death | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Impermanence: From “Treasury of Precious Qualities” by Jigme Lingpa

March 13, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “Treasury of Precious Qualities” by Jigme Lingpa, with commentary by Longchen Yeshe Dorje and Kangyur Rinpoche, as translated by Padmakara Translation Group:

Impermanence

1. The stable world with all its moving occupants is said to last a kalpa.
Which, by its nature, has four ages: forming, dwelling, ruin and the void.
It is disparaged with the name of Basis of Decay,
For it will be assailed by seven conflagrations and one flood.
2. The teachers of gods and humankind perceive our trust in permanence
And therefore, though they have supreme and adamantine forms,
Relax their hold on indestructibility
And joyfully display their passing into peace.

3. Those perfect in samadhi may sustain great spans of life,
But all to no avail, they must endure mortality.
Brahma, Shiva, Ishvara and all the Chakravartins
Find no way to flee the demon Lord of Death.

4. For those who flock so carefree in the wholesome vales of higher realms,
The hunter lies in wait, his weapon in his hand,
Conspiring how to rob them of their lives.
He thinks and thinks of it and has no other thoughts.

5. Tormented by the summer’s heat, beings with pleasure
In the clear light of the autumn moon.
They do not think, and it does not alarm them
That a hundred of their days has passed away.

6. A powerful bowman’s shaft is swift indeed,
But not as swift as pretas moving on the earth.
The pretas in the air are swifter still,
And swifter yet the gods of sun and moon.
But swiftest of them all is human life.

7. The prime of youth is ravaged and brought low by age.
Disease disturbs health’s equlibrium
And perfect situations are all ruined by decay.
So soon does death lay siege to life!

8. Defeated in their struggle with the Lord of Death,
Beings plunge protectorless and friendless down in the abyss.
The glow of life is dimmed; the senses fail;
And doctors with their cures all turn away.

9. Then comes feeble twitching of exhausted limbs,
The failing breath that rattles in the throat,
The family and friends who stand around and grieve
And pray their useless prayers that death might be delayed.

10. The movement of breath, now fine as horse’s hair,
Is severed by the sharp ax of the Deadly Lord.
All beauty now departs; the grin of death appears;
And karma brings the bardo’s deep, black night.

Examining Death

March 9, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Take Control of Your Life”

Before we begin, I would like to mention the passing of Pope John Paul II. Not that I am becoming a Catholic in my old age, but I was baptized a Catholic and I feel a connection with this spiritual leader who has spent, apparently from the time of being a young priest, four hours in prayer every day. I think that that pure intention and that kind of motivation and that kind of spirituality in the world is precious no matter what flavor it comes in. So when we lose somebody like that from the world, there is always a reason for sadness.

It’s amazing that His Holiness was really the first and only religious leader that I know of who died so publicly, not only with so many people watching the windows in St. Peter’s Square, but with cable news and all the news networks also covering this event. What an opportunity really to offer human beings—the opportunity to study death, to remind ourselves of this human condition that we all share together. None of us will avoid death. We may all die differently. Some of us may die a conscious death, hopefully, through practice; others might die an ordinary death. But we will all definitely die, and His Holiness reminded us of that fact. Kind of stuck it under our noses again. In our culture, we like to forget that. Even though we age literally every minute every day, we like to forget that part. We like to forget that death will definitely come.

As Buddhists, that’s an important factor for us; but culturally, as Westerners, we don’t like to think about death. In the West our dead people are carried away very quickly before we even get to notice them practically. Death is covered; it’s sanitized. We even make our dead pretty. This is a corpse, you understand, this is meat. We make them pretty. This is our custom. It’s like we lie to ourselves about death. It’s like we don’t want to face that that person has died, so we have a mortuary beautician come in and fix them up. Interesting way of thinking about death. I mean, just interesting.

His Holiness reminds us of the truth of death. That even those of us who practice, those of us who pray, we are all practicing really and praying for an auspicious rebirth. In his case, he was praying to go to heaven. We are praying for an auspicious rebirth. We are constantly reminded as Buddhists that everything is impermanent—that our lives are impermanent, that our youth is impermanent, that our physical appearance is impermanent, that it’s constantly changing. And while suffering is impermanent, so is happiness. We are reminded of that because we have actually witnessed this life that was so vigorous and so intending to work to its full capacity.

This Pope has traveled to many countries. Even when his health was not good, he would persevere. That was a miraculous thing to allow us to watch, to see how amazing is a life that is dedicated that way. And so we all mourn his passing. I hope that each of us in our own way, however we pray, whatever religion (he was definitely an inclusive Pope), that we should make prayers for him—perhaps a few moments of silence—and celebrate as well the fact that he’s reminded us once again that life and death are really pretty much the same. That one follows the other. And just as we have to prepare for life, we have to prepare for death.

Hearty Exhortation toward the Practice

January 8, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

This is respectfully quoted from “Drops of Nectar: Collection of Spiritual Advice from Great Tibetan Masters” Rigdzod Editorial Committee Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, Namdroling 2004

Chapter V

Again, at this very time, seeing the essential nonexistence, I sang this song of diligence in solitary practice.

Ignorance is as vast as the sky and
The might of grasping and fixation is extremely dark,
As the affliction of unknowing is beginingless and endless,
Confused one, I now offer you this counsel!

Today, in this life, though you are pursuing the path of liberation,
You are not diligent in your practice, and are still distracted by entertainment and diversions.
What is the use of the activities of this life, mere illusory appearances?
Today, I urge you to the practice of the essential meaning!

The joy and happiness of this life are just like phenomena in dreams.
None will be of any benefit and must definitely be abandoned when you depart.
Leaving behind your food and wealth, what will you do?
Today, I urge you to the practice of the profound truth of Dharma!

Although meetings end in partings, like visitors to a market place,
One by one, various kinds of friends and companions tie us up.
What is the use of having many people around you?
Today, I urge you to practice truth constantly.

Wondrous renown and praise is like a dream.
This delusion beguiles ordinary people and their conceptualizing grows.
What’s the use of the esteem and respect of others?
Today, I urge you to practice the essential luminosity!

Any activity of this present life, whatever it may be,
Such deeds are all meaningless and the cause of suffering.
As activities are delusory, what use are they to you?
Today, I urge you to practice the truth of nothing to be done!

Leaving all that is close to you, at the time of departure, you will go alone.
Your various activities, whatever they were, will not help you in the slightest.
The phenomena of this life, what use will it be to you?
I urge you to practice what will benefit during the great going forth.

Whoever is near, whatever you possess, as much as there is,
Nothing except your virtue and negativity will follow after you
So what’s the use of your friends and relatives, your possessions and wealth?
All that is born will die, so I urge you to practice the sublime view of dharma.

In the outer world there are many objects of bliss and happiness
But however, great the experiences of mental and physical joy and pleasure,
At the time of death what use will they be to you?
I urge you to gain confidence in what will help when body and consciousness separate!

Note fearful when sick, nor regretful when dying,
The profound essential meaning of Dharma frees one from remorse at the moment of death.
In the space of the nature of reality of one familiar with self-cognizant awareness,
I urge you to achieve the stability of the true natural state!

You are not free because of constantly being born again and again in samsara.
So, today, here in this life, by capturing the throne of reality itself
In the primordial space-like sphere of unchanging Dharmakaya,
I urge you to achieve the level of the Dharmakaya of self-cognizant awareness!

These are suggestions from my heart, so listen with respect!
Practice diligently in solitude and the attainments will arise!
Nurture the state of awareness and confidence will be born!
This is condensed oral instruction of the key point of the profound meaning!

As my mind was disheartened by distraction,
In order to encourage myself to practice tranquility in solitude,
These stages of instructions as advice for myself,
Are also offered to the ears of the fortunate ones who have come!

May their virtue fill my peaceful mind
With the vast wealth of qualities of profound treasure!
And may the four precious doors of the gathering place of oceans of Dakinis,
The hidden land, be open!

From the Vajra Song of Instruction for Rousing Myself, this completes the fifth chapter of urging wholehearted practice. The “Vajra Song of Instructions for Rousing Myself,” was sung by the great yogi of the Mahayana teachings, Longchen Rabjam, at the slope of Gangri Thodkar, known as Orgyen Dzang, the excellent abode of Buddha Samantabhadra, which is glorified by the crystal reflection of the moon. Shubam!

Understanding Death and Rebirth

October 12, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Commitment to the Path”:

The Buddha wants us to understand that the only thing that has lasting value, that is actually truly and really good for us, that will lead us to the door of liberation, that will lead us into spiritual reality, are the Three Precious Jewels— the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. And in Vajrayana the Lama is the condensed essence of all those three.

We are taught that everything is impermanent and nothing can be trusted, because nothing goes with you when you die. There is only one thing that you can gather and accumulate that has any value and that is virtuous habitual tendencies, the dissolution of the poisons. One’s karmic propensities and habitual tendencies are the only thing that leave with us when we die, continue with us in the bardo and return with us and form our next life. It is this package of habitual tendencies and karmic material that actually experiences death and rebirth. The Buddha teaches that it isn’t even the fact that you reincarnate. The Buddha teaches us that we experience rebirth and death. There is a difference. What is experiencing that birth and death is this package of habitual tendencies and karmic propensities. And that is how the experience happens. But you, in your nature, are the primordial wisdom Buddha. You cannot die and be reborn. But if you are dead to that reality, asleep to that reality, you only experience death and rebirth.

If we really take the Buddha’s teachings on impermanence and carry them to a deeper level, we begin to understand this. The Buddha teaches us that due to delusion we experience rebirth, death and rebirth. That which you are does not reincarnate. It’s like saying that what we are experiencing are the waves on top of an ocean. You can’t keep anything still there—it’s all wavy. But the truth of our nature, the meaning of the path, is the sanctity and solidity of the ocean floor that never changes. That is why the Buddha teaches us about impermanence. Not to scare us, not to make us unhappy. To tell somebody a thing is a certain way doesn’t make them any unhappier if it is that way. It makes them able to cope, to deal, to decide.

Dissolving Constituents: Understanding Death

September 12, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

The Bodhisattva understands that everything we amass during the time of our lives—everything we strengthen around us, all of the protection we build, the superstructuring that we do when we meet up with other than self-nature and react with hope and fear and begin to do the dance of self-protection and of self-establishment—the entire structure of self and its relationship to other, the entire idea, the Bodhisattva knows that eventually this will come to nothing. This is an intellectual response due to the Bodhisattva’s training, not a feeling response. The Bodhisattva is trained to understand that no matter what we accumulate and gather together during the course of our lives, by the time of the end of our life, none of that will have any meaning. At the end of our lives we experience the winding down of all of our energies. And as we die, even the physical, psychological, emotional constituents, particularly the physical elements, one by one, all begin to dissolve.

The fire element within our body begins to dissolve. The body cools. The water element within the body begins to dissolve and break down. The body becomes drier as we approach death. The mouth, the mucous tissues within the body become drier and drier. The earth elements within the body all dissolve. The body itself begins to break down and even the wind element within the body begins to dissolve. Mental process begins to slow and one’s activity level also begins to slow at the end of one’s life.

Then at the time of death, all of the constituents actually break down and separate. As the consciousness abandons the body and the body becomes simply a heap of broken-down constituents, what remains is the consciousness, which has its habitual tendency fully established. It is not able to take with it any of the real or material objects that it has gathered in its drama during the course of its life. And so all that remains is the consciousness, that, like a basket, held these material things, these solid, impermanent realities associated with that particular life.

The consciousness, however, remains. And if the consciousness spent most of its lifetime in establishing material wealth or gathering substance to support the ego, then at the time of death the consciousness has only that habit of supporting the ego to take with it, only that habit. On the other hand, if a life of generosity and caring have taken place, then that habit moves as consciousness into the next rebirth. Now the Bodhisattva knows this and so the Bodhisattva’s prayer is not based on a feel-good emotion of “Gee I’d like to be a really cool person, be so kind and so neat, and so terrific that everybody loves me and calls me saint somebody.” That’s not what the Bodhisattva thinks.

The Bodhisattva thinks instead in a very logical and precise way, according to the Buddha’s teaching: Everything will dissolve. All the efforts of my life together will come to nothing. All the efforts of my life to build up my treasure-house of material goods and keep them for myself will ultimately come to nothing. All of my efforts to preserve my power will ultimately come to nothing because power dissolves at the time of death also, but the habit of grasping at power is reborn as consciousness. So if gathering power will come to nothing, if gathering wealth will come to nothing, if preserving myself in this extraordinary way, thinking only in a self-cherishing and egocentric way, will ultimately come to nothing other than suffering in the next rebirth, why not give everything now?

Awareness of Change

September 3, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “The Bodhisattva Ideal”

One of the main thoughts that one hears when one begins to turn the mind toward Dharma is the idea of impermanence. Now when we hear that all things are impermanent, we take this just as it sounds. We know from our own experience that all things are impermanent, or at least we know that roughly. We know that if we buy ourselves a quart of milk that the quart of milk will either sour or be used up. We know that if we buy a car or a color TV or something like that, that eventually the car or the color TV will break down. Then we’ll have to buy another one and go through the entire process again. We also know that what is young becomes old, much to our dismay, and that no matter what we do, what we do only works temporarily—what was young becomes old. We also learn that what is high will become low; what is low will become high. What is brought together will separate; what is separate will be brought together again. These aspects of the idea of impermanence we don’t really hold to; we don’t really understand very well. We try to have a more superficial view of impermanence because the idea is painful. It’s not our favorite concept.

When the Buddha taught us about impermanence, he taught us about impermanence as a way to understand the faults of samsara, and as a way to understand how suffering is all-pervasive. Again, as human beings, we like to ignore the idea of suffering. Of course, when we are suffering and we can feel it very deeply, it’s pretty hard to ignore, but when we are feeling pretty and feeling comfortable, the idea of suffering becomes sort of distant and cloudy. When we feel up, in a way, we have mixed feelings. We feel as though it’s always going to be this way and life is pretty good. But then, by the same token, we’re afraid to feel too up, because we know if we feel too up we’re going to have too far to fall. It’s odd. We have this neurotic capacity for seeing the truth, and yet using it against ourselves or hiding it from ourselves. It’s like we know, but we close our eyes because we don’t want to know.

So this particular suffering of samsara becomes to us somewhat hidden; and actually the hiding of this particular truth leads us to many disappointments. For instance, in the case let’s say, of meeting someone that you love very much, meeting a loved one and coming together with that loved one in some capacity. Perhaps if it is a romantic relationship, and there is a coming together in marriage or something of that nature. If it is the coming together of a parent and child such as in the birth of a child, then the parent sees the child and the child sees the parent. The parent, being the elder, has the capacity to perhaps recognize something very familiar about that child, or to feel that this isn’t a new acquaintance, that there is a deep and profound connectionwith this child.

Sometimes people will meet each other in a very casual way and will become instant allies and best friends. I know that’s happened to each one of us at some point in our lives. It certainly has happened to me. You meet someone and suddenly this person becomes your ally, your friend, someone who is really a helper to you and who understands; and it feels as though you have been friends for a very long time.

So in each of these cases, when we have these wonderful meetings that bring us so much joy, at that point we like very much to forget that that joy is impermanent. Yet, everything we know and everything we’ve seen teaches us and leads us to believe that everything is impermanent. We have seen that even in the case of romantic relationships that result in marriage. Should that marriage go really well, then ultimately the bond will be separated through death. And we know that in the case of parents and child, no matter how close the parent and child are when they are younger, the relationship will evolve and change. In some cases the relationship becomes very distant, unfortunately. In other cases where that does not occur, then even when the relationship between parent and child stays loving and has mutual concern in it, still eventually one will leave the other. There will be the separation of death. The separation of death always happens. Even within that experience of togetherness, there is so much change that you can literally say that two people who married in their twenties are not the same people that are together in their sixties and seventies. They look completely different. There are worlds of difference between a twenty-five year old and a sixty year old. There is a vast amount of experiential living and maturity that has occurred. That person at twenty is quite different when they reach sixty, very different.

I remember being in my twenties, and where I was and where I wasn’t. And I know that I am not the same as I was. I know that many of my understandings, beliefs, habits, even values have matured and changed. So it is impossible to think that we will remain in the same comfortable, stagnant condition for the rest of our lives, let alone the fact that we are all separated by death.

What is a “Good Death”

July 25, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo offered during a Phowa retreat:

While there are individual experiences in the bardo of dying, let’s talk about the general ones so that we can prepare. Since we are talking about the six bardos, in general, we want to be very clear on the bardo of the moment of death, and that’s the last subject that we will cover today. It is a very, very important one, because we are all, in our way, preparing for death and we will all definitely experience death.

So, first of all, the bardo of the moment of death. We have talked about the point preceding death. Preceding death there is a period of time during which—and a person may or may not know—one has met with the conditions that will bring about the death. Now for those people who have a disease, a heart disease, or AIDS, or some disease that is degenerative or progressive in some way, the moment that the disease occurred to them was the moment that they entered into another bardo. Although it is still contained within the bardo of living, it is the bardo that preceeds death. What we’re talking about now is the actual bardo of the moment of death. That is when death is marked; it can be seen from the outside, and it actually occurs.

Before I begin I want to make something very clear. We have funny ideas about death. We have some terrible ideas about death. First of all, we’re scared to death of death. That’s the truth. I really didn’t mean to make a pun, it sort of happened that way. But we are scared of death, we are terrified of death, and it’s because we are unprepared. That’s the only reason to be afraid of death. And preparation, as it happens, will dispel the fears of death. I even think that during this week some of your fears of death may be dispelled, because you will be better prepared. But, in truth, until that time, we are terrified of death, and that is the main feeling we have about it. We do not understand death. We think that death is a horrible, sort of killing thing that we have to go through, and that the best way to go through it is unconscious. That’s the kind of idea we have. People often will actually pray, “Let me die in my sleep. Let me die unknowing that I’m going through the death experience.” And there are other people that say, “Let me die quickly.” Well, for my money, I would like to be one of the fortunate ones who know for some period of time before their death that they have caught the cause of their death or that they have the cause of their death. For my money, that’s what I wish would happen to me if I were an ordinary sentient being. If I were in that position where I was caught in samsara—and we all feel that way, we all are—I would wish to have preparation time. I would wish to know beforehand.

Those of us who are aging gradually and staying clear and in good health through the aging process, we are fortunate, because our minds are clear; and yet we can clearly see in the mirror that we are approaching this time. Clearly we are not the same person we were ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty years ago. Clearly that is true. We have pictures to prove it. These people are fortunate. We are fortunate. Because seeing the evidence of death approaching, we have time to prepare. Yes, we have to experience the discomfort of knowing that death is approaching, but it’s like going into the room, turning on the light, and seeing exactly where the stuff is so you can get around it. Remember we used that analogy early today, of walking through a room with all kinds of furniture. You want to do it when the light is on; you want to know how not to stumble. So this is what we are experiencing if we can prepare for our death.

Particularly, think about the tremendous suffering of diseases like AIDS. We talk about the tremendous suffering of something like that; and the biggest and most horrible part of it is that we die younger than we would have died if we did not have the disease. And that’s how we think about it. And yet, a disease like that gives us an opportunity. In a way, it is half of a blessing. In a way, it is the quintessential suffering of cyclic existence, couldn’t be worse. It is, in a nutshell, what cyclic existence actually is when you take away the barbiturate effect that it has on us. Yet, in another way, it is a way to understand —you understand clearly as never before—that death is imminent. There is a way to understand that you could not have had any other way, and it gives us extraordinary time. It gives us an extraordinary clarity of time to be able to practice because we’re motivated. It’s just that clear. We are motivated. We know we have a date to keep. Those of us who don’t know what that date is, we’re a little more vague about this. We don’t want to be bothered, frankly, and so we are at a disadvantage.

Less lucky is the stuff that most people pray for: a quick death. Instantaneous. “Hit me with a truck.” That kind of thing. That’s how people think, “Get it over with. Get me out of here.” And it’s because they don’t understand what death is. They do not understand that once the eyes are closed and the breath has stopped, it sounds like a pun, but basically life goes on in one form or another. One continues to continue. That is the nature of what we are. And so there is no true cessation other than the cessation of breath. To die a quick death may save a little bit of discomfort for the unprepared, but it gives us no time for preparation. Even the dissolution of the elements occurs in an untimely and hurried way so that we cannot cope with them well. So do not pray for an instant death.

Neither should you pray to die in your sleep, because it is too confusing. You are already in the sleeping bardo. The sleeping bardo has a heavier level of delusion in a way than the waking bardo, because you literally are not slowed down by the time it takes physicality to process itself. For instance, if I want to walk from here to that door it’s going to take me a certain amount of time and effort because of the physicality of the situation; but in the dream, I’m there, I’m out, I’m gone. I can go anywhere. So in a way there is even more delusion there. You do not want to die in the middle of the dream state unless your practice is so good that you would recognize the bardo even in the dream state; and that can only be hoped for if you are the kind of person who has complete control and direction over your dreams. Always. And that ain’t you. So instead, pray for a time of knowing and a time of preparation. Pray for the leisure to prepare for your death. That is the appropriate and best prayer.

No Time to Waste

May 2, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Death comes to us all, often sooner than we know. Prepare for death. If you have accomplished Phowa then death is not frightening, and can be noble and of benefit. Leave with no debt unpaid, and practice. Death will be in the heart of the Primordial Mother.

One can practice Amitaba Buddha, and at the time of passing to Dharmakaya Buddha, the practice will be the connection. OM AH MI DEWA HRI!

Either way, if dying, renounce all, for not one grain of rice will go with you. This is not a time to pick apart the world, or hurt anyone.

These are the teachings as given by my Lineage, Palyul.

If death is chaotic and fearful, unprepared or cruelly, there is unimaginable suffering in the Bardo of death. Always attend your mind. Leave some worthy act of compassion, keep the mind loving and peaceful. Life is as short as a cup of water travelling down a waterfall, and as fast.

The Missing Link

March 31, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Marrying a Spiritual Life with Western Culture”

What is the missing link? What causes us to shunt ourselves off in that direction and create a scenario whereby we either don’t relate deeply to our path or it cannot nourish us, or we find ourselves feeling dead inside? How does that happen? One of the things that you have to remember—and it’s really important to think about—is that it is more and more prevalent in modern society to not see some of the natural currents of life. This is particularly true in our country with our level of technology and all the civilizing factors that have come together to make us what we are.

For instance, here we are so technologically advanced and removed from certain natural occurrences that we rarely have the opportunity to see the beginning of life carried all the way through to the end of life. Unless we ourselves have had a baby and daddy went into the birth-giving room and mommy had a mirror—unless we do that—birth to us is a mystery. We do not see what birth looks like. We have pictures of it. We may have seen a movie, but the direct sensual experience of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling, we have not experienced. Even those of us who are parents are somehow absent from this experience because many people do not have a real direct experience of their own birth-giving. They go to sleep during it or they’re drugged or something like that.

Neither do we have an experience of dying. When we die, we will have that experience; but until then, it’s hidden from us. We have no way to prepare ourselves for the reality of death in our society. We have no way to understand what is gained and what is lost during a life. Watching someone die is an interesting experience because you can see that everything material is left behind. You have a sense, once that consciousness has left the body, has moved on, that there is a really distinct difference between what the body is like at the door of death—even if it was unconscious—and what it’s like after consciousness has actually left. It’s quite different. Any of us who have seen loved ones immediately after their death will know this. You know that there is nothing in there, unless you’re completely out to lunch, which I also have seen! But you can see that something essential has left and that everything material has been left behind. It’s such an eye-opener, particularly if the person who has died is not very old. Perhaps they were still at the point in their life where they took a great deal of pride in their body or thought of themselves as being very vital. You might remember different things about the person. You might remember that the person didn’t like their figure, felt that they were too fat. Maybe you know that during the person’s life they obsessed about this. They felt really bad about being fat and they tried to do things about it without success. Then you see that person die. When the consciousness leaves, you realize that everything they struggled with doesn’t matter. Whether that body was fat or skinny, it didn’t go with them.

An understanding of how superficial such a struggle is occurs when you naturally see the rhythms of life and death. Do you see what I’m saying? There is a natural understanding that no one else can teach you. You have to see it yourself.

To understand what we are, it’s also good to see a number of babies being born. Babies are different when they are born. Hospital nurses who care for babies right after they’re born can tell you this for sure. Babies are not blank slates. Some babies are very aggressive and very active, and you can tell that they have tiny, little, confrontational personalities already. They’re just that way. And then other babies are just wide-eyed and open. They’re like little jelly fish. My two sons have always been polar opposites—from the first moment they were born. A mother who has had more than one child can tell you that’s how it is.

Many of us are completely separated from these natural events, yet they teach us very profound things about how to approach spirituality. Even the story about the Buddha indicates this. At first the Buddha was prevented by his father from seeing the suffering of old age, sickness and death. After having witnessed these sufferings, he found the strength to go on in his path because of compassion, because of the deeply felt recognition that occurred to him on some subtle level. That’s a metaphor for the problem of our society. What a display Lord Buddha gave us when he showed us that, because on several different levels we are prevented from seeing suffering by our society.

We take dead bodies away and put make-up on them. (Can you believe that? I want all my make-up on my body before I die. I do not want someone to put it on after I’m dead. All of you can remember this? That is not the time for a face lift.) On an internal level, because of these subtle messages that we get, we do not come in contact easily with any real internal processes. We avoid them in the same way we are taught to avoid them externally. We’re told, “Don’t go there, it’s not safe. Just don’t go there!”

We are told not to approach things in a really intimate way. Now in the story about Lord Buddha’s life, when he saw the suffering, it bothered him, hurt him, upset him, scared him and shocked him, and he had to—oh my—go through transformation, that “T” word that scares us so much. Transformation is related to change, the other word that really scares us. So, yes, he had to go through all of that, but what was the result? The result was he became deeply empowered and was able to make some very difficult choices.

He decided not to live an ordinary life in which he was extremely happy. He was a prince with all the blessings. He loved his family. He had a beautiful and devoted wife, and they were very close, very intimate. He had a beautiful newborn child and was not a distant or absent or unconnected parent. He loved his greater family as well, his father and mother—the king and queen. But for the first time he saw the suffering of old age, sickness and death, and it moved him to his core and enabled him to make choices that are very difficult. He came to the point of deep knowing within himself, that if he wanted to really love his wife and his baby, he had to find the way to liberation for their sake. The phrase “for their sake” became real to him. It’s not real to us.

Why We Die

December 21, 2015 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Did you ever watch yourself when you were young? Did you see what you did? Do you watch young people now? Look at the teenagers you know. They are invariably right. They know everything. I knew everything at that age, too, so I understand. They know beyond everything. If there is more than everything, they know it. They have all the answers.

We are also like that. We are locked within a time-and-space grid. When we drop something, it falls, immediately. What makes it so immediate? If it were to hang in the air for ten years, then fall, invariably we would convince ourselves it’s never going to fall. But since it falls immediately, since when we stick our hands in the fire, it hurts immediately, we believe that. Old age, sickness and death we don’t believe. We sort of get it, but it’s in the back of our minds somewhere.

Why is it we don’t fully believe in cause and effect, even though we take into account the passage of time? It’s because we are trying to be happy, so we convince ourselves that cause and effect is not absolute. Why is that? How is it that we can understand that we create the causes of suffering in our mind, and yet still convince ourselves it will not bear the fruit of suffering? It’s because karma appears to ripen in different ways. Karma can ripen immediately. If I drop something and it falls, this is karma ripening. I dropped it; it fell. Karma can also ripen in a different way.

Because of your belief that self-nature is inherently real, you have created the delusion of a self. Self has a beginning and it has an end, and that is the cause for death. The cause for death is the belief in self-nature as being real; that is why people die. Yet you will convince yourself it is okay to believe in self-nature, that there is no problem as long as you can find a way to make self happy. You think it’s going to be okay. But you are still going to die. We are doing this to ourselves, and we don’t even realize it. The self is a finite thing. It had a beginning, a time when it was conceived. There was a time when the thought of self-nature as being inherently real first manifested. Since that is so, then it also must end. If there is a beginning, there is an end.

In the same way, we are constantly engaged in creating things that are the karmic causes of our own suffering, but we don’t make a connection. The reason we don’t make a connection is due to the other kind of karmic ripening, the one that you don’t see in this life. The karma that ripens after a long time, an intermediate time, or even a short time, are karmic ripenings that you actually do not see in this lifetime.

Here then is a problem. Here is one of the reasons why it becomes very difficult to realize the unchangeable truth that all sentient beings wish to be happy, and yet not realizing how to create the causes of happiness, create instead the causes of suffering.

Many of the things that we have suffered in this lifetime seem to have been put upon us in an innocent way. We were innocent. Why is someone born with a cleft palate? Why are some of us born with a crippling condition, some handicap? Why do some of us become ill or die when we have tried to live a good life, when we have done everything we can to be kind to other human beings and have never killed anyone? It is because many of the causes that we see in this lifetime have come from a time before.