A sacred space for everyone
The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:
Every little bit of virtue counts these days – remember to dedicate everything to all beings – that their liberation will be swift and complete.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo All Rights Reserved
An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series
I would like to talk about a subject that is of the utmost importance to everyone. The subject is compassion.
You may think, “Oh, I know all about compassion. I’ve been a Dharma practitioner for a long time. I’ve had many teachings about compassion.” Or you might think, “I’m a person with a good heart. I try not to do any harm, and I try to help people. Therefore, I know about compassion.” If we hold these ideas in our heart, we have already lost precious opportunities, and will continue to lose more, because the cultivation of compassion in the heart and mind is an ongoing process.
Even if you come into this world with a compassionate ideal you must still cultivate the idea of compassion as though it were the first time you ever thought of it. Due to intense spiritual practice in the past, you may have been born into this lifetime with the idea that you want to be of benefit to sentient beings. Yet still you must cultivate the idea of compassion everyday, as though it were a delicate orchid that could die in an unnatural environment. Until we are supremely enlightened, we have obscurations of our mind that will fight against the idea of compassion.
There is no one on this earth, unless they are supremely realized, who has the purified mind of compassion. If you have been meditating for many years, and think compassion is a baby subject and you’re far beyond that, or if you think because you’ve practiced for a long time, compassion is just one of the beginner studies, and now you’d like to get on to the mystical or the “higher” Dzogchen teachings, then I think you’re making a mistake. I hope that you will relax your mind and come to the point where you commit to studying compassion deeply and profoundly, as though it were your mother. You should have that kind of intimate relationship with the idea of compassion. You should seek to be taught by it. You should seek to be suckled by the mind of compassion. You should seek to be nourished in that way.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo
You think one thing and someone holds an opposing opinion. The issue today is that both sides are firm, unyielding, in their views. Curiously, neither side is right; in fact both are wrong. Perhaps its best if you both declare defeat, go have a cup of coffee and discuss the weather. But you don’t want to! Pride is asserting itself in the form of being “right” and making someone else “wrong”. The open door today consists of a friendly attitude and a willingness to make concessions. A long held dream is slowly and steadily turning into reality. Keep your eye on this and everything else will seem irrelevant. Mother Teresa said “Never bother about other people’s opinions. Be humble and you will never be disturbed.”
The daily astrology post affects everyone. Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently. Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth. There are many departments of life. Look to see where the dynamic affects you!
A sensitive response to a person in a precarious position makes an impact! Step up immediately if you notice someone is having difficulties; you can make all the difference in a life or death situation. Stories of a smile from a stranger transforming a hopeless person are right on the mark. Be alert, non-judgmental and offer help. Be a super-hero! Save the day and keep on moving, don’t stick around for applause. There’s a danger of putting your foot in your mouth if you speak too much so make it touch and go. Spend time alone today. Think, meditate and make friends with yourself. That’s where your intuition comes from after all. Oliver Wendell Holmes said ‘Whatever comes from the heart carries the heat and color of its birthplace.”
The daily astrology post affects everyone. Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently. Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth. There are many departments of life. Look to see where the dynamic affects you!
With the passing of Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, the world has lost another great Lama. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche was considered one of the greatest mahasiddhas of our time. Rinpoche was very close to my own root teacher, His Holiness Kyabje Drubwang Penor Rinpoche. In fact, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche respected Thinley Norbu Rinpoche so much that he was one of the very few Lamas for whom His Holiness would stand up to greet when Rinpoche entered the room.
I had the tremendous blessing to visit Rinpoche a number of times, and each time he had very beautiful advice for me. Thinley Norbu Rinpoche told me that I could always come and practice with him, particularly if my life force was weak. I had always intended to go, and wish I had. But in 1991 Rinpoche came to pay a surprise visit to my center, Kunzang Palyul Choling in Maryland, and gave a spontaneous teaching to the students that were there, and we were able to meet again. Rinpoche was a sublime writer. Every book he has written is pure nectar.
Yesterday morning, I woke thinking of Rinpoche, and then learned of his passing. I am full of grief on behalf of sentient beings for the loss of Rinpoche.
Ahkon Lhamo
Thinley Norbu Rinpoche wrote a number of books, all of which are sublime. They include:
The Small Golden Key – To the Treasure of the Various Essential Necessities of General and Extraordinary Buddhist Dharma
Magic Dance – the Display of the Self-nature of the Five Wisdom Dakinis
White Sail – Crossing the Waves of Ocean Mind to the Serene Continent of the Triple Gems
Practice of the Essence of the Sublime Heart Jewel, the Propitious Speech from the Beginning, Middle and End by Patrul Rinpoche (Translation)
Welcoming Flowers From Across The Cleansed Threshold Of Hope
A Cascading Waterfall of Nectar
The Great Image – The Life Story of Vairochana the Translator
Gypsy GossiP
A Brief History of a Himalayan
Echoes
Sunlight Speech that Dispels the Darkness of Doubt
To read more about Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, please visit Thinley Norbu – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From The Spiritual Path: A Compilation of Teachings by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
All Dharma, your practice, your teachers, and everything you have ever encountered that has brought you closer to enlightenment—is only one thing: a manifestation or an emanation of the enlightened, compassionate intention of the Buddha. That is why this path appears and why we are able to practice Dharma. If you wish to follow this path, abandon your drunken, compulsive need to be right, approved of, admired. You must rely on the Buddha’s great intention. And after you finally arise in the awareness of your own primordial-wisdom nature, you will of necessity appear again and again to benefit beings. For it is the nature of that state to do so. That pristine state appears in an emanation phase—a spontaneous, natural movement that we may call love.
Who stops the love? You do. Every moment you believe that you are inherently real, you stop loving. Every moment you focus on your “self” and its needs, you stop loving. As your churning desire compulsively creates a deluge of thoughts, you stop loving. As long as you hold on to a “self” and the idea of its eternal existence, you will never be anything but a cheap imitation of the supremely awakened mind. I asked a wonderful yogini in Nepal, “What would you say to women in America who are practicing?” She said, “Well, this applies to everyone, but especially to women. Have courage.” Your practice is meaningless—it amounts to nothing—unless you have courage. You must be strong. You must not let anything stop you. With that fearlessness, you can break through the lethargy in your life; you can break through the barriers that keep you from practicing sincerely; you can even break through the old ideas that keep you mired in garbage. You can understand that by believing in a surviving, eternal ego, you are following a fool off a cliff.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo
Do your best to avoid the public eye today. If this is impossible, try to be invisible. Power is expressed in an incomprehensible and overwhelming way, and a tendency toward ruthlessness appears. Something is coming to an end. Alfred Lord Tennyson said “The old order changes, yielding place to new, and God fulfils himself in many ways.” Accept gracefully whatever may come. Look to your friends and your close groups for support. A solid system is in place that has egalitarian ideals. On a different front, machines are helpful and it’s a wonderful day to invent something. Think! You have the answer, and the answer lies in the future not in the past. A group consensus is best.
The daily astrology post affects everyone. Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently. Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth. There are many departments of life. Look to see where the dynamic affects you!
From The Spiritual Path: A Compilation of Teachings by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
As human beings, we avoid looking deeply at our ingrained habits and beliefs. We avoid testing them for the qualities needed to develop properly on the Vajrayana path. It’s easier to “go with the flow.” We dislike challenging ourselves. Most of all, we dislike change. We are somehow more comfortable with remnants of our old beliefs, translated into Dharma terminology.
Eastern philosophy is difficult for Westerners to understand. There are so many major differences, including the basic premise and the value system. Though the various motivations for practice set forth by the Buddha are universally true, people tend to select what resonates most with what they learned while growing up. Your culture strongly influences your reasons for practicing Dharma—and how you under-stand it. Those whose needs are generally satisfied react very differently from people who have seen war, suffering, and famine. The latter tend to hang on to Dharma for dear life. But many Dharma-practicing Westerners complacently think: “If I can just get another precious human rebirth, I’ll be okay.”
Not so for those who have seen intense suffering. They are apt to think: “I want out. I want my mind to be free of the causes of suffering. I am sick of revolving helplessly on this wheel. I’m tired of watching my loved ones go hungry and die young.” When you have seen war, you know that death could be just a moment away. But we Westerners rely on medical marvels. We have faith that if someone can just get us to the hospital in time, we will be saved.
The great blessing here in the United States is that many people have a strong karmic relationship with compassion. Thus, I talk more about compassion than about suffering. But it may not be enough to practice Dharma because you feel a sense of mission and purpose—however pure your intention might be. That is not the same as hanging on to Dharma for dear life. If you have not understood in the depths of your being how impermanent this life is, if you have not really understood the terrible prospect of revolving endlessly in cyclic existence—you tend to be much more casual in your attitude toward practice. You may not challenge yourself to do your best.
Westerners need a constant shot of inspiration. We seek it out. We eat it like candy, and we love it! But just like candy, it soon lets us down. And even if we practice with the intention to help sentient beings, there is still a catch: our practice gives us a sense of identity. Right now, your sense of identity determines why you live, what you do, what is important to you. But it also makes you a traveler who is standing still. We can move very fast in our practice and yet remain quite stiff inside. If we practice because we want to be a good person who helps others, we become comfortable with that identity. We do not feel the urgency of someone living with the constant threat of being bombed—or someone who has known hopeless hunger.
We may adopt some new ideas, but our beliefs are basically unchanged. And so is our predicament. We still believe that we will exist as we are forever, if not in the same body, then with the same consciousness. We hope to attain the goal of realization as ourselves. We believe we can keep ourselves intact, and then, we will somehow appear in a celestial form in order to benefit beings. As to what we will actually do, we vaguely envision bringing love and light to the world, the bounty of our great wisdom. And to do that, we will continue to exist in some way that is recognizable to us.
We have now come to a delicate but crucial distinction, and we must tread carefully. We pray to retain awareness throughout the process of death—so that during the bardo transference we can achieve realization or, at least, rebirth in a most fortunate way. We also want to come back in an emanation form in order to benefit beings. However, we may not yet have really challenged our ideas of foreverness and sameness. That is, we haven’t given up on ego, on surviving. This is a product of our culture. Christians aspire to survive death and go to heaven. A Buddhist, however, hopes to remain awake and not faint during the time of transference in the bardo state, but understands that what remains is not the self or the ego: it is awareness itself, the pure, essential mind-nature, unobscured, un-hindered by dirty winds and channels. It is not the natural state of you, the person you are right now. If you are hoping that this “you” will remain intact, you have a different religion programmed into your brain. The correct goal is not to survive in an eternalistic way, reaching a heaven-like Dewachen and then returning as a Buddhist angel to help people.
When you pray for others, do you wish for all sentient beings to know love and light? As Buddhists, we can no longer have this as our prayer. Why? When you do that, you are wishing for sentient beings to remain intact forever, revolving in a state of impermanence. This is very different from praying that the causes for suffering will be erased from their minds, that they will realize the primordial-wisdom state.
What should you as a Buddhist hope for? That when you enter into the bardo, or into your prayers, or even into the next moment, you will instantly come to know the emptiness of all phenomena, the emptiness of self-nature. Self-nature is like a puffball. You should pray to see it for what it is: poof! Just like that. You should pray with all your heart to realize the primordial, natural, pure view—the Nature which is free of all concepts, all mind-chatter. That Nature miraculously survives beneath all the garbage we pile on top of it. That Nature is pure, all pervasive, with neither beginning nor end. When you attain that view, form and formless are seen to be the same, and self is only luminosity.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo
The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:
Since time out of mind, we have accumulated karmic causes – both good and not-so-good. To antidote these, we practice the purification practices of Ngondro. Through these we can find clarity of mind a space to deepen. This we do for those who have hopes of us.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved