HOW LONG IS THE LIFESPAN? (Page 52)
This life is perfect, hard to receive, and perishable. To not care about aging shows a selfish attitude, a mind ignorance of the suffering of others, such as that of animals that are killed. Some people say animals are a gift from God to be eaten. When asked what God is, they say such a thing cannot be expressed in words. They say that animals killing each other is “natural” and they don’t care for their suffering. Such minds are like stone, and see nothing.
Sickness can be the best medicine. We can use any of life’s illnesses or other problems as medicine to bring enlightenment. It is better to use the mind than chemicals. That doesn’t mean we should suffer, but we can meditate upon our illness as regards previous bad karma, for example, to check up on the cause of the sickness and cure it. This is true Dharma practice, and through this method we come to understand better how not to create any more causes of suffering.
There is nothing new in the treatment of sickness, in doctors, hospitals, drugs, and so forth. We have all experienced these things countless times before. But receiving high levels of realizations by purifying the obscurations, giving up the idea of self-everlasting happiness, and renouncing temporal comforts—that is new. It is difficult to generate a new mind to work with a new method—ignorance is strong. But it is very worthwhile to bear the difficulties experienced; such difficulties are temporal and occur in many lives other than this one.
We should worry about becoming old—this thought should make us practice Dharma day and night, giving up the eight temporal desires.
Life is impermanent and transitory—from the moment of conception, as time passes, we get older; from one split second to the next, as the time passes we miss the chance to gain higher realizations. From then until now our lives have been meaningless, wasted; we have been playing like children. Life decays as a flower, and we are never aware of it changing. Like a river, it changes every moment, but looks the same. Because of continuity we don’t see it changing, rather we see it as permanent. Without pausing for a moment, life runs towards death; all the time death is getting closer and closer.
The nature of life is like this. From the moment it begins in the mother’s womb it begins running toward death, without waiting for even one of those many split seconds of the days, months, or years. The time from conception to death is like the snap of the fingers to the mind that conceives of it—it is very quick. But this we can only see at the time of death, when we start to realize, “I am dying.” There is a lot of suffering, much worry in the mind. We think, “I won’t see my father, mother, wife, and children.” The mind suffers, it is difficult to hear and see, and as the mind gets closer and closer to leaving the body we experience more and more suffering visions. Then, at that time we think, “Oh! My life has finished in such a short time!” And then we realize how quick it was. But no matter how you realize life’s short duration, you still suffer and die with worry, with your mind in a sad condition.
We always believe that we will wake up tomorrow, and based on that we make plans for breakfast. There is always that permanent feeling thinking, “I won’t die today.” This is due to not realizing the nature of suffering. But one day, due to some karmic condition, death comes and the door to the suffering realms opens. Then we have the thought that life has gone by like the snap of our fingers. Why is there so much trouble at the time of death, why so much suffering? This suffering is a sure sign that we will take rebirth in one of the three lower realms. Before death, the mind is unaware, and so we are lazy and don’t care. At death people weep, and this creates more suffering. Especially if we have created great negative karma, the time of death time is horrible—like blood coming from the ear, the eye, the nose. No matter how much I hold my mother, father, and wife, still they are powerless to help me. There was a choice before, but at the time of death there is none. No matter who we remember, no one has any power.
022109
IMPERMANANCE
Lama Tsongkhapa said, “Please bestow upon me the ability to realize that the changes of life and of the body are like a water bubble, and to remember the death that soon brings decay; to receive full confidence in the knowledge that, as the shadow follows the body, so life follows after good and bad karma that has been created; to have continual energy (caution) to avoid even the subtle obscurations, as well as the gross; and to achieve all collection of merits.”
These realizations lead to higher realizations and by practicing this way, Tsongkhapa became enlightened. Therefore we should also have a mind that has given up the eight worldly desires, and should realize that life really is as fragile as a bubble—it bursts as easily and disappears. Life itself is perishable and impermanent, momentary and trivial.
Guru Shakyamuni, our great father, the one guide of all sentient beings, who has every single knowledge and a completely pure mind free from delusions and illusions, said, “The upper, middle, and lower worlds are as impermanent as an autumn cloud, and with the dangers of death and rebirth, so too are the lives of beings.”
Autumn is just a changeable season of the year; a cloud changes every second and disappears in a minute, and can be found in no definite place. This also applies to the three worlds. If we deeply check up—how quickly do sentient beings change, how fast do they die, and how fast are they reborn? We can see that it’s exactly the same as an autumn cloud.
Such are the changes of the inner and outer evolutions. These temporal disturbances also appear in the guru giving instruction, and if we look with the wisdom eye our realizations may progress. Since we woke in the morning, all the impermanent things—mind and body—have been changing every second, yet due to our limited conception we feel the same in our hearts. This is due to not having the full realization that sees things growing older and older, decaying each second, and becoming new at the same time. The mind not living in the practice of impermanence is distracted by other delusions, and so becomes ignorant, not seeing those natures, and doesn’t get time to check those things. So in the heart we feel the same—unchanging, permanent—and we do not perceive the changes of each second.
All the great meditators of old, those holy beings, regarded the thought and practice of meditation on impermanence as essential. As ordinary people regard money as important, useful, and helpful, always trying to get more and more, so the holy beings kept meditating on impermanence for their whole lives, because they regarded this as essential, useful, and helpful. They perceived this as a practice of great benefit bringing every level of realization and enlightenment and releasing oneself and all other beings from suffering and ignorance. Having achieved the realization of impermanence, the rest of their lives became meaningful and pure because their minds were protected from distraction. This allowed them to forget other things. For us, even if we want to meditate for only five minutes, so many other things arise in the mind—the mind goes all around the world, thinking of and remembering all kinds of objects towards which we feel either greed or hatred. We must have confidence in the nature of impermanence through perceiving it well.
The realization seeing that life, body, and mind are impermanent is greatly necessary to enable even an hour’s undistracted meditation, and the realization of impermanence is the best offering to enlightened beings and to the Dharma, which is their realization. Guru Shakyamuni said, “The best offering is to remember that all existence is formed by causes and cooperative causes and has the nature of one second of impermanence; then make such offerings as umbrellas, banners, and so forth to my two disciples, Sharipu and Mongalpu.”
