June, 2017 | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Astrology for 6/26/2017

June 26, 2017 by Norma

6/26/2017 Monday by Norma

Medical treatments go well today and healing is progressing well. Real estate or development projects are favorable, and it’s a good time to fix up the house. Listen to people who want to talk about the past and share your own memories, it’s part of the bonding process that’s taking place now. Maya Angelou said, “The most called-upon prerequisite of a friend is an accessible ear.” Follow your hunches about everything now, you can use reason later. Be sure to dress well and smile at everyone today.

Astrology for 6/25/2017

June 25, 2017 by Norma

6/25/2017 Sunday by Norma

Focus on the qualities you appreciate in people and things today, not on the negative. Avoid bringing a partner into a difficult situation, it’s better to go it alone and use your own intuition to work things out. Be sure that you yourself are in a stable place before addressing others. Carlos Santana said, “If you want to be successful, just meditate, man. Meditation will tell you what people need.” This is a good day to formulate goals for the future, go for a swim or a sail, and renew old relationships that you’ve neglected.

The Middle Way: From a Commentary on the Bodhisattva Vow by HH Penor Rinpoche

June 24, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999:

This leads to the third stage concerning the aspect of adjusting one’s intention [which is the first of four aspects of the preliminaries to the ritual for receiving the vow]: transcending the two extremes of samsara and enlightenment by vowing to maintain the middle way. The practice of the enlightened mind, bodhicitta, involves two levels, the aspirational and the practical. Maybe you’re thinking, “If we reject the suffering of the three realms of existence and avoid attraction to the quiescence of the hearers and solitary realizers, what is there for us to obtain?” What we are to obtain is the state of bodhisattvahood, which is dependent on bodhicitta cultivated for the sake of self and others. It is only bodhicitta that leads beings from the suffering of existence to the state of fully enlightened buddhahood. We must avoid the two extremes: the quiescence of ordinary nirvana and the endless cycle of samsara. It is only through cultivating bodhicitta that we can truly follow the middle way.

Through cultivating bodhicitta you will purify all nonvirtue accumulated in the past, present, and future, and compassion and all noble qualities, including the ability to meditate in samadhi, will blossom in your mind. As you dedicate yourself to the welfare of others, the [strength of your] vow will increase to the point where are you are truly able to help sentient beings as limitless as space. You will be able to bring limitless beings to enlightenment, until the ocean of existence is emptied. The Buddha taught that without the cultivation of the precious bodhicitta, there is no chance to achieve the state of fully enlightened buddhahood. Therefore, for the purpose of all other living beings, with great enthusiastic joy you should give rise to the precious bodhicitta and engage in the actual practice.

Astrology for 6/24/2017

June 24, 2017 by Norma

6/24/2017 Saturday by Norma

Things grow more emotionally charged by the minute and your best bet is to pour this energy into healing, anything to do with water, maritime matters, creative ventures and imaginative pursuits. Do not attempt to involve others as they either won’t join you or else they will pull you in the wrong direction. Carl Jung said, “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakens.” Follow your own thinking today, put energy into careful shopping and allocation of resources. A financial decision is excellent, a love is deepened and home is where the heart is. Spend time with family, children and those who mean the most to you.

Making Offerings: His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

June 23, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Next, go for refuge in the sublime supports, the buddha as the embodiment of the three mayas, the dharma as the representation of all scriptural transmissions and realization, and the sangha as those who have attained the irreversible path of the sublime ones. From this moment until enlightenment, in order to liberate all parent sentient beings from their suffering, develop compassion. Realize that [in order] to accomplish your goal, aside from reliance on the Three Jewels of refuge, there is no other support for refuge. I would be impossible for you to bring all beings to liberation without the buddha, dharma, and sangha. With irreversible faith and devotion, repeat the vows of refuge.

According to the Mahayana path, we take refuge in the teacher who shows us the path to liberation: that is buddha. We engage on the path of Mahayana practice by cultivating the precious bodhicitta until we realize buddhahood: that is the dharma. The sangha is the spiritual community that is on the same path as we are on, assisting in the accomplishment of our mutual goals.

Next is the method for accumulating merit. Visualize in space in front a magnificent throne supported by eight lions, where your teacher sits, indivisible with Lord Buddha Shakyamuni. The eight arhats and a vast assembly of buddhas and bodhisattvas surround him like masses of clouds that fill the ten directions. Imagine countless emanations of yourself filling the entire pure realm of your environment, which includes the entire universe. You can countless emanations of yourself and all parent sentient beings join together to fill [all of] space. With humility, reverence, and faith, you and they all bow down and pay homage to the objects of refuge in the space in front. [Here you] prostrate by touching the five places of your body to the ground. That is the branch of prostration, a powerful antidote for pride. Having pride means having an attitude of cherishing yourself by thinking you are so great and special. Performing prostrations purifies that egoistic attitude.

Now visualize that you and innumerable emanations of yourself present boundless offerings. Offer all of your wealth and endowments, including the root of all virtue in this lifetime, all your past lifetimes, and in future lifetimes. Offer objects that are of this world and those that are transcendent. Imagine them to be inconceivably vast clouds of outer, inner, and secret offerings that completely fill space. In addition, offer the essential nature of reality.

General offerings please the senses. Imagine those offerings to be vast and inconceivable. However, if you were to [attempt to] compare the outer offerings with a single particle of the realms of buddhas and the quality of offerings made in the minds of enlightened ones, [you would find that comparison] to be beyond the scope of your imagination. That is why it is so important while presenting offerings to try to connect with the ultimate nature of offering, which is mental and not just material. Material offerings you make are supports for your mental or imagined offerings, which should be as inconceivably vast and wondrous as you are capable of manifesting. The actual offerings you use as a support should also be the best substances you are able to offer. At least they must not be old, dirty, or leftover substances; they must be suitable supports for the basis of virtue. The pure material offerings you make will be the support for the continual manifestation of inexhaustible offerings that will remain until samsara is emptied.

There is a well-known story of an accomplished practitioner named Jowo Ben. One day Jowo Ben made a very beautiful, clean, and pure offering on his altar. As he sat and looked at his offering, he thought, “What is it that makes this offering I’ve made here today excellent?” Then he remembered his sponsor was coming to visit that day, and he realized he had made the beautiful offering in order to impress his sponsor. He jumped up, picked up a handful of dirt, and threw it on the altar, saying he should give up all attachment and fixation on worldly concerns. Other lamas, on hearing what Jowo Ben had done, proclaimed his offering of throwing dirt on his altar to have been the purest offerings, because Jowo Ben had finally cleared his mind of attachment and aversion.

When offerings are made, they are rendered pure and excellent by a mind free from attachment and aversion to the ordinary, material aspect of the offerings–and they must be made with a mind that is also free from avarice. Don’t think you can throw dirt on your altar and think that will benefit you. You must adjust your mind. If your mind is free from attachment or fixation and aversion, then whatever you do will be right. If your mind is not adjusted and your intentions are impure, then no matter how beautiful and magnificent the offering is, it will be insignificant. If you present all offerings, whether abundant or meager, with fervent devotion from the core of your heart, that will produce profoundly amazing results.

In order to be free from the suffering of existence, the mind must be free from dualistic fixation. In freedom from duality, everything is inherently pure. Just imagine all the wonderful offerings that are made that are free from duality; pure water possessing the eight qualities, garlands of flowers, incense, light, superior perfume, celestial food, musical instruments, fine garments, beautiful umbrellas, canopies, victory banners, the sun, the moon–the finest and best of everything is offered. Consider those as offerings arranged in a magnificent array equal in size to Mt. Meru. Furthermore, know that those offerings are pure and free from duality. For example, if you were to pick a flower and think, “Oh, this is such a beautiful flower; I want to offer it,” but then you also think, “My flower is more beautiful than the others,” and you offer it with that dualistic thought, then that offering would be defiled by your dualistic fixation. On the other hand, if you focus on the pure nature of the offerings and present them with pure devotion, you will make offerings that are pure or free from dualistic fixation. Recite the verses of the branch for offering, and make the most excellent, immeasurable offering you are capable of with the enlightened attitude [bodhicitta], faith, and pure devotion.

It is important to understand that presenting offerings is the antidote for [having] desire. Offerings are not made to the Three Jewels because they are considered to be poverty-stricken and in need of receiving from their disciples; offerings are made to accumulate merit. By making offerings with actual material substances, we accumulate ordinary conceptual merit; by using the mind to manifest immeasurable offerings, we accumulate nonconceptual wisdom merit.

Astrology fro 6/23/2017

June 23, 2017June 23, 2017 by Norma

6/23/2017 Friday by Norma

Words touch a sensitive spot and the reaction is swift, negative and definitive. Back away promptly, no good comes from prolonging the encounter. Favorable news comes regarding technology, mechanical devices and space travel. Beware of overdoing, overpromising and overestimating your situation. Mars in temperamental Cancer can generate mood swings that are best treated with food, rest and nurturing, not by blaming others or yourself for being human. Remember that others love you just the way you are. Jacques Maritain said, “We don’t love qualities, we love persons, sometimes by reason of their defects as well as of their qualities.” Follow your hunches today, observe your emotions but be slow to act on them, and keep an eye out for the biggest financial boon imaginable! Let things happen today, don’t try to make things happen. Go with the flow Buddihist Tea Pet.

Cultivating Compassion – A “How To”

June 22, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Foundation of Bodhicitta”

Now it sounds like I’m making a sales pitch. “You too can do this.” Well in a sense, I am. But what I’m really trying to do is to open your eyes to the potential here. Please don’t let me express this in such a way as to indicate to you that it is easy. All you have to do is practice a little Dharma and bingo you have got it. The kind of offering that I’m talking about, the kind of bodhicitta, the kind of generosity that I’m talking about takes a life time and more of absolute and total commitment to practice,. of actually practicing sincerely for the benefit of sentient beings; but only under that condition can you offer the ultimate gift—the gift of enlightenment. In cyclic existence, there is no end to suffering. The only end to suffering is one exits cyclic existence; and one only exits the cycle of death and rebirth upon achieving enlightenment. How can you help others to achieve enlightenment? Well, you can’t until you yourself have achieved some enlightenment.

In the meantime, you can help build stupas; you can make tsa tsas; you can sponsor enlightened activity; you can support your temple. You can do all of those things. You can practice, and you can dedicate the virtue of your practice to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings. That is a very significant gift. That is a very significant act of bodhicitta. But ultimately the true benefit comes when you yourself have achieved realization in order to benefit sentient beings; and that you are able to return in such a form that you can provide the path and provide the method. You can provide the impetus. You can provide the empowerment and the fertilization that is necessary in order to ripen each and every sentient being’s buddha seed so that it can bring forth the flower of enlightenment.

It is not a selfish goal. It is not an immediate end to the suffering of sentient beings so you might fall into the trap of thinking, ‘Well what is the kindest thing to do? Practice to beat the band or work in a soup kitchen.’ Now we are taught that working in a soup kitchen would be the most compassionate thing to do, but actually it is two different kinds of compassion, you see. Working in a soup kitchen would be temporary compassion, temporary bodhicitta. Working to achieve realization would be ultimate bodhicitta. Two different kinds. The Buddha teaches us don’t waste your time. Spend the main bulk of your time on the ultimate bodhicitta.

Astrology fro 6/22/2017

June 22, 2017 by Norma

6/22/2017 Thursday by Norma

Beware of overdoing- giving more than is reasonable- and using an emotional justification for your actions. Boundaries are necessary now. Two forces are at work: feelings and reason. Feelings say you should hand over your pension to someone who did you a favor in college, logic says you might need the pension yourself one day. Tiptoe carefully and run your thinking past an impersonal party, someone unaffected by the matter at hand. The wish to stand by your words conflicts with the fact that you’ve changed your mind. Fess up, admit you’re human and move on! Afraid others will blame you? They will, but so what. Winston Churchill said, “We shall not be judged by the criticisms of others but by the
consequences of our acts.” This is a good day to tend to domestic matters, think about food, build things and earn money.

Calling to the Guru – Yeshe Tsogyal

June 21, 2017 by anisonam

The following is an excerpt from Mother of Knowledge translated by Tarthang Tulku

Yeshe Tsogyal is calling out to Guru Rinpoche as he prepares to leave Tibet to tame the land of savages:

The sun that warms the land of Tibet,
shining over both gods and men, has set.
Now who will warm us, who are totally naked?
The luckless Tibetans have lost their eyes.
Now who will lead us, who are blind and alone?
Our hearts have been torn from our breasts.
Now who will guide the mindless corpses?
You came here to benefit beings.
Why couldn’t you stay just a little while longer?

Kye Hud! Orgyan Rinpoche!
A time of thick darkness has come to Tibet:
A time when hermitages are empty;
a time when the Dharma throne is vacant;
a time when vase initiations are no more.
Now we can only guess as to the nature of the teachings;
now we must look to books for teachings;
now we can only visualize the lama;
now we must use images as his substitute;
now we must rely on dreams and visions;
now a grievous time has come!

Astrology for 6/21/2017

June 21, 2017 by Norma

6/21/2017 Wednesday by Norma

Three planets in Cancer reflect the wish to stay home and reminisce about family, the past and feelings. Empathy is king today. Put yourself in yourself in other people’s position, see life from their perspective and give comfort where needed. Everyone’s feeling a bit tender and in need of mothering. Abraham Lincoln said, ” I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life.” It has been observed that wounded solders most common cry in battle is “Mom!” This is a good day to follow your feelings in business as well as personal matters as Cancer is astonishingly good in business. Cancerian sensitivity can spot a lie a mile
away, isn’t persuaded by fancy words and knows what’s going on beneath the surface. Stay well nourished, follow your instincts and don’t express your wounded emotions in public.