Vajra commitment

Vajra commitment is the openness to questioning arrogant, unkind, selfish, manipulative, or thoughtless behaviour.  This is the only kind of vajra commitment in which we are actually interested.

p313, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4  

Allow the senses to dance

Allow the sense-fields to be as they are.  Allow the senses to dance with the sense-fields.  That, in itself, is the meditative state.  Every artist will understand that experientially – even if they know nothing of meditation.

p200, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4  

Being our own enemies

When we accept confusion as the rich ground from which clarity can be discovered, we can cease being our own enemies.

p197, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

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

A sense field

Conceptuality is a sense field as much as the other sense – but apart from artists, most people prioritise the linguistic aspects of thought.

p416, 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

Essentially sacred

Because you’re a symbol of your beginningless nondual condition—and because all beings likewise are symbols—there can be no being who is not essentially scared according to the pure vision of Vajrayana.

p327, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

State of being

Meditation is not fundamentally a technique – it is a state of being.

p150, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Prejudice to appreciation

From the perspective of the visionary practices of Vajrayana we become able to transform every aspect of prejudice against otherness in terms of vibrant appreciation.

p398, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

A sad waste of time

Bringing one’s creative ideas into the nirmanakaya is important in being a mensch.  To be a person who merely talks about their wonderful ideas without ever making them a reality is a sad waste of time.

p393, 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 vajra world

 

The vajra world is co-created by the Lamas and the students and the sangha.

p370, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Perception

To live the view is to be open in perception – open to seeing emptiness and form at play.  This is something which cannot be constructed and imposed.

p352, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Actualisation

Through having actualised the nature of the teaching, the Lama has the capacity to facilitate that actualisation in others.  Actualisation is the condition in which the teaching has become as real as the need to eat, drink, sleep, or breathe.

p319, 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 Lama

Without the Lama, Vajrayana cannot function.  The Lama is the source of wisdom and method, embodying the divisionlessness of emptiness and form. 

p319, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Effortlessness

Pure appropriateness is an invisible dance in which one is transparent in terms of what is taking place.  there is an effortlessness that is not even named or differentiated from effort.

p237, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Dynamically linked

Every state of mind, however distressed or distressing, is dynamically linked to the nondual play of the free elements.

p190, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4

Life is short

Life is short; it makes no sense not to plunge deep.  Plunge into whatever it is that makes life worth living.

p163, 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 same nature

When life experience seems most arduous or difficult, simply remember that your Mind is of the same nature as Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel.

p204, 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 illusion of continuity

Every moment is death. Every moment is birth. Death and birth flicker as cinematographic film flickers – and gives the illusion of continuity.

p198, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 

Direct awareness

When all there is, is the felt texture of the canvas against the brush and the direct awareness of colour in motion – that is meditation.

p199, Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions.  Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2022, ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4