Keeping Heart Samaya | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The Four Noble Truths – An Introduction

January 30, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

One of the things that I have learned since I met with my teacher is to follow the fundamental thoughts as taught by the Buddha very carefully, starting with the thought that all sentient beings are suffering, and that suffering is all pervasive. According to the Buddha’s teachings, we are all suffering from desire. It seems as though we are suffering from external circumstances, but, in fact, we are suffering from desire. In fact, we are suffering from our response to desire as well. So we have a complicated, dualistic, or I should say double-edged, kind of suffering. We have the suffering that comes from desire, and we also have the suffering that is invoked when desire is not met. So it is two-edged and more complicated than one would think.

All sentient beings are suffering. They are suffering from desire, but there is an end to suffering. This is the news that is so good it is almost hard to take in. This is the news that is so magnificent that it is actually hard to understand when we have had an entire life, and we have noticed that there is always something. There is always something. Everything that comes together separates. Everything that is really good and has brought a lot of joy and a lot of benefit, gone. Even if we find ourselves in the most joyous, gorgeous, fabulous mood, it lasts about, oh, ten minutes. So we have noticed that happiness is ephemeral. It comes and goes. It sort of burns away and returns, and in between there is that suffering.

So when we hear that there is an end to suffering, a cessation to suffering, we wonder, how can this be? How can this possibly be?

The Buddha teaches us the next thought then, that the end or cessation of suffering is called enlightenment. Yes, that is true because none of us, being ordinary sentient beings, have experienced enlightenment yet. Sentient beings simply have not experienced that, so they do not know what the cessation of suffering actually feels like.

Then after introducing these thoughts, Lord Buddha teaches us how to accomplish the cessation of suffering, or enlightenment. In many forms of Buddhism, this is called the Eightfold Path. In our system of Buddhism, this is condensed into the accomplishment of two things: wisdom and knowledge. We are taught that in order to accomplish the cessation of suffering we must exit samsara and enter into that precious awakened state called enlightenment.

The Mystical Bond

January 29, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

The Lama, being the condensed essence of all three objects of refuge, is also considered to be inseparable from the Dharma. The Buddha is like the Lama’s mind in this case. The Dharma is like the Lama’s speech. So as a student, together with one’s Lama, one takes on the responsibility of learning Dharma. It really isn’t enough to go around and say, “I have a Buddhist teacher! Oh, I have a Buddhist teacher! This is very good!” And feel really happy about that. That is great. I hope you do feel happy about it, but it is not enough to do that and no more because it really isn’t that valuable to have met with your teacher, which is really very precious, if you do not follow the Buddha’s teaching, which is the Dharma. Otherwise, what you are doing is coming to the temple to be entertained once a week for roughly an hour and a half, or longer, if you engage in other activities. So a relationship where only entertainment occurs is really not that valuable. You can get that from Blockbuster. You don’t need a Buddhist teacher for that.

What you need a Buddhist teacher for is to connect you to the method, the Dharma, which is the Buddha’s speech. You need a teacher so that you can travel on this path in order to accomplish the supreme result of liberation. So the second commitment that the student must make to the teacher is to practice and learn Dharma, to maintain a healthy spiritual interest in Dharma and that means, once again, reflecting on the Buddha’s foundational teachings–realizing the faults or flaws of cyclic existence. Then we practice a kind of renunciation that makes us eager to drink the nectar of the Buddha’s teaching for our self and for all sentient beings. We begin to develop the mind of compassion. For our self and for all sentient beings this Dharma practice represents the end of suffering, so we are eager and pleased to learn Dharma, to learn to think like a Dharma practitioner. That is the second commitment.

The Lama, as the condensed essence of all three objects of refuge, is also considered to be the Sangha. The mystical relationship between the Lama and the Sangha is quite profound, quite beautiful. The Sangha is like the Lama’s body in that the Sangha has the samaya, or the responsibility, of holding or anchoring the Buddha’s teachings in the world in the same way that the Lama’s body, or appearance or presence, establishes the Buddha’s teachings right here, in the world. Teachings are here in the world, being conferred here in the world. The Sangha becomes an extension of that appearance.

Here in this Sangha for instance, primarily the ordained, but other Sangha members as well are trained as umdzes, or chant leaders. We have the chopön, who handles ritual objects during the puja. The Sangha are all well-trained, and all of them have different jobs. We have archivists who keep our books in good, healthy order and keep them in a respectable and clean place. There are many, many different functions, and these are all considered extensions of the Lama’s body. This is the Lama’s wheel of activity. The entire Dharma community then is the Lama’s extended body or wheel of Dharma activity. So the mystical bond between the Lama and the student is closer than one’s own breath, more essential than one’s own essence, more relevant than one’s own mind, speech, body, anything.

As the Lama’s body, the Sangha also has a certain responsibility to one another, and this responsibility is a very important part of the samaya or commitment to the Lama,. Remember, there is the responsibility to uphold and propagate the Buddha’s teachings, to follow and learn more about Dharma, the responsibility to uphold and protect the Sangha, and the responsibility of the Sangha to be the extension of the Lama’s activity.

Caring for the Precious Sangha

January 28, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

As a student, one of your responsibilities is to uphold and protect the Sangha, one of the Three Precious Jewels. The way that works is this. The Sangha is one body. If one part of the human body goes sour, if there is some negative consciousness rattling around somewhere – and nowadays even doctors know that there is some connection – the body will develop a cancer. If even one part of it has become disorganized, then the whole body becomes sickened. So the Sangha’s responsibility to one another is virtuous conduct.

By virtuous conduct I mean that in the Sangha there should never, ever be gossip and slander. NEVER! I cannot say this strongly enough. If there will ever be a time when the Buddha’s teachings are destroyed, it will be from the inside because there is nothing on this earth, other than Buddhist practitioners, that have that power. If the Buddha’s teachings and their purity are ever destroyed, it will be by Dharma practitioners committing non-virtuous acts. Gossip and slander that are harmful and disruptive to the Dharma community is a heinous crime because the Sangha is like a beautiful, virtuous, supreme and exalted body; not an ordinary body, but a body that leads to liberation, a body that walks to liberation, a body whose sole purpose is to bring about the liberation of all sentient beings. This is purity itself. This is truth itself. If instead of upholding that truth by keeping samaya with the Lama, the Sangha instead engages in this kind of non-virtuous conduct, this cancer is created. This is such a heinous crime because of what is lost. Where else in samsara can we find such great benefit as from the Sangha or spiritual community? Where else will such help and support come than from the Lama’s extended body, this pure activity in the world? So because something very pure and precious has been harmed, the weight of the crime is very great.

I particularly have a strong dislike for gossip and slander. I have seen what kind of harm it can do in religious communities. Even in the ordinary context in this day and age, gossip and slander have gotten to be so stylish and so outrageously prevalent and hip that we don’t even seem to mind closing down our government so that we can do it. We don’t seem to mind paying any price, including completely disrupting the responsibility between people in office and the people they serve. Not to say that any of these things that are said aren’t right, but this kind of gossip has become such a thing, such a fad. In other religious communities as well as Buddhist communities, it is a general religious phenomena. But there is always gossip and slander. It seems to be that if people think a teacher is pure, other people have to knock that teacher down. Or if people think a particular faith is pure, other people have to gossip about it. Why does it have to be that way?

As far as I am concerned, if you bring gossip and slander into this community, which is the Lama’s body, being the Lama here, I take it very personally. If you bring gossip or slander into this community, you are wrong, wrong because you brought it. Even if the story you are telling is right, you are wrong because what we are doing here by creating gossip and slander, is to harm the body of the Sangha, and there is a breakage of samaya. We have not upheld the three objects of refuge.

Now, of course, if there is ever a problem with misconduct on the part of any religious leader, anything like that, we hope that those who are engaged in this conduct will turn to their teachers and receive spiritual guidance. But the antidote to that is support and compassion. The antidote to that is not the hatred, disease and sickness of gossip and slander. That only harms the body and creates a cancer in the Dharma community. So part of the samaya between students and teachers – and I will tell you that if I could legislate that it would be 100 times as strong here – for any of you who are truly committed to being my students, you must cut out gossip and slander from your life immediately, whatever it takes. Purify that non-virtue. Stop now. You help no one and you harm yourself. It brings nothing but unhappiness.

Respecting the Three Jewels

January 26, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

When we examine the student’s responsibility in the teacher/student relationship, we have to think like this: First of all, according to the teaching, the lama, as the spiritual teacher or spiritual master, is the condensed essence of the external and most familiar objects of refuge–the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. So, regarding the student’s samaya or commitment to the teacher, there are three aspects of commitment.

As the lama is the condensed essence of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, the first commitment is to honor and uphold the Buddha’s teachings. That is to say that if we are practicing the Buddhadharma, we should never disrespect the Buddhist prayers and the Buddhist text. We love and respect them as the Buddha’s own speech, the Buddha’s own speech emanation. We should never throw them around or put them under our seats or step on them or treat them as though they were any like other object in samsara, like a rag or something. We should never treat any objects that are representative of the objects of refuge like that, such as statues, Dharma texts, and images of the Buddhas.

It’s not that Buddhists have a superficial, external, worship of images. It is not like that. This rule or practice is meant to develop discrimination in the student’s mind so that the student can discriminate between what is precious and extraordinary and what is ordinary. Ordinary things are things that arise in samsara and result in samsara, even things that we need, like enough water to live on. Water is in the world, you can get it from the world and it results in the satisfaction of worldly thirst. Water is not the same as Dharma. Dharma arises from the mind of enlightenment, results in enlightenment and is not ordinary. Water will support my life temporarily, so it is impermanent. If I drink a glass of water and then don’t drink any more, I will last four or five days. But even though it may be necessary for me to drink that water in order to stay alive long enough to read the Buddha’s teaching, I won’t forget the teaching because it is extraordinary and does not arise from samsara.

This commitment not only supports my life temporarily and in this moment, but it also provides a path or a method by which I can accomplish Dharma, by which I can enter into the door of liberation and be free. This is a miracle. This is a treasure that doesn’t only last one life or one moment or four days. Life after life after life this treasure lasts,. So these things are held up as extraordinary. Part of the student’s commitment to the student/teacher relationship is to honor this external object of refuge–the Buddha image, to honor the Buddha’s presence in the world, to propagate the teaching, to hold it up and protect it.

Heart Samaya

January 20, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

We’ve talked about the commitment made by the teacher when accepting a new student. What about the commitment by the student to the teacher, the samaya between the student and the teacher? What is that all about? There must be some kind of reciprocal relationship. Obviously the teacher cannot insist on the student’s progress without the student’s willingness. The student has to be willing to follow Lord Buddha’s teachings, has to be willing to accept the objects of refuge as their true refuge from the sufferings of samsara. So there is a reciprocal commitment that is required.

It is extremely important that the teacher maintain their ethical and moral responsibility to the student. That is to say, the teacher honors the student and thinks of the student with such high regard and such respect that actually it is said that a pure teacher will consider the student to be worth more than their own safety or comfort. In a sense, they hold the student up in the same way that a parent holds up their child, not necessarily as superior, but as vitally important and cared for. Any of you who have been parents know that in a dangerous situation, before you think of your own safety, if you have that bonding and love with your child, you’ll think about the safety of the child first. That is always the case. And when the mother hears the cry of her baby child for food, she doesn’t say, “I am not ready to feed you now. It’s not convenient for me to feed you now. I have no wish to feed you now.” Instead, the mother wants to answer the child’s call as though the mother were filled with milk and the child were very hungry. It is very instinctive and very natural.

So the relationship occurs in that way on the teacher’s side of the fence. Now what about the student, what is the student’s part in the equation?

Well, there are certain teachings and certain rules that one must follow, but I don’t like to think of them as merely following dogmatic rules. I like to think of this samaya, or this commitment, as a samaya of the heart. Something that is deep and profound, instead of like a cheap and gaudy display. It doesn’t burn hot like paper, quick and then gone. It burns deep and slow like good strong hardwood or even better, good strong coal-something that burns hot for a long time, steadily without interruption. This is how the relationship between the Guru and disciple should be.

When the student learns about the samaya they are keeping with the teacher, they should hold that samaya not so much as a duty and responsibility but more as a jewel, just as the teacher holds the student as a jewel. So that relationship then is considered precious, valuable, from the heart. Not a methodical thing, not a thing done by rote, not a thing done blindly without any understanding, but a deep and pervasive samaya or commitment that is a heart connection that ultimately enhances the practice and the level of accomplishment that comes from practicing Guru Yoga.

When the Teacher Meets the Student

January 19, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

Guru Yoga is a very important, very fundamental aspect of the practice of Vajrayana. When a student and a teacher come together, following in the footsteps of Guru Rinpoche as he taught, the relationship between the student and the teacher is upheld by the teacher in a very profound way. Once the teacher accepts the student as their very own and takes them into their heart and actually into their body, speech and mind, it is the teacher’s commitment to bring blessings and benefit to that student, not only in this lifetime but in every future lifetime.

The student then becomes extremely important to the teacher, in that the teacher, upon accepting the student fully once that relationship has been established, promises to return lifetime after lifetime in whatever form is necessary in order to be of benefit to that student. So there is a heart commitment or heart “samaya.” When the teacher looks into the face of the student, the teacher says to the student or thinks to the student in their heart and in their mind, “I will not abandon you. I will not abandon you to remain alone in cyclic existence.”

So, the commitment is that the teacher promises to see the student through until supreme realization. This then becomes a “samaya,” or commitment, that lasts life after life, from life to death, from life to death, from life to death. Again and again and again this relationship returns. There are many stories about how lamas, recognizing their students or seeing their students from the time before, whatever that time might be, feel great joy at seeing the face of the student again, tremendous joy, as though seeing and having the opportunity to nurture their beloved child once more. And this is a very beautiful and happy thing.

Unconditional Love

September 17, 2014 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

When we consider the student’s relationship with the teacher on this path, we are talking about very high stakes. We are not talking about a student-teacher relationship in order to get through a six week course. We are not talking about a student-teacher relationship with which to graduate with so many credits from college. We are talking about a student-teacher relationship wherein the end result is the ultimate fruit or jewel, the crown of cyclic existence, that is, the potential or capacity to enter into the door of liberation and be free of suffering at last. These are enormous stakes.

So both parties in the student-teacher relationship have to take that relationship very seriously, very seriously. I know for a fact that the teachers regard the students with great seriousness. Their love for the students is unconditional. Once that student-teacher relationship has taken place, the teacher has become, for the student, Guru Rinpoche’s appearance in the world, Lord Buddha’s appearance in the world. Once that happens, there is a love there or a bonding that cannot be undone by anything in the world. There is nothing in the world that can take Lord Buddha’s blessing, Guru Rinpoche’s blessing out of your heart. Nothing can do that.

Even if the students themselves were to act in a very inappropriate way, breaking the samaya bond, acting out of accordance with what the teacher has taught, even committing really negative actions like harming the teacher in some way, it is always the truth that if the student were to make restitution, were to turn their face towards Dharma again and truly wish to accomplish Dharma, and wish to separate themselves from their previous non-virtuous acts, the teacher would immediately respond to that. There is no question.

As parents we do that with our children, don’t we? Sometimes children will do pretty bad things, throw baseballs through windows, knock the cookie jars over, and really much worse things. So even though these acts may occur, the parent will always accept the child again. The parent will not stop loving the child. It may be true that there is a difficulty there, a burden, a strain, a suffering, but that is your child. A good parent would never turn their face away from their child just because their child made a mistake. Parents know that children are immature with very little discrimination. They are learning, and it’s the parents’ job to teach them. Exactly the same with the student and the teacher.

The teacher knows that students are sentient beings. According to the Buddha’s teaching, all sentient beings are suffering. They all wish to be happy, but they do not know how to make the causes of happiness occur. They don’t understand cause-and-effect relationships. So isn’t it to be expected that mistakes will be made? Of course mistakes will be made. It’s only reasonable and logical. So the teacher would never hold it against the student. That relationship is like the Buddha’s compassion, all pervasive, beginningless, conditionless, without end. That is the nature of that love.

So when we look to the student’s commitment, or samaya, to the teacher, we should look to see the same depth, the same bonding, the same beauty in that commitment as well. And that commitment should be a joy on both parts. Less the flavor of duty and responsibility than the flavor of love. The love between the student and teacher is like the Buddha’s compassion.

Navigating the Darkness

September 13, 2014 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

As sentient beings revolving in samsara, trying to go through life in the ordinary ways that sentient beings go through life, we are unable to see some of the conditions of samsara. For instance, the Buddha teaches us that there are six realms of cyclic existence, six different realms, only one of which is human. There are the hellish realms, the hungry ghost realms, the animal realms, the human realms, the jealous god realms, the long life god realms.

The Buddha teaches us about those different realms. Well, I haven’t seen all of them, and most everybody I know hasn’t seen all of them, at least not that they can remember. I know for sure there are animals. I know for sure there are humans. But how can any of us know about these other realms? We have to rely, therefore, on the Buddha’s enlightened perception that is born from the profound realization that the Buddha accomplished and described when he said simply, “I am awake. I am awake.”

So we rely on that perception, and from that perception the Buddha has taught us many things. One of the things that Buddha has taught us is that all sentient beings are suffering. Suffering is all pervasive, and – sorry to ruin your perfect day – you need to learn the reality of cyclic existence. It is a little bit like needing to walk through a room full of furniture and obstacles and room dividers and shelves and sofas and rugs, and all kinds of things. Unfortunately because our vision is so obscured, it is as though that room were dark and the shades drawn and there were no lights on.

The Buddha teaches us that to learn about cyclic existence would be like turning the light on in that room. If you are unaware of the condition of cyclic existence, it is kind of like trying to get through a room full of obstacles with no help, with no vision, no way to decide how to get through that room. So you are going to stumble over things; you are going to fall over things. There will be many, many hurtful and painful obstacles. Instead, the Buddha recommends turn the lights on. Be aware of the condition of cyclic existence. Know what you are up against. Strategize your path through life intelligently rather than living carelessly and haphazardly, stumbling over everything, having every obstacle that could take you down, in fact, take you down.

Many of us have experienced painful life situations that could have been prevented by the generation of some merit or kind acts that produce virtue within the mind stream. So the Buddha teaches us to know carefully what samsara actually is.