Teachers | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Booboos and the Guru’s Blessing

April 6, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Viewing the Guru: The Seven Limb Puja by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

Since we are in the face of the Guru constantly the next posture we should keep ourselves in is beseeching the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the Lamas to remain. Where would you be now if suddenly your root Guru disappeared? You should ask that question of someone who has experienced the horrible, horrible occurrence of knowing the death of their Guru. There are many students who have actually experienced the death of the Guru. If you think practice is hard now, you should think what it must be like to go through the pain of knowing that your Guru is no longer in the world. Then one has to reach even more deeply, and if you think that we are weak now, try to imagine how it would be if we have to reach even more deeply, in a more profound way, into our practice: knowing that the Guru is no longer in the world, knowing that there will not be physical teachings forthcoming. How can we find the Guru? It’s very frightening; it’s very scary, to think that there might be a time like that.

On one level we think how awful it would be not to be in the physical presence, the here and now presence, with constant teachings occurring from the Guru in a physical way. But now we should think in a broader sense. What would it be like if our Gurus had simply attained realization, and then gone on and remained in nirvana? What if they had attained realization and then never appeared in samsara again? What would that be like? Well, that would mean that in samsara there would be no teaching. There would be no method. There would be no means by which to accomplish Dharma. There would only be the means to accomplish non-virtue. There would be endless suffering that would be constantly compounded every single moment as though it were like a geometric progression — constantly increasing, with no leveling off, with no cessation, with no chance, no opportunity, no change. Life would be constantly miserable. All of the poisons: hatred, greed, ignorance, jealousy, pride, war, suffering, all of the results of those would only be ripened. And there would be no relief, no method by which to accomplish relief. We can’t even imagine that: no means by which to accomplish virtue. We can’t even imagine that. It is so unthinkable that we can’t even imagine that.

And yet, we can’t even give a moment to think how miraculous it is that our Guru has returned to face us in the world in our confusion. Because we can’t see the Guru in our mind, because we can’t see the Guru in our inner channels, winds and fluids, because we can’t see the Guru in our nature, the Guru then appears to us through the shit and thickness of our stinking delusions and in this face, with this skin, this flesh, appears as the miraculous. And we don’t even have a minute to request that this never be any different; that it is always the case that the Gurus, the Buddhas, the Bodhisattvas will return for the sake of sentient beings. We never think how miraculous it is, how marvelous it is, how unequalled by any other gift or any other miracle. So concerned with our own superficial lives we have not even a moment to spare to thank the teacher for returning to us. To thank them. Think what they did! They did not pass into nirvana. But it doesn’t mean that they haven’t accomplished their practice. It doesn’t mean that, in truth, they do not actually spontaneously abide in nirvana now. But it also means that they appear in the world, under samsaric conditions, for our sake. And we don’t even have a minute a day to rejoice in that, and request them to remain. We should contemplate on what it would be like to remain in the world without any source of liberation. We should constantly be thinking what it would be like if the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas did not enter into samsara for us, did not enter into the world for our sake, did not appear among us, as us, in a form that we could understand, and digest, and empathize with.

We should think what that would be like, and having contemplated on that, realize it would be unthinkably, horribly, worse than any suffering we have ever experienced or could ever imagine experiencing. Try to imagine what it would be like with no help. Having thought about that, with that kind of energy, the energy that comes from that, every time we see our teacher, we should think in our mind, “Please remain in the world. Oh, please, remain in the world. Oh, please remain in the world.” We should be thinking like that when we say our teachers long life prayers. We should think like that constantly, be in the posture of constantly requesting the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, those who have attained realization, to remain within the world; constantly requesting that.

Now, how would you be constantly requesting that? By expressing, knowing and facing with purity and honesty your dependence upon the Guru for liberation. A little child lets its need of the mother be known. A little child has a booboo and brings it to the mother to be kissed, and the mother knows– the mother knows even if the child doesn’t say, “I love you” how much the child needs the mother. The mother knows; it’s a natural communication that they have. And when the child says to the mother with total confidence, “I am hungry,” the mother knows. There are no spoken words of love there, there’s no effusiveness, but the mother knows that the child is utterly and completely dependent. The mother knows that the child is confident, that the child sees the mother as a fountain of blessing. The mother knows that the child’s life would be lost without the support of the mother. And so the mother knows that love. And when the child is cold, the child goes to the mother and asks to be held, warmed up. When the child is lonely and afraid, the child goes to the mother and asks to be rocked and loved and sung to. And even though the child may not say, “I love you, Mother,” still, the mother sees the child’s need and understands the relationship.

If that is so with ordinary mothers and ordinary children, then if we express our need for the Guru, without shame, without pride, without fear of being humble, if we constantly express our need and our appreciation and our confidence in the Guru, then in that way we are also expressing that we wish the Guru to remain. But if our hearts are hard and we say, “Oh, nice teaching. Now I’ll go and do what I need to do,” and there is no relationship of that intimate nature, like a mother and a child, then there is no practice. And there’s the question: is the love so strong in your heart, is the understanding so profound and so wise, that, in fact, you really do wish the Buddhas to remain in the world? We don’t know. There is the question. And the practice I’ve just given you, the way I’ve just given you to hold your mind and hold yourself, this would be the answer to that. Think of yourself like a child and the Guru is like your dear, dear mother who gives you everything. We bring all our booboos, our coldness, our loneliness, our fear, our hunger, our hurt, everything. These things we bring, because in the face of the primordial empty nature, in the face of luminosity, in the face of the great miraculous Bodhicitta, these things disappear, and all our booboos are kissed.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The Graceful Movement of Offering

April 5, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called The Seven Limb Puja: Viewing the Guru by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

In the face of the Guru, which is always, we should always be making offerings. Do you make offerings when you come to temple? Nice, but not enough. Do you make offerings when you put water into the little bowls on your altars in the morning? Nice, but not enough. Do you make offerings of the first portions of your food? Great, but not enough. We should be making offerings constantly. But how can we do that? You think, “Oh, my hands are busy. I can’t always be making offerings.” Well, of course, most of the offerings, therefore, are going to be mental offerings. If we are making mental offerings appropriate to the information that I have just given you, which is that the Guru’s face is indistinguishable from our own nature, and that we are always in the presence of the Guru, then there should never be a moment that we do not make offerings. Now, what would that look like? How could you practice that way?

In the face of the Guru you must not grasp or cling to anything.

That means, if you smell something and it’s a delicious smell, you offer it immediately, rather than keeping it for yourself. You know how, when we smell food, we go (sniff sound) “Mmm Delicious! I’m keeping that; that’s mine! I get that!” So instead of that, you smell it, you enjoy it, and you offer the nectar of that to the Lama; every smell that you take in that is beautiful; even the smells that you take in that are not beautiful, you think of them as being instantly transformed into the very essence of bliss and offer that to the Guru. Offer everything that you see.

You know how we see things and say, “How beautiful! Good, I’ll take that!” We walk outside like we own the day. “Beautiful day! My eyes are drinking it in! I’m getting this!” That’s how we enjoy the day. We eat it, eat it, eat it. The habit of greed is so strong. Instead of doing that, remember that you are in the presence of the Guru constantly; that the Guru literally abides within your channels, winds and fluids, within your psychic spiritual inner structure. That nature which is your nature IS the Guru. So whenever you see something with your eyes that is beautiful, instantly offer your eyes, offer the vision, offer the feeling, offer the pleasure to the Lama, to the holy one who has crossed the ocean of suffering for your sake. Instantly offer it up.

Eventually, you get into a habit. At first it’s like, “I saw that!” Quick, “Okay, I saw that! Okay!” In the beginning we get a little spastic and a little nuts. But, later on, it becomes a natural, graceful, spontaneous movement. You actually change the way your perception works. It takes a little time, it takes some practice, but there will come a day when naturally you do not cling to your sight. Yes, you see; yes, it registers in your brain; yes, your pupils and your irises and all those things work just right, but the difference is that there is a kind of graceful offering up that naturally occurs. It’s as though you didn’t grab onto everything in front of you. Eventually it becomes a natural, graceful movement of offering.

Do you remember when you first started practicing Bodhicitta and you didn’t feel like it? It was like, “Yeah, I’m grateful to all motherly sentient beings. May they all rest in peace.” in the same tone of voice that you would say, “Rot in hell!” That’s the kind of thing we did when we first started practicing Bodhicitta and we didn’t have the habit of it. I watched; I saw it. And then, after a time it became more natural, didn’t it? It becomes more natural to think kindly, to think of compassion regarding other sentient beings. It’s like that now with your perception. You make offerings constantly to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and to the Lama who embodies all the objects of refuge. Anything that you receive, consistently offer. It doesn’t mean that you don’t get to keep it. I mean if it disappears in front of you, I would take that as a sign that somebody wanted it! Please understand that we are not looking at this in a limited, superficial way! We know that the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas don’t actually need our offerings. They are content and complete. They are perfect. So when we offer to the objects of refuge we are doing so for our sake, not for their sake. Isn’t that true? So, of course, you think in that way. Obviously then, if you make an offering, it probably won’t disappear! But you never know!

You get in the habit of thinking that whatever you have, “Ultimately belongs to the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas. Ultimately, everything that I own I have given.” There is this posture that naturally occurs over time of peacefulness and lack of tension regarding personal possessions. We begin to think that it’s already been offered and therefore, there’s nothing to cling to. And so, slowly, slowly, over time, we develop that habit and the habit becomes very real. Our minds become very smooth and more joyful. It isn’t having that makes us joyful, it’s freedom from the need to have that makes us happy.

Therefore, we make constant offerings because we are constantly in the presence of the Guru and we should think like that. We should actually think that here, in the presence of the primordial empty nature, non-dual as the display of luminosity, here in the presence of the fundamental Bodhicitta, the miraculous Bodhicitta, the unbelievably potent, pure uncontrived Bodhicitta, it is simply not appropriate to cling and grasp. It becomes filthy and disgusting.

Suppose Guru Rinpoche were sitting right in front of you, and there was some tea or some food put in front of you. Would you say, “Gimme, gimme?” I mean, how could you even think of eating with Guru Rinpoche in front of you? You would offer, “Please take, please, take everything. Please take everything that I have! Please eat. Please let me offer this to you!” You must think that, in fact, that is the case. That the precious Bodhicitta is always with us, that the Lama is always with us, and so it is never appropriate to grasp; it is never appropriate to keep for ourselves what should naturally be offered. In this way, we get ourselves into the habit and the grace of constant offering.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Precious Nectar of Enlightenment

April 4, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

When we meditate on Buddhahood or contemplate on what it would be like to achieve realization, what do we think we are after? What do we think the result will be? Eventually, through the force of our practice, we are hoping, (and if we practice well, this will surely be the result), that someday we will awaken as the Buddha has awakened. So we are actually looking to give rise to the very same thing that we are looking at when we see the Guru. We are looking to give rise to the primordial empty nature. We are looking to give rise to this nature which is free of contrivance, free of distinction; this primordial empty nature that is the innate nature, the Buddha nature. We are trying to give rise to that in such a way that it appears, even within samsara. We wish to attain realization now. So it is that very union of emptiness and display, of emptiness and luminosity, of wisdom and method that we wish to give rise to in our practice. This is the very ultimate object of refuge.

From the Vajrayana point of view we are told that realization will never happen without the necessary ripening that is provided by the root Guru. We are told that in our practice we are dependent upon the root Guru to transmit this blessing and to lead us through the door of liberation. But we must understand that it is more than that. Practicing devotion in the way that we do opens the door, creates the connection, creates the habit, creates the karma, creates the cause by which we will awaken to our own primordial wisdom nature in the future. And that nature will appear in samsara as the enlightened appearance. This is the goal. This is the very wish. Understood in that way, the Lama then becomes even more the center of our mandala – the mandala of our practice, of our hope, of our prayers, of our devotion, of our lives. The Lama, then, becomes the very core of our lives.

You must understand that there is never a time that you are not in the presence of the Lama. Not for a moment is there a time that you are not in the presence of the Lama. If you refuse, if through ignorance you doubt, if through habit you ignore, if through slothfulness you simply put no effort into accomplishing that view, then you are not actually turning away from the Guru “out there.” This is not an act that is happening between you and somebody else. You are not slighting the person that is sitting on the throne. That is not what is happening. What is happening is that you are turning your own mind away from the very face of your Enlightenment, away from your nature. You are splitting yourself away from salvation. You are wrenching yourself away from the very hope that will bring future happiness and realization. You are cutting yourself away from the root of your accomplishment.

Now that I have told you this, you cannot in good faith and good conscience remain superficial in your practice any longer. You must understand that every moment that you say, “Oh, well, I can do this,” or every time you push away the Lama in order to live in your ordinary samsaric mental posture; every time you do that, you are spitting in the face of your own Buddha seed. You are turning yourself away from primordial emptiness, from the Buddha nature, from the pure luminosity that is the very display of that nature, that luminosity that we also know as the Bodhicitta. So then you have abandoned the root of your accomplishment. You have abandoned the very milk of your nature, and you have shut the door to the great Bodhicitta. That is what we do when we forget and deny that we are always sitting at the feet of the Guru. We are always looking into the eyes of the Guru. And so, we have to train ourselves to keep the Guru above the crown of the head, on the throne within our hearts, in our eyes, in our ears, in our hands. We have to train ourselves as though we were some kind of precious vessel that was carrying around this most precious nectar of Enlightenment. We can’t spill a drop; neither can we turn away from it. And we’ve spilled so many drops already.

But now we know what we have in our hands, and like practitioners that have perhaps moved from childhood to adulthood, we can now expect ourselves not to drop the ball, not to drop our practice, whereas before, we were like children. You know, when you teach children to prostrate, you do not worry whether their form is perfect. When you teach them to say mantra, you know they are going to make mistakes. But now we’re moving past that regarding our devotional yoga. We can no longer allow ourselves to be the children that we once were.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Rest in Wakefulness

April 3, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo on October 18, 1995

What is it that we actually see when we see the Guru? First of all, the Guru is perfection. The Guru is perfect. The Guru arises very naturally, is spontaneously liberated; there is nothing about this appearance that has become tainted or impure. There is no conceptualization. There is no contrivance at all. We are seeing a natural display of the Primordial Wisdom State. We are literally seeing, in a non-dual way, the union of emptiness and luminosity. Now, of course, because of the way our samsaric minds work, we are not able to understand the non-duality of emptiness and luminosity. We are simply not able to understand that. To us they appear as two nouns. Emptiness is emptiness. We can describe that. Luminosity is luminosity. We can maybe describe that, and so: emptiness-and-luminosity-are-non-dual. The best way to come to that is maybe to say it real quick! That’s about as well as we can do!

What is this non-dual display, this non-duality called emptiness and luminosity? Well, first of all, we must understand that the Lama represents the primordial empty nature, that nature which is completely free of any kind of distinction or contrivance, any kind of ideation, any color, any form, anything that becomes something. The Lama is the display of that which is without beginning and without end, of that which is primordially pure with no change, no movement, no contrivance or distinguishing factors whatsoever. The Lama represents that pure emptiness. When we talk about emptiness in that way, Americans have a difficult time with that; that’s why I’m trying to explain it in common ways, rather than using the traditional buzzwords.

When we think of emptiness, we think of a minus in a sense; like, an empty room is a room without things in it. We think of an empty glass as a glass without liquid in it. That’s the way that we understand emptiness, but in this case, you should understand that emptiness doesn’t mean an “absence of.” Emptiness, in this case, is more like freedom, more like liberation: liberation from conceptualization, liberation from contrivance. The mind does not catch on, the mind does not hook, the mind does not hold in a package – anything. You see? Here, emptiness is liberation. Suppose you were capable at this moment of losing all the fetters, allowing the mind to abide spontaneously, allowing the mind to simply rest in wakefulness. Rest in wakefulness. That is perhaps the closest to how we might understand emptiness.

Luminosity is something we think about as a plus, like a light being on. A light is on or it’s off. Luminosity, we think of as something luminous, so it must be glowing. Of course, that’s not what we’re talking about here either. Let’s say you could attain in your practice that true understanding of emptiness: if one could rest in innate wakefulness, free of contrivance, without any kind of distinction or super-structuring or building or grasping or clinging. Try to imagine a mind such as that. Try to imagine a posture such as that, in a sense, even free of the condition of mind. Try to imagine a posture such as that: innate wakefulness. Then suppose that nature, free of contrivance, were to show itself: gossamer, free, buoyant. There are no words in English to describe it.

From the profound, innate wakefulness that is empty of contrivance, should a display show itself that was like that nature, inseparable from that nature in every single sense; that display was not leaving the state of emptiness in order to show itself; completely indistinguishable from emptiness in the same way that the sun’s rays are completely indistinguishable from the sun itself; that there is no way to tell what is actually the tight hard ball of the sun, and what is the light and heat that comes out of it; that there is no way to tell the difference really: if we could imagine such display, we might call that luminosity. We might say that this profound view of emptiness, this spontaneous, innate wakefulness that is complete and yet unbegun, could somehow show its face in a gossamer, uncontrived inseparable display that you can’t call light, you can’t call movement, you can’t call anything because it has not moved out of that nature. Because we need to use a word we say luminosity, but you must understand that this emptiness and luminosity are indistinguishable from one another. We must also understand that this is what the Lama actually represents.

The Lama represents, therefore, the Primordial Wisdom State: that which is the wakefulness of Buddhahood in dance, in display, in radiance; not separate from the innate nature, yet arising in a completely pure display that is the primordial nature. You have to say “indistinguishable from.” That is what the Lama actually is. You could say that the Lama represents the union of emptiness and movement, or display. You could say that the Lama represents the union of wisdom and method. Guru Rinpoche appears to us always with the dakini. He is always in union with the dakini. Even when we see him in the pictures that we have of him or statues that we have of him, we may see him seeming alone; still, he has in the cleft of his left arm the symbol of the dakini. So in his nature he is never without the dakini. That is a teaching, a very profound teaching for us, as to how to understand the Lama. The Lama, then, is understood as the appearance of the primordial nature, and the display of that nature appearing in our world, in our eyes, in our samsaric existence. The Lama, then, represents the union of emptiness and luminosity.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

In Your Hands

April 2, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An Excerpt from a teaching called Our Motivation Is For Those Who Have Hopes of Us by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

When you practice you should think of all the uncountable beings who through ages and ages of wandering and endless revolution in cyclic existence you have had some either meaningful or meaningless contact with. I can tell you for certain — absolute certain — that there will come a day when you will see them again. And due to the purity of your intention and due to the strength of your practice, you will hold them in your hands. And it’s only your compassion and your love that will be of benefit to them. You will be able to bring them to the end of their suffering. You have to remember that — and practice accordingly.

You have to remember that now you don’t have the power to look into the eyes of even your own children, your most beloved ones — your lovers, your husbands, your wives — you don’t have the power to look into their eyes and say, “I will always take care of you. I will follow you. I will make sure that you’re all right.” You can’t promise even your babies that you will feed them always. You can’t make them that promise because they will die, and you don’t have — if you don’t have the practice — the power to see that they are happy in the next life. There’s only one way you can keep that promise. And that is through the sincerity and purity of your intention and through your practice. But you can do that. Due to Guru Rinpoche’s blessing, these things you can do now.

You can make prayers that in a future life you’ll be able to take those you now love so dearly in your hands and hold them until they achieve realization, that they will find the Dharma and be sure-footed on the path. And the potency of that prayer will make a difference. During the course of your life you should practice, knowing for certain that you are responsible for them, knowing for certain that you will hold them in your hands. Knowing for certain that that’s the only way that love of any kind can be meaningful.

So you should come to the Dharma with the heart of a child, hoping that in the future you will be able to free from suffering those with whom you’ve come into contact. The lamas teach us that the ones we love will someday be in our hands. Now is the time to practice so that we don’t let them down. Do not abandon them. Do not forget them. Hold them as carefully as you hold your own breath, and with more concern. Because if you practice now, you will see them again. Remember they are the ones who have hopes of you.

For Those Who Have Hopes of Us

April 1, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An Excerpt from a teaching called Our Motivation Is For Those Who Have Hopes of Us by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

One of my teachers told me that he feels he has spent his whole life throwing seed out and that very little of it has landed on soil. Most of it has landed on rocks and hard places. That this teacher, who is so precious to me, could feel like this breaks my heart. But it’s our fault, because we forget. If our motivation to practice is not compassion — is anything other than realizing again and again and again, to the point where we cannot bear it, the suffering of beings — it is useless.

Every morning we should wake up knowing that others around the world are waking up hungry. We can go down to breakfast; they can’t. Every morning we should wake up knowing that we can practice Dharma this day. We can do something about our condition. We have a potency to our lives. Others just continue — unconsciously, mindlessly, having no idea about cause and effect relationships. Others continue with unbelievable suffering.

I remember feeling tremendous sadness watching the bullocks in India pulling huge carts from early in the morning till late at night and being whipped the whole time. It isn’t only human suffering — it’s the suffering of all sentient beings that we should be touched by because they are all essentially the same. They all have the Buddha nature; they have that seed. And these are the ones that have hopes of us, because if we can think of them, there is a connection. They have no method. They have no practice. They have nothing other than whatever pure intention we can muster up. And so we can’t waste a moment. We can’t waste even a second. These are the ones that we are responsible for.

The Seed of the Buddha Nature Within

March 31, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

A Teaching by Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

When one begins to understand some of the ideas that are presented in Dharma, one realizes that the goal that we are engaged in “moving toward,” if you’ll forgive that bad choice of words, is actually Buddha Nature itself. We tend to consider that the path is like a thing that goes from here to there, like a movement toward, and it’s very hard not to conceptualize it in that way. But, in fact, when one practices Dharma, the ability to practice Dharma is actually based on the understanding of the innate Nature. If we did not have within us right now the seed of Enlightenment, if we did not have within us the potential to actualize ourselves as the Buddha, there would be no point of practice. The very basis for practice is that understanding. This is what the Buddha himself taught – that all sentient beings have within them the seed of Buddha Nature, and that Nature is their true Nature, in fact. However, they have not awakened to that Nature and so, in order awaken to that Nature, one engages in the path. The path should not be considered a ‘thing,’ a straight line that connects from here to there. The path should be understood as a method that one uses in order to awaken to that Nature which is already our Nature; which is complete, unchanging, and will never get any bigger or any smaller. One should understand that Dharma is actually an activity that is meant to awaken that potential. But the ultimate goal that one wishes for when one engages in Dharma, is, of course, Enlightenment itself. Now, what is Enlightenment? One understands that Enlightenment is actually the awakening to the Primordial Wisdom Nature, the awakening to the Buddha nature.

The Buddha never said that he was different from anyone else. He said simply, “I am awake.” He is indicating that he has awakened to the fullness of his own Nature and is able to abide spontaneously in that awakened state without any interruption or impediment. So, from that perspective, the basis of practice, the basis of the path itself is exactly the same as the goal. They are indistinguishable from one another. The path that one uses in order to achieve the goal is also indistinguishable from the basis, which is the Buddha Nature, and is also indistinguishable from the goal, which is the Buddha Nature. So, these three things, the basis, the method and the goal are indistinguishable from one another.

For us, however, it does not appear to be so, simply because of the way our minds work, involved in discursive thought as they are. We distinguish between what is potential and movement. We distinguish between movement and the goal. But in truth, you cannot distinguish between these three. If the basis for practice is the same as the goal, then anything in which you engage in order to achieve that awakening to your own Nature, must also be indistinguishable from your own Nature. The path, then, or the method, is not separate from the Buddha Nature.

Now, where we run into trouble is when we make our Dharma practice an outward movement that goes somewhere. When we do our practice, we project that there is going to be a certain result. That very subtle concept prevents the practice from doing all that it can do to remove obstacles from our own perception, because we cling to the idea of here-ness and there-ness, of such-ness and thus-ness, and in doing so, we cling to the idea of self. It’s very hard to understand that subtle difference, but that subtle difference is very important. If we did not view our Dharma practice as a subject, object, thing or as a linear movement in some way, we would more easily understand that the goal is the un-moveable, unchangeable, fully complete and spontaneously realized Nature itself, which is already present. The potential for the realization of that Nature would be much stronger in our practice, in terms of taking responsibility for our situation and utilizing our practice to its fullest capacity.

In order for us to consider our Dharma practice, or even the ability to listen to teachings, as a movement that ‘goes somewhere’ we have to be considering it in a very superficial way. But if the practice is understood as a natural and spontaneous manifestation, arising from the Buddha Nature that is our Nature, then the practice becomes less materialistic and more meaningful in a very profound way. In the same way, if we are in an ordinary environment and an ordinary teacher comes before us, we don’t respond as we would if the Buddha himself, with all the signs and marks, were sitting in front of us. If the Buddha appeared, we would respond with, “Whoa! Whoa! This is important! Something is happening here. The Buddha is here!” In truth, we should respond that same way to our own simple practice because that practice is indistinguishable from the Buddha Nature itself. The Buddha is here. But you see, the impact is different. Why the impact is different is because of the way that we consider and understand what we’re doing.

Seeing The Guru’s Face in All Things

March 30, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from the Mindfulness workshop given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo in 1999

We have to find a way to live in a constant state of recognition. The greatest power that any of us can have is that practice of recognition. To give rise to the bodhicitta in our ordinary lives, to give rise to an awakening state in our ordinary lives, to give rise to compassion, which is the very display of the Buddha’s miraculous intention in our lives, this is the way that we change our lives meaningfully. It won’t change our lives permanently because even our lives aren’t permanent. But this the way we deeply and meaningfully change our lives, through applying the antidote.

Running around like a chicken without a head trying to make everything work makes you a chicken without a head. It does not make you successful. It will not help. I don’t know how better to put this to you, but consciousness creates form. There is no getting around that. There is no other way. It is through the mindfulness of our practice, it is through spiritual discrimination that we can make an actual change in the flavor, the condition and the results of our lives, and that’s really the only way. Anything else that we do is like putting a bandaid on an ulcer. It’s just festering underneath there, and pretty soon it’s just going to open under the bandaid. Do you see what I’m saying? The disease is still there, and I’m using a disgusting analogy because it should be disgusting.

But when you practice the antidote, you’re talking about healing something from the inside out, from the root cause, which is your mindstream, your consciousness. It’s so real, and we’ve never had the opportunity to see how real it is: how this spiritual mindfulness, this lifting up of what is sacred, this practicing of bodhicitta in every aspect of our lives, this looking for the Guru’s face in all things — we have not had the opportunity to see what a tremendous life changer this is, what a tremendous empowerment, what a tremendous power to live it gives us. And so we’re asleep, sleeping peacefully, thinking all we have to do is do the things, the busywork, that keeps us afloat, and we don’t know why life happens to us the way that it does.

Your life is not happening to you. You are caught in a feedback loop, if you will. Let me use some electronics: caught in a feedback loop, a bubble, a reflection. You look outward, and you see your own mind moving back and forth. That’s kind of a feedback loop, a constant, circular kind of motion, and the qualities of your mind display themselves in the world, and they have the same taste as the quality of your mindstream. The external conditions that you have and the quality of your mindstream: same taste.

Baby Steps to Recognition

March 29, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from the Mindfulness workshop given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo in 1999

Sometimes when we begin to make offerings of what we experience to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, we may think it’s not a good idea to offer something that’s not ours, but that’s only because we’re materialists and have this idea of ownership. We really don’t understand how things are. We’re kind of sick and deluded with this idea of the self being the center of all experience. So that being the case, when we offer a tree or a field of flowers that isn’t ours or even offer an experience that you have with someone else that’s wonderful and pleasurable to you or to see a friend of yours that has not one, not two, but three cars — for you to offer any of those things to the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas in your mind, is that illegal because you don’t own them? Of course not. The idea isn’t about ownership. It isn’t about defining that, yet again. It’s about allowing these five senses to participate in Recognition in some way, even if it’s only in a small way. To offer anything that one sees, any image that is formulated in the eyes, any sound – the sound of the beloved’s voice, maybe your beloved friend, your beloved spouse or child – the sound of that voice that is so comforting and so wonderful to us, that very sound can be offered when it meets your ears. Rather than owning it and saying this is about me and my children or me and my spouse or me and my stuff, instead make that kind of ongoing process of offering.

In a very real sense, you’re not so much offering the object as you are offering your response to the object. You’re allowing your senses, your thoughts, and your sensibilities to work in a different way than they have worked before, so then you can feel free. You can offer someone else’s money. You can do anything you want to in that way as long as you are truly sincere and it’s done in a profound way. Remember, we’re keeping in mind the faults of cyclic existence, and practicing that kind of renunciation because we have seen the faults of cyclic existence.

Perhaps you meet somebody really rich, and you may notice, because of the contemplations you’ve been doing on the faults of cyclic existence, that those people are so connected to their money that there is some real clinging going on there. Maybe you notice that that person is all about their money and maybe, because you’ve practiced Recognition, you can see that this is a non-virtue. You can see that this is not making that person happy, that literally the money has no power to make that person happy. So knowing that, in your practice you can visualize that money and offer it to the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas. What good does that do? Does the money disappear out of the banks? No. Perhaps there is some small blessing. Perhaps more importantly, you, by making such an offering and by thinking that way, can begin to differentiate, to distinguish between clinging and some form of Recognition that there is something more precious than our egos. Maybe it’s a baby step, but many of those baby steps make for big movements.

Cultivate the habit of constantly offering everything that you see, all pleasure, and even hardship. When we come into a place in our life where it’s very uncomfortable, where there’s some hardship and we survive and perhaps overcome that hardship, that very event can also be offered. That event can be considered practice, a manifestation of an opportunity to have made offerings, to have been more mindful, and to have been in a better state of Recognition. Then, that very difficulty that you just survived becomes a form of practice. It becomes sacred.

For Westerners, our biggest problem is that lack of a deeper understanding of how to practice. We still think that you go to church on Sunday, and so you practice on Sunday. You do your religious thing on Sunday and maybe on the other holidays. We still have that division in our mind. We are deeply materialistic people, and that is the worst, most horrible delusion that we’re stuck in: that inability to recognize any distinction because of our material outlook. Practicing in the way I’ve described gives us the opportunity to develop constant mindfulness, purification of the mind, and constantly creating new habitual tendencies. It’s perfect for Westerners to practice in this way in addition to their sit-down practice because we have such limited time to sit down. In addition, in this culture we’re taught that when you’re sitting down, you’re being lazy, and our whole commitment, therefore, is to be busy all the time. So one way to begin to counteract that is to practice in this way of constantly making offerings.

The Point of Practice

March 28, 2018 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

An excerpt from the Mindfulness workshop given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo in 1999

Training the mind is a very personal, very intimate, and very private thing because there is nobody that can train our minds better than we can. No one can know the ins and outs of how we think better than we can, and so that responsibility, as well as that power, lies in our hands. Therefore, the most important aspect of one’s practice is to practice recognition of the nature of phenomena, of the emptiness of all that is; to practice recognition of cause and effect relationships; to practice recognition of the faults of samsara; to practice recognition of the difference between what is ordinary and what is the miraculous activity of the Buddhas. To practice this kind of recognition is the point, and it’s included in the book practices that we do. That is as much our practice as reading these prayers is — more so, because if you were to practice this state of recognition without having a book – let’s say you were a prisoner, and you couldn’t get your books – you could still practice a state of recognition. You could still learn to practice the View. You could still examine your habitual tendencies. You could still reorient your intentions and your understanding. There’s so much that you can do.