Taking Bodhicitta Home | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo offered at Palyul Ling Retreat 2012:

We have to remember that kindness is the way, and bodhicitta is the most powerful thing in the world. If you are afraid because someone has wronged you or harmed you in some way (and I’ve had that experience), I’ve also found out that bodhicitta solves the problem. Bodhicitta ends the problem. If someone harms you and you instead give bodhicitta, some kindness, then the problem is over. His Holiness himself with his own mouth told me there is nothing more powerful in the entire world than the great bodhicitta, nothing more powerful.

Whatever practice you do, meditate on compassion. Meditate on the suffering of sentient beings. Come to understand what it is that they go through. They will never have what you have because the karma is not there. But you could help by offering the bodhicitta and offering yourself to the three precious jewels for their sake. Keep this phrase in your mind. If you are uncomfortable and your knees hurt or anything like that, remember, “For their sake. For their sake, my children.” Please hold that in your heart and hold that in your mind, even though these are just very simple words and nothing to take home or be so proud of. Still I want to tell you that if you don’t have the bodhicitta, you have nothing.

You are so needed in a world that is hungry for love. But if you forget that, then your practice again becomes dry and dull, and you may forget. Dharma is like a wedding cake. The bottom of the cake is the support. Without support, everything falls down. And bodhicitta is the support.

I know your hips hurt and your knees hurt and your eyes are tired. I know what it is like with retreats and the long times that you sit in that one certain position. I can’t even do it anymore because my knees have gotten so bad. I inherited that from my father, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche. That’s all I am going to burden you with tonight. I feel that you have spent a long day working very hard, and you should have your rest; but I wanted to tell you this one small thing. Don’t forget love. Don’t decide what it has to be. Don’t forget the bodhicitta that is so needed, like food and water. Look and see what you can do to help others on ordinary levels too. You can’t practice when you are hungry. Try to help all beings in any way that you can. If you find yourself unable to keep going in your practice, stop. Go back to the beginning. Do the bodhicitta all over again, and then move on. You will be refreshed. Your heart will be moved.

That is all I am going to share tonight. I thought that it might be helpful in your practice, especially in the middle when it’s just getting really hard. Take care of yourself. Take care of your hearts. Give yourself the food you need to go on through practicing kindness. Be kind to yourself as well. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to be with you, even though I have nothing much to say. Thank you for coming.

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