When you reach the threshold of death
There is continuity
After death, our mind doesn’t come to a complete stop – like water drying up or a flame going out. There is continuity. Just as wherever the body goes, the shadow comes along with it – similarly, wherever our mind goes, our karma comes along too. You must have an unshakably firm belief in this.
– Khunu Rinpoche
If you don’t remember death, you don’t remember Dharma
If you don’t remember death, you don’t remember Dharma, so why not take the opportunity to practice and enjoy life with Dharma? This is the safest life, now and in the future.
The Eight Sufferings
The Buddha taught us about the Eight Sufferings in life. Birth, Aging, Sickness and Death are the first four sufferings.
1. Birth
Isn’t it painful when a child is born? The suffering already begins even before birth, as the child is able to feel the physical sensation in the womb. When a mother drinks hot soup, the fetus will find it unbearably warm. When a mother eats ice cream, the fetus will find it similarly uncomfortable. Isn’t being born painful? This is the truth of birth.
2. Ageing
Isn’t aging uncomfortable? You might wish to head out, but your legs fail you. You might wish to eat something, but your teeth fail you. Isn’t growing older a form of suffering? You are unable to do anything you wish to do.
3. Sickness
Needless to say that sickness is a form of pain and suffering.
4. Death
Death is something that everyone is afraid of and involves even more suffering. Regardless of how much wealth and fame you possess, no one can escape birth, aging, sickness and death. It is very fair and that is why they are known as the four sufferings.
5. Having to leave the one you love
When you love someone deeply but you are forced to leave the person, isn’t that miserable? Just take a look at the train stations and airports. They are the prime examples of places of farewells; “Goodbye, when will you come back?”
6. Unattainable wish
The sixth suffering is being unable to get what you wish for. If you pray very hard for something in vain, isn’t that painful? This is the most painful experience. If your prayers are always unanswered, won’t you be suffering?
7. Being with the ones you detest
The next suffering is hatred and resentment. If you are forced to interact daily with someone you dislike at work, wouldn’t you be upset? Resentment is a form of karmic grievance while hatred can be understood in context as having to see a person you loathe every day. There is a traditional Chinese idiom that says, “Enemies often cross each other’s path”.
8. Ills of the Five Yin
Finally, there is the suffering of The Five Yin. There are five things that are Yin in nature. It is an invisible working of the mind involving form, feeling, perception, volition and consciousness. What goes on in the mind is unknown to others, including your desires, love and hate towards others. When these are blazing within you, they will burn just like a fire, causing you much suffering!
Source: Master Jun Hong Lu’s World Buddhist Fellowship Meeting Milan, Italy，25 September 2017
Kelly Wong
Being in harmony with the dharma
Just Dharma Quotes
Death Might Come First
The big taboo is death
Of all the footprints, that of the elephant is supreme
The Buddha said, “Of all the footprints, that of the elephant is supreme. Similarly, of all mindfulness meditation, that on death is supreme.”
It would be fine if death meant the end of everything
“It would be fine if death meant the end of everything, like a fire that is extinguished or water that is absorbed into dry soil. But it is not so. Even though we leave this body behind at death, consciousness wanders in the bardo, the intermediate state between this life and the next. The consciousness in the bardo is like a feather blown in the wind; it is like a naked man struggling on a dark, stormy night, unable to see even his outstretched hand in front of him, all alone and afraid.”
Dilgo Khyentse Fellowship – Shechen
At the time of death
The Tibetan Book of the Dead / PDF ebook
April 4, 2012
by Admin
The Tibetan Book of the Dead – or the Bardo Thodol. Here is the complete English translation of the famous Tibetan death text, The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State. Bardo Thodol means “liberation by hearing on the after death plane”. The book was originally written in Tibetan and is meant to be a guide for those who have died as they transition from their former life to a new destination. The Tibetan Book of the Dead has been traditionally attributed to Padma-Sambhava, an Indian mystic who was said to have introduced Buddhism to Tibet in the 8th century. We have a range of more detailed works and commentaries on The Tibetan Book of Dead here on the site, do a search. From the book:
If the expiration is about to cease, turn the dying one over on the right side, which posture is called the ‘Lying Posture of a Lion’. The throbbing of the arteries [on the right and left side of the throat] is to be pressed. If the person dying be disposed to sleep, or if the sleeping state advances, that should be arrested, and the arteries pressed gently but firmly. Thereby the vital-force will not be able to return from the median-nerve and will be sure to pass out through the Brahmanic aperture. Now the real setting-faceto-face is to be applied. At this moment, the first [glimpsing] of the Bardo of the Clear Light of Reality, which is the Infallible Mind of the Dharma-Kāya, is experienced by all sentient beings.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead – Bardo Thodol
The Tibetan Book of the Dead – or the Bardo Thodol is the English translation of the famous Tibetan death text, The Great Liberation upon Hearing in the Intermediate State.
