The Lama Never Leaves JNT 006 | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Accepting the Offering of the Buddhas

March 8, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Lama Never Leaves”

I have seen amazing things. My own students do amazing things. When they weren’t healthy or when they weren’t fit they would do amazing things and they would benefit the stupa and create the causes for continued accomplishment. I’ve seen them do amazing things. I saw once one nun who was determined to get to one of my teachings. Her knees were so bad she couldn’t walk. I saw her crawling, crawling. And I immediately dedicated that merit to her swift enlightenment. And you know, I didn’t think to myself, “Oh, look at that, she’s crawling to see me.” I thought to myself, “Eh ma ho. How beautiful. How beautiful.”

So we have to stop thinking in such an ordinary way. We have to start thinking in the way of Dharma, in the way of practitioners. You can’t wear robes and live an ordinary life. You have to do for the sentient beings. You have to maintain this garden of refuge across the street for their sake as well as your own. You have to do for the Sangha. It’s just as much merit to do for the Sangha, to make offerings to the stupas, to make offerings to the Lamas. This is extraordinary. To make offerings even to the Sangha. I know the wonderful Chang family has been offering food for myself and also for the Sangha here. What a tremendous, tremendous gathering of virtue that is. What an awesome family. What values to teach your children. My goodness. What an extraordinary wealth to pass on to your young. Sure you could pass on a few dollars, but what is that? To pass on the wealth of how to be happy… My goodness.

Yet we just kind of trudge around in our habitual tendencies without seeing the beauty of it all, the wonder of it all—that here in this place lives Lord Buddha himself, Guru Rinpoche himself, without doubt in Nirmanakaya form, and we can always go to pray. You know, we might say, “Oh, I can’t practice right now, because my practice is not going very well.” Well, that’s when you practice. That’s when you crawl across the street to the stupa if you have to and you recite prayers to the stupa. You say, “Please, I’m begging you with tears in my eyes. Help me in my practice. Come to me as wisdom. Clear my self-absorption so that I can benefit sentient beings and before I die let me do something meaningful other than to hang out with my own distorted phenomena. Let me make this world a place with less suffering. Please, I’ll do anything.”

You lay down your pride, you lay down your thoughts, you lay down your body, you lay down your efforts, you lay down your offerings and you rise up a practitioner. The way of Dharma is to turn our minds from ordinary things—those things that are so relentlessly stupid as to take up all of our time and all of our effort and give us zero, zilch, nothing in return—and to pick up and accept and cherish that which is here for us, that which holds out its arms to us, like our own primordial mother, and says “Come, I’m here for you. Bring the others. I’m here.”

Do not turn a blind eye to these offerings that I and other lamas have given you. They are for you. These stupas, what we have here, is only for you. And so I ask you to accept once again. I ask you not to be beggars under the table lapping up crumbs, but to come to the feast. Come to the feast at last.

That’s our Dharma talk for today. I hope it is of some benefit to you. And I really sincerely mean for this to result in activity.

Let me make one more mention. We talk about creating the causes for bringing the lama back, so we maintain the house for the lama. If the lama has a habit of putting a wrap on their legs when they’re by their chair, the wrap should be by the chair. The lama’s slippers should be by his bed. The lama’s favorite cup should be out on the counter. The lama’s altar should be opened every day. If you really want to create the causes for the lama’s return, that’s how you do it. The lama never leaves.

When the lama is not here, the lama’s picture should be on the throne. And we should think like that. The lama has never left. And that’s our practice. That’s our guru yoga. And we have the visible means of support using the stupas that way as well.

Utilizing the Antidote

March 7, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Lama Never Leaves”

Now it’s also said that the stupa has a mandala of enlightened activity around it the same as a living Buddha does. That is to say, that a stupa that is powerfully consecrated with relics, and consecrated by an enlightened lama who has accomplished the mantra, has a radius of about 100 miles of influence. Isn’t that amazing?

Yet, we are not keeping that strength going, that fire going. The power of the stupas will be, by definition of mind, diminished because our minds are not with them. So it’s a terrible, terrible frightful waste. It’s really like having all the lamas of the lineage across the street. Oh, we pride ourselves that we have robes and we can go places and we can do practices. Some of us even have the more advanced practices. We can stare at bindus and stuff like that. But if we don’t walk across the street and take care of the stupas, you can say we have no practice. You could say that. Because it’s like the lamas of the lineage are there, and no one is honoring them. We call them to our practice. We pray to the lamas of the lineage. We visualize them gathering in front of us, but we abandon them. And so what is this cartoon in the sky in front, when we have abandoned the actual Nirmanakaya form?

They say that the lama and also the stupas have this 100 mile radius, approximately, of activity. I built these stupas here because I was hoping that they would influence our government, but I don’t think that has happened as yet,. I could be wrong, but I don’t see it. So I’m wondering if I could prevail upon each and every one of you to take these stupas into your heart, to think of them as your guides, your objects of refuge and to honor them in the way that they should be honored so that the lamas through these magnificent stupas can carry out their enlightened activity. Because these stupas are an extension and an appearance of the Buddha’s enlightened activity.

It’s up to us to plant that firmly in the world, to make the roots deep and to keep the causes pure and untainted for future accomplishment and future happiness. There are so many stories in Buddhist teachings about particular practitioners that came to their own fruition through some slight, almost mindless, deed in the past concerning a stupa. I’m a terrible Buddhist storyteller because I forget the details and I get the punch lines wrong, but I’ll try. I’ll try to tell you a little bit of what I remember.

There is this one story, for instance, about a pig who was being chased by a dog. And the pig was a pig. He had been wallowing in mud, and he was all dirty. He had a muddy body and a muddy face and a muddy tail. And the dog thought, “Oh, I’m gonna’ get me some pork chops,” and started chasing the pig. And round and round this stupa they went. After they went round the stupa a few times, the pig smashed into the stupa accidentally and the mud from his body fixed a little crack in the stupa. That [pig] was reborn in Dewachen, or some enlightened paradise, because of that cause and immediately received teachings and the ability of accomplishment. He was reborn as a bodhisattva, and was given every means to accomplish; and accomplishment was gained. A pig! Accidentally! These stories are told to us as an indication of what you’re missing, of how amazing the merit is of caring for the body of the Buddha.

Conversely, we are told that to leave a stupa in decay and to not honor the stupa properly will bring nothing but obstacles. And we’ve had lots of obstacles here. We’ve had obstacles to seeing the teacher, and that’s me. I’ve tried very hard to get here many times and yet there are obstacles. And I believe in my heart that these obstacles are because when I left, the stupas were not like this. I’ve returned to this, and this is the body of the Buddha.

Now I’m not saying this to make myself seem like a high up person or anything like that. Normally in monasteries, the Khenpos get to tell these stories about their lamas. I wish we had that condition, but we don’t. So, allow me to just commit the non-virtue of telling you what the other lamas have said about me. They’ve said that if you don’t see this teacher very much because of who she is, you should understand that this is because your own merit is diminishing, not because she’s not here to serve you, not because she doesn’t want to serve you. It’s strictly cause and result here. Because of the nature of this teacher—and because of the nature of my teacher and because of the nature of the other teachers of this lineage—their merit is such and their accomplishment is such that we must always create the causes of continuing to meet with them. They’re just not a collection of Tibetan jimokes that do their thing over there and then come and do it over here. These are beings who have accomplished Dharma and who have returned solely to benefit sentient beings. Their only wish is to bring benefit., and yet we are not creating the causes for that.

Now that I know what the stupas look like, I will wait before I ask His Holiiness to return here until they are better. I would not break his heart like that. And I’m not saying I’m a good mama and you’re bad kids. It’s not like that. I’m telling you that this is your practice. I want you to be happy. I want you to be free of obstacles. I want you to attain that pure awakened state where you know what to accept and what to reject. I say to you, “Reject your own phenomena that tells you I don’t wanna. I’d rather have fun. Reject your own phenomena that says I can’t because I’m sick, I’ve got a headache, I blah blah blah. Reject your own phenomena and accomplish Dharma instead.”

Go to the stupa and if you can bend a little bit, you can bend to offer. If you can bend a little bit, you can bend to clean. I tell you if you are sick to death and worried for your life, you should crawl to the Migyur Dorje stupa saying prayers all the way, because that’s what a smart Tibetan would do. That’s what I would do. If you can’t walk, get there anyhow.

Soothing the Inflamed Mind

March 4, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Lama Never Leaves”

Beginning to appreciate the condition and the suffering of other sentient beings, turning the mind in that way, does two things. Offering merit to them does several things. First of all, it builds on our merit/non-virtue scale. We’ve got the merit on this side, we’ve got the non-virtue on that side. And we’re heavier on the non-virtue side. So offering merit puts more focus on virtue. Our minds are more attuned to virtue and this tends to bring forth ripenings that are more congruous with what we want on our path, more sympathetic, more joyful, more fulfilling. More meritorious things will ripen. Happiness will ripen because our minds are more focused on the heavier [virtuous] pile. That’s naturally how it is. When we are more focused on the virtue pile rather than the non-virtue pile, which is like something that is sore and raw and inflamed, the samsaric mind becomes then soothed, calmed. We are not wallowing in the inflammation of it. We are on the virtuous side now. So we find that temporarily and that ultimately, more permanently, the inflammation starts to go down. The inflammation going down is almost like putting hydrocortisone on a horrible, raw, terrible rash. It calms the angriness of it; it calms the rawness of it. So it’s a little bit like that. It takes the inflammation down a whole lot. And we find that when our minds are calmer and more rested, we are happier.

Now, when our minds are very active and very agitated, we may feel more energetic. Sadly some of us have had so few true moments of happiness and joy and peaceful calm abiding that when we’re really active and really hyper and really busy doing something really fun, we think we’re great. We’re really joyful! Then what happens later is like after a sugar high. We’re totally wiped out afterwards and we have the other side of that mood swing. So ultimately, as we turn our minds towards Dharma, as we begin to commit virtuous acts and to gather meritorious thoughts and ways of being, then we find out that gradually over time, we become more joyful, happier. We begin to notice things that we didn’t notice before like some beautiful smell. Then we offer it to the Buddhas and we find a moment of happiness. Or some beautiful sight, and then we offer it to the Buddhas, or maybe to our own Root Guru, and we think, “Oh, just for a moment, I felt happy there, just for a moment.” Then we begin to catch on and that’s wonderful. When we start to catch on, that’s the right stuff!

The Nature of Stupas

March 5, 2017March 4, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Lama Never Leaves”

Today, I would like to talk about what we have here. Not only the objects of support that I’ve talked about, but we have the stupas. I would like to explain to you the nature of the stupas. I would like to explain to you a little bit about the treasures that we have here. To say that there is nothing like this in America sounds prideful. Yet, I am not the one saying it, really. I’m telling you what other teachers who have come here and who have been around America have said—that there’s nothing else like this, that this is quite remarkable. And I say, “Well, we’re just getting started. I hope it’s good.” We have here these extraordinary stupas that have been built according to the ancient Palyul tradition by a number of lamas—His Holiness, and then Tulka Rigzin Pema Rinpoche who is a renowned stupa builder. The stupas have been blessed by every lama that has come here; but they have been properly consecrated, about that there is no doubt.

The stupas have different levels and ultimately when they are born, that is to say, after they are completely built and the lama actually generates the entire mandala of the deities and all the objects of refuge, , and descends that entire mandala into the stupa, the stupa becomes then a living presence. The stupa becomes like the Buddha in Nirmanakaya form, that is to say in the physical form.

On the bottom of the Stupa, there are many objects there that indicate the things of the world to be overcome, such as objects of violence like knives and guns and weapons, and they are buried underneath. There are prayers and objects and images of suppression, including symbols of death, that go on top of that and they suppress the things of the world that are harmful., At the time of the filling of the Enlightenment Stupa, His Holiness said, “Well, it would be good if we had the skull of a wolf to put down underneath there.” I went, “The skull of a wolf? In Maryland???” So we were rushing around thinking, “How in the world does one get the skull of a wolf?” trying to figure it out. And then we had the great good fortune, I guess… A fox up the road got run over and we had an intact fox skull. So we brought the poor little fox skull to His Holiness and said, “Would this do?” And he went, “This is pathetic. Look how small it is. Well, if that’s what you call wolf in America, this will have to do!” So it turns out, the fox gets in there asthe symbol of death. We have symbols of old age, of sickness, of death, of all kinds of suffering, and the suppression of that.

Above that, there are different layers. There are the practices: beginning stage practice, generation stage practice, completion stage practice, accomplishment. Then there are the objects and prayers and mantras that are associated with all these different levels wrapped in a very succinct way, arranged perfectly like the mandala of the deities. It has to be arranged very perfectly, and it’s all very secret and careful. Nobody can look in there unless they’ve been on the stupa diet, which is no animal flesh, no alcohol, no sexual activity and no ordinary stuff of any kind while you’re building the stupa. And the many many gizillions—I don’t even know how many—of mantras , with saffron water sprayed on them that are rolled so tight, some done by machine, because we could get them rolled tighter, and some of them done by students who themselves were reciting mantra at the same time they were rolling them very tightly and sticking to the stupa diet. So everything very carefully arranged, everything very perfect. You can’t leave a drop of sweat or a bit of DNA in the stupa unless you have achieved enlightenment. So nobody gets to really climb in there without being clothed up and very very careful.

When the lama then brings the stupa to fruition, there is of course the vestibule in which the deity sits, and the deity itself is completely consecrated like the deities on the altar, and they themselves have all the accomplishment figures in them. And then the relics are at the top. Some of them are wrapped up to the spine, that is a very large piece of wood with mantra written all over it going down the middle. Some of them are wrapped body, speech, and mind mantras of enlightenment. So then when the lama descends the deities into the stupa, the stupa is completely able to receive every blessing that the lama is capable of conferring. All the materials are blessed, purified and perfect. All the needs have been met.

The lama that actually empowers the stupa is always a lama of accomplishment. That is to say, Tulku Rigzin Pema Rinpoche is known as a stupa lama and maintains the stupa diet always. He maintains retreat a lot of the time in order to keep the stupa-related accomplishments fresh in his mind as though they were like fresh bread, just right there at the tip of his tongue or the tip of his mind—however you would put it—able to be conferred. Then of course His Holiness Penor Rinpoche who empowered the Enlightenment Stupa is a living Buddha and is known worldwide as a living Buddha. In Tibet, people gather the dirt that he walks on and save it and put it on their altars. His foot-print even. He never is not practicing. I’ve seen the way his mind works. He is like… Well, he is a living Buddha. There is no other thing to say about it.

Right in Front of You

March 3, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Lama Never Leaves”

What I would like to talk about today is our opportunity right here. We have a tremendous opportunity. Whenever lamas come to this temple, they say, “This is a living jewel in America.” That’s what they say. They say that this temple is a living jewel; that it’s the real thing. They use phrases like that. This is really Dharma; this is the right stuff. They also say that we have all the objects of support here. We don’t really know what that means, but we’re glad we have it. So I’ll tell you.

We have these visible objects of support, meaning that, for instance, right in front of us, we have the cosmological display of the mind of enlightenment. That is the sand mandala that remains there. His Holiness [Penor Rinpoche] allowed it to remain so that we can have with us that display and take refuge and meditate and be mindful of that and to learn. It is the very display of the mind of enlightenment. Each object in the mandala has specific meaning and so we are delighted to have this.

Then we also have beautiful statues. The statues are not specifically the objects of refuge, but they are physical supports for the objects of refuge. In other words, our eyes are allowed to rest on these objects. Our eyes are allowed to, for instance, study the hand positions, the objects that are being held and to learn from them the meaning of the objects, because each of the objects that any of the statues hold has to do with a quality of the Enlightened Buddha. So each and every object that is held has to do with quality or maybe in some cases activity, like in the case of, statue of Mahakala that may hold a great lasso. He lassoes the negativity and pacifies it. So it has to do with the qualities and the activities of the enlightened mind. We ourselves use the same images in our practice so that we can practice these very qualities and these very activities. For instance, if we generate ourselves as Manjushri, we then are holding the sword that cuts the darkness of ignorance.

Then we have an altar where we can make many offerings. We try to make the offerings as extensive and as beautiful and as exceptional as possible. Maybe we wouldn’t think to have so many flowers in our own home. Maybe we wouldn’t think to offer so many bowls of rice. Why would you want to have so much rice or so much water or so many candles? Why would you put so many sweets and delicacies and things on the cabinets like that? You wouldn’t do that in your own home. And that reminds you that here we are in this amazing temple with these objects of refuge and we are making many offerings. It reminds us that these are offerings; and we again, in some subtle way, offer them when we see them being offered that way. So that is a condition by which we can practice virtue and gather merit. Anytime we make an offering to an altar, there is a great deal of merit in that, and our minds become more purified and more virtuous. And so that is a cause for happiness.

Here are the statues. They’re not just ordinary statues, that is to say, lumps that are formed to look like the Buddha. Each of them has been empowered, and there are specific mantras that are within each one of them. Usually there are mantras that are general and there are mantras that are specific to the deity. Inside there is a central channel, as though it were a living deity where the central channel is the beginning emanation of the deity’s form. Inside each and every one of them is a a copper tube, or maybe it can be wood, like the spine of the deity. And so in every single one, there are profound prayers and many offerings. Some of them have relics in them. Some of them have jewels, no really fabulous diamonds, so there’s no sense stealing any of them. We actually had somebody in Poolesville steal a ring from the stupa once and he lost his finger—the finger with the ring on it— so he returned the ring. You don’t want to do that. You want to think of whatever offerings are in there as being the very jewel of enlightenment and that that is something precious.

By the lama’s power, each and every statue is empowered; that is to say, the lama generates the deity and invites the deity to remain. And so the deity actually remains as this statue. That doesn’t mean Guru Rinpoche is here and not there, or there and not here. It doesn’t mean that, but it does mean that these statues should be treated like living Buddhas. And that is the cause for great merit. There are many practices that are done, particularly during Losar [Tibetan new year], where we take a statue of the Buddha and we carefully wash it and say many prayers. We say, “Although the Buddha does not need washing, by this washing may all sentient beings be cleansed of the suffering of non-virtue.” And so the cleansing of the Buddha is a tremendous virtuous offering to make, you know, to cleanse the Buddha with saffron water and to offer the Buddha a cloak. Although the Buddha is never cold, one would offer that cloak in the hopes that, “By this offering may all sentient beings be free of the suffering of want, of nakedness or of cold, or of not having any clothing, and may they be clothed eventually with the gorgeous array of Dharma.” So we make these kinds of wishing prayers.

When we make these wishing prayers for others, we are making them for ourselves, as well. In fact, there’s almost no need to include ourselves in those prayers, although we certainly may, and many of the prayers have words like that, “May I and all beings…,” or “May all beings and myself included…,” like that. But whenever we make prayers for the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings, for the end of their suffering, for their continued advance upon the path, then surely you must know that by the merit of that, we also are accumulating a great deal of merit to do that very same thing. So that merit is ours as well. In fact, when you accomplish something meritorious, by dedicating that merit, the minute you dedicate it, you can no longer burn it up in an adverse way. It’s like you put it in the bank. You can’t spend it anymore. And even though it goes to benefit all sentient beings, it’s still in your bank. It’s awful we have to explain it that way, but ours is a materialistic society, and that’s how we understand things.

So whenever we commit some kind of virtuous act, we should immediately think, “This I dedicate to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.” Whenever we go round and round the stupas—even trying to relieve our own suffering, which many of us do and should really, because we have had cures around the Stupas—we have had amazing turn-arounds in people’s mental states, their habitual tendencies, even mental illness. We’ve had amazing events come about through circumambulating the stupas and making many prayers. The minute we do that, we should absolutely dedicate that to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.

When we pray for our own health, we should not do so without praying for the health of others as well. When we pray for our own happiness, we should think, “Oh, here I am in this land of great fortune; and here I am securely, hopefully, upon the path, and here I am in front of the objects of refuge and yet I can be so miserable. If this is possible, then how much more miserable than I am must other sentient beings be—those who have no food, who have no home, who are in war, who experience earth changes or tsunami or terrible events. Here I am in comfort and I am suffering, then therefore I pray that their suffering will cease also.

Cause and Effect and the Antidote to Unhappiness

March 2, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Lama Never Leaves”

Lord Buddha’s teachings are always reasonable and logical. He teaches us that, for instance, if we are lonely and unhappy, we should look to find the causes of that. He teaches us that causes are never outside. They seem to be, but they are never outside because actually we are living with our own karmic habitual tendencies and propensities. So if we are lonely and unhappy, we should look to the deeper causes. The deeper causes may be that in the past, whether in this lifetime or in some previous lifetime, we allowed the others around us to be unsupported and lonely and unhappy. Or perhaps we committed some profound non-virtue with our minds and so now, in our mind, we have the habit or the result of loneliness and unhappiness. Perhaps in the past, we caused someone mental suffering or mental affliction, and so now in the present, we find ourselves feeling that same mental affliction. But we can only remember since the time of our birth, or somewhat after that, and we don’t know what the cause was really. It’s hard to see. We have to go by the Buddha’s teachings because Lord Buddha is that state of enlightenment which has the wisdom to see causes and results. So we are taught if we have certain results within our life, such as unhappiness and loneliness, we should look for deep causes If we can’t find some reason in this lifetime for our loneliness and unhappiness, that is to say, that we ourselves have not brought about similar loneliness and unhappiness to others, then we should think that probably the cause has been in the deep past. So we must assume that in the past, we have caused some unhappiness to others.

Now, here we are on the path, and we are told to apply the antidote. I shouldn’t leave that part out. And the antidote, of course, would be to do one’s best to uphold the Bodhisattva Vow and to benefit others as strongly and as purposefully as we possibly can. Of course, as monks and nuns, we will do that within the context of Dharma activities. As lay people, hopefully, we will do that within the context of Dharma activities as well. Yet we also have many opportunities in our lives to be of benefit to others in ordinary but very special ways. Some of us are doctors or nurses or counselors or those who help others. So there are human ways to help others and there are extraordinary Dharma ways to help others, and we should apply that antidote.

One thing that not only I have noticed but practically every pop-psychologist that has arms to write a book with nowadays will tell you is that in doing for others, one becomes happy. Self-absorption and ego cherishing, only thinking about what you want and what you don’t have, leads to further unhappiness and selfishness. So it’s doing for others that actually brings up the spirit, and I personally know that this is true. I know that this is true.