Astrology

May 23, 2011 by Norma

Personal magnetism is favorable today. And pleasing speech guarantees a successful conclusion to something you’re trying to accomplish. Spend time planning your financial goals. Make changes if you’ve neglected issues, and stay in the present in planning for your needs. If you set something in motion years ago and it no longer fits your needs, make a change! Be both careful and willing to change. Friends want to be with you, and this is lovely, but don ‘t let yourself be distracted from the matter at hand, which is financial planning. A relationship issue that began last October must be handled. Something has come back, and although it seems to be related to the past, it is here now. You get a chance to do-over or resolve things you didn’t quite handle before. If you don’t understand something, ask for help. A Chinese proverb says, “He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” Your choice.

The daily astrology post affects everyone. Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently. Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth. There are many departments of life. Look to see where the dynamic affects you!

Compassion, Wisdom and the Importance of Lineage

January 9, 2012May 22, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Palyul Nyingma Refuge Tree — Nam Cho Refuge Tree

The following is a series of tweets given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on the importance of lineage:

Wisdom and Compassion are the two eyes of Mahayana. Wisdom is pure awareness of empty nature. Not book learning. Compassion is Boddhicitta. Boddhicitta is primordial fundamental uncontrived nature’s pristine display. To attain wisdom meditate on emptiness – the sublime view. To give rise to Boddhicitta, accomplish View, leading to the understanding that all beings are same in nature, and struggle to be happy. Ordinary human kindness will suffice in this life but the Great Boddhicitta accomplishment benefits every future life.

Wisdom is not taught in school. That is knowledge. Wisdom cannot come from books, only knowledge. Wisdom comes with the mind ripening at Guru’s feet. Neither ordinary kindness nor book knowledge bring Supreme Buddhahood- Liberation. Only Wisdom View and Boddhicitta’s nectar can. Ordinary thoughts and concepts from ordinary people are just that. Primordial Wisdom is more rare and precious than any jewel. When you find yourself lost in blah blah blah let it go like vanishing dew. Come back to Wisdom and Boddhicitta- pray, meditate. This is the method and the way of uncountable Buddhas and Bodhisattvas before you from practices handed down through Lineage. All empowerment passed through lineage can be traced back to the blessing of Guru Padmasambava and Consort in an unbroken chain of mastery.

Empowerment without lineage is not traceable to original source. Never take empowerment without tracing through Lineage. If not traceable from Guru to student through out the centuries it is likely tainted by broken Samaya or is totally made up. Taking impure empowerment is like drinking poison and will destroy your path and progress. Every pure Lama gives lineage of empowerment.

Astrology

May 22, 2011 by Norma

This is a day to use your intelligence. Pull all your thinking together, aim it in one direction, and you can’t go wrong. Women friends are especially helplful, as are all friends. Two forces are favorable. First, the intellectual realm is powerful, and next the material or financial realm is strong. Give each its due and try not to mix the two together, because today they work against each other. Move forward cheerfully and at a careful pace. A steady growth is promised. Anya Bass said, “Yesterday’s history, tomorrow’s a mystery. I try to live in the present.” Excellent advice for today.

Dedication of Merit Prayer

May 21, 2011 by anisonam

DEDICATION PRAYER

CHOG DÜ GYAL WA SE CHE GONG

All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions be attentive.

TSHOG NYI DZOG LA JE YI RANG

I rejoice in the completion of the two types of merit.

DAG GI DÜ SUM GE SAG PA

All virtue I have accumulated in the Three Times

KÖN CHOG SUM LA CHÖD PA BÜL

I offer to the Three Jewels of Refuge.

GYAL WA’I TEN PA PHEL GYUR CHIG

May the Buddha’s Doctrine remain ever increasing!

GE WA SEM CHEN KÜN LA NGO

May virtue be dedicated to all sentient beings.

DRO KÜN SANGYE THOB GYUR CHIG

May all beings achieve Buddhahood!

GE TSA THAM CHED CHIG DÜ TE

Condensing the root of all virtue together,

DAG GI GYÜD LA MIN GYUR CHIG

May it ripen upon my mindstream!

DRIB NYI DAG NE TSHOG DZOG TE

By purifying the two obscurations and perfecting the accumulation of merit,

TSHE RING NED MED NYAM TOG PHEL

May my life be long, without illness, and may understanding and realization increase!

TSHE DIR SA CHU NÖN GYUR CHIG

May I attain the ten stages (bhumis) in this very lifetime.

NAM ZHIG TSHE PHÖ GYUR MA THAG

At the very moment that I must transfer from this life,

DEWACHEN DU KYE GYUR CHIG

May I be directly reborn in the Realm of Great Bliss.

KYE NE PEMA’I KHA JE TE

Being born from within an open lotus flower,

LÜ TEN DE LA SANGYE SHOG

May I achieve Buddhahood in that very Body.

CHANG CHUB THOB NE JI SID DU

After achieving enlightenment, may I continuously return to existence

TRÜL PE DRO WA DREN PAR SHOG

As a Nirmanakaya Buddha to guide all beings!

This is a Mind Terma revealed by Tulku Migyur Dorje.

Astrology

May 21, 2011 by Norma

Full steam ahead! Major action today, or if you’ve been diligent, yesterday was the accomplishment day. Tell everyone! Powerful news, powerful communication, is effective today. Pay attention to the news and to the messages you receive. This is important. Be sure you clarify what you hear, since confusion is possible. Double check information, triple check! If you don’t, you could make a mistake. The boss could be left off the guest list for an important occasion. Don’t get lost or over-party today. Still, your progress is excellent, and things are working out. Anne Morris said, “Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.”

Come Together – The Great Mother Needs Us!

January 9, 2012May 20, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Good evening all. Many feel this is our last day on earth. Anyone packed yet? Once in Sedona Arizona a large group packed essentials and stood waiting in a grocery store parking all night with their leader. Oopsey! No pick up. Now the end of the world is tomorrow. The rapture! At last some action! Were the teabaggers “in the know?” Hmmm. See this is what happens when you leave the heavy spiritual lifting to regular people, ordinary in their spiritual view? Always listen to the elders. They are the only ones capable of understanding and interpreting ancient mystical teachings from ancient times. If you follow the “pretenders” you will get the wrong info every time. Even Christian pastors follow the Bible like a recipe book because they have no ancient ways to guide them, to interpret. I as many feel the Bible (read it three times) is metaphor. We then miss out on the beauty and wisdom. In Buddhism we have one life practitioners who say outright they are enlightened. Just follow their (insane) ways and drop the care and kindness. Then we won’t care if we are dead or alive, so long as they have power over our minds.

Elders of any long rooted Lineage know what the bottom line is. They live it. In Buddhism we go to the “Elder” Tulkus who do know from lifetimes of practice and learning plus teaching. And the blessings of their “Elders” in an unbroken line. The Hopi elders know. The Mayans know. The northwestern Tribal elders know. Indigenous people know, as they watch and care for the earth. Who tells you truth? Those that have wisdom or those that read? Rapture will not come tomorrow. Unless you are high. No, the earth suffers and dies bit by bit.

Those who try to have power through opinion do not know. And they convey that nobody needs to do anything to help. Cop out! It isn’t over. It is time to get off our lazy deluded butts and help. Get political. Pick up the damn garbage. Quit dumping sewage into our water. Get into Japan’s face and make them trade their pride for earth’s safety. Stop whaling, feed your ego to the hungry (they need. You don’t.)

America is fat mostly because we are gluttons who do not help sentient beings. Selfish. Gotta have all the bacon. Too bad, you don’t need it and half the world is hungry.

So- how do we wake ourselves up? Prepare for difficult times. Learn how to grow food. Learn to pray. And how to make offerings. Learn how to learn. Learn how to shelter. And please, most of all come together, stay away from divisive people. All faiths must join together to save, not destroy Mother Earth. The Great Mother needs us to wake up!

Astrology

May 20, 2011 by Norma

Serious stuff today! A major force aligns favorably with business ventures. Fast thinking and a pleasant out look score major points. You may have had an “aha” during the night, a new way of understanding the situation. Something is revealed, dug up, that clarifies things. Something hidden is brought to light. Using this knowledge, you can move forward effectively. An action can place the final piece in the puzzle you’re been carefully constructing. This may cost money, but consider it well spent. An emotional hurt comes from a source you weren’t paying attention to. Tend to the hurt, but don’t lose your temper. Robert Ingersoll said “Anger is a wind which blows out the lamp of the mind.” You’ll need that mind later, don’t lose it now.

Astrology

May 19, 2011 by Norma

A surge of steady energy stabilizes a project. The old guard and the powers that be are on your side! A lucky break comes today, and emotional happiness is here as well. A burst of generosity enters the scene. Express yourself! A hunch or intuition is favorable early in the day. At the same time, the tone is one of stability, careful planning and accounting. Everything takes time to do well, and you’re enjoying carefully building your project. Physical comforts are important. If you’re skimping yourself, make things comfortable. Treat yourself as well as you treat others. Why? You may be treating others the way you treat yourself, without realizing it. Theodore Isacc Rubin said “Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom.”

Astrology

May 18, 2011 by Norma

Long distance communication is good, and a message from someone you admire gives solid advice and direction. Listen! You are magnetic and very attractive to others. Enjoy your power, and keep slowly building your business ventures. This is a nice day to garden, cook, eat, and shop as well. After all the forward push, it could seem as though you’re standing still. You’re not; you’re consolidating your position, which requires a different energy. Think of the little pig who built his house out of bricks and mortar. When the wolf came, he couldn’t blow that house down. How about your house? In a different direction, love is satisfying, and good taste leads to nice purchases or gifts. And kind words heal unseen wounds. A Japanese proverb says “One kind word can warm three winter months.”

The Honest Truth

January 9, 2012May 17, 2011 by Holly

sainshand-old-woman-and-little-girl-web-size1-300x253

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “How Buddhists Think”

The first step in achieving the cessation of suffering as prescribed by the Buddha is to understand samsara, or cyclic existence. This tends to be difficult for Westerners. They often come to the path assuming that it’s all about “love and light” or about being positive. This is not Buddhist thinking.

As Buddhists wishing to attain knowledge, we must examine the faults of cyclic existence fully and completely. We must understand why cyclic existence doesn’t work. We Westerners don’t want to spend any time on that: we tend to fool ourselves into thinking we’re happy until we get old and die. “There is just too much to do,” we say. “We can’t sit around being sad all the time. Shouldn’t we just think positive?”

That is really how Westerners think when they come to this path. “I’m okay,” they say, “but now I want to figure out how to be better. I want to be spiritual too.”

According to Buddhism, that is absolutely wrong thinking. In order to attain awareness in the Buddhist sense, one must understand the faults of cyclic existence.

The Buddha’s teaching is extremely logical, and very real. So we must enter this path not with blind faith but with our eyes wide open. If you think that to practice the Buddha’s teaching is about coming into an amazing place with exotic wall hangings and sitting around being bliss-ninnies, you’ve got it wrong. Here you’re going to get real, very real. You’re going to look at cyclic existence, and you’re going to face the fact that some day you’re going to die. And it’s up to you whether you waste your time, or whether you use this life in a way that you will see as beneficial. And you will have the capacity to make that distinction.

When you see beautiful, youthful bodies, you will understand that, yes, this is nice, but soon these bodies will sag and become wrinkled; soon they will get sick and die. You have to get real about that, because it’s the truth. No one has ever beaten that rap. When the Buddha teaches us to make use of this precious human rebirth, he doesn’t do it in an exotic, far-flung way. He teaches us to be very honest, very courageous, very real.