About “Approaching Aro”

This site is meant as a resource for anyone who is considering involvement in Vajrayana Buddhism.

At first, Vajrayana seems confusing, complex, and difficult. It is time-consuming and requires commitment. It may appear frightening or crazy. On the other hand, it is fascinating, beautiful, and inspiring too.

One can practice Sutrayana (the most common forms of Buddhism) in a general or eclectic way. For Vajrayana, however, one must choose a school, tradition, lineage, and teacher. I use the word “approaching” to refer to the gradual process of learning more about Vajrayana and its subdivisions, beginning tentatively to practice, selecting a teacher, and taking on increasing responsibility within and for the Sangha.

I am an “apprentice” in the Aro lineage. Aro is a lineage within the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Aro particularly emphasizes Dzogchen. What I have to say will be most relevant to those interested in Aro specifically, and to those intrigued by Dzogchen. I hope much will also be relevant to approaching other Nyingma lineages, and to approaching Vajrayana generally.

I aim to:

• describe my experience with Aro;
• suggest ways in which you can investigate whether a particular lineage or teacher is a good “fit” for you;
• correct some common misconceptions about Dzogchen and the Aro teachings; and
• provide a moderated space for questions about these topics.

About the author

My name is David Chapman. I have been an Aro apprentice since 1997. I am quite knowledgeable about Aro and related Buddhist lineages, and will do my best to write carefully and accurately. However, I am not ordained, am not a teacher, and have no particular role in Aro other than as one of the team that maintains the Aro web sites.

I was educated, and have worked, as a scientist, engineer, and businessman. Those disciplines teach one to ask skeptical questions:

• The scientist asks “Is it true? How do we know? What is the evidence? What are the alternative possibilities?”
• The engineer asks “How well does it work? In what circumstances does it work well or not so well? How and when and why does it fail?”
• The businessman asks “How useful is it? What sort of person will find this valuable?”

These might seem unusual questions to ask about a religious tradition, but I think they are good ones. I will ask them about Aro and do my best to answer them. Of course, in a religious context, the questions must be asked a little differently than in these fields:

• Different disciplines have their own notions of truth and different rules of evidence. Buddhism has its own distinctive conception of truth. I will be asking “is it true” questions with respect to both Buddhist and Western criteria.
• “How well does it work” in engineering generally has a numerical answer, and is meant to apply universally. About Buddhism, we will ask instead “how well can this work for me.”
• “How valuable is it” leads a businessman to “how much profit can I make.” Buddhism is not a product, is not for sale, and generates no profit. It is still useful to ask “to what sort of person is this Buddhist tradition valuable,” and also “how valuable is this to me?”

Asking these questions leads quickly into the fundamental logic of the Dharma. In the case of Aro, it leads straight into the heart of Dzogchen—which is considered the most subtle and advanced of all Buddhist teachings.

As I mentioned, I am not qualified to teach Buddhism at all, much less Dzogchen. So by what extraordinary arrogance do I attempt to explain it?

I see my role here as analogous to that of a science journalist. Science journalists are generally not qualified to practice scientific research, much less teach it. However, good ones know enough to explain it accurately in lay terms. They know what they don't know, and ask actual scientists when they aren't sure, and are able to present science in a way that is easier for most readers to understand. This is hard to do well, and many do it badly, but good ones are almost always accurate and are helpful in educating the public (and inspiring a few teenagers to go on to become professional scientists).

I hope to explain Vajrayana Buddhism, particularly Dzogchen and Aro, clearly and accurately enough to help you in deciding whether to pursue them further. I hope also to communicate enough of my enthusiasm that you may be inspired to do so.

You can reach me by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Comment policy

I want this site to be useful to you. But I don’t know for sure what you will find most useful. I have an outline with dozens of pages that I may never get to write. What I say, and how, and when, will depend on your questions, suggestions, and interests.

Most of the pages on this site have an “add new comment” link at the bottom. Please use it; that will be helpful to me, to you, and to other readers. Please let me know if you have any technical problems posting comments.

Web discussions somehow tend to produce vicious shouting matches. For that reason, and to eliminate spam, comments appear only after a delay. Please practice the fundamental Buddhist commitments of kindness and openness. Paul Graham’s excellent essay on how to disagree productively could be helpful. Tough questions are welcome; I will try to give real answers. (Writing each web page of content takes me a full day, so I will not be able to provide detailed responses to every issue at once.) I may delete comments that are “mi kha” in Tibetan. Mi kha includes one-upmanship, put-downs, gossip, slander, defamation, harassment, abuse, and so forth.

Most bloggers, and most forum participants, are anonymous, hidden behind “nyms.” Originally I intended to publish this site anonymously. The infinitely wise Lama Shardröl Du-nyam Wangmo persuaded me to use my real name instead. That makes me clearly accountable for what I say here; my personal reputation is at risk. Commenters may wish to do likewise—but that is optional. The comment form will prompt you for an email address. If you supply an email address, it will not be publicly displayed. You are also free to leave it blank.

Aro apprentices might do well to identify themselves as such. (I do not want a pseudonymous cheering section.)

I use the Mollom anti-spam service, which reads comments and tries to filter out spam automatically. See their privacy policy, which basically says that they may read and/or store whatever information you enter.

For general questions and comments on this site, you can add comments at the bottom of this page.

You can reach me by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Acknowledgements

Although this web site is entirely my responsibility, many people have contributed in various ways, for which I would like to give thanks.

Each of the Aro Lamas gave me specific, valuable advice. They have substantially improved the work. (Their involvement does not imply endorsement, however. Each of them also made suggestions that I chose not to follow, and they would each prefer that I had done some things differently.)

Many Aro apprentices have contributed encouragement, photographs, on-site comments, and comments on unpublished page drafts. Naljorma Rin’dzin, especially, has read drafts of about a third of the pages before publication, and vastly improved many of them.

Eyewitness accounts were key to writing the historical section of this site. I am grateful to the many people who patiently answered my innumerable boring questions.

Most of the images on this site came from stock.xchng. Its remarkable collection is generously made free by the photographers.

Buddhism for Vampires

Buddhism for Vampires is a new (as of May 2010) site, presenting Buddhism in an unusual new way. Or, not so new: because it turns out that the undead have been a part of Buddhism since ancient times.

Most of a year ago, I suggested here that explaining Buddhism in the language of the undead might be a way around the problem of Buddhism’s hijacking by New Age psychotherapeutic political correctness. That might make Buddhism attractive to a new audience. I wasn’t really serious then; but after thought and research, I realized that the connections between vampires and Buddhism are substantial and significant.

Vampires provide a set of metaphors for communicating aspects of Buddhism that are otherwise difficult to talk about. Wavering on the threshold between living and dead, the undead embody the unavoidable ambiguity of experience. Seductive and horrifying, vampires mirror our constantly-flickering reactions of desire and revulsion.

I have added a “My other sites” section in the right margin of the pages of Approaching Aro. This currently lists the most recent pages from Buddhism for Vampires. I expect to be creating at least one more site, “Meaningness”, in the next few months. It will explore the philosophy of nihilism and eternalism, and its new pages will also appear in that list. If you are interested in following these sites, it would be best to sign up for updates directly on them, though. You can get updates by email or RSS.

It has been many months since I have written much on Approaching Aro. I do plan to write more; especially about the process of choosing a spiritual path, organization, and teacher. I have drafts of a dozen new pages. I write slowly, however, and the new sites are taking priority for now.

Although they are quite different in style, I hope some readers of Approaching Aro will find the new sites to their liking—and vice versa!