Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo (born October 12, 1949; born Alyce Louise Zeoli) is a tulku within the Palyul lineage of the Nyingma tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. She gained international attention when she, a Western woman, was enthroned as a reincarnated lama. Since the mid-1980's she has served as spiritual director for Kunzang Odsal Palyul Changchub Choling, a Buddhist center in Poolesville, Maryland, which includes a large community of western monks and nuns. She also founded a center in Sedona, Arizona, U.S.A.,Kunzang Palyul Chöling and has small communities of students in California and Australia. Ahkon Lhamo has been described by her teachers, Tibetan lamas Penor Rinpoche, Gyatrul Rinpoche, as well as others such as Jigme Phuntsok, as a dakini or female wisdom being.Zangpo, Ven. Tsering Lama Jampal. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, Snow Lion Publications, pg 186
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.Mackenzie, pg 59 The family moved to Hialeah, Florida when she was 14.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 40 Her stepfather was an alcoholic and physically abusive towards the children, and Zeoli tried 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.Mackenzie, Reborn in the West, p. 61 They married and she had another son, Christopher.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 38-44 Zeoli adopted her daughter, Atira, later in 1988.
Early years Based on a series of instructive dreams that started at age 19, Zeoli began a meditation practice, later identified as chod by Penor Rinpoche, culminating in a spiritual experience at age 30.Mackenzie, Reborn in the West, p. 61-5 She studied with a New Age teacher named Jim Gore and led classes at the Black Mountain Light Center in North Carolina.Blythe, pg 111 Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 44 In 1980, she met Michael Burroughs, a graduate student in religions at the University of Virginia and separated from Malloy in 1981.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 49
Zeoli moved with Burroughs and her son Christopher to Kensington, Maryland. (Her son Ben remained with Malloy.) She married Burroughs in 1983 and changed her name to Catharine. Together they formed a non-sectarian organization 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 SeriesSherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 54Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 91Pico Iyer, "The Price of Faith," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2000, pg 81 Her group quickly expanded, with the students practicing the meditation techniques Zeoli herself practiced from her dreams, 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.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 55
Buddhism Meeting her root guru In 1984, Zeoli's 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, on his first visit to the US Penor Rinpoche visited her center and stayed with the Burroughs. During that week, he interviewed Ahkon Lhamo's students, as well as Ahkon Lhamo herself, about what was being taught and what they were practicing.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 57 The students asked him what their missions were to help the world. He announced that Zeoli had been teaching Mahayana Buddhism without any formal instruction and attributed it to practice accomplished in previous lifetimes.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 57-8Mackenzie, Reborn in the West, p. 72 Penor Rinpoche then gave Ahkon Lhamo's students the traditional refuge and bodhisattva vows, which constitute formal entry into Hinayana and Mahayana Buddhism, respectively.What is Enlightenment magazine, Fall-Winter 1999Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 58
Thereafter Zeoli continued the channeled teachings, but they took on a more Buddhist flavor. The center hosted Khenpo Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal, Gyaltrul Rinpoche, and Chagdud Tulku as 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 connectionSherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 107 with Gyatrul Rinpoche, the incarnation of Palyul Monastery's founder, Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab (1636-1699).Ven. Gyatrul Rinpoche Gyatrul Rinpoche echoed the sentiment that the practices and teachings that Zeoli was giving were Buddhist and due to past lifetimes of practice, and encouraged her to visit Penor Rinpoche in India to investigate the matter further.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 107-8
Transmissions At the age of 37, Ahkon Lhamo 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 from Penor Rinpoche, Nam Cho Tsa Lung from Gyaltrul Rinpoche, Nyingthik Yabshi and Ratna Lingpa from Yangthang Rinpoche, Jigmed Phuntsok's Gurkukma Vajrakilaya and other terma, the Yeshe Lama from Orgyen Kusum Lingpa, and the Nam Cho cycle of empowerments from Penor Rinpoche, which were hosted at Kunzang Palyul Choling from 1988 through 1996. She traveled to receive 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.
Buddhist temple In 1985, her center formed a corporation and purchased an antebellum-style mansion in Poolesville, Maryland where her temple was established, which Penor Rinpoche named Kunzang Palyul Choling. They also purchased numerous large crystals weighing hundreds of pounds and held a three-day retreat to instate the 24-hour prayer vigil at the new location.Nyingma.com. Kunzang Palyul Chöling , Feb 16, 2007
24-hour Prayer vigil The 24-hour prayer vigil is the core of her teachings and the temple's activity. Participants maintain two-hour prayer shifts and Iyer, pg 84 the vigil is dedicated to the end of suffering.Sherrill, Martha. "Tough Town, Sad Times. So Why Are These People Smiling?" The Washington Post, May 17, 1995 Ahkon Lhamo initiated the 24-hour Prayer Vigil for World Peace in her Kensington, Maryland home on April 18, 1985, beginning with practices she taught, and later continuing with traditional Buddhist practices in the Nyingma tradition.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 363-4 The vigil relocated later that year to the newly purchased World Prayer Center (now Kunzang Palyul Choling). In addition to the ongoing prayers for peace, members and individuals not associated with KPC request prayers be dedicated to loved ones, pets, the recently deceased, or those hit by natural disasters. Occasionally Ahkon Lhamo asks that the vigil be dedicated to specific situations. For example, the members dedicated eight months of prayer for Asia Claus, a three-year-old daughter of temple members who was suffering from her second bout of cancer. The effort concluded when doctors could find no trace of the cancer, sparking a round of media attention.Hansen, Nate. "All she wants for Christmas is life" Red Rock News, December 16, 2005Hansen, Nate. "'Pilar' of life, Asia Claus recovers from cancer" Red Rock News, June 2, 2006 The Maryland vigil continues unbroken to the present day.Hirsch, Arthur. "World unrest fuels Buddhist vigil" Baltimore Sun, June 21, 2004
Stupas She had a 36' stupa built in 1988 which was consecrated by Penor Rinpoche during the Rinchen Terzod. Then eight small stupas representing the eight activities of the Buddha.Mackenzie, pg 86 encircling an 18' stupa were built in 1991 and consecrated by Khenchen Tsewang Gyatso. Penor Rinpoche gave Ahkon Lhamo a relic from Tulku Migyur Dorje to be housed in the Migyur Dorje Stupa, which was built and consecrated in 1996.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 122-8
In 1996, in addition to the temple, prayer vigil, teachings and stupas, Ahkon Lhamo's vision for Kunzang Palyul Choling included a place for pilgrimage with a hospice, school for children, a monastery and an institute for higher education in the Buddha's teachings.Mackenzie, pg 87 The school, called Pema Choling, ran from 1992 to 1997.
Monastic community Like her predecessor, Ahkon Lhamo took lay vows, even as she built a monastic community for those who wished to take full ordination. In September 1988, toward the end of Penor Rinpoche’s conferral of the Rinchen Terdzod, 25 of Ahkon Lhamo's students underwent the traditional ordination ceremony to become monks and nuns, creating a large monastic community.Sherrill, The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 66, 142-45, 158-66 Though some have since left their ordination or died, others have joined, and by 2008 the number of KPC's ordained had grown to 40.Pico Iyer, "The Price of Faith," Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer 2000
Buddhist recognitions The Third Drubwang Padma Norbu ("Penor") Rinpoche, 11th Throneholder of Palyul Monastery, former Supreme Head of the Nyingma tradition,Sherrill. The Buddha From Brooklyn, pg 7 officially recognized Ahkon Lhamo in 1987 as the tulku of Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo during her visit to his Namdroling Monastery in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, India."American-born Woman Tulku Enthroned," Vajradhatu Sun, October/November 1988
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.Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Indiana University Press
Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo The first Genyenma Ahkon Lhamo, a meditator recognized as a wisdom dakini was one of the main disciples of Namchö Mingyur Dorje (1645–67) and sister of Rigdzin Kunzang Sherab, Migyur Dorje's Dharma heirZangpo. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, pg 62 and the First Throneholder of Palyul Monastery (founded 1665). She was credited as being instrumental to the founding of Palyul (now one of the Nyingma's six main or "mother" monasteriesZangpo. A Garland of Immortal Wish-fulfilling Trees: The Palyul Tradition of the Nyingmapa, pg 9) and for leaving a relic that is important to Palyul. 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 an important relic housed at Palyul monastery in Tibet.