Ngak'chang Rinpoche's 70th birthday fundraiser for Sang Ngak Cho Dzong

 

(Photograph taken in Himachal Pradesh in 1981. See Aro Encyclopaedia)

 

 ༄Ngak’chang Rinpoche will be 70 this year and it has been 50 years since he first journeyed to the Himalayas — where he became the disciple of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje.

Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche asked Ngak’chang Rinpoche to establish the gö kar chang lo’ dé (sangha of ngakpas and ngakmas) in the West.

To this end Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen have spent almost 30 years saving to establish a retreat centre.

They now need help to complete the project by building a shrine hall and residential facilities for Drala Jong.

Drala Jong emphasises the integration of practice with everyday working life. and is unique in presenting Vajrayana in terms of the Art of Life.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche says:

“For my birthday this year, I'm asking for donations to Sang-ngak Chö-dzong. I've chosen this charity because its mission means a great deal to me, and I hope that you will consider contributing as a way of celebrating with me. Every little will help me reach the goal. I've included information about Sang-ngak-chö-dzong below.

Sang-ngak-chö-dzong supports Vajrayana Buddhist practice and teachings in the West, and in particular the non-monastic traditions of Himalayan Vajrayana. Projects include: providing schooling, housing and medical care for Tibetans in exile; making Buddhist teachings accessible to Westerners and the support of Vajrayana art and craft.”

 

If you would like to contribute to this endeavour, please visit the Facebook Donation Page (https://www.facebook.com/donate/1965323250326132/10159916574459334/)

Allowing Ultimate Interference in Your Life - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin discuss how we allow the Lama to interfere in our lives.

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: Often when people are thinking about the Vajra Master they always come up with this idea of, ‘What if the teacher told me to kill my child? How could I possibly do that?’ I think that we have to apply a little bit of common sense here – that we wouldn’t ask our ordained disciples to kill their firstborn child, or jump off a cliff, or do anything like that. There would be no principle or function working there. Usually what one might ask students to do is just view something in a slightly different way that is perhaps challenging – just questioning their rationale, asking them to actually let go of their comfort zone and look at another viewpoint that is perhaps scary and challenging. That would be the most that we would be likely to ask of them.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: To be ordained is to allow ultimate interference in your life in terms of having interference with your entire view of your life. So there’s a theoretical idea of the dreadful things that may be asked of you, but there’s no basis in terms of practice as to why these things would be asked of you. Sometimes the most challenging things are actually the most subtle – just to be asked to be kind to somebody with whom you're having a difficult time could be the most challenging thing ever. Because you have this relationship with your Tantric teacher you take these indications seriously, and apply yourself to them seriously, and this is actually more dreadful and more of a real world possibility than ever being asked to sacrifice your child on top of a mountain or whatever things people think may come from a relationship with the Tantric master.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: Coming out of a teaching one time we happened to be opposite a derelict school and all the windows had been smashed, even the ones right on the high floors. I think it was about five stories high. I just casually mentioned to Ngak’chang Rinpoche what a shame that people have been smashing the windows like that, and it’s going to rack and ruin. Rinpoche paused for a moment– he has a certain look that comes on his face when he’s examining a situation. He said, ‘Pretty skillful stone throwing to hit those windows up there.’ This immediately flipped my view of this situation: ‘Wow! This is vandalism, but there’s also skilful throwing there’. These two seem incompatible and yet one can work with the ambiguity of those two views. It stops one falling rigidly on: ‘These are bad people because they’re throwing stones at the window,’ or ‘These are skilful people because they can hit those very top windows’. Both aspects are there. Rinpoche wasn't saying, ‘Oh vandalism is not bad, it's absolutely fine for people to smash up a building.’ He wasn’t saying that. It was just giving me the opportunity of holding those two apparently conflicting views and seeing how that worked for me – allowing me to play with that. That is the sort of thing that the teacher offers. It is just cutting through our tendency to be black and white, to be prejudiced, to be: ‘Yes it’s this’, ‘No it’s that’⎯whatever⎯playing with our perception, playing with our response. This is what the Vajra relationship offers us.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: And I think sometimes these things can occur without even the intention of the Vajra Master, but simply because we take seriously what they appear to be doing. There was a time when I very firmly had Ngak’chang Rinpoche in the ‘good’ box, and that I had guns in the ‘bad’ box. Then Rinpoche took up shooting. In Britain, at least, this involved going down to the gun range and perforating paper – but I still had guns in the ‘bad’ box and that meant that I had to look at the certainty that I had about who would be in which box, or what would be in which box, and the certainty I had that anything to do with guns was automatically bad. So that re-evaluation and that change of view comes about not necessarily⎯who knows⎯because your teacher has decided to display something, but because you have decided to look seriously at what the teacher is doing and consider that in terms of your own prejudice. That in itself can open up all sorts of possibilities and free us up from a fixed way of thinking and doing things.

Practice that is Informed by Dzogchen Theory - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explains how practice within the Aro gTér Lineage is informed by Dzogchen theory so that practices from Sutra, Tantra, or Dzogchen may be appropriate to the individual. 

 

Transcript

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: One way of looking at the style of practice in this lineage is that it's informed by Dzogchen theory. From the viewpoint of Dzogchen everyone is already realised, and most of the time⎯possibly all of the time⎯we don’t know that. Realisation is something that is very close, very immediate. It’s described as being too close – that we don’t realise that the difference between us⎯as we find ourselves⎯and the realised us, is actually very small indeed.

So from that perspective, the methods and practices that a person would be instructed in, or introduced to, are the methods and practices that are appropriate to their particular condition.

These might be Dzogchen practices, or they could be Tantric practices, or they could be Sutric practices. It is really a question of whatever is appropriate to that person.

In order to see what is appropriate, or to define what is appropriate – then you need a teacher who can guide you, because otherwise, if we are left to our own devices, we pick what we think is appropriate to us without necessarily any idea of what’s actually going to work. So there’s a fair chance that we might actually reinforce our own neuroses.

The process of finding a teacher is a gradual one, where we might feel drawn to a person and the style of teaching. Then it’s the case of developing confidence, finding out that this particular style is for you. It’s not that suddenly you embrace the idea that this person is your teacher and then you do everything they say. This would be madness. It’s a gradual process where you gain confidence in the teachings, and you gain confidence in the practices, and then from within that confidence you’re able to take instruction and direction in terms of the practices you engage in. Because it’s based in the Dzogchen view, the practices that we undertake could be from a Dzogchen basis, or Tantric or Sutric basis.

Technical Language and Practice - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

sPyan ras gZigs

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explain why there is technical language in Buddhism.

 

Transcript

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: I think Buddhism can become complicated and can appear to go beyond what anyone would want to engage with. But it’s almost like any discipline: it will have its specialised language that from an outsider’s point of view you think, ‘Do i really need to know that?’ And then it’s really a case of how keen you are on doing that thing. So if we want to learn to play the guitar, your guitar teacher could talk in terms of technicalities that are absurd for the beginner, whereas all you want to know is that if you put your fingers by there, and you run your other fingers down there, you get a sound. You do that a few times and you start to get something that almost sounds like the song. So when you begin anything that’s what you want. Your riding teacher says, ‘Sit on the horse.’ They won’t necessarily engage with the names of all the different belts, buckles, straps and bindings that exist on the horse – they’re just getting you started. Then, if you become an enthusiast in that, you’ll want to learn more.

Ngakpa Nor’dzin: I remember when I first started reading Buddhist books on Tibetan Buddhism, I couldn’t believe that they really said these words like ...

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: ... like ‘Spyanraszigs’...

Ngakma Nor’dzin: ... for Chenrezig. I thought, ‘Nobody could possibly speak like this’, and I used to just skim over all those words. It’s probably why my Tibetan’s so bad! It doesn’t have to be that complicated. Silent sitting is very simple, very basic, very easy to understand the principal and function of that practice.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: And then anything else, if any other areas of exploration particularly take your fancy, you can go into them. I think it’s actually quite liberating to know that Buddhism is far too big for one person to master it all. Once you know that the scope of Buddhism is so huge you’re not going to master it all, you then understand that it’s a set of methods, a set of practices. It’s an environment of practice where you do what is appropriate, and if you have a teacher you act within your teacher’s guidance and instruction, to use the methods that you need rather than trying to master an entire field of possibilities.

Sutra Tantra and Dzogchen - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin explains the the three yanas of Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: From the Dzogchen point of view there are the three yanas of Sutra, Tantra and Dzogchen. Sutra is the renunciate path, so the base of the path is the experience of unsatisfactoriness. The path is to renounce the causes that we see for that, such as desire and anger, and the result is the experience of emptiness. Emptiness is seen as the fruit of the path of Sutra, whereas in Tantra emptiness is seen as the base of the path of Tantra. So we begin with that.

Now some people would say: “How can you begin with that unless you fully practise the path of Sutra?” But one can experience emptiness through devotion to the Lama, or through one’s empty experience of engaging with the preliminary practices of Tantra. With the traditional preliminary practices such as prostrations and mandala offerings, of which you practise a hundred thousand, one experiences a quality of emptiness simply through flinging yourself on the floor going up and down up and down a hundred thousand times. It’s an extraordinary thing to do – “Why am I doing this? I’m getting all sweaty and hot.” It takes up a lot of time and one has to let go of something in order to engage in and complete that path.

A very direct way of experiencing emptiness is in relationship to the Lama. If you meet a Tantric teacher who inspires you, who you feel you have confidence in, you can engage in the path with that person. Then one’s sense of devotion is an experience of emptiness because you’re able to put aside your own rationale and enter into being open to what they teach. In the path of Tantra we don’t separate ourselves off from all the things in the world that might produce unhelpful emotions. We engage with those as the energy of the path, so that we can transform them into the experience of non-duality – and non-duality is the fruit of the path of Tantra.

Now in Dzogchen, the base, the path and the fruit of Dzogchen are all the same. They are all non-duality. They are all the spontaneous experience of non-duality. Here it becomes very clear that a relationship with a teacher is totally essential, because the teacher introduces you to the experience of non-duality. Now this can be done in a formal way through pointing-out instructions, Dzogchen empowerment. But this can also happen in an informal way of just being with your teacher and just discovering the view through entering into the relationship with your teacher. You may be doing very mundane tasks like helping them cook the dinner, and there’s something about the quality of that experience, or something that is said in casual conversation, that shifts your view so you have a direct experience of the non-dual state. And then, once one has had that experience, one has to remain there without doubt – one has to have confidence in that experience. Allow the flickering of that experience to increase through one’s practice and then eventually you arrive at a point where you can simply continue.

Silent Sitting - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin and Ngakma Nor’dzin discuss the reality and benefit of silent sitting practice.

Transcript

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: What we would say for the sake of somebody who’s considering beginning meditation practice, is that silent setting is all about boredom and pain.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: – it’s not that bad! You make it sound worse than it is!

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: I think it’s worth giving people a non-governmental health warning that those images of people looking serene – these are inspirational indications of perhaps the resultant condition and it doesn’t always feel that way when you practise.

Sitting practice is coming face to face with the reality of our own condition and the irony of the fact that we think our minds are our own, and they should do what we want. We sit, and we may attempt to have no thought – and at that point we can discover that thought actually seems to have the nature of an addiction.The process of that practice leads us to understand that we’re actually quite keen on thinking and we’re not too keen to let go – and that in itself is interesting.

So we realise that there is something else happening – some deep-seated habit or need that is saying: ‘Think. Think about anything. Think about shopping. Think about going to Tesco in your pyjamas. Think about almost anything rather than not think’.

So rather than leave a practitioner with this difficulty, we can then engage in various methods that are there to enable us to come to an experiential understanding that the possibility is there that we can sit and not be addicted to thought. This leads to the possibility of spaciousness that will be there spontaneously in the rest of our lives. But silent sitting practice in a formal sense is fundamental to giving us the opportunity for that to happen.

The habitual state of being we discover in silent sitting is actually what’s there all the time underlying our actions – that we develop certain habit patterns and they’re always there. We find them in their raw sense when we attempt to sit, and through that process discover what is behind that.

We discover that we can sit comfortably without thought, and then that spaciousness appears within our lives and allows us to see our emotions almost from a different dimension, and certainly a dimension that includes a sense of humour. As soon as humour can arise then the situation explodes. We no longer take it seriously. We no longer entirely take ourselves seriously, and we can let go of things that previously we had been so dreadfully attached to.

Ordination - Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explain what it means to take ordination within the Aro gTér Lineage.

 

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: To be ordained is to make a commitment to Lamas, Lineage and Sangha that is deeper than apprenticeship. One is not expressing confidence, one is expressing certainty. One is expressing that you believe that not only will you be part of this Lineage for this life, but that it is going to be unbreakable – that potentially you’re going to be part of this lineage and have a relationship with these Lamas for all future lives as well.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: People can become apprentices and then stop being apprentices – and that’s built into the structure of the apprentice programme, because you don’t know how interested you are in something until you start. It’s impossible to say that once you’re an apprentice you’re always an apprentice, because you actually don’t know what you’re getting into. So to be able to become an apprentice within the Sangha there’s the idea of a probationary period where you’re still learning about what it means to be an apprentice. People can decide, having seen what apprenticeship looks like, that they no longer want to practise in that way. Or they can decide from there that they feel really settled within this Sangha and settled within this is kind of practice and decide that apprenticeship is something that they want to be part of in the long term. This may or may not lead towards ordination.

Ngakma Nor’dzin has explained ordination. It’s not expected, and even if it is asked for, it’s not necessarily the case that it’s going to happen – because both the Lama and the potential disciple have to be ready for that relationship. So this can take a long time of having a person who is pre-ordained, or working towards ordination, to come to the point of understanding what that’s going to mean. Pre-ordination is almost like a probationary period leading up to ordination where you discover whether that’s what you really want.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: So it’s a bit like getting engaged. Pre-ordination is like being engaged. You said you’re going to get married and you then behave as if you are married, to try that out and see what it’s like. The ordination is the actual marriage.

Levels of Commitment - Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explain the levels of commitment that are possible within the Aro Lineage.

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: From an external viewpoint it could appear that the process of becoming involved in apprenticeship is a little bit like a conveyor belt. You start off being interested, coming to open retreats. You get more interested, so you become an apprentice. Then you get more interested, and you become ordained, and so on. But it doesn’t actually have to be like that.

We’re very happy for people to simply come to open retreats and to have a connection with us and with the lineage in that way. We’re also very happy for people who decide to become an apprentice, if they never want to be ordained, if they never want to enter into taking that level of commitment – that is absolutely fine. So there is no sense of, once you start having a relationship with us it’s assumed that you’re on some sort of roller-coaster that will take you through to the ultimate experience of becoming an ordained disciple.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: I think it’s very important to know that it’s perfectly fine for someone’s relationship with Buddhism to be similar to that of going to church on Sunday. It doesn’t have to be any more than that. If that is useful and meaningful to somebody in their lives then that is a good place to practise. We’ve seen people who become interested in Buddhism who thought ‘If I can’t commit absolutely everything there’s no point in me even starting’. Then they leave, whereas perhaps a little bit of involvement might be worthwhile. So it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. There are various levels of engagement, all of which we’re entirely happy with. 

If people just want to come to the group and sit with us, that would be fine. If people want to become an apprentice, that’s also fine. So there isn’t a sense in which people are pushed on in their practice unless they come to us and ask to be pushed. The relationship between us in the rôle of teachers, and our students who are apprentices, is a mutual relationship where people will ask us questions. People will decide for themselves perhaps that they want a bit more prodding, prompting and direction, but that doesn’t come from us. So if people ask us, “What do I do next, which practice should I be doing?” then we will give them an indication of that.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: The process of becoming ordained is quite a long term event in itself. It could take up to five years from first saying ‘I would like to become ordained’, to actually entering the ceremony and making that formal commitment. So that gives the student and ourselves the time to really look at whether this is going to work with them, whether they really understand it, whether it is going to be right for them in their lives, whether we can develop that relationship with them and them with us.

Types of Ordination in the Aro Lineage - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

 

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin explains the different types of ordination in the Aro gTér Lineage

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: There are two types of ordination that are offered within the Aro Lineage. The Ngakmas and Ngakpas, and the Naljormas and Naljorpas. There’s not a huge difference between them. They express a slight difference in capacity or temperament perhaps.

Ngakpas and Ngakmas – the name means ‘Mantra person’ so they’re probably more Tantric practitioners working more with Tantric practices and mantra accumulation and more ritual practice. The Naljor stream is more connected with Dzogchen and the Yogic practices.

But in fact all Aro Lineage practitioners practise all the practices. A practice doesn’t become unavailable because you’ve taken one type of ordination and not the other.

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.

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.

 

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

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explain what it means to be an apprentice within the Aro gTér Lineage. 

Ngakma Nor’dzin: To be our apprentice means that you have decided that you feel that we as individuals could be your teachers, and that you feel that you want to enter into some sort of a long term relationship with us, in that way. You feel that the Lineage—the Aro gTér Lineage—is the right place for you. It feels like home. You feel that the community of practitioners—the Sangha—that you’ve met, the other people within the Aro Lineage – that they are the sort of people you would like to be like, you’d like to get to know them, you’d like to be part of that community. Now from a practical point of view, being an apprentice simply means that you’re able to come on apprentice retreats. Apprentice retreats often cover similar topics of teachings that you get on open events but perhaps in a little more depth. Probably the primary benefit of becoming an apprentice is that you can have an ongoing relationship and communication with us. You can write to us, you can visit us. You can develop a very personal relationship with us and you can have individually-based instructions.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: I think there’s something quite important also in terms of the word ‘apprentice’. If you were apprenticed to a blacksmith, eventually you would become a blacksmith. If you’re apprenticed to a carpenter, you eventually master that trade. So there’s the idea that we’re not students forever, in the sense of never being complete in knowing what the practice is and how to carry it out. There is quite a practical bias in the use of the word apprentice rather than student. We are Apprentice Tantrikas aiming to become masters of the trade of Tantrikas – you might say. This means that our involvement in apprenticeship is one where we are continually learning.

Refuge - Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

 

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explain the refuge of no refuge.

 

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: I think refuge is a rather unfortunate translation of the word ‘kyab’ (sKyabs) because we have all sorts of associations with the word ‘refuge’ that don’t really have anything to do with what is meant in Tibetan Buddhism by it. We think of refuge as a place of safety – somewhere we can go to take us out of a bad situation, so that we’re in a safe situation where everything is going to be nice and comfortable and we’ll be alright.

But in fact Buddhist refuge is not quite like that. Buddhist refuge is finding the security of no security. It’s finding the place that isn’t safe but is real – actively engaging with allowing things to be ‘as it is’; actually taking that risk of just engaging with the reality of how things really are rather than how we think they are or how we wish they are.

We take refuge in the Buddha who is fully awakened, fully realised. The Buddha is the completely enlightened being that knows exactly what it means to experience ‘as it is’. We take refuge in the Dharma, the teachings of practice that challenge us continually – so again it’s not a place of safety, it’s a place of challenge. We take refuge in the Sangha who are not the friends who are going to say, ‘There, there, it’s all right. Everything’s going to be fine,’ or join us in our neurotic destruction of the person down the street who is a bit peculiar. They’re the people who are going to say, ‘Well actually, that’s not a very kind thing to say,’ or pick us up and bring us back to being practitioners.

So to take refuge is to take on living as a Dharma warrior, living as somebody who is going to be straightforward, honest, truthful, kind, honorable – a genuine warrior in the ancient sense of a knight in armour who went into battle emblazoned in bright colours and was fearless in the face of possible death.
 

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: To take refuge is a challenge. It becomes the bottom line of how we are as people. We advise people to think carefully before taking refuge. It’s seen as making a statement that, ‘I am a Buddhist’ but that in itself could be entirely meaningless if it happens on the basis of some sudden emotional involvement with practice, because what we’re saying is we’re actually taking vows at that time – that where we go and what we look to are the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. We don’t go back to our own neurotic tendencies in order to deal with life situations. When taking refuge we are setting ourselves up for that challenge and taking that seriously.

Romance is an Important Part of the Aro Lineage Teachings - Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

In this video from February 2010 Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin discuss the value of romantic relationship as an aspect of the path of practice.

Transcript

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: Romance and relationships are an important part of the teachings within the Aro Tradition, and how romance can be part of a path of practice. To have people who teach as couples is also a reflection of this. I came originally from a background where all my teachers were monastic, and to move into a Sangha where you have a teaching couple was quite a revelation: the idea that your teachers actually have a romantic relationship and reflect to you how a romantic relationship can exist without neurotic functioning (which is often thought to be part of it), and this in itself an important teaching. So a teaching couple teach not only through what they say, but with how they are with one another as well.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: So our students often will come and stay with us—not just come on retreats—and they see that we we’re a happy couple and our practice is informed through the fact that that we practice as a couple and are in romantic relationship – that we actually like being together and enjoy each other's company and love one another. So this is all very helpful for our students.

Teaching as a Couple - Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

In this video from February 2010 Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin talk about the benefits of teaching as a couple – both for themselves, and for students.

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: The Aro gTer Lineage is unusual—possibly unique—in that we have teaching couples rather than just individual teachers. I think this offers a wonderful opportunity for people who become students to have a teaching couple. You have the same sex teacher as your role model, and you have the opposite gender teacher – who is your teacher in that they can reflect to you in a different way to the same gender teacher.

So this offers a great scope of inspiration and capacity for what teachers can offer you as a teaching couple. For us as a teaching couple, it’s just really nice to teach as a couple – to have that support for each other. We have different qualities in the way we teach, different capabilities in what we remember, what we understand, the way we present things. I think it enriches the experience for our students—and for us—being a teaching couple.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: We have different qualities and different ways of approaching a question, so if questions arise within the group of students I’ll often listen with fascination to the answers that Ngakma Nor’dzin gives because she comes at a question from a different angle to me.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: I have the same experience.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: So as much as anything, I’ll be sitting here learning, being able to understand things in a different way. We are able to play—in a sense—with our relationship in terms of how we approach teaching. So we enjoy each other’s company, and the teachings that we can give are complementary. Also it can give one person the chance to rest and consider a situation in more depth, while the other person is answering perhaps the immediate question. So it enables us to work together in that way as well.

Ngakma Nor’dzin: It’s also very useful to me being a little bit deaf! So when i mis-hear a question that somebody asks me, and answer the wrong question, then Ngakpa-la can very gently say at the end ‘well that was a lovely answer, my dear, but that was not quite what was asked’, and then we can start again.

Non-monastic Ordination in Tibetan Buddhism - Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

In this video from February 2010, Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin explain the principle of non-monastic ordination and the householder tradition.

Transcript

Ngakma Nor’dzin: I think the very public face of Buddhism—of Tibetan Buddhism—has been the monastic tradition – with the red robes and the shaven heads. So it’s rather important that we display this other tradition that existed and still exists in Tibet – which is the household tradition where we wear white skirts, and we don’t cut our scalp hair. This (cutting or not cutting scalp hair) relates to Sutra and Tantra. Sutrayana is the renunciate practice where you shave the head as a symbol of the fact that you are renouncing the world and you are entering into a monastic, celibate lifestyle. Whereas in the householder tradition, we are Vajrayana practitioners. This is the path of transformation, where we engage with everything in our ordinary lives as our practice.

Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin: I think there’s a tendency to assume that the only options available to people—if you are going to be ordained—is to be ordained as a monk or a nun, and other than that there is ‘lay practice’. Here ‘lay’ is seen as being somewhat amateur. So it’s helpful to display the other possibilities. It is not that people can’t practice and gain realisation in their own home without any ordination at all—it (ordination) is not a requirement—but in order to show that there are other ordinations, we hold this ordination and we display the robes of this ordination so that people can see that there are other choices for people who feel drawn to taking vows. Then they could live within the vows of this aspect of practice.

The Aro Lineage - Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin

Khyungchen Aro Lingma

The Aro gTer is a hidden treasure discovered by Khyungchen Aro Lingma at the beginning of the twentieth century. In this video from February 2010, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin talks about the Aro gTer Lineage.

Transcript

Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin: I would like to talk a little bit about the Aro gTer Lineage and where it comes from. In terms of its style and approach it is part of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. In terms of its particular qualities, the word ‘gTerma’ means ‘hidden treasure’, and in this case a hidden teaching.

So these were teachings that were hidden by Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel for discovery at a later time when the teachings would be most effective and most appropriate to be put into action.

The Aro gTer is described as ‘a very small gTerma’ in terms of the number of teachings and practices that exist within it, although it actually seems quite huge in terms of what kind of capacity of person it would take to be able to encompass it all. So these teachings were discovered by Khyungchen Aro Lingma at the beginning of the twentieth century, and passed on to her son Aro Yeshé, who later reincarnated as Ngak'chang Rinpoche.

Yeshé Tsogyel

Yeshé Tsogyel

Born on 11th October, Yeshé Tsogyel (ye shes mTsho rGyal) is the primary figure of devotion and inspiration in the Aro gTér lineage of the Nyingma tradition. Padmasambhava is no less important in the Aro gTér lineage than in the other lineages of Nyingma – but in the Aro gTér lineage it was Yeshé Tsogyel from whom the gTérma was received by Khyungchen Aro Lingma. Yeshé Tsogyel’s equality with Padmasambhava in the Aro gTér is displayed through her adoption of the identical physical position of Padmasambhava, as well as the adoption of his implements and ornaments: the khatvangha (which symbolises Padmasambhava as her ‘inner method-display’); the dorje (rDo rJe); and, the kapala (skull bowl).

[See Aro Encyclopaedia]

A-Kyong Düd’dül Dorje

A-Kyong Düd’dül Dorje

Born on 1st September, A-Kyong Düd’dül Dorje was a friend of ’a-Shul Pema Legden. He joined with Aro Lingma and ’a-Shul Lama on their way South from Khordong. He was a ngak’phang Lama connected with ’a-Shul Lama’s family clan. He was a cousin on ’a-Shul Lama’s mother’s side of the family – a son of ’a-Shul Lama’s maternal aunt called Nor’gyal Pema. A-Kyong Düd’dül Dorje was a Dorje Phurba master. He was extraordinarily skilled in making phurbas in metal and wood, (as well as bone, ivory, and other materials). Whilst living at the Aro gar he made over one hundred and eleven wooden phurbas with the assistance of the disciples of Aro Yeshé. He was known for his deftness in carving and for the perfection of the expression which he gave to the wrathful faces on the phurbas.

[See Aro Encyclopaedia]

Rang-rig Togden

Rang-rig Togden

Born on 18th July, Rang-rig Togden was the sang-yab and disciple of Jomo Pema ’ö-Zér.  Jomo Pema ’ö-Zér and Rang-rig Togden were the parents of Khyungchen Aro Lingma. It was from Rang-rig Togden that the Aro tradition inherited the style of using the gÇod Drum to accompany awareness-spell and many other practices. Rang-rig Togden was a gÇod-pa when he met Jomo Pema ’ö-Zér, and from her he received the Dzogchen long-dé teachings of Jomo Chhi’mèd Pema. Rang-rig Togden is one of a small number of great male practitioners within the Mother Essence Lineage of the Aro tradition.

[See Aro Encyclopaedia]