A sacred space for everyone
The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:
Jetsunma describes entering the path of Dharma. The student teacher relationship; the teacher’s responsibility; and the student’s responsibility.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
The following is an excerpt from a teaching given by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche at Kunzang Palyul Choling:
Today I’m going to give an overview of the preliminary practices and how to do them because there are many little children and maybe parents would like their children to learn some Dharma. I would imagine you have that hope. Otherwise, what else is there to do for the little naughty things that they should learn? I will speak about the preliminary practices also for those of you who are new. Those of you who have heard these teachings before, it’s no problem to listen again for however much we can hear the Dharma, it should help us and improve us. So Dharma is not necessarily ever repetitive.
I’m not saying that I am learned. I am just repeating what is found in the scriptures, in the Dharma books.
Initially it is very important to believe in the law of cause and result, which is referred to as karma, the truth of karma. For as long as we are human beings, on the path of the vehicle of humans, that is the basic view—believing in the law of cause and result. If one doesn’t believe in this, then what would that be like? That would be like thinking there is no result based on what we caused, that there is no ripening of our actions or thoughts. To believe like this is considered to be an incorrect view, a mistaken view. So again, to reiterate a mistaken view would be thinking that if I do something good, the result will not necessarily follow in harmony with that cause. If I do something bad, if I accumulate a non-virtue, the result will not be suffering—just not believing that this is how things work. So that’s considered to be incorrect understanding or a mistaken view. It’s very important to know that believing in the truth of cause and result to be infallible is the basic view of a human being.
A human being means an individual who has the capacity to think, to speak, to understand, to comprehend, to comprehend the meanings of words in a deeper sense. So, as long as we are born in this kind of body as a human, then if we believe in a religion or a spiritual pursuit, the basis is believing in the law of cause and result, which means believing that the seeds that you sow are what you will receive. This seems to be the basic view for all religions, not just Buddhism. Throughout the entire world, anyone who is following the path of righteousness, or that which is worthy of believing in, has to believe like this. If not, I can’t imagine that that would be a religious pursuit.
Disbelieving in cause and result would be like becoming a communist. A communist view is that, for the most part, this is not worth considering, although, even communists would tell us don’t steal, don’t lie. There are certain disciplines that were enforced that are also based on the notion of cause and result because they are saying if you do this, such and such negative thing will occur. So don’t do that based on that reason. In other words, the idea is that through this particular cause that result will occur. And so, that is actually cause and result, even though they claim that this is not a valid view.
I wonder what the children think this means. This means, according to your level, following the truth of what it is your parents tell you not to do. Like if your parents say don’t touch fire, the reason is because if you touch the fire, you’ll burn your finger. So that’s why parents say don’t touch fire. Because according to cause and result, touching fire means burning your finger and suffering. Or if parents tell you don’t kill bugs or if they tell you don’t steal or don’t lie or don’t drink or don’t smoke, or go to school, then if you listen to your parent’s advice, then that means that you will be responsible, good and noble. If you don’t, you will be irresponsible, ignoble and there will be problems. Likewise for adults. Keeping the rules of the government means that your life will be smooth. Keeping the rules of the Dharma as a Dharma practitioner—the words of honor and the vows—means that your practice will go well. But if there is no discipline to check in this way about the law of cause and result, following what is right and wrong carefully, then just thinking, “Well, I am just going to do things my way,” then that really is just becoming crazy, becoming silly or stupid and showing that you don’t have any qualities at all. Someone who follows rules nicely is someone who develops wonderful qualities. The inability to be able to do that really comes from inflated ego or pride, which is just great self-cherishing based on delusion. Of course, children don’t know this yet, so children need to be told and guided, but adults do know this and they should know how to guide themselves.
That is why there are always rules and guidelines in life in terms of a country, our area, our families, our school, the military, the church, the temple. Human beings always have rules and guidelines and regulations to observe. Even animals have their own rules and guidelines. That’s why we must learn what these are and follow them. In terms of Dharma practice, that means with seeing and contemplating and learning so that we can be able to identify and acknowledge mistaken directions. So rather than that, just thinking, “I am so great, I know everything, I don’t need to learn anything,” is like a mountain sheep with big horns, really not so great. Even if you are rich, even if you are a great scholar, if you have great pride in this way, you are just shaming yourself.
But please be careful. It’s not enough to just know how to play.
That’s why it is so important to study and contemplate, especially if one does not know these things. America is a very good country because in the schools children are taught how to be decent human beings. They are given many amazing opportunities, inconceivable opportunities, to learn many different things. That is not the case in other countries; these opportunities don’t exist. So we have to think about the possibilities of our environment and how fortunate we are and appreciate that and make the most of it.
