The following is a full length video teaching by Lama Nyima Rinpoche at Kunzang Palyul Choling:
Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
Enjoy a Fun Slideshow of Lollipop Day at KPC!
The following photos were taken by Ted Kurkowski at Kunzang Palyul Choling today during the “Lollipop Day”
Enthronement Anniversary Offerings to Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
The following was filmed live at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Sept. 23, 2012 during a Long Life Ceremony offered in celebration of the 24th anniversary of the Enthronement of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche:
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved
The Joy of Generosity
The following was a spontaneous comment by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo upon hearing that the birds at Garuda Aviary have come to love her “bird stew.” She refers to some birds who came from a terrible situation and have healed under the care of the aviary’s caretaker Rigdzin Zeoli to the point where they not only enjoy freshly prepared food, but now enjoy the freedom of the aviary’s outdoor flight cage.
Some people think “love” is most important – “I’ll just cuddle you and love you.” But when I was little I was hungry, and I know what it’s like for a growing body to be hungry, and it’s agony. Your body is screaming for something, and you don’t know what it is.
Just imagine these little birds, watching their flock die all around them. How horrible it must have been to know that they’re dying, they’re all dying, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. How hot it was in there! No clean water.
How they’re healing so well makes you understand how deeply Rigdzin understands birds. He’s never lifted his eyes to them, never scared them, never done a quick motion around them. He knows what he’s doing with the birds. He really is an expert.
Jetsunma prepares fresh “stew” for the birds at least once a week, and aspires to offering it to them twice a week. She said this is the kind of thing that really matters to her…
If you would like to help support the birds of the Garuda Aviary please click here.
What is Enthronement Lineage? Lama Nyima Rinpoche at KPC
The following is a full length video teaching recorded live at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Sept. 23, 2012, in celebration of the 24th Anniversary of the Enthronement of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
True Confession
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Longing for the Guru”
If you feel that you have become deadened to that longing you once felt, if you think that you don’t long for your Teacher or long for the Buddha, if you think that you don’t long with a heartfelt longing for that awakening, then you should try to remember your childhood and the different feelings that you had.
What are some of the things that you did? Were you promiscuous? Did you become involved in drugs or alcohol? Did you become very materialistic in certain ways? And if you can remember the beginning of that, was it based on longing? Was it based on something that you could hardly remember, but remember that it was sharp and poignant? Was it really based on that?
If you can remember a time like that, you should spend time becoming reacquainted with the purity of that urging. Cultivate that longing. Not cultivate it in a false way or in a contrived way, but search for what was already there. Feel what was felt. Don’t make up a feeling. That’s important, because then you’ll blame yourself again. Instead, try to remember that feeling, even if it just numbs you to think that you have gone so far astray, you should not be ashamed because your karma is that you were born into a culture where what you felt was not acceptable and you tried to fit it into ways that were acceptable. Those ways did not work for you and then you shut down. You should try to go back to that original feeling and find a way to forgive yourself. You have to confess in order to be able to fully forgive yourself. Don’t confess: Oh, I’ve been a bad girl, or I’ve been a bad boy, I’ve done this and I’ve done that.
The confession that you should make to the primordial root Guru is: You were everywhere, and I tried to find you here. The true confession is the lack of understanding the nature of the Guru. The true confession is the lack of understanding as to what you are. That’s the real confession, and that’s the real sin that was committed. Yes, karma happened. But that core confession and purification can bring about the end of all the karma that arose from that, truly. It can bring about the end of all sufferings that came from that point. You should allow yourself to remember the longing that you felt and learn to live with it.
In learning to live with it and having it be the warmth in your heart, allowing yourself to be with that and to live with that, then that longing will bring the proper result. So long as it is diverted, so long as you refuse to feel it, so long as you do not allow yourself to be pure and then constantly cover up with feelings of impurity, so long as that condition continues, the longing cannot be satisfied.
That longing, if it’s felt in its pure way and if you can manage to get your ego out of the way, can be the very bread by which you are nurtured to continue in a firm way on your path. That longing can be the way that provides the actual, undeniable connection with one’s own root Guru. It perfects that relationship so that one can realize the nature of the primordial Guru and realize that they are the same. You can understand that what you see in front of you is the miraculous touch of Lord Buddha, that the relationship with the Teacher, the relationship with the path, the relationship with all of the teaching, the relationship with your own practice can only be a result of the miraculous intention of the Buddha. So long as we continue to understand our teaching and our path as something external, we will never understand the nature of it. We will never be able to truly drink of the taste of that nature. Instead, we will continue to feel separate from the mandala.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved
Vajra Kiss
Good night, sweet dreams!
May Dakinis hold your hearts and grant theirbliss!
The Vajrakiss.
Can you drink the poison too? I know you do!
You might as well agree to this: That you would sell your soul for bliss.
Even I can answer this; There is no soul, there is no goal.
Even bliss is this: emptiness so profound.
The vibe of Light cannot be found!
So forgive, wake up, dispel.
There is depth to this well.
In the end..I am your friend.
Hallelujah and amen!
“Father” – A Devotional Song Dedicated to His Holiness Penor Rinpoche
The following is a YouTube video prepared by a student of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo all rights reserved.
The Power of Prayer
The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:
Today I had the joy of hearing of a miracle.
A student woke up a few days ago unable to move left side of her body. Scan said she had a bran tumor the size of an orange. She prayed and did mantra constantly since, and sang the Seven Line Prayer during the biopsy. Today she woke up with 75 percent function returned. The tumor had shrunk to size of an acorn.
She gives credit to Chenrezic and Guru Rinpoche. She carries my photo and recites Seven Line Prayer and Mani Mantra loud and proud.
I say these are the Miracles of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. She will come here to make offerings and prayers and therefore I have great confidence in her life. She must, now, live a noble life.
No doctor has seen this before and they were still diagnosing. But an orange is as big as it is and an acorn is little and shrinking. #Miracle
PS: This is @HJGWoods on twitter
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo All rights reserved
A New Wind
From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo originally tweeted on April 21, 2011:
For the last two to three days I’ve felt a change in the wind. As some of you know I have taken time off to heal. In these last days I realize I have not worked so hard at it. But I’ve been reading about people who have had similar challenges and have broken through into better balance. And they seem happy and engaged. The stories of how their lives are remind me so much of my own, and their beginnings seem to be like mine. I feel very inspired by these courageous Tribal people, yet I also feel guilty, and disappointed in myself. I see that I have been waiting for something, someone to heal and re-inspire me, unconsciously. For this I am ashamed, for I myself have allowed my mind to fall into a disempowered state. The last three to four years have been devastating and I’ve let myself down by letting them take my confidence, courage, hope. I see that I have begun to feel that I cannot help others, have no strength to do so. I have allowed fear to rule my life. And I’ve been keeping this to myself, just waiting for the cure. How ridiculous! There is healing all around. But I did not reach for it, I just let others decide if I was worth anything or not. For some reason my mind is like a mirror, I absorb what others tell/show me about myself. When with my Lineage and teacher I feel good. But around gossip and hurt, negativity, being put down constantly by ordinary view – it just knocks me to the ground.
I have, as you know, also been greatly concerned with the condition of our Earth Mother, and the rampant poisoning of her precious body. So I call out night and day for her relief from suffering, and for all her children. But have not done one thing to help myself. Therefore I’ve let not only myself, but all creation down. I am deeply ashamed. I am working now to see what can be done for me.
Since my guru Kyabje His Holiness Penor Rinpoche found and recognized me, and well before, I saw how much people were suffering, mostly spiritually. So even as a teenager I tried to help others. And others were drawn naturally to come to me. After the recognition I understood why and took off with my feet already running. That was, sadly late in life, I was a mother, etc, so I could not just run off to India, although I did go to be taught, and many teachers have come to teach me Buddha Dharma. I never learned how to nurture myself. So when others knock me down I have a hard time getting back up. Maybe because of my ugly childhood, but I only blame myself.
I worry about others, and must help in my intended way. I am seeing that we are connected to Earth and it matters very much that we take care of ourselves and each other. We think the Japanese radiation is ruining Earth or maybe pollution, so many things are happening. But here is the truth: we live in and on the Earth, our Mother and the Earth also lives within us! As do the Sun, Moon, Stars, all elements! We live within each other, and are one human family. So how can Japan’s problems happen? War? Pollution? Because we feel separate from it all and each other. We even become separated from our own minds and hearts. A shame we were taught badly by teachers with nothing but ordinary view, but we have. Thus we must seek connection, wisdom and truth. I’m going to use what I have been given, and seek more. I must lead myself out of this sorrow, and keep on learning and growing. Oh, true, I’ve built the Temple, a bunch of powerful Stupas, taught a lot. But I’m not dead yet, so I cannot let fear rule. It is compassion, responsibility, connection I must go to, to pacify this hard time. How? I don’t know yet. But there is a change in the wind, I feel it, hear it, smell it and feel I can trust it. Come with me, we all need to learn, search, pray, and love. Because a new wind is coming. And I feel it. Kye HO!
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SO HA!
OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG!
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved