Our patterning becomes transparent - Spacious Passion

 

Once we are able to dwell in the experience of emptiness between moments of movement in the mind, and even expand the scope of that emptiness, our patterning becomes transparent. It is revealed and laid bare. We can experience the naked empty nature of our perception, and joyfully play with the movement of intention and response. We can begin to recognise the processes we enter into at the moment of perception that result in response. We can see how we judge everything, categorise everything and separate ourselves from the direct, naked experience of perception. We can recognise that we continually filter perception through expectation and previous experience, and are at the mercy of the three root misconceptions of attraction, aversion, and indifference. These three distracted tendencies are the grinding of the wheel of samsara.

Spacious Passion, Ngakma Nor´dzin, Aro Books worldwide,  2006, ISBN 978-0-9653948-4-0, chapter 6 Quelling the Storm, page 146

 

‘spiritual friendship with teeth’ - Illusory Advice

 

The system of apprenticeship is one where new apprentices enter ‘spiritual friendship’ with their chosen teacher, and it is up to the student to decide at what pace they wish to proceed. There is the expectation that sufficient interaction will happen between the teacher and student to enable the apprentice to decide whether they feel at home with this mode of practice. This requires sufficient interaction and exposure to the teacher, which can be challenging, because the student cannot hide out. This is why Ngakma Nor’dzin once described apprenticeship as ‘spiritual friendship with teeth.’

page 36, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin, Aro Books Worldwide, 2016, ISBN: 978-1-898185-37-6