Teachers | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The Power of Devotion: from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

August 15, 2011 by anisonam

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso on Ngondro given at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Today, from The Great Perfection, Buddha in the Palm of the Hand, we are going through the Four Thoughts Which Turn the Mind, Refuge and Bodhicitta. There are many practitioners in Tibet who only accumulate prostrations and chant taking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha who achieve purification and have some kind of experience. There are not just one or two, but thousands. Really! Tibetan lay people who could not enter monastic life or those who could not study like you guys. Here lamas come and give teachings and you all are very smart and want to understand everything step by step and you want to make everything clear. In Tibet, they have very strong devotion. When a lama is giving teachings, they all rush up there and listen. They are not so attentive, but they have so much devotion. Whenever a ngöndro teaching is given on prostrations, they have no doubt. They will do that accumulation. They will not consider whether it makes sense or not. They just practice it, thinking, “This must be something of benefit, so I have to do it.” They do it continuously. Even when they are working in the kitchen or tending the cows, they continue chanting “Lama la kyab su chi-o, Sangye la kyab su chi-o, Chö la kyab su chi-o, Gendun la kyab su chi-o,” like this. They are constantly chanting, and they don’t think, “Lama la kyab su chi-o, why do I have to say this?” They really don’t have that kind of thought. “Why do I have to take refuge in Buddha? Who is Buddha? What is Dharma? What is Sangha? Why do I have to do that?” They really don’t have that kind of thought. They just go on constantly chanting. And they really do have some kind of purification, and they could have many different kinds of experiences, dreams, clear understanding. I think it is due to the culture that they have that kind of belief and constantly do that. Nobody knows what kind of practice a very ordinary appearing human is doing, just that every time people see him he is chanting, “Lama la kyab su chio, Sangye la kyab su chio…” “I take refuge in the Lama, I take refuge in the Buddha…” People think he is just ignorant. But when death comes, he sits calmly with a smile and rainbows appear. Then people realize that this was a great practitioner. We didn’t know that.

The Need to Tame the Mind: from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

August 13, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche on “Meditation”

The mind – does it need to be something which we can see? If we think that what has pain, suffering, problems and so forth, that this is what is called the mind, in this way we have to perceive the mind as something like a round ball. When we investigate into the mind itself there is not anyone who can really perceive a mind.

At the same time, this mind does not really die. From beginningless lifetimes until now, the mind of Samsara has just been getting rebirth over and over. The mind which has been conceptualized by having that thought of subject and object is that which binds oneself here. It is that which projects the external world and then one’s body and so forth. But no matter how much we investigate, there is no way anyone can perceive this mind.

All the past Buddhas have explained that there is no way one can perceive the mind in the past, present and future. If it is self-existing, then we could see it, like a round pill or something! So why do we think that it has to be perceived as some “thing?” All these “things” are created by the mind. All the experiences of happiness and suffering of Samsara and nirvana – everything is just created by the mind itself.

So we will find if we think over the absolute nature of the mind, it is definitely emptiness. Some people might say, “Oh, my mind is very active and multicolored! Maybe it is possible somebody might have it!” Or maybe somebody might say, “My mind is something like a white light!” But it does not really exist in that way.

When we don’t control the mind and just let it be free, then it starts to create all these negative actions and thoughts. That is why in these practices which we call meditation, although there are many levels of meditations, whatever the Dharma teachings that have been taught by all the Enlightened Buddhas, it is mainly to subdue this mind and to tame this mind. It is to recognize the fault of the mind is conceptual thought, which is a very dualistic thing where there is always subject and object, and this binds us into Samsara or cyclic existence. At the same time we try to realize its absolute nature, to realize or recognize this, and that is the most important part of our practice.

When lama gives all these teachings, the practitioner receives them and tries to put them into practice and then they say, “Oh! I recognize the nature of the mind!” But by just recognizing the conceptual mind, it is very difficult that one could attain Enlightenment. That which creates all these emotions and conceptual thoughts – that is called the mind. But the actual practice is of something which is beyond that kind of conceptual mind, which is known as wisdom. It is that which we need to realize. So we cannot achieve the ultimate happiness just by recognizing the conceptual mind.

There are many kinds of practices which aim to pacify all these kinds of negative thoughts and to control the afflicted mind, to purify and abandon them. When we do these practices and achieve some tranquility through which we can concentrate our mind and make it very stable, then we can perhaps concentrate our minds on the emptiness through which we may achieve some realization. So when we practice meditation and manage to get kind of settled and stable, even having just a little bit of experience of emptiness is really beneficial and can accumulate lots of merit.

Chickens and Worms

August 13, 2011August 12, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Of course, all sentient beings are equal in nature. I pick my battles by what I can do! Those that argue this usually do nothing at all!

I wish I could save every sentient being instantly. I do my part, do for pets and parrots, give to National Wildlife Society regularly, and work hard to re-build my clear-cut land to wholesome habitat. What can you do? Yes, chickens, parrots, and gossips full of hate are the same, and I love and pray for all. Worms too.

Do what you can! Benefit through compassion, stop cruelty, give to charity and get a job so you can.

www.garudaaviary.org

Impermanence and Death: a Teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

August 21, 2011August 11, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

Precious human birth does not mean everyone who is born as a human being. It doesn’t mean that. There is precious human birth and ordinary human birth. Those who don’t do any kind of practice, those who don’t even try to go to church on weekends, those involved in New Age groups or modern ways of belief, or those who enter into some kind of entertainment and waste their lives in that manner—that is just an ordinary human birth. You really must have accumulated some merit in your previous lifetime. You must have done some kind of purification in your previous lifetime. You must have made some kind of connection with the Dharma and your lamas. That is why you are here. Otherwise there is no possibility. That would never, ever happen. So since you have a precious human rebirth, you must immediately think, “I should not waste it. I have to get some advantage from this opportunity.”

Then how can one do it? You must then think that all phenomena which are composed of cause and condition are impermanent. Impermanence does not just mean that everything comes to an end. Impermanence means that each and every moment is impermanent. Each and every moment of our lives we are becoming older and older; we are getting nearer and nearer to death. If you waste even one hour, you are one hour closer to death. If you spend your weekend enjoying yourself, still you are getting nearer to death. Whenever you sit idle, still you are getting nearer to death. Even if you do practice, still you are getting nearer to death. Even if you don’t do anything, still you are getting nearer to death. You are always getting nearer and nearer and nearer. Every sentient being who is born is subject to death.

At the same time, death is uncertain. You can see many examples. Someone will say, “Just yesterday he was talking with me, and then last night he had an accident.” Or somebody shot him or killed him or whatever. There are so many conditions that may bring death. If I cannot do actual practice and if I do not have something I can carry with me, then tonight if something happens, what can I do? What are you really going to carry with you? You cannot pack up like when you get divorced or when you get mad at your friends and you say you’re going to leave and you take your suitcase and pack all your clothes and everything and whatever money and credit cards you have and you leave and go some other place. When death comes, you cannot do that. There is no way that one could do that. Up until now in this world, even the great popes, even Milarepa, even Shakyamuni Buddha, even His Holiness Karmapa and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, they left all their belongings behind. Even His Holiness Karmapa left his black hat behind, even his body. Never mind about an ordinary sentient being who cannot carry all those things. Even the great Christian popes who passed away, could not carry anything. All the great ones and not so great ones—when death came, nobody could pack anything, nobody could carry anything along. You could not even make a phone call. “I’m coming very soon, so could you please reserve a place for me?” There is no way that one can do that. You say, “Oh please, you save a better place for me since I am coming very soon.” Or you want to make a phone call to heaven. “Oh God, please save a place for me.” So you have to realize that life is like that.

In one sense, life is very long. You can experience lots of things. In another sense, life is gone like that. When death comes, what one can carry is just whatever accumulation of merit or whatever negativity one has done. That is the only thing that comes with you. Even if you don’t want it, it is stuck there and will be coming with you. So you have to realize that life is uncertain and death is uncertain. At any moment it can come. When you really consider that, you really get scared, goose bumpy. Then you really get motivated to do practice. Then your sleepy way of thinking and laziness and everything is gone just like that. You cannot feel so tired if death is coming like that. Then you can make yourself so alert. You can generate so much courage in yourself. “Why can’t I do 100,000 prostrations in a month? Why can’t I do that?” Then you can have that kind of courage within yourself. Otherwise you say, “Other people are out enjoying the weekend and going here and there and I am stuck here doing prostrations. I get pain in my legs and my knees and pain there. When can all this be finished?” Then it feels really difficult. When you really see that death is coming, then you can bear it. If you think about that, then that will really help you to apply yourself into practice with full energy and with full courage.

Contemplating this Precious Opportunity by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

August 21, 2011August 10, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

The Four Thoughts that turn the mind from samsara are very important. Our minds are distracted by this world. We practice a little bit, and then get distracted, thinking life is good — eating pizza in the restaurant, going to the beach on weekends, and enjoying ourselves. It is really nice. One could have a very happy life with one’s family, and eating, and experiencing all those happy experiences. At the end of life, if one could not have the continuation of that kind of happiness in the next lifetime and many future lifetimes, one may get a little upset and think, “I should have done something. I have just been going to the beach, the mountains, camping, bungee jumping, and all that. I’ve spent my time doing all that, but I really didn’t do anything.” Then all one’s karma ripens. Whether you believe in karma or not, understand it or not, it doesn’t matter. Whether you are a Christian or a Buddhist or a Hindu or a Jew or a Muslim, in cyclic existence, karma is the life process. It is the nature of cyclic existence itself. So that nature ripens to everybody. Everyone experiences that. After death, if one has to bear all different kinds of suffering, then one may experience some regret.

This is how one has a very happy life. You can have entertainment, but at the same time have a kind of entertainment which really makes sense, which you can carry with you. On weekends, you could come here and participate in a tsog offering or a puja or some kind of a practice. While you are doing the practice, you may experience some minor problems with your knees or sitting or doing prostrations, but still you are bearing some karma and having some purification. After all, you could have something you can really carry with you after death. It is as the Buddha, who is fully enlightened, has explained. Jetsunma has also explained all this a number of times. The important thing to realize here is that this precious human birth is one in which one could really become involved in practice, in which one could become involved with the Dharma teachings, in which one could really become involved in Dharma activities. If one could really have some time to apply to practice, then this becomes a precious human birth.

First Noble Truth

August 10, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a Teaching called “How Buddhists Think”

The Buddha’s first teaching dealt with what is now called “The Four Noble Truths.” This is the basis for everything he taught later. If it is not understood, then Buddhism will not be understood.

The Buddha taught that cyclic existence, the entire cycle of death and rebirth with all its phenomena, is pervaded by suffering. If you disagree with that, just look at a newspaper. Most people’s lives are affected by war, by hunger, by old age; we will all experience sickness and death. Other forms of sentient life have similar suffering, and it also pervades their lives.

The Buddha does not deny that some happiness exists. Is there not joy in the drug-like process of falling in love, in loving relationships, in the birth of a child, in acquiring wealth, in seeing and having beautiful things, in enjoying nature and simply feeling good on a good day?

But there is a form of suffering that we all share: every joy has a point of termination. The Buddha taught that all things are impermanent. Short-term loves break our hearts when they fail to endure. Then we revert to our habitual loneliness, anger, and unhappiness. Even life-long loves and marriages end in separation.

The bottom-line cause of suffering, the Buddha taught, is desire. And what causes desire to arise? At a point so unimaginably long ago that it’s called “time out of mind,” there arose the idea of self-nature as inherently real and as separate from “other.” This fixation on the duality of subject and object is the persistent skeletal structure for all experience. Until you achieve realization, all the experiences you have derive from this misperception.

