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

As westerners, we want to make Bodhichitta about feeling: “Feelings, nothing more than feelings…” You know that song? I wish they’d never written it, because somehow it’s gotten into our consciousness as Americans. We’re singing this tune and believing it, hook, line and sinker.

Here’s a magic golden key: Once we realize that giving rise to the Bodhicitta is not about a feeling,we can be more tolerant with ourselves, more comfortable on the path. We can still consider ourselves practitioners of the Bodhichitta if we’re in a bad mood. Do Bodhisattvas ever get PMS? Yes, they do. I can tell you that for a fact. Do Bodhisattvas ever wake up feeling like they got off on the wrong side of the bed and they are not going to be happy? And they are determined not to be happy? Yes, they do. Do Bodhisattvas ever get sick to death of everything? Yes, they do. Do Bodhisattvas ever wish that everybody in samsara were o.k. and they could just ride off into the sunset and do exactly what they want? Oh Lordy, yes they do! Bodhisattvas feel all of those ways, but they have that practice, that knowledge and that determination.

Once you let go of the idea that compassion is about a certain feeling or appearance or some ridiculous verbiage about love and light, then maybe you can be comfortable on your path. Maybe you can still be a Bodhisattva when you have PMS—because you don’t get time off for that I’m afraid to tell you. Sentient beings are still suffering, whether you have PMS or not. So you become a mature practitioner. Human frailties are human frailties and we all have them. We’re walking around in human bodies with arms and legs and we feel the way we feel. But what has that got to do with the needs of sentient beings? Our determination, therefore, through really studying and practicing in this way (link to yesterday’s teaching), should remain firm and strong.

I have my really bad moments. Yet I have to say that every time I have a bad moment when I just don’t feel like it, I learn to respect and understand the condition of sentient beings. If you didn’t have those feelings once in a while, you wouldn’t even know what you were up against, would you? It’s almost like that’s part of who you are. So be comfortable with that and don’t let it influence how you engage on the path. If anything, let it make you even more determined. It’s o.k. to be exactly who you are and be a Bodhisattva.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

The following is from a twitter conversation between Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and one of her followers:

Questioner to Jetsunma: That’s very true. I have to work hard not to hate. It hurts the hater most of all.

Jetsunma: Here is a method to pacify hatred and too much attachment, which are often combined. This sounds gross but it works!

Okay, let’s find out about this person. First, imagine the eyeballs hanging on a branch. Head sliced thin. One arm near your feet the other about a mile away. Torso also sliced thin. Imagine legs dumped in ocean. Now, where is the one you hate or love? Are they in the hanging eyeballs? The arms here and there? The floating legs? The slices? Where is the person? The mind? What do you hate/love? Can you find them? This will loosen the attachment that causes the emotion by recognizing it’s all just phenomena and fundamentally void. Keep doing it until you feel better and see how odd it all is. You cannot harm the other person or yourself unless the motivation is malevolent. You are trying to learn and heal. That is an ethical and useful method, then dedicate the merit to the healing of you both, and the end of all hate and war.

Best wishes, sending Prayers.

OM MANI PEDME HUNG! OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SO HA! Peace.

Questioner: That’s a great method! Also reminds that all is fleeting except for eternity itself? Thanks I will remember.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “How Buddhists Think”

When the Buddha was asked what kind of being he was, he described himself neither as a god nor as someone who has attained godhood, but simply as “awake.” He was awake to the primordial Wisdom Nature, which is free from the delusion of fixation, from the process of separation, from distinction between subject and object. In him, that process had been pacified: the Buddha was awake to the Nature.

In our Judeo-Christian culture, however, there is an underlying assumption of an external deity toward whom we move. We were brought up with the idea that we should do good things in order to end up in The Good Place, as if there were an external being chalking up marks in a big book. We think of the goal as “out there somewhere,” and we believe we need to move towards it. It’s a subconscious thing: even after hearing the Buddha’s teachings, we still walk away trying to be good little boys and girls, looking to see who is watching.

