'...the self-expressed nature of the phenomenal world which joyously communicates itself...'
- Lama'i Naljor of Khyungchen Aro Lingma
Aro Ga'dzong is situated
on Tuscany's sea-to-sky highway,
an historic route from the port of Pisa up to the passes over the Appenines and the Alps. From the palm-trees and cypresses along the riviera, past the olive groves of Lucca, it climbs through chestnut and acacia jungle to the pine forests on the snow mountains, and up above the tree-line.
"If you let the roots go deep enough, the tree will blossom abundantly."
- Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzogchen images the mind as a tree. The tree has its roots in the sky, the sky-like Nature of Mind. The branches, twigs and leaves are our experience. What we experience is the whole phenomenal universe, spreading towards the fringes of perception and sensation. The tree-sap is the movement of our irrepressible enlightened energy. Its blossom is our realisation, when we recognise the inseparability of inner, our senses, and outer, the sense-fields. This non-duality is the heart, the means and the goal of Buddhist meditation.
There are stations on the highway
between sea and sky,
locations which specially support Dzogchen meditation; power-places called bardo. Bardo literally means river/rock, an expression symbolising places and occasions where the elements are in transition. This course will feature day-long excursions to fulfil the meditation in these places which are neither here nor there, neither this nor that:
Between the sea and the land: the shoreline
[1,2] Mouth of the river Serchio
Between the river and the sea: the lake
[3,4] Puccini's Torre del Lago
Between the valley and the mountain: the abyss
[5,6] Orrido di Botri
Between the earth and the clouds: the mountain
[7,8] Michelangelo's quarry
Between the peak and the sky: the air
[9,10] Hannibal's Pass
At these locations there will be group and solitary meditation practice with the mind, with psycho-physical energy and with the body. These methods from Dzogchen and Buddhist Inner Tantra will be taught and explained at Aro Ga’dzong on the alternate days of the course, with related empowerments.
