Buddhism is not a religion of truth - Illusory Advice

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“Buddhism is not a religion of truth – it is a religion of method. Its teachings are not overly concerned with expressing truth – but with methods of practice. In a sense, one could actually say that there is only one ‘truth’ in Buddhism: that form and emptiness are nondual.

As beginners, we start to become familiar with form and emptiness in the context of sitting  meditation. We learn to experience emptiness as an absence of thought, that is simultaneous with presence of awareness. We experience form as thoughts and sensations which arise from within the condition of non-thought. We eventually begin to glimpse nonduality in those moments when thought and the absence of thought have the same taste. 

The essential practice of Buddhism is to attempt to understand nonduality in the widest and most encompassing way possible, and to integrate this with every moment of one’s life. Buddhism is a set of infinitely varied methods to help us achieve this.”

Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6, page 15.

Completing the creation of a Protection Amulet

The third and final video explaining and demonstrating the last stage of creating an amulet is now posted on YouTube. The final stage is weaving the threads across the wound bands of colour.

Aro Yeshé statue and the finished amulet

Beginning the creation of an amulet - the second video

                                 

The wound threads.

The first stage of creating a protection amulet is to bind the paper containing the image of the demon-dispelling scorpion. By following video two of the three videos, you will create a square with wound blocks of thread of the five colours, as shown in the illustration above. There are two blocks of green in the centre. The blocks of colour are made up of threads. The number of threads in a block of colour will depend on the size of your folded square, and the thickness of your thread. How to calculate this is explained in the second video.

In effect, this stage of the process creates the vertical warp threads across which the weft threads will be woven to create the finished design.

The finished design.

The third video will explain and demonstrate the woven cross threads to complete the design.

Protection amulet for dispelling demons

Ngakpa Dawa Ngödrüp

Creating amulets is a Tibetan Vajrayana ritual practice. Their purpose can be for healing or protection, or to help effectuate any beneficial intent. In the thangka painting above, Ngakpa Dawa Ngödrüp, who was a herbalist at the Aro Gar in Tibet in the 1900s, is shown wearing many amulets.

Ngakma Nor’dzin is producing a set of three videos explaining a method of creating a protection amulet. In the Aro gTer Lineage, amulets are woven in the five elemental colours: yellow/earth, white/water, red/fire, green/air, and blue/space. Some amulets only use two or three colours, but they will still be a combination taken from the five elemental colours.

The protection amulet in the tutorial will be woven as a single ‘sky’. This means one of each of the elemental colours in their order moving from earth to space. Green will be the focus in the centre, so the cycle of the five colours will be green, followed by blue, then yellow, white and finally red as the outer colour. The reason for placing green—the air element—in the centre, is that the Covid 19 pandemic has been causing people to experience anxiety, and this arrangement of the elements is a manifestation of an intent to reduce anxiety, the neurotic emotional response of the air element.

The outer design of the amulet is in fact the binding to contain and seal the intention of the hidden charm inside it. Ngakma Nor’dzin will be using the Tibetan woodblock print of the demon-destroying scorpion as the active ingredient on the folded paper, around which the threads are woven. The photograph below was taken of this amulet charm by Ngakma Nor’dzin in Bhutan, where it was on a personal shrine.

If you wish to follow the video tutorials, and join in with creating a protection amulet, you can download the demon-dispelling scorpion for printing using this link: scorpion image.

The image below shows a group of embroidery threads that are a good combination of colours.The white and yellow are both Anchor perle cotton, numbers 1 and 298. The red, green and blue are DMC perle cotton, numbers 666, 699 and 796.

The materials and equipment you will need to create a protection amulet are as follows:

• a print-out of the demon-dispelling scorpion 
• a 30 cm ruler
• a pencil
• a pair of scissors
• a skein of thread in each of the five colours
• a long needle with a large eye and a blunt point

Please see the first video on Aro Ling Cardiff’s YouTube channel.

A new era for Aro Ling Cardiff

Aro Ling Cardiff is transforming into a virtual Buddhist Centre. We will be Live streaming on Facebook and are looking into other forms of virtual activity as well.

The first streaming event will be on Tuesday 7th April at 7pm. This will be an hour session of meditation and yogic song. Go to the Aro Ling Cardiff page on Facebook. You do not have to be a subscriber to Facebook or sign up to anything in order to be part of the live streaming event -- you can just show up and join in practising with us. The order of practice is set out below.

We will start with
rDo rJe Tshig bDun (Dorje Tsig dun)

Seven-line song; the seven thunderbolt phrases; the inspirational song of Padmasambhava

Hung: o rGyen yul gyi nub byang mTshams: (Hung Ögyen yul gi nub jang tsam)
Hung – From beginningless self-luminous Wisdom-Mind.
Hung – In the land of O rGyan.

Pad ma ge sar sDong po la: (Pema ke-sar dong-po-la)

Within the self-perfected secret dKyil ’khor of great bliss.
Within the heart of a lotus.

Ya mTshan mChog gi dNgos grub brNyes: (Ya-tsen chö-gi ngödrup nye)

Non-dual awareness is free of inhibition in manifesting activities.
You are endowed with marvellous attainments.

Pad ma ’byung gNas zhes su grags: (Pema Jung-ne she su drag)

I am effortlessly and spontaneously liberated.
You are renowned as the Lotus-born.

’khor du mKha’ ’gro mang pos bsKor: (Kor-du khandro mangpo kor)

The phenomenal universe radiates as the fringe of luminous experience.
You are surrounded by a vast sumptuous retinue of sky-dancers.

Khyed kyi rJes su bDag bsGrub kyis: (Khye kyi je-su dag drub kyi)

I cultivate the experience of spacious passion in which divisionless Wisdom-Mind is realised.
I will follow in your footsteps with commitment to practice.

Byin gyis rLobs phyir gShegs su gSol: (Jin-gyi lob-chir sheg su sol)

I enter into primordial awareness and recognise my own mind as none other than Padmasambhava.
I sing this wish-path with burning devotion, that I may receive your blessing.

Guru Pema Siddhi Hung:
The actual knowledge of the meaning of Padmasambhava is the realisation which disinhibits all siddhis.
Padmasambhava give me siddhis.

Note: The first line of the translation represents the inner meaning.The second line represents the outer meaning.

Then this will be followed with Vajra Guru mantra, the Awareness Spell of Padmasambhava, which will be sang in two different ways with a space for meditation in between:

Om A’a Hung Bendzra Guru Pema Siddhi Hung:

Next will be the Lama’i Naljor of Ma-gCig Lab-sGron (Machig Labdron):

A: Om ma gCig ma la gSol ba ’debs: (Om Machig ma la sol wa deb)
Om, in the dimension of spaciousness I find my awareness unified with the white Om at Ma gCig Lab sGron’s forehead.
A’a: ma gCig ma la gSol ba ’debs: (A’a Machig ma la sol wa deb)
A’a:, in the dimension of spaciousness I find my awareness unified with the red A’a: at Ma gCig Lab sGron’s throat.
Hung ma gCig ma la gSol ba ’debs: (Hung Machig ma la sol wa deb)
Hung, in the dimension of spaciousness I find my awareness unified with the blue Hung at Ma gCig Lab sGron’s heart
dKar po Om gyi byin gyis rLob: (Karpo Om gyi jin gyi lob)
I self-actualise empowerment through the light transmission of white Om (rays of white light from Ma gCig Lab sGron touch me; white Om appears at my forehead).dMar po A’a: gyi byin gyis rLob: (Marpo A’a gyi jin gyi lob)
I self-actualise empowerment through the light transmission of red A’a: (rays of red light from Ma gCig Lab sGron touch me: red A’a: appears at my throat).sNgon po Hung gyi byin gyis rLob: (Ngönpo Hung gyi jin gyi lob)
I self-actualise empowerment through the light transmission of blue Hung (rays of blue light from Ma gCig Lab sGron touch me; blue Hung appears at my heart).sKu gSung thugs gyi phyin chen phob: (Ku sung thug gyi jin chen phob)
I unify the three spheres of being through taking simultaneous empowerment of the three lights.
Ma yum chen mgo ’phang sTobs par shog (Ma yum chen go phang tob par shog)
Phat:
I become unified with the Mind-space and visionary appearance of the Great Mother, Ma gCig Lab sGron. Cut! I explode the envisionment into wisdom-space.
Om A’a: Hung Om A’a: Hung Om A’a: Hung
I repeatedly receive the three lights from Ma gCig Lab sGron.
Phat: Phat: Phat: I explode my envisionment into wisdom-space and instantaneously arise as Ma gCig Lab sGron, Unique Mother – Torch of Practice.
A: Appearances dissolve into the sound of the white A. I remain in the utterly free awareness presence of whatever arises.All appearances are spontaneously self-liberated.

The session will end with the long life mantra of Padmasambhava and Mandarava. This is practised for the benefit of the long life of our Lamas and teachers, and also for everyone and everything everywhere, including oneself:

Om A’a: Hung Bendzra Guru Pema Siddhi A-yu She Hung Nri Dza