Wisdom Eccentrics

Wisdom Eccentrics
rumours of realisation as told by
Künzang Dorje Rinpoche
with additional tales of the unexpected
By Ngakpa Chögyam

A rare account of remarkable Lamas in the final years of a lost era. The author finds himself the first Western disciple of Künzang Dorje Rinpoche, a highly reclusive master known for mercurial wrath and facility with Dzogchen. He received direct introduction to the nature of Mind through ruthless interrogation on the meaning of the stories from the lives of Lineage Lamas. He is separated from his Lama for thirteen years—but they meet again and their relationship resumes.

For more information about Wisdom Eccentrics please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/wisdom-eccentrics.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html

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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.

Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon

Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon
By Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen

Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen explore vajra romance as the living application and dynamism of the ‘Nyi-da Mélong’ – a Dzogchen tantra from the cycle of visionary revelations, realised by the enigmatic Nyingma treasure discoverer Khyungchen Aro Lingma (1886-1923). The Nyi-da Mélong puts to rest the myth that celibacy holds demonstrable spiritual advantages over a natural life. It opens the door to those who are inspired by the desire to integrate every aspect of human life with spiritual practice.

Sexuality is portrayed as the pervasive stratum of the senses and sense-fields – and as such, it is appreciated as the life-blood of the creative arts. Although this teaching is common in its essential form to all Vajrayana traditions, it has never before been extrapolated in such detail with regard to how it is lived within romantic relationships.

For more information about Entering the Heart of the Sun and Moon please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/entering-the-heart-of-sun-and-moon.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html

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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.

Roaring Silence

Roaring Silence
Discovering the Mind of Dzogchen
By Ngakpa Chögyam (Ngak’chang Rinpoche) and Khandro Déchen

This is a guide for anyone wanting to deepen their meditation practice and a key text for Aro students. It discusses in depth the preparation practices for Dzogchen (which include shi-nè and lhatong meditation) and gives an introduction to Dzogchen itself.

"Chogyam and Dechen are western lineage holders in the Dzogchen tradition of the Aro-ter. Their book sets out this simple, yet difficult, theory/practice with uncommon clarity, from initial preparations on through to direct perception. Chogyam and Dechen write with sparkling intelligence. In many ways, then, this is the best single introduction to the Dzogchen path. Recommended to all with an interest in Buddhism or comparative soteriology." — Kidder Smith

For more information about Roaring Silence please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/wisdom-eccentrics.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html

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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.

Spectrum of Ecstasy

Spectrum of Ecstasy
The Five Wisdom Emotions According to Vajrayana Buddhism
By Ngakpa Chögyam (Ngak’chang Rinpoche) and Khandro Déchen

Spectrum of Ecstasy describes the Dzogchen view of emotions, emotional pain and pleasure – and the liberation of emotions. It is valuable reading for anyone interested in human psychology according to Dzogchen and a must-read for everybody seriously interested in the Aro gTér Lineage. The book is suited for experienced meditators as well as for beginners on the Buddhist path.

For more information about Spectrum of Ecstasy please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/spectrum-of-ecstasy.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html
 

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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.

Wearing the Body of Visions

Wearing the Body of Visions
By Ngakpa Chögyam (Ngak’chang Rinpoche)

Wearing the Body of Visions is a unique overview of Tantric Buddhism. Ngak’chang Rinpoche abandons the didactic expository style of most books on Tantra. Instead, he adopts language that is poetic, electric, evocative, experiential, unconstrained and unconventional. This is the style of Tantra itself: Rinpoche writes Tantra rather than writing about Tantra.

The title of the book refers to one of its main topics – a central practise of Tantra. ‘Wearing the body of visions’ is envisionment or self-arising, in which one experiences oneself as an enlightened being (yidam). This chapter of the book gives a better sense than anything else available in English of what it is like to practise envisionment. A related chapter discusses empowerment, a prerequisite for yidam practice.

For more information about Wearing the Body of Visions please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/wearing-the-body-of-visions.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html
 

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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.

Rays of the Sun

Illustrating reality: certainty, transcending causality, kindness, confidence
By Ngakpa Chögyam

In the early days of Vajrayana few Tibetan Lamas visited Britain, and eager students were often prepared to travel considerable distances to receive instruction. Yet some sought out a young Englishman recently returned from the Himalayas. Inspired by the magic and mystery of Tibet, they were keen to discover the lived meaning. Ngak’chang Rinpoche’s teachings were simple, direct, and experiential. The four evening talks contained here deal with the themes studied by everyone exploring Buddhism in depth: the four noble truths, eightfold path, causality, compassion and refuge.

 For more information about Rays of the Sun please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/rays-of-the-sun.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html

All proceeds from the sale of this book go towards the Drala Jong appeal.
 

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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.

E-mailing the Lamas from Afar

E-mailing the Lamas from Afar
Heart Advice from Two Buddhist Teachers to Their Students
By Ngakpa Chögyam and Khandro Déchen

This book carries into the 21st century the teachings of an ancient spiritual tradition, non-monastic Vajrayana Buddhism, the vehicle of transformation and of direct essential understanding of the nature of mind, within the activities and circumstances of ordinary human life.

For more information about E-mailing the Lamas from Afar please see http://arobuddhism.org/books/emailing-the-lamas-from-afar.html and for other books, please see http://arobuddhism.org/community/aro-books.html
 

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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.

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.

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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.

Drala Jong Interview with Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen

In 2011, the Drala Jong Blog published an interview, in three parts, with Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen on the subject of Drala Jong.

We thought it would be useful to highlight these articles for new readers.

"[I]t doesn’t cost a lot to transform a place – such as painting a room the shrine room colours. It has always had a powerful effect to do this. From the very first time we created a shrine room in our home, every visitor has always been struck by it. Journalists are always stunned by the effect, and there have been articles about our shrine rooms in the British and Welsh press over the years. If you describe the colours we use it just sounds dreadful, but when people see it for the first time they say ‘You know this really works’."

— Ngak'chang Rinpoche, The Drala Jong Interview - Part I

"I suppose my ideal place would be something that would lend itself to our own work. It can’t afford to be too big for cost reasons, but it needs to be expandable. There was a farm near Llantrisant in South Wales that we used for a while. It had a whole space the owner didn’t use; the attic was the entire extent of the house and was suitable for a shrine room. It also had a lot of outhouses – one of these sprawling Welsh farms, that stretched all over the place. And somewhere with a bit of its own land which it would be possible to stretch using tents, and yurts. There were all sorts of wonderful semi-permanent structures at Pennant Valley where we used to hold the summer yogic encampment retreats. It needs to be a little bit elastic like that."

— Ngak'chang Rinpoche, The Drala Jong Interview - Part II

"On a residential retreat there are many different places to meet and chat with others. You can go for a walk – down a country road, or in the woods. At a non-residential city centre venue once you’re in the street – you’ve left the retreat. On a residential retreat people don’t leave or change environment – and in that way they get the most out of the experience of being there."

— Khandro Déchen, Drala Jong Interview - Part III

"From the perspective of Dharma—the liberated viewpoint—the benefit to having a centre is the ability to be able to concentrate efforts – to: house special lineal objects; create supports for Dharma and store them; preserve ancient artefacts; and, collect and index records of the teachings. A residential centre can be a vast repository. From the perspective of ‘samsara’ – if one wishes to ‘make the thing work’, people have to see it. In the common run of things—according to the dictates of society—people have to see what we’re doing as something serious. The press needs to be impressed if they are to write accounts of our work. People want to go to a place that looks as if it represents something cogent in the world. There are few who will go to a rented flat – to see a Lama, even a Tibetan Lama. From the perspective of Dzogchen it makes no difference – but Dzogchen is the goal, rather than the state of societal consciousness."

— Ngak'chang Rinpoche, The Drala Jong Interview - Part IV

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

Fundraising Dinner - Saturday 11th May - Bristol

Art and appreciation are limited only by our human imagination.  Art permeates all the sense fields, and as Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche first taught, also encompasses fine dining - the poetic expression of our most basic human pursuit - eating and drinking.

With this in mind, we cordially invite you to join French Chef Iza Redon and the supporters of the Drala Jong appeal on the evening of Saturday 11th May for a fundraising dinner at the Southville Centre, Bedminster, Bristol.

Our hosts, our chef, kitchen staff and entertainers have all generously donated their time and skills free of charge for the evening, so all proceeds will go to the appeal fund.

There will be stand up comedy courtesy of Gary Hooley of Vagabond and Laughing Horse fame, and also a chance to win some splendid prizes in our charity raffle, which will include original artwork from Ngak'chang Rinpoche

The meal includes three courses plus coffee, for just £27 per person.

The table d'hote menu will comprise:

Starter:

Goats cheese cake, wild garlic pesto (v)

Main Course:

Duck and balsamic vinegar glaze, potato rosti's, suateed seasonal vegetables

or

Augergines gratinées ,cannelini beans and artichoke salad (v)

Dessert:

Rhubarb and elderflower tart, mascarpone cream (v)

Coffee to follow

This evening will be a Bring-Your-Own-Bottle dinner.  No corkage charge

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Bookings accepted on receipt of £27p.p. payment via a Paypal 'Personal Gift' to

sncd.treasurer@gmail.com

We're familiar with dealing with food allergies, so please let us know about any allergies at time of booking.  Any enquiries to the above e-mail address.

So near I can almost touch it

As the Drala Jong fund grows, in recent times there have been a number of requests from donors and volunteers to get a more tangible sense of what Drala Jong will be, what facilities will be there, what work will need to be done to get it up and running, where it will be located and so on.

Well, it's confession time. . . mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. . . I've been reticent to blog about these things, because the answer to all these questions is very much 'it depends'.  It depends, for example, on how much money we finally do raise.if we raise £450,000 the project will still go ahead, on a slightly different scale.  Alternatively, we could easily spend £1,000,000 is someone were so moved to donate that much money.  Everything's relative (although as someone once said 'If everything is relative, why don't they send me Birthday cards?').  Those intimate with the project have not wanted to flag up a specific building because until the fund is closer to the £500,000 mark, it would mean, like Jim Bowen, we'd be saying 'Let's look at what you could have won'  If supporters set their hearts on a particular set of sash windows, they may ultimately be saddened if the property of their dreams isn't the one we end up acquiring.

Not the property of our dreams! Your dreams may differ. . .

What we've decided to do to respond to these requests is to meet people half way, and start to make the vision that is Drala Jong just that little bit more tangible by covering some of the key qualities that Drala Jong will possess.

There a various ways of enumerating the considerations in deciding what Drala Jong will look like, and where it will be, but they can all be captured under the headings of cost, location, facilities, condition, and flexibility.

For this installment, since finding property is all about location, location, location (so Kirsty tells us, and who are we to argue?), we thought we'd start with that element.  In terms of project goals, there is a balance in choosing a location remote enough to be suitably private, in an environment supportive of practices that are performed out of doors, yet close enough to major transport links and local towns and cities.  Sangha members and the public who have attended public retreats with us in Britain over the last 20 years will know that many of our retreats have been in various parts of Wales.  In recent times, they've been in and around Llandeilo and Llandovery.  Drala Jong will be a rural retreat centre - that is a given - and past retreatants will be used to having to travel some distance to get to our events.  Since our lineage holders had to travel to India and Nepal to receive teachings, our efforts are relatively easy by comparison.  The good news is, whether travelling within Great Britain or from abroad, the intention is to be more accessible than Llandeilo - our main location of the last 15 years.

The fund raising brochure stated it would be 'close to an hour from Cardiff' - the home of the lineage holders, and one of the sangha hubs.  With this in mind the location is going to be within the area encompassed by South East Wales and the Southern end of the Welsh Marches.  Specifically, in the region of Brecon, Abergavenny, Usk, Monmouth, Ross or Hereford.

All these locations are within the orbit of the main areas where many British-based sangha live - Cardiff and Bristol - the latter being particularly important given the presence of our Bristol Aro Ling centre.  These locations are also within reasonable distance of 3 regional airports at Cardiff (Wales), Bristol (South West England) and Birmingham (Midlands) for European travelers, with many being on rail or coach routes from Heathrow airport for transatlantic visitors.

For those used to travelling from South Wales or Bristol, compared Llandeilo these locations are closer in time and distance for all likely travelers.  Many are very considerably closer.  To give a sense of this, the travel times in minutes by road follow below (c/o the Automobile Association website):

mins.	Cardiff	Bristol	Birmingham	Heathrow
Llandeilo	75	114	173	204
Brecon	63	96	130	185
Abergavenny	53	64	105	155
Usk	39	46	98	135
Chepstow	42	27	99	116
Hereford	80	87	80	165
Ross	67	72	72	144
Monmouth	51	58	88	147

All these locations have direct or indirect links to the M4, M5 and M50 motorways:

For public transport users, and international travelers, most of these locations also have National Rail or National Express Coach connections which link to the regional airports and the national hubs around London.  Current travel times by public transport, and the number of changes needed - if any - for Sunday travel are as follows.  NB. we chose to show  Sunday travel times because retreats commonly end on a Sunday, and also because if you can get public transport on a Sunday in Britain it will definitely be possible to travel on a weekday (commonly far more quickly, with less changes - 'C' for change):

Rail?	Cardiff	Bristol	Birmingham	Heathrow
Llandeilo	C/2hrs16m	C/3hrs	2C/4hrs14m	2C/5hrs20m
Abergavenny	45mins	C/1hr	C/2hrs	2C/3hrs15m
Chepstow	44mins	C/1hr	C/90mins	2C/4hrs
Hereford	1hr6m	C/1hr28m	1hr40m	C/3hrs39m

Coach?	Cardiff	Bristol	Birmingham	Heathrow
Chepstow	1hr	30mins	C14hrs30m	2hrs5m
Hereford	2C/7hrs20m	C/4hrs35m	2hrs16m	C/4hrs50m
Ross	1hr30m	C/4hr15m	1hr25m	C/4hr20m
Monmouth	1hr5m	C/4hr15m	1hr45m	X

In essence, all the rail or coach connected areas are within 2 hours travel of Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham by public transport, even on the worst travel day of the week (Sunday).  All the areas with good public transport links are much more easily accessed than Llandeilo, by 30 to 60 minutes.

So, that's location.  In the next installment of this Blog, we'll look at cost, and specifically what £500,000 would buy today in each of these locations.

The one thousand nine hundred dagger wielding ngakpas

This is a post that has been floating around for a few months, whilst I've been waiting for a good time to pop it up.  Now the title has got the better of me, and I can't keep it back any longer.  Enjoy!

Recently had a remarkable day at the ARHC/SOAS conference on 'Unity & Diversity: Monastic and Non-monastic Traditions in Amdo', where the conveners were kind enough to let myself and Lama 'ö-Dzin attend as observers.  The material from the conference will be published presently through an academic publishing house and before rolling on I should make it completely clear that although I have received academic training I make no pretence at presenting an academic assessment of the proceedings here.  I am simply so inspired to hear of the sheer number and range of Nyingma and Bon ngakpas and ngakmas in Amdo that I'm moved to write about it.  More specifically, there are some lessons about the form and function of the 'community of ngakpas' (or ngak mang) that touch on what we're doing with Aro Ling and with the Drala Jong project.

One of the conveners & speakers was Professor Geoffrey Samuel (above) who wrote Civilized Shamans.  This is a book which for me when I was a new young apprentice back in the 1990s closed the door on the vajra-Muppet's I'd encountered early doors in my practice career.  Back then there were westerners who suggested that there was no such thing as the go-kar chang-lo'i de and Ngak'chang Rinpoche had 'made up' the ideas that the ngakpa style of practice had ever been widespread.  Indeed some challenged the very existence of this style of practice, suggesting if it had ever existed at all it was 'reserved only for High Lamas'.  Now nearly 20 years have passed and so much more is known - such that today the conference was presented with 5 very different papers each of which illustrated different aspects of the ngakpa tradition.  In fact some of the early critics have even taken ngakpa vows in the intervening time (vajra-muppetry duly recanted - good show chaps - no hard feelings, we all make mistakes). 

Well, the conference certainly laid flowers at the gravestone of the idea that being a ngakpa was somehow a fiction, a thing of the past, or something distant and unobtainable to mere mortals.  In Repkong in fact there something in the order of 2,000 ngakpas practising today from the Nyingma and Bon traditions (perhaps 80% Nyingma), and in the wider Amdo region this figure increases to around 3,500.  In Repkong itself between 5% and 10% of the male population are ngakpas, and the number of ngakmas whilst much smaller is growing at a pace.  I say much smaller, but the conference recognised that in fact ngakmas are much harder to spot than ngakpas, with neither party overtly displaying the white skirt of the tradition and thus only being identifiable by their hair (which women wear long anyway) and their presence as major rituals (which tend to be male dominated affairs).

The reasons as to why there should be so many ngakpas in this area seem many and varied, and there was not a single core view as to how this came to be the case.  What is certain is that the vajrayana house holding style of practice had been present in the region for some centuries before monasticism arrived (which it did circa the 16th century).  A number of small assemblies of ngakpas are noted from 12th century onwards, including in the 12th century when Rig'dzin Dorje established the 100 tantrists of Zho'ong, and the 14th century where Drupchen Dorje Tsering (1325-1403) established the 30 'Ja' mo Tantrists in 'Ja' mo village.  The key spark for the huge spread and also survival of ngakpas in the area is attributed to Rig'dzin Palden Tashi (1688-1743) who was deeply troubled by the politically motivated massacres by Mongols that reached as deep into Tibet as Lhasa. 

Although trained at Drepung He ceased to be a Gelug monk instead taking ngakpa vows at Mindroling.  He organised the somewhat disparate Nyingma ngakpas of the region, enlarging structures, merging some traditions and encouraging new lineages where he could.  This organisational force was cemented in a 15 day ceremony where he started giving out wooden phurbas to ngakpa attendees.  By the end of the ceremony he had given out 1,900 - so the first major large scale establishment in the area was the '1,900 phurba wielding ngakpas' (phur-thog gos'dkar' lcang-lo-can) also called the 'Community of many yogis' (sngags-mang).  The name ngakmang survives to modernity, most recently embodied by the excellent ngakmang institute, which strives to support this style of practice in Repkong today.

In modernity there are several overlapping structures which seem to knit the Repkong ngakpas together in a variety of different ways, and some of these structures seem entirely applicable in terms of Drala Jong, Aro Ling, and the evolution of go-kar chang-lo practice in the west.

Many of the ngakpas practice as part of a family lineage, and fullfil a local social role in their village and immediate surroundings.  They often assemble and practice in a local village ngak khang.  Their external ritual practice here tends to be focused on the needs of local people, and their personal focus is often on a local yidam or protector and on their family lineage.  Larger gompas also exist, both with their own contingent of ngakpas and ngakmas and also as centres which draw practitioners from the surrounding areas to events specific to that gompa, or the lineage to which the gompa is affiliated.  There are 6 major gompas, 3 older ones on the 'shady' side of the valley which are associated with Mindroling, and 3 newer ones on the 'sunny' side of the valley associated with the Longchen Nyingthig tradition.  Major events also occur throughout the year, some of which are specific to a single gompa, and others which cycle through different major locations in the region.  There is a strong reflection here of the model which we hope to create in the Aro gTér, where Drala Jong will act as that central hub, with centres like Aro Ling providing local focus for practitioners in one particular geographical area.  All we need now is one thousand nine hundred phurbas. . .

If you've enjoyed this post, why not donate 1,900 pennies to the appeal, by sending a £19 / Euro19 / $19 Paypal donation to

sncd.treasurer@gmail.com

Diggin' it

Well, we're back from the latest Apprentice Retreat here in good old Blighty, and although the event itself was nothing to do with fund raising for the project, various folk have been diggin' the Drala Jong fundraising effort one way or the other.  Nearly £2,000 has poured into the appeal as a result.  It's particularly good to see this sort of casual fund raising happening, with lots of little projects providing people with things that they want and need, for small contributions here and there - including vajrayana instruments, gZi stones and shawls all donated to the project and sold to grateful practitioners.

As well as vajrayana artifacts 13 Sky Signature calligraphies were sold in Finland by Bar-ché and Me-sel, and several more found new owners during the retreat.

My lovely wife Shé-zér has also added a few pennies to the coffers in her one woman Dig-For-Dharma campaign - by selling 50 strawberry plants for the appeal. 

On it's own it won't keep Jerry from the door (but it will give Margo something to peer at over the hedge row).

Most significant though was the arrival in Britain of several of the Blues Masters images courtesy of Ngak'chang Rinpoche.  Their creation was sparked through his work on his autobiographical work An Odd Boy

Shortly we'll be posting images of the first set of Blues Masters works on the Blogsite - and they will be available for sale here, as well as being hung for viewing and sale at Aro Ling some time in the summer, when volume two of An Odd Boy is launched.  These images are a collection of works, that have been extensively recoloured and restored by Rinpoche using a host of tools available through the wonder that is Photoshop.  Up until this point they were only visible via Facebook, but thanks to the work of Lama Shardrol's sangha in the USA, they are now available on canvas.

Some of the source images were black and white, or of very low resolution, and have been touched up, sharpened and refined.  The Jimi Hendrix image was in fact sourced from a photograph of an original painting by Rinpoche himself - and again has been retouched for the Blues Masters collection.  Each image has had something like 60 to 100 hours of work put into it, before being printed to canvas in medium and large scale, for hanging.

 

Images include a host of Blues artists from both the USA, and also from the British Blues boom.  Where images were cut or cropped, instruments have been restored from scratch by adding them from other photographic sources from the period.  Friends and relatives of many of the Blues artists pictured have been good enough to get in touch with Rinpoche and express their appreciation of the work that has gone into bringing these performers to life.  Now they will be made available for public sale - with 100% of the proceeds going to charity.

The most ambitious part of the Blues Master project will appeal to fans of An Odd Boy.  Amongst the images there are several restored pictures of the band Savage Cabbage - in which Rinpoche himself played. As no extant image of the band on stage could be found, these works have required sourcing faces, bodies and instrument images from a host of different sources - including Rinpoche's son - a bass player himself - providing a body double for the performers in their stage poses.

The next two posts will catalogue the currently-available Blues Masters and Calligraphy images that are available to buy - and will detail how supporters of the appeal can get these unique works to hang upon their walls at home.

I can't get no. . .

. . . satisfaction.  Well, not when trying to engage in fundraising anyway.  Like a home sick polynesian, I'm always left longing for Somoa (some-moa donations, that is. . . and yes I will keep making puns like that until we reach our target).  Still, with 8 of the 50 calligraphies sold at the special display-rate on Friday and some kind gifts last night, we've already raised £1,000.  In addition to calligraphies themselves there was quite an interest in some calligraphy t-shirts which we had made up for the evening (£10 plus postage - e-mail sncd.treasurer@gmail.com with your postal address & shirt sizes for full details):

They carry the seed syllable Hung - symbol of Padmasambhava and Yeshé Tsogyel.  On Friday night Ngak'chang Rinpoche explained how the tulip bulb brushes are manipulated in order to create both very fine and very thick lines in a single brush stroke, as you can see in the sweeping curves of the Hung on the t-shirt:

Well, we had a select crowd at the talk.  As far as I am aware this is the first time Ngak'chang Rinpoche has ever given a public talk on Tibetan Calligraphy.  It was delightful to learn on the evening that one of the attendees who had come to Aro Ling via the online Membership programme was being accepted as an Apprentice.  Another had been coming to Aro Ling for a year and asking about calligraphy.  It did mean the evening was pretty Apprentice-heavy in terms of numbers, and I'm kicking myself a bit when looking back about the audience mix.  As Yanni pointed out, people who want to learn about calligraphy aren't necessarily the same people who might be inclined to buy them as part of a charity fund raiser - worth bearing in mind for the future - but nonetheless the talk was great and there were loads of questions.  

Also, Rinpoche has actually found a way to raise the funds for Drala Jong.

He explained that the last time he attempted to use calligraphies for fund raising was in about 1989, when Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche was visiting Britain, and had terrible toothache.  The dental work required was going to cost £400, but Ngak'chang Rinpoche didn't have the money to give him.  Instead he came up with the idea that he might draw calligraphy circles for Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche might write interesting things on, which could then be sold.  In the end they sold for £800 (£1,700 in today's money) - covering the expenses and also a donation to Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche.  At the end of it, Ngak'chang Rinpoche was able to keep just one of those calligraphies, for his toils.  Rinpoche would be loathe to lose that work, but has said that for a good cause (the best of Nyingma causes) he would part with it.  For £500,000.  So, if you would like to own the last surviving piece of cooperative calligraphic art by Ngak'chang Rinpoche and his root teacher Chhi'med Rig'dzin Rinpoche, bids start at half a million pounds. . .

. . . or if that isn't quite what you and your bank manager had in mind, why not buy a t-shirt (above).