Written by: Padma-Sambhava
Published by: Summum.us
Edition: English translation by Lāma Kazi Dawa-Samdup
Available in: Ebook
Download the free pdf ebook here:
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
Listen to the entire Bardo Thodol here in English:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/C2CogVMp5_E
You can buy the print version here: link
The process of dying
The process of dying involves a serial cessation, or dissolution, of the four internal elements: earth (the hard substances of the body); water (fluids); fire (heat); and wind (energy, movement). In ordinary life, these elements serve as the basis for consciousness, but during the process of dying their capacity to support consciousness decreases, beginning with the earth element. Each step in this dissolution actually increases the capacity of the next element to support consciousness.
Step by step it looks like this:
1. When the earth element, or hard substances of your body, dissolves into the water element, the external indication is that your body becomes thinner; internally, you see what appears to be a mirage seen in a desert. (the body becomes heavy and cannot support itself.)
2. When the water element of your body dissolves into the fire element, the external signs are that the fluids in your body dry—your mouth dries, your nose puckers, and so forth; internally, you see what has been described as puffs of smoke from a chimney or smoke floating throughout a room.
(the mouth and nose dry up.)
3. When the fire element of your body dissolves into the wind, or air, element, the external indication is that the heat in your body diminishes; internally, you see what look like fireflies at night or like scattering sparks. Heat withdraws from the body in different ways—from the feet upward to the heart or from the top of the head down. The former is preferable because it indicates that the mind will exit the body either upward or straight forward, not downward, and thus will most likely lead to a favourable next lifetime. This is caused by virtuous karma. (body heat disappears.)
4. Next, the wind, or movement of energy in your body, dissolves into consciousness, and your outer breath ceases; at this time you see an appearance like the light above a flickering candle flame when the fuel has almost been used up. (Some doctors would consider a person in this state to be dead, but from the Buddhist point of view the mere cessation of the outer breath does not mean that consciousness has left the body.) The flickering light is followed by the appearance of a steady flame. (you cannot but exhale with a rattle and inhale with a gasp.)
The final four phases of dying involve the dissolution of grosser levels of consciousness into subtler. This happens when the winds, or inner energies, that serve as the mounts of consciousness dissolve. Think of consciousness as mounted on energy like a rider on a horse. In preparation for the next phase, the energies that served as the mounts of the many types of conceptual consciousnesses dissolve, shifting the basis of consciousness from grosser to subtler levels of energy. These naturally occur in four phases:
5. Your mind itself turns into an omnipresent, huge, vivid white vastness. It is described as a clear sky filled with moonlight—not the moon shining in empty space but that space filled with white light. Conceptual thought has vanished, and nothing appears except this vivid whiteness, which is your consciousness. However, a subtle sense of subject and object remains, so the state is slightly dualistic.
6. Your mind turns into a red or orange vastness, more vivid than before; nothing else appears. It is like a clear sky filled with sunlight—not the sun shining in the sky but space itself, filled with red or orange light. In this state the mind is even less dualistic.
7. Your mind itself turns into a still more subtle, vividly black state; nothing else appears. This is called “near-attainment” because you are close to manifesting the mind of clear light. The mind of black vastness is like a moonless, very dark sky just after dusk when no stars are seen. In the beginning of this phase you are aware, but then you lose awareness as you slip into even thicker darkness.
8. When the mind of black appearance ceases, your mind itself turns into the fully aware mind of clear light. Called the fundamental innate mind of clear light, this is the most subtle, profound, and powerful level of consciousness. It is like the sky’s natural state at dawn (not sunrise)—without moonlight, sunlight, or darkness.
The passage through to the mind of clear light can be fast or slow. Some people remain in the final stage, the mind of clear light of death, for only several minutes; others stay for as long as a week or two. Since the mind of clear light is so powerful, it is valuable to practice, so many Tibetan practitioners rehearse these stages of dying on a daily basis.
I myself practice them six times daily by imagining the eight levels of mind one by one (without, of course, the physical changes in the first four stages). The eight levels of mind are:
1. mirage
2. smoke
3. fireflies
4. flame of a candle
5. vivid white sky-mind
6. vivid red or orange sky-mind
7. vivid black sky-mind
8. clear light
In the process of dying, we know that the person is still in the clear light as long as the body does not begin to smell or rot.
There are Tibetans who have been tortured and, upon being returned to their jail cells, sit cross-legged in the process of death, sustaining the mind of clear light. Reportedly, their Chinese Communist prison guards have been amazed by this. From the viewpoint of their own dogmatism, they regard Buddhism as blind faith, so when they are faced with such evidence, they try to keep quiet about it.
In India, too, quite a number of practitioners have remained in this state, sometimes for a few days and in one case for around seventeen days. When a person is abiding in the state of clear light, if the energy that supports this deep level of mind begins to fluctuate, at that point consciousness finally leaves the body, and the body or head shifts slightly.
