There are many Vajrayana treasures in the care of the Aro Tradition which are seldom on public display either to dedicated practitioners or members of the public. These treasures are the art-works and ritual objects from Tibet which have been passed to the spiritual directors by their teachers and which they have bequeathed to Sang-ngak-chö-dzong. [...]
Continuing a theme of 'every bit helps' in the art of fundraising, £83.10 was recently raised and donated to the Drala Jong Retreat Centre funds by Ngak'chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen at a local car boot sale. They gathered together various objects including a number of horse related items, both being keen equestrians and a [...]
There are a number of small, incremental, consistent activities that members of the Aro gTér Lineage sangha are involved in to raise funds for Drala Jong. One of these is that Ngakma Sang-gyé A-tsal donates £10.00 from every private Jong-dar chèd pa /sKu-mNyé class she teaches. sKu-mNyé means massage of the psychophysical body and is [...]
Chris Haydon's wonderful account of his fundraising walk: Fairly recently I became an apprentice within the Aro gTèr tradition of Vajrayana Buddhism. It is very important to me that this unique blend of traditional Nyingma practice and our modern Western culture is able to survive and flourish. To that end I see it as very [...]
Vajrayana Buddhist lineages commonly contain several systems of physical yoga, used both as a focus for meditation and for secondary benefits such as general health and wellbeing. Three such from the Aro gTér lineage are A-tri, sKu-mNyé and Trul’khor (yantra yoga in Sanskrit). sKu-mNyé in particular has been taught by a number of our qualified [...]
Spacious Passion By Ngakma Nor’dzin Ngakma Nor’dzin Pamo explores the Sutric teaching of ‘The Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to Practice’ as vividly relevant to our everyday lives: the extraordinarily precious opportunity to live as an honorable human being; the experience of impermanence that pervades our existence as an opportunity to awaken; the emotional [...]
The creation of appliqué thangkas and costumes for cham (dance) are examples of a form of craft which requires a permanent dedicated space for the object of the craft work to rest in whilst work is undertaken. Such projects at present are necessarily subject to the demands of completion within allotted times frames – and [...]
Relaxing into Meditation By Ngakma Nor’dzin What exercises and practices will help us to live a life free of stress? Ngakma Nor’dzin, a Western Buddhist Lama, guides us through relaxation and breathing exercises that lead into meditation. The meditation methods are described in friendly and accessible language, and will enhance the lives of those who [...]
The phurba is three-edged symbolic weapon, which focuses the mind on the destruction of the three deluded perceptual states: obsession, aggression, and indifference. In 2004 the (then) largest Phurba in the world was constructed in the Austrian Mountains by the students of Ngak’chang Rinpoche and Khandro Déchen in Mainland Europe. The Drala Jong project seeks [...]
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 [...]
