Palyul

Prayer to The Guru

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The following prayer is from “The Great Perfection: Buddha in the Palm of the Hand”

PAL DEN TSA WA’I LAMA RINPOCHE

Glorious, precious root guru,

DAG GI NYING GA PEMA’I ZE’U DRU LA

Upon the pollen heart of the lotus in my heart,

DREL WA MED PA TAG PAR ZHUG NE KYANG

Without ever separating, always remaining,

KA DRIN CHEN PO’I GO NE JE ZUNG NE

Hold me fast with your great kindness.

KU SUNG THUG KYI NGÖ DRUB TSAL DU SÖL

Pray, bestow the spiritual attainments of body, speech and mind.

PAL DEN LAMA’I NAM PAR THAR PA LA

Towards the way of life and activities of the glorious guru

KED CHIG TSAM YANG LOG TA MI KYE ZHING

May incorrect view never arise, not even for an instant.

CHI DZED CHÖ SU THONG WA’I MÖ GÜ KYI

With fervent regard, may I view all (the guru’s) actions as Dharma activity.

LAMA’I CHIN LAB SEM LA JUG PAR SHOG

May the guru’s blessings enter my mind!

KYE ZHING KYE WA DAG NI THAM CHED DU

In this and in all of my future lifetimes

RIG ZANG LO SEL NGA GYAL MED PA DANG

May I be born of excellent parents, with a clear mind,

free from pride,

NYING JE CHE ZHING LAMA LA GÜ DEN

Possessing great compassion and respectfully relying

upon the guru.

PAL DEN LAMA’I DAM TSHIG LA NE SHOG

May my samaya with the glorious guru always remain firm!

KYE WA KÜN TU YANG DAG LAMA DANG

In all lifetimes, may I never be separated from a perfectly

pure guru.

DREL MED CHÖ KYI PAL LA LONG CHÖD CHING

Utilizing the glorious Dharma to its utmost,

SA DANG LAM GYI YÖN TEN RAB DZOG NE

And by excellently perfecting all pure qualities on the stages

and paths,

DORJE CHANG GI GO PHANG NYUR THOB SHOG

May I swiftly achieve the state of Vajradharahood!

Examining the Path: His Holiness Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok

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The following is an excerpt from a public talk by His Holiness Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok:

There are three major world religions and countless minor religions, spiritual pursuits that are available in this world which we should actually embrace in this lifetime. It doesn’t really matter which one one embraces in terms of the point that is being made here. The point is that everyone should enter a spiritual pursuit so that there is a purpose to this life.  Otherwise it is like the cows and the horses that are just grazing and eating the grass and just kind of surviving aimlessly. There is no point to spending your life just so that you can acquire the comforts of eating good food and drink and just getting by.  This is really, truly the greatest waste of a human existence.  Nor is it suitable to just enter any path without examining that path, without questioning others about that tradition.  One must carefully examine the spiritual path that one is going to enter because this is something that affects you for this and all future lifetimes.  You shouldn’t just do this mindlessly in a state of delusion.  For example, if one day you can choose whether you are going to eat delicious food or foul food and you check to see whether it is good or bad, then it is quite important that you would choose the best, and you would want it to be very delicious.  When it comes to the spiritual practice and Dharma, this is something that affects you for all of your lifetimes, so it is totally unsuitable not to examine the path that you are going to be involved in.  Another reason for examining is because it also very unsuitable to become partial about religious dogmas and to actually feel some hate for other religions.  People who feel this way are usually people who are not intelligent enough to examine.  If you examine each of the religions, at least you can gain some sense of appreciation.  At the same time you can understand very clearly which is a pure path, which is an impure path, which path is beneficial, which path is nonproductive.  If you are unable to discern that because you haven’t examined, then you are someone who is experiencing the conflicting emotion of delusion.

For example, in this world there may be spiritual traditions or religions which actually encourage adultery or encourage thievery or encourage the killing of other sentient beings or animals for ritual offerings or sacrifice or what have you.  Maybe these types of activities might even go against the rules of the country, might even break the law of the country and yet are still encouraged by the religion.  We have to examine to see if these are activities that are the play of desire and attachment, anger and delusion, or not.  If we clearly examine, then we can recognize for ourselves that this is non-beneficial and nonproductive, and it is something that we can avoid getting involved in.  But in order to avoid getting involved in it, in the beginning we must examine.

In some religions, some spiritual traditions, there is only a focus upon some personal gain or some personal pursuit for one’s own happiness.  It is very self-oriented.  This is also something that we should examine, because if that is the case, it is not pure and not ultimately beneficial.  If there is no focus upon how one can truly be of service and of benefit to others—because if the religion you are involved in is only going to bring you happiness in this life and doesn’t even focus upon how you can somehow bring happiness to others in this life—how could it possibly be truly pure?  In this way we must examine it. and we should get involved in a religion that focuses on the benefit of others as well.

The excellent spiritual traditions, the sublime traditions, are those which bring benefit to self and others alike. So first and foremost, please examine to see if the religion that you are engaged in or thinking to engage in has these qualifications.  Finding then a religion that brings benefit to both self and others is a prerequisite, but the methods in order to employ that must be available.  It must be a profound path that brings about the benefit of self and others.  For example, even if an old woman who has no arms has love and compassion for her son and wishes to uplift him and help, she cannot.  She has that wish but there’s nothing she can do because she’s crippled.  Therefore if we want to achieve ultimate, permanent results in this and future lifetimes, we have to be sure that our path has the power to bring about those results.  It can’t just be something that is filled with fancy rhetoric and good thoughts, but doesn’t have any methods which produce good results.

Speaking of those methods then, the spiritual path that can bring that about is one that includes the different sciences and also transmissions based on experience, and also has the valid source through which strong faith and conviction can be developed.  There must be a true and valid source of the lineage of a spiritual tradition. That must be established over a period of time by those who are intelligent scholars and true practitioners who have been able to uphold the line of the lineage of transmission.  One has to go back and see where the religion finds its origin.  The religion should be validated by the presence of the different categories or sciences of spiritual knowledge or development that validate the ability of that path to bring forth the results of what one wants to accomplish.  You can’t just expect to go to someone who promises you that if you do this according to what I am teaching then it is going to bring you happiness and peace, and if you avoid this you won’t suffer.  This kind of shallowness is something that must be avoided and can only be avoided by examining the tradition to see if it is validated by the different categories and presence of sciences and methods which have already been tested.  And thirdly, from the point of view of, experiential validity, one must be able to see that it has been proven by those who have practiced this path that both temporarily and ultimately the results have been and are and will be achieved.  One has to take a look and see if those results have borne out through the different efforts of the practice of those who are practitioners on the path—if they have been able to bring out the fruition, and if the results that they have achieved are permanent or not.

In this world, in terms of benefit both temporary and ultimate, Lord Buddha Shakyamuni has presented the methods which are according to his miraculous activities and deeds.  For the most part, those great leaders of other religions are also considered to be emanations of the compassion of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni.  For instance in Hinduism, the leader Jangjuk is said to be an incarnation of Buddha Shakyamuni, and also Wangchen, or King Brahman, is said to be an incarnation of Avalokiteshvara.  So even these religious leaders of those traditions that are said to bring only temporary benefit, that bliss comes about through the miraculous activity of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni.  Also in the Christian path, a religion that is founded upon the principles of love and compassion for sentient beings, these principles of love and compassion are also the essential points of the Buddhist doctrine, and the fact that that is so is due to the concerned miraculous activity of Lord Buddha Shakyamuni.  This also points out why it is very unsuitable for us to ever have partial attitudes towards other religions. Really, when we think in terms of what has just been presented to you, all the religions in this world have very much in common.  The most important points are the points which are similar, and we shouldn’t try to find the differences.

What the World Needs Now…

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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

Ten Virtues and Ten Non-Virtues

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The following is from the From the Nam Cho Ngondro, The Great Perfection – Buddha in the Palm of the Hand

“From attachment, hatred and delusion, non-virtuous karma is generated.  All suffering arises from non-virtuous karma.”

