Illusory Advice: Real or unreal?

Dewi Sant, Cardiff City Hall, 2013, Ngakma Nor’dzin

"Faith is not an issue in Buddhism. Buddhism demands the development of confidence based on gradual experience built up over time. You are quite new to practice so give things time to ferment. Keep your practice simple and light and your meditation sessions short.

Gradually your confidence will grow and you will know whether your experiences are real in that they are beneficial and moving you towards being a kinder and happier person. If the spiritual experiences you describe are making you happier, and a nicer person to be around, then this is the true test of the validity of your experience."
p10, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Stay up to date with events at Aro Ling Cardiff via the website, meetup, facebook and twitter. We meet for meditation every Tuesday evening and look forward to meeting you.

Dudjom Rinpoche about Meditation (1979)

A wonderful teaching on meditation, given by Kyabjé Düd'jom Rinpoche in 1979.

"As a beginner, unless you do this practice formally, in proper sessions, you won't be able to remain at peace.  But once you become more familiar with it you will be able to remain undistracted even when you are walking about"

Illusory Advice: Addiction

Dee, 2012, Ngakma Nor’dzin

Smoking adversely affects the rTsa-lung and hinders the arising of the benefits of meditation.

We follow our own teacher’s guidance on this, just as they have followed the guidance of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche – Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje. Please read his text on smoking. It is not that we regard people who smoke as ‘bad people’ – it is simply an unhelpful addiction from the point of view of practice and health. A Buddhist is one who attempts to maintain awareness rather than hiding from facts – such as the fact that smoking can kill you. Every ‘sincerely practising Buddhist’ will want to make the most of their human life to gain realisation – and will therefore not smoke.

If a potential apprentice felt it unreasonable to be asked to let go of such a mundane addiction in order to embrace the practice of Vajrayana, it is unlikely that they would follow our advice with regard to letting go of their addiction to neurosis. It is unlikely that we would be the right teachers and Lineage for such a person.

p12, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Stay up to date with events at Aro Ling Cardiff via the website, meetup, facebook and twitter. We meet for meditation every Tuesday evening and look forward to meeting you.

Illusory Advice: Please grant me siddhis

Weather Vane, 2015, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

"Awakening cannot be handed to you – the cause has to be created through your own effort. Through discovering the qualities of Padmasambhava by practising Dorje Tsig-dün, you can aspire to liberate the siddhis of Padmasambhava in yourself."

p11, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Stay up to date with events at Aro Ling Cardiff via the website, meetup, facebook and twitter. We meet for meditation every Tuesday evening and look forward to meeting you.

Aro Ling Cardiff August/September newsletter -

Aro Ling Cardiff
Vajrayana Buddhism

We had a splendid retreat in July and are looking forward to our next one in a couple of weeks time. Thereafter we will have a holiday and so there will be a few classes cancelled during the next six weeks or so. All schedule details will be kept up to date on the website aro-ling.org/cardiff, on Meetup.com/aro-ling-cardiff, and on the Aro Ling Cardiff blog. Please do check the schedule before attending a class, meditation group, or event over the next few weeks. 

On September 28th the Aro gTér Lineage Holders, Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen, will be offering a blessing ceremony for the new gompa (meditation room). We are very much looking forward to this evening event.

The first full weekend of events will be on the first weekend in October, the 1st and 2nd of October. The topic for the Saturday teachings will be ‘Four Good Reasons to Meditate’. Full details for this event are on the website.

We hope you are enjoying the extracts from the book Illusory Advice by Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin that are appearing regularly on the blog.

Extracts from this and other Aro gTér Lineage publications appear once a week on a blog called Aro Quotation. If you would like to receive the Aro Quotations by email, please go to the blog and subscribe.

The Aro gTer Lineage also offers a free meditation course. The course is delivered in weekly emails.

To support the Lineage’s appeal to establish a residential retreat centre in Wales, please see the  information at http://arobuddhism.org/drala-jong/drala-jong-appeal.html or go to the Drala Jong appeal blog.  

We hope you are having an enjoyable summer and finding a little sunshine. We look forward to welcoming you to our gompa soon.

Best wishes from Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

Aro Ling Cardiff weekly meetings
Tuesdays (all welcome without booking):
sKu-mNyé 10:30 – 11:30
Meditation & Song 12:00 – 13:00
Meditation Group 19:00 – 20:30

Aro ling Cardiff monthly meetings 
– the first weekend each month
Saturday:
Vajrayana teachings as advertised
Sunday: 
Meditation & yogic song   10:00 - 11:30 (all welcome without booking)
Tsog’khorlo practice   12:30 (attendance by prior arrangement only)
Dance   14:30 (all welcome without booking – Georgian and Tibetan folk dance)

sKu-mNyé is a physical yoga practice. It offers a range of movements, from simple and gentle to demanding and vigorous – so there is something for everyone. All are welcome whatever age or level of fitness. A wonderful form of exercise that is refreshing and invigorating. Each class is 1 hour.

Meditation group and daytime meditation – beginners and experienced meditators welcome. Short periods of meditation are interspersed with yogic song and chant. Discover emptiness and self-awareness. 

Dance – dancing embraces many qualities of natural heroism: considerate awareness of the other dancers, politeness and dignity, sensitivity and enjoyment, and light-hearted and wholehearted engagement with the pattern and movement of the dance. The focus will be on the dignity and formality of the dances of the Georgian period. Occasionally Tibetan folk dance will also be taught.

Aro Ling Cardiff meets at 5 Court Close, Whitchurch, Cardiff, CF14 1JR. The practice room is on the ground floor with direct access from the street, and is wheelchair accessible.

All classes and groups are led by ordained Buddhists with many years of practice experience.

Donations are requested to cover the costs of advertising, and so that Aro Ling Cardiff can make donations to the Buddhist charity, Sang-ngak-chö-dzong #1019886.

For fuller details of events at Aro Ling Cardiff, please visit

aro-ling.org/cardiff or meetup.com/arolingcardiff
or text
07875 716644

Illusory Advice: Ritual

"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."

p10, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Stay up to date with events at Aro Ling Cardiff via the website, meetup, facebook and twitter. We meet for meditation every Tuesday evening and look forward to meeting you.

Illusory Advice: Why am I doing this?

Crow, 2015, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

"It is a common experience in solitary retreat, that everything becomes stripped bare. One can experience moments of: ‘Why on earth am I mumbling these words in a foreign language, getting up so early, and sitting on my own with aching knees and a stiff back?’ – or something to that effect. At such times shi-nè can be a great strength and support, because of its directness.

The practice of shi-nè has its own logic that can be experienced directly. If other practices, such as mantra accumulation, feel less accessible at the moment, it is fine to concentrate on shi-nè."

p9, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Stay up to date with events at Aro Ling Cardiff via the website, meetup, facebook and twitter. We meet for meditation every Tuesday evening and look forward to meeting you.