Ani Trime - Ani Trime’s Little Book of Affirmations: 52 Illustrated Practices for a Peaceful and Open Mind

While every human being is unique, Ani Trime Lhamo was truly one of a kind. She was a regular, tough American girl who used to ride her motorcycle in a black leather jacket, and she later gave up that life to become a Buddhist nun with a shaven head and maroon-colored robes. She was wise and straightforward and would tell you what was on her mind. What you saw was what you got with Ani Trime. At the Buddhist meditation group in Princeton, New Jersey, where she served as the main dharma teacher, her students appreciated her cut-to-the-chase style and down-to-earth personality.

Ani Trime and I became good friends over the years before she went away from this world. She was passionate and sometimes even relentless about the core of her spiritual practice. Her talks were pithy and witty. She would say the same thing again and again, not as pointless repetition, but to make sure that the listener would get the message. One of her main messages was that we should not believe our negative thoughts so easily, since they create the very experience of life.

Her friends and students put together this lovely book that will carry her wisdom continuously in this world. Those who knew her in life will remember her teachings, and those who didnt meet her will find much wisdom in its passages. They are the expression of someone who walked the path with a full heart.

Anam Thubten

Spiritual Director, Dharmata Foundation

Ani Trime Lhamo (TREE-may LAH-moe) that was her ordination name as a Tibetan Buddhist nun was always a gruff, plain-spoken West Virginian with the worlds biggest heart. For the better part of four decades, she practiced Buddhist meditation, encountering many of the traditions rich teachings on wisdom and compassion. She found them life-changing and thought they should be accessible to everyone so she made it her lifes work to share them with people in an ordinary, everyday way.

Among all of the Buddhas teachings, the one that Ani Trime loved best is, With our thoughts we make our world.

When you wake up on a gray morning with a full agenda and dread the day, you generally get a dreadful day. But you can train your mind; you can learn to see what youre thinking and cultivate ways of thinking that are healing, positive, and helpful to you and to others. You can plant different seeds in your mind and see what grows. In fact, thats why she called our meditation group the Garden Club.

Ani Trime developed a series of simple, straightforward affirmations to teach people to plant different seeds a toolkit for cultivating a freer, healthier, more open mind. Over the years, she refined the affirmations, working hard to make them practical and clear.

Tibetan Buddhists tend to use a lot of aspirations may this be so. Trime thought this approach put off until the future what we could choose to do today, in this moment, and so she preferred affirmations: not may I or may we or may you, but instead, I am, we are, you are. As it turns out, her affirmations are also sometimes a little challenging, in ways that nudge us out of our comfort zones and stretch our hearts.

A few months before her death in 2016 at the age of 88, Ani Trime set out to preserve these affirmations. She wanted to offer one affirmation to work with each week in the year, a tool to tend the minds garden. Although she couldnt complete her book of affirmations, those of us who knew and loved her did, and we continue to use it in meditation. And now, thanks to a group of talented artists gathered by Marzena Torzecka, this lovely illustrated edition of Trimes affirmations is available to everyone.

To learn more about the individual artists, see the artist bios and reflections beginning on page 118. To learn more about meditation in Ani Trime Lhamos tradition, seek out the books of Anam Thubten and Pema Chdrn.

In these pages, youll see that each affirmation is presented on two lines, intentionally divided like this:

I am totally adequate

for all situations.

To work with an affirmation, begin by sitting in meditation for 5 to 10 minutes. Then bring the affirmation to mind.

Say the first part of the affirmation in your mind as you breathe in; and say the second part of the affirmation as you breathe out.

So, on the in-breath, I am totally adequate; and on the exhale, for all situations.

As you say the affirmation, you might let yourself connect it to some situation in your life, but resist the urge to analyze it too much. Instead, just stay with the affirmation and let it ease your way through whatever comes up.

After you have done a number of breaths 7, 10, 21, whatever you like let that effort go and return to silent meditation for a few moments. Notice what your mind and heart feel like. If you find a particular affirmation useful, you might like to repeat it at various points during the day, to keep it fresh.

These affirmations are numbered for each week of the year, and they appear in a certain order, but they dont necessarily have to be practiced in order. Skip around if you like; but remember, too, that sometimes when you dont yet know that you need it, the right tool comes to hand. However you move through the affirmations, try to commit to working with each one for a full week adjusting the words to fit your situation if need be, making them yours, and staying with the practice.

Ani Trime knew how much we all need this kind of support. She knew firsthand how prone most of us are to negativity, self-criticism, even self-hatred.

She often said that much of the Buddhas teaching boiled down to Be kind to others and to yourself.

She spent years developing her simple affirmations for this reason: to give people tools to cultivate their minds in more positive ways. We hope that this book will help you do just that, and that what flowers in your garden will be clarity, freshness, and joy.

Beverly Sanford

Princeton Buddhist Meditation Group

Every thought I think is creating my future.

Illustration Eduardo Luzzatti

I sit down daily to work with my mind.

Illustration Kevin Whipple

I am totally adequate for all situations.