Astrology for 03/20/2018

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03/20/2018 Tuesday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Enhancement of good qualities

With the Moon in Taurus in good aspect to Saturn its a time to accomplish concrete goals. This aspect can enhance self-care and artistry. Communications are good today, aiding relationships. The Sun is leaving Pisces signifying the change of seasons. Today is the Equinox where day and night are the same length. For those in the northern hemisphere: “Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!”~Lakotah Sioux Chief – Sitting Bull.

A Becoming Experience

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called Turning Adversity Into Felicity

How many times have we seen people expect love, kindness, support, financial prosperity, happiness to be their birthright, to be just given to them, that the world owes them a living?  You should give this to me.  Well, but you should, really!  You should, you know.  You should give this to me.  That’s how we think. Hopefully, as practitioners with some maturity, we can come to understand that what we are growing here is like a garden.  According to the seeds that we plant, according to the way that we cultivate our garden, so, too, will be our lives. That will be the fruit that comes up in our garden.

While we live, while we are engaged in Dharma practice, this is not the time to put on blindfolds and pretend that there are no causes and effects, to think that sort of a blissful kind of nonsensical, magical thinking is in order.  We shouldn’t mistake the Guru for a magician.  There’s a difference.  We shouldn’t think that the Lama is simply an idea, a magic formula.  If you smile and are nice to the Guru and make prayers, then you will be happy.  No, that’s not the formula that you were taught in Dharma class.  That’s the one that you made up.  Try to see the difference.  In Dharma, you are taught by the Lama that the ball is in your court, that you must create the conditions by which your suffering will end, that literally no one else can do that for you.  Even if the Lama were to stay by your side and walk with you, hold your hand, spoon feed you, constantly hold arms around you and make sure you’re warm and help you across the intersection so you don’t get hit by a bus, or whatever—even if that were possible—still it would not be possible for your suffering to be terminated by such a ridiculous relationship.  That isn’t how it works.

We are taught in our Dharma teaching that the ball is in our court, that we and only we can create the causes and circumstances necessary for happiness.  Method is necessary here.  Intelligence is necessary here.  Clearsightedness is necessary here.  Honesty is necessary here.  What is not necessary here is idiot thinking, magical thinking, Peter Pan thinking, stupid thinking.  That’s what’s not needed.

Of course, the first thing we do when our magical thinking doesn’t work out is we blame the Lama.  Isn’t that great?  It’s wonderful to have a religion because you can always blame somebody, but actually in Buddhism that’s not allowed either.  You can’t do that because if you do that, then you give your power away.  What have you got?  If the fault is outside of you, then the cure is outside of you, and you’re in tough shape.

So in our faith and our religion we take responsibility.  We try to understand that cause and effect arise together.  How do we create the perfect causes by which to bring about happiness?  Well, slowly, slowly, a bit at a time, as we learn.  It’s a growing thing, and the first thing we have to have is confidence and the second thing is patience, and I’m not even sure if they’re separable.  They have to come together.  It takes time to create causes.  It takes time and it takes growth, and like anything that begins as a little seedling and ends up as a beautiful, blossoming tree, it’s not only the ultimate result of the blossoming tree that is a joy; every step along the way is also a joy.  It’s a becoming and growing experience.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Astrology for 03/19/2018

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03/19/2018 Monday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Challenging transformations

There is some emotional volatility today as people seek to express their desire for freedom in challenging ways. It can also signal emotional disruption. If you are up for a challenge you can work with this energy in practice, meditation and emotional insight. The next few days are up to you. It could be an opportunity to see deeply into the nature of your feelings, thinking and relationships – or it could be a time when you are caught up with power struggles and compulsive behaviors. ‘The mind is everything. What you think you become.’~Buddha

Today the Moon is Void of Course from 3.30pm EST USA until 9.08 pm. If you’re in another country check what that means for you time-wise. It’s best to avoid making major decisions or signing contracts during this time.

Path of the Bodhisattva

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Being grateful for the many gifts I have been endowed with in this very lifetime, I now wish to offer a prayer usually associated with vows:

Today I have picked the fruit of this lifetime. The meaning of this human existence is now realized. Today I am born into the family of buddhas and have become an heir of the enlightened ones!

Now, no matter what occurs hereafter, my activities will be in conscientious accord with the family, and I shall never engage in conduct that could possibly sully this faultless family! Like a blind man in a heap of refuse, suddenly by chance finding a precious jewel, similarly this occasion is such that today I have given rise to the awakened mind!

Today, before all of my objects of refuge, the sugatas as well as all beings, I call to bear witness where the guests of this occasion- the devas, Titans and others- all join together to rejoice! The precious Bodhicitta, if unborn, may it arise; when generated may it never diminish and may it always remain ever-increasing!

Never apart from Bodhicitta, engaged in the conduct of the awakened ones, being held fast by all of the buddhas, may all demonic activities be fully abandoned!

May all the bodhisattvas accomplish the welfare of others, according to their wisdom mind’s intentions.

Whatever wisdom intention these protectors may have, may it come to pass for all sentient beings.

May all sentient beings be endowed with bliss, may the lower realms be permanently emptied! May all the bodhisattvas, on whatever bhumi they remain, fully accomplish all of their aspirations!

From “THE PATH of the Bodhisattva: A Collection of the Thirty-Seven Practices of a Bodhisattva and Related Prayers” With a commentary by Kyabje Pema Norbu Rinpoche on the Prayer for Excellent Conduct

Compiled under the direction of Venerable Gyatrul Rinpoche Vimala Publishing 2008

I find that prayer soothing, comforting, and dedicate it to all who are suffering in any way. May all beings benefit!

Astrology for 03/18/2018

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03/18/2018 Sunday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Goal oriented

Mars has moved into Capricorn and is considered to be powerful in this sign. This placement bestows discipline on this normally feisty planet that provide opportunities for purposeful activity. This is a time, over the next month, to work towards achieving your goals. Still, feelings dominate today in communications and relationships. The challenge is to balance your feeling nature with your responsibilities today. ‘A dream becomes a goal when action is taken toward its achievement.’ ~Bo Bennett.

Astrology for 03/17/2018

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03/17/2018 Saturday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: New beginnings

With the New Moon today you can start the week afresh and initiate new projects. It’s time to leave the past behind including past grievances. Sometimes the past is past! With Mars close to the western horizon, relationships with loved ones can be challenging at this time. With Mars also squaring the Sun and the Moon the battle of the wills can surface in all kinds of relationships and highlights emotional reactivity. Learnings come through understanding your own drives and feelings and your level of confidence. ‘New beginnings and new shoots Spring again from hidden roots.’ Robert Graves.

Today the Moon is Void of Course from 9.13 am EST USA until 2.58 pm. If you’re in another country check what that means for you time-wise. It’s best to avoid making major decisions or signing contracts during this time.

Religion of Cause and Effect

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called Turning Adversity Into Felicity

We try very hard as practitioners to practice Guru Yoga clearly and purely, the practice of fervent regard toward the Guru, utilizing the Guru as a tool of benefit in one’s life.  One thing that we should be perfectly clear about when we are trying to practice in this way, is which religion we’re actually practicing.  Our tendency as Westerners is to repeat the patterns and ideas that we have seen before in the religions that have been in our culture far longer than Buddhism has been.  In the religions that our parents practiced and their parents before them, that are native to our Western culture, the idea of looking at the object of refuge, might be, perhaps, if one is a Christian, Jesus, or if one were a Muslim, Mohammed.  I don’t know enough about the other religions to really say clearly.  If I’m making a mistake, please pardon me.  But I will say that generally the pattern that we have been taught is that you have faith, and the declaration of faith is simply enough, that you embrace this idea of faith, and the faith itself– there’s an element of magic to it, in a sense.  It seems as though the faith itself will simply carry us through.

In Buddhism we don’t feel like that, although faith is certainly an element, and it certainly has the capacity to carry us.  Buddhism is, uniquely, a religion of cause and effect relationships.  When we go into life situations, we do so with our brains intact and our eyes open.  We clearly are aware that without creating the causes for happiness there will not be the condition of happiness, that you cannot create an apple tree through a grape seed.  It simply doesn’t happen.  Cause and result seemingly arise one after the other, but in fact we are taught in Buddhist teaching that they arise at the same time, interdependently.  And we are a religion of realizing that we must create the auspicious causes in order to receive the appropriate results.  So while we want to adopt the idea of faith, we wouldn’t do a practice or hold an inner mind posture that would be what I call “idiot faith.”  We would not engage in a practice that, well, quite frankly, makes us look a bit like a bliss-ninny.  We would not engage in a practice that was mindless and not thought through.

Faith is definitely a component, but the way that it is used when we are using the practice of Guru Yoga, is like this.  All conditions have within them a mixture.  Even the best conditions, the most wonderful conditions, have within them, because they arise in samsara, the seed or inherent causes by which equal amounts of unhappiness as well as happiness will arise.  And so, when unhappiness comes to us, we absolutely should engage in curative measures.

Primarily we would engage in curative measures through establishing faith and confidence in the Guru, but it doesn’t stop there.  It isn’t simply holding the idea of faith and confidence in the Guru.  At that point, with faith and confidence in the Guru, we actually have to rely on the teachings that the Guru has given us.  That’s how you have faith and confidence in the teacher.  You don’t just say it and proclaim it and go back into some deluded “oh-don’t-worry-everything’s-going-to-be-fine” kind of idea.  You would, with faith and confidence in the Guru, begin to use what the Guru has taught.

The Guru teaches us first of all, of course, that in order to create the result of happiness and freedom, we must create the causes of happiness and freedom.  The causes of happiness and freedom are given to us in our Dharma practice.  They’re not a secret.  You can come here; you can learn; you can begin today, this very moment, to engage in creating the causes that will create your future happiness.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

In a Nutshell

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From a series of tweets from @ahkonlhamo

If one cannot practice even ordinary human kindness, how can one EVER hope to give rise to Bodhicitta?

If one has no strength to keep even one moral precept, how will that one EVER awaken to Buddhahood?

If one cares not one bit for the welfare of sentient beings, how will that one EVER attain Buddhahood?

If one knows no discrimination, knows not what to accept and what to reject, that being will revolve in cyclic existence endlessly.

Whoever seduces someone away from their sacred vows, that one is reborn in Vajra Hell, as well as the vow breaker.

If one does not offer food to the hungry, that one will be endlessly hungry. Their food will do no good. Or cause homelessness, no shelter

These are quotes from me, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, based on years of study, practice, and inborn wisdom. My life bears witness, and I offer this to you.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Astrology for 03/16/2018

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03/16/2018 Friday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Communicating with love

It’s still a dreamy kind of day which can be harnessed for spiritual practice. For the next week or so communication with compassion is highlighted, albeit with some fiery directness. It’s a time for artistic breakthrough and expression. This can include interior design. Give your home a makeover with help from friends. It’s an opportunity to cross borders and connect with people you wouldn’t normally communicate with. It’s the last phase of the waning moon and a time to complete tasks and wind-up projects. ‘Take care of your inner, spiritual beauty. That will reflect in your face’. Dolores del Rio

With Fervent Regard

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An excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love Series

One of the problems that we Westerners have is that we’ve grown up with religions that say God is external.  That is not what the Buddha teaches.  The Buddha teaches us not that our supreme object of refuge is an external God, but that ultimately, in the deepest sense, our supreme refuge is enlightenment, the uncontrived natural state free of desire.  According to the Buddha’s teaching, it is possible to achieve realization; that desire-free state, that natural uncontrived wisdom state is attainable. According to which path you take, it is attainable in many lifetimes, it is attainable in some lifetimes, it is attainable in a few lifetimes, or according to the Vajrayana, with sincere practice it is attainable in one lifetime.

You have to decide for yourself what you’re going to do.  It’s a difficult job, because we are so filled with ideas from our upbringing.  People say, “I’m moved by what you say, but I just don’t know if I can renounce everything.  I just don’t know if I can give everything up.”  That’s not what’s being talked about here.  What’s being talked about is that you have to determine your objects of refuge.  You have to determine what your refuge is, and from that you should make your own decisions.  There are many different levels at which you can practice.  You can become a full renunciate, taking vows, taking robes.  You can also practice in a more casual way, laying the pathway for eventual deeper practice.  Nobody’s making a rule for you.  The point is that you should think for yourself and you should think past the ways in which you were brought up.  You should look courageously at suffering, at the causes for suffering, and at the end of suffering.

According to the Buddha’s teaching, there is nothing on this Earth that can end suffering for all sentient beings.  If we found the cure for cancer, AIDS, for everything, something else would happen, because the karma of sickness is there.  If we found the cure for poverty, something else would happen.  If we found the cure for war…. and all these ifs are mighty big. The karma of suffering is desire.  It is the root cause for all suffering.  Having determined that, we have to think that to get rid of it from our mindstreams will take something more profound than manipulating our external environment.  The problem cannot be solved in that way.

I think it behooves us as Westerners to think deeply about these things. From my point of view, I have seen Westerners adapt the Buddhist religion, and I am not satisfied in the way that they are doing it.  They’re practicing Buddhists, they know the mudras, they know the mantras, and they know how to ring the bells. They know how to do all the ceremonial things that come with the Buddhadharma; and I am not happy with their minds.  Because maybe they didn’t take long enough to decide for themselves what the object of refuge is and what the cause of suffering is.

You can collect Dharma in a materialistic way just as well as you can collect cars and TVs.  You can collect Lamas and the blessings of Lamas in a materialistic way just as easily as you can do anything else.  You can collect new thoughts and new ideas and spiritual truths and books and all kinds of things, and never change.  Or you can come from a really pure place and examine these things with courage and with pure intention. You can be determined to awaken the seed and the fire of compassion in your mind by examining the suffering of all sentient beings. You can encourage that flame, that fire, fanning it into life so that it burns away all obstacles to your practice. And you’ll find for yourself your object of refuge, and you’ll go…just go.  You can do that.  It takes courage and it takes pure intention and it takes determination to really think about these things, in a logical and real way.  That’s what I hope you will do.

I am a Buddhist, and I always will be. But I’m not trying to sell Buddhism.  What I would like to see is a world without suffering.  That is the point, hopefully, of all religions; certainly of mine.  I wish to talk about the same thing Lord Buddha himself talked about: the causes of suffering and the end of suffering. If we start there, thinking of these things and thinking of them with what Buddhists call fervent regard, we can make a lot of progress.

Contemplating these things creates a great deal of virtue and merit. After you think about these things, please dedicate the time that you spent and the effort that you took, to benefit all sentient beings.  In other words, offer the virtue or the merit that you have accomplished by even just wanting to love.  There’s a tremendous amount of virtue in that.  Offer that as food and drink to all sentient beings so that the karma of that can be shared with a world that is suffering.

Copyright ©  Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

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