The Vajra Master: from “Dakini Teachings” by Padmasambhava

The following is respectfully quoted from “Dakini Teachings” by Padmasambhava as translated by Erik Pema Kunsang:

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: If a master himself has not been conferred empowerments and he gives them to others, will they receive empowerments or not?

The master replied: Although you may be appointed by a charlatan to the rank of minister thus entrusted with power, you will only meet with misfortune. Likewise, although you may have an empowerment conferred upon you by a master who himself has not received it, your mind will be ruined. Moreover you will destroy the minds of others and go to the lower realms like cattle yoked together falling into an abyss. Carried away within an iron box with no exits, you will be sent to the bottom of hell.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: Isn’t the offering of a gift when receiving empowerment just something you yourself have invented?

The master replied: All the teachings and tantras explain that at this present time when you have obtained the fortune of a human body after being on errant paths for innumerable aeons, you should, free from the three spheres of concepts, offer your body, life, and spouse to the master who shows the path of unexcelled enlightenment.

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 rebirth 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.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: Which is more important, the master or the yidam deity?

The master replied: Do not regard the master and the yidam as different, because it is the master who introduces the yidam to you. By always venerating the master at the crown of your head you will be blessed and your obstacles will be cleared away. If you regard the master and yidam as being different in quality or importance you are holding misconceptions.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: Why is it important to practice the yidam deity?

The master replied: It is essential to practice a yidam deity because through that you will attain siddhis, your obstacles will be removed, you will obtain powers, receive blessings, and give rise to realization. Since all qualities result from practicing the yidam deity, then without the yidam deity you will just be an ordinary person. By practicing the yidam deity you attain the siddhis, so the yidam deity is essential.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: When practicing a yidam deity, how should we meditate and practice in order to attain accomplishment?

The master replied: Since means and knowledge are to practice the spontaneously present body, speech and mind through the method of yoga sadhana, they will be accomplished no matter how you carry out the sadhana aspects endowed with body, speech, and mind. They will be accomplished when the sadhana and the recitation are practiced in a sufficient amount.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: How should we approach the sugata yidam deity?

The master replied: Realize that you and the yidam deity are not two and that there is no yidam deity apart from yourself. You approach the yidam deity when you realize that your nature is the state of nonarising dharmakaya.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: Which yidam deity is better to practice, a peaceful or wrathful one?

The master replied: Since means and knowledge are practicing the spontaneously present body, speech, and mind through the method of yoga sadhana, all the countless sugatas, peaceful and wrathful, chief figures and retinues, manifest in accordance with those to be tamed in whatever way is necessary–as peaceful and wrathful, chief figures and retinues. But as they are all one taste in the state of dharmakaya, each person can practice whichever yidam he feels inclined toward.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: If we practice one yidam deity, will that be the same as practicing all sugatas?

The master replied: The body, speech, and mind of all deities are manifested by the three mayas in accordance with the perception of those to be tamed. In fact, no matter how they appear, if you practice one you will be practicing them all. If you accomplish one you will have accomplished them all.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: Is there any fault in practicing one yidam deity and then practicing another?

The master replied: Although the sugatas manifest as various kinds of families and forms, out of skillful means to tame beings, they are in actuality inseparable, the state of equality. If you were able to practice all the buddhas with this realization of their inseparability, your merit would be most eminent. But if you were to do so while regarding the yidam deities as having different qualities which should be either accepted or rejected, you would be immeasurably obscured. It is inappropriate to regard the yidams as good or bad, and to accept or reject them. If you do not regard them like that, it will be excellent no matter how you practice.

Lady Tsogyal asked the master: Through performing the approach to one tathagata, will we accomplish the mind of all sugatas?

The master replied: By practicing with a vast view and remaining in the nature, you will attain stability in a yidam deity. When you complete the recitation, you will accomplish the activities of all the victorious ones without exception by simply commencing them.

Lady Tsogyal asked the Master: If one’s view is high, is it permissible to dispense with the yidam deity?

The master replied: If you attain confidence in the correct view then that itself is the yidam deity. Do not regard the yidam deity as a form body. Once you realize the nature of dharmakaya you will have accomplished the yidam deity.

Unconditional Love

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.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Staying Away from Harmful Companions: Tsem Tulku Rinpoche

The following is respectfully quoted from “Gurus for Hire Enlightenment for Sale” by Tsem Tulku Rinpoche:

Staying away from harmful companions

Most of us have more negative dispositions than positive, otherwise we would not be in samsara. When the negative dispositions from our previous lives open, we cannot do Dharma practice. In the tantric vows, we are not even allowed to talk to those who scourge, scorn and dislike our Guru. We are not allowed to share food with them, share our instruments or our vajras and bells, or talk about tantric secrets or tantric practice with them anymore. We cannot perform certain prayers or rituals with them anymore because their energy can pollute us, bring us down and trigger the opening of negative energy, negative karma.

You might be thinking that Buddha is not very compassionate. Of course he is compassionate! If, at this level, we allow someone to disturb our practice, how will we become a Buddha to help them? By avoiding them, we are being very compassionate. We send a message to them that we are not happy with what they are doing and unless they reform, we cannot support them and their actions. On a spiritual level, if someone disturbs our practices and pushes us off, how will we become an attained being or a Buddha to benefit them?

At our level, these people’s disturbance and broken samaya can push us off the path, influence us and make us think negatively. There might even be other disciples of the teacher that these people always say negative things to and push them away from the Guru. When these people push disciples away from the teacher, who suffers? The teacher or these people who push others away? Of course it is the people who suffer.

Staying around, associating, communicating with or being close to people who have broken their samaya, against their teachers or our teacher is very dangerous if we do not know how to handle them. We have to be advanced to handle them. After all, if our teacher cannot tame them and control them, how can we?

If we allow them to continue their negative talk or actions, we are not being very compassionate. If we think we can handle them and turn them around, we would have been able to turn them around by now. If we allow them to continue their little games, they will go on for years and years and years. They do not have merits to dig themselves out, and we would actually be helping them to create even heavier negative karma for themselves.

They present a danger to us and to themselves and this is why this text specifically tells us to avoid harmful companions who might try to split us from our teachers.

3) With an attitude like earth: That carries all burdens without ever becoming tired.

The Guru may give us a very small assignment or work designed to help us, push us to become better and better (not better in our view, but better in terms of Dharma, for our future lives). The Guru might make us do something that is very difficult but is that we we are concerned about?

We have checked out the Guru and sworn our refuge with the Guru. Then after the big refuge ceremony and the big offerings, the feelings, the pictures, the lights, candles, incense and effort, when the Guru asks us to please cut our hair about two inches shorter, we reply that we cannot and give 25 reasons why not.

What happened to the whole ceremony, the vows, the allegiance? What happened to the Guru devotion? Do we follow Guru devotion only when it is convenient for us? Does the practice of Guru devotion only apply during a certain time of the month, when we do not have friends, when things are going well for us or when we are not angry?

The whole point of the Guru giving us work — no matter how difficult it is — and us actually doing it, is to break through our ego. When the Guru helps us break through our ego, then when he gives us a higher level of practice, such as practices for controlling our death, we will be able to achieve everything that is included within that practice.

But if we cannot even control our devotion to our Guru, how are we going to control something much higher? If we find it so difficult controlling our speech, our body, and the minor assignments that the Guru asks us to do, how will we be able to do those practices that require us to be free of the ego, to have Bodhicitta and to practice the six paramitas?

A real Guru, who is compassionate and cares, will be very careful to give us assignments and work. The Guru thinks very carefully — he considers our aptitude, who we are, what we can and cannot do. He then gives us all types of work, duties and jobs to develop the six paramitas, such that we can purify our karma and break our ego, our level of perception and our wrong perception of reality. This is for us to reach the next level. Then we he confers higher practices on us, we will get results.

The Guru might also give us jobs or assignments to help us avoid something negative that might happen later on. If we do not believe it and we go against it, we will suffer the result. The guru will not be happy and he will keep trying to find other ways lessen what will happen to us later. If we do what he says the first time, the bad effects may be lessened by 100%. However, even if the Guru cannot help us avoid the bad incident fully, he would still try to lessen the result for us by ten percent.

Our Guru might tell us to work in the center once a month. We say we cannot do that but at the same time, we ask for initiations, retreats, 10 million mantras, and we can actually do these retreats and mantras. There is no difference! Why are we able to do 10 million mantras but unable to work once a month in the center?

If we do not cooperate, why do we need a Guru or a teacher? A Guru or a teacher is someone who is suppose to be compassionate and kind and is out to serve and help us. When we always reject everything the Guru tells us, we have excuses, we are late for everything we are assigned and we never finish anything we are given, that reflects on us and our practice.

Yes, the Guru is a human being who will be disappointed, feel sad and angry and shout at us or tell us off, but the ultimate person who is disappointed is ourselves. The Guru will have even more and greater wisdom than our own mothers and fathers to set us on the right path. The whole point of having a Guru is that the Guru is suppose to have more wisdom to see our past weaknesses, see into our gifts, understand our karma and what is happening to us so he can give us specific practices — both meditative and active — to help us overcome our personal problems, difficulties and sufferings.

However, when assignments are given and out of habit, we immediately say, “No, I can’t do it. I don’t think I can do it,” it is very bad. It is precisely because we think we cannot do it that we are given that assignment! The Guru can see something more.

For example, the Guru might tell us to be generous,to give and not to be miserly. The Guru might tell us to buy silver bowls and to offer them to the Buddhas but we have 101 excuses why we cannot. It is not because we cannot afford the silver bowls but because we are extremely miserly and have many lifetimes of habituation. The Guru can see the result of that and he does his best to break it because no one else can. If other people could have, they would have already done so.

It is like seeing a therapist. First, we check out the reputation of the therapist. We listen and we see some of the results of her clients. When we see that this therapist is wonderful and we hear that she has results, we walk in, pay the fees and we submit, open, surrender and tell her everything, week after week. After a few processes, depending on our problem, we start to find healing. If we resist all the way and do not let go or submit to the therapist, why would we even go for therapy and how would we get the result of therapy? It is the same thing with the Guru.

If we resist, fight, we do not do the assignments the Guru gives us and we covertly cover, or we try to make up things, use sweet words and go round and round, we may have been able to trick our Guru but we cannot trick ourselves and we fail our service, our devotion, and ultimately our own spiritual practice.

Submitting to the Guru is gaining independence, gaining freedom from our ego, samsara and ourselves. That is what a real and qualified Guru helps us to do. When we find such a Guru, we should devote ourselves with folded hands to him. Whatever work he gives us and whatever sufferings there may be, we should endure the work he gives us. We have to be accepting.

Keeping Heart Samaya: Full Length Video Teaching

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.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

The Root of Accomplishment

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.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Shining Lake of Crystal Tears

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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 24th, 2004 Sedona, Arizona, when one of Tara’s daughters herself had fallen under Samsara’s dark spell

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

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