September, 2016 | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

What Are You Gathering?

September 15, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

In the view of the Bodhisattva, we realize that everything in life is impermanent, that nothing we can gather has any meaning other than the collection of virtuous habitual tendencies within our mindstream. Having realized that, one travels a moderate path in which one’s own enlightenment and the enlightenment of others become the same weight, and nondual.

Further, we come to understand that we are one and others are many. Even in this room, let’s say, if I am practicing as a Bodhisattva, I think that yes, my happiness is equal to the happiness of any one of you. But there are so many more of you than there are of me that it only makes sense for me to do what is beneficial for you rather than what is beneficial for me. This I try my best to live by. As a Bodhisattva, I consider this to be the most precious understanding that I have. It’s my treasure and my wealth. It’s reasonable and logical that the needs of the many would outweigh the needs of the one. Because we are the same, and because we all wish to be happy, and because in our nature we are absolutely inseparable and indistinguishable from one another, I find that I cannot be happy without you. So all of the different gatherings and collections that one can make during the course of one’s lifetime have to be understood in that way. Are they really worth anything? Or are they the gaudy childlike baubles that we play with until we have a better understanding of what the Buddha has taught.

Astrology for 9/15/2016

September 15, 2016 by Norma

9/15/2016 Thursday by Norma

Escapism, this is your day! Behaviors designed for escaping reality are out in full force today resulting in marathon tv watching, endless walks, aimless driving in circles and worse. Energy is best applied in subtle, behind the scenes activity. Medical interventions go well, healing techniques are effective and creative activity is rewarded. If you don’t normally live in a parallel universe, you will today! What’s a person to do when the world seems nuts? Form partnerships, that’s what. Luigi Pirandello said, “I present myself to you in a form suitable to the relationship I wish to achieve with you.” Traverse the day with another person and happiness ensues. Love is on the rise, pleasant interactions with others are stabilizing, and a sudden push forward is successful.

The astrology post affects everyone differently, depending on individual horoscopes. Look to see how this message reflects your life today!

Non-dual: The Middle Way

September 14, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

So the Bodhisattva thinks and meditates constantly on which things are worth putting effort into, and which things are not. Now the Buddha also taught about the Middle Way. When the Buddha realized the suffering of sentient beings, he tried at first the life of the ascetic. And he even tried to sit with those who engaged in the kind of meditation that was based on self-mutilation, a kind of meditation that was very strict and very severe. He meditated with yogis who would mutilate their bodies in order to overcome pain and renounce the attraction of comfort. So the Buddha tried that. These yogis did not eat or sleep comfortably. They meditated constantly. They remained in this one little grove and they ate very little. They might live on bits of plants and even bits of mushroom that grow in the ground. If someone gave them something to eat, they might eat on that, but they had no determination about wanting a certain kind of food. Whatever they found that day, that’s what they ate. There was no dependence on comfort for their happiness and well-being. So Lord Buddha practiced with them for a while and eventually he gave up on that method.

He gave up on that method because he saw that there is a kind of limitation to that focus, that that particular focus was sort of a dead-end street. It can result even in a kind of poison, or a kind of pridefulness, where the yogi is more concerned with their strict discipline than they are with the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings. It becomes something of an obsession, you know. It becomes something of a medal of honor that one wears. So Lord Buddha found that kind of rigidity, that kind of narrow view, somewhat distasteful. And so Lord Buddha went on to the Middle Way.

Therefore, as a Bodhisattva we are not being asked to never have a moment of comfort. No one is asking you to pierce your tongue or do any of those things those funny yogis did. No one is asking you to sit on a bed of nails and sleep on a bed of nails. No one is asking you to hang out in a grove and not have a house, not keep warm in the wintertime. No one is saying that you have to wear the same robes until they rot off your body. Lord Buddha does not teach that as a method. Lord Buddha teaches instead that all sentient beings are suffering, that we are suffering due to desire, that there is an end to suffering, and that end to suffering can be practiced as the eightfold path which we, in our tradition, condense into the practice of wisdom, or the realization of emptiness, and compassion, or the Bodhicitta. These are the two legs of the path, and this is the moderate Middle Way that Lord Buddha taught.

So as a Bodhisattva you are not being asked to never be happy. One’s own happiness, both temporary and ultimate, and the happiness of others, becomes instead inseparable, nondual. One would not honor oneself and cling to ego because that would be a nonsensical thing to do. There is no good result from that. The Bodhisattva realizes that. The Bodhisattva, however, would not make oneself suffer purposely, or hurt oneself in some way, because there is really no point to that. The point of practicing the path is the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings, and you are one of them.

Astrology for 9/14/2016

September 14, 2016 by Norma

9/14/2016 Wednesday by Norma

Quick action is extremely favorable and a happy surprise is in store today. Be on your feet early for the good stuff, linger in bed and you’ll sleep through it. Friends are helpful and new people generate financial success. Overdoing is an issue and health problems point to the need for rest, but you don’t want to! Don’t let an emergency force you to slow down. Two friendly planets in Libra emphasize the importance of getting out there and meeting people, of welcoming those who want to participate. Under no circumstances should you think your friendship circle is full, that there’s no more room for others. John Andrew Holmes said, “It is well to remember that the entire population of the universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.”

The astrology post affects everyone differently, depending on individual horoscopes. Look to see how this message reflects your life today!

The Bodhisattva’s Logic

September 13, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

The posture of a Bodhisattva is misunderstood in our culture. When a parent raises a child, the parent does not say to the child, “What I’d really like you to do, darling, is to be a great, generous mystic. I want you to be so generous that you give your life up for others. I want you to be so generous that you pay no attention to your own welfare or comfort, but instead I would like you to live and die for the benefit of sentient beings.” Nobody’s mother told them that! Due to the culture that we are raised in, we are told by our parents, their parents before them, and everything around us that there are certain things that one must do in order to be successful. One must gain recognition, power, money, ease of living. These are the things that one must do. But when one enters onto the path and becomes a Bodhisattva, one is faced with an entirely new set of ethics and morals and responsibilities.

This entire process must be understood as an intelligent, logical and reasonable process, simply by virtue of the fact that no matter what we accomplish during the course of this lifetime, other than the impact it has on our own bouquet of habitual tendencies, there is not one piece of what we collect that we can take with us, not one thing. So here is the Bodhisattva’s intelligence. And it is an intelligence. It is based on truth. It is based on fact. It is something like the intelligence of a person who receives a great deal of money, let’s say, or something precious and, if they’ve never had that before, if they haven’t thought it through, they might say, “Oh now I’ve got, let’s see, I’ve got $10,000 here so I’m going to go out and I’m going to spend that money and have a really good time. I’ve never had $10,000 before, so I’m just going to go spend it, and I’m going to get all the things that I wanted to get. Get some of my bills paid up, and I’m going to get a, let’s see, a down payment on a car, and I’ve got some clothes that I have in mind and all these different things. Maybe I’m going to buy a new TV. I’ve got all this laid out.” A sentient being’s normal reaction to having blessings in their life, or to life itself, is a little bit like that. I’ve got this thing. How am I going to spend it?

The Bodhisattva thinks very differently. The Bodhisattva realizes that, according to the Buddha’s teaching, life is like a precious jewel. When one meets with Dharma, meets with the teacher, and meets with the method by which we can accomplish realization, this life is understood as wealth for sure. We understand that there is a tremendous gift here. But how is the gift utilized? There comes in a completely different kind of logic.

The Bodhisattva realizes that, in the end, all will come to nothing. If our only gain is on the material realm, in the end all of the effort that we put into self-cherishing and beautifying ourselves, and the ease and comfort of our lives, and the accomplishments on the mental and physical levels of our lives, even those greatly cherished social institutions like vast education, even that will come to nothing, other than perhaps the discipline of studying. That habit may be brought into the next rebirth. .But everything that we have learned to love and cherish will come to nothing.

And so the Bodhisattva thinks, therefore, if in samsara, all efforts come to nothing, if all that survives is one’s virtue or lack of virtue, if all that matters in samsara eventually breaks down, then why should I put much effort into these things? Why should these things be precious to me? Because ultimately they will be lost, they will come to nothing.

The Bodhisattva then thinks more like a smart investor. You want to invest in that which brings ultimate returns: kindness, generosity, spiritual habits, habits associated towards travelling on the path of Dharma and developing oneself spiritually. Making offerings, living with generosity, meditating, praying, contemplating, teaching—these virtuous acts are the things that will bring a result that one can carry over into the next life. So the Bodhisattva is not so much a martyr as someone who has been trained through logic and reason to understand not to put all of one’s emphasis and hope in that which will ultimately disappoint. The Bodhisattva has been trained well enough to know that ultimately all things in samsara are disappointing. And so the Bodhisattva then makes the choice, based on training, to put one’s emphasis and one’s effort only in those things which will produce the excellent result of enlightenment and benefit to others. This is how the Bodhisattva thinks.

Astrology for 9/13/2016

September 13, 2016 by Norma

9/13/2016 Tuesday by Norma

An open, friendly attitude permeates the day making this the right time to join up with friends and groups. An agreement or brainstorming session generates new ideas. Intellect is favored over emotionalism today and machines, inventions and electronic gadgets of all sorts are highlighted. Do not, however, purchase a new machine -something you expect to work- unless you’ve researched it previously. Conversely, an irritating vibe is in the atmosphere and people are temperamental. Be courteous to everyone, especially those who don’t deserve it in your opinion. Anonymous said, “Prison is the politest society on earth. People in prison are polite to everyone because they know what will happen if they aren’t.” This is a good day to work your diplomatic muscle, to reach out to others in a friendly way, and to compliment everyone you meet.

The astrology post affects everyone differently, depending on individual horoscopes. Look to see how this message reflects your life today!

Dissolving Constituents: Understanding Death

September 12, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

The Bodhisattva understands that everything we amass during the time of our lives—everything we strengthen around us, all of the protection we build, the superstructuring that we do when we meet up with other than self-nature and react with hope and fear and begin to do the dance of self-protection and of self-establishment—the entire structure of self and its relationship to other, the entire idea, the Bodhisattva knows that eventually this will come to nothing. This is an intellectual response due to the Bodhisattva’s training, not a feeling response. The Bodhisattva is trained to understand that no matter what we accumulate and gather together during the course of our lives, by the time of the end of our life, none of that will have any meaning. At the end of our lives we experience the winding down of all of our energies. And as we die, even the physical, psychological, emotional constituents, particularly the physical elements, one by one, all begin to dissolve.

The fire element within our body begins to dissolve. The body cools. The water element within the body begins to dissolve and break down. The body becomes drier as we approach death. The mouth, the mucous tissues within the body become drier and drier. The earth elements within the body all dissolve. The body itself begins to break down and even the wind element within the body begins to dissolve. Mental process begins to slow and one’s activity level also begins to slow at the end of one’s life.

Then at the time of death, all of the constituents actually break down and separate. As the consciousness abandons the body and the body becomes simply a heap of broken-down constituents, what remains is the consciousness, which has its habitual tendency fully established. It is not able to take with it any of the real or material objects that it has gathered in its drama during the course of its life. And so all that remains is the consciousness, that, like a basket, held these material things, these solid, impermanent realities associated with that particular life.

The consciousness, however, remains. And if the consciousness spent most of its lifetime in establishing material wealth or gathering substance to support the ego, then at the time of death the consciousness has only that habit of supporting the ego to take with it, only that habit. On the other hand, if a life of generosity and caring have taken place, then that habit moves as consciousness into the next rebirth. Now the Bodhisattva knows this and so the Bodhisattva’s prayer is not based on a feel-good emotion of “Gee I’d like to be a really cool person, be so kind and so neat, and so terrific that everybody loves me and calls me saint somebody.” That’s not what the Bodhisattva thinks.

The Bodhisattva thinks instead in a very logical and precise way, according to the Buddha’s teaching: Everything will dissolve. All the efforts of my life together will come to nothing. All the efforts of my life to build up my treasure-house of material goods and keep them for myself will ultimately come to nothing. All of my efforts to preserve my power will ultimately come to nothing because power dissolves at the time of death also, but the habit of grasping at power is reborn as consciousness. So if gathering power will come to nothing, if gathering wealth will come to nothing, if preserving myself in this extraordinary way, thinking only in a self-cherishing and egocentric way, will ultimately come to nothing other than suffering in the next rebirth, why not give everything now?

Astrology for 9/12/2016

September 12, 2016 by Norma

9/12/2016 Monday by Norma

An early morning event is disorienting and the solution is prompt action. Avoid spending time analyzing the disturbance, it’s is better to move ahead with your agenda. Elsewhere Jupiter in Libra means it’s “all partnership all the time”! The inherent kindness and diplomacy of this placement is a soothing balm in every venture. Old issues are cleared up and a forgiving “live and let live” attitude softens disputes and grievances. Bob Hope said, “If you haven’t got any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble.”This is a good day to use your discrimination to see what’s right about people and things, and to fix what’s wrong about yourself.

The astrology post affects everyone differently, depending on individual horoscopes. Look to see how this message reflects your life today!

The Futility of Habits

September 11, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

If you create the habit of compassion and generosity, then that habitual tendency will stay with you, and in some future life it will affect your rebirth and your circumstances. There will be much more joy and happiness. When one engages truly on the Bodhisattva’s path, one goes beyond that superficial kind of view. One goes much deeper into the understanding of how to live one’s life. And so one’s morals and ethics and values are developed because of this Bodhisattva ideal. The Bodhisattva understands these teachings that the Buddha has taught— that all things are impermanent. The Bodhisattva understands that whatever material gain we can amass during the course of this life can only bring temporary happiness and, ultimately, if that’s all we do, it will bring suffering. So this is what the Bodhisattva studies and the Bodhisattva comes to the point of realizing that.

Then there is another kind of amazing logic that enters into the mind of the Bodhisattva. It becomes part of our life experience, and becomes the most profound law that we can live by. And that is this: Think about this body of ours, this body that we cherish and hold onto. We decorate it, we love it, we keep it safe. We make sure that it’s happy. We revolve much of our time and our effort around this body and its upkeep. And then we think about this ego, this ego that is our mind and our consciousness and our awareness of self. But even beyond that, the extended effort to maintain ego is part of the egocentric structure that we call “me.” We have developed our own habits and patterns over time in order to avoid the chaos of the idea that what we are as egocentric beings might change in any way, shape, manner or form. We put amazing effort into perpetuating ourselves and our needs, into reacting with either hope or fear towards every other thing, so that we can determine whether we want it or whether we want to move away from it. That kind of self-cherishing requires us to think of our own well-being and to look at other sentient beings as objects from which we can get what we need, like love, approval, romance, money, power, anything.

The Bodhisattva realizes these kinds of ideas and habits are futile. And this is the reason why: During the course of our lives we spend much of our time amassing, structuring, creating support for ourselves, for our ego, because we fear annihilation. Once you have the belief in self-nature as being inherently real, that self has to be supported and continued, because the idea is that if self-nature were to dismantle or not be the same, that somehow chaos would result. We have no knowledge of our true nature as being the primordial Buddha ground of being, no knowledge of that primordial wisdom nature that is our true nature. We rely on this idea that self-nature must be perpetuated.

Astrology for 9/11/2016

September 11, 2016 by Norma

9/11/2016 Sunday by Norma

An organized approach to today’s activities guarantees success. Plan where you’re going and what you’ll do for best results. Lack of organization leads to indecision and a sense of incompletion. Going with the flow guarantees dissatisfaction. J. G. Holland said, “There is no royal road to anything. One thing at a time, and all things in succession. That which grows slowly endures.” An undercover endeavor brings good fortune, partnership is fabulous and yesterday’s loss is recouped today.

The astrology post affects everyone differently, depending on individual horoscopes. Look to see how this message reflects your life today!