[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]

From beginningless time, throughout countless lifetimes, we amassed negative karma and nonvirtue before we encountered the dharma. As followers [...]]]>

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]

From beginningless time, throughout countless lifetimes, we amassed negative karma and nonvirtue before we encountered the dharma. As followers of the teachings in this lifetime, we still engage in nonvirtue and accumulate negativity. Consider all that negativity to be like [the result of] having ingested poison. Knowing that as poison that will certainly end your life unless you apply an antidote to neutralize it, you immediately apply the antidote. That is exactly how you should feel about the nonvirtue accumulated in the past and present.

With tremendous remorse, confess your accumulation of nonvirtue and vow that from this time onward, even at the cost of your life, you will no longer repeat the same pattern of negativity. Then focus on the objects of refuge in the space in front, the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions. Supplicate, knowing that in their omniscience they will always look upon you and bless and purify you. Pray to them with heartfelt faith and devotion, and with genuine remorse for your accumulation of negativity, feel confident that all negativity is completely purified. Confession is the antidote for anger. In anger, people commit many grave errors, such as even the taking of others’ lives.

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Compiled under the direction of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche Vimala Publishing 2008

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]

Of all worldly phenomena, whether great or small, nothing is permanent and nothing endures. Therefore, when you find yourself [...]]]>

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]

Of all worldly phenomena, whether great or small, nothing is permanent and nothing endures. Therefore, when you find yourself attracted to or attached to the happiness of existence, you must bring to mind the faults of existence. Consider that not even a single phenomenon is permanent, no matter how great, wonderful, or powerful it may seem. Consider especially how once that phenomenon [you associate with a happy existence] changes, you will experience nothing but suffering as the result. That way you can move your mind away from having strong attachment to impermanent phenomena and begin to change your habit of always following apparent phenomena based on [experiencing] temporary pleasure and attachment.

Think, for instance, about sentient beings that, due to anger and aggression, have accumulated the negative karma to fall to the hell realm. Those beings have accumulated tremendous negative karma that will keep them in the hell realm indefinitely. In that realm, unable to establish any positive causes at all, they will experience nothing but intense suffering. Think about the eight hot hells, the eight cold hells, as well as the peripheral hells surrounding them. Although it is inconceivable, think about the suffering that sentient beings in those hells must endure.

Then consider the deprived spirit realm. Think about the beings that accumulate an abundance of negative karma through the passions of avarice and strong desire. The result of such accumulation is rebirth as a deprived spirit. There are different categories of deprived spirits, such as outer and inner ones, but essentially they all endure inconceivable hunger and thirst that is insatiable. Furthermore, they never die from that; they just continue to suffer indefinitely, without ever being satisfied.

Next, consider the animal realm. Negative karma accumulated through the passion of delusion produces the result of animal rebirth. Animals suffer from basic delusion and ignorance, mistreatment by humans, and being preyed upon by one another. From the largest to the smallest, those who are as large as mountains to those smaller than the tip of a needle, all suffer from basic stupidity and ignorance, so they are unable to escape and are unable to do much more than just endure the karma in that rebirth until it is eventually exhausted.

Then consider the rebirth that is so difficult to obtain: that of a human being. Compared with the three lower realms of existence, human life seems very blissful; nevertheless, there is great suffering in the human realm. Human beings suffer from confinement in the womb and from the processes of birth, illness, disease, and growing old and the decline in their faculties, until eventually they experience the suffering of death and of leaving everything behind. Humans are subject to all kinds of indefinite circumstances and situations throughout the course of their life. Some die at birth, some die as infants, some as adolescents, and some as adults. Some die alone and unwanted or in an untimely manner.

In addition to the four great rivers of suffering, human beings experience—birth, old age, sickness, and death—humans experience compounded suffering. For example, humans suffer mistreatment at the hands of their enemies, and they suffer when they lose their loved ones. In fact, they suffer from fear that precedes the actual events themselves. Humans also suffer from not getting what they want and from having to accept what is not desired. They even suffer from acquiring what is desired, because then they have the fear of losing that. Against their will, humans endure all these unexpected consequences.

Many people think that after they die and leave this life they will easily return as a human being. Many believe they will just be able to return to a happy state of existence, such as the one they might now be accustomed to. That is a mistake. I can guarantee that unless you have the specific karma to do so, you will not take another rebirth as a human being. Without the karma that creates the causes for it, the result of human rebirth is impossible. Make no mistake about it.

Next, consider the god realm. Gods remain in their realm where they experience immeasurable bliss and happiness for long periods of time. They all have their own palace and gardens, wish-granting trees, and celestial food; everything in their external environment is inconceivably wonderful. Internally they experience only happiness and bliss throughout the entire course of their life. Eventually they exhaust their karma for that rebirth. Prior to that, the dying clairvoyant gods see the place of their future rebirth, which in most cases happens in the hell realm. They take such a rebirth due to having exhausted all tainted virtue that brought them rebirth in the god realm, and then nothing remains for them except an abundance of weighty negative karma. The vast storehouse of merit they once possessed is spent, and they have nowhere to go but to the lowest hell realm. Seeing the irreversible fate that awaits them, and knowing it is too late to reverse that, they experience tremendous suffering. They are powerless to reverse their karma of having to fall from the celestial realm of the gods to the lowest realms in existence.

Buddha therefore taught that there is not even a needle point’s worth of true happiness in samsara. Now you can understand the meaning of that teaching. Even if there is happiness, it always changes because it is impermanent. Happiness in samsara occurs as the result of the karma produced to cause it. Once that cause and result are exhausted, that happiness becomes something else, which is why the term cyclic existence is used to express the nature of life in the six realms. Sentient beings pass from rebirth to rebirth, revolving on this endless wheel of changing realms in dependence on their own karmic accumulations.

If your hair were to suddenly catch fire, you would immediately, without hesitation, try to put out that fire. Likewise, by understanding that cyclic existence is by nature permeated with suffering, and by understanding that it can never be anything other than that, you should immediately, without hesitation, focus on putting out the fire of cyclic existence. Focus totally on effort to extract yourself from this endless suffering of cyclic existence, so that you can achieve the state of permanent bliss and happiness, the state of fully enlightened buddhahood.

Thus it is taught that in order to be successful in reversing strong attraction and attachment to cyclic existence, we must practice dharma. Through the practice of dharma we can reverse attachment to existence and gain more momentum toward liberation, to the point where we realize the state of permanent bliss and cease to return to samsara.

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Compiled under the direction of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche Vimala Publishing 2008

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]

Let us begin by considering limitless space. Then consider that just as space is limitless, so too are [...]]]>

[Adapted from an oral commentary given by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche in conjunction with a ceremony wherein he bestowed the bodhisattva vow upon a gathering of disciples at Namdroling in Bozeman, Montana, November 1999. ---Ed.]

Let us begin by considering limitless space. Then consider that just as space is limitless, so too are parent sentient beings.

Since beginningless time, every sentient being has been our own parent in a past lifetime, and every sentient being from each of those lifetimes only showed us inconceivably great kindness. We must recognize that. We must also recognize that we have obtained that which is so difficult to obtain: the precious human rebirth—and that we have met with the doctrine that is so difficult to meet: the doctrine of Lord Buddha. Recognizing these things, we must understand that the best way we can repay the kindness of all parent sentient beings is by placing every one of them in the state of fully enlightened Buddhahood. Therefore, (all of you here) please cultivate this aspiration. Having arrived at this critical juncture, you can now make your choice between samsara and enlightenment.

Now that you have obtained this precious human existence, you must extract its essence in order to make it meaningful. What makes this life meaningful is engaging with the spiritual path rather than just pursuing worldly activities for this life only, such as activities to increase wealth and material endowments or [activities to achieve] fame and personal gain. What makes this precious human existence meaningful is striving to realize the nature of this life.

This precious human existence is extremely rare. The following analogy illustrates just how rare it is: Imagine that upon the surface of a vast ocean floats a yoke tossed continuously by wind and waves. Within that ocean swims a blind tortoise that surfaces for air once every hundred years. Of course, it is possible for the tortoise to emerge with its head [passing] through the yoke that bobs on the surface, but the chances that this will occur are extremely rare. Obtaining this precious human birth is just as rare as the tortoise surfacing for air one time in a hundred years with its head [passing] through the bobbing yoke. Surely this [surfacing] is possible, but it is so difficult and unlikely that it is next to impossible. Obtaining the precious human birth is likewise difficult.

If you use your precious human body just to accumulate an abundance of negativity, then you will certainly fall to the lower realms. If you accumulate the nonvirtue to fall to the hell realm, for example, you could remain there for the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of years, for incalculable periods, where you would experience inconceivable suffering. Eventually your karma there would be exhausted, and you would make it out to the peripheral hells; from there you would eventually make it to the deprived spirit realm and then eventually to the animal realm. In all these lower realms you would experience nothing but suffering; furthermore, you would accumulate only nonvirtue, because not even the thought of virtue exists in these realms. That is why if you fall to the lower realms of existence, you will remain there indefinitely, circling from hell to animal to the deprived spirit realm and so on, endlessly. Very few [beings] actually have the good fortune to leave the three lower realms. Considering this, you will appreciate just why it is so difficult and rare to obtain human rebirth.

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” with a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Compiled under the direction of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche Vimala Publishing 2008

“When one has some little bit of quality or knowledge, one should not think pridefully ‘Oh, I am so great’. Then one’s quality and knowledge will degenerate, and in the future it will be even more difficult to give rise to these kinds of qualities and knowledge”

The previous #quote is from Kyabje HHPenor Rinpoche With [...]]]>

“When one has some little bit of quality or knowledge, one should not think pridefully ‘Oh, I am so great’. Then one’s quality and knowledge will degenerate, and in the future it will be even more difficult to give rise to these kinds of qualities and knowledge”

The previous #quote is from Kyabje HHPenor Rinpoche With thanks to Kenchen Tsewang Gyatso and PALYUL CLEAR LIGHT

THE STAINLESS ESSENCE TANTRA says: Merit accumulated from prayer. Offering, and making praises before the image of your Lama is infinate and countless. Merely seeing him cleanses bad karma; merely hearing his words generates positive qualities; merely rembering him merges your mind with his. That which is very hard to find in ten million eons is attained in an instant. All these qualities come from the Lama!

The Stainless Essence Tantra thanks to Palyul Clear Light.

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

I never cease being surprised when someone is personally challenged by my path, especially since I never try to convert them.  I don’t understand why it should bother one person what religion another person practices.  Or how one [...]]]>

HH Penor Rinpoche & Jetsunma in 1985

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

I never cease being surprised when someone is personally challenged by my path, especially since I never try to convert them.  I don’t understand why it should bother one person what religion another person practices.  Or how one person can take it as a personal threat when someone else doesn’t believe in their god.  I cannot for the life of me see where unity argues with diversity.  In fact, I think that a lot of the world’s problems, at least from the relative point of view, arise because people have no tolerance for one another.

Since I have listened to many people describe to me their heartfelt feelings about what it was like for them when I chose Buddhism, I would now like to tell you how it was for me when I chose Buddhism.  I think turnabout is fair play.

First of all, from my perception, there was never any conversion process.  There was never a time when I converted from something else to Buddhism.  The reason why is that since the time of my adulthood, I have never formally identified with any religion.  There was never a time that I felt that I was going to an external god; and yet I have a very spiritual and religious sense of there being a goal, a path and a reality that is absolute or true.  And I knew that that reality had no describable nature, that that reality was essentially free of all conceptualization, that that reality wasn’t a reality in a sense, because reality implies thingness.  I knew that there was something that was beyond; and that beyondness was free of any ideas of here or there, or high or low, or self or other.  It was free of any contrivance

I didn’t use the word emptiness at first because I didn’t know the word, but I used to think of it as being vibrationally zero.  That is to say, there was no artificial construction within it, no contrivance, no conceptualization.  I knew that any conceptualization or idea that one had was delusion.  And I knew that there was an awakened state in which one realized one’s nature, and that nature was essentially free of all limitation.  That nature is not separate, it is not other; it is not something that one must go to or even progress toward.  That nature is the true nature, and one needs to awaken to it, and that awakening occurs naturally.

