Astrology for 12/21/2017

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12/20/2017 Wednesday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Happy Birthday Capricorns! 

Accountability is the theme today. One of the magic ingredients that helps with accountability is good relationships with others. The other is self-honesty. Accountability is also an antidote to dealing with emotional difficulties, in yourself or others. Rash emotion and hastiness is in the air so try and step back from communications that can trigger more difficulties than originally created. As Shantideva communicated: ‘The renunciation of doing harm is the perfection of discipline.’  

 

 

 

Peerless Guru: His Holiness Penor Rinpoche

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The following is from a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo: I wish there was no corruption in any religion. I wish there was no corruption in Buddhism. I wish there was no corruption in humans. When Tsawei Lama Third Drubwang His Holiness Penor Rinpoche was alive there was never any such thing. His Holiness always emphasized purity, honesty, bodhicitta. His Holiness Kyabje Penor Rinpoche ruled with care, and love. He was never in His life spoken of badly by anyone that mattered. All loved and revered him. His Holiness Penor Rinpoche kept his vows, outer, inner, and secret ones, all without stain. He began and built Palyul in India with his own hands! What Tulku, Khenchen, monk or nun could ever hope to accomplish the same? His Holiness Penor Rinpoche was peerless! Now we’ve lost Him. Who will keep Palyul pure? I can say this. No one should make money off Dharma. It should pay the bills, yes. KPC has no major donors, just many small ones. But we keep the doors open. Money goes to help sentient beings, like Garuda Aviary and Taras Babies or feeding the poor. Not lining pockets. Everyone, for the most part, wants money for themselves. Money is power. And it feels good until the Bardo, where all we will have is our selfishness without interruption! Everyone, except Kybje His Holiness Penor Rinpoche. He only wished to preserve the purity of Palyul and to empty samsara from its depths! May His Holiness Karma Kuchen rise up and do His work. And offering the precious jewel Mandala I beg and cry out for His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s Yangsi to appear and return to us who mourn! Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved originally published Sept. 2, 2011

Astrology for 12/20/2017

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12/20/2017 Wednesday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: What goes around comes around

Saturn the planet of law and order, cause and effect and working within limitations has entered its home sign of Capricorn for two and a half years. All Sagittarians can breathe a sigh of relief as it has moved out of their sign. Saturn in Capricorn  offers opportunities for restructuring and revealing systems that are not working. Re-evaluation is the first step in re-structuring. On another front expect some emotional upheaval today which could be compounded by mis-understandings.  If your unsure how to respond Press the ‘pause’ button today. It could be a low energy time. Tomorrow is a new day if you don’t die in your sleep. (That’s a joke).

Where Are You on the Path?

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo called “Marrying a Spiritual Life and Western Culture”

I don’t know how many times I can present this same teaching. It’s about understanding that the ball is in our court. It’s about having a direct hands-on experience, not about being a good boy or girl. Aren’t you sick of that?  This moralizing stuff has got to go! Instead, have a direct understanding, a natural wisdom—your wisdom—that dry times cannot take away from you, that broken hearts cannot take away from you, that no one else can take away from you. Your wisdom. You don’t look to anyone else to get your wisdom. You’ve got it inside. You understand the path in a deep way. You are empowered.

I’m not talking about ritual empowerment. I’m talking about a deeper, truer kind of empowerment.  How wonderful if we can know that spiritual empowerment deeply within ourselves, to then go through the process of ritual empowerment according to the teaching and know what it’s about.  It’s not just a vase (or a bhumpa) being knocked on your head.  You could do that from now until your head and the bhumpa are both flat, and there would be no direct relationship. If it’s all academic and intellectual, then it’s the same as getting a Ph.D. anywhere in technical sciences or whatever. It’s not really a path. A path is a way you go. A path is not an object that you consume or collect or put in your crock pot and boil all day until it makes gravy at night.  A path is where you are. Where are you then?

What I’m talking about is carefully considering how to overcome the limitations of confinement of our kind of society, of our kind of culture;  how to go more deeply to have a more direct relationship with our own spiritual nature—a real mystical relationship with that nature. And I don’t mean just meditating on some sort of internal cartoon circus where you think you’re getting messages from the Pleiades or some baloney like that. If you had a real, direct relationship with your own nature and you really understood the wisdom and the beauty of the Buddha’s teaching and didn’t see it as his teaching, but as a wisdom that appeared in the world here, you could see it as your teaching, as a wisdom that you could connect with.

Actually, we Westerners have a similar problem to what Black Americans have approaching Christianity. Black Americans pray to white Jesus. It’s not to say that their faith is small. I don’t know whether they have a problem with it or not, but it must be odd.  What does it look like seeing a white face on an altar when you’re a black person? Go home and look at all those Asian faces on your altar. They don’t look like us. What to do about it? How do you take refuge? How do you connect? It’s not about those pictures. It’s not about those faces.  It’s about you!  And it connects inside.

It isn’t about the shape of those eyes. It’s about what those eyes see. So you have to have that completely personal relationship where you look beyond that which is slanted or colored or this way or that way. It’s got to be a deeply personal relationship. To do that you must connect deeper than you’ve ever been before. We love to just skate over the surface of our experience of life. We’re even addicted to the highs and lows.

You can’t really understand why and how to take refuge by learning a set of equations or laws or rules. These can only function as guidelines. It’s really up to us to be powerful and strong and noble and knowing and awake on our path. Virtue cannot be collected. It has to be experienced, tasted, understood. Its nature must be understood.

This is not the news we want to hear. We want an easy religion.  We think, “Just tell us the ten things we have to do so that we’re not uncomfortable about dying.” I’m not saying those ten things are bad; they’re good, they’re wonderful. But where does it lead you? Aren’t you still the same scared little kid who was so neurotic because you are compressed with rules and society and with being told you can’t feel things. And now we’re going to do this with our religion too. Ten more times.

What if, instead of being a girdle that makes us out of touch just trying so hard to be good, we experienced our path—our method—in a wisdom way, in a connected way, in an in-touch way?   From that fertilization that happens when you really understand an idea and it causes you to go, “Ah-hah, therefore…”, from that point of view it’s like a plant or a tree coming up inside of you and growing. It bears fruit. It is a joyful thing, and you can see the fruit of your life. Most of us are so unhappy and so neurotic because we cannot see the fruit of our life and we do not understand its value. We haven’t tasted it. This direct relationship one can taste. It needs to be like that in order for us to really take refuge and not be lost little kids scared of dying, just trying to do the right thing—be good boys and good girls with a new set of rules—because maybe if we just had a new set of rules, maybe then we’d be good.

Instead of that, what if we were dynamically in love, inspired, breathing in and out on our path? The path can, in that way, be a companion, a joyfulness, a child of yours, a creation, a painting, something beautiful you’ve done with your life. You can’t make a beautiful painting by number. You have to make a beautiful painting from your heart.

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Astrology for 12/19/2017

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12/19/2017 Tuesday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: Emotional secrets revealed

It’s a potent day for investigation and research. – and self-inquiry into the habitual patterns that bind us. Relationships can be particularly refreshingly unpredictable at present, rather than upsetting. The theme of creating sacred spaces continues. It’s an opportune time to work more profitably within the structures you are located in and it’s a good time to fulfill your obligations.  It’s also an excellent time for organizing and planning, but be careful in applying that principle to other people. “I’d always learned to take on things I’d never done before. Growth and comfort do not coexist.” Virginia Rometty, CEO, IBM

 

Victory of View

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

I have been told many times that I worry. I must say I disagree. I do study things, try to puzzle cause and effect, try to glimpse behind the curtain. I love to notice patterns and find their meaning. I like to study abnormal psychology, love to hear about case studies, what makes people tick. I find reactions fascinating! I’ve learned that each bit of phenomena is amazing.

So you may see me with a knit brow…but this life has taught me squarely that it is a dream. One moment you feel mortally wounded, then with a little tweaking it isn’t so anymore. I’ve found if we step back and breathe we can avoid getting all tied up in stuff, and bound in neurosis, insanity. It’s choices.

Life is a whirling colorful, mesmerizing dance with lights, sound and distraction, like a circus. And like a circus it soon packs up and disappears, leaving only dust and tracks in dirt.

If we study life and think in sane full equations that add up, we can manage well. If we sink into reaction, rage, fear, despair, we will be ground into blood and guts and will always be a bee in a bottle. Round and round with no rhyme or reason or true purpose. And certainly with no accomplishment. Meditation, mantra, and prayer, all help soothe and deepen the mind, increases our view, relaxes our ego-clinging, helps us expand our thinking and being into something beautiful. Extraordinary! We can “be” to the degree that we can laugh with pure joy. Dance. Howl at the moon… cry, mourn and recover well. No, I don’t worry about life or death. I am into knowing, connecting, loving, laughing and recovery for all from trauma. I don’t take it so seriously. And I never worry anymore! I’d call that a victory of view!

OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA!

Copyright © Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  All rights reserved

Astrology for 12/18/2017

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12/18/2017 Monday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: New energy, grounded hope

The new Moon brings fresh energy for start-up projects. You don’t have to be from Silicon Valley to be a start-up! Just a word of caution. Don’t sacrifice feelings over practical goals for your start-up. It’s a letter of the law time at the moment so be mindful of any tendency to push the envelope. Speeding is one example.  It’s a particular potent time for cause and effect to bear results now . As Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo says: ‘What we neglect, what we do not really comprehend, is that results can take a long time to unfold.’

 

Astrology for 12/17/2017

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12/17/2017 Sunday by Jampal & Wangmo

Theme: The pros and cons of idealism

It’s a good day to socialize and engage your gregarious side, entertain at home and re-design your living room. But watch out for over-indulgence and believing in the sole integrity of your viewpoint.  As Jampal’s English teacher said ‘A cynic is actually a disillusioned idealist.‘ So allow space for shared conversation that explores other points of view. You will be rewarded if you put some effort into a  spiritual endeavor today.

Understanding the Faults of Samsara: by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso

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The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso given at Kunzang Palyul Choling on Ngondro:

When contemplating the faults of samsara, we need to understand that in samsara, as we explained, there is some enjoyment, some peace, which distracts our minds and keeps us from having any accumulation of merit or purification.  It is just like in Christianity: In the beginning, God said there is a very nice apple tree, but you should not get distracted and eat of it.  If you do, then you will get spoiled.  By not listening to that and eating the apple, all evil and bad things happened.  Just like that, in this world there are certain things that really feel attractive, but when you look at the object of attraction and really examine it deeply, there is nothing attractive.  It is all just like a magician’s creation which looks very real, but when you approach it, then you see that it is artificial with no essence.  That is why one has the thoughts of the precious human birth, that death is uncertain, that the law of karma is going to direct you, and that the law of karma is created by yourself. There is no external law of karma  ordering you to do all these kinds of things.  Each and every experience of good and bad, suffering and happiness, that you experience each and every moment is created by yourself.  That is known as the ripening of karma.

So we need to understand the fault of samsara.  When one has a clear understanding of these four thoughts, you could have some kind of feeling that you have to do some practice.  Samsara looks so attractive, but it doesn’t have any essence, like the rainbow.  The rainbow looks so colorful, so nice, and you have so much desire and attachment.  You really want to have it, but when you jump up to get it, you cannot get anything.  Then you feel very sad, and you get so depressed.  Why can’t I have some of this beautiful rainbow?  You get upset, but nothing happens. All these worldly pleasures are exactly like a rainbow.  When you really enter into them, there is nothing there to have.  That is why one must have a deeper understanding of cyclic existence.  Then you can become more relaxed and have more enjoyment, thinking how attractive everything is, but having no attachment to it, no desire. You can enjoy and at the same time not create any negative karma and be more relaxed, because you don’t have to try to get anything. Whether you get something or not, you just relax.  If you can’t get it, you won’t feel depressed because you know that it has no essence.

So your mind gets very relaxed, you can enjoy whatever happens without any attachment or afflicted mind.  In that way, one can have a very smooth life without any depression or emotional feelings and without any excitement, but still some kind of enjoyment is always there.  That is how we can really apply practice into our daily life—just relaxing, no attachment, no hatred or anger, just always relaxed and balanced.  Whatever things you have, you enjoy them just like a magician’s creation.

At the same time, you do not have any attachment to the practices.  No attachment to the Great Perfection ngöndro practice.  Attachment binds you;  it is a type of bondage. When you feel that kind of excitement, like, “Oh, I want to do this ngöndro practice. This is so great!” with so much expectation and so much interest, then as you apply it into practice, some obstacle arises. Then you feel like you should have gone some other place for the weekend.  “I should have gone to see my friends or relatives.”  When one has so much attachment or expectation, that also becomes an obstacle.  So you need to get relaxed, always get relaxed, thinking this is a great opportunity.

Meditation

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Image courtesy of NASA
Image courtesy of NASA

Download Guided Meditation

This is a guided meditation by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  In a teaching from the 1980s, Jetsunma taught about how this meditation helps one get passed the feeling of separation, and begin to imitate the radiant qualities of one’s true nature – light and compassion.

In her words, “Separation is the cause of all trauma, all pain, any grief that you have ever suffered anywhere, or at anytime.  Anything that has ever hurt you or been a bother to you has been because you believe yourself to be separate from everything.  Your true nature is Absolute Union or Oneness. The true nature that you are is light.

Effective prayer is about imitating that radiance.  Through imitation of your true nature, you come to realize your true nature.  You stop thinking about separation, and you stop buying into judgment, and you get out of limitations.  Effective prayer is centering into that Absolute reality that is the core of what you are.”

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