Meditation

Emptiness

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Nature of Mind” given in 1988, one month after her enthronement by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche:

Do you remember when you first started to seek the spiritual path?  The innocent sense of longing that you felt.  You must have felt in at one point of another, or you could not be here.  You could not, you must have longed to purify suffering.  You must have longed to be of benefit to someone, sometime.  You must have longed to attain the end of suffering.  And there must have been somewhere in there, the desire to do that in order to help others.  There has to be.  So that innocence, beautiful longing.  Remember how happy you were at that time.  There was a time when you were really happy, when you thought that.  Now, of course we’re too sophisticated.  We’re on the path and we’re already practitioners.  So we tend not to continue that thought in our minds, but we should.  We should constantly, with great longing.  And we should make prayers in that direction.  And that’s how you begin aspiration Bodhicitta.  You begin to make prayers of longing.  I long to benefit beings.  I pray with all my heart than I can take whatever form necessary in order to bring peace to the world.  In order to benefit beings.  In order to end the suffering of beings.  You should cultivate that, really and truly, you should do that until there are tears in your eyes.  And you will find that when you begin to develop that ability, those tears are not sad tears.  They are the happiest tears you’ll ever cry and they are heck of a lot more happy than going to the shopping mall and buying something new.  I mean, really, that sounds like a superficial comparison, and it is.  But, we spend much more time at the shopping mall than we do longing.  And we should long constantly to end suffering.

So you begin in that way.  And then you begin to think of the emptiness of self nature.  Begin to, even if you don’t know how to meditate, if you haven’t the technique, then you might begin, or contemplate at least, think of the emptiness of self nature.  And it goes hand in hand with that living the extraordinary life with that idea of compassion.  They are inseparable.  Because along with the emptiness of self nature, is the understanding that all suffering is born of delusion.  And the antidote to that is the annihilation of that delusion.  It’s the same as the meditation on emptiness.  For instance, let’s see what do I need, we used to have a crystal ball up here, do we not have it anymore?  How can I make a demonstration that I really want to.  Well maybe I can come over here if my little wire goes far enough.

Look here, if you see this crystal, it looks really really clear and you may not, this may not be a good example.  Oh here, can you see my hand coming through this crystal, can you see that?  Okay, then can you see the blue.  okay.  Okay look at this crystal.  This crystal is exactly like your mind.  It is exactly like the nature of your own mind in this way.  It is clear.  It is in its natural state, it is free of any form.  There is no form in there.  It is said that the nature of mind is clear, self-luminous.  That it exists in such a form that once any distinction is made, it is not understood.  It is free of any contrivance.  In the same way that this crystal is free.  You look in there, and you see only clarity.  A better example, of course is a crystal that is perfectly clear without any flaw.  Because that is the crystal that is exactly like your mind.  Perfectly clear, without any flaw.  You in the natural state are that.  You are pure suchness.  And the moment you began to appear as you do now, was the moment you began to make distinction.  But, in the natural state it is not so.  The mind is clear, self-luminous, free of contrivance.  Completely relaxed.  It is not gathered around itself, because it has no conceptualization of self.  It’s completely relaxed.  It is suchness.

Now you look at the crystal and you think that the crystal is like that also, and that the crystal might be understood as a symbol of that suchness in this way.  Now you put your hand behind it, and look, you see blue.  Has the crystal become blue.  Well, you have to look at it on two levels.  Your looking right now, this crystal looks blue.  So, in that sense, the crystal appears to have become blue.  But, if I take it away, does the Crystal change?  Is it blue now?  So what is blue?  Who perceives blue?  Look at that, you can see this hand.  See the flesh tone in there.  It’s very, when you look at it, do you see flesh tone?  Do you see it?  So the crystal has become like that, hasn’t it.  But, then you take it away, and the flesh tone is gone.  The crystal is the same.  It is the same, it is completely unaltered.  Who perceives the flesh tone?  What is the flesh tone?  This appearance of blue.  This appearance of this tone.  This appearance of phenomena in general.  This appearance of phenomena in general is merely conceptualization.  Who is it perceived by?  Think for instance about this.

Here is a very crude example, but then I told you I was born in Brooklyn, I’m not making any apologies, that’s it.  Okay, let’s take two objects, we have two objects here, we have chocolate, and we have shit, yes shit, you heard it right.  We have chocolate and we have shit, okay, there both brown, I mean, I’m sorry but we have to do this, there both brown right?  They both have a creamy consistency.  So sorry.  They both have a strong aroma.  What make one chocolate, and the other one shit?  Who determines the difference.  Who is the taster?  Who sees this?  Who sees that?  What is happening here?  All conceptualization, all phenomena arises from the belief in self nature and from the compulsion at that point to make self appear separate from other and to make a reactive relationship necessary.  All of your mind consists of the phenomena of hope and fear.  Of discrimination in a subtle and dense way.  But, the nature of mind itself remains steadfast, clear, uncontrived and when there is no concept of self it is just like that, pure, perfect, it is only suchness.  Only that.  And it cannot be altered, it remains unchanged.  And the weird thing about is the minute you that start talking about it, you’ve removed yourself from the potential to understand it.

How do you get free then of distinction between shit and chocolate.  How do you stop seeing the hand?  How do you stop seeing the blue?  How do you perceive that true nature?  Little by little you have to dis-engage the idea of self and you have to meditate on that.  And you can begin in this way, and I recommend that you do this.  Whether you are a dyed in the wool, or dyed in the cotton, I don’t know which fabric is, dyed in the cotton Buddhist, or whether you are person that has never even heard of any of this before.  You can begin to do in this way.  I don’t recommend that you taste both shit and chocolate, but you can try, let’s say, honey and lemon juice.  And you can look for yourself, who is the taster?  You say, I taste.  Where am “I”?  Well I’m right here.  Okay, where here?  Okay, let’s take you apart.  Let’s take you apart.  Let’s find out where “I” is.  We’ll look first in the feet, we’ll start low and work high.  Did you find “I” in there?  Take it apart.  Really, you have to make slides of everything.  You have to buy yourself a microscope and make slides and see if you can find “I”, okay?  Go all the way up, look everywhere that you can, examine every single molecule.  Go all the way up to the heart.  Everybody thinks hearts are big these days.  Let’s look in the heart, see if we can find “I”.  Then we’ll look in the throat.  What part do you identify with the most.  You have great legs?  We’ll look at your legs.  You have beautiful figure, we’ll look at every part of it.  Look at everything.  Let’s look in the brain.  Everybody thinks they come from their head right?  So we’ll look in the brain.  Where is “I”?  You can even look in your eye, eyeball.  See if you can find “I” there.  No matter how hard you look, if you make microscopic slides of every single part of it, you will not find “I” in this body.  You will not find it.  Well you say, there must exist an “I”, because how can I go from lifetime to lifetime?  And, I’m telling you that the idea of “I” is only that.  It is a conceptualization that has built around it so much karmic flagellants that the profundity of it has managed to exists for lo these many eons.  And at that point you can begin to understand that essentially, nothing has happened.  In truth, nothing has happened.  You can begin to mediate on the emptiness of all phenomena.

You want to look at cup, look at cup.  Find cup in there.  Take it apart.  Grind it up, find cup.  Cup is the idea of cup.  And you can continue with everything, your house, family.  You can’t practice Dharma because you have a family.  Ok, let’s take your house.  We’re going to take your house.  We’re going to examine your house.  Let’s take it apart, we’ll put it all under the microscope.  Find family.  Then we’ll examine the people that you are calling family.  Which one of them is family.  We’re going take them all apart, just the way we took you apart.  Where are we going to find family.  Family is a concept.  Who made it up?  You did.  Where are you?  I haven’t found me yet.

It’s crazy, but it’s a good way to start practicing.  It’s a good way to start practicing because your going to find that everything you live by, the things that make you suffer, the things that you bust your tail trying to do, everything that you do is based around an idea that you made up.  You did, you made it up.  And it has effected you for all this time.  So you can begin there.  It’s true that it would take sometime to achieve realization by meditating in that way.  But, it’s a really good place to start.  And meditating on the emptiness of self and on the emptiness of phenomena as well can give you the foundation and the strength to live the extraordinary life of compassion that I’m talking about.  And it’s that kind of extraordinary life of compassion and with the profound prayers that you will return in whatever form necessary in order to benefit beings and that even now you will able to benefit beings if you consider that that is the utmost important thing in your entire life and you yearn for that.

You actually have a little side benefit there that I’d like to tell you about.  And the side benefit is that you are purifying your mind of the garbage that we have gathered around it associated with self and desire in such a way that you will be able to actually move closer meditating on successfully and knowing that profound nature of mind.  That uncontrived natural state.  Just through the virtue of considering things in this way.  Considering yourself to be only important in as much as you can benefit beings.  And to begin to function in that way.  But, I tell you, the more that you get on an ego trip about this, or anything else.  I’ve done this, and I was ? in my last life, you know that kind of thing, the kind of thing.  The kind of thing that we do, and your ? is doing it.  The more that you do that kind of thing, the more you are creating the causes of suffering and the further and further away you get from perceiving the natural state.  Because the natural state, is as it is.  Remains unpolluted.  Untarnished.  Untainted.  And the only thing that makes us perceive something else, is that we have stuck the blue in the back of the crystal basically and that blue symbolically is conceptualization.  The way to liberate the mind from the belief in that phenomena of blueness as being inherently real is to meditate on the emptiness of phenomena.  The emptiness of self nature and to live a life that causes the purification of the mind.  And actually cleanses of discursive thought.  That is the ticket.  And no matter who your teacher is, if you really could talk heart to heart with any profound, profoundly realized teacher of any religion.  I believe and I’m willing to say this publicly, any teacher, any time if they are profoundly realized, no matter what religion they started, if they are profoundly realized, will tell you that the answer is the end of ego and all of it’s desire.  And the conceptual proliferation’s that come with it.  That the realization of the natural state is the answer, and that that state is uncontrived, unchanging, unborn and infinite.

So, that’s your Kellogg’s cereal boxtop nature of mind teaching for today.  Complete with Brooklynese language and I’m afraid that that happens to be on a regular basis.  I sort of slip back into Brooklyn, Jewish, Italian mode.  But, anyway, I hope that you enjoyed that.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

How We Experience Perception: Full Length Video Teaching

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The following is a full length video teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo offered at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

 

The Buddha teaches that ALL our suffering arises from desire and that desire is baed on our reaction to phenomenal existence and tbe conslusions we draw from those reactions. Meditation techniques can help stabilize the mind and lessen our suffering. Eventually we can achive the state of enlightenment.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Desire Causes Suffering: Full Length Video Teaching

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The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

 

We are suffering because of the desire in our minds. Meditation, and the other practices of the Buddha pacify the mind and bring happiness. The only one who can do this for us is ourselves. To look outside ourselves for solutions, only leads to more unhappiness. Take advantage of what you have in your hands, and use the teachings of Buddha to make your life better.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

The Importance of a Qualified Teacher

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche on Meditation, reprinted here with permission from Palyul Ling International:

Emptiness is not something like just remaining there without having thoughts or anything at all. It has been said in the texts that if one does not know how to meditate properly on emptiness, then one can fall into the wrong pot. So one has to investigate the true nature of the mind in order to really establish its absolute nature as emptiness, and this must be maintained through the practice of meditation.

Emptiness which is merely emptiness, and the emptiness which is the nature of mind, are two different things. The one emptiness is kind of like nothingness. This kind of nothingness emptiness in the Dharma teachings is explained by the example of the rabbit’s horn – something which does not exist at all. But the emptiness of the mind, which does not have any form or colors or shape, is in certain ways non-existing, but at the same time this mind is everything. It is that which creates all these samsaric phenomena and all the nirvana phenomena.

When you do meditation practice, it is good to cut through all these conceptual thoughts. To be without any such thoughts and then to remain in meditation is very beneficial. This is what is known as samatha or tranquility meditation. If one carries through with such meditation practice for awhile, one begins to have some stability of the mind, and then it is easier to achieve the vipassana or insight meditation practices.

All Dharma teachings and practices have to follow through the proper lineage. That is to say, the lama, the master, must be really qualified to give these teachings. Then the disciple, the practitioner, if he or she has really strong devotion or faith, can understand through his or her actual practice. There is no other way to give and receive these teachings.

So the lama, the master, must have that quality by which he can “read” the disciple’s mind. When the lama has that quality – the knowledge by which he realizes the mind-stream of the practitioner – then according to that knowledge he can give the right introduction of the nature of the mind. For example, when the lama examines a practitioner, he can directly experience whether or not the practitioner has the actual recognition of the nature of the mind.³

Other than that kind of direct mind-to-mind interaction, there is no way to explain, “Oh, the nature of mind is something like this.” There are no words to handle it. If there was any kind of expressway diagram about the nature of the mind, then we could just draw it and then explain, “Here! This is the nature of mind!” So it is important to carry through all the practices, constantly watching through the samatha meditation practice, getting used to that kind of concentration of mind, so that there can be a way for one to have the true recognition of mind.

The Tibetan word, “lama,” means the Unsurpassable Teacher. The “la” is based on the quality of the realization and the “ma” symbolizes the mother, the loving-kindness and affection that one needs to have, just like a mother gives to her children. All the past, present and future Buddhas obtained Enlightenment by relying upon the lama². There is not any Buddha who just by him or herself attained Enlightenment.

The lama, the master, means someone that has complete knowledge about all these practices. So all who just have a red cloth are not lamas. Those also who wear yellow clothes, they are not necessarily lamas! Someone who has true purification and realization internally is who is known as the lama³. And the lama’s mind-stream must have the genuine Bodhicitta to benefit all sentient beings.

The Need to Tame the Mind: from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche on “Meditation”

The mind – does it need to be something which we can see? If we think that what has pain, suffering, problems and so forth, that this is what is called the mind, in this way we have to perceive the mind as something like a round ball. When we investigate into the mind itself there is not anyone who can really perceive a mind.

At the same time, this mind does not really die. From beginningless lifetimes until now, the mind of Samsara has just been getting rebirth over and over. The mind which has been conceptualized by having that thought of subject and object is that which binds oneself here. It is that which projects the external world and then one’s body and so forth. But no matter how much we investigate, there is no way anyone can perceive this mind.

All the past Buddhas have explained that there is no way one can perceive the mind in the past, present and future. If it is self-existing, then we could see it, like a round pill or something! So why do we think that it has to be perceived as some “thing?” All these “things” are created by the mind. All the experiences of happiness and suffering of Samsara and nirvana – everything is just created by the mind itself.

So we will find if we think over the absolute nature of the mind, it is definitely emptiness. Some people might say, “Oh, my mind is very active and multicolored! Maybe it is possible somebody might have it!” Or maybe somebody might say, “My mind is something like a white light!” But it does not really exist in that way.

When we don’t control the mind and just let it be free, then it starts to create all these negative actions and thoughts. That is why in these practices which we call meditation, although there are many levels of meditations, whatever the Dharma teachings that have been taught by all the Enlightened Buddhas, it is mainly to subdue this mind and to tame this mind. It is to recognize the fault of the mind is conceptual thought, which is a very dualistic thing where there is always subject and object, and this binds us into Samsara or cyclic existence. At the same time we try to realize its absolute nature, to realize or recognize this, and that is the most important part of our practice.

When lama gives all these teachings, the practitioner receives them and tries to put them into practice and then they say, “Oh! I recognize the nature of the mind!” But by just recognizing the conceptual mind, it is very difficult that one could attain Enlightenment. That which creates all these emotions and conceptual thoughts – that is called the mind. But the actual practice is of something which is beyond that kind of conceptual mind, which is known as wisdom. It is that which we need to realize. So we cannot achieve the ultimate happiness just by recognizing the conceptual mind.

There are many kinds of practices which aim to pacify all these kinds of negative thoughts and to control the afflicted mind, to purify and abandon them. When we do these practices and achieve some tranquility through which we can concentrate our mind and make it very stable, then we can perhaps concentrate our minds on the emptiness through which we may achieve some realization. So when we practice meditation and manage to get kind of settled and stable, even having just a little bit of experience of emptiness is really beneficial and can accumulate lots of merit.

Awareness of Suffering

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Excerpt from a teaching on Compassion by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

If you’ve never practiced the Buddhadharma before, or if you’re interested in practicing, or if you have practiced some general meditation and you feel it’s time to move on to a path that is more stable or well known, then you’re in a perfect place for this teaching. You can start practicing one of the most important teachings of the Buddha right now. You can begin to cultivate the mind of compassion. How might you do this? First of all, you might look around and examine physical existence.

In America, we hide our suffering. We have very little knowledge of real suffering, and I think that’s one reason why it’s very difficult for Westerners to practice a pure and disciplined path. We think we understand suffering because we have experienced loneliness, or because when we were kids we had the measles, or because we have gone through marriages and divorces. Or maybe we’ve seen some sickness or poverty. For these reasons, we think we understand suffering, and we do to some extent. These are valid sufferings.

But there’s a funny thing about our culture that we must understand. We are actually hidden from the sufferings of our culture. When people are deformed, handicapped, mentally or terminally ill, they are taken away from the mainstream of society and they are hidden. Or if we are considered unpresentable to most people, we have plastic surgery or we have some kind of therapy that makes us like everyone else. In fact, if we examine the healing process in American medicine, part of that process is to become like other people.  We are made to look like other people.

In other countries around the world suffering is more evident, for many different reasons: those countries may not be as technologically advanced as our country, or their culture may be an older society in which suffering has become more the norm and it is not such a shock to see it. Or perhaps poverty is a factor.

I will describe how I felt when I first went to India. I couldn’t bear it. I don’t claim to be so compassionate; I too have to cultivate the idea of compassion every day. But I remember seeing people walking the streets with arms and legs missing, eaten up by leprosy. I saw mothers and fathers maim their children, not because they hated them or because they were cruel to them, but because that would give them a deformity they could use for begging. That would be the only way they could ensure their survival. There was no other way for them to get food. What do we do for our children? We might send ours to school. In the streets of India, they have to prepare them in a different way.

Suffering is a part of the fabric of the society in India, and it’s very evident. I remember walking down the street in Delhi. There was a young boy who must have been twelve; it was hard to tell, he was so small. He was lying on a rag, a tattered blanket, and he was dying. He was so thin that he looked like the pictures of starvation we see from Ethiopia. He was beyond thin. His bones were sticking out, his belly swollen, his tongue hanging out. And next to him were a few coins and a candy bar. Someone had thrown them down for him.

We don’t see that in our culture. We don’t understand it. We think that the things we’ve gone through – the divorces, not being able to pay the light bill, the heartbreak of psoriasis, the things we consider so awesome – are the real sufferings of the world. But they are not all the world has to endure.

Look at the animal realm. We know what our animals are like. They get fed everyday and they have it pretty good. But not all animals are like them. If we go to different countries, we see beasts of burden that are treated in horrible ways. We see animals that are denied their natural environment.

Humans and animals are only two life forms. According to the Buddha’s teachings, there are many different life forms, many of which are non-physical. How we appear, how we manifest, what form we take has to do with the qualities of our mind. If we are filled with hate, we are reborn in a hell realm. Why is that so hard to understand? When you are filled with hate now, even as a human being, aren’t you in your own private hell? Have you ever gone through a period where you were so filled with anger that everything you saw became ugly and you managed to distort it somehow? Each of us has lived in a private hell. Why is it so hard to believe that we are capable of living in or creating a situation like that? If your mind is capable of having a nightmare, then rebirth in a hell realm is a possibility.

Have you ever been needy? Have you ever gone through a period in your life when you needed approval, or love, or some kind of nourishment so badly, that you were in a state of despair? When people did reach out to you, they couldn’t get through? Each of us, for at least one moment in our lives, has experienced this. Why then is it so hard to understand that these kinds of existences really do exist?

Having understood that this is logical, having examined your own mind truthfully – and truthfully is the key – and found the residue of these experiences in your mind, you can allow yourself to go more deeply into the recognition that the Buddha was right. There is suffering in cyclic existence.

We have to think also of our own suffering. We must think that even if we have a TV, a car, a house, and all of the things that we are taught to desire, there will be a point at which we cannot take them with us. There will be a point at which they will do us no good. That point, of course, is death. All of the efforts that we’ve gone through to get those things will have been wasted.

Long-time Dharma practitioners may think, “I really wish she’d get on with it. I know this.” I have to tell you, if you really knew the truth of suffering, there would not be one moment that you did not practice with the utmost compassion. There would not be one moment when you thought only of yourself and your needs, and of the temporary gratifications you think you must have. Yet you still have many of those moments.

Mindfulness and Compassion: A Meditation on Bodhicitta in Everyday Life

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Your Treasure is Heart”

There are many different ways that one can actually engage and begin to train the mind as a Bodhisattva.  Actually, as a Bodhisattva the goal is to make every aspect of one’s life a vehicle for the benefit for others.  So, what would that look like?  Well, what about the ordinary things that you do?  Westerners have all these different elements in their lives, divided into sections, pigeon holes.  There’s the holy part, and there’s the ordinary part. There’s your regular personality and the way you are to your husband, wife,  kids, in-laws, and all those people that know you better than anybody.  There’s another part of your life where you’re out on the street, and people get to see you with your street-face on.  And then there’s the personal part.  You go to the bathroom and all those kinds of things. There’s the intellectual part,  the part that goes to the movies, and the part that exercises.  There are all these different parts, and because we’re so deluded, none of them seems to have much relationship to each other.  It’s like we’re juggling cats all the time.

One of the things that you have to do as a Bodhisattva is to make your entire life a basket, a vehicle for this compassion.  But how do you do that?  Well, there are these walking mindfulness meditations that you can do that are extremely beneficial.  If you find yourself moving into a depression or some sort of negative mood, if you really try to practice some sort of absorption with them, they’ll pull you right out of it, It’s very simple.  You don’t have to sit down and do the “holy” thing.  You don’t even have to put on your dharma clothes, pick up your pretty beads, or wear your particular medallions showing that you’re cool. You don’t have to do any of that.  All you have to do is, oh, I don’t know, let’s say, eat lunch.  As you’re eating lunch, you would pick up a spoonful of the food and you would say a quiet, loving prayer, a heart-felt wish, “As I take this nourishment into my body, may all sentient beings be nourished by the light and power of Bodhichitta.  As I take this drink into my body, may all sentient beings be watered and nurtured by the nectar of dharma.”  As you walk through the door, “May the suffering of all sentient beings be ended by the virtue of my walking through this door. May they be led through the door of liberation.”  It’s a constant mindfulness meditation.  As I walk down the street, “May all sentient beings walk down the path to liberation.”  In the car while looking at a map trying to find these crazy Washington streets and where they go, “By the virtue of this activity, may all sentient beings receive the proper guidance and direction by which they can accomplish dharma and be free.”

So you have a choice with everything that you engage in.  You can be looking at the map and cussing like a trooper, hating the way D.C. is laid out with those weird tunnels, or you can be utilizing the opportunity. You’re going to be looking at the map and finding your street anyway.  So instead of getting into a bad mood, perhaps you could use that as an opportunity to understand that all sentient beings are directionless and hungry for direction.  A small prayer at that moment that all sentient beings be guided on the path to liberation is appropriate and beneficial. It organizes your mind and thought. Mindfulness becomes so profound and so clarified that almost anything that you’re doing at that time is better, happier.  It takes on more meaning.  The mind is more clear, less filled with the kinds of hyper-emotions that make us crazy and confused.

Turn everything into that kind of meditation, that kind of consideration for the well-being of others.  Everything. “As I ascend the staircase, may all sentient beings ascend into the true meaning of dharma.”  You’re free to make up your own prayer concerning the welfare of sentient beings.  It doesn’t have to be my prayer.  Make up your own.  If you constantly walk around like that, you’ll find that you are changing in some subtle way that you can’t understand. You have less bad moods, less depression, less frequent overwhelming concern with your ego to the point where you are busy doing nothing but manipulating everything and everybody around you in order that they will get it right for you, which is pretty much how we live.  That kind of thing begins to change and you’re less concerned with manipulating everything and everyone around you in order to get what you want. You spend less time accomplishing the great mantra of “gimme gimme gimme iwant iwant iwant hung phat!” And you are more concerned with the welfare of others.  Something inside of you begins to change.  Remember, our habitual tendency is so strongly biased toward ego cherishing that we really have to spend a lot of time putting something in the pile of concern for others in order to bring the mind back into some kind of balance.  This kind of meditation really brings about that kind of balance, and your habit begins to change.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Four Contemplations That Turn the Mind to Dharma

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From: “Great Perfection Buddha In the Palm of the Hand: The Lama’s Oral Instructions Upon the Recitation and Visualization of the Preliminary Practices Ngondro” as revealed by Vidydhara Terton Migyur Dorje

PAL KUNTUZANGPO LA CHAG TSHAL LO

I prostrate to the glorious Samantabhadra.

DAL JOR DI NI SHIN TU NYED PAR KA

This precious human birth is extremely difficult to obtain.

CHI DANG CHI LA KYE KYANG MI TAG CHI

All things born are impermanent and must die.

GE WA CHÖ LA BED NA SANGYE GYU

If one perseveres in virtuous Dharma, this is the cause for becoming Buddha.

DIG PA GANG CHE DE TA’I RIG DRUG KHYAM

Whatever negativity is produced will cause one to wander in the six realms.

YI DAG TRE KOM DÜD DRO LÜN PO DANG

Hungry spirits suffer from hunger and thirst, animals from stupidity,

NYAL WA TSHA DRANG MI KYE GE NA CHI

Hell beings from heat and cold, humans from birth, old age, sickness and death,

LHA MIN THAB TSÖD LHA YI DUG NGAL YÖD

Jealous gods from warfare, and even gods (Devas) also have their own particular suffering.

Contemplation on the Precious Human Rebirth

NYAL WA YI DAG DÜD DRO DANG

Birth in the hell, hungry spirit and animal realms, and

LA LO TSHE RING LHA DANG NI

As a Titan and Long-Life God,

LOG TA SANGYE KYI TONG PA

With incorrect view, in a dark eon,

KUG PA DI DAG MI KHOM GYED

Or in an incapacitated state, are the eight states of non-freedom.

MI NYID Ü KYE WANG PO TSHANG

Birth as a human being, in a land where the Dharma is flourishing, and with all faculties complete,

LE THA MA LOG NE LA DED

Without reversed karma, and with faith in the Three Jewels of Refuge

DI NGA RANG GI JOR PA YIN

Are the five personal endowments, which I possess.

SANGYE JÖN DANG DE CHÖ SUNG

Birth during the presence of the Buddha, the presence of the Buddha’s Teaching (Dharma),

TEN PA NE DANG DE JE JUG

The presence of the Doctrine and its pure followers in the world,

ZHEN CHIR NYING NE TSE WA-O

And in the presence of those who lovingly care for others from their hearts, are the five circumstantial endowments.

KYE BU TSHÜL THRIM KANG PA CHAG GYUR NA

If it occurs that the continuity of one’s moral discipline is interrupted,

JIN PE LONG CHÖD DEN YANG NGEN DROR TUNG

Then, even though one may possess material endowments, one will fall to the Lower Realms.

GYATSHO CHER YENG NYA SHING GI

On a turbulent ocean, although a yoke is being tossed about,

BU GAR RU BAL DRIN CHÜD TAR

The chances of an ocean turtle surfacing through the yoke’s center

MI NYID SHIN TU NYED KAR SUNG

Are as unlikely as the extreme difficulties of finding a precious human rebirth.

NGEN SONG SUM NI SA YI DÜL TSAM LA

In the three lower realms, beings are equal in number to the particles of dust on the earth.

MIR KYE WA NI SEN MO’I DÜL TSAM MO

The beings who have a human rebirth are equal to the number of particles on one’s thumbnail.

DAL JOR DI NI NYED PAR SHIN TU KA

This precious human rebirth is extremely difficult to obtain.

KYE BU’I DÖN DRUB THOB PAR GYUR PA LA

Since this accomplishes what is meaningful for man,

GAL TE DI LA PHEN PA MA DRUB NA

If I do not take advantage of this now,

CHI NE YANG DAG JOR PA GA LA GYUR

How will such a perfect opportunity come about again?

Contemplation on Impermanence

SID SUM MI TAG TÖN KA’I TRIN DANG DRA

The three states of transmigratory existence are impermanent like clouds in the autumn sky.

DRO WA’I KYE CHI GAR LA TA DANG TSHUNG

Sentient beings are born and die like the whirl of a dance.

KYE BU’I TSHE DRO NAM KHA’I LOG DRA TE

The lifespan of beings is like a lightning flash in space,

RI ZAR BAB CHU ZHIN DU NYUR GYOG DRO

Or like a waterfall quickly rushing down a steep mountain.

SAG PA KÜN GYI THA DZED CHING

All accumulations become exhausted.

THÖN PO NAM NI MAR TUNG GYUR

All those who are elevated eventually fall down.

THRED PA’I THA NI DREL WA TE

At the end of meeting comes separation;

SÖN PO’I THA NI CHI WA YIN

At the end of life comes death.

SÖD PAR THRID PA’I TSÖN ZHIN DU

Like a prisoner being led to execution,

GOM RE BOR ZHIN CHI DANG NYE

Each step that he takes leads closer to death.

KYE WA YÖD NA CHI WA YÖD

If there is birth, there is death.

DAR WA YÖD NA GÜD PA YÖD

If there is expansion, there is regression.

LANG TSHO DE YANG MI TAG TE

Youth is also impermanent

DAR WA’I DOG KYANG NED KYI THROG

For even illness can steal the dexterity of youth.

TSHO WA’I TSHE YANG CHI WE THROG

The happiness of life is robbed by death.

TAG PA’I CHÖ NI GANG YANG MED

There is nothing of this world that is permanent.

GANG DU NE KYANG CHI WE MI TSHUG PA’I

No matter where one stays, there is no escape from death.

SA CHOG DE NI GANG DU-ANG YÖD MIN TE

There is no direction where death does not exist.

BAR NANG NA MED GYATSHO’I DENG NA-ANG MED

There is no escape in the atmosphere nor in the depths

of the ocean,

RI WO NAM KYI DRAG NA-ANG YÖD MA YIN

Nor is there any escape inside, over the crest of the mountains.

Contemplation on Cause and Effect

LE NAM KYANG NI NA TSHOG LE

All karma is the culmination of various activities.

DE YI DRO DI NA TSHOG JE

Therefore sentient beings possess various types of karma.

LE KYI GYU DRE MED PAR GANG DÖD PA

Whosoever believes that one’s actions do not produce specific causes and results

DE NI MU TEG CHED PAR TA WA YIN

Maintains a nihilistic, atheistic view.

SHI MA THAG TU NAR MED NYAL WAR KYE

At the moment of death, rebirth will be taken in the lowest hell realm.

DE YI RANG PHUNG ZHEN YANG LAG PAR CHED

Such a view is self-destructive and detrimental to others.

ME NI DRANG WAR GYUR YANG SID

It is possible for fire to become cold.

LUNG NI ZHAG PE JIN YANG SID

It is possible to catch wind with a lasso.

NYI DA THANG LA LHUNG YANG SID

It is also possible for the sun and moon to fall to the earth.

LE KYI NAM MIN LU MI SID

It is never possible for the maturation of karma to be deceptive.

KHYÖD KYI DRAM ZE GELONG LHA DANG NI

If for the sake of Rishis (holy men), fully ordained monks,

gods and

DRÖN DANG YAB YUM DAG DANG TSÜN MO DANG

Your guests, the Guru, the consort and royalty,

KHOR GYI LED DU DIG PA MI CHA TE

If you accumulate negative karma in order to serve them,

NYAL WA’I NAM MIN KAL NÖD GA MA CHI

This is also a small cause which produces the ripening result of rebirth in the hells.

DIG PA’I LE NAM CHÖD PA GA YANG NI

Whatever negative karma one accumulates

DE YI MÖD LA TSHÖN ZHIN MI CHÖD DE

Does not ripen instantaneously like being pierced by a weapon.

CHI WA’I DÜ LA BAB NA DIG PA YI

When the time of death arrives, one’s negative karma will

LE KYI DRE BU GANG LAG NGÖN SUM GYUR

Produce the result of exactly whatever was caused.

Contemplation on the Benefits of Virtue

YI GE DRI CHÖD CHIN PA DANG

Composition, offering, generosity and

NYEN DANG LOG DANG DZIN PA DANG

Attentiveness, recitation, memorization and

CHED DANG KHA TÖN CHA WA DANG

Teaching, praying,

DE SEM PA DANG GOM PA TE

Contemplation and meditation

CHÖD PA DI CHU’I DAG NYID NI

Are the ten activities which

SÖD NAM PHUNG PO PAG MED THOB

Generate an immeasurable abundance of merit.

DÜ SU JIN PA JIN CHED NA

If the practice of generosity is consistently performed,

SHI YANG DE NI SHI MA YIN

Such a person may seemingly die, but not an ordinary death,

GYAG ZANG WA YI DRÖN PO ZHIN

Like a traveler who is fully prepared for whatever occurs.

SANGYE CHÖ DANG GENDUN LA

If, for the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha,

PÖ SAM MAR ME CHIG TSAM MAM

Incense or one simple butter lamp,

ME TOG CHIG TSAM CHÖD CHE NA

A flower or anything is consistently offered,

MI YO’I ZHING DER KYE WAR GYUR

Rebirth is taken in the Realm of unmovable Samadhi.

Contemplation on the Faults of Non-Virtue

CHAG DANG ZHE DANG TI MUG DANG

From attachment, hatred and delusion

DE KYED LE NI MI GE WA

Non-virtuous karma is generated.

MI GE WA LE DUG NGAL KÜN

All suffering arises from non-virtuous karma,

DE ZHIN NGEN DRO THAM CHED DO

And likewise, it causes all beings to be reborn in lower realms.

ZHE DANG GI NI NYAL WAR PHEN

Due to hatred one is thrown into the hell realm.

CHAG PE YI DAG JIG TEN DRO

Due to attachment one enters the world of hungry spirits.

MONG PE PHEL CHER DÜD DROR DRO

The usual result of delusion is rebirth as an animal.

DOG PA LHA DANG MI NYID DO

The opposite is rebirth as a god or human being.

Contemplation on the Faults of Cyclic Existence

YI DAG NA YANG DÖD PE PHONG PA YI

Because hungry spirits are so obsessed by desire,

KYED PA’I DUG NGAL GYÜN CHAG MI ZÖD PA

They generate continual, unbearable suffering.

TRE KOM DRANG DANG DRO DANG JIG PA YI

Due to their fear of hunger, thirst, heat and cold,

KYED PA SHIN TU MI ZED TEN TSHAL LO

They manifest these experiences and extreme, unbearable suffering ensues.

YI DAG NAM LA SÖ KA’I DÜ SU NI

During the summer months, all hungry spirits

DA WA TSHA LA GÜN NI NYI MA-ANG DRANG

Experience the moon to be hot and the sun to be cold.

JÖN SHING DRE BU MED GYUR DE DAG GI

Fruit-bearing trees disappear before them, and

TE PA TSAM GYI LUNG YANG KAM PAR GYUR

As soon as they see a great body of water, it evaporates.

KHA CHIG KHA NI KHAB KYI MIG TSAM LA

Some hungry spirits’ mouths are no larger than a needle,

TO WA RI RAB TÖ TSAM TRE PE NYEN

Yet they suffer from the hunger produced by their empty stomachs, the size of Mt. Meru.

MI TSANG GYI NA BOR WA CHUNG NGU YANG

Even though the unclean things we discard are small in comparison,

TSAL WA’I THU DANG NÜ PA MA CHI SO

Hungry spirits do not even have the strength or power to

find them.

DÜD DRO’I KYE NE NA YANG SÖD PA DANG

Animals from birth are raised to be killed,

CHING DANG DEG SOG DUG NGAL NA TSHOG DANG

Undergoing various types of suffering, such as being tied up, whipped, beaten, and so forth.

ZHI GYUR GE WA PONG WA NAM LA NI

All those beings who ignored the peaceful causes of virtue

CHIG LA CHIG ZA DUG NGAL MI ZED PA

Kill and eat one another, experiencing suffering impossible

to bear.

KHA CHIG MU TIG BAL DANG RÜ PA DANG

Some are killed for the pearl they produce, wool, tusk, bone, and

SHA DANG PAG PA’I CHED DU CHI WAR GYUR

Some must lose their life because of their own flesh and skin.

WANG MED ZHEN DAG TSHÖN CHA NÖN PO DANG

Powerless, they are poked by others who possess sharp weapons,

CHAG DANG CHAG KYÜ TAB TE DEG TE KÖL

Whipped and hooked to be put to work by others.

SEM CHEN NYE PA’I LE LA CHÖD PA NAM

All beings who have accrued the karma of harming others

MANG PÖ THIG NAG RAB TU TSHA WA NAM

Will be reborn in the extreme heat of the Black Line Hell Realm,

DÜ JOM NGU BÖD NAR MED LA SOG PA

Wailing in the Hell Realm of Continuous Destruction, or the lowest Hell Realm of all,

NYAL WA NAM SU RAB TU DUG NGAL GYUR

All those in hell will certainly experience extreme discomfort.

DI NA MI CHIG DUNG THUNG SUM GYA YI

For instance, if a man were pierced just now three hundred times with a spear,

RAB TU DRAG TAB DUG NGAL GANG LAG PA

Knowing how incredibly intense the pain would be,

DE NI NYAL WA’I DUG NGAL CHUNG NGU LA

This pain is nothing compared to the suffering in the realms

of hell.

Ö YANG MA YIN CHAR YANG MI PHÖD DO

In fact, it is not possible to try to measure any comparison.

NYAL WA DRI PA THONG DANG THÖ PA DANG

We have seen drawings depicting the hell realms and have heard about them as well.

DREN NAM LAG GAM ZUG SU GYI PE KYANG

Even if we try to contemplate upon them, read or draw an image,

DUG NGAL KYE WAR GYUR NA MI ZED PA’I

The suffering that is felt, in itself, is unbearable.

NAM MIN NYAM SU NYONG NA MÖ CHI GÖ

Is there any question about what it would be like if we were actually experiencing the results of such karma?

DE TAR DUG NGAL SHIN TU MI ZED LO

Thus this kind of suffering is truly beyond our ability to bear.

CHE WA THRAG GYAR NYAM SU NYONG YANG NI

Even if one must experience this for one hundred million years,

JI SID MI GE DE ZED MA GYUR PAR

Until the karma that one previously accumulated is fully exhausted,

DE SID SOG DANG DREL WAR MI GYUR RO

It is simply not possible to end one’s life in that realm!

MI NAM TSHO WA THUNG WE NYAM

The shortness of human life is degenerating.

LHA MIN THAB CHING TSÖD PE NYAM

The quarreling and aggression of Titans (jealous gods) is degenerating.

LHA NAM BAG MED PA YI NYAM

The unconscientious manner of Devas (long-life gods) is degenerating.

KHOR WA KHAB KYI TSE TSAM NA

In cyclic existence there is not even a needle’s worth of happiness,

DE WA NAM YANG YÖD MA YIN

And there never will be.

KHOR WA’I NYE MIG THONG WA NA

When one sees the faults of the state of cyclic existence,

KYO WA’I SEM NI RAB TU KYED

Intense sorrow wells up from within.

KHAM SUM TSÖN RA JIG PE NA

This terrifying jail of the three realms,

TSÖN PA’I SEM KYI PANG WAR CHA

I shall completely abandon with enthusiastic persistence!

(While reciting this, carefully consider the meaning.)

Ancient Tribes Come Together at Amitabha Stupa

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At Jetsunma’s invitation Khenpo Norgey and representatives of the Hopi people participated at an event at the Amitabha Stupa in Sedona. The Hopis came to offer traditional songs at this land that is also considered sacred by the Hopis.

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

This is our Palyul Khenpo Norgay with Hopi representatives in ceremony together. This is sacred and beautiful.

This is Hopi Elder at the Amitaba Stupa. He made the Hopi Sacred songs, the story of the emergences. Powerful!

Oh, my. Here is where I start sobbing. Grandfather said the young ones were not picking up the sacred ways. Please offer prayer and share these precious Tibetan-Hopi images. May the ancient ones come together! EMAHO! AH HO! Please share the news of this meeting! These Ancient Brothers are precious caretakers of the Earth. Without them we are an empty shell. E H MA HO! Kye Ho! Ah HO! I am totally moved and filled with bliss to see this! The Hopi and Tibetan meeting, Ancient brothers!

Here is a cave opening, I dreamed the sacred stones were to your left as you look at it.

This is Reuben and his sons, apprentices to the sacred Hopi way.

Here is Reuben explaining how few Hopis are left and how so many have lost their way. Tears.

May these ancient Tribal Brothers Join for the sake of all sentient beings may our Elders grow in becoming. May we return to the sky, earth, rain and sacred fire together! Please forgive me I am thrilled and rejoicing at this extraordinary event.

As the meeting concluded, and communications from Jetsunma had been shared with Reuben, he stated, “We are connected all of us and we are connected again.”

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