Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Guru is Your Diamond”

Should it happen that we cannot meet with the Guru for some reason, or there is some difficult point in one’s path, some difficult moments, some difficult times, maybe even some difficult months or years, still, so long as the Guru remains in the world, we can turn our face towards the Guru and know.  It’s like falling off a horse.  You can always get back on.  But the problem is—and there is a problem with that—if you waste your time with that precious jewel and don’t collect its interest, the jewel somehow becomes more distant, less potent, less present, less precious, less everything.  And we think to ourselves, “Why is the Guru not in my life so much?”  And we tend to think, “Oh, it’s because the Guru’s over here or the Guru’s over there, or the Guru is not speaking right now, or the Guru is this, or the Guru is that.”  And you can think that way if you want to but it won’t help.  We must think, “Now I’ve come to this place.  I have chosen my Guru and I am steadfast.  I have seen the door of liberation.  Yet somehow things are a little mixed up here, I can’t quite get to it.  I don’t feel focused.  I don’t feel like I understand this blessing.  I feel outsourced.  I feel like I’m out to lunch somewhere on the Path here.”  And so we think, “Oh, what is the problem?”

Well, the first thing we have to do is correct our view and think, This is the door to liberation.  It is present in the world.”  Period.  End of story.  “What must I do?  What must I do?” Sometimes it takes traveling to see your Guru.  Sometimes it takes sitting down and doing Guru Yoga like you never did it before.  It can work out a myriad of ways according to one’s karma, according to one’s blessing.  I’ve had it both ways.  I’ve traveled to see my Guru and the blessing was immeasurable and phenomenal.  And then I’ve stayed home and practiced Guru Yoga and with amazing signs. The blessing was amazing and fundamentally life changing.  And one, I saw the Guru’s face; and one, I saw the Guru’s face.

That’s the nature of this blessing.  It doesn’t depend on time and space.  It doesn’t depend on ordinary things at all.  And unless you neglect it, it cannot lose its potency.  We must think, as pertaining to Guru Yoga, that everyday, even while now we sit in comfort and enjoy being together, that everyday, even this day, we should earn the blessing to see the Guru tomorrow.  How will I see the Guru?  Maybe I’ll see the Guru’s picture and it will jump out at me and touch my heart.  Maybe I’ll see Guru Rinpoche’s picture and it will jump out at me and touch my heart.  Or maybe I’ll say The Seven Line Prayer. And wow, that one really…, that one did it.  Or maybe I will do my practice and it feels deep and rewarding like an underground stream that has come suddenly to the surface and has given us something precious to drink.

Guru Yoga can always be depended on to reestablish and continue the blessing.  I promise you, if we call out to the Guru with a full heart, with determination and with fervent regard and recognition, the Guru will respond, whether it’s in the way that you would like which is “Hi I’m here for lunch.” Or whatever.  It may not be that way.  It may be something quite different.  And sometimes it’s not something that feels good right away.

I’ve seen one of my favorite students work herself to death and forget to practice sometimes and then periodically she does things like break her back or, you know, injure herself in some way.  And then she practices and amazing things happen.  I wish she wouldn’t do it that way, but she does.  You know who I’m talking about, out in Sedona.  I have other students that kind of orchestrate separation and return in order for that feeling of return.  But I wish they wouldn’t do that because that feeling of separation often comes with some cause and effect relationship.  Again if it were my diamond, I’d be shining it up all the time. I’d be collecting that interest all the time.

We use Guru Yoga that way to create the causes for continuation on the Path.  The teacher should never be frightening.  The teacher is your friend.  Your friend who will take your hand and walk you, lifetime after lifetime, even when you stumble and you fall.  Something will arise through the devotion that you practice in this lifetime, to protect you even in your next life.  So eventually we come to the place where we see everything as the blessing of the Guru.  Everything.  Sometimes we feel some confusion, and maybe even feel confusion for a long time; but you know that that Guru would not let you down.  You know that.  And so you count on that, even the confusion, to be a blessing.  Eventually because of that devotion, the confusion will clear and the Guru will appear, again like an underground spring coming once again to the surface.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved

The following is a Short Confession found in the Nam Chö Ngondro practice of Vajrasattva revealed by Tertön Migyur Dorje:

In the View, I confess all commitments broken through mental activity,
Knowing the View is the all-pervasive foundational Bodhicitta;
Realizing that the View exists in non-existence,
And practicing meditation that is non-existent,
Realizing activity is neither existent nor non-existent,
The Bodhicitta is without expectation or disappointment.
All root and auxiliary committments,
Breaches and failure to uphold them, are unborn, ungenerated,
And liberated in the indivisibility of the object to confess and the confession itself.

This short film was prepared by a group of students as an introduction to Kunzang Palyul Choling in Poolesville, Maryland

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

What I look for in a monk or nun is renunciation, faith, kindness, willingness to help, deep and sincere love of the Three Precious Jewels. What I don’t like in a monk or nun is wearing robes for the sake of status, or to dominate others, to make yourself seem important.

If vows are broken there are ways to restore most of them but you must actually perform them according to your Teacher’s instruction. The need to boss people around is a very bad reason to take or restore robes. And not to brag that you are a good practitioner, that is bad. As an ordained Buddhist you must not use your robes to make money or to put yourself up as “the boss.” Monks and nuns must be humble and help.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved

The following is an excerpt from “Buddha in the Palm of the Hand” Nam Chö Ngondro revealed by Terton Migyur Dorje:

PAL KUNTUZANGPO LA CHAG TSAL LO
I prostrate to the glorious Samantabhadra

DAL JOR DI NI SHIN TU NYED PAR KA
This precious human birth is extremely difficult to obtain.

CHI DANG CHI LA KYE KYANG MI TAG CHI
All things born are impermanent and must die

GE WA CHÖ LA BED NA SANGYE GYU
If one perseveres in virtuous Dharma, this is the cause for becoming Buddha.

DIG PA GANG CHE DE TA’I RIG DRUG KHYAM
Whatever negativity is produced will cause one to wander in the six realms.

YI DAG TRE KOM DÜD DRO LUN PO DANG
Hungry spirits suffer from hunger and thirst, animals from stupidity,

NYAL WA TSHA DRANG MIKYE GE NA CHI
Hell beings from heat and cold, humans from birth, old age, sickness and death,

LHA MIN THAB TSÖD LHA YI DUD NGAL YÖD
Jealous gods from warfare, and even gods (Devas) also have their own suffering.

Jetsunma Ahkham Lhamo was an emanation in human form of Arya Tara, the holy mother of all the Buddhas. She was born in the province of Do Kham, in Ah Chog Drolhey village in the Bubor Mountains of the Palyul region of Tibet. This place has all ten positive auspicious signs present. Her father, Dorje, came from the highly revered family heritage of Mutshaga, and her mother was a wisdom Dakini named Gurutso. She was born around the later part of the eleventh Rabjung (according to the Tibetan Calendar), which corresponds to the later half of the seventeenth Century A.D. She was the youngest sister of Rigzin Kunzang Sherab.

She started her education with reading and writing at an early age, and she learned without much effort. Together with Rigzin Kunzang Sherab, she received many teachings from Terton Migyur Dorje and Khedrup Karma Chagmed, who was the emanation of (Lotsawa) Chogro Lhuyi Gyaltsen, as well as teachings from many other scholars and accomplished masters. With them, she perfected her study and practice of both Sutras and Tantras beyond any doubt.  She entered with perseverance into single-pointed practice at various undisclosed places, and many meditational deities appeared to her and gave instructions to her. Through her practice she purified all illusory phenomena into primordial non-conceptual pure awareness, and became a ruler of the realm of Kuntuzangpo.

She lived on the mountain ridge towards the east of Palyul Namgyal Changchub Chöling (Palyul Monastery) and unceasingly turned the wheel of Dharma to a large community of Ani disciples, gradually turning that place into an expansive Ani Gonpa. Thus the location was called JOGONGDONG (nunnery on the ridge) and because of the huge numbers of nuns with red robes, that whole area has been called DRONGMAR TENG (red knoll village) ever since that time. In short, through turning both wheels of Dharma – both teaching and practicing – Jetsunma trained numerous students, not only as Buddhist scholars but many of them became highly realized practitioners.

When she saw that her activities to benefit the doctrine and her students had reached the limits of this lifetime, she passed into the peaceful Dharmata. While her holy body was being cremated, her skull flew over and landed on top of the throne of Rigzin Kunzang Sherab in the place where he used to give Dharma teachings. Since that time, that place has been used as a sacred cemetery and to this day, all the revered Lamas of Palyul Monastery have been cremated there.

Additionally, her skull has been used as THOEYAB during all major accomplishment ceremonies in Palyul Monastery to invoke the blessings even up to the present day. I heard there is an awakened reincarnation of her who has been born in America.

Excerpted from Palyul Namgyal Changchub Chöling Ge Denrap, a history of the Palyul Lineage, written by Mupo, a contemporary Tibetan scholar and historian. Originally published in China, May 19, 2002, Seventeenth Rabjung Iron Horse Year. Reprinted in Taiwan. [Ed note: The first Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo has sometimes been referred to as Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo]

A slideshow compiled by a student of dharma who was inspired by the compassion retreats of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

The following is a brief history of Kunzang Palyul Choling:

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:

The next branch involves [making] confession. From beginningless time, throughout countless life-times, we amassed negative karma and non virtue before we encountered the dharma. As followers of the teachings in this lifetime, we still engage in non-virtue and accumulate negativity. Consider all that negativity to be like [the result of] having ingested poison. Knowing that as poison that will certainly end your life unless you apply an antidote to neutralize it, you immediately apply the antidote. That is exactly how you should feel about the nonvirtue accumulated in the past and present.

With tremendous remorse, confess your accumulation of non virtue and vow that from this time onward, even at the cost of your life, you will no longer repeat the same pattern of negativity. Then focus on the objects of refuge in the space in the front, the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions. Supplicate, knowing that in your omniscience they will always look upon you and bless and purify you. Pray to them with heartfelt faith and devotion, and with genuine remorse for your accumulation of negativity, feel confident that all negativity is completely purified. Confession is the antidote for anger. In anger, people commit many grave errors, such as even the taking of others’ lives.

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Reclaiming Our Merit”

This is a really difficult time, not only for the Sangha, but it’s really a direct reflection of what we’re seeing on our planet right now. There is corruption in business and government like I’ve never seen before. Many of us have become professional samaya breakers, meaning that we have not kept our commitments and, in many cases, have dropped our robes, or whatever. And because we are lost in samsara, we simply don’t understand cause and effect. Not only are they connected, but they arise interdependently. Time and space is our delusion. Cause and effect arise at the same instant.

So exacting is cause and effect. Yet we have not really milked the essence out of that understanding so that we can create better lives for ourselves, or practice for ourselves and make a deeper commitment for ourselves. We simply have not utilized what we have received. And here in this time, you don’t know where to look, left or right. What is pure, what is sacred, what is wholesome? All of it seems to be confused and dark; and right now our hearts are heavy. We were so innocent when we were younger, and some of you that are still young are still innocent, so innocent thinking that can never happen to us. So learn.

In this time of debilitating darkness and confusion, we have to strengthen ourselves. I’ve had students propose the question to me: What is the benefit of the robes?  I look around at you and I say to myself, ‘Aren’t you terrified to be without them?’  Well you should be, because these robes now are like a shield of virtue. You are what we have. The power of the Buddha’s blessing is such and the robes are so potent that a quorum is considered four ordained monks and nuns with yellow robes. That quorum has the power and the stamp of the Buddha’s blessing. We can get four other people together and you won’t have the same conditions. And even knowing that, we barely use it. It’s so powerful. It’s such refuge in these dark times. And yet we don’t call up three of our friends and say, ‘Hey, you know, let’s get together and pray for the world. Or maybe we should get together and pray for our Sangha.’

You have, on your bodies, the most excellent and extraordinary tool one can have in this time other than realization and giving rise to the bodhicitta. If you think somehow that compassion and realization and awakening are separate, you are fooling yourself because they are the same essence, the same taste.

We are approaching this really dark time, where lamas are sick, things are happening to people that we know and love; monks and nuns that we had great hope for, great hope for, have gone. And so what are we left with?  We are left with this. How many lifetimes do you think it took you to earn wearing these robes?  And for those of you who are in the halfway step, wearing your red and white robes, I appreciate that, too. The genyen population and the genyen Sangha, myself included, having been genyen for many lifetimes, many lifetimes, this is a support. But the real princes and queens of our Sangha, our Dharma, this is the ordained community. The more often you get together with your yellow robes and make prayers together with depth and honesty and true compassion; and seeing what is happening in this world, give rise to that compassion in a certain way, the power that you wield is phenomenal. But we’re kind of like this: ‘Oh, I can’t do it. Oy, oy, oy.’ We suddenly all became Jewish.  Oy, oy, oy. I’m half Jewish. I can say it.

But that’s how we are. We got into kind of crying, kind of whining like babies. We have so much power if we will only utilize it with faith. The reason I wanted to talk about that is because it’s important that you guys who are ordained have real confidence in the fact that you are wearing the Buddha’s robes. You have to think, ‘I have this jewel. I have this nourishment that I can pass on and give to others.’ I want you to be cognizant of the power of the commitment that you keep. And you must keep it squarely and purely in order for it to provide for you the protection and nourishment that you need. So as far as I am concerned, the ordained community are the nectar of what we can do here. I would love to see you all take more initiative in practicing together and understanding that four is a quorum and that you can change things.

And even beyond that, I want to talk about not only the corruption of this time and the darkness of this time, but I’d like to say that this time has been predicted and taught about and we knew it was coming and nobody believed. This is the time when even the most profound Dzogchen teachings are passed out like candy; and I’m afraid it’s often passed out like seeds thrown onto cement. And why is that the case?  Well, lamas predicted when the conditions might be right to give Dzogchen teachings, so you either get them or you don’t. You get them based on the capacity and generosity and accumulated virtue of the lama, or you don’t get them.

And the reason why this is happening is because we haven’t bothered to create the foundation upon which these kinds of practices, wisdoms and awarenesses are built. And if they are practiced with no foundation, there is no result. You are at the circus. You are seeing phenomena in your head. And once phenomena is perceived, you’re off. You’re lost without a compass.