Tibetan Buddhist Altar » samaya

Keeping Heart Samaya: Full Length Video Teaching

Jetsunma — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 16:01:46 +0000

The following is a full length video teaching called “Keeping Heart Samaya” offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Ending the Guru Yoga retreat, Jetsunma talks of the responsibilities on the part of the student and the teacher to continue the connection between them.

The Root of Accomplishment

Jetsunma — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 18:58:58 +0000

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

Always walk in the footsteps of Lord Buddha, Guru Padmasambhava. And of course, never break root samaya with Tsewei Lama, it’s the greatest downfall. Breaking samaya with one’s root Guru leads to the utter incapability to truly accomplish, and one is forced to play “Guru” on a path self-made. Useless.

If one puts oneself as high as the Tsawei Lama, or feels oneself superior, one will lose their way and practice as a demon. Bad result. Otherwise, if one mixes one’s mindstream with the Guru’s, all accomplishment and qualities of Guru Padmasambhava, through pure practice and devotion, can be attained in this life.

Samaya and Guru Yoga

anisonam — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:30:42 +0000

The following is an excerpt from “Dakini Teachings: A Collection of Padmasambhava’s Advice to the Dakini Yeshe Tsogyal”

“Lady Tsogyal asked the master: How severe is the misdeed of breaking
the master’s command?

The master replied: The misdeeds of the three levels of existence do
not match even a fraction of the evil of breaking the command of your
master. Through this you will take birth in the Unceasing Vajra Hell
and find no liberation.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: How should we regard the master
possessing the oral instructions from whom we request teachings?

The master replied in verse:
You should know that the master is more important
Than the buddhas of a hundred thousand aeons,
Because all the buddhas of the aeons
Appeared through following masters.
There will never be any buddhas
Who have not followed a master.

The master is the Buddha, the master is the Dharma,
Likewise the master is also the Sangha.
He is the embodiment of all buddhas.
He is the nature of Vajradhara.
He is the root of the Three Jewels.

Keep the command of your vajra master
Without breaking even a fraction of his words.
If you break the command of your vajra master,
You will fall into Unceasing Vajra Hell
From which there will be no chance for liberation.
By serving your master you will receive the blessings.”

Caring for the Precious Sangha

Jetsunma — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:29:28 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

As a student, one of your responsibilities is to uphold and protect the Sangha, one of the Three Precious Jewels. The way that works is this. The Sangha is one body. If one part of the human body goes sour, if there is some negative consciousness rattling around somewhere – and nowadays even doctors know that there is some connection – the body will develop a cancer. If even one part of it has become disorganized, then the whole body becomes sickened. So the Sangha’s responsibility to one another is virtuous conduct.

By virtuous conduct I mean that in the Sangha there should never, ever be gossip and slander. NEVER! I cannot say this strongly enough. If there will ever be a time when the Buddha’s teachings are destroyed, it will be from the inside because there is nothing on this earth, other than Buddhist practitioners, that have that power. If the Buddha’s teachings and their purity are ever destroyed, it will be by Dharma practitioners committing non-virtuous acts. Gossip and slander that are harmful and disruptive to the Dharma community is a heinous crime because the Sangha is like a beautiful, virtuous, supreme and exalted body; not an ordinary body, but a body that leads to liberation, a body that walks to liberation, a body whose sole purpose is to bring about the liberation of all sentient beings. This is purity itself. This is truth itself. If instead of upholding that truth by keeping samaya with the Lama, the Sangha instead engages in this kind of non-virtuous conduct, this cancer is created. This is such a heinous crime because of what is lost. Where else in samsara can we find such great benefit as from the Sangha or spiritual community? Where else will such help and support come than from the Lama’s extended body, this pure activity in the world? So because something very pure and precious has been harmed, the weight of the crime is very great.

I particularly have a strong dislike for gossip and slander. I have seen what kind of harm it can do in religious communities. Even in the ordinary context in this day and age, gossip and slander have gotten to be so stylish and so outrageously prevalent and hip that we don’t even seem to mind closing down our government so that we can do it. We don’t seem to mind paying any price, including completely disrupting the responsibility between people in office and the people they serve. Not to say that any of these things that are said aren’t right, but this kind of gossip has become such a thing, such a fad. In other religious communities as well as Buddhist communities, it is a general religious phenomena. But there is always gossip and slander. It seems to be that if people think a teacher is pure, other people have to knock that teacher down. Or if people think a particular faith is pure, other people have to gossip about it. Why does it have to be that way?

As far as I am concerned, if you bring gossip and slander into this community, which is the Lama’s body, being the Lama here, I take it very personally. If you bring gossip or slander into this community, you are wrong, wrong because you brought it. Even if the story you are telling is right, you are wrong because what we are doing here by creating gossip and slander, is to harm the body of the Sangha, and there is a breakage of samaya. We have not upheld the three objects of refuge.

Now, of course, if there is ever a problem with misconduct on the part of any religious leader, anything like that, we hope that those who are engaged in this conduct will turn to their teachers and receive spiritual guidance. But the antidote to that is support and compassion. The antidote to that is not the hatred, disease and sickness of gossip and slander. That only harms the body and creates a cancer in the Dharma community. So part of the samaya between students and teachers – and I will tell you that if I could legislate that it would be 100 times as strong here – for any of you who are truly committed to being my students, you must cut out gossip and slander from your life immediately, whatever it takes. Purify that non-virtue. Stop now. You help no one and you harm yourself. It brings nothing but unhappiness.

The Mystical Bond

Jetsunma — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 12:30:05 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

The Lama, being the condensed essence of all three objects of refuge, is also considered to be inseparable from the Dharma. The Buddha is like the Lama’s mind in this case. The Dharma is like the Lama’s speech. So as a student, together with one’s Lama, one takes on the responsibility of learning Dharma. It really isn’t enough to go around and say, “I have a Buddhist teacher! Oh, I have a Buddhist teacher! This is very good!” And feel really happy about that. That is great. I hope you do feel happy about it, but it is not enough to do that and no more because it really isn’t that valuable to have met with your teacher, which is really very precious, if you do not follow the Buddha’s teaching, which is the Dharma. Otherwise, what you are doing is coming to the temple to be entertained once a week for roughly an hour and a half, or longer, if you engage in other activities. So a relationship where only entertainment occurs is really not that valuable. You can get that from Blockbuster. You don’t need a Buddhist teacher for that.

What you need a Buddhist teacher for is to connect you to the method, the Dharma, which is the Buddha’s speech. You need a teacher so that you can travel on this path in order to accomplish the supreme result of liberation. So the second commitment that the student must make to the teacher is to practice and learn Dharma, to maintain a healthy spiritual interest in Dharma and that means, once again, reflecting on the Buddha’s foundational teachings–realizing the faults or flaws of cyclic existence. Then we practice a kind of renunciation that makes us eager to drink the nectar of the Buddha’s teaching for our self and for all sentient beings. We begin to develop the mind of compassion. For our self and for all sentient beings this Dharma practice represents the end of suffering, so we are eager and pleased to learn Dharma, to learn to think like a Dharma practitioner. That is the second commitment.

The Lama, as the condensed essence of all three objects of refuge, is also considered to be the Sangha. The mystical relationship between the Lama and the Sangha is quite profound, quite beautiful. The Sangha is like the Lama’s body in that the Sangha has the samaya, or the responsibility, of holding or anchoring the Buddha’s teachings in the world in the same way that the Lama’s body, or appearance or presence, establishes the Buddha’s teachings right here, in the world. Teachings are here in the world, being conferred here in the world. The Sangha becomes an extension of that appearance.

Here in this Sangha for instance, primarily the ordained, but other Sangha members as well are trained as umdzes, or chant leaders. We have the chopön, who handles ritual objects during the puja. The Sangha are all well-trained, and all of them have different jobs. We have archivists who keep our books in good, healthy order and keep them in a respectable and clean place. There are many, many different functions, and these are all considered extensions of the Lama’s body. This is the Lama’s wheel of activity. The entire Dharma community then is the Lama’s extended body or wheel of Dharma activity. So the mystical bond between the Lama and the student is closer than one’s own breath, more essential than one’s own essence, more relevant than one’s own mind, speech, body, anything.

As the Lama’s body, the Sangha also has a certain responsibility to one another, and this responsibility is a very important part of the samaya or commitment to the Lama,. Remember, there is the responsibility to uphold and propagate the Buddha’s teachings, to follow and learn more about Dharma, the responsibility to uphold and protect the Sangha, and the responsibility of the Sangha to be the extension of the Lama’s activity.

Unconditional Love

Jetsunma — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:30:45 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

When we consider the student’s relationship with the teacher on this path, we are talking about very high stakes. We are not talking about a student-teacher relationship in order to get through a six week course. We are not talking about a student-teacher relationship with which to graduate with so many credits from college. We are talking about a student-teacher relationship wherein the end result is the ultimate fruit or jewel, the crown of cyclic existence, that is, the potential or capacity to enter into the door of liberation and be free of suffering at last. These are enormous stakes.

So both parties in the student-teacher relationship have to take that relationship very seriously, very seriously. I know for a fact that the teachers regard the students with great seriousness. Their love for the students is unconditional. Once that student-teacher relationship has taken place, the teacher has become, for the student, Guru Rinpoche’s appearance in the world, Lord Buddha’s appearance in the world. Once that happens, there is a love there or a bonding that cannot be undone by anything in the world. There is nothing in the world that can take Lord Buddha’s blessing, Guru Rinpoche’s blessing out of your heart. Nothing can do that.

Even if the students themselves were to act in a very inappropriate way, breaking the samaya bond, acting out of accordance with what the teacher has taught, even committing really negative actions like harming the teacher in some way, it is always the truth that if the student were to make restitution, were to turn their face towards Dharma again and truly wish to accomplish Dharma, and wish to separate themselves from their previous non-virtuous acts, the teacher would immediately respond to that. There is no question.

As parents we do that with our children, don’t we? Sometimes children will do pretty bad things, throw baseballs through windows, knock the cookie jars over, and really much worse things. So even though these acts may occur, the parent will always accept the child again. The parent will not stop loving the child. It may be true that there is a difficulty there, a burden, a strain, a suffering, but that is your child. A good parent would never turn their face away from their child just because their child made a mistake. Parents know that children are immature with very little discrimination. They are learning, and it’s the parents’ job to teach them. Exactly the same with the student and the teacher.

The teacher knows that students are sentient beings. According to the Buddha’s teaching, all sentient beings are suffering. They all wish to be happy, but they do not know how to make the causes of happiness occur. They don’t understand cause-and-effect relationships. So isn’t it to be expected that mistakes will be made? Of course mistakes will be made. It’s only reasonable and logical. So the teacher would never hold it against the student. That relationship is like the Buddha’s compassion, all pervasive, beginningless, conditionless, without end. That is the nature of that love.

So when we look to the student’s commitment, or samaya, to the teacher, we should look to see the same depth, the same bonding, the same beauty in that commitment as well. And that commitment should be a joy on both parts. Less the flavor of duty and responsibility than the flavor of love. The love between the student and teacher is like the Buddha’s compassion.

Heart Samaya

Jetsunma — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:30:44 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

We’ve talked about the commitment made by the teacher when accepting a new student. What about the commitment by the student to the teacher, the samaya between the student and the teacher? What is that all about? There must be some kind of reciprocal relationship. Obviously the teacher cannot insist on the student’s progress without the student’s willingness. The student has to be willing to follow Lord Buddha’s teachings, has to be willing to accept the objects of refuge as their true refuge from the sufferings of samsara. So there is a reciprocal commitment that is required.

It is extremely important that the teacher maintain their ethical and moral responsibility to the student. That is to say, the teacher honors the student and thinks of the student with such high regard and such respect that actually it is said that a pure teacher will consider the student to be worth more than their own safety or comfort. In a sense, they hold the student up in the same way that a parent holds up their child, not necessarily as superior, but as vitally important and cared for. Any of you who have been parents know that in a dangerous situation, before you think of your own safety, if you have that bonding and love with your child, you’ll think about the safety of the child first. That is always the case. And when the mother hears the cry of her baby child for food, she doesn’t say, “I am not ready to feed you now. It’s not convenient for me to feed you now. I have no wish to feed you now.” Instead, the mother wants to answer the child’s call as though the mother were filled with milk and the child were very hungry. It is very instinctive and very natural.

So the relationship occurs in that way on the teacher’s side of the fence. Now what about the student, what is the student’s part in the equation?

Well, there are certain teachings and certain rules that one must follow, but I don’t like to think of them as merely following dogmatic rules. I like to think of this samaya, or this commitment, as a samaya of the heart. Something that is deep and profound, instead of like a cheap and gaudy display. It doesn’t burn hot like paper, quick and then gone. It burns deep and slow like good strong hardwood or even better, good strong coal-something that burns hot for a long time, steadily without interruption. This is how the relationship between the Guru and disciple should be.

When the student learns about the samaya they are keeping with the teacher, they should hold that samaya not so much as a duty and responsibility but more as a jewel, just as the teacher holds the student as a jewel. So that relationship then is considered precious, valuable, from the heart. Not a methodical thing, not a thing done by rote, not a thing done blindly without any understanding, but a deep and pervasive samaya or commitment that is a heart connection that ultimately enhances the practice and the level of accomplishment that comes from practicing Guru Yoga.

When the Teacher Meets the Student

Jetsunma — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:30:43 +0000

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Keeping Heart Samaya”

Guru Yoga is a very important, very fundamental aspect of the practice of Vajrayana. When a student and a teacher come together, following in the footsteps of Guru Rinpoche as he taught, the relationship between the student and the teacher is upheld by the teacher in a very profound way. Once the teacher accepts the student as their very own and takes them into their heart and actually into their body, speech and mind, it is the teacher’s commitment to bring blessings and benefit to that student, not only in this lifetime but in every future lifetime.

The student then becomes extremely important to the teacher, in that the teacher, upon accepting the student fully once that relationship has been established, promises to return lifetime after lifetime in whatever form is necessary in order to be of benefit to that student. So there is a heart commitment or heart “samaya.” When the teacher looks into the face of the student, the teacher says to the student or thinks to the student in their heart and in their mind, “I will not abandon you. I will not abandon you to remain alone in cyclic existence.”

So, the commitment is that the teacher promises to see the student through until supreme realization. This then becomes a “samaya,” or commitment, that lasts life after life, from life to death, from life to death, from life to death. Again and again and again this relationship returns. There are many stories about how lamas, recognizing their students or seeing their students from the time before, whatever that time might be, feel great joy at seeing the face of the student again, tremendous joy, as though seeing and having the opportunity to nurture their beloved child once more. And this is a very beautiful and happy thing.

Shining Lake of Crystal Tears

Jetsunma — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 13:30:31 +0000

Arya Tara, Noble One

We bow down to your Lotus Feet

And beg you to remain enthroned

On the Lotus Throne within our hearts

We, your daughters and sons

Offer you the essence of whatever purity we may possess in the three times

Please accept the nectar of our pitiful practice

Please bless the potential of all our hopes and aspirations

And guide our lips and blind eyes

To suckle at the breast of the Sublime Bodhichitta

Mother Tara, protect us, now and at the time of our death.

Sooth and cleanse our minds of the sickness and fever of worthless distraction.

Hear us, Holy One, even though our very voices are tainted

With fear and slothfulness, weakened by Samsara’s spell.

Oh Mother, when we have caused you sorrow

How will you then appear for us in Nirmanakaya form

Through endless aeons for our sake –

How, Mother, will this occur

When our hearts and minds turn inward

With darkness and lack of caring for the suffering of others?

Oh Mother Tara, Holy One, Perfect One

We are lost.

Now more than ever darkness comes

And we are overcome with our weakness and poor view.

Yet you remain for us

Blessed Mother, Holy One, this very day

We make our hearts and minds your home

We beg you to come in glory

And to remain with us

With your Supreme Beauty, Sublime Power and Faultless Light

Until we are inseparable

And Samsara is emptied

Colophon: Written by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, August 24^th, 2004 Sedona, Arizona, when one of Tara’s daughters herself had fallen under Samsara’s dark spell