[7] Navigating the Peril and Promise of the Afterlife

3:20PM Nov 13, 2023

Speakers:

Andrew Holecek

Keywords:

rinpoche

amitabha

pure

land

practice

meditation

rebirth

death

recite

tantric

bardo

mind

mantra

experience

teachings

merit

sutra

karma

habit

long

Hey, everybody, welcome to our ongoing book study group. This is one of the pretty rare events where I'm pre recording this session because I'm going to be traveling out Thursday night. And so instead of you skipping yet, like I've done in the past few sessions, what I've done to kind of pre record things seems to work. So we're going through the book preparing to die, subtitle, what is it practical advice and spiritual wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition with an even longer sub subtitle, a guide for those facing death, and for their caregivers, including teachings from the great masters, and useful advice on navigating end of life issues. I think it's useful but nobody's thing. The last time we left off, on page 33. We're talking about reverse meditations. This is the first time ever in print that I mentioned this notion of reverse meditations. And of course, as I mentioned before, my very last most recent book that came out this July, in fact, is on this topic of reverse meditation, but this is the first time I mentioned it. So page 33, sort of at the top, I read, run a little auto commentary, won't be able to take questions, obviously this time around, but we'll catch that up in a couple of weeks when I get back. Since fear is common in the Bardot's fear, fear is actually what's called pathognomonic. It's it's absolutely characteristic and indicative of the Bardot's because we're fundamentally afraid of what we don't know, right? Since fear is common in the Bardot's Khenpo Rinpoche was my main teacher recommends watching horror movies as a way to work with this. I remember when he gave us this instruction was like seriously. This is a potent reverse meditation for all the Bardot's but especially for the Bardo, becoming. And why is that? Because in the Bardo of die, I'm sorry, in the luminous part of Dharma TA, the second of the three death bar, there was my languaging, all heaven breaks loose. But if we're not familiar with the divine Heavenly Nature of our being, we don't recognize that I'm not perfect purity, I'm not the deity, we contract away, out of that inability to accommodate this kind of sacred dimension are being added into the Bartleby of becoming where all hell breaks loose. Why? Because this is where your karma is unleashed your habits without the abundance without the mediation, the buffer of your body. And that's what can make this Bardo particularly challenging for the unprepared mind. Where thought becomes reality, mental content really becomes your reality. So depending on what you have in your ballot box, so to speak, what stuffed in there. That's what that's what's going to come up. This is why Bob Thurman, remember I riff on this amazing quote from him the most, I think it's the biggest best selling book of the translation. So the Tibetan Book of the Dead, I'm not entirely sure on that. There's at least a dozen translations now. But I'm pretty sure Bob's translation has sold over a million copies. But anyway, he says, when I was working with him, we were doing some Bardo teachings together online, this amazing blind that he threw out, it's not safe to die. As long as you still have an unconscious mind, amazing. Why? Because according to this tradition, that's what comes up. That's the Pandora's box that's released. So this is both good and bad news, depending on what you have. And this unconscious mind, right. Okay, especially for the Bardo, becoming this practice comes into play, because we don't recognize the appearances of this Bardo to be the projections of our own mind. The further we go into it, the more terrifying it becomes. That's a key characteristic of the party becoming is the farther you go into it, the more terrifying it becomes, the stronger the winds, so to speak, become the habit patterns. And at the end of it, you basically are willing to jump into any form any any place of refuge, so long as you can get away from the buffet. And you know, from from being buffeted by the contents of your own mind. The fear becomes so piercing that it can force us to grasp and unfortunately rebirth just to escape the intensity the onslaught of our own mind. establishing a relationship to fear now helps us relate to it then, and can prevent such a rebirth. This fear thing is a big deal, right? Pretty sure I say more about it later, but I gave it an entire presentation, right when COVID came out for Shambala Mountain Center before it changed his name on working with fear and anxiety. So these are foundational players in relative reality they're actually the bedrock of relative reality everything we do I can really argue this point, is fundamentally a very sophisticated avoidance strategy to avoid this fear. Right? How does it go look under depression, you'll find anger, look under anger, you'll find sadness, look under sadness, and you'll find fear look under that you're going to find ignorance because fear is the effective expression of ignorance. So basically, everything in samsara can virtual reality can be reduced is reducible to fear, which lies at the very center of our self sense. And therefore, there's waiting for us in a very compelling, powerful way, as we do deep meditation practice or as we die. But back to this strange, difficult practice, right? I find this reverse meditation really challenging. I used to do it in fact, I used to do it at my programs. When I first started teaching these weekend, weekend events, but then I realized nobody's coming back. Because they're just so wretched, they're so bad, so I couldn't believe it. I actually bought I think it was saw I remember, you people here probably are not familiar with his just really bad series of horror movies called saw as AWS and cutting right. Use your imagination. And I don't know how many of these there were but I think I bought something like saw number four. I mean, not only are they incredibly stupid, but they're badly acted, they're vile. I mean, they're just nasty, right? And while I was doing this, it's like, wow, this is like this is incredibly stupid. This is like ridiculous. But then I realized I realized, Hey, this is a artificially contrived environment granted, for sure. But it gives me gave me the opportunity to work with pretty creepy states of mind. The films are wretched, violent, and extremely difficult to watch. Like no kidding. I usually have to look away or pause the movie to bring any sense of meditation to it. My normal response is tremendous revulsion version. But it's contrived and almost silly as this practice appears. It does invoke evoke a host of nasty feelings. It allows me to become familiar with that's the very definition of meditation right gong to become familiar with the shadowy side of my being a dark side that comes to light and the bar to becoming horror movies give me the opportunity to befriend horrible feelings I would otherwise never encounter. So Kemper he was was was somewhat famous for this. Allegedly, when he was in Nepal, I mean, sorry, Tibet, maybe in India. He was somewhat famous for doing the classic what are called charnel ground meditations, which is kind of a tantric form of reverse meditation, by the way. And charnel grounds are these just archetypal, the most horrific places you can imagine in India, or Nepal, Tibet, they would have been places where bodies would be gathered, because they couldn't burn them. It was too cold or whatever. So they're just be this heap of rotting bodies. With vultures and hyenas and crazy wild animals kind of stuff. You can just imagine, just like think of the worst possible place. And so as part of the tantric tradition of Charlestown practice, sidas practitioners, obviously somewhat advanced, would go and they'd meditate in those arenas, they'd sit there to work with these really difficult challenging states of mind. And today, I mean, jeez, on one level, the whole world as a charnel ground, right? I mean, it's just amazing. But it would be archetypically. An emergency room on a Saturday night, a warzone? You know, Hamas, Israel, Gaza right now, that's a channel around Ukraine is a child ground war disaster. These archetypal, the most revolting places a construction of life or death is to join whatever we experience with meditation. Without actually practicing, it's hard to do. So this is the whole thing behind the reverse meditations. If we don't voluntarily on our terms, titrate unwanted experiences. How do we ever expect to be able to bring a meditative quality of mind to unwanted experience, we're just kidding ourselves. And so the great gift of the of this type of practice, reverse meditation is all together is to work with these difficult states of mind on your terms. When you have the ability to hit the mute button, you have the ability to take a pause. Well, when it happens in real life, you can't hit the mute button. You can't take a pause. But this is a good habit that can be installed. That can really help you when things fall apart. an unwanted experience arises habitual patterns almost survival level instincts immediately kick in, and we run and away from the experience or relate to it poorly.

The reverse meditations allow us to replace these bad habits with good ones. When difficult situations arise, wisdom kicks in instead of confusion. So that's the key. You want to install replace a bad habit of reactivity with a more healthy good habit of response ability where you can respond and not react, reactivity creates karma, responsibility, responsiveness purifies karma and doesn't create new karma. So this is in the essence and this is why these practices are considered tantric and spirit. Therefore a little bit advanced, and most people are going to say there's just no way I'm not going to do this. Well, that's fine. Selective, right. But like I say, with all the reverse meditations, there's old age pain, sickness, death, elective? I don't think so. So if you really want to advance your practice, put it in a reverse. puroland practice. Oh, yeah, this is great. I'm gonna be doing a whole puroland week to drill a mountain center quick advertisement in May. I just posted that. Super excited a whole week on this stuff. Oh, yeah, I remember this very well. Trungpa Rinpoche Oh, heartfelt, wonderful master. He put me on my three year retreat. I studied and learn as much from him as from anybody else on this planet along with Khenpo Rinpoche who I just mentioned, these are my two main living teachers. He just transitioned the summer. Amazing, amazing loss. Several years ago, I asked Trungpa Rinpoche this is actually in Katmandu, I used to work in his monasteries, who was taught extensively on the Bardot's this question, if a Buddhist realized they only had a year left to live, what practice should they emphasize? He replied, purely in practice. totally surprised me. It was like, what? His answer may surprise students of Tibetan Buddhism it sure surprised me. Where appear lands are rarely mentioned. Like hardly ever. I mean, if anybody listening can tell me of a program at teaching where a modern master has taught in the pure lands, I'd like to know about it. Campbell character Rinpoche says that his death approaches the main deity we should relate to is Amitabha. The principal puroland Buddha. This is because do I say this a little bit here? I think I do. So I'm going to put a hold on this. Pure line practice is important because if you don't attain enlightenment on the Bardot's, the next best thing is to gain rebirth into a pure land. I mean, really, for most of us, this is our best opportunity. This is our best shot. And as I you know, look in the mirror and find myself aging. Damn. Can't seem to do anything about that, right? I find myself doing puroland stuff more and more and more reciting the puroland mantra or mommy diva fee. I think I introduced that here. And if not, we can talk about it. Yes, I do. Visualizing the Pure Land engaging in pure land practice. I just find myself doing this more and more. There are a number of reasons for doing this first pure land rebirth. While not yet Nirvana are outside of samsara. They're not retrogressive. Once you're there, you're never going to fall back. That's why you want to get there. They're free from the aging sickness and death of samsaric existence. There's no overt suffering. That's why it's called blissful, but great, blissful, pure lands, there's no suffering. Second, third, non retrogressive. Once you're born into a pure land, you'll never fall back into samsara unless you do so voluntarily to actualize your bodhisattva vow. All right. Third, spiritual progress is rapid in a pure lamb. It's like being born in a country where everyone is a llama and everybody practices the Dharma. Yeah, imagine that. Imagine being in a neighborhood where on either side of you were bodhisattvas across the street, were some Buddhas. You had Campos and Rinpoche is a Lama is like everywhere you go for a walk, right? Like I do with my dog and just bumping into all these enlightened beings. I mean, you have no choice, the center of gravity is so high, you have no choice but to evolve very, very quickly. And that's why you want to go there not only as a non retrogressive, but it's really accelerating. It's a hyper pedagogy, where you enter this environment where everything the birds that sing or singing the Dharma, everything is just soak in the Dharma. And that's one reason it's pure, right? It's pure of all samsaric self referencing ideals. The developmental center of gravity is so high you have no choice but to evolve forth. The spiritual progress allows you to develop powers of super cognition. Yeah, classically clear audience clairvoyance, all these relative cities in order to better help others right With these abilities, you're more effective in helping going to a puroland is not getting out of your body suffer? Well, that's a really common question. Well, if I'm supposed to stay back here, and help, that's a great thing to do. But going to a puroland actually accelerates the actualization of your body self as well, because once you become a bodhisattva, and a Buddha, you have infinitely more capacities to benefit others. It's like getting, you know, two or three PhDs or whatever in this world, and being much more effective and relating to others and helping them it's like going to graduate school instead of staying back in kindergarten. Yeah, like Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, fifth, pure Lana. birth into a pure land is your last rebirth before attaining enlightenment. The most famous puroland of which there are infinite numbers for everybody. There's a peer then, basically, and the one at the heart of the puroland tradition, which is, by the way, the largest form of Buddhism in the world, over 100 million practitioners. Is de bois Chan Soo cavity literally means the land of Bliss, right? Well, I always throw this in. We we don't live in sukawati. We live in Ducati. suka means bliss and suka city great bliss. Power of bliss. Dukkha means suffering. We live in the realm of suffering. So we live this is my neologism. I haven't come across this anywhere but I like to slap words together. We live in Ducati. The land of contraction the land of suffering so cavity is the land of openness, the land of Bliss. So cavity is generally regarded as the only pure land there's some there's been some amendments to that I've learned a little bit. Apparently it's only the 17th Karmapa has been talking about another one. I mean, what do I know? But classically speaking, what I'm sharing here is just comes from the tradition. So cavity is generally regarded as the only pure lane where ordinary beings like ourselves can be reborn. Yeah, the visa access visa requirements are the easiest, right? All the other pure lands require the attainment of the first Boonie, which is a lofty level of realization. So the first Bhumi is the first of Bhoomi means ground. The first Bhumi, which is attained at the third path, these Buddha's like their lists of numbers are what? So the first Bhumi is a path of seeing a third path, which is there's not a separate path. It's just one stage and when one path all the way to awakening, it's a pretty lofty level of realization. It's where you have a direct experience and some stability, with emptiness. That's not quite so simple. And so therefore, again, the access to the pure lands is not nearly as accessible as it is with sukawati, which is in fact why this pure land was created by the monk dermaclara. Long time ago five ROA to His infinite accumulations of merit. I think that's even what the word Dharmakaya means. The Tibetan tradition whose approach to the pure lands differs from traditional Korean Chinese, Japanese or Japanese puroland, which are the biggest schools, the Shinshu and the judicial schools is centered on a Tet that we'll return to frequently, the mind leads all things it's the classic Pali principle on the Pali canon. By cultivating pure states of mind and this life that will lead us to a pure land after death, right. Psychology leads to ontology epistemology leads to ontology, pure land, pure mind leads to pure land. Color. Rinpoche says that by the orientation given to our mind in this life, once in the Bardo, we become conscious that we are dead, that's lucidity, that's conscious dying, that's lucid dying. And we see Amitabha Amitabha, the bit of infinite lights, that's what the name means. Coming to welcome us,

we will recognize him and wish for rebirth in his pure land. This thought is enough to make us go there immediately. So this is worth interjecting. So when you're in the bar knows there's tremendous peril and there's tremendous promise, according to this tradition, has to do with the empty nature of the Bartos, the liquidity of it all, that everything is amplified, because you're no longer grounded in ontology it's just all mind. And so it's perilous if that mind is untamed, untrained, and then a habit patterns just war take take over kick you into your next rebirth. You have no choice. Basically, just like an anon lucid dream. It's the same thing. Death is just the dream at the end of time. But the promise is if you actually do have lucidity, the ability in this kind of plasma dimension of mind is to shape your rebirth. to shape your journey volitionally. And this is massively important seven to nine times more efficacious depending on which text you read. And so this is what's really this is what's so great about these, allegedly, but by doing these teachings and contemplations is that you're installing all these pop ups into your unconscious mind. So it's not all bad news in the unconscious mind. There's all kinds of levels of it and you can install all kinds of really healthy habits really healthy karma that comes up. And that's when in fact, studying this Texas about this with a puroland teachings are all about. So then that good habit that good merit that good karma takes good care of you right. Four principle meditations cultivate the conditions necessary for rebirth and sukawati. The first is to contemplate the details of Buddha Amitabha. The Buddha who entered this who created this pure land for us, and of sukawati, the Pure land itself. This is done by studying the descriptions found and the longer sukawati sutra or the progressive visualizations of the meditation sutra. There are three principal there three principal puroland Sutras, the long sukawati sutra, the short sukawati sutra, and was called the meditation sutra. And then there's some supplemental texts. I have all three, I've read them a number of different times and a number of different translations. But this is where where most of the attraction comes from, from the sutra approach, tantric approach is the pure land were brought about by a number of amazing masters, Carmen Chalkbeat, being the most principal one, he's the one that wrote this quite famous aspiration prayer, which is when I do the pure pure land programs. That's the main practice for the week. That particular aspiration prayer encapsulates all four of these necessary kind of conditions. But the idea here is by studying this pure land, the topography, the what it looks like literally what it looks like, like a travel guide, at the moment of death, MindScape becomes landscape. Just like in a dream. It's just like no dream. Number two second accumulate merit. Even though the transfer of merit from Amitabha is a principle for us and our rebirth and sukawati, we need our own merit from our own side. Oh, big topic. I'm pretty darn sure I say quite a bit more about merit later. Because this is a principle way to help others not not just merely yourself, but others who have already transitioned who have died. accumulation, dedication of merit to others is a key way to benefit so I'm pretty certain we talked about this later. 30 to develop the mind of enlightenment or body to that to go to dip says and he's the one who writes with in speaks with some regularity, his book, peaceful death, joyful rebirth. There's a lot in there about the pier lands. I've attended some of his teachings on this, like when that book first came out, I tend to some of his programs. So he's a Tibetan master that that at least I don't know what he's doing now, but has taught with some regularity on this topic. Quote, do you miss vow or be determined to lead all mother beings without exception to the blissful pure land without any selfishness. And you must put that aspiration into practice through meditation, and beneficial deeds. And cool, there we go. Number four, dedicate the merit you have gathered for rebirth and Sokovia. And make heartfelt aspirations to be reborn there, hence the aspiration prayer. So this is a very specific application of merit, which is the form of good karma. you direct it, it's like, it's like inserting a trim tab from behind and the steering wheel in front that takes this kind of cosmic currency. You know, merit is really the currency of spiritual reality in a very real way. Spiritual energy that can be transformed into mass in a certain way for Chela, with this analogy of E equals MC squared is the spiritual energy that they can actually be transformed and actually transferred. It's pretty cool stuff. In a world made of matter, this is just metaphysical nonsense mumbo jumbo, but in a world made a minecart spirit. This becomes completely tenable. ascertaining that you are dedicating merit exactly as your forefathers did on their path to enlightenment. These dedications and aspirations are like steering wheels that guide our marriage toward the goal of rebirth and sukawati or rudder, whichever. I like both steering wheel and front rudder and then the little rudder within the rudder is called the trim tab from behind all four causes They're based on faith and Amitabha and his pure land. So this is yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay, so I go into it. Yeah. So this is the most important factor for entry into sukawati. Which is why the sutras were written to convince to try to convince us of the validity of this particular approach. And I did a where did it come across as I can't remember where exactly but when I was doing pretty heavy research on this, when I was teaching on regularly, some scholar somewhere did the math on all the Buddha's teachings, and it could be wrong, but I think I'm pretty accurate, like 16% of all the Buddha's teachings were on pure land topics. And so they definitely have a validity, as in fact, of course, the Bardo teachings altogether, right, definitely have a place. Even in Tibetan Buddhism, which usually doesn't work with this, overtly anyway. This is the most important factor for entry into the cavity, right? I'll see it when I believe it. It's really the the most potent aspect of the so called placebo effect, it's a mind effect. So convincing yourself of the validity of this pure land, which is just as real, in fact, more so than this land. This is key. Not so easy for Skeptical Westerners who think that basically, slavery is just heaven. On the top, it's just another version of God. Well, not quite, because even at the puroland schools, you have the notions of emptiness. And so even these notions provisionally yes, you could say that. But deeper, there's, they're both empty, both the cavity is empty, both Amitabha is empty. And there's no theistic tradition that makes that proclamation. And so that's why they're different, right? The balance the juxtaposition of relative truth. Yes. And Sight Sound like heaven sure does sound like God. And who am I to does that right? I mean, good knows, right? I am good one, no idea. But the emptiness teachings are, we make this a little bit more kind of Buddhist in orientation. We really, we have to really believe in this pure land and the power of Amitabha. To help us at the moment of death. These four factors are encapsulated in the famous sukawati aspiration prayer by Carmen Chagny Rinpoche, this is kind of cool, because when I least for me, because when I was living in Nepal for a while, I had amazing opportunity to hang out with some pretty amazing people. And one of them was the current incarnation in the mindstream of karma, chug me, Rinpoche so I met that that point, I think he's transitioned. I think he's died. But I met the last instance, the last iteration of the karma, chug a mindstream. And so that was pretty cool. That was like getting a special little blessing transmission. Really sweet, sweet man, I remember it very well. There are Amitabha meditations and many other aspiration prayers. But this is the most widely practiced liturgy for Tibetan Buddhist, by far. too numerous. To Nyima Rinpoche, I remember this I got this in Boulder, when he was here like 25 years ago, describes an Amitabha practice to do every night. I still do this. I learned this from him. 25 years ago, I got into the habit, drink. It was just a weekend teaching. I've done it every night ever since because it's so easy. As you lay down to sleep, visualize Amitabha on top of your head, recite his mantra or mommy do or flee. It's called the nembutsu. This is the name of the Buddha, basically, in Tibetan recite this mantra, that's his email address, right? He's pretty good. He responds to emails I don't. So if you're if you write to him by reciting his mantra, that's his email address. It's actually it's better it's like an Instagram. It's like a text he'll respond right away. By me, I'm not so good.

Recite his mantra three times dissolve the visualization of Amitabha into your heart right he's resting on top of your head as you go to sleep you dissolve that into your heart sink takes all of about four seconds I do it every night. Feel his bliss and light then go to sleep with Amitabha tucked into your heart and mind. Pretty cool right? Have the Buddhist tuck you into sleep I do this every night. Super easy, super fast. tantric have adrionna students practice an esoteric form of pure land Buddhism with meditations on sacred alloyed or pure perception. So this is where for for tantric is for Tibetan Buddhists, because Tibetan Buddhism is basically contract Buddhism. This is where the stuff really comes alive. And this is where this is what I emphasize when I give these teachings don't dismiss the suitor approach at all. Not in the slightest. But the tantric approach transcends but includes the sutra and it makes it much more immediate. You don't have to wait till you die to Enter the blissful pure lands, you can enter the Pure land of the present moment right now through tantric methods right. So, it makes it much more immediate and much more empowered. Oh yeah, here we go, this is the Pure land of the present moment is tick not Han refers to it. Particularly the fourth moment we discussed earlier remember fourth moment, not is beyond past, present and future literally, but a standard time connected to the notion of Turia or the fourth and Hinduism. Sacred outlook is an important preparation for the Bardot's because the key instruction while in the Bardo is to see everything is perfectly pure. This shifts our relationship to whatever arises. It erases our tendency, excuse me to poison experience. With passion, aggression, or ignorance, the three root poisons the three principal forms of inappropriate relationship right there at the center of the wheel of life above a chakra, Rooster, a pig and a snake, very hub, all feeding on each other. And all reducible aggression is reducible to passion which is reducible to ignorance, everything arises from ignorance. Fear is also the direct expression of that ignorance, right? The three root poisons are there spark plugs that drive the engine of samsara. I want it passion. I don't want it. Aggression, couldn't care less ignorance, they define our existence. Check this out. I've been thinking about this, because reification so you have you have of ignorance. Born from ignorance is fear. an instantaneous reflex of fear is reification. reification is applied ignorance. And so I reflected on this, it's like think about this for a second. anger or aggression. reifies the past fear, right? Ignorance because fear is active expression of ignorance, effective, active expression of ignorance reifies, the future right? And passion or grasping reifies the present. So these three and appropriate forms of relationship the three root poisons are ways that we reify past, present and future. I thought that was pretty cool. They define our existence take a look at your life, do they not the three poisons transform an inherently pure world into the impure land of a daily life. So this is how we create impurity, moment to moment to moment through reifying. So one of the reasons the tantric rendering of why the blissful puroland is so blissful is because it's empty. Emptiness is the effect of experience expression. Bliss, bliss is emptiness is bliss, if it's related to pro appropriately. In the Bardo, this impure perception hurls us into an entire impure life, because fogey Reanna Esoteric Buddhism emphasizes pure mind. It's easy to dismiss the exoteric schools and their emphasis on pure land. Many people dismiss the Pure Land traditions is easy, or lazy Buddhism, Buddhism light, I've heard some I won't name them. But I've heard some pretty famous notable teachers actually talk about it this way. And it's like, really, I mean, why are you doing that? They denigrated as being for those who can't handle the rigors of real Buddhism. Some writers say the pure lands are for beginners. For others, it sounds theistic Amitabha sounds like God and sukawati sounds like heaven. But the Buddha taught on sukawati and some of the greatest masters in Tibetan Buddhism wrote extensively about it. They spur their disciples to engage to the practices to get there. And again, Trungpa Rinpoche told me to even though there is no pure land sect in Tibetan Buddhism, there is a strong Pure Land orientation, you just have to look a little bit deeper. It's also tempting to regard to comedy as merely symbolic metaphoric, but Sokovia is just as real or unreal as the Earth displace. It's a place a land so to speak created by the merit of Amitabha for people I guess we should take it seriously. For most of us going just a cavity. Because the best thing we can do after we die, there you have it is a massive topic huge, so much more to say but enough for now. Okay. Yeah, preparation for sudden death. So this is helpful. I learned this from a couple of different teachers. We may have our vision of a perfect death. But life doesn't always cooperate. Have you noticed? One out of 10 people will die suddenly and unexpectedly What should we do? We're about to die in an accident. The instruction here is simple as it should be emergency dharma. Bring your awareness to the top of your head. It's a form of emergency POA, we'll talk about that in a second. And recite the mantra or Mani Padme home. Or if you want a second, excuse me a second option. All mommy to have a home I'm sorry. Um, Mani Padme home, closes the door to rebirth in the six realms of samsara. Because each of the six syllables is associated with the six realms. You can also recite as an option, Oh mommy, they were three, that's what opens the gate that you aren't open, which is through the central channel, the top of your head. That's called the Brahma rondo. It's the highway to heaven. That's the stairway to heaven. You want your consciousness to go up through the central channel and out the web had. This is pretty esoteric inner yogic theory. But every Tibetan school works with this principle. It's the principle of what's also called POA classic POA nirmanakaya, POA, in particular, are five types of POA. No, Monica and Paul was the one that's almost always given. And that's where you're moving, working to move these energy centers these energy pearls with a called Bindu. Learning how to kind of FedEx and out the top of your head. Some Japanese scientists have done some studies with this and have actually noticed some physiological changes associated with people who do pull up practice. So I'm pretty sure I say more about this later. Bringing Yeah, there we go. Pitch 54. bringing your awareness to the top of your head is a form of emergency POA, that's my languaging reciting the mantra of compassion of Avalokitesvara chan Raizy closes the doors to the six realms of samsara. It also invokes his blessings. If compassion has a sound, according to the Tibetans, its own money had made it so this question was brought up last time, I think Mark asked about the universality of these particular monitors the sounds actually, you know, this is during the meditation group. And I reflected later that Yeah, I think these are deep structures, and that sort of like surface structures. And so they're independent of cultural inculturation. And one analog here is mathematics. Mathematics, you could say is what level is a cultural creation by the Arabs, and actually originally, that's being traced back largely to Indian thought. But it has a universal applicability. It applies the math in Japan is the same as the math in India, America whenever. And so I think the kind of relating mantra, the power of mantra, and the relationship of deep structure and surface structure to mathematics, I think there's some credibility to that. By bringing your awareness at the top of your head, you open the door to rebirth and the pure realms. This can be done by visualizing your guru or deity directly above you, that's how power is actually done. Or by merely turning your gaze upward. So this is what onion Rinpoche says, this is where I learned this, you literally by looking up, you're bringing the winds up. I'm just telling you what I've read, and what I've been taught. If you panic and can't remember what to do, then cry out to your teacher, or spiritual teacher. For a spiritual being for help, instead of saying oh shit on your mind.

When you're about to die, it's better to have your teacher or Amitabha on your mind and to be reborn in his pure land. So a little tongue in cheek here based on the laws of proximate karma, last thought best thought and was also what's called the immediately preceding condition. That attention to your mind this principle not only applies to death to the puroland schools, but also to the nocturnal meditations. The very last thought you have on your mind is a powerful conditioning perfuming effect causal effect can actually say conditioning effect on the next moment. And so I playfully say here you know, instead of having oh crap on your mind you run the risk of what being reborn as a dung beetle. Don't do that. Have purity on your mind. And so the way to practice this the way to condition this is the slide off the road instead of Oh crap, right. Oh, Mani Padme home you're fired your lover dumps you you get a terminal diagnosis instead of Oh crap. Right? On Monday probably home so you can practice this get this did get this habit into your system whenever anything groundless, any bar to experience any rug pulled out from under your feet happens. This is where you're gonna get to know what you're made of. Usually we capitulate, you know regressively With As things tend to be regressive, we tend to go back to what we're most familiar with trying to get everything back together again, well, that's not going to work here. So to practice this, skinning off the road slipping off your feet, sliding whatever any kind of ungrounded or godless experience, instead of Oh crap, say all my new piping home, condition yourself. Oh, here we go. T's present. The way to practice for sudden death now is to recite the mantra or visualize the deity whenever you receive some bad news or somehow shocked. Any experience that throws you into a feeling of groundlessness is an opportunity to practice for sudden death. It's like appending, the label bless you after someone sneezes for most people, this polite habit is automatic. But it didn't happen automatically. You had to practice it, your teeth, your parents, your teachers had to say Be polite. So he goes on to say bless you, same thing inculcation of a good habit. When your lover tells you, he or she is dumping you. Now the presence of mine to say to yourself, Oh, my department home, a friend just died on Monday party home. You just got fired on Monday, but me home. Small sudden deaths happened all the time, and give us opportunities to practice for the big one. I started practicing pastic practicing this whenever I read about a violent death in the paper, or heard about it on the news. I still do this all the time. It's a habit. Like I mentioned, I think in the meditation group, you know, 18 people shot in Maine, I recite the mantra 18 times. So you might suspect I'm reciting this mantra a lot. 1400 Jewish people killed a lot of mantras. 1000 Allegedly, Palestinians killed. That's a lot of monitors. A suicide bomber blew up. 20 people on Monday probably home teenager was killed in a car accident. Oh monopod my phone or tornado destroyed an entire town or money pardoning home my usual response has been to close down around such news. It was too painful. But this bless you. Montreux showed me how to keep my heart open, and to connect to the suffering of others. So like I said, on the meditation group session, Mantra is mind protection. That's what it means. Etymologically mind protection mantra Well, in Sanskrit and Pali mind is same word. To them. It's the same. So this is an instance of how mantras protect the heart. They protect the heart from closing. Because otherwise what you're gonna do, it's just so much right you can track and defend you could track This practice helps you protect the heart mind protects the heart to stay open. Because otherwise it just, it's just overwhelming. It's so much bad news, so much crap happening. How do we stay open to all that? If we shut down and turn our eyes away? Is that Bodhisattva activity? No, we have to be aware of what's happening. We don't have to gorge on it. We don't have to indulge it. But I do think we need to be informed on it. And that's really hard these days. So for me, what do I do? I recite this module a lot, protects my heart keeps me open. Yes, especially mantra showed shows me how to keep my heart open and to connect to the suffering of others. After a few weeks of mindful effort. This good habit took over, habit now starts to do me. That's when you know you've accomplished it to a certain extent. With his preliminary practice directed to others, I was then able to extend it to my own daily deaths. If you're trained in POA, then the instructions for sudden death may vary depending on your training. But the essential practice is simple. Which is what we need in the time of crisis. gauge your readiness for sudden death by looking at how you react to critical situations. When you wake up sweating from a nightmare. Do you respond with a practice mind or not? When a car cuts you off and or sends you into the ditch, what happens to your mind. Use any heart pounding situation, use any heart pounding situation, both to assess your readiness and to practice for any potential heart stopping accidents. Okay, well, this longer session, I don't want to jump into this because this one's going to take a little bit more. So a good 45 minutes but we'll pick it up next time if the Noble Truths thing. Again, my charter here is not to just blaze through this text but take to take time to unpack it. Unfortunately, I won't be around. I haven't developed that capacity yet to send out emanations and be here for you to respond to your questions. So We'll pick it up in a couple of weeks, you can start your questions from this one. And obviously anything between now and then. And always remember right in the spirit of keeping our hearts open that what we're doing here, fundamentally, yes, provisionally a benefit to us, but fundamentally is for the benefit of others. So to whatever extent education in America means anything to you, right? Send it all away. Give it all out. So we always keep in mind what we're doing here, what we're doing, for others to help others. So sorry, I can't be around. I'm traveling a lot of travel these days. But I think this is better than just skipping the week. So I'll be back in a couple of weeks for that one. Really Sure. I'm going to be live I have a retreat coming up. I'm not sure what the dates are that are usually in November I go off for about one or two weeks. But even then if I need to just record another one. But otherwise, see you around. Cemetery buddy.