Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Do We Know How to Be Happy?

January 4, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

When we broaden our view and look out, we see that this is happening to a greater or lesser degree to all sentient beings. All sentient beings are striving to be happy. They wish to be happy, but in varying degrees, they do not understand the causes of happiness. We see this also in our own lives. See, we’re the good guys, we’re the Dharma practitioners. But even in our lives we see that we engage in compulsive, neurotic habitual tendency time and time again. Cyclically actually. We’ve noticed this and we talk about this and we laugh about it. You know, women get together and we have girl talk. We know this one really well;. And men are in the same situation. We repeat patterns that are nonproductive. Is that a light-weight way to say it? We literally put ourselves through the lowest of the realms. We put ourselves through hell, literally. We are not our own best friends. And we only see it when we are coming out the other side of the compulsion and it didn’t bring us what we want. Then it’s like, “Well I knew that! Why didn’t I think of that! I knew that! How ridiculous!” And then you know, six months later there we are, going down the pike again.

In one way, then, our compassion is increased because we see that the serial killer is busy bumping off everybody else in order to get happy, and we are busy bumping off ourselves to get happy. And the confusion and habitual tendency is there. It’s there. We have that in common. So we look out and we say, “Wow, if this is the case for myself and I am a Dharma practitioner, how much more so the case for those beings who have had no information on what produces happiness? We are the children of a materialistic society. We were told that if you have two good cars, a chicken in your crock pot and several more in your freezer and a good husband or wife, good children, all these good things—everything that’s good has been labelled, you know, we already know what’s good—and an ongoing prescription of Prozac that we could be happy.Aand an occasional face lift. It gets more complicated as you get older. Did you notice that? I mean, at first it was just finding the right man andyou’re home free. Now it’s find the right man and make sure once you’ve got him, these things don’t drop. And it’s beat gravity and beat the clock and all that other stuff.

So we are, in our way, almost as clueless. We still engage in these funny things that we do. And every time that we do them, we think they’re going to make us happy. And then we come out the other side of it with open eyes—like whoops, that didn’t work! But you know, we’ve noticed for ourselves how limited our capacity is to learn. Is that not the most astonishing thing? How really intelligent people cannot learn? Is there a button we’re supposed to be pushing that we don’t know about.? I mean, where is the input button? We just don’t know. So this is the condition of sentient beings.

Now I know, as you must know, how much I want to be happy. You know how much you want to be happy, right? I mean, if push comes to shove, you’re pretty motivated by this. Isn’t that right? Of course you want to be happy. You’d be a maniac if you didn’t want to be happy. Are you a maniac? So we want to be happy. I certainly want to be happy. And there are days, are there not, when the yearning to be happy and the feeling that you are very distant from that happiness is so strong that there’s a lot of grief, isn’t there? A lot of upheaval and grief. There are times when it’s just so difficult and so very far away. It’s funny how it happens.

Now if we were to take that grief and that feeling and project it outward and think, “Here I am with all the understanding that I have about what makes happiness, and all the skill that I have and all the intelligence that I have and all the good fortune that I have that makes it possible for me to get a grip here and really see what’s going on, and still I can’t manage it. How much worse must be the condition of other sentient beings who are completely out to lunch about the subject?” Now if you think about the animal realm, they don’t even have the capacity to take in the information about cause and effect, an extraordinarily limited capacity to learn cause and effect. Have you ever watched a dog that has the habit of chasing cars? No matter what you do to them, they will chase the car. They are terrified because they are so close to getting killed and somehow they know it, but they can’t learn! They can’t learn that not chasing that car is going to make them feel much more relaxed. They simply can’t learn that.

So how much less is the capacity for other sentient beings to be free of that kind of suffering? Now we look out and we really see that all around us is this terrible, terrible grief and suffering and disappointment that is masked in certain ways, is covered in certain ways, is disguised, is transmuted, is rearranged, is redirected, is re-routed, is lied about. And yet underneath it there is that grief, there is that loneliness, there is that difficulty that we have in understanding what makes us happy, and how to be happy.

So this then becomes a causative factor when we engage upon the path. It’s one of the reasons why we practice refuge so sincerely. We use this idea not only as a practice in itself, but as a way to motivate ourselves. Literally, as practitioners we should come to the point where we look around and we see for ourselves that all sentient beings are wandering in this confusion and we develop a profound sense of compassion. If we really were to study and look around and emphathize and see beyond ourselves how others are suffering even more than we are, that feeling of great love and great compassion would well up within our hearts, and this feeling that enough is enough! Enough! There has been enough suffering in the world. Enough!

So by that compassion and that love, we become motivated. And the times that we are feeling undisciplined or feeling dry or off-track on the path, we can rely on that love to come up and nurture us. It’s happened even on an ordinary level within our lives. We make a determination to take a more difficult route to accomplish something, even not so much concerning the path, but a difficult route to accomplish something in our lives. Then to accomplish that requires such a great herculean effort like changing, that after awhile, somewhere in the process, we lose focus. We ask ourselves, “Now why am I doing this again? I really can’t remember today!” Then we look at someone else near us who is suffering terribly, just suffering terribly, and we vow to organize everything around us to make it better so that the person next to us is not going to suffer so much. We’re motivated by that and it brings us back into focus.

The same kind of situation happens on the path. We utilize the suffering of others, the understanding of that suffering, to center us, to motivate us, to keep us nourished on the path. At the same time, and here’s where the double blessing comes in, at the same time, we are also giving rise to the Bodhicitta which is the awakening mind, the mind that is in its essence the very display of compassion.

The Dharma

January 3, 2018January 4, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

The Dharma is as vast as samsara, and is also as stable, as long as there is samsara there will also be Dharma.

As long as there is Dharma there will also be Samsara, because the Dharma is natural, uncontrived and would not exist without Samsara.

All Sentient Beings Wish to Be Happy

January 3, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

When we are considering the thoughts that turn the mind, we consider the teachings on the six realms. We consider the faults of cyclic existence. We consider teachings on cause and effect. We consider teachings on impermanence. But also we consider teachings on compassion, and they start with, and are absolutely related with, those teachings that you have just had on the six realms of cyclic existence and the faults of cyclic existence.

The idea of compassion, of Bodhicitta, is intimately related to that. The way that they are related is like this:When one is actually considering entering onto the path, or considering making one’s relationship with the path much more firm and solid, or if one is a more advanced practitioner, to deepen on the path, one always has to go back and re-examine the faults of cyclic existence. One of the main thoughts that we have concerning the faults of cyclic existence is that we look around and we see the Buddha’s first teaching in action. We see that all sentient beings wish to be happy. We all have that in common —we all wish to be happy. It is our motivating force. Whatever it is that we are doing, whatever form it takes, underneath that is the wish to be happy. Now each one of us has delusions. Each one of us has habitual tendencies. But underneath all of them is the wish to be happy

One way to understand this and to really broaden the perspective on it is that in some cases it is very easy to see that a person is striving to be happy. You might see one person, one particular type of personality, for instance, using every skill that they have to maintain happiness and joyfulness and equilibrium and that sort of thing. Maybe they go to psychotherapy in order to clear out neuroses, or maybe they do a lot of affirmations, you know, positive thought—thinking in affirmations about themselves in order to try to be happy. And for the people like that who are trying to maintain a certain kind of energy in their personality, it’s very obvious that they are trying to be happy. You can mark that and see it very easily.

But what about somebody like a criminal? What about someone who is a committed criminal? I mean a serious criminal, somebody who has done something unthinkable, such as even a serial killer? I don’t mean somebody that kills cheerios, I mean, kills people in a row—a serial killer. Let’s say somebody like that. We can’t even understand what the mind of a serial killer would be like. They are filled with obsession, filled with compulsion, filled with hatred. In many cases they are psychologically incapable of empathizing with other human beings. It’s like they have a microchip missing. They are all kinds of messed up. All kinds of messed up. To many of us their thinking, their world, may not even be recognizable. It may not have even the same landmarks. And internally, certainly, if we could go into their minds, it would not be recognizable as any kind of internal reality that we’ve ever experienced. So they would seem very different from us.

But there is one factor that we have in common with somebody like that, and that is that we are both equally, in our own way, trying to be happy. Believe it or not! This person who commits such a horrendous crime, and does so repeatedly, is compelled to continue doing so. If we were to really go within and try to slice and dice enough to find out what moves this person, what is happening here, we would find out that there would be a lot of jungle to go through. I’m sure that that’s the case. There are a lot of entanglements in there and a lot of mental confusion. However, underlying the dynamo that drives this engine is aperson who wishes to be happy and, in that way, is completely the same as you, completely the same as you.

Now I’m not recommending that because of that we should be nice and pat them on the head and let all the serial killers out on the street. I’m not saying that. I realize that this issue is far more complicated than I am presenting it, but the fact that I’m mentioning does not change, no matter how complicated the situation is. And that is that this person has something in common with you that is very strong and it is what drives both of you. You wish to be happy. Interestingly, neither one of you really knows how to be happy until, as a mature practitioner, you have really contemplated and studied the Buddha’s teaching and learned something about that, and then maybe had enough life experience, in terms of maturity, to go within and approach oneself honestly, to look at oneself and examine one’s habitual tendencies. These are the kinds of skills that we learn as life skills, and skills that we learn on the path in order to help us to begin to learn what comprises happiness, what actually makes it up, and to develop the skill of how to produce it.

But until that happens, we are the same as anyone else. All sentient beings are exactly the same in that way. Maybe not in too many other ways, you know, but in that way we are exactly the same. And this is true of all the beings in all the realms of cyclic existence, not only in the human realm.

Polishing the Diamond

January 2, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

I have been aware that people in our age and people who are awakening to spirituality and meditation and these different philosophies have been exposed to the idea that we have lived only just a few times, whereas the Buddha teaches us that is not true. The Buddha teaches us that we have lived, we have revolved in cyclic existence over countless aeons. An aeon alone is a very long time. And countless aeons, that kind of terminology is inconceivable to us. In order to have revolved since beginningless time, in countless aeons of cyclic existence, we had to have parents every time unless we were born in a realm in which parents were not the way of birth. But whether we were animals or humans or some other form that we don’t recognize at this time, whether we were born in the form or formless realms, there is a great potential for all sentient beings to have been our parents endlessly. And the way in which to understand the kindness of all sentient beings, the way in which to understand their kindness to us so that we can begin to build Aspirational Bodhicitta, is to understand that at this moment we’re here. We are hearing the Buddha’s teaching and we are experiencing comfortable circumstances in which to practice. We have no defects of mind or body that would prevent us from practicing the Buddha’s teaching. We are capable and we are able and we have the leisure to accomplish practice. We have very auspicious circumstances.

To have come to this point, we must think of the kindness of all of the situations that have brought us to this point. We shouldn’t think that our parents had any capability to prevent us from coming to this point, because they haven’t prevented us from coming to this point. So we shouldn’t think of their cruelty. We should think of their kindness because somehow, having birthed us, they have given us this precious opportunity to accomplish enlightenment. This is true for all of the circumstances that we have ever experienced, all of the births that we have ever experienced. Having come to this point, we should be thankful and grateful and happy, filled with joy realizing that this auspicious moment has occurred at last. And like finding a precious jewel while sifting through garbage, here we are and we have found the Dharma.

So having experienced this joy, we can begin to understand that all sentient beings have been our kind mothers and fathers, and that we owe them a great debt. We can remember once again that cyclic existence is just that, it is cyclic and endless, and that they are struggling night and day working very hard to make themselves happy and have no way to do it. We should think again and again that they are lost. Although they have given us birth in such a way that we can accomplish Dharma, and that all of these many parents who have birthed us over these many lives in order to help us to create the causes by which we might meet with this perfect Dharma, that even while they have participated in that, they themselves have not done it. It reminds me of a form of animal that I read about. It’s actually an insect called the midge. It conceives its young within itself and the young, as they begin to grow, actually eat the inside of the mother; and consume the mother. By the time they are ready to come out, the mother is dead, and they simply break out of her body as though it were an egg. We should think of that, and we should think that perhaps all sentient beings have done that for us. If they remain in a condition of suffering and we have now found the perfect path by which to alleviate their suffering, then perhaps it’s time to begin to develop the kindness that will liberate them from their unbearable suffering and their continued involvement in cyclic existence.

So when we hear about this Aspirational Bodhicitta, we become confused as to how to think of it. Time and time again students have said to me, “What practice will help me develop Bodhicitta? Isn’t it true that once I begin to practice, I will develop Bodhicitta?” or, “How can I best develop Bodhicitta?” They talk about Bodhicitta or compassion as though it were something separate from themselves because we think of all phenomena, both internal and external, as separate from ourselves. That is part of the basic delusion of believing in self-nature as being inherently real. It seems to come with the package. Yet, we need to take a hold of ourselves and begin to understand that Aspirational Bodhicitta is potentially the way we are. It is not a reality separate from ourselves. It is not a mystery that we should approach in a linear way, perhaps in the way that we used to think of spiritual mastery. It used to be that, before we studied the Buddha’s teachings, we began to think of spiritual mastery as accumulating this wisdom and that wisdom and this wisdom and that wisdom and this wisdom and suddenly, you would become a great master. And that’s it. Now you’re a master. Well that isn’t really how the Buddha considers realization. The Buddha considers that you cannot collect wisdoms or knowledges and that they in a sum total will create mastery. The Buddha considers that true wisdom is the realization of the emptiness of all phenomena and the emptiness of self-nature, the illusory nature of phenomena, the illusory nature of self. This is the true wisdom, and it is not something that you can collect or gather.

In the same way, when Bodhicitta is fully realized, it is none other than the Primordial Wisdom state. It is none other than supreme awakening. Bodhicitta then, ultimately, when it is fully realized, is our own nature, and we should not treat it as though it were something separate from ourselves. We should not treat it as though it were a thing that we could collect by doing this practice or that practice. Instead, we should take a hold of ourselves and begin to uncover the diamond of Bodhichitta, the jewel of Bodhicitta. We should begin to uncover it by polishing away the delusion that occurs through the selfish concerns which are born of a lack of understanding of what awakening truly is.

Refuge and Bodhicitta: Introduction by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

January 1, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

What I would like to talk about today has much to do with the practice of Bodhicitta, which is taking the vow of compassion, committing oneself to live one’s life as a compassionate person, and moving into adopting the posture of and becoming a Bodhisattva., that is an awakening being who lives to benefit others.

Generally speaking, Refuge and Bodhicitta are considered to be almost like twins. Many times practitioners will structure their practice so that they are accumulating Rand Bodhicitta at the same time. You’ll notice that the two sections in your Ngöndro book are side by side and that one easily follows the other. To help you with understanding how to live through the muscular changes that you are going through even as we speak, one thing that you can do that I did that is very helpful is that when you’re practicing the Refuge and you’ve established the visualization, you’re halfway there to the Bodhicitta because it moves directly into the practice of Bodhicitta, using pretty much the same visualization.

If you are accumulating prostrations, either you are in retreat or you are simply upholding your daily practice commitment. There will be times when you really feel that in a physical way you simply cannot put up with the challenge of the practice. Each one of you will have a certain limit of prostrations that you can consistently do on a regular basis. If you were to do a daily practice commitment of 100 prostrations, or 200 prostrations, or 300 prostrations, whatever it is, there will be some days that for whatever physiological reason you may not be able to do that much, or it may be that you are moving from 100 prostrations to 200 prostrations and the body is stressed as it’s going to this new level. The one thing that you can do is combine the practice of Refuge and Bodhicitta. You can practice the Refuge, accumulating prostrations until you feel that you are tired and need to move on to something else or take a break. Then you can sit down and visualize and meditate on the bodhicitta section of the practice. So you could take a break, accumulate Bodhicitta Vow for awhile and use that visualization, and if that’s the only time you’re going to accumulate bodhicitta, you can close the practice at that point. But you can close the practice of Bodhicitta somewhat and then go back to the Refuge practice, or you can actually go back and forth.

Interestingly they are so connected in one’s mind, and should be so connected in one’s mind, that that’s actually an excellent way to practice and I recommend, rather than doing only prostrations, to go back and forth on a regular basis and accumulate the bodhicitta at the same time. Now the reason why this is very useful is that the idea of refuge and bodhicitta in concept are so well-connected and so interdependent, literally, it’s hard to understand one without the other.

Yesterday during the retreat we talked about the meaning of refuge. We talked about the thoughts that turn the mind. We talked about the pitfalls and conditions of samsaric or cyclic existence, the cycle of birth and death, so we talked about many different subjects. How do these subjects connect with bodhicitta and how does bodhicitta connect with these subjects?

Actually the two main legs of our entire path are wisdom and compassion—the knowledge of emptiness or the realization of the primordial wisdom state and the bodhicitta. These two are as inseparable as the rays of the sun are from the sun. If one were to examine the sun, one would understand that yes, there seems to be a place where the sun’s actual body ends, but is the energy of the sun’s rays, is that emanation form of the sun, actually in truth separate from the sun itself? Some would say no. So in many ways refuge and bodhicitta have the same kind of relationship.

Be Your Own Best Friend

December 31, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Western Chöd”

Understanding what is in front of you is like, I’ve used this analogy before, it’s like walking through a dark room. Let’s say that the life span that you have can be symbolized by a room. It’s dark because you don’t know what it’s going to be like. So let’s say the room is perfectly pitch dark. All the shades are drawn. It’s dark outside. No moon. Lights are off. We’re talking dark. And it’s like that because no one can predict the future. We have no idea what our lives are going to be like. But you have to walk through that room.

So you have a choice there. You can either do what we’re used to doing which is, eyes closed, you don’t turn on the light. You just take it the way it is and, like a fool, just walk through the room. Now unfortunately in that room, there’s a sofa, there’s a couch, there’s a table, lots of tables, there’s stuff on the floor. It’s like any other room. It’s furnished. Just like your life. It’s furnished. So you’re going to walk through that room what, with the light off? With your eyes closed? Guess what’s going to happen. Try it in your room. Try it in your house. Just walk around a while with all the lights off and your eyes closed. You are going to hurt yourself. You’re going to fall down.

There’s another choice, and this is the choice that Buddhism offers to you, or that this kind of practice specifically offers you—examining the faults of cyclic existence and examining what is the more noble way.This kind of practice offers you another alternative and that is turning on the light. Having seen the faults of cyclic existence that’s like you’re walking through this room, yes, but you know where the couch is. You can walk around the couch. You know where the chair is. You can walk around the chair. You know where the table is. You can walk around the table. Something on the floor. You can step over that. So while it may not be our natural tendency to look at life in that way, it behooves us to have that kind of courage because ultimately it would be like walking through your life really seeing what it is, being able to avoid the obstacles, taking advantage of what is there to take advantage of, and not hurting yourself.

It isn’t like you’re sentencing yourself to several months of the worst practice you’ve ever experienced. In a way, for the first time, maybe for the only time, you’re being your own best friend. You’re really looking, really seeing, not copping out. And because of that you will be more competent to move through your life than you might have been otherwise. And not only that, you’ve given rise to the great Bodhicitta, the great compassion, and you have understood that while you are alive in this world, you cannot accept, you cannot bear the suffering of sentient beings. You see that it becomes somehow disgusting and unacceptable to you, that your two feet, that your self could be here in this world, and sentient beings are suffering. That’s why, in the practice, we give rise to renunciation, true renunciation. We totally give up the self for the purpose of benefitting sentient beings. Practice like that will produce that excellent result.

According to my teachers, this is a combination of preliminary practice called Ngöndro, which is where we see the faults of cyclic existence and give rise to the Bodhicitta, and it’s also the practice of Chöd. There’s no reason why any of you can’t begin to practice like that right now, immediately, tomorrow, today. That practice can be done deeply as I have just given instruction, but it can also be done in more casual way, as you’re walking around. Examine everything you see, and even if you are not a Buddhist, that’s fine with me. Even if you’re not planning on being a Buddhist but you’re interested in these words and you have some connection with them, great. You don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice in this way, because when I practiced in this way, I wasn’t. But it is the same ethics, the same morality and the same beauty that I have later come to find in my religion, Buddhism. So I offer this to you as a gift and I really hope that you take it with you wherever you go, and that, for my friend, it will bring you back safely, and that for all of you, you will have the most excellent result practicing in that way.

Who Is Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo?

December 30, 2016 by Holly

His Holiness Khenpo Jigmey Phuntsok gave the following commentary on the recognition of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on July 30, 1993 at Kunzang Palyul Choling in Poolesville, Maryland

Padma Norbu Rinpoche was discovered by the fifth Kongtrul Thupten Chokyi Dorje. Thubten Chokyi Dorje by indicating who Padma Norbu Rinpoche’s parents would be. When we look at the qualities of such a recognition, we find in someone like His Holiness Padma Norbu Rinpoche has lived up to every aspect of who he has been indicated to be, in terms of being an emanation of the previous Penor Rinpoche, in terms of the qualities of his scholarship, of his honor and morality, of his excellence and of his accomplishment which are all inconceivable. And so in terms of spiritual and secular qualities he is absolutely fully endowed and lives up perfectly to the recognition, which has been bestowed upon him.

It is someone as supreme as Mahasiddha Padma Norbu Rinpoche who with his eye of primordial wisdom awareness has understood that this is an incarnation of the previous Ahkön Lhamo. He has not recognized her just suddenly without basing it on any type of investigation, as though it were something that he just did spontaneously when it came to his mind. The recognition of her occurred as a process that he had been looking into for an extended period of time. He had been checking about who she was with his own heart deities, and he received some visions from his deities giving explanations to him. He also had other experiences in his meditation and experiences in his dreams and in the least, also received indications through divination procedures. And so when he finally made the formal recognition, it was from a point of view of total confidence.

As for Ahkön Lhamo herself, first we have to look at the status of her brother who is Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab who came from the lower Do-Kham region of Tibet.

242307115_1st-vidyadhara kunzang sherab — Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab

Secret Mantra Tradition

In terms of establishing the secret mantra tradition in this region of Tibet, there are three principal monasteries that were founded: Kadok, Palyul, and Dzogchen. And of these three, the Palyul mother monastery and its branches came to be, even in its time of origination, the most essential of the three monasteries for the establishment of the vehicle of secret mantra. Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab was responsible for initially establishing the mother Palyul monastery from which there are now some three hundred branch institutions. His sister was Ahkön Lhamo and she was also very connected with him in these types of activities during their lifetime together. But she was primarily renowned for her ability to practice the Dharma. She was well-known as an accomplished yogini on outer, inner and secret levels who spent her entire life in practice And so this is why, later on, when she passed from that particular life she was well-known for the self-embossed syllable “ah” which appeared in her skull which was a sign of having achieved the highest accomplishment through the practice of that life.

As a symbol of faith and devotion, it’s not an empty symbol. It is a symbol that exists due to scriptural authority and lineage, the lineage that she belongs to, the authority of the lineage as well as the scriptural references to that authority in the lineage. And so it is something that we can have confidence in terms of its validity. And so, therefore, we can also have confidence in her in terms of background, from a point of view of intelligence, and from the point of view of scientific proof.

We can have total confidence then, in terms of proof, that she is an exalted rebirth. Now in one way, in this lifetime, she appears as a common American woman, but in another way she appears very uncommon, because she has faith in the Dharma unlike that of a common person, and she has a very strong wish to be of benefit to others, which is unlike that of common people. She has a tremendous love for her lamas and her spiritual mentors and an ability to make impressions on the minds of others, and to actually control or have some positive influence on the minds of others. And so this sets her apart from the ranks of common folk.

Through her own wishes she traveled to India where the Dharma has existed for thousands of years. And there she had an opportunity to listen to the teachings and receive many teachings directly from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche so as to increase her own noble qualities.

She also had an opportunity to receive the entire transmission for the Rinchen Terdzod directly from His Holiness, all of the empowerments, all of the pith essential pointing out instructions and commentaries that are found in that precious terma treasury, and she received it in a way that an elderly lama would receive it, an elderly Tibetan lama. And so she had this opportunity to completely internalize all of those blessings, which is very extraordinary.

And from the time that the title of Ahkön Lhamo was bestowed upon her, she didn’t succumb to pride and arrogance and go on a separate pursuit, which would be of benefit to her with fame and glory. Instead she used that title to, even more than before, do what she could to accomplish the purpose of sentient beings and the doctrine, which she has been able to establish more extensively since her title has been bestowed upon her.

And I also think that her enlightened activities have been most excellent in terms of what she’s been able to manifest, the establishment of this temple which is filled with many wondrous supports of enlightened body, speech and mind, and all of the many stupas that she has been able to erect, which are found here on the grounds which are also amazing supports for the presence of the doctrine in this world.

Then also here in the dharma center, she has established the ordained sangha in a way, which is unlike any other place, with so many disciples who have taken the vows of ordination. This is a clear sign of her miraculous activities being manifest and her strong intention to accomplish the pure dharma in this land. Not only that, the lay householders in the community also obviously have very strong motivation towards the accumulation of that which is wholesome and that which is virtuous. And this unceasing effort towards prayer and practice carried on in the temple is yet a further display of her miraculous activities manifest.

What she has been able to accomplish up until now will continue to be accomplished in an even greater way in the future, and will have large effects on this country in general. Not just here in this place but in a widespread way. This will have an effect on many people in this country. And so this is yet a further sign of the wide-reaching effects of her miraculous activity, which will continue to increase.

And as the Buddha said that if there is fire, there will be smoke, as a sign of the fire. And if water; there will be a sign of water birds gathering there. Likewise, if there is a Bodhisattva, there will be a sign of the Bodhisattva’s presence, and that means there will be external signs that are apparent and those signs are signs of bringing benefit to sentient beings. This is something that we can notice and we then know that a Bodhisattva is amongst us.

As her students you should know how to rely upon her purely in the three ways. And you should do your best to accomplish the stages of learning and the stages of accomplishment so that the doctrine can be firmly established in this land, so that it can be of benefit to both self and all other beings.

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok

Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok (1933 – 2004) was a Nyingma lama from the Dhok region of Kham. At the age of two he was identified as the reincarnation of the Terton Sogyal, Lerab Lingpa (1852–1926). He studied Dzogchen at Nubzor Monastery, received novice ordination at 14, and full ordination at 22 (or 1955). Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok was the most influential lama of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism in contemporary Tibet. A Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and renowned teacher of Great Perfection (Dzogchen), he established the Serthar Buddhist Institute in 1980, known locally as Larung Gar, a non-sectarian study center with approximately 10,000 monks, nuns, and lay students at its highest count. He played an important role in revitalizing the teaching of Tibetan Buddhism following the liberalization of religious practice in 1980.

In July 1993, HH visited KPC, ordaining a number of monks & nuns, and giving empowerment and teachings on recent termas he had revealed.

Listen to Your Life

December 28, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Longing for the Guru”

One of the great difficulties we have as practitioners and people involved in a materialistic culture is that we have very little understanding of the longing we feel for the Guru. In a culture that has a spiritual foundation, in a culture that recognizes the role of the Guru, that recognizes the role of the Teacher or that recognizes and approves of a tendency to long for spiritual fulfillment, it is much easier to put a name and a label on that longing.

But in our culture, in order for us to survive that kind of longing, we have to make believe that it’s something else. We have to pretend that it has to do with human relationships. We have to pretend that it has to do with prosperity. We have to pretend that it has to do with a certain lifestyle. We have to pretend that it has to do with intelligence or that it has to do with mental health. We have to pretend all sorts of different things in order to put the longing into some slot that our society recognizes, because if not, as we grow up in the formative years, it’s crushing to know in your heart of hearts that you are very different from others. No one seems to have quite the same feeling that you do.

And so, because it is so crushing, because it is such a lonely thing, often, the very people that longed the most are the ones that diverted that longing into, perhaps, promiscuity, or perhaps becoming almost fanatical about this thought or that thought or this idea or that idea. They could have diverted that longing into drugs or alcohol. They could have diverted that longing into making themselves into a way that they are not, such as a superficial way or a hard way or a tough way or a dull way or a dead way. They might have pretended that they had no feelings in order to deal with the ones that they did have.

Now, it’s true that lots of people have these same feelings and lots of people have these same ways of dealing with feelings. For instance, it’s very possible that someone whose mother or father didn’t love them could become promiscuous simply for that reason. Yet, that does not preclude what I’m saying. You should listen to your life. You should listen to what you did and what was underneath it and you should come to understand that perhaps there was something a little different in your heart and in your mind. It was there and it was with you always.

Light of Recognition

December 26, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

What would it be like for you if Guru Rinpoche himself, appearing in a way that you could understand, were to actually walk through every day with you? In your mind, in your heart, seeing what’s in there? Walk through all your efforts, and watch you when you turn away and say, AO.K. that’s enough of that. I’m going to go and do what I want to do. Enough of that high thinking. Let me feel the way that I naturally feel, the hell with all of you. You know, that kind of thing?

If we actually had the eyes of the Guru, if they could be felt watching us, you know what you would feel like if you had seen that happen. If you had felt that even for one day. There would never be an end to your grief. There would never be an end to the sorrow that you would feel knowing that in the face of the Guru you had made such a stinking offering.

We remain content with our self-cherishing, content with our pride, content with our ego and our hatred and our bigotry and our bad qualities. We remain content with these while the eyes of the Guru watch. Because there is no moment that you exist, that you can have a thought, that you are alive in samsara that the eyes of the Guru are not watching. And I don’t mean this like you should think of yourself as a little kid thinking, “Oh no, Mommy’s watching.” It’s not like that. The Guru doesn’t get mad at you. It isn’t an approval thing. It isn’t like your mother or your father. It’s that these eyes are like a radiant connection through which we can see directly the primordial nature, which is free of any kind of contrivance and separation and ugliness and superficiality and any of the possibilities that make it likely that we are going to practice any kind of non-virtue. This nature is so pure that it’s like having the eyes of supreme, unnamable, unspeakable sweetness looking at us always, looking at us with love and compassion. And we are taking shit and throwing it against the wall and wiping it all over ourselves: scratching and burping and farting and hitting and killing and carrying on. And yet, these eyes that hold us up, watch us always, even while we, like apes in a zoo, fling shit on them.

And yet, we wonder why it is that we cannot awaken to the Buddha nature. “When is ‘it’ going to happen? When is ‘it’ going to come from ‘out there?’ How old am I going to be when ‘it’ happens to me?” — as though it were going to be visited upon you like something air-dropped; as though it were going to come to you from another city, or another state or another world. And all the time, we are turning away from those eyes, those loving, perfect pure eyes, that are actually like guiding beams of light, if you can imagine such a thing.

When we turn our face away from the Guru, we are only creating more suffering. There is no other result that can come from that, no matter what it looks like. You might say that there are extenuating circumstances. All right, name them! I’d like to see an extenuating circumstance that’s going to change what I’ve just said, because it doesn’t exist. You might say, “Well, I did my practice from this time to this time and I really tried very hard with my Guru Yoga. I worked very hard at that and I kept it mindful as much as I could and then, well, you know, you have other things to do. You have to go work, and you have to go do this, and you have to go do that.” This is the kind of thinking that we have. Basically, what we have done is, while we were in the state of devotional practice, while we were aware of being in the presence of the Guru, while we were practicing that kind of view, we have only created causes of future bliss and happiness. The moment we turned away, that act of saying, “Okay, that’s that. Now on to this” — the moment we said that, we have practiced that non-virtue which has caused us unthinkable suffering in this and every life that we have experienced up until this point. The moment we turn away from the face of the Guru and find “something else”: in that moment we have turned away from the primordial nature that is our nature, and found suffering. The moment that we go on to the next thing, is the moment that we go on to our suffering. The moment that we move away from our practice into another state, at that moment we have moved away from what causes bliss and moved into what will only bring about more suffering. This is true even if our activity is just as pure and clean as apple pie. Let’s say we ended our practice to go feed the baby. You can’t argue with that. You got to feed babies, right? Of course, you’ve got to go feed the baby, but the problem is that you had to turn away from the Guru in order to do it.

Now you haven’t actually figured all of this out yet, but now it’s time to practice so deeply that you understand that it is possible not to turn away ever. It is possible to be in that space, to be with that face and of that face, to be inseparable, to be constantly in union with that which is union itself, to be inseparable with the Guru. This is the goal!

Why wouldn’t it be the goal? Is it samsara that you wish to be inseparable from? Is it suffering? Is it non-virtue? Do you like to turn away? Maybe you like the result, the suffering that comes after! Of course, now that I say it this way, it seems ridiculous! Of course, you don’t want that! Yet, in our practice, in our lives, what do we do? We offer the five cups of poison. This is our standard offering, every day. And then we read the text and the text says if we could just offer one butter lamp, we would remain in unmovable samadhi. And we wonder, “I’ve offered lots of butter lamps! What is the hold up? What’s the problem?” I’ll tell you what the problem is. It’s those five other cups that you offer so much more of than that butter lamp.

Maybe the butter lamp needs to be understood as a symbol, not only as a literal butter lamp on an altar, but like a light in the window, a constant reminder. When you know that a loved one is nearby and you’re trying to create the connection whereby the loved one would be guided home. In this case, we’re trying to create the connection. You would keep a lamp in the window, wouldn’t you? Keep a light on? Maybe that’s what we need to do. Maybe the butter lamp we need to offer, the one that brings us to immovable samadhi is the light that never extinguishes: the light of recognition.

Practicing Deeply

December 25, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Western Chod”

Westerners, in particular, have this habit. I think it may be somewhat unique to us because our experience is so multiple. We could go into the spiritual supermarket and buy ten different kinds of baloney. That’s the truth. We can go anywhere and get anything. We have so much to look at, so much that we can have, that oftentimes when we’re given a practice and the teacher says to us,. “Turn to page such and such. Read this practice and visualize like this. Then you say the mantra. Then you do the closing prayers. Do some dedication.” Done. The practice is done. On Wednesday I make out my shopping list, and it’s with that kind of fervent regard, unfortunately, that westerners tend to practice, like we’re writing out laundry lists. We need this. We gotta have this. We’re going for this. Let’s do it. It’s very much by rote.

I felt that my good fortune was that this practice had to be brought up from the very depth of me. I had to feel it or it wouldn’t work, and so that was my task. To the depth of my being I had to find a way to renounce. I had to face the part of me that was attached and addicted to whatever parts or things about my life that I had that feeling for. I had to face the ramifications if I didn’t accomplish this practice. That meant we all get to die and everything just goes on the way it is. That seemed to me unbearable being as there is so much suffering in the world.

It’s as though I had to reach down in the depth of my gut and pull this up everyday. It was so hard and so rewarding at the same time. I have to say there are very few practices that I do at this time that match the intensity and the depth and the regard and the beauty that I felt at that time. In some ways it was so natural and so innocent and so total, because I couldn’t stop and go on to the next thing until I had really really accomplished the previous phase. That was the important thing. Unfortunately, we don’t practice, we don’t think like that at this time. That was my practice every single day.

Over the years that practice has made my life much easier. In a way it was kind of like putting money in the bank for the future. My teachers have instructed me that that practice is called chöd . There is no text to go with it so you couldn’t say it was the practice of chöd as it is written in the text. It has been called by my teachers the essence or essential nectar of chöd. So I have been given permission to continue to practice that way and also to teach others to practice in that way. My experience has been that it has made my life a lot easier.