In commemoration of the 21st anniversary of the enthronement of Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo on September 24, we are presenting testimonials from Jetsunma’s students about her impact on their lives.

This is an account by a Palyul monk of meeting his teacher, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. 

Unequivocally it is easy for me to say that Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo has been the most profound positive influence in my life.

Here is why:

I had already been ordained as a monk in the Gelug tradition at a Buddhist Centre in the Queensland rainforest, having determined that Buddhism was the path for me and that being a monk was the way to practice.

However I was ill with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. At times it was quite horrendous.  There were a number of occasions where I felt my life force slipping away and that I was going to die. People who saw me on those occasions often wanted to call an ambulance. After blanking out for 12-14 hours or so I would wake finding that I was alive, though still feeling exhausted. This was my life.

Eventually it became obvious that my health was too bad to stay at the Buddhist centre and I moved to my parent’s house. During this time I had a picture of His Holiness Penor Rinpoche (head of the Palyul lineage) on the wall in my bedroom. Whenever I saw it, I would cry and cry. I didn’t know why.

One day I went to a friend’s place to watch a video of his teacher. The teacher was Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo.  As soon as I saw her, tears welled in my eyes; I felt instant recognition of her amazing qualities. Instant familiarity.

During that teaching Jetsunma talked about meeting HH Penor Rinpoche (her root teacher) for the first time. As she was explaining this, lightning bolts went off in my head. It was the same experience I was having sitting on the sofa watching her on the video. I had found my home. I had found my lineage. It was that simple.

During the following months I had frequent dreams of Jetsunma. She would appear as herself or in the form of a deity. She would smile at me, emanate compassion, and emit rays of white light, which would pass through my body and heal me. I was not cured overnight but each time my health improved.

This process enabled me to move interstate to seek treatment and eventually to be healthy enough to fly to the US to meet Jetsunma in person. The lama I found was the same being as in the video and in my dreams. A being of infinite compassion who has the ability to reach out across vast distances, through time and space.

Needless to say I have been to America twice now, taken full ordination in the Palyul tradition, and am very much in the recovery phase of Chronic Fatigue. No longer do I feel like death, for now I am being held in the arms of the Dakini.

I find her teachings to be the most direct, pith instructions of natural realization I have heard – a perfect antidote for these chaotic times.