All teachings by Ngak’chang Rinpoche

Strange and unbelievable

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice Why does enthusiasm come and go? It is not that I am not enthusiastic as an apprentice—it’s the best …

Sudden enlightenment

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Apprentice People talk about satori, sudden enlightenment, glimpses of enlightenment. I tend to be a bit suspicious of these things—what …

Sulkiness, sullenness, and surliness

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Apprentice In your last Vajra Letter, you mention that one must be able to ‘remain free of the prison of …

Sweet & sour orthodoxy

Part 2 of an interview with the lineage holders by Lama Shardröl, 31 December 1997.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche, Khandro Déchen & Shardröl Du-nyam Wangmo This is the second half of an interview originally published in Vision magazine in 1998 (issue 11). The first half …

that is the nature of the world

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice I spent the first 32 years or so working out a reason to live. What was the point when …

The Art of Living

18 October 2018

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen The Art of Living is the act of living life AS Art. This can only really be understood if we …

The Drala Jong Interview – Part I

24 July 2011

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Q: What will Drala Jong be used for?
Ngak’chang Chögyam Rinpoche [NCR]: Buddhism!
Q: [Laughs] Sorry, silly question. What I really meant …

The Drala Jong Interview – Part II

29 July 2011

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Q: What sorts of teachings would a residential centre allow – would there be something new that isn’t currently possible …

The Five Certainties

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Five factors are of crucial importance if transmission is to function: time, place, teacher, teaching, and audience. For authentic, lucid, …

the Godfather

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Retreat participant My son is thinking about opening a gun shop. I’m wondering if you could comment as to whether …

The hell of being a practitioner

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice Why is it that I can see, in my practice of shi-nè, exactly how my mind works, but I …

The initial display

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice How I can relate with unsatisfactoriness without dwelling on it and becoming miserable?
Lamas Relate with the initial display of …

The Lama-Student Relationship within Dzogchen

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen We have long realised that we cannot work with those who need their Lamas to sit on shoulder height thrones …

The Little Buddha

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Apprentice I have been practicing shi-nè for a year now, and I swear it’s making me crazier rather than saner.
Ngak’chang …

The malodorous security of last night’s curry

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice There is something a little irritating about shi-nè when I practise it properly—I mean when I don’t zone out …

The Meaning of Transmission

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen The essential meaning of transmission lies in continually experiencing oneself in relation to the Lama.
The function of the Lamas – …

the surrogate compassion of an arrogant dharmite

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice I am used to hearing teachings which continually emphasise compassion—and since I became an apprentice I have been aware …

The Vehicles

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen As you get to understand Buddhism better, you will come to understand what a beautiful geometry it makes. The ways …

The Yanas

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Ngak’chang Rinpoche recorded at the San Francisco Shambhala Center, April 2006. A 13-minute talk.
To learn more about the yanas, …

The year of the Dog

A teaching on ‘time in transit’

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen There are many ways in which we could examine the meaning of the Fire Dog year. We could look at …

They may as well have kissed Barney Rubble

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Apprentice The intellect seems to get a raw deal in our lineage.
Ngak’chang Rinpoche That has more to do with Khandro …

They spook from time to time

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Apprentice In your reply to my last letter you said that I should try to celebrate whenever obstacles arose, and …

Tralam-mé

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Authentic relationship to the dimension of sexuality—in terms of Aro gTér practice—is linked with the Dzogchen teachings of the Khandro …

Tralam-mé Q&A (1)

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Q Rinpoche, do you have awareness of people’s tralam-mé?
R Yes – but it is not necessary. You can know the …

Tralam-mé Q&A (2)

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Q Is it possible to see tralam-mé?
R Yes, in a manner of speaking – but it is more that you …

‘Unless you are an imbecile. . .’ (Drala Jong Interview – Part III)

13 September 2011

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Q: What sort of location do you have in mind?
KD: It depends on how much money we raise. It depends …

Vajrayana Buddhism in the West

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen This is not ‘just for us’; not even the Aro gTér is ‘just for us’.
People often speak of preserving the …

Wealth

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen We were asked for our views on ‘envy’ in respect of ‘giving up materialism as the Buddhist way of life’. …

we thought we had no spare time left

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Prospective apprentice Is it feasible for a man or woman with a career, children, and family obligations to practise Vajrayana? …

when we forget to ‘do samsara’

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Apprentice Rinpoche, when you were teaching at Pema ’ö-Sel Ling, you said that one could be inspired by natural phenomena …