~ HH the Dalai Lama
From: “How to Practice. The Way to a Meaningful Life.”
By HH the Dalai Lama
Translated and edited by Jeffrey Hopkins, Ph.D.
Pocket Books
Death and Dying
Death and Dying
Negativities are the diseases of the heart. It begins to feel sore, and then the whole of life will become just a suffering, because you live through your own heart.
By Eckhart Tolle
Death is a great opportunity because death is one way in which the formless dimension comes into this life. It’s precisely at the moment of the fading of the form, that the formless comes into this life. But if that is not accepted, and the fading of form is denied, then it’s a missed opportunity.
As people around you pass away, you become increasingly aware of your own mortality. The body will dissolve. Many people still, in our civilization, they deny death. They don’t want to think about it, don’t want to give it any attention.
There is enormous potential there for spiritual flowering. Even in people who, up to the point of the beginning of the fading of the form, were completely identified with the form. It’s your last chance in this incarnation, as your body begins to fade – or you are becoming aware of this limited lifespan. It’s your last chance to go beyond identification with form. This is true whether it’s to do with your body, or somebody else’s body.
In the proximity of death, there is always that grace hiding underneath the seemingly negative event. Death in our civilization is seen as entirely negative, as if it shouldn’t be happening. Because it’s denied, people are so shocked when somebody dies – as if it’s not possible. We don’t live with the familiarity of death, as some more ancient cultures still do. The familiarity of death isn’t there. Everything is hidden, the dead body is hidden. In India you can see the dead bodies being carried through the streets, and being burned in public. To the Westerners, it’s terrible.
As the consciousness is changing, I feel that more and more death will become an important part of the evolutionary process, the process of the arising consciousness on our planet.
At any age, the form can dissolve. Even if you are very young, you may encounter death close to you. At any age, it is extremely helpful to become familiar with, or comfortable with, the impermanence of the physical form.
I recommend to everybody, to occasionally visit the cemetery. If it’s a nice cemetery, that makes it more pleasant. Some cemeteries are like beautiful parks, you can walk around and feel extremely peaceful. But even if it’s not nice, spiritually it is just as helpful to walk around the cemetery and contemplate the fact of death. I still do that, quite often, whenever I have a chance.
In Europe, in the villages and so on, you have a cemetery next to the church very often. I love walking around there. My favorite thing is reading the names on the gravestones. Sometimes if the gravestones are very old, you’ll see that the name is not there anymore – it got eroded by the weather.
It’s the contemplation of death and the acceptance of the impermanent nature of the human form that opens up, if you accept it. Don’t intellectualize it. Don’t come to some kind of conclusion about it. Just stay with the simple “isness” of the fact of the impermanence of the human form, and accept that for what it is without going any further. If you go further, you get into comforting beliefs, that’s very nice too. But what I am driving at is something deeper than comforting beliefs – instead of going to some kind of conclusion, stay with the fact of the impermanence of the human form, and contemplate this fact.
With the contemplation of the impermanence of the human form, something very deep and peaceful opens up inside you. That is why I enjoy going to cemeteries. When you accept the impermanence, out of that comes an opening within, which is beyond form. That which is not touched by death, the formless, comes forward as you completely accept the impermanence of all forms. That’s why it is so deeply peaceful to contemplate death.
If someone close to you dies, then there is an added dimension. You may find there is deep sadness. The form also was precious, although what you loved in the form was the formless. And yet, you weep because of the fading form. There too, you come to an acceptance – especially if you are already familiar with death, you already know that everything dies – then you can accept it more easily when it happens to somebody close to you. There is still deep sadness, but then you can have the two dimensions simultaneously – the outer you weeps, the inner and most essential is deeply at peace. It comes forward almost as if it were saying “there is no death”. It’s peace.
Buddha could send his disciples to the burning places, to cemeteries to look at dead bodies, to contemplate death, to meditate on death: The body is burning – the dead body is there – it is burning.
And Buddha would send his disciples there, to sit there and meditate on death. And meditating on death, the disciple would soon come to realize a different quality of life which never dies. Then he would come dancing, singing, to Buddha – from the dead body burning in the cemetery, he would come running, dancing – why? he should come sad, sorrowful, depressed, dead himself in a way.
But he has not accumulated the negative even from a dead body. He has accumulated something positive. He has been meditating on death, and if you meditate on death you become more and more aware of life. He comes running, dancing, grateful – grateful to Buddha, grateful to the dead man also.
Why go on accumulating the negative? – we go on; that’s just a wrong habit. Change it! Always look at the positive, and soon you heart will be purified. Negativities are the diseases of the heart. It begins to feel sore, and then the whole of life will become just a suffering, because you live through your own heart. You go on accumulating negatives; then you have to live through this negativity; then everything becomes just a suffering, a long suffering – meaningless, purposeless, leading to nowhere.
Zen Flash 
Recent Comments