Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Two Steps Forward…

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

Many of my followers know I’ve been stalked and harassed in some cruel and unthinkable ways – and recently I’ve made great progress with The PTSD. But it is often two steps forward, then 1.5 steps back. I just don’t have my life back. Days like today I wonder if I’ll ever recover completely.

I’ve always felt my life had such potential. How do I get it back? I’m still a good teacher, but I feel panic in public, and have Irritable Bowel Syndrome now. Sometimes I feel completely beaten. The man is in prison now, but there is no assurance he will stay there, and even now his friends carry on. But I am unaware of his friends having any violent past as has the stalker.

Want to stay strong and carry on. Some days are good, as they once were. Some days it is just too damned Hard. Fear is a mind and life killer. OM MANI PEDME HUNG

21 Homages to Tara: Verse 4 Commentary Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you born from the Tathagata’s crown
Who enjoys boundless total victory,
Relied upon by the Sons of Conquerors
Who have achieved perfection.

The forth praise is to Namgyalma,Tib the “Victorious Lady”, the “One Who Has Accomplished Immortality.”  The “Wisdom Goddess” of wisdom mantra, who emanates from the crowns of the Tathagatas[i], enjoys total victory over the boundless disruptive forces.  Her complexion is golden, and she holds a vase of longevity.  Bodhisattvas who have achieved the ten bhumis[ii], the essence of the ten transcendent perfections, without exception, rely on her guidance as their spiritual mother.  She enriches practitioners by dissolving the fourteen subtle essences of the animate, inanimate, and other subtle essences of samsara and nirvana[iii].  In reality, she has achieved the sacred, unchanging body of eternity through the intention of Atiyoga[iv], the crown of nine yanas[v].


[i] Tathagatas skt ~“Thus Gone One”, an epithet of Buddhas.

[ii] ten bhumis skt ~ The progressive levels of realization through which practitioners pass as they journey toward complete enlightenment.

[iii] nirvana skt ~ The state of liberation from the sufferings of cyclic existence.

[iv] atiyoga skt ~ The highest of the three inner yogas, the summit of the nine vehicles (yanas), according to the classification of the Nyingmapa.

[v] nine yanas skt ~ The nine vehicles or levels of accomplishment of the Nyingmapa tradition that represent progressive stages of attainment.

21 Homages to Tara: Commentary on Verse 3 Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you, the golden lady
Whose hand is adorned with a blue lotus,
You are the lord of the domain of the activities of generosity,
Diligence, austerity, tranquility, patience and meditation.

The third praise is to Sonam Thobkyedma,Tib the “Yellow Lady of Good Fortune”.  She is beautiful; her skin is the color of pure gold glittering in the early morning sun.  Her left hand is adorned with a blue lotus, upon which sits a gem that bestows all wishes.  She is the lord of the Bodhisattvas’[i]sphere of activity, which encompasses the transcendent perfections of generosity, patience, diligence, ethics, tranquility, wisdom, and meditation.  Austerity, (in this context) is ethics, and tranquility is wisdom and meditation.  We pay homage to the unchallengeable lady who has the ten powers: the power over life, the power over mind, the power over wealth, the power over action, the power over birth, the power over inclination, the power over aspiration, the power over miracles, the power over primordial wisdom, and the power over dharma.  The outer meaning is that she has attained the completion of the six perfections, in just one meditation.  The inner meaning is that her singular meditation is like a lotus, free from the flaw of adherence to subject and object, and is endowed with the completion of the six perfections.


[i] Bodhisattva skt ~ One who has generated bodhicitta and seeks enlightenment for the benefit of others.

21 Homages to Tara: Commentary on Verse 2 Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

Homage to you whose face is like
The gathering of a hundred full moons in autumn,
Shining resplendent light
In the perfect, spacious constellation of a thousand stars.

The second verse is homage to Yangchenma,Tib the “Treasure of Wisdom”.  The “Lady with a shining face like an array of hundred autumn full moons,” means her face is a hundred times fairer and more beautiful than the moon.  Her right hand holds a mirror, which is like a full moon engraved with an HRI[i] syllable.  The “perfect spacious constellation of a thousand stars,” refers to the field of her wisdom, which is abundantly spacious, and vast, like the countless, resplendent rays of the full moon.  This light clears the darkness of the ignorance of practitioners, which is the cause of dullness, disease and possession by evils.  It opens the door to the treasury of knowledge by illuminating the light of the four specific perfect understandings.  These are the perfect understanding of the Dharma[ii], (teachings) the perfect understanding of the definitive meaning, perfect confidence (in the doctrine) and the perfect knowledge of the Victorious Ones, (brilliance).  According to a tantra, the inner meaning is “to serve the mother of the sphere” which means emptiness or the nature of mind.  In order to look at our innate self, the face of the ultimate Vajravarahi, we must accumulate merit[iii] and purify our mind-streams[iv], so that they are like an “array of a hundred pure white moons.”  Because of these practices, the door to her blessing will be opened by our true inclination.  In that way, we can see ultimate luminosity and ignite our dynamic wisdom.


[i] HRI syllable ~ Seed syllable of Avalokiteshvara.

[ii] dharma skt ~ It is an ambiguous Sanskrit term, here we can take it as spiritual path.

[iii] merit ~ Good karma, the energy generated by positive actions of body, speech and mind.

[iv] mind-stream ~ The continuation of consciousness, Buddhist way of expressing our mind.

21 Homages to Tara: Commentary on Verse 1 by Khenpo Tenzin Norgay

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Thupten Shedrub Gyatso, who was a Tulku  in one of the Palyul Monasteries, wrote this commentary.  His present incarnation, Rago Chogtrul currently lives in Tibet.

Translation by Khenpo Tenzin Norgey ~ Spring, 2004,
Palyul Retreat Center, Mc Donough, NY USA ~Wood Monkey Year 2131

There are many different Indian and Tibetan traditions explaining this “tantra[i] [1]of praise”.  Motivated by devotion, I will explain this tantra in accordance with “The Treasure Vase of Essential Great Bliss of Inner Practice”, which is the profound mind-treasure[ii] teaching of the omniscient Rigdzin Jigme Lingpa.  Each of the twenty-one verses is praise to twenty-one manifestations.

 

Homage to mother Tara, swift and fearless,

Your eyes are like flashing lightning.

Born from the blossoming stamens

Of the lotus face of the Lord of Three Worlds.

 

The first praise is to Nyurma Palmo,Tib the “Fearless Swift Lady”.  Here we pay homage to the lady of activity who liberates beings from the temporal and perennial sufferings of samsara[iii].  She is called “Swift Lady” because her impartial compassion[iv] benefits beings without even an instant’s delay.  She is the “Fearless Lady”, because she has the unhindered power to subdue demons, as well as the afflictions of beings.  She protects beings from all fears.  Her wisdom eyes move like the flash of lightning as she fully cognizes all phenomena.  The lady endowed with omniscience, compassion, power, and activity was born from “the teardrops of the stamen-like eyes of the fully blossomed lotus-like face of Avalokiteshvara[v], the Savior of Three Worlds”.  The three worlds are the sub-terrestrial, terrestrial and celestial realms, (the worlds of nagas[vi], humans, and gods, respectively).

Tara is seductive, and has the youthfulness of the rising sun, and a semi-wrathful smile.  Her right hand is in the boon-giving mudra[vii], and her left hand holds a blue lotus upon which is a right-turning conch.  This symbolizes her mastery of the two truths[viii] and bodhicitta[ix] in this world, and in the god realm[x].  The outer meaning of the praise literally praises the nirmanakaya aspect of the Noble Lady.  In the inner aspect of the praise, if not taken literally, her sambhogakaya and dharmakaya aspects are praised.  The “Savior of the Three Worlds” is the dharmakaya, and its manifestation is the rupakaya, or “form body,” (which is composed of the sambhogakaya and nirmanakaya).

[i] tantra skt ~ Buddhist texts that outline the practices of the Vajra vehicle

[ii] mind treasure ~ An inspired teaching (terma) revealed directly from the Buddha-mind,  by a treasure revealer, (terton) .

[iii] samsara skt ~ Cyclic existence, the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth characterized by suffering and dominated by the three poisons: ignorance, desire and hatred.

[iv] compassion ~ Sensitivity to the sufferings experienced by sentient beings, coupled with a desire to help them overcome suffering and its causes.

[v] Avalokiteshvara skt (Chenrezig) ~The Buddha of compassion.

[vi] naga ~ A snake-like being living in the depths of water or underground.  Although they have miraculous powers, they are classified as belonging to the lower realm.

[vii] mudra skt ~ A gesture that has specific meaning used in Tantric practice as a support.

[viii] two truths ~ The absolute truth and relative truth.

[ix] bodhicitta skt ~ The mind of enlightenment.  The altruistic intention to become enlightened in order to benefit others

[x] god realm ~ One of the six realms of cyclic existence, characterized by seemingly unending pleasure and leisure.

Gratitude to His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin

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

 

Since the visit of Kyabje His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin I am feeling much better! How can I thank him? Gratitude!
His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin “knew” I wasn’t doing well, and came to practice until I did. Night and day. I feel His Holiness saved my life.

Kyabje His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin of Bhutan is a living Buddha, so kind and powerful, so pure! I was too sick to see him.

Kyabje His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin is also a root Guru for me. His Holiness never gave up until he knew I’d be fine. The day His Holiness left he rose early, still doing Puja for me.

I Pray I will someday travel to Butan to see His Holiness. I love and feel devotion for His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin. For all getting ready to jump down my throat, His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin is Kagupa, yet I am and will always be a Lineageholder in Palyul. Even I am allowed to have friends and feel devotion for a living Buddha Kyabje His Holiness Ngawang Tenzin of Bhutan. This is a miracle!

 

Drukpa Mila Center

The Melodious Sound of the Auspicious Dharma Conch with the Clockwise Swirl

A Long Life Prayer for H.E. Ngawang Tenzing Rinpoche, the Great Piercing Arrow of Accomplishment.

OM SWASTI NGEY SANG DAM PAI DÜ TSI MA LÜ PA THUK SU TAM PAY NGA DOI DÜ THAR YANG

May all be auspicious! The immortal nectar of the ultimate secret teachings without remainder filling our hearts even in the degenerated times.

NYING POI RING LUK PEL WAI CHHÖ KYI JE NGA WANG TEN ZING KAL GYAR ZHAB TEN SÖL

King of Dharma, propagating the essence of the doctrine, Ngawang Tenzing, I pray your life remain firm for hundred eons.

MI GYUR ZHI YI NAY LUK JI ZHIN ZIK KYE DZOG LAM GYI DRÖ PA TSE MOR SÖN

Seeing all things in their basic unchanging reality, you have reached the summit of the path of generation and completion.

ZUNG JUK DRE BUI SA LA WANG GYUR WA JE TSUN LA MA KAL GYAR TSHO ZHEY SÖL

You have dominion over the state of the union, the bhumi of fruition. Noble Lama, I request you to live for hundred eons.

DE TAR SÖL TAB LU MED DEN PAI THÜ GANG GI SANG SUM TSHEN MOI GÖN PO TAR

By praying thus, with the infallible power of truth, your three secrets like the Moon, the protector of the night,

PHEN DEI YOD TONG THRO WAI PAL YON GYIY DAK SOK DED PAI KU MÜD ZHED GYUR CHIK

With its glorious quality emanating a thousand moonbeams of benefit and happiness, may our water lilies of devotion blossom.

Gelong Tshering wrote this upon the request from practitioners when the retreat center at Kyungseng Dargye Gonpa was inaugurated.

Occupy Wall Street!

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Occupy Wall St. Protesters left Zuccotti Park to march to Washington Square on Saturday. > (Bryan Smith for News)

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

I don’t understand the suppression of Occupy Wall Street news. The more it is bottled up the bigger the explosion will be. Do we want to defeat the protesters? As in a war? Aren’t they our people? Occupy Wall Street is in every continent. These people are us. Why not listen? These OWS protesters watch corporations like Enron drain us dry. We are not the proud people of USA, who grew and made progress in life. Our jobs are gone overseas, our services gone, if we follow our corrupt leaders we will run off a cliff. We love our nations. But we are being drained, our planet is dying- and no one but the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations are telling the truth. Why can’t we sit together and talk?

Occupy Wall Street is the biggest story on earth, along with Fukushima. Why the cover up? We are afraid, do not trust our government/corporations and demand change to benefit “we the people,” not the giants that beat and jail the OWS people. The government should answer to people. Occupy Wall Street!

When I was young I marched to change the world. And here we are again. You should listen this time. Occupy Wall Street!

See also: Prayers for Peace and Change

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Choosing What to Accept and What to Reject – Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche

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The following is from a teaching given by Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

We must take care not to fall prey to actually disbelieving the infallible truth of the law of cause and result, not to hold incorrect or wrong view, which would be again, thinking that there is no truth to this law.  If I practice Dharma, for example, there will be no good result, so why should I bother, these types of attitudes.  If I accumulate non-virtue, if I just do whatever I want, if I engage in negativity, there is no lower rebirth, it doesn’t matter.  And so, thinking in this way is definitely the wrong direction.  All of us must know this and focus on the Buddha’s teachings, initially, the Four Noble Truths, the truth of suffering, that there is non-virtue. We all know that there is suffering, because we are experiencing that and knowing the truth of the cause, that there is the cause to the result of our suffering and so Buddha taught the truth of the cause of suffering and the truth of suffering is the result of that cause and so now, while we are free to do something about accepting and rejecting, that’s precisely what we should do.  If we have intelligence, we would figure out that is the way we would lead our life.

Believing in the laws of cause and result is virtuous.  Not believing in the law of cause of cause and result is non-virtuous and so that marks the difference between being noble and a wholesome individual on the path of wholesome conduct or being ignoble or going into the wrong direction.  So when we are going into the wrong direction, because of not acknowledging the law of cause and result and engaging always in non-virtue then that’s why we get left behind so to speak.  There’s not much progress in our life.  When we notice everyone else is going along and having some positive directions and some progress and we’re not, this is the reason.

By going to school nicely and being wholesome and having dignity, careful in what we do, then we will come to know this truth, we will see how this works in our life by observing, by listening, by checking.  We will see the truth of the law of cause and result.  If we don’t come to know that and see that in our lives, then we’ll always be overwhelmed by the passions and poisons of the 10 non-virtuous results, which includes desire and jealousy, anger, delusion, based on those passions, killing, stealing, adultery, lying, slander, gossip, ill will, craving, incorrect view, all of these non-virtues will proliferate, based on delusion because of not knowing the law of cause and result.  And so by not knowing this, then we are always accumulating causes for lower rebirth especially in the three lower realms of the hell beings, the deprived spirit beings and the animals, where there is inconceivable suffering.  These are the real places of samsara, the places of rebirth in samsara, these lowest realms, where there is no happiness.

Like for example, in this life, if one takes the life of others, then it shortens one’s own life and it also brings about many different illnesses and diseases.  The reason that we have a short lifespan or we acquire some disease or illness is because of having taken the life of others in the past as well so that affects us in this life.  From having stolen, then in this life, no matter how hard one tries, one is always poor, lacking endowments, lacking abundance, never quite being able to get it together financially.  So this is the ripening, the fruit of the cause.  These things don’t come about for any other reason.

So that’s why now it’s so important to listen to one’s parents and to follow the guidelines of whatever religious tradition one believes in.  Certainly there is good in all spiritual paths, so whatever one is able to believe in, learning that, contemplating, thinking carefully and following the guidelines of knowing, coming to know what to accept and what to reject so that qualities can develop in your own stream of mind to become a decent person and to have a happy life, otherwise, not following any guidelines, not believing in anything, having no discipline, just doing whatever you want, being careless, it’s really worse than an animal.  Even an animals don’t do that.  And so it may seem, if you are still young, that that is OK, you can get away with that, because temporarily you are still under your parent’s wings so parents are taking care of you and feeding you and giving you shelter and you are still young so you not sick yet and in fact you don’t even think about it or worry about it, you have no fear of death.  Even if the Lord of Death came before you, you would be fearless because you are still young and everything is great.  But sooner or later, when all of that shifts and changes, because it will, then sickness comes, poverty comes and everything turns upside down if you haven’t learned how to be a decent human being who knows how to follow rules and practice what to accept and reject.  Everything turns upside down and everything becomes like your enemy and when you die and go to lower realms, it’s also even worse and so that’s why it’s so important to think about these things now while you can, while you are able to.

Prayers for Peace and Change

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An aerial view of the Occupy Wall Street march shows the crowds have grown larger, Oct. 5, 2011. (ABC News)

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

New York Occupy Wall Street Police Arrest Protester with Camera


I request all my followers to pray! Protesters getting beaten for having cameras! Either pray, march, or protect!

Police Subdue Crowd in NY with Mace - New York Post (JB Nicholas)

For those marching to Occupy Wall Street – may you all be protected from harm. OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SO HA!

Justin Wedes being arrested. Photo by Juan Carlos Hernndez.

For those who will and have been harmed in Occupy Wall Street We pray: OM MANI PEDME HUNG!

Cops arrest protestor on Broadway. (Julia Xanthos/News)

For those who may die in this movement Occupy Wall Street we pray: OM AMI DEWA HRI

Occupy Wall Street Portland, Oregon (Rick Bowmer) http://tatumba.com

To those who march and seek to compel banks and corporations to do the right thing I pray: OM AH HUNG VAJRA GURU PEMA NORBU SIDDHI HUNG!

March 2011 Protests in London Against Massive Budget Cuts

For those overseas facing the same injustice I pray: OM VAJRA SATTVA HUNG!

Tibetan Demonstration Against Chinese Rule Dharmshala photo: WN / Yeshe Choesang

We stand in prayer and solidarity for protesting Tibetans and His Holiness the Dalai Lama who grieve deeply for the homeland, Tibet, now occupied by China!

Swaziland Protest

We stand in solidarity with those in the great continent of Africa where the poor are fighting oppression to survive! OM MANI PEDME HUNG!

Syria's economic challenges are feeding the population's growing anger, which recently led to protests in the south and are creating a nationwide uprising.

We stand in solidarity with the displaced, hungry, in the Middle East: Peace! OM VAJRAKILAYA SARVA SIDDHI HUNG PHAT!

Workers at Freeport-McMoran's Grasberg mine in Timika, Papua province, are striking over pay, claiming they get only 10% what the firm pays miners in other countries. Photograph: AP

We pray for and stand with all those in the Far-East who suffer under brutal regimes. May they be swiftly liberated! OM MANI PEDME HUNG!

OM VAJRA SATTVA HUNG!

And also for those imprisoned in their own minds through delusion and hate – I send healing and love. OM VAJRA SATTVA HUNG!

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