Astrology for 03/05/2018

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03/05/2018 Monday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Imagine!

Any disruption from the day before settles by the afternoon. With the Moon entering Scorpio deep feelings are emphasized. Deep feelings can be problematic when expression and repression are not transcended. It’s a time with the waning moon to complete tasks. Artistic expression continues to be favored for the next week. This could manifest as creative solutions. Use your imagination to create a better world within and without. ‘Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.’~Albert Einstein

Today the Moon is Void of Course from 1.20 am EST USA until 8.24 am. 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.

Astrology for 03/04/2018

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03/04/2018 Sunday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Harmonious communications

It’s a good day to negotiate and achieve positive outcomes in your communications which are more likely to be harmonious.  You appreciate the beauty you can see in the world today more and express your love for others too. Today old wounds really can be healed. In that spirit you may feel more confident in your communications. Later in the day/evening there could be some emotional disruption. ‘There are two ways of spreading light…to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.’~ Edith Wharton

 

Being True To Our Nature

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An excerpt from a teaching called Compassion, Love, & Wisdom by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The Buddha considers that the point is to turn the mind to such a degree that you will not be shaken from your determination to practice pure Dharma that leads to the ultimate goal.  You have a choice to practice in different ways.  There is the Theravadin point of view, there is the Mahayana point of view and there is the Vajrayana point of view.  In this Vajrayana point of view the path is difficult. You have to have a great deal of courage. But it is swift and it is certain, and we have an amazing history of beings who obtained realization in a very visible and provable way.  Stories of Lamas who achieved truly miraculous signs through the power of their practice, who were able to perform in ways that were not ordinary, to accomplish things that were not ordinary and who also were able to display for our benefit extraordinary signs at the time of their death so that we would have faith.

Thinking that we should accomplish this ultimate goal, then we have to determine how we intend to accomplish that goal. We have to stay on that goal and we have to be true to that goal, in the same way that we can learn to be true to ourselves.  When I say ‘to ourselves’ I don’t mean the self that we think we are, I mean the self that we really are, which is no self at all.  The truth of our nature isn’t about ‘selfness’ at all.  Our nature is that which is free and uncontrived, that which is awake and to which we have never been true, dancing around with phenomena as we do. Learning to be true to ourselves in that way, learning to be true to that nature, is the first time that we love.

I think that in one way it is the Mahayana view that we love ourselves too much and we are always trying to get something for ourselves. We are always trying to do what’s right for us and be gratified in some way.  And that is true that is the Mahayana view.  That is absolutely the truth.  We should instead think of others.  But I think there is another way to understand it; we seem to be running around constantly trying to destroy ourselves rather than loving that nature enough to allow ourselves to realize it, to be true to it.  I think it is important to understand that in order to obtain true wisdom we have to learn to love that nature, we have to learn to love that nature in such a way that we can be true to that which we really are.

Having reached some awareness of that nature and having practiced sincerely, remaining stable within that nature and within that awareness is the next thing to be considered.  It is common that during experiences of meditation you will have momentary experiences that can seem very blissful.  They can seem very exciting, they can seem very peaceful, they can seem for one moment as though you had forgotten yourself and there was a sense of liberation because of that.  These are all things that happen as you practice, but if they become the place where you stop or if you desire them or grasp them to you in such a way that you can go no further, you lose it immediately. Why? Because the minute you try to do that you are no longer with it.  The minute you try to take that conceptualization in an iron clad way, wrap that conceptualization around the experience that you just had, you just lost the natural state.  It is no longer natural.  It’s contrived.  You made it up and so you lose it immediately.  But also if you use that particular experience to increase your desire and pride, or even to increase the grasping that comes with loyalty to memories or experiences, if you use it in that way it becomes something opposite to that which leads to Enlightenment. You take a side path and end up not going in the direction you wanted. You end up losing that pristine, poised balance in which the mind needs to remain in order to remain steadfast in that natural state.  It becomes important to remain stable in your practice.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Astrology for 03/03/2018

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03/03/2018 Saturday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Count your blessings

With Jupiter continuing to make a good aspect to multiple planets it’s time to rejoice in your good fortune. This could take a number of forms. What form will it be for you? There continues to be a lot of direct energy which can be harnessed for forward movement. Feeling a sense of good fortune can help when dealing with difficult moments and experiences which are also evident. ‘People with clenched fists cannot shake hands.’~Indira Ghandi

 

Who Can Be a Guru?

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An excerpt from a teaching called Compassion, Love, & Wisdom by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

According to the Buddha we continue in cyclic existence and suffer as we do because of desire, and that desire is born of the belief in self-nature as being inherently real.  Therefore the cessation of desire, in all its forms, is synonymous with enlightenment. That state of enlightenment is a pure awareness, pure recognition of the natural primordial wisdom state free of all contrivance.  That state is both blissful and awake or alive.  It is described as having the quality of innate wakefulness, which means when we describe that state as empty of self-nature, we are not describing something that is dead and dark and cold.  It has the quality of innate wakefulness.  In that state of pure awakening, free of the contrivance of desire, free of the very causes of hatred, greed and ignorance that arise within the mindstream once one has desire, free of these things that are seeds for all future sufferings, we are limitless and free in our capacity to be of benefit to beings.  If the Buddha is correct, and I know that he is when he says that all sentient beings are suffering because of desire and hatred, greed and ignorance that are results of desire, then who can help us?  Who can be a Guru? Who can benefit us if they themselves are not free of those causes, if they themselves are not free of desire, if they themselves are not free of hatred, greed and ignorance, in the sense that humans experience them?  Looked at this way, how can an ordinary sentient being lead us to enlightenment if they themselves have not obtained enlightenment?  How can they guide us to be free of the causes of suffering if they themselves are filled with the causes of suffering and will continue to create more and more results that are suffering?  So, if it is not possible, and I don’t think it is, for an ordinary sentient being with ordinary means at his disposal to give us what we need, then we need to look to a guide who is free of such things.

When I look at the Buddha and his life I am satisfied that he has achieved that pristine state of pure cognition.  I am satisfied that he experiences wisdom.  I am satisfied that he reaches the state, or has reached the state, that is wisdom itself. The pure natural uncontrived primordial wisdom state.  When he was asked, “What are you?  What manner of thing are you?”  he said, “I am awake.”  It is that state of innate wakefulness, that pure uncontrived realization, which must be considered the goal.  Therefore to help us accomplish our goals, to help us accomplish our path, we should only look to one who satisfies those questions and who has those qualities.

The Buddha teaches us that in order to be of benefit to sentient beings it is necessary to experience the pure uncontrived nature of one’s own mind in its natural state without the grasping of desire, without the limitation of the sufferings that are caused by that grasping, without the constant attraction and repulsion that we experience every moment, and without the resultant hatred, greed and ignorance. In order to be of use to sentient beings we must ourselves attain these qualities.  He describes wisdom in that way, putting a tremendous emphasis, through meditation and practice, on having a taste of that pure state. That taste so precious, without it we cannot know.

There is no way that I can tell you how to know the awakened state.  There is no way I can say to you, and have you really understand it: this is what you must do in order to be of benefit to sentient beings, to bring about the end of suffering, to yourself be free of suffering.  Because what I am telling you is only that which can lead to the accumulation of knowledge.  I have given you things and you know something, if you are listening, that you didn’t know before. If you use that which you are hearing to practice, and if you practice in such a way that your mind becomes deepened, and you really work at intensive and sincere practice for a great period of time and accomplish just what the teacher tells you to do, and you utilize a path that is pure, that has consistently proven results and brings about the necessary changes that lead ordinary beings, such as ourselves, to experience the natural state, then after some period of time you will have a taste of that nature.  That is the wisdom being spoken about; it is not the same as something you learn.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Astrology for 03/02/2018

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03/02/2018 Friday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Karmic ripenings

If difficult causes and conditions occur today there might be a little silver lining that acts as a kind of offset. The full Moon in Virgo brings a perfectionist streak particularly in interactions with others. If you feel the urge to ‘nit pick’ try some gardening, therapeutic cleaning and organizing. Alternatively try reading or writing. In the Buddhist tradition this a good day to undertake virtuous/ethical activity as much as possible. ‘We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.’~the Buddha

Today the Moon is Void of Course from 6.51 pm EST USA until 3.22am the next day. 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.

It’s Simply Phenomena

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An excerpt from a teaching called Compassion, Love, & Wisdom by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

It is difficult to see the many different spiritual systems prevalent in our country that are based on the accumulation of knowledge. The thought is that at some point you will have enough knowledge, as if you can get a big bag of it and you can get enough in the bag that finally you have enough knowledge. At that point some sort of change will occur, a switch will flip and you will have enough, and there it is.  Why is that not possible, according to the Buddha?  Because according to the Buddha what you are accumulating as you accumulate knowledge is a contrivance in itself.  It is the necessary road we must take in order to reach certain conclusions, in order to understand in the ordinary human way.   Because of the way our minds work, I can’t even talk to you about Dharma without using language. I can’t talk to you about the primordial wisdom state without describing it. The tricky part is that the moment I describe it, that is not it.

Every bit of information that you gather, whether it is good information or bad information, whether it causes you to draw good conclusions or causes you to completely ruin your life, whether it causes you to give up drinking and smoking or whether it causes you to go off the deep end and cut off the tip of your nose, whatever bit of information you get from the primordial wisdom state it can be viewed as phenomena, exactly the same.  It is hard to understand because we really think things need to be judged by high and low, good and bad, here and there, up and down, and we have our criteria for judgment. We think that this is meaning. Yet from the pure state we must understand that all phenomena is the same – it is simply phenomena, good or bad, high or low, it is all a contrivance.  It is all an encumbrance upon the natural view.

Ironically, if you cut off the end of your nose and it causes you to realize the suffering of sentient beings, and because of that you practice, then that is good phenomena.  Likewise, if you get on the wagon and give up your drinking and womanizing ways, and you live a good life and become an upright person, causing you to become satisfied and think that is enough, you become a little rigid. That causes you to become a little egotistical and that causes you to get a lot of pride going, and that causes you to never to look any further than yourself, and if it causes you to think that it’s important what a good person you are, then that is the worst kind of phenomena.  So from the natural state, phenomena only has importance or any meaning in relation to the ability you have to become awake and to realize the primordial wisdom state.  The only thing that is meaningful is that which leads to the ultimate goal.

If you take that standard and really learn it and adapt yourself to it, and you look at the life you have lived so far, you should think about the many different things that were important to you.  I look at my own life that way and I see that I have placed importance on things that have no meaning because they did not lead to supreme enlightenment. I can look at the lives of all sentient beings and I can see that we spend a hundred and ten percent of our energy doing that which you cannot take with you when you die.  We are all involved in doing things that are, from that point of view, utterly meaningless. Also meaningless in the sense that not only do they not lead to the supreme goal, but they do not empower us to be of any benefit to sentient beings because we do not remove from our minds the causes of suffering: desire, hatred, greed and ignorance.  I think this is true of everyone.  I don’t think anyone is exempt unless they were born supremely realized, born on a lotus, and I was definitely not born on a lotus.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Astrology for 03/01/2018

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03/01/2018 Thursday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Life balance

With the Moon opposite the Sun today there is a balancing act between home and work, feeling and thinking and your unconscious and conscious personalty traits. Communication continues to be challenging. Today in particular it’s easy to over react reading too much into things that aren’t there. For instance you could think someone is challenging you but are they really? Complete thought processes might be challenging today. ‘My point is, life is about balance. The good and the bad. The highs and the lows. The pina and the colada.’~Ellen deGeneres

 

Undefiled Awareness

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

As Buddhists, we are not as infatuated with the idea of gods and goddesses as people in some other religions.  Why not?  Because we think of them as part of cyclic existence.  Long-life gods can grant blessings.  But can they get anybody enlightened?  No!  They don’t have Enlightenment.  You can wait around for someone to give you a blessing––or you can practice Dharma.

Neither are Buddhists impressed by talk about going to heaven or going to God.  For us, all this is just part of perceptual experience––just phenomena.  I’m not saying that phenomena don’t exist, but the goal of a Buddhist is beyond all phenomena, beyond the fixation of being caught up in cyclic existence.  It is not a goal that can be externalized.  It is pure, awakened Awarenes.  We talk about being reborn in Dewachen (which can sound similar to “being reborn in heaven,” and in one sense it is), but what is actually meant by that is to be reborn in the Dharmakaya state––to be born in a state of pure, undefiled Awareness.  To shed ignorance and to be reborn in undefiled Awareness is the only goal of a Buddhist.  It is not a conceptual process.  It is liberation from all the components of suffering.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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

Astrology for 02/28/2019

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02/28/2019 Wednesday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Dissolving boundaries

With the Sun moving closer to Neptune for the next several days it’s an for opportunity to explore the nature of reality as normal ego structures are softened. Take time out to explore within and ones spiritual aspects. Sometimes fear can coincide with the dissolving of our normal structures and there may be a desire to lose oneself. It’s important to have good anchors at this time. ‘I know only love is worth our time. Will we reach our bliss with a life sublime Or just continue to run blind?’~ Jetsunma Ahkon Norbu Lhamo

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