All teachings by Kha'drön Pamo, Khandro Déchen or Ngak’chang Rinpoche

Q&A - The Bristol Talks

Vajrayana and yidam practice

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Questioner Rinpoche, Vajrayana Buddhism is highly complex and intellectual – is there an approach for people who don’t have academic …

Q&A - The certain time and place

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Rinpoche We have looked—so far—at the certain teacher and the certain teaching. Then there are the certainties of time and …

Q&A - "Where there is a dog there will also be a tail"

Ngak’chang Rinpoche We have to change ourselves in order to accommodate the imperatives of Dharma – not the other way round. Outer …

Realised Losers

rDzogs chen and tantric tonglen

Ngak’chang Rinpoche One has to look at one’s own capacity in the moment. To artificially assume Dzogchen view—and attempt to maintain it …

Remembering Jétsunma Khandro Ten’dzin Drölkar

19 April 2024

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Jétsunma Khandro Ten’dzin Drölkar was one of the last great yoginis to have trained in Tibet. Shas been a personal …

Riding the Tiger

gö kar chang lo ordination

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Almost everyone who attends a gö kar chang lo ordination retreat thinks about the possibility of taking ordination themselves at …

Saga Dawa Düchen – a month in which the value of kindness is amplified

8 June 2019

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Saga Dawa Düchen (sa ga zLa ba dus chen / ས་ག་ཟླ་བ་དུས་ཆེན་) is one of the four major Buddhist calendar events. …

Samsara, suffering, and suspicion

The path to endless enjoyment

Ngak’chang Rinpoche Ngak’chang Rinpoche recorded at the San Francisco Shambhala Center, March 2006. An 18-minute overview of Sutrayana from point of view …

‘Self’-immolation

gö kar chang lo ordination

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Vajrayana vows throw a can of gasoline into the splicing room. In terms of practice—within the tradition of Vajrayana—vows encourage …

sequentiality still exists, simply of itself

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Prosepective apprentice The Lama at the centre feels that his real rôle is to help students recognise what their path …

shifting experiential norms

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice You mentioned, in relation to compassion, the concept of ‘shifting experiential norms’. Would you explain how that functions?
Lamas It …

sNying mDo

The heart essence of unconventional wisdom

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen The Heart Sutra is a condensed statement of the whole of the Buddhist view of the nature of reality. Its …

some of them should be manacled

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Prospective apprentice There is an impression I have from being around your sangha that I have not found elsewhere – …

some sort of syrupy saint

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice I have read books by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche where he mentions ‘idiot compassion’. Can you say something about that? …

Speaking With the Ravens

3 January 2015

Ngak’chang Rinpoche NY Arts Magazine published an interview by Tchera Niyego with Ngak’chang Rinpoche titled “Speaking With the Ravens.”
The interview uses Rinpoche’s …

Spontaneity and Discipline in the Sangha

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen ...to merge mirth and meaningfulness, frivolity and fierce commitment, revelry and rigpa.
Dorje gendün—indestructible association—means the community of practitioners who are …

spurn dejection at every turn

Ngak’chang Rinpoche & Khandro Déchen Apprentice I had been expecting a telephone call this week—a call which had not arrived—until I suddenly realised that they …

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 …

Strength

tob – sTobs – power

Khandro Déchen This is how an apprentice described the nature of momentary feelings – and in so doing delightfully defined absence of …

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 …

Taxonomy

Khandro Déchen Khandro Déchen said: “Taxonomy concerns categories and classifications. We understand what we understand by comparison – but . . . …

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 ‘either’

a reminiscence of Chhi'mèd Rig'dzin Rinpoche

Khandro Déchen It was always slightly fraught visiting Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche. I never quite knew what he was going to ask me …

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 …