According to the path of Buddhaist practice now, the subject of non-virtue involves ten specific non-virtues: three of the body, four of the speech and three of the mind. These ten are meant to be abandoned. And then the opposite of that non-virtue is meant to be engaged which becomes the virtue—the ten virtues. By abandoning and engaging, then, there are two steps and one is able to accumulate two good deeds. In terms of the first non-virtue of the body—killing—by avoiding, abandoning killing, one has accumulated the good deed of that abandonment; and then by going on to save life, one is performing or engaging in the virtue, which is the opposite of killing. So there are two, not only just one, not just only abandoning killing, although that is one stage in the virtue; then protecting and saving life is the second, which completes that. In the case of stealing, not only just abandoning stealing or taking that which is not given, but going on to express generosity, to be generous in various ways. In the case of adultery, not just only abandoning adultery, but going on to practice discipline. So these are the three non-virtues of the body. And the corresponding virtues of the speech, of course, not just only abandoning lying, but always trying to tell the truth and so on like this. Each non-virtue has its opposite, which is the virtue.
https://www.tibetanbuddhistaltar.org/2011/09/ten-virtues-and-ten-non-virtues/
The following is from a public talk offered by the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche
First of all, it’s important to understand that the term Buddhism means the inner pursuit, turning inside rather than outside. What we look at within ourselves is the nature of our own mind. We engage in the inner pursuit to root out the delusions and to actualize our highest potential. Once we have decided to engage in this inner pursuit, we may find we need guidance, that we need a teacher.
The teacher we choose should be one who has already realized the nature of his or her mind and is liberated from the round of cyclic existence. Otherwise, if we follow a teacher or teachings that arise from someone who is still in the world, still worldly, then, because such a person is no different from us, it is not possible for him to help us in a meaningful way. When we engage in the inner pursuit, which means the spiritual pursuit, we do so because we want to improve our inner self. So it’s important that the teacher we find has already accomplished the result that we want to achieve.
How do we know that a teacher is qualified in this way? According to the Buddhist path, it is an accepted fact that Lord Buddha Shakyamuni is such a teacher. Born Prince Siddhartha, and destined to be the most powerful king of India at that time, he renounced all of his worldly power and wealth because he saw that the nature of cyclic existence is suffering. Wishing to understand the true nature of life and the true nature of reality, he pursued the spiritual path until he attained the state of full enlightenment, the state of awakening, which is characterized by tremendous compassion and concern for all living beings and their awakening.
Biography of Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche
Biography of Vidyadhara Kunzang Sherab – Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche is Kunzang Sherab’s current incarnation.
The following is a YouTube video teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
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
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Guru Yoga”
We should think in such a way that we know if we practice deeply enough, we will look at Guru Rinpoche and see that innate wakeful state which is the true face.
Guru Rinpoche said before he left, “I will appear as your Root Teacher.” What that means is we should practice considering that the teacher who comes to teach us and gives us blessing, gives us empowerment, gives us commentary teaching, who makes it possible for us to practice the path, is actually an extension of Guru Rinpoche’s activity. The teacher cannot be separated from Guru Rinpoche’s activity, and is Guru Rinpoche’s activity—an extension of miraculous enlightened compassion, enlightened intention.
If we, in our ordinary perception, separate the two and say, ”Oh, Guru Rinpoche is over here, and the Root Teacher’s over there, and I’m over there,” and practice in a superficial way, we won’t get very far. But if we see the whole event as the miraculous intention of the Buddha, as enlightenment itself, if we understand that the path is inseparable from the benefit, inseparable from the nature itself, and if we understand this activity to be this enlightened process, inseparable from the true face, and we practice focused in that way, the blessing cannot be counted. It is incredibly profound. It’s an entirely different process, really, than the kinds of ordinary activity that we always engage in. We’re always working hard at something,,but that’s not the point. The point is to see the face, to know the nature. The point is to be awake.
If one uses the thoughts that I have just described, contemplating in the way that I have described, practicing Guru Yoga as I have described it, one dispels the delusion that comes from the fixation on self-nature and phenomenal existence as being inherently real and solid. By dispelling fixation, one can know the nature that can only really be described as “suchness,” that which is beyond.
So, I hope that you will take this into your heart and begin to practice. Perhaps you can begin to practice the Seven Line Prayer and Vajra Guru Mantra. But most especially, I really hope that you will think in the way that I’ve described: understanding what is ordinary and what is not ordinary; understanding what is of the world; understanding what is part of the process of fixation and what is a direct display of the Mind of Enlightenment. Thinking on these things and practicing accordingly, one can have great results.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved