The following is a music video prepared by a devoted student:
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved
Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo
The Stream of Bodhicitta
The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
AH – May all beings be free of suffering.
May they recognize what to accept and what to reject, and pacify the root causes of suffering.
May we joyfully and lovingly accomplish compassionate activity for the sake of all sentient beings in all realms.
May the stream of Bodhicitta flow deep, strong and sweet, to quench the thirst of all beings.
May the fruit of merit ripen in our mind streams, nourishing all who are hungry.
May all who are homeless be sheltered, who are cold be warmed, who are sick be healed.
May all who are lonely be comforted, the helpless be raised up, the poor be satisfied in every way.
May our land be purified of hate and greed.
And may a song of freedom be heard throughout this and all nations.
May we join as one life, which is our nature – and be unbound by hatred, greed and ignorance.
May there be peace and joy throughout the 3,000 myriads of universes!
And may I myself bear in love, the suffering of all. Now and in the time to come.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
No Time to Waste
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.
© Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo
Message from Gyaltrul Rinpoche to Jetsunma: Pure Offerings
The following is a message from Gyaltrul Rinpoche to Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and her sangha given on November 11, 2011:
VGR to JAL 11.11.11
In November 2011 Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche offered the following spontaneous teaching about Jetsunma at a sangha gathering at Tashi Choling in Oregon.
Gyaltrul Rinpoche began by asking Jetsunma’s student who was in attendance at the gathering to stand and to convey this message to Jetsunma.
“You opened your center. Then you bought a house, and then you invited Holiness Penor Rinpoche. Then you sponsored the whole Rinchen Terzod, and invited so many high lamas.
You got really sick, but still you are upholding that center. Right now you miss Holiness, but it doesn’t matter. I heard that you offered your center to two tulkus who are His Holiness’ successors. You are the servant. You have merit. In that way you succeeded in growing your center. Now you have the merit to offer it to Holiness’ successors – two tulkus and the whole lineage. You gave everything to them purely, cleanly, and without attachment. You don’t make claims. You dedicated that merit to sentient beings to cleanse obscurations. Thank you so much. This is the way of dharma, not just the way of “mine.” The way of “mine” is, “We need to practice.” Mine is “We need to generate merit and cleanse obscurations.” That’s mine. You took a big step that is opposite of the American brain. You didn’t say “mine.” You said that according to Buddha it belongs to sentient beings. It is the Buddha’s offering for sentient beings. You dedicated it. Thank you so much.
Speaking to the student, Gyaltrul Rinpoche continued.
Students at the center need to maintain it for sentient beings. Note what your teacher His Holiness did. At the same time follow what Jetsunma did. She offered the center and everything back to the lineage for your benefit. Now you have to maintain it. Don’t crack. Don’t damage it. How do you crack it? How do you damage it? By the breaking of samaya. By fighting. This is “my” way, your way, this way, that way. Whose way? His Holiness’ way. Your way as a human being is Holiness’ way. Penor Rinpoche is Holiness. As non human beings it is Shakyamuni Buddha’s Way, Guru Rinpoche’s Way.
Through the whole Rinchen Terzod you got the whole lineage. You guys need to maintain that benefit for all the sentient beings that are connected with you. You have to open up for them, as much as you can for sentient beings. Not only for him that you like or her that you like or not, but for all sentient beings, even bugs. Do according to Shakyamuni, according to Guru Rinpoche and according to your root lama, Penor. We don’t have anything to be ashamed of with the wonderful way of our root lama, the Dalai Lama. Follow that example. I pray for you guys.
Right now we have the amazing fortune in this life and next life to offer some benefit for others. Almost nobody has that kind of merit. Therefore don’t forget how fortunate, how lucky we are. This is our luck, all of our fortune. Therefore don’t throw away your luck. Don’t throw away your merit. Continue. There are lots of obstacles up and down, but try. Be patient. Be more compassionate for sentient beings. We have this opportunity only one time – this time. If we lose this one, we won’t get another. Recognize this. Try that. Tell all the centers that this is my request. Thank you. Tashi Deleg.
I’m so happy she [Jetsunma] offered it, you know? It is amazing that way. She has freedom. So you have heard this example. You guys are working for the sentient beings. Don’t be proud working for yourself. Everybody is working hard.
Some of you guys came here today. Some didn’t come. One way – snow. One way -laziness. One way – excuse. One way is saving next life’s merit, and cleansing obscurations. We need to keep that savings. We don’t want to clear it out. We don’t want to save the merit too much. Therefore we need to save space.
Everybody is working so hard but I’m not embarrassed. I don’t have any regrets about it. I’m happy. The reason is not that I am happy using you guys in ten directions. I’m not satisfied that you guys are tortured. Look at Philip, how old his body is. And Ani here is an old lady. Everyone says these guys torture themselves from working so hard. The reason is to generate merit – purification. Anytime you have an opportunity, don’t ignore that opportunity. We don’t know how short our life is. You may think, “I’m not like that ugly old man. I’m quite handsome.” Anyway one day you are going to be cranky like me, ugly like me, a bozo like me. You will look like that. It’s not only me. I’m not the only one being punished from old age.
The nature of samsara is like that. We trust. You think samsara is trustable, even more than your boyfriend, more than your husband, more than your wife or girlfriend. You guys trust so much. I love you. This is the real reason for our shorter life that we have that idea. The bottom line is reaching another life. Everybody try. Help each other practice. Dedicate. Nothing is more useful or better. It all is temporary, but we have a chance, an opportunity.
You need to go. You guys need to go because there is snow, but try in the future. You have an opportunity. You have amazing good fortune. I’m not saying you are pretty or handsome or smarter. I’m not saying you’re richer. Being rich means nothing. Look at how rich Qadaffi was. All sentient beings are going to die, even Shakyamuni’s father and mother. When we read the history of Shakyamuni, do we think of Shakyamuni as a poor guy? No. Did he get drunk or crazy? No. Read that history carefully. I’m not asking you guys to become a nun or monk. Nun means nothing. Monk means nothing. If you follow Shakyamuni’s footsteps then yes, but lots of monks are about ritual. Lots of monks are samsara leaders. This is more cheating of Shakyamuni. Actually we are cheating ourselves.
It’s the same thing with Guru Rinpoche. Guru Rinpoche is not a poor guy. G. Rinpoche is not a poor guy. I’m not asking you to give up your position, or money or anything. But recognize first what is of benefit and what that means. What is good or bad? Check everything. Don’t jump over this.
Look at how many countries are fighting and for what? Power, money, and that kind of thing. You guys are smart. Look carefully. Don’t think its all Funky Rinpoche. “He’s dying. He’s losing his life.” Yeah. You are right. But it’s not only me. You too. I don’t have preparation so don’t follow me. Wake up. Stand up. You have an opportunity and you have the blessing of Holiness Dalai Lama, Dudjom Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche, and the Karmapa. Sunshine shows your hand or behind or friend or whatever. You are not in the darkness. All dharmas – Hinayana, Mahayana, Vajrayana – everything is there blazing on you. At that time don’t go Qadaffi style. Don’t go down dark tunnels. Still your “bad” is showing. Therefore, everybody try. Don’t be smart. You want to be smart? Understand cause and effect. You need someone smart who can benefit you? Know who can help or harm you. That’s smart. You don’t need the scholar going blah, blah, blah. A hundred thousand pages you do for one second, but everything is blah blah blah. You don’t follow that meaning or result, or you don’t care. It’s just blah blah blah. Therefore everybody try.
Goodnight. We have snow, so I’m not going to blah no meaning. I don’t want to make obstacles for you.”
The Burning Room
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Bringing Virtue Into Life”
We can live our lives as the walking dead, and then die, unprepared, like going to a continent filled with precious jewels and coming back empty-handed. Or, we can switch on the lights, face facts and do what it takes to negotiate the shoals of samsara, as painlessly as possible.
The Buddha teaches us that we should think of our lives as like a burning room and that the smoke is beginning to choke us, fill us up. And you know, if you’re in a burning room, eventually you’re going to get burned. It’s going to consume you, right? So think of ourselves as being in a burning room, and think that there is one door. That door is wide open to you. Do you get that? It is wide open to you. That door is the door of Dharma. There is one door by which to escape and you can walk out that door. You should think of the very doorway of that door as being your own root teacher. That is the implement, the tool, that you should use to get out of that room—your teacher, your practice, Dharma.
If you were in a burning room right now, and your skin was beginning to crackle and the smoke was beginning to overcome you, how would you think about that door? With fervent regard, the way we are instructed to think about our practice. That door would look pretty much like God to you! That door would look like the best thing you ever saw! Every breath of air that came through that door would be sweeter than anything you have ever known because that door is freedom.
You should think about your practice that way, because that is the way it is. That is the way it is. In samsara here, we are locked in a burning room and there is a door. And we have the great good fortune of not only seeing that door, but having the capacity to exit through that door. Not only that, but that door has a door sill that is friendly and helpful and appropriate for the size and shape of our bodies that will help us to exit that room comfortably. And that’s how we should think about our practice. Number one, wake up. Number two, get the big picture. Number three, act as though you were a sane and reasonable person, which most of us don’t. We don’t act like sane and reasonable people.
I’m not telling you anything you didn’t know. You know that life is impermanent. You know that you have suffered, and you know that you feel unable to really face all these things because it seems so hard to simply live a virtuous life. But I can tell you that it’s like anything else that you do as a friend for yourself that’s good for you, such as changing your diet to really nutritious food. At first when you do that, you know how it is. When you’re young, you can eat anything. You have a cast iron stomach. I mean the things I ate when I was young I can’t even look at now. Now I’m 45 years old and I have to eat right. If I don’t eat right, I don’t feel good.
But do you remember what it took to change into learning how to live well in that regard? To go from eating the food that I liked to eating the food that I have learned to like was hard, and I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t think I was up to it. And to go from the kind of activity that I engaged in when I was younger… Oh I could stay up all night if I wanted to, every night if I wanted to. I was blazing. I was a crazy girl. But now, if I don’t get a certain amount of sleep, the next day I’ve got bags down to my knees. You know, it’s horrible what life does to you! You look terrible and your whole face shows it. You feel awful. You feel like a dog. You feel worse than a dog.
So how did you feel when you had to change from those old habits to these new habits? At first it was painful. You didn’t want to do that. You didn’t want to change. When you learned that your body was going to fall down if you didn’t exercise, you started to exercise. At first, you hated it. You hated it. Nobody likes it when they first start to exercise. It’s painful. Your body doesn’t want to do that. But then when you finally do start to exercise, your body likes it and loves it and it feels good.
Living a virtuous life is like that. The decision to live a virtuous life is painful at first because you have to face the facts, and the facts are you’re dying. You’re dying on the hoof, right now. The second fact is that if you engage in virtuous activity you’ll be happy, and if you engage in nonvirtuous activity, you will be unhappy. That is not something we want to face. We want to do what we do, effortlessly, la la la la la, like little children. We don’t want to examine ourselves. We don’t want to look at what we do, but once we have done that,I’ve found, and many of us who are practicing for some time now have found, that we come to love our practice. We come to deepen in it and truly love it. We come to love the life of Dharma. We come to love a life that is engaged in bringing benefit and happiness to others. We come to find out at last that we never, not for a moment, liked ourselves when we were living the other way, the nonvirtuous way, the no-brainer. We never liked ourselves. There was no self-esteem happening there at all.
So then my suggestion is that we get started. Go through it. Buck up little soldier! Do what it takes to stand up tall and open your heart and get the big picture. Once you do that and you start to engage in a virtuous life, your mind will be smoother, you will be happier. You will be happier. This I promise you.
In the meantime, because our minds work the way they do and because we can’t see the direct relationship between cause and effect, we have to listen to our teachers. There is no other choice. Our teachers have crossed the ocean of suffering, just as the Buddha has done. Crossed the ocean of suffering, and returned for our sake. Our teachers, having seen the further shore and having seen the journey there and back, have come back to bring us this understanding. Live this way. Bring your life to the pinnacle of what it can be, and hold it steady and grow up, because that’s what it takes to be happy.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
This Is Your Temple
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Bringing Virtue Into Life”
When you give money to the temple, do it because you need to, not because we need you to. Do it because you understand that you are the one that needs to practice the generosity. That’s your medicine.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that your root guru or your lama is the one that needs the temple. It’s completely false. It is not the lama that needs the temple. It’s the students that practice there. This is not my temple in Poolesville, Maryland. This is your temple in Poolesville, Maryland. You should take pride in its cleanliness. You should take pride in its prosperity. It should embarrass you when the bills are not paid here. It should embarrass you when things are not going well at the temple—when there is not enough participation, when we can’t find someone to cut the grass—because this is your temple. This is your house. Spiritually, you live here. This is for you. If you could just get that one small truth and take responsibility for your practice whether it’s the karma yoga of engaging in protecting your temple, propagating the teachings, making this place firm, pure and safe for others to come and practice, or whether it’s the meditational yoga of actually engaging in sit-down practice in order to benefit sentient beings, or both. Hopefully you’re doing both, because that’s what is needed.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
Bodhicitta: The Great Mother
The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
New science theory wonders if space and time might be the same stuff. I don’t think that is exactly right, but close. So many theories being toyed with right now, that when “membranes” bump together that bump is a “big bang,” that there are infinite “bubble” universes all in the same place. That probable realities spin off with each choice we make. (Karma?) That where we sit is empty space, mostly, with atoms, and other nearly impossible to see particles. The rest of everything we see is mostly space with particles.
Another theory: what if when we space out, sleep, or forget where we are sometimes (just daydreaming) we may actually be focused on another reality. Hmm. Of course, that would mean brain is not consciousness, which is more. They are finding particles move in and out this dimension, and that black holes exist everywhere! Tiny and massive ones. So when we look at the stars and see galaxies, suns etc, we mostly see energy, same vibe as our eyes pick up. They look like what we think we know. But science always comes up needing a new theory. What if it all looks as it does because our own five senses came up with the very tools and measurements to prove themselves right? What if perception and consciousness became part of the equation? Like, all the empty space and speeding particles were exactly in the space we think we occupy? What if the macrocosm is the microcosm? What if looking “out” is delusion? What if all we see is our own perception? And what if that conscious/awareness perception is warped by thinking habitually, that it is all “out there” due to the scientific tools we created to see exactly that?
Okay, now, what if all consciousness could suddenly blink off. And there was no perception happening? Like a tree falling down with nothing and no one to perceive it would not make a sound. If there were no consciousness or perception, it would be unborn space, empty- but perfectly complete when there is perception and awareness.
We are one nature; that nature displays as we see it. We cannot be separated, but we can be duped by our own learned awareness, and so we have been, all this time. We are space. Our “vibration” is light, all-pervasive love. In Buddhism we call that Bodhicitta, the display of emptiness, the wisdom of Empty nature and its display. Bodhicitta, the great Mother of us all. We are that also. Buddha. But we are dreaming, and will someday awaken to view the primordial ground of being without the many gorgeous veils she dances with! Pure view. EH MA HO!
© Jetsunma Ahkön Norbu Lhamo
Deepening on the Path: The Importance of “Caring”
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called, “Bringing Virtue into Life”
If your eyes are open at all, you have seen that you have often boxed your own ears, that you have often hurt yourself by engaging in non-virtuous activity that has brought you suffering. Maybe you’ve had time to see a little bit of that. But I’ll tell you that according to the Buddha’s teaching, and this is the truth, every bit of non-virtuous behavior that you have engaged in will bring about unhappiness. So it’s not logical to engage in non-virtuous behavior and that includes the lesser non-virtuous behaviors. The big ones like killing, we can get that. Killing, stealing, that sort of thing, but what about simple selfishness? What about judgment of others? What about just not giving a big flip? Not caring? What about reading the newspaper and thinking “Wow millions of people are starving over there. Too bad.” You don’t think that’s a non-virtue? That’s how we read the paper, every day. Of course that’s a non-virtue. We’re not caring. We’re not praying for them. We’re not sending them anything. We’re not doing anything to help.
The Buddha also taught us that virtuous behavior brings about happiness, but we have exactly the opposite idea. Most of us don’t like to practice, for instance. We don’t like to sit down and practice. Who likes to sit down for two hours at a stretch? I don’t know about you, but I get fanny fatigue big time. Two hours at a stretch. That is not how I want to spend the day. So we think like that. We think “Oh, you know, if I sit down today and practice for two hours, I’m really going to suffer!” So we have this weird idea that virtuous activity like practice is going to bring about unhappiness, and it’s because of our lack of understanding. What we don’t realize is that yes, while we have maybe the antsy-ness or the fanny fatigue or whatever it is that we get, ultimately that two hours of practice will ripen. And when it ripens it will be like a precious jewel within your life. At some point there will be an event or a change or a lift or a gift or something that you very much need in your life. It will appear as though out of nowhere. and it can be directly traced to previous virtuous behavior.
The Buddha also teaches us that if we offer even something, if we’re very poor and all we have is something simple like a candle or a butter lamp. If we offer only that, placing it on an altar and with a full and generous heart visualize it as being everything that we have, everything that we could ever have and offer it to the Buddha and the Dharma and the Sangha and particularly to the Lama as the representative of all three, then let that merit be used to benefit sentient beings. What we don’t realize is that while that took some time out of our busy day, yes, and we did have to prepare a butter lamp or light the candle or whatever hardship we had to engage, still we have created unbelievable happiness for ourselves. Actually, the Buddha has taught that if we could manage to make that offering with complete and total absorption in the expanse of that generosity, then we would be reborn eventually in unmovable samadhi, complete happiness, because we are engaging in the kind of activity that creates the habitual tendency of supreme generosity.
