I wish I hope

From Mandala Messenger

Although we seem to be living in a "hurry up" time, Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo pointed out in last Sunday's teaching that we tend to spend a lot of our energy waiting. "I wish I wish I wish I wish. I hope I hope I hope I hope," is what she called that tendency.

Not the "waiting for the plumber/waiting for the phone repair guy" kind of waiting, rather, the kind of waiting that involves us in passive expectation, miring us ever deeper and deeper in desire, holding us suspended in ignorance--and in anger-- when our expectations aren't met. Waiting for more love to happen to us, waiting for more money to come our way. Jetsunma said, "If we're waiting for more love, waiting for more money, what we learn is waiting."

She urged us, "Try to remember above all that as Buddhists we learn about karma: cause and result." The lack we experience today arises from the causes we previously set in motion, and waiting simply creates the causes for more waiting. We must, through practice and meritorious activity, create the causes in order to experience the future result we would like to experience. That is how to handle life: create the causes!

True love is Bodhichitta, the Great Compassion. Jetsunma said, "If we wait for love to come from outside, we will never experience the Bodhichitta. We will experience waiting." Yet, she said, "You can change this moment and every future one," for "the point of power, cause and result, is in this moment."

In this moment, we have the opportunity to generate the meditational deity, the focus of any Vajrayana practice. "If we take the opportunity we are given to generate the deity, we've really accomplished something: the qualities the deity represents." Using Guru Rinpoche as an example, she cited the qualities: "Kindness, dignity, regard. The certainty that he would always appear for the sake of sentient beings."

The demands of modern life make us think we can't really commit to practicing deeply. She referred to the example of the Indian princess Mandarava, already, at 16, ensconced in a cave, ready to dedicate her life to spiritual practice. She laughed and said in today's world, the truant officer would be after her! But, she pointed out. what really makes that kind of commitment hard for us to accept is our "thirty-minute sit-com attitude." We want everything to be resolved in one "episode."

Jetsunma said her greatest joy is the chance "to practice quietly in my own time and place. It is my opportunity to be with the one I love: the Samboghakaya Lama," that is, the meditational deity, generated in a focused, committed way. Jetsunma pointed out, "If we practice in a certain way, we attain the result of practice. Give rise to the cause; the result is interdependent."

That doesn't have to mean formal sit-down practice. We can practice on our feet, she said, when we're out and about: "Offer whatever you see as a great mandala to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and the Samboghakaya Lama." We can, she told us, "Enjoy--and gather merit."

Why should we do this? Because, she said, "The ability to build a storehouse of merit is what makes this a precious human rebirth. Only in this form do you have the freedom and opportunity to change this moment, and every future one!"

In one way, she said, "It's simple. It's in the palm of your hand." In another way, it's hard. You can't just say, "I wish I wish I wish I wish I hope I hope I hope." The point of power is this moment: Generate the deity. Give rise to the Bodhichitta. Gather merit. Continue to practice, moment by moment, until you achieve recognition of the primordial wisdom state. Do this, she said, "So that you too can return for the sake of beings."