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.

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 19^th 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!

We rejoice in the arrival of His Holiness Karma Kuchen Rinpoche, the head of the Palyul lineage, at Kunzang Palyul Choling.  Yesterday was a joyous day.  Here are some photos that captured the event.

It started with chalk drawings of the eight auspicious symbols.  This is a traditional part of a greeting for a Rinpoche.

As His Holiness arrived, we tossed flower petals

We also made smoke offerings of cedar

Jetsunma and Ani Sonam awaiting the arrival of His Holiness Karma Kuchen

Welcome Holiness!

Sangha offering katas to His Holiness Karma Kuchen

Jetsunma giving a blessing to a small visitor

Recently, following Ani Kunzang’s visit to Australia, Lungtog, Kunzang and Wangmo took the opportunity to circumnambulate a 13 foot (4 metre) high consecrated statue of Guru Rinpoche blessed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The statue is the first statue to be be built as part of the first stage of The Great Stupa of Universal Compassion being built in Bendigo, Victoria under the direction of Lama Zopa Rinpoche. The statue of Guru Rinpoche, resplendantly covered in gold leaf, will no doubt remove obstacles of all kinds including obstacles to the completion of the Stupa. During our visit we prayed for the long life and good health of our kind root teacher and all sentient beings. As well as circumnambulating Guru Rinpoche we also practised Guru Yoga together at the base of Guru Rinpoche and during that time, for a moment, the rain and wind ceased. Here is a picture of Ani Kunzang gazing up at the statue of Guru Rinpoche. the statue is housed in temporary accommodation while the rest of the Stupa is being built.

Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) Australia

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 story is from Ani Sangye Drolma.

In April, 2007, I found myself back in the hospital for the second round of pneumonia in two months. I was in the middle of being treated for Wegener’s granulomatosis and numerous complications, and was in pretty sorry shape. During the last two days in the hospital, I developed a strange neck tightness. At home it grew worse. My vision started to deteriorate. An opthalmologist diagnosed swollen optic nerves (papilledema) and ordered a brain MRI. He sent me home to see if it resolved itself.

Two days later, I awoke and while still in that half-asleep daze, I felt myself slipping away, dying. Suddenly, a voice inside me shouted something like, “You can’t die! Jetsunma didn’t say it was okay!” Whatever that was, it was enough to startle me to my senses. I forced myself to wake up all the way. I could tell that something was off, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. I had an odd sense of apprehension and—completely unlike me when I’m sick—I was afraid to be alone. I called a friend to come over, and she lined up helpers for the day. I felt a little silly asking for people to come sit with me while I figured out what was happening. Meanwhile, I got a message to Jetsunma, asking for her blessing and prayers.

By midday, I grew increasingly nauseous, the headache worsened, and I began vomiting with incredible force. My friends later said it sounded like an exorcism! I took an ambulance to the ER. Because the MRI had not shown a tumor, the diagnosis was elevated intracranial pressure (aka pseudotumor cerebri). As the pressure inside the skull rises, its inability to expand forces the pressure into the eyes and brain. It’s excruciating.

The only way to lower the pressure is to do a spinal puncture immediately. If it’s delayed, blindness and death are inevitable. But there was a catch : Due to blood clots the prior year, I was still on an injectable blood thinner that made spinal punctures impossible (it causes bleeding in the spinal canal, leading to paralysis). My doctor was terrified, but urged me to do the puncture to at least stay alive. My vision was deteriorating by the minute. I called Jetsunma’s attendant.

As I explained the whole thing, I could hear Jetsunma in the background asking for all the details. “What’s the name of the blood thinner? What do they want to do? When?” After a few minutes of exchanging information through her attendant, Jetsunma got on the phone and said, “Ani, you’re in some big trouble here. I want you to follow my instructions exactly. Do everything I say and you’ll be alright.” She continued, “You must accumulate 100 7-Line Prayers right away. Make sure you do 100. Tell your doctors to give you a high dose of vitamin K, in whatever form is most easily assimilated. That’s the important thing, that it be easily assimilated. After you have the vitamin K, wait 12 hours. If you still need the spinal tap at that point, it will be safe to do it. No sooner than 12 hours.”

I couldn’t believe my good fortune, to have my own precious Lama give me personal instructions to save my life. My primary care doctor walked in and asked what I had decided to do. I told her what I wanted—the vitamin K, 12 hours. The interesting thing is, vitamin K has no known effect on that blood thinner. The doctor and I both knew that, both knew it didn’t make sense. But I didn’t care. Jetsunma knows things way beyond what science does.

Ani Megan arrived and helped me count off 100 7-Line Prayers in between vomiting. The ER doctor refused to give me the vitamin K because it didn’t make sense to him. After 6 more hours of going downhill, they saw I wasn’t going to change my mind and they didn’t want a corpse on their hands. They assigned me to a doctor who gave me the vitamin K. I was admitted and waited out the next 12 agonizing hours. Ani Megan stayed with me all night, enduring endless projectile vomiting and a bad drug reaction to boot.

When the guy came to take me for the spinal puncture a very odd calm swept over me. I stopped vomiting for the first time in 2 days. As they inserted the needle into my spine, I heard a loud “Psssst!” like letting the air out of a tire. The doctor said that was not typical. My cerebrospinal pressure was the highest they had ever seen. They couldn’t believe I was still alive. Incredibly, I felt almost no pain during the procedure and was completely calm.

I later learned Jetsunma had rearranged her practice that day around the spinal tap, so she could be with me. I felt Jetsunma’s presence in the room. Ani Megan said she did, too.

Within 6 weeks, my vision returned to its present state—a little bizarre, but good vision. I suffered no paralysis. I’ll never know how that vitamin K worked, or how Jetsunma came up with it. What I do know is that she has the Wisdom Mind, and I had the great fortune to receive her amazing stream of blessings.

Ani Sangye Drolma

I volunteered in the Garuda Aviary for awhile when it was located in Arizona. In 2004, we took in an Amazon parrot named Skipper. Everyone loved him. He and I became quite close—I think I probably resembled his former owner—and he stayed with me whenever I was working. Within a couple months he developed a breathing problem. When the avian vet said Skipper couldn’t continue to live with so many dander-producing birds, Jetsunma allowed me to adopt him.

I had him for several months and as he reached maturity and began to test his dominance, it became clear that I did not have the “alpha bird” qualities to be the leader. He began biting and becoming more unruly. He had been very well-socialized, and I knew that my weakness would ruin him.

Thankfully a woman named Bernadette—who had volunteered at Garuda Aviary for some time and had adopted several of the birds who also couldn’t stay in the aviary—was happy to adopt Skipper.

During the last two weeks with Skipper, I began to have flashes of a yellow bird in my mind. As if that didn’t seem crazy enough, I sensed that he needed me. At some point I realized it was a cockatiel. Each day it got a little stronger and I had a feeling of urgency about finding the bird. I started looking at cockatiel rescue websites and checking out local pet stores.

I was to bring Skipper to Bernadette’s home in the early evening. That whole day, the sense of urgency grew so strong that I finally went into my prayer room and prayed deeply to Jetsunma, “I don’t know where this bird is and don’t know what else to do. Please plop him in my lap.”

That evening I drove out to Bernadette’s home with Skipper in a travel cage. It was a difficult trip because I loved him so much. It was like giving up a child. We got Skipper set up and Bernadette gave me a tour of her many rescued birds, sharing their life stories. They were mostly large birds.

When she finished the tour I said, “I have a general question about cockatiels.” Before I even asked my question, Bernadette interrupted, “I’m going to give you Trickster. He’s a cockatiel who needs a home, and you’re the perfect person to take him.”

I was speechless. I hadn’t said anything about looking for a cockatiel, the yellow bird, nothing. And during her tour, she hadn’t even mentioned that she had any cockatiels.

She led me out to the backyard in the pitch dark, and we walked down a dirt path to an outdoor aviary. She shined the flashlight on a small flock of cockatiels all bunched up on a long perch. She quickly grabbed one, stuffed him under her shirt and led me back in the house, saying “This is your bird.” For a moment I thought I should be the one choosing my bird, but then I remembered the prayer I had made to Jetsunma and how weird this whole thing was.

When we got inside, Bernadette pulled Trickster out of her shirt and put him in Skipper’s travel cage. There he was—a bright yellow cockatiel! Bernadette said he was a rescue who’d come with the other 11 cockatiels. But unlike them, he was a “people bird” and wasn’t thriving without a lot of human interaction.

I renamed him Konchog Birdy. He is pure joy. Many times when I’ve felt depressed he’ll say, “What’re you doing?” and then “I love you!” It always snaps me out of it.

Ani Sangye Drolma

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 story is from Ani Sangye Drolma.

On June 14, 2006,  I was living in Flagstaff, Arizona when Jetsunma’s prayers literally saved the city. 

At the time, I was almost completely disabled by a mystery illness— severe pain for 8 months,  unable to walk more than 5 feet without gasping for breath,  dangerously anemic.  I was laying down in the afternoon when I noticed that the sunlight on the floor looked orange.  It was too early for sunset.  After a couple minutes, I decided to look outside.  It was excruciating to move. 

To my horror, I saw a huge pillar of flames rising several hundred feet about ½ mile from my house.  I made my way outside and met up with a neighbor.  The winds were very high, blowing straight towards us.  Flagstaff was in the middle of a 10-year drought. The forest was like a tinderbox.  We decided to begin evacuating our homes without waiting for the fire officials to come.  I didn’t know how I was going to do it.  I could barely walk the 30 feet back to my door. I began reciting 7-Line Prayer under my breath and taking Refuge over and over. 

To go in my house meant climbing two steps. This was sheer agony.  I begged Guru Rinpoche and Jetsunma to protect me and my animals,  and to hold back the flames so that our entire neighborhood could get out safely.  I was breathing as if through a drinking straw. I got my bird and two dogs safely into the car and got it running with the air vents closed.  The neighborhood was filling with smoke.  I packed my robes and as much Dharma as I could.  At times I crawled on my hands and knees to move around the house.  Though I wanted to just give up and lay down, I prayed for the strength to get out alive, so my babies wouldn’t be left alone with no one to drive them out of there.

By the time I got everything packed in my car,  my next door neighbor was just arriving home.  She was hysterical.  I told her to get her cat and bird first.  She was frozen.  She said she’d leave the windows open so her cat could escape.  I knew this would mean certain death for her bird,  as the smoke was already filling our homes.  I pleaded with Jetsunma to be with me as I climbed the small fence between our homes and helped her catch her cat.  The bird cage wouldn’t fit in her car and she kept wanting to just leave the bird.  I worried about my animals, still sitting in the car.  How could I save my own animals and leave hers?  We finally found a container for the bird and got him in her car. 

I looked around.  Our quiet little neighborhood in the woods now looked like a war zone. I could barely see across the street due to smoke. Fire engines and police cars filled the streets.  Air tankers were flying in and out, dropping red fire retardant all over the houses and trees. Firefighters were going door to door with mandatory evacuation orders.  There was fear in their eyes.  They said the fire was across a two-lane highway, and if it jumped the highway the fire could not be contained. 

I decided to head to my office downtown and figure out where to go from there.  I was sure I would be homeless.  As I drove I listened to the local news.  It was hopeless.  The fire was about to jump the highway.  The combination of high winds and unlimited fuel would certainly wipe out the subdivision.  Their greater concern now was stopping the fire before it swept over Mars Hill and into downtown.  They evacuated more neighborhoods. They predicted the fire would form a horseshoe and encircle the city.  As soon as I reached a phone I called Jetsunma’s attendant and asked Jetsunma to please pray for Flagstaff.  She gave the message to Jetsunma immediately. 

Less than 10 minutes later,  the news reported there had been a major change in the fire.  For no apparent reason,  with high winds at its back and with ample fuel, the fire had jumped the highway and just stopped advancing.  The fire chief stuttered as he gave the update, saying he’d never seen anything like it.  Though it took a few days to completely extinguish the fire, we were allowed back home late the following day. 

 A few days after the fire, I drove out to see where it had happened.  I saw the path of the fire, burned right across the highway and a few yards onto the dry grass. And there,  abruptly, was where it had stopped.  I couldn’t contain my tears of gratitude to Jetsunma for having witnessed such a miracle. 

 And as if all that weren’t enough, I experienced another miracle as a result :  The evacuation so weakened me that my doctors quickly ordered tests they weren’t considering.  This led to a faster diagnosis of the rare disease that was rapidly killing me.  Two weeks after the fire, I began life-saving treatment. 

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.

I had been searching for some time. Ever since my father-in-law died very young, and my Grandmother, who had taught me to pray, passed away, I had been searching,  I wanted to know where they went.  It didn’t seem to me that this life was the end.  I had been taught that when you’re dead, you’re dead.  But that didn’t bring any comfort at the loss of dearly loved ones.

I had done some volunteer work with Native Americans, and a Native American woman I worked with suggested that I learn to meditate.  She gave me the name and number of a woman who was a student of Jetsunma’s.  I learned that Jetsunma was teaching in Arlington, Virginia where I lived.   I went with my friend Tracey from work to hear Jetsunma speak, and we were both very moved.  I felt a connection to Jetsunma and knew when she invited the audience to her Center in Kensington, Maryland that Tracey and I would go there.

When I entered Jetsunma’s rec. room that evening in Kensington, I felt the most incredible love that I had ever felt in my life.  Needless-to-say I kept going back.  That was 25 years ago.

The blessing of having Jetsunma with her incredible loving kindness and compassion hook me onto the Path has changed my life.  I know that when Jetsunma speaks to us, and we each hear and receive what we need at that time.  There is something that happens, and I can feel something shift inside.  Something changes, and it has been that way ever since I had the blessing of hearing Jetsunma at that very first teaching in Arlington.

I didn’t grow up with a sense of cause and effect, other than to know if I’d been bad I’d be punished.  Through the grace of my Precious Lama’s Teachings, including some very direct instructions and teachings, I have had the blessing of being totally opened up to see what was going on and what I needed to work hard to change.  I know that Jetsunma can see what is happening to each of us, and has the great compassion to tell us what it is we need to change.

 I can’t imagine not being here with my Root Guru’s Sangha, all of us working together in Jetsunma’s Mandala. I am grateful in my heart beyond words to be here with my Precious Root Guru Jetsunma and this Precious Sangha.  This Precious Teacher and this incredible Path have given and continue to give me the foundation of my life, so that I can be of benefit to beings.

Love,

Amita Rene

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.

My mother said that when I was very young, I was compassionate. It seems to me now that perhaps this was, in part, the saving grace that led me to Jetsunma, despite the fact that my childhood was less than ideal (as it is for many people). At around four years old, I was (so a photograph shows), happy, cheerful and confident. The next photo, around five, shows bewilderment. By six or seven, this had evolved into sullenness. And so it went, as I evolved from painfully shy and unhappy to resentful, bitter and angry. I liked no one, and especially not myself.

I first encountered the Dharma in 1963 at the age of 16. I remember the incident, so fleeting, as though it were yesterday. I was on a long weekend home stay with a friend from a Catholic boarding school  I soon discovered that her father was totally disrespected in his own home, apparently for being meek and mild and, horror of horrors, a Buddhist (whatever that was!). He was almost totally ostracised from family life and sat in a corner, reading a small book. I can see him now, calmly and peacefully abiding whilst all around him chaos and criticism reigned. It seems there was still a small vestige of compassion in me. It was this (and embarrassment at the father’s situation) that moved me to approach him at an opportune time and ask what he was reading. He smiled, pleased with my interruption and curiosity, and wordlessly passed the book to me. I do not remember what I read, but I do remember recognising the unmistakeable truth of what I read on the very first page. Mr. F. noted with a knowing smile my reaction and offered to lend me the book. Unfortunately my karma at that time was not such that I could accept what I now realise was the Dharma, and I backed off.  I am now 62 and  although I remember very little else about that weekend, this incident has stayed with me ever since.

Sometime around 1995 I became aware of and intrigued by the Dalai Lama, and started to acquire and read books on Buddhism by His Holiness and other teachers. By 1999 I considered myself to be a Buddhist in heart and mind. Around 2001 I came across The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and, as for so many others, this became my “bible”.  I decided to try and develop devotion to Guru Rinpoche, figuring that I had nothing to lose and possibly a lot to gain. Every day I prayed Guru Rinpoche, Precious One. You are the embodiment of the compassion and blessing of all the Buddhas …  I decided I should become a student of Sogyal Rinpoche. I made contact with a group in Brisbane but my efforts to get to meetings met with obstacles. I let things be and continued with my own evolving practice. My habitual tendencies were not diminishing. If anything, they were growing worse. I was the man in “Groundhog Day”!

So I prayed to Guru Rinpoche to help me find a teacher, but really only in a lukewarm way because I have never liked being part of a group. Nevertheless, before long I attended a teaching by someone I greatly admire, Ani Tenzin Palmo. It was March or April 2008 and there I met and connected with Ani Tenzin Wangmo. I shall always be grateful that Ani La led me to Jetsunma. I jumped in pretty quickly after that, realising that Jetsunma was the remarkable Tulku I had read about some years earlier in Reborn in the West, but never dreaming that one day I would become her student.

Although I quickly recognised that Jetsunma is a remarkably gifted teacher of Dharma, devotion had to be manufactured, just as I had previously developed fledgling devotion to Guru Rinpoche on a nothing-to-lose basis. This time, though, the basis was do or die. I knew that I had come to an important crossroad in my life and now that I think about it, this is the only time I have ever actually recognised a crossroad at the time of arriving at it.

True devotion eluded me. I knew I had to develop devotion in order to proceed swiftly on the path and I longed to develop it. I wondered why it was not happening for me. When I listened to Jetsunma’s teachings, which I regularly did, I was enthralled and motivated whilst becoming more and more aware and truly regretful of my negative habits and unskilful actions. I recognised with utter clarity that I was walking on a tightrope above a deep and terrifying abyss. But still I persisted in the grip of the five poisons and lack of mindfulness; over and over my negative thoughts and actions played themselves out although slowly, slowly, there was minuscule movement of the scales. My thoughts were becoming less neurotic and judgemental, my heart more kind and open.

I continued to reflect on why I had not yet developed true devotion to Jetsunma and then, very recently, I read Michelle Grissom’s confession, and it seemed that virtually in an instant a veil was lifted from my mind and heart. I recognised Michelle’s poisons as my own (at least in part) and I also realised that the comments I had read on the Internet about the Buddha from Brooklyn had poisoned my mind even though I told myself at the time that I did not believe the negative things I was reading. I knew Jetsunma was the real deal. I knew she had deliberately taken rebirth to help all sentient beings. I knew my Lama was good and true and virtuous. And yet, a seed of doubt had been sewn that I had refused to acknowledge and deal with. And then Michelle’s confession miraculously set me free. Now, finally, I am on the cusp of true devotion.

How do I know?

I know because when I think of Jetsunma, love born of gratitude swells in my heart the way it does when I think of my dear mother who died in 2005, one day short of her 90^th birthday. I have felt this kind of love for no one else. This realisation is very recent, very precious. I once read that the last thought a dying person has is of their mother. That may be so. However, I know that my mother of this life cannot ferry me to Dewachen; only Jetsunma, my root guru and my teacher, can do this. Therefore when the Lord of Death gives me my final illness, I hope and pray (and in fact truly expect) that it is Jetsunma, inseparable as she is from Guru Rinpoche, Kuntuzangpo and Buddha Amitabha, to whom I will turn in my hour of need.

Sherida

Brisbane, Australia

23/9/09

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.

We rarely get to see how Jetsunma makes karmic connections for us. We’re told that she orchestrates karma, but we don’t see the scale and scope and complexity of her efforts. But sometimes we get a glimpse.

I returned to KPC after having left Jetsunma for thirteen years. I stepped into the community room. Up around the border near the ceiling circling the room are golden lotuses. I squinted at them, because they looked familiar.

“Those are my lotuses,” I said, blinking. “I drew that.”

My mother explained that Jetsunma had told her to put 109 golden lotuses around the room. The design she had on hand was the logo I did for her business, Lotus Unlimited.

Now this was a design Jetsunma was quite familiar with, since it was on all mom’s business cards, her letterhead — not to mention on both sides of mom’s car for years.

Staggered, I asked mom when Jetsunma had her do this. “Was it in 2001?” I asked, pretty sure that it had to be.

She had to look it up, but yes, 2001. Why?

In spring 2001 I went into a five-day retreat at Kunzang Dechen Osel Ling, a three year retreat center in Salt Springs, B.C. After leaving KPC in ‘96, I’d barely been able to practice. I’d cry when I went to teachings and temples. Yet when I set foot at Dechen Ling, the caretaker met me at the gate, surprised that I’d had no obstacles on the way there. “You must have a lot of merit,” he said. 

During that retreat, things changed. For the first time I began to understand that my relationship with Jetsunma was dependent on my view, not her. I knew I could come back.

I met Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche right afterward, and Kilung Rinpoche, and received from Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso many of the teachings I rely on now to deal with the thick delusions of my mind. After Khenpo Tsultrim Gyatso’s teachings, I had a dream of rainbows in all directions, so many, I didn’t know which way to go. Those rainbows were all the teachers that I met on my way back to Jetsunma.

And she did this for a former student who’d been nothing but destructive.

My mom was puzzled about 109 lotuses. Why not the traditional 108? Jetsunma had been very specific about the number.

Oh, I never mentioned this but clearly Jetsunma knew. Doing prostrations, I would do a mala’s worth … and then make myself do one more. Since I’d done one more, well, I’d make it even five. Five was close to ten, so I’d do ten. That wasn’t far from twenty-five, so, okay, twenty-five. Twenty-five was only halfway to fifty. Little by little, I’d keep going, sometimes more than doubling what I’d planned.

There’s a teaching on that wall. Keep going, she says. Keep going.

Now my mother and I are finishing the community room, adding even more lotuses. Maybe there will be 125 … 130 … or 150 … or….

Michelle Grissom