Teachers | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The Power of Prayer

September 8, 2012September 8, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Today I had the joy of hearing of a miracle.

A student woke up a few days ago unable to move left side of her body. Scan said she had a bran tumor the size of an orange. She prayed and did mantra constantly since, and sang the Seven Line Prayer during the biopsy. Today she woke up with 75 percent function returned. The tumor had shrunk to size of an acorn.

She gives credit to Chenrezic and Guru Rinpoche. She carries my photo and recites Seven Line Prayer and Mani Mantra loud and proud.

I say these are the Miracles of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. She will come here to make offerings and prayers and therefore I have great confidence in her life. She must, now, live a noble life.

No doctor has seen this before and they were still diagnosing. But an orange is as big as it is and an acorn is little and shrinking. #Miracle

PS: This is @HJGWoods on twitter

A New Wind

September 8, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo originally tweeted on April 21, 2011:

For the last two to three days I’ve felt a change in the wind. As some of you know I have taken time off to heal. In these last days I realize I have not worked so hard at it. But I’ve been reading about people who have had similar challenges and have broken through into better balance. And they seem happy and engaged. The stories of how their lives are remind me so much of my own, and their beginnings seem to be like mine. I feel very inspired by these courageous Tribal people, yet I also feel guilty, and disappointed in myself. I see that I have been waiting for something, someone to heal and re-inspire me, unconsciously. For this I am ashamed, for I myself have allowed my mind to fall into a disempowered state. The last three to four years have been devastating and I’ve let myself down by letting them take my confidence, courage, hope. I see that I have begun to feel that I cannot help others, have no strength to do so. I have allowed fear to rule my life. And I’ve been keeping this to myself, just waiting for the cure. How ridiculous! There is healing all around. But I did not reach for it, I just let others decide if I was worth anything or not. For some reason my mind is like a mirror, I absorb what others tell/show me about myself. When with my Lineage and teacher I feel good. But around gossip and hurt, negativity, being put down constantly by ordinary view – it just knocks me to the ground.

I have, as you know, also been greatly concerned with the condition of our Earth Mother, and the rampant poisoning of her precious body. So I call out night and day for her relief from suffering, and for all her children. But have not done one thing to help myself. Therefore I’ve let not only myself, but all creation down. I am deeply ashamed. I am working now to see what can be done for me.

Since my guru Kyabje His Holiness Penor Rinpoche found and recognized me, and well before, I saw how much people were suffering, mostly spiritually. So even as a teenager I tried to help others. And others were drawn naturally to come to me. After the recognition I understood why and took off with my feet already running. That was, sadly late in life, I was a mother, etc, so I could not just run off to India, although I did go to be taught, and many teachers have come to teach me Buddha Dharma. I never learned how to nurture myself. So when others knock me down I have a hard time getting back up. Maybe because of my ugly childhood, but I only blame myself.

I worry about others, and must help in my intended way. I am seeing that we are connected to Earth and it matters very much that we take care of ourselves and each other. We think the Japanese radiation is ruining Earth or maybe pollution, so many things are happening. But here is the truth: we live in and on the Earth, our Mother and the Earth also lives within us! As do the Sun, Moon, Stars, all elements! We live within each other, and are one human family. So how can Japan’s problems happen? War? Pollution? Because we feel separate from it all and each other. We even become separated from our own minds and hearts. A shame we were taught badly by teachers with nothing but ordinary view, but we have. Thus we must seek connection, wisdom and truth. I’m going to use what I have been given, and seek more. I must lead myself out of this sorrow, and keep on learning and growing. Oh, true, I’ve built the Temple, a bunch of powerful Stupas, taught a lot. But I’m not dead yet, so I cannot let fear rule. It is compassion, responsibility, connection I must go to, to pacify this hard time. How? I don’t know yet. But there is a change in the wind, I feel it, hear it, smell it and feel I can trust it. Come with me, we all need to learn, search, pray, and love. Because a new wind is coming. And I feel it. Kye HO!

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SO HA!

OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG!

A True Dakini

September 6, 2012 by Holly

1053875117_GmHds-S — HH Kusum Lingpa and Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

On May 3, 1994 His Holiness Kusum Lingpa gave this commentary on the Long Life Prayer for Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo that he wrote for her.

I wrote this longevity prayer on the day that I arrived here. The first human rebirth of Ahkon Lhamo occurred some 300-400 years ago in Degii, which is the eastern country of Kham. She was born as the sister of the Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab who was the founder of the Palyul lineage. And her name was Ahkon Chang Chub Lhamo. She was a true Dakini. At that time in her life she didn’t have a lot of wealth or a lot of ordained sangha followers per se in a monastic type of situation, but she was a great practitioner and she had tens of thousands of disciples. She was able to spread forth the doctrine in an amazing way. Previously, she was Mandarava, Lamchen Mandarava, who was the Indian consort of Guru Padmasambhava. Mandarava was well known of the 21 Taras to be the emanation of White Tara and Drolma Karmo.

Now she has once again arisen from the sphere of the Three Kayas and the name that I have mentioned for her is also her name in this lifetime, Lhamo Metog Dron, which appears throughout this prayer. She has come to you as a true guide and object of your devotion to lead you on the path to liberation so you should always have strong faith and devotion in her and receive her spiritual instructions.

She is one who is destined to work for the doctrine and the purpose of sentient beings and won’t have a lot of time for retreat or extensive accomplishment practices, because her commitment is to spread forth the doctrine and work for sentient beings directly through activities in the same way as leaders like His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who always shows the amazing example of someone who is solely concerned for the purpose of benefiting all people of all nations in the world, but of course primarily as his responsibility, he is the spiritual and secular leader of all of the six million Tibetan people.

The Dalai Lama himself is always circling the globe in pursuit of bringing the message of freedom and peace of mind to all beings, so he is a supreme example of someone who untiringly and unceasingly works for the benefit of parent sentient beings and the doctrine through his activities.

Similarly, His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche has undergone incredible hardships and difficulties to establish the doctrine in India and in Western countries. He has thousands of ordained sangha members surrounding him and is the upholder of the supreme Nyingma School at this time, a great example of someone who unceasingly works to spread the doctrine and benefit beings in this world.

Similarly, the great Dodrupchen Rinpoche who is one of the great masters of all time, an emanation of Guru Rinpoche, has thousands of monk followers and is someone who supports all of his sangha, even right down to giving them the food that they eat. And so, he has had to take it on as his own responsibility to support all of those who have chosen the path of renunciation and who wear the golden robes of the ordained sangha.

Now, for myself, even though I also do have a fairly large institution, I myself really don’t even eat food that is that good and I always try to give better food to my community. I consider myself to be a servant of sentient beings. I try not to stay in a high place with a lot of elaborations.

In fact, the way to be of the greatest benefit to others is to personally remain low and humble. This is the way that the Dakini always remains as well. And so, I would like to make it the first priority of Dakini Ahkon Lhamo and the sangha to always honor the sovereign of your Buddha family, His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche until the time of your death. He is truly your leader and your root teacher, the head of your lineage. There is nothing else that you need to do. There is no other place that you need to go other than to be right here to propagate the doctrine that he has so securely established here. If it were I, I certainly would be 100 percent satisfied to be under the guidance of such a great realized being.

In terms of this Palyul lineage, since Ahkon Lhamo herself is the reincarnated sister of the founder of the Palyul tradition, Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab, then clearly this is your own spiritual tradition. Except for Palyul, it is not so important to pursue other traditions because primarily you should be propagating the Palyul tradition. It should certainly never, ever be forgotten. Ahkon Lhamo must continue to propagate it and never forget it, even at the cost of her life.

And so, primarily then, Pema Norbu Rinpoche is your sovereign, your supreme root teacher, whom you should always honor above and beyond all else and you should always uphold the Palyul lineage and doctrine and see that it is propagated in this Western land. All of you disciples should take care of your precious teacher and she will always take care of you in assisting one another to accomplish these goals in this land.

His Holiness Kusum Lingpa and Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo wearing Green and White Terton Robes

Places of Enlightenment: The Sacred Geography of Yolmo and Maratika

August 29, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Compassionate Action” by Chatral Rinpoche:

The Buddhism of Tibet was formed in a landscape of intense beauty and splendor. It is no wonder, then, that the physical environment became a support for internal spiritual development. This is most evident in the tradition of Dzogchen, where gazing into the sky has long been used to facilitate experiencing the vast and luminous nature of mind and meditation retreat in remote mountainous areas is emphasized.

More than one thousand years ago, Guru Padmasambhava recognized that certain areas of the Himalayan region were highly conducive to realization. He practiced extensively at some of these places, such as the Maratika cave in eastern Nepal, where he attained immortality by accomplishing the realization of Amitayus — the buddha of infinite life. He discovered others while traveling to Tibet, and wrote about them in his hidden terma texts to encourage future devotees to practice at these powerful places, such as Yolmo in northern Nepal.

The Yolmo Valley has many different aspects that are beneficial to practitioners. Ian Baker writes:

…Chatral Rinpoche said that specific [places] in Yolmo are conducive to particular kinds of practice. Places with water falls inspire reflection on impermanence. Places with steep cliffs where the rocks are dark and jagged are good for meditating on wrathful deities. Places with rolling hills and flowering meadows support meditation on peaceful deities….Chatral Rinpoche clarified that the beyul [hidden lands] that Padmasambhava established in Tibet are not literal arcades, but paradises for Buddhist practice, with multiple dimensions corresponding to increasingly subtle levels of perception. Beyond Yolmo’s visible terrain of mountains, streams, and forests, he said, lies an inner level, corresponding to the flow of intangible energies in the physical body. Deeper still, the subtle elements animating the environment merge with the elements present within the practitioner — the secret level. Finally, at the beyul’s innermost level — yangsang — lies a paradisiacal, or unitary dimension revealed through an auspicious conjunction of person, place, and time….Chatral Rinpoche contended that yangsang is not merely a metaphor for the enlightened state, but an ever-present, if hidden, reality.

Chatral Rinpoche has been guiding disciples in Yolmo for several decades, many whom engage in the traditional three-year, three-month retreat. Rinpoche wrote the following poem about Yolmo:

The mountains rise like spiked weapons towards the sun.
The mountains that lie in shadow spread like flames.
In this snow-encircled. broad sandy plain,
Padmasambhava and an assembly of realized beings,
Thinking of those in later generations,
Hid innumerable profound Dharma treasures.

All around an in every place, fragrances fill the air,
Plantains and other edible plants
Bloom in abundance without being sown,
Amiable birds, waterfowl, and wood pigeons
Empty the mind of weariness.
Inner understanding and virtues naturally increase,
Benefitting the activity of path, view, and meditation.

For the practitioner of rushen and chid
There is no better place than this!
This strife-free hidden-land of Padmasambhava
Is no different than the eight great charnel grounds of India.
Surrounded by moats of water and walls of earth and rock,
Graced perpetually by clouds, mist, and rain,
[The valley] is naturally sealed [from the outer world],
If from among hundreds there are a few
Endeavoring to practice Dharma from their hearts,
I say, “Come to this place for the attainment of Buddhahood in this life!”
Practitioners of inner yogas remove obscuring conditions here.
May there be spontaneous and auspicious benefit for oneself and others.

The Maratika cave is one of the most sacred sites in the world to devotees of Padmasambhava, for it is here that he achieved immortality while accomplishing Amitayus practices with his consort Mandarava. It is the power place that those in Chatral Rinpoche’s tradition go when engaging in longevity practices. Perhaps Chatral Rinpoche’s own longevity (being healthy and active in his 90s) is a result of the time he spent practicing in Maratika.

Rinpoche wrote “The Melodious Tambura of Joy” as a guide for those who are unfamiliar with the Maratika cave and who might one day have the opportunity to practice at this powerful place.

The Melodious Tambura of Joy

A Guide to the Supreme Holy Place of Immortal Life,

the Rocky Cave of Maratika

Homage to the guru, yidam and dakinis!
To the essence of all appearances, Padma Amitayus,
To the embodiment of emptiness, the great mother, clothed in white
To the three-root long-life deities, the mudra of non-duality,
I bow down with devotion and beseech you to bestow the empowerment of immortal life.

North of Bodhgaya–the center of the universe–within a rocky mountain covered with trees and bushes, is the widely renowned wondrous holy place called Haleshi, which I will now describe, so listen for a moment with joy.

Outwardly, it is the blissful play of Shiva and Umadevi. Inwardly, it is the palace of Chakrasamvara. Secretly, it is the celestial mansion of deities of immortal life and most secretly, it is the Pureland of Great Bliss, the absolute realm of Akanishta.

In the past, when the Vidhyadhara Pema Thödrengtsal and his enchanting divine consort Mandarava engaged in the secret practice of directly entering [the mandala] at this place, the empowerment of immortal life was bestowed upon them by Amitayus, the buddha of infinite life. Attaining the body that is without birth or death, decrepitude or disintegration, Guru Rinpoche even now dwells in the southwest, subduing rakshas, continuously sending forth emanation after emanation in whatever way necessary to benefit beings in cyclic existence.

Later, from between the eyes of Songtsen Gampo–who was Avalokiteshvara in person–the noble monk Akarma was emanated. When the noble monk Akarma was erecting a statue of the eleven-headed Avalokiteshvara in Jokhang, he went in search of special substances to make it with and relics to put inside. He miraculously arrived at Maratika and at that time saw the faces of many deities. He called it the Practice Cave “Mandala of Glorious Qualities” and uttered many other praises. This provides the source and proof of Maratika’s greatness.

When the heretical teacher Shankaracharya caused much harm to the Buddhist doctrine in India and Nepal, many old sacred sites and holy objects were destroyed, scattered and lost. After that, all his followers took them over as places to worship Shiva.

At the present time, people make special offerings of bell and cymbal music, tridents, one hundred or one thousand butter lamps, incense, flowers, and the three white offerings. But not one person offers live sacrifice or red offerings. Their pujas, performed with the slow and fast playing of drums, cymbals, white conches, and many types of instruments of the blowing and twirling variety, cause the sounds of ur-ur, chem-chem, and so forth to resound in the cave.

They continuously make offering and praises to Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, and other worldly deities. Adhering to their ancient traditions, they differentiate between superior and inferior castes from brahmin to butcher, and there are those who are allowed and those who are not allowed to enter the cave. Some of the inferior castes may only sit at the entrance of the cave.

Especially during the tenth of the month, the waxing and waning stages of the moon and other excellent days, I have seen brahmin priests inside the cave with mandalas of colored sand and huge fire ceremonies.

As all individuals have their own perception, it is not right to harbor wrong views and speak maligning words. One should maintain pure vision, rejoice, and give praise–thus making a good connection. To slander other people or their deities is the basis for misfortune.

To arouse interest and develop faith in outsiders–Buddhists and ordinary people–and to dispel arguments about this holy place at the same time, I began an explanation of the history of Maratika.

EMA! Having mentioned some of the qualities of this holy place, which are clearly evident even to ordinary people, there can hardly be room for disagreement. In addition, it is said in the commentaries, with good reason, that even the words of a child–if authentic and well-spoken–should suffice in describing such a place.

On seeing this place, boundless wonder arises. Through merely hearing the name, the seed of liberation is planted. By recalling it, accidental death is prevented. Through making prostrations, circumambulations and offerings, great accumulation of merit is accomplished.

The sky around it forms a vast eight-spoked wheel. The ground is shaped like an eight-petalled lotus with the middle swelling up like the flower’s pistol. The landscape being wide and open, the sun remains for a long time and weather is temperate. In the front, a stream gushes forth. The center of the holy place is a huge self-existing assembly hall, high and spacious with room for one thousand people. There is a single skylight in the center shaped like a round wheel.

Outside, various shrubs and trees grow out of the craggy rocks. Inside the cave, innumerable images of statues, seed-syllables and hand implements of the peaceful and wrathful deities abound. The unique characteristic of this holy place is the many stone lingam (stalagmites) ranging in size from six feet to six inches. Naturally formed, they are white, smooth, shiny and resplendent.

During auspicious times, nectar collects like moist dew and drips down. There are many crevice-like holes through which one can test one’s positive or negative karma to see whether one is headed for a birth in the lower realms or to the higher realms and the path of liberation.

Below this holy place is a cave whose entrance faces to the southwest. The mouth of the cave is not so big, but once inside it opens up and is very wide and spacious, with enough room to fit a hundred people. There are many symbols of the body, speech and mind of the enlightened ones as well as hand and foot imprints, a white conch and many other self-arisen things. When those of fortunate karma arrive there, dew-like nectar seeps out. Straight above, unobstructed, is a high vaulted skylight, making it renowned as a training place for the practice of transferring one’s consciousness to a Pureland.

In the spacious expanse of the main cave are hosts of bats who you can’t see but who ceaselessly make the sound of the mantra of long life (one hears the sounds of tsey and bhrum).

For all tantric practitioners who have entered the path, it is a very good place for the practice of visualizing a luminous wheel of deities and mantras.

This text, which mentions only a drop from the ocean of good qualities of this holy place, was composed with the thought of benefitting others. Like a wish-fulfilling gem or an excellent vase, may it unfailingly bring all our wishes to fruition.

Having been introduced to this sacred place, it is certain that we Dharma brothers and sisters who follow Guru Padmasambhava will accumulate merit and purify obscurations by engaging in the recitation of mantras, the offering of tormas, the performing of fire ceremonies and especially the practices of longevity here.

By the merit of composing this,
May all beings under the sky be saved from untimely death and present obstacles
And ultimately, having attained the level of the protector Amitayus,
Lead all beings to that state.

By the blessing power of truth
And the wondrous compassion of the buddhas and bodhisattvas,
Removing all harmful and disadvantageous circumstances without exception,
May we reside in continuous glory
And may each day and night be auspicious.

My daughter Saraswasti Devi, bestowing offerings of a stainless scarf and writing paper, requested me to write a praise of this holy place. Therefore, I, the old vagabond father Sangye Dorje, wrote this in the Fire Tiger Year on an excellent day of the tenth month, between sessions, at the supreme holy place of Maratika, which puts an end to death. SHUBHAM.

Precious Gifts

August 27, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

I like reading my followers and meeting many kind hearted people out there. It nourishes me , too, that connection. I feel the love. So I come bearing gifts of compassion, community, and Dharma.

OM MANI PEDME HUNG

I feel the ripple of union with you all and thank you for your friendship. If I can help you that’s the best. Or you can help me, even that, but I’d rather it were you. Plus, since we are one, it’s got to be that way. That’s the way it is.

Silly beach talk from me to you. Although you already had it, and it was born and accomplished. I love you.

Compassion in Action: Offering to the Birds

August 25, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo prepares some nourishing treats for the birds of Garuda Aviary:

To see the recipe for this healthy mixture click here.

Courageous Awareness

August 24, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

I eventually came to draw a lot of strength and a great deal of comfort from that early practice (Chöd) because I found out that I actually never ever had to make another decision. And that’s what we struggle with all the time.

The rest of my life became not a dilemma in some odd way, even though there are many aspects of my life that would seemingly be problematic. It isn’t a dilemma because already the mind is relaxed. That’s one of the great benefits of that practice—the mind becomes relaxed. You’re not tense in the position of getting ready to determine, getting ready to decide. That requires a great deal of mental tension. So that’s done. The mind’s relaxed and it’s all right. There’s a big yes happening. There’s a big yes happening. I agree. I agree. It’s already done, so I don’t have to reinvent that dilemma and solve that dilemma every time. It’s already done. That’s the great blessing of a practice like that.

I have to tell you, once you really examine the faults of cyclic existence that way, and the eyes of suffering… I really recommend that if you do this practice. you can do it sitting, standing, anyway you want to. Do it while you’re walking around. Just constantly think like this. My recommendation is fill your eyes with suffering. Not your heart, not your mind, your eyes. We walk around feeling insulated. We don’t want to see it. You’re flipping through the channels and you see that child in, what, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, someplace like that, belly bulging, ribs sticking out at the same time and limbs that big around, and crusty at the side of the mouth. And why? Because they haven’t had any food recently. And no good food consistently. They’re starving. The first thing we do when we see that? Change the channel because we have the habit of not wanting to see that. We don’t want to see that.

My recommendation is spend some time seeing it. Stop turning away from the sight of suffering. Use that as a tool. It doesn’t mean that you have to, you know, give Buddhism a bum rap. I’m not asking you to be unhappy. I’m telling you that if you really open your eyes and see, you are in a scene where you are half unhappy and half happy already. It’s already mixed. This is not something you have to pretend. All I’m asking you to do is face it. Really look at it. Do not turn your eyes away from it. Fill your eyes with suffering. Stop faking it. We are a nation of fakers. Stop faking it and really see it. See what hatred produces. See what it looks like. Look into the face of it. See what hunger looks like. Face it. See what bigotry looks like. Look at it, face it, see what it feels like. See what ignorance feels like—the kind of dullness and slothfulness that you can hardly get yourself together. Get a good mouthful of that! See what that looks like. Look at all of this concerning ordinary experience in samsara. And then, having filled your eyes with that, you can use that as motivation, as a reason to practice.

So my recommendation is practice deeply, practice consistently. Do not turn your eyes away from suffering. Practice with courage. Be really courageous about this, and never let yourself off easy in this practice. To the bone, and then give them up too. Practice to the depth of your being, until you are deeply satisfied, until you know that you would never take back that offer again, the offer to be a vehicle by which suffering might end. Do not give up your practice until you know that you’ve done that. Be a hero. All you have to do is be a hero one time, one time in your whole life, concerning giving rise to compassion for the sake of sentient beings. Be a hero. Be undaunted. Do not be happy or satisfied with yourself until it is complete. Do not be happy or satisfied with yourself until you have really seen the suffering of cyclic existence and it makes you sick to your stomach, that not only you, but everyone you see is caught in it.

Practice as deeply as you are able. And you are able to practice more deeply than you could ever have imagined. So the goal here, of course, is to give rise to the Bodhicitta, give rise to compassion to realize the faults of cyclic existence. I used to think this to myself, whatever I saw,”There’s no future in this.” So in the future when I picked up a bag of potato chips, I’d go, “Well I can eat it or not eat it, but obviously there’s no future in this!” And I could look at any scenario in life and I would go, “Pff, no future in it. I’ve examined it. I’ve been there, I’ve done it in my mind.” That’s the awareness and understanding that you should be armed with.

Bird Stew: Compassion in Action

August 23, 2012August 23, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo started the Garuda Aviary in 1999 after she adopted Tashi bird, a Moluccan Cockatoo who was driving her former owner crazy with her screaming. Jetsunma soon discovered there are countless parrots suffering from neglect and abuse due to owners ill prepared for their needs.

Jetsunma was so moved by the awareness of the suffering of these intelligent, long lived beings, that one bird quickly grew to 36, and the Garuda Aviary was founded to provide life long sanctuary to abused and neglected birds.

Now Garuda Aviary, a non-profit organization with one paid caretaker and a small staff of volunteers, cares for more than 50 birds, committed to caring for each of them for the duration of their lives.

Jetsunma continues to support the birds by preparing large pots of fresh food, “Bird Stew”, for the birds on a regular basis. Parrots enjoy fresh, healthy and nutritious foods, and Rigdzin, the primary caretaker of the birds, reports they have come to love her stew.

Wishing that others may share in this joyful practice, Jetsunma has asked that this simple recipe be offered so others may feed their birds a nutritious, healthy treat.

This recipe produces a large amount of food, enough to feed 50 birds as a supplement to their diet for several days, so amounts may be adjusted for those with fewer birds. Jetsunma also suggested the stew can be portioned into ice cube trays or empty margarine containers and frozen. These smaller portions can then be warmed in a pan for those with smaller birds.

Supplies:

Large pot

2 bags of dried beans (pinto, red, black, navy, white, or a combo)

1 bag of lentils

1 package of frozen vegetables (mixed vegetables, butter beans, peas, carrots, corn, a variety)

Any left over vegetables from family dinners, but do not feed avocados or white potatoes.

2 lbs of pasta (elbow, spaghetti or penne)

seasoning: Mrs. Dash italian flavor, spicy flavor, hot peppers

Process:

Put two bags of beans in 6 quarts of water and bring to a boil for 20 minutes then turn off heat.

Allow beans and water to sit until completely cooled for an hour.

Bring pot back to a boil and add lentils, vegetables, pasta and seasoning and cook until pasta is Al Dente.

Immediately remove mixture from heat, drain, and run under cold water to stop the cooking process (birds prefer beans and pasta Al Dente rather than mushy.)

May every being be free of suffering!

Offered for the Benefit of All Beings

August 22, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

My teachers have instructed me that that practice is actually called ‘chöd’ (and there is an umlaut above the o). Actually 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.

Now how is that? Well, I’ll tell you. It came to pass that there were many sacrifices that needed to be made. I’m not saying this so that you’ll say “Oh, isn’t she a good girl!” Save it. I don’t care. But there were sacrifices that needed to be made. If I’d had my druthers, I would still be on a farm in North Carolina. By now I would not only know how to put up beans, but I would have the best darn garden you’d ever seen, and all the farmers around would be impressed. And I would have a dairy cow to boot. I would still be there. I would still be there, much isolated. I prefer a lot of privacy. Even though I seem to be good at this (I don’t know why but I seem to be good at this), I have to tell you that everyone who knows me well knows that to get me out of the house so that I’ll come and do my job, it takes oh, spraying with Pam and loosening her up with a crowbar. It’s not my natural tendency to want to come out and do this. I really don’t like this kind of thing.

Not only did privacy have to be given up (and that seems to be getting worse and worse), but also personal freedom. Now I am in the position where if I decide that I want to go somewhere and just not think about whether I look like a dharma teacher or not, just sort of be myself, I find that it’s a little tricky. It happens pretty often that people will come up to me and they will say “Are you that Buddha lady?” It really happens on a regular basis. In fact one time at the airport somebody came running up to me, “Are you that Jetsa Jetsa Buddha lady?” That Jetsa Jetsa Buddha lady, that’s me! So I have that kind of going on. And you know, I was not brought up as a Tibetan. I was not groomed for this job; I just got this job. So I found that many sacrifices had to take place, including watching my children have to give up their own privacy.

There are just a lot of issues. When we first came to this temple, none of the doors that you see were here. There were hardly any doors on the inside of the temple. Everything was very open and this room was divided in half. We used to live upstairs, but there were no doors between the upstairs and the lower, and so basically I was not separate from the temple whatsoever. And the only coffee pot, get this!, the only coffee pot in the whole place was downstairs where the kitchen room is downstairs now, and I slept upstairs. , Because this place was open 24 hours a day, I would have to wade through students to get to my first cup of coffee in the morning. If that’s not love, what is? ? Then my students would say to me, “You never smile at me in the morning.” Smile in the morning!! The weight of the bags under my eyes keep my cheeks from going up, what can I tell you! So anyway, smiling was not forthcoming before the coffee, I’m sorry. There’s not that much compassion in the world!

I eventually came to draw a lot of strength and a great deal of comfort from that early practice because I found out that I never actually had to make another decision. And that’s what we struggle with all the time. Should I spare this time to do my practice? Should I spare this time to practice compassion toward others? Should I spend the effort to go over here and help that person? Should I do that? It’s that thinking—should I, should I, should I? You burn more calories doing that than any of the good works that you actually do in your life. So I found out that that head thing that we do when we can’t decide and we always go through the dilemma of being a samsaric being, that was alleviated, and I never really had to make another decision ever again. I felt that from that point on, everything in my life had already been decided because I didn’t own my feet, I didn’t own my ankles, didn’t own my body, didn’t own my speech, didn’t own my hearing, didn’t own anything. Anything! I had already decided that I owned nothing. None of it was mine.

So then whenever I was called upon, well will you do this, will you do that, will you do that? Now the ultimate test, the moving! Will you do that? Yeah, I’ll do that. You know why I’ll do that? Because it’s already decided. None of this really belongs to me. My job now is to protect every capability that I have or any effort that I’ve made in order to benefit beings. That I will protect, with fangs out and nails extended. That’s when you’ll see the meanness in me. That I will protect, but regarding anything personal, it’s no big deal because it’s already gone. I don’t own it. So I take good care of it. I feed it well. I exercise it, but ultimately I realize that I’m doing that in order to maintain its strength in order to benefit sentient beings. I don’t feel that I own it. I’ve already given it up.

What Are You Looking For?

August 21, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Longing for the Guru”

In order for you to be with your Teacher, however good or bad that Teacher may be, if you are in a situation where you are close to your Teacher and consistently so and have a great deal of relatively intimate guidance, you must have spent a great deal of time longing for the Teacher. It must be that you have spent a great deal of time making wishing prayers that you would never be separate from your Teacher. There had to be a great deal of time spent in that consideration and with that intention. It’s the only karma that will allow for this situation.

Each of us, then, as we grew up, must have experienced the seeds of that longing. If we look back at our earlier lives, we may not understand that. It’s very difficult to understand how we ended up practicing Vajrayana. We certainly weren’t brought up this way. We certainly had no idea in our younger lives that we were going to be Buddhists, that’s for sure.

Yet, if we were to look in a penetrating way, we would discover that somewhere in our childhood there was a longing. That is the seed or the residue of something that we experienced in a previous incarnation. Because it is not consistent with our culture, because it is not sympathetic with what our culture views as proper, probably when we grew up, we never heard of a Teacher. We never heard of a Guru. We may have diverted into different paths. We may have felt the longing as a need to find ourselves or we may have felt a sense of waiting to be told or to find something that we knew we would find.

For instance, it is possible that you felt a sense of searching and perhaps went from relationship to relationship, searching for someone who would be intimate with you, a certain searching for a fullness that was never found. It could be that you even went from a self-help group to insight situation to church to different kinds of situations that you thought would bring you the answer and you had no idea that it was a spiritual search.
But now, in retrospect, if you examine that, do you think that perhaps you were looking for something you didn’t find because you did not understand exactly what you were looking for? Surely, if you examine your life, you will find something of that longing in your past.