The vision for Drala Jong

Drala Jong’ means ‘Sparkling Meadow of Primal Nondual Iridescence'. Kyabjé Künzang Dorje Rinpoche and Jomo Sam‘phel Déchen Rinpoche bequeathed their vision of the future to Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen. Their vision was for Drala Jong (sGra bLa lJongs / སྒྲ་བླ་ལྗོངས) to be established as a Nyingma Retreat Centre in Wales. It was to follow the gTérma lineage of Khyungchen Aro Lingma (khyung chen A ro gLing ma / ཁྱུང་ཆེན་ཨ་རོ་གལིང་མ་ / 1886–1923). Khyungchen Aro Lingma was a female gTertön who was an incarnation of Jomo Yeshé Tsogyel. The realised consort of Guru Rinpoche —— and Ma gÇig Labdrön who originated the teaching and practice of gÇod (གཅོད་).

༄ Drala (sGra bLa / སྒྲ་བླ་ ) is the life and vigour of phenomenal reality.

༄ Jong (lJongs / ལྗོངས་ ) means a mountain valley or meadow.

༄ Drala Jong refers to a place where Drala is more easily appreciated in terms of the elemental presence of the natural world; the earth, water, fire, air and space of nature.

༄ Jong refers to the sense fields, our perceptual continuum where there is no division between the six sense fields.

The experience of their unity manifests a limitless field of perception completely open to the vastness of what is there.

From the point of view of nondual perception we are completely available in terms of our appreciative capacity and the fluxing two-way communication occurs constantly.

The practice of Drala enhances the capacity to appreciate – leading to an unveiling of the phenomenal world.

Drala is the key to pure enjoyment which leads of itself to a state of appreciation for the enjoyment of others.

When one learns to appreciate phenomena, the sense fields sparkle and an infinite capacity for generosity is born. This connects with others - hence, kindness and appropriate action become effortless.

The practice of Drala is a method of becoming aware of the sentient nature of the world. This is important at this time of climate change and increasing pollution.

Enshrined in the idea of Drala Jong is this sense of responsibility for the world — and the activity which flows from this sense of responsibility.

It is our hope that Drala Jong will be both a place of great beauty and the host for a conflagration of kindness.

As well as the ordained gö kar chang lo’i dé — It will support many lay Vajrayanists towards creating a better world.

It will be a centre for encouraging Vajrayana practice through the Arts as a counterbalance to increasing levels of depression and disassociation from natural cultural community which we see as a pervasive within society.

Drala Jong will manifest a voice for authentic individuality and act as a counterbalance to the wastefulness and impersonal demands of the fashion industry. It will undermine the herd behaviour of prejudice and conflict against perceived otherness whether that difference manifests as race, religion, gender, age or any other descriptive form category.

It will be a centre for promulgating the Aro gTér and its important teaching on harmonious and mutually respectful relationships for the particular benefit of all members of families.

It will be the first centre in Britain to be dedicated to the gö-kar-chang-lo’i-dé as an ordained lineage of non-celibate non-monastic practitioners.

For those who are ordained (and those working towards ordination) the future of the Aro gTér Nyingma Vajrayana Tradition is the future of each member of the lineage - just as the lineage of the Mahasiddhas was composed of the lives of those who were known as such.

The Mahasiddhas were human beings who were more-or-less as people are today — and in that lies a marvellous opportunity.
We are all historical personages to those of the next century - and so we owe them the inspiration of inspired lives.

We have great confidence that the practitioners of Drala Jong will all be worth remembering.

To be worth remembering simply requires that we take our situations vitally seriously and in so doing we become joyously earnest.

The seeds of the future are already tilled into the soil of potentiality: the skills and aptitudes; insight; human warmth; generosity; courage; and free enthusiasm.

When we commit ourselves to life—as members of a lineage—we become far more than we could otherwise be.

It is possible to become heroes and heroines of Vajrayana - the ones who will be remembered.

Drala is awareness of the phenomenal world’s inherent magical quality.
It is the communicative flow between perceivers of the natural world and the natural world that is perceived.

Drala is feistiness and ebullient vitality.

Drala is primal purity — the nondual nature of Everyone & Everything, Everywhere.

Drala has a connection with relative time. It is not a neutral phenomenon.
There are ‘periods of time’ which are different in facility — in terms of the communicative flux of the natural world.

We change in our perceptual senses. Sometimes we lack openness — and at other times we are more sensitive to the efflorescence of what is arising in the sensory fields.
There are significant pools of time connected with Drala — and these can be discovered as pluripotential gestalts within the landscape of of exactly where we are.

Drala (Primal iridescence) describes the beginningless arising of energy from emptiness which is the unimpeded light display of the essence of the elements. This is the nondual world in action: coming into being and passing out of being as the dance of emptiness and form.