Aro Books worldwide

The Arts lie behind everything we’ve ever done. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-31T03:00:00.008+01:00

“The Arts lie behind everything we’ve ever done. We do not necessarily mean Art in the literal sense. We mean that which lies beneath the Arts: the space from which the Arts arise.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Tracts of the Sun : An Earth Orbit of Vajrayana Expressions, Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen, Aro Books worldwide, 2022
Paperback: ISBN 978-1-898185-28-4 Available from Lulu Publications and other shops worldwide
eBook: ISBN 978-1-898185-32-1 Available from Lulu Publications and other shops worldwide

Relaxation is necessary if one is to progress with shi-nè. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-30T03:00:00.006+01:00

“Although the fruit of shi-nè is the profound relaxation of mind, voice, and body, the initial phase cannot be described as relaxation. Relaxation however, is necessary if one is to progress with shi-nè.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

It’s not possible to experience either love or compassion if one’s sense of oneself exists separately from the experience of others. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-29T03:00:00.012+01:00

“It’s not possible to experience either love or compassion if one’s sense of oneself exists separately from the experience of others.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Love and compassion as terms appear different in a relative sense – but love and compassion as aspects of the energy of nonduality are divisionless. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-28T03:00:00.005+01:00

“Love and compassion as terms appear different in a relative sense – but love and compassion as aspects of the energy of nonduality are divisionless.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

There are as many different approaches to nonduality as there are differences of nature and capacity. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-27T03:00:00.001+01:00

“The basic illness of duality is the same in everyone and everything everywhere – but personalities and capacities differ. There are, therefore, as many different approaches to nonduality as there are differences of nature and capacity.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

It’s not the nature of existence itself that has the quality of suffering; it’s the experience of existence that is characterised as suffering or dukkha. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-26T03:00:00.005+01:00

“It’s not the nature of existence itself that has the quality of suffering; it’s the experience of existence that is characterised as suffering or dukkha.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

The Lama’s job is to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional process. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-25T03:00:00.001+00:00

“The Lama’s job is to cut through the convolutions of interminable psychological and emotional process. Without the Lama one would have to uproot every illusion individually. Without the Lama one would have an extremely long trail to tread.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Wishing one hadn’t done something is the thing that helps us not to do it again. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-24T03:00:00.014+00:00

“Wishing one hadn’t done something is the thing that helps us not to do it again. One can begin by asking “Does a practitioner do this?” One could ask “What would my Lama think of this?” One could conjecture “Could I tell my Lama what I’m about to do?” Put simply—if you have a Lama, or anyone you respect—don’t do anything you’d be ashamed to admit.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Fear can be an aspect of compassion in simply being with ‘what is there’. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-23T03:00:00.001+00:00

“One has to address one’s fear. Fear can be an aspect of compassion in simply being with ‘what is there’. One accepts the entire texture of what is felt. One feels it without acting out; lashing out; or, initiating a primitive bid for self-preservation.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Shame, guilt, regret, and remorse ... some lives would be vastly improved by a healthy dose of such feelings. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-22T03:00:00.003+00:00

“Shame, guilt, regret, and remorse are somewhat underrated in contemporary psychotherapeutic culture – but some lives would be vastly improved by a healthy dose of such feelings.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

For those who take to the open fields, woods, rivers, and untracked mountains – linear sequentiality may make little sense. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-21T03:00:00.003+00:00

“Although the spiritual path can be viewed as systematic, linear, and sequential – this only makes sense according to the requirements of those who use roads. For those who take to the open fields, woods, rivers, and untracked mountains – linear sequentiality may make little sense.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Of all the Arts, music is perhaps somewhat more aligned with meditation. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-20T03:00:00.004+00:00

“Of all the Arts, music is perhaps somewhat more aligned with meditation – because it begins with a rigorous discipline which eventually gives way to spontaneity. This applies to all the Arts – but music is the most difficult to fake.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

You’ve just fallen from an incredible height into a bottomless crevasse.... It’s bottomless, so you’re falling into space. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-19T03:00:00.005+00:00

“We have bad news for you all. You’ve just fallen from an incredible height into a bottomless crevasse. However – that’s also the good news. It’s bottomless, so you’re falling into space. Happy landings.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

The cowardly believe they can avoid death. The courageous know they are already dead. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-18T03:00:00.004+00:00

“The cowardly believe they can avoid death. The courageous know they are already dead – and it’s merely the time of death which is uncertain.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Recognition of the presence of rigpa, as the primordial natural ground of being, gives innate cognisance of the three spheres of being as the intrinsic awareness of the union of luminosity and emptiness. This is the vision of Dzogchen. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-17T03:00:00.004+00:00

“Recognition of the presence of rigpa, as the primordial natural ground of being, gives innate cognisance of the three spheres of being as the intrinsic awareness of the union of luminosity and emptiness. This is the vision of Dzogchen.”
― Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje

To be authentically unconventional is the freedom to be conventional. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-16T03:00:00.007+00:00

“To be authentically unconventional is the freedom to be conventional in any way which is pleasing to oneself and valuable to others – without any sense of adhering to convention or rejecting convention.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Because Vajrayana practitioners receive empowerments into all three categories of yidam it is necessary to have a vital and vigorous appreciation of each form - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-15T03:00:00.001+00:00

“Because Vajrayana practitioners receive empowerments into all three categories of yidam it is necessary to have a vital and vigorous appreciation of each form – in whatever colour, gender, body-type, or mode of appearance the yidam displays.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Finding Mind to be a referenceless ocean of space allows the dualistic knot of panic to untie itself. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-14T03:00:00.003+00:00

“Finding Mind to be a referenceless ocean of space allows the dualistic knot of panic to untie itself. In experiencing this space, a brilliant discovery is made: being referenceless is not death.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Do I contemplate death? No… dying is the very last thing I shall ever do. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-13T03:00:00.008+00:00

“Do I contemplate death? No… dying is the very last thing I shall ever do.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche

The ‘new age’ proclivity tends to employ silent sitting as a form of ‘tuning out’. This has nothing in common with shi-nè. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-12T03:00:00.003+00:00

“The ‘new age’ proclivity tends to employ silent sitting as a form of ‘tuning out’. This is a spiritualised form of introversion – a soporific withdrawal from life. This has nothing in common with shi-nè – so it is quite possible that many ‘new age meditators’ merely sit in a state of blankness.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Everyone and everything everywhere has the intrinsic nature of nondual awareness – the spontaneously arisen universe of pure qualities. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-11T03:00:00.005+00:00

“Nondual emptiness is undivided from nondual form. Therefore, everyone and everything everywhere has the intrinsic nature of nondual awareness – the spontaneously arisen universe of pure qualities.”
― Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje

The unobstructed luminosity of nonduality – and the entire spectrum of experience—whether deranged or liberated—is as the sun and its rays. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-10T03:00:00.003+00:00

“The unobstructed luminosity of nonduality – and the entire spectrum of experience—whether deranged or liberated—is as the sun and its rays.”
― Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje

Rigpa is neither infinite nor temporary. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-09T03:00:00.004+00:00

“Rigpa is neither infinite nor temporary. It cannot be established though specifics such as experiences or activities. It is the original face of nonduality which is beginninglessly pure, all-pervasive, and all-pervaded.”
― Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje

Few people doubt the veracity of those whose assertions are the most voluble and widely quoted. This is why trite spiritual clichés and hackneyed spiritual jargon are so popular. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-08T03:00:00.003+00:00

“Few people doubt the veracity of those whose assertions are the most voluble and widely quoted. This is why trite spiritual clichés and hackneyed spiritual jargon are so popular.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen

Only make promises to yourself which you know that you can keep. - Tracts of the Sun

2023-03-07T03:00:00.004+00:00

“Only make promises to yourself which you know that you can keep. Otherwise, you’ll never have confidence to make promises.”
― Ngak'chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen