Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Transforming Vision Into Reality

August 12, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo during a “Good Heart Retreat”

I’m going to tell you this crazy vision I had. The reason why I feel okay telling you this crazy vision I had is because I’ve had a couple of others and they came true, oddly. They were so outrageous when I had them that I thought this would never happen; but I was hoping that it would. The first one I’m talking about is a case in point, and a perfect example.

Before I met my teacher and I was simply practicing meditation, I would go to work. On the way home, I would look for someplace quiet where I could meditate before I got home to my kids. As any parent knows, once you get home to your kids, meditation stops, or at least it’s stalled for a while. So before I got home to my kids, I wanted to do some practice and meditation. In the warm weather, it was easy. I could find a tree. Most people can find a tree. I noticed that when the weather was inclement or too cool, that in this amazing state of North Carolina where there are more churches than gas stations, I could not find one sanctuary, one holy place that still needed to be holy all week long. I could not find one place to go and sit and meditate. Apparently, whatever spiritual function was supposed to happen wasn’t supposed to happen during the middle of the week. What occurred to me is that this is a real difficulty and a real lack. So my vision, my hope, and my intention was to someday have a place of meditation that would be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So that no matter where people were, if they got up at 4:00 in the morning and really felt that this was their time to experience meditation, felt that calling, felt that need, that there would be some place that we could go that was peaceful away from our homes and our nests, and someplace that we could all call our own. So I had this idea. Wouldn’t it be great if I could make a place of meditation that’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and always have prayer going on? Nah, it’ll never happen. Years later, here we are, and it has happened.

Now, I will tell you about my other vision. I had this wacky, crazy thought. I haven’t done the math for this, and I wish one of you cerebral types would do it for me. I’d love to have the math done. I’m thinking that we have a huge population in this country, an overwhelming amount of people. As I understand it, we also have an overwhelming amount of churches. Even the smallest towns have some kind of little church. I wouldn’t care whether it was a Christian church, whether it was a Catholic church, Protestant church, Jewish synagogue, Islamic mosque, anything, Hindu temple, Buddhist temple. If we could somehow, as spiritual organizations, consider ourselves to have one purpose and one mind, regardless of the differences in our religions, or the differences in our spiritual books. It seems to me that it would be possible, with all of the churches and temples that we have, if we put our differences aside and each church and each temple supported their community and ministered to their community in, let’s say, a ten block radius, ten mile radius. Could we work it out so that a spiritual center would help families or people in that area and support the community in such a way that in their area, there would be no hunger? Because the churches would take responsibility for this. Also, there would be no homeless that wanted a home. There would be friendship, counseling and whatever was needed available to families that are in trouble when a crisis arises; such as when there is alcoholism, drug abuse, child abuse or spousal abuse, or any mistreatment of people by one another. What if each and every church and synagogue, temple, whatever, took responsibility for a certain area? That’s where the math would come in. We’d have to figure out how we divide ourselves up.

What if it didn’t matter to each one of those churches and temples what religion the people around them were? For instance, the Presbyterians wouldn’t only minister to the Presbyterians in their area. The Jews wouldn’t only minister to the Jews in their area. The Catholics wouldn’t only minister to the Catholics in their area, and the Buddhists the same thing. I have this crazy, wacky dream. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if instead of this fixation that most churches have on getting as much money as they can, supposing we had another idea? Supposing we create a tremendous flow of energy and abundance through taking on this responsibility that we cannot afford to take on, and creating a flow in the community centered around the churches where if those people, if the people in their community really wish to give to charity, or really wish to help the poor, that would be a grass roots, right away, no-delay-way to do it. If you were giving some money to this certain church, then you would know that it was being used to care for your community. It simply wouldn’t matter what religion any of us were. The spirit of the thing would be spiritual people taking care of their community.

It would take a tremendous leap because the way it is now, we only want to help our own kind. This would not be a popular idea. Those that would go for it the least are the ones that could afford to do it the best. What if we as churches took the blame if somebody in our community was hungry? What if we finally could figure out where to point a finger when somebody in our community is not able to get by? What if the buck stopped here? Wouldn’t that be a revolutionary idea? Wouldn’t that be incredible?

I know what we’re all thinking. We’re all thinking, ‘This will never work.’ However, I didn’t know we were going to do this either. I hoped, I hoped that there would be a place where 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we could pray for all sentient beings; but gee to really get people to do it… Wow, that’s something else. But my problem is that I am not at all practical or realistic. Those of you who manage my money know this. I just don’t get it. It’s all the same to me. And so I don’t get any reasons why this wouldn’t be possible. It’s a little like the bumblebee. Scientists say bumblebees can’t fly because they’re not aerodynamically correct. They should not be able to fly. But the good thing is that nobody told the bees because they’re still flying. So I was thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if we could be like those bees? What if we were too stupid to know that in our society in this day and age, it simply isn’t the done thing? What if we were simple-minded? What if we were so dumb we didn’t get the practical reasons why a spiritual community shouldn’t be responsible for the people around it? Wouldn’t that be really wacky, weird, ridiculous? But that’s what I think should happen. We could somehow make a gathering, or council, of religious people, or spiritual centers of all types, and agree to chip away at this. We could agree to divide the communities up. I really feel that it would be great if we did this to the best of our ability, and went into it with the same kind of energy we have when we fundraise for ourselves. We’re always fundraising. Turn on the TV. You always see them calling for more money. Well, what if we did that with the same energy, but instead of using it in some way to gratify ourselves, supposing we turned it around and spent it on the community?

You’ve Got the Power to Make a Better World

August 11, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a video teaching recorded live at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Video streaming by Ustream

The Suffering of Cyclic Existence

August 8, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Faults of Cyclic Existence”

So this is not particularly a pleasant subject. Every part of you will resist talking about it; every part of you will resist internalizing it. But at this point you have to exert a little discipline. You have to begin to use discipline by examining, really, whether or not the things that you have done to attain happiness have ever really lasted. You should examine whether positive thinking or any of the things that you have done, or falling in love, the things that have made us happy, whether the happiness has carried through into the rest of our lives, and whether it has lasted for our whole lives so far. You can really look at it that way. And then maybe from that point of view, you may be able to gradually introduce yourself or discipline yourself into thinking about the faults of cyclic existence.

The faults of cyclic existence are obvious in some ways. According to the Buddha’s teaching everything in cyclic existence, every experience—life, death, joy, pain, happiness, unhappiness, poverty and wealth, having and not having, all the different experiences that we experience—all of them are impermanent no matter what the particular experience that you have is. Whether it is blissful and wonderful; whether, as in the Breck commercial, you are experiencing one of those love affairs where you bound across the field at each other every day, and it is always sunny and flowers in the field; and you catch each other rapturously in each other’s arms and smouchy, smouchy and all that kind of stuff. Even that is impermanent. Especially that is impermanent. That is most certainly impermanent, even if you are extremely beautiful, so beautiful that you could remain happy if you just got up and looked at yourself in the mirror because you are so beautiful. There are some people who are that beautiful. I haven’t met too many and I am not saying whether anybody here is that beautiful. But anyway there are people who are that beautiful, that all you have to do is look at yourself and you just go ahhhh! Even that is impermanent. Especially that is impermanent. And defying the law of Estee Lauder, eventually it will go away.

The joy of having children: It is such an incredibly joyful experience to know that you can have a child, and to have a child sleeping peacefully in your arms and looking up at you with those beautiful little eyes, and tiny little rosebud mouths with a little trickle of milk coming down the side. So blissful. And then they become teenagers. That is impermanent. All of the things that you can experience… There is my teenage son over there. I am saying this for his sake. All of these things are very blissful and very wonderful, but extremely impermanent. Also suffering is extremely impermanent. ‘This too shall pass’ philosophy works. It works because everything is impermanent. It also works for happiness. That is the problem. Both the happiness and the suffering are impermanent.

Any pain that you feel, any suffering that you feel, any longing that you feel, even lifelong poverty is impermanent, because at the end of that life of poverty one will die. And after dying maybe you will be reborn rich. Who knows? But your particular circumstance, whatever it is, is always impermanent. That is the only thing that is consistent about cyclic existence, impermanence. According to the Buddha’s teaching.

Each of the six realms of cyclic existence… (If you are interested in hearing what those realms are you can purchase tapes that we recorded here. There was a workshop recently given in which I described the six realms of cyclic existence according to the Buddha’s teachings.) Anyway, in each of the six realms, there is a particular kind of suffering that is associated with that realm; and it has to do with the particular karma that it takes to be reborn in that realm. Each of these realms is different and unique, and they all have impermanence in common. They all have their cyclic nature in common. They arise from cause and effect and the cause and effect is continual and begets the next cause and effect. One begets the other. It is a constant begetting of more and more cause and effect. So they have that in common. But each particular realm has its own form of discomfort and suffering.

According to the Buddha’s teaching, you experience rebirth because of desire. Because of desire you are born into one of the six realms. Rebirth is experienced because of desire due to the belief in self-nature being inherently real. Now that is Buddhist lingo for ego. Actually due to the grasping of ego as being inherently solid, due to that grasping and perceiving phenomena as being external because of that grasping to ego as being inherently real, due to the belief in the division or distinction between self and other because of the belief in ego as being inherently real, due to that kind of faulty perception, one revolves in an illusory state, a state that seems to us very, very real. And that illusory state is cyclic existence.

Due to the desire that is associated with the belief in self-nature as being inherently real, we continually achieve or experience rebirth. According to the Buddha’s teaching, it is not necessarily a linear experience. We comfort ourselves with a very current idea that one progresses in a linear way. You should understand that this is a very new philosophy. This is not what the older religions, the ones that are more established, the ones that actually give the accomplishment of enlightenment, necessarily teach. Any form of Buddhism that has appeared in the world has taught that one experiences rebirth because of the karma of the mind and not necessarily in a linear progression. The idea of linear progression is new. If you think that is the only way in which birth is achieved, you should at least give yourself the opportunity of examining some alternative philosophies. The new idea associated with linear progression seems to be: Now that I am a human being, I will always be a human being or better; that I have come to this point and this is the level that I am at and I will always be at that point or better. So I am doing good. I am okay.

This is faulty reasoning. You are not taking into account that you have lived countless lifetimes. Countless lifetimes. You can’t name the time when it started. We are talking about aeons and aeons of cyclic existence. Such a long time that you have experienced rebirth that you have had many, many different lifetimes in many, many different forms. It is impossible to experience the ripening of all of your karmic causes, of all of the karma that you have accumulated over a period of time. It is impossible to experience all of those ripenings in one lifetime. Impossible. It is simply not dense enough. It is not possible. It would be like trying to put an ocean full of cause and effect relationships into a cup. It is simply not possible. So that being the case, you have lots and lots of latent karmic causes that have not ripened and cannot ripen, will not ripen, in this lifetime. So according to that thinking, all of us actually have the karma for being reborn in the lowest, hellish realm. And we also, all of us, have the karma for being reborn in the highest god realms.

Motivated by Kindness

August 4, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Faults of Cyclic Existence”

We have been brought up to understand that we are the most powerful country in the world. And we are, of course, the most enlightened people in the world; and we are, of course, the most advanced people in the world; and we are, of course, because we have Estee Lauder, the most beautiful people in the world. We are brought up with all these different beliefs. And whether we swallow them consciously or not, subconsciously they are in there somewhere rattling around, and we have this faith in our way of life. One thing that we can do is to think of ourselves as able to help others. One thing that is very popular in our society is the idea that it is a beneficial thing and a good thing and a virtuous thing and a fulfilling thing to help others. We are always looking for fulfillment. So the idea of compassion is a way to move ourselves into a foundation for meditation and practice. In my own experience (and I don’t claim to be such an experienced teacher), but in my own experience I have found that if I go to a new place that has never heard about the Buddha’s teaching, or if I go to a place that has heard a little bit and wants to hear more, or even if I have gone to students that have studied Buddhism for some time, if I want to touch them or refresh them so that they can continue in a determined way in their practice, or have them open up to the potential of practice and be stabilized to the extent that they can begin to practice earnestly, I can always rely on the idea of compassion to do that.

Westerners are excited by the idea that they might be able to benefit others. They are aware to some extent that the rest of the world is suffering. We don’t like to think about it, but to some extent we are aware that poverty exists, and hunger and sickness. I have found that Westerners are kind people. We are kind people. We want very much to end suffering; we very much want to help others. And there are many people who will practice if they really understand that this meditation will help them bring about the end of suffering for other people, will help them be a helper to others. They will practice for that reason. But strangely they will not practice to end their own suffering. They will continue to try to manipulate the circumstances in their life, or change things around, or try this or try that; but they will not really develop a firm foundation of practice because they themselves are suffering. They are not sufficiently motivated by their own suffering. It is a strangeness in our culture. It is not found in other cultures. But we will practice to benefit others.

This group, the core group of people who have been practicing in this temple for some time, came together because the people of earth were suffering, and the group wished to maintain a 24-hour a day prayer vigil. That is a dynamic of this organization. It came about so quickly and in such a stable way because the people here were greatly moved by the suffering of sentient beings. They knew that this kind of practice—the practice that brings about the end of desire and brings about supreme enlightenment—is ultimately the way to bring about the end of all suffering. For this reason, this family, or group of people, actually came together to practice.

Preliminary Practice

July 29, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Faults of Cyclic Existence”

I am grateful to those who go through the Sunday prayers without having the foggiest idea what they mean. I commend you completely with all my heart and soul, if I had one. (That is a joke. You see according to the Buddhist philosophy there is no such thing as a soul.) It is considered that there are three objects of refuge: the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. The Buddha, of course, is the enlightened mind. The Dharma is the speech or teaching of the Buddha, the path of the Buddha; and the Sangha is considered to be the religious or spiritual community that propagates the Dharma, that brings about a way for us to practice. And these being our objects of refuge, we consider that all of the teaching and all of the opportunity that we have to practice actually comes from the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. So we feel that before beginning any practice it is good to make offerings. And when reciting these prayers, once you understand what the prayers are about, you can visualize certain offerings.

It is considered that it is good to request the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma, or to continue to offer the path of the Dharma. It is a combination of offering and request, honoring and praising. It is our custom to do these things before we actually begin to accomplish a practice or hear a teaching. Some of the meanings of the prayers are pretty evident when you read them. Yet, you must understand that almost everything that exists on the Vajrayana path seems to exist on three levels of meaning. I am not sure why it happened that way. I think that it is just a propensity for secrecy, or drama, or something wonderful like that. It appeals to me very much.

At any rate, I think that what is addressed here are different levels of understanding. There is a preliminary level of understanding in which one first approaches the path and, almost like walking into a room, you need to figure out where the door is, how to turn the handle. We have to turn on the light; we have to figure out where the table is so that we don’t bump into it. It’s that kind of thing. We have to look at the bones of it, or the structure of it, and the inner and secret levels of meaning. One actually develops a capability for understanding as practice begins. Almost never, at least traditionally, are deeper, very mystical teachings given right at the onset of engaging in Dharma practice because it is considered that the mind needs to be deepened and gentled. At the point when that process begins through the use of preliminary practice, then additional teachings, intermediate teachings, and then ultimately the deepest teachings are givenThere are some lamas that deviate from that for their own reasons. But it is considered, from the traditional point of view, that you can give the deepest teachings to someone, but if their minds are not prepared for it they will not really accomplish the deepest teachings until they go through a period of preliminary practice and preparation. And I, for one, feel very strongly that that is the case.

Commitment

July 27, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Love Now, Dzogchen Later”

If you can’t be bothered to join and give some help, some support through having given rise to the bodhicitta, and having habituated oneself towards understanding the nature of samsara, which is also your responsibility, and habituating oneself towards deeply understanding the suffering of all sentient beings, which is also your responsibility, then there’s not much hope for good practice, no matter what practice you do. You can’t get away from it, no matter how wonderful you are. Compassion is in the mix. And there’s not much time. None of us knows how long we will live. It is not appropriate to say I’m going to wait, wait, wait, wait, wait until I get my stuff ironed out, and then, THEN I’ll try the bodhicitta. You’ll never get the chance. Believe me, my friend. I’ve seen it time and time again. You will never have the opportunity.

When you accept the path of the Dharma, and you commit yourself to the idea of liberation, at that point, you have to accept what has actually been taught. You can’t pick and choose what you want. You can’t make up your own little gig and call it Buddhism. Because all of the Buddhist teachings, every one, from the simplest level in the Deer Park when Lord Buddha was actually alive to this very day and whatever terma revelations may even be realized in this time, the heart beat, the essence, the blood and spirit and truth of Dharma is the bodhicitta, the great compassion. That is the way.

If you think you can simply muster up great pride in your accomplishment by keeping your ordinary qualities—pride, self-absorption, slothfulness—and yet somehow do a very high practice, and magically give rise to the perfect awakening, it won’t be so. Time and time again, we have been taught that the way of the Buddha Dharma is the way of the bodhicitta. So it is easy to say, ‘I graduated last year. I’m going to graduate this year, too.’ It is easy to say, ‘Well, I didn’t do this, and I didn’t do this, and I didn’t accomplish a bhum [one hundred thousand repetitions] of this, and I didn’t accomplish a million of that, but I’m practicing Dzogchen.’ That’s very easy to do. But it behooves us to go back and see what we’ve missed.

You are not too advanced to love. You are not too advanced to get off your duff and help somebody. You are not too sanctified to look at other beings on this planet and say, ‘I know that you are wandering in samsara. I know that we are basically human and that we share many of the same sufferings, and I find that unbearable. I wish to help.’ You are not too holy to care that there is war, that there is hunger, that there is suffering. And shame on you if all you do to honor Guru Rinpoche’s teachings is to sit on your little cushion and have it be all. Yeah, you can dedicate your practice. That’s right. You can also help. It wouldn’t kill you. Do you see what I’m saying?

It’s good to go all the way. It’s very good to get these precious inconceivable teachings, but since you are not in that perfect situation where you will be constantly reminded except by maybe me… And how much do you listen to me? Unless you are in that perfect situation, it is up to you to make up the difference. This is the karma of our times. And you find yourself here at 18400 River Road. You can’t skip anything. You should accomplish your Ngӧndro. You should finish it even if you’re working on Togyal. You should accomplish your Ngӧndro. And that means finishing it, not just saying, ‘I did a lot of it so I accomplished it.’ And you should accomplish your Three Roots. And most especially you should give rise to the precious bodhicitta.

Read the lives of the saints. Read what they went through in order to give rise to compassion. And that in any case, in every case, no real progress was ever made unless there was compassion, unless there was bodhicitta.

Essential Motivation

July 25, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Love Now, Dzogchen Later”

Ngondro purifies the five senses to such a degree that many of the gross defilements. The ones that you meet up in your life where you are happily going along the road of life and you get punched in the face by karma. Those obstacles. You know. They purify some of that and they keep that sort of thing from happening or they make it happen more benignly pacified is the idea. And then accumulation of the Three Roots stabilizes the mind. Begins to ripen the mind. At that time we are trying to accomplish the Vajra confidence of the deities, their very pure qualities. Their ability to establish virtue. Their ability to accomplish view. All of these things are accomplished through this recitation. But nowadays, we don’t even have to do that. We go to Tsa Lung. And we don’t even have to finish Tsa Lung. Then we can go to Trekchod, and then we can go to Togyal. I think that is right. We don’t really have to graduate. And you have to ask yourself at this point. What has changed? Did His Holiness change?

I think of His Holiness like the Copper Mountain. Our perception of the Copper Colored Mountain may change. It may be connected to our own capability but does the Copper Colored Mountain ever change? No. It is absolutely empty of self-nature and yet spontaneously accomplished. Figure that one out. So, there is no fault here. The fault is not with His Holiness. His Holiness made a decision based on the times and I understand his decision. It is not for me to agree or disagree, but I absolutely understand what his method is. But the thing that I want to express to you is that it puts the responsibility on us. To accomplish when we are not with His Holiness what we have to accomplish in order to make what he is teaching us next worthwhile.

One of the worst things that I have seen happen, that is a terrible result, and indeed it is not unusual in the sense that it is different from the way the world is acting now. But still I have to say that it is not a good result and that is that most people on the path blow right by giving rise to the Bodhicitta. Giving rise to the great compassion, to the way that actually is the very essence of awakening. The Bodhicitta. Now, His Holiness always teaches about Bodhicitta. He never denies an opportunity. Never abandons an opportunity. He teaches about the Bodhicitta every time. Like for instance when he starts to give a teaching or he starts to do a practice, often he will remind us to establish our motivation and the Khenpos will always say that we must establish our motivation or that we must understand that we are hearing this teaching not just to hang out here or that we are doing some practice not just because we are bored or for some other self-oriented reason. But the only valid, righteous and appropriate motivation to accomplish Dharma is for the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings. So, we can repeat that back. We’ve heard this so many times. And we can say if I say to you, “Why are you doing this practice?” You’ll say, “Oh, liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.” We’ve heard this so many times that we can parrot it back. Sort of like a Malaccan Cockatoo or an African Gray. But have we really given rise to the Bodhicitta? Have we really accomplished it? Have we worked really clean? Thank you! Somebody said no. I appreciate that. You know? Have we worked cleanly and purely with our motivation? Do we tutor ourselves on our motivation everyday, every moment? And when we have choices to make, do we reestablish the motivation so that we can make the correct choices by saying, “Thus for the sake of sentient beings, I will open this altar, close this altar, pray, circumambulate, do my practice, study some Dharma. Benefit sentient beings in some way. Feed the hungry. Heal the sick. Walk a dog.“ Anything! Anything. Do we remind ourselves that that is our reason for taking our next breath? That other than giving rise to compassion, giving rise to the mind of Bodhicitta which by the way, is the pure awakened state, our primordial wisdom nature, that that is the reason for anything that we do. And should remain so. And if we do not have the proper karma to be born in a monastery amongst many learned monks and nuns and many learned Khenpos, and lamas and Rinpoches, then we must accept that as our karma. And shouldn’t leave ourselves to say, “Oh those poor guys. They have to work for years trying to accomplish some Dharma and all they get is a couple of maroon colored sheets and a rug. And you know, they just stay there in the Monastery. And gee, I get to hang out here in America with cars, and TVs, and you know, stuff. I have a great house. And I can buy another car if I want. And you know there are so many things that I can do do do. And have have have have. And yet I get some Dzogchen. Whoopee! I must be the most fabulous person in the world. “

Unfortunately, our response to being given this great blessing is a little more like the whoopee part than it is the honest internal watchfulness that makes us ask ourselves, “Have I given rise to the Bodhicitta? Have I accomplished good qualities?” I mean when you practice the root deities, the Three Roots you accumulate so many repetitions of the mantra and you put so much energy into visualizing their different hand held implements and even their posture, which means something. The handheld implement and the posture are the very display of the deities’ excellent qualities and activities. So, we practice many repetitions of the mantra of the root deity. And we think now we have accomplished the qualities of the root deity. What are the qualities of the root qualities of the root deity? We study the hand implements. We study the posture, and we begin to inhabit those qualities. We begin to display those qualities. We accept those qualities. We habituate towards those qualities and even one of the qualities that we habituate toward is Vajra pride.

Vajra pride which is different from American pride. American pride is the bullshit that knocks you off the path. Vajra pride is the confidence in the method. Confidence in the method through meditating on Shunyata and giving rise to the deity. And so there is the confidence. Not having practiced mantra like that. Not having gone through those different accomplishments, we instead have given rise to ordinary pride. And ordinary pride is stupid pride. It tells us to argue with the elder sangha members, lamas, and Khenpos, thinking that we know better, or to make up our own religion. Or to just do it the way we want to, or to just self cherish. To meditate on self-cherishing, ego cherishing, which is giving rise to the ordinary pride and back to that ordinary cycle. But when we accomplish the deity, something different rises up. And then when we move on to the other levels, we move on with Vajra confidence and unshakeable Bodhicitta – compassion.

Now, when that foundation is properly laid, and we have properly practiced Bodhicitta, and we have properly accumulated mantra and we have purified our senses through the Ngondro, then when we are introduced to Dzogchen. The mind is matured. The blessing of the lama, particularly if we have accomplished purely the accumulation of Vajra Guru mantra within the context of Guru Yoga in Ngondro. And what is it, 1.5 million of those? Or 1.2, I forget. Huh? 1.2? Thank you. She knows but did you do it? Oh see! Yeah. So, after you accomplish that many Vajra Guru mantras in the context of Guru Yoga, you have changed. Your capability is different.

We Were Born to Do This

July 24, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a message recorded on June 1, 2013 as a message from Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo to her students (audio file below):

This really has been the hardest time of our lives as a sangha, because we don’t know what the future is going to be. We don’t know whether we will stay together.

A sangha is a precious thing. It has to stay together. It’s like a family. When it is broken something precious is lost. It is tragic.

I just want to speak to my sangha, because right now we don’t have a building that we can use the way we normally would, but I want to remind you that we still have the land. So, don’t abandon it. We are coming back online pretty darn soon. Not soon tomorrow, not even soon next year, but soon. And it will be progressively better and better and better. So don’t give up. I haven’t. I would live in a tent if I had to, as long as I had a fence for my dogs.

I just want to say that we have to make this the best effort of our lives. We cannot say, “Oh I pay this much every month, and so I shouldn’t have to pay any more.” Or I pay this much every year, or whatever. You can’t say that and think that’s enough. It’s not. Not right now. That was enough before, and we counted on you. If you didn’t help us in the way that we’d agreed on way back in the past, then we wouldn’t have anything.

This was a group of people that stuck together for a long time; learned to love each other. Then of course because they are sentient beings, they learned to argue with each other. And as usual, we don’t even realize that we are doing it.

I hope to get your attention. I have had a hard time getting your attention lately. It is like trying to herd cats. And of course we all know that is impossible, because cats are cats. Could you not be a cat for a while, and learn how to work for the larger group, for the group of sentient beings that we are and the group of sentient beings that we serve? To work for all sentient beings ultimately. If we could just get back there, everything would come back. It is cause and effect.

We have been too selfish. I have broken it up the best I could by just giving everything away. Have you noticed? Many of you don’t even know. I hope you will pay attention. I hope you will wake up.

I am glad that people are having weddings and family things. I’m glad for all of you. I don’t have any of those things in my life at this point, but I am glad for all of you.

At this part of my life I feel like I have got to keep moving forward or it’s all on me. The truth of the matter is that no one person can do it, and it’s not all on me. So you have to help me figure this out. I am actually working hard every day. Not just sitting here trying to think it out. But talking to people who might be able to help us. So help me. I have helped you over the years. Why can’t you help me? Amen.

I hope you hear me. We were made to do this. I hope you hear me. We were born to do this, and it is hard, but I hope you hear me.

You can hear the message here: Messsage From Jetsunna

The Tether of Bodhicitta

July 21, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Love Now, Dzogchen Later”

I have the great pleasure of watching the aviary building being built from my deck. How carefully these skilled workers laid the foundation. How carefully they smoothed the ground. How carefully they measured, so exacting, so perfectly, looking through instruments and laying strings and then putting in wood to mark the way, and then, you know, stage by stage, one bit of strength after the other. How skillfully, and now the walls are coming up. And these are very heavy walls made of concrete, but they are all built up to the top, and I think to myself, ‘If that firm foundation had not been built, since that land slopes right there and it is screaming wet all the time, guess what? That little building would just slide right off the edge; but not the way it’s built.’

And we find ourselves in the same position. I regret to tell you that I have seen time and time again students who have taken the Dzogchen teaching but have not accomplished Vajra qualities. They have not given rise to the bodhicitta. They may have put on the garb of renunciates, but they are not renunciates. They have not renounced the grasping of samsara. They have not stabilized their mind. So it’s like they are traveling the great ship of Dharma and even though the ship itself is fairly stable, it is on an ocean and it is going to rock and roll a little bit, you know? And it is like you’re the practitioner on roller skates who’s not holding on on top of a sheet of ice on the boat. It’s not going to work. You’re going to go overboard. And they do. They get thrown off. Whereas if we had taken time to practice properly with depth, not so superficially, taking responsibility for the accomplishment that you know in your heart has always been required of a proper disciple… And it’s not like it’s news to you. I’ve been yapping about this for years. So, in that case, maybe you would be more seaworthy. You’d have your sea legs. I’m pretty sure of it. You would be hanging onto a rail. You’d be properly equipped to travel this ship of Dharma to the other shore. And that would be like the seed of Dzogchen being planted in a field that is rich and fertile and moist.

So having given rise to the Bodhicitta, we would be different than we are. How would we be different? Would we look funny? I don’t know. We look funny now sometimes. I look funny. You should see me in the morning. That’s all silly stuff. How would you be different? I think better. To accomplish excellent qualities, to establish virtue in the mind stream, to give rise to the Bodhicitta? A lot better.

So the point is that you find yourself in a particular situation where you can go to New York every summer, and you can study, and you can sit down and practice for the rest of the year. But we do not find ourselves in the perfect situation where we are in a monastic environment constantly where the reality of Dharma is constantly reflected to us, where the method of Dharma is constantly reminded to us. where the way is constantly pointed out, and where our limited capabilities, you know, are constantly guided. It would be like a child growing up without the advice of a parent. It is not very effective. And the reason why I’m telling you this is not so you can go, ‘Oh bummer! Here I’ve had Dzogchen and now I find out it’s not happening,’ or something. That’s not what I’m saying. I hope you understand that. Dzogchen is the very nectar of Dharma. It is the distilled substance that is empty of substance-ness. It is awakening. It is the way to move towards realization. It is the way to give rise to one’s best capabilities. It is the way to accomplish the Buddha nature. But like any other method, if you do not accomplish the steps that lead to strengthen that method, you’ve missed out.

Lineage in the West

July 22, 2017July 21, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Love Now, Dzogchen Later”

Well, today I’d actually like to tell you a story. And I think it is seasonal in one way in that this time of year we generally think about what we want or what we want to give or how, or maybe family relationships and what needs to improve in our lives. And a lot of times at the end of the year during this holiday season and at the beginning of the next upcoming year, we kind of reassess ourselves;. reassess our lives, and kind of take stock. And I would like to tell you this story to help you take stock a little bit, and to give you some motivation, you know, some perspective. Because I think that if you come to this temple and you practice, you may not necessarily understand or know what’s going on in the greater Dharma community. Some people travel around but some people don’t. Some people stay here down on the farm with me. And so you might need to be exposed to some context in the Dharma community.

When I first met His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, that was quite a while ago, almost twenty years. I met him the first time that he came to the United States. And one of the reasons actually that he came to the United States, besides being invited, was that he heard that there was this American woman over there and he heard stories about me. And he knew in his mind that this was someone that he had been looking for for a long time. I came to find out later on that when he was a very young monk the first time he held the kapala, or the skull cup, of the first Ahkön Lhamo, it was before the Chinese invasion, and so it was whole, in one piece. First time he held that cup, he said, “Oh.” He made prayers: “If there is any way I can find this dakini in this lifetime, I would like to do that.” He set his goal that way. And so of course with a mind such as his, when the goal is set, the deed is done. When he heard my name, and heard something about me, he knew immediately. But of course he didn’t tell me immediately. All I knew was that this lama was coming to my house. He’d never been to America before, and I really did not know what a lama actually was. I thought, “Guy sitting on rug. Guy wearing sheet.” I really didn’t know. I mean I had a great deal of respect for Buddhist thought and it was coming to my mind naturally. In fact, I was teaching meditation that I later found out to be based on Mahayana Buddhism. So, it was pretty interesting that this all came about so naturally. But then when he came to the house, we didn’t know protocol. We didn’t know respect. We didn’t know nothing. I knew how to barbeque, that’s what I knew. And so we had a barbecue and we moved my two sons to another room, and put Penor Rinpoche and Lobsang in the same room; and Lobsang’s like, “Oh God! Save me! Don’t you have another room?” “Well, why? Is it crowded in there?” “But you don’t understand.”

But you know, they were very nice. And then they asked for some tea. So, I thought, “These are Buddhists. They want to be calm.” What did I know? So, I made chamomile tea, and I gave the teapot to Lobsang to give to His Holiness on a tray nicely set up. and His Holiness sent back a message, “What is that? Bugs floating on top?” You know how the little flowers float? “No.” “Don’t you have some other kind of tea?” “We have regular tea.” “Oh yeah, we want regular tea.” I thought, you know, Buddhists like to be peaceful. I thought.

And then the worst, the worst. He was so gracious and so kind. He never put himself up in any way or, you know, was anything less than the most humble of monks. I mean he never indicated that he was such a spectacular lama. And besides I didn’t even understand what the term meant—high lama, you know, lineage holder. I mean, I could understand the English words, but I didn’t have any way to put them all together. So, we had this barbeque and I served him a plate of hotdogs. And you know just the old America food, which he was pretty interested in actually. He sort of liked it. You know, he ate it. But then I remember plopping down right next to him and saying, “So, what’s Tibet really like?” or something like that, you know. You know him now. He’s such a righteous, orthodox, holy kind a guy. Can you imagine? Can you imagine this Injee twit comes and plops down next to him and says, “So, how’s it going?”

I was used to Southern hospitality. So, I made another big meal (and I was a pretty good cook back then) and had some friends bring some stuff too. We sat him at the head of the table and said to His Holiness, “Please, help yourself to everything we have.” He gets served. I didn’t know that. And so Lobsang’s going,… Lobsang was a lot younger then. “No, I’ll do it, I’ll do it.” Well, that was back in the day and the reason why I’m telling you this funny story is because things have changed so much since then.