Teachers

How Buddhists Think

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By Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called “How Buddhists Think”

Some years ago, His Holiness the Dalai Lama took part in an interfaith discussion at a cathedral in Washington, D.C.  The Episcopalian ministers and Catholic priests repeatedly stressed the sameness at the core of all religions.  His Holiness stood up and said that in some respects we are all the same: we all wish for peace on Earth, we wish for the benefit of beings, we wish for the end of suffering, we wish to attain a level of consciousness in which we are unified with our optimum goal, whatever that might be.  “But,” he said, “between your religion and my religion there are fundamental differences.  And that has to be okay.  There has to be unity in diversity.”

Although I would certainly never speak for the Dalai Lama, I assume that the “fundamental differences” to which he referred have to do with Buddhism’s lack of an external God.  This is generally not understood by Westerners.  The Buddha’s teachings do not advocate the attainment of oneness with a God, with anything external.  Instead, the Buddha teaches the essential sameness of all phenomena, pointing out that in the beginning there was no distinction.  The Buddha tells us that such a distinction exists only in our mind, which is fixated on self-nature as being inherently real.

In truth, our Nature is all-pervasive.  There is no separation.  There is no distinction.  When Realization is achieved, it is a non-specific awareness, a luminosity, an innate wakefulness.  The process of fixation, of contrivance and distinction, is pacified.  That is not the same as attaining oneness with anything external.  The Buddha leads us to pacify the delusion that causes fixation on duality.

There is no optimum state one has to create, no supreme being towards whom to move.  For a Buddhist, the goal is awakening.  It is an awakening to the Nature that cannot be nearer, or stronger, or better than it is now.  It can never be tainted, pushed away, destroyed.  It remains stable and unchanging.  It is simply “Suchness.”

Copyright ©  Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

The Feast

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Tsog - A Spiritual Feast

The banquet is ready
The feast is set
And never will I forget
The taste, the sweetness.

The Bodhichitta, sublime display
Of all the Buddhas. Sweetness
Without measure. Peerless pleasure
The dazzling play of light
And essence.

Oh! For the day still coming
When virtue prevails
The ship to Liberation sails
For you. Come aboard!
Know the Lotus Lord.

In this day, in this time,
Taste the bliss- love sublime awaits.
Where are you? Will you obey
The call within, or turn away?
Will the treasure be yours, today?

Oh, Beloved, will you stay?

By Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on October 23, 2009

Limitless Kindness

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series available on Amazon

One of the most important and central thoughts in Buddhist philosophy is the idea of compassion. The Buddha taught that we must cultivate our lives as a vehicle to be of benefit to all sentient beings.  It’s good that you’re a good mother, and it’s good that you’re a good friend, but we can’t limit ourselves to a small, familiar circle. We have to go on and on increasing our compassionate activity, our influence and our determination until we attain a level of kindness or compassion that supersedes what we believe is reasonable. We can’t stop even with our nation. We can’t think that we only want to help Americans. Nor can we stop with our world. We can’t think that we only want to help humans and animals, which are the ones that we can see. We have to think, according to the Buddha, that we wish to be of benefit to all sentient beings.

A sentient being is one who has sensory feeling or the development of that kind of discriminating consciousness. According to the Buddha’s teachings, there are six realms of cyclic existence, and there are sentient beings in all of these realms. The human realm and the animal realm are visible to us. This is living proof that at least some of the Buddha’s teaching is right. We see human beings and we see animals; therefore, we know that they exist. But according to the Buddha’s teaching, there are also non-physical beings and different kinds of beings that must be considered if we are to truly develop the mind of compassion.

Limiting ourselves to an identity such as,”I am a woman,” or “I am a man,” or “I am an American,” or “I am a Russian,” or even “I am a citizen of planet earth,” is not the way of the Buddha. Instead, we should think that on every particle we can see, and all those that we cannot see, and in every inch of space, there are millions and millions of sentient beings. And space goes on forever. If we intend to develop the mind of kindness, it must extend to all sentient beings equal to the limits of space.  Space has no limits and there are limitless beings, seen and unseen.  Therefore, we must extend the mind of compassion to beings far beyond those we can conceive of with our brains. That is an awesome thought. How can we really do that? We think that must be impossible. How can we be directly concerned with somebody we can’t see? How can we really care about something that might be infinitesimally small, like bacteria? Or a sentient being that may be as large as a galaxy? How can we seriously consider we must be kind to all sentient beings in that way?

When you develop the mind of compassion, you have to be careful how you develop that mind. If you examine yourself profoundly and honestly – and you have to be willing to be very honest with yourself – you may find that your goal is not really to benefit all sentient beings, but to be a kind person. There are worlds and universes of difference between these two goals. One is selfless: you truly wish to be of benefit to all sentient beings. The other is heading in the right direction, but ultimately it is not selfless because you wish that you could be a kind person. I hope that you can hear the difference between these two ideas. There are worlds of difference between them.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Love Like the Sun

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Most people love with a “hook” at the end, better to love like the sun, radiating in all directions.

Why remain angry and disturbed? Watch a tree and it’s attendant breezes. And know that you are loved!

Why argue with the moon? The moon only reflects it’s Master’s lighr. Better to gaze in peaceful contemplation!

Why grasp at the love of a lover? Better to gaze with wonder at the face of the beloved!

Why fight with one’s friend? Better to sit at the stream and talk of gentle things!

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Buddhism – What’s the Difference?

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Bodhisattvas by Artist Karma Phuntsok
An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhism Differs from Other Religions by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

There are fundamental differences between practicing the Buddha Dharma and practicing other religions.  While it might seem that the right thing to say is that at the bottom of every faith, there is the same truth that we all share, Buddhists don’t quite put it that way.  Buddhists say that no matter what one’s faith is, within each of us is the seed of enlightenment, the Buddha seed.  In that way we are completely, absolutely equal in every measurement.  It means that each one of us, whether human, animal or unseen beings that we cannot see with our physical eyes because they are other dimensional, has the potential for Buddhahood.  Whatever kind of sentient being  – a being with senses, that feels and has consciousness –  in their capacity to reach Buddhahood is exactly the same.  That means that each and every practicing Buddhist should hold every life form in high regard.

Our habitual tendency is to respect people who we are taught to respect.  We respect our teachers and our parents, and our family. And we love the people that we are connected with and so forth, but for the most part we feel somewhat alienated from the rest of the world.  Certainly in America our culture is such that we feel alienated from other cultures.  And so in the Buddha Dharma we begin to break down that kind of divisive separation idea.  We begin to understand that no matter how each person appears, they have exactly the same capacity for realization, for Buddhahood.

And yet in Tibetan Buddhism a teacher sits on a throne.  If we are all equal, why would a teacher sit on a throne, and others sit down below? It has to do with the degree of awakening and the capacity for Bodhicitta – great compassion – having studied it and given rise to it.  And it has to do with one’s past karmic potential and how that has ripened.

For instance, when I first met my guru, he told me, “Oh, you have been reborn as a bodhisattva many many uncountable times.  And so the reason why you know the Dharma without being taught is you have that habit in your mind.  And so now we’ll teach you more, and you’ll know more.”  That was his way of explaining how it is that I am in this position and somebody else might not be.  But the truth of the matter is, even though I appear to be sitting on the throne, and maybe someone else is on death row in a jailhouse, our capacity is exactly equal.  Our level of awakening is not equal, because a person who is awakening, who is giving rise to the great compassion, would not be capable of killing.  They would not have the habit or conceive of it in their mind. It’s not to say that the very same person would not say, “I could just kill my kid today.  She’s driving me nuts!”  or something like that, but that statement is so thin.  It’s utterly meaningless when you realize that there is no habit or propensity for doing harm.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Daily Wishing Prayers

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series
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Having understood that all sentient beings are suffering, and having cultivated in your mind the aspiration of Bodhicitta, you should make fervent wishing prayers, constant wishing prayers.  My teachers have told me that time and again great Bodhisattvas have been born in India and Tibet and their practice was not that extensive.  They were not very educated in their practice; they were very simple people.  But they were known in their previous incarnation for the heart-felt wishing prayers that they made.  Because of the depth to which they desired to benefit beings, and through the force of their prayers alone, they were reborn in a form in which they could benefit a great many beings.  So those prayers are exquisite.

Wishing prayers are important.  They should be done in the morning and they should be done in the evening. They should be done every moment that you can be mindful of them.  Make fervent prayers in your mind and your heart that you will, in this lifetime, benefit many beings and end their suffering.  And that in all future lifetimes you will be reborn in a form in which you can benefit beings so that they might achieve enlightenment and have their suffering ended.  Make prayers to cultivate in yourself that mind of enlightenment and to cultivate in yourself the pure intention to achieve enlightenment in order to benefit beings. That is the aspirational Bodhicitta, or practice of compassion.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The Buddha’s Point of View

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

According to the Buddha’s teaching all sentient beings have experienced suffering and continue to suffer.  We have old age, sickness and death.  We don’t know what to do about them.  We get run over by cars and all kinds of crazy things happen to us on a regular basis. The Buddha teaches us the only way to end suffering is to achieve enlightenment.  Once we achieve enlightenment, the very root causes that produce suffering, the seeds of karma within our mind, are eradicated.

We want to achieve enlightenment in order to attain happiness for all beings.  That is the reason we enter the spiritual path and really pursue it in a determined fashion.  If we were to look past the level of our mind that is constantly developing new and wonderful concepts, we would find that there is a basic primordial natural state.  That natural state, free of conceptualization, that suchness, is the very fabric that is the mother of all phenomena, including your own self.  The natural primordial nature that cannot be described is your nature and it is everyone’s nature and it is the same nature; there is no point at which you can divide it.  When you divide it you start believing in self-nature or the ego structure. At that point, you are not experiencing the primordial state any longer.

The truth of the matter is, there is only that natural state.  It is free of conceptualization, it is self-luminous, it is all-embracing, it is pure, and it remains and will always be undefiled.  That is the natural state.  If we are all one in that way – if that is what truly exists – then it is not possible for us to be separate.  The Bodhisattva’s or the Buddha’s point of view is that I cannot achieve enlightenment without you.  I cannot.  Because that which I truly am is the same as you.  If I separate myself from you, I’ve missed the point somehow.  It is as important for all sentient beings to achieve enlightenment and to be free of suffering as it is for me and for you, individually, to accomplish that.

Thus the idea of compassion becomes more than an idea.  It becomes the basis or the foundation of enlightenment.  It becomes the only thing with meaning.  That being the case, we must think about the ways in which compassion or Bodhicitta are practiced.  There are two levels of Bodhicitta.  There is aspirational Bodhicitta or aspirational compassion, and there is practical compassion.

Aspirational Bodhicitta is just as it sounds.  It is the aspiring to compassion, or the wishing for compassionate activity.  You should not think that because it is only wishing it is not precious and valuable.  It is absolutely precious and valuable because it is the kind of contemplation that provides the basis or foundation on which you build your ability to practice practical compassion.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Mind of Compassion

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

What is it about compassion that is so important?  Why do you hear so much about it in the Buddha’s teaching?  From the Mahayana point of view there are two different kinds of compassion, or Bodhicitta. Bodhicitta actually means mind of enlightenment. The mind of compassion – the fully functional, fully awakened mind of compassion – is the same, and not different from, the mind of enlightenment.  You cannot achieve enlightenment without developing the mind of compassion.  You cannot achieve compassion – true compassion, selfless compassion – without moving ever closer to the mind of enlightenment.  Essentially they are the same.

In our language we have two different words for fully awakened compassion and enlightenment, but from the Buddhist perspective when you say Bodhicitta you mean compassion and you also mean enlightenment.  Due to the structure of our language, we actually separate the two.  Yet they cannot be separated.  Compassion and enlightenment can never be separated.  It’s impossible.  The reason why we seek to express the mind of compassion, and why we emphasize it, is to accomplish our own purpose and the purpose of others.  We want to achieve enlightenment.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The Practice of Loving

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

Compassion is a subject that should be of interest to everyone.  There isn’t one person that should consider themselves exempt from the practice of loving.  We know from our own lives, I’m sure, that the times we have been the happiest are the times that we have loved.  And the times that we have been the most useful are the times that we have been loving.

Compassion is one of the foundational teachings of Mahayana Buddhism, but it is more extensive than the kind of loving we find in our lives. From the Mahayana view, we should seek to love all sentient beings equally.  It is a very interesting point of view, because you would think it more natural to love your husband or your wife, your parents and your children, more than you would love others. Buddhists are taught to honor our parents and to maintain the integrity of family, to not have divorces and go from family to family.  Yet the Buddhist perspective is that all sentient beings are essentially equal, that their needs are equal and that all sentient beings equally desire happiness.  It is useful and beneficial to love everyone and to experience compassion for all beings equally.

We are taught the very reason we love certain people more than others is because in our minds we have the karma of attachment and aversion.  We have hope and fear within our minds, and these things are based on the belief in our own ego structure, the belief that self-nature is inherently real.  Our relationships with others are shadowed by that and take on the flavor of whatever particular energy suits our particular ego.  Because of our ego, we think that we love one person more than we love another.

If we existed somehow miraculously in an egoless state, we would find that all sentient beings are equal and the same nature.  They are that same primordial, natural suchness. Seeing each sentient being as that would help us understand that there is essentially no difference. We are all exactly the same, we all desire happiness and haven’t yet developed the skills to get that happiness.  We are all deserving of love and caring and nurturing and being taught the skills of happiness.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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