Saturday 27 June 2015

Inspiration: Aro Lineage Sangha

Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Khandro Déchen, & ordained in 2000.
Robes are worn on formal occasions, as an inspiration for practice and a symbol of the vows ordained practitioners take.

The tradition is sometimes called the ‘white sangha’ after their white skirts as distinct from the red of monastics.




The Drala Jong project seeks to create a home for the Aro gTér Lineage. Please see the Appeal page for more information about the Drala Jong project and how to help.

Wednesday 24 June 2015

Form, emptiness, and non-duality

In sitting meditation, we experience emptiness directly as the simultaneous absence of thought and presence of awareness. We experience form as the thought and sensation which arise from the condition of non-thought. We experience non-duality as the nature of Mind in which thought and the absence of thought are no longer mutually exclusive – they have the same taste.

We may experiences flashes of emptiness and non-duality soon after we first learn to meditate. These flashes inspire us to deepen our practice. Significant periods of emptiness generally require a few years of regular practice.

In everyday life, it is possible to begin to observe form, emptiness, and non-duality – immediately. Form, emptiness, and non-duality are aspects of existence:
  •     Form is the quality of solidity, permanence, separateness, continuity, and definition.
  •     Emptiness is the quality of insubstantiality, impermanence, indistinctness, discontinuity, and ambiguity.
  •     Non-duality is the recognition that existence and experience are permeated by the qualities of form and emptiness. These qualities are in constant erratic flux. Our searches either for security (form) or excitement (emptiness) are based on attempts to control that flux.
To learn more, please read the full article on Form, Emptiness and Non-duality.



The Drala Jong project seeks to create a home for the Aro gTér Lineage. Please see the Appeal page for more information about the Drala Jong project and how to help.

Saturday 20 June 2015

Inspiration: Aro Lineage Lamas

Our Spiritual Directors Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen are married Buddhist teachers living in Wales.

They trained under some of the most highly respected Buddhist teachers of the 20th Century, including some of the senior most teachers of the oldest Tradition of Buddhism in Tibet – the Nyingma Tradition.



The Drala Jong project seeks to create a home for the Aro gTér Lineage. Please see the Appeal page for more information about the Drala Jong project and how to help.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Learn Buddhist meditation techniques

The Aro gTér Lineage free internet meditation course is a series of weekly emails that are sent to you automatically by this web site.

The course takes a practical, down-to-earth approach. The first week’s email provides all the instructions you need to get started.

In the following weeks, you will learn refinements in the technique and additional meditation exercises. The course also explains ways of dealing with any problems that may come up, shows how to apply the insights of meditation to the rest of life, and recommends other resources and further steps.

To learn more,please visit the Aro gTér Lineage Meditation site.


The Drala Jong project seeks to create a home for the Aro gTér Lineage. Please see the Appeal page for more information about the Drala Jong project and how to help.

Saturday 13 June 2015

Senses and Sensibility

Some folk who hear about Drala Jong assume all the art that will be created and performed there will be from an unfamiliar cultural context - either obviously overtly Buddhist, or inspired by Asian and Oriental influences. This pre judgement leads to the conclusion that somehow Drala Jong won't be accessible to everyone, but just those who want to explore Buddhist practice.

In actuality, we're proud that in fact Drala Jong will be about exploring and expanding all the senses and sense fields, and engaging with art in every way it might manifest. Our intention is to make the centre relevant to anyone who enjoys art, craft, or the simple joy of living - whether inspired by East or West, whether modern, or traditional. An example of this is embracing classical forms of dance, in particular 18th century dance.

Taken from 'Pride and Prejudice'



Please see the Appeal page for more information about the project and how to help.



Wednesday 10 June 2015

The Aro gTér : An uncommon perspective

There are three distinct yet compatible approaches within Buddhism: self-liberation, transformation, and renunciation. The Aro gTér Lineage emphasises self-liberation and transformation, whereas it is more common to prioritise renunciation.

Buddhism—as it is most commonly taught—gives an understanding of enlightenment as attainable only for celibates who undertake a life of intensive training and years of solitary retreat. In contrast the Aro gTér Lineage portrays enlightenment as potentially available to everyone in every moment. Certain Buddhist trends describe involvement with the material world as unclean; seeing secular existence as dangerously delusional – provoking negative emotions such as lust, greed, and anger. The Aro gTér Lineage, and other parallel lineages, depict the material world as a wondrous garden of delights that we should enjoy with utter thoroughness. Many forms of Buddhism forbid, or advise against, drinking alcohol. The Aro gTér Lineage—representing the transformational approach—requires skilful imbibing of alcohol when the ‘feast of appreciation and generosity’ is celebrated.

Despite these apparent contradictions, views and practices of the Aro gTér Lineage derive from—and accord with—ancient Buddhist teachings. Contemporary as they may appear, they are not modern innovations. They do not compromise Asian traditions in favour of Western values – but are based on principles, long held by the adventurous independent minority within Buddhism.

An uncommon perspective



The Drala Jong project seeks to create a home for the Aro gTér Lineage. Please see the Appeal page for more information about the Drala Jong project and how to help.

Saturday 6 June 2015

Drala Jong and Ling Gésar

We were particularly delighted that 'Drala' is part of the centre's name, as Drala is connected with practices associated with Ling Gésar. Gésar training from the gTérma of Rang-rig Togden is offered by teachers from the Aro Tradition. This training contains elements of equestrianism, martial arts, and physical yoga and we intend to invite Gésar teachers to Drala Jong to give instruction on these practices once the centre is opened.

The Ling Gesar story is part of popular Tibetan folklore, but there are also practices associated with him found in several different Buddhist lineages. When visiting Kyabjé Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Samphel in Nepal, films were shown of Gésar's life, and Kunzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Samphel dressed in Ling Gésar costume, gave gifts associated with Ling Gésar and demonstrated Gésar cham.

So all these strands that connect the Aro gTér to Ling Gésar have come together in recent years and his practices are now part of the wider Aro Tradition - and 'Drala' is enshrined in the name of our planned UK retreat centre.

Taken from 'The meaning of 'Drala Jong', and ties to Ling Gésar'



Please see the Appeal page for more information about the project and how to help.


Wednesday 3 June 2015

Transforming our experience of everyday being

The Aro gTér Tradition is principally concerned with transforming our experience of everyday being, rather than achieving an esoteric or spiritualised mode of existence. Our aim is to engender cheerful courage, perceptive consideration, sincere determination, natural gallantry, graciousness, creativity, and spaciousness.

The teachers of the Aro gTér Tradition are not monks or nuns. They are ordained Tantrikas – whose lives are, in many ways, quite ordinary. They may have conventional jobs, or raise children. Many teach as married couples. Their wisdom is embodied in the ways they live everyday life. Facing the same life challenges as their students, they are able to offer advice that is grounded in personal experience as well as profound religious understanding.

Arobuddhism.org



The Drala Jong project seeks to create a home for the Aro gTér Lineage. Please see the Appeal page for more information about the Drala Jong project and how to help.