“I just can’t believe it’s snowing again! Here in March, it’s snowing again! What a year!”
Teachings
Blood Moon
Tonight is suppose to be a lunar exclipse, a gibus moon, and blood moon. Actually that’s suppose to be a sign of war. War is coming. Maybe here. Don’t want to scare you, but that’s what that moon means. It’s rare and powerful.
Bella Luna be kind, smile down on us, and bring blessings to people in war torn countries.
Maybe since it’s so cloudy it won’t be so bad for us. One can only hope.
A Mother’s Love
Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche recently shared with the sangha the prayers she recites each night before bed. Among the many expressions of gratitude, one student’s response gave rise to the conversation below, which Rinpoche has asked to be shared publicly so everyone may benefit from this teaching. Names have been made anonymous for privacy.
Student 1: Thank you, Jetsunma, this is much appreciated. Mom [Student 2] does something like this. She has a list of mantras that Student 3 compiled.
Rinpoche’s attendant: Student 1, are you actually comparing this teaching from Jetsunma to a list that Student 3 compiled?
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: If Student 2 wants to practice Student 3’s Dharma she will end up with Student 3’s mind. It blows me away after all these years you haven’t.
Student 2 certainly does her own thing.
The dysfunctional are leading the dysfunctional and the blind are leading the blind.
Student 3, since when did you become a teacher?
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 2, stop doing the bullshit prayers that Student 3 sent you and do what I said. I am the teacher here, not Student 3. What in the world are you thinking? Student 2, you’ve been doing that bullshit stuff since the beginning. It took effort to get you off the Shower of Blessings and do some real practice.
You need medication and therapy. But you won’t do it. You don’t do anything I tell you to.
So just keep doing blah blah blah or whatever you do, and ignore my prayers. I won’t offer you anymore support and advice or teaching.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 3, who are you to compile and distribute practices for others without the discrimination to know how sick the others are, or the wisdom to present to the students what they need?
Rinpoche’s attendant: Do you all realize you appear unable to discriminate the difference between Dharma and ordinary activity? Practice is not merely a collection of words on a page. There is a reason Dharma is passed from teacher to student, and not just circulated like self help books.
Student 2: Dear Jetsunma,
Student 1 is referring to a list handed out many years ago by the sangha (I do not know who). The list was of what empowerments we were given and what the samaya was on each of the mantras associated with the empowerment.
You are my Teacher and I am totally helpless without You!
Thank You for this beautiful teaching. I am doing this teaching at night and I thank You so very, very much.
Student 3: I am most definitely not a teacher of Dharma, Jetsunma. And I have no idea to what Student 1 is referring, as it had to have been a very long time ago.
I haven’t compiled anything that I can recall since the book I made for myself that was requested for those who travelled to India.
What I have done recently is print KPC’s practices (like Sojong, Chimed Sog Thik, Ratna Lingpa Vajrakilaya, what we’ve been doing in group practice) for three or four of your students who asked if I could print a hard copy for them bc they couldn’t.
May I always remain your student, developing good qualities and virtue, wisdom and discrimination, so that in some future lifetime I may become a qualified teacher worthy of your respect.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 1 portrayed it differently but Student 1 perceives differently. I’m sorry to have bothered you, Student 3.
Student 3: I am grateful for the teaching, Jetsunma. Your blessings come in many forms, in a myriad of ways. Thank you.
Student 1: I’m so sorry, both to you, Jetsunma, and to Student 3, and mom. It’s an old, old list from way back when. I thought Student 3 compiled it, but I must be wrong. I was just happy that mom recites mantra to keep samaya every day. I’ve no doubt she’s doing the mantra you’ve said here now.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: You had better check. I think you’re in crisis Student 1. You’re in bad shape anyway. Do you need your meds upped? You’re spinning.
Student 1: I will check. I just started nearly my full workload at my job without decreasing what I’ve promised to do at the temple. It’s going to take a couple weeks to get a stable schedule, and a regular schedule with the meds. Last week was rough for the chopins and I was also prayer chart caretaker at the same time. I’ll need a couple weeks with the new schedule to get used to it.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: What are temple duties?
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: I knew it. Clearly it’s your meds are off. Can’t you manage it? Do you need a case manager? I mean, we can provide one. Really Student 1, you’ve been through this for years. you know Student 1 if your meds are off you are in danger. First of all you become recalcitrant, then you become an asshole, then your moral conduct is lost, and fourth you don’t even recognize your teacher.
Who are you receiving therapy from? You’re thinking sounds really squirrely again.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 1, how old are you now?
Student 1: Last week I did all the tormas for Losar. Prayer chart caretaker. Prayer shifts. Cleaning. Eggs, though I’m behind on that. If I take myself off the tsa lung team we won’t have enough people, so I’m going to try to do it in less time. It’s manageable, I just have to get back on a schedule.
I fell asleep last night before I had my evening meds.
I’m 58. My therapist is [name redacted].
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: You don’t need to do tsa lung. Take yourself off that.
Wow you’re almost 60 huh? Not a little girl anymore. Why do you still act like one? And you still can’t manage your affairs? Why is that, Student 1? Can you manage your meds, because if not I could put someone on it. I was hoping by now you would be better enough to see to yourself. But, I will take care of you if that’s what you need.
How often do you go to therapy?
Student 1: I go to therapy every Wednesday morning. And no, definitely not a little girl anymore.
If I come off the tsa lung team, the team won’t have enough people. Already too much is on Student 4’s shoulders. One of the team members is injured, and another just had a sharp increase in responsibilities.
People manage with much more than I’m doing. It’s just a new schedule, a lot of change, and we’ve had Losar, two weather events… all within the last few weeks when I’ve started my job.
Rinpoche’s attendant: Her Eminence has taken you off the Tsa Lung team for your own good.
Student 1: Please give me a couple weeks to get on a schedule with everything. If I can’t manage, then maybe tsa lung has to come off. I don’t need to do it, but someone does. People at the temple do a lot more than I do.
I’m actually doing better. Last week I was in much worse shape.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 5, don’t let Student 4 carry everything. Other people need to get involved.
If Student 4 wants to help she can call on the people who have had tsa lung from New York and invite them to come and practice.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Maybe Student 6 and Student 7 can call and ask people to help (with tsa lung)
Student 1: Thank you, Jetsunma. The team’s too small and Student 4 needs help with it.
Student 5: Yes Jetsunma. I’ll talk to Student 4 to get the background and get others to help.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 1, you do what I say – period. Everyone will do what I say, not what Student 1 says. Do you understand that?
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 1, you can stop playing the control games now. You saw where it got Student 8, if you’re still taking in information.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: I also want Student 1 off the Chopin team until she gets her shit together, gets back on her meds properly, and does what I tell her to do. She is no longer a princess here. Or anywhere really if you look at her ragged life.
I’m trying to help her tame her mind but she is like a wild crazed horse, which I am unwilling to ride. That’s up to her to do.
Student 1: Okay, Jetsunma.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Student 1, what I want you to do is work the program, if you can negotiate your way through to the program. Get your medicines fixed. And get your therapy more frequently.
Student 1: Yes, Jetsunma, I’ll make that my priority.
Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche: Good
Shubunkin
Our beautiful shubunkin fish have been hanging out in the little “cave/house” we built them. They like it there. it’s sheltering, and I bet it makes them feel a little bit warmer. Their pond is warming up too, but they don’t seem to be as eager to feed.
Everything happens in its time.
Prayers for Bedtime
A Message from Her Eminence Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo Rinpoche:
“I wanted to share with you a little practice I do at night when I’m in bed getting ready to sleep.
This is not instead of your practice. It is in addition to, before you go to sleep. But it does help you keep Samaya.
3 x Seven Line Prayers
3 x Vajra Guru Mantras
5 x
HUNG
HUNG
HUNG
HUNG
HUNG
3 x
OM AMI DEWA HRI
OM AMI DEWA HRI
OM AMI DEWA HRI
3 x
OM BENZAR SATO HUNG
OM BENZAR SATO HUNG
OM BENZAR SATO HUNG
3 x
OM MANI PEDME HUNG
OM MANI PEDME HUNG
OM MANI PEDME HUNG
3 x
OM AH RA PA SA NA DI
OM AH RA PA SA NA DI
OM AH RA PA SA NA DI DI DI DI DI DI DI DI
SOHA
Just a little kiss to the Buddhas before you go to sleep.”
Spring greens
The koi know spring is springing! they are chowing down, eating veraciously the algae we have been trying to cut down for so long. they won’t get it all, but the interesting part is that they are eating, before the time they should actually be able to eat.
I think they’re getting ready for breeding time, which really is coming up soon. it all depends on weather conditions and water temperature. Last year our spawn happened at the end of April. Chat says a little later. Who knows? Chat knows! Ha ha!
This year we’re gonna do all our breeding and our spawning outside, and our medical care also. We have learned so much! The ones we tenderly cared for and spawned in my Lanai (my entire Lanai) have come to nothing. I don’t even know if there’s a survivor.
The ones we let happen outside have gotten strong and big. Duh. We’ve learned from Mother Nature. Dr. Brent says that’s how it is. They have to build strength in a natural environment. If they can’t make it in a natural environment they weren’t meant to make it. We have managed to harden some of the ones we kept inside. They are doing well though. but we are learning.
And our koi are fabulous!
Koi Parade
The koi are parading! OMG! The pod is in harmony! Dr. Brent said that. It’s like a little dance they do when everything is ok. Now they are all around, like they’re dancing.
The show was short but it was beautiful!
Wait, it is still continuing! I wish you could all see this on Youtube live! I don’t know why we don’t do that.
I hate it when people say there are reasons. They are not reasons. The are obstacles we have to break through.
The koi are actually most visible, most enchanting, at night when the lights are on. That’s why I want to have this online, so people can see them at night when they are the most beautiful.
I want to make this all about the people that come to see them and the koi themselves.
A parade.
They’re Alive!
This is a shot of the koi, in torpor, under the ice. This is under the ice. Jacob took this and I think he did a great job. It shows the majesty that they still have in the winter. So peaceful, energized by each other only. Not eating at all. I guess it’s a time of retreat for them, although half their brains are asleep. They barely function metabolically.
Our job is to keep them safe and comfortable and we’re working very hard at it.
Don’t forget them when you make a donation.
Who’s the Captain of Your Ship?
The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Essence of Devotion”
The reasons for practice of refuge are known if you understand anything about the horror of cyclic existence. You look outside and see the suffering. You look at the way you are conducting yourself and the way your life is set up and the cause and effect relationships you’ve got going here, and you realize it’s just dumb, fruitless, pointless. There is no future in this. It’s a dead end. At that point the mind turns. That turning is the first step of practicing refuge. What does it turn toward? What does it actually turn toward?
Again, you’ve just looked out the window and you’ve looked at yourself, and the first realization is something like, “I don’t know what to do now. I don’t really know what to do. I know that something is terribly wrong, but I don’t know how to get out of this. I don’t know how to leave the party.” There is a piece of you that understands that you must leave the party. Part of you still wants to be there. Part of you likes to play. Part of you likes to dress up. Part of you likes to be unconscious of the eventuality of your own discomfort—suffering, death, old age, those things—and of the suffering of others. We want to be kind of barefoot and ignorant. Part of us wants that sleep, but another part of us, a stronger part of us, a more certain part of us, understands, “…not enough. It is not enough. I’m hungry. They are hungry. This is stupid.” Part of us gets that.
That first turning is the first indication, the first movement, that is required in practicing refuge. We have to stay kind of absorbed in that turning. That turning should be practiced every day. These very thoughts, these very leaving the party thoughts, should be practiced every day. That’s called turning the mind toward Dharma.
Now we have to look for a way out. How to leave the party? The clue is, once again, the first thing we’ve noticed—the suffering and the trickiness and the seductiveness of samsaric existence, or the cycle of death and rebirth. The cycle of death and rebirth must be addressed. That’s where the suffering is. How do we get out of that? We look at the others suffering. We look at ourselves suffering. We look at how foolish we can be and we think, “What is the method?”
Ah ha! That is the answer! We need a method. The answer to that is to look toward those who have actually found the way out of cyclic existence. In other words, if you want to cross an ocean (and we’re talking about the ocean of suffering, the ocean of death and rebirth, the ocean of samsaric existence),,if you want to cross the ocean of suffering, of course you want to look for a boat. The boat is the method, isn’t it? The boat is the method. Well, wouldn’t you look for a boat? You’re about to cross an ocean. There are no planes. We don’t have planes. You want to look for a boat, right? You’re not going to try to swim it, are you? Swimming it is like saying, “I’d like to be spiritual so I’m just going to be spiritual in my own way and I’ll do my own thing because I’m a really cool guy and I know how to do my own thing.” That’s like saying, “Oh great! I’m going to cross the ocean of suffering. Here I go!” Dive in. How long do you think you’re going to last? A little while, but not very long. Not very long, and the problem with that method is that you often don’t even realize when you’re drowning.
So what we need to do is we need to look for a boat. No, not a boat. We need to look for a ship. In fact, if you’re like me, you’re practical and you really want to protect your hide. You do not wish to cross the ocean of suffering in a rowboat, something weak and puny. Neither do you wish to cross the ocean of suffering in a boat that has not been proven seaworthy—a very important fact, really an important fact. If I were to cross an ocean I would want to know that the boat I am in has crossed an ocean many times and is in good repair. And it’s pure, just in the way it was when it was originally capable of crossing an ocean. We want to know that it’s made it back and forth. This is proven. We know we can make it. Also, if you knew that you were crossing an ocean of suffering with, let’s say, the engineer of the boat, or, let’s say, the guy that swabs the decks… Wouldn’t you be a little nervous? I’d be real nervous! I want to cross the ocean of suffering with the most experienced captain, the one who has crossed the ocean of suffering many times successfully, and returned for me. That’s who I want to cross with. I want the big ship. I want the best ship. I want to know that the captain has crossed.
So in this way we look for the most excellent method, that has proven again and again and again, to produce enlightenment, to produce realization. Not an imaginary enlightenment or realization but the one with appropriate signs, the signs that are repeatable, reportable and visible. Such as the signs that our teachers give us at the times of their death, proof of their realization, and even the signs they give us in their activities during the time of their life. Only enlightened minds can provide enlightened compassionate results.
Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo. All rights reserved
Bodhichitta: From “Enlightened Courage” Commentary by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
The following is respectfully quoted from “Enlightened Courage” a commentary by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche:
Bodhichitta is the unfailing method for attaining enlightenment. It has two aspects, relative and absolute. Relative bodhichitta is practiced using ordinary mental processes and is comparatively easy to develop. Nevertheless, the benefits that flow from it are immeasurable, for a mind in which the precious Bodhichitta has been born will never again fall into the lower realms of samsara. Finally, all the qualities of the Mahayana path, as teeming and vast as the ocean, are distilled and essentialized in Bodhichitta, the mind of enlightenment.
We must prepare ourselves for this practice by following the instructions in the sadhana of Chenrezig, “Take refuge in the Three Jewels and meditate on Bodhichitta. Consider that all your virtuous acts of body, speech, and mind are for the whole multitude of beings, numerous as the sky is vast.”
It is said in the teachings that “since beings are countless, the benefit of wishing them well is unlimited.” And how many beings there are! Just imagine, in one small garden there might be millions and millions of them! If we wish to establish them all in the enlightened state of Buddhahood, it is said that the benefit of such an aspiration is as vast as the number of begins is great. Therefore we should not restrict our Bodhichitta to a limited number of beings. Wherever there is space, beings exist, and all of them live in suffering. Why make distinctions between them, welcoming some as loving friends and excluding others as hostile enemies?
Throughout the stream of our lives, from time without beginning until the present, we have all been wandering in samsara, accumulating evil. When we die, where else is there for us to go but to the lower realms? But if the wish and thought occur to us that we must bring all beings to enlightened state of Buddhahood, we have generated what is known as Bodhichitta in intention. We should then pray to the teacher and the yidam deities that the practice of the precious Bodhichitta might take root in our hearts. We should recite the seven-branch prayer from the Prayer of Perfect Action, and, sitting upright, count our breaths twenty-one times without getting mixed up or missing any, and without being distracted by anything. If we are able to count our breaths concentratedly for a whole mall, discursive thoughts will diminish and the practice of relative Bodhichitta will be much easier. This is how to become a suitable vessel for meditation.
ABSOLUTE BODHICHITTA
Consider all phenomena as a dream.
If we have enemies, we tend to think of them as permanently hostile. Perhaps we have the feeling that they have been the enemies of our ancestors in the past, that they are against us now, and that they will hate our children in the future. Maybe this is what we think, but the reality is actually quite different. In fact, we do not know where or what we were in our previous existences, and so there is no certainty that the aggressive people we now have to contend with were not our parents in former lives! When we die, we have no idea where we will be reborn, and so there is no knowing that these enemies of ours might not become our mothers or fathers. At present, we might have every confidence in our parents, who are so dear to us, but when they go from this life , who is to say they will not be reborn among our enemies? Because our past and future lives are unknown to us, we have the impression that the enemies we have now are fixed in their hostility, or that our present friends will always be friendly. This only goes to show that we have never given any real thought to this question.
If we consider carefully, we might picture a situation where many people are at work on some elaborate project. At one moment, they are all friends together, feeling close, trusting and doing each other good turns. But then something happens and they become enemies, perhaps hurting or killing one other. Such things do happen, and changes like this can occur several times in the course of a single lifetime–for no other reason than that all composite things or situations are impermanent.
This precious human body, supreme instrument though it is for the attainment of enlightenment, is itself a transient phenomenon. No one knows when, or how, death will come. Bubbles form on the surface of the water, but the next instant they are gone; they do not stay. It is just the same with this precious human body we have managed to find. We take all the time in the world before engaging in practice, but who knows when this life of ours will simply cease to be? And once our precious human body is lost, our midstream, continuing its existence, will take birth perhaps among the animals, or in one of the hells or god realms where spiritual development is impossible. Even if life in a heavenly state, where all is ease and comfort, is a situation unsuitable for practice, on account of the constant dissipation and distraction that are a feature of the god’s existence.
At present, the outer universe–earth, stones, mountains, rocks, and cliffs–seem to be the perception of our senses to be permanent and stable, like the house build of reinforced concrete that we think will last for generations. In fact, there is nothing solid to it at all; it is nothing but a city of dreams.
In the past, when the Buddha was alive surrounded by multitudes of Arhats and when the teachings prospered, what buildings must their benefactors have built for them! It was all impermanent; there is nothing left to see now but an empty plain. In the same way, at the universities of Vikramashila and Nalanda, thousands of pandits spent there time instructing enormous monastic assemblies. All impermanent! Now, not even a single monk or volume of Buddha’s teachings are to be found there.
Take another example from the more recent past. Before the arrival of the Chinese Communists, how many monasteries were there in what use to be called Tibet, the Land of Snow? How many temples and monasteries were there, like those in Lhasa, at Samye and Trandruk? How many precious objects were there, representatives of the Buddha’s Body, Speech, and Mind? Now not even a statue remains. All that is left of Samye is something hardly bigger than a stupa. Everything was either looted, broken, or scattered, and all the great images were destroyed. These things have happened, and this demonstrates impermanence.
Think of all the lamas who came and lived in India, such as Gyalwa Karmapa, Lama Kalu Rinpoche, and Dudjom Rinpoche; think of all the teachings they gave and how they contributed to the preservation of the Buddha’s doctrine. All of them have passed away. We can no longer see them, and they remain only as objects of prayer and devotion. All this is because of impermanence. In the same way, we should try to think of our fathers, mothers, children and friends. When the Tibetans escaped to India, the physical conditions were too much for many of them and they died. Among my acquaintances alone, there were three or four deaths every day. That is impermanence. There is not one thing in existence that is stable and lasts.
If we have an understanding of impermanence, we will be able to practice the sacred teachings. But if we continue to think that everything will remain as it is, then we will be just like rich people still discussing their business projects on their deathbeds! Such people never talk about the next life, do they? It goes to show that an appreciation of the certainty of death has never touched their hearts. That is their mistake, their delusion.