Training the Mind

August 7, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is from a twitter conversation between Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and one of her followers:

Questioner:

Yet peace must begin with self: smrti, samadhi, prajna. Paradox or universal elegance?
I mean, am I missing something, or isn’t this dynamic at the very core of engaged Buddhism in the 21st century?

Jetsunma:

Yes, I do think you are missing something. There are outer, inner, and secret views. Outer we must practice altruism. Inwardly one must practice Buddhism for the sake of Liberating all beings ultimately. Secretly, one must awaken Bodhicitta, and understand that all appearances are fundamentally empty of self nature, there is no object or subject. Yet we are operating with relative view and there is suffering to be healed. Our very nature is Buddha, and that is the Bodhicitta. We must actively engage yet be fully aware of emptiness, and train the mind.

Karma and Purification on the Path

August 5, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

I personally know a story about a young lady who took robes of ordination as an Ani years ago. Deep habitual tendencies caused her to fall off her path and break the vows very seriously, more than once. As a lay woman she continued the pattern, there was so much rage in her, the events seemed neurotic, obsessive. She was determined to ruin her Teacher, as she imagined the downfall was her Teacher’s fault. The breakage seemed to spiral and worsen until she lost friends, and suffered terribly, as did the ones she attacked. It was a terrible mess! But she went to other Lamas and asked for advice, and to become their student. All told her she must return to her own Tsawei Lama and make amends.

How terribly difficult when so much damage to so many had been done. But she persisted. Correcting lies, doing purifying practice, applying the proper antidotes. She went to retreat and was welcomed and treated kindly. Her Guru had already taken her back. Except for one elder Lama who, when she served tea, poured it on the ground and said “you may not serve me!” as he himself had witnessed what she’d done personally, and had known the effect on all. She accepted and bowed low, wondering why everyone didn’t treat her just the same. But it was through that Lama’s activity she was instantly able to see the depth of her betrayal and was able to make confession without leaving out any details at all. She was given kind instruction from His Holiness Palyul Karma Kuchen Rinpoche and is now taking advanced teachings, much happier and her mind continues to be freed from the imprisonment of the cycle of hatred, greed and ignorance. Stage by stage she grows more free!

She repeatedly asked why she was so compelled, so intensely obsessed with harming her Teacher and Dharma. The answer, repeatedly, was a real kicker. In past lives she had made up her own path and convinced (skillfully) others to follow and practice what she taught. So in this life, although she is skillful and brilliant, it was impossible for her to keep the robes of the Buddha or to follow the path of Buddhism nicely or purely. It will take time to repair, but she is diligently applying herself. She was instructed to tell truth always and make an unshakable commitment to never behave that way again.

There is always a way to purify mistakes, but so much better to never make them in the first place. To try to teach a made-up path that causes downfall for others results in great mental instability and even insanity. Emotional equilibrium is lost. And it continues into future lives. Suffering of others is experienced by the false teacher. You will always know them by their current lives and experience. Sadly, still ignorant, they cannot see it for themselves. Karma is real, if you believe it or not. And you are experiencing it right now, and will continue until Supreme Enlightenment.

One more thing. I am so proud of her. And love her so deeply, she is a miracle.

Cause and Effect: Examining Circumstances

August 5, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso on Ngondro, given at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

There is not one single sentient being who wishes to suffer. That is very obvious. Even scary animals, ghosts, and evil spirits don’t really mean to harm anybody. They are in search of some kind of happiness. They are looking for some kind of peace. An evil spirit or consciousness wanders here and there and creates some kind of problem for someone. Then that person becomes possessed by the evil spirit and there are lots of disturbances, all due to the search for happiness, but without knowing what the actual cause of happiness is. How can one really have actual happiness? How can one really have a peaceful life? How can one have a happier life? One has to understand the actual cause. Due to ignorance, all sentient beings do not know that. Each and every sentient being wishes for happiness, but not knowing the cause of happiness, all kinds of karma, actions, thoughts, and afflicted mind, arise and worldly things are done which result in problems and suffering.

I think that Americans really don’t like to hear about suffering in the teachings. You like to hear only about having a happy and prosperous life, about enjoyment. You are always trying to find some kind of modern technology, some different way of doing things, because you are really trying to find happiness. Maybe if I climb a mountain, I can enjoy life more. Or no, maybe I’ll go bungee jumping! That may be more enjoyable and will bring some happiness. In that way, everybody is trying each and every thing just to experience happiness, just to experience some kind of peaceful mind. There are so many religions, so many masters, so many yogis who have appeared. When a Hindu teacher comes, then everybody goes there and listens to the yogi teaching about prana, some kind of breathing, some kind of meditation, because they think, “If I go to this teacher, maybe I can get some kind of solution so that I can be happier. Maybe I can have some kind of path. Maybe I can really get something so that I can maintain a happier life.”

So everyone does whatever we do 24 hours a day. And whatever we are doing, whatever we talk to people about, it’s all in search of peace and happiness. Not knowing the actual cause of happiness, one thinks something else may help, so one creates all kinds of karma, causing problems which ripen for oneself. It is like a reflection, or an echo when you shout in a cave. The same ego shouts back to you. When you look in the mirror and make a face, the image makes the same face back at you. In the same way, the actions one has done to other sentient beings, ripen back. This is the cause of samsara, or cyclic existence. Whatever peace or happiness is attained is very temporary and limited. While worldly peace and happiness is temporary and of short duration, at the same time, one experiences lots and lots of difficulties, lots and lots of problems. One experiences suffering and struggles very hard before one can have a little bit of peace and happiness.

So experience one’s own life and others’ lives. Sit aside and watch the universe, watch sentient beings. Watch how all these sentient beings fare. Everything is the result of one’s own karma or whatever action one has done. In this way, when one thinks about the suffering of sentient beings, then one could think, “How can I really apply some kind of method or practice so that I can become fully perfected, so that I may not have any more suffering—no miserable life, no birth, no death, no sickness, no old age? How can I get rid of all this?” There is a teaching which explains how one can really enter into a very strong practice, a practice which would produce results very fast, a practice which may have a very special skill, a special technique, so that one can have realization in this lifetime. If one could really generate Bodhicitta or Awakening Mind, then one would feel like he really needs to get enlightened.

Generating the Motivation

July 31, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

Motherly sentient beings are spread throughout this universe. As much as space has expanded, so sentient beings are extended throughout space. We cannot perceive the edge of space, and in the same way, we cannot perceive the numbers of sentient beings. Visualize the countless sentient beings that exist in this universe, and in the thousands and millions of other universes, which are also filled up with thousands and millions, countless, sentient beings. Visualize and understand all sentient beings as one’s mother. And taking them as one’s mother, then generate compassion, realizing and experiencing the suffering of all sentient beings—all the different kinds of suffering, all the different kinds of obstacles, all the miserable lives. Experience all these for oneself. If one really tries to experience that, there is no way that one cannot generate compassion. You must generate compassion for all motherly sentient beings. When you have compassion, then you really want to know how to help all these sentient beings. “How can I benefit these sentient beings? I need some kind of energy, some kind of power. I need all the qualities whereby I can benefit all sentient beings so that they can be liberated from cyclic existence, from the suffering of samsara.

When one has this strong desire to benefit sentient beings, then there is a way, a possibility, that one can give rise to the Bodhicitta, or the Awakening Mind. One thinks, “Now I need to get some kind of realization. I really need some kind of power or energy or noble qualities or omniscient mind. I really need to get enlightenment. Otherwise how can I benefit all these sentient beings? How can I help them? How can I liberate them from cyclic existence?”