[4] Preparing for the Ultimate Transition: Meditation Practices for Death and Immortality

8:03PM Oct 1, 2023

Speakers:

Andrew Holecek

Keywords:

mind

practice

death

thought

bardo

awareness

meditation

life

bardot

fruition

reminders

fourth

experience

work

contemplations

states

die

dream

mindfulness

constructs

A everybody welcome to our ongoing books Study Group. We are going through the preparing to die book, and I am recording this one's first time I've done this because I'm traveling. So tomorrow at this time, I will be in flight to Michigan. And I missed the one two weeks ago. So I think I did. So are we going to record this. So just a few real quick announcements. For those of you interested in the Midwest area. In a couple of weeks, I'm doing an event with the Tergar Madison, Wisconsin group list is going to post that this is going to be on my new book, reverse meditation. So it's the first program I've actually ever taught on this topic. So I'm kind of psyched about that Richie Davidson, good friend of mine who invited me he's a neuroscientist out there, you may know him founder of the Center for the investigation of Healthy Minds. He's going to come in and actually do some presentation time with me during this weekend. So that's gonna be pretty awesome. And then we just posted a week long thing that we're doing in Costa Rica, a brand new event at Blue spirit hadn't been down there before. But I've heard terrific things about it. So week long event, kind of beginning intermediate study practice of lucid dreaming. So super excited about that. So we left off last time, page 19, kind of halfway through the section practices and teachings to prepare you for death. And so as usual, I read run some commentary. Obviously, since I'm not here live, we won't be able to do any q&a this time. So save your questions for next time. Okay, so the fruition or shamoto, it's most of the way down on page 19. the fruition of shamatha are the key essence meditations, is the ability to rest your mind on any object for as long as you wish. And to do so without distraction, small compliment, right. Wherever you plop your awareness, it stays there, like a beanbag hitting the ground. This is also where the entrance to the gyla states the the absorption states of which there are eight. That's where they come in the ability to actually rest increasingly and more and more refined dimensions of stability. So I'm gonna deal with form develops into formless shamatha non referential shamoto, or at this point, when I wrote the book, I didn't use the term the practice of open awareness, which many of you have known that was like one of my favorite practices, there's just so much potential here. This is the ability to rest your mind on whatever arises not just the specified form, you take off the training wheels, and ride smoothly on top of anything formless or non referential shamatha. And actually, now I've changed the name, so it's not really non referential shamatha I think a more accurate naming for it. The way I'm calling it now is non referential, in addition to open awareness, or the awareness of awareness, that's another term is non referential shamatha slash that passion. Because the query essence part of this practice leads to the inside part. shamatha leads to Vipassana. And so that is a much more accurate rendering of it because the insights actually arise from the passionate aspect. So now now referential shamatha is important, because when the body drops away a death rate when the hitching post is pulled out the anchors cut. We no longer have any stable forms upon which to place our mindfulness. So yeah, like where do you go, when you don't have a body when you don't have breath when you don't have any external object? What do you rest your mind on? Well, this practice shows you how to rest your mind on formless awareness itself. And because it's formless, it's deathless. So this develops this indestructible quality of one's mind. That continues, this does not drop away in the burden is there's nothing steady to refer to at this groundless point, instead of mentally thrashing about trying to find a form to grasp. Formula shamatha allows us to rest on any experience without being swept away. So this is important because this is what's gonna eventually force force us in the bar to be coming to take on an involuntary rebirth is the ability to hang out in empty space and this openness and the insatiable appetite to grasp to have ground to have body the strongest habit is the habit for habitation habit for housing as I say it and so another way I talked about this practice playfully, is the practice of open awareness is the practice of homeless awareness. It's like mendicant it's like what the Buddha represented in his life, except for the rainy season. He was traveling all the time. And I think perhaps he was teaching that this kind of homeless capacity and the ability to make a home wherever you are. was represented in this kind of mendicant lifestyle that he held. So this is big, this, this simple practice becomes really pretty darn big in terms of working with impulse control in the insatiable tendencies to grasp, which then here become super important because now it's just like grasping after a thought or whatever you're actually grasping after an entire next life. It's not a problem, if we don't have a body to come back to, at least with this practice. We simply place our mind whatever's happening and gain stability from that. The reverse meditations and insomnia yoga discussed below are helpful in developing this proficiency. Formula. shamatha is a lifesaver that keeps us from drowning in a bewildering ocean of experience. And so really, if there's one of these practices all build on each other, they transcend, but include, there's that narrative. But really, if there's one, and ultimate practice, that we can do to prepare for the bar, the bar the journey, this is the practice of open awareness is it. And so I riff about it, you know, those of you work with me at all. I mean, I teach on this thing all the time. Right now, it's the more I do it, the more profound I see it. And in my latest book, reverse meditation. I have two full chapters on this. So it's a big deal practice. The simplicity of mindfulness well lies, it's profundity. It says that the more advanced the practice gets, the simpler it is, the less there is to say, right. It's the gateway to immortality. philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, I love this guy. He was an amazing thinker, revolutionary thinker in terms of language and linguistics. Just his power, the raw logic is just amazing. If by eternity is understood that endless temporal duration, but timelessness, then he or she who lives eternally, lives in the present, end, quote, Trungpa Rinpoche and Padmasambhava, right, author of The Tibetan Book of the Dead Padma Sun bhava. They talked about the four ways to relate to the experience of time emphasizing the fourth moment, remember time, it's just a construct. The first three moments relate to the conventional experiences of past, present and future. The fourth moment, is timeless and therefore immortal. It's connected to the Hindu concept of Turia, the fourth. And what my friend Surya, das Lama, Surya Das, playfully, I think he has a whole book by this, I think, not entirely sure. But he definitely talks about Buddha Standard Time, I love that but a standard time, which is the timeless time zone, the ultimate flow state. When you either transcend or I like like the language sub sand you, you drive to a dimension that's pre temporal, pre spatial, because the space and time are constructs, then they can be deconstructed by dropping below the fabric of space, time and causality, precisely what happens when we die. And precisely what these practices can do, they can take you into this fourth dimension, fourth moment, which really isn't a moment at all, which is where where time literally no longer exists, you can't even say times standstill. Because there is no time at this level, in practice of open awareness gets you there. The fourth moment is the immediate experience of the Bardo of Dermatol, which is we'll see transparent transcend space and time. It's also there for the birth of the child luminosity, right? So gosh, I really do need to write a new update on this book, a new edition because there's, this is cool. I haven't read it. It's really I have not read this since I published it. And so now I'm going through it with you all and it's like, whoa, we got it. We have a new addition here. There's so much new that I've learned in the last 15 years, actually 20 years since I started writing this book. So this this discovery of the fourth moment, the gap between two thoughts, remember, Sagna Rinpoche talks about that as your passport into the Bartos at space, Garbo, Bardo.

