Illusory Advice: Religion

"Buddhism is a religion of method, and that is why it appears to manifest as a philosophy or ‘a way of life.’ The way of living one’s life is the practice of the religion. There are practices that are overtly religious—such as ritual practice—but a lot of Buddhist practice has to do with view – it is the transformation of view that manifests as change in behaviour and attitude. This is more subtle and all-life-encompassing than ritual practice."

p32, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Please see the Aro Books worldwide website for more information about Illusory Advice.

Illusory Advice: Authenticity

"Ngak’chang Rinpoche encourages practitioners to wear Western boots and hats as part of the manifestation of the gö kar chang lo. The first time that one apprentice visited Nepal, they were struck by all the Tibetans wearing Western hats. When they commented on this to Ngak’chang Rinpoche he replied: “Well did you think I made it up?”

p31, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Please see the Aro Books worldwide website for more information about Illusory Advice.

Oxford University Press and the Making of a Book (1925)

This is a fascinating silent film from the Oxford University press showing how books were made in 1925.

The basic printed book hasn't changed a great deal over the last century, but the methods have.

The makers of this film would probably not have conceived of the possibility of ordering a single copy of a book to be delivered to your home.

The changes in technology over the past 100 years have been quite remarkable

Illusory Advice: Evangelising

"The Bodhisattva vow isn’t about converting beings – that would be an extreme interpretation. Liberation is the intention, and beating people over the head with Buddhism is liable to be counter-productive Samsara does not equate to ‘non-Buddhism.’ In our opinion it would be better to be a happy and kind Christian than a miserable and mean Buddhist."

p27/29, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Please see the Aro Books worldwide website for more information about Illusory Advice.

Illusory Advice: Rebirth

"Rebirth, from one life to the next, cannot be proven through your current experience. You can however, look at rebirth as the moment-by-moment experience of your life: you die and are reborn in each moment. For each new moment to arise, the previous moment has to die. ‘You’ die in each moment, and ‘you’ are reborn into each moment. ‘You’ are never quite the same from one moment to another, and as such, a new person arises into each moment. It is excellent to question these things and ponder on them, and the only source of certainty and confidence is your practice."
 

p26, Illusory Advice, Ngakma Nor'dzin & Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin, Aro Books worldwide, 2016, 978-1-898185-37-6

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Please see the Aro Books worldwide website for more information about Illusory Advice.

Aro Books worldwide - worldwide distribution

Aro Books worldwide Spotlight

In a previous article I explained how we use Lulu Press, Inc. to produce all out books via print on demand.

As a result of this, all our books are available via our Spotlight page at Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/arobooksworldwide).

Not everyone will know about this web address and many people will be looking for books via popular sites online.

In order to make our books available as widely as possible, we make use of Lulu's distribution service which means that books are available from many different places.

Illusory Advice cover

Illusory Advice, for example is available at Lulu, as well as Amazon UK, Amazon US, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones and so forth.

We don't know—and fortunately don't need to know —how this all works behind the scenes.  All we know is that when we're happy with the book we can simply press a button to approve worldwide distribution for any of the Aro Books worldwide books. 

The distribution process can take up to eight weeks. Once the process is completed, the book is available in all your favourite online bookstores.  it will also be in catalogues used by brisks-and-mortar bookstores too.

As a bonus, Wikipedia keeps a page of book sources by ISBN.  This shows all known sources for a book.

So if you wanted to find Illusory Advice in obscure places, try Wikipedia BookSources.

Aro Books worldwide and Lulu Press, Inc.

Lulu Logo

Aro Books worldwide is the print on demand publisher for the Aro gTér Lineage of Vajrayana Buddhism.

We publish books by authors from the Lineage and books related to Buddhist practice. Our profits go to Sang-ngak-chö-dzong, the UK Charity of the Aro gTér Lineage, which supports work such as the Drala Jong retreat centre.

Print on demand means that our books are available direct from a printer and anyone can buy them whenever they wish. This keeps things simple for us as we don't hold any stock.  Books are printed when they are required.

In order to manage the print on demand process, we user Lulu Press, Inc., based in North Carolina, USA.  We have been using their services since February 2009.

Lulu gives us the ability to create and revise our books whenever we wish and they maintain a catalogue of our books for sale.  When a book is to be printed the order goes to a printer as close as possible to the delivery address.  Because of this, orders for the USA are printed in the USA and orders for the UK are printed in the UK.  This helps to minimise shipping distance and time.

Our current catalogue of books is on our Spotlight page (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/arobooksworldwide). You can browse this page or search for specific titles or authors.

For example, if you wanted to see all the books on the series 'an odd boy', you could search for those words and see a smaller listing of books (http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/arobooksworldwide?searchTerms=an+odd+boy).

New titles are added from time to time.  This depends on our authors, proofreaders and people working on cover design and book layout.  In 2019 we published four books: Battlecry of Freedom by Ngakma Nor'dzin and The Legendary Rabbit of Death, volumes 3, 4 and 5 by Ræchel Togden.

We look forward to publishing more books with Lulu in 2020.

Drala Jong and Aro Books worldwide

Pant-y-Porthman Farm

Back in June I was fairly sure that retiring from Cardiff University would leave me with plenty of time to attend to Aro Books worldwide.  This was not to be the case because the Drala Jong project became rather busy and took all of my time.

On 13th June we discovered Pant-y-Porthman Farm (pictured), near Llandysul, on 21st we visited it and on the 23rd we offered the asking price.

The next few months were taken up with all manner of work to do with assessing and buying the property.  Eventually, On 11th September we exchanged contracts and on 4th October we completed the purchase.

So, after about 12 years of fundraising, we now have Drala Jong.  There will be much work over the coming years as we develop the place.  This has been a most exciting time for the lineage, the fulfillment of our aspirations to own a place and the beginning of the work required to convert a farmhouse and barns into a Buddhist Centre.

Over the years, Aro Books worldwide has contributed any profits to Sang-ngak-chö-dzong, the charity that now owns Drala Jong.  We recently looked at the revenue and it amounts to around £7,500.  It's a small amount in comparison to the cost of buying Drala Jong, but every penny is welcome.

Our current Top 10 Books are

1. Moving Being
2. Relaxing into Meditation
3. Rays of the Sun
4. an odd boy - volume one
5. Shock Amazement
6. Spacious Passion
7. an odd boy - volume two
8. Illusory Advice
9. The Legendary Rabbit of Death - volume one
10. an odd boy - volume three

We are most grateful for your support. Every book sold makes a little money and all profits go to Sang-ngak-chö-dzong which in turn supports Drala Jong.

With all good wishes,

Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin Tridral

Retiring to work

Aro Books worldwide has, to some extent been on 'autopilot' since about 2016. Although we have continued to publish books in that time there has been no time to engage with Facebook, Twitter or any other form of advertising.

Cardiff University

Apart from my work for Cardiff University, my time has been largely taken up with the Drala Jong appeal. The Aro gTér Lineage is looking to create a retreat centre in Wales. We are looking for property, fundraising and laying out a business plan. All of this is quite time-consuming and will continue until a property is bought - at which time life is likely to become even more busy.

Drala Jong - an impression

Fortunately I am now retired from Cardiff University so the 9-5, Monday-Friday time is now free, free to attend to Aro Books worldwide as well as to Drala Jong. I hope that this means that I can be more active in letting people know of the books that we are publishing and the progress of the Drala Jong appeal.

In the next few posts I shall review our activities over the last few years.

With all good wishes,

Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin Tridral