Tibetan Buddhist Altar

An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhism Differs from Other Religions by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

In the Buddha Dharma there are mainly two kinds of compassion.   There is ordinary compassion, and there is extraordinary or sublime compassion, also called ordinary bodhicitta or sublime bodhicitta.   Bodhicitta is the great display of compassion, which is our own primordial nature.   Ordinary bodhicitta is the caring for others through the means that we can find on this earth.  In other words, caring for others through ordinary means.  Like for instance, if you see somebody that’s hungry and you give them a sandwich.  That’s compassionate, but it’s ordinary compassion because you know you didn’t get the sandwich from the sublime realms.  You got it from a kitchen or you bought it somewhere.  It’s ordinary stuff that went into it – baloney or salami or peanut butter and jelly. It’s ordinary even if you make 150 sandwiches and you pass them out to the hungry homeless.  That’s a real good day, but still ordinary compassion because it’s easily attainable.

There are many hungry people now in Burma.  No matter what the junta says, the people are not eating, and they are sick and dying.  Let’s say somehow we magically can put together everything they need, and just bust through the blockades and give it to the people.  Let’s say we airdrop everything they need, and the whole place is satisfied. The people have tents or homes or something to live in.  They have the means to get food.  They have food.  They have bedding; they have everything because of this magnificent airdrop that you made.  Let’s say that’s possible.  That would take an awful lot of money, but still in all it’s ordinary human compassion.  We never see ordinary humans doing that very much, and that goes to show you the pickle we’re in.  But it’s still ordinary human compassion.

Now, what is supreme or extraordinary compassion?  That is compassionate activity that concerns and offers that which is not of this world.  The great bodhisattvas that return again and again are considered to demonstrate the great bodhicitta, because the nature of the bodhisattva is such that once they attain certain bhumis, which are levels of realization, then at that time they can step into enlightenment or step into nirvana and attain the rainbow body at any moment.  But they hold back because they wish to benefit sentient beings.  They look at the suffering of sentient beings.  They see this terrible suffering and it moves them, and they return to earth to show them the way out of that suffering.  That is considered extraordinary compassion.  So then translating, teaching, creating the books of Dharma, offering these ancient teachings in a modern world so that modern people can continue to benefit from something that would ordinarily be lost to them, that is considered extraordinary compassion.

When I held my little new born son in my arms, I thought, “I would do anything for you.  I will care for you. I will keep you warm.  I will give you my milk, and when you’re done with that, I will bake pies.  I’ll do anything for you.”  And then I realized I was lying to him, because if my son were to get gravely ill, I would have no power to help him.  Or if my son were to die, even though I told him I would never abandon him, I would not be able to follow him into the next rebirth.  I would not be able to see to his welfare.  So, there’s my baby in my arms, and I have lied to him.

That was one of the main things that made me practice really hard when I was young.  I made it my business to learn how to provide the Phowa, which is the transference of consciousness from one level to the next, or from one life to the next rebirth.  I made myself learn to do that so that I could help people, and dogs, and cats, and anybody in the dying process, and so I could even follow my own child into the next life, and make sure that his rebirth is good.  I’ve attained that goal.  And I’m very happy for it.  Do you see the difference there?  A mother’s love is so powerful, so extraordinary.  You would feed your child your own body if they were hungry.   And you look in the eyes of your child and you think, “Never has there been love like this.  I would do anything for you.”  But until that compassion applies to all sentient beings, and we have the skills through our own realization, we are lying.   And we are not able to do very much for those we love.  That is the one of the differences between ordinary and supreme bodhicitta.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA

21 Homages to Tara PDF Download

An excerpt from a teaching called How Buddhism Differs from Other Religions by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

We tend to do things that give us a rush, but it doesn’t make us happy.  For instance, let’s say we decide to drink some alcohol, and we decide to do it a lot, and we decide to get loaded every weekend, and we think, “Boy, you know that gives me something to look forward to because all week long I can be a good person, and then on the weekend I can get loaded, and then I’ll be happy.”  Of course, it doesn’t happen.  Generally, what happens is your body gets sicker.  You get dependent on alcohol in order to feel anything.  And you know eventually the mind just churns in samsara and no new habits or no new understandings or anything that will actually make you happy occurs.  We just get drunk.   And then we sober up on Monday.  And that’s it.  That’s all that happens.  But we keep thinking that if we do it every weekend, and if we do it better every weekend, then eventually one weekend it’s really going to make us happy, and it’s going to last.  And of course, that’s foolish because it never works.  There’s something about human consciousness that makes it difficult for us to learn from experience.  It’s like banging into the wall constantly.  And we go on with behavior that actually makes our situation worse rather than easing it or making us happy or making it better in any way.

For instance, let’s say you really feel that you would be happy if you had more money.  I can’t say that I haven’t thought that.  And I’m sure if I’ve thought that, pretty much everybody has thought it at least once.  And so we think, “Wow, if I had some money, I could do some things, and I would be happier.  I’d really like to go on vacation this summer, and there’s no money to do it with so wouldn’t I be happy if I could go on vacation.”  It’s that kind of thinking.  Let’s say that you put a lot of energy into getting this money.   Let’s say in fact that you put so much energy into it that you’re not quite kosher about it.  You’re not quite above board.  Let’s say you lie a little.  Somehow that brings you a little money.  Let’s say you cheat a little.  Somehow that brings you a little money.  Let’s say you steal a little bit.  Somehow that brings you a little bit of money.  You may get the money.  You may go to jail too.  You may get the money and you may go on vacation, but guess what?   You have set yourself up for more suffering than you could possibly imagine, because even if the vacation goes well, the moment that you took from others, and were dishonest and acted selfishly, at that very instant when you gave rise to a negative cause, the result was also born.  Did you know that?  We think we get away with it until we get caught.  And it’s not true.  The moment we create a nonvirtuous cause, the result is born – at the same moment.

In our lives it seems different because it seems like time is linear.  And it seems like you were really nonvirtuous on Thursday but by Saturday it is still looking good for you.  So you think, “I got away with it.”  No, it doesn’t work that way because you gave rise to the cause, so the result is already there.  Just because it didn’t ripen on Saturday means nothing.   It will happen.  You will have karma with the person that you were dishonest with or that you stole from or that you harmed in some way, and that person will harm you in the future, whether they want to or not, it will happen, because karma is exacting.   It’s cause and effect.

If you can understand how a seesaw works, you can understand how karma works.  If you can understand how you could drop a rock on one side of the pond and feel the vibration on another side of the pond, then you understand how karma works.  Although we can’t see it manifesting in front of our eyes, that’s our great loss because we still think we get away with it.  And it’s simply not true.  Let’s say we go ahead and steal, we go on vacation, and we think it all works out, and then six months later, something dastardly happens to us.   And maybe it reminds you a little bit of the situation in which you were not nice to somebody, and maybe it doesn’t.  If you do catch the connection, bully for you.  You’ve learned something and that’s excellent, but if you don’t catch the connection, and most of us don’t, then it’s unfortunate.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo