Sky-Direct: Namkha A-tè

Sky-Direct: Namkha A-tè (rNam mKha’ A gTad / རྣམ་མཁའ་ཨ་གྟད་) is a Dzogchen practice of visual absorption in the sky dimension.

This photograph of Ngak’chang Rinpoche was taken in the Spring 1982 in the Western Himalayas of Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, India.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche said “If you take the Bagsunath Road up from McLeod Ganj and walk for an hour in the direction of Triund, there is a waterfall. Just below the waterfall, far enough away from the torrent to avoid getting wet - but still within the region of damp air - there’s a large flat rock where it is possible to sit on the hottest day and keep cool.
From that position it is possible to stare into the sky-depth-enormity.

At high altitude the sky is indigo. Even in the foothills of the Himalayas, the sky is a darker blue than it is at sea-level. The air is clear and fresh.

The practice of ‘exchanging sky and mind’ seems natural in such places. The practice is called rNam mKha’ A gTad. rNam mKha means ‘Sky’ — and A gTad means ‘Direct’. Sky Direct.”

One day an old friend from Britain came to visit Ngak’chang Rinpoche. He took this photograph with a 500mm telephoto lens as he was walking up the path to meet Rinpoche. He’d been told where Ngak’chang Rinpoche was, by one of his Tibetan acquaintances in McLeod Ganj.

Finding Rinpoche was not difficult — because the solitary Inji Ngakpa was known to most Tibetans in the area.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche said:

“We walked back to the village and ate dinner in the Kunga Tibetan Restaurant.
We imbibed a few glasses of rather fine chang and reminisced: Art School, Poetry, the Folk and Blues Club in the William Cobbet Pub . . . “

There were often times like this when Rinpoche’s two ‘apparently dissimilar-lives’ would segue.

Ngak’chang Rinpoche said “Some people see these lives as ‘different’ — but . . . it’s Thursday whether it rains or snows; whether it’s bright or overcast — unless it’s Wednesday or Friday.”