We tend to think of ourselves as solid and real, and as needing to become something more. We have it in our minds that we should be advanced beings, great beings. I know this from personal experience: when students first come to me, they often say or imply: “You’re supposed to be so wise. Look into me. Am I an advanced being? Am I close to spiritual mastery?”

According to the Buddha’s teaching, such questions are a waste of time. Mastery and failure––like chocolate and pea soup, running and stopping––are merely phenomena. They have no bearing on the truth, which is your Nature. And you don’t need me to answer these questions. You can answer them yourself. How fixated are you on the continuum? On continuing of your continuum? How fixated are you on the solidity of your own form? How much of your time do you spend reinforcing and decorating the superstructure of your ego?

It is safe to say that most people spend all their time fixated on and continuing the continuum. All aspects of our everyday lives––families, jobs, personal time, relationships––reinforce the continuum. And this results from our belief that self-nature is inherently real.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

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

One of the practices that we are taught as Buddhists is that always, always, Guru Rinpoche should be above the crown of our heads. We should be mindful that Guru Rinpoche is always there, seated on his lotus throne. Upon going to sleep, we should visualize that Guru Rinpoche becomes like light or liquid and then pours into the top chakra and through the central channel, and remains in the heart throughout the night. We fall asleep with Guru Rinpoche in the heart. This kind of mindfulness is the best part of practice. No matter what else I do, even if I don’t sit down and practice formally, I practice like that all the time. That’s the backbone that I rely on.

When I talk to any of my students, the way that I practice View is that, as a Lama, I consider that the students are higher than me. (You should never do that! But I can do that.) I consider that the students are higher than me because there are many of them and I am only one and our nature is the same. It’s a little bit like the posture of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. There is an element of sacrifice, there is an element of viewing the propagation of Dharma and the display of Bodhicitta to be all there is, the highest. There is nothing else higher. So I practice in such a way that the students are higher. I hold them in high regard. They are more precious to me than the other stuff that I do. I hold the students much higher than I hold myself.

It is the student’s job to practice that discrimination constantly. One thing that we should do is consider that every event, every moment, every hour, every day, every breath has as its core nature Guru Rinpoche, the blessing of Guru Rinpoche, the appearance of Guru Rinpoche. How does one practice that? It is the kind of thing that you have to grow into. You can’t just think all of a sudden, “Well, I’m never going to think about anything else. I’m just going to think about Guru Rinpoche from now on, and therefore that’ll be real easy. He’ll just always be on my mind.” That would make you crazy, wouldn’t it? Trying to force that little monkey in a cage to do what you want? You don’t have to do it that way.

We start by creating habitual patterns that include body, speech and mind. We want to include these three elements. One way to practice this kind of mindfulness is to have an altar in your home. If you don’t have an altar in your bedroom, perhaps you can have a picture by your bedside of Guru Rinpoche or your Root Teacher, maybe both. That’s a good visualization. Then, when you first wake up in the morning, the first thing you do — even before you go to the bathroom, even before the coffee — the first thing you do is look at that picture and reorient yourself: that this day the Guru is above the crown of my head. This hour, this day, right now, the Guru is above the crown of my head and you make three prostrations. You have it in your mind that this day is therefore sacred and then you dedicate the sacredness of this day to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings. No one can take that away from you no matter what happens during the day. If you get hit by a car and both your legs come off, they still can’t take that away from you. Even if you were to lose your life, the sacredness could not be taken away from you.

Any time you go into a specific event, whether it’s ordinary or whether it’s a spiritual event, hold the picture of Guru Rinpoche or the Root Guru in your mind, reestablish the picture above the top of your head, and know that this experience begins and ends with the Guru. If you’re going to the grocery store to buy food for your children or your family, this is an excellent thing to do. Gradually, over time, even in ordinary experiences that had no flavor, that seemed to have no connection between this ordinary activity and spirituality, you will begin to establish more of a View and begin to see every experience as spiritual. Whatever job you have, whatever activities you engage in, look for the Guru there. If you look, you’ll find him. If you don’t look, you’ll never find him.

With that kind of discrimination and Guru Yoga, I find that the amazing opportunities and blessings come through the most ordinary experiences. To the degree that I see all phenomena as the mandala of the Guru, and I hold to be in union with the Guru constantly, then ordinary people, like gas station attendants, will say things that will blow your head off. That has happened to me, where I’ve been in that frame of mind, looking for the Guru and constantly mindful, and then pull into a gas station, and the gas station attendant says something that just rocks your world. And it’s about something weird, like renunciation or karma or something like that, and you say to yourself, “I’m listening, OK!” That happens. That doesn’t make the gas station attendant your Guru. You see the difference, don’t you? But it does mean that you are beginning to discriminate that nature. You’re beginning to awaken to that nature. It’s just a little thread, but it’s something. It is the beginning of awakening to that.

Somehow we have to think of incorporating this distinction of what is extraordinary into our lives. It has to be an effort that we actually provide for and make substantial, that we actually create in our lives. This opportunity to practice like that will never simply come to you. You may simply meet your Guru, but that’s because you practiced in your last life. That’s because you practiced before, that’s because you earned it, but once you meet the Guru, once you are on the path, this practice of Guru Yoga becomes your responsibility. To the degree that you really address it in a very profound, deep and heartfelt way, to that degree, it will benefit and it will awaken the mind.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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

The Vajrayana path is a great gift. Your mind can be purified through the practice of allowing it to arise naturally with those qualities of perfect union and perfectly purified perception. “Well,” you may say. “That sounds good, but will it work?” Yes, it will work. It will work by the power of the transmissions, by the intensity of your effort and faith, and through the power of the mantra and through devotion. These mantras are not invented by ordinary people. They come from primordial wisdom itself.

Though your perception is still faulty, understand that within the center of this confused mandala you have found the perfect path. You have found your teacher and you have received initiation. Something is happening. Therefore the process is not as endless as you may think. This is your precious opportunity, and you should take advantage of it. Where will you find another like it? You have so much help and all the necessary tools and nourishments. Keep in mind the choice. Do you wish to be a practitioner seeking that one precious virtue, or are you just a person wearing a costume? If you are a serious Vajrayana practitioner, you will stop dancing around with rules and regulations and, pardon the slang, “get real about it.” Get real about this path. Understand that you must have the only thing of value—the perception of primordial mind, the realization of the natural state of all phenomena. This is true purity, true virtue.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

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

The Refuge Vow

I take refuge in the Lama,

I take refuge in the Buddha,

I take refuge in the Dharma,

I take refuge in the Sangha.

The Bodhisattva Vow

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

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Dakini Workshop

When the Buddha’s activities are accomplished in the world, through our lack of understanding, we will see lots of different things. For instance, in this temple, we may see the need for fundraising, and we may see the intensive effort that is supposed to go into that. We may see the need for expansion and how intensive the effort for that can be and we may see the extent of our own effort, which seems to be awesome. Yet, every bit of that perception is only based on the belief in self-nature as being inherently real. There is no one to struggle if the belief in self-nature is not clung to. It is that clinging that is the basis for the struggle.

From the point of view of enlightened intention, one can understand that from a tiny event that seemed in our continuum to take place 2,500 years ago and then continued on with a thread of different experiences and different incarnations, it may seem that that tiny event gave birth to the oddest things in the oddest of places in Poolesville, Maryland where the Dharma is born. Then we think about all of the things in India and we think about all the things in Tibet and we think about all the things that are happening around the world concerning the Buddha’s activity. From the point of view of the intention of that one life, that is a very small piece of effort. But from our point of view, of course, we are seeing the great effortfulness and it seems to be continuing endlessly, especially within the context of our lives. We seem to think that it is continuing endlessly.

One must understand, however, that even thinking that all of this came from one small life, even that is an outrageous delusion. It is a contrivance that we make to satisfy ourselves. One must understand that from the point of view of enlightenment, from the unborn vast expanse of emptiness, of blissful emptiness, within that sphere of truth that we call the great mother, all potency spontaneously arises and is born, demonstrates itself or dances or moves in as many displays, forms, formlessnesses as we can possibly imagine and beyond what we can imagine. And even as it is born, even as it moves, it is inherently and therefore immediately complete. That means that all sentient beings have within them the inherent Buddha nature and therefore will achieve enlightenment, but that is our confusion. In fact, we have never been separate from the sphere of truth. We have never been anywhere else but born and completed in the great lotus of the great mother. Anything else is complete fabrication.

We have never left the space of emptiness and we have never lost the scent of emptiness. From the point of view of enlightenment we have never beheld or looked at anything other than emptiness. We have never seen anything other than our own face. We have never lost a moment’s time.

Yet, here we are trying to understand the nature of the dakini, like trying to be seduced back into remembering our own face, straining to hear the sound of our own name. From the point of view of the enlightened activity that is consistent with the dakini nature, there is no loss. There is no distinction. There is no separation. There is no need for struggle. Yet it is clear that we remain fixed on the idea of separation between self and other. We remain hooked with concepts such as the distinction between dirty and clean. We remain addicted to the idea of hatred, greed and ignorance and seem to be unable to let them go so that they can simply do what they do naturally so that all phenomena, the moment that it naturally arises, is immediately completed.

From the point of view of enlightenment, no phenomenon continues itself. No piece of what we experience, whether we wish to experience or do not wish to experience, by its nature continues or completes itself. The experience of continuation that we have is only due to our own continuing it, our own determination to continue it. No phenomenon is exempt. All things arise from the sphere of truth. They are spontaneously born and instantly complete.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “How Buddhists Think”

The Buddha’s next teaching is that there exists a cessation of suffering, which is the same as the cessation of desire. This cessation is called Enlightenment, and it is the only true cessation of suffering.

In a very poor society, people focus on basic survival. But what happens in a society like ours, in which survival is not a main concern? (If nothing else works, we can go on welfare.) Since we don’t need to focus on survival, we have time to be neurotic. The more we seem to satisfy our needs, the more needs we develop.

In cyclic existence, there is no way to solve all our needs. Everything constantly changes. And temporary happiness is almost a mixed blessing: it always ends, and in the meantime, we are preoccupied with it. The problem is that we haven’t done anything about viewing our true Nature. It’s almost as if we keep ourselves satisfied by eating the icing off the cake; never really obtaining genuine nourishment.

When the Buddha taught that there is an end to suffering, it was a major revelation. Why? Although the great yogis and gurus at that time taught that one could achieve God-consciousness, cosmic consciousness, the Buddha superseded that. Due to the ripening of his great generosity in past lives, he was able to come to a level of meditation in which he realized the cessation of fixation––fixation on godliness and even fixation on the consciousness of self. He attained a level of realization that was simply “Awake.” No consciousness, no sameness, no union. Simply pure luminosity: “I am Awake.”

At that moment, all the cause-and-effect building blocks accumulated throughout time out of mind, all the building blocks from endless involvement with subject-object fixation, all the fixation on ego as real––all of this was pacified. The Buddha realized the sameness and indivisibility of subject and object, the inseparability of action and stillness, the sameness, the “Suchness” of all that is. All was dispelled in clear, uncontrived, luminous awareness. This non-specific awareness is the pure view of one’s own true Nature. It is simply being awake. The Buddha teaches that this is the end of all suffering, because it is the end of what you make suffering with. It is the end of cause-and-effect relationships––and therefore, according to Buddhism, the end of karma.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

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

I went to the river. Once again dry, but for the tears in my eyes there was none for me to drink. I need to drink.

When water runs dry… We wait, the fish wait, the animals wait all of us wait. It cannot be found.

Later I saw the river again. Willows had grown, sucking up water. Since there was food for the Moose, I do not cry.

The Moose is so hungry, but the willows, they cry…will the water return by and by? The Raven sighs.

Once I brought three lotus to the river. Not one could stay. I cried, and walked away. Alone.

The scent lingers. The willows continue their thirsty way. Moose grows fat.

Someone must bring the rain. Soon we will all be gone. The feast of sweetness abandoned.

Here is a Lotus in my window. I pray the fragrance is pure.

Here is a candle shining. Here is a hope.

Soon I must bring a Lotus to the river with joy. But I do not know if it will float downstream. They often do.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved