Teachers | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The Futility of Habits

September 11, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

If you create the habit of compassion and generosity, then that habitual tendency will stay with you, and in some future life it will affect your rebirth and your circumstances. There will be much more joy and happiness. When one engages truly on the Bodhisattva’s path, one goes beyond that superficial kind of view. One goes much deeper into the understanding of how to live one’s life. And so one’s morals and ethics and values are developed because of this Bodhisattva ideal. The Bodhisattva understands these teachings that the Buddha has taught— that all things are impermanent. The Bodhisattva understands that whatever material gain we can amass during the course of this life can only bring temporary happiness and, ultimately, if that’s all we do, it will bring suffering. So this is what the Bodhisattva studies and the Bodhisattva comes to the point of realizing that.

Then there is another kind of amazing logic that enters into the mind of the Bodhisattva. It becomes part of our life experience, and becomes the most profound law that we can live by. And that is this: Think about this body of ours, this body that we cherish and hold onto. We decorate it, we love it, we keep it safe. We make sure that it’s happy. We revolve much of our time and our effort around this body and its upkeep. And then we think about this ego, this ego that is our mind and our consciousness and our awareness of self. But even beyond that, the extended effort to maintain ego is part of the egocentric structure that we call “me.” We have developed our own habits and patterns over time in order to avoid the chaos of the idea that what we are as egocentric beings might change in any way, shape, manner or form. We put amazing effort into perpetuating ourselves and our needs, into reacting with either hope or fear towards every other thing, so that we can determine whether we want it or whether we want to move away from it. That kind of self-cherishing requires us to think of our own well-being and to look at other sentient beings as objects from which we can get what we need, like love, approval, romance, money, power, anything.

The Bodhisattva realizes these kinds of ideas and habits are futile. And this is the reason why: During the course of our lives we spend much of our time amassing, structuring, creating support for ourselves, for our ego, because we fear annihilation. Once you have the belief in self-nature as being inherently real, that self has to be supported and continued, because the idea is that if self-nature were to dismantle or not be the same, that somehow chaos would result. We have no knowledge of our true nature as being the primordial Buddha ground of being, no knowledge of that primordial wisdom nature that is our true nature. We rely on this idea that self-nature must be perpetuated.

How To Wake Up

September 9, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo given on Saga Dawa 2016

The great Bodhicitta permeates everything. It is our true nature. It is up to us to activate it in the same way in order to wake up the deities inside.

How do you do that? You practice the Bodhicitta. It doesn’t come naturally to most people. You have to practice it. A very new student that I had once came up to me and said, “I don’t have any Bodhicitta,” and I said, “Well, make some.” Practice. You have to practice. You have to understand that you are the same nature as the person that you may have bad feelings about. We are not different. We are intimately connected and we are actually in the same place. You appear to be over there when, in fact, you are in here. I appear to be up here when I am in your heart, too. There’s no reason for us to act as we do and make the world worse. There’s no reason for that because we are the same. The great Bodhicitta that emanated from seemingly nothing is empty, and yet it is the nature of everything. It is your seed nature. The Buddha seed that is within you is Bodhicitta. There’s no reason why any of you cannot accomplish the Dharma. You are the Dharma. We are all Dharma inside. We only have to wake it up. There’s nothing we can do to make Dharma appear where it is not. It has to be where it is, and it is within our minds and our hearts. The Bodhicitta first emerged, and then everything came from that. Everything. I’m seeing all the different forms in the world, and when I see them I know that they are not separate from me. They are not separate from you.

We have to learn that it’s different than what we see because the five senses are liars. They will deceive you. They tell us what our consciousness believes to be true, and our consciousness is born in samsara. The tools that we use to tell us definitely that this is five feet long, definitely this is that high, definitely this is definitely that, are lying to us. You can’t believe them. You have to believe what you see in your deepest nature and that’s comes through practice. It’s the only way you can see it. Sometimes I look at peoples’ bodies and I can see if they are sick or not, and where they are sick. I did that yesterday and I was 100% correct. I’m not bragging. It’s not like that. It’s that we all have this kind of vision if we practice. We all do. The root of it is Bodhicitta. That view, that understanding, is Bodhicitta. We have to doubt the tools that we use to learn things because they come from samsaric minds. The only things you can’t doubt are the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Their wisdom is what it is. Yes, they may have five senses too, but their five senses have been tamed and awakened. The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas see differently. We could do that too, but it takes a lot of contemplation and practice. You have to doubt your own eyes. If you could see with pure view, you would see dimensions sliding across and around each other. You could see how they are related to each other. You can see one person disappearing here and then reappearing in another dimension. Once the senses are purified, you can see that, but with ordinary senses we don’t really see, we just make up things. We have to tame our senses and bring them in harmony with Dharma so that they can awaken.

Contemplation is good. Don’t believe in what you see automatically, but look deeper. You can’t be so shallow in your practice. You have to understand it’s not what you’re seeing. I hope this makes some sense. Whatever deity you practice, he or she lives within you—every deity that you practice—and you live within him or her. This is why we practice the deities. To wake up.

Awakening the Deities Within

September 8, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Amitabha's Pureland

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo given on Saga Dawa 2016:

Would we ever be able to get to another galaxy? I don’t think so. Because we think the galaxy is far away and it’s not. It’s not. As long as we think it’s far away, we’ll never get there. If we look at a star and we think, ‘Oh, that’s a star over there’, we don’t understand that not only is the star within us, but we are within the star. There is nothing separate. Nothing. It’s very difficult to understand. When we try to understand it, we try to understand it with our ordinary minds, and we can’t. No matter how hard we try.

The ticket is we have to wake up in our practice and, in doing that, wake up the deities within. When that occurs, we’ll understand that we are not separate and that the different dimensions not only connect with each other, but they are within each other. That’s why sometimes I can see things from other dimensions, because they aren’t somewhere else. They are layered together. These dimensions are not only connecting, they are in the same place. Nothing is separate from you. It’s hard to learn that and hold that in our minds in a strong way. Instead we are not kind to each other. We think negatively, and things like that. In fact, we are the same nature. We are the same nature. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a car. Out of the corner of my other eye, I see the corner of a building. Then I don’t see it anymore. I’m not schizophrenic. This is just the way I see. I know that these are different dimensions, but they are in the same place. You can’t even say in the same place because that indicates that everything is solid, and it’s not.

What Are We?

September 7, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on Saga Dawa May 22, 2016:

I want to talk about the emanation of primordial wisdom: How it occurs, what is occurring. I want to talk about things that are not scholarly, but that I know with my own mind.

There’s neither emptiness nor fullness, and there are both. The primordial wisdom nature emanates from the emptiness nature. Bodhicitta is how it happens.

I would like to explain a couple of things: In your subtle body, there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and deities in union, all over your body, everywhere. Inside, that is what you are. It’s hard to understand because we can’t see it that way, but our nature is pure luminosity. On one hand, we have all these deities within us, and they are either asleep or awake. If you don’t practice, they are asleep. If you accomplish some practice, they are awake. That’s what brings you closer to enlightenment. On the other hand, we are also within the bodies of the deities. It goes both ways. If we see, for instance, Mother Tara in a picture, it looks like Mother Tara is out there, that she’s someplace else. In fact, She is in you and you are in Her. It’s like that with any of the deities that you see. They are in you and you are in them. There’s no space between any of us.

Have you seen some of the new science programs on TV where they show that dimensions are really in the same place? Well, it’s true. There is no difference. It seems now we are separate from each other, but in fact we are not. It seems that the deities are separate from us, but, in fact, they never are. It is up to us to wake up and study that, contemplate that, and see it carefully.

Where are the stars and the suns that we see in the sky? Where are they? Will we ever get to them? I know we’ve already gotten to Mars, and we’ve sent some rockets and things to different planets and meteors and comets. We’ve sent all kinds of things and they have evidently landed somewhere. That’s really interesting, but these planets and things that we look at in the sky are not separate from us either, nor are we separate from them. They are in us and we are in them. It’s all the same. It’s important to understand that because these eyes, these five senses, are flawed. They tell us what our samsaric mind tells us. They report what they see and we interpret it; but it’s not correct because here we are looking separate from each other.

When we study, we need to understand that nothing is separate from us, and we are not separate from any of the deities, any of the beings, that we study. It’s all one whole, but it is not solid. It’s empty. In fact, it looks like there couldn’t possibly be any more room. It looks like we have no space, and then we do have space. It goes both ways. Sometimes I can see this myself. I see dimensions hit each other. If we had the understanding, if we had recognition, there’s no reason why we couldn’t put our hands and our beings into another dimension, the way the great masters do, and come to know the different celestial palaces and different worlds as being the same as us.

Impermanence

September 6, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

If you think about the food that we eat, you think, oh well, once you’ve eaten the food, it’s part of you and it’s nourishing. You forgot the rest of the story. Don’t you remember what happens to food after a few hours? Food changes. When you eat big chocolate cake… Or what would you like to eat? Let’s see, what are we having today? I would like to have chocolate mousse. How about that? So I’m going to eat my chocolate mousse and “yum yum yum” it’s so good. And you think, “Oh this chocolate mousse is really spectacular! I don’t have to share it with anybody. There’s nobody in the room, and I can eat the whole mousse myself. Well, chocolate mousse! I can eat the whole chocolate mousse myself and don’t have to share it with anybody. Nobody is looking, I can even lick that [bowl]., You know, I can really enjoy this and I don’t have to give it away. And once I eat it, it is mine! No one can demand it back. Except that, after a few hours it seems to exit the body. And before it does, it creates some minor distresses on the way down. That delicious experience with one’s food, even assuming the food was not chocolate mousse , but something nourishing from which you might receive benefit and energy, ultimately is impermanent. Even the condition of taking in nourishment is impermanent because, after having taken in nourishment, then even the most delicious food results in waste. And what is good in the food we use to make energy and the energy is expended.

So everything that we know and understand in our life experience is changing. You are not the same person that you were seven years ago. Everything about you has changed. Literally the cells in your body have changed and been reborn with very few exceptions. There are some cells in the human body that do not change that quickly, but the majority of cells change every seven years. Quite remarkable! It’s really interesting to wonder, to ask ourselves, why is it then that we maintain physical scars from when you’re younger? Isn’t that odd? I mean, if we constantly create new cells and they are changed every seven years, what’s that [scar] doing there? I fell on a piece of glass and wire when I was a little girl playing in a vacant lot and cut my arm right there. Why is that still there? I was a little girl when it happened. I’ve changed many times over. It’s because we do not understand impermanence.

Can You Take It With You?

September 4, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Our consciousness sees everything as being solid. And it’s so odd, isn’t it, because seven years ago we were completely different. If you think about what you looked like ten years ago, twenty years ago… Don’t take my word for it, bring out the pictures. You look completely different. I look completely different. I’m sure you do also. So even though we have a sense of self-nature being inherently real and solid and very permanent, still we are this very impermanent condition that thinks of itself only in a certain regard. But when we first meet with the path we are taught that all things are impermanent and we are led to a study of that.

The study should look like this. We understand in this way: When we are born, we are born drawing on the karma of our previous existences, and that scenario is catalyzed by the environment around us. Whatever karmic potentials are within our mindstream are then ripened and matured and brought forward due to certain catalytic events in our environment. Then beyond that, we continue to habituate ourselves. We have certain propensities due to our karmic flavor, if you will. These certain propensities look like habitual tendencies and they are, in fact, habitual tendencies. One person may have a great habit toward generosity and look for ways to engineer their life going on the track of generosity, compassion. Another person may have the habit of self-absorption and angerand regard only their own feelings, not taking into account the feelings of others in the environment, being very self-absorbed and wishing that others would help them, would be of benefit to them. That kind of selfishness becomes, then, a deep habit and very difficult to break. So another person may have that kind of habit.

Unfortunately there are sentient beings with many different kinds of karma. One may have had the habit pattern through many lifetimes of creating this habitual tendency of harming others, or hurting others, or killing others. The kinds of animals that are, by their type, predators, are actually beings who have within them the habitual tendency of killing, and they manifest as predators due to that habitual tendency. So we come in with certain kinds of habits, and then we tend to reinforce them throughout the course of our lives.

According to this teaching that the Buddha has given us about impermanence, we understand that there is nothing, not one thing, that we can accomplish or accumulate during the course of our lifetime that we can take with us at the time of our death. Meaning this: Let’s say that we accumulate a great deal of money. Let’s say that in the past we have been very generous to others and so we have the karma of being able to manifest money fairly easily. Many people do. It’s that simple. It’s due to having been generous in the past. This element of money coming into one’s life is like greased lightning. It just really comes in very easily.

So, if that’s the case, then let’s say during this lifetime we spend a great deal of time making a lot of money and yet, even though we had the habit of being very generous in the past, somehow the impact of receiving so much money in this lifetime is a shock.. It reminds me of the story about the man who is making lots of money with computers these days. He came from nowhere, Mr. Computer Geek, and then suddenly he’s a multi-billionaire. It seems, from everything that I have read about him, that he is shocked and he just doesn’t get it. To have several billion dollars that you can get your hands on if you really need to, and then to think that you need to make more before you can be generous is really an unusual way to think. I mean how many billions can you spend in one lifetime?

So for somebody like that, obviously he was very kind and generous in the past, but here he has been hit with this amazing shock of money just flying into his pocket. Now he is in danger of making the mistake of spending his energy and his opportunity increasing that money without increasing the generosity, and therefore in the future he will not have the same results, because none of that money that he’s making now is going to go with him. This is the Buddha’s teaching, that we cannot take even one sesame seed’s worth of our accumulated wealth with us when we go into the bardo.

But, according to the Buddha’s teachings also, supposing we were to make the choice of being extraordinarily generous and using our wealth to make the world a better place, to benefit others, to support others who are in need, that sort of thing. Then we can take this habitual tendency of generosity, this karmic potential,. with us into the next life by virtue of the fact that we have given so much to others and been so kind and generous, because it isn’t measurable like a sesame seed. It is the karma of one’s mindstream. It is the habitual tendency of our consciousness, and that does go into the next life. These are the Buddha’s teachings: We actually have the opportunity to create benefit in this life that does last into the next life; but it’s nothing material, nothing that we can ever create in samsara, that will go with us. Nothing that has weight, size, dimension. Nothing we can hold. Nothing material. Only the habits of our mind. So these are the teachings that we receive when we first come to Dharma.

Awareness of Change

September 3, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

One of the main thoughts that one hears when one begins to turn the mind toward Dharma is the idea of impermanence. Now when we hear that all things are impermanent, we take this just as it sounds. We know from our own experience that all things are impermanent, or at least we know that roughly. We know that if we buy ourselves a quart of milk that the quart of milk will either sour or be used up. We know that if we buy a car or a color TV or something like that, that eventually the car or the color TV will break down. Then we’ll have to buy another one and go through the entire process again. We also know that what is young becomes old, much to our dismay, and that no matter what we do, what we do only works temporarily—what was young becomes old. We also learn that what is high will become low; what is low will become high. What is brought together will separate; what is separate will be brought together again. These aspects of the idea of impermanence we don’t really hold to; we don’t really understand very well. We try to have a more superficial view of impermanence because the idea is painful. It’s not our favorite concept.

When the Buddha taught us about impermanence, he taught us about impermanence as a way to understand the faults of samsara, and as a way to understand how suffering is all-pervasive. Again, as human beings, we like to ignore the idea of suffering. Of course, when we are suffering and we can feel it very deeply, it’s pretty hard to ignore, but when we are feeling pretty and feeling comfortable, the idea of suffering becomes sort of distant and cloudy. When we feel up, in a way, we have mixed feelings. We feel as though it’s always going to be this way and life is pretty good. But then, by the same token, we’re afraid to feel too up, because we know if we feel too up we’re going to have too far to fall. It’s odd. We have this neurotic capacity for seeing the truth, and yet using it against ourselves or hiding it from ourselves. It’s like we know, but we close our eyes because we don’t want to know.

So this particular suffering of samsara becomes to us somewhat hidden; and actually the hiding of this particular truth leads us to many disappointments. For instance, in the case let’s say, of meeting someone that you love very much, meeting a loved one and coming together with that loved one in some capacity. Perhaps if it is a romantic relationship, and there is a coming together in marriage or something of that nature. If it is the coming together of a parent and child such as in the birth of a child, then the parent sees the child and the child sees the parent. The parent, being the elder, has the capacity to perhaps recognize something very familiar about that child, or to feel that this isn’t a new acquaintance, that there is a deep and profound connectionwith this child.

Sometimes people will meet each other in a very casual way and will become instant allies and best friends. I know that’s happened to each one of us at some point in our lives. It certainly has happened to me. You meet someone and suddenly this person becomes your ally, your friend, someone who is really a helper to you and who understands; and it feels as though you have been friends for a very long time.

So in each of these cases, when we have these wonderful meetings that bring us so much joy, at that point we like very much to forget that that joy is impermanent. Yet, everything we know and everything we’ve seen teaches us and leads us to believe that everything is impermanent. We have seen that even in the case of romantic relationships that result in marriage. Should that marriage go really well, then ultimately the bond will be separated through death. And we know that in the case of parents and child, no matter how close the parent and child are when they are younger, the relationship will evolve and change. In some cases the relationship becomes very distant, unfortunately. In other cases where that does not occur, then even when the relationship between parent and child stays loving and has mutual concern in it, still eventually one will leave the other. There will be the separation of death. The separation of death always happens. Even within that experience of togetherness, there is so much change that you can literally say that two people who married in their twenties are not the same people that are together in their sixties and seventies. They look completely different. There are worlds of difference between a twenty-five year old and a sixty year old. There is a vast amount of experiential living and maturity that has occurred. That person at twenty is quite different when they reach sixty, very different.

I remember being in my twenties, and where I was and where I wasn’t. And I know that I am not the same as I was. I know that many of my understandings, beliefs, habits, even values have matured and changed. So it is impossible to think that we will remain in the same comfortable, stagnant condition for the rest of our lives, let alone the fact that we are all separated by death.

Extraordinary Relationship

September 1, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Neurotic Interaction to Guru Yoga”

If we rely purely on an emotional level, not much will come of the path. If we do not challenge ourselves to truly understand all of the thoughts that turn the mind (and you’ve been taught them many, many times. You can go back and re-listen to the teachings if you aren’t sure what they are), if we do not require of ourselves to really recognize this precious opportunity, we won’t get very far. And now the recognition has to go even deeper than that. Number one, understanding that the teacher is a spiritual ally, a spiritual friend—someone on whom you can depend as a spiritual guide or a spiritual friend—is a really important first realization. Secondarily, you must understand that this reality that you are looking at when you see your teacher, when you see the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, is to be considered separate from ordinary samsaric cause and effect conditions, or separate from the wheel of death and rebirth, because this is all the result of the Buddha’s teaching which arises from the mind of enlightenment and, like a seed, it must always create a fruit that is appropriate to that seed. So if this reality rises from the mind of enlightenment, it results in enlightenment as well. The seed and the fruit are always consistent.

That being the case, this is understood as something different. Now, if you wish you can, like that Tibetan man with His Holiness Penor Rinpoche regarding his opinion on my enthronement (this student did not agree with His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s recognition of Jetsunma) waste the opportunity by just playing out your little intellectual ‘here’s my idea, what’s your idea. I’ll see you as something equal to my common ordinary intellectual mind in the world. You know, I’ll see you as that.’ Or you can play the game where “O.K., you’re the Guru, so I’m going to call you the real thing, but in my heart, in my mind, I’m pretty much just going to keep doing exactly what I’m doing, but I’ll have a teacher,” rather than gathering oneself together in order to understand something about this primordial wisdom nature, rather than trying to move further on the path of accomplishing pure view, rather than utilizing the teacher as a way to untangle some of our neuroses and actually seeing the condition of our mind and how different that is from what the Buddha described when the Buddha said simply, “I am awake.” The Buddha didn’t say, “I’m different from you.” The Buddha didn’t say “I am better than you.” The Buddha said “I am awake.” Awake to that nature that is also your nature.

Now supposing that you could use the relationship with the teacher to puzzle that out, to work that out. It’s such a fine line how to you give rise to or at least, shall I say not suppress, not give rise to, conflicting thoughts that you may have. How can you not suppress them and still utilize the teacher faithfully in the best possible way? Not as something common and ordinary that is equal to your own conceptual proliferation because then you could do that with anything. We do that with all of our relationships. We do that with all of the areas in life that we work with. We have preconceived ideas that we play out in our lives. Why would the teacher be different then? Why would it be precious? What’s the value then of having a teacher?

So it becomes the student’s responsibility to harness their mind. It isn’t about going brain dead. It isn’t about suppressing your ideas and your thoughts and your feelings. It’s about recognition between what is ordinary, habitual, definitely part of birth and death cyclic existence, that which arises from ordinary cyclic existence, and always therefore results in more ordinary cyclic existence, or that which arises from the precious primordial awakened state that is also your nature, and therefore always results in that precious primordial state that is also your nature—enlightenment. You are the one that must make the distinction.

So the Buddha recommends this: Take a long time determining your relationship with your teacher. If at first you have an emotional reaction, that’s fine. You don’t just suppress that either, but don’t stop there. It’s a big mistake just to stop there, because otherwise you just stay in some kind of wacko bliss thing. You could get that wacko over a cute little puppy or something, or a new car, or a new honey. You gets lots more wacko about a new honey, don’t you? Way more wacko about that! So your responsibility then becomes the responsibility of recognition. You have determined that this teacher has the necessary qualities to give you what you need. You can travel on the path now. You can understand very clearly. The teacher has a way of explaining to you and you can understand. You can hear it. You mind is opening. It is ripening. It’s deepening. Your compassion is increasing. Something is happening here and you are able to determine that this is not ordinary because this didn’t come from ordinary experience.

You’re travelling the path of Dharma and this is precious. This teacher has hooked you onto the path of Dharma, placed your feet there, deepened and ripened your mind, provided for you all of the necessary accoutrements. Therefore this is precious. You then must determine that this is different for you. You see, it’s not up to the teacher to provide proof for you. It’s not up to the teacher to convince you. It’s up to you to determine for yourself. Take your time, do it right, move through all the foundational teachings and decide for yourself: Is this precious to me? Then if it is, treat it like it is.

Responsibility Begins With Recognition

August 31, 2016 by anisonam

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Neurotic Interaction to Guru Yoga”

Responsibility begins with recognition. Simply that. Recognition. There are some fundamental truths that must be recognized here in order to stop the game of projecting your own neuroses onto yet another external object. Because that is not the practice of Dharma. That is not going to lead you to liberation. That will continue to lead you to more and more neuroses. So you must play the game correctly. The first thing that happens is recognition. It begins with the recognition of the fundamental foundational truth that we call turning the mind toward Dharma—the faults of cyclic existence, cause and effect relationships, impermanence, these kinds of thoughts, and then the realization that in all the six realms of cyclic existence there is suffering. Then the recognition that there is the appearance of the Buddha, which brings the element of enlightenment and supreme realization and the visage or face of our own primordial wisdom nature, and puts that into the world. That’s the Buddha, the Dharma, which is the Buddha’s method, inseparable from the Buddha like the rays are inseparable from the sun, and the result, which is enlightenment, also inseparable from the Buddha. You begin to recognize that this has in fact happened.

In the world there is the Buddha. There is the Dharma. There is the Sangha, and there is the Lama as the condensed essence of all three. That recognition alone puts you into position where you have to choose between continuing in samsara and neurotic redundancy which is what samsara really is. Isn’t that a great term? Neurotic redundancy. Don’t you just love that? Neurotic redundancy,.Or you can choose Buddha, and Dharma, and Sangha—this three-legged stool, or chariot we should say, by which we travel through the door of liberation into enlightenment, into realization, the precious awakened state that the Buddha named.

So we’re in a position now where we make that choice. That choice is based on this recognition. You can’t make that choice on an emotional level. Big mistake! And some people try to do that. They come to the temple and they say, “I like this stuff! It’s all weird. I like the colors. I like the shape. I like the material over there. Look how they built that up there. Isn’t that cute? Those books… You know, I like that they don’t turn this way. I like that they turn this way. It’s so exotic. I think it’s really cool, don’t you? And then all the statues and crystals! Look at this! This is really cool to be with the crystals!” Really I’m describing a silly mindstate, but many students, when they first begin, will come here and say, “Oh this stuff is so cool. I really want to do this. O.K., you’re my teacher.” So on that emotional level, really not much has happened. Or they might come in and have an emotional reaction. I’ve seen that happen too.

In fact, this is another story that you’ll be amazed at. This is an amazing story. A woman once walked into the bookstore. I happened to be there, checking out the earrings as usual! So I was in the bookstore and she turned around. She got immediately who I was. She had never been around Dharma before, knew nothing about Dharma, knew nothing about anything like that and she just was entranced. She was transfixed. She looked at me and then she did three perfect prostrations. Then when she got up she said “I don’t know what that is. I don’t know what I just did.” No idea what happened there, no idea. And then I never saw her again. And she was crying, crying, just like “My teacher. My teacher at last! My teacher!” Crying. Big emotional thing, and I never saw her again.

What happened there was unfortunate. I would call that an obstacle to her practice. She obviously had enough inner purity to remember a former relationship with her teacher. Something bled through and yet the obstacle was that she could only, in that moment of meeting, relate on a purely emotional level. She could not lay down the foundation. She could not make any connecting thought. Really, as beautiful as that story is, it broke my heart that she never came back. It really did. I love you all, but I have to tell you I have many stories about the ones that got away! You see, she could have been very close to me and it broke my heart that she didn’t come back. But what you’re seeing there is just purely an obstacle. She was only able to relate on this emotional level, and really, it’s not that much different from what you see your dog do when your dog barks to go out or sits there looking at the door. It is an immediate emotional hit that you’re just overwhelmed with. It’s not that different from what animals do. But animals can’t practice Dharma, because what’s needed here is to make these connecting thoughts, these cause and effect thoughts, by creating the kinds of awareness and thinking that causes you to move into a deeper level on the path, and causes you to get the lay of the land, to really get what’s going on here.

This is what’s necessary. She was not able to, at that time, to think of the faults of cyclic existence, to think of impermanence and that this opportunity might not come again. She was not able to think “Now that I’ve found my teacher, I have found a way to travel the path of Dharma and pass through the door of liberation.” Just not able to think like that. This is a big obstacle that arose in her path at the same time as the blessing of meeting with her teacher again. So this is the difficulty that we all have, but now we are here and we are in a learning and teaching situation. We’re in a situation where we have time to think. We have the leisure to think. We have the ability to put two and two together, and this is how we have to approach the path. This is how we have to do this.

The Seven Branch Offering: Commentary by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

August 30, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The Seven Branch Offering

The following commentary was extracted from a teaching given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche at Kunzang Palyul Choling in 2001 on the occasion of offering the Bodhisattva Vow. To see the verses of the ceremony for the Bodhisattva Vow to which His Holiness was referring you can click here.

From Words of My Perfect Teacher:

The Vajrayana path includes many methods and is without great hardships. It is intended for those with sharp faculties. If we constantly train ourselves to accumulate merit and wisdom with a strong mind, everything that would otherwise take a whole great kalpa to accumulate through the six paramitas can be accomplished in an instant, and liberation can be attained in a single lifetime.

There can be no doubt that the single most excellent, secret and insurpassable field of merit is the vajra master. This is why the practice of accumulating merit is combined with the Guru Yoga. The seven parts of the Offering of the Seven Branches include all the innumerable methods for accumulation of merit and wisdom.

Prostrations:

The branch of prostrations is a remedy for arrogance. Sometimes we have arrogance; we feel we are more qualified then the masters and teachers. So, this is a remedy to remove the arrogance.

Offering:

After the prostrations to the Buddhas, bodhisattvas and all disciples, you now have to make offerings to them.. Imagine all the things in the universe as an offering, which is a very good offering. All the offerings will be the sacred flowers and the sacred garlands and musical instruments, perfumes, superior parasols, superior butter lamps, superior incense. All these things will be the offering. Just imagine you are offering them. So, this is the offering. This is the remedy for attachment to our belongings.

Confession:

Now comes purification of negative actions. We have to purify the negative actions by thinking negative actions are like poisons that are inside your stomach. Also, you make a commitment that you will not do those mistakes or bad negative actions again. Also, you think that in order to purify all the negative actions that are in this world that are done by other sentient beings, I am doing these purification prayers. This is the remedy for removing anger.

Rejoicing:

We have to rejoice in the accumulations of merits done by other beings. This is the antidote for jealousy. Sometimes we feel jealous of other beings that practice. In order to remove the jealousy, we have to rejoice in whatever practice they are doing. This is the remedy for that action.

Requesting Enlightened Beings to Teach:

The next stanza is requesting the enlightened beings to teach. We request them to teach because sometimes when they come here for the purpose of teachings, they feel kind of upset when they find the bad reactions of the people. So they feel upset and don’t want to teach. So we have to request them to teach. That is how we are requesting it.

This is the remedy for ignorance, thinking the teaching is nothing, thinking the teaching will not have any result. This chanting will remove the ignorance.

Enlightenment depends on the understanding of the teachings. Without teachings, there is no way of getting enlightened. But some people, those who don’t know, who aren’t in favor of the teachings, then they don’t really see the teaching as worthwhile. They criticize the teachings and those who do the teaching.

Requesting Enlightened Beings to Remain:

The reason why enlightened beings pass away is that they want to show human beings that enlightened beings are very real and they don’t last long if we are not very careful. So, we have to request them to remain as long as possible to turn the Wheel of the Dharma. This is the request to remain with a long life.

This is the remedy of wrong view of Buddhas. Some people think the Buddha is nothing, just a liar. So, they have a lot of wrong views of Buddhas. This way of chanting will remove the wrong view of Buddha.

Dedication:

The last one is a short form of all the seven branches of practice. It’s an offering. This is the dedication of the merit that you have accumulated. You have to dedicate all the merit accumulated by other beings to other beings. In order to get enlightened you have to dedicate the merit.

This is the remedy for doubt. Sometimes we have doubt whether it is true or not. This way of chanting will remove or clarify our doubt.