Opening ourselves to the unlikely

Apprentice I have read that, being in the Nyingma Tradition, we are in some way accident prone—that we are heirs to misfortune. Is the meaning of this that we should not to try to get to a state where there are no calamities—but instead to achieve a situation in which we can open ourselves to the unlikely?

Lamas Well put.

Apprentice So that we would not be afraid of making mistakes?

Lamas Certainly—but not in terms of being reckless or foolhardy. You see, the Nyingma are indeed called ‘the accident lineage’ but not because they are accident prone. The meaning of ‘accident’ is more concerned with working with chaos than surviving calamity. The nature of reality is the dance of chaos and order. Order arises out of chaos and dissolves back into chaos—and this is why Nyingmas are not overly concerned with establishing institutions. We have no political agendas because we rely on the texture of chaos to be what it is. We practise and we work with whatever arises—without attempting to convert the disorderly nature of existence into something that looks more regimented. It is a matter of where we place our energy. It takes a great deal of energy to maintain a fixed form and so Nyingmas tend to prefer flexibility, even though it involves unlikelihoods.