Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo | Tibetan Buddhist Altar

Every Time

January 20, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

It is really not healthy to get so upset constantly. Not for body and not for mind. If one has some practice or Dharma teaching, these can easily be overcome in one’s meditation.

The trick is to actually apply what one knows, rather than react like a child in a snowball game. I feel a good sign of adulthood is to cope well, and take responsibility for one’s actions. To assume one has a part in the drama. In fact, our dramas always begin and end with our own habitual tendencies. One cannot blame the environment, it is all within. Every bit of phenomena’s display actually occurs within.

For instance the FBI lost the case in which I am victim. So what. I’ll keep me and mine safe, somehow. I’ll deal. It is samsara, and we must bear it. So I deal, no? And what (or who) doesn’t kill me will make me strong.

Anyone who has born a heavy burdon will attest to that. You grow up. You bear it. And you become strong. This is an opportunity for me I must accept. I will. My heart is big and my shoulders very strong. I’ll just do what it takes. Every time.

Vajrayana’s Final Hour: Full Length Video Teaching

January 20, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

We are living in the timo of degeneration – kaliyuga – this is the perfect time to practice Vajrayana – the diamond vehicle – before it’s too late.

Interdependence

January 19, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Hello all. I have some doctor appointments today, so I thought I’d drop in on Twitter. Miss you all. I am doing well, though. IBS is slowing, headaches are less awful, (much) lower back somewhat improved, BP lower, PTSD treatment helpful.

Better to take responsibility yourself than to blame and point. Sadly, our karma is our own, and nobody else’s. When we point and blame we demonstrate how incompetent we are in understanding cause and effect.

At any rate we must eventually come to see the full equation. Cause and effect – result. Exacting result.

The relative universe is like a woven fabric. If one thread is pulled, it also pulls elsewhere in time and space. If pressure is applied somewhere it will produce a “pull” somewhere else. And no measure of denial or disrespect will change anything, although it will increase blind, babbling ignorance with no blessing to help anyone.

The Bodhisattva Ideal: Full Length Video Teaching

January 19, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Live for the benefit of others – let love guide everything in your life and you will be moving toward the Bodhisattva ideal.

Facing Facts

January 19, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Buddhism is not the kind of religion that necessarily comforts us, although once you get the big picture, it’s the only thing that comforts you, the only thing that makes sense. That’s my experience. Other religions will tell you, “Don’t worry. Have faith. Everything is going to be OK,” but Buddhism says,” Well, you know, maybe not.” The first thing we hear in Buddhism is, “We’re all going to die.” And so sometimes because of our cultural habits, we think, “That’s kind of a downer. I don’t want to hear that. Don’t give me any down stuff. Just give me the up stuff. I want the feel good religion. That’s what I want.” So you think, “Well, I don’t want to hear about how I’m going to die. I don’t want to hear about how everything is impermanent. I don’t want to hear about everybody suffering and I have to make it better. I want to hear some good news.”

But Dharma actually tells you the truth. Dharma is like that kind of perfect parent that doesn’t speak in a condescending way to their children, a parent that tells them the truth directly, maybe in child language, but tells them the truth, speaks clearly, respects their dignity enough to tell them what is up. And that is what Dharma does. Dharma says to us that everything is impermanent. We are all wandering in cyclic existence. We do not know how to get out of cyclic existence because we don’t know how to create the causes for liberation. We don’t know how to create the causes for happiness. So it’s a roll of the dice: Which of our karma is going to ripen? According to the Buddha’s teaching, it’s all there. We have been existing as sentient beings since time out of mind. We have had time to create the causes for everything from living in a god realm to living in a hell realm.

Once we see that our lives are kind of like a wild locomotive careening down a track, down a mountain with no brakes, and we just really can’t tell when it’s going to derail, we begin to ask ourselves, “How can I prepare? What can I do?” That’s when Dharma becomes to us a sensible religion, a make-sense kind of thing, because it shows us cause and effect relationships. It shows us what we’ve got to deal with and it gives us a way to recognize a path out, a path through, a path under and over, and there is always something that we can do to prepare our minds.

Marrying Spiritual Life with Western Culture

January 18, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

What are the obstacles we need to overcome as westrners to deepen in our Buddhist practice and make it our own? Jetsunma explores these ideas and offers solutions to make the path live within you.

Interesting Times: Keeping Dharma Pure

January 17, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Interesting times still, my friends. But all is well, and I am getting stronger and healthy. The slow de-stress of being safe is true medicine. I never truly understood what a killer stress is – causes high blood pressure, spastic muscles, depression, IBS, palpitations, panic attacks, etc. I am moving through most of it. Takes time though. And practice. But I am pleased and hopeful for more recovery. I miss family and students.

Here I am feeding wild birds, they need the help. Here I see when I don’t talk much and have some freedom I can see new beginnings. 2012-13- what will they be? I see dimensional “thinning” which is hard to describe. I am in a truly sacred place now, and I hear Dakinis singing when I do. See doors where there are none. I am seeing a lot of quantum change, all natural. I see activity so subtle it blows my mind.

Are the truly great Lamas returning? Will they reflect the mirror – like truth of our nature? Or reflect these sorry times?

Nothing new is happening here, this disrespect for pure undefiled Dharma was all predicted as was misunderstanding the Lama’s words or disregarding them entirely, making it up as they go along. This time, when Dharma moved west was expected.

My commitment is to keep Vajrayana safe and secure by following the instruction of my perfect Teacher. I will keep the transmission of Lineage and Terma from Palyul undefiled. This is what I am expected to do. And when it is safe and I am healed, I will come roaring back triumphant and ready to rock!

Palyul needs me, sentient beings need me and women need me. I want to fulfill them all. I keep hearing encouragement from my own, and the cries of the lost and worldly, the poor and hungry. How can I fail? How can I give in, leaving beings in suffering? I can’t.

If anyone prefers another Lama or stage of Buddhism I’m all for it. If it is real. But change Vajrayana or defile Palyul and you will see the wrathful fangs of the Dakini for sure. Be warned.

And yes, this IS love. It is Bodhicitta in wrathful form. But pure, wholesome – and vital. Be sure; I love you, Palyul and all the great noble, stainless family we share.

Bodhicitta and the Faults of Cyclic Existence: Full Length Video Teaching

January 17, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Begin with love and you will produce love. Jetsunma goes into why reach for something “not of this world” like Enlightenement to solve your quest for happiness. Do it for yourself and for all beings.

Introduction to “Buddhahood Without Meditation” by Dudjom Lingpa

January 16, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is an excerpt from “Buddhahood Without Meditation: A Visionary Account Known as Refining One’s Perception” by Dudjom Lingpa:

With unswerving faith I pay homage to the sovereign lord, the primordial lord protector, the most sublime citadel of the magical display of pristine awareness.

These days, when the five kinds of degeneration are on the rise, sentient beings are without exception rough and wild, under the sway of very powerful negative karma. Clinging to the mere passing dream of this human life, they make long-range plans as though for an eternal stay and turn their backs on the pursuit of something meaningful for future lifetimes. For this reason, it seems to me that those who earnestly seek liberation and omniscience are no more numerous than stars in the daytime. Even though people may be aware of their mortality and enthusiastically practice the Buddhadharma, they devote their human existence simply to physical and verbal acts of virtue and thus pursue higher rebirths as gods or humans.

Some, without the slightest understanding of the view of emptiness, come to a decision that their own minds are empty. They are directly introduced to what is nothing more than a state of discursive thought or passive awareness and remain in this state with nothing whatever to do. This propels them towards rebirth among the gods of the desire and form realms, but does not bring them even a hair’s breadth closer to the path to omniscience.

Therefore, if a few spiritual individuals have throughout immeasurable aeons gathered the accumulations on a vast scale, tied these to noble aspirations and established some karmic connection to spiritual teachings concerning ultimate reality, I will teach them according to their good fortune and capacity to comprehend. Those who lack karmic connection to me or the good fortune to make use of the Great Perfection teachings, and instead exaggerate or deprecate these teachings, have banished their own minds to some lonely wilderness. You spiritual individuals who are not like this and whose good fortune is equal to my own, consider my advice. Through examination and analysis, through familiarization and acquaintance, recognize samsara and nirvana as supreme emptiness, and so realize the fundamental nature.

Three categories are found in the approach of the Great Perfection that is the inherent nature: the category of mind (sem-dhe), the category of the vast expanse of being (long-dhe) and the category of direct transmission instructions (man-ngag-dhe). This text pertains to what is termed the secret category of direct transmission instructions. There are three sections herein, concerning view (ta-wa), meditation (gom-pa) and conduct (kyod-pa).

In a Dream

January 16, 2012 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In a dream I remember that I forgot what I remembered

I knew that I knew it was a dream.

I know I can stand still, in full presence and awaken

How odd that our uncontrived Primordial Nature dances with SO MANY mirrors, all sizes and shapes.

Splendid and devastating!

OM MANI PEDME HUNG