdom Eccentrics, Ngakpa Chögyam, Aro Books, Inc, 2011, 978-0965394864

Basis of the spiritual path

"At the beginning of the Tantric ngöndro we invoke the presence of the Lama. Since the Lama is the one who exemplifies both the qualities of path and goal, we acknowledge the Lama as the beginning and end of all practice. After having commenced our practice by acknowledging the Lama, we consider the difficulty of gaining human re-birth (in terms of having the conducive circumstances to practice). Human re-birth is the basis of the spiritual path of liberation and is therefore precious and worthy of great respect. If we do not value the situation in which we have found ourselves, then we will not make use of our precious circumstances and a great opportunity will be squandered."

Dzogchen View of Tantric Ngöndro, His Holiness Düd'jom Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Shi-nè

"Shi-nè equates to the path of renunciation, because one renounces attachment to that which arises in mind. It also equates in Sutra with the path of compassion, because one is also compassionate with regard to that which arises in mind. It is not that I sit there and kill all that arises. If it arises, I allow it to arise. And if it remains, I allow it to remain. If it dissolves, I allow it to dissolve. So I have in this practice endless accommodation for that which arises; I do not stop it from arising; I do not protract it either; I do not become attached to it; I do not contain it; I do not control it. I allow it to perform."

Compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Neurosis

"The more you try to force thought out, the more of a problem it becomes. The more you disapprove of your own neuroses, the more of a problem they become. The time to disapprove of them is if they are hurting others; and then in the moment. But one does not go into punishing oneself for having them at other times. If one is aware that one has patterns, then one has to say, I need to have some awareness while this pattern is performing. If I punish myself for having the pattern whilst I am having it, then this actually acts as a screen which hides the neurosis – I can be the good person who is disapproving of the bad habit. That means I never get to see this habit, this neurosis, because I am too busy being the person who is disapproving of it. This is actually a way of maintaining the neurosis."

Compassion, Ngak'chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Emotional comfort

"Anyone who believes anything, at some level, makes the choice to believe. If we make the choice to believe because there’s a spiritually materialistic payoff in believing, then as soon as the payoff ceases to function we lose our belief. With rebirth, I would say that there is a grave danger of the payoff being connected with emotional comfort of some kind and that is deadly in terms of an authentic Buddhist practice. Buddhism is not actually emotionally comfortable in terms of the need to experience continuity. If we are to call ourselves Buddhists we have to accept the practice of discovering that we are discontinuous – that the ‘I’ is momentary."

Counting the cars, Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Aro Encyclopaedia

Artistic perception

"To be involved with the arts is to become involved with all beings because all beings are endowed with sense fields which perceive the arts. Its not only simply the arts as they are commonly understood; it is the nature of artistic perception which is entranced by the totality of phenomena."

p176, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Discovery of the sense fields

"If we open the eyes of our senses, we cannot avoid the discovery of the sense fields as a magical display. It is not magical in the sense of illusion, because trickery is not involved and nothing unexpectedly leaps out of a hat. Scarves do not change colour, and there are no scantly dressed women in boxes who survive an impossible number of swords."

p177, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Smile

"We can definitely change the world-but the problem is that we seem unable to smile. When chaos manifests in our lives we can smile-which is the cure for resentful confusion. If your practice of shi-nè facilitates the experience of emptiness, it will also facilitate the capacity to grin at your own chaos-and if you can grin at your own chaos, then you will have authentic pervasive compassion for the chaos of existence."

p241, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Defined rules

"In contrast with happiness, misery has clearly defined rules but rapture, is a somewhat unbounded state in which clear-cut definitions have no function. In comparison with sadness, joy is far more intangible and unpredictable. We all know the rules and regulations of melancholy but the perceptual patterns of carefree happiness are subtle and difficult to define."

p55, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen, Aro Books Inc., 2010, 978-0965394833

A sense of contentment

"It is not actually easy for most people to rest with a sense of contentment. Most are blighted by addiction to 'ongoing process', and this addiction does not know what to do with itself when there is no longer a need for process to be enacted."

p55, Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon, Ngakpa Chogyam and Khandro Dechen, Aro Books Inc., 2010, 978-0965394833

Beginningless empty essence

"When the beginningless empty essence of being gives rise to the vivid display of the nature of being, we manifest physical form, the energy of being. This physical manifestation shimmers between wonderment and bewilderment."

p10, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7