Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Astrology

January 15, 2011 by Norma

1/15/2011 Saturday

It seems you are spinning your wheels trying to get a business deal stabilized. Relax. At some point in the day things will change, and you either get what you want or else you no longer want it. You will turn into a chatterbox, or you’ll meet people who can’t wait to tell you everything. When this happens, you’ll know the tide has turned. This is a great day to call friends, go for a drive, read or hear important information. The mailman is your best friend today. Someone could walk by and give you the secret of the universe in an instant. Someone you over look can amaze you. Sir Henry Taylor said, “The world knows nothing of its greatest people.” Pay attention to everyone, great people are about.

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!

Astrology

January 14, 2011 by Norma

1/14/2011 Friday

Smooth sailing today. Purchases are excellent. You will keep what you buy today for a long time, so go shopping. Your judgment and taste are excellent. Ask for a raise, look for a job. Business goes well. In one direction lies opportunity, and at the same time, something wonderful drops into your lap from a different direction. No problem, and no need to choose. Take what comes. Give everybody a great big blimpey smile, and say thank you! You can have it all! Longfellow said, “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” It’s raining good things. Let it rain.

Pith Advice – Learning to Discern

January 13, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

If someone tells you they are never wrong it usually means they usually are.

If someone tells you this is exactly how they meant things to turn out it usually means they are clueless about a lot!

If we boast a lot about our dharma practice we should remember the best practice is alone, and silent.

If a practitioner tells you their mind is completely pure, and says they abide in emptiness and light, ask them kindly to turn down the volume!

If a Dharma practitioner does nothing to benefit all sentient beings they are walking on one leg. Dharma is Wisdom and Compassion!

Put your energy into gathering not the goods of the world. Gather the gifts of Wisdom, Compassion and virtue. Only these have value.

If someone harms you and you become afraid, work with it. If you allow the fear you have allowed the suffering: they win!

We are equal in need, equal in nature, equal in love and loss. Therefore we should learn to have empathy and kindness.

We are equal in fault, equal in sorrow, equal in longing and sickness, and death. Therefore we should have empathy, and LOVE.

The great being atones for the suffering of others no matter the cause. A middling being atones for their own. A lesser being accepts no burden.

A great being cares for all beings equally. A middling being cares for family and friends, mostly. A lesser one cares for no one but self.

Paradox: a great being does not differentiate between high and low, having view. A middling being sorts out those differences. A small being uses all this to get what they want.

A lesser being walks the earth. A middling being examines the world. A great being takes wing and flies! The sky is for dancing.

Here in this land we must learn to empathize, to care, to love, to minister to each other, to feed, to heal; and most of all to fly!

Here on Earth we must learn and study our equality. To be without prejudice, to know each other’s suffering, to cherish culture and be color blind in spirit!

May the dirt on their feet be the crown on my head; may their suffering be only mine. May I wipe their eyes, and fill their hearts with LOVE.

To Whom It May Concern

January 13, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Lyrics by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Hello my friend, you got your best face on

And I see what you sayin,’ and why you been gone

Oh, I know all the reasons, it’s the same old song

You see I met a lot of people, since I was born

And you can always tell a good man, by what he has done

You say you’re outstanding in your field, I see you standing alone

Don’t take it personal, I’m just tellin’ what I see

And I’m trying to do my Dharma, ‘cause I wanna be free

But if you cause a gal to suffer, the result is what you see

Think about it Honey, what have you done for me

When it comes down to giving, all I have is free

I guess you had your own agenda, and your own misery

Let me tell you one thing, that I know to be true

Every single pain you cause, will come right back to you

It’s time to be a stand up man, and pay your own dues

Don’t take it personal, I’m just tellin’ what I see

Trying to do my Dharma, ‘cause I wanna be free

But if you cause a gal to suffer, the result is what you see

©Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo 2007

Astrology

January 13, 2011 by Norma

1/13/2011 Thursday

Things go well today. Problems can be solved. You see a situation more deeply, with greater understanding, than you did in the past. You are able to react to factors that were not clear to you before. In doing this, you break a stalemate. Carefully thought out action is very, very favorable today. Governmental organizations will help you. Business is on your side, and entrenched interests are favorable toward you. Carry yourself with dignity today; dress in a serious, formal and respectful manner for best results. You will be taken as seriously as you take yourself. Kurt Vonnegut said, “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

Waking From the Dream

January 12, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Today I was sent a very good question and would like to answer it here. The question concerned the Buddhist ideal of “awakening”. The writer wonders: “if this is a dream, and we try to wake up, what is there to awaken to?”

So here we think of the Buddha’s statement when asked if he was a man, or a god, a saint, what was he? He replied, very simply “I am awake”. To awaken is to realize the empty, dreamlike quality of all phenomena perceived with our ordinary five senses. This ordinary perception actually arises from our own minds, and is due to perceptual habit. Even scientists find that once we have seen an object with our eyes, the brain files it away. When we “see” it again we actually fill in, once we “decide” what it is, almost all the detail is from memory. We may, in fact, never see the same object twice. Once we identify we fill in the actual “seeing” with our own habitual thinking.

