Compassion

Loving Kindness and Adversity

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From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, known as @JALpalyul on Twitter:

My dear, much Beloved Tweethearts I haven’t been on much today. Follow Friday! But I’ve been quite exhausted and feeling low. Nothing happening in my reality to upset me, except the continuous stream of lying and hate that has come to me for years now. By those who readily admit they are bird dogging me, and digging through my underwear drawer for something “wrong” with me. When they can’t find anything wrong they just make it up!

So I find myself deeply sad and emotionally exhausted. I have no fight in me. They are amused but still beat a nearly dead horse and laugh.

I pray they will find their way spiritually and ethically, and stop wasting time. They both have heart disease and just do not understand karma, cause and effect. They cannot see through the hate long enough to know that in trying to destroy me and KPC they are actually destroying themselves.

I wish as a mother I could comfort them. Hold them and speak of truth, love, living and dying in a noble way. Wish I could heal them as only LOVE and TRUTH can do.

But the walls are up; I cannot get in to help. I can pray for them and I do – every day.

I have thousands of followers on twitter and on my Altar blog. They in truth have very few. But I cannot be satisfied until I see their pain end. I think of them with a sorrow so deep I cannot explain.

If a pure display of love is squelched it is beyond tragic as the world needs love!

I wish I could help them; however my experience is that if I show my gentle side I get knifed in the back by these two – over and over.

I didn’t sign up for Crucifixion in this life. Another faith, that.

I pray for the day they just stop. Maybe try to help people? Animal rescue? Volunteering to help others? Comfort those in hospice? Tutor a child? There are many ways to help. Then there is no time to beat people up. One can live a helpful and productive life. Not end up in jail with a felony record. A waste of life when there is Dharma available.

There is no time to waste! We are taught in the four thoughts that turn the mind: It is like going to a continent of precious jewels and coming back empty handed.

That is the most tragic thing of all; to waste this precious human rebirth, with all its endowments on gathering trash.

So for these people I pray:

OM MANI PEDME HUNG!

OM AH HUNG BENZAR GURU PEDMA SIDDHI HUNG!

OM BENZAR SATO HUNG!

May this heal all enemies to Dharma and bring joy to all!

How Far Will You Go?

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From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo (@jalpalyul) on November 11, 2010

In my experience anything can be used to propagate the Dharma – TV, radio, magazines, books, Internet blogs and Twitter. Ways to introduce Dharma are as plentiful as leaves on a tree. It depends on view, of course. The one with dirty glasses will never see well. The one who has dirty ears will not hear as well. The one who is ignorant will not accomplish well. The one with an oversized ego will not assimilate well and will lose their way due to pride and arrogance. Grasping will ensure there is nothing in the bank. The next life will be worse.

How can one’s mind not matter?  If it is view, relative mind will not be stable. If there is poverty of respect and love for all beings there is no result in Dharma.

You can tell a great deal by seeing someone’s past. A criminal always remains dangerous. A blow-hard tends to blow! No kindness there.

Buddhism is like a wedding cake, many levels. First level is purification of gross karma, the mindstream. Second level is intellectual and scholarly pursuit.  The top level is realization, awakening, result, and accomplishment.  The Bodhisattva or awakening being – this cannot be attained without Bodhicitta, and view of emptiness.

One may take exception, thinking they are unique and special, and have no ethics.  Buddhism is a philosophy of ethics. We build on ethics.  Personally I feel without ethics and compassion there is no realization. I myself practice self-honesty every day. I wish to face all poisons!  I feel that if one is unwilling to purify the poisons, and the karma of body, speech and mind, do not become Buddhist! We are change! And you must grow!

I wish you a life of joy, health and wealth!  I wish you a life of goals attained!  May you have long life and love!  Get it now as you accomplish method!  For all sentient beings.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Want a Taste?

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Excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo from the Vow of Love series

From the first day that I began teaching until the last day that I ever have the opportunity to teach, I will invariably speak of compassion. If compassion were ice cream, by the time you finish with me you will have tasted every flavor at least 475 times. So, now we will talk about another flavor of compassion.

Previously, we have discussed why compassion is necessary. Then we spoke about how to begin to apply that compassion. We talked about various ways in which one could be motivated by compassion, as well as thoughts that you might have found moving or encouraging and that were geared to deepen and soften your mind. These are very important. One of the greatest, most precious jewels that you will hopefully attain in traveling the Buddhist path, or any spiritual path, is to have your mind softened and deepened.

There is an expression in one of our prayers, that one’s mind becomes ‘hard as horn.’ The minute I first read that particular phrase, it touched me deeply. Every time I have thought about it, it has meant more and more to me. One’s mind becomes hard as horn because of the discrimination, the conceptualization that is involved with the idea of ego, because of the pride and arrogance that arise from our belief in self-nature as being inherently real. We have established in our minds all of the clothing, the dogma, the discrimination of this idea of self as being real. These things become rigid in our minds, and our minds are no longer gentle.

The moment you decide in some subconscious way you have an ego, that you are a self, you have to start gathering the constructs of self-identity around you. You have to determine where self ends and other begins. In order to do that your mind has to be filled with conceptualization. In order to be a self you have to survive as a self.  In order to maintain this conceptualization that makes survival possible, your mind has to become rigid. So if I say to you that your mind is rigid, you shouldn’t think I have insulted you. I am talking about a condition all sentient beings have, and it is a condition that is the cause of a great deal of suffering.

When I say that all sentient beings are suffering, I don’t wish it to be a real downer for you. That is not the point. Realizing all sentient beings are suffering is meant to soften your mind, because to realize all sentient beings are suffering, you have to be willing to examine phenomena and to examine yourself in a deep way, in a way that you don’t normally do. Therefore, you have to challenge your concepts. Why is that? Because naturally, and without any teaching or any encouragement, you will try to convince yourself that you are happy.

You may do this in much the same way that a person who is hungry and unable to eat will do something to take his mind off his hunger. Let’s say its 10 o’clock. You’re on the job, you’re famished, and you know you can’t get off for lunch until 12 o’clock. You are going to try to think of something else. You’re going to try to keep your mind busy, or try not to focus on your hunger. In much the same way, if you are suffering and you don’t have the technology to remove from your mind the causes of this suffering, you are going to try to convince yourself that you are okay. You are going to put a band-aid on it, and in order for you to do so, your mind has to become more hardened.

It is useful to really look around at sentient beings and see they are suffering. It is also useful to look at yourself. This is not meant to make you depressed or sad. It is meant to give you what it takes to go to the next step, which is to try to determine for yourself the way to remove the causes of suffering.

Even though there are times when hunger is not comfortable, when you would rather not think about it, there are also times when hunger is useful in that it keeps you alive. In the same way, while it may be uncomfortable for you to think that all sentient beings are suffering, it is actually quite useful for you to realize that. It is this realization that will give you the foundation and the ability to turn your mind in such a way that you have to seek out the causes of suffering, and how you can remove them from your mind.

It is not useful in any long-term way to try to convince yourself, by putting a band-aid on an ulcer, that everything is okay, because you still have to face the same things that you’ve always had to face. Nothing has changed. You still have to face old age, sickness and death. Neither does it help you to be helpful to other sentient beings. Look at the animal realm. Go to India and see how the oxen are beaten and tied up in order to be worked. They are worked all of their lives. That is suffering. Look at all the different ways that other creatures suffer just out of ignorance, because they have no way to help themselves.

Once you have determined suffering does exist, there is no need to dwell on it in a morbid way. Rather, you should think, “This is how it is. Now I have to realize that there is, in fact, a cure, there is a way to deal with this.” It is not useful to dwell on suffering without also accepting the antidote. In other words, if you just think about hunger all the time, and you don’t eat, that is stupid. When hunger is no longer useful to you, it is simply suffering. You should use your awareness of suffering to prod you to seek and practice the antidote to suffering. Use your awareness; it is your tool.

© Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Faults of Cyclic Existence

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It is gorgeous today! Breezy, cool in shade, mostly sunny. A day to be in love with! Our neighbor came up and told us weird news.

Two of their beef calves were killed in the field last night. They were nearly 300lbs each. What could have done that? Bear? Big Cat?

I wonder about mountain Lion or something. I’ve sent someone over to see carcass. Looks like some flank torn, leg pulled back and up.

OM MANI PEDME HUNG for the poor things, will offer my practice for them. 🙁 But you know what? They said the next stop was the feedlot.

It is hard to imagine the suffering these calves go through in a feed lot. They live in pens, have a fetid environment, and they live to be to be killed, to be delicious. They live with their feet hurting always, not allowed to move. Just marble up, KIDS! Stand and eat!

This brings to mind Buddha’s teachings about the sufferings of all beings. Animals suffer from fear and stupidity. Farm animals can easily overpower their keepers. Elephants in the Circus and other animals can take trainers down. But they are fearful and ignorant and unaware they can be in charge.

OM TARE TU TARE TURE SOHA may mother Buddha Tara bless and care for suffering beings. May all suffering in all forms end! Humans suffer from old age, sickness and death. Most never think about that. They think about distraction with which to hide the inevitable.

Buddhists plan, practice and work for a noble death and a good, high rebirth. I do. May ALL beings awaken!

We should awaken in recognition of the clear, undefiled emptiness of the Primordial wisdom state. This is the very ground of being.

It is our very NATURE, as it IS. We must apply method diligently in order to awaken to the true state of recognition- Buddhahood!

And then return, life after life awakened and able to bring much benefit. This is the path of every Bodhisattva! The way of Buddhahood.

From a series of tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo

Courageous Compassion

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From a Series of Tweets by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo:

Good HOT afternoon, Twitterverse from Barnesville MD where I am better and the pack is well. I feel like my body is processing dark energy and I have been able to throw it off.

The thing is to transform it to bliss, light; if one bounces it back to the sender you are as evil as them.

I would NEVER go low and dark like that. There is no place for that in my life, and the planet does not need it. We need pure Bodhicitta.

There is never an excuse for causing harm to others. Lord Buddha taught us this. If we cannot cure, then at least do no harm.

As for me, I always try to take on and transform negativity; I never let it harm others. I pray for the courage and strength to endure.

May the great ancient ones who Protect Palyul especially come forth and protect PURE DHARMA and PURE PRACTIONERS! #stopthehate #Tibet

Follow ahkonlhamo on Twitter

Wandering in a Circus of Appearances

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An excerpt from the Mindfulness workshop given by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo in 1999

To develop spiritual recognition, you need to recognize that beings that you see living in a material way that seems so fruitless have the very seed of Buddha Enlightenment within them.  They are That Nature, but piteously confined; blind, wandering in this deluded world of appearances, simply dancing through reactiveness.  Without that spiritual discrimination, there’s no practice.

If we can begin to really push ourselves to give rise to a state of recognition by applying this discrimination and mindfulness, then perhaps we are actually practicing, actually accomplishing something.  It is entirely possible to spend one’s whole life calling ourselves a “renunciate,” dressed up like Dharma, walking around with beads, but if we do not require of ourselves that we move further and further into giving rise to a state of recognition, we might as well be entertaining ourselves.  The very thing we wish to disengage, that deluded ego, that inherent belief in self-nature, is on center stage.  So long as that is happening, we are suffering; we are wandering aimlessly in samsara with no way to understand our Nature: blind, deaf, dumb, unable, mistaking the five primordial wisdoms for our senses.  Our senses that tell us if things are hot or cold, big or small, so we can have them.  Our senses that tell us if things are far away or close by so we know whether to react with repulsion or attraction.  Our senses describe that stuff ‘out there’ so we can determine how we should feel about it.  This deluded and continuous reality that we steep ourselves in is not practice, even if you do it with the robes on; even if you do it with your beads in your hands.  It is awakening to the state of recognition that is most important.

When we see deluded sentient beings, this is an opportunity.  They become to us like gurus.  This is an opportunity to practice.  Have you seen your parents? Though I’m sure they’re dear to you, they’re not really enlightened people.  They’re not like living Buddhas.  We’ve watched our parents age and sometimes very painfully – the aging process is not a comfortable process.  Your body drops out from under you and starts betraying you. Not only have we watched this process go on, but we’ve watched them suffer so much.  We’ve watched them try to attain, one by one, all the goals they were told to obtain and work so hard.

Sentient beings aren’t lazy. Sentient beings are working very hard every day to fulfill their belief systems.  Our parents went to work.  They might have been the worst parents in the world, but they went to work every day.  They worked really hard. Maybe my parents were some of the worst in the world, but I did watch them suffer, suffer, suffer and work, work, work and beat themselves to death.  And the grief that they feel when they look at what they’ve been doing and working so hard for, and it amounts to nothing. What happened?  Now I’m old, nearly dead.  This is not only true with our parents; it’s also true with us.  It’s true with all beings.  These are not bad people; these are not evil people.  The sickness here is ignorance.  The sickness here is a state of non-recognition.  The sickness here is the narcotic sleep called samsara.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

It Takes Virtue

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

You only have to consider the suffering of sentient beings long enough to help you create within yourself a virtuous mindstream. Once you have created a virtuous mindstream, you no longer need consider suffering. It is not useful to suffer considering suffering. It is only useful if it compels you on a path that ends suffering. That is the point.

Having heard this teaching, I hope you never become weary hearing your teachers talk about suffering. You will only hear about suffering long enough for you to soften your mind and change the way you live. You will only hear about it long enough to fill your life with virtuous and compassionate acts. If you are not completely convinced that all sentient beings are suffering, you can’t help them. You won’t help them. You won’t have the strength or the fortitude to persevere. But once your mind is stable in the practice of compassion, once you are moved by compassion to where it is a fire in your heart and you can’t do anything except that which will end suffering, that which will bring enlightenment to all sentient beings, you don’t need to meditate on suffering anymore. You are already on fire. Once you are convinced of the infallibility of cause and effect, to the extent that there is no more non-virtue in your mindstream, you don’t need to think about suffering anymore. There is no point. You are already doing what is necessary to end suffering. However, once you are so filled with compassion that your whole life is virtuous, your whole life is a vehicle for nothing but compassionate activity, and once you are convinced of the infallibility of cause and effect to the extent that there is no more non-virtue in your mindstream, you are also enlightened!

The point is this. You are receiving this teaching for a certain reason. You might think you are just curious, or interested in Buddhism and would like to explore it a little further. Or you may think you would like to deepen, or you would like to learn all things from all places. Or you may be interested in becoming a Buddhist. Whatever your particular format, you do have a reason, and I bet that reason is based upon the fact that you want to find a way out of suffering not only for yourself, but for all sentient beings as well. When I say ‘out’, I don’t mean that you want to get enlightened and then leave. I mean that you want to find a way out of the kind of mindstream, the kind of phenomena that causes suffering in both you and in all sentient beings. You want to see if there is another option.

Even if you haven’t faced that fact exactly in your heart, you are looking for something, and you are a good person. You wouldn’t be receiving this teaching if you were not a good person. You must be interested; you must have karma with the idea of compassion. Because of the infallible way that karma works, you could not receive this teaching if you didn’t have the karma of compassionate activity. You must have a tremendous amount of virtue squirreled away somewhere. I am not claiming I am such a virtuous teacher that you have to be particularly virtuous to hear me. That is not what I am saying. I am saying that in order to hear the word ‘compassion,’ in order to hear the word ‘Bodhicitta’, in order to even hear these ideas from any source, you have to have a tremendous amount of virtue, because that is the Buddha’s teaching.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

Worthy of Respect

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Rigzin Zeoli of the Garuda Aviary www.garudaaviary.org
Rigzin Zeoli of the Garuda Aviary www.garudaaviary.org

The people I respect most are those who are kind and willing to be of service to all beings. People who display compassion. Live it.

The people I respect are those who are capable of respecting the dignity of others. Honoring the Light in all. And living it.

The people I respect most are those who respect and maintain their enviornment. Who keep it pure, and make beauty where they are.

The people I respect most live honorable lives, benefiting others. Their livelihood and habits support kindness and love.

The people I respect most are those who speak well of others, or not at all. They are aware of the pollution of gossip, and act accordingly.

The people I respect most honor our planet and avoid ruining it for generations to come. They act responsibly toward Earth. Keep it clean.

The people I respect most are kind to children and animals, all beings less fortunate, and leave the word better than they found it.

Animal Rescue and Practice

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Toffee, mother of the litter
Toffee, Mother of the Litter of Rescued Puppies

Hello to one and all from Barnesville MD. Our Rescue family arrived early this morning. Oh, boy- Mama is emaciated, don’t know how she fed

Some pups are kind of plump, others not. There are 9 of them, thinking not all fed equally. We will feed a slurry of formula + canned food.

All 9 Rescued Puppies
All 9 Rescued Puppies

We use an excellent food, EVO which has no grains, like their ancestral diet. It does have meat, veggies, and fruit.

Some of the pups can lap food, some prefer to walk through it. LOL. Funny, the skinnier ones don’t lap well. Toffee is a good Mom

So we go into the weekend part of the retreat completely exhausted. And the back’s out again. “Way to think it through,” Smartypants.

But what to do? The little ones would all have been exterminated by now. I guess they pile them in a box and gas them. Regrets? NONE!

I know method and practice ARE the way. So I am a “cushion Buddhist”. But I am not the kind that ignores the obvious suffering of others.

In truth, I don’t know that many Buddhists who practice all day retreat-style in the west. In fact we do have time to help sentient beings.

I hope you will all pray for this little family who still live by the power of LOVE.

One Little Girl in the Litter
One Little Girl

Tough Love

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Singdolma

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

Now, when we talk about practical compassion, it actually occurs on two levels. There’s a universal level, in the sense you care so much for all sentient beings that your goal is to do whatever is necessary to eliminate suffering for them all. But does that mean that if you see a hungry child you shouldn’t feed him? Or does that mean you shouldn’t be kind in an ordinary, human way? Ordinary compassion, ordinary human kindness is very important. But in understanding the Buddha’s teaching, it shouldn’t be the only thing you do. You have to live an ordinary, virtuous life, but you have to live an extraordinary life as well. The activity of kindness and compassion should have both a universal and an ordinary level.

On the other hand, I don’t believe in ‘idiot compassion.’  Have you ever heard of idiot compassion?  It is when you look at people who are needy and you see them going through their stuff, and you try to be so kind to them and give them what they need, or what they say they need. You actually don’t help them because you increase their dependency. You increase their willingness to tell you how much they need. You’re just helping them along; you’re playing with them. So I don’t believe in idiot compassion because it doesn’t help them. I believe that sometimes, real compassion has to be harsh.

In Buddhism, you see as many wrathful deities as you do peaceful deities. Why is that? Is it because the Buddha is half mean and half nice? I don’t think so. It’s because sometimes compassionate activity has to be a little wrathful. Sometimes it has to be a little aggressive. It depends. If you really are pure and your determination is to really be of benefit, and not just to be a nice guy, after training yourself in this way, you’ll know what to do. You won’t get hooked on idiot compassion. Everybody likes ‘feel-good’ stuff, but that doesn’t always help. You should, however, be a human being of virtue. You should be kind. You should be honest.

© Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo

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