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Approaching Aro
Approaching teachers
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Approaching Aro
Table of contents
Introduction
About “Approaching Aro”
About the author
Comment policy
Acknowledgements
Buddhism for Vampires
Ngakpa Update
Approach
“Fit”
An advice vacuum
Approaches to religion
On the path
Off the path
How I approached Aro
Mixed feelings
Opinions and curiosity
Buddhism in the West
Learning from other traditions
Buddhism, Dzogchen, and Aro
Truth and methods
Principles and functions
Visionary truth, objective truth
The futile quest for certainty
Yanas, contradictions, and understanding
Essential Buddhism
Uncontroversial Buddhist lineages
Buddhism and football
Yana shock
Wrathful practice
Why Dzogchen?
The scarcity of Dzogchen
Dzogchen: a controversial yana
No holiness—vastness!
No cosmic justice
Yana slip
Aro teachings
Open secret
Apprentice retreat
Aro and the Nyingma mainstream
Emptiness in the Aro gTér
Ling Gésar Buddhist martial arts retreat
Ngak’phang
How many bardos?
The heart of sun and moon
Aro tsok and the Three Displays
Approaching teachers
Lama as surgeon, Lama as spouse
Personality display
Special, ordinary, noble
No cosmic plan
Specialness
Ordinariness
Confusion
Nobility
We matter to Buddhism
Responsibility
Endangered species
Twilight of the isms
“Buddhism is for boomers”
“Buddhism” is an obstacle to Buddhism
Thought soup
Buddhism shattered
Stealth Dharma
Consumerism, Fundamentalism, and Buddhism
A Dzogchen-shaped hole in the culture
Yes
Three percent of the Dharma
Terma
Is the Aro gTer valid?
Terma overview
Terma validation in Nyingma theory
The duck test
Prophecy and terma
Where are the Tibetan texts?
Can white people have authentic visions?
Terma validation in Tibetan practice
What does “valid terma” mean?
The dakinis’ warm breath
Asking the wrong question
Aro history
Visionary and objective history
Sambhogakaya existence
Did Aro Lingma really exist?
Ngak’chang Rinpoche
Authorized to teach
My experience of Ngak’chang Rinpoche
Ngakpa Chögyam
Ngakpa Chögyam and his Lamas
Aro “controversy” F.A.Q.
Visceral dislike
Wrathful teaching
Jealousy among the sangha
Burying the hatchet
Statements of support
Lama Yeshé Dorje Rinpoche’s Proclamation
Lama Yeshe Dorje Rinpoche’s Foreword
Kyabjé Chhi-’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche’s Foreword
Letter from Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche
Letter about a student
Doctoral recommendation
Long-life prayer by Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche
Long-life prayer by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche
Gyaltsen Rinpoche’s Introduction
Kyabjé Dung-sé Thinley Norbu Rinpoche’s Colophon
Books
The economics of Buddhism books
Emailing the Lamas from Afar
Heart of Sun and Moon
Back to the future
Why Brad Warner matters
Finding Our Sea-Legs
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Aro elsewhere
Introduction
Community
Meditation
Events
Encyclopedia
All Aro sites index
Me elsewhere
Buddhism blog
Meaningness
Buddhism for Vampires
Ngakpa Update
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Other ways to help
From my other sites
What is meaningness?
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Illuminatus!, Voegelin, and the politics of SBNR monism
Meanwhile, back at the charnel ground…
Boundaries, objects, and connections
Unity and diversity
Dark culture: black magic as art and play
Black magic and meaningness
Recent comments
Cool!
You are working within your
Validation of a Terma
Cosmic Justice
Whoops! Fixed.
Emptiness
Fail.
Broken link?
unfolding
more comments . . .
Newest pages
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Long-life prayer by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche
Long-life prayer by Chhi’mèd Rig’dzin Rinpoche
Ngakpa Update
An advice vacuum
Emptiness in the Aro gTér
Ling Gésar Buddhist martial arts retreat
Off the path
On the path
Follow me on Twitter
Recent comments