Illusory Advice: Real or unreal?

Dewi Sant, Cardiff City Hall, 2013, Ngakma Nor’dzin

"Faith is not an issue in Buddhism. Buddhism demands the development of confidence based on gradual experience built up over time. You are quite new to practice so give things time to ferment. Keep your practice simple and light and your meditation sessions short.

Gradually your confidence will grow and you will know whether your experiences are real in that they are beneficial and moving you towards being a kinder and happier person. If the spiritual experiences you describe are making you happier, and a nicer person to be around, then this is the true test of the validity of your experience."

p15, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: Addiction

Dee, 2012, Ngakma Nor’dzin

"Smoking adversely affects the rTsa-lung and hinders the arising of the benefits of meditation.

We follow our own teacher’s guidance on this, just as they have followed the guidance of Kyabjé Düd’jom Rinpoche – Jig’drèl Yeshé Dorje. Please read his text on smoking. It is not that we regard people who smoke as ‘bad people’ – it is simply an unhelpful addiction from the point of view of practice and health. A Buddhist is one who attempts to maintain awareness rather than hiding from facts – such as the fact that smoking can kill you. Every ‘sincerely practising Buddhist’ will want to make the most of their human life to gain realisation – and will therefore not smoke.

If a potential apprentice felt it unreasonable to be asked to let go of such a mundane addiction in order to embrace the practice of Vajrayana, it is unlikely that they would follow our advice with regard to letting go of their addiction to neurosis. It is unlikely that we would be the right teachers and Lineage for such a person."

p12, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: Please grant me siddhis

Weather Vane, 2015, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

"Awakening cannot be handed to you – the cause has to be created through your own effort. Through discovering the qualities of Padmasambhava by practising Dorje Tsig-dün, you can aspire to liberate the siddhis of Padmasambhava in yourself."

p11, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: Ritual

"You could totally immerse yourself in ritual and see what happens ... or you could start to notice the rituals with which you are continually surrounded: the hello/goodbye ritual; the would-you-like-to-come-up-for-a-coffee ritual; the what-to-wear ritual for going to work, a party, a ball, or playing football; the walking-towards-someone-in-a-corridor ritual; and so on. Once you start to notice the rituals of your everyday life, those which surround entering the dimension of the yidam may not seem so exotic and obscure."

p10, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: Why am I doing this?

Crow, 2015, Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

"It is a common experience in solitary retreat, that everything becomes stripped bare. One can experience moments of: ‘Why on earth am I mumbling these words in a foreign language, getting up so early, and sitting on my own with aching knees and a stiff back?’ – or something to that effect. At such times shi-nè can be a great strength and support, because of its directness. The practice of shi-nè has its own logic that can be experienced directly. If other practices, such as mantra accumulation, feel less accessible at the moment, it is fine to concentrate on shi-nè."

p9, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: Loving Kindness

"You need to be aware that practising loving kindness on your meditation cushion, and leaving that space with a warm glow in your heart,does not necessarily mean that your anger will arise any less vigorously or immediately should you encounter an irritating stimulus. Shi-nè is ultimately more effective in cutting conditioning at the root. Through allowing spaciousness to develop in the mind, you are less at the mercy of your neuroses."

p8, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: Practice is all that can be offered

"You may have heard us say that if all our apprentices decided to leave and no one ever came to our sitting group, we would simply carry on practising and making ourselves available for people. All you can offer people is your practice. You can express your own feelings of appreciation for, and commitment to, your practice and Lineage, and hold a wish for others to experience the benefits you have found – but then you have to let it go and leave it up to them.

p7, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice: From Sutra to Tantra

Pembrokeshire Coastal Path, 2015, Ngakma Nor’dzin

"Tantra can seem rather decadent or dangerous from the perspective of Sutra. Sutra moves towards emptiness and so personality is irrelevant. Everything is calmed down. Tantra however begins with the experience of emptiness and conjures with form. Personality and the richness of life is embraced as the material with which the nonduality of emptiness and form can be discovered."

p6, 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.

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.

Illusory Advice by Ngakma Nor’dzin & Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin

Illusory Advice is an anthology of lively email discussions between two Western-born Buddhist teachers and their students. The questions and replies cover a wide range of topics—to which the Buddhist view is applied with directness, subtlety, and humour—such as: family life; interpersonal difficulties; and, the student-teacher relationship.

Ngakma Nor’dzin and Ngakpa ’ö-Dzin are a married teaching-couple of the Aro gTér Lineage of the Nyingma Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. They are ordained representatives of the ancient non-monastic tradition of Vajrayana, in which every-day life circumstances and individual-personality are embraced as the path of transformation.

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

Ngakma Nor'dzin and Ngakpa 'ö-Dzin are the primary teachers at Aro Ling Cardiff.