A Teaching by Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

When one begins to understand some of the ideas that are presented in Dharma, one realizes that the goal that we are engaged in “moving toward,” if you’ll forgive that bad choice of words, is actually Buddha Nature itself. We tend to consider that the path is like a thing [...]]]>

A Teaching by Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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

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

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

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

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

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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

As a teacher, sometimes I’ve had the opportunity to bring a student to task, to say, “Look, you’re all spaced out.  You’re working hard, you’re going through the motions, but you’re not practicing.  There’s no inner practice happening here.”  The first thing that [...]]]>

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

As a teacher, sometimes I’ve had the opportunity to bring a student to task, to say, “Look, you’re all spaced out.  You’re working hard, you’re going through the motions, but you’re not practicing.  There’s no inner practice happening here.”  The first thing that the student will do is get defensive, and the reason why they’ll get defensive is because they’re dancing as fast as they can.  A student will look at me and say, “Well, what the hell do you want?  I’m dancing as fast as I can.  In the way that I understand, I’m working real hard.” I won’t argue that with you, not for a minute.  You’re right. You’re dancing as fast as you can; you’re working really hard; but the difference is you are not practicing recognition.  Even if you spend two hours a day practicing and then you leave it to go live the rest of your life, that is still a state of non-recognition, and you are not truly practicing.

What is required here is a deeper understanding, a deeper awareness, and a more profound grasp of the realities that we are facing.  Once again, our habitual pattern is to say, “Oh, this person is doing this and that person is doing that and that makes this person like this and that person like that.” but the way to practice is to understand that these things we see are the all-pervasive faults of cyclic existence; this person that you’re seeing is like a bee in a jar, just hitting the glass, boom-boom-boom-boom-boom.  Does the bee know what’s going on?  The bee is trying to fly.  The bee is trying to do what bees know how to do, but being in a glass jar, like samsara, all it can do is bash its head against the glass.  There’s no way for that bee to figure its way out.  That is the condition of samsaric beings, and awakening to that recognition is really the only way that we can give rise to the bodhicitta, give rise to compassion.  Otherwise we are simply acting compassionate, which means, “I am the star of the show.”  We are still in that deeply deluded state.  We’re just acting differently, but acting is still acting.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

An excerpt from a teaching called Compassion, Love, & Wisdom by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

One of the techniques commonly practiced on the Vajrayana path is generating oneself as the Deity. When generating as the Deity one actually arises in a pure form, a form that is free of desire, a pure and fully enlightened form.  Through [...]]]>

An excerpt from a teaching called Compassion, Love, & Wisdom by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

One of the techniques commonly practiced on the Vajrayana path is generating oneself as the Deity. When generating as the Deity one actually arises in a pure form, a form that is free of desire, a pure and fully enlightened form.  Through mantra and visualization and recitation you allow yourself to arise naturally in a form that is an enlightened form and is considered a form of the Buddha.  Arising in that pure state the mind is free of all the impurities such as desire and conceptualization and of the things that it does, and all perception is then seen as pure as well.  We visualize the perception in a pure way and come to understand that the perception we have is innately pure. From that a natural purification takes place.

Many techniques are used and the result of these techniques is the wisdom we seek, not the techniques themselves.  We are not collecting techniques.  We are not collecting empowerments, we are not collecting things.  That is not the wisdom.  The wisdom we seek is the result of the pacification of constantly arising desire within the mindstream.  It is the pacification of the mind expressing itself in an impure form.  It is the pacification of the results that we constantly experience of erroneous belief.  That is pure wisdom.  Having obtained that wisdom one is actually liberated from cyclic death and rebirth.  How is that?

Well, we have this idea about what happens. You collect all this wisdom and then some guy shows up. It’s probably going to be a guy, because guys are big this year.  This guy shows up and is probably going to wear white.  Don’t you think that white is good?  I mean in this culture we think about white a lot so he is going to wear white. He is going to show up and he is going to say you have accumulated enough wisdom and now you are – sounds like Bill Cosby doesn’t it – and now you are fully enlightened.  I bet it is Bill Cosby.  So now you are fully enlightened and having been fully enlightened then I am going to take from you the need – now I am beginning to sound like an evangelist – now I am going to take from you the need to reincarnate in some future existence.  We have some kind of dream that something like that is going to happen:  we will be anointed and we will have stars on our crown and all this kind of thing.  According to the Buddha’s teaching that is not what is going to happen.  I am sorry.  The Hallelujah chorus is a beautiful piece of music, but they are not going to play it when your moment comes, so don’t be waiting for a sign like that.

When we talk about the kind of wisdom that is necessary to accomplish the awakening that is so treasured and so desired, we talk about the elimination and pacification of all things that produce the causes of cyclic existence.  The Buddha says that we actually take rebirth in a compulsive way and that compulsion is based on desire.  When that desire is eliminated and pacified because the nature, the true nature, is understood and the belief in self as being inherently real is done away with, that very cause for us to take rebirth in this compulsive way is gone. There is no necessity to take rebirth.  However, the Vajrayana path contains all of the Mahayana hopes and ideals; we achieve a state of realization that is ultimately of benefit to all sentient beings, not only ourselves.  Having achieved that stability of mind, the realization of the natural state through practice, having poised ourselves on that pristine moment of pure cognition, that which is called innate wakefulness and yet has within it no conceptualization, we then can choose to return again and again and again in an emanation form in order to be of benefit to sentient beings.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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

As long as the idea of self exists, self will experience other with either attraction, or repulsion. There is no other way to experience other. Whether it’s subtle or not, even if you are a proponent of New Age philosophy, and are [...]]]>

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

As long as the idea of self exists, self will experience other with either attraction, or repulsion. There is no other way to experience other. Whether it’s subtle or not, even if you are a proponent of New Age philosophy, and are supposed to love everybody and have unconditional positive regard towards others, if you could really examine your mind with determination, courage, innocence and willingness, you would discover that you are either attracted to or repulsed by everything you see, no matter how you gloss it over. No matter what you say, the karma is still forming. That is how the consequences of one’s life actually manifest: through that constant inter-reactive relationship, through that interplay, through attraction and repulsion, through desire. That’s how it’s possible for you to be born. That’s how it’s possible for you to do things you feel uncontrollably forced to do.

Even if we are so convinced that we know all of these teachings, don’t we still get into trouble? Don’t we find that we react to circumstances in a way that is not skillful? Don’t we, in fact, on an on-going basis make everything worse? I mean, it’s true, if we are honest with ourselves. Every time we react, we make things worse. Even when we can’t see that we’ve made things worse, I’m telling you this is the truth: we are constantly compounding the karma of our own minds. Even if in retrospect, we could see that we should have been loving, and we should have been kind and good, blah, blah, blah, blah, still, we are compulsive about it. We are what we are. We are ‘feeling junkies.’ We are hooked on sensual experience. And we react to it.

What then is the answer? If all of this is true, and desire is the foundation of all suffering, then what if the Buddha is right? What if all of suffering comes from the belief in self-nature? Will it do to pacify our minds with positive thinking? Will it do to walk around with the idea or the New Age philosophy saying, “Oh, I’m already enlightened because I understand I am the creator, or one.” I’d have to say you’re talking about two selves there. You’re talking about ‘creator’ and ‘I,’ and so long as there is distinction, so long as there is the belief in self-nature, you still have desire. You still have attraction and repulsion. You still have hope and fear. You haven’t gone yet into a deep and profound understanding of the emptiness of self-nature. Of course, we have to do that through meditation. There is no ordinary language or ordinary experience that will teach us that profound understanding.

The best thing to do, actually, is to find a qualified teacher who can begin to help you, not only in terms of giving you the words – the verbal teachings – but also some kind of virtuous or valuable energy transmission. On the Vajrayana path, that is done through the transmission of the lineage. The teachings on the nature of emptiness, the teachings on the generation-stage practices, all of the different teachings that we receive here, are passed down through a lineage. That lineage originates in the mind of enlightenment, in the primordial state. It then is transmitted to us. It doesn’t stop there. The minute we receive an empowerment, we’re not going to instantly become enlightened. I wish it were that easy, but it is not. At that point, we are qualified to practice, and it is through the practice and our meditation – with the help of the transmission of the lineage – that we will achieve results.

Copyright ©  Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

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

You are able to practice because you had the karma to receive teachings. Merit has come to the surface of your mind; good karma is ripening. But linked with some of this ripening merit are some bubbles of not-so-good karma. So what happens? You [...]]]>

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

You are able to practice because you had the karma to receive teachings. Merit has come to the surface of your mind; good karma is ripening. But linked with some of this ripening merit are some bubbles of not-so-good karma. So what happens? You sit down with the intention to practice, but now you’re just too tired. You start to fall asleep. Or you decide that you need to do some other things. You externalize what you think are the causes for your inability to practice. Maybe you even begin to doubt that you’re happy in the Dharma. You wish you were surfing in California, and this thought is like a little rat, gnawing in your head. It gnaws at you slowly and steadily.

You need to understand that good karma is ripening, but some negative karma is linked to it. Embedded in your mindstream is some non-virtuous activity associated with the intention to practice. Now you have repeated that pattern, in seed form, and it will ripen in the future. Sometime in the future, you will again sit down with the intention to practice, and you won’t be able to do it. So the sensible thing to do is to persevere, to push through as well as you can. Understand that your tiredness, sleepiness, and other excuses have no basis. They are puffballs.

When you find yourself making excuses why you are unable to practice, why you don’t really want to hear the teachings, the best thing to do is to break through by accumulating merit. By doing virtuous things. Study Dharma. Pray. Practice kindness and generosity. Meditate. Contemplate the teachings. Try to understand them more deeply. Be attentive. Make offerings. Repeat the Seven Line Prayer many times. Repeated with faith, it is an antidote that can end all your suffering. It can, the teaching says, lead to enlightenment. All these things are ways to accumulate merit. You must understand how merit (and lack of it) works, or you will have a difficult time maintaining potency on the Path. It will even be difficult, on an ordinary level, to have a good life. For you won’t have any way to understand what is happening to you. You will always blame external things, other people. It is true that when you encounter misfortune, other people are usually involved, and you may well have some mixed karma with those people. But the karma arises within your own mindstream; it isn’t somewhere outside.

Pull out of your addiction to reaction. Think of your mind as something like a mechanism, and you yourself as a mechanic. Understand that you can work with its levers, pulleys, and gears. To most people, their own minds are a mystery, a complete mystery. And they search for someone who can understand them.

What should you do? Persevere in your practice. What else? Create more merit. The big mystery of “me” is solved. Almost reluctantly, too, because it’s so lovely to remain a mystery. It’s so pleasant to think that there is something mysterious, special, and unique about us. How often we try to obtain something that seems just out of reach. Or we have it in our hands, and it slips away. What is going on here? Lack of merit, of course. And yet we keep on reaching and grabbing and forcing, all in vain. Sometimes we think we have made something happen by forcing it. And yet, we have merely rearranged our karma. The basic problem remains unsolved. Suppose you want a new car, but the cost is just out of reach. Both merit and lack are coming to the surface. Even if you contrive to get the car, you will still have, ripening, some non-virtue associated with lack. That lack will always show up somewhere—with the car itself, or in your relationships, your health, or in missed opportunities. So the key, whenever you lack something, is to accumulate merit.

Some people are unaware that it takes merit to be happy. Have you ever noticed that some people just seem to be happy, no matter what? And others … well, happiness seems to elude them. And it’s because there is no karma of happiness, no karma of having made others happy, ripening in their minds. You can’t even lighten them up with a joke. They just don’t have any happy bubbles ripening to the surface. “How are you today?” you ask them. “Not so good,” they reply. “Umm … Nothing seems to go right.”  But if we haven’t got the karma for happiness, whose fault is that? Who did it to us? Someone else? No, but it’s a problem we can fix. The problem is within our own minds. We can create the karma of happiness by creating merit.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Here are some online practice supports for Dharma students

Twitter

@ahkonlhamo – Musings and tweachings by Jetsunma

@kunzangpalyul – Kunzang Palyul Choling updates on practices, events, and other news

@palyulmedia –  Updates about webcast teachings and teachings available at palyulproductions.org

@kpcstore – updates on new Dharma product arrivals at [...]]]>

Guru Rinpoche

Here are some online practice supports for Dharma students

Twitter

@ahkonlhamo – Musings and tweachings by Jetsunma

@kunzangpalyul – Kunzang Palyul Choling updates on practices, events, and other news

@palyulmedia –  Updates about webcast teachings and teachings available at palyulproductions.org

@kpcstore – updates on new Dharma product arrivals at the Mani Jewel Store

www.tara.org – Find out about Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, Kunzang Palyul Choling and its many activities and schedule of events, the Palyul Lineage, Buddhism and Buddhist Practices, and live broadcasts

www.PalyulMedia.Smugmug.com – A photo gallery of Lamas, Deities, and activities around Kunzang Palyul Choling and the Palyul family.  Downloads are free.  You can also order prints.

www.Ustream.tv/PalyulMedia – watch video teachings

www.youTube.com/KunzangPalyulCholing – watch short teachings and music clips

www.PalyulProductions.org – an online source for video DVDs, audio MP3s, audio CDs of teachings, practice books in book form or downloadable PDFs, as well as other Dharma supports.

www.JetsunmaMusic.com – Listen to Jetsunma’s music, read her poetic lyrics, and enjoy the music blog

Mandala Messenger – Sign up for KPC’s regular newsletter to find out about upcoming events and sangha news

www.kpcstore.org/– Online store for Dharma supports

KPC’s bookstore – Dharma books

www.stupas.org – beautiful images and descriptions of Stupas

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, [...]]]>

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

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

Happiness is a habit to be cultivated from within. Our minds are habitual but like a rider on a horse you must direct it.

Like a gardener we must cultivate good qualities. Why follow anyone with poor habits and bad qualities?

Good qualities and habits: [...]]]>

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

Happiness is a habit to be cultivated from within. Our minds are habitual but like a rider on a horse you must direct it.

Like a gardener we must cultivate good qualities. Why follow anyone with poor habits and bad qualities?

Good qualities and habits: attitude of gratitude, generosity, compassion, selflessness, right thinking, understanding of cause and result…

Don’t get caught in the trap of judgment – criticism, whining, neediness, selfishness, sloth, greed, and mindless unhelpful chatter.

What is your work? Is it in line with your morality, beliefs, conscience, does it help others? Is it honest work? These things really matter

The mind really is like a muscle to be used and developed. But so is the heart. Ethics are extremely important!

We make peace within ourselves, it does not visit, we cannot catch it. When our elements are in balance we are peaceful.

Anger, violence, grasping, fearfulness, ignorance, hatred, constant desire- these are some habits that keep us unbalanced.

If we have poor habits and qualities we also have no self esteem. And we go further into the chaos of falsity and lies. Crazy!

In short; be a proper gardener! Pull the weeds of bad habit and quality and plant the seeds of loving kindness! You will BLOOM!

Follow Jetsunma on Twitter to see teachings as they happen:

Dear Dharma Friends, I am delighted to introduce this new site, Tibetan Buddhist Altar. It is my hope that it will offer those who are traveling, those who are home bound, those in hospital or ill a way to stay connected to the Buddhist Sangha.

One can always establish a sacred space, anywhere. [...]]]>

Dear Dharma Friends,
I am delighted to introduce this new site, Tibetan Buddhist Altar. It is my hope that it will offer those who are traveling, those who are home bound, those in hospital or ill a way to stay connected to the Buddhist Sangha.

One can always establish a sacred space, anywhere. In fact, one can practice meditation anywhere- inside, outside, on a bus, in a plane- everywhere.

The way to begin is to familiarize oneself with images that work as a support for one’s practice.

For example, we have all seen images of Buddha. There are many styles according to different cultures- but the image is universally recognizable. So here we are all ready familiar with an image of support for meditation. The idea is to become comfortable with and strong in visualization.

On this site we will offer enlightened images for your use and consideration. And for contemplation and prayer. Happily, as one studies, these images become more and more familiar and easier to visualize.

We will also learn to build one’s own altar. How to pack a small box altar for traveling.  How to respect and care for holy objects. And learn simple meditation.

If one wishes to recite mantra, we will learn how to string a proper mala, or set of prayer beads. So we will be taking some big first steps on the path of Holy Dharma.

We will also create sacred space by learning how to cleanse, purify, and bless one’s home.

Not everyone lives near a Buddhist Temple or knows a Buddhist Master.  But one can always do some kind of meditation practice.  We on this site are hoping to help.

We will begin with offering these precious and extroadinary images so that one can now begin to study, contemplate, and remember. Then we will build a “cyber altar”. We will show the very simple, and the very elaborate so one will have many choices and a large, inspirational library.

Please feel free to download these images, enjoy, and learn.  Learn the Buddhas, the Stupas, the enlightened Lamas- so precious to our hearts and practice.

It is so necessary to receive the blessing of a truly qualified Master to ripen the potential of one’s mind. To receive that blessing from a living Master is a treasure- and so necessary for real practice. I am fortunate to have studied with HH the third Drubwang Pema Norbu Rinpoche. He has sadly recently passed- but was considered a true living Buddha. His image, and that of other highly realized Lamas will be shared for the benefit.

I will regularly offer teachings, guidance and advise.  Although this site is just now being developed we will eventually have an “ask the Lama” section. And a section where one can meet long-time practitioners and dialogue with them. Their experiences are invaluable.

Until next time, then. I very much look forward to this new avenue to learn, and to connect. May all the blessings of the Holy Dharma be yours!

In Faith and Friendship,
Jetsunma
Ahkon Norbu Lhamo
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T