Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Astrology

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Emotional stability is here at last. If you’ve been riled up about things, if emotional touchiness has characterized your relationships, the situation is over.  A new fire and stability enters your affairs. A leader steps up to lead, and this person is impressive and stable. Support this person and good things happen.  Robert Johnson said, “A sense of reverence is necessary for psychological health, a sense of awe.” If you look up to and admire someone else, your life goes better. A discussion is good for relationship harmony but unsuccessful in work matters.  Be careful about over-talking everything and wasting people’s time.  There is plenty of work to do.  Good news comes from a governmental agency or an older person. It’s a wonderful day to hire people and solve health issues. Love is grand.

The daily astrology post affects everyone. Because individual charts vary, the circumstances outlined in the post will affect people differently. Some will feel this energy in the personal arena, some in finances, some with children or family, some in work and so forth. There are many departments of life. Look to see where the dynamic affects you!

Following a Teacher: from “Treasury of Precious Qualities”

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The following is respectfully quoted from “Treasury of Precious Qualities” by Longchen Yeshe Dorje and Jigme Lingpa as translated by Padmakara Translation Group:

The characteristics of good disciples

By contrast, good disciples don the armor of devotion like Nagabodhi, who realized the Truth. They have steadfast minds and like Pelgyi Yeshe serve the teacher and the Doctrine without a care for life and limb. Like Jetsun Mila, they do whatever their teacher tells them, without regard for their own comfort. Disciples like this are liberated merely by their devotion.

Disciples should have faith, the source of all spiritual qualities, and a clear, lucid intelligence unafflicted by doubt. They should have acquired the knowledge that enables them to distinguish virtue from non-virtue. They should have the great compassion of Mahayana and a deep respect for vows and samayas. They should be serene and disciplined in thought, word, and deed. They should be broad-minded and on friendly terms with their neighborhood as well as with their Dharma kindred. They should act with generosity toward the pure fields and should have pure perception with a sense of propriety toward others.

Good disciples should be (1) like well-behaved children, knowing how to please their teacher and how to avoid displeasing him or her. (2) Even if their teacher scolds them severely and often, as need arises, the students should behave like intelligent horses and restrain their anger. (3) In order to accomplish their teacher’s purpose, disciples should be like boats, sailing back and forth without weariness. (4) Like a bridge, they should be able to withstand any circumstance–good or bad, happiness or suffering, praise or blame. (5) Disciples should be like servants, they should be obedient and meticulous in carrying out their teachers’ instructions. (7) They should be respectful toward their teachers and spiritual community, with the humility of a street sweeper. (8) They should reflect upon their own shortcomings and avoid all arrogance, like the old bull whose horns are broken and who takes the last place in the herd. In the Bodhisattva pitaka  it is said that if disciples act in this way, they will be relying on their teacher correctly.

How to serve and follow the teacher

Spiritual teachers are embodiments of the Three Jewels; indeed, the Guru is the Fourth Jewel. As the Sarvabuddhasamaya-yoga-tantra says: “Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha: added to these, the teacher is the Fourth Jewel.” And Guru Rinpoche says, “The teacher is Buddha, the teacher is Dharma, the teacher is likewise Sangha. The peerless all-accomplisher, the teacher is the glorious heruka.” In view of this, there are said to be three ways of pleasing the teacher.

First, if one possesses material wealth, it is extremely important to make offerings. Second, in order to serve the teacher and to show respect, one should perform any necessary physical action, from house-hold chores and practical tasks of stitching and preparing a seat, to making gestures of reverence with your hands joined. One should speak up for whatever the teacher requires and, in relation with his or her teaching of the Dharma, one should do whatever is necessary, by way of explanation and so forth. The merit of all such actions is never wasted. These two kinds of action pleasing to the teacher–material offerings and physical and verbal service–are considered of the lowest and medium importance respectively. The third and best way of serving the teacher is to put the teachings into practice.

Spiritual masters have already accomplished their own aim. It is now their task to labor for the sake of others. It is important to understand that their various activities are displayed as appropriate to the inclinations and feelings of different beings and are the inconceivable operation of enlightened activities. Bearing this in mind, one should refrain from misinterpreting them. The siddhas of India like Saraha appeared for the most part as social outcasts. They adopted the way of life that was conventionally disreputable and lived without concern for purity or impurity, getting their livelihood as menials of the lowest caste or as “sinful” hunters and fishermen–living in the humblest way possible. But since their minds were undeluded, their actions were never wrong. We, by contrast, are as deluded as if we were under the power of hallucinogenic drugs. If we have not gained freedom through the three doors of perfect liberation, and have not realized the infinite purity of all phenomena, ascribe defects to our teacher, we commit an immeasurable fault. Bhikshu Sunakshatra committed to memory the entire twelve collections of the teachings, but, overpowered by his wrong views, he regarded as perfidious and underhand the actions of Buddha Shakyamuni himself, who was utterly without fault and possessed of every excellence. We should take all this to mind and confess and repair the slightest fluctuation in our faith. As it is said in the text, ‘khor lo chub pa rol pa:

If in the visions of your dreams,
The teacher seems to have fault,
As soon as you awake, confess!
For if you fail, the fault will grow
And lead to the Hell of Torment Unsurpassed.

If spiritual masters become apparently angry and scold their disciples, chiding them and behaving fiercely, the latter should understand that some fault has been perceived in them, a wrong thought perhaps, or negative behavior, and that the moment to practice discipline has come. They themselves vow never to commit the mistake again. They should never consider that the teacher is at fault. Intelligent disciples, who thus understand the underlying wisdom and purpose behind the master’s behavior, will not fall under the power of demonic forces.

The Seven Line Prayer: An Introduction

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Guru Rinpoche

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Experiencing the Hook of Compassion”

The Seven Line Prayer is so important. It is a magnificent prayer. It was not made up or composed by an ordinary person. It was miraculously manifested when primordial wisdom dakinis appeared literally from the sky to devout practitioners and told them, “This is how one calls the Guru. This is how one practices.”One will actually move toward enlightenment and can achieve enlightenment merely by reciting this prayer. Whenever a student asks me formally to be their teacher, I ask them to repeat this prayer many, many times. In fact I hope that each student will repeat it a hundred thousand times. Now that sounds like a piece of work, doesn’t it?  In fact, it is. But eventually you will learn to say the prayer so well that you can say it really quickly. You don’t have to say it slowly; you can say it very quickly and you can do a whole mala, that’s a whole prayer beads’ worth, in maybe ten, fifteen minutes. That’s pretty easy to do. That’s pretty easy to do. And then you can get to eight minutes. I don’t know what the world record is, but you can do it. You can, but you’re a blur. Your lips go “bluhbluhbluh..”.

Actually you can feel the wind on your nose.

This prayer actually occurs on three different levels. It has three different levels of meaning. The most profound level of meaning is so profound that the teachers do not give that level of meaning until you have accumulated three hundred thousand repetitions of that prayer. Isn’t that amazing?  This prayer has in it everything. It has refuge; it has bodhicitta. There is every kind, every element of practice within this prayer; but it’s in such a succinct form, that it’s just a prayer. It isn’t really a practice. You know, pujas in the Tibetan tradition take hours and hours and hours. There are all kinds of mudras that you do, and instruments that you play, and all kinds of amazing technologies that you apply. But this prayer, in a very succinct form, really has the seed of everything.

On the most external level, it is, according to the translation, an invocation to Guru Rinpoche, who is the actual emanation and display of Lord Buddha who brought Vajrayana to Tibet; and he is supremely realized. On a deeper level, there are so many different levels of meaning, layer upon layer of meaning. The syllables that are in this prayer are power syllables. They have some particular power due to the way in which they were given through miraculous means, and due to the vibrational quality that is associated with these syllables. As you sound the syllables, they actually purify the inner, psychic channels, winds and fluids, that in sentient beings are polluted and kinked and distorted and actually blocked. The sounding of these syllables begins the process of purifying them and unkinking them, and actually changing you in some profound way, some psychic way, that is really extraordinary, actually extraordinary. Plus in a hidden and symbolic secret way, all the elements of practice are in this prayer, including extraordinary devotion to one’s guru . As you begin to sound it with faith that this miracle will take place, the change begins to occur, even though you are not doing the full practice. So if you want to begin, learn how to say this practice. Learn how to say this prayer.

See the prayer and listen to Jetsunma recite it by clicking here

The Teacher

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Guru Rinpoche Face

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Experiencing the Hook of Compassion”

The teacher is considered to be the very door of liberation. The students are looking to walk through, just as they’re wanting to exit that burning house. They want to walk through that door. And it’s a really amazing thing.

In the Vajrayana tradition, we are taught that when a tulku appears in the world, a tulku is considered to be an emanation of Lord Buddha or Guru Rinpoche’s enlightened compassion. The teacher is considered to be an extension of that. Guru Rinpoche himself said, “I will appear in the world as your root teacher.” The root teacher is defined as the one with whom you have such a relationship that upon meeting this teacher, upon hearing this teacher, you have immediately understood, or perhaps over time, have understood something of the nature of your mind. You have seen something; you have recognized something. And -perhaps through some words that the teacher has given you, perhaps simply through being with the teacher; perhaps through some experiences that you have had while you are with the teacher,  you have come to understand something of your own mind. You’ve come in some small way to see your face. That may not necessarily be pleasant at first. You see?  You think that that should be a beatific experience, and you’re waiting for the Hallelujah Chorus . That may not be the way it happens to you. It may be painful at first. You may realize how puffed up you are at first. You may realize how vapid your life has been thus far. That’s painful. Of all realizations, that’s the most painful. And you may take account of yourself; and the account may not be so good. And suddenly, suddenly you have this urge and this yearning. That’s your face. That’s your face just as surely as if you had been struck enlightened immediately upon seeing your teacher. That is your face. That face that turns you around and moves you… That’s your face too.

So when you meet your root teacher, that relationship becomes so fantastic, so wonderful. And that is the display of Guru Rinpoche’s touch. That is how Guru Rinpoche has appeared in your life. You cannot doubt that. That is how the Buddha has appeared to you, because that is the beginning. That is the face; that is the movement; that is the method of enlightened awareness. That is the beginning of the awakening. So that must be the Buddha. That must be the Buddha appearing in your mind.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved

 

Terton Migyur Dorje: The Origin of Nam Chö by HH Penor Rinpoche

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242307120_vidyadhra-migyur-dorje1

The following is an excerpt from a teaching offering by Kyabje His Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche at Palyul Ling in New York:

First examine your mind and try to get rid of any afflictive emotions or negative thoughts. Try to give rise to devotion, faith, inclination, and in that way, carry through the Guru Yoga prayers with a very sincere mind. From the core of one’s heart do the supplication prayers.

All the practices that we are doing during the retreat were revealed by Treasure Revealer, Tulku Migyur Dorje. The history or story of Tulku Migyur Dorje starts before the time of Shakyamuni Buddha. There was a king called Akara. When he was the son of the king, he went to collect some jewels from the ocean and wandered. As he was wandering he carried with him a cloth net called Zarapa, which is why he is also referred to as Arapa. For a while he had been looking for the guru named Apara. Apara was a great mahasidda who wandered, so Akara had not been able to find him. One day the guru master, Apara, knew that the King’s son was coming, so he waited in a certain place. When the King’s son, Arapa met the master Apara, he didn’t know who he was, and asked, “Do you know where Apara is?”

Instantly Apara flew in the air and landed on a rock where he left a footprint, and stayed there. Instantly Zarapa developed tremendous devotion. He went there and started receiving teachings. He received all the teachings and based on his practice, he had accomplishment. Then Zarapa also had many disciples.

He was reborn as three masters who had great miraculous activities. And then he was reborn several times in India. He was reborn as Kungol during the time when Shakyamuni Buddha was just attaining enlightenment in India. Kungol attended all the Buddha’s teachings and maintained the Buddha’s teachings.

During the time when Guru Padmasambhava came to Tibet, he was born as a great yogi known as Shupu Palge Senge. He helped Guru Padmasambhava’s activity by translating all the teachings from Sanskrit to Tibetan and then also by bringing tantric texts and teachings to Tibet.

Tulku Migyur Dorje had about 500 different lives. For a long time he had been manifesting in the six realms and benefiting all sentient beings, especially beings in hell. Lots of hell beings were liberated. When he was in the hell realm, of course, he didn’t experience the suffering of hell because of his power and realization. He just benefited and liberated all those hell beings. He emptied many areas of hell.  Sometimes the karma of some hell beings was so strong that he couldn’t help them, so he drew mantras on the sand and then threw them in the fire, which extinguished the fire, and benefited those beings.

Also he manifested in the animal realm just as very tiny animals like insects, and then huge animals, and birds and so forth. And then according to their own family, they started giving teachings and that way lots and lots of animal beings were benefited and liberated.

Later in Tibet he was born in a place called Ngam. When he was just three years old, he started giving teachings. His parents wouldn’t allow him saying, “What kind of ghost language you are speaking?”  When he was 11 years old, his master, Chagmed Rinpoche, knew he was a special being and invited him to his place. Chagmed Rinpoche had a relative who was a very negative guy. The relative saw that Migyur Dorje was staying there for awhile and somehow obscured his mind a bit. So Chagmed Rinpoche gave Migyur Dorje lots of purification nectar, and with that the obscurations were purified. Later he had clear visions of many deities. That is how all the Namchö teachings were revealed.

Then Chagmed Rinpoche started teaching Migyur Dorje all the scripts. And Migyur Dorje told him, “I know all those scripts.”  Then he asked Chagmed Rinpoche about the scripts from many different countries, and said, “Do you know these?”  And Chagmed Rinpoche said, “I don’t know them.”

In the beginning Chagmed Rinpoche was Tulku Migyur Dorje’s master. Then later when Tulku Migyur Dorje started revealing the Namchö cycle of teachings, Chagmed Rinpoche took Tulku Migyur Dorje as his master.  The whole complete revelation of the Namchö cycle of teachings were revealed in that way.

This Namchö is the exact Dharma teaching appropriate for this time. It is very condensed and profound, and has a great deal of blessings. In that way Tulku Migyur Dorje brought a lot of benefit. Then somewhere in another Buddhafield, a  Buddha was going to pass into Nirvana, and so Migyur Dorje needed to go there then as a kind of representative and to attain enlightenment. He lived only about 19 years on this earth.

The complete revelation of this Namchö passed from Chagmed Rinpoche to Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab until our present day lineage holders.  Many countless beings have become great mahasiddhas. It has been explained that there would be like 100 million masters who are honored with that banner. All the lamas who have the rank of Vajra Acharya, have great signs when they pass away. You are also following this tradition and practice. If you think properly and do the practice, then the same blessings are also there for you.

Biography of Migyur Dorje

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Migyur-Dorje-Stupa

The following is respectfully quoted from “Biography of Migyur Dorje” published by Palyul Jangchub Darjeling Center

History of Mugsang Monastery

The Great Compassionate Teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, prophesied that teachings would spread to the Land of Snow. As per his prediction, during the reign of twenty-seventh Tibetan King, Lha Tho Ri Nyentsen, Buddhadharma first originated in Tibet. Five generations later, the thirty-third Dharma King Songtsen Gampo established Lord Buddha’s doctrine. Five reigns later in the ninth century, the Great Three-Abbot Santaraksita, Guru Padmasambhava, and King Trisong Deutsun who were bonded together by their past aspiration prayer, met together that led to the widespread flourishment of the whole sutra and tantra teachings in Tibet. This unique tradition that possesses six distinct qualities, flourished in entire Tibet which later came to be known as the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism. Subsequently, the six main monasteries of Dorje Drag, Mindroling, Shechen, Dzogchen, Kathok and Palyul were preserving the Nyingma tradition.

Kere Chogkyong Dampa first established the Palyul Monastery in the year 890, and widely spread the teachings of Mdo-sGyu-Sems (Sutra of Gathered Intentions, Peaceful Illusory Net, and Mental Classes). In 1664, Dharma King of Dege constructed the main temple with statues inside. Under the guidance of Rigzin Migyur Dorje and Serlo Tonpa Gyaltsen, the king conferred the responsibility of looking after the monastery and became the first throneholder. He widely propagated the entire Kama and Terma teachings through study and practice. The unique tradition of Palyul monastery was preserved by the later throne holders, namely Pama Lhundrub Gyamtso, Drubwang Palchen Duspa Tsal and Karma Thegchong Nyingpo. The eleventh throneholder is the present Drubwang Pedma Norbu Rinpoche, Jigme Thubten Shedrub Choekyi Drayang Palzangpo.

Out of several branch monasteries of Palyul Namgyal Jangchub Choeling, the brief history one of the most sacred monastery, Mugsang Thubten Sangngag Choeling is being mentioned here.

Terton Migyur Dorje

In Pedma Kathang action,
“In the white cave with the leaping lion appearance, the treasure lies.
When it’s auspicious sign to reveal occurs
Terton Migyur Dorje will come to reveal
A hundred such treasures in Eastern Tibet.”

Ratna Lingpa prophesied,

“During the time of Terton Choy Yang Dorjr, Migyur Dorje will come,
And discover a hundred treasures in Kham”

In the prophecy of Terton Guru Kyngdrak,

“In a place close to Nabuszin, in Do Kham,
The holder of the name ‘Dorje’ will find the treasure.”

As Guru Rinpoche and several Tertons prophesied, in the early hours of the seventh day of the tenth month in the Wood Female Bird year of the tenth Rabjung (16th century, 1585 AD) Migyur Dorje was born to father Gonpo Tseten and mother Sonam Tsonyi with miraculous birth signs. The patriarchal lineage of Ratna Lingpa’s father went back in an unbroken line, all the way to the Dharma King Trisong Deutsen.

When he was still very young, Guru Loden Chokset appeared to him and taught him all aspects of reading and writing. His personal protecting deity Shenpa Marnak predicted that he would meet with the consort appeared to him in a vision and told him that the time was near when he should find a teacher, and so in the Wood Male Horse year, he met Raga Ahse. As Raga Ahse meditated on what the previous life of Migyur Dorje was, spontaneously this came to his mind,

“In a cave called Kula Sangwe Yang Phug,
He will get the siddhis of the Great Compassionate One.”

And pondering on these two sentences, he came to the conclusion that Migyur Dorje was the reincarnation of Wangdak Gyatso. When Raga Ahse was giving the empowerment of The Condensed Secret Teachings of the Wrathful and Peaceful Deities to Migyur Dorje, the flower that Migyur Dorje threw into the mandala always fell to the center and east and never to any other direction. The center being Migyur and the east being Dorje, he was given the name Migyur Dorje.

In the Wood Sheep year when Migyur Dorje was eleven years old, he and his teacher Raga Ahse entered a very strict retreat which none was allowed to enter or visit. During this retreat, he studied the common five major and minor sciences and received the uncommon empowerments, oral transmissions and secret instructions.

He spent the rest Ahse wrote a biography on him.

Quoted from his biography,

“If condensed, from the age of eleven,
Until twenty-three, the age he passed away,
He spent half of his life in retreat.”

Our Best Hope

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NP-89 HHPR Listening to RoC-crop

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “This Time is Radical”

When we practice meditating on emptiness and non-duality, we think we should come out of that feeling oh so peaceful, like milk. And then after that, we should be so peaceful. And I think, “Right on. Whatever.”  Mostly, I think, let’s gather together and be of benefit. I think that’s the most important thing.

At this time, there are people who have come in contact with Dharma. From this time forward, there are those who have the karma to practice but will not have the opportunity because the darkness is getting thicker.For them, we will record mantra and we will send it out to the world. And if it can wake them up, it will wake them up and they will come. And if you don’t know that His Holiness gave his blessing to this, then I’ll tell you that he has.

His Holiness is interested in this. He doesn’t care what it sounds like. He’s not a big rock and roll fan. Not into Hip Hop. Wouldn’t know 80s music from Sub Dub. Just doesn’t know. But His Holiness said, ‘We’ve got to get it out and we’ve got to get it out now.’  And so for me in my practice and in my activity, and that includes the music, we have two streams going here. I’m going to go up to New York and record with John Ward on Monday; and then we have another stream that is in the studio. We are going to do more and more and more and more until everyone who can hears it, and they will come. I find that there is no way to reach out to them because they have, through the thickness and the darkness and the delusion, become too dense to hear. But my determination, our determination, is to call to them so loudly and so clearly in their language, which is today’s language, that they can’t resist us. And they will come. And with every effort that we make, we will continue to practice and pray. And I believe that because of that, they will come in droves.

So I wanted to tell you that. Not because I wanted to put out energy before its time or to brag or anything like that. It’s not like that really. I’m not ambitious in that way. I’m only ambitious in one way, and that is, get it out. Sound the call. So while it’s so dark they can’t see, still maybe they can hear.

I want you to know that when people hear me doing this, they won’t know that His Holiness wants me to do it. They’ll think, ‘What is this?  A tulku?  A reincarnate lama from a throne singing whatever? Blues or hip-hop or whatever?’  But if you listen to it, there’s mantra in it, and there’s Dharma in it, and it’s real. And so I say to you that I have permission, first of all, and I have the heart for it, second of all. God, I hope I have the voice for it. I feel that this is a time of either despondency or empowerment. You are either getting left behind or you’re climbing onboard now. Things are going to get really exciting around here really fast. So I want you to keep your heart practice, and never be swayed by anything you see, no matter what you see. Even if someone says, ‘Well, why is a Dharma teacher making this music?’  Then you can repeat the teaching, “All sounds are the Dharma.”  Learn it. Learn it well and speak it, because that is the truth.

The other thing that His Holiness said is that the Dharma can’t be broken. You can’t break it. You can’t break something that is not of this world. The meaning of that is that in whatever context we can put the Dharma out to sentient beings, so long as it is with good motivation and completely respectful, it will manage. It will do its job. The way it works, as I’ve instructed you before, is that the very vibration, the very sound of Dharma, which is why you have to speak the mantra out loud, the very sound of it reverberates and corresponds with the winds, channels, and fluids within your deepest nature. So if one hears mantra, or sees some connection with the Dharma, even though they may be ordinary and kind of down in the dust and living a very secular, commercial, ordinary life, the power of mantra is such that boom!  they can wake up. It is an ancient resonance that comes to them and they change quickly because of that. I see that happening. And I see that in this time, that’s our best hope. It’s our best hope.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved

The view and purchase music produced by Jetsunma please visit http://www.cdbaby.com/Artist/Jetsunma

Free download of “The Promise“

Wisdom on Social Media

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mosquito

The following are excerpts from teachings offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on Facebook and twitter:

Jetsunma’s Tweet: We have all types of karma. We have killed – ever killed a mosquito?

Facebook User: Are you saying that killing a mosquito is wrong?

Jetsunma’s response: Killing is always wrong but cannot always be avoided.

Facebook User: Why is killing a mosquito wrong? Does it have a soul? I understand the part about killing being wrong and that it cannot always be avoided.

Jetsunma’s response: We don’t think of “souls” in Buddhism. We feel that all sentient beings have the same primordial nature – all sentient beings are made of the same stuff.

A twitter teaching from the same day:

As I get older I have come to realize how precious life is and how little we do to live long. We don’t think of kindness or charity or that other sentient beings are suffering just like yoy and I. How sad! We don’t understand the connection at all. We think things just happen to us. Ha! Like we had nothing to do with this at all. Good grief!

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