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While Samsara Burns

November 22, 2011November 22, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

Some of them are prideful, full of themselves in a way that precludes actual opening. Like cigar smoke in a furnished room makes a man.

Some are like Nero, madly playing in the bubble of delusion while samsara burns. Burns.

Some are ignorance. Like eyes watching a world of smoke and mirrors, totally orchestrated by madness.

Some are mechanical, reactive, tight. With a prototype protective covering, no one will notice they are not quite human.

For some it means nothing. Awake, asleep – shallow and deep. Up and high or on the fly – maybe you can’t help it. Or maybe I can’t.

Some go evil. Manipulation is evil. Like raising my kids. No one can discipline unless they have birthed and loved, wanted the best for them, I believe. And stick with that.

And the killers? Just keep them from harming more. I don’t care if they watch cable , swim, and have massage all day.

I wish we could all sit down and pray,

make offerings in some peaceful way,

for our selfishness we could offer light

no reason to fight.

Listen, we can do this,

we can blow right through this,

if we never take our minds off what’s right- Ja!

I could go on all night! Hallelujah and Amen!

What Are Your Five Senses Telling You? Full Length Video Teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

November 22, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

We are constanting giving ourselves information about our world through our 5 senses. What are they telling us? and how should we use that infomation?

Here is a teaching you did not ask for

November 22, 2011 by Holly

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A teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Try to believe in the Love….that the Love that exists is

Absolute. It never varies, it is unchanging. You did nothing

to deserve it and you cannot destroy it. It is your belief in the

Love, your acceptance of it, this changes from moment to

moment, circumstance to circumstance, tossed about on the

waves of your emotions.

Let your heart fall deeper under the surface to where the

waves seem very far away. There you will find it, and me.

Make a samaya now to go deeper every day, to diligently

travel to that calm place where the sands do not shift at all.

You never asked for this! Only for what is temporary,

turbulent, based on a self that you have only imagined. Learn

to ask for what is true. That you will be answered is certain

because the answer is already accomplished.

Beneath the waves it is already there.

I am with you again, still, always.

I do love you.

Written as a birthday gift for a student September 20, 1986 in Poolesville MD

Entering the Path of Dharma Part 1: Full Length Video Teaching

November 21, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Jetsunma describes entering the path of Dharma. The student teacher relationship; the teacher’s responsibility; and the student’s responsibility.

Ngondro as the Antidote: Full Length Video Teaching

November 20, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo offered at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

All beings suffer from the dis-ease of desire. The mind of Enlightenment appeared in the world as the Buddha who prescribed the medicine. If taken deeply and applied consistently, cure is guaranteed. And yet, constantly engaged in an ongoing mantra of delusion and discursive thought, we think we know a better way. Jetsunma implores us, “Literally, there are beings right now who have no other connection to liberation than you. The more you dance around, the more they suffer, the longer they wait. These precious ones are the ones you should live and breathe for.” We have to take our medicine, for their sake.

Truly Helping

November 19, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

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

When a person is mentally unbalanced, raging, obsessive behavior, they need professional help. They do not need enabling, which is more like “idiot compassion” in that the ill person never actually gets help.

Many times they make constant claims and display pitiful behavior, or rage on and nag, etc. We all do that childish stuff once in a while, but if the patient cannot stop or help themselves it is a sickness and intervention is needed. Usually a psychiatrist or caseworker is needed, especially if the patient has history of illness, or is the kind that harms themselves and/or others. Don’t participate in the sickness. They need help, not enabling. Don’t try to be a hero. Try not to make it about what you want. Tough love is good. Compliance with an illness is actually selfish. Wrong behavior needs to stop; one can be loving in a firm way, offering boundaries to those too sick to recognize any. Do what is needed, not what is easy. These people crave attention for poor performance. Don’t play. Get them the help they need before they hurt themselves or others. That is the best way.

Turning the Mind Towards Dharma: Full Length Video Teaching

November 19, 2011 by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

The following is a full length video teaching offered at Kunzang Palyul Choling called “Turning the Mind Towards Dharma”

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

November 19, 2011 by anisonam

Download the Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

With a longing to benefit beings who are sick and dying, Jetsunma created a song called “Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen.” This is a traditional prayer to Amitabha, the Buddha of Limitless Light, from the P’howa practice of the Longchen Nyigthig tradition. P’howa is the meditation practice for the time of death, and Amitabha is the deity to be visualized in that meditation. “Dewachen” refers to the state of consciousness in which one experiences a pure land and the opportunity to accomplish liberation.

Jetsunma said, “When I listened to this tune, I realized that it was like a mother singing her child to sleep, which really was my motivation when I sang that song. I know that everyone that I love, I will be parted from someday. Everyone that I meet will die some day. I wish there was some way that they could be guided through the bardo individually. And the best response that I know of is this prayer.”

Any being who listens to this prayer receives a blessing, whether Buddhist or non Buddhist, human or animal. It is especially soothing for those who are chronically or acutely ill, or who are on the precipice of dying. You can help beings by making this prayer heard by as many people and as many animals close to their death as possible. It is available here: Prayer to Be Reborn in Dewachen

Desire Causes Suffering

November 18, 2011 by anisonam

The following teaching was offered by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo at Kunzang Palyul Choling:

Some “Italian Wisdom”

November 17, 2011 by anisonam

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

There is no one more miserable than he who cannot love. And nothing more vulgar then lying about it. When faced with many sides of one story, I look at the history, then observe the result. It’s easy to see, all in full equations.

Were I to fail at all else, I know I have loved, and made others feel safe and happy.

For reasons unknown to me, some people enjoy being immature, making fun of others, lying, hating, hurting, a sick soup of mental illness. In time, all suffer from this sickness, not just the hater, but his victims too. In the end the sickest suffer.

And so I must pass on some ancient Italian wisdom. “Never shit where you eat.” (Or out the same pie hole.)