Ten Non-Virtues

  • Killing
  • Stealing
  • Sexual Misconduct
  • Lying
  • Harsh words
  • Slander
  • Gossip
  • Coveting
  • Cruelty
  • Wrong View

Ten Virtues

  • Renounce killing; protect the lives of others
  • Renounce taking what is not given
  • Practice generosity
  • Give up sexual misconduct; practice discipline
  • Tell the truth
  • Abandon harsh words; speak pleasantly
  • Give up sowing discord; reconcile disputes
  • Put an end to useless chatter and recite prayers
  • Renounce covetousness; rejoice in the good fortune of others
  • Give up wishing harm to others; cultivate the desire to help them
  • Put an end to wrong views; establish in yourself the true authentic view

Ten Virtuous Activities

  • Composition
  • Offering
  • Generosity
  • Attentiveness
  • Recitation
  • Memorization
  • Teaching
  • Praying
  • Contemplation
  • Meditation

Cultivating Courage on the Path: Advice from His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

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

The Bodhicitta we can generate right now, however vast, is beneficial. In the future, when one attains Enlightenment, according to the vastness of that Bodhicitta, that many sentient beings can benefit and liberate themselves from the sufferings of Samsara. Right now we cannot really perceive all that fruition, but if we continue to practice, then in the future we will realize it as a direct perception.
Buddha Amitabha, for example, ultimately achieved that kind of result from his generation of Bodhicitta and his accumulation over many countless years of practices of commitments and aspiration prayers. So even as the Amitabha Buddha achieved Enlightenment over a long time based on aspiration prayers and the commitment to benefit all sentient beings, so we as practitioners must constantly apply the practice of the six perfections to benefit all other beings.

The Buddha Amitabha did not just do these aspiration prayers once or twice, or make this kind of commitment just one or two times. It was over many aeons that he practiced these aspirations and commitments, such that whoever hears the Amitabha’s name and does supplication prayers to Amitabha, they will instantly be born in his pure land. If one has single-pointed devotion to Amitabha Buddha and one carries through all of these supplication prayers, then even oneself as an ordinary person with an afflicted mind can be reborn in his pure land. It is all because of Amitabha Buddha’s special aspiration prayers. So although there are countless Buddhafields, the Amitabha Buddha’s pure land is very special because of these reasons.

We all could also achieve that kind of completion when we attain Enlightenment if we continue on the path and carry through our practices, generating Bodhicitta in as vast a way as possible. So we should not lose courage, thinking, “Oh, I cannot do it. I could never attain that kind of Enlightenment.” It is not good to lose one’s courage like that. Think instead that all these past Enlightened Beings, all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, they also attained Enlightenment and ultimate realization by beginning the same as us, standard beings, and if they could attain Enlightenment, we can also attain that same kind of realization.

So today, though there is much that has been taught, if one can just try to keep in one’s mind to have one hundred percent devotion to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, and if one will train one’s mind by generating Bodhicitta and carry though the practices, then one can definitely have this kind of fruition. We can all do aspiration prayers, that in the future we can all attain Enlightenment within one mandala through these Great Perfection (“Dzogchen”) meditations. Just as in the past such great Great Perfection (“Dzogchen”) realized masters like Garab Dorje and Shri Singha and so forth attained Enlightenment through these Great Perfection (“Dzogchen”) practices, similarly we can also have that aspiration prayer to attain Enlightenment.

For a short Amitabha Practice by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo click here.

Contemplating the Nature of Suffering

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

The samsaric sufferings we experience are the result of non-virtuous actions of the body, speech and mind. For example, if somebody performed a negative action, such as killing, for instance, then the result based on that action, the reaction or its ripening Karma, is for the person’s life to shorten. And in the next lifetime he may be born in the hell realms where he has to suffer the result of the Karma he created. Similarly, if someone thinks that in this lifetime they could obtain material possessions by stealing or robbing, like a rat who steals all kinds of grains, such stealing ultimately ripens its fruit so that in the next lifetime, or maybe in this lifetime, this person may actually not have enough wealth and become very poor. Even the physical body’s negative actions, such as sexual misconduct, have negative results. This can be that within one’s lifetime, or in the next lifetime, one’s family will not be in harmony and will suffer quarrels and fighting. Similarly there are four negativities of speech, which are known as lies, interferences, harsh words and gossip. From these are certain negative results that one experiences, such that whatever one tries to tell, people will not believe. Even when one tries to say something beneficial it will seem like one is trying to harm somebody. Likewise with the three negative mental actions: Greediness, thoughts of harming others and wrong views. Based on these, one will not have success whatever one tries to do in this lifetime or in future lifetimes, one will experience a lot of harm from other beings, one will be unable to remain together with one’s masters, teachers or good friends and so on. These are examples of the ripening of negative actions.