Now try this. Scientists also recognize that all solid appearance is mostly empty space. The chair, the floor- all empty space, as atoms and molecules etc are mostly space with nuclei and other micro bits. So why don’t we fall through? Because we also are mostly space, atoms, molecules… What holds it together on an ordinary level is electromagnetic fields of energy.

On a deeper view, we are dreaming. It is our own habitual tendency and view that supports this. Once we see we react. Once we react we have formed preconceived notions. That is mostly what we see – from deeply ingrained habit.

Now suppose we could liberate our minds from such notions, and “see” deeper – beyond notion and our superficial senses – beyond any contrivance. What would we find? Try to imagine turning one’s eyes inside out and backwards. And turn all our senses within, what would happen? First our senses would change so radically they would no longer see the solid appearance of phenomena. We would “see” that all phenomena arises from our own mindstream, which is “colored” with our own karma. By the way, that is why two people can see the same event and track it very differently. Drives cops crazy!

So our very lives are a dreamlike, trance like appearance, and that is the shallow appearance. The deeper view, what the Buddha called awake is the inner view of the emptiness of all appearances of self-nature. We view our mind stream, our primordial spacious empty nature and abandon the dream of solid appearance. This cannot be done by self-will. Only self will appear – the dream.

We dedicate our intention to building the capacity for this pure view through step by step, stage by stage practice and study. No “AHA!” here! It is not an intellectual process! Eventually we practice Dzog Chen, at the Togyal and Trekchod level. This is the practice that “turns our eyes inside” to see the true face of our primordial wisdom nature; the very ground of being from which all phenomena arise. That is awakening! No words can describe that profound nature very well, because it must be known through direct experience. No books, no words can teach what mixing one’s mind and view with the Holy Ones, the Buddhas and Boddhisattvas, the Gurus who before us have already accomplished, and shown us the sublime “way!”

This tweeching is dedicated to JOYCE, who wrote to me.

The Heart Sutra

January 12, 2011 by Holly

A video teaching by Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

Astrology

January 12, 2011 by Norma

1/12/2011 Wednesday

As soon as a fight or emotional explosion happens, things will go better. A volatile energy is in the air. You are trying to ram something through, and the other side won’t budge. Or you may be the one holding the line while some hothead tries to force something. Hold the line or give way, depending on the part you’re playing. Viktor Frankel said, “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.” Back up and look around. An open door lies in a different direction. Art, music, imagination, medicine and things associated with water are all favorable. Success is possible, in a different arena.

Can We Take the “Fighting” Part Out?

January 11, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Been thinking about the last few days, feeling grief for the terrible divide in our nation. There are some of us fighting for status quo, and some of us fighting for change and progress. How can we take the fighting part out of it? Of course we will disagree! People do.

But the fighting? The hating? Is this necessary? For myself, I hate confrontation; but I realize “energetic” discussion is necessary. Why does it have to come to physical violence, shootings? Does anyone really want this? If we do we are a sick and dying nation. We must strive to be healthy and balanced. It is a fact that intelligent and wholesome people will disagree. Nothing will ever be solved by hate.

And now, we are dealing with climate change and petty wars. There will be short resources, water, and frightening change. How will we make it through if we are this negative at such an early stage? People of faith attack each other – haters, hurters, everyone out for themselves. Why? What is the point? Hate has no point to make. Hate is not intelligent in that it only leads down. It does not support life, happiness or health. It is suppressing rather than uplifting. It blocks the way, rather than showing the way. It is not the method of accomplishment.

Intelligent people do not need to war. We have ideas, hopes, fears we can all express. This is the one thing about being online that really harms us. We sit behind our computers and act in ways we would never act in public. We would be ashamed. Online we think we are invisible and that our non virtue doesn’t count. We think like that about our own thoughts too. But what we don’t realize is that every thought and action brings their appropriate result. Always, karma is exacting as the Buddha taught. If we are blind to that truth we are ignorant; and suffering from hatred and ignorance both, we will always be asleep to our true nature. And we will not attain happiness and bliss.

Astrology

January 11, 2011 by Norma

1/11/2011 Tuesday

Now you’ve gone and done it, you’ve stepped into a mess through over-assertiveness. Avoid the temptation to become angry or aggressive. Avoid the temptation to feel sorry for yourself, to go over and over the problem, to take drastic action. Cicero said, “It is foolish to tear one’s hair in grief, as though sorrow would be made less by baldness.” Go for a run instead, exercise, do something that engages you fully. Calm contemplation doesn’t work during this time. Action is effective. The most helpful person in the environment is an experienced, strong and friendly person, who will point you in the right direction. Act on reason, not emotion.