Tibetan Buddhist Altar » love

Keeping Love Alive

Jetsunma — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 12:30:08 +0000

From a series of tweets by @ahkonlhamo

Love. It is CRAZY! We won’t open up our hearts. Then when we do, we guard the feast jealously. We grieve when adversity appears.

If we try to kill it, it is US that dies. We ARE love. Starving heart does foolish things- grows fangs, hardens, says, “AH! Screw you!”

But still we LOVE! Don’t put the LOVE to bed. Have courage. Even if beloved is as angry as a deranged wildcat. Step back. Wait. Love differently.

Without Love we dry up and are gone. Gone. Not gone beyond, either. Just gone. If only we could remember what this costs us!

To have a heart full of LOVE and a belly full of NOTHING is a kind of death. Don’t go there. If you have, don’t stay there. Love is LIFE!

Speaking Of Love

Jetsunma — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:30:09 +0000

A teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo (via @ahkonlhamo)

Why do I speak of LOVE? Because I AM in love! With the sublime Bodhicitta- the truest, purest life beyond life LOVE. Fill the earth! Love.

My daughter is not adopted, she is cherished and LOVED! My dogs are not rescued, they are gifts. They rescue ME. Our flock is no burden. Our flock is a joy, a beauty, sentient beings that need love and teach us to FLY. We are filled with the JOY of helping others!

Happiness cannot be known by those who have no Bodhicitta in their hearts, no LOVE. May all be healed by sublime Love!!!

Light of Compassion

Holly — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:35:36 +0000

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

Somehow you have found yourself in this fortunate, amazing position where this feast of possibility is laid before you. How did you come to this point? How is it possible that you have this option? You must have done something right in the past, and I suggest that you now build on it. If you don’t cultivate the mind of extraordinary compassion and such a burning love that compassion is the most important force in your life, then the natural inclinations of a mind filled with desire will overcome you. This is Kaliyuga, the age of degeneration, and that’s how it is. You must practice and cultivate that mind of compassion, of love, so thoroughly that you are moved to the core by even the faint possibility that you might achieve liberation in order to benefit beings. You think of nothing else. You must cultivate that until you burn with it. Don’t be afraid of that kind of love.

In the West we are taught, “Be cool. Hey, I’m an intellectual, I don’t think like that. I’m kind of special.” That’s what we’re taught, that’s our value system. That is the same value system we will take to our graves, and only the selfishness of that kind of idea will survive, not the intelligence. There is one thing that will survive this life, and will create the karma for your next life. It is the purity of your mind and the degree of love that you have accomplished. This will be the determining factor for how you will return time and time again in a form that will benefit beings until someday there is no more suffering.

Bring the Love

Jetsunma — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 13:11:03 +0000

Thousand Arm Avalokiteshvara Mandala

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

All Dharma, your practice, your teachers, and everything you have ever encountered that has brought you closer to enlightenment—is only one thing: a manifestation or an emanation of the enlightened, compassionate intention of the Buddha. That is why this path appears and why we are able to practice Dharma. If you wish to follow this path, abandon your drunken, compulsive need to be right, approved of, admired. You must rely on the Buddha’s great intention. And after you finally arise in the awareness of your own primordial-wisdom nature, you will of necessity appear again and again to benefit beings. For it is the nature of that state to do so. That pristine state appears in an emanation phase—a spontaneous, natural movement that we may call love.

Who stops the love? You do. Every moment you believe that you are inherently real, you stop loving. Every moment you focus on your “self” and its needs, you stop loving. As your churning desire compulsively creates a deluge of thoughts, you stop loving. As long as you hold on to a “self” and the idea of its eternal existence, you will never be anything but a cheap imitation of the supremely awakened mind. I asked a wonderful yogini in Nepal, “What would you say to women in America who are practicing?” She said, “Well, this applies to everyone, but especially to women. Have courage.” Your practice is meaningless—it amounts to nothing—unless you have courage. You must be strong. You must not let anything stop you. With that fearlessness, you can break through the lethargy in your life; you can break through the barriers that keep you from practicing sincerely; you can even break through the old ideas that keep you mired in garbage. You can understand that by believing in a surviving, eternal ego, you are following a fool off a cliff.

You Are

Jetsunma — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:25:29 +0000

You are the Light of my life

The beat of my heart

The breath of my body

The song of my speech

The rapture of my mind I love you.

You are the core of my Samaya

The truth of my accomplishment

The nectar of my mind

The warrior of my method

The bearer of my LOVE

You are my blazing one

You are beloved Sun

You are a candle light

To warm me through the night

You are my feast, my Fire

You are my SHINING ONE

You make me come undone

You dance within my sight

You make me feel it right

You make me see your face

I see it when you move about

I’ll be your friend I’ll shout you out!

I’ll get you there

If you can go.

Using Twitter to Bring Love & Stop Hate

Jetsunma — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:03:39 +0000

I am so happy to see #stop the hate moving with the speed of #LOVE and #LIGHT! RT and keep it going!

Twitterverse is the perfect place for kindness and loving support! So #stop the hate!

Friends made in Twitterverse are true treasures. So much #LOVE is shared so #stop the hate!

When hateful people cause heartache cut them off or read them the news. #stop the hate!

When people rant with hateful views, invite them to change or shut up. And #stop the hate!

When you see Tweets filled with hate and slander, tell them you stand up for #LOVE and #stop the hate!

When Twitterverse is used for negativity and slander and meanness we ALL lose! So #stop the hate!

#Stop the hate. And #BRING THE LOVE! We have the power, let’s use it!

Some people are ill, and live and breathe to hate. Show them a better way and #stop the hate!

Some people are chronic haters, and rage is all they know. You need not join them! #stop the hate! #BRING THE LOVE!

It is difficult to reform a hater. They are broken inside. But you are not, so #stop the hate! #BRING THE LOVE!

Will you foul your own nest? Excrete where you eat? #stop the hate! #BRING THE LOVE!

Did you ever think the people would have the power? Together we can #stop the hate! And #BRING THE LOVE!

Feed a starving world! Heal the people! Now is the time, here is the place! #BRING THE LOVE! And #stop the hate!

Let’s refuse to accept hate! And honor only love! Keep it going! #stop the hate! #BRING THE LOVE!

Let’s have a revolution of compassion! #stop the hate! #BRING THE LOVE! RT!

Here is a teaching you did not ask for

Holly — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:59:30 +0000

A teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Try to believe in the Love….that the Love that exists is

Absolute. It never varies, it is unchanging. You did nothing

to deserve it and you cannot destroy it. It is your belief in the

Love, your acceptance of it, this changes from moment to

moment, circumstance to circumstance, tossed about on the

waves of your emotions.

Let your heart fall deeper under the surface to where the

waves seem very far away. There you will find it, and me.

Make a samaya now to go deeper every day, to diligently

travel to that calm place where the sands do not shift at all.

You never asked for this! Only for what is temporary,

turbulent, based on a self that you have only imagined. Learn

to ask for what is true. That you will be answered is certain

because the answer is already accomplished.

Beneath the waves it is already there.

I am with you again, still, always.

I do love you.

Written as a birthday gift for a student September 20, 1986 in Poolesville MD

Compassion in Action – Part 11 (final)

Holly — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 17:40:52 +0000

Excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

To truly understand the mind of compassion is to understand suffering. To be willing to cultivate aspirational compassion and act in accordance with those aspirations, so that you fully intend to liberate your mind from the causes of suffering and fully intend to return in whatever form necessary in order to benefit beings. In so doing, you’re on your way. Whether you call yourself a Buddhist or not, kindness is a universal term. No one’s got a corner on it. Compassion is not a word that the Buddha invented.

I am a Buddhist because I found this religion is the most useful way to benefit beings. This is my own determination. If you also determine this for yourself, then continue to do what you’re doing. Perhaps you’re heading towards studying Buddhism, or perhaps you are already studying it. But if you don’t want to become a Buddhist, that doesn’t let you off the hook! You still have to live a life of compassion. No matter what path you’re following, compassion is the only way to realization. No matter whom you’re listening to, hatred, greed and ignorance are the causes for suffering. There is universality about all this. Whether you call yourself Buddhist or not, you still have a job to do. I suggest doing it by first cultivating the firm foundation of fervent aspiration to be of ultimate benefit, and by having the courage to look at the content and meaning of suffering and determining how best to overcome it.

