Buddhism

Aspirational Bodhicitta

by

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. —Ed.]

Cultivation of aspirational bodhicitta involves three aspirations, four dark dharmas to reject, and four white dharmas to accept. The three aspirations are to establish all sentient beings in the resultant state of buddhahood, to train in the methods of the higher grounds and paths, and to fulfill the needs and hopes of all parent sentient beings. The four dark dharmas to reject are to trick or deceive the spiritual guide, to deceive the patron, to disparage any Mahayana practitioner, and to deceive other sentient beings. The four white dharmas to accept are to never be deceitful, even at the cost of your life; to acknowledge the noble qualities of the bodhisattvas and praise them; to sincerely train in the bodhisattva way of life by abandoning all deceitful acts; and to have the intention to guide all beings—regardless of status, caste, creed, race, or any distinction—to the path of Mahayana practice. If you are training in these four white dharmas, the four dark dharmas will automatically be eliminated.

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Buddhahood for All Beings

by

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. —Ed.]

The ultimate nature of all phenomena is empty and free from elaboration and limitation. From the relative point of view there is duality—self and other, happiness and sorrow, and so forth. A skilled magician can create magical displays while knowing that his creations are just magic. The spectators, even when knowing they are seeing a magic show, will see the display as real. Similarly, endless appearances arise on the relative plane, but their nature is empty, devoid of true, inherent existence.

Not knowing that the nature of all phenomena is empty, sentient beings hold to phenomena as real. Having created the habit of fixating upon all appearances as being true and real, they have compounded this habit over countless lifetimes. Practitioners of the bodhisattva path realize the empty nature of phenomena and know that sentient beings revolving in cyclic existence are suffering because of their not knowing the empty nature of phenomena.

Considering that all these sentient beings suffering in cyclic existence were your parents in past lifetimes, [it is evident that] they showed you great kindness by giving you your life. They birthed you, nurtured you, and cared for you when you were sick. They cherished you in inconceivable ways, more than they cherished their own life. In countless ways, they showed you great kindness. Without exception, all these [sentient beings, who all were your] mothers of your past lifetimes, including your mother of this lifetime, have only wanted happiness. Because of their not knowing the [empty] nature of phenomena and [therefore] holding to appearances as true, they have accumulated only the wrong causes, which have resulted in more suffering. Although they have hoped to establish happiness, having been unaware of the way to do so, they have established more causes for suffering—while having shown incredible kindness to you and others, repeatedly.

You have a responsibility here. In order to be able to establish sentient beings in true happiness, you must have the power and strength to do so. Just now you lack that strength. It is only when you become fully enlightened that you will have the strength and power to establish sentient beings in the state of true happiness. That is why you must become fully enlightened. The sole purpose in seeking liberation is to bring all parent sentient beings out of suffering and to establish them in the state of everlasting bliss and happiness, which is, of course, the state of fully perfected buddhahood. Therefore, with that as your root intention, you engage in aspirational and practical bodhicitta.

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Compiled under the direction of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche Vimala Publishing 2008

Bodhicitta – Inexhaustible Virtue

by

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. —Ed.]

With bodhicitta, nonvirtues are naturally purified. An analogy commonly used to describe that is one about traveling to a dangerous place. If you have some able companions (strong, heroic individuals) on your journey, they can help you if you encounter danger. Similarly, if you have bodhicitta, that will save you from the dangers of the passions that would otherwise harm you and cause you to lose your way.

If you cultivate bodhicitta, that alone will have the power to eliminate heaps of nonvirtue in your mind. The force and power of your cultivation will eliminate the nonvirtue you have amassed in this and all past lifetimes.

With bodhicitta, whatever virtue you accumulate becomes inexhaustible. Such virtue is different from virtue that is devoid of bodhicitta: virtue devoid of bodhicitta will ripen once, and then it will be over; virtue coupled with bodhicitta will ripen and increase as part of the great oceanlike enlightened mind, which is not exhausted until all beings reach the state of buddhahood.

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Requesting the Buddhas & Bodhisattvas to Remain in the World

by

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. —Ed.]

This is important because in cyclic existence there are many ignorant beings that fail to recognize the precious noble qualities of the Buddhas. They don’t recognize the buddhas who are present here in the world, and so they fail to appreciate them; therefore, to benefit beings, the buddhas may go on to other realms where they will be recognized and appreciated. To ensure that the buddhas will remain in the world no matter what, we have to request them not to pass into nirvana. Requesting the buddhas and bodhisattvas to stay in the world is the antidote for having wrong view, such as thinking, “What’s so special about buddhas? Are they better than we are? We are equal to them and can certainly get by without them.”

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Compiled under the direction of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche Vimala Publishing 2008

Recipe for Results

by

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

As long as the idea of self exists, self will experience other with either attraction, or repulsion. There is no other way to experience other. Whether it’s subtle or not, even if you are a proponent of New Age philosophy, and are supposed to love everybody and have unconditional positive regard towards others, if you could really examine your mind with determination, courage, innocence and willingness, you would discover that you are either attracted to or repulsed by everything you see, no matter how you gloss it over. No matter what you say, the karma is still forming. That is how the consequences of one’s life actually manifest: through that constant inter-reactive relationship, through that interplay, through attraction and repulsion, through desire. That’s how it’s possible for you to be born. That’s how it’s possible for you to do things you feel uncontrollably forced to do.

Even if we are so convinced that we know all of these teachings, don’t we still get into trouble? Don’t we find that we react to circumstances in a way that is not skillful? Don’t we, in fact, on an on-going basis make everything worse? I mean, it’s true, if we are honest with ourselves. Every time we react, we make things worse. Even when we can’t see that we’ve made things worse, I’m telling you this is the truth: we are constantly compounding the karma of our own minds. Even if in retrospect, we could see that we should have been loving, and we should have been kind and good, blah, blah, blah, blah, still, we are compulsive about it. We are what we are. We are ‘feeling junkies.’ We are hooked on sensual experience. And we react to it.

What then is the answer? If all of this is true, and desire is the foundation of all suffering, then what if the Buddha is right? What if all of suffering comes from the belief in self-nature? Will it do to pacify our minds with positive thinking? Will it do to walk around with the idea or the New Age philosophy saying, “Oh, I’m already enlightened because I understand I am the creator, or one.” I’d have to say you’re talking about two selves there. You’re talking about ‘creator’ and ‘I,’ and so long as there is distinction, so long as there is the belief in self-nature, you still have desire. You still have attraction and repulsion. You still have hope and fear. You haven’t gone yet into a deep and profound understanding of the emptiness of self-nature. Of course, we have to do that through meditation. There is no ordinary language or ordinary experience that will teach us that profound understanding.

The best thing to do, actually, is to find a qualified teacher who can begin to help you, not only in terms of giving you the words – the verbal teachings – but also some kind of virtuous or valuable energy transmission. On the Vajrayana path, that is done through the transmission of the lineage. The teachings on the nature of emptiness, the teachings on the generation-stage practices, all of the different teachings that we receive here, are passed down through a lineage. That lineage originates in the mind of enlightenment, in the primordial state. It then is transmitted to us. It doesn’t stop there. The minute we receive an empowerment, we’re not going to instantly become enlightened. I wish it were that easy, but it is not. At that point, we are qualified to practice, and it is through the practice and our meditation – with the help of the transmission of the lineage – that we will achieve results.

Copyright ©  Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

A State of Recognition, Not Neurosis

by

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

As human beings, some of the greatest downfalls and difficulties are the constant messages and self-imposed kinds of structures or ideas regarding how we should be and shouldn’t be.  When we fail to come up to these standards and these ideals, the guilt that we have is so profound that it stops us dead in our tracks and we feel worthless and a whole, neurotic scenario begins about worthlessness.  It is absolutely the opposite from the kind of practice that we want to do.  We may think that as spiritual people we should feel like nothing, be humble.  Try to understand it a little differently.

If you’re walking around superimposing an idea on yourself and you’re feeling worthless and guilty and like nothing, that’s not really spiritual.  One is supposed to be in a state of Recognition, not in a state of neurosis.  So this guilt, which results from having all these ideas of how we ‘should be’ in this materialistic society, and the feeling that we are criminal if we don’t measure up to these ideas, is very much all-pervasive.  Witness how it is as a mother; when you have small children.  You know what it’s like when you develop that cord between yourself and your child where they become little satellites.  They’re out there, but there’s this little cord, this connection, between the mother and the child so that if the child is no longer in your sight, as a mother, you react to that.  That pulls the cord.  There is a big feeling of, “Oh, I have got to take care of my child, and I have to make sure my child is safe.  I have to supervise my child.”  If for one moment we respond differently to it or perhaps not quickly enough, or if there’s a moment of confusion, we immediately think of ourselves as criminals, and we immediately think the first thing to do is hide that.  Then we carry around this block of guilt and criminal feelings that make us act out in certain ways that are unfortunate.

Training the mind to constantly be in a state of offering, to constantly be in a state of more and more increasing Recognition is a way to circumvent the criminalizing-guilt neuroses.  To be able to gain a deeper recognition of the nature of phenomena, of what is sacred and what is ordinary, what is meaningful and should be gathered and what should be abandoned; to gain a better recognition of the faults of cyclic existence, and be able to distinguish between a diamond and a piece of glass — to train oneself in that way moves us out of that realm of being ego in the center of our own mandala, constantly being good or bad, blaming, judging, being hopeful or fearful — that constant neurotic scenario that ultimately, when you really look at it, is what we call ‘us.’  In training the mind to a deeper Recognition as an extension to one’s practice, and to practice constantly as we move around, is an antidote that is extremely powerful.

In terms of thinking about how our minds work, did you ever try to just sit down and just still the mind, just kind of relax and go blank?  Did you ever try to do that?  To try to get your mind to do that is like screaming at a monkey in a cage to stop jumping up and down.  What do you think is going to happen?  The monkey is going to go even crazier.  So in practicing in the way that I’ve described, constantly offering and not clinging, (therefore applying the antidote to clinging), constantly moving deeper and deeper into a state of better Recognition rather than deeper and deeper into ego-clinging, self-cherishing and neurosis, what happens is that it actually calms the mind.  It’s like it begins to apply the remedy or the medicine that makes our mind change from something that is inflamed to something that is much more relaxed so that our minds actually begin to change.  That happens in our sit-down practice, and that also happens in our mindfulness as we walk around.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Practice With Every Breath

by

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

As practitioners we think, “Oh, I love all this stuff you’re telling me and it’s all very nice and everything, but what I’d really like is a nature of mind teaching.  What I’d really like is some Dzogchen! Don’t start me with the basics.  Give me that high stuff.”  We think that, and then, sadly, pitifully, really, what happens is that we get this incredible Dzogchen teaching about the nature of mind, and it becomes to us something else that we, I, the ego, have collected.  Something as precious as a view of the nature of our Buddhahood, of the nature of our mind becomes just another thing that we hold; that I, the ego, holds.  It becomes something I have, and it makes me even greater because I have those teachings, and you don’t.

If we allow ourselves to practice in that way, by simply wanting that teaching and not requiring the recognition, not making ourselves go through the steps, we are dishonoring the Dharma. Instead of collecting great teachings from great teachers, it would behoove us to look in the mirror, to observe our own phenomena.  In order to discriminate between what is extraordinary and what is ordinary, what is enlightened activity and what is samsaric activity.  In order to develop this mindfulness, we have to learn to discriminate the world of phenomena.  We have to learn to discriminate appearances.  That never happens magically.

The terrible and painful mistake that we make is to think that eventually if we do our practice there’s going to be an experience.  We think that one day we’ll do our practice, and suddenly our aura will get big, or we’ll have some kind of AHA!  “There it is!  Enlightenment!” and we’ll be magically changed.  We even fantasize about this.  You know that you do.  You fantasize about other people seeing how enlightened you are.  You fantasize about how honored you will be when they “get” where you’re coming from.  You’re not alone, don’t worry.

This kind of idea is completely the opposite of the kind of discrimination regarding the world of appearances.  In waiting for enlightenment to come to us, we’re actually practicing duality.  In waiting for enlightenment to come to us, in waiting for that moment when the hallelujah chorus starts, we are actually saying, “I, ego, I am waiting for that to come to me.”  So in that state it will never happen.  In that state there is no such event.  There simply cannot be because there is no discrimination and no mindfulness — no mindfulness of the world of appearances.  In order to engage in giving rise to recognition of the empty nature of phenomena, you have to work at it.  To do the practice and just wait for this recognition is inappropriate.  It should be practiced with every breath.  It should be practiced with every moment of our lives, and not just our spare moments.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Practicing Recognition

by

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

As a teacher, sometimes I’ve had the opportunity to bring a student to task, to say, “Look, you’re all spaced out.  You’re working hard, you’re going through the motions, but you’re not practicing.  There’s no inner practice happening here.”  The first thing that the student will do is get defensive, and the reason why they’ll get defensive is because they’re dancing as fast as they can.  A student will look at me and say, “Well, what the hell do you want?  I’m dancing as fast as I can.  In the way that I understand, I’m working real hard.” I won’t argue that with you, not for a minute.  You’re right. You’re dancing as fast as you can; you’re working really hard; but the difference is you are not practicing recognition.  Even if you spend two hours a day practicing and then you leave it to go live the rest of your life, that is still a state of non-recognition, and you are not truly practicing.

What is required here is a deeper understanding, a deeper awareness, and a more profound grasp of the realities that we are facing.  Once again, our habitual pattern is to say, “Oh, this person is doing this and that person is doing that and that makes this person like this and that person like that.” but the way to practice is to understand that these things we see are the all-pervasive faults of cyclic existence; this person that you’re seeing is like a bee in a jar, just hitting the glass, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.  Does the bee know what’s going on?  The bee is trying to fly.  The bee is trying to do what bees know how to do, but being in a glass jar, like samsara, all it can do is bash its head against the glass.  There’s no way for that bee to figure its way out.  That is the condition of samsaric beings, and awakening to that recognition is really the only way that we can give rise to the bodhicitta, give rise to compassion.  Otherwise we are simply acting compassionate, which means, “I am the star of the show.”  We are still in that deeply deluded state.  We’re just acting differently, but acting is still acting.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Paying Homage

by

An excerpt from a teaching called The Seven Limb Puja:  Viewing the Guru by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

Since we find that we are, in fact, in the presence of the primordial Guru at every single moment, what is the posture that we should take?  You should refer to the practice called the Seven Limb Puja.  The Seven Limb Puja appears in many different practices in slightly different variations, but it has certain common denominators, and these should be studied and looked at as a guide of how one should practice now that one is coming to understand that the eyes of the Guru are our eyes; that the heart of the Guru is our heart; that in our nature, that is the nature.  That is the nature, and we are indistinguishable in our nature from that.

 

Practicing in that way we should think like this.  First of all, in the face of the Guru, knowing that the face of the Guru is always with us, we should practice paying homage constantly.  Constantly paying homage to the Guru, this will antidote our pride, our ego, that habit that says, “Oh, well, look at that!  The Guru has faults.  He or she must be human.” And, of course, that is the statement that keeps you from practicing pure devotion and pure surrender, and the same statement that prevents you from achieving realization.  So this is the antidote that helps you to give rise to that spiritual posture that makes it possible for you recognize the nature of the Guruas the absolute non-dual display of emptiness and luminosity; and to give rise to profound devotion at last, rather than the superficial stuff that we’ve been passing out as devotion.

We practice paying homage.  We pay homage to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas; the Lamas are in that number.  The Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are all represented in the Lama.  We should think that we pay homage to the Buddhas because they have crossed the ocean of suffering.  Therefore, they are capable of captaining us across the ocean of suffering.  So we pay homage with that kind of regard, as though we needed to cross an ocean of suffering and the trip is scary and long and hazardous and difficult and so a qualified captain is required.  Otherwise, we can’t make it.  So that is the kind of recognition of the superior quality of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, of the Lama.  Recognize every moment, this is a vajra command, that when we think of ourselves in our samsaric state and then we think of the Guru, we should think that the Guru is like a precious diamond, beyond compare, because the Guru is capable of helping us cross the ocean of suffering. We cannot do that ourselves.  That will antidote the kind of pride that we have when we try to put ourselves above everything, in subtle or gross ways, whatever it happens to be.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The Silent Chant

by

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

We are talking about the Lama as being our own precious nature.  Someday when we die and all the elements fall away, what will arise naturally is the natural state, free of contrivance.  And they say for the practitioner there is realization, simply because, the practitioner that has meditated properly will recognize that natural uncontrived state as the very primordial mother from which they have sprung.  And like a child who has been separated from his mother for a while runs to the mother with happiness and joy, and practically rips open his heart, and sits on the mother’s lap and doesn’t wish to separate from the mother at all —  like that, if we are meditators, we will run to that nature.  We will recognize with fervent regard, but so much more than that.  I don’t even have the words.

Here in our lives, due to the force of our fortunate meritorious karma that we have accumulated in the past, when here in this life, that same uncontrived nature, that same pristine quality appears in samsara to speak to us, to see us with its eyes, to hold our hand, to teach us how to practice, and how to recognize in our practice, we’re drunk, light in the head, stupid.  We can’t care, we can’t get it together.  Our minds are just weak that way.  And yet, even with all of that, even with all of our terrible practice, we are still hoping that when we die and those elements that make up our samsaric existence begin to disintegrate and fall away that somehow, magically, we will recognize the primordial wisdom nature.  Boy, are you thinking like Peter Pan!  That’s what I call magical thinking.  The only way it is going to happen is if we can begin to recognize that nature now.  And the only proper way to recognize the nature of the Guru is to simultaneously recognize our own nature as well, and to know that they are indistinguishable.

It is not possible for us to look at the Guru and find fault, because that would mean that we are acting with samsaric intention, with samsaric mind, and the result is samsara.  There is no practice there.  That is nothing.  You do that all the time.  You do that every moment.  That’s not practice.  But if we think and practice in the way that I’ve just discussed with you, then instead, when we see the Guru we see literally the face of salvation.  We see literally:  “I am that.  That I am.”  Even though, of course you can’t say “I.”  “I” separates us, but in the beginning, we have the intention of understanding: that is the nature that is my nature also.

And so inside — instead of judgment, hatred, greed, ignorance, jealousy, pride — there is a soundless chant that says, “Holy holy holy.” and that is the practice.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

WP2Social Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com