Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Joy

December 12, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

The quality of joy is not as we usually think of it. Our culture teaches—though we may not be consciously aware of this—that to be happy, we should act happy. By developing a positive attitude, we will look happy and become happy. We are also taught to keep up with the Joneses. We are taught to get ahead—or be left behind. We expect joy to come from getting what we want.

The joy of which the Buddha speaks is vastly different. Once we realize equanimity, loving kindness, and compassionate concern—then, when we hear that someone has a new car, we will be happy for that person: he has attained at least some temporary happiness. There is no need for judgments such as: “Many people are starving, yet he spends so much on a new car.” Or: “He already has three cars. Why does he need a fourth?” The Buddhist attitude is: the happier you are, the happier I am. If even for one moment you have achieved some level of happiness, I should be joyful and think: “I love you so much I wish you could have everything that makes you happy. May your happiness bring you to a point of great stability and regard for others. May it afford you the generosity to wish for their well-being to the extent that you will attain realization. May that car somehow promote your realization, and may you be free of suffering in all its forms.”

This joy in the happiness of others can only be attained when equanimity, loving kindness, and compassion are realized. It is a joy that occurs naturally. It occurs from sincerely wishing for the happiness and well-being of all sentient beings, for the end of their suffering. To the extent that any degree of relaxation, peace, or alleviation of suffering is of any benefit to them, I am happy because they are the same as I and not separate from me. In other words, I realize that the nature of “me” and “other” are that same Suchness and have the same taste. Without these four qualities, known as the Four Immeasurables, and the pure view implied by their attainment, there is no enlightenment. This attainment has not come easily to anyone. When you think about all the great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who have the means to liberate minds, remember that they all began as sentient beings. They all used the same methods that are offered to you. Through determination, you too will develop the Four Immeasurables. There is no doubt that they are within you.

Astrology

December 12, 2011 by Norma

Beware of the urge to push critically against someone or something; it won’t work and it creates a backlash. Instead, speak of your feelings and be kind and sympathetic. Others are moved and the situation is resolved. A work, health or personal issue is creating tension. If you notice yourself tightening up, step back and take a break. You are tired of endless details and if you hear one more you’ll lose it. So go for a walk, take a swim, listen to music; cook. Do something nurturing for you. Only you know what that is. Henry Thoreau said “Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.”

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!

Conscious Living and Dying Part 2: Full Length Video Teaching

December 11, 2011 by anisonam

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Part 2 deals with the higher realms of cyclic existence.

Compassion

December 11, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Compassion is a deep commitment to bring about the end of suffering. The vow of a Bodhisattva is to return in whatever form necessary, under any conditions, in order to accomplish this. We are told that in one of the Buddha’s previous lives, he was a huge female sea turtle. This turtle saw a shipwreck, and she thought: “The sailors are about to drown. I must help them.” With that compassionate intention, she swam to the sailors and supported them until they reached land. The exhausted turtle then fell into a stupor on the beach. So deep was her sleep that she did not feel the thousands of insects who began to eat away her body. They consumed her to the point that she awoke with intense pain. She started to move away but realized that if she went into the water to wash off the insects, they would all die. Since there were eighty thousand of them and only one of her, she thought: “Their nature is the same as mine, and since there are so many more of them than there are of me, it’s much better to let them live.”

Thus she allowed the insects to consume her. Just before she died, she made a wish: “I pray that when I attain enlightenment, the first ones I teach will be the insects that were eating me and the sailors I helped. May they attain enlightenment quickly after I do.” Later on, the sailors became the Buddha’s first disciples in the Deer Park, while the eighty thousand insects were eighty thousand celestial beings who came to hear His teachings. This story exemplifies the dynamic of equanimity, loving kindness, and compassion.

This precious dynamic occurs when you become convinced that only the end of suffering and the realization of true nature are important. It gives rise to wisdom, stability, and intensity of determination. The turtle understood the fragile nature of the eighty thousand insects: not long after their ample meal, they would need more food. Or, if the turtle had entered the water, they would have lost their good meal and suffered greatly by drowning.

Astrology

December 11, 2011 by Norma

Sleep in today. A moody energy pervades the environment. An upsetting situation hits close to home, either emotionally or literally. Reach out for help and you could be rebuffed. Something causes you and others to require reassurance. Try not to over-react. You can buy your way out of the situation: pay a workman to fix something or buy your troubled friend some candy. Stay home if possible, or spend time with close friends or family. Eat a big meal. It’s comfort time. Fyodor Dostoevsky said “Man is fond of counting his troubles, but he does not count his joys. If he counted them up as he ought to, he would see that every lot has enough happiness provided for it.”

Awaken Effortless Compassion: Full Length Video Teaching

December 10, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Require of yourself that you change utterly so that only compassion guides your life.

Loving Kindness

December 10, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

How is it that one’s beloved and one’s enemy become essentially the same? Because their true nature is understood. The Buddha taught that all phenomena, however they arise, have the same taste, the same nature. It is attraction and repulsion that make us experience them the way we do.

Loving kindness is a profound wish for the welfare and happiness of others. We were raised to consider loving kindness a code of behavior to make us a nice person. This is far from the Buddha’s view of love. By realizing that all phenomena have the same nature, the same taste, you understand that all sentient beings are equal. Thus, their happiness has exactly the same weight, the same importance, as your own. It is from this viewpoint that loving kindness is developed.

If your mind is not stable, if there is no awareness of the natural state, if there is no real progress in meditation, you will not be able to actualize loving kindness. Yet without a determined effort to understand loving kindness, you will not make progress in meditation. It is a “Catch-22” situation. You must be determined both to realize the primordial state and to realize loving kindness as a naturally arising result. Only then can both be firm and stable within your mindstream.

Astrology

December 10, 2011 by Norma

Men and women are on opposite poles today. Make any comment and the nearest person of the opposite sex will disagree. Both sides are right, and both sides are wrong. The moment you agree with someone, they’ll change sides just for the joy of the debate. You can’t win, and as soon as you know this you’ll relax and have fun. You are in the process of re-thinking something. Your mind has turned inward and is working on a problem. Don’t press yourself or others for an answer that can’t be given. Watch your mind searching for more and more information and respect that nothing is definite. Love is nice and these days the older things are, the better you like them. Tend to your long term relationships, and don’t let anyone tie you down. You’ll fly the coop the first opportunity you get. Oscar Wilde said “I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.” It’s that sort of day.

P’howa: Conscious Living and Dying Part 1: Full Length Video Teaching

December 9, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Part 1 deals with the overview of samsara and begins describing the 3 lower realms of cyclic existence. In later parts, Jetsunma will go into the other realms and begin describing how to die, and wat happens in the bardo after death.

Incalculable Benefit of Stupas: Excerpt from Lama Zopa

December 9, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from “The Benefits and Practices related to Statues and Stupas” by Lama Zopa Rinpoche

The conclusion for Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike is that the stupa is a way to purify defilements. A holy stupa is a way to benefit sentient beings without words. It will liberate beings from samsara in silence. To have such a holy object existing in a country makes it very rich and very lucky. Many people will come to visit for pleasure as tourists, but it will at the same time make their life meaningful. The most important point is that holy objects help beings to purify their mind and to collect extensive merit so that it is possible for them to easily have realizations of the path. That is the main function of these holy objects – to help us sentient beings have quick realizations of the path to enlightenment by the power of the holy object.

Those who build and work to actualize those holy objects will bring these beings to enlightenment. So anyone who sees it, touches it, remembers it, even dreams of it will have the seed planted for their own enlightenment. As well, prostrating and so on to the stupa helps bring them to enlightenment. By have the Secret Relic mantra within the stupa, any animals, ants, butterflies, etc. that go around the stupa even just once are purified of their negative karma to be born in the hot hells.

Even if we all die, as long as the holy objects that we have created last, our work, our effort [to create holy objects], is still benefitting sentient beings continuously. For all the many hundreds and thousands of years that the stupa will last, every day it will liberate sentient beings in silence…without words…without our talking Dharma to them. You see, just by seeing the stupa, the minds of of sentient beings who come here get purified. So many negative karmas get purified. Even the insects who are killed by machines during the construction – even they will not be reborn in the lower realms. Even those that die during the building process will receive a good rebirth. It is mentioned by a great Indian teacher in a text calledMatasara, or something like that, that even if you make food for the people building the temple, your negative karma will be purified.

Even if the holy object is destroyed, still for days, months, years, hundreds of thousands of years, so many sentient beings continue to receive so much benefit from the positive imprints [they received from having seen that holy object]. These positive imprints cause them to meet the guru, to actualize the path, etc., until they achieve enlightenment. The positive imprints are still working in them. Even if the holy object does not exist anymore, the effect is still working in that being. That person will then help to bring other sentient beings to enlightenment.