We are taught also to make offerings of our body, speech and mind. For instance, we visualize that our body becomes like food and we offer our bodies. Of course, we don’t cut off pieces of ourselves. Nobody would want to eat that anyway, I don’t think. But we do visualize our body as being transformed into this nectar that nourishes all sentient beings, and without holding on to ourselves, we offer ourselves in that way. So we offer our bodies to benefit sentient beings. We offer our speech to benefit sentient beings. We practice so that what comes out of our mouth will be of benefit to others, such as mantra or teaching about Dharma or some spiritual advice. We try very hard to give our speech to benefit sentient beings. And we offer our minds as well to benefit sentient beings. We make that offering. The way that we practice that offering is by no longer using our mind as a vehicle by which to accomplish nonvirtue. Instead we use our mind as a vehicle by which to accomplish virtue for the sake of sentient beings. That is the true meaning of offering our body, our speech and our mind.
Many practitioners unfortunately say that. They say “I offer my body, speech and mind” and they make all kinds of grand gestures but, boy, when it comes down to the clinch, they ain’t offering nothing, and that’s the truth. Not a thing. It isn’t happening. So we, as Dharma practitioners, have to learn how to practice more deeply than that in order to assimilate the causes for true happiness. It is that kind of virtuous activity that we have to engage in.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
The Illusion of Power
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Bringing Virtue into Life”
A lot of people play the power game of trying to gain power and domination over other people simply because they feel if they can control others it will make them happy. They will be powerful. They will be shielded from hurt because they are dominant. Others are weaker than them and they don’t care whether they hurt the people under them or not. They do whatever they want to do in order to make themselves happy. That’s what people do. What they don’t realize is that in every conceivable sense they are making themselves more and more unhappy. That kind of power over others will never produce happiness. In some future time that very person who is such a power monger will be the most powerless of sentient beings. Think about the helpless little creatures that are kept in cages in pet shops to be sold to who knows. Think about the helpless little creatures that are kept in laboratories to be tested on for who knows what purpose. That kind of helplessness. So we are talking about curable suffering and unhappiness and we bring it on ourselves through cause and effect relationships. This is one of the teachings that the Buddha has given us that is very, very logical, and we can see small examples of it within our lives. If we engage in non-virtuous behavior, it will produce unhappiness.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
What the World Needs Now…
The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
Many of us remember a song recorded by I think- Dionne Warwick called “What the World Needs Now” (is Love Sweet Love) many years ago. The song is now thought of as “pretty”, but too old to be current. And Ms. Warwick’s voice – wow.
These days, everybody is “hip” and “cool” and too “chill” or “real” to be warm, and loving, to have a tender and generous heart. Instead we think we must be tough to get by. Why is that? When did kindness and compassion, respect for others go out of style? I feel it is good to examine ourselves with true honesty and pure intention. No one can afford to stop growing, and self-honesty is the way to go.
When people are hard and unable to open up it is mostly due to fear and ego protection. We are afraid of being hurt, rejected, and disrespected. So warmth is seen as weakness and vulnerability. It isn’t. Quite the opposite. Strong people can afford to serve others, to bow down and wash the feet of others. That takes a true “warrior for love,“ a true inspiration for humankind.
Most of us talk tough sometimes, and tough love is sometimes needed. Not that often, though, and not for long. If you want to do that, however, you are bound by ethics to take the time to truly study where this person is coming from. What they have been conditioned by. In other words you must learn about them, and reach a point of empathy. The old Native American adage- “Walk a mile in their shoes” before we give ourselves permission to be tough with them. You don’t know, we don’t know, what open wounds we are seeing. Also it is no good to advise others or have authority over them if you do not love them and tolerate their coping methods and their pain. Maybe we think the person deserves our rage. Let me let you in on a secret: we are all the same nature and none of us deserve hatred. None. Even to be born human we are worthy. As are all sentient beings who are unable to ask for kindness.
It is up to us to demonstrate and put into play our capabilities and our contribution. To gather a controllable circle of “yes Sirs” is not love, strength, power, goodness, or anything like that. It is false. It is not love and not power. It is blatant fear and the need to dominate others. We were not made to dominate. No sentient being is. We were meant to love and live together in harmony. Let’s do it together!
OM MANI PEDME HUNG
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA
©Jetsunma Ahkön Norbu Lhamo