Renunciation

Who’s the Captain of Your Ship?

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Essence of Devotion”

The reasons for practice of refuge are known if you understand anything about the horror of cyclic existence.  You look outside and see the suffering.  You look at the way you are conducting yourself and the way your life is set up and the cause and effect relationships you’ve got going here, and you realize it’s just dumb, fruitless, pointless.  There is no future in this.  It’s a dead end.  At that point the mind turns.  That turning is the first step of practicing refuge.  What does it turn toward?  What does it actually turn toward?

Again, you’ve just looked out the window and you’ve looked at yourself, and the first realization is something like, “I don’t know what to do now.  I don’t really know what to do.  I know that something is terribly wrong, but I don’t know how to get out of this.  I don’t know how to leave the party.”  There is a piece of you that understands that you must leave the party.  Part of you still wants to be there.  Part of you likes to play.  Part of you likes to dress up.  Part of you likes to be unconscious of the eventuality of your own discomfort—suffering, death, old age, those things—and of the suffering of others.  We want to be kind of barefoot and ignorant.  Part of us wants that sleep, but another part of us, a stronger part of us, a more certain part of us, understands, “…not enough.  It is not enough.  I’m hungry.  They are hungry.  This is stupid.”  Part of us gets that.

That first turning is the first indication, the first movement, that is required in practicing refuge.  We have to stay kind of absorbed in that turning.  That turning should be practiced every day.  These very thoughts, these very leaving the party thoughts, should be practiced every day.  That’s called turning the mind toward Dharma.

Now we have to look for a way out.  How to leave the party?  The clue is, once again, the first thing we’ve noticed—the suffering and the trickiness and the seductiveness of samsaric existence, or the cycle of death and rebirth.  The cycle of death and rebirth must be addressed.  That’s where the suffering is.  How do we get out of that?  We look at the others suffering.  We look at ourselves suffering.  We look at how foolish we can be and we think, “What is the method?”

Ah ha!  That is the answer!  We need a method.  The answer to that is to look toward those who have actually found the way out of cyclic existence.  In other words, if you want to cross an ocean (and we’re talking about the ocean of suffering, the ocean of death and rebirth, the ocean of samsaric existence),,if you want to cross the ocean of suffering, of course you want to look for a boat.  The boat is the method, isn’t it?  The boat is the method.  Well, wouldn’t you look for a boat?  You’re about to cross an ocean.  There are no planes.  We don’t have planes.  You want to look for a boat, right?  You’re not going to try to swim it, are you?  Swimming it is like saying, “I’d like to be spiritual so I’m just going to be spiritual in my own way and I’ll do my own thing because I’m a really cool guy and I know how to do my own thing.” That’s like saying, “Oh great!  I’m going to cross the ocean of suffering.  Here I go!”  Dive in.  How long do you think you’re going to last?  A little while, but not very long.  Not very long, and the problem with that method is that you often don’t even realize when you’re drowning.

So what we need to do is we need to look for a boat.  No, not a boat. We need to look for a ship.  In fact, if you’re like me, you’re practical and you really want to protect your hide.  You do not wish to cross the ocean of suffering in a rowboat, something weak and puny.  Neither do you wish to cross the ocean of suffering in a boat that has not been proven seaworthy—a very important fact, really an important fact.  If I were to cross an ocean I would want to know that the boat I am in has crossed an ocean many times and is in good repair. And it’s pure, just in the way it was when it was originally capable of crossing an ocean.  We want to know that it’s made it back and forth.  This is proven.  We know we can make it.  Also, if you knew that you were crossing an ocean of suffering with, let’s say, the engineer of the boat, or, let’s say, the guy that swabs the decks…  Wouldn’t you be a little nervous?  I’d be real nervous!  I want to cross the ocean of suffering with the most experienced captain, the one who has crossed the ocean of suffering many times successfully, and returned for me.  That’s who I want to cross with.  I want the big ship.  I want the best ship.  I want to know that the captain has crossed.

So in this way we look for the most excellent method, that has proven again and again and again, to produce enlightenment, to produce realization.  Not an imaginary enlightenment or realization but the one with appropriate signs, the signs that are repeatable, reportable and visible.  Such as the signs that our teachers give us at the times of their death, proof of their realization, and even the signs they give us in their activities during the time of their life.  Only enlightened minds can provide enlightened compassionate results.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

The Morning After…

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Essence of Devotion”

Let’s say that you have suddenly woken up at the party. And you looked outside and you saw this horror—horror that people that you love and respect and know are doing their very best, are trying so hard, are not able to make themselves happy. And you see the suffering.  You see hunger.  You see poverty.  Read the paper, it’s all there—hunger, poverty, sickness, diseases that we can’t cure, and more coming every day.  So many different kinds of horrible suffering!  Let’s say at the party you woke up and you saw that. And then suddenly you looked at yourself and you thought, “Why am I dressed like this!  I look more stupid than I can possibly imagine!  This is stupid!”  And you realize that you put so much effort into this, beating yourself up and getting the right connections and going to the party, and getting there in time, having a good time.  You realize you’ve spent so much energy on that and you feel like… I hate to use this example but, let’s say you ate a couple of tablespoons of nice warm mayonnaise. Bleh. That kind of cloying feeling in your mouth. Isn’t that disgusting?  That’s how you’d feel.  That’s how you’d feel.  You look at yourself, and you look at what’s going on, and you look at the suffering out there and you look at the silly amusement—the silly things that hook us, that make us respond, the ridiculous things that make up our particular individual kind of party—and suddenly you feel like you’re sick of it.

There’s a feeling once you study the suffering of sentient beings and the horror of cyclic existence. It becomes a little bit nauseating, sickening in your mouth.  You’ve been eating it your whole life, sickening.  You look at yourself go through cycle after cycle of unfulfilling or sometimes negative bad relationships and you just wonder when you’re going to get the big picture, when you’re going to wise up.  It suddenly seems like your own lust and your own neediness are kind of like a little sickening.  Maybe not all the way yet, but not so cool.

Suddenly you look at yourself and you realize that you’re kind of like a kid, just wearing clothes that are inappropriate.  It reminds me of what little kids do.  My daughter is not here so I can talk about her again. Sometimes she likes to play dress up, you know.  She’s goes into a closet and pulls out everything that doesn’t match and all of the funny clothes that young people think are very dramatic.  We took her out for dinner with her friend last night and what they wanted to wear was a funny-looking skirt and blouse that didn’t match, cowboy boots, a cowboy hat, and pants underneath it. It was just a very strange outfit.  At this party you kind of look like that.  You know, we look at ourselves and we go, “Who put this on me?  How did this happen?”  It’s that kind of feeling.

So at that point one needs to build on that first inkling of reality, that first inkling of renunciation.  That first inkling is precious.  It’s like the first taste of pure water in your mouth.  Let’s say you are a person who, for your whole life, has had nothing to eat or drink other than, let’s say, salt water, sugar water, nasty foods, warm mayonnaise, things like that that just don’t feel good in your mouth, and suddenly someone gives you just a bit of this precious, sweetest, coolest water to drink—mountain water, pure mountain water.  How delicious would that be!  Cool and sweet in a natural way.  Your mouth maybe can’t even take it in.  You’re used to that other stuff and you can’t even take it in, but something inside of you says, “Yes.  Yes.  This is it!”

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Gathering the Courage to Care

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Guru Dragpo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “This Time is Radical”

I’ve been watching my own patterns, and I’m going to share with you my great ‘Aha!’  I realized recently in my own practice that for the past few years, unbeknownst  to myself (although maybe on some intuitive level, I understood. Yeah I did. But not in my brain, not where it registers. You know what I’m talking about?),  I realized that I have been making myself stronger; and I have been gathering my courage. Things have happened to me in the last few years that I wouldn’t dare the infinite, but when life changes and experiences come that would have terrified my little jellyfish heart before, they don’t phase me at all now. Things that used to scare me half to death, don’t scare me at all now. And I realized that I’ve been gathering my courage.

I started practicing more deeply about a year and a half ago. Not that I didn’t practice before that, but when I started to practice more deeply, just going in, going into my practice, everything outward changed, quite naturally without any effort. ‘Aha.’

There’s an understanding. If you’re mind is right and if you practice accordingly, and if you walk the path appropriately, you don’t have to worry about the outside stuff so much. It tends to take care of itself. Not if you are going, ‘Ah!’ the whole time. You’ve got to have the mind of Dharma. That’s not the mind of Dharma. If you practice four hours a day even, and the rest of the time you’re going ‘Ah,’ that’s not the mind of Dharma. If you are really into it, if you are really deep, honest, and in touch with your practice and it is a relationship in your life, more important than any other, it fills a category that nothing else can fill; and it prepares you for anything, which is good, because anything is just about to happen.

I’ve been gathering my courage and causing myself to change in ways that I never thought I could have. And though I wouldn’t want to do it over again, it’s okay. It’s always okay because it is for the benefit of sentient beings, and in my mind decisions have already been made. Whatever I can do to benefit sentient beings, I will do. I will do it. No matter what I think about it or whether I like it, or whether I feel like it, I will do it. And that’s what I have been preparing myself for, that kind of certainty.

I knew there was a time when I’d have to look samsara in the eye and say, ‘This is enough.’  And this is that time. I feel that for each and every one of us, this must be a time of courage. If we can’t gather our courage together at this time, it will be very hard to gather it together later. Right now at this time, we have a certain leisure to practice. For those of you who have full time jobs and are practicing on the go, you may say, ‘I beg to differ.’  But let me tell you the old proverb, ‘It could always get worse.’  And if in some way we end up with obstacles that cause us to have to live differently, or to scramble for existence the way much of the world has to do, then we’ll find a way to practice then too, but now’s the time to be strong. And this is the time when we can really commit to being an active Dharma presence in the world. The thing that I have come to understand is that this is no time for us to hang out in our comfort zones. And I am just about to leave mine, like Monday actually. Some of you know what I’m talking about. I think that in this time, we’ve got to give it all we’ve got. If you can give renunciation, if you can really do that, do it. This is it. Everything in samsara is falling apart, and it is time to be what you can be.

I feel that we all should take a posture of Dharma warriors. Not a warrior to harm anyone but a warrior for the path, a warrior who cares for the path, who guards the path. This is when we generate the deity. When we generate the different buddhas and bodhisattvas, we realize that each of them has qualities and activities; and it is just as important to establish their activities in the world as it is for us individually to engage in their qualities. The activity aspect of the Buddha nature is not method. It is something. So we prefer to sit on our cushions and say, ‘Ti-do-ti-do-ti-do. I’m practicing, and I look stunning doing it.’  But really we should also be active. We should not only be engaging in the extraordinary kindness of practice, but also in the ordinary human kindness of everyday caring for those around us, caring for the world at large, caring for beings who are suffering—animals, people, whatever, anything that lives—doing all that we can to end suffering. To engage in that kind of practice in this world today is very, very powerful practice.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved

Turning the Mind

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The following is respectfully quoted from “Reborn in the West” by Vicki Mackenzie, recounting the life of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

After she felt she could go no further with this particular meditation she prayed for guidance on what to do next. She had another dream which told her to examine all the probabilities that could come out of her life.

‘I use to imagine all these white picket fence scenarios–the typical Western dream,’ she continued. ‘I did these meditations where I would suppose my husband and I were always happy–like in the commercials where you run laughing towards each other through the wheat fields. And my son would grow up to be doctor–he’d be wealthy and loving. And I would have other sons and daughters and they would grow up to be successful and happy too. Then I asked myself: supposing I attained every material dream a woman could have in America, then what?

‘I meditated on that. It was turning the mind. I saw that these things, these dreams and hopes were pointless. Where did it lead? After all this, you die. I began to see that there was no future in these kind of endeavors. Even if I were to be totally happy in the world and invested all my time and money in it, there was ultimately no point. I might get the admiration of my peers, and all the riches I could dream of, then I would die. Then what?’

What she was describing was the basic Buddhist meditation on death and impermanence that I myself had done in Kopan back in 1976.

‘I remember meditating on this, holding my son in my arms and thinking how I wanted to protect this little being and feeling I would do anything for him. I remember thinking “I absolutely commit myself to making you safe.” And then I realized in my meditation that I couldn’t make that commitment. If my son were to become terribly ill and die there would be nothing I could do about it. I couldn’t follow him into the after-death experience. I realized I was lying to my baby,’ she said.

This relentless scrutiny of her life, the various ways it could go and the inevitable outcome in death was to have a critical impact on her life. From then on she turned her back on worldly pursuits. In Buddhist terms she had achieved renunciation–the lack of fascination with the ups and downs, the dramas and the joys, of mundane existence. It is said that only when you achieve renunciation do you truly step on to the spiritual path, because only then do you stop believing that following the goals of material existence is the way to happiness.

The Eyes

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Western Chod”

I would work as hard as I could on each body part until I felt that I had gotten to some level of result, and then I would continue. For certain aspects of that practice, it really did take a month, a whole month, for just one small thing. Eventually I found that I was able to go through every single part of my visible body.

Then, I was able to think about my five senses—my eyes, my vision. That’s another thing that, really, we are very much attached to. The idea of being without vision, of course, is terrifying. When we really examine what these eyes actually do, we find out that they prevent us from running into trucks or maybe walking into walls, or they help us to read books, and watch TV, We can see our children, we can see our families, we can see our loved ones. We can see beauty, we can see in the mirror. We can see all kind of things…. These eyes are really good, right? I’ve also found when I really examined them that these are the eyes of dualism. That these are the eyes that are literally an extension of dualistic thinking. These are actually the eyes that are meant to see samsara or the cycle of death and rebirth, and only that. That’s all they can show me. They’re not able to see the primordial wisdom nature. They’re able to see that mirror on my pretend altar that was like a symbol of that, but they cannot see deeply. They cannot really see anything. Eventually, I came to understand, for instance, without my eyes I would not be able to read my prayers and I would not be able to read text of any kind. So I’ve come to understand that definitely the eyes, like any of our senses, according to the way humans appear in this realm, make us complete. With all of the senses and faculties complete, I came to find out eventually that we can practice Dharma because of that. So this is a really good thing.

Although they can be used to help an ordinary sentient being practice the practices that bring about the awakening to the primordial wisdom state, still, I would have to say that the ordinary use of these five senses is extremely limited.I cannot directly use my eyes to liberate anyone or terminate the suffering of anybody else right now. Eventually maybe I can if I keep reading the text and really practicing. But, for right now, maybe I could help somebody cross the street if they couldn’t see or if someone got something in their eyes maybe my eyes would work well enough to get it out.

There are pros and cons of the five senses, but ultimately I found out that whatever they are, they are not enough. I found out enough to know that I intend to use them to accomplish practice, that I intend to use them to benefit sentient beings. Ultimately, concerning the five senses, I found them to be more like work horses. They should not dominate me. I should not look at the world and go, “Oh, wow! Oh, wow! Oh, wow! I want that and I want that and I want that.” Everything is a big feast of desire, you know, and all I think about is gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. You know the old mantra? Gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. So if I use them like that then what are these things? They are just round spheres of flesh. They are nothing else. It is just meaningless. The fact is that they would help to hook me in even deeper to samsara if all I see is objects I desire.

 Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved

Transforming Appearances Into Dharma

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Longchen_Rabjam

The following is respectfully quoted from “Drops of Nectar” as translated by Rigzod Editorial Committee of the Ngagyur Nyingma Institute:

Chapter II
Transforming Appearances into the Dharma

Again at this time, having brought forth strong renunciation and disenchantment with my own and other’s perceptions and the activities of this present life, I sing this song of the points of training.

On the great plane of the ground of all experience, which has no beginning and end,
An ignorant person wanders about with the feet of grasping and fixation,
Oppressed by the suffering of boundless samsara.
Mistaken one, to you I now offer this advice!

Without contemplating the suffering of cyclic existence,
Renunciation and disenchantment with it will have no time to develop;
Without contemplating the difficulty of achieving the freedoms and favors,
There will be no time for joy and inspiration in the sacred Dharma to come forth.

If you do not constantly contemplate death,
Heartfelt Dharma practice will never occur.
If you do not regard the benefits of liberation,
There will be no time of achieving unsurpassed enlightenment.

Without contemplating the causes and effects of virtue and evil,
the white and the black,
You’ll have no time to grasp what to adopt and what to abandon, what is Dharma and what is not.
Without casting off the activities of this life,
You’ll have no time to accomplish the sacred Dharma for the life to come.

If heartfelt renunciation is not born within your mind-stream
There will never be time to give up distractions and diversions.
Without toppling, down to its foundation stone, the wall of amicable relationships,
There will be no time for the mind that is too attached to others to end.

Without leaving behind all deluded activities at one go,
Although you’re busy day and night, you’ll never have time to recognize.
If you don’t always keep humbly a low position,
You’ll never have time to tame your unwholesome mindstream.

Please pursue this excellent permanent aim from today!

The first virtue is to develop the mind of renunciation and weariness,
The second virtue is to abandon concerns for this present life,
The third virtue is to maintain the examples of the holy masters.
This is upholding the permanent domain of Dharmakaya, the permanent domain of the Victorious Ones!

From the Vajra Song of Instructions for Rousing Myself (Longchen Rabjam), this completes the second chapter of transforming appearances into the Dharma. 

Turning the Mind Away from Samsara

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Khentin_Tai_Situ_Rinpoche

The following is respectfully quoted from “The Dorje Chang Thungma” composed by Benkar Jampal Zangpo a commentary by Chamgon Kentig Tai Situpa 

Now going into a little bit more detail, the first is (and this is going with the particular order) zhen log; the literal meaning of which is one thing but it really means turning our minds towards enlightenment instead of samsara–turning our mind from samsara to enlightenment. It means that instead of going in circles, we now decide to go straight; because if we go in circles, no matter how big or how small the circles are, we still end up in the same place. The masters of samsara are going in such big circles that they don’t even know that they are going in circles–they don’t feel [that]; that is what we call ‘success’. But then after many lifetimes they end up in the same place, they don’t get anywhere. But those of us who are not good at samsara, our circle is so small that sometimes we just spin, then we get sick and we know something is wrong right away, but we still do it again and again and again. So that is both of us in samsara, going in circles.

Now the real meaning of zhen log is, instead of having attachment to samsara we turn our mind away from it by knowing that there is no point. For example, each one of us has been the king and queen of the universe countless times in the past; also each one of us has been born as a worldly god countless times in the past; each one of us has been born in the hells countless times in the past; each one of us has been born as an animal countless times in the past, and in the same way as a human being–right now we are human beings, right here. And each time we have done similar things to what we are doing right now–we want something, we don’t want something, we try to achieve something, we are very happy about achieving it. It is like trying to hit a target with a stone. For example, get the smallest thing you can and put it way over where it is almost impossible to hit, then find something very small and try to hit it. When you hit it you’re happy and when you can’t hit it you’re very upset; that is how samsara is–we make our own conditions for happiness; ‘If I get this I am going to be happy and if not I am going to be upset.’ You can get so many things, but you don’t even see them because you are not getting what you want. You might get so many things on the way but you want to get rid of something, and you will not be happy until you get rid of it, but on the way you are getting rid of so many things you don’t even see that, because you are focused on getting rid of one particular thing. So achieving something, avoiding something, all of these things are the kinds of conditions that we make, that we create.

Just go and look at the people in the street and you will know. For example, some people have their hair one way and they think it’s nice, other people have their hair another way and they think it’s nice, and other people have it backwards and they think it’s nice, then other people make it another way and they think it’s very nice. It is all created by us, all of these things, including money, including power, everything, what is precious or not so precious, everything we create and then we follow that. We follow that and make such a big deal about it, we invest so much of our time and energy in these things; that is samsara. It doesn’t mean bad and doesn’t mean good, but I guarantee you, a the end of the day it is exactly the same: whether youy are the Maharaja (Great King) of planet Earth or a guy in the street begging for a coin, in the end it is the same. If you are the Maharaja of the planet Earth you will be crying on your throne, which can be made out of gold inlaid with diamonds the size of your fist, all around, above and below, everywhere, but you will be crying there. The tears that come out of your eyes are the same tears. And if you are a beggar sleeping on the pavement under a tree, being bitten by mosquitos, adorned with cockroaches and all kinds of things everywhere instead of big diamonds, and you are crying, the tears are the same. The suffering is the same, the happiness is the same. At the end of the day it is the same. We often say that when we die it is the same–the beggar goes alone and the king goes alone, the most powerful go alone and the most powerless go alone. But in my opinion you don’t even have to die, right now it is the same. For example, you can eat chapati (bread) and dhal (beans) in a cheap dried leaf bowl or you can eat the rarest dish on a plate of gold, but the purpose of both is to fill your stomach. You are hungry so you eat; after eating bread and dhal you get pait naram (a smooth or full stomach) and after eating from a gold plate you also get pait naram, it is the same thing. Anyway, I am talking about pait naram and all of this in a Mahamudra context–of course Mahamudra is about everything so it has to include that.

This is in the context of turning the mind away from samsara, but this doesn’t mean against samsara, it is for samsara. Because, what would be the best thing for all sentient beings in samsara? To best thing would be to have a Buddha to guide one, and each one of us wishes to be that Buddha. In that way we turn our mind away from samsaric way to the dharmic way and the Mahamudra way.

Zhen Log Gom Gyi Kang Par Sung Pa Zhin,
As is taught detachment is the foot of meditation,

Ze Nor Kun La Chag Zhen Me Pa Dang,
Please grant your blessing,

Tse Dir Doe That Cho Pay Gom Chen La,
To this meditator who is no longer attached to food and wealth, and has cut ties to this life,

Nye Kur Zhen Pa Me Jin Gyi Lob
So that there is no attachment to honor and gain.

That is the first four sentences of the prayer. It means that turning the mind away from samsara is like the feet, legs, it is the foundation; that is number one, the first step. How we do that is by overcoming attachment for anything that is related to samsaric comfort, such as food, material wealth (fortune), fame, all of these things, try to overcome attachment for them, clinging to them. Also there is emphasis, tse dir doe thag cho pay gom chen la–gom means meditation and chen actually means meditator–the meditator should be free of all kinds of ambitions for this life. If I want to be famous, if I want to be rich, if I want to be powerful, then I am not a good meditator. But if I wish to be in peace, if I want to have wisdom, if I want to be able to make others happy, if I wish to be able to become a source of aspiration for others, for their wisdom, their happiness, their joy and their harmony, not struggle, not conflict, that is tse dir do thag cho pay, a person who has decided not to have any interest whatsoever for anything of this life; that is a good meditator. I’m not claiming that I am a good meditator, but anybody who is a good meditator, a good yogi, is a person who is not attached to the so-called nice things of this life and any ambitions for this life; that is a good yogi. Therefore, please bless me so that I will not have attachment for the respect of others and the offerings of others–material offerings and mental respect. I should have no attachment and clinging for that. That is the first four sentences.

This gives a very clear description of why Milarepa ran away from one cave to another–because others were making offerings to him and others were coming to seek his blessings and having a lot of respect for him and all of that. So if he stopped practicing in order to bless them it would be a very good thing, but then he would not have become enlightened. He would just be a quarter of the way to enlightenment, and then he would be using that so he would not go further. Then if he got attached to all of that, then he would have gone backwards and have become less than what he had achieved. It is like charging a battery: you charge a battery and then you use it and the battery goes down, then you have to charge it again. So it becomes like that, therefore nye kur zhen pa me par jin gyi lob.

This is really a very, very serious aspiration prayer of a serious and really dedicated yogi; that we have to understand. It doesn’t mean that all of you right now should have no ambitions for this life, no plans for this life and no attachment for anything. If you can that is wonderful, but whatever project, whatever business, or whatever kind of job you have, it will fall apart. Everything will fall apart, that is for sure, because if you just stop right now, everything you have planned will fall apart. But to get enlightened for the benefit of all sentient beings is worth it. But if you just get excited [about that] and give everything away, then after a couple of months think, “I miss this and I miss that” and try to come back, you will have a very, very hard time because you’ve made a big mess of everything and you have to fix everything. For example, if you abandon everything and then after two years come back and want to claim everything back it will be very difficult, because the minute you abandoned it everybody grabbed it, so when you come back after two years, everything that was yours will belong to someone else. You might have to file twenty court cases, which you may win or lose, but you will not have the money to pay for the lawyers, so it will be a big mess, a practical mess. So if you really want to be a yogi that is one thing, but if you just want to have a try then that is another thing. You can have a try for one week, just make a program so that for one week your attention is not required; you know, your telephone doesn’t have to be answered for that week, your emails don’t have to be answered for that week, so for that week you can be a yogi, a ‘yogi week’. So if you want to have a try you can do that, people do that, they call it a weekend retreat or a holiday retreat, all these sorts of things, but that is not a real retreat. A retreat for a real yogi is until you attain realization. For example, what kind of vow did Milarepa take before he went into retreat? He said, “I will not return to society until I attain enlightenment. If I do, I want all the dharma protectors to punish me.” He said that, that was an ultimate vow that he took. Then he said, “If I die without attaining enlightenment may I die in a cave in the wilderness so that nobody knows I am dead, and nobody will be there to cry for me. An may my body be consumed by little insects and sentient beings so that there will be no trace of me left.” He literally said this in his gur (people call it songs but it is ‘gur’). That is a real yogi’s vow. Without that sort of thing, trying to imagine that we will become a Buddha in this life is not really a possibility. That is my understanding, but of course I can be wrong, but it doesn’t look that way to me–I haven’t seen anywhere in any text about a great being attaining enlightenment without totally renouncing samsara.

But renunciation has many ways–no attachment at all is renunciation. For example, the King of Shambhala, Buddha manifested to him as the three mandalas of the Kalachakra and empowered him on one seat (without getting up from that seat the King was enlightened). That means he was ready for it; renunciation and everything took place right there on his seat. Buddha manifested above as the mandala of the stars, in the middle of the mandala of the deity, and below as the mandala of sound. So sound, the deity and the stars, three mandalas manifested to the King of Shambhala, empowered by the Buddha in the form of the Kalachakra deity (which has about nine hundred manifestations within the mandala itself). Inthat we he was enlightened right there. That is another way, but that is also renunciation in itself, non-attachment in itself. So that is the first four sentences.

Renunciation: Poem by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche

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The following is respectfully quoted from “Journey to Enlightenment” by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:

Though you perfected the qualities of the three kayas,
In order to liberate beings of the impure realms
You manifested as a supreme renunciate;
Lord Pema Vijaya, I miss you from the depth of my heart.

The feeling that this precious support, a free and blessed human body,
Will be lost to the enemy, the bandit Lord of Death,
Overwhelms my mind with anguish,
Like a frightened little bird falling to the ground.

The abyss of the lower realms is hard to fathom, and
This present comfort and happiness in the higher realms
Is like a rainbow in the sky that’s about to vanish;
Remember the spreading, dense rain clouds of wrongdoing!

A delightful palace may be magnificent,
But it can’t guard against fear of the Lord of Death!
All food and drink may taste delicious,
But they might become the cause of drinking melted copper!

No matter how much I cherish this body covered in soft clothes,
It’s uncertain when it will start to smell like a rotten corpse,
A handsome, youthful body may gladden my heart, but
When the eyes dissolve into the skull, it’s useless.

My shiny jewelry may be a charming object,
But it can’t seduce the wrathful grimacing Lord of Death;
Though my fame may pervade the whole country,
It won’t help me when body and mind separate!

Though prestige and power may frighten everyone,
They won’t protect me when going alone;
A powerful rank and status may be impressive,
But it’s impossible to avoid the Lord of Death’s court of law!

Large crowds of people are the cause of likes and dislikes;
By the time I go to the bardo I’ll be alone.
Remaining far away from the affairs of this life,
I’ll stay alone in a secluded, rocky shelter!

Living like a wounded deer,
My heart’s desire is to watch the snow of mind within;
All past siddhas stayed in remote rocky mountains too,
Capturing the kingdom of experience and realization.

Remembering the life story of Milarepa,
When I’m hungry I’ll eat the food of samadhi,
When I’m cold I’ll wear cloth of mystic inner heat;
In the company of birds and wild animals,
I’m going to cloudy, mist-shrouded mountains!

In a cave that’s not altered by people,
Nourished by leaves that need no cultivation,
Drinking the clear and cool water from rocks,
My heart’s wish is to just be with mountain birds.

In the cool shade of excellent trees,
In a relaxed and carefree state of mind,
With the cool shelter of a fresh breeze, my health will be good;
All by myself, my activities will be in accord with the Dharma!

On the summit of high rock in the immense sky,
Developing strength in realization of aware emptiness within,
When rays of the smiling sun and moon above reach my heart,
I enter the inner space of the six lamps of space and awareness.

Sometimes clouds and mist appear,
Thunder and red lightening flash like a playful dance,
Roaring wind swirls around black clouds,
Reflecting the sounds, lights, and rays in the threatening bardo.

In the pure meadow, around gently moving water,
My companions, young wild sheep, play and climb the rocks;
Sweetly singing, shiny blackbirds develop strength in flying,
And white vultures circle around at leisure.

Except for the mother dakinis that gather here,
Wicked people never pass by;
The vast expanse of a blue lake full to the brim
Indicates the four modes of freely resting awareness within.

The company of small swans,
Sweetly singing and training their wings,
Reminds me of practicing the different types of loving-kindness;
In my estate of this empty valley,
Relying on the pure, cool water from snow mountains,
I’m going to capture the kingdom of experience and realization!

I decided that from now on I don’t need anything;
The countless joys and sorrows of this life,
Whatever I experienced in the past, are like drawing on water.

Except for accumulating habitual tendencies for samsara’s depth,
Look at this present body to see if there was any benefit or not!

With hope and fear of making a living for the future,
Life runs out with a stock of karmic activity;
The very moment one is captured by the foe, Yama’s rope,
Reflect on whether it is any use when you exhale your final breath!

Though I am naive and immature,
As my father, the Dharma lord Lama Gyaltsap,
Let his blessings enter my heart, I conceived the urge to escape
And see activities for this life as confusion.

Unable to bear that all-consuming thought, the urge to escape,
I wrote it down as it slipped from my mouth;
Though thoughts in an ordinary person’s mind are impermanent,
Bless me to be free of adversity and obstacles.

With the root of all Dharma, renunciation,
Steadfast like an engraved rock,
May I become like the protector Pema Vijaya,
The master of nonaction, yogi of the sky!

Renunciation – A Feast of Opportunities

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From The Spiritual Path:  A Compilation of Teachings by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In order to know the Precious Teacher, you must become a renunciate. This is not a sacrifice, however. You should not sadly enumerate the things you have to give up. Think of it as a privilege, because the very things you renounce are the ones that are killing you. You are only saving yourself. Taking vows (either as a lay practitioner or as a monk or nun) should be understood as a feast of opportunities. Look at the things that renunciates give up: hatred, greed, ignorance, self-absorption, blind faith in the five senses, a love of impermanent things. You are being asked to give up poison. Understand, once and for all, that there is no old God on a throne, forcing you to do something you dislike and grading you at every turn. Instead, you are weaning yourself from the things that have betrayed you. You are making contact with your true nature.

Discipline yourself to come to terms with your life. Take responsibility. Try to deepen. Take sincere refuge in the one unfailing source, and renounce that which keeps us wandering in samsara. The realization of your own nature—the awareness of true mind, the precious Root Guru, Guru Rinpoche will be born. At that point, the teachings that come to you will be the very voice of the Dharmakaya, the very voice of the Root Teacher.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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