The following is a YouTube video teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
Mindfulness
Overcoming Hope and Fear
The following is from a series of tweets between Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo and one of her followers on twitter:
Questioner: the problem is reality and society keep proving and backing a cynical outlook.
Jetsunma: There will always be people with poor qualities, but you can choose like-minded friends who are kind and worthy. I’ve met both kinds, believe me. And, did you know – cynicism is a habit, just like compassion, happiness, good heart, etc. You can learn to run different “tapes” in your mind. I get stalkers, haters, sarcasm, hostility but I don’t take it personally. It speaks to their character, not yours. If the shoe doesn’t fit you don’t have to wear it.
You should see the hate I get thrown at me. But it is gossip and lies, and I pay no attention. On the other hand, so much love, kindness, friendship, and I hang with people who want to leave the world a better place. So the choice of how to be affected is truly yours and mine.
I too have to work on my own perception. Try to see it for what it is. Just empty reaction, hope and fear. We all do. Being honest here. It takes work and willingness to look within. And I try to see through circumstance as though it is a dream. Insubstantial, born and gone at the same time.
Questioner: then your in control sister! And the environment is tamed.
Jetsunma: How sweet! But no. I was cruelly stalked for three years. Three horrible, miserable years. And I block a circle of gossips that continually insult and make fun of me. When I think of them they are a “muse” to write and teach. And to explain poor qualities and the hurt and harm that comes from that crud. So in a way their cruelty is a blessing, and motivation to teach. These people go after others too. They seem to need victims. How can you take people like that seriously?
Questioner: then your so irresistible your stalk-able.
Jetsunma: You are very kind. Actually he is off the streets now, (violent felon) no longer able to harm others. He is not a loving man, I don’t think it was my “charms” that interested him so much as my position and Lineage.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to all my friends and followers! I hope all celebrations are delightful and safe. At the end of the yearly cycle I like to quietly think of what there is to accomplish this upcoming year. What to change, what to accept on a personal level. I also consider what is to be done in my vocation, our Temple, how to benefit sentient beings. And then I make aspirational and wishing prayers. Light a butter lamp.
One of the first efforts on the path of Vajrayana Buddhism is to make aspirational prayers. This deepens resolve, and sets the tone for the rest of one’s experience. Wishing prayers can be made up by oneself, and there are many in our tradition. These prayers should have goals. The goals are always altruistic in tone, such as a wishing prayer for the health of a sick person, or for world peace.
This begins the focus on Bodhicitta and on ordinary human kindness. Like an object being sent to the moon, where the settings of the launch determine where the landing occurs. These aspirational prayers are seeds, a focus aid, a determination, a choice we must make well, before we proceed. They help determine our result.
An extension of these beginning prayers is the combination of aspiration and mindfulness. Such as: as I walk thru this door, may all sentient beings enter the Door to Liberation. And: as I eat this food may all beings be nourished by the nectar of Dharma. As I give this clothing to the poor may all beings in every life have warmth and clothing. As I wash my clothes may all beings be purified by the precious intention of Vajrasattva and be free. As I study may all be able to perfectly learn Dharma, free of obstacles. As I go to work, may the labor I do be a blessing for all those W/O a way to feed their family. As I walk this road may all beings be blessed with strong legs and arms. As I progress on the path may all beings progress as well. So I hope you get the idea.
What is valuable is training in mindfulness and the habit of altruism and kindness. Many of us are unaware of surroundings most of the time, are not mindful. We do not notice if we go through a door or drive somewhere or have supper. What is the taste? What roads were traveled? Mindfulness is the method by which we achieve self-honesty, by which we learn to perceive deeply… and to attain the gift of kindness. We give rise to the Bodhicitta because we, finally, begin to understand the condition and fault of Samsara and the suffering of all beings. Therefore we learn to recognize the need for ordinary human kindness, and the ultimate need for all sentient beings to be liberated and free of cyclic existence. To be Liberated from pain and suffering in all forms. And ultimately to enter into the awareness and awakening of the precious goal, Buddhahood!
Happy New year to all! Let’s make THIS YEAR the one that MAKES A DIFFERENCE!
OM BENZAR SATO HUNG!
OM MANI PEDME HUNG!
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
Giving Rise to Recognition
An excerpt from the Mindfulness workshop given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo in 1999
Do you want to be powerful like all Americans want to be? Do you really want to be potent? Do you really want to be a Great Being? Well, if you want to do that, then stop seating your ego on the throne. Awaken. Get the fact that you are impotent unless you are able to move into a state of recognition. You are impotent if you do not recognize that all the things you call your life are merely symptoms of the condition of your mindstream. You are impotent if you do not realize that every time we have an opportunity to practice discrimination and lift up the sacred, we have an opportunity to awaken within ourselves; we have an opportunity to practice recognition, and that is power.
The way most of us live is like we’re trying to get through a dark room. It’s pitch black. There’s all kinds of stuff in it: furniture, sinks, bath tubs, all the stuff that they have in rooms. We’re trying to get from the birth door to the death door. We’re going across this room. Now, you have two choices. You can either go through this room and stumble over everything that’s in your way, or you can turn on the light and recognize what’s there, move around it, move over it, your choice. But, that state of recognition requires constant mindfulness: constant mindfulness of that which is sacred, distinguishing that in the world.
I’ve given this again and again and again, and I will never stop because I love this so much. It’s a line from a song that Art Garfunkel had in one of his albums. I think the name of the song is Mary Was An Only Child, and this one line that describes exactly what I’m talking about is perfect, another way in which the Guru speaks. It goes like this:
“And if you watch the stars at night
and you find them shining equally bright,
you might have seen Jesus and not have known what you saw.
Who would notice a gem in a five-and-dime store?”
That five-and-dime store is ordinary perception. To notice the diamond, we have to give rise to recognition and the View. I feel that to practice like that is really a natural empowerment, a natural medicine that helps us give rise to the wisdom that is inherently ours.
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo