Tibetan Buddhist Altar » practice

Medicine Buddha Prayer and Technique

Jetsunma — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 00:15:26 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a translation by Sarah Harding:

Short homage to Buddha Men’a:

CHOM DEN DEY
I bow before

DE ZHIN SHEK PA
The Vanquisher, Tathagata

DRA CHOM PAR
Conqueror of enemies,

YANG DAG PAR
Completely pure and

DZOK PAY SANGYE
Perfect Buddha

MEN GYI LA
Menla,

BHE DUR YA
King of Lapis Lazuli

ÖD KYI GYAL PO LA
Radiance

CHAG TSAL LO

MI GYUR LHUN PO KU YI TRA SHI SHOG
YEN LAK DRUG CHU SUNG GI TRA SHI SHOG
THA DEY DRAL MED THUK KYI TRA SHI SHOG
GYAL WEI KU SUNG THUK KYI TRA SHI SHOG
NE DIR NYIN MO DE LEK TSEN DE LEK

NYIN TSHEN TAG TU DE LEK PA
KÖN CHOK SUM GYI TRA SHI SHOK
TON PA JIG TEN KHAM SU JÖN PA DANG
TEN DZIN BU LOB GEDÜN THÜN PA YI
TEN PA YÜN RING NEY PEY TRA SHI SHOG

Medicine Buddha Technique

1. Be relaxed and comfortable. Do the muscle relaxing technique.

2. Check for five emotions that will cause distractions:

Attachment
Anger
Resistance to change
Self importance
Envy

3. Decide what you want to accomplish, for yourself and for all sentient beings:

Physical problems
Psychological problems
Spiritual issues

4. Construct the type of Medicine Buddha you need, the Buddha you need, the Buddha holding a plant in the right hand and a bowl of nectar in the left. For physical problems, the plant symbolizes curative medicine, the bowl preventative medicine. For psychological or spiritual issues, they represent wisdom and compassion, respectively.

5. Visualize the Doctor, holding the symbols, four feet in front of you.

6. Visualize the problem: ask permission to activate the practice.

7. The Medicine Buddha receives healing power (white light) from all trained sentient beings. Rays of light beam from the Medicine Buddha’s heart to the crown of your head. Breathe in white light and breathe out the problem, three times.

8. When you are cleansed, gain confidence in your own healing ability; reduce your dependence on an external deity. You will feel a sense of accomplishment independent of an external deity; hold that feeling as long as possible. Recite the mantra:

TAYATHA OM BEKAZHAI
BEKAZHAI MAHA BEKAZHAI RADZA SAMUGHATAI SOHA

The Nature of the Path

Jetsunma — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:30:58 +0000

The following is an excerpt form a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Commitment to the Path”

I like to see students start off kind of smallish and grow bigger in their practice, because I think that is more realistic. The best way to start out our practice is to understand what Dharma is trying to accomplish—what are the faults of cyclic existence and what are the results of practicing Dharma—to get a clear idea of that so that we can see for ourselves that this is a beneficial thing, so that we don’t have to argue with ourselves further down the path when it’s not appropriate any more.

So these teachings that I would like to give you are designed to get you to progress. They are made to get you somewhere. You are not meant to stay where you are on the path. One progresses and that means change. You know, that scary word. So we have to ask ourselves then: What is Dharma engineered to do? How does that change take place? What does it look like? What does it mean?

Well, first of all, look at something that is not Dharma. Look at whatever sense of spirituality or religion you have that is not Dharma. If we look at the ideas that we have generally as a culture about spirituality, spirituality is like salt. It’s a condiment, a little ketchup on the hot dog of life. It’s a flavor, but it’s not nourishment. It doesn’t give you what you need every moment of every day necessarily, unless you yourself find a way to relate to that faith so strongly.

With Dharma, it’s a different story. You don’t ever have to feel your way around. You are never walking around in gray zone. You can do practice. You were taught how to increase your knowledge and your wisdom. You go from one practice to another to another to another through the different levels. You can move through them according to your habitual tendency and your karmic propensity. So there is something exacting, something like a method.

The reason why is that Dharma is not meant to act as a barbiturate, to calm you. It’s not Valium. It’s not meant to soothe you and make you feel more comfortable. It’s more like if you could imagine your life as being a dark room, like any other room—filled with furniture. And it’s very dark. You can’t see a thing. This is kind of your life as a sentient being, because we really don’t come into this world understanding anything about cause and effect or how to make ourselves happy. We come into this world unknowing, with only habitual tendencies. That’s all we come in with, deep habitual tendencies from previous experiences.

So in a way, our lives are like this dark room, filled with obstacles. By now, now that we’re getting a little long in the tooth, we know there are obstacles. We’ve had them. Some of them, anyway. Doubtless there are more to come. So we think of our life like this room with furniture in it and you’re supposed to get from the birth door to the death door successfully and make some progress in the meantime. Well, if it’s pitch black and there are all these things in the room, the chances that you are going to walk through without knocking yourself into oblivion are pretty slim. So the way that Dharma works is it forces you to turn on the lights. You have to look at obstacles. You have to look at what is in that room. With another kind of faith you might think that the best thing to do is think positive and be positive and plaster good thoughts on your head. You know, just try to be kind of upbeat and make the best of everything. All good ideas. But when you are stumbling through a pitch black room and there is a lot of furniture in there, you are going to trip. And no amount of positive thinking is going to get you through that room successfully. No amount of positive thinking is going to keep you from entering that last door. Nobody has done it yet through positive thinking.

So Dharma’s tendency, rather than act like a soother or a barbiturate or something that is calming, Dharma turns on the light. Dharma says, “Look folks, here is what’s happening.” You are born, but you don’t remember how you got here. There are uncountable cause and effect relationships since time out of mind that have formed into habitual tendencies and karmic propensities. And here you are born as a child. How did you get those parents? How did you get in this world? How did this happen? That’s what I said when I woke up as a kid. What’s wrong with this picture?

So we find ourselves here and we’re kind of helpless. That’s one of the teachings that the Buddha gives us. That in truth, we are all the same and in our nature we are exactly the same; but in our ordinary appearance as sentient beings, we are in a state of confusion. We do not understand cause and effect relationships, because we can only see this present lifespan. We have had so many lifespans to give rise to causes in an amazing amount of time, since time out of mind. So we have no understanding of this.

Dharma teaches us that all sentient beings, while we are the same, and while we are wandering in confusion, have one thing in common and all of our activity is geared towards that. And if you think about it, you know that it is true. Even when we are doing for others, until we really have given rise to compassion, we’re always trying to be happy. It’s natural. The organism wishes to be balanced and at peace, happy. But we don’t understand what balanced and at peace is. So we keep grabbing for stuff. Yet Lord Buddha teaches us all that we are suffering due to desire. It’s not that you don’t have something that makes you suffer, but your reaction to the not having it…that is most of the suffering.

Merit & the Karma of Happiness

Jetsunma — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 13:30:26 +0000

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.

The Mountain of Burnt Offerings

Jetsunma — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:31:36 +0000

The following is from the Nam Cho Daily Practice Book from Palyul Ling

Seven-Line Prayer to Guru Rinpoche

HUNG In the northwest country of Uddiyana,

Born in the pollen heart of a lotus,

Endowed with the most marvelous spiritual attainments,

You are renowned as the “Lotus Born.”

Surrounded by a retinue of many Dakinis

Following in your footsteps,

I pray to you, please come forth and grand your blessings!

GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG

The Mountain of Burnt Offerings is Herein Contained

OM SWATI

“The Mountain of Burnt Offerings” is an instruction taken from Lhatsun’s “Vidyadhara-Achievers of Life Force.” To do this practice, prepare some auspicious things such as good quality wood, incense, medicine, and three white and three sweet substances, flour etc. Place them inside a clean container or hearth; light a fire and sprinkle them with clean water.

First Refuge

OM AH HUNG

Of all the refuges in samsara and nirvana present throughout space, the quintessence

Is the power and wrathful vidyadhara, Pema To Treng Tsal.

The phenomenal world is totally perfected within his body as a Buddha mandala.

We take refuge so all beings may cross over unenlightened existence.

(Repeat three times)

Bodhicitta

We generate Bodhicitta on the ground (alaya) of the sphere (bindhu),

The supremely secret, clear light and ultimate wisdom.

So all beings may purify the three obscurations,

And attain the spontaneously self-perfected bindu of body, speech and mind, and through the four spontaneous visions, attain liberation in the youthful vase body.

(Repeat three times)

Seven Part Suppliation

I pay homage to the continuously present and unmodified nature of pure presence (rigpa.)

I offer the clear light, freedom from depths and limits.

I confess within the vast expanse, the equality of samsara and nirvana.

I rejoice in the great wearing out of reality, freedom from conception.

I ask you to always turn the wheel of dharma, the great perfection,

And to churn up the depths of samsara.

Free from the limiting three conceptions, I dedicate this to reaching the far limit.

Self-Visualization

From the dimension of primordial ultimate reality and the unceasing potency,

In Pema To Treng: white-reddish body, youthful and handsome.

The brightness of his noble symbols and marks are blazing, holding vajra and kapala,

Perfectly adorned with majestic ornaments and garments.

Imagined form and wisdom are not separate; the form embodies all enlightened beings,

The great splendor of everything within samsara and nirvana.

OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG

(Recite mantra many times)

RAM YAM KAM

Based on emptiness, the burnt substances are transformed into inexhaustible amrita

That emanates throughout space massive clouds of vast desirable qualities.

(Bless with the three syllables, the repeat the treasury mantra three times:)

NAMA SARWA TATHAGATE BHAYO BISHO MU KHE BHE SARWA THA KHAM UTGA TE SAPHA RANA E MAM GA GA NA KHAM SOHA

Inside a vast container made from the essence of vajra jewels,

Objects pleasing to the senses of mundane existence, the samaya substances,

Blessed by the three syllables become wisdom amrita.

Offering clouds pleasing to the senses swirl throughout the phenomenal world.

These are offered to the lamas, yidams, dakinis and Dharma protectors;

To however many Buddha mandalas there are in the ten directions;

To our other guests, the Dzambuling lords of the land, the six kinds of beings and those to whom we owe karmic debts;

Particularly to those who steal life and life force,

Those who send illness, elemental spirits who stir up obstacles,

Those who send bad signs and indications in our dreams and send all kinds of bad omens,

The eight types of demons who are masters of malevolent magical projections,

Those to whom we owe karmic debts of food, housing and wealth,

Demons who are masters of obscurations, demons who cause insanity, male and female ghosts,

Demons who cause fatal accidents, demons who take the essence of health and wealth, other demons who live in cities, all male and female demons.

As the red flames burn, karmic debts are paid back.

Whatever is desired arises as desirable qualities.

As long as there is a sky,

We form the intention that these desirable qualities be inexhaustible!

The negativities and obscuration we have accumulated in the three times

And our incorrect use of offerings to the three jewels or for the benefit of the dead,

Are purified by the flames offered in this burnt generosity.

Each flame is an atom containing the entire phenomenal world.

Inexhaustible masses of Kuntuzangpo offering clouds.

Thoroughly permeate the pure realms of all Buddhas.

Flames radiate offering clouds of five-colored wisdom lights,

Pervading the six realms of existence, even the worst hell realm (Avici,)

The three planes of samsara are liberated in the luminous form of the rainbow body.

May all beings awaken to the very heart of enlightenment.

OM AH HUNG

(Recite the three syllables 100 or 1000 times etc, and then:)

In an immeasurable container, the three dimensions of existence (kayas,)

The ultimate, blissful and manifest form aggregates of the phenomenal world

Melts into amrita, filling space with rainbow lights.

This inexhaustible, quintessential amrita of samsara and nirvana,

Since forever and until now,

Is totally dedicated to our guests in the phenomenal world.

Having perfected the levels, paths and fruition qualities,

And having completely dispelled the obstacles to view, meditation and action,

Within the dynamic space-like dimension of Kuntuzangpo’s realization,

May we attain the immortality of the youthful vase body.

When the great ocean of samsara is empty,

May we awaken in Akanishta, land of the lotus nets.

Aggregates and elements are burnt substances blazing radiantly and brilliantly.

White and red bodhicitta are burnt substances blazing blissfully yet non-substantially.

Emptiness and compassion are burnt substances pervading the dimension of real existence (dharmadhatu.)

Within the phenomenal world, in the ground of the five vajra lights of samsara and nirvana,

We offer the burnt substances of spontaneously self perfected and complete enlightenment.

May all previous karmic debts be purified.

May they not remain in our present stream of being; we openly admit our errors.

In the future, may we not experience cyclic obscurations.

As to the vows and trainings of the pratimoksha, bodhisattva and vidyadhara paths,

And the many kinds of secret mantra commitments (samayas,)

We openly admit all breeches committed consciously or unconsciously.

May all illness, demons, obscurations and impurities be purified.

May the times of plague, famines, and weapons be pacified.

May the times of foreigners invading the central land be averted.

May the obstacle of the guru being invited to manifest Dharma elsewhere be averted.

May inauspicious bad omens for the country of Tibet be averted.

May the planetary forces, nagas and king-like spirits who take away our life force be repelled.

May the eight great fears and sixteen lesser ones be averted.

Where ever we live, may all inauspiciousness be averted.

May the power, strength and energy of demonic forces be repelled.

OM AH HUNG

When accumulating, start again from “Drung”

At the End:

May all the Buddhas be pleased with these offerings.

May the minds of the oath-bound ones be satisfied.

May the desires of the six kinds of beings be satisfied.

May our karmic debts and debts of the flesh be purified.

May the two accumulations be completed.

May the karmic traces of the two obscurations be purified.

May the two sacred dimensions be attained.

Through the power of this vast and great generosity,

May we become self arisen Buddhas for the benefit of beings.

May all beings who were not liberated by previous Buddhas,

Be liberated through this generosity.

May the elemental spirits who are living here or visiting,

Living on earth, under it, in the sky or wherever,

Always be loving towards beings,

And practice Dharma day and night.

Through this virtue may all beings

Perfectly accumulate merit and wisdom,

And from this merit and wisdom,

May they attain two sacred dimensions.

Not clothed with exertion and effort,

May it happen auspiciously that the wish fulfilling tree,

Fulfill the hopes of beings,

and accomplish their intention.

(Thus recite the words of auspiciousness and dedication.)

This practice is known as the diamond practice. It can prolong life and remove obstacles, particularly those with unpaid karmic debts. This was revealed in Sikkim, the secret hidden land, to Namkha Jigmed by the dakinis who revealed it to him as the practice which opens the gate to the secret land.

Understanding Our True Nature

Jetsunma — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 23:10:57 +0000

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Here we are in Barnesville Maryland where it is really pouring hard. Bird feeders just filled so seeds will clump. At least the little guys can stay dry in their little birdie houses. Too bad we don’t have a “Sunflower Seed Tiny Pizza” delivery service. And a tweetie bird to share with!

But I digress. Mostly on days like this I feel so bad for those without comfortable homes be they birds or humans. So wet out and chilly! For so many life is a constant struggle, and eventually it is lost. That is the condition of sentient beings, without exception. Even if we are now comfy, dry and nourished it may not be the case later. Health can fail, bank take the house, no food. So we are all the same in our needs and are the same in our nature. We all have this potential for Buddhahood and yet we cannot say we are all enlightened, awake.

Think of Buddhahood as a clear crystal, pristine in every way. But crystal can vary, in size, shape, and it can get dusty and dirty. One can spill their soup with it. Take it to unclean places. Then the appearance of the crystal is different but it’s inherent quality is still the same undefiled nature. We can mess up our crystal in uncountable ways, yet our Buddha nature remains. Under the dust, soup, grime it remains pure. Nothing to fix.

Yet when we look at each other we see mostly grime, dirt, dust and rotten soup. That is because we ourselves lack the purity to see it in others. Our own crystal is dirty and soupy and everything is distorted. Some even say they got instant enlightenment, no fuss, no muss. Then why are Buddha-like qualities not seen? Why is there still hatred, grasping, ignorance? Why the meanness and petty arguments? Could it be the work was not done, practice not serious, and your crystal nature is still filthy from shallow non virtue? Well, unless your instant enlightenment was in a tub of Windex I bet there is a lot yet to do. But if you insist that perfection is already yours, that you have the “great accomplishment” without actually accomplishing anything – well go ahead. It is your time to waste until death and then there is no time at all. At that time our own eyes will tell the story, and all will be revealed. Just as it is.

What Drives You to Practice?

Jetsunma — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 13:30:13 +0000

An excerpt from a teaching called Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Some of you show up for practice because you think your teacher will get mad at you if you don’t. So you make yourself visible. Some of you show up for practice because you’ve got to get it in today. When do you do practice because you are sick of delusion? When do you do it because you are sick of death? When do you do it because you are sick of watching sentient beings suffer and yet are helpless to help them? When do you say those prayers so deeply that your heart and your mind are purified of delusion and of hatred, greed and ignorance, so that your heart and mind are so deepened that you will absolutely incarnate in such a way to benefit beings?

The single most abundant deepening quality that you all have is your great love and desire to help others. If that’s the ticket with you, ask yourself if you really want to help others or if you want to look like you are helping others? Sometimes I think people want to look like they are helping others so they can be a nice person. As soon as you’re finished with that and you decide that you really help others because you really can’t bear to see their suffering and are finished with watching people suffer, then use that.

Why do you just practice by the book? Why don’t you walk around the temple and make prayers constantly, visualizing the refuge tree; walk about the living quarters of your Lama and the temple itself and the Sangha that’s in it saying, “In this way, let me follow you forever. In this way, let me always revolve around the Three Precious Jewels. In this way, let me be born under whatever circumstances to help sentient beings,” making these profound and sincere prayers. Maybe you can break through into depth.

Walk the Talk

Jetsunma — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 12:30:32 +0000

An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhism Differs from Other Religions by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The most glorious thing about the Buddha Dharma is that you don’t wait for a blessing outside of you for permission or the grace to ascend to the heavens for no apparent reason. That’s the great thing about Dharma. It’s real. In the Dharma you are given the tools that you need to change the circumstances of your life, and to change the condition of your consciousness as well. And the way that that happens of course is through our practice.

The difference between our own religion, which is basically a non-theistic religion and other religions, is that other religions see a blessing from outside. They wait for a redeemer who will make it okay no matter what their activity is. For instance, in my family my stepfather was Catholic, and he was an alcoholic and would beat us mercilessly. We were brutalized as children. It was a terrible situation, but then we’d all tromp off to confession. Free and clear by Sunday afternoon. So, I don’t have a good feeling about that, because they were never required to change. Even the parish priest knew that my mother was getting the stew beat out of her all the time, and he would recommend confession.

We Buddhists are not like that. We believe and understand in the relationship between cause and effect. You can’t murder a handful of people and then confess and accept Jesus as your savior and be okay. We don’t believe that. You can’t accept Buddha as your savior and be okay. You can’t accept me as your savior and be okay. You have to walk the talk. You have to walk the path, and you have to practice.

Your conduct matters a great deal. What’s in your mind matters even more. And if as you practice your path your joy increases and it smoothes out for you, you know you’re getting somewhere.

In the Buddha Dharma we do not wait. We understand that there are the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas, and we are taught that there was Shakyamuni Buddha, Vajrasattva, Amitabha, and Tara. We’ve got all these different statues, and they are symbols of the Buddhas. Do they actually exist? Yes. Can you pray to them? Sure. Are they separate from you? No. That’s the difference.

Extraordinary Technology

Jetsunma — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 12:30:11 +0000

An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhism Differs from Other Religions by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Let’s say that a practitioner has dedicated their lives to practicing everyday for the sake of sentient beings, for the happiness of sentient beings. Maintaining their samaya or commitment practice very purely, practicing everyday for the sake of sentient beings. That’s extraordinary compassion. Even though you are doing it here on earth, the method for doing that did not come from the earth. It came from the realization and the awakening of the Buddha. If not for the Buddha’s awakening, the technology would not be here. And so it’s extraordinary compassion. And as we progress along the path, the first thing that we do is to practice ordinary and extraordinary compassion. These are the two feet of the path. This is what gives you the ability to go the distance. If all you’re concerned about is yourself and your own delusions and illusions and your own BS, and really not out there for the sake of sentient beings or doing your practice every single day for the sake of sentient beings, then you’re not there yet. And that’s why we call it practice.

Nobody comes here ready to fly. Nobody. If that were the case, you wouldn’t need to come here. But you come here with a taste. There must be some old habit in you, some karma. Something that you’ve given rise to in the past that puts you here in this moment. I beg you to take advantage of it. Because in order to get to the point where you can sit at the feet of your guru, and listen to the precious Buddha dharma, and then go to New York and hear His Holiness teach the precious Buddha dharma, you must have made so many wishing prayers, and must have done so much virtuous conduct in the past. And if your path goes smoothly, then you know that you’ve done it before. And if you give rise to the Bodhicitta, then you are not a stranger to it. And this is how we know where we’ve been, and what we were like simply by looking at ourselves.

If we’re poor, we didn’t give enough. If we’re sick, we did not see to the welfare of others or caused them harm. If we are mentally incapacitated, then we caused someone or many people mental suffering in the past. Those that die young have either killed others young or caused others to die young. So these are the things that we are looking for and these are the things that we can overcome by practicing the Buddha dharma. It can be overcome.

The Seed of the Buddha Nature Within

Jetsunma — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 12:30:19 +0000

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.

Practicing Recognition

Jetsunma — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:30:11 +0000

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.