Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

A spontaneous teaching on Bodhicitta by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Be real. It’s not that easy. You decide and your will decides and your will has gotten you where you are. How superficial is that? You have to practice deeply and meditate. And correct yourself from judging sentient beings by practicing Bodhicitta. You don’t just stop yourself from doing it. You go after it with dragon teeth!
Practice deeply. Cut out the ROOT.
And try to practice with others. You are too isolated.

Jetsunma gave rise to this teaching during an interaction with a troubled student:

Oh and don’t forget- 2+2 ALWAYS make 4. No matter what you do, equations are real. Whenever you do “this” “that” will happen. Because they arise interdependently. Think about that. It’s not someday. It’s THE day that it ripens. The causes have already been created. 

And that’s what you’re afraid of. It’s what you’re running away from. But you can’t. 

The chicks are helping me so much to walk more. And I’m so proud of their happiness and progress. 
It’s so much better caring for other sentient beings rather than just oneself. #Happiness

How can you be happy? Take account for your life. What you did. And what the result is. You will learn to do things  you never thought you would. Because growing up is beautiful. 
Most of my students think they are old. I think they are hardly even mature. 

A spontaneous teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on 9/7/19

An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Stabilizing the Mind”

In order to practice the Buddha’s teaching with any meaning, you first have to understand that all sentient beings are suffering.  Now I have to ask you: Have you really seen that with your own heart, with your own eyes, with your own mind?  Have you seen that all sentient beings are suffering?

If you have seen that you are suffering, then let me describe a funny little thing that you still do that cannot coexist with that knowledge.  You have circumstances throughout the day (and throughout the month, the year, your life) that either please you or displease you, that either make you happy or make you unhappy.

You may think, “Oh, I’m really down today.”  Then you talk to someone, and someone has an upbeat thing to say to you.  It’s meaningful, it’s good, and it pleases you.  So what happens to you?  You go up, right?  There’s a nice sense of warm fuzzies, and you go up.

Or let’s say you are a renunciate, a monk or nun, and when you wake up in the morning, it’s a ho-hum day.  You’re in a flat-line zone, a kind of grey zone.  And let’s say you manage to get in all of the practices that you want to do in the morning, and you manage to have a pretty good experience with them.  You feel buoyant in your practice.  You feel stable in your practice.  You’re able to hold your visualization.  Somehow that magical thing that happens every now and then happens.  You had a good practice.  Then you have your breakfast, eating your cereal by the window like a guy in a commercial, and you say, “Morning is my time!”  But later on the dog urinates on your one robe, you are too busy to eat any lunch or any dinner, and you have a bad practice.  That’s the worst thing – you have a bad practice – and things are no longer going so well.

These things happen to all of you, and yet, although you say you know that there is suffering from the depth of your heart, you have looked to satisfy the end of suffering in a way that is different from what the Buddha taught.  We let our minds float on an ocean of waves like a buoy, up and down.  What is “up”?  What is “down”?  And who is feeling it?  Who says morning is your time?  Who says evening is not?  Who says life is good when you go out to a restaurant and have a glass of wine?  These are concepts that are part of your mind, and your consciousness floats on them.  For some of you, there is not a moment of spaciousness in your mind where your consciousness is not floating on some circumstance you contrived all by yourself.  Why does that happen?

You say that all sentient beings are suffering and that the end to suffering is enlightenment, yet you allow your mind to be satisfied going up and down according to circumstances.  All of the beings that you say are suffering are doing the same thing.  Has anyone achieved happiness by allowing the mind to float on that ocean of concept that we call samsara, affected by circumstances, lifted up by what we call high circumstances, put down by what we call low circumstances?

No one.  Never.  The Buddha tells us that samsara is not happiness, that the contrivances of the mind are not happiness, that sentient beings are suffering, and that the only end to suffering is enlightenment.  Yet we allow ourselves to slide up and down every day.  We get excited about some project, we get enthusiastic, but it always comes to a dead stop.  It always ends.  It has never, never, never, never, never continued until it gave you supreme happiness.

So here’s the point I am trying to make.  First brick: All sentient beings are suffering.  Now, we’ll put the next one on top of it: There is an end to suffering, and it is enlightenment.  Just two bricks, and already we find that we are not secure behind those two bricks, that we don’t believe.  Yes, you say that you believe that all sentient beings are suffering.  Yes, you say that you believe enlightenment is the end of suffering.  Can you tell me how that can coexist with the tendency to let your mind drift, relying on circumstances to make it happy, being the victim of circumstances that make it unhappy?  How do we allow that?

We forget.  We’re caught in a dream, and we lose faith.  So how are you going to practice this Vajrayana, the Diamond Vehicle, the Tantric teachings of Buddhism, passed from teacher to disciple, that can lead to the attainment of enlightenment in one lifetime, a path with sincerity and stability for the rest of your life until some potential comes for you to achieve supreme enlightenment?  Do you believe that that can happen?

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

༈རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་ཨ་ཁམ་ལྷ་མོ།

རྗེ་བཙུན་སྒྲོལ་མའི་རྣམ་པར་སྤྲུལ་བ་འགྲོ་བ་མིའི་ཤ་ཚུགས་སུ་བྱོན་པ་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་ཨ་ཁམ་ལྷ་མོ་ནི། མདོ་ཁམས་བུ་འབོར་གང་གི་ཆར་གཏོགས་པ་དཔལ་ཡུལ་ཨ་མཆོག་གྲོ་ལྷས་ཞེས་པ་སའི་དགེ་བཅུ་ཚང་བའི་ཡུལ་དུ་ཡབ་རིགས་རུས་ཀྱི་མངོན་པར་མཐོ་བ་དམུ་ཚ་སྒའི་རིགས་རྒྱུད་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང། ཡུམ་ཡེ་ཤེས་མཁའ་འགྲོ་མ་གུ་རུ་མཚོ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་སྲས་མོར་བོད་རབ་བྱུང་༡༡་པའི་དཀྱིལ་སྨད་ཙམ་དང་སྤྱི་ལོ་དུས་རབས་༡༧་པའི་སྨད་ཙམ་དུ་ངོ་མཚར་བའི་ལྟས་དུ་མ་དང་བཅས་ཏེ་རིག་འཛིན་ཆེན་པོ་ཀུན་བཟང་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་གཅུང་མོ་ཆུང་བར་སྐུ་འཁྲུངས་ཤིང་། སྐུ་ན་ཆུང་དུས་ནས་ཡི་གེ་འབྲི་ཀློག་སོགས་བསླབ་པ་ཙམ་གྱིས་ཚེགས་མེད་པ་མཁྱེན་པ་བྱུང་། རིག་འཛིན་ཀུན་བཟང་ཤེས་རབ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་སྔ་གཞུག་རྣམས་སུ་གཏེར་སྟོན་ཆེན་པོ་མི་འགྱུར་རྡོ་རྗེ་དང་། ཅོག་རོ་ཀླུའི་རྒྱལ་མཚན་གྱི་ཟློས་གར་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་རྣམ་གཉིས་ཀྱི་གཙོས་མཁས་ཤིང་གྲུབ་པ་བརྙེས་པའི་སྐྱེས་ཆེན་དུ་མའི་ཞབས་རྡུལ་སྤྱི་བོར་བླངས་ནས་མདོ་རྒྱུད་རྒྱུད་སྡེ་རབ་འབྱམས་ལ་ཐོས་བསམ་གྱིས་སྒྲོ་འདོགས་ལེགས་པར་བཅད་དེ། གནས་ངེས་མེད་རྣམས་སུ་བྱོན་ནས་སྒྲུབ་པ་ཉམས་ལེན་ལ་རྩེ་གཅིག་ཏུ་གཞོལ་བར་མཛད་ནས་ལྷག་པའི་ལྷ་རབ་འབྱམས་ཀྱི་ཞལ་གཟིགས་ཤིང་ལུང་བསྟན་དུ་མ་ཐོབ། འདིར་སྣང་གི་འཁྲུལ་པ་ཀ་དག་སྤྲོས་བྲལ་གྱི་དབྱིངས་སུ་རང་སར་དག་ནས་ཆོས་སྐུ་ཀུན་ཏུ་བཟང་པོའི་རྒྱལ་ཐབས་ལ་མངའ་དབང་འབྱོར་ཞིང་། དཔལ་ཡུལ་རྣམ་རྒྱལ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཆོས་གླིང་གི་ཤར་ཐད་ཀྱི་རི་སུལ་དུ་བཞུགས་ཏེ། བཙུན་མའི་འཁོར་སློབ་མང་དུ་འདུས་པ་རྣམས་ལ་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་བར་མེད་དུ་བསྐོར་བར་མཛད་ཅིང་རིམ་གྱིས་དགོན་སྡེ་ཆགས་པས་ཇོ་དགོན་གདོང་ཞེས་པའི་མཚན་དང་། ན་བཟའ་དམར་པོ་མནབ་པའི་ཨ་ནེ་ཇོ་མོས་གང་བས་གྲོང་དམར་སྟེང་ཞེས་མིང་དེ་དག་དེ་ནས་ཐོགས་པར་བྱུང་། མདོར་ན་རྗེ་བཙུན་མ་འདི་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་བཤད་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ་གཉིས་ལྡན་གྱི་གོ་ནས་འཁོར་གདུལ་བྱ་དུ་མ་བསྐྱངས་ཏེ། མཁས་གྲུབ་གཉིས་ལྡན་གྱི་གོ་འཕང་ལ་མངའ་དབང་འབྱོར་བའི་འཁོར་དུ་མ་སྨིན་པར་མཛད་ཅིང་། ཞིང་འདིའི་གདུལ་བྱ་དེ་ཙམ་གཟིགས་ནས། མཐར་ཆོས་ཉིད་ཞི་བའི་དབྱིངས་སུ་གཤེགས་ནས་གདུང་ཞུགས་ལ་འབུལ་སྐབས་དབུ་ཐོད་ནམ་མཁར་ཡར་ནས་སྔར་རིག་འཛིན་ཆེན་པོའི་ཆོས་གསུང་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཆོས་ཁྲི་སྟེང་གི་སྤང་ཁར་བབས་པས། དེ་ཕྱིན་ཆད་དམ་པའི་སྐྱེས་ཆེན་དག་གི་སྐུ་གདུང་ཞུགས་འབུལ་བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་དུར་གླིང་དུ་གྱུར། དབུ་ཐོད་དེ་སྒྲུབ་ཆེན་བྱིན་འབེབས་སྐབས་ཐོད་གཡབ་མཛད་ཅིང་ད་ལྟ་ཡང་བཞུགས་ཤིང་། ཁོང་གྱི་རྣམ་འཕྲུལ་བག་ཆགས་སད་པའི་ལས་ཅན་མ་ཞིག་ད་ལྟ་ཨ་རིའི་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཏུ་འཁྲུངས་ཡོད་པར་ཐོས་སོ།།

Jetsunma Ah Kham Lhamo

Birth

Ah Kham Lhamo, the emanation of Noble Tara, the mother of all Buddhas, took the form of a human being, in Palyul Achog Dro Lhae, a province of Dokham Bubor Gang, the land with complete signs of the ten virtues. Her father, Dorjee, was from the noble family of Mutsa Ga, and her mother, Guru Tsho, was a Wisdom Dakini. She was born just after the second half of the 11th Rabjung cycle, which is around the end of the 17th century. At her birth, there were many amazing signs. She was the younger sister of Rigzin Kunzang Sherab.

Education

At a very early age, she was able to master reading and writing without any difficulties. On many occasions she accompanied Kunzang Sherab, to receive teachings from the Great Terton Migyur Dorjee, Karma Chagmed (who was the emanation of Chokro Luyi Gyeltshen), and many other great accomplished scholars and mahasiddhas of that time. Under their guidance she mastered the sutras and the tantras–especially the infinite tantras–and cleared any misunderstanding of them, with her wisdom of hearing and wisdom of contemplation.

Practices and retreats

Then she wandered in many sacred places and practiced with single-pointed perseverance. She had the visions of unfathomable deities and received many revelations from them. She purified the delusion of ordinary perception into the expanse of the primordially pure state, free of all elaborations, and gained mastery over the kingdom of Dharmakaya Samantabadra.

Benefiting Beings

She resided on the hill to the east of Palyul Namgyal Jangchub Choling where she constantly turned the Wheel of Dharma to her disciples of nuns. Gradually, it became a nunnery and was called Jo Gon Dong. Because the place was filled with nuns in their maroon robes, it was also called Upper Red Village. Thus the place got its names.

Conclusion

In brief, Jetsunma cared for and benefited countless beings to be tamed by the wheel of teachings and practices. She ripened the minds of her followers, and many became great scholars and accomplished practitioners.

Finally, seeing that her benevolent activities had come to an end, she entered the peaceful state of dharmadhatu. When her holy body was cremated, her skull jumped up in the sky and fell on the throne that Rigzin Kunzang Sherab used to give teachings. This site later became the cremation ground of the holy lamas.
The skull was used to invoke the blessings of the deities during the Drubchen practices. It is still with us.

I have heard that her emanation, a lady with fortunate karma, who had awakened in the experience of the past, has been born in America.

This is the life and liberation of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, from the History of the Palyul Lineage written by Tulku Thubten Palzang.

An excerpt from a teaching called Dharma and the Western Mind by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

I think a difficulty that Westerners have is so much input and so many different kinds of teachings.  Do you remember the first time you ever heard anything metaphysical? I don’t care if it was about flying saucers or about ghosts or whether it was the first time you picked up the Ouija board or did something weird like that. The first time you did anything that was metaphysical, you thought, “Hey I am on to something, this is it” and you got really excited and that excitement was a real joy to you. But haven’t you noticed that as you continued to go on this path in this direction you became less and less excited each time and finally you became a little cynical, and then suddenly you are just cool, “I’ve heard this before.”  When you start getting to the point where you say I am cool and I have heard this before, you are dead.  That is real cool.  That is about as cool as you can get.  But the problem is that most Americans are like that.

I find that when I teach new students the first thing that I have to do is a little razzle dazzle. Why? To get their attention.  We have heard so much stuff and everybody has got a sales pitch.  Of all the nations on earth this has got to be the nation with the most salespeople.  Of all the nations this has got to be the only place where everything gets sold, no matter what and you get to pick and choose no matter what and there are four different varieties.  It is almost a sickness.

It is a problem because now we are presenting Dharma, which is an ancient path, it is a path that describes supreme enlightenment, it is a path, which lays out the technology of supreme enlightenment, and it does it very well.  It does it consistently, and it does it purely.  It has done it in the same way for such a very long time and it has had proven results.

We even have stories of people who have practiced Dharma who have achieved what is called the rainbow body and have incredible miraculous signs at the time of their death. We think,  “Make me a believer, I dare you.”  We think like that and we act like that and we hope that someone will convince us.

I have found that another problem with Westerners is that we become a little hard.  I love you desperately, this is not an insult but we are a little cynical, a little hard to please. We have to have a certain percentage of entertainment value while we are being taught the Dharma.  I understand that but it’s a hard row to hoe.

Finally when we get this fire, this incredible love, this feeling that we only want to live this courageous life in order to benefit beings then we are okay but it is hard to get our attention and so this is another thing that I wish you would examine: how much you have been exposed to many different kinds of spiritual thought, and how many things you have been excited about that if you went back and examined, you would find were a puff-ball.  How many different systems have you thought, “Wow, this is exciting, this sounds right” and then you go back to it and you ask and find, “Who is it invented by, nobody; nobody that knows anything.” And nobody that got anywhere, anyway. Where did it come from, you can’t trace it back, you can’t figure it out.  Did it come from the mind of supreme enlightenment, maybe not?  If you go back and see the things that you got excited about you may find that from time to time you have been a little duped.

Mom told us that we would be happy if we did this and this and this.  The old idea about being rich, marrying a doctor, having children and dressing them nicely and wearing Polo shirts and Carter’s underwear; if you get all these things right then we will be happy.  We have become disappointed because we did everything correctly.  We got educated and we got a little prosperous. We have a Crock Pot; there is a chicken in it that, even as we speak, is overcooked.  We did all of these things and in mid-life we have a crisis.  It is so normal in our society that we write books about it.  The ‘Mid-Life’ crisis, the one you are bound to get to. It is weird if you think about it.   We tried all these things and we are not happy any more and we never were happy and it didn’t work. Basically what has happened is that we have become cynical and we are afraid to try.  We are one culture that has a particular problem: we are not believers actually, we are afraid to try. We say, “I have heard this and I have tried this.  I am not going to do anything hard.  I am going to get by and then I am going to die and that is how I am going to work this thing out.”

I find that Westerners have a tremendously hard time with the idea of making a real commitment with their lives, saying “Okay I get it.” I see that everybody is suffering, I see that there must be an end to suffering, I see that desire may be the cause of suffering, I see all of these things and I now understand the nature of emptiness.  Maybe it isn’t so dark and bleak and horrible.  Finally I can see where practicing Dharma would be right, I can see where this is what you should do with your life.”  But that moment at which you say, “Let this life only be a vehicle in order to practice Dharma, let that be the value of this life, let that be what I do” and be really courageous about it; that is hard for us.  We have a hard time. Understanding that the real value of this precious human rebirth is that we can accomplish a path to supreme enlightenment is a little difficult for us to get inspired about in that way.

If we could devise a way to help us to be less in love with what we should collect in our society, and how to be prosperous and have meaning in a material society, if we could become less involved with that idea and more involved with understanding the really important factor – the way in which we cultivate our minds and practice a proper technology to accomplish a pure and awakened mind state.  The point is to be of benefit to beings, to be awake as the Buddha was awake so we can bring about the end of suffering for ourselves and for all sentient beings.  The moment that which we discover this and it becomes meaningful to us we also need to divine a way to accomplish it.

©Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Even though we are old and dying we must reach beyond ourselves and serve others. If we do not do that, no future life will be worthwhile. Please wake up. There is no self. Only the Bodhicitta.

JAL

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Bodhicitta” 

The subject today will be Bodhicitta, or compassion. From the traditional point of view, it is considered that Bodhicitta is divided into two basic categories. There is the aspirational Bodhicitta and the practical Bodhicitta. The aspirational Bodhichitta is the first relationship with Bodhicitta or compassion. In this sense, you can use the word Bodhicitta and compassion interchangeably. The aspirational level is the first relationship with Bodhichitta that each of us would approach, and this is a very important step. This step is the beginning of the cultivation of a stability of compassion within the mindstream. The practice of aspirational Bodhicitta begins with very small baby steps. It is absolutely dependent on understanding some of the Buddha’s basic teachings in order to do it effectively, in order to approach it effectively. One of the reasons why this is so necessary is that the Buddha teaches us of the faults of cyclic existence. The Buddha teaches us, as well, that suffering ceases when we achieve enlightenment. The Buddha teaches us of the cause of our suffering. He teaches us that suffering is caused by desire. And we come to understand suffering in a completely different way than we do just as ordinary sentient beings. 

Upon hearing the Buddha’s teaching, we might view suffering differently. Before we heard the Buddha’s teaching, we might think it possible to solve suffering through manipulating circumstances in ordinary human ways. We might think that a poor person is suffering because they have no money. We might look at the superficial angle of suffering. Looking at that suffering from a superficial angle, we actually can only develop a very superficial understanding of it. Ultimately we will have very little understanding of the nature of suffering at all, and therefore, will be incompetent to prevent more suffering or the continuation of suffering. To look at suffering from the ordinary superficial sense, we might consider that a poor person suffers because they have no money, or a sick person suffers because they have no health. And this would seem perfectly logical. Everything in our environment points out that this is the case. We would think that whatever we are lacking, that thing is the cause of our suffering; and whatever we have that we don’t want, that thing is the cause of our suffering. But according to the Buddha, this is really symptomatic. These things that we witness are symptomatic, and they do not necessarily lead us to understand the deeper cause of suffering. So we must turn to the enlightened teaching of the Buddha, of one who has crossed all of the barriers of suffering and has experienced the cessation of suffering in order to determine what the real cause of suffering is.

According to the Buddha, the things that we suffer from, such as poverty or sickness, or old age, sickness and death in the human realm, or all of the different sufferings that are potential and possible within the six realms of cyclic existence, in fact, are only symptomatic of a deeper underlying suffering, That suffering is actually the belief in self-nature as being inherently real. The suffering of the belief in self-nature being inherently real, or the delusion of the belief in self-nature as being inherently real actually leads to the suffering of desire. Because the tricky thing about belief in self-nature as being inherently real is that once you decide you have a self, you have to maintain it. Once you have the view that the self is here and it’s very real, then you have to constantly redefine and clarify the meaning of self by defining the distinction between self and other, And then all phenomena appears to be separate. Even one’s own feelings appear to be separate. All things that are present in the world appear to be separate and they are filled with the sense of distinction. Whenever something registers on the five senses, whether it be an altar, or whether it be something like food, or whether it be another person, whenever that thing arises in the mind, we determine whether we like it or don’t like it. There is an automatic attraction or repulsion phenomena that occurs. If you will examine yourself, you will see that this is true. It simply is not possible for you to see something or to have something come to your awareness without having the immediate, almost knee-jerk reaction of deciding if you are attracted to it or repulsed by it; or there is some aspect of that within your mind. It may play out a little bit differently; but if you examine it, you will see that the root of it is attraction and repulsion. All things play on the senses in that way.

The thinking then of the separation, or the erroneous perception of the duality between self and other, becomes more and more profound. It actually progresses and it builds on itself. It becomes more exaggerated. Each time that you react with attraction or repulsion toward anything, there is a karma, or a cause and effect relationship, that is begun at that time. This cause and effect relationship then continues to create more cause and more effect. And there is an almost continual building of these instances, one on top of the other; and they are endless. There is no way for this to stop. It occurs in a cycle. And it occurs in such a way that while cause and effect are being experienced, more cause and effect continue. While one is dealing with the effect of previous causes, one is beginning new causes because of the reaction to the effect of previous cause. And it continues to be so that it seems to be unbreakable and unshakeable.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo all rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching called Intimacy with the Path by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

When we think of the path, we think of something that is external, separate from us, something in front of us that we have to move towards or attain.  A different understanding of the path might be that the path is something that actually engages with what you might call three faces.  But these three faces are very much like us.  You could say that each one of us has at least three faces.  Each one of has the face of anger or discontentment, the face of joy, and the face of balance or contentment.  There are many different faces that we have.

The path also has faces and when we truly study them we can understand what the nature of the path actually is.  You could say that the path exists as part of a three-part system and if you were to think of the path itself in a true and more profound way than we normally think, you would understand that there is no way to tell where the path begins and where the path ends.  We would understand that comprising what we call the path are three faces which are (1), the ground or basis from which the path arises, (2) the path or movement itself, the display of that source or fundamental nature from which the path arises, and (3) the fruit, which is the direct result of that fundamental nature as well as the direct result of the activity of that fundamental nature.

These three things, the ground, the path and the fruit or result cannot be separated in any way, shape, manner or form.  The moment that we begin to separate these three aspects, we have lost touch with what the path actually is.  We have lost touch with an intuitive understanding of how to practice the path, and we experience a great deal of delusion concerning the path when we separate ourselves from the understanding of the threefold face of the path:  the basis or ground; the movement or path itself; and the result of the path.

Without this understanding, anything that we do becomes a path.  Any activity that we engage in becomes a method.  That method connects something with something or it wouldn’t be a method.  But on the path of Buddha Dharma we have to remain connected with the ground, the method, and the result.  These three have to be considered as threefold.

How is it that we can use this understanding to determine the validity of the path and to remove from ourselves the tendency toward delusion? First of all there is the teaching on the relationship of the seed and the fruit.  There is that kind of good old-fashioned, common-sense wisdom that if you really want to have an apple tree in your orchard, you’ve got to plant an apple seed, that if you wanted an apple tree in your orchard and were to plant cabbages, it simply would not work.  You would have cabbages, not apples.  If you wished for some apples and you were to plant asparagus, that’s not going to turn out really well for you unless you really determine that asparagus is your thing.  I know it sounds like I’m being silly and belaboring this point.  The moment we get it, I’m going to stop nagging about it, because as yet we haven’t got this one and it’s really, really important.

The Buddha Dharma is not a path or a method that arises in any common or ordinary way in the world.  In other words, someone didn’t get born at some time and simply compose a path.  A team of experts or technicians didn’t get together and engineer a path.  NASA didn’t design this one.  This path was not a dream or a vision that someone had about twenty years ago that remains unproven or insubstantial.

The path of Buddha Dharma as we know it only arises when the condition of the Buddha nature appears.  It arises from the mind of enlightenment – the Buddha nature.  Lord Buddha did not begin to teach the path, although he had attained varying degrees of what you might call cosmic consciousness or something like that, before he actually attained supreme enlightenment.  He had various degrees of consciousness that he could communicate and various qualities that he could teach to others—teachings on compassion, Bodhicitta, practicing meditation—but in fact he did not teach until he awakened into the primordial nature that was his true nature, Buddhahood.  And then at that time he was able to display the path or method to the world.

The path or method actually came forth from his realization.  It did not come forth even one millisecond before his realization.  Once he achieved that precious awakening, he was able to bring the path to the world.  During the course of Lord Buddha’s life he discovered that there were many different displays of consciousness, many different levels of attainment and attunement that one could accomplish and he did accomplish many of these before that ultimate moment.  But it was that ultimate awakening that he presented to the world as the Buddha Dharma.

The seed of the method that we practice is enlightenment, the Buddha nature itself.  It is not the human nature.  If it were the human nature he would have taught before that precious awakening and that would have been something from the human capacity.  But it was not until supreme realization that he began to teach the method and he taught only that method which leads to supreme enlightenment.  So the seed and the method are completely married and not separable.

© copyright Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo All rights reserved.

An excerpt from a teaching called Awakening from Non-Recognition by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Guru Yoga must be seen not as an end but as a means to an end. Quite frankly, speaking for myself and I’m sure most other teachers, we could care less. I’ve described this many times before. I just hate the whole prostration thing. It takes me forever to get through a room. If one practices in a profound way, these prostrations are an opportunity, and that’s why I allow them to be practiced here in the same way that they are practiced generally in our tradition. Otherwise I wouldn’t, because they bother me, but I allow them because it is an opportunity to make an offering and to move immediately—body, speech and mind—into a posture of recognition. You are speaking, “I take refuge in the Lama. I take refuge in the Buddha. I take refuge in the Dharma. I take refuge in the Sangha.” You are engaging in conduct with your body. You are engaging in intention with your mind. With body, speech and mind you are connecting to recognition, and that’s why I allow it.

The relationship with one’s teacher is utilized as the water of life or some sort of ultimate nectar or ultimate empowerment that provides a way for us to begin to recognize that which is holy arises in the world and that each of us is that. Each one of us should practice like that. To the degree that we hold the teacher above the crown of our head and then take the teacher into our hearts, without finding reasons not to—because those reasons not to are the very reasons we are using to remain lost in samsara—to that degree we learn to recognize. Yes, we know you’re clever enough to find reasons not to recognize the nature. If you need to be clever in the way Americans need to be clever in this day and age, you are already clever, very good, now let’s move on. Let’s see if you can learn recognition.

The relationship with the teacher then becomes this precious opportunity, this precious bridge. We see that the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha and, all three-in-one as the Lama have appeared in the world, and we see that this is not separate from us. So in the beginning we start practicing by contemplating the difference between what is ordinary and what is extraordinary. We begin to move into relationship with the teacher. We begin to practice devotion. We try to practice some pure view, understanding that this is the appearance in the world and that this is holy and we let it be that way. We simply let it be. Then gradually we move into a much deeper practice where we understand everything is the mandala of the guru. In that practice we begin to learn to turn adversity into bliss.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo