Bodhicitta | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

You Can Make It

December 6, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo given after her return from India and Nepal in 1996

In Nepal, right next to one of Guru Rinpoche’s caves where he practiced chemchok, lives a wonderful Dakini. She is the consort of Lama Tulku Orgyen. And she’s been there for years and years, practicing and practicing. We had the pleasure of meeting her. Whenever you go there, you can hear her ringing those bells and practicing. She never stops. She’s so beautiful. She’s actually kind of old, but when you look at her, her face is completely unlined, she’s got beautiful black hair and really deep eyes. She’s just gorgeous. We went in there and gave her a scarf and tried to do prostrations, but she wouldn’t let us. Sangye Khandro came with us to translate, since the Dakini doesn’t speak any English, of course. And she just practices all the time. She sat us down and we talked for a little while.

I told her that we have a Sangha here and that a large percentage is women. And I said, “Would you give some advice to women practitioners in the West?” She said first of all that there’s no difference between women and men practitioners. There is no difference. Women tend to think that they are held back by certain issues – family issues, lover issues, blah, blah issues, stupid issues. There is no difference between women and men. In fact, she said, women actually have a deeper sense of primordial wisdom. They are closer to that Dakini archetype. They have a deeper sense of that. They’re more internal in some way. She said women have an excellent chance to be practitioners. And she said, “I would give this advice to both men and women equally. You have to be courageous. You have to never stop. You have to decide that you are going to achieve the rainbow body and you will do whatever it takes because you really want to incarnate in such a way that you can help this world or any world that you land on. You have to have courage. You have to never let any circumstance stop you. You have to practice as though it’s the most important thing in your life. You have to remember that this is the only important thing there is.” And she said, “Practice constantly with great faith and great courage. Then you need to be sure that you are with a teacher that you have absolute faith in. And you need to be with a lama who can give you initiation that can ripen your mind. With all those factors, especially great courage, you can make it, even in this degenerate time.” She said, “You can make it.”

It was one of the most moving speeches I ever heard. But she kept saying, “Have courage; don’t stop. Break through whatever stops you. Have courage.” And my feeling when I watched her is that it must have taken tremendous courage for her to completely renounce the world that she lived in. She is right up there in that little building right next to the cave. It’s one room. She’s got thangkas and rugs, it’s kind of nice, but there is no place to go to the bathroom. You have to wash out of a bucket. She has renounced the world and all the stupid trappings that go with it. She’s going to make it. When that Dakini dies, you are going to see signs and they’ll find her again when she reincarnates.

What Drives You to Practice?

December 5, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Some of you show up for practice because you think your teacher will get mad at you if you don’t. So you make yourself visible. Some of you show up for practice because you’ve got to get it in today. When do you do practice because you are sick of delusion? When do you do it because you are sick of death? When do you do it because you are sick of watching sentient beings suffer and yet are helpless to help them? When do you say those prayers so deeply that your heart and your mind are purified of delusion and of hatred, greed and ignorance, so that your heart and mind are so deepened that you will absolutely incarnate in such a way to benefit beings?

The single most abundant deepening quality that you all have is your great love and desire to help others. If that’s the ticket with you, ask yourself if you really want to help others or if you want to look like you are helping others? Sometimes I think people want to look like they are helping others so they can be a nice person. As soon as you’re finished with that and you decide that you really help others because you really can’t bear to see their suffering and are finished with watching people suffer, then use that.

Why do you just practice by the book? Why don’t you walk around the temple and make prayers constantly, visualizing the refuge tree; walk about the living quarters of your Lama and the temple itself and the Sangha that’s in it saying, “In this way, let me follow you forever. In this way, let me always revolve around the Three Precious Jewels. In this way, let me be born under whatever circumstances to help sentient beings,” making these profound and sincere prayers. Maybe you can break through into depth.

Where is Your Heart?

December 3, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

What makes you a deep practitioner? What makes you a deep practitioner is really having renounced cyclic existence. Those of you that are casual practitioners are practicing, but your mind is still a mind of distraction. You are still running hither and yon, doing this thing and that thing, and you’re superficial. You have to do this activity over here that is so important, so you go to the meat market. And you have to do this thing over here with your family. All these have-tos have to happen. There is nothing wrong with going to the meat market, and I want you to have a wonderful family, but it’s that life of distraction that I am arguing with. It’s that distracted mind that keeps you practicing superficially and keeps you a casual practitioner.

After having received all this teaching, all this loving, after all that you have felt and known in your own heart to be truth, if you are still doing that after all this time, then somehow you have not fully taken refuge in the Three Precious Jewels. You are not a renunciate. In your mind, there is still something in the world out there to be accomplished, something that you feel is going to meet your need or answer your problem. In other words, you still believe in the world of appearances. You still believe that this apparent reality has some solution or has some basis in realness. You still believe that something is there and you haven’t let go of it. You haven’t really turned your mind away from it.

When I say turn your mind away from the world, I don’t mean that you have to become a monk or a nun necessarily. I don’t mean that you have become a nerd or a dead person. I don’t mean that you are limp and you just don’t have any fun anymore. That’s not what I am talking about. You can engage in any activity that you feel to engage in, but you simply don’t take refuge in it. It’s not something that you get tense about. It’s not something that you get compulsive about. This is Nyingma philosophy.

Right now your mind is all divided. You are off here and off there. As you are running off in any of those directions, if someone were to say to you, “Where is your heart?” You’d have to feel around for it, because you don’t know where it is. You’re not thinking about the teachings of Lord Buddha. You’re not thinking about the precious Dharma. You’re not thinking about the Sangha, you’re not thinking about the Lama, you’re not thinking about the Buddha. You’re not thinking about clear mind. You’re not relating to that at all. You’re all over the place. You are all over the map. You want this and you want that.

The reason why you haven’t renounced apparent reality, even though you know it’s going to kill you – this is a fatal condition we have here, even though it’s never answered your problems – never in the past and it never will, even though you know that, you still have one problem. It’s a big problem and that problem is desire. You have not overcome desire. You have desire for this and that, and they are baubles. This is one of the first teachings of Lord Buddha. And if you listen to the teachings, after you get that bauble, even if you can get it, it is impermanent and if it doesn’t break apart or destroy itself in some way, you will die clutching it and then you can’t take it with you. It’s all impermanent. Even if you attain this bauble that you probably won’t attain in the first place, because it’s nothing but a conceptualization and has no basis in reality, after you’ve wasted all your time going over this desire, you have no guarantee. Even though you were practicing the Dharma, that even though you’ve completed Ngondro, if you still have desire and you have not completely become a renunciate – a person who has renounced cyclic existence – you have no guarantee that you will not be reborn as a hungry ghost. Hear what I am saying?

Intention and Vows

February 8, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

From this very moment forward, I offer this life as a gift to the Three Precious Jewels. My pure intention is to accomplish the purpose of self and others, supreme enlightenment, quickly and surely. Thus I vow that all my life, every portion shall be used to accomplish that goal. All my activities shall accomplish that goal. All my thoughts and feelings are directed towards that goal. All my possessions shall be strengthened to support that goal. I shall seek all appropriate teachings, empowerments, and spiritual activities in order to secure that goal. My own enlightenment is now considered to be equal to and non-dual with the enlightenment of others. Therefore I vow to support fully and without hesitation the practicing spiritual community. I vow to support fully with unconditional love the Three Precious Jewels, the recitations, the Sangha and the temple. I will not kill; I will not lie to accomplish selfish purpose. I will not steal. I will not become intoxicated and therefore forget my purpose and vows. I will not engage in adultery, promiscuous activity by which my intention will be compromised.

I fully intend to do all that I can to accomplish the liberation of all sentient beings. I consider the realization of all beings to be equal with my own and of equal value. I fully support the spiritual community and its purpose on Earth. Should any activity, or possession or relationship be contrary to those purposes, I will systematically change them or eliminate them from my life. This I promise so there will be an end to hatred, greed and ignorance in my mind stream and in the 3,000 myriads of universes so that all beings and I myself shall achieve the precious awakening.

The Refuge Vow

I take refuge in the Lama,

I take refuge in the Buddha,

I take refuge in the Dharma,

I take refuge in the Sangha.

The Bodhisattva Vow

I dedicate myself to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings. I offer my body, speech and mind in order to accomplish the purpose of all sentient beings. I will return in whatever form necessary under extraordinary conditions to end suffering. Let me be born in times unpredictable, in places unknown until all sentient beings are liberated from the cycle of death and rebirth. Taking no thought for my comfort or safety, Precious Lama, make of me a pure and perfect instrument by which the end of suffering and death in all forms may be realized. Let me achieve perfect enlightenment for the sake of all beings. Then by my hand and heart alone, may all beings achieve full enlightenment and perfect liberation.

Break Free

January 21, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

One thing I like about all of you is your great compassion. You really want to help people. I’ve always loved that about you. There are some of you that are less interested than others, but everyone here really wants to help all sentient beings. But you know what? You can’t help anyone until you yourself are free of cyclic existence, because what you have there is the blind leading the blind. While you have hatred, greed and ignorance in your mind stream, you cannot help anyone. You can generate the deity all day long. You can help little old ladies cross the street all you want. You can make them bliss out and have a beautiful experience and sing songs and play music, and rub their backs and wiggle their toes and everything, but you can’t help them, because you may give them a short experience of happiness, and sometimes that’s worse because you can give them hope where there is no hope. The only hope is to break the cycle of cyclic existence and to be free of it. Sometimes the worst thing you can do for people is to give them a lot of blissful experiences, because sometimes it causes them to be satisfied and complacent and they don’t try to grow spiritually. Sometimes it can inspire them. But very often it can do the opposite.

The most profoundly beautiful thing about you is that you really want to help people. You really do. Then doesn’t it seem logical, that you would therefore take complete responsibility for your realization? If you can help somebody by achieving liberation in such a way that you can consciously reincarnate and come back in a form to teach others to achieve liberation, wouldn’t it seem rational that you would take profound responsibility for that and say, “I will do anything. So I am going to eradicate this grasping from my mind. I’m going to practice so hard and so sincerely.” And still I see people mouthing prayers. How do you do that? Still I see you trying to have a powerful experience. How can you do that? So what if you have a powerful experience? If you are going to be reborn as a cow, what’s the big deal? Is that what you want?

You have to have courage. You have to say, “I’m finished. I’m finished with all this junk that betrays me, with all of this stuff that ends up to be a bauble and nothing more with all this distraction that I’m wasting my life on. I’ve got 20 or 30 or 40 years to live. Am I going to waste it on this kind of distraction?” Just think about that. Then what will you do? You’ll have to realize the faults of cyclic existence. You’ll have to realize how impermanent it is. You’ll have to realize how fraught with pitfalls it is. You’ll have to realize how completely unconscious you are. You are tossed about. You have no control over where you are going to be born in the next incarnation. You have no control over any of that stuff until you seriously practice Dharma in such a way that you are able to break free of dualistic mind and therefore break free of the prison of samara. That’s what it takes. It’s the only thing you can do.

Prisoner of Mind

January 20, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Some of you here are not young anymore. I’m not young anymore and some of you are older than me. I don’t know where you are going to be, because you have not renounced samsaric existence. I cannot guarantee that in your next incarnation you won’t be reborn as a cow because you are so ignorant. And believe me, cows in India and Nepal do not have a good life. I cannot guarantee you that you won’t be reborn as a hungry ghost because even in the presence of the Lama, even in the presence of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, even with this absolutely precious human rebirth, you are still grasping, having not renounced samsaric existence thoroughly. I cannot guarantee that you will not be reborn a hungry ghost.

Sometimes I think about those of you that are not getting any younger. That’s all of us, of course. I tend to think of the older members of the group with great love. Sometimes I lose sleep thinking about you all. That’s the truth. And I wonder, “What can we do? Maybe I’ll get them to practice Phowa really consistently, so even if they really screw up in this lifetime, at least in the bardo state there is a chance for liberation.” I think about this. Well, why aren’t you thinking about this?

You people that have the leisure to practice, where the heck are you? It doesn’t make any sense. Here is a beautiful and comfortable place to practice. You can make time to practice, and you have your teacher with you, and you have the direct empowerment of the Nam Cho lineage. Why in the world haven’t you renounced cyclic existence? Why haven’t you taken the teachings that you have now to purify your mind of grasping? You have everything. In the Ngondro practice, you have everything you need to purify your mind of grasping and need.

Now the shallowness that I hear is people doing their practice and saying, “OK, I’m going to visualize this milk coming down. Oh I feel so good that this milk is coming down.” They’re having a wonderful experience. But are they saying, “I know that my life is impermanent and I’m going to die soon. When? Ten years, 20 years, 30 years? That’s soon. And in the meantime I still have this greed in my mind. I am going to visualize that non-dual nature of Vajrasattva completely purifying me of that greed, of that grasping so that I can fully renounce cyclic existence, so that I will be safe and not imprisoned in my own dualistic mind.”

You are imprisoned in your own dualistic mind. You are not safe. I can take a running guess at how many of you will achieve liberation, if not in this lifetime, then soon, but I don’t know, because you can change that. You can break samaya with me or with any of your Vajra teachers tomorrow and that’s it. You’re a goner. Unless you fix it somehow, there’s nothing I can do for you. Then you are in the same position as everybody else. You surfaced here in this beautiful place, but where are you going to be the next time?

Death is not a beautiful experience and a release like some of the New Age metaphysicians like to pretend it is. You enter into the bardo and all the demons of your mind are there with you and unless you have enough wisdom to understand what is in front of you, you’ll throw yourself into a rebirth that’s horrible out of fear and compulsion. And you don’t know where, I don’t know where you will be next incarnation.

Now we have this wonderful manduk. Manduk is precious stuff because it absolutely ensures that you will not take a lower rebirth. Of course if you don’t have faith in it, maybe it won’t work. Your faith is everything. Do you know what makes people not have faith? Bad karma. And do you know what makes bad karma? Broken samaya. Do you see what I am saying? You’re not safe until you’re safe. A deep practitioner is one that looks at the situation and says, “Holy cow. I’ve got to do something about this and I am going to ensure that in this lifetime I am removed from cyclic existence and I am safe so that I can benefit beings and myself.”

Hidden Right in Front of You

January 22, 2016January 13, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In this excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta, Jetsunma speaks to her students about her recognition by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.

The person who is practicing needs to be able to distinguish between a diamond and a rhinestone. You have to know the miraculous really exists and you have to have faith in it. Sentient beings are helpless if they’re lost in cyclic existence; they can’t make any breakthroughs. They can’t really break out by themselves. Somehow they have to receive a direct mind empowerment from someone that has made certain progress. One way that you can do that in the Vajrayana system is to take wangs and another way that you can do that is to have a kind of mind-to-mind relationship with your teacher. There is a transmission that goes on, but you have to have faith for that to happen.

His Holiness said, “I could sit there and hit you with the bumpa all day long until you are flat on your head. If you don’t have faith in the teacher, you don’t have faith in the wang, if you don’t know what’s happening, you can’t work with the wang. Your head could be flat, but nothing is going to happen.” He said you have to have to faith.

Realizing that, he and I began to talk about that, and after a while it became necessary for the recognition [editor’s note: Refers to Jetsunma’s recognition]. What does the recognition mean? I don’t know. It means nothing has changed. What’s changed? Michael, my husband, said he had an interesting kind of perception. He’s married. All of a sudden he’s married to a tulku. And I said, “All of a sudden you are married to a tulku? What were you married to before, a bran muffin? Dear friend, you were always married to a tulku.” And he said, “I think about how we used to be together before,” and I said, “We’re still doing it. I get better that now you know it?” I don’t mean to be crass. But you have to understand what is going on here. In one way, nothing has changed. The event, the real thing between us hasn’t changed. If I was your friend before, I’m your friend now, you see? If I was your teacher before, I’m your teacher now. If I was the biggest pain in the neck in your life, I’m still that now. That hasn’t changed. But now you have taken off the blinders.

What the recognition means is that you have a handle or a way to take off your blinders and to have real faith. That’s what has got to happen. This path doesn’t work without faith. It’s awful that I have to teach this to you. Somebody else should teach this to you, like a Khenpo. But this is Kaliyuga and this is the West and we’re in it together so you are just going to have to put up with it.

You have to realize that all this time the miraculous has been right in front of you and it’s part of your life. You weren’t able to realize before what an opportunity you had, but now you can realize that. It doesn’t mean that now there is a big change in your life because your teacher has been recognized as a tulku. You might think, “That means now I have to drop everything and do three prostrations first time I see her.” Well, OK, that’s what they do. That’s customary. That’s good Guru Yoga. But it’s not about what you do with your arms and legs. It’s good that you practice that because it helps you to remember. It’s not that, “Now I have to give her a cup that’s covered all the time.” These are the stupid things that people are fearful about – forgetting to give me the right kind of cup. You think that’s what it is all about. Or you think, “What if I walk into the room first and she walks behind me and I didn’t see her?” Do you know how many times that’s happened me? In India, I didn’t even know which ones were the tulkus and which ones weren’t, because I hadn’t learned them all yet. You don’t always look where you are going. I didn’t care. I was just right in there.

You make mistakes like that. That’s not what it’s all about. You shouldn’t be fearful like that. You shouldn’t be. The relationship hasn’t changed in that way. The love is still there. Everything is still the same. Now you get to realize that the miraculous activity of Guru Rinpoche is happening in your life, that you have this precious opportunity and that this is a really good time to take advantage of it.

You have the opportunity. To paraphrase, Guru Rinpoche said, “Maybe you won’t see my body, but I will come as your teachers.” When Guru Rinpoche says something like that, I believe it out of hand. When I see my teachers, I know that Guru Rinpoche is with me. That same miraculous activity is right with you. The stuff that saves is right there. What has changed is that now you have to realize and you have to practice Guru Yoga with such faith. That’s what your job is. All the great teachers have said it is so, therefore I believe it. Not only that, but I’ve seen it. That’s what it means. I haven’t changed from a caterpillar to a butterfly. I’m exactly the same as I was before. Have you noticed that?

What has changed is that you have now a way to take some blinders off and you can realize for the first time that who you thought was your best friend, is still your best friend, but in a different way. You thought you had to cling to some kind of humanity – a best friend, a sister, and comrade, somebody you could go drinking with. That’s what you thought you had to have. But that was only temporary. It was a masquerade. You still have your best friend. But now you find out your best friend is the Three Precious Jewels and it’s always been that way, except that you didn’t know it before. Now you know it. So the only thing that has changed is you. You get to take your blinders off.

You get to see that in your life right now is spontaneous, miraculous activity and that this is your time, this is your time and you can do it. Nothing’s changed except now you get to practice properly. What’s there in front of you has always been there in front of you. I didn’t become a tulku a month ago. That’s the stupidest thing you ever heard of it, isn’t it?

Try to practice Guru Yoga properly. Realize that right now, miraculous activity is in your life. The reality of non-dual mind is in your life, and it’s your best friend. It’s right in front of you. The whole visualization of Kuntuzangpo and Kuntuzangmo and what it means, it’s not just a visualization. It’s the truth. It’s really there. You have this. We have His Holiness and we have Gyatrul Rinpoche, and you have your root teacher. That means it’s for real. It’s the truth. It’s right there with you.

Sometimes I look at His Holiness and I think, “My gosh, what do I need with a visualization. I’ve got you.” It’s there, it’s right in front of me. It’s nothing that I made up. And it’s the same for you. Now you know it. That’s the only difference. Don’t be scared. You try to get it right; sure you should try to get it right. I try to get it right. But just try to realize that right now you have every reason and cause and expectation to deepen properly. You have everything you need if you just do it. What are you so distracted about? Just do what you have to do and do it now before it’s too late.

They say a door can’t chase people around the room, but I swear, I remember chasing a lot of people around the room. This may be the time you get that opportunity, so you better walk through the door really soon into deeper practice.

Rest, Retreat and Compassion

January 5, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Hello all! I’ve now got my blackberry replaced. It died from a coffee spill. RIP li’l feller.

Now at my destination I am resting and will soon begin retreat in earnest. All has been travel, stay overs, re-connecting with the people of Palyul — so good.

Now resting, study, practice.I will be back eventually, when it is safe, I’m healthier, and justice is finally done. I look forward to returning home. Grateful for the love and care I have been shown.

Photos newly dug up are now available. At last the splendor of Palyul is here for all!I have so much to share with you! Ancient stories, teachings, modern from the heart teachings too. Slowly, one step at a time.

I’ve asked my students to keep up with the Occupy DC movement, and to help them. For now, hearty Tibetan soup, called tukpa with barley dough balls. Best food there is. Can we get more support to feed vegetarians please? And boiled eggs always help. Plus fresh fruit and coffee!

Here I am treated like a queen. And want to be sure all are treated so well.

My back is pretty messed up so I have to stay off my feet some, and walk with sticks some. I must conquor this pain!

But in every other way it’s all good. I’m so much less stressed not having to look over my shoulder to see if I’m being followed. This is pure bliss and peace here. And inspiring too. It feels like a whole new chapter of life, at least my life is about to begin. I just need the opportunity that comes with safety and Bodhicitta, and will do all I can for sentient beings. That is all that matters to me. To postulate about Dharma is useless. To bring the love is without question the way to awakening and peace!

OM MANI PEDME HUNG!