Culture

"As practitioners, Buddhism, in its essential nature, should be our culture. Beyond that—we should integrate with the creative, positive, and humanitarian aspects of the culture of wherever we happen to be living."

p11, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Awareness & Kindness

"The most important thing is that there is no rule apart from awareness and kindness"

p9, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Wealth and generosity

"Wealth and generosity go hand in hand-if they do not then we have neither."

p131, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Security

"The only truly stable ground we can find is emptiness. It is only possible to find security in insecurity - by establishing insecurity as security"

p130, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

The Illusion of Poverty

"If we cooperate with the sparkling through of our beginningless enlightenment and experience the nature of the energy from which territorialism arises, we can release ourselves from the illusion of poverty.'"

p128, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Symbolism & Enlightenment

"When symbolism and the state of enlightenment dissolve into each other, we recognise the primal purity of our own condition"

p110, Spectrum of Ecstasy, Ngakpa Chögyam with Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 1997, 0-9653948-0-8

Primordial Goodness

"Primordial goodness is that which grins at the illusions of the dualistic predicament - so sit and learn to smile. "

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

Naturalness

"Naturalness is relaxing into the present moment"

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

Understand

"No one can understand themselves. All you can hope to achieve is to be transparent - and allow understanding to occur naturally."

p231, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Starting Over

"We imagine that we are the same person simply getting older. That is also a fantasy. Every moment is just like starting over."

p223, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Work

"Work and the demands of daily life are none other than the practice of Dzogchen"

p220, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Freedom

"Freedom is the absence of self-consciousness. The absence of self-consciousness allows generosity, transparence, decentralised desire, uninhibited action, and spaciousness"

p210, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Magic

"Seeing the magic of existence requires an open mind and a certain lack of rigid co-ordinates"

p209, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Unhappy

"Unhappy' is what we create by turning off the senses"

p179, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Samsara

"We live as much as we can in the Dzogchen view that there is no samsara beyond our own perception"

p168, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

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

Joy

"Always put the possibility of joy before the need to be safe"

p135, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Openness to infinite pattern

"Compassion is openness to infinite pattern and to embodying any aspect of that pattern for the benefit of everyone and everything, everywhere"

p131, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

Sudden enlightenment

"We have to embrace our situation before the gradual process becomes inevitable as suddenness"

p91, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7

The hell of being a practitioner

"The hell of being a practitioner is the state in which we begin to see our neuroses and yet we continue to afflict ourselves with them"

p78, Emailing the Lamas from Afar, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books, 2009, 978-0-9653948-5-7