Into the Heart of Life
Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo
Snow Lion Publications,
Ithaca, NY, 2011
ISBN: 1559393742
Reading Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo’s book, Into the Heart of Life brought me home to my early years of introduction to the Buddhist teachings, especially the mind of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, my first teacher.
Feeling tender hearted by her writing I had a memory, surely one of the great moments in my life. One night in the Rocky Mountains, a group of us—actually hundreds of us attending a three month outdoor encampment known as the Vajradhatu seminary were roused from our sleep late into the night to the sound of a conch as we were summoned to an impromptu talk by the late Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche during the hinayana portion of his seminary.
What transpired is difficult to communicate even after all these years. In 1986, Trungpa Rinpoche’s health was declining. During this final seminary his talks were minimal and often surrounded by an ocean of silent but pregnant pauses. Little did we know that these would be his final public teachings and that within weeks he would suffer cardiac arrest, eventually leading to his death some months later. So it is profoundly poignant what he had to say to us on that high mountain and starry night among so many jewels. These are words that have stayed with me for decades. They were spoken with huge gaps of space between each word conveying far more than any literal meaning. He said,
“The hinayana teaching should not be regarded as something that you can just carry out and then get rid of, or discard. The hinayana teaching is the life force that carries out our own practice and discipline, which goes on continuously. From that point of view the hinayana should be regarded as life’s strength. OK. That’s that. NEVER FORGET THE HINAYANA!”
Khamtrul Rinpoche says in his introduction to Into the Heart of Life, that Jetsunma’s teachings are both for beginners and for advanced practitioners wishing to achieve the happiness of liberation. Her conveyance of the sutric paths is not about renunciation from the world but as a vehicle for bringing us closer to the “Heart of Life.” Thus she captures the spirit of Chogyam Trungpa and all great Masters’ sense of the root of the teaching as a kind of life force we can always draw sustenance from.
Through out the dzogchen path there is a tripartite logic known as view, meditation and behavior. As we all know, it is behavior that remains our greatest challenge where our true development is exposed day after day with all its subtle and gross delusions, petty concerns and endless litany of blames and complaints about others—what the Buddha referred to as our immense blindness for foolishly childish behavior. Jetsunma addresses these common foibles with a sweet yet pungent and thoroughly no nonsense reminder of what’s important. She does this through her deep personal experience not from doctrinal training.
For those unacquainted with her path, Jetsunma Tenzin Palmo is the British nun who in 1964 was among the earliest practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism by a Westerner. She spent twelve years meditating in a cave in solitude, which became the subject of Cave in the Snow, a compelling account of her experience by Vicki Mackenzie.
Returning from Tenerife, I read Into the Heart of Life while traveling. There are many lofty teachings and views that we have been introduced to over the years. Sometimes going home to our humble origins, our beginnings, is a useful tact when all else fails or we forget our own Master’s prompt for “total relaxation.” Here is where we share with humanity the eternal hope for happiness and desire for liberation from suffering, especially those afflictive emotions that burn us in a kind of living hell realm of our own prison. Although we have been given the key to escape by being present to the moment, we sometimes need the recollection like a Dorothy, in the classic child’s tale, The Wizard of Oz, that we simply have to click our shoes to get home to Kansas. Jetsunma’s book is a great reminder about getting out of the tornado and back home safely when we’ve lost the way or gotten distracted in OZ.
Among the many topics she tackles effectively that might be of interest for long time practitioners are issues of “Praise and Blame” in connection with the Eight Worldly concerns; the chapter on the Five Precepts as the ground for ethical behavior—especially the fourth precept of speech, since most of us at this point don’t go around killing and stealing; her chapter on Impermanence is deeply moving. She covers everything in loving detail including many intelligent Q & A following her teachings.
She also has a strong feminist understanding of the limitations of the historical patriarchy of Tibetan Buddhism. Her view is less about personal rancor having to scramble for transmissions in her lineage but more about a fervent mission to transform these out dated social mores so that nuns, her nuns, can become educated and fully-trained like their male counterparts rather than glorified servants. It has become her mission to restore the lineage of the great yogic practices of the Drugpa Kagyu, mostly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. Proceeds from this book go towards that goal to support her nunnery, Dongyu Gatsel Ling. She makes a strong case for how lucky we Westerners are for our education.
Into the Heart of Life is not a book for everyone, especially people who think they are already accomplished practitioners and have “arrived,” who might find it boring or people who thrive in an atmosphere of believing in their projections as real even decades of practice later. But for people who observe themselves closely and have an honest desire to improve their capacity by eliminating their defects and finding true joy, there are lots of gems here, good pointers as a reminder that time is passing and we would do well to use it wisely when it comes to our spiritual life. In short, this is a modest book for modest practitioners who walk the talk and never forget the sutric path as the perfect foundation.
Jacqueline Gens
Tsegyalgar East
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