While it is good to make many offerings to hundreds of disciples, there are immense benefits from meditation on impermanence, with realizations of it. At the beginning, remembering impermanence obligates the person to follow the Dharma, the true method that clearly explains the factual inner and outer evolution and every method to release oneself from suffering. Also, the thought of impermanence obligates the person to create much virtuous, positive action and good karma. This thought helps greatly in enabling the person to see the absolute nature of oneself and every other being, of every existence, and of Buddha’s holy mind. In other words, it helps the person to receive enlightenment.
To fully realize the mystical point of our own mind, we must realize impermanence. It must depend on this. Without having the effortless thought that realizes the impermanent nature of things, no matter how much of our life we spend learning psychology, we cannot learn the mystical point of our own mind.
This is why from beginningless times until now our own possession, the mind, still doesn’t know what it is by itself. Therefore the cause of problems continues, and will continue until the mind realizes it own nature. Without realizing the nature of our own mind, how can we explain that of others? Therefore, the best study is to try to realize, or to try to make the mind itself recognize, the mind’s own nature. Through this we can easily articulate or see the mystical point of others’ minds. First, we should research and become our own psychologist in that way so that we can become a true psychologist to guide the minds of others. If this is not done it’s like having kaka on our hand and trying to clean other people.
This is the best way to do research, and it all depends on the realization of impermanence, so it’s very important to check our own nature of impermanence. It is the responsibility of all of us to do so, not just that of lamas and others living in the Himalayas. Why? Because all of us are suffering and desire to be out of it, and this is the only way—to realize impermanence before the realization of the causes of suffering.
However, this meditation and its realization are not simple. Many think that the practice of Dharma is not their job or their responsibility. They think that it is for beggars, cripples, and other “unfortunates.” Such people are ignorant of the nature of their life, body, and mind, as well as of impermanence and suffering. It is a matter of realizing the nature of these things and their evolution.
Also, this practice is one of the things that makes the holy beings happy in their lives, without depending on friends, material comforts, and other external needs. For instance, some of the highly realized Tibetan yogis such as Milarepa lived on single foods such as nettles for years, but despite this had no suffering and were happy, enjoying their practice with understanding of it and its result. It is the realization of impermanence that generated all the energy that they required to live for that time without dependence on external things. Such a happy life, on single foods, living in a rock cave, depending on other things, was not intuitive. They had many gradual realizations from many mental practices at different levels, and these made for a happy and uncomplicated life; these were the needs for enlightenment, and leading a happy and positive life is the correct way. Ordinary people lead a complicated, unhappy life that depends on external things, a life contrary to the yogis. These two are opposites—those who developed practices bringing mental discipline and the ignorant beings’ “happiness” which does not arise from mental practices but from collecting materials.
When we are upset we can consider the following quotation from one of the great Tibetan meditators. This quote is like beautiful music, and it is called “The Practice of a King’s Son,” i.e. a bodhisattva’s practice.
“At the time of death related beings, who have been living together for a long while, have to be separate, all material possessions, gained by much effort, have to be left, and the ‘mind guest’ leaves the lodge of the physical body. Renunciation of such a life is the practice of the Sons of the King (the Buddha), of bodhisattvas.”
There is much to be considered in this quotation, especially the apology between mind-body and guest-lodge, which has strong temporal connotations. It shows how foolish it is to spend much effort in looking after the physical body, which is neither a permanent place nor belongs to “me.” Yet a man will spend his whole life working for money to support his temporal body, which he only has to leave with great sorrow.
Ordinary people living in the eight desires take most care of the impermanent, trivial body by harming many other beings, both human and animal. Yet this body has to be left at death, causing suffering and giving no help at this inevitable time. Even if we are reborn human we will have the same problems of having to take care, experiencing harm, and death. As long as ignorance is not cut off, the physical body must be taken again and again, and again the same problems must be experienced.
The conclusion is this: if we do not wish to have such a physical body that suffers, takes so much energy, and so forth, then we must try to live in the essential practice of Dharma so that we can reach enlightenment and be released from all suffering, including that of the physical body, as quickly as possible. We must spend more time and energy in the essential practice of Dharma.
Milarepa said, “Remembering death conquers laziness; any action done remembering impermanence becomes a Dharma action.”
Laziness is the worst devil we can create, interfering with enlightenment and, therefore, future happiness. It is the greatest obstacle to happiness. One of the greatest destroyers of laziness is remembering death with the understanding that ignorance causes us to create actions that will bring about future lives, enlightenment, and escape from samsara. It stops actions that seek the comfort of the temporal life.
There are three types of laziness. The first is the laziness that causes us to object to doing things with the excuse that we are unable to do them. This is the mind that thinks, “It’s beyond my capabilities.” The second is the worst form of laziness, the laziness that is drawn to engage in evil actions of greed, ignorance, and hatred—actions that distract the mind from Dharma practice. The third is the type of laziness that interrupts our energy for Dharma practice and causes us to waste time with distractions. This kind of laziness comes about as a result of lacking the understanding of the nature of samsara, the cause of suffering, and the evolution of karma.
The less laziness we have, the fewer hindrances to meditation we will experience. Spending all day and all night working for samsaric comforts is considered laziness from the Dharma point of view. Because we don’t remember our past sufferings or know those that lie ahead, we are lazy, and we work for ignorance and greed. Examples of this were clearly shown by Guru Shakyamuni.
Full understanding of the suffering of others obligates us to help them as quickly as possible. The person who has the eye that sees suffering experiences a great effect to his mind. We cannot become enlightened without seeing this. To see suffering as it is also causes us to see the real positive beauty that can’t be seen by the ignorant mind. For example, although there is suffering all around, as we purify our minds we see more and more beauty, even in “ugly” things. In contrast to this, the “beauty” seen by the ignorant mind only creates more ignorance. Everything depends on seeing the true nature of suffering. We will not lose beauty by meditating on suffering, but by only by the decrease of our positive minds.
When the problem of attachment to a friend arises, due to greed, for example, death meditation is a very useful practice. Doing this doesn’t mean that the friends can’t stay together—this meditation has nothing to do with the physical body and is only a mental action. Also, it doesn’t mean that we have to sit down and meditate. We can do this meditation in conjunction with whatever else we are doing, including talking to that friend. The meditation asking, “Is the time of death definite?” is especially useful in this situation. It is also useful if we are attached to the friend because of the physical body. We can remember that the body changes all the time and we should check up on the facts of physical degeneration. The attached mind never checks up, it believes in permanence. Imagine the same body turned inside-out. Beauty does not depend on the object.
IS DEATH DEFINITE? (Page 53)
Shantideva said, “Life always becomes decayed without stopping for even a day or a night. Even if life is extended with method, it will still decay. Therefore it will very definitely end.” So we must prepare for death.
Among the methods to extend life, we can do pujas, make statues of certain aspects of Buddha, do purification practices, and so forth. Tibetan people would consult astrologers or lamas to see how much longer their lifespans would last, especially if the person is sick. If there is some danger of an untimely death, a method is employed to stop it and extend the human life. Often the person would take ordination and became celibate. There are many examples of this. Sometimes certain families have bad luck—their children die young, and they ask the lama to stop what is happening. The child they have at that time would get a new name and try to lead the life of monk or a nun; when it is older it takes ordination.
My family is like this—many children died; the last child was my sister and through observations it was said that she would die. Our previous karma determines the length of life, and by which method life can be extended.
But to really escape from suffering, rebirth, and death, we must do very high practices in order to attain the fully renounced mind and the perception of the absolute true nature. This depends on practice and realization of these meditations; it depends on the realization of the perfect human rebirth, and on belief in reincarnation. That is why we are working on these here.
We must understand the absolute true nature. “All compounded things are impermanent; let all be well-equipped with heedfulness.”
The very highly realized pandit, Nagarjuna, who worked so much for other sentient beings, said, “This life is so fragile, full of harmful things, dangers and catastrophes, and like a water bubble in the air, it is a strange and wonderful surprise that one even wakes up from sleep.”
As the water bubble is certain to burst, our lives are certain to end in death. Why? There are three reasons. Since the first human beings came into existence, none has done so without going through death and rebirth. Nothing can stop death—material possessions, other people, fame, and so on. No samsaric enjoyment can ever stop death—even the body that is cared for above all else cannot prevent it.
Therefore, death is definite, and we should remember that there is great suffering at the time of death. Most beings live in the desire of not experiencing the suffering of death.
As time has passed life has become more and more dangerous in correlation to the negative mind becoming stronger and stronger. If only the internal problems would cease, there would be no outer problem or dangers.
IS THE TIME OF MY DEATH DEFINITE? (Page 53)
1. Karma determines the length of life—when the karma runs out that lifetime ends. This depends on unknown cooperative causes.
2. Untimely death means that we die even though the karmic result has not finished. This may occur, for example, from overeating or poisonous food.
Many of the great meditators knew that their death was coming days before they actually died through signs and omens. They could try to put off hindrances by checking the outer, inner, and secret signs. There are long signs, which appear years and months ahead of time, and those that appear close to death.
Nagarjuna said, “The human life will very certainly end, but when is most indefinite; it is just like a candle is a windy place.”
Just as the wind causes the flame to be in danger of extinction, so the human life is full of problems. Both the flame and the life are constantly distracted. Death is entirely definite. Throughout the evolution of earth, not one samsaric being has existed constantly. All beings have to die. Death cannot be prevented by material possessions. There are more conditions harmful to life than cooperative causes that support it. There are many living beings and non-living things that can harm us. Even the conditions we create to look after life may bring danger and death. This is simple to check up on—a son kills his father, a husband kills his wife, vehicles cause injury and death, the body’s elements become imbalanced, we have problems with the food that we eat. Because the body is so fragile it is easy to encounter suffering. Some beings even die in the mother’s womb.
We should think, “One day death will happen to me—if it happens to me now do I know the evolution of death?” Meditate on some other being’s death if you remember it, but the most important thing to do is to try and feel, “If it happens to me now, do I know what to do when I die?” Do you know where to go? After death there are only two ways the mind can go—to the upper or the lower realms. The decision is made by karma, the fruit of your actions; at the moment it is uncontrolled. At that time the desire for the path comes according to delusion and karma, positive and negative. Check up—think, “If I die I will go to the lower realms because up until now I have created less positive than negative karma, not only in this life but in past lives. Therefore it is definite that I shall go into one of the three lower realms where there is so much suffering.”
How much do we suffer in the mind now? In the lower realms there is much more suffering than that, there is no freedom. Now we suffer when we receive food we don’t like, but how will we stand it in those realms where there is no choice, no food received at all? If we don’t desire suffering here, how will we feel when we experience even greater suffering?
To avoid rebirth in these realms, we should die with a mind that has renounced negativity. Therefore, we should now prepare for a higher rebirth and work toward the end of suffering. Meditate—imagine that you are dying; even in your past life you died in awful conditions. As much as your mind meditates on death and worries, that much your mind can be purified.
The reasons to practice Dharma and meditation are the same reasons that we do things for this life—for happiness, not suffering. To cease the principal cause of suffering we need method, and Dharma gives it. We need Dharma more than we need hospitals and doctors, because without ceasing the principal cause of suffering no problem can be solved. We may think that there is no principal cause of suffering and that there is nothing that cannot be cured by hospitals, but this is not true. Take T.B. for example. If T.B. is contracted when we are young, we may be cured, but it still can recur. We may think that external factors are the principal cause of illness, like food, environment, and elements, but no matter how we improve the environment or change the external conditions, illness recurs or others come on. This proves that the external conditions are not the principal cause of suffering, that there must be something else that makes sufferings such as illness arise continuously, and that it is not outside. In fact, it is in the mind, and that mental thing has to be destroyed. But this cannot be done by way of any external condition or material thing. It can only be ceased by another mental method—by our own minds themselves. The mentality comprehending this has perfect understanding of mind, bodhicitta. It can root out the principal cause of suffering. However, the development of this positive mind is not intuitive—it has to be shown and the method to build it explained by the right person. If we do this correctly, we can definitely develop the positive mind and then definitely cease sufferings. It all depends on receiving Dharma and practicing to build experience. That is why we need Dharma more than anything in this life.
Recognizing The Signs of Death Beforehand
Think, “I must receive enlightenment in order to lead sentient beings from suffering. At the moment receiving enlightenment has been stopped by negative karmas and mental defilements, so these should be purified in order to receive different levels of realizations. Therefore, I am going to listen to the graded path.”
The time of death is discovered by great yogis through many different signs—the outer, inner, and secret signs, and the longer and shorter signs. The outer signs are changes in the body, urination, and the breath. The inner signs are seeing different signs of catastrophe, especially in dreams. The secret signs are changes in sperm and menstruation.
One method to check up on the time of death is to check up on one’s clothes on a full moon day. This should be done on the first day of the month when the sky is very clear.
You begin by reciting a mantra one hundred and eight times, stand up, and then on the heart of the shadow write the letter OM. As you stand, stretch out your arms and legs and stare without blinking until your eyes feel uncomfortable. Then, look up suddenly into space. You will see the shape of your body, and that will show the different kinds of catastrophe with spirits, nagas, and so forth as well as the time of death, in dependence upon the shape of the body—if it is square and so on. If the body has no legs or hands missing, it means that no catastrophe will happen.
After finishing, make seven prostrations in each direction to the holy beings and then recite the mantra. This can be done in the daytime or nighttime. Then check up on the meaning of the shape. The mantra is: OM AH U KO PARA HAKA RESHETE HUNG PE. This kind of checking is for the long-term sign—a year, or five years.
There is also a way to check up on the dangers of this life by means of the breath. Usually the breath works like this: on the first day of the Tibetan month, at dawn, it comes from the left side for three days. After that, at the time of dawn the stronger breath comes from the right side for three days. Then it changes back. As it varies from this one can make observations and check up. When practitioners recognize the signs of death they usually do pujas, although there are all kinds of different methods. Then they check up to see if the signs have stopped or not, and if not they do more pujas. These methods are used to check up on untimely death that is not dependent on karma.
The outer signs are easy to check up on. The most difficult is the secret closer sign. Slightly less difficult is the inner sign, which is a little more difficult than the outer sign. The death shown by the secret sign is extremely difficult to stop, that shown by the inner a little less difficult, and that shown by the outer is the least difficult to stop.
Preparing for Death
At the time of death, it is most useful if we are unattached to anything, if we completely abandon and do not care for our own body, relatives, pleasures, and possessions. Attachment to those things only causes great suffering at the time of death and also starts the cycle into the three lower realms—that is why it is important to not have this clinging. Tibetan Dharma practitioners have many ways to transfer the consciousness at the time of death. If we have no attachment to any of those things we will be okay. If we have the wish to be born in a pure land then that is very good because from there we can receive oral teachings. All enjoyment in a pure land is completely pure, not a creation of the deluded mind. In a pure land, we take spontaneous rebirth in a lotus, so this kind of rebirth does not depend on birth from parents. All the enjoyments in a pure land only cause the understanding of Dharma to develop, and give pure happiness. Anything that exists on this earth cannot compare in quality, even living things. In a pure land all things are spiritual, giving much pure pleasure, developing realizations, and the mind always receives teachings from the enlightened beings, who pray that many other sentient beings may be born in a pure land to receive teachings. In a pure land it is very easy to get out of samsara.
It is important to try even now, before death, to understand how to die and what to do when death comes. We never wish to experience a suffering death so it is important to not be lazy and to make arrangements before death comes. The fundamental method by which to bring this about is to cultivate no attachment at death.
The fuel that will take us to the pure land is the desire to be born there, similar to the craving at the time of death that takes us to the other realms. Rebirth as a human depends upon the desire to be reborn as a human at the time of death.
To renounce attachment, it is important to start with meditation one and continue through to meditation eight. The death meditation is especially useful to renounce attachment; it is very simple, easy to understand, and very beneficial for one who wishes to quickly eliminate attachment. The first meditation is on the impermanent nature of life, and on death. Through this meditation we can be born in a pure land or receive enlightenment. Otherwise it is impossible to escape from the suffering of the three lower realms. If we are not conscious of death coming, then when it comes we have to suffer. When problems arise due to attachment and confusion between subject and object, it is good to meditate in this way. The purpose of this is mainly to train the mind. We should use this method when we have problems to stop the problems and to prevent them from arising. If we do not do so, at the time of death the negative mind will be so large that we will suffer. This occurs due to lack of practice. It is most important to make what we understand when we practice beneficial for ourselves, especially when we have problems and especially in terms of the attachment we have at death. It is important to make it practical for ourselves and other beings. If you don’t use what you understand when you meet a problem, it doesn’t make sense. If that happens, it means that our meditation is not insightful, and on the basis of not having an insightful meditation, we do not meditate on the basis of our own negative mind, and we do not practice meditation as a mirror. The benefits of meditation depend on what we practice and what we use. They do not depend on how things are written on paper, but how they work within the mind. The purpose of meditation is to train our mind so that it can be conscious.
As we realize the practice on the impermanence of life and death more deeply and profoundly, it is definite and sure that we will be able to solve momentary problems and remove negative minds such as attachment. Who creates the karma that keeps us in suffering? We do, so we are responsible. We do not have to cease ignorance and all bad karma ourselves alone, but with the help of the enlightened being’s method as has been shown. If a person falls into a hole and a rope is let down to help him out, if he doesn’t recognize it and hold onto the rope, he will continue suffering. Like this, the enlightened beings have shown the path, so it is a matter of us holding to the method—like holding the rope—by first recognizing that method. The more we practice cleaning the negative mind, the cause of suffering, and the mind that is suffering, the stronger our essential practice of Dharma will be, which itself is this cleaning of negativity. Whatever our actions, working in the field, making business—if the practice really cleans, it is the essential practice of Dharma. The cleaning of negativities is the essential effect, no matter what religion we follow—Hinduism, Islam, Christianity. So long as the actions of the religion bring the result of cleaning the mind, that is the essential practice of Dharma. This is found inside, not in the prayer wheel or the drum. Even killing, if it helps to cut off the cause of suffering and the negative mind, may be a true Dharma action, but in order to make this so you have to have the great power of the wisdom to know. Without wisdom you can think an action is a Dharma action, while really it is only developing the negative mind.
Since we do not want to suffer at the time of death or in the life following death, it is important to start training the mind well now with these practices. The mind has to be well fertilized through the practice of the basic meditations even to practice the different specific methods of the buddha deities, as well as the transference of consciousness at death. As wheels are basic and essential to a car, enabling it to take us various places, the basic practices are the same—without them, we cannot go along on the path.
It is not sufficient just to recognize the fact that one day, in time, we will die. Everyone has this idea, not just those who practice Dharma, but this idea is not enough. It is more important to recognize and think that the time of our death in indefinite, so that we will hurry to fulfill the meaning of our perfect human rebirth. The practitioners who sincerely live in the practice of the first meditation have a mind that is greatly concerned with the purification of negativity and the creation of good karma either for the purpose of achieving a perfect human rebirth or for the purpose of attaining enlightenment. They have the realization of impermanence and are well trained in the realization of death; also they are not so much concerned with this life but are working hard for the next life. Just as one who is late rushes to some entertainment in order to arrive before it ends, these beings do not care for the temporal discomforts such as not having time for food, falling and being injured, and so on. The person whose mind is well trained in the first meditation on impermanence and the nature of death is not so much concerned for this life, but rather is concerned with not wasting this life, with not missing this real opportunity to prepare for the future life and attain the goals of enlightenment and the cessation of samsara. This is the result of the practice of this meditation, and this experience brings the result of less distraction and disturbance to Dharma practice, which then becomes more successful. The mind is not so much concerned with little problems such as itches, pains, lice and so forth, and can spend more time concentrating on meditation, paying more attention to the distraction and disturbances, waiting for them to arise.
Great concern for physical comfort gives less time for meditation and wastes time. Why? Because that mind, which is not concerned so much with the development of meditation as with what’s going on around the mind, has no realization of the impermanence of life and the indefinite time of death. Those who do realize this understand that only Dharma can help at death, and as a result they see that their Dharma practice must be developed quickly. These minds are more concerned with future lives, the future suffering that is the result of the collected karma from past lives, with escape from ignorance in order to cease suffering by having the realization of the path, and with not creating any more bad karma in the future. To such a practitioner the present situation becomes unimportant and insignificant as far as pleasures and momentary enjoyments are concerned, and aches and pains become trivial. The more positively he sees things, the fewer and fewer distractions to his Dharma practice arise. On the basis of this realization every other higher practice brings realizations that are more perfect and more pure.
It is logical that that person has fewer problems, compared to those who are not living in the practice. These beings think that, “Sometime in the future I shall die,” but simultaneously they think, “I won’t die tomorrow,” not having the realization of impermanence. Their minds are more concerned with the temporal life than with the suffering of the future life. They make preparations for this life, “Today I shall exist,” planning for tomorrow, next month, next year, and so forth—round and round, engaging in negative actions produced by greed and ignorance, their lives busy. They end like this, and then they prepare for the next life. But we shouldn’t allow this to cause confusion—we can always make preparations in a Dharma way. We should not merely seek to make the temporal life comfortable, which is said to be negative because material preparations do not help for the next life, because that preparation was not made for the practice of Dharma, rather mostly for taking care of the temporal life. This is negative because it doesn’t help us at all in the cycle of suffering and instead it keeps us further and further from the ultimate goal.
It is wrong to think that we should not make plans, because they can be positive, like having Dharma practice as the goal, as well as negative, like having temporal comforts as the goal. But our Dharma plans should start from now, because the actual time of death is not definite. At least we should work more for the positive plan than the negative. The more we practice this meditation, the more effort we will make to stop future suffering. A person who knows that a building is to be bombed some time doesn’t spend much time fixing and beautifying it, and immediately makes preparations to leave. In this way, the Dharma practitioner hurries to save his life, not concerned with its temporal comforts.
“Running to death without the freedom of not running for even a second is the nature of samsaric life.”
This is the nature of our lives. If we do not clearly see that the time of death is indefinite, we will never pay any attention to this fact. This wrong conception arising from lack of experience in the realization of impermanence makes us not work to prepare for death, and not create good karma for the future life. We do not care about creating negative karma, negative actions of the negative mind, and in one day we create more negative than positive karma. This is due to the wrong conception of not checking up on the suffering of death or future lives. When death comes all freedom ends, the life is wasted. At death we really miss things—the way we miss the West now is nothing compared to the way we’ll miss it at the time of death. Even if, at that point, we feel the wish to give up our whole life to meditation, it’s too late, there is no longer any choice. Suffering like this has been the experience of numberless beings who have died—it’s not ours yet but we’re on the way, getting closer with each second. At the time of death we will remember much of the bad karma we have created—there is much worry and no choice.
At death we think, “I am really dying now,” and we feel and think that we are leaving our relatives, possessions, and body. As we feel this separation, great attachment to the body and possessions arise, and due to this we do not want to leave or separate from them. We experience such fear and suffering. Due to this attachment, we take a lower rebirth and suffer, especially in the narak realms, and that attachment to body and possessions keeps us continuously in the cycle of death and rebirth. So at the time of death our possessions become our enemy.
This body that we feed and take care of so much is supposed to be a constant source of pleasure, never causing suffering. But in addition to bringing so much trouble during life, at death it also causes great fear and suffering. At death even the body becomes our enemy. It is important to continue thinking like this—that the body will appear as the enemy at the time of death. Concentrating on this more and more, we can loosen the attachment to the body and possessions. As these attachments become fewer and fewer, the suffering due to the body and possessions decreases proportionally.
Let us consider that sweet-talking person who acts as a friend but really aims to kill me soon. Until I realize his intention he is my friend and I am attached to him. When I discover his plan I am no longer attached—I know him, so I no longer look after him. I am careful, skeptical, and doubtful of him. In time he will kill me and the relationship will remain, but motivated by fear I try to arrange to avoid the suffering. The body and possessions are the same as our sweet-talking friend. Therefore, we should meditate on our attachment to them and meditate on our deaths in order to cut the attachment that will cause us great suffering at this time.
There are so many schools and universities on earth, there is so much study and so many scholars, and all of them only show how to take care of this short-lived body. The study of Dharma is the best thing we can do. No matter how much biology we study we will never learn the true evolution—all that study is actually the cause of much suffering, it keeps us busy and worried through attachment to this body.
Due to the existence of the body, we have to go to so much trouble. Marriage is not for the mind, it is for the attachment of the body. Our marriages may be besieged with problems and confusion—we do not have the right man, or the right woman, we are not getting on, we cause worry to one another, we are not free in many ways. If we didn’t have this body there would be no need for marriage, which leads to making business and to work keeping busy. Because of this body we need a house to hide it in. In fact, in ancient times they started making houses because of sex—they became embarrassed at the conduct they were engaging in and made houses to hide in. Without the body there would not be all the sicknesses related to it. There would also be no need to trek, to get tired, to carry food, to make kaka and pee pee. There would be much less trouble with other beings.
What makes us continually take the body under the power of delusion and karma?
Our present attachment to the physical body causes us to take the form of a totally deluded body in a future lifetime. This attachment is not to the future body but to the present, and if this attachment were not there we wouldn’t take this form. However, if the attachment is there, it plants the seed for rebirth in a human body at some future time. In this way we can see that the body is the root, the principal cause of all suffering. Meditating on this is a good way to eliminate attachment to the body.
(Answer to question) The one who achieves perfect peace is free to leave the form that he or she takes at any time. That manifestation is free to do anything, it is taken with great freedom from negative mind. Such a form is not uncontrolled, like a person’s body again, and can always remain young; whatever motive it has for wanting to exist, it is free to do so according to the way it can best benefit sentient beings. Such a holy mind can appear in different manifestations as it wishes; these can never have the sorts of problems we do because they are not made of flesh, blood, and bone. Such a holy body doesn’t have any suffering, and is always in infinite happiness. Freedom from greed, ignorance, and hatred is freedom from delusion and karma.
The actions that harm other beings that we do for the purpose of taking care of this body have no end. They will not end until we cut off the cycle of death and rebirth. Our minds are living in ignorance and this cycle hasn’t stopped any of those actions. They have no beginning and have been done in many previous lives—such as eating, clothing, marrying, being reborn, and so forth. We think that everything is new, each action to take care of the body is a novelty, but in fact none of this experience is new, many things are old, but we forget beginningless lives and the infinite number of times we have performed each action. We think the people we meet are new, taking drugs is new—but none of these experiences are new; they are terribly old, beginningless.
Padmasambhava said (Page 54), “The vision of this life is like last night’s dream. All meaningless actions are like ripples on a lake.”
All that we have done, from the time of birth until now, has passed like a dream, as quickly as last night’s dream. Both the vision of this life and that dream exist only in the mind, and both have ended. This shows the impermanence of life, how quickly it goes, and that therefore we should practice Dharma because all actions done to take care of this body are like ripples on a lake—meaningless, they come and go one after the other, and give no comfort. Everything we have enjoyed is like this.
Taking care of the body is permissible if it is purely for the purpose of receiving enlightenment to help other sentient beings. In this case, it cannot be mixed up with the eight temporal desires. In order for this to be so, these actions must be completely selfless, having nothing to do with everlasting happiness for self, with nothing expected in return. This would greatly delight all bodhisattvas, who would recognize a new friend in the world. Bodhisattvas are those whose only concern is the welfare of all sentient beings.
If the mind is occupied with distractions and not with the inner practice of Dharma, we will experience great suffering at the time of death. We should make immediate arrangements for this life and the future.
As the mind cannot take even a tiny hair from the body into the future life, so also it cannot take numberless jewels. Being attached is a negative mental action. If we think about it, the more we become attached, the more our ignorant mind is hidden. And since it’s uncertain whether tomorrow or the next life will come first, yet certain that the body and possessions will become enemies at the time of death if we are attached to them, from now on we must be careful and skilful in not being attached to these things. We should train our life like that. Then we will not spend our life and time in the service of enemies—the attached body, relatives, and material possessions, which give only trouble at the time of death.
After one minute the future life is more definite. Visualize your own death—the mind separating from the body like a hair pulled from the head. The purpose of this is to cut off the cause of suffering, the negative mind, and to realize the negative mind and negative actions. This is a method to guide us, to protect our minds from suffering and especially from creating the bad karma that arises from taking care of possessions and relatives because of this body’s expectation of gratitude.
At the time of death attachment arises, gets stronger, and obscures our view of it. But we must remain conscious and aware at death and meditate at this time. In order to be able to do this, we need great practice. At the time of death many things are in the mind—fearful visions and so forth—so we should practice during life. To do so, we must understand death as suffering; it is not like a butter lamp coming to an end.
This meditation is more useful than the most expensive medicine—it has too much knowledge. It takes our own body, speech, and mind away from bad karma by cutting attachment to the body and relatives and through realizing the evolution of death, rebirth, and suffering.
Generally, even to finish the first meditation takes a lot of time because there is so much that can be said. But it can also be finished in an hour, depending on the mind. As it takes time to flatten a rocky mountain, so we have to work with the mind throughout our entire lives. This is not working with words alone, but with the mind. The explanations can never be finished because they are related to many other subjects. Generally speaking, the explanation and understanding of the first part of the meditation couldn’t be completed in a year.
For the great ancient pandits and the present great yogis, the purpose of meditation is only to control and purify the negative mind, and not for physical comfort and temporal happiness.
Shantideva said, “Since it is so definite that we have to die, why do we fight, with partial mind, for things we leave behind?”
Life is so temporal, lasting only a few months or years. If we check up, thinking about the relatives and possessions for which we fight with anger due to the partial mind, harming other beings or killing them in the process, we can ask, “Will they last; will they stay with me? Isn’t it definite that I shall have to leave them in time, maybe tomorrow? Isn’t it meaningless to get angry with and fight the person who wants to take my possessions, harm my relatives, insult my friends, hurt my body; and isn’t it meaningless to work for these things for a long time?” Every action that we do to protect these things creates negative, not positive, karma. We think like this, “Perhaps I’m going to die tonight, but I can’t know. Still I would fight to protect my body, relatives, and possessions if someone were to harm them.” But it is meaningless to get angry and create bad karma to care for something that will last only a few hours. Some people even die while doing this. In order to take care of these very momentary things we create the causes of so much suffering. These actions are very foolish and the mind, too, is very foolish.
If we don’t meditate on the impermanence of life and on death, we don’t discover or see their suffering nature. Anytime we can meditate on this, we should. The meditation on the Buddhadharma is to be done in the mind; the main meditation practice is in the mind, it doesn’t depend on postures.
Meditate on death—what would you do? If it happened now, what would there be to do? What would you try? You have to experience whatever suffering comes. There are many methods to employ to protect yourself from suffering at the time of death, but they have to be practiced while you are alive. If you have desire, the mind is very uncontrolled, and there are many disturbances and much fear, and so it is extremely difficult. Therefore, the methods have to be practiced in this lifetime, as shown by yogis. In order to practice in this lifetime we have to see death as suffering; otherwise we don’t practice and cause the suffering of death ourselves. Each of us can become his own enemy at death, causing suffering, or can become his own perfect guide.
Without control at death we will continue to be reborn in the six samsaric realms. Like the insect that lands on a spider’s web—who causes the problem? The web is in one place, not fixed so especially for that particular fly—but the fly puts himself in suffering and we do the same thing to ourselves, creating bad karma and cycling around continually. Countless trillions of problems arise from that.
This has been clearly explained by the Enlightened Being, as he fully saw it by the power achieved through realizations, and as he explained. Even though we have not had these experiences, the experiences of his followers proved this.
These numberless problems all arise from not paying attention to death. Being bored, feeling sleepy, being lazy—all arise from not realizing that the actual time of death is indefinite, not having full belief in the next life, and not understanding the evolution of karma. The whole problem starts from this point. We don’t know there is a method, and we don’t try. Even if we remember to do something and practice Dharma, we will have many problems in our meditation and great trouble even in visualizing light.
Even though we put in an effort we may be lazy and only do it sometimes, so it still doesn’t become perfectly successful. We are not careful in our Dharma practice, and we create much bad karma. Then at the time of death we experience upset feelings and great fear, which makes us frightened. This is due to not remembering and not checking up on the subject of death. But thinking about death is very meaningful—it makes the human life meaningful, and it is very powerful because we can achieve realizations more quickly by not being obscured by worldly thoughts and negative minds. The power of Bodhicitta and of living in avoidance of the eight temporal desires comes from remembering the subject of death, that the time of death is indefinite. All the higher powers that are achieved by higher practices stem from the meditation on death, and this is also what makes the many holy beings highly realized, following the path. Enlightenment is also due to thinking about death and that its time is indefinite.
Even beginning on the path, you should receive the fully renounced mind. This is the first step—to receive it we have to practice the avoidance of the eight temporal desires. This practice depends on the recognition of suffering, realizing samsaric suffering, and understanding the samsaric nature of suffering. That depends on seeing death and rebirth as suffering, which depends on having fear of death, that its time is indefinite, and thinking about this a great deal. Without this the door will remain closed.
What creates the two different views that two people have towards one object? Different past karma accounts for this. Is it possible that two people can have the same view of one object? No—this is mainly due to the level of mind and fortune, past karma. Is it possible to fully experience the past and future life, as past beings experienced it? To know these subjects requires purification of mind. The purpose of meditating on death is to build energy, to build practice, and to create only good karma.
Shantideva said, “The virtues created with bodhicitta are like a tree that always brings fruit, never decreasing, always increasing; the virtues created without bodhicitta are like a tree that bears fruit for a while, but then decreases, not having the continuity of enjoyment.”
Since we have been born human, this is the time to create virtuous actions—this life is like the tree. Therefore, it is important to possess the motivation of bodhicitta when listening to the Dharma. In this way it becomes a pure action. We should think, “I am going to listen to the teachings of the graded path in order to receive enlightenment for all sentient beings.” Or we should meditate, “I am going to meditate to lead sentient beings into enlightenment, from suffering. Therefore I must purify my negativity and achieve realizations from these meditations for their sake.” If the bodhicitta is strong, the listening or meditation becomes highly beneficial for ourselves and all sentient beings, as the motivation aims.
There is no possibility that the body can stop the sufferings of death or the problems that come after death. The only solution is the practice of Dharma, by the methods shown by the Enlightened One.
Reasoning that there is no continuity of mind before or after this body because we have no personal experience of this or because it has not been explained by scientists is illogical. If we reason in this way, then on the same grounds we should say that there is no evolution of the mind at death or at birth, because none of us fully sees how the mind came into the mother’s womb or how it suffered there. Because it is a completely dark subject, we should say that because we don’t see or remember, the mind didn’t exist in the womb. (We don’t even remember the present life after birth).
What caused us to enter the mother’s womb? Scientists explain the physical level, but there is no scientific explanation of the mental experience, the feelings in the womb at birth or at death. Due to ignorance, scientists don’t fully see the mental experiences of evolution in the womb or at death; they only see the body part, and even this knowledge does not arise from remembering their own experiences. They don’t see the mental continuity of life. If we can’t fully explain the evolution of mind in this life, how can we explain past and future lives? Based on this reasoning of not remembering, we should say that there was no mind in the womb and there is none at death, because there’s no experience of it. We should say “I” don’t exist because I don’t see “I.” We should say that there is no true nature of ourselves because it is not taught in school, and then we become non-existent. If we have to be skeptical of past and future life, we have to be skeptical about mind too, because we don’t recognize what mind is. If we are skeptical about mind in this way we must be skeptical of everything we don’t see. Every person has to be skeptical of himself.
But check up in the mind—are we skeptical of our existence tomorrow? Usually we will find, if we really check, that we have a strong feeling that we will exist tomorrow and for many years to come. But if we are skeptical of these subjects, of the past and future continuity of mind, similarly we should be skeptical of ourselves, because of not knowing who we are. Then we can be skeptical of whether or not we will die tomorrow. We are skeptical where we shouldn’t be, and not skeptical where we should.
Being skeptical of the existence of life in the future really does help to escape from ignorance, suffering, fears of death, and all those subjects. But skepticism of the past and future continuity of life does not help to escape from suffering. Like this we should check up: we don’t fully see what we are going to do tomorrow—we can be skeptical of existing—there is no logical reason for our existence tomorrow, and our minds haven’t the power to fully see it. Here is something for our minds to be skeptical of, yet we believe in our tomorrow; why aren’t skeptical of this belief? Check up.
Without fully seeing mental evolution it is extremely difficult to understand physical evolution. They are not one, but are related to each other. That’s why what is explained in science books is incomplete. I’m talking about my own experience. According to science, there is no explanation of the evolution of the original consciousness; the first conscious form started from a special element in the ocean, but the reason that there is no proof beyond that is due to the lack of full knowledge of mental evolution. No matter how much physical evolution is explained, it cannot fully explain the beginnings of the evolution of mind. The explanation of physical evolution is limited. Without recognition of mind, the explanation of evolution is incomplete.
But this mental evolution, the nature of suffering, the sentient beings who don’t see with this life, hells, and the other realms and so on have been clearly explained by the enlightened beings with reasons and details as they fully see it. How can we believe it? Because they are perfect. How can we check up that they are perfect beings who can fully see these natures and realms; why are they perfect; how do they have these realizations? Their realizations are perfect and what they see is correct because the methods that they have shown to cease the beginningless sufferings have been proved successful by the many other beings who followed them. As these beings practiced the methods they also saw and proved these things through their experiences, and they also achieved enlightenment—they checked up and proved it. They achieved different level of realizations and powers as numberless buddhas have explained. Numberless followers proved this through experience. Through practice they proved that the methods ceased their sufferings.
There are all kinds of different methods. Many Indian Pandits could see more and more clearly as they achieved different levels. This had nothing to do with machines, but with the mind. This was also clearly proven by a great number of Tibetan yogis—they received the methods from Indian pandits and experienced the same thing. So many beings were enlightened in India as well as in Tibet, such as Milarepa, whose story is of just one being living in the power of realization achieved through Dharma practice, being able to take many forms and so forth. Also, Guru Tsongkhapa and Lama Atisha had fantastic human lives—they could do such things as make the body tiny. They also proved the suffering of different beings that we don’t see, such as naraks, on the basis of seeing past and future lives. Also, there were many yogis who dissolved their bodies and attained the vajra body through sutra and tantra practice. These methods prove that the enlightened beings’ experience was perfect. The purpose of Dharma practice is to transform the mind from negativity and cause it to experience realizations so that it can become perfectly peaceful.
Also, the Tibetan yogis gave the same explanations that Guru Shakyamuni had given—they greatly emphasized that we must take care in the evolution of karma. Also in Tibet, regarding past and future lives, there are so many highly realized incarnate lamas and yogis who have control of death, rebirth, and suffering, and who have bodhicitta. Whenever they see that they can help sentient beings, they take birth in that place with choice. They are free to do this, being conscious of taking birth. Our births were uncontrolled because we were unconscious—we had feelings at birth but now we don’t remember them; nor do we remember the realms we were in before. This is because we are in the uncontrolled cycle of death and rebirth, under the power of delusion and karma.
(Question) Do you personally remember your consciousness in your mother’s womb?
(Answer) No, I don’t have realizations but many lamas now have this power. His Holiness the Dalai Lama could recognize his past servants and his past religious items.
People who carefully look after karma and practice tantra can die and be reborn freely since they have control of their delusions or are enlightened. In India many lamas passed away—before this they meditated for twenty days or so, and when they died in the lotus position their bodies did not decay for some time after they had left them, and because of the power in the room one could feel good vibrations, and there was a good smell.
Also, there was one aristocratic lady in Tibet who was always meditating and practicing the teachings as they were given to her by her guru. At the time of death she had no fear; she made the correct prayers and sent her servant out, then after some time she passed away into the trip of death in a happy state of mind. She was happy at the time of death. Most of us spend our lives in distraction, having no fear of death—then at the time of death much fear and suffering arise. From the Dharma point of view, if you are free at the death time you are self-supporting, but being self-supporting only in this lifetime it is not a wise way to be. This lady took care of karma, meditated on suffering, and had control over her death. There are all kinds of methods to use at the time of death to attain this result.
Just recently, a year or two ago, there was an ascetic down from our place. He was a very austere lama who had no attachment to samsaric existence, who had realized impermanence and the renounced mind, and lived in the pure mind of Dharma practice. For a year before his death, many times he pretended that he was sick, then if he heard that others were doing good things for Dharma he got well. At the time of death he was perfectly okay. One night he talked to the monk who was his servant, saying, “Don’t worry,” and at dawn he sent his servants out and poured out some tea, and then he died. After meditating for a week he reincarnated in that area. Later he was identified by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and by many other lamas on the mountain.
Before death many lamas prophesy where they will take rebirth. Having control after death is not definite, and does not only depend on being a monk. At the time of death, we can become enlightened. Many lay people practiced like this, taking a fearless death on the instructions of their guru.
One Indian lady who was a benefactor observed karma and had deep devotion to her deity was taken care of by her son. They kept animals—donkeys. She often went to the monastery. One day she returned from the monastery, thanked her son for taking care of her life, and passed away with no fear. This kind of experience depends on the power of the teachings of the specific deity.
Those who closely observe their karma and meditate on impermanence are much happier at death time than during their lives because they have the confidence of the path. Most people, however, suffer at the time of death. Even the person who has killed many people will be okay if he practices purifying his karma according to the Dharma, and due to the power of his practice.
There are many instances of reincarnation in the West, such as the soldier who was reborn as the son of the man who killed him. The best way to remember our past lives is through the full power obtained through the practice of meditation.
There are two kinds of incarnation, controlled and uncontrolled. Going through fearless death, going through death with recognition and understanding, and experiencing the method practiced in this lifetime becoming effective at the time of death as the above example shows—this method given by the enlightened one is true. The way to check the enlightened beings is to check their method, to see whether or not it helps as explained. The realizations of the meditations as experienced by other followers should make us practice as explained, so that we can achieve it ourselves. The understanding of karma and the other realms depends on our level of wisdom. Those with high wisdom clearly see it after a brief explanation; for others it takes time and even one hundred pages cannot explain it all. This depends on the person’s fortune and level of intelligence. If ten people read the same book they don’t have the same understanding. To understand these subjects requires the support of the creation of merits and the purification of negativity; it requires the help of creating merits and purification of negativity. We also need this support to gain realizations and enlightenment. Without such help it is very difficult.
