Tibetan Buddhist Altar

A Vow of Love:

Living an extraordinary life

of Compassion

By Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Why Compassion?

I would like to talk about a subject that is of the utmost importance to everyone. The subject is compassion.

You may think, “Oh, I know all about compassion. I’ve been a Dharma practitioner for a long time. I’ve had many teachings about compassion.” Or you might think, “I’m a person with a good heart. I try not to do any harm, and I try to help people. Therefore, I know about compassion.” If we hold these ideas in our heart, we have already lost precious opportunities, and will continue to lose more, because the cultivation of compassion in the heart and mind is an ongoing process.

Even if you come into this world with a compassionate ideal you must still cultivate the idea of compassion as though it were the first time you ever thought of it. Due to intense spiritual practice in the past, you may have been born into this lifetime with the idea that you want to be of benefit to sentient beings. Yet still you must cultivate the idea of compassion everyday, as though it were a delicate orchid that could die in an unnatural environment. Until we are supremely enlightened, we have obscurations of our mind that will fight against the idea of compassion.

There is no one on this earth, unless they are supremely realized, who has the purified mind of compassion. If you have been meditating for many years, and think compassion is a baby subject and you’re far beyond that, or if you think because you’ve practiced for a long time, compassion is just one of the beginner studies, and now you’d like to get on to the mystical or the “higher” Dzogchen teachings, then I think you’re making a mistake. I hope that you will relax your mind and come to the point where you commit to studying compassion deeply and profoundly, as though it were your mother. You should have that kind of intimate relationship with the idea of compassion. You should seek to be taught by it. You should seek to be suckled by the mind of compassion. You should seek to be nourished in that way.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

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

Yesterday a new student asked the following question, “What is the difference between Mahayana and Vajrayana?” She had studied for six years from books. This question can take years to answer! So I apologize for giving the quick cereal box top version.

There are three main levels of Lord Buddha’s teachings. They can be thought of as a “wedding cake” shape, if you will.

The first Level was the first teaching, Theravadin. It is based square on the Vinaya structure, relates to purity and no-harm. It is the basis for all further turning of the “Wheel of Dharma.”

The next layer of the cake would be Mahayana, or “Great Vehicle” and is associated with the Bodhisattva vow, along with refuge in the Three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Now, in the Vinaya, to purify, one gender must not touch opposite sex, handle money, has many laws. In Mahayana, the same laws apply but are modified by the Bodhisattva vow. In that vow one cultivates Bodhicitta, compassion. So a monk could theoretically touch a woman to give aid, medicine, food, comfort, support. And as Bodhisattvas in training, vow to liberate and care for all sentient beings. Through ordinary and ultimate kindness. In Mahayana we dedicate all our merit, practice, efforts to all beings, thinking of them as our own kind mothers in all lives. And we help all we can.

Vajrayana is like the top level if the wedding cake. It is a very profound and mystical level. And within that there are preliminary, generation stage, and lastly completion stage practice. Preliminary is Ngundro, generation is of the three Roots of practice: Lama, yidam, and khandro with protectors. The completion stages are Tsa-lung, Togyal and Trek Chod. These are the practices that can deliver Liberation in one lifetime.

Now here is the thing. These wedding cake layers cannot be separated, or the whole thing falls down. Theravadin, Mahayana and Vajrayana are totally and completely inseparable. If not the case, there is no stability in the practice. One sustains the other and is it’s very foundation! It’s support. So the Vinaya supports and gives rise to, through purification, the Mahayana Bodhisattva level, with additional vows. The top layer is totally depending on the other layers and they cannot be separated. Vajrayana requires the practice of giving rise to Bodhicitta because the yidams, the Three Roots, are the very display of Bodhicitta in the world! They are not ordinary and come from the play, the dance of the Buddha nature in phenomena. Each and every yidam or meditational deity is not separate from Bodhicitta, never could be, or it could not be a display of the Buddha.

We must learn to accept the feast of the whole cake as it is. We cannot pick the easy part, the one we like best to feel smart. We cannot change the cake. We can change the flavor, the color, to suit our culture, but not the layer cake!

And what is at the top? The union, Yab/Yum. Wisdom and compassion; emptiness and method. Or empty primordial nature couples with display/samaya in that union, we are liberated! EH MA HO!

OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG!

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

Excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

Everything that you do should have meaning. It’s important that your life be understood as a vehicle for practice. It’s the only thing that is meaningful: to make this life, which is so rich in opportunity, a vehicle by which you can come to benefit beings. This is the development of aspirational Bodhicitta. Every time you do something good, use that opportunity to dedicate it to the liberation of all beings. If you pat a little child on the head and it makes them smile, that’s a good thing. So you must think, “I dedicate the virtue of this action to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.” If you give money to somebody, pray, “I dedicate the virtue of this act to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings.” You should continue like that in everything that you do. Make up your own prayer. You don’t have to use mine. Dedicate everything that you do so that it might go on, and grow, and be of use to benefit beings. Wean yourself from empty activity, activity that is useless and meaningless. Wean yourself from the need for ‘feel-good’ junk. Learn how to live a life in which your only concern is to liberate beings from the causes of suffering, because doing this is the only thing you can really feel good about. You aspire constantly through these prayers. You really train yourself to do this, and it should never stop.

After you are stable on the path of aspirational compassion, you have to think about concrete or practical compassion. You don’t forget aspirational compassion, saying, “Oh, I did that for a little while when I was a younger practitioner.” You should never stop. Never. I will never stop, and you should never stop. That’s not baby stuff. That’s the real stuff. Then you expand this to include practical compassion.

First you have to decide that the Buddha was right. You look at the Buddha’s teachings and you say, “If he’s right, then I have to think of some practical way to eliminate hatred, greed and ignorance from the world and from the mindstreams of myself and all sentient beings.”

Based on that you begin, and your practice should be deep and true. If you choose to be a Buddhist, the path is laid out, and the path is secure. It goes all the way to supreme realization. If you choose not to be a Buddhist, you still have to find a way to live a life of practical compassion, based on the goal of rooting hatred, greed and ignorance out of the mindstreams of yourself and all sentient beings. You should think that reciting many prayers on a regular basis for others could be of use. You should think activities that cause you to realize the emptiness of self-nature and therefore eliminate desire from your own mindstream would be of benefit. And that, finally, free of desire, when you are truly awake, as the Buddha said, you can go on to benefit others. You should be determined to liberate your own mind, and you should pray every day that you will return in whatever form necessary in order to liberate the minds of all sentient beings.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Your Treasure is Heart”

So where do you start? Exactly where you are. Remember that different people have different experiences. If you’re not sure about that, ask other people. No one knows what another person’s experience has actually been. No one knows how karmic patterns develop into the tapestry that they become. As people engage on the path of the Bodhisattva, each and every one will look a little different. It’s not for you to judge. It’s only for you to begin.

When some people begin to engage in the Bodhisattva meditations, although they’re saying, “I dedicate myself to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings,” they’re thinking, “I don’t feel like it today. I’m not happy about it, but I know it’s the right thing to do. So I’ll work on it” Another person will say, without thinking about it at all, “Oh, yes, right now I dedicate myself to the liberation and salvation of all sentient beings!!!!” Both are equally ridiculous! Why make a judgment about either one? You can see that’s just the first step. So whatever it looks like, let it be that.

Eventually in maturity there is not so much concern for appearances, not so much concern for how it should be. There is mostly concern for others. Now there’s a new trick. Rather than being concerned about appearances, we are mostly concerned for others. When we were judging ourselves and others for not looking perfect as a Bodhisattva, that’s the part we left out, wasn’t it? It isn’t about how we look. It’s about them. It’s about others.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. All rights reserved

An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhists Think by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In America, as in few other countries, you can find a multitude of ways to be “a spiritual person.”  When Tibetan Lamas first came to this country, they were appalled.  They were saddened to see there are so many ways to think that you are being spiritual, that you are adopting a spiritual path.  The Lamas saw this as the unfortunate, unbearable, bad karma of the American people.

Doesn’t that sound odd?  Many of us might say: “No! It’s just the opposite!  We can do anything we want, we can be spiritual in this place or that.  We can choose to be traditionally spiritual or non-traditionally spiritual.  This is the land of opportunity.”

But as the Lamas understand it, much of what is assumed to be spirituality was started less than 50 years ago.  Essentially this means we don’t know if it can produce Enlightenment.  Many Americans are diligently trying to cross the ocean of suffering in a boat that has never made it across a lake.

Even in the older religions in America, you can be confused about what goals to pursue.  Some leaders of Christan churches admit that the original teachings Jesus gave are not found in the Bible.  Many teachings have been lost, portions may have been deleted, and the true meaning may have been clouded over by layers of translations.  Many of today’s Christian practitioners have no idea that they could become immersed in a mysticism that will actually change their perception.  Very few understand that they could practice in a way that leads to Realization.

Lamas who came to this country understood that it would be difficult for Americans to be open to the Buddha’s teachings.  So many things in America seem more flashy, seem to promise a great deal more.  New Age ideas include promises of instant healing and even opportunities to talk to Masters from the Great Beyond.  But has anything like that produced Enlightenment yet?  Have we seen the signs?

Buddhist Lamas who came to America had seen miraculous signs.  For instance, both my root gurus had seen Lamas fly through the air.  A close student of one of my root gurus had seen him lift off the ground and hover for some time.  Many of the Lamas had seen the miraculous appearance of the rainbow body after a Dharma practitioner died.

Not long ago, when a Buddhist Lama died, his body was cremated in a fire so hot that his very bones turned into a crispy substance, with a texture somewhere between ashes and potato chips.  Yet his heart remained uncooked, raw!

Many Lamas, I among them, have relics of Lamas who died, relics that are “pearls” produced automatically by their bodies.  When kept in a dark, quiet place, these pearls continue to reproduce themselves.  Lamas I know have told of stupas with empowerments so strong that on one side would come a sweet nectar; on the other, a sour nectar.  The flow was continual, and would never dry up.  This has been happening for hundreds of years. There has been no explanation for it.

When a Buddhist speaks of “a True Path,” this is not meant as: “My religion is better than yours.”  It is not intended to be haughty or prideful.  Rather, we want to be on a path that has repeatedly produced results, and can be expected to do so in the future.

That is how I view the Buddha’s teachings.  They did not come from any ordinary intellectual process or experience, or from a compilation of other people’s views.  They arose from the mind of Enlightenment.

Some people call themselves “enlightened,” and when I hear this, I cease to believe them.  The Buddha simply said, “I am awake.”  He never made himself out to be a god; he never said he was different from anyone else.  He simply said, “I’ve given you the Path.  Now work out your own salvation.”

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

To download the complete teaching, click here and scroll down to How Buddhists Think