The following prayer is from the Great Perfection Buddha in the Palm of the Hand: The Lama’s Oral Instructions Upon the Recitation and Visualization of the Preliminary Practices of Ngondro revealed by Terton Migyur Dorje

If the following prayer is recited daily with faith, it will assure an auspicious rebirth:

EH MA HO The [...]]]>

The following prayer is from the Great Perfection Buddha in the Palm of the Hand: The Lama’s Oral Instructions Upon the Recitation and Visualization of the Preliminary Practices of Ngondro revealed by Terton Migyur Dorje

If the following prayer is recited daily with faith, it will assure an auspicious rebirth:

EH MA HO The wondrous Buddha Amitabha and

The Lord Avalokiteshvara to your right and

The Bodhisattva of power, Vajrapani, to your left,

Surrounded by a boundless retinue of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas,

Into the wondrous, immeasurably blissful

Pure Realm of Great Bliss (Dewachen),

May I, at the moment that I must transfer from this life,

Without any other births intervening,

Be reborn, to behold the face of Amitabha,

And through the force of this prayer I am making,

May the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions

Grant blessings to accomplish this prayer without interruption.

TA DYA THA PENTSA DRI YA AH WA BHO DHA NI SWAHA

Thus through this generation and completion stage meditation and mantra recitation, and

Whatever virtue I have and will accumulate in the three times,

May I enjoy a long life, without illness, and an increase of understanding and realization.

When the time comes to transfer from this life, by taking rebirth in the Realm of Great Bliss,

And seeing the precious face of Dharmakaya Buddha, Amitabha,

I shall obtain the ten stages, and from all the pure realms of the ten directions,

May I send forth manifestations to guide beings without exception!

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

Dharmakaya is objectless compassion. It is everywhere. It upholds all manifested reality. All that we see, all appearances, are merely the arising of that mind in its emanation phase. Unfortunately, we have contrived a dualistic perception of self and other. We have [...]]]>

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

Dharmakaya is objectless compassion. It is everywhere. It upholds all manifested reality. All that we see, all appearances, are merely the arising of that mind in its emanation phase. Unfortunately, we have contrived a dualistic perception of self and other. We have acted against other. We have judged other. We have spent countless lives trying to earn the approval and love of other. While our true nature is untouched and perfectly pure, we have developed a dusty coating upon it. That coating is quite thick in the minds of sentient beings. Though their nature remains pure, their perception of that nature is not a true one. What we need is a way to see that true face. We need to discover firsthand the nature of non-dual mind, of that all-pervading compassion.

If this pure nature is the inner reality, then the appearance of Guru Rinpoche to the world is the outer reality. He is born from the heart of Amitabha Buddha, the face and name of the Dharmakaya itself. He entered into the world, a world that did not know Him, and a world that could not give Him birth. And yet He came. We are told that He was born upon a lotus. One way to understand this is to realize that such a pure and undefiled reality could not be born from the level of human delusion. Another way is to relate the lotus to your own mind. The lotus has its roots in mud and muck, yet appears on the surface as a pure, fresh, beautiful flower. Is that not like your own nature? Despite the mud and muck of eons of cyclic existence and the resulting delusion, that nature remains pure. It can still be born directly from the muck.

Upon that pure lotus appears Guru Rinpoche, just as within your own purified mind you realize the nature of the compassionate Guru. But in a mind polluted by judgment, stiffened by conceptualization, unstable through non-virtue, the Guru cannot be realized. He is born upon a pure lotus. Therefore, we make wishing prayers and do practices that we might finally see the Guru.    If, without the purified mind, we cannot truly perceive the nature of the Guru, why did He come to a world unprepared for Him? Only a true understanding of all-pervading compassion can solve this mystery. Due to the Dharmakaya’s all-pervading, compassionate nature, it was possible for Guru Rinpoche to appear as a human and walk upon the earth while still purely displaying the uncontrived, fully realized nature of mind.

How was He received? How was He perceived by those around Him? Differently by each one. In the mind of delusion, it is possible to see the most precious gem as just another rhinestone. However, a few were able to perceive that this was beyond the ken of man and woman, that He was the precious Nature incarnate.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Death comes to us all, often sooner than we know. Prepare for death. If you have accomplished Phowa then death is not frightening, and can be noble and of benefit. Leave with no debt unpaid, and practice. Death will be in the [...]]]>

The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Death comes to us all, often sooner than we know. Prepare for death. If you have accomplished Phowa then death is not frightening, and can be noble and of benefit. Leave with no debt unpaid, and practice. Death will be in the heart of the Primordial Mother.

One can practice Amitaba Buddha, and at the time of passing to Dharmakaya Buddha, the practice will be the connection. OM AH MI DEWA HRI!

Either way, if dying, renounce all, for not one grain of rice will go with you. This is not a time to pick apart the world, or hurt anyone.

These are the teachings as given by my Lineage, Palyul.

If death is chaotic and fearful, unprepared or cruelly, there is unimaginable suffering in the Bardo of death. Always attend your mind. Leave some worthy act of compassion, keep the mind loving and peaceful. Life is as short as a cup of water travelling down a waterfall, and as fast.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

With a longing to benefit beings who are sick and dying, Jetsunma created a song called “Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen.” This is a traditional prayer to Amitabha, the Buddha of Limitless Light, from the P’howa practice of the [...]]]> Download the Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

With a longing to benefit beings who are sick and dying, Jetsunma created a song called “Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen.” This is a traditional prayer to Amitabha, the Buddha of Limitless Light, from the P’howa practice of the Longchen Nyigthig tradition. P’howa is the meditation practice for the time of death, and Amitabha is the deity to be visualized in that meditation.  ”Dewachen” refers to the state of consciousness in which one experiences a pure land and the opportunity to accomplish liberation.

Jetsunma said,  “When I listened to this tune, I realized that it was like a mother singing her child to sleep, which really was my motivation when I sang that song.  I know that everyone that I love, I will be parted from someday.  Everyone that I meet will die some day.  I wish there was some way that they could be guided through the bardo individually.  And the best response that I know of is this prayer.”

Any being who listens to this prayer receives a blessing, whether Buddhist or non Buddhist, human or animal.  It is especially soothing for those who are chronically or acutely ill, or who are on the precipice of dying.  You can help beings by making this prayer heard by as many people and as many animals close to their death as possible.  It is available here:  Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

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

The Bodhicitta we can generate right now, however vast, is beneficial. In the future, when one attains Enlightenment, according to the vastness of that Bodhicitta, that many sentient beings can benefit [...]]]>

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

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

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

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

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

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

OM AMI DEWA HRI

Throughout all lifetimes

Wherever I am born

May I obtain the qualities of birth in a higher realm

May I met Dharma swiftly after taking birth

And have the freedom to practice well

May I please Guru Rinpoche

And practice Dharma day and night

Understand Dharma, drink its pure nectar

I’d like to address the very newest Dharma practitioners, and offer the #METHOD I speak so often and so fondly of. All can benefit.

Many are interested in Buddhism, read and think about it, enjoy it’s thoughtfulness. But the main point of Dharma is accomplishment.

One can be a friend of [...]]]>

Buddha Amitaba Downloadable Image

I’d like to address the very newest Dharma practitioners, and offer the #METHOD I speak so often and so fondly of. All can benefit.

Many are interested in Buddhism, read and think about it, enjoy it’s thoughtfulness. But the main point of Dharma is accomplishment.

One can be a friend of Dharma, a supporter, collector, even a Guru junkie! But the point of Dharma is awakening, + method applied.

There are no quick and easy routes, no magic buttons, no gadgets, no tincture of this or that worth the money or effort. Dharma is free.

All you really need is a comfy cushion, a quiet sacred space, a Mala (prayer beads) an image relating to your practice really helps.

Most practice requires empowerment (Wang) breath transmission (Lung), and the Lama’s commentary. Therefore one needs a qualified Guru.

Fortunately, through compassion, certain Buddhas have made themselves more accessible in these times. One is Buddha Amitaba.

Amitaba vowed that anyone speaking His Mantra or even hearing it, He would liberate at death, thus accomplishing Dharma in one life.

Practicing Amitaba, then, is swift and extraordinary, can be done without wang or lung if the strong vow is made to seek these out asap.

As quickly as possible these tweets will be arranged usefully with an image of Amitaba for practice. Now, settle onto your cushion.

Allow the mind to simply relax and clear. Practice makes perfect, you will improve in time. The body is relaxed but the spine straight,

The legs should be crossed Indian style or Lotus style, but comfortable.

THE PRACTICE

Instantly in the space in front-above arises Buddha Amitaba.

He is red in color, one face, 2 hands resting in His lap, palms up w/knuckles touching. This mudra symbolizes meditative equipoise.

He is holding a begging bowl and wearing robes of ordination, seated in Lotus Posture. He is surrounded with His retinue of Sublime ones.

As we are awed by His splendor we take refuge with body, speech, and mind.

“Buddha Amitaba I take refuge in you in this and every life“  repeat 3 x

Then, thinking kindly of all sentient beings, recite:

“For the sake of beings I give rise to the Bodhicitta so all may benefit” repeat 3 x

If you have a PURE Lama, consider that while the appearance is Amitaba, the essence is identical to one’s Root Guru. If not, get one.

Then hold the mala and recite Mantra, counting with beads. One full Mala is 108 reps.

The mantra; OM AMI DEWA HRI is repeated 108 times.

While reciting, one concentrates on compassion as motivation, the extraordinary qualities of Amitaba, the yearning for Liberation in one life.

So the mind should be filled with pure Devotion and wholesome yearning, and Kindness toward all beings, every one, animals, ALL.

After at least one full Mala of Mantra, recite:

“I prostrate to Amitaba Buddha!”

“May I be reborn in the pure realm of great bliss”

Then Amitaba and his entourage dissolve into light, and pour into top of one’s head (crown). And mixes like milk and water with one’s mind.

“And may all sentient beings without exception be placed in that very state.”

That’s a VERY short condensed method, taken from Nam Cho.

The best thing to do is make a commitment to do this practice every day. It is in the commitment and the doing that benefits,

Along with the very sacred Mantra and the blessing it holds. Therein lays benefit and accomplishment. Samaya.

Some links you may find helpful:

How To Use a Mala

A List of Palyul Centers Around the World