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

Although the Buddha that we remember as Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha, Shakyamuni is not present in his physical body as we understand it right now, we look at the Lama as the embodiment of the qualities, intentions, compassion and [...]]]>

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

Although the Buddha that we remember as Siddhartha, Gautama Buddha, Shakyamuni is not present in his physical body as we understand it right now, we look at the Lama as the embodiment of the qualities, intentions, compassion and activity of the Buddha in the world.  Our Lamas, those reincarnate Lamas who are recognized as reincarnate Lamas, are considered to be the Nirmanakaya form of the Buddha.  They are the Buddha in the world. So we look at the Lama as being the embodiment of the Buddha.  We look at the Lama as being the embodiment of the Dharma because, if we were to try to study Dharma on our own, even though all the books in our bookstore are written with the commentary of a qualified Lama, when you read those books you must also have first of all the teachings from the guru that deepen and ripen the mind ..Empowerment, lung, commentary teaching, the taking of vows, those teachings that deepen and ripen the mind, can only be given by the Lama, only be given by the Lama, and you must have them.  You must have your mind ripened.  A mind that is not ripe may delude itself into feeling spiritual and may even be able to speak spiritually.  However, if it is not ripe, it cannot fulfill itself.  So we should consider like that.

The Lama is considered to be the path.  The Dharma is given to us by the Lama.  The Lama connects us with the Dharma.  The Lama ripens us in the Dharma.  The Lama is the Dharma in that sense.  The Lama is also the Sangha because without the Lama there would be no Sangha.  It is the Lama’s qualities and compassionate activities that sound the note that eventually calls the Sangha.  When one of the Sangha has come to practice in some way, there is a personal and private circumstance that has called them, has pulled them in some secret inner way, particular and unique only to them, and their response is like a bell tolling somewhere deep in their minds—very unique, very individual, very present.  That is the gathering of the Sangha and it is done through the influence and compassionate activity of the Lama.  So the Lama is the first object of refuge, and the supreme object of refuge on the Vajrayana path.  That is our view.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eightfold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Right speech is the first principal of ethical conduct on the Eightfold Path.  And on the Eightfold Path is really based on ethical conduct.  It’s one of the things that I like best about Buddhism.  It isn’t based on a pie-in-the-sky [...]]]>

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eightfold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Right speech is the first principal of ethical conduct on the Eightfold Path.  And on the Eightfold Path is really based on ethical conduct.  It’s one of the things that I like best about Buddhism.  It isn’t based on a pie-in-the-sky idea. You have to work it.  People who are recovering alcoholics will recognize that saying about the 12-step program, “It works if you work it.”  Right?  And the Eightfold Path is exactly like that.  If you don’t work it, you’re going to go back to the narcotic of samsara.  But if you do work it, you have strength and bones that you never had before.  There is a similarity.  I’ve often drawn that connection between the Buddha dharma and the way that self-honesty is required, and the 12-step program, especially in that we are all addicts.  We are addicted to our emotions.  We are addicted to our delusions.  We are addicted to our visions.  We are addicted to our dreams. We are all addicts. And we are just so drunk with the narcotic of samsara that it is hard to pay attention, and see what is the root of all this.  We are trying to become awake so that we can see all of that, and right speech is one of the guidelines to the moral discipline of ethics.

We don’t realize that you have to do right to be right. That is certainly true on the path of Buddha dharma.  The importance of speech in the Buddha dharma is central and obvious.  For one thing you can cause harm with speech, and you should never do that.  Right speech would be speaking well, speaking nobly, speaking higher, and not speaking against anyone or speaking harshly or cruelly, or gossiping.

Gossiping is a terrible ethical non-virtue or perversion of Buddhist ethics.  And I must say it’s rampant in most religious communities and in ours too.  It’s rampant.  It’s not what the Buddha taught and it should not be that way.  We should uphold one another with speech, rather than to tear one another down.  Words can break or save lives.  Think about that.  Words can make enemies or friends. Start war or create peace.  All by words.  And you can review history to see that that’s true.

To keep away from false speech, one especially should never tell deliberate lies or speak deceitfully.  Some people are storytellers, and tend to be expansive in their speech.  I’ve been known to do that myself.  When you tell a story, you expand it a little bit.  You polish it up.  Make it a little more interesting.  Throw in a few hand gestures. That’s not deceitful necessarily unless you are making yourself higher.  Then that would be deceitful.  If you said, “I had this experience in meditation.  It was so big.  You’ve never had anything like it.”  (And therefore, I’m big)  That would be wrong speech.  That would be unethical.  What we really want to do is avoid telling different lies, especially those that bring us power, acknowledgement, or approval, because then we know that we are lying to someone, which is unethical, in order to bring ourselves up above them which is not right either.  It ruins our right intention.

That would be called false speech and it is to be avoided.  We must also abstain from slanderous speech, and should not use words maliciously against others.  That’s gossip.  We do it all the time.  We should be very very careful with that, because one thing I’ve noticed about gossip and slander is that it comes right back to you, even in this very life.   But if we develop the habit of slanderous speech, lifetime after lifetime, what happiness can come from that?  We will be born into lifetimes where no matter what we do people will not think well of us.  We will be causing more suffering to others and ourselves.  To use words maliciously against others undermines the whole basis of the path, which is this right intention and this right view, and this consideration of the truth of the Four Noble Truths.

When we consider all of this together, we understand that malicious speech is not just a no no.  It’s a killer. We should abstain from harsh words that offend or hurt others. We can see what the ethics of that would be.  Like if I were to say to you, “Gee, you look kind of ugly today.”  What is the point of that?  Why would I need to do that?  Even if it were true, why would I do that?  Well, first of all I have shown that I have not accomplished right view.  Right there I have shown you my buttocks.  So, obviously this is not the right way to go.

We want to cultivate right intention, so we want to keep away from unethical speech that hurts or offends others.  We want to abstain from idle chatter that lacks purpose or depth.  Positively phrased, it means tell the truth, speak friendly, warmly and gently, and talk when you’ve got something to say.  Brilliant!  Only a Buddha could have thought of this.  Actually it was “talk only when necessary.” I had to have a little fun there.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from a teaching called “Essence of Devotion”

When embarking on the path, we look for the most excellent method.  We look for that method that gives excellent results every time.  That method would be Dharma.  Dharma has brought about enlightenment in generation after generation of students and teachers alike.  [...]]]>

The following is an excerpt from a teaching called “Essence of Devotion”

When embarking on the path, we look for the most excellent method.  We look for that method that gives excellent results every time.  That method would be Dharma.  Dharma has brought about enlightenment in generation after generation of students and teachers alike.  Students have become teachers who have returned to benefit beings, just as I hope you are hoping to do.

Now, we not only need that, but we need an excellent captain, and that captain should be considered none other than the Buddha and his emanations in the world.  The Buddha is the one who has successfully crossed the ocean of suffering and has, without a doubt, achieved enlightenment.  If you read the life of the Buddha there is no doubt that he has achieved enlightenment.  The results of his life—having brought enlightenment to so many others for 2,500 years­—can only have arisen from the mind of enlightenment.  So we want the proper ship.  We want the proper captain. We also need the proper navigator because it’s considered that, while the Buddha is the supreme captain of our ship, it is his spirit, his mind, his nature which is present in the navigator who does the driving and keeps us afloat. And that is our teacher.

So that is the situation that we want to hook up to.  That’s how to leave the party, another analogy that we can use. I love to teach in analogies because it’s much easier and simpler for us.  We can understand parties.  We can understand foolishness.  We can understand suffering.  We can understand ships and water and the urge not to drown, but sometimes it’s hard to understand Dharma. So I like to learn and I like to express in analogies. One good analogy for understanding our present situation as we embark on the great task of practicing refuge and Bodhicitta is that when we look around and we read the paper and we see our own eventual age and death and all the sufferings that come with it, as well as the sufferings of others, we consider that the two of them are unbearable and they are inseparable.  I am suffering, you are suffering.  It’s all one package.  You come to realize that it’s like you’re in a burning room.  You know, the room just burning, burning, burning, burning, on fire, and at that point you look around and you realize that there is one door, one opening, not even a window.  One door as an exit from that room, and that door is wide open.  How much love and regard will you have for that door, while being in that burning room?  Well, we’re so funny, we’re so kind of asleep at the wheel, at least in the first part of our spiritual path. Maybe we don’t even have much realization but, when in our own experience the room really begins to get hot and we begin to see the singeing of our own hairs and really relate to the burning of our own flesh. we begin to see, really see, what the situation is due to our own experience. And we will someday.  We will.  If not now, then someday.  Then at that time we look at that door with such love and regard. In fact, we don’t even think about how much we love and regard the door.  We are so into the door that we are out of the door as soon as possible.  We love the door.  The door is our hope.

It’s like that when we approach the path.  As we begin to practice turning the mind towards Dharma, we begin to practice seeing what is in this ocean of suffering, what we are surrounded with.  Then at that point, we begin to take in our own real experience and how kind of silly it is when we try to keep on top of our suffering when, in fact, we are suffering and it is foolish to be in denial about that.  At that point our minds soften. They gentle and they turn.  And suddenly we get smart in a way we were never smart before.  Suddenly we’re on Red Alert.  Something is different and we begin to regard that door, not as just a shape in a room, but as something that is more meaningful to us than anything else.  The path is that door.  Our teachers who give us the path are that door.  The method is that door.  That is our opportunity to exit samsara.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eight-Fold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

All of us have intention, and intention refers to mental energy.  We have intention now, but we are not really conscious of our intention.  We don’t think of it that way other than when we say, “I intend to go to [...]]]>

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eight-Fold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

All of us have intention, and intention refers to mental energy.  We have intention now, but we are not really conscious of our intention.  We don’t think of it that way other than when we say, “I intend to go to the movies tonight.  I intend to wear my new dress tomorrow.  I intend to eat broccoli for dinner.” We have that kind of understanding.  But what we don’t understand is that intention goes with mind power.  They are the same.  And mind power when it is expressed, has intention.  Whether we like it or not, if we have mind, we have intention.  So, the mental energy that controls our actions is our intention, and that intention.  Maybe we have a nihilist point of view.  We don’t really think that life is cause and effect.  We don’t have any understanding of that.  “Wherever life takes me; I’m going to go there.”  That’s kind of neutral.  And of course, with that kind of neutrality, life will take you anywhere it wants to.  You have no control.  You are like a doughnut on the ocean. You are going to take on water and sink.

Right intention is about formulating an appropriate intention, and it has to do with ethics.  Ethics in the Buddha dharma are absolutely foundational.  Once we get into the higher practices, we neglect, I think too much, to talk about it.  Right intention is absolutely important to cultivate.  Otherwise the mind is simply wild.  It wants what it wants.  It just does what it does.  There is nothing to think about.  If we have bad intention, of course that gives rise to great suffering.  Like if we wish to be higher than everybody else, or we wish to be more powerful than everybody else, or we wish to be richer than everybody else.  That’s kind of a negative intention.  It is okay to have wealth, it is okay if you have some power, and it is okay if you’re pretty, but to have that wish to be prettier or more powerful or wealthier than everybody else, that’s not good intention.  And that will cause you to suffer because someone’s always going to be prettier than you.  Someone’s always going to be richer than you.  Someone’s always going to be smarter.  And so you’ll suffer.  It brings about suffering.  Negative intention should not be tolerated.  Not only does it bring about suffering for oneself, but also it brings about suffering for sentient beings because if we have poor ethics or if we have bad intention, we tend to harm others, as well as ourselves.

So we are supposed to train ourselves with good intention, for instance, the intention of renunciation.  To have the intention of renunciation again is so important and foundational on the path.  What are we renouncing?  Well, you could go and renounce things piece by piece, and get absolutely nowhere.  “I renounce bottle tops.  I renounce red drinks.” And then get totally neurotic about it, “But I want it.” That obviously is not the right approach.  The intention of renunciation actually refers to resistance to the pull of desire and attachment.  You begin to practice that resistance.  I promise you that when you just start to practice it, you won’t be good at it, if you have no experience with it.  It takes time.  You have to examine desire.

Now, you understand that desire is all-pervasive.  I’m not talking about what happens in people’s bedrooms.  I’m talking about all-pervasive desire.  Desire for everything that we want. And we want a lot.  We want good days, we want good experiences, we want good friends, and we want good times.   None of which are bad, but if you’re addicted and attached to them, then you will suffer.  And again the Eight-Fold Path is about liberating from suffering.  So, it is the renunciation to the pull of desire and the poison of attachment.

Right intention also is the intention of good will.  Meaning resistance to the feelings of anger and aversion.  We all have that.  It starts in the morning.  “God, who made this coffee?  It tastes awful.”  “I’m having a really terrible hair day.  I’m averse to my hair.”   We have this aversion, and then we just don’t like things. Don’t like people.  Don’t care.  Just don’t give the big hoop.  I would call that wrong intention.  If someone were to approach you and say to you, “I think it would be healthy for you to practice more compassion.”  Of course, our natural thing is to react with “Shut up!” and to react with anger. But that is the exact instinct we need to fight.  That is the exact thing we need to fight.  Now, if somebody comes up to you even if they are somebody you may feel doesn’t have that much compassion, and they give you the piece of advice, “I think you should have more compassion.”  You cultivate patience and right intention.  You think, “Well, it is good that person is talking about compassion, even if it is a left-handed gift.  Still there is something there, and you can have some good intention, good attitude about it.

Basically you develop good will towards all sentient beings.  You don’t think that animals should be killed or harmed. You don’t think that dogs should be put to death.  You don’t think that people should be at war.  You don’t think that suffering should occur.  You don’t think that poverty should exist.  These are right intentions.  These are right thoughts.  Right thoughts that can be cultivated even on a very personal level while the path you’re traveling is still very personal.  You think like that.

You start to pacify anger and rage.  So many of us have so much rage stored up.  Some of it is from childhood.  Some of it is from the stress of everyday living. Were we really meant to go 60 million miles everyday?  You know that kind of stress.  We hold rage inside.  And so part of the Eight-Fold Path is to begin not to suppress the rage, but to contemplate it, be aware of it, and look through it.  Suppression equals neuroses.  We are looking for you to be awake to perceive more correctly what the nature of attraction and repulsion actually is, how they are not conducive to happiness and are the antithesis of the path.

The last part of right intention is the intention of harmlessness, meaning not to think or act cruelly, violently, or aggressively, and to develop compassion.  We forget that.  Again a foundational truth on the path, and we forget it.  We walk around with our malas and our robes, and we think, “I’m so cool.  I’m a Tibetan Buddhist.”  Well, you are not Tibetan.  And if you act like that, you’re not much of a Buddhist either.  So, forget it. And of course cruelty, if we have any cruelty in our mind, it may be a reflection of past habit or past incidences.  We have the power to examine that cruelty, to see its root, to see its fruit, to push it away, to see through it in other words, into the true nature of the Eight-Fold Path and of the Buddha dharma.  We have that power.  We shouldn’t think, “Oh, I’ve got this rage, and I’m stuck with it.  It’s just there.”  We have the power to change that by practicing this right intention.

We give up the thoughts of violence, of aggressiveness, and we begin to develop compassion.  And again what is it based on?  It’s based on the Four Noble Truths.  The compassion comes from the realization that all sentient beings are suffering.  That suffering is all-pervasive, and that it is not necessary because there is an Eight-Fold Path.  That is our way to contemplate and to bring ourselves up to snuff with right intention.

© copyright Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eight-Fold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Right view should be understood as the underpinning, the beginning and the ending, and everything in between on the path.  It is in some ways the essence, the essential nectar drop of the path.  In right view through meditation, through contemplation, [...]]]>

An excerpt from a teaching called The Eight-Fold Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Right view should be understood as the underpinning, the beginning and the ending, and everything in between on the path.  It is in some ways the essence, the essential nectar drop of the path.  In right view through meditation, through contemplation, and through receiving teachings, we come to understand the nature of samsara. We meditate on samsara and understand its flaws, its faults, and how it is so confusing to all of us.  By understanding the nature of samsara, we know what to avoid and what to pick up.  But without contemplating on and understanding the nature of samsara by remaining constantly in a reactive stage, there will be no accomplishment. We grasp what is impermanent, what is imperfect.  We begin to contemplate and study the empty nature of phenomena.  That phenomena is what it seems to be, yet even now we know from the scientific world that it isn’t what it seems to be.  It seems to be this way, but we know that it isn’t.  We know that for instance that on the surface, the nature of glass, the nature of wood, the nature of material, all of it is basically molecules with a bunch of space in them.  And so while they appear solid, its all really energy, electromagnetic energy that binds molecules together.  It is not the way it appears to be.  We have the habit of seeing what we see.  But when one is awake, phenomena is basically empty of self-nature.  And subtle energies, the very display that is samsara is understood in its nature.

In order to attain right view, you don’t have to be smart.  Even though the people that are teaching it often use these wonderful big words, “all pervasive this,” and “foundational whatever.”  And you think, “Wow, this sounds like you have to have a PhD to understand this.”  And it’s not true.  Correct view or right view isn’t about smart.  It’s about wisdom.  It’s about experience through contemplation and meditation.  Even if you don’t have the big words, you can have a direct experience through contemplation. It begins with the insight that is brought to bear by having meditated on the Four Noble Truths in that we understand that all sentient beings are suffering.  We begin to realize that desire is the problem, to understand the nature of reaction and attachment, and to understand the nature of phenomena and the truth that the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas prevail and are indeed omniscient and powerful.  They have brought us the path and they remain.  In other words it is the awareness and belief in the Three Precious Jewels – Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

We all have view.  We have view right now.  We are viewing each other.  I’m viewing this lady’s pretty necklace, and I’m viewing my daughter, and I’m viewing you.  We have it.  Whatever we think in our mind, when we are viewing, this is our view.

To practice Right View, one trains the view. One trains so that when you look at somebody you don’t say, “I like him or I don’t like him.”  You don’t react with attachment or repulsion.  Right View means that you train yourself to see differently what is.  For instance, say I am Caucasian and you are a black man.  I look at you.  If I say to myself, “Oh, I’m Caucasian, and he’s a black man.”  That’s my view.  That’s what I’m seeing.  And in the Buddha dharma, it is not correct view.  Not correct at all.  Because we are to understand that within each of us, we are equal and we have the Buddha nature and that view is so completely superficial.   If we look at someone else from another culture or family or another planet, and see only the differences, right view would be to correct that.  It would be to see the sameness, to wake up to the fact that all sentient beings are inherently equal and that we share the same nature.  I may be one color and you may be another but we share the same nature, and there is no color on that nature.  So, this is where you begin.  You see how this is a foundation where you become mindful and thoughtful?  It’s not a generation stage practice where you are actually doing a puja, but it’s where you contemplate the fundamental meaning of the path.  Having trained oneself in Right View, its so much easier later on when you begin to approach the bodhisattva vow and the compassion that we learn in Mahayana Buddhism, because with Right View as the foundation, we are half way there.  We can have compassion for others.  We can uphold others as the same as ourselves.  And we can do for others what is kind and good to do.  If we understand Right View properly and we have done the preliminary contemplations, then in Vajrayana it is much easier to have proper view with Vajrayana meaning.

In Vajrayana meaning we should see every female as the goddess, and every male as a god. We see each being in their truer nature.  And we respect the women as being dakinis.  We respect the men as being dakas.  We respect, that is the View in Vajrayana.  And nobody’s higher than anybody else except in the practice of Guru Yoga where we actually use the Guru as a focus to understand our own nature.  But we’re not there yet.  We’re still on Right View.

So it behooves us to contemplate the meaning of this, and how to approach viewing others, viewing your life, viewing your potential, and viewing the world at large.  This is mind training.  This is where you train your mind.  If you don’t train your mind here, when you get to the higher levels of practice, you are too wobbly and unstable.  You can practice real well for a while, but then you are gone.  You must have this underlying stability, this understanding in order to really practice the path well and keep flourishing on it.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo