Month: February 2019

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

If you think about the food that we eat, you think, oh well, once you’ve eaten the food, it’s part of you and it’s nourishing.  You forgot the rest of the story.  Don’t you remember what happens to food after a few hours? Food changes. When you eat big chocolate cake… Or what would you like to eat?  Let’s see, what are we having today?  I would like to have chocolate mousse.  How about that?  So I’m going to eat my chocolate mousse and “yum yum yum” it’s so good. And you think, “Oh this chocolate mousse is really spectacular!  I don’t have to share it with anybody. There’s nobody in the room, and I can eat the whole mousse myself. Well, chocolate mousse!  I can eat the whole chocolate mousse myself and don’t have to share it with anybody.  Nobody is looking, I can even lick that [bowl]., You know, I can really enjoy this and I don’t have to give it away. And once I eat it, it is mine!  No one can demand it back.  Except that, after a few hours it seems to  exit the body.  And before it does, it creates some minor distresses on the way down.  That delicious experience with one’s food, even assuming the food was not chocolate mousse , but something nourishing from which you might receive benefit and energy,  ultimately is impermanent. Even the condition of taking in nourishment is impermanent because, after having taken in nourishment, then even the most delicious food results in waste.  And what is good in the food we use to make energy and the energy is expended.

So everything that we know and understand in our life experience is changing.  You are not the same person that you were seven years ago.  Everything about you has changed.  Literally the cells in your body have changed and been reborn with very few exceptions.  There are some cells in the human body that do not change that quickly, but the majority of cells change every seven years.  Quite remarkable! It’s really interesting to wonder, to ask ourselves, why is it then that we maintain physical scars from when you’re younger?  Isn’t that odd?  I mean, if we constantly create new cells and they are changed every seven years, what’s that [scar] doing there?  I fell on a piece of glass and wire when I was a little girl playing in a vacant lot and cut my arm right there.  Why is that still there?  I was a little girl when it happened.  I’ve changed many times over. It’s because we do not understand impermanence.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

2/6/2019 Wednesday by Wangmo & Jampal

Theme: Returning to objectivity

There is more insight at this time and the capacity to see things objectively. It’s a good time to focus on service to others rather than escaping from reality which is another possibility today. You will have more confidence to stand up for what you believe in without provoking others. It’s important to address any inner negativity you have at this time. Science is not only a disciple of reason but, also, one of romance and passion.~Stephen Hawking

2/5/2019 Tuesday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: From disorientation to realization!

The energy today can cause confusion and fuzzy thinking. However there is much positive potential. Find your own way to get in touch with your heart. This is a day where progress can be made in prayer and meditation. Determine the structures that aid you in your spiritual practice. You have more optimism overall. Make your heart a zone of peace.~Jack Kornfield

Download the Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

With a longing to benefit beings who are sick and dying, Jetsunma created a song called “Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen.” This is a traditional prayer to Amitabha, the Buddha of Limitless Light, from the P’howa practice of the Longchen Nyigthig tradition. P’howa is the meditation practice for the time of death, and Amitabha is the deity to be visualized in that meditation.  “Dewachen” refers to the state of consciousness in which one experiences a pure land and the opportunity to accomplish liberation.

Jetsunma said,  “When I listened to this tune, I realized that it was like a mother singing her child to sleep, which really was my motivation when I sang that song.  I know that everyone that I love, I will be parted from someday.  Everyone that I meet will die some day.  I wish there was some way that they could be guided through the bardo individually.  And the best response that I know of is this prayer.”

Any being who listens to this prayer receives a blessing, whether Buddhist or non Buddhist, human or animal.  It is especially soothing for those who are chronically or acutely ill, or who are on the precipice of dying.  You can help beings by making this prayer heard by as many people and as many animals close to their death as possible.  It is available here:  Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen