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Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo
1988 Enthronement With Dakini Crown
Personal life
Born	Alyce Louise Zeoli October 12, 1949 Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	United States
Other names	Catharine Burroughs
Occupation	Lama
Religious life
Religion	Tibetan Buddhism
School	Vajrayana Nyingma
Lineage	Palyul
Senior posting
Teacher	HH Drubwang Pedma Norbu Rinpoche
Based in	Poolesville, Maryland
Reincarnation	Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo
Website	http://tara.org

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Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo (born October 12, 1949; born Alyce Louise Zeoli) is an enthroned tulku within the Palyul lineage of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. In the late 1980s, she gained international attention as the first Western woman to be named a reincarnated lama. She continues to serve as Spiritual Director for Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Choling, a Buddhist center in Poolesville, Maryland, which includes one of the largest communities of Western monks and nuns in North America. She went on to found a center in Sedona, Arizona, U.S.A. Jetsunma has been described by her own teachers, as well as many other Tibetan Buddhist lamas who have visited her temple, as a dakini or female wisdom being.

Biography

Early years

Zeoli was born in Canarsie, Brooklyn on October 12, 1949, to an Austrian/Dutch Jewish mother and Italian father. She and her half-brothers and sisters were raised by her stepfather and mother, and alternately attended the Dutch Reform Church and the Catholic church. The family moved to Hialeah, Florida when she was 14. Her stepfather was an alcoholic and physically abusive towards the children, and Zeoli tried unsuccessfully to run away at age 17. After high school, she married Jim Perry and gave birth to her first son, Ben. The marriage ended in divorce and she moved to a farm outside Asheville, North Carolina with Pat Mulloy. They married and she had another son, Christopher. Zeoli adopted her daughter, Atira, years later in 1988.

Based on a series of instructive dreams since she was 19, Zeoli began a meditation practice, later identified as chod by HH Penor Rinpoche, culminating in a spiritual experience at age 30. She studied with a New Age teacher named Jim Gore and led classes at the Black Mountain Light Center in North Carolina. In 1980, she met Michael Burroughs, a graduate student in religions at the University of Virginia and separated from Malloy in 1981.

Zeoli moved with Burroughs and her son Christopher to Kensington, Maryland. She married Burroughs in 1983 and changed her name to Catharine. Together they formed the Center For Discovery and New Life beginning with former members from the Black Mountain Light Center. She gave channeled teachings, specifically a three-year cycle of teachings called the Santu Series Her group quickly expanded, with the students practicing the meditation techniques Zeoli herself practiced from her dreams, a Light Expansion Prayer, and taking vows of compassion that Zeoli composed. The group began a 24-hour prayer vigil in the basement of their Kensington home in April, 1985 inspired by her experiences when she searched for a place to pray and found locked doors.

Meeting her root guru

In 1984, Zeoli's growing group of students met a Tibetan man named Kunzang, Penor Rinpoche's main lay attendant, who was selling rugs to support Namdroling Monastery. The students sponsored seventy Namdroling monks. A few months later, Penor Rinpoche stayed with the Burroughs on his first visit to the US. During that week, he interviewed most of Jetsunma's students, as well as Jetsunma herself, about what was being taught and what they were practicing. The students asked him what their missions were to help the world. He concluded that Zeoli had been teaching Mahayana Buddhism without any formal instruction and attributed it to a very high level of practice accomplished in previous lifetimes. Penor Rinpoche then gave Jetsunma's students the traditional refuge and bodhisattva vows, which constitute formal entry into the Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhist paths, respectively. Rinpoche visited the meditation and prayer center operated by the Burroughs, which at the time was nonsectarian rather than Buddhist.

Thereafter Zeoli continued the channeled teachings, but they took on a more Buddhist flavor as the center hosted Khenpo Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal and she and her students began traditional Buddhist preliminary practice, ngöndro. Beset by health problems, she made a trip in 1986 to Ashland, Oregon to visit Gyatrul Rinpoche, one of Penor Rinpoche's other hosts on his American tour the previous year. She formed a strong and immediate connection with Gyatrul Rinpoche, himself recognized as an incarnation of Palyul Monastery's founder, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab (1636-1699). Gyatrul Rinpoche echoed the sentiment that the practices and teachings that naturally arose in Zeoli's mind were due to many past lifetimes as a lama, and encouraged her to visit Penor Rinpoche in India to investigate the matter further.

Transmissions

At the age of 37, Jetsunma began the sequence of Buddhist practices that most tulkus begin very young. She was given the Nam Cho Ngöndro by Gyaltrul Rinpoche in 1986, accumulating prostrations alongside her students. A year later, she was given the Three Roots from Penor Rinpoche at Namdroling monastery in India.

She received the Rinchen Terzod, Nam Cho Tsa Lung, Nyingthik Yabshi, Ratna Lingpa, Dudjom Tersar, Yeshe Lama, and Nam Cho cycle of empowerments, which were hosted at Kunzang Palyul Choling from 1988 through 1996. She received the Kama transmission at Tashi Choling in Ashland, Oregon, in 1988, and the Nam Cho a second time from Karma Kuchen in McDonough, New York, in 2018.

Characterizations

In 2000, Cal State's Maria Jaoudi characterized Jetsunma based on Sherril's accounts, as having secular garish tastes with temperamental indulgences like megalomania, lying, verbal abuse and violence as in depicting Jetsuma's oddies. She's recounts bug zapper horrors and suggests health skepticism.

Buddhist recognitions

The Third Drubwang Padma Norbu ("Penor") Rinpoche, 11th Throneholder of Palyul Monastery, former Supreme Head of the Nyingma tradition, officially recognized Ahkon Lhamo in 1987 as the tulku of Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo during her visit to his Namdroling Monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India. As is customary, Penor Rinpoche sought confirmation of his recognition before announcing it. He received it from both Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910–91), the then Supreme Head of the Nyingma tradition who was on a teaching visit to Namdroling at the time, and the most senior Palyul tulku, the Second Dzongnang Jampal Lodro Rinpoche (d. 8/87).

The Buddha From Brooklyn asserts that the students determine what title they will use for their own teacher and that Zeoli's ex-husband, Michael Burroughs, selected the title 'Jetsunma' for her. This is a title rarely given to even the most revered Tibetan Buddhist women teachers.

Predecessor

The first Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo, a meditator recognized as a primordial wisdom dakini was one of the main disciples of Namchö Mingyur Dorje (1645–67) and sister of Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, Migyur Dorje's Dharma heir and the First Throneholder of Palyul Monastery (founded 1665). She is remembered both as being instrumental in the founding of Palyul (now one of the Nyingma's six main or "mother" monasteries) and for leaving an extraordinary relic. During the cremation of her body, her kapala (top half of the skull) is said to have flown three kilometers and come to rest at the foot of the teaching throne of her brother. Found to be miraculously embossed with the sacred syllable AH, the kapala became one of the most treasured relics at Palyul monastery.

Penor Rinpoche has recounted how, as a young tulku in Tibet (he was recognized and brought to Palyul Monastery in 1936, at the age of four), inspired by seeing the skull relic, he made prayers to find Ahkon Lhamo's incarnation. Though most of the kapala relic was pulverized into dust during the Cultural Revolution, one Tibetan man managed to save the silver dollar-size piece on which the syllable "AH" appears. Penor Rinpoche acquired it from him on a return trip to Tibet in 1987. He had it preserved in a crystal lotus and presented it to Jetsunma just prior to the occasion of her enthronement ceremony at Kunzang Palyul Choling (KPC) in 1988. The relic remains at KPC and is displayed on auspicious days.

Mandarava emanation

In 1994, Terton Orgyen Kusum Lingpa indicated in a long life prayer he composed that Jetsunma was an emanation of Lhacham Mandarava, the Indian princess of Zahor and one of the consorts of Padmasambhava, a tantric master who helped establish the Buddha's teaching in Tibet. In 1996, she traveled to India and visited many of the places where Mandarava was known to have practiced. Inspired by these events, several of Jetsunma's students sought out and found a copy of Mandarava's middle-length spiritual biography, revealed as a terma in the 17th century by Samten Lingpa, at the U.S. Library of Congress. They then sponsored the first English translation of the text, published as The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava in 1998.

Discography

• Invocation, 1992, ISBN 99913-35-45-5
• Revolution of Compassion, 2007, ISBN 99915-54-28-9
• Delog, 2007, ISBN 99915-54-30-0
• Ellinwood Ranch Blues, 2008, ASIN B0018BA2TO

See also

• Esoteric transmission
• Ngakma
• Rinpoche
• Tantra techniques (Vajrayana)
• Vajrayogini
• Yidam

Footnotes

1. ^ Stevens, William K. (1988-10-26). "U.S. Woman Is Named Reborn Buddhist Saint". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-26.
2. Kunzang Palyul Chöling
3. ^ Zangpo, Ven. Tsering Lama Jampal. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, Snow Lion Publications, pg 186
4. Mackenzie, pg 59
5. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 40
6. Mackenzie, Reborn in the West, p. 61
7. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 38-44
8. Mackenzie, Reborn in the West, p. 61-5
9. ^ Blythe, pg 111
10. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 44
11. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 49
12. ^ Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 54
13. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 91
14. Pico Iyer, "The Price of Faith," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2000, pg 81
15. Encyclopedia of Women and religion in North America, Indiana University Press
16. ^ Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 55
17. Cite error: The named reference Unbroken was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
18. ^ Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 57
19. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 57-8
20. Mackenzie, Reborn in the West, p. 72
21. What is Enlightenment magazine, Fall-Winter 1999
22. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 58
23. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 107
24. Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche Archived 2008-12-29 at the Wayback Machine
25. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 107-8
26. "Rinchen Terzod Empowerments and More from Penor Rinpoche". Snow Lion. 1988.
27. "Schedule of Wangs". Palyul Retreat Center. 2018.
28. Jaoudi, Maria (August 12, 2000). "Confused Ideals Make for Spiritual Horror Story". LA Times. SPECIAL TO THE TIMES. Retrieved 10 October 2020.
29. Sherrill. The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 7
30. "American-born Woman Tulku Enthroned," Vajradhatu Sun, October/November 1988
31. "Statement by H.H. Penor Rinpoche Regarding the Recognition of Steven Seagal as a Reincarnation of the Treasure Revealer Chungdrag Dorje of Palyul Monastery"
32. Sherrill, Martha (2000). The Buddha From Brooklyn. University of Virginia: Random House. pp. 149–51. ISBN 9780679452751.
33. Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Indiana University Press
34. Zangpo. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, pg 62
35. Zangpo. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, pg 9
36. Zangpo. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, pg 121
37. Sherrill. The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 135
38. Mackenzie, Vicki. "Reborn in the West" Marlowe & Company 1996 1st ed, pg 76
39. Sherrill, Martha. "The Buddha from Poolesville," Washington Post, Apr 16, 2000
40. Johnson, Allie. "Trouble in Shangri-La," Kansas City - News, Apr 22, 2004
41. Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 313
42. Chonam, Lama and Khandro, Sangye. "The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava, The Indian Consort of Padmasambhava" Wisdom Publications 1998, Translator's Preface, pg x

References

• Brace, Eric. "Limelight," Washington Post, Feb 23, 1992
• Blythe, Will. "Bad Karma," Mirabella Magazine, 1998.
• Cohen, Andrew. "What's the Relationship Between Emptiness and Beautiful Nails?", What is Enlightenment Magazine, Fall/Winter 1990
• Iyer, Pico. "The Price of Faith," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2000.
• MacKenzie, Vicki. Reborn in the West. Da Capo Press, 1996, ISBN 0-7225-3443-4
• Oldenburg, Dan. "The Unexpected Incarnation In Poolesville, Buddhists Exalt Catherine Burroughs," The Washington Post, Sep 26, 1988
• Sherrill, Martha. The Buddha from Brooklyn, Random House 2000, ISBN 0-679-45275-3
• Sherrill, Martha. "The Buddha from Poolesville," Washington Post, Apr 16, 2000
• Sherrill, Martha. "Tough Town, Sad Times. So Why Are These People Smiling?" The Washington Post, May 17, 1995
• Sherrill, Martha. "Where the Lamas Let Their Hair Down Peace, Love & Squirting Cameras At a Joyful Buddhist Barbecue," Washington Post, Jun 5, 1995
• Sherrill, Martha. "Women of the Year," Ms Magazine, January/February 1989 Vol. XVII Nos. 7 & 8.

Further reading

• Coleman, James William. The New Buddhism: The Western Transformation of an Ancient Tradition, Oxford University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-19-515241-7
• Jetsunma Ahkön Norbu Lhamo. The Practice of Generosity, publisher unknown, Ahkön Norbu Lhamo, 1991.
• Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo. Stabilizing the Mind. Palyul Press, 2005, ISBN 1-4116-6102-8
• Khandro, Sangye. The Lives and Liberation of Princess Mandarava: The Indian Consort of Padmasambhava, Wisdom Publications, 1998. ISBN 0-86171-144-0; ISBN 978-0-86171-144-4
• Morreale, Don. The Complete Guide to Buddhist America, Shambhala, 1998. ISBN 1-57062-270-1
• Miller, Timothy. America's Alternative Religions, State University of New York Press, 1995. ISBN 0-7914-2398-0
• Paine, Jeffrey. Re-Enchantment: Tibetan Buddhism Comes To The West, publisher unknown, 2004. ISBN 0-393-32626-8
• Prebish, Charles S. and Kenneth Kenichi Tanaka. The Faces of Buddhism in America, University of California Press, 1998. ISBN 0-520-21301-7
• Zangpo, Ven. Tsering Lama Jamapal, translated by Sangye Khandro. A Garden of Immortal Wish-Fulfilling Trees: the Palyul Tradition of Nyingmapa, Snow Lion Publications, 1988. ISBN 0-937938-64-5
• The Truth: About the Five Primary Religions and the Seven Rules of Any Good Religion. The Oracle Institute, 2005. ISBN 0-9773929-0-2
• Encyclopedia of Women And Religion in North America. Edited by Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, and Marie Cantlon, Indiana University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-253-34688-6

• 1949 births
• Living people
• American people of Austrian-Jewish descent
• American people of Dutch-Jewish descent
• American people of Italian descent
• American lamas
• Nyingma Tulkus
• Nyingma Lamas
• Tibetan Buddhists from the United States
• 20th-century Lamas
• 21st-century Lamas
• People from Canarsie, Brooklyn
• Vajrayana and women