Compassion in Action – Part 10

Holly — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:39:44 +0000

Excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

Now, when we talk about practical compassion, it actually occurs on two levels. There’s a universal level, in the sense you care so much for all sentient beings that your goal is to do whatever is necessary to eliminate suffering for them all. But does that mean that if you see a hungry child you shouldn’t feed him? Or does that mean you shouldn’t be kind in an ordinary, human way? Ordinary compassion, ordinary human kindness is very important. But in understanding the Buddha’s teaching, it shouldn’t be the only thing you do. You have to live an ordinary, virtuous life, but you have to live an extraordinary life as well. The activity of kindness and compassion should have both a universal and an ordinary level.

On the other hand, I don’t believe in ‘idiot compassion.’ Have you ever heard of idiot compassion? It is when you look at people who are needy and you see them going through their stuff, and you try to be so kind to them and give them what they need, or what they say they need. You actually don’t help them because you increase their dependency. You increase their willingness to tell you how much they need. You’re just helping them along; you’re playing with them. So I don’t believe in idiot compassion because it doesn’t help them. I believe that sometimes, real compassion has to be harsh.

In Buddhism, you see as many wrathful deities as you do peaceful deities. Why is that? Is it because the Buddha is half mean and half nice? I don’t think so. It’s because sometimes compassionate activity has to be a little wrathful. Sometimes it has to be a little aggressive. It depends. If you really are pure and your determination is to really be of benefit, and not just to be a nice guy, after training yourself in this way, you’ll know what to do. You won’t get hooked on idiot compassion. Everybody likes ‘feel-good’ stuff, but that doesn’t always help. You should, however, be a human being of virtue. You should be kind. You should be honest.

Compassion in Action – Part 9

Holly — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 17:38:09 +0000

Excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

Everything that you do should have meaning. It’s important that your life be understood as a vehicle for practice. It’s the only thing that is meaningful: to make this life, which is so rich in opportunity, a vehicle by which you can come to benefit beings. This is the development of aspirational Bodhicitta. Every time you do something good, use that opportunity to dedicate it to the liberation of all beings. If you pat a little child on the head and it makes them smile, that’s a good thing. So you must think, “I dedicate the virtue of this action to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.” If you give money to somebody, pray, “I dedicate the virtue of this act to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.” You should continue like that in everything that you do. Make up your own prayer. You don’t have to use mine. Dedicate everything that you do so that it might go on, and grow, and be of use to benefit beings. Wean yourself from empty activity, activity that is useless and meaningless. Wean yourself from the need for ‘feel-good’ junk. Learn how to live a life in which your only concern is to liberate beings from the causes of suffering, because doing this is the only thing you can really feel good about. You aspire constantly through these prayers. You really train yourself to do this, and it should never stop.

After you are stable on the path of aspirational compassion, you have to think about concrete or practical compassion. You don’t forget aspirational compassion, saying, “Oh, I did that for a little while when I was a younger practitioner.” You should never stop. Never. I will never stop, and you should never stop. That’s not baby stuff. That’s the real stuff. Then you expand this to include practical compassion.

First you have to decide that the Buddha was right. You look at the Buddha’s teachings and you say, “If he’s right, then I have to think of some practical way to eliminate hatred, greed and ignorance from the world and from the mindstreams of myself and all sentient beings.”

Based on that you begin, and your practice should be deep and true. If you choose to be a Buddhist, the path is laid out, and the path is secure. It goes all the way to supreme realization. If you choose not to be a Buddhist, you still have to find a way to live a life of practical compassion, based on the goal of rooting hatred, greed and ignorance out of the mindstreams of yourself and all sentient beings. You should think that reciting many prayers on a regular basis for others could be of use. You should think activities that cause you to realize the emptiness of self-nature and therefore eliminate desire from your own mindstream would be of benefit. And that, finally, free of desire, when you are truly awake, as the Buddha said, you can go on to benefit others. You should be determined to liberate your own mind, and you should pray every day that you will return in whatever form necessary in order to liberate the minds of all sentient beings.