Bhutan maintains its culture of Vajrayana Buddhism and remains a place of pilgrimage

Mural of Thangthong Gyalpo inside the
bridge-house at Tachog Lhakhang

 

Thangtong Gyalpo is known as the ‘Tibetan Leonardo Da Vinci’. He is known as the creator of Tibetan opera and he used the money made from opera performances to finance bridge-building.

There is a sense of living history and living practice in Bhutan. Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin comments: ‘It was inspiring to be able to spend time in this wonderful environment.’

Bhutan is famous for having a $250/day ‘Tourist Tax’ aimed at enabling Bhutan to have an income from tourism whilst reducing the negative impact that tourism can have.

In fact the cost isn’t a Tax. it is simply a fixed payment which then pays for the entirety of your stay in Bhutan. This covers the cost of the hotel, food, guides, transport and visits to places of interest. Once you arrive in Bhutan there is little need to pay for anything at all and you may feel like royalty. In this way, Bhutan remains Bhutanese rather than trying to create a tourist attraction.

Aro gTér Lineage practitioners visit Bhutan because it maintains its culture of Vajrayana Buddhism and remains a place of pilgrimage for Vajrayana Buddhists.

Impermanence and Death - Spacious Passion

 

Impermanence and death are the joy of being. Impermanence and death are the continuity of existence. How wonderful.

How wonderful that every moment is an opportunity for something new to arise. How wonderful that the selfish moment in which I just indulged can die, and that a new moment of generosity can arise. How terrible—not to mention fundamentally impossible—it would be if there were only permanence and eternity. How terrible to be trapped in a particular mind-moment forever. What endless suffering that would be. How wonderful that a moment of appreciation cannot wither and lose its sparkle by becoming fixed and permanent.

Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor´dzin, Aro books worldwide, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9653948-4-0, chapter 5 Infinite Impermanence, page 115

 

Pilgrimage - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Boudhanath Chörten

In this video from February 2010 Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin discuss the benefits of pilgrimage.

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: One of the reasons that we go to Nepal on pilgrimage is to meet Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s teacher, who is called Kyabje Künzang Dorje Rinpoche – and his wife Jomo Samphel. Künzang Dorje Rinpoche is now quite elderly—I believe he’s in his eighties—and getting quite frail. For a long period of time, Ngak’chang Rinpoche wasn’t able to be in touch with him, but in recent years they re-established their relationship and it’s just wonderful to see them together and experience the affection that exists between them – the great regard they have for each other. So that’s one of the primary reasons that we go Bodha in Kathmandu, in particular, on pilgrimage.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: It’s also helpful to go anywhere where practice is part of life. For an apprentice, and for somebody who is about to be ordained or considering ordination, or for somebody who already is ordained, it is valuable to be part of the environment where you find that people are practising – ordinary people walking along the street. They have their tengar in their hand or they’re practising khora around the Chörten, and turning the prayer wheels there. It shows that practice part of everyday life. This is different to what we normally experience – and yet for a practitioner of Vajrayana actually part of what we enact within our lives, albeit not in such an overt way. There’s a display of practice and it’s helpful for practitioners in the West to see that in action.

The only reality - Battlecry of Freedom

 

Fundamental unborn awareness is like natural riding. It is available to discover, but is obscured by intellect and concept.

Meditation enables its discovery by cutting through intellect and concept. Meditation places the mind in the reality of the present moment. [...]

To discover unborn awareness—rigpa—the present moment must be embraced exactly as it is. It cannot be embraced as how it might be or how it was.
When the moment has been exactly as it is, then the moment dies. It dissolves into emptiness and the next moment arises. That is also embraced exactly as it is. Continuing in this way is awakening. Recognising that exactly as it is, is the only reality, is the experience of rigpa

Battlecry of Freedom by Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2019, ISBN 978-1-898185-46-8, Part II - the slogans, p42, 43

 

 

The Arts as practice

In Aro gTér Buddhism there is a strong focus on engaging with the Arts as practice. I find it hard to put into words the change of view I have experienced from going to a local art group for an hour and a half a week.  

The grave yard at the Church of Saint Winwaloe, Cornwall,
by Siân Bussingham

Producing just one piece of artwork a week has made me change my relationship with what I see around me. Now when I go out for a walk I feel as though I am wandering through works of art. 

Skies and landscapes now suggest to me acrylics, watercolour, pastels, or ink. Somehow the vibrancy of my surroundings seem to communicate to me much more.

This is one of the transformative joys of being a practitioner within in the Aro gTér Lineage.

Ritual - Illusory Advice

 

Apprentice: I sometimes experience quite a strong resistance to the use of ritual and symbolic form.

Teachers: You could totally immerse yourself in ritual and see what happens … or you could start to notice the rituals with which you are continually surrounded: the hello/goodbye ritual; the would-you-like-to-come-up-for-a-coffee ritual; the what-to-wear ritual for going to work, a party, a ball, or playing football; the walking-towards-someone-in-a-corridor ritual; and so on.

Once you start to notice the rituals of your everyday life, those which surround entering the dimension of the yidam may not seem so exotic and obscure.

page 10, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6

 

Sutra, Tantra and Practice in Everyday Life - Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin explains the perspectives of Sutra and Tantra and how the Ngak’phang style of practice is ideal for people who want to live ordinary lives.

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: The Sutrayana path is the path of renunciation and the ultimate expression of this is monasticism – where you give up your engagement with the ordinary aspects of life. You remove yourself from that and go and live somewhere like a monastery. You remove yourself from desiring things, because you own nothing, you have no money, everything that you need is very basic and provided for you – so you are removing yourself from the objects of desire. Then desire doesn’t arise, and one discovers emptiness. This is the principle of the Sutrayana path.

Now from the perspective of ordinary people who are continually surrounded by objects of desire, this can be quite a difficult path in which to engage in any meaningful way. There can be the danger of trying to be so mindful about desire that one actually becomes somewhat flat in one’s experience of engagement with the world. Because you’re trying not to allow the experience of desire to arise, you become very mindful in a sense of you’re continually watching yourself, you’re continually keeping your energies under control, keeping your emotional states under control.

Meditation is not relaxing - Relaxing into Meditation

Meditation does ultimately lead to deep mental, emotional and physical relaxation that is beyond ordinary expectation. The practice of meditation however, requires commitment and discipline which is not specifically relaxing in itself – certainly not initially.  

Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor’dzin, page 4, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, ISBN:  978-1-898185-17-8

Fire is a potent symbol

Fire is a potent symbol of transformation.

Here, in this old photograph (May 2005), Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, are seen through the smoky haze of a fire ceremony, burning the old clothing of a newly ordained apprentice. This celebrates the death of the apprentice—consumed in the flaming pyre—and their rebirth as an ordained tantrika.

Human rebirth - Spacious Passion

It is not the birth into a human body that is so excruciatingly rare.  This is not the wooden yoke the turtle is seeking.  The rarity is arising as a being who is willing and able to take advantage of the opportunities and endowments offered by a human rebirth, by engaging in spiritual practice.  To live with wholesome dedication to a path which develops wisdom and compassion is not so common.  Dedicated and engaged practitioners of any spiritual path are greatly out-numbered by those who do not follow any religious discipline or who simply pay lip-service to one.  Our desire to be part of the crowd and make our lives docile, so easily undermines honour and sincerity. We continually compromise sparkling, present vibrancy for the mediocrity of ‘good enough’.  To activate our potential as human, we must live our lives as warriors: fearless, without need of reward or recognition, honourably upholding the cause of kindness and awareness.  This is the rarity and preciousness of human rebirth.

Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor’dzin, chapter 4, Coming up for Air, page 98, Aro Books worldwide, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9653948-4-0