Guru Yoga Sun-058 | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

How We See Enlightenment

February 9, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

If Guru Rinpoche is the Nirmanakaya form of the Buddha, we should also think that he is Enlightenment itself, that what we are seeing is merely the tip of the iceberg. It’s the way in which that function of enlightenment appears in the world. Is it always so? Does enlightenment appear in the world? Why does it? What is it when it appears in the world and what is it when it doesn’t appear in the world? What is it, actually?

Very hard to describe what enlightenment actually is. Because when we describe enlightenment, it’s like looking at the sky through a tiny peephole. You can’t really get what it is. You might be able to see the spaciousness of it. You might even be able to hook into a star. You might even be able to describe color and the way the star glimmers. But from looking through a peephole, you simply cannot understand what the sky is. It’s impossible. And from our point of view, it is impossible to understand what enlightenment is by looking as we do through our little peephole.

We can only understand enlightenment really in terms of what it is not. We can understand, for instance, that enlightenment is the state free of conceptualization. We can understand that it is a state free of contrivance. We can understand that it is a state unlimited by ordinary view, ordinary perception. But we can’t really understand what else there is. In fact if you described “some thing else,” you’ve lost the pristine nature of enlightenment, because if you do that, you are conceptualizing. You are limiting, and you are contriving, an image or an experience. That’s the way our minds work. That’s the only way that we have.

When the Buddha described himself, he described himself as being “awake”. Simply that. We can’t even understand what that means because we immediately want to say, “Awake to what? And what were you asleep in before?” We try to understand in those ways. It’s either/or, black or white. Our minds hook on to something. And for that reason, we cannot fully and completely understand enlightenment.

In short, enlightenment has been described as the primordial wisdom state, that state which is like luminosity. But it isn’t luminosity because when we think of luminosity, we think of light and light is “some thing.” This state called enlightenment is not a thing at all. It is beyond “thing-ness” and “no thing-ness.” It is beyond form and formless. It is beyond self and other. It is beyond up and down. It is beyond hot and cold. It is beyond dark and light.

Extraordinary Blessings

February 8, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

One of the main practices that we have to do in order to make progress on the path is Guru Yoga. There are many ways to practice Guru Yoga. There is a tremendous focus on Guru Yoga in the preliminary practice or Ngondro phase, and then as you move into the different forms of practice in the intermediate and advanced stages, there is still a great deal of focus on Guru Rinpoche, and there is still a great deal of dependence on the Natural Blessing that is transmitted from his miraculous compassion.

Guru Rinpoche is considered to be the Nirmanakaya form, that is the body or the form that one sees in physical existence. He incarnated into physical existence, and when he appeared on the earth, he was in solid form. According to the history of his life, he was not born. He did not have a mother. He appeared in the middle of a lake on a lotus and he did not appear as an infant, but as a young child. And when he left, he didn’t die; his body didn’t cease to function. He was seen to rise up into the sky and leave.

So his activity, his display, is considered to be extraordinary, not ordinary. It isn’t like what we usually see. We do not usually see that kind of event. None of us has managed to be born on a lotus in the middle of the lake. Most of us have mothers. I have a mother. If any of you don’t have a mother, please let me know. I’d like to meet you, get to know you.

Probably, when we die, our bodies will do the ordinary thing which is “die.” Perhaps a few of us will do something wonderful, but my guess is that we’ll die. It’s very rare to be born as a young child on a lotus, or rise up into the sky and leave. We don’t usually see that kind of display. And so from that, we can understand that he is, in fact, the physical display of enlightenment.

It’s so easy for us to look at Guru Rinpoche, to think about his teachings, to think about what he has accomplished and think, “Oh, there was a great man that was born sometime, and he did this thing”, to think of Guru Rinpoche in a superficial way. So when we practice, our practice is deluded really, and it’s kind of confused or even defiled, if you will, by our thinking, “What kind of man was he? What was he really like? What did he look like?” I look at his statue and I think, “Gee he had a funny little mustache.” We have those kinds of thoughts. We can’t help but think like that. We think as ordinary people do. We look at each other in ordinary ways. We’ve learned to evaluate things in that way.

If we hold Guru Rinpoche in that regard, we miss the point. We think of a being that’s much like an ordinary being. We think of an event that is not so different from ordinary events. Man goes to Tibet, man teaches. Well, that’s happened before! So we don’t understand. We’re very shallow in our perception. And what happens then is that the transmission that comes to us, the blessing that comes to us through faith, the blessing that comes to us through practicing Guru Yoga is very minimal. And in fact, it’s an ordinary blessing. It is the ordinary blessing perhaps of having the opportunity to practice, and of actually having the practices in hand so that we can do them. Well, you could say that’s not exactly ordinary. Lot’s of people don’t have that blessing. And you’re right about that. But it’s a limited blessing. What we need beyond this opportunity, beyond the practice, is the ripening. And in order to have that, we must begin to understand the Nature of the Lama in a more profound way.

Who Is Guru Rinpoche?

February 7, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

When we think of Guru Rinpoche, we are thinking of an emanation that is very important in our tradition. Guru Rinpoche is considered to be the Nirmanakaya form of the Buddha. He is considered to be the next incarnation of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni. He is considered to be fully realized, fully enlightened. In our tradition, the Nyingma tradition, he is extremely important and focused on a great deal. All of our teachings come from him. All that we practice here in this center comes from Guru Rinpoche. There are other teachings that are practiced in the Nyingma tradition that come from other lamas. But everything that we practice that is of any consequence really has come from Guru Rinpoche. So he is like our mother and our father. He is the one that brought Vajrayana Buddhism to Tibet. He is the one that miraculously conceived of a kind of teaching that would be especially beneficial in this time, which is called the degenerate time. The teaching that he gives is extraordinary. It is meant to ripen the mind in a specific way that is very useful at a time when karma is very condensed, as it is said to be in Kaliyuga or the time of degeneration.

At this time, due to the Vajrayana practice, we can make great progress even though it’s a time of degeneration. It’s as though the potential is hotter and fuller and more condensed, more defined. And if we practice sincerely, we’ll make a great deal of progress.

Contemplating the True Nature of the Guru

May 30, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

We should think in such a way that we know if we practice deeply enough, we will look at Guru Rinpoche and see that innate wakeful state which is the true face.

Guru Rinpoche said before he left, “I will appear as your Root Teacher.” What that means is we should practice considering that the teacher who comes to teach us and gives us blessing, gives us empowerment, gives us commentary teaching, who makes it possible for us to practice the path, is actually an extension of Guru Rinpoche’s activity. The teacher cannot be separated from Guru Rinpoche’s activity, and is Guru Rinpoche’s activity—an extension of miraculous enlightened compassion, enlightened intention.

If we, in our ordinary perception, separate the two and say, ”Oh, Guru Rinpoche is over here, and the Root Teacher’s over there, and I’m over there,” and practice in a superficial way, we won’t get very far. But if we see the whole event as the miraculous intention of the Buddha, as enlightenment itself, if we understand that the path is inseparable from the benefit, inseparable from the nature itself, and if we understand this activity to be this enlightened process, inseparable from the true face, and we practice focused in that way, the blessing cannot be counted. It is incredibly profound. It’s an entirely different process, really, than the kinds of ordinary activity that we always engage in. We’re always working hard at something,,but that’s not the point. The point is to see the face, to know the nature. The point is to be awake.

If one uses the thoughts that I have just described, contemplating in the way that I have described, practicing Guru Yoga as I have described it, one dispels the delusion that comes from the fixation on self-nature and phenomenal existence as being inherently real and solid. By dispelling fixation, one can know the nature that can only really be described as “suchness,” that which is beyond.

So, I hope that you will take this into your heart and begin to practice. Perhaps you can begin to practice the Seven Line Prayer and Vajra Guru Mantra. But most especially, I really hope that you will think in the way that I’ve described: understanding what is ordinary and what is not ordinary; understanding what is of the world; understanding what is part of the process of fixation and what is a direct display of the Mind of Enlightenment. Thinking on these things and practicing accordingly, one can have great results.

Understanding the Seed and the Fruit

May 29, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

What makes Guru Rinpoche’s teaching, his path, different from others, different from other activities that we could do in our lives? Well, if we want to attain wisdom, why don’t we just go get a card in the library? Why don’t we just read everything there is to read? Why don’t we just go through every book in the world? Would we become wise then? Not necessarily, even from an ordinary point of view, because we would not have done anything about dispelling the fixation on phenomenal existence. We would not have done anything about dispelling the fixation on self-nature as being inherently real. We would do nothing about the delusion within our mindstreams. We would simply have accumulated information. I know lots of people that are smart, but not too wise from a Buddhist point of view. That is because the things that you can read from the library, the things that you can do in the world, arise from ordinary circumstances. They are compiled, or made up, of ordinary things. They can be collected. They are things in phenomenal existence.

What comes from Guru Rinpoche does not come from an ordinary place. What we receive from Guru Rinpoche in terms of teaching and blessing actually arises from the state of enlightenment. It therefore has an extraordinary source. And you always get apple trees from apple seeds. If what he offers arises from the mind of enlightenment, then it will result in enlightenment. It will bring about enlightenment. It has the capacity to do so.

There’s no way you can get that blessing other than through extraordinary means. You can’t pay money to get it. You can’t pay someone else to help you get it. You can’t take a pill to get it. You can’t eat the right foods to get it. You can’t work for 40 hours a week for so many years in order to get it. You can’t collect it. And so we practice Guru Yoga in order to increase our faith and our certainty and our confidence in order to receive the blessing that actually arises from enlightenment.

If we understand the nature of the Guru, if we understand the nature of Guru Rinpoche as being these profound things that I have described in brief, then we can understand that by practicing Guru Yoga, one can achieve extraordinary result that can be had through no other means. But in order to do so, one has to meditate and really concentrate on what that blessing is, how it arises, and what it comes from. One has to see the reality of Guru Rinpoche as being something more than superficial phenomenal appearance. One has to understand in a more deep and profound way.

So the blessing we receive from Guru Yoga then depends on us. How much time are we actually going to put into this consideration? And how are we going to view it? Are we going to continue to view Guru Rinpoche as somebody out there somewhere separate from ourselves who did something that affects us now? That’s a very limited, very superficial, very ordinary view and it won’t get us very far. We have to think about the nature of the Lama. We have to think that this phenomenal appearance of the Lama in physical existence is due to the miraculous extraordinary compassion that comes from a fully enlightened mind, that is inseparable from a fully enlightened mind. And we must understand that nature as being totally and completely realized, totally awake. We must understand it as being completely revealed in display form, emptiness and luminosity, emptiness and compassion. When we look at the Lama, when we see Guru Rinpoche, this is what we should understand.

The Nature of the Guru

May 25, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

According to the Buddha, the state that is the pure undefiled primordial wisdom state—this precious awakened state that is luminosity and emptiness inseparable from one another—is our true nature. But since time-out-of-mind, we have been involved in the incorrect assumption of self-nature as being inherently real. So due to our fixation on specific awareness and therefore our constantly defining and reestablishing the distinction between self and other, and the resultant attraction and repulsion that we are constantly involved in, we have never tasted this nature. We don’t know it.

It isn’t that it’s far away. It isn’t that we don’t have it yet. It isn’t that we have to grow it. It isn’t like that. That nature is right now! It’s right here. It isn’t anywhere else; it isn’t far away. And yet it is beyond here and now, beyond here and there. Due to our fixation on self-nature as being inherently real, due to the delusion of division within our mindstreams, we cannot taste that nature. We are involved in the process of fixation, and that nature which is all pervasive is not understood.

Guru Rinpoche is that nature. In his Dharmakaya form, he is displayed as Lord Buddha Amitabha—the Absolute Nature, free of any contrivance, free of any distinction, that nature which is emptiness. In his Sambhogakaya form, he is considered to be Chenrezig, that Nature which is pure luminosity, free of any contrivance. seen in a miraculous blissful display—a dance, if you will.—that shows itself in an emanation form displaying Wisdom and Miraculous Accomplishment, Emptiness and Method, or Luminosity and Compassion. It is so hard for us to understand what that really means.

For us, what we see is the Nirmanakaya, the physical form. Through thinking about it, we can understand the great benefit that Guru Rinpoche has brought. We can understand the extraordinary good fortune that we have to be able to do the practices that he has taught. We can understand that this is compassionate activity. We can understand that by the virtue of what he has done, we have a shot (if you will) at achieving some realization. We have hope; we have a path; we have a method. Through reliance upon his blessing, we come to realize that his very nature is the door to liberation.

If we go deeper, we realize that he is not only the Nirmanakaya form, but also, he is the deeper and more subtle forms. In fact, he is the very display of enlightenment itself. We realize then that Guru Rinpoche is inseparable from our own nature. How do you cut that nature up? The Buddha Nature is the Buddha Nature. And so, when we look at Guru Rinpoche, and we practice devotion in order to achieve a certain natural transmission, aren’t we actually walking through the door of our own nature? Aren’t we actually looking at the true face which is our face as well? Aren’t we actually doing what we do best—seeing something as external which is actually inseparable from us? That’s what we do very well. That’s all that we know how to do.

And so we practice Guru Yoga. Ultimately, we understand that by receiving the empowerment of the Lama, and practicing deeply, to understand the nature of the Lama, is to understand our own nature. That to meditate accordingly is to see the true face which is that nature. Ultimately, we will practice in such a way as to dispel the delusion of separation. We will come to dispel such distinction. We will come to realize that nature as our own nature, an event that is not ordinary.