So understanding all these causes and conditions are based on the actions of our body, speech and mind, we should then try to abandon all the ten negative actions and try to train ourselves so that our mindstream flows with the spiritual path. Then one can practice and accumulate all the virtuous activities. The teachings say that if one follows the worldly aspect of the Dharma practice, with good or positive behaviors, that naturally turns into a spiritual path through which one can have peace and happiness. In this way, with our bodies, speech and mind, in whatever conditions of life, it is very important to try to benefit others and have loving kindness toward everybody.

Recycling in Worldly Existence

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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:

In this world, as we were born as human beings, we need to have something beneficial that we can do. In general, we have some kind of activity by which to earn our livelihood, just to have something to eat and drink. Of course, not only human beings, but also animals know how to live their lives in this way. As we were born human, we can talk and understand language and meaning. That is the specific characteristic of a human being. So based on that we need to have some ultimate benefit that we can achieve within this lifetime.

Generally speaking, two main activity categories we can engage in: our normal worldly activities and then the Dharma activities. But the majority of the world’s people become very busy with worldly activities rather than following some kind of spiritual practice. These worldly works or activities are based on one’s capabilities and power and skill, and of these there are many different levels – some have more or better and some have less.

However, whatever worldly activities that we complete, whether or not they are good or meaningful, they will only endure for a few months or years. There is not anything within these activities that we can ultimately rely on. For example, from young childhood we pursue educational training, from first grade until graduation. For almost fifteen or twenty years we work very hard and study so that we can get a specific job. Then if through one’s job one becomes more successful, then possibly in twenty or thirty years we consider that we have a better or happier life. And if during all that time, if we have a very pure and sincere mind in all these works, then of course there is some benefit which is known as virtuous action. But there are also those that have the qualifications to do these activities but who have so much ego or arrogance or pride that their works, even if completed, are not really beneficial in this lifetime.

So many human beings consider the benefit for their individual selves as the most important thing. The result is we are all re-cycled over and over in what is called Samsara or the cyclic existence.

We cannot really establish or find out how long we have been drifting about in Samsara or cyclic existence. No one can know for certain how many lives we have taken in this world – one hundred, one thousand, ten thousand, perhaps one million lifetimes. We cannot calculate the countless aeons of times we have been reborn in this world, in this Samsara.

Sometimes we were able to fulfill some of our wishes and sometimes we could not. For this life, from the time we have taken birth from our mother’s womb until now, whatever our ages, we have been constantly thinking about our own benefit and how we can be more happy people. All of our education and financial developments are all just for one’s own benefit. There is not anything left out that one has not thought of for one’s own benefit.

However, whatever we do, fulfill or complete in this lifetime is mainly based on our Karma, the action, of what we have done in our many past lifetimes. One cannot complete one’s every wish immediately because of the Law of Karma. Because have never developed their spiritual side, they mainly have deluded minds. So they are not able to understand the causes and conditions based on the Law of Karma. They can only think of what is happening today, and have no idea what is really going on. They don’t have a deeper level of understanding of these spiritual practices and so they don’t understand what is involved in past lifetimes and future lifetimes. It is because of their obscurations or ignorance that they don’t have any clear understanding about the causes and conditions. They really don’t know anything about the Law of Karma.

His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche

Our Guide in Difficult Times

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From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Ngundro, or preliminary practice consists of several parts:

  • Refuge, or entering the gate of protection of the “three precious ones” – the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
  • Bodhicitta, the practice of the six perfections and the generation of the aspiration to realize Enlightenment.
  • The offering of the Mandala, the accumulation of merit through skill.
  • Vajrasattva, the purification of obscurations through wisdom.
  • And Guru Yoga, receiving the blessings through which one can attain enlightenment in a single lifetime.

Nothing is more precious than this. Even a cache of jewels, a palatial home, a beautiful and healthy body, nothing is more precious than Guru Yoga, the means to awaken. I have always been taught this: that in these deteriorating times Guru Yoga is the swiftest and most powerful method as it is so easy to be distracted, make mistakes, forget to be mindful. Our Spiritual Guide is the method to keep our path as straight as an arrow and as powerful as the mightiest sword. One should always keep samaya with the Tsawei Lama, even at the cost of one’s very life. If one cannot do even that, even after the precious Dharma has been offered, there is absolutely no way to accomplish the path.

One should remain within their Lineage as well, as there is the certainty of receiving pure unstained empowerment. If we cannot do even that, we are in delusion and ignorance. The fruit of Enlightenment will not come to your mouth. Body, speech and mind, the three doors will be corrupted. Speech will be ordinary, and without any benefit or virtue.

This teaching is a combination of Kyabje His His Penor Rinpoche and my humble self. Forgive me, Guru Padma for any mistakes, and for my presumption. Lama Kyen No! To the lotus feet of the Guru I make extensive offerings! Happy Losar to all! Kye HO!

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Hidden Right in Front of You

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In this excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta, Jetsunma speaks to her students about her recognition by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche.

The person who is practicing needs to be able to distinguish between a diamond and a rhinestone. You have to know the miraculous really exists and you have to have faith in it.  Sentient beings are helpless if they’re lost in cyclic existence; they can’t make any breakthroughs.  They can’t really break out by themselves.  Somehow they have to receive a direct mind empowerment from someone that has made certain progress. One way that you can do that in the Vajrayana system is to take wangs and another way that you can do that is to have a kind of mind-to-mind relationship with your teacher.  There is a transmission that goes on, but you have to have faith for that to happen.

His Holiness said, “I could sit there and hit you with the bumpa all day long until you are flat on your head.  If you don’t have faith in the teacher, you don’t have faith in the wang, if you don’t know what’s happening, you can’t work with the wang. Your head could be flat, but nothing is going to happen.”  He said you have to have to faith.

Realizing that, he and I began to talk about that, and after a while it became necessary for the recognition [editor’s note:  Refers to Jetsunma’s recognition].  What does the recognition mean?  I don’t know.  It means nothing has changed.  What’s changed?  Michael, my husband, said he had an interesting kind of perception.  He’s married.  All of a sudden he’s married to a tulku. And I said, “All of a sudden you are married to a tulku?  What were you married to before, a bran muffin?  Dear friend, you were always married to a tulku.”  And he said, “I think about how we used to be together before,” and I said, “We’re still doing it.  I get better that now you know it?”  I don’t mean to be crass.  But you have to understand what is going on here.  In one way, nothing has changed.  The event, the real thing between us hasn’t changed.  If I was your friend before, I’m your friend now, you see?  If I was your teacher before, I’m your teacher now.  If I was the biggest pain in the neck in your life, I’m still that now.  That hasn’t changed. But now you have taken off the blinders.

What the recognition means is that you have a handle or a way to take off your blinders and to have real faith.  That’s what has got to happen.  This path doesn’t work without faith. It’s awful that I have to teach this to you. Somebody else should teach this to you, like a Khenpo.   But this is Kaliyuga and this is the West and we’re in it together so you are just going to have to put up with it.

You have to realize that all this time the miraculous has been right in front of you and it’s part of your life.  You weren’t able to realize before what an opportunity you had, but now you can realize that.  It doesn’t mean that now there is a big change in your life because your teacher has been recognized as a tulku.  You might think, “That means now I have to drop everything and do three prostrations first time I see her.”  Well, OK, that’s what they do.  That’s customary.  That’s good Guru Yoga.  But it’s not about what you do with your arms and legs.  It’s good that you practice that because it helps you to remember.  It’s not that, “Now I have to give her a cup that’s covered all the time.”  These are the stupid things that people are fearful about – forgetting to give me the right kind of cup. You think that’s what it is all about.  Or you think, “What if I walk into the room first and she walks behind me and I didn’t see her?”  Do you know how many times that’s happened me?  In India, I didn’t even know which ones were the tulkus and which ones weren’t, because I hadn’t learned them all yet.  You don’t always look where you are going. I didn’t care.   I was just right in there.

You make mistakes like that.  That’s not what it’s all about.  You shouldn’t be fearful like that.  You shouldn’t be.  The relationship hasn’t changed in that way.   The love is still there.  Everything is still the same.  Now you get to realize that the miraculous activity of Guru Rinpoche is happening in your life, that you have this precious opportunity and that this is a really good time to take advantage of it.

You have the opportunity. To paraphrase, Guru Rinpoche said, “Maybe you won’t see my body, but I will come as your teachers.” When Guru Rinpoche says something like that, I believe it out of hand.  When I see my teachers, I know that Guru Rinpoche is with me.  That same miraculous activity is right with you.  The stuff that saves is right there. What has changed is that now you have to realize and you have to practice Guru Yoga with such faith.  That’s what your job is.  All the great teachers have said it is so, therefore I believe it.  Not only that, but I’ve seen it.  That’s what it means.  I haven’t changed from a caterpillar to a butterfly.   I’m exactly the same as I was before.  Have you noticed that?

What has changed is that you have now a way to take some blinders off and you can realize for the first time that who you thought was your best friend, is still your best friend, but in a different way.  You thought you had to cling to some kind of humanity – a best friend, a sister, and comrade, somebody you could go drinking with.  That’s what you thought you had to have.  But that was only temporary.  It was a masquerade.  You still have your best friend.  But now you find out your best friend is the Three Precious Jewels and it’s always been that way, except that you didn’t know it before.  Now you know it.  So the only thing that has changed is you.  You get to take your blinders off.

You get to see that in your life right now is spontaneous, miraculous activity and that this is your time, this is your time and you can do it. Nothing’s changed except now you get to practice properly.  What’s there in front of you has always been there in front of you.  I didn’t become a tulku a month ago.  That’s the stupidest thing you ever heard of it, isn’t it?

Try to practice Guru Yoga properly.  Realize that right now, miraculous activity is in your life.  The reality of non-dual mind is in your life, and it’s your best friend.  It’s right in front of you.  The whole visualization of Kuntuzangpo and Kuntuzangmo and what it means, it’s not just a visualization.  It’s the truth.     It’s really there. You have this.  We have His Holiness and we have Gyatrul Rinpoche, and you have your root teacher.  That means it’s for real.   It’s the truth. It’s right there with you.

Sometimes I look at His Holiness and I think, “My gosh, what do I need with a visualization.  I’ve got you.”  It’s there, it’s right in front of me.  It’s nothing that I made up.  And it’s the same for you.   Now you know it.   That’s the only difference.  Don’t be scared.  You try to get it right; sure you should try to get it right.  I try to get it right.  But just try to realize that right now you have every reason and cause and expectation to deepen properly.  You have everything you need if you just do it.  What are you so distracted about?   Just do what you have to do and do it now before it’s too late.

They say a door can’t chase people around the room, but I swear, I remember chasing a lot of people around the room.  This may be the time you get that opportunity, so you better walk through the door really soon into deeper practice.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

The Four Thoughts

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From a series of tweets by @jalpalyul on December 2, 2010

Homage to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas! Gathering all virtue and merit from the three times, this I offer in a beautifully arranged Mandala; a splendid array of jewels, nectar, medicines, and song. Please allow me to speak in such a way as to bring benefit to all beings!

This precious human rebirth is extremely difficult to obtain. Whoever is born, must die, and all things are impermanent. If one is determined in virtuous Dharma, this is the cause for becoming Buddha – awake! When negativity is produced, it will cause endless wandering in the six realms of samsara.

Grasping, needy, lusting spirits will wander in the realm of hungry ghosts. Hate and anger cause a hellish rebirth and great suffering from heat, cold, violence, etc. Humans suffer from old age sickness and death. Those who love war and pride themselves in power, and bullying will wander in the realm of jealous gods. They suffer endless warring! Devas also suffer continually from pride and so forth. How sad!

These produce the states of non-freedom. Birth in these aforementioned realms, or with incorrect view, in a dark aeon; or in an incapacitated state, these are the essence of non-freedom! These are some faults of cyclic existence.

Birth in a land where Dharma is taught correctly and with all faculties complete, without reversed karma, with correct view and with great faith in the Three Precious Jewels, these are the endowments,which I possess.

Birth during the presence of the Buddha, and the Buddha’s teaching (Dharma), the presence of the doctrine, and pure followers, and in the presence of those who lovingly care for others from their hearts, these are the circumstantial endowments.

If one’s moral discipline is broken, even with these precious endowments, and material wealth as well, one will fall to lower realms. This is why it is so essential to use one’s life to create merit, as well as good qualities, and the purification of the five senses and perception (skandas). We must try to take this opportunity to be sure we may remain stable on the path and produce good result.

I am 61 and for me the urgency or this life is quite evident! May I and my students practice well and purely and be reborn in the realms of accomplishment! May we benefit all beings equally and always respect the Dharma just as it is.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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