It was a hot fall day at the Amitabha Stupa. The sun glinted off the tigle (teardrop) at the top. Golden wildflowers garlanded the clearing, and chirping birds filled the air, adding their own praises. One Colorado blue bird regularly nose dives for one of the water offering bowls to get a quick drink and then resumes his antics in a nearby pinion pine.
Nearly a dozen KPC members from Sedona gathered to practice the “Shower of Blessings,” a moving, devotional ceremony which, each Saturday afternoon (currently at 4 p.m.) and on ritual holy days, includes a food feast or tsog offering. Often visitors join the practice or share in the food feast at the end. Everyone is welcome.
During the middle of the ceremony, a Sri Lankan family came to the stupa to say some traditional prayers. They had made the trip from California especially for this purpose. After a few moments of silent prayer, the three visitors walked around with candles. They were unlit because of fire restrictions. Although initially disappointed, the family was reassured that imagining them ablaze is considered to be equally effective. In the Buddhist tradition, visualizing an offering is as potent as making one.
During the “Shower of Blessings,” visitors kept coming. Some hesitated to walk around the stupa at first, but were warmly greeted and told it is always appropriate to circumambulate a stupa, even if there is a ceremony in progress.
As the sun went behind the red rocks, more people came to meditate and pray. The cooler evenings always bring locals who come to the site to worship. By 6:30 the sun was gone, and the stupa park closed.
It is always surprising how much there is to experience in this absolutely still place. Although the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park is in the heart of West Sedona and readily accessible, it seems very much removed from daily life. The 14-acre parcel of land is studded with arroyos, pinions, junipers, brush and cacti, as well as abundant wild life that either live on the land or pass through—from quails and ravens to the occasional meandering coyote. In the center of this bounty, stands the stupa.
With so much to see, it’s no wonder that hikers come through the land as well (one day last week there were two groups of 25 people in addition to many individual hikers), and tour guides often bring visitors to experience the extraordinary beauty and calm energy. The stupa has even been dubbed “an unofficial vortex” by Sedonans.
As spectacular as the scenery is, it is secondary to the spiritual refuge that this sacred land provides. People come from all over the world to connect with the power and goodness of the stupa, often leaving offerings of personal meaning in addition to contributions to the upkeep of the land in designated offering boxes. One day it might be conch shells, a rose quartz, a red toad with a quarter in its mouth, a friendship ring and an American Indian sage bundle. At another time it might be silk flowers, cylindrical metal chimes, a clear jar of blood-red heart stones, a ceramic egg, a wooden cross, a black and yellow toy car and a Buzz Lightyear figurine.
A few years ago someone left a song of peace, which ended with “Feel the wind of love increase, as we move this world to peace. Come love the world with me.” A few months ago, a grieving son and daughter left a carved bird for a father who just passed away (he had spent many hours on the land bird-watching); and the other day, a Japanese visitor left a letter to her half brother, whom she had never met. She assured him that “nothing is your fault. … You are an heir of love, remember that. … My prayers are with you.”
People of all spiritual traditions are drawn to the stupa. It is a place where one can feel safely at peace and where the mind can experience stillness, hope, inspiration and love. It is a place to keep one’s spirits up during difficult times and a place to pray for those who are suffering. During times of world crisis, many people are drawn to the stupa to pray. This movement of consciousness from the particular to the general comes naturally at the stupa where the mind seems to expand easily and embrace all of life.
Ani Wangmo drove through a deluge of hail stones, as a huge storm hit the centre, a roar of thunder took out the power. As the final preparations for Tsok were taking place, the storm subsided and a vivid rainbow appeared. This was Dakini Day in Australia at KPCs new retreat centre in Buninyong, Victoria.
We are all happy to have a place for group practice and to anchor activities in Australia. We envisage having weekly group Tsoks, monthly weekend retreats and Lama visits throughout the year.
A General Assembly for KPC Australia was held the day following Dakini Day with the following Board members elected; President-Lungtog; Secretary-Ani Sherab; Treasurer-Sarah McMullen, Board Member-Sherida Carrick. We hope that we can work well together so that Jetsunma’s teachings and the Palyul lineage can flourish in Australia.
As “Caretaker in Chief,” Namgyal is proud of his work with the Prayer Vigil. “When I look back over my life, I’m most proud of the work I’ve done with the Prayer Vigil. As a team, we’ve done something unprecedented that has made a real difference in the world. We’ve had the opportunity to participate in many miraculous events.”
In particular, Namgyal remembers when Jetsunma and the Sangha held a weekend retreat in August of 1999. One could feel the probabilities at that time as somewhat ominous. Many spiritual groups were aware of the potential dangers of an unusual astrological configuration, called the “Grand Cross.” People around the world were praying to avert the negative probabilities. After that global effort, one could feel that something was different, that most of the negative potentials had dissolved.
When His Holiness the Dalai Lama heard about the 24-Hour Prayer Vigil, he jumped for joy. When other Lamas have come to KPC they have marveled and wondered how Jetsunma and the Sangha were able to accomplish so much – until they found out about our Prayer Vigil. It is truly the heart of the mandala that keeps everything going.
Namgyal believes that KPC needs to strengthen the 24-Hour Prayer Vigil – especially the younger generation of newer practitioners needs to be involved in this effort. The Prayer Vigil has kept KPC alive and has kept many of the participants alive and on the Path. The best days of the 24-Hour Prayer Vigil may be in our future!
Those birds sure do love them some Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches. The Rainforest parrots love ‘em just as much, but for some reason weren’t feeling as photogenic yesterday. When I’d try to get a pic of a macaw enjoying one, they’d put it down and stare at me as if to say “What!?! Do you mind? I’m trying to eat!”. Oh well. The Cockatoo’s didn’t mind. Yeshi makes the PB&J’s. Thanks Yeshi!
Jetsunma is currently on retreat at the Palyul Retreat Center in McDonough, New York. Her intention while on retreat is to connect with her Palyul family, and to spend time with His Holiness Karma Kuchen. Jetsunma has been doing her heart practice, Chime Tsog Thig and Guru Yoga every day.
Jetsunma has encouraged her students that have never attended Palyul Retreat in New York to please do so, indicating that the Palyul Retreat center built by Kyabje Penor Rinpoche in 1998 will help her students to receive the entire cycle of Nam Cho teachings. Terton Migyur Dorje revealed the Nam Cho termas (hidden teachings) hundreds of years ago. These are the same teachings taught at the New York Palyul Retreat Center during the annual summer retreat.
Jetsunma has also invited all retreatants at the Palyul Retreat Center to come to KPC throughout the year, to help them continue their practices in an environment that supports their Path. While in retreat, Jetsunma has continuously spoken of the countless blessings His Holiness Penor Rinpoche brought into the world, and has written beautiful prayers for His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and His Holiness Karma Kuchen. She vows to uphold Kyabje Penor Rinpoche and work to ensure that His blessings continue to thrive in the world.
How did His Holiness Penor Rinpoche meet Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo?
In June of 1985, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche came to the United States and visited an American woman in Kensington, Maryland. It was his first trip to the United States, and this was his only stop. They had a wonderful summer meal outside on a patio, and many have talked about the laughter and joy that was shared that day. His Holiness then proceeded to interview the students this American woman had gathered and began asking these students what she was teaching them. After the interviews were completed, he called the American woman in to speak with her. He told her that that she was teaching her students, no matter what she called it, were the basic teachings of Mahayana Buddhism. Mahayana Buddhism is characterized by the bodhisattva ideal in which one seeks enlightenment for the benefit of all sentient beings, not just oneself.
While in Maryland, His Holiness bestowed refuge and bodhisattva vows on the American woman, and her students. He also approved the refuge vow that she had been giving to her students as an authentic refuge vow and authorized her to conduct the refuge ceremony using that vow rather than the traditional one.
When requested, His Holiness prophesied the location of the new World Prayer Center for which members of the center were actively searching at the time. He told the students that it would seem to be too costly but that they should get it anyway as their center would grow in the future. In October of that year, settlement was made on the present location of Kunzang Palyul Chöling near Poolesville, Maryland, in a building that exactly matched the prophesy of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche right down to the four white pillars on the front porch. And it was more expensive than anyone imagined they could handle, but devotion won out in the end.
After this amazing visit, events proceeded and a number of high lamas of the Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism visited the new center to give teachings, including the Khenpo brothers, Palden Sherab Rinpoche and Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Chagdud Tulku, Ven. Gyaltrul Rinpoche, and others. In February, 1987, the American woman traveled to India at the invitation of His Holiness where he officially recognized her as the incarnation of Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo, the Tibetan saint and sister of Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, founder of Palyul Monastery. After formally recognizing her, he gave her many teachings and transmissions and fully empowered her as a lineage holder in the Nyingma tradition. He also gave her a name, Ahkön Norbu Lhamo. The honorific title of Jetsunma was added later.
The next year His Holiness returned to Maryland to bestow the Rinchen Terdzöd cycle of empowerments for the first time in the West. The Rinchen Terdzöd is a compilation by Jamgon Kongtrul the Great of all known terma revelations in the Nyingma tradition and takes three full months to confer. Near the end of the empowerments, His Holiness formally enthroned Jetsunma as a tulku and lineage holder in the Palyul tradition. This startling recognition of an American woman as a reincarnate Tibetan lama was picked up by news services around the world.
Migyur Dorje was only a young boy, about 12 years old, when he began spontaneously revealing the terma cycle known as the Nam Chö (Space Treasure) from his mind. Although he died young at age 23 in 1667, Migyur Dorje did have students, and his closest heart students were Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab and his sister, Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo. Kunzang Sherab was the first throne holder of the Palyul lineage that continues to this day, and Palyul is now considered to be one of the six principal mother monasteries of the Nyingma tradition.
Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo spent most of her life in retreat in a cave in the mountains above Palyul. She was widely considered to be a saint because of her renunciate lifestyle and her accomplishment in her practice. Held in particular by the ordained nuns (or anis) of Palyul, the valley in which her cave was located became known as the Red Valley because of the red-robed nuns who gathered there daily to seek blessings from Ahkön Lhamo. It is said that Ahkön Lhamo never bathed or otherwise tended to her personal hygiene, yet the sweet smell of flowers always emanated from her cave.
When Ahkön Lhamo died, she was cremated, as was the tradition. As the fire burned her body, suddenly the skull cap, or kapala, flew from the body and through the air, landing on her brother’s throne in the monastery about a kilometer away. Upon examination, the kapala revealed a number of seed syllables – ultimate condensations of the Dharma into a single syllable, such as “AH.” Such manifestations are only associated with practitioners of very high attainment. This event was considered a miracle by those who witnessed it, and the kapala became the most sacred relic of Palyul Monastery. For centuries it was used to distribute the blessed amrita during empowerments and large group practices or pujas.
His Holiness Penor Rinpoche often passed out the amrita to the gathered monks using this precious relic. It so impressed him that he made prayers to find the reincarnation of Ahkön Lhamo if she lived in the world. When the Chinese invaded and annexed Tibet, they destroyed nearly all the monasteries and temples in Tibet and killed many monks and lamas. Among the monasteries destroyed was Palyul, and one of the many sacred objects destroyed was the kapala of Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo. His Holiness Penor Rinpoche was able to recover a piece of the kapala, and after recognizing Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, he gave it to her. This relic rests today at Kunzang Palyul Choling, and is shown on specific Buddhist holidays. The piece of the kapala that His Holiness was able to recover displays the miraculous “ah” on the kapala itself.
For Jetsunma, recognition occurred at a much older age than was traditional in Tibet. It also involved the recognition of a woman and a Western woman. Jetsunma also had no formal training in Buddhism, instead teaching directly from her mind. Such a recognition caused some controversy because of its nontraditional aspects. Yet His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, who was widely venerated as a Living Buddha, was adamant in his recognition, and he was supported by His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, also a former Supreme Head of the Nyingma tradition, and the Second Dzongnang Jampal Lodro Rinpoche, the most senior Palyul tulku.
His Holiness Penor Rinpoche enthusiastically supported Jetsunma’s efforts until the end of his life in 2009. His successor, His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, has also stated on numerous occasions that he supports her just as His Holiness Penor Rinpoche did and that her activity and her center must continue. Jetsunma has fully fulfilled His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s trust in her, and countless sentient beings have benefitted.
While at the Palyul Retreat His Holiness Karma Kuchen indicated that he knows and understands that Jetsunma and the late His Holiness Penor Rinpoche were very close and that he would like for her to consider their relationship to be the same as hers with Kyabje Penor Rinpoche; that they both want to uphold Palyul in the world and His Holiness Penor Rinpoche’s legacy.
All are welcome to attend this class on the significance and practice of Chenrezig or Avalokiteshvara (Sanskrit), the embodiment of the compassion of all the Buddhas.
Chenrezig’s mantra OM MANI PADME HUNG, is chanted worldwide to relieve the sufferings that beings experience
in all realms of existence. Reciting this mantra leads one towards the awakening of love and compassion. The practice will be taught so participants can apply its potency to their everyday lives and also alleviate the suffering of others.
If you cannot attend the class in person, please tune into the live webcast here…
With its graceful antebellum columns and portico, the temple building at KPC in Poolesville, Maryland, is much admired for its beauty. Built in 1972, 13 years before being acquired by students of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo, KPC Spiritual Director, the building pre-dates most current building codes and energy protocols.
KPC is therefore pleased to announce our acceptance of an award of $21,000 from the Montgomery County Commercial/Multi-Family Energy Efficiency Rebate Program. The award, in the form of a rebate, will supplement a legacy gift of about $180,000 specifically for renovation of the temple building. The current estimate for the building renovation stands at about half a million dollars, primarily for changes that will bring the building into compliance with various Montgomery County codes. (The cost of bringing the temple grounds into compliance with new County codes is still being studied.) And, more important, the renovation will enhance the temple as a setting for the Three Precious Jewels.
Watch our website, tara.org, for updates about the project.
Throughout July and August KPC will host a book club to discuss An Open Heart, Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life by His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama and Nicholas Vreeland.
This book explores fundamental elements of our Dharma path including karma, loving kindness, a good heart and bodhicitta.
Class dates will be the following Fridays at 7p.m.: July 1, 8,15, 29; Aug 5, 19, 26.
The book is available in the Mani Jewel Gift Store or you can order the book here…
For those readers who might be curious about just exactly what Kunzang Palyul Chöling, or KPC, is and why we think it is important to care about, we have assembled a brief history of the temple. This must also be the story of its Spiritual Director, Jetsunma Ahkön Lhamo, without whom there would be no story to tell.
Jetsunma was not born a Buddhist. Actually she was born to Italian-Jewish parents in Brooklyn, New York, and her early spiritual education came courtesy of the Roman Catholic Church, the Dutch Calvinist church, and a sort of lox-and-bagels Judaism (as she describes it), depending on which parent was winning on that particular day. Life at home was often a living hell with both parents taking out their frustrations on their children with severe beatings and other abuse usually fueled by alcohol. But even though not born a Buddhist, Alyce was born a bodhisattva, and she used the suffering she experienced as a child as motivation to end the suffering of others.
Later, she left her family for life on a North Carolina farm. There she began to experience dreams and visions that indicated various practices she should undertake, such as meditation and what she later learned was a form of chöd – dedicating one’s very body to the liberation of sentient beings. She left the farm while very pregnant with her second son and went to Black Rock, North Carolina, where she gave psychic teachings and readings. By age 30 she experienced a spiritual breakthrough, and this eventually led her to Kensington, Maryland, where she and her husband founded the Center for Discovery and New Life. There she began to attract a large following of students. She taught a sort of Christ-centered spirituality and channeled various teachers. In April, 1985, at her urging, her students began a 24 hour prayer vigil for peace in the basement of her small home in Kensington, Maryland, that continues unbroken today.
At about the same time a Tibetan man showed up selling rugs to support a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in India. She and her students ended up supporting seventy monks at the monastery. It turned out that this man was the business manager for His Holiness Penor Rinpoche, the Supreme Head of the Palyul lineage of Nyingma. When he heard about this American woman and her students, he decided to pay them a visit – his first to the United States. After dining on hot dogs with Catherine (as she was then known) and her students, he proceeded to interview the students to see what she was teaching them. Finally he called her in and told her that whatever she called what she was teaching, what she was actually teaching was Mahayana Buddhism. He said that her ability to do this with no formal training in Buddhism reflected a very high level of accomplishment in previous lifetimes. These words were echoed in 1986 when Catherine traveled to Oregon to meet the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche, who had been recognized as the reincarnation of Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, the first Palyul throneholder. He encouraged her to visit Penor Rinpoche in India. Catherine took both of these lamas as her root teachers.
Meanwhile the Center for Discover and New Life had purchased a new home, a large house with pillars just as described by Penor Rinpoche when he suggested they find a larger space. It was located in Poolesville, Maryland, a rural area along the Potomac River northwest of the District of Columbia. The 24 hour prayer vigil was moved to the new center, and a large number of crystals were installed.
In 1987 Catherine followed the advice of Gyaltrul Rinpoche and traveled to India to visit His Holiness Penor Rinpoche at his monastery in exile, Namdroling, located near Bylakuppe, Karanataka State. After carefully examining her, he, along with His Holiness Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, then the Supreme Head of the Nyingma (who was visiting the monastery at the time), and the senior Palyul tulku, the Second Dzongnang Jampal Lodro Rinpoche, formally recognized her as the reincarnation of Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo, the sister of the first throneholder of Palyul, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, who in this life, as we said, is known as Gyaltrul Rinpoche.
Genyenma Ahkön Lhamo spent much of her life meditating in a cave above Palyul Monastery in Tibet. They called the valley in which the cave was located Red Valley because of all the Buddhist nuns she attracted with her teachings and blessings. She was renowned as a wisdom dakini and was one of the main disciples of Tertön Migyur Dorje, whose terma revelations formed the basis of the Palyul lineage. Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab was the Dharma heir of Migyur Dorje.
The following year, 1988, His Holiness Penor Rinpoche traveled to Maryland once again to bestow a major empowerment cycle and to enthrone Catherine as a tulku, or reincarnate lama. This was an extraordinary and unprecedented gesture for him to make, considering that Catherine was both a Western woman and someone with no formal training in Buddhism in this life. Tulkus are also traditionally recognized when very young, and Catherine was in her 30’s. However, His Holiness made it clear that this meant nothing to him. As a young tulku himself at Palyul, he had seen the precious skull relic or kapala left by the first Ahkön Lhamo, and he had made a vow to find her reincarnation if she existed in the world. As an indication of his faith in her, he brought the single surviving fragment of the kapala (the rest had been destroyed in the Cultural Revolution) to present to her at her enthronement ceremony. This sacred relic, bearing a Tibetan letter “AH” formed by the sutures of the skull bone, remains enshrined in the main prayer room at KPC today.
The enthronement ceremony caught the attention of the world’s press and other Western Buddhists. Just prior to the ceremony itself a group of twenty-five of Catherine’s students received ordination as novice Buddhist monks and nuns from His Holiness, a group now numbering around 40 individuals, making it one of the largest Buddhist ordained sanghas in the West. During the empowerment Catherine received the name Ahkön Norbu Lhamo from His Holiness. The title of Jetsunma, a rarely conferred title reserved for the most revered Tibetan Buddhist women teachers, was chose for her by her students.
The enthronement ceremony took place at the end of a four month marathon empowerment by His Holiness called the Rinchen Terdzod, a collection of all known terma revelations of Guru Rinpoche that was compiled by the Jamgon Kongtrul the Great in the 19th Century. This was the first time this empowerment was given in the West by anyone. His Holiness also renamed the center Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Chöling – Fully Awakened Dharma Continent of Excellent Clear Light – and designated it as his seat in the West.
In the ensuing years Jetsunma invited many Palyul and Nyingma teachers to KPC. The first to come was Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche who professed a strong connection with Jetsunma. He was followed by the Venerable Gyaltrul Rinpoche on numerous occasions, His Holiness Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok on his only trip to the West, His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, the present head of Palyul, the Khenpo brothers, Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche, Ven. Yangthang Tulku, Mugsang Tulku, Khentrul Gyangkhang Rinpoche, Ven. Ngagpa Yeshe Dorje, the Palyul Khenpos, Khenchens Tsewang Gyatso, Namdrol, Pema Sherab and Tenzin Norgay, the stupa builders, Tulku Sang Ngak Rinpoche and Tulku Rigdzin Pema, and many other well-known and highly revered teachers. These visits provided a solid foundation of empowerments and traditional teachings for the students who formed the growing sangha of KPC.
Jetsunma continued to teach, shifting into a more Buddhist mode as her students matured into practitioners. She taught regularly to both the children and the adults of the sangha, teachings which were preserved on video and are still readily available to any who seek them out. She also gave her students ample opportunity to gain merit.
One of her main activities has been the building of numerous stupas, over 40 at last count, both at KPC in Maryland – where the remarkable Migyur Dorje Stupa is – as well as the beautiful Amitabha Stupa in Arizona. It is said that even thinking of a stupa is the cause of tremendous merit, so having the opportunity of actually building so many stupas is remarkable.
Another way Jetsunma teaches compassion in action to her students is through the Garuda Aviary and Tara’s Babies animal rescue organizations. The aviary rescues large exotic birds like macaws, parrots and cockatoos which have been abused or abandoned. It is located on the KPC grounds in Maryland. Tara’s Babies rescues dogs from natural disasters (like Hurricane Katrina) or dog pounds where they faced imminent euthanasia. It is housed in a former ranch in a remote area of Arizona. Other activities have included helping Mongolian Buddhists reestablish Buddhism in their former Communist state after 65 years of brutal suppression and a prison program offering Dharma teachings to inmates in Maryland correctional institutions.
Jetsunma has also actively explored alternative methods to expose as many people as possible to the Dharma, including setting Dharma prayers and mantras to modern music and giving regular “tweechings” on Twitter.
Today, after over 20 years since its founding, KPC continues to grow and explore new ways to bring Jetsunma’s compassionate vision into the world, which so desperately needs all the compassion it can get. We can only echo His Holiness Karma Kuchen’s prayer that Jetsunma stay in the world until the very stars fall from the sky!
It was a hot fall day at the Amitabha Stupa. The sun glinted off the tigle (teardrop) at the top. Golden wildflowers garlanded the clearing, and chirping birds filled the air, adding their own praises. One Colorado blue bird regularly nose dives for one of the water offering bowls to get a quick drink and then resumes his antics in a nearby pinion pine.
During the “Shower of Blessings,” visitors kept coming. Some hesitated to walk around the stupa at first, but were warmly greeted and told it is always appropriate to circumambulate a stupa, even if there is a ceremony in progress.
