ignorance | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Pick Your Poison

February 3, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

We have made many offerings to the Guru. Mostly what we have offered the Guru are five cups: five cups of poison. We have offered the Guru hatred, because there in the presence of the primordial nature, there in the presence of the display of the Bodhicitta, there in that non-dual pristine purity, we have shamelessly hated, abused, and neglected. We have committed horrible sins against others who are innocent — against motherly sentient beings — not only in this lifetime, but previously as well. And we have done this bold-faced in the presence of that which is so holy as to be indescribable.

We have offered the cup of greed and grasping. Every single day in the presence of our own mind, the face of the Guru, in the great silent sound of primordial emptiness, there in the great quiet light of the display of luminosity, right there in the place of Bodhicitta, from our mouth, we have offered the cup of greed instead of the speech of comfort. This is what we have offered to the Guru. This is the offering that we have made. Without shame we grasp. We are filled with greed. We do nothing but think about me, me, me, and “What I can have?” and “What I can do?” and “How great I am!” and “Don’t you want to give me some more approval?” “Don’t you want to give me some more?” This is what we do in the face of the Guru.

And then the third cup that we offer to the face of the Guru is our ignorance. Not only do we begin with ignorance — which is forgivable, in the sense that we are born; we wake up; at five or six years old we come to consciousness. Later on, we figure out that we’re as dumb as posts. We just don’t know. We are ignorant. We don’t have the teaching yet. But now we have come to the point where we have received the teaching. We have received enough of the teaching where you could say that while we still abide in samsara, we are moving away from ignorance. We are bringing down, or quelling, the poison of ignorance. Yet, in the face of the Guru, in the face of the primordial empty nature that is our nature, in the face of the very display of Bodhicitta, we have willfully remained ignorant. Willfully. We have not accomplished our practice. We have turned away from our practice. We have not tried very hard. We have not listened to the teachings. We have not taken the advice of our Gurus. We continue to listen to the teaching as though it was water rolling off of our back

Imagine that you had one chance to listen to Guru Rinpoche and that was the only contact with Dharma that you were ever going to have in your whole life, and Guru Rinpoche offered to give you the keys to liberation, everything that you need. What would that listening look like? Hopefully, if you are not dumber than a post, you would listen to the Guru as though it were your very breath. You would listen with your whole heart and every word would be like food, like nectar to you. You would take every bit of it home and work with it all the time. If that were the only opportunity you would ever receive and you were receiving these teachings from Guru Rinpoche, maybe you might think like that.

But in the face of our root Guru that’s not what we do. We report dutifully for class and we hear the teachings. I used to walk around and ask students, “What was the teaching about that I taught the other night?” But I stopped that because that used to break my heart, when there was no answer.

We are faulted in the way that we make offerings. We cling to our ignorance. We have heard the method, we have heard the teachings, and yet we do not practice accordingly, to the best of our abilities. And so, we have offered the cup of ignorance to our Guru. And that has been the best that we could do.

The next cup that we have offered to the Guru is jealousy. Bold faced, in the face of our very nature, in the very display of Bodhicitta we have looked at the accomplishments of others, and we have said, I can do that. We have competed and we have been jealous. We have looked to other’s belongings and we have said, “I wish I had that instead of you.” We try to make ourselves feel better, to practice self-aggrandizement, by lifting ourselves up and putting others down. These things we have done in the very face of the Guru who is indistinguishable from us and from our nature, and indistinguishable from the nature of all beings. There is only nature. It is not divided into pigeon holes. Its not like an ice-cube tray where its all divided into sections. So when we look into the face of any other sentient being, any motherly sentient being, and perform our usual ritual of jealousy and competitiveness, then this is the game that we are actually playing with the root Guru. We have, therefore in truth, been jealous and competitive toward the root Guru, because there is no distinction. And if we think that it’s okay to be that way in front of other sentient beings but not okay to be that way in front of the Guru, then we are holding up the cup of ignorance as well. By now we should know better than that. We have been taught more than that. By now we know that all sentient beings have within them the Buddha nature, the Buddha seed, and that is inseparable from the Guru’s nature. So, if we harm, or ignore, or treat badly or abuse others, this is what we have done to the Guru. We have held up the cup of jealousy.

And the last wonderful offering that we have made to the Guru is the cup of pride. In front of the Guru, that nature which is all-pervasive, fundamentally undifferentiated, free of any kind of conjecture, or contrivance, or distinction; in front of that pure display, we have held ourselves up as great, special and superior. We have held ourselves up as that which requires special attention. We have held ourselves up as that which requires approval because we are so wonderful. And we have not been ashamed, in front of the face of the Guru, to indicate that we are superior to others. We have not been ashamed to do that. Strangely, we feel shame and embarrassment at the idea of surrender in devotion, but we have no shame about showing our stinking nasty pride in front of the face of the Guru. That doesn’t bother us at all. Our thinking is completely backwards.

Now, this is not good news. We like hear good inspiring things. We like to be entertained. This is not the kind of thing that we like to hear. But you know, if you really are honest with yourself, if you really examine yourself, you know that what I am saying is true.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Understanding the Causes

October 13, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Why We Suffer”

When we come into this life, although we are little drooling children, although we cannot understand very much, we will grow. And as we grow what we will see is the display of those habitual tendencies of the continuation of the movement of that which is called the mindstream. When we, seemingly as individuals, hold to the idea of self-nature as being inherently real, in order to continue that continuation of holding to self-nature as being inherently real, we constantly have to distinguish between self and other. Otherwise, we cannot understand self-nature. Self-nature is only a relative term. Self-nature has no meaning unless we continue to define the difference between self and other. That is one aspect of our habitual tendency that is so deeply ingrained that it must happen automatically. Because if it does not happen, the stream of continuation simply cannot exist. There is no continuation.

Believing self-nature to be solid and real, we must distinguish between self and other. Therefore, we must find other to be solid and real. And so, the way that we move through what seems to us to be linear experience is by clinging to self, defining it, creating all kinds of conceptual ideations surrounding self-nature, constantly being involved in distinction between self and other, and therefore constantly being involved in acceptance, rejection or indifference to other. Reaction. We continue in that mode. What is actually happening here, in the midst of this deluded and very energetic and very involving and actually narcotic experience, this dynamic continuation? It seems to us that we are individuals who are moving through linear time and that is the delusion, the active delusion that we are involved in. But, according to the Buddha’s teaching, we are actually experiencing the display of our own habitual tendency, our own mindstream.

Because of the belief in the distinction between self and other, because of this basic fundamental assumption of self from which all reaction, from which all ideation that is the foundation of every circumstance arises, we have our experience, and that is the material of our experience. But, actually if we were to examine our own experience from the point of view of realization, such as the Buddha experienced, if we were to examine at the most profound and the most deep level, if we could somehow eradicate our addiction to this kind of experience, our fixation on the solidity of self-nature and its distinction from other, if we could stop reacting, if the mind were completely relaxed, we would understand that what we are actually experiencing is the material of our own mindstream. This is very hard information to take in sometimes. Especially, it’s hard for Westerners because of our training.

Understanding the Opportunity

June 28, 2017 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Decision Time”

I want to say a few words, if I may. How many of you, I wonder, feel that you have absorbed enough of the teachings over the years to have a good enough idea of the pointing out instructions that Lord Buddha and many teachers over time have given us? How many of us, I wonder, have really taken the time to contemplate the teachings in such a way that they really become a part of our inner gyroscope? How many of us have taken to heart teachings that were given generously and kindly over the years in order to help us to see our way through?

I think about, in the beginning, how many times I taught that life is like going through a dark room with lots of furniture. And, of course, you have free will, lucky you. You can choose to go through that room in the darkness with the furniture right there, taking your chances. And, of course, we know what happens if you are operating in perfect darkness with lots of furniture in your room, or obstacles or past karma ripening, which we all have, or being in samsara, which we all are. How many of us have even taken that first step, I wonder, to make that decision to say, ‘I will not go through this room in darkness, I will not go through this life in darkness’? Why would someone teach you that? Why would someone say that life is like a dark room and there is so much furniture and so many things that, without being able to see or negotiate or understand without any wisdom, without a map, without any instruction,. you’re likely to have difficulty. Why would one’s teacher teach that? Because it’s true. This is not a made up agenda. These are the teachings of the Buddhas and bodhisattvas and the gurus throughout time.

We have this incredible stubbornness though, a terrible inner stubbornness that for some reason doesn’t want to take that teaching to heart. For some reason, we want to risk it, having the idea that we are strong or that it will work out or that maybe the teaching wasn’t true. Or because we didn’t actually take it to heart or never even learned it in the first place. I don’t know what the reason is, but we still have this kind of stubbornness that says to us, ‘You can do it, kid. Find your own way.’ Well, nobody is arguing that we can do it, but find your own way you will not,. not across the ocean of samsara. Will you make it through that room in the dark not knowing what’s in there? Not bloody likely, is it? Well, it is bloody likely if you think about it. You’ll probably get awfully bloody doing it.

Since time out of mind, the Buddhas and bodhisattvas have been coming to us, and not through their own need to experience or to come for fun or to come for torture or whatever. Buddhas and bodhisattvas appear in the world. They come for us; and they come to give us these teachings. And yet we are somehow so continuing in our delusion and habitual in this stubborn clinging to the idea that my ego has the answers, we still feel that way after all these years.

That is a teaching that is taught to you out of kindness, not out of a wish to push you around. If one cannot take at face value a teaching of that merit, that you must rely on the root guru, that you must rely on the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha, have we somehow not put out the effort that it takes to come to terms with such a powerful truth as that? It reminds me of alcoholism. It reminds me of the place where you say, ‘I can control my drinking.’ It reminds me of the place where you say, ‘I’m really on top of this. It hasn’t gotten me. Samsara hasn’t gotten me somehow.’ Or the idea that maybe the Buddha was lying or maybe he had his own agenda, or maybe Guru Rinpochewas just a phony. Maybe he was just on some sort of crazy power trip.

Why would somebody warn us of the suffering of samsara, of the danger of samsara? Because the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas are different than ordinary beings. They are different in one way: They have awakened. That’s the main difference—awakened to where the delusional phenomena of samara is simply that. Its dreamlike state is understood. Its seduction is also understood. To be human is to know that. But you have to decide once and for all, who is your guru? I’m asking you another question. How much time have you spent studying, reasoning out any of the teachings you have received so far? The Buddha’s teachings. Not that I am the Buddha, but my teachers have been saying all this time I’ve been teaching Dharma all these years. So I’m not making this up.

Ignorance: From “The Jewel Ornament of Liberation” by Gampopa

November 28, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is respectfully quoted from “The Jewel Ornament of Liberation” by Gampopa as translated by Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche:

Ignorance. Those who have more ignorance should contemplate the law of interdependent origination as a remedy. The Rice Seedling Sutra says:

Monks, he who understands the rice stalk can understand the meaning of interdependent origination. Those who know interdependent origination know the Dharma. Those who know the Dharma know the Buddha.

Furthermore,

a) the interdependence of samsara is explained in order and
b) the interdependence of nirvana is explained in reverse order.

1. The first one, interior interdependence with cause. As is said:

Monks, because of this, that is produced. Because this is produced, that is born. This way, by the condition of ignorance, mental formation arise. By the condition of birth, there occur old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, suffering, unhappiness, and distress. Therefore, in this way, this vast aggregate of suffering appears.

This is explained according to the desire realm and according to birth from a mother’s womb.

a) At the very first, there is ignorance, which is the confusion that misunderstands all knowledge.
b) Under the influence of ignorance is the mental formation of the karma called afflicted virtues and nonvirtues. This is called “mental formation conditioned by ignorance.”
c) The seed of that karma is carried by the mind so that is called “consciousness conditioned by mental formation.”
d) By the power of that karma, the mind is fully confused, enters into a mother’s womb, and an embryo and so forth arise. This is called “name and form conditioned by consciousness.”
e) By developing the name and form, all the senses of the eye, ear, and so forth are completed. This is called “six increasing fields conditioned by name and form.”
f) The interaction of the eye organ and so forth, the corresponding object, and the consciousness is called “contact conditioned by the six increasing fields.”
g) Through contact, one experiences the feelings of joy, suffering, or indifference. That is called “feeling conditioned by contact.”
h) When there is feeling, there is joy, attachment, and stronger attachment. That is called “craving conditioned by feeling.”
i) From that attachment, one craves more and more, and wishes to not be separated from the object of attachment. That is called “grasping conditioned by craving.”
j) Through that grasping, karma and existence by body, speech, and mind are again created. That is called “existence conditioned by grasping.”
k) That karma creates the five aggregates (Skt. skandas). That is called “birth conditioned by existence.”
l) After birth, the aggregates which actually exist increase, ripen, and cease. “Ripen” means aging; “cease” means death. That is called “aging and death conditioned by birth.” Due to ignorance, complete attachment, craving, death causes the inner pain called sorrow. That sorrow causes expression in words, called lamentation. When the five consciousnesses experience unhappiness it is called suffering. Bringing that in the mind, that suffering is called “mental unhappiness.” Furthermore, in this way and so forth, the entire afflicted subconsciousness is called “disturbed mind.”

These twelve should be understood in three groups. Ignorance, craving and grasping compromise the afflicting emotions group. Mental formation and existence are the karma group. Consciousness and so forth, all the remaining seven, are grouped as suffering. The Treatise on the Existence of Interdependence says:

The twelve interdependent elements
Should be understood in three groups.
The Sage described interdependence as
Afflicting emotions, karma and suffering.
The first, eight and ninth comprise the afflicting emotions.
The second and tenth comprise karma.
The remaining seven comprise suffering.

The examples of these are ignorance is like one who plants the seed, karma is like the field, consciousness is like the seed, craving is like moisture, name and form are like shoots, the others are like branches, leaves and so forth. If there were no ignorance, then mental formation could not appear. Likewise, without birth, aging and death would not happen. But because there is ignorance, mental formations are fully created. And so forth, when their is birth, aging and death occur.

Ignorance does not think, “I will create mental formation,” and mental formation does not think, “I was created by ignorance.” Likewise birth does not think, “I will create aging and death,” and aging and death do not think, “We were made by birth.” But when there is ignorance, then mental formations appear and manifest. Likewise when there is birth, aging and death appear and manifest. Thus, this is inner interdependence with cause.

The Wish for Happiness

September 20, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An example of our misguided search for happiness might be something like a story that I’ve heard here more than once with students who come to me for consultation or just to talk to me for awhile. They say well I don’t know what to do about my tendencies in, perhaps, relationships. In relationships it seems that I act a certain habitual way. It seems that I become attracted to people of the opposite sex who are not appropriate for me. They are not compatible with me. And under those circumstances, for a period of time, I generally feel a great attraction and then ultimately become very unhappy. Or perhaps in a relationship I cannot assert myself. I habitually act like an underdog or an underling, and I cannot achieve any real happiness in relationships. Or perhaps in relationships I habitually come on strong in the beginning and then after awhile I turn off and feel very much out of touch with the meaning of the relationship.

Whatever it is, I’ve had many students, many times during the course of my speaking with students, students will come to me I don’t understand this habitual tendency that I have. I don’t understand how it is that I continually engage in the same patterns. We all understand patterns. We all have patterns within our lives. And we don’t understand why it is that we often perpetuate patterns that bring us unhappiness, patterns that have never worked out before. So why should they this time? They continually bring us some disappointment. Why is it that we do that? Perhaps we think that maybe we don’t really want to be happy.

I don’t think that’s the case. According to the Buddha’s teaching, everyone wishes to be happy. Across the board, everyone wishes to be happy. But we all have these inner messages that we’re playing to ourselves. Like perhaps we think we’ll be the happiest if we’re unhappy, because we deserve to be unhappy in some strange way. Or perhaps we think that we’ll be the happiest if we can act unhappy so that others will comfort us, and that’s really want we want. Or perhaps we feel that if we act misguided enough, eventually someone will come forth with the answer for us. We have all kinds of hidden inner agendas that we play over and over again. And we should never mistake that the one thing we all have in common, no matter what our condition is, and no matter what our habits are, is that we wish to be happy. And we wish it deeply. We wish it very much.

End Desire

May 9, 2016 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Where does desire come from? It comes from the belief that self-nature is real. According to the Buddha, if you believe that you are a self, if you believe in self-nature as being real, as being truly existent, then there has to be desire, because in order to be a self or to have a self, you have to define a self. That’s how it is. If you believe in the nature of self, you have to have an underlying belief that self ends here and other begins there. You have to have some conceptualization in your mind about what the self is, because the idea of self cannot exist without some definition. Conceptual proliferation develops, and with that, desire.

Desires are not always fulfilled. There is always the contest between self and other, and from those contests the three root poisons of hatred, greed and ignorance occur. It is the presence of hatred, greed and ignorance in the mind that causes phenomena to appear as they do. If there were no hatred, greed and ignorance in the mind, there would be no cause for suffering and therefore we would not see the phenomena of war, hunger, old age, sickness and death in the world. There would be no cause. This is the understanding and commitment that you should think about and work with in your mind.

While Samsara Burns

November 22, 2011November 22, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Some of them are prideful, full of themselves in a way that precludes actual opening. Like cigar smoke in a furnished room makes a man.

Some are like Nero, madly playing in the bubble of delusion while samsara burns. Burns.

Some are ignorance. Like eyes watching a world of smoke and mirrors, totally orchestrated by madness.

Some are mechanical, reactive, tight. With a prototype protective covering, no one will notice they are not quite human.

For some it means nothing. Awake, asleep – shallow and deep. Up and high or on the fly – maybe you can’t help it. Or maybe I can’t.

Some go evil. Manipulation is evil. Like raising my kids. No one can discipline unless they have birthed and loved, wanted the best for them, I believe. And stick with that.

And the killers? Just keep them from harming more. I don’t care if they watch cable , swim, and have massage all day.

I wish we could all sit down and pray,

make offerings in some peaceful way,

for our selfishness we could offer light

no reason to fight.

Listen, we can do this,

we can blow right through this,

if we never take our minds off what’s right- Ja!

I could go on all night! Hallelujah and Amen!

Confronting Ignorance

January 9, 2012May 2, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Hello Twitterverse. I’m back, sadly unable to do much retreat, had a double root canal with a major abscess. Hurt bad, as did treatment. And I have two more, maybe three. Two more abscessed teeth. I hate pain pills with a purple passion but I had to get hammered with them. Now still sore, but only mind blowingly so when I hit it while talking. Nice. So I’ll type.

Problem is I let it go for way too long. Not good. If I could cut out the last three-ish years of my life I would. I couldn’t accomplish anything and it just wasn’t worth the pain to keep going. I so wish I could cut out the abscess in my emotions like we can with teeth.

Right now I see, for one thing, that our Mother planet is in deep trouble. Very few bother to learn what the issues are. And don’t care. It breaks my heart to see it. I search for caring people and can’t find them, even in my Sangha. Why do people find ignorance so appealing? Does it make you blond? (Woo-hoo) will we be moving to another planet? I hadn’t heard. Do we think angels will fix it? More likely than us, I guess.

You see, a culture of commerce needs you to be stupid so you will believe them. They depend on your self-absorption. And you kindly oblige. Nuclear Japan will not stop. You didn’t see Osama bin Laden got deep sixed. Did you see it? Did you hear? And tell me, how can big gigantic “Buddhists” go out to eat and “nosh” with starvation in their own communities? How have we become so selfish? Our rescues have little funding and no one will raise money for them. Our Stupas so precious to us all? Yeah, so we can’t manage to pay off the land they are on. I feel mangled. Did I do any good? Will any benefit last?

The crap we chase after is embarrassing. Chin tuck anyone? Could’ve fed a lot of hungry with that. I’m not a judge or jury. I’m just sad and so disappointed. I really tried. And we just don’t care. I am so sorry for us. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for and we just don’t care. I love this planet. And her people. But for the life of me I do not understand. Why do the rich do nothing? Why are the ignorant so willing to be that way? Why do we play “bliss ninny” thinking mellow is sweet like jello? And there is always room for that crap. Sweet and fake!

Will we save this planet? Naw. Will we go out for lunch, brunch, and dinner? Sure, why not, right? We are entitled to enjoy, right? Bullshit! At least “Micky D” is cheap. Leave some change for the homeless, will ya? Enjoy your dinner…