In order to describe that philosophy, at first I had to use general metaphysical terms.  There were no other terms for me.  I never had anything to do with Buddhism.  I had never even read a book about Buddhism.  When I met His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and I began to hear about the Buddha’s teachings, my sense was not of changing at all.  Nothing of the Buddha’s teaching seemed strange to me.  From the deepest part of my heart, I felt that I had come home.  My sense was, “At last, here’s the vocabulary I’ve been looking for.  Here are the words that I’ve needed all this time to describe what I’ve been trying to teach.”  And so gradually I began to absorb and introduce the vocabulary into my teaching, because I already had students at that time.

Now Penor Rinpoche says that I’m an incarnation of somebody that used to be Tibetan 400 years ago.  I don’t really know if that’s true or not.  If Penor Rinpoche says what he says, then that is due to his wisdom and his kindness, and I can’t take any credit for that; and I have nothing to do with it, other than that I rely on it.  I feel like I am just an ordinary person and I’m doing my best.  I believe in the Buddha’s teaching.  I believe that compassion will save the world.  I believe that enlightenment is the end of suffering.  That’s what I know.

So I’m not going to pull an ego trip and say, “Oh, when I heard the Buddha’s teaching, I recognized it, I knew it, I remembered it,” in some hokey way.  I’m not going to say to you, “Oh, immediately upon hearing the Buddha’s teaching I came into my own, and therefore I knew all these amazing things.”  It wasn’t like that at all.  It was something like the joy you might feel if you recognized music that had been in your heart for a long time being played on the radio.  There was a part of me that could recognize this truth as being truth.  It wasn’t really a change.  It was more like finding the right suit of clothing for my size.  So if any of you are uncomfortable with the fact that I’ve changed, please don’t be; I’m certainly not.  I’ve always been a Buddhist.  I just didn’t have the words.

Now, I would like to tell you a little bit about what I felt in my heart when I found the Buddha’s teaching.  I felt humbled to have the opportunity to practice a path that has been around for more that two and a half millennia and that has brought people to enlightenment again and again and again.  Ordinary sentient beings, through the intensity of their devotion and their practice, have achieved not theoretical, but exacting, reportable and repeatable physical and psychic signs that indicate enlightenment, such as bodies producing relics at the time of death and other miraculous signs.  This has happened again and again and again to guys like you and me.

Sometimes I stop and I think, “What can I have possibly done to have this opportunity?  What good fortune has befallen me?  What circumstances have come together over ages and ages of time to give me this chance to practice a path that really works and has worked again and again and again?”

I am awestruck that I don’t have to follow someone’s advice who is not enlightened, because I am following the Buddha’s teaching.  The Buddha knows what he’s talking about because it brought him to the state of supreme realization, and it has produced enlightenment in so many beings.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on the first Guru Rinpoche Day of 2012:

Interesting isn’t it, how we tend to think only of ourselves, and not even realize it?

When His Holiness Penor Rinpoche passed to his Parinirvana I thought I’d never recover. But of course this [...]]]>

The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on the first Guru Rinpoche Day of 2012:

Interesting isn’t it, how we tend to think only of ourselves, and not even realize it?

When His Holiness Penor Rinpoche passed to his Parinirvana I thought I’d never recover. But of course this happens, and we do. We must.

I knew there must be a transition for the Palyul Lineage and that although His Holiness Penor Rinpoche prepared us all, some instability may happen. It showed me how loved and powerful he was/is.

He rebuilt Palyul in India after crossing the Himalayas, starting with many and landing with so few – His Holiness Penor Rinpoche made mud bricks himself.

He was, and is, Palyul, as are his Heart Sons.

And now His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche is on the throne. Great confusion for a bit, and how it’s all right as rain.

What I never expected was how precious a jewel he was to the very fabric of reality – to many of us, the whole world, communal karma, the very universe, (cannot personally speak to the other three million myriads of universes.) The fabric of our lives changed tremendously.

We have a jewel on Palyul’s throne now. Yet the Dharmakaya Buddha who sat before is glorious, peerless, beyond measure. And I miss him so much! And always will. How precious to know he is always with us.

Lord of my life, please return to us swiftly! I’m calling you! Not like a lonely toddler, but with the force of love and the yearning of a small flower for the glory of the sun.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo All Rights Reserved

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo all rights reserved.

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

Every great lama has yearned with sincere intensity for the Precious Teacher. How is it that some people have that yearning and others do not? Some people seem shallow and prideful. Others seem blessed with spontaneous devotion and love. What accounts for [...]]]>

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

Every great lama has yearned with sincere intensity for the Precious Teacher. How is it that some people have that yearning and others do not? Some people seem shallow and prideful. Others seem blessed with spontaneous devotion and love. What accounts for the difference? You may not believe it, but the key is discipline. The person who holds to the goal of realizing the Guru’s mind has the discipline to renounce the perceptions of the five senses and to see only with the heart of hope. Not ordinary, dualistic hope, but hope born of trust and faith in the Root Teacher. That takes discipline.

You may think you know the nature of the Root Guru, whose job is somehow to teach you. You may think that the person sitting before you, the one you call “Teacher,” will give you great teachings. Yet you fail to realize that you must cultivate that knowledge with your own effort. You think that somehow, if you try to practice—even though you continually go through your mood swings, your battles in life, and so on—it will all work out in the end. That is a foolish assumption.

This path takes tremendous, relentless, sincere effort. But it’s not just how many prostrations you do or how many hours you put into practice. You must cultivate in yourself a profound yearning. You must think: “If these five senses, pleasantly seductive though they may be, can convince me that I am a separate human being who has a right to hate and who wants to live in such a way that I will be born in terrible places—if these five senses can lie to me so that I am tricked into planting seeds in my own mind for endless future suffering—then I must with all my heart cultivate a yearning to be free of them and to take refuge in the one unfailing source.”

What is that source? Is it a thing? A person? A substance? The one unfailing source is the Root Guru, who embodies freedom from all sensory data and from all beliefs that relate to a separate ego-self. When all considerations of self are gone—when you rely not on the false guru of your five senses, but on the absence of hatred, greed and ignorance—that is the one unfailing hope. It is not within the potential of that nature to hurt you. In the relative world, the world of duality, there is nothing but the potential to hurt you. Everything you touch, see, or feel is impermanent, seductive, and illusory. It contains all the potential for creating the causes of suffering and death. It contains the justification for hate, for saying cruel and unkind things, for being crass, gross, or stupid, for caring only about yourself.

There is only one source of unfailing refuge—the Root Guru, the true face. The Root Guru is the Dharmakaya itself. Why then must we view the flesh and blood teacher as the Root Guru, as the undefiled, unchanging nature? Through the vehicle of that Teacher, you are offered the Dharma, the unfailing method to attain realization of your true nature—the ultimate source of refuge. Thus, the Teacher must be understood as a cornucopia, a feast of all things that will bring about salvation from suffering.

There is another level of understanding. Suppose we say: “I am the same as my Root Teacher. To find that out, I only need to go on a magical journey of discovery.” No matter how we disguise it with beautiful words, the very pridefulness which causes that declaration keeps us from genuinely prostrating. It makes our hearts rigid and stiff. That pridefulness keeps us from bothering to feel deeply, from having true devotion. That pridefulness and ignorance can allow you to come into the presence of your Root Teacher and not even think of Guru Rinpoche, not even think of true nature at all. That very pridefulness is what keeps you believing in self. Actually, you believe in self as well as hope for the truth of its reality. This keeps you clinging to self as a source of refuge, believing that if you could be strong enough, or smart enough, or just discover something wonderful about yourself, it would suffice.

The antidote is to recognize, from the depth of your heart, your own nature as inseparable from the Root Guru and as the true source of refuge. Without that realization, you will always suffer. You will desperately attempt to inflate your ego, thinking that the bigger and more powerful you are, the more easily you can overcome suffering by strength alone. One day, however, you will discover that you have not understood the causes of suffering. Look around you. Look at the most beautiful people in the world. Look at the most lovable people, the strongest and smartest people, even the most virtuous. They will all experience death. There is no hope until you take sincere refuge in True Nature, until you are willing to confront your own five senses, saying: “You have lied to me again and again and again.”

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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

The quality of joy is not as we usually think of it. Our culture teaches—though we may not be consciously aware of this—that to be happy, we should act happy. By developing a positive attitude, we [...]]]>

His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

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

The quality of joy is not as we usually think of it. Our culture teaches—though we may not be consciously aware of this—that to be happy, we should act happy. By developing a positive attitude, we will look happy and become happy. We are also taught to keep up with the Joneses. We are taught to get ahead—or be left behind. We expect joy to come from getting what we want.

The joy of which the Buddha speaks is vastly different. Once we realize equanimity, loving kindness, and compassionate concern—then, when we hear that someone has a new car, we will be happy for that person: he has attained at least some temporary happiness. There is no need for judgments such as: “Many people are starving, yet he spends so much on a new car.” Or: “He already has three cars. Why does he need a fourth?” The Buddhist attitude is: the happier you are, the happier I am. If even for one moment you have achieved some level of happiness, I should be joyful and think: “I love you so much I wish you could have everything that makes you happy. May your happiness bring you to a point of great stability and regard for others. May it afford you the generosity to wish for their well-being to the extent that you will attain realization. May that car somehow promote your realization, and may you be free of suffering in all its forms.”

This joy in the happiness of others can only be attained when equanimity, loving kindness, and compassion are realized. It is a joy that occurs naturally. It occurs from sincerely wishing for the happiness and well-being of all sentient beings, for the end of their suffering. To the extent that any degree of relaxation, peace, or alleviation of suffering is of any benefit to them, I am happy because they are the same as I and not separate from me. In other words, I realize that the nature of “me” and “other” are that same Suchness and have the same taste.   Without these four qualities, known as the Four Immeasurables, and the pure view implied by their attainment, there is no enlightenment. This attainment has not come easily to anyone. When you think about all the great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who have the means to liberate minds, remember that they all began as sentient beings. They all used the same methods that are offered to you. Through determination, you too will develop the Four Immeasurables. There is no doubt that they are within you.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Buddha taught that one of the most heinous crimes one can commit from the spiritual point of view is to proclaim oneself to be more advanced or spiritually competent than is actually the case.  Why that is is a very involved subject, but to understand it is [...]]]>

HH Penor Rinpoche & Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Buddha taught that one of the most heinous crimes one can commit from the spiritual point of view is to proclaim oneself to be more advanced or spiritually competent than is actually the case.  Why that is is a very involved subject, but to understand it is to better understand spiritual fidelity.

According to the Buddha’s teaching, cyclic existence is unbearable because it is pervaded with suffering.  Even the happiness that there is within cyclic existence is temporary.  And so we suffer from impermanence and cling to all manner of experiences.  This fixation on maintaining a permanent, continuing ego-self in order to feel safe causes all suffering.  According to the Buddha, self-nature is not inherently real.  Our true nature is the primordial wisdom state, which is free of all conceptualization, including the perception of self-nature.  It is clear, luminous and innately wakeful.  It is not empty and dark in the way we would think of nothingness, but it is simply aware with a non-specific awareness or wakefulness.  This is our nature — not the ego-self that we conceive ourselves to be.

According to this view, there is no being who is greater than another.  Even in the case of lamas who sit on thrones giving spiritual teachings, if they are truly realized, they do not consider themselves to be greater beings than anyone else.  In fact, their realization comes from realizing the sameness of all phenomena and the equality of all that lives.  Thus to think of oneself as being more advanced or greater than others is a falsehood.  Yet many people do have this idea.  And when they come here, they say, “You must know who I am and why I’m here.  I know I have a special mission.”  People have even written to me from across the country, asking me to recognize them as a tulku.  In the first place, I don’t have the authority to recognize anyone.  And even if I did, I would never recognize someone who asked for it.  Never.  In fact, I would pay the least attention to such a person.

Why?  According to the Buddha, the goal is not to become a greater or vaster ego.  The goal is to realize the primordial wisdom state, which is the same inherent nature in all sentient beings.  Anything that we build on top of that is false and actually takes us in exactly the opposite direction from the Buddha’s teaching.  True nature is innate.  It cannot be grown.  It will never be bigger or smaller than it is now.  It will never change, and therefore it cannot be manipulated.

So when people come here feeling that they have an honored place or a special mission, they are only contributing to the size and rigidity of their egos, and they must simply wait it out.  As a woman I know in Tennessee once said, “If it doesn’t come out in the wash, it will in the rinse.”  What you’re going to do, you’re going to do.  And if it is in accordance with the Buddha’s teaching, you will achieve realization.

The Mahayana path cultivates the desire to benefit beings and eventually leads out of the very self-absorption that causes the desire for special recognition.  Consider yourself merely a function of the Buddha’s kindness.  If you are transforming your life into being a vehicle by which sentient beings are benefitted, you really can’t be concentrating on the idea that “I’m helping you,” because then the “I” will become very inflated and the “you” will become dependent.  To prevent such obstacles, we must think about the inherent equality of all that lives — although our egos have various appearances, our nature is the same.  Thus we are completely equal, and anything but kindness is a waste of time.

According to the Buddha, we should apply the antidotes that purify our mindstream and perception and lead to enlightenment.  What are those things?  They are the things that we call meritorious activity: generosity, recitation, contemplation, meditation, prayer, offering, studying and teaching.  Over time, these activities will loosen the mind’s tight fixation on ego and one will spontaneously view the natural state.  Ultimately one will remain stable in that state, awake as the Buddha is awake.

The Buddha never said, “I am God.”  Nor did he say, “I am the Son of God.”  Or even, “I am here to help you.”  All he said was, “I am awake.”  Our job is to awaken to our true nature, and that is what we do.  Quickly?  Probably not, although with diligent practice, the Vajrayana vehicle can lead to enlightenment in one lifetime, or three, or seven.

Each of us walks through the door of liberation alone.  Each of us is absolutely responsible for our own awakening.  So to come to a teacher and say, “Please recognize me,” or “Please enlighten me,” is a little silly.  One should be humble.  One should study.  One should practice.  And however long it takes is however long it takes.

Students come to me and they ask to know the secret of the universe.  Here is the secret of the universe: work hard.  There is no other secret.  To attain the precious awakening one should purify the mindstream; one should make one’s life a vehicle for generosity.

Always think more of the welfare of others than your own.  Be honest.  Be courageous.  Look yourself square in the eye and get the big picture.  All sentient beings are the same.  They are equal.  There are no special cases.  All of us must cease this fixation on self-absorption in order to realize the natural state.

There is no excuse for not starting now.  If you think you’re not ready, get ready.  No one is ready.  If you think you’re not kind, get kind.  It’s a discipline to think of something greater than one’s own self-absorption.  Start small, with 10 seconds of pure generosity, caring only for the welfare of others.  When you get 10 seconds, move on to 12.  In a couple of weeks, try 30 seconds.  Then go for a minute; that’s a year’s worth of work.  Pretty soon you’ll be thinking an hour.  And after a while it will become a habitual tendency.

If you find yourself backsliding, don’t be surprised.  That’s the nature of samsaric existence.  Be patient with yourself; do the best you can, give yourself a break and don’t let yourself get away with murder.  Those are my three cardinal rules for following the Path.

In closing, let me connect this with spiritual fidelity.  One is true to oneself when one is honest, when one faces that one is a samsaric being involved in cyclic existence and is no longer shocked or ashamed or surprised at that.  So it is.  This is where we start.  But you should start with honesty, courage and responsibility.  You are responsible for the humility that you have within your mind, the honesty and devotion you have toward the Three Precious Jewels, which are the very display of enlightenment itself.  Apply discipline and work hard.  Be worthy and be true.  This is spiritual fidelity.

©Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo