Animals can display human-realm mentality and humans can display animal-realm mentality - Illusory Advice

 

Confusion sometimes arises through thinking that teachings on the animal-realm of the six realms refer specifically to the animals we see in the world, and because of the assumption that all human-looking beings live in the human-realm. There can also be a tendency to romanticise animals, as somehow innately spiritual. Animals can display human-realm characteristics of discrimination and humour, whilst humans can display animal-realm mentality of being humourless, trapped in a particular view, lacking awareness of others. Teachings on the realms of being are helpful in enabling you to become aware of your mind-set in any moment. Through the practice of meditation, capacity to be aware of that moment—and the realm of that moment—increases, so that ‘lower realm’ or ‘higher realm’ states of mind can be immediately exploded.

Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6, p14

 

Listening - Relaxing into Meditation

 

In the relaxation technique of Listening, that is all we do – we listen. We do not listen and read a book. We do not listen and become fascinated with the contents of the room. We do not listen and analyse the structure of the music. We simply listen.

Relaxing into Meditation, Ngakma Nor’dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2010, ISBN: 978-1-898185-17-8, p17

 

 

A Good Sangha are a Group of Irritating People - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin discuss the benefits of being part of a Sangha (community of practitioners).   

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: Sangha is an important aspect of being involved in a lineage because the Sangha are supportive to your practice. It’s always inspiring to practise with other people and to see people changing through that practice. That’s inspiring – because it makes you realise that practice really does function.

In the Aro Tradition the Sangha has a particular quality to it: of people having a good sense of humour, people taking responsibility for themselves. One of the ideas of Sangha is that your fellow practitioners won’t support your neurosis. So if you’re gossiping about somebody or saying negative things about a situation, then they won’t just say, “Yeah that’s true” and join in and gossip with you. They’ll present a different point of view or say, “Well actually my experience of that person has been that they’re very kind” – or whatever. Then they can be frustrating if you want to be a gossip and have somebody support your point of view. But from the point of view of realisation, they’re your best friend because they stop you falling into those habit patterns of assuming that your view of a situation is the correct one.


Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: So a good Sangha are quite an irritating group of people from the point of view of neurotic functioning, because as Ngakma-la says they’re not going to support you in that. They’re actually more supportive of your realised nature than perhaps you are yourself. So within that environment, which is something we set ourselves up for - nobody’s made to join the Sangha - we set ourselves up for that and we say we are committed to this path of practice and so we’re committed to the Sangha and within that environment you have a group of people who are supportive to your practice and helpful in overcoming and transforming the neuroses that we have.

Sky Mind - Spacious Passion

 

 

Clouds arise and dissolve in Sky Mind continually, and this movement is not limited by physicality. The stream flows and is not limited by the landscape through which it moves. It may be in a rich and verdant valley where it flows fast and full. It may be trickling through limestone in an underwater cavern. It may be struggling through a barren wasteland as a tiny remnant of its former power. Movement of mind continues.

Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor´dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2006, ISBN 978-0-9653948-4-0,chapter 5 Infinite Impermanence, p111  

 

 

Rigpa is the experience of nonduality – the nonduality of form and emptiness - Battlecry of Freedom

 

Fundamental unborn awareness is rigpa. It is awakening, and the goal and the fruit of Buddhist practice. Rigpa is the experience of nonduality – the nonduality of form and emptiness. The form qualities of emptiness are that emptiness is unchanging. The emptiness qualities of form are that form continually changes and moves. In this way emptiness and form are nondual in being inseparable. The experience of unborn awareness—the awareness of nonduality—is hidden by the process of concretising and focussing on form and ignoring emptiness. 

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

 

Sangha is the Family We Have Not Chosen - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin explains how Sangha are like family.

 

 

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: The Sangha are very like family in that you haven’t chosen them, it’s a group of people who come together because of the common connection with your teacher or with other teachers within the lineage. So just like family they may be a group of people that in ordinary life you wouldn’t choose to be your friends. Because we're a Vajra family, because we’re Sangha, it’s a really good opportunity to learn to get on with all sorts of people, to find that you could be friends with a much wider range of people than perhaps you think you could be in ordinary life.

 

Experiences that arise from practice are called nyams - let them go - Illusory Advice

 

Experiences that arise from practice are called nyams. The general advice with regard to these experiences is to let them go – they are simply an indication that you are practising. To regard nyams as special can tend to make you want to seek them out. If, for example, you experience a particularly strong nyam during a meditation session—such as a feeling of bliss, or a powerful visionary experience—there is the danger that you then start to look for this experience again whenever you practise. You can then turn your meditation sessions into trying to return to that experience – forgetting that the nyam arose spontaneously simply through your practice.

Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6, p14