Leaving
this life is similar in many ways to going on a long trip. In this case, the trip we are
making is
a journey of mind. We are leaving behind
this body, our loved ones, our possessions, and all our experiences of this
life, and moving on to the next.
Beyond
death there is mind; and where there is mind, there is uninterrupted display:
spacious, radiant, and continually manifesting.
We think,
“Oh, now I am starting to get angry,” or “now I am feeling really
jealous”. We can see the emotion coming
and we can control it. And, gradually,
transcend it.
Contemplation
is the bridge between our conceptual understanding and everyday experience and
the nonconceptual experience of meditation.
The
experiences of contemplation may be very powerful and may seem to be
experiences of realization; however, we should not mistake them for actual
realization.
When an
emotion appears, you observe the emotion without stopping it or indulging it.
If
we do not become familiar with our emotions, then we will always fear them –
even more so in the bardos of death.
In the bardos after death, this kind of spontaneous movement is not
pure fantasy or speculation. Sudden
shifts of consciousness bring about corresponding shifts in the
environment. When the mind jumps from
one thought to the next, we go along with it.
Develop
our mindfulness, awareness and stability of mind. To the degree that we can accomplish this, we
will possess the equanimity and strength of mind that allow us to reflect with
awareness on whatever appearances arise for us without reacting to them in any
repetitive, habitual way.
Whatever mental stability and insights we develop in this life will
unfailingly guide and support us through the bardos of death. Likewise, those habitual negative tendencies
that we have not overcome will condition our experiences at the time and become
reliable supports for the continuation of our suffering.
Preparing
for [death] experiences begins with simply being who we are and where we are in
this very moment. If we want to be
successful in terms of experiencing our death and journey after death, then we
have to master the experience of nowness. Whatever we are going through, this
is who we are in the moment.
Meditation
is not meditating on anything; rather, it is simply a process of
familiarization – familiarizing ourselves with the nature of our mind.
The
inner essential nature of mind … is the basis for the development of the inner
essential body. The inner essential body
is in turn the basis for the development of the coarse body.
Once we
have identified our strongest emotion, then we can focus on the practices that
will alleviate it.
When we
look carefully at our experience, we can see that we often function as though
we were half asleep; we simply react to whatever is in front of us, just as we
do in dreams.
It is the
union of space and awareness that is the source of all phenomena.
Buddhist
teachings tells us that the best, most potent time in our practice is the time
when things go completely wrong and we hit rock bottom. It is in such difficult moments that we are
most able to look deeply into our lives and find a true connection between what
we are experiencing and our practice.
We have
to train our minds not only to hear the sound of words, but also to notice how
we connect their meaning with our thought processes and concepts. In this way, we will come to see how we
mingle sound and our thoughts about sound together to make a solid world, a
solid reality.
Thoughts
appear to our minds; they arise, abide for a fleeting moment and then they
cease. What is the nature of these
thoughts? They are not physical phenomena.
They are mental events, the movements of mind itself.
When
death occurs, we will be faced with our own fear and uncertainty as we go
through the process of the dissolution of our consciousness. … In each of the
bardos of the death and after-death states, we will be faced with the challenge
of meeting our own mind at every turn in the form of unfamiliar and vivid
experiences.
Our dream
experiences, like our daytime experiences, arise from our habitual
tendencies. The formation and
reinforcement of these tendencies is linked to the accumulation of karmic seeds
acquired in the past that condition our way of perceiving, thinking and acting
in the present.
If it is
aggression that appears, we think, “I should not have this aggression! I should
be experiencing the nature of mind”. Consequently, we push the aggression away
and try to find the nature of mind else where. However, there is nothing to be
found elsewhere. There is nowhere we can
find the nature of mind outside the aggression we are experiencing now. Therefore, we have to look at that aggression
as straightforwardly as possible.
Look
straight at whatever is there in any moment of consciousness, without labelling
it or altering it.
We
will realize the nature of mind only when we have the courage and awareness to
look directly at the present moment of our experience – whether it is a
virtuous thought, a perception or a negative, disturbing emotion.
It does not matter. The nature of mind is right here.
In order
to uproot our anger, in order to fully transcend it, we need to be present with
the full experience of that emotion and penetrate its essence.
We need
to overcome one of our greatest problems, which is our habitual tendency to
dwell in a poverty mentality – a state of perpetual dissatisfaction.
The heart
chakra has a strong relationship to the functioning of the mind.
Chakra: a
point along the central channel of the subtle body where the three primary
nadis intersect to form a specific configuration, or “dharma wheel”.
During
our life, the generative essences that we have received from our parents abide
within the central channel in the form of two spheres of luminous bright light,
or bindus. One of these dwells at the
top of the central channel at the crown chakra… and the other abides at the
lower end of the central channel…. When death is about to occur, the two bindus
begin to move toward one another. After the white and red bindus meet at the
heart center and envelop one’s intrinsic awareness, giving rise to the “black
experience”. Then consciousness
dissolves into space and space itself dissolves into luminosity, into the
buddha wisdom, or alaya-jnana, at the heart center.
When we
are approaching death, when our consciousness is leaving our body, our
consciousness senses that there are nine gates through which it can leave. Of these nine, eight are gates that will lead
us to take rebirth in one of the three realms of samsara: the desire realm,
form realm or the formless realm. In speaking of these gates, we are referring
to body orifices; the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, the navel, the
urethra, the anus and the spot between the eyes. The one gate that will lead us
to liberation is located at the crown chakra at the top of the head. It is the
door of the central channel, and it is this opening that is regarded as the
gateway to the direct realization of mahamudra.
Poverty
mentality results in our mind become distracted and neurotic. The whole point
of this spiritual journey is to develop a sense of sanity and to have a clear,
one-pointed mind as opposed to having a mind that is split into many directions
due to our narrow understanding.
When our
mind is under the influence of confusion, we perceive the natural energy or
expression of the five buddha families as the five poisons or kleshas: passion
aggression, ignorance, jealously and pride. When we are free from confusion,
the essence of the five poisons is realized as wisdom and we perceive the five
buddha families.... Whenever we experience the brilliance and intensity of our
emotions, we are meeting these buddhas.
Dealing
with kleshas is like riding a wave. When
you ride a wave, if you try to change it, it is not going to work. But if you
ride it naturally, if you go along with the wave and become one with it, then
there is a sense of grace and beauty.
If you
want to speed up your progress, push the accelerator of compassion, love and
bodhichitta. If you want to slow down your discovery, put more focus on
"self" -- on self-liberation, individual salvation, or individual
freedom.
The bardo
of becoming begins when we regain consciousness after having fainted in the
bardo of dharmata.
Continuity
itself is relative. From the absolute
point of view, there is no time, so there is no notion of continuity or of
discontinuity. ... It is this moment-to-moment sense of continuity that becomes
the basis for the imputation of a "self". As soon as we perceive this
"self", we also perceive "other" and duality is complete.
One of
our strongest habitual tendencies as sentient beings is that of moving, or
being unstill. We do not have a very
strong habitual tendency of stillness or resting. This is said to be the root of all confused
habitual tendencies: not abiding or resting within the all-basis wisdom.
No one is
born a scholar or a sage. We must study
and work hard. Even geniuses need to read books, if only once.
It is
actually much easier to work with our mind when we are free of pain, have a
stable environment and possess the ground of a physical body. We should focus on achieving the realization
of the nature of mind here and now.
Either
keep attacking this problem on the level you have been, being whipped around by
emotions and circumstances, or you can dig deep within yourself and step back
from the internal storm. There is also
another path-- feeling and being with it all as it flows but this takes immense
fortitude and self-compassion.
