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From The Spiritual Path:  A Compilation of Teachings by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In Vajrayana Buddhism, the Teacher is the cornerstone of all practice. The Teacher is everything—the underlying strength and the means by which transmission and understanding occur.

Let us compare the Teacher’s function with the function of various other objects of refuge. All people—not just Buddhists—have such objects. Try for a moment to determine your own. If you think that the accumulation of material wealth is the way to happiness, money has become your guru. The material things you treasure are your guru. If, on the other hand, you choose the beer-and-sports routine, watching ESPN every night until you fall asleep, you have accepted the TV as your guru. It pacifies you. It makes you temporarily happy. You betray yourself: these things are unreliable, impermanent, and deceptive. Yet you put your trust and faith in them. Nothing in our impermanent realm of phenomenal existence can lead to happiness. Nothing—even if it seems ideal, like the perfect job or the perfect relationship in a perfect split-level, with 2.5 perfect children surrounded by a perfect white picket fence. At the moment of death, you are alone.

According to Buddhist teaching, there is a lasting happiness: enlightenment. It is the only end to all forms of suffering, including impermanence. Enlightenment cannot be tainted; it cannot be eaten by moths. It cannot rust; it cannot be destroyed. Enlightenment is the true source of refuge, the only thing that will not allow you to be betrayed. True happiness cannot be taken away. It is permanent and unchanging—the steadfast, stable reality of the enlightened mind. When you achieve enlightenment, what is revealed is your own primordial-wisdom nature. Some people think that they must give birth to enlightenment or that they have to find it. Actually, the primordial-wisdom nature has never left you, nor is it unborn. It remains in the way that a crystal is still a crystal, even though covered by dirt and mud.

Once you accept enlightenment as your goal, you should understand that the Guru is someone who can get you there. What should you look for in a Guru? A Teacher should not be seeking power or personal gain. Your Guru should have profound compassion, profound awareness. Most important, your Teacher should be able to transmit to you a true path. Suppose you go to a psychiatrist who helps you to be happier, more effective. This is very useful, but it is only a temporary way to cope, whereas the Guru offers you supreme enlightenment. This has nothing to do with coping. In fact, it has nothing to do with satisfying the ego.

Do not be fooled by charisma, saying: “I can tell by my feelings. This is the Teacher for me!” Instead, ask: Does this person teach a path that has been proven, time and time again, to stabilize the mind to the extent that miraculous activity can occur? Does this Teacher offer a technology that can stabilize the mind during the death experience? Can this technology result in miraculous signs at the time of passing? Are there indications that others have had success with this path and can now return in an emanation form in order to benefit beings? Look at the people who have practiced before you. Look at their successes or failures. Examine the history of the path, including the accounts of any enlightenment it has produced. At their passing, practitioners may produce miraculous signs: rainless rainbows, sweet scents, the transformation of the body into a rainbow of light, leaving only the hair and nails, the mysterious formation of relics or other unusual substances. On the Vajrayana path, such miraculous signs have been witnessed and recorded by many. People have seen the rainbow body; they have smelled the sweet scents; they have seen these extraordinary events.

The Buddha Himself said that we should use logic in choosing a Teacher or a path. After that, however, you begin to rely on the Teacher for everything. Why? Because you make a god out of your Teacher? Do you lose your brains and become a drone or a bliss ninny? Not at all. We Americans like to think we are unique, important, the best in the world. We think that to be happy, we must develop our individuality, so the idea of following a Guru is unappealing. But a teacher should not be chosen with blind faith or rampant emotion. You should exercise both intelligence and surrender. They are not in conflict. They can coexist very comfortably within the same mind, the same heart.

Note that you do not surrender to a person. It is not about a person. Your Teacher represents the door to liberation, the path that leads to enlightenment. Your relationship with the Guru is the most precious of all relationships. This is you talking to you—and finding out that you are not you at all. This is a glimpse, a taste, of true nature. At last we have arrived at the correct way to understand the Teacher.

Cultivate the precious relationship with your Guru through devotion. Make sure, however, that it really is devotion—not merely the kow-towing to a physical being. Devotion is an understanding of refuge, an understanding of your goal, plus the courage to walk through the door you have chosen. Choose only once, and choose correctly. From then on, allow yourself the grace to love deeply and gently.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

An excerpt from the Mindfulness workshop given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo in 1999

Another aspect of our Ngöndro practice is purification, the prayers to Vajrasattva. How would it be if we were to sit for maybe an hour and practice the purification and confession of Vajrasattva and accumulate the mantra and then just put our books aside and consider it’s over?  That’s it.  I confessed.  I said all the prayers, the short ones and the long ones, short confession, long confession.  Remember, if you practice like that, you never have to revisit it again.  It’s a lazy, cop-out way to practice.

Instead, we should think, “I’m deeply involved in the practice of purification and confession which does not stop at the end of my practice.”  There are so many ways to practice that kind of purification: by being mindful, by making offerings in the way that I’ve described, by moving into a state of better recognition about what is precious and what is ordinary, and ultimately moving into the state of Recognition of the nature of all phenomena.  Automatically one is constantly purifying the senses, constantly purifying one’s intention, which is the very thing that needs purifying even more than everything else.  If we practice in that way as we’re walking around, it complements any confessional prayers that we make.

In most of the confessional prayers, if you really read the meaning and content of the prayers, there is talk about broken samaya in the confessional prayers.  Nobody really knows what that means.  Does that mean you didn’t do your mantra today?  Well, maybe on one level it means that, but on a deeper level, it is referring to the state of non-recognition.  So in everything that we do, if we continually make offerings, as we continually give rise to a deeper Recognition, then the five senses are being purified constantly. The habit that I’m suggesting you develop will antidote the automatic reaction that is so natural for us, so habitual.   Remember, we can insert this way of thinking or this way of practicing because we are human.

I really like animals, but one thing I’ve noticed about animals, even if they are trainable and very smart, they cannot change or alter the way they perceive their environment.  They can’t do that.  The dog can’t say, “Wait a minute, before I lift that leg, let’s think about the nature of that fire hydrant.”  The dog is not capable of this.  You are.  That is one of the great blessings of being a human being, and yet the habits that we tend to cultivate are the habits that you don’t even need to be a human being to do: that habit of automatically reacting, not taking oneself in hand, not creating any kind of space or a moment where we can Recognize the nature of reality, not making any offerings.  We tend to just automatically move through life like an automaton, like a robot.

However, being human, we can develop a little bit of space in our minds to antidote that constant clinging and reactivity, and yet we’re all about collecting things.  Well, you know, crows collect things.  We’re all about having relationships.  Well, even animals can bond for life.  We’re all about having children.  Well, dogs and cats do that, too.  Isn’t it wonderful that here in Dharma practice, if we choose to, if we practice sincerely, we can do that which only humans can do?  How amazing!

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The following is a music video prepared by a devoted student:

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Prayer To Manjushri

Obeisance to my Guru and Protector, Manjushri,

Who holds to his heart a scriptural text symbolic of his seeing all things as they are,

Whose intelligence shines forth as the sun, unclouded by delusions or traces of ignorance,

Who teaches in sixty ways with the loving compassion of a father for his only son,

All creatures caught in the prison of samsara, confused in the darkness of their ignorance, overwhelmed by their suffering.

You, whose dragon thunder-like proclamation of Dharma, arouses us from the stupor of delusions

And frees us from the iron chains of our karma, who wields the Sword of Wisdom

Hewing down suffering wherever its sprouts appear, clearing away the darkness of ignorance.

You whose princely body is adorned with the 112 marks of a Buddha, who has completed the stages achieving the highest perfection of a Bodhisattva, who has been pure from the beginning.

OM AH RA PA TSA NA DHI
(Repeat the mantra many times through. The last time:
DHI DHI DHI DHI DHI…..SOHA)

I bow down to you, O Manjushri. With the brilliance of your wisdom, O Compassionate One,

Illuminate the darkness enclosing my mind.

Enlighten my intelligence and wisdom so that I may gain insight

Into Buddha’s words and the texts that explain them.

 

Ceremony and Celebration

Sunday September 23rd

2:00 – 3:30 pm:
LONG LIFE CEREMONY with Khenpo Tenzin Norgay Rinpoche and Khenpo Pem Tsheri Sherpa.

MANDALA OFFERING to Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
(All attendees are invited to present individual offerings & scarves, which provide an opportunity to make a connection with the teacher)

3:30 – 5:00 pm:
Lama Dancing and Music by the monks of Palyul with other entertainment during Reception Picnic

We offer this joyful event free to all who can come. In the same spirit of generosity, we welcome any offerings or sponsorship of the activities you would like to make, as a way to increase the merit for you, your family and all beings. May your generosity ripen in your lives in auspicious ways in all future lifetimes!

Thank you all for being part of our family!

Join us for additional events on:
Saturday, Sept 22

Day of Practice and Generating Merit

10:00-11:30 am
Riwo Sang Chod (Smoke offering)
Vajrakilaya
21 Homages to Tara

11:30am-2:00pm
Break (Lunch on your own)

2:00-4:00 pm
Rigdzin Dupa Guru Yoga practice with abundant beautiful Tsog

Visit www.tara.org for additional celebration weekend activities, prayer practices and events.

Help sponsor this event

Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) is a Buddhist Temple in the Nyingma Tradition, founded by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo under the guidance of H.H. Penor Rinpoche.

KPC is a Bronze-level Guide Star Exchange participant, demonstrating our commitment to transparency through sharing information.

Kunzang Palyul Choling is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Federal Tax ID # 52-1501476.
All donations are fully tax deductible.

Contact information:

Kunzang Palyul Choling
18400 River Road
Poolesville, MD 20837
(301) 710-6259

[email protected]
www.tara.org

The following is a prayer from “The Great Perfection Buddha in the Palm of the Hand: The Lama’s Oral Instructions Upon the Recitation and Visualization of the Preliminary Practice of Ngondro” as revealed by Vidydhara Terton Migyur Dorje

The syllable GURU is the Guru in the hell realms, Guru Nampar-nön.

Reddish-black in color, he holds a vajra and a scorpion,

Protecting all beings in hell from the suffering of heat and cold.

The syllable PED is the Guru in the hungry spirit realm, Guru Nam-nang-ched.

Maroon in color, he holds a vajra and an iron phurba,

Protecting all hungry spirits from the suffering of hunger and thirst.

The syllable MA is the Guru in the animal realm, Guru Seng-ha-ten,

Blue-black in color, he holds a damaru and bell,

Protecting all animals from the suffering of inferior persecution,

The syllable SID is the Guru in the human realm, Guru Pema Jung.

White and red in color, he holds a skull and a vajra,

Protecting all humans from the suffering of birth, old age, sickness and death.

The syllable DHI is the Guru in the jealous gods realm, Guru Nam-par-gyal.

The color of smoke, he holds a Khatvanga and skull,

Protecting all jealous gods from the suffering of competitive warfare.

The syllable HUNG is the Guru in the god realm, Guru Sid-thub-dzin.

Yellow-white in color, he holds a vajra and bell,

Protecting all gods from the suffering of falling to the lower realms.

These six Gurus protect beings from the suffering of the six realms.

(Here one may repeat the Vajra Guru Mantra as many times as possible)

OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEMA SIDDHI HUNG

 

An excerpt from Marrying Spiritual Life with Western Culture by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

If you have a real relationship with your own nature and you really understood the wisdom and the beauty of the Buddha’s teaching and didn’t see it as his teaching, but as a wisdom that appeared in the world here.  You could see it as your teaching, as a wisdom that you could connect with.

Actually, we Westerners have a similar problem to what Black Americans have approaching Christianity.  Black Americans pray to white Jesus.  It’s not to say that their faith is small.  I don’t know whether they have a problem with it or not, but it must be odd.  What does it look like seeing a white face on an altar when you’re a black person?  Go home and look at all those Asian faces on your altar?  They don’ t look like us.  What to do about it?  How do you take refuge?  How do you connect?  It’s not about those pictures.  It’s not about those faces.  It’s about you!  And it connects inside.

It isn’t about the shape of those eyes.  It’s about what those eyes see.  So you have to have that completely personal relationship where you look beyond that which is slanted or colored or this way or that way.  It’s got to be a deeply personal relationship.  To do that you must connect deeper than you’ve ever been before.  We love to just skate over the surface of our experience of life.  We’re even addicted to the highs and lows.

You can’t really understand why and how to take refuge by learning a set of equations or laws or rules.  These can only function as guidelines.  It’s really up to us to be powerful and strong and noble and knowing and awake on our path.  Virtue cannot be collected.  It has to be experienced, tasted, understood.  Its nature must be understood.

This is not the news we want to hear.  We want an easy religion.  We think, “Just tell us the ten things we have to do so that we’re not uncomfortable about dying.” I’m not saying those ten things are bad they’re good, they’re wonderful, but where does it lead you?  Aren’t you still the same scared little kid who was so neurotic because you are compressed with rules and society and with being told you can’t feel things?  And now we’re going to do this with our religion too.  Ten more times.

What if, instead of being a girdle that makes us out of touch just trying so hard to be good, we experienced our path – our method – in a wisdom way, in a connected way, in an in-touch way?  From that fertilization that happens when you really understand an idea and it causes you to go, “Ah, hah, therefore…” from that point of view it’s like a plant or a tree coming up inside you and growing.  It bears fruit.  It is a joyful thing, and you can see the fruit of your life.  Most of us are so unhappy and so neurotic because we cannot see the fruit of our life and we do not understand its value.  We have not tasted it.  This direct relationship one can taste.

It needs to be like that in order for us to really take refuge and not be lost, little kids scared of dying, just trying to do the right thing be good boys and good girls with a new set of rules – because maybe if we just had a new set of rules, maybe then we’d be good.

Instead of that, what if we were dynamically in love, inspired, breathing in and out on our path?  The path can, in that way, be a companion, a joyfulness, a child of yours, a creation, a painting, something beautiful you’ve done with your life.  You can’t make a beautiful painting by number.  You have to make a beautiful painting from your heart.

So ask yourself, where are you?  If you find that deadness inside of you, don’t blame your path, don’t blame your teacher, don’t blame your society, and don’t blame the Buddha.  Instead, go within and find what is true and meaningful to you.  Work the sums.  Reason it out.  Lord Buddha himself said, “Forget blind faith.”  He said, “Reason it out.”  The path should make sense.  It should be logical and meaningful to you, not to me.   What’s it going to mean to you if it’s meaningful to me?  It has to be logical and meaningful to you.  This is what the Buddha said.  It would really help you to try that out for yourself, living in a society where we are separate from some fundamental life rhythms and where we are trained to think that things are happening outside of us.

We’re in a world filled with terrorism and racial abuse, religious abuse, all kinds of conflict, and yet we think racial intolerance for instance, is happening out there.  We read about it in the paper.  No, racial intolerance is happening in here.  That’s where it’s happening.

It’s like that with everything on this path.  You cannot let it happen out there.  It’s your responsibility, your empowerment, your life.  Waiting for someone to tell you how to live it is not going to fly.  When you walk on a spiritual path that you know, that you have examined, that you have given rise to understanding, you draw forth your natural innate wisdom.  That fills your heart with a sense of truth because you understand it – not because someone else does.  That’s the way to do it, and that’s what the Buddha recommended.  In fact, he said, “I’ve given you the path.  Now work out your own salvation.”

That wasn’t just a flip thing.  When people hear that they go, “It’s such a cool thing that he said that!  He must have had a great sense of humor.”  He meant it!  The path is there, but you’ve got to work it out.  That’s how you walk on the path.  Otherwise you’re walking alongside the path.  Then you’re a friend of Dharma, an admirer of Dharma, but not a practitioner – even if you wear the robes.

So handle the dead zone.  Empower yourself.  There is no reason why you can’t.  Don’t live your life by “bash-to-fit, paint-to-match.”  Don’t do that.  You are alive.  In every sense, your nature is the most vibrant force in the universe, the only force in the universe.  It is all there is.  To play this game of duality where you stand outside your own most intimate experience and like a sheep get led through your life, that is not the way to go.

Many of you came to this path from another path because you felt dead there.  But remember this:  Wherever you go, there you are.  You brought the deadness with you.  So handle it.

I hope that you really, really take this teaching to heart because it’s really an important thing.  If I had one gift that I could give you all, it would be to stay alive in your path, to have your spiritual life be like a precious jewel inside of you, living, something to warm you by.  If life took everything else away from you, which it will eventually, this is the thing that cannot be taken.  Thank you very much.

Copyright © 1996 Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhists Think by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
You should think of the Buddha’s teaching as a philosophy that you can follow according to your capability. You don’t need to look or act a certain way. Basically, what you’re learning is cause and effect. You learn that there are ten virtuous activities that bring about Realization, if they are done frequently and consistently. These are: 1.) Composition––the creation of prayers or stories which increase others’ faith. 2.) Offering––even a simple butterlamp, offered daily to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha creates causes for Buddhahood at some future time. 3.) Generosity and kindness to others, even at the expense of your own comfort; you are one, and they are many. 4.) Attentiveness to the teachings––sometimes difficult when you want to go outside or fall asleep. 5.) Recitation––of prayers, practices, and mantras. 6.) Memorization––of the teachings and instructions for practice. 7.) Teaching––appropriate to do only when we are ready. 8.) Praying. 9.) Contemplation––of the teachings you receive. 10.) Meditation.
First we receive training about how to perform these activities; then we practice them the best we can. Some people will spend a whole week contemplating the teaching I’m now giving; others won’t think about it until they come back for another teaching. But they come back! And there is virtue in that.
The ball is in your court. Your progress will depend on how hard you work, how well you take hold of your mind, how much you demand of yourself, how courageous and honest you are, and how much true generosity you develop. Accordingly, you will pacify the obstacles that keep you from achieving the Awakening to your own primordial Wisdom Nature.
Until you do this, you will wander helplessly in the six realms of cyclic existence. It would take weeks to give a thorough traditional teaching on these realms, but the purpose here is only to explain how Buddhists think.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo
To download the complete teaching, click here and scroll down to How Buddhists Think

 

Boundless Treasury of Blessings is now available on Amazon in paperback and kindle versions. This forward prepared by Khenpo Pem Sheri Sherpa:

NAMO GURU DEWA DAKI YE

​​​​​​It is a great blessing and honor to have an opportunity to give a short introduction about Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo and her noble activities. 

Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo is a Western reincarnation of a Bodhisattva who practices Secret Mantrayana and is spreading the Buddha’s doctrine in the West in a way that is accessible to Westerners. I have known her since 1996, when His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche enthroned her at Namdroling Monastery in Bylakuppe, India. She is the founder of Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Chöling(KPC), which is located in Poolesville, MD, USA. In this Dharma center, there is 24/7 prayer, group practice, recitation, and other spiritual and community activities; and it is open for the public as well. 

In order to understand who Jetsunma is and what KPC is we must know a brief historical introduction to Buddhism and Tibetan Buddhism. The founder of Buddhism, Buddha Shakyamuni was born in Lumbini grove in Nepal, the son of King Sudhodana and Queen Maya Devi. His early life was spent in palatial luxury, and he excelled in all the pursuits of his time, both academic and athletic. Slowly he began to doubt the validity of his worldly life. At the age of 29, he renounced his worldly life, and left the palace. After six years of unwavering meditation, at the age 35, he attained enlightenment.

Through his infinite compassion, Buddha started to teach, but his teaching was so vast and profound that it was broadly divided into three categories or levels which are now known as the Hinayana School, Mahayana School, and the Vajrayana or Secret Mantrayana School, which uses a variety of skillful methods to bring about that same vast and profound realization in a relatively short time. These different traditions were gradually propagated all over India, Nepal, and many other Asiancountries. The  Buddha’s teachings are still unbroken today. The Hinayanateachings have been preserved in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia and other countries in Southeast Asia. The Mahayana teachings have been preserved in China, Japan, and Korea; and the Vajrayana teachings have been preserved mainly in Tibet, Bhutan, and the Himalayan part of Nepal. 

Tibet was doubly fortunate. Not only was it one of the few countries in which Vajrayana continued to be practiced, it was also the only one in which the full range of teaching, from all three traditions, was transmitted and preserved. 

Over the centuries these many strands of the Buddha’s teaching have been handed down from master to students, as demonstrated by the lineage holder. Today there are four main schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Of these four main schools, the Nyingma school was the very first Buddhist school in Tibet. It was establishedaround the eighth century and is known as the old-translation school. The Kagyu, Shakya, and Gelug schools came after the tenth century and are called new-translation schools. 

The first Nyingma school masters were mainly the Indian masters Shantarakshita, Vimalamitra and Padmasambhava, whom the Tibetans refer to as Guru Rinpoche, the precious Master. These masters handed the teachings down through fully realized Tibetan masters such as Longchen, Jigme Lingpa, Mipham Rinpoche and others. Within the Nyingma lineage, there are also six mother monasteries: Palyul,Kathog, Shechen, Dzogchen, Mindroling, and Dorje Drag. 

Palyul was founded by Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, the elder brother of the previous Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo. The lineage was passed down from Rigdzin KunzangSherab to Pema Lhundrup Gyatso and Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche throughtwelve Palyul lineage holders to His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche and Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo. All the teachings have been passed down unbroken from master to students until the present master. 

Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo is none other than an emanation of the great yogini Mandarava who was the consort of Guru Padmasambhava. Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo is a Bodhisattva who has boundless love and compassion toward all sentient beings. A Bodhisattva is one who has bodhichitta (the mind of enlightenment), one who has transcended samsara. To be a genuine Buddhist practitioner, you must go through a traditional system. First, you must take refuge in front of the Three Jewels, the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and also, in Vajrayana, in front of the root master (the guru). After that we also need to arousethe Bodhichitta. Without Bodhichitta we cannot possibly attain the ultimate goal of complete enlightenment. Then in the path of Dzogchen, Bodhicitta must be aroused because it is the only doorway to Dzogchen. In essence, all Dzogchenpractice is guru yoga practice. It is a special, powerful, skillful means for accomplishing this path and attaining the siddhis, spiritual accomplishments. Just practicing only guru yoga will directly destroy dualistic thoughts.  Then one canrest in the unaltered natural state of awareness (rigpa) itself. 

I think Western people are very good at analyzing and researching the reason to practice, but in order to accomplish the practice itself, one must have a good master who can show the methods of skillful means and confer blessings. That could be the reason that the Bodhisattva, Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, came in Western form to teach Western people in their own language. 

I wish and pray that this book will bring immense benefit to all the Western people as well as whoever sees it, reads it, contemplates it, and meditates on it. May all sentient beings be free from the ocean of suffering. May all sentient beings attain complete enlightenment in this very life. 

 

May Bodhichitta, precious and sublime, 

Arise where it has not yet come to be;

And where it has arisen may it never fail 

But grow and flourish ever more and more. 

 

Khenpo Pem Tsheri Sherpa 

Namdroling Monastery