That's the birth of the child luminosity, that that's where you see the Dharmakaya for the first time. And so therefore, this is this is the most immediate experience of the child luminosity and then it's become super important at the moment of death, right? Where the mother and child reunion Paul Simon was under something what the child luminosity to be able to recognize the mother which is the watch is the mother of your own mind. There's nobody waiting there for you. It's just that our develop the level of familiarity this glimpse can transform into a steady gaze, if we have some familiarity with this ground luminosity. So this is the birth this right here is the birth of the child luminosity. They when it comes to fruition at the end of life It leads to enlightenment, the dissolution of the child into the mother in complete recognition, right? Recognition and liberation are simultaneous. The fourth moment is the immediate experience of the Bardo. Dermatol the child luminosity, which is we will see transcends with substance, time and space. We don't have to die to experience the Deathless, Dermatol lies quietly between each thought, not just between each life. Well, even more than that, I would also augment this because then it somehow suggests that you can lose the damata. When thought arises, or when form arises, well, no, not really, because there's only the Dharma TA is just that in that space, when the essence when the display has been reduced, easier to recapture the essence. And so this is important because otherwise you have a solid cosmological dualism that somehow you have to return. No, you have to recognize. And so the reason it's helpful, at least initially, to recognize it between each thoughts is because thought is the display. In the space between thoughts, there's no display just like a death, no display a death. And therefore, it's a little bit easier when you're you return to this ground zero, either at the end of life, or the space between your thoughts that are metabolized quietly between each thought not just between each life, even though it transcends the first three moments, the only way to enter the fourth moment is through the inlet of the present right before the fourth moment, the present moment is the conduit, the conduit to the fourth moment. Now notice, in other words, is the funnel into eternity, I Ngara, the modern yoga master said, quote, the yogi learns to forget the past and takes no far to the more of the morrow. He lives in the eternal presence and growth. We can feel this, if you've had conventional experiences of the zone flow states, right the psychology of optimal experience, you get a sense of what it what it's like to operate in a timeless zone. Or if you're been in an accident, you get smacked by some intense sensory experience, time seems to slow down and it seems to stop. Because at that point, you actually stand out kind of shaken out of the construct of time in you experience these timeless dimensions. If you can't see this gap between your thoughts, you can get a feel for it when you're immersed in activity. Oh, here we go. Here we go. This Oh, if you're 100% present, I don't know whether it's playing with your kids being at a great concert, are engrossed in work time seems to stand still. You know, it's interesting, this often happens with physical activity. And why? Because this is my conjecture is that the entrainment of the busy mind to an active body, it's almost easier to train a moving body with a moving mind. And the body is always already in the present moment. That's why we use the body we come to our senses in meditation. And we use the wisdom of the body to train the mind. And so very often conventional experiences of timelessness, the zone, flow states are brought about by physical activity, sports and whatnot, when the mind is actually kind of resonates gets in tune with the moving of the movement of the body, that's when we enter these resonance flow states. Time seems to stand still because it doesn't exist. Absolutely, relatively, of course, relativity. Yes, relatively Time, space causality exists. In fact, it also signatures for being in relative reality. That's when you know, when you know, when you're not in the absolute when you experience space, time causality. And where do we, you know, experience a loss of our lives right there. You may come out of such an experience, look at the clock and be startled by how much time has flown by this is a concordance experience of similitude of the fourth moment, the entry into the realm or time and therefore you disappear. Because it's not just time, time and space that are constructs you're a construct, you're also made up your storyline and so is all these constructs come apart? That means you're gonna come apart exactly again, what's going to happen when you die. These magical states akin to what psychologists call the state of flow in athletes referred to as the zone don't have to be accidental so this is you can get a Nobel prize if you if you wreck it pronounce this guy's name accurately. I had to ask my father before he passed, obviously who who is Czechoslovak getting out of you pronounce this guy's name right me. Hi, ye. Chick check me. Hi, right. You've seen this book. It's like a flow the psychology of optimal experience. This is the first got that kind of overt exposition of these flow states and Western psychology. The zone to the fourth moment can be cultivated by training the mind to be present. In this regard Zen teacher Baker Roshi, I met him. I met him for the first time last about almost a year ago when I went to Esalen and hung out with Michael Murphy, who founded acelin. He was like 92 years old, still smart as a whip. And his best bud Richard Baker was there for the week. So I got I hung out with both these guys a lot, really wonderful people. Is Zen teacher, bigger Roshi puts it. Mindfulness makes you accident Pro, right? What's What's the thing, enlightenment is an accident. Meditation makes you accident prone, nice languaging. The more you practice mindfulness, the more you stumble into the zone. Those who achieve shamatha can rest their minds and meditative absorption or Samadhi. And taste and mortality. These are the jhana states. This is what gets you into the god realms by the way. So this is a small little important thing and a little caveat for these jhanas states, these absorption states, which, by many accounts in many traditions are considered the fruition of Summit. Well, they're just they're just a penthouse of samsara, you're just entering. I mean, the entry to the god realms is really brought about by these meditative absorption states. So if you want to be reborn as a god, these are the practices you want to cultivate. But it's still right. Still just the penthouse of samsara sooner or later, those habit patterns that karma is going to wear out, and you have no place to fall but down. So it was delicious is that mental spiritual candy is close, but no cigar. It's not it. And this is where a lot of people really get tripped up. They enter these absorption absorption states, the contrast is so dramatic so profound, from the normal, busy, chaotic mind that they think that they're enlightenment. No, they've just entered a Samadhi state, they've just entered the jhana state. The first time I experienced this in my first experience of TM, beginner's luck, oh my god, hate to say it 50 years ago, man, long time ago. I said eyes it this is God, this guy can't be anything more profound than this. Well, there is. That's just shamatha brought to its complete fruition. So you can use that as a platform to proportioner. But otherwise, if you get stuck there, and a lot of people do because the states are so delicious, you become a state junkie. That's how you're reborn as a guide, you get you become as my friends V. Shalom person, you become a god addict, I love that term, become addicted to these heavenly states of mind. really subtle, insidious spiritual traps. They have tripped into the deathless zone of total presence. Despite the complexity of the Bardot's the meditations which prepare us for them don't need to be complex, so true. Always remember, as we plow through this whole book, I bet it's going to take us two years to get through this no rush. With all the things that's going to be left on, always remember the only thing you need to do, open, relax. That's it. Hard stop, done. Open, relax. That's it. Why? Because this is exactly what's going to happen when you die. It's the grand opening, the ultimate force relaxation. You can do that now. It's the fundamental irreducible obstruction for a good death. And really, the fundamental irreducible start instruction, for waking up in this life, just open, relax, that's it. You don't need anything else. Because it's so simple. You know, we don't believe it, right? You don't trust it. And we have all these other teachings. So plus, simplicity and relaxation are two key instructions for the Bardot's and for life. Don't underestimate the power of mindfulness, excuse me, the Indian master and Europa

said, quote, since the consciousness and the Bardo has no support. It is difficult to stabilize mindful intention. But if one can maintain mindfulness traversing the path will be trouble free. Meditating for one session, in that intermediate state, may be liberating ENCODE. And so this is also the really good news. Whatever happens in the Bardo, just like in a dream, because mine becomes reality in the dream, it's no longer obtunded mediated by physicality and sensory restrictions. Some of the nine times more efficacious more, everything's heightened in the Bardot's and that's what makes them perilous if you're not prepared, because that unprepared untamed mind is released ie that's a nightmare man. But you prepare your mind you tame your mind that is heightened 79 times again these are archetypal numbers, nothing is fixed in the Bardot's. That's what makes them somewhat challenging. The point is small glimpse of recognition stability, has rapid, vast kind of fruition all applications in the Bardot's. This is also really good news. The passion, right all the teachings of Buddhism fundamentally can be categorized under either shamatha acquiescence, stability, or the passionate insight, all of them. The second main theme in the Tibetan Book of the Dead is recognition and liberation are simultaneous, right? This relates to the passionate or in Pali Vipassana, the practice of insight meditation shamatha, pacifies. The mind, the passionate allows us to see so it's literally stop, see, or slow down? See, by seeing our mind more clearly, we're able to recognize how it works. This helps us relate to it skillfully. Because in the Bardot's, we're forced to relate to our mind simply because there's nothing else. It's why it's called the dream at the end of time, it's just like a dream. There's nothing else. How the world has gone, body has gone mind becomes reality. Through insight meditation, we discover that whatever arises in the Bardot's is just the display of our mind, that recognition sets us free. Same thing takes place here, the fruition of the passionate insight meditation is to come to exactly the same conclusion. Here, it's also just mind a little bit more difficult to get hold of that because of conceptual consensus reality. And what Bob Thurman talks about is inter mind, mind creates reality in the Bardot's, inter Mind Mind mixed with other minds co creates this world. And that's what makes us a little bit more difficult to see. In other words, detecting that this is also just mind, but either through analytic meditation, through investigations to open awareness, through devotion, opening, you can make the same insights and now discover that this is just the display of your mind. Just as recognizing that we're dreaming while still in a dream, what's that that's lucid dreaming, frees us from the suffering of a dream. Recognizing that we're in the Bardot's frees us from the suffering of the Bardot's This is a lucid death experience. This is where we want to go wake up attain lucidity, conscious dying, with that type of lucidity, that type of awareness, consciousness, control, you have control, just like in the lucid dream. Otherwise, what controls the experience? Your habits, right Trungpa Rinpoche what is it that reincarnates your bad habits? Just look at your dreams just you profound intimation of what happens? Which is why according to Campo Carter and so many other teachers Dream Yoga came about you've heard me say this how many times Dream Yoga came about, principally as a way to prepare for death. Before we became lucid in the dream, the dream tossed us to and fro like styrofoam bobbing and turbulent waters. But once we wake up to the dream become lucid. while still being in it. The tables are suddenly instantly turned, we now have complete control. While we may not have complete control depends on the strength of our lucidity. But at least we have some semblance of control. With mastery. Yes, we have complete control. This is what the the voluntary reincarnates the tochoose. The voluntary nirmanakaya is the great masters they have this level of control because they have mind control. They can control they never lose lucidity. They never lose awareness. They literally never fall asleep. Not metaphorically, literally. They go from gross to subtle to very subtle. Awareness. Consciousness always stays on. And then with that type of control they can manifest form shape their mind into anything could complete lucidity. So the Buddha was right, the ultimate lucid dreamer. Therefore, the ultimate loser dire dire I mean, dying has no meaning for someone like that. We now have complete control over an experience that just controlled us whether a dream or death, excuse me, this level of recognition. And the ensuing liberation is cultivated with the passionate or clear saying, instead of taking the terrifying visions of the Bardo, to be real, what are those visions? They're just your mind, the archetypes of your unconscious mind. And getting caught in the resulting nightmare. We wake up in the Bardot's We do this by recognizing all the appearances to be the display of our own mind. In this recognition is exercise the meditation. The meditation instruction is to label whatever distracts us is thinking. For example, a thought pops up of needing to buy some milk. We mentally say thinking, which which is recognizing that we have strayed right the mind has been stolen awareness has been stolen, we lose the essence and the display, we get entangled with a display. I mean, that's samsara. We get entangled in the display of the mind. And then we returned to our meditation you know this from the classic, referential shamatha instruction, or clear seeing melts the distracting thought on contact, labeling and liberation or simultaneous unrecognized thought is the daytime equivalent of falling asleep. That's a pretty good one. Let me say that again, unrecognized thought is the daytime equivalent to falling asleep. Each discursive thought is a mini daydream, right? drifting off into mindlessness and I lucidity, to mindless thinking is how we end up sleepwalking through life, and therefore death. Therefore saying thinking quote, unquote, is our label and meditation is the same as saying wake up. What is the Buddha, the awakened one. This is how we practice being the boot up, wake up, wake up, become lucid to the display of your mind. Now, what is found out was found then we wake up and come back to reality, not to our dreamy visions or thoughts about it. If we can wake up during the day and be mindful, Flash lucid, we will be able to wake up in the Bardo, after we die and have an elusive conscious dining experience. To me this is this is just, I don't know, it's just like physics. This is just basic causality. Even at this level, causality does work does apply. If you understand this, it just makes so much sense. The logic is just so clear to me. This is indeed what it means to be an awakened one, the Buddha. And this is the fruition of shamatha the Pasha. Earlier we said that in the Bardot's mind, II thought becomes reality. What do you come back to if there was only mind? You come back to just that recognition wareness of awareness. Tuition, that's another synonym for open awareness. Is that a lucid dream you realize that whatever arises is merely the play of your mind. This allows you to witness whatever appears without being carried away by it. Since you no longer have a body or any other anchor, any other material object to take refuge in. You take refuge in recognition paren awareness itself. From that awakened lucid perspective, doesn't matter what happens. So all just the display of the mind. This is This is amazing. This is exactly the fruition of open awareness allows you to see that whatever arises, it's just the display of your mind. Okay, here we go. The four reminders. Oh, cool. Probably we'll get through this, but we'll definitely start the four reminders or the fourth thoughts to turn the mind on or an important preparation for death, because they turn the mind from constantly looking out to finally looking within right. So this is the very difference between CIPA in Tibetan outsiders, non Buddhist versus non PAH insiders. But uh, so the word for Buddhist is non fine. Tibetan literally means insiders. As with mindfulness, they provide another way to work with distraction.

They bring the key instruction Do not be distracted. Right? That's the shamatha instruction to a more comprehensive level this in this case. Oh, yeah, I say it. The four reminders show us that it's not just momentary distraction that's problematic with distraction at the level of an entire life. I mean, fundamentally, yeah. Oh, this is great. If we're not mindful, we can be mindless and waste our whole life. Basically, we look at your life. We fundamentally are distracting ourselves double entendre intended distracting ourselves to death. Just keep it busy. Keep it moving, keep distracting. Don't think about meditation. Don't think about reality. Don't think about death. just distract distract distract signature of the Dark Age until you die. So Chakra which a phrase in this way, boy, I mean, again, do these do these puppies every day, memorize them, make them your own. These are colossally effective colossally important Number One contemplate the preciousness of being so free and well favored. This is difficult to gain easy to lose. Now I must do something meaningful really just sit, reflect, contemplate, really get it into your system. Second, the whole world and its inhabitants are impermanent. In particular, the life of beings is like a bubble that comes without warning, this body will be a corpse. At that time, the Dharma will be my only help. I must practice it with exertion. Really, really reflect on these puppies really, really get them into your system. Number three, when death comes, I will be helpless. Because I create karma. I must abandon evil deeds and always devote myself to virtuous actions. Thinking this every day, we'll examine myself, oh my gosh, we could give an entire talk and each one of these things, maybe we should at some point, there's so important number four. On this friends wealth and comfort of samsara, the constant torment of the three sufferings. Just like a feast before the executioner leads you to your death must cut desire and attachment and attain enlightenment through exertion. I cannot emphasize these too much. I mean, people. When I was an active meditation instructor, people will often come up to me and complain like, oh, I don't have time to meditate. I don't have time to go into retreat. I don't really have time to study all this stuff. What can I do? What can I do? And I feel like the divine physician right and so I dispense a prescription right? So dispense for those of you who have medical worlds you know how prescription is written right. Dispense reminders number four, Sig? In other words, how often what's, what's the Dota? How do you use it, the medicine, repeat until renunciation takes place. And get these into your system? This is such a big deal. How long should we contemplate these reminders until the mind turns from outside to inside right samsara is mind turned out, whilst in its projections. Nirvana is mine turned in recognizing its true nature to Guru Rinpoche. Right Carl Jung, he or she who looks outside dreams. He or she who looks within, awakens, look within. Until we give up hope for samsara, and realize the folly of finding happiness outside. Yeah, so the Tibetan word for this in Asia, which means definitely emergence renunciation. Very few people have definitely emerged most people hold out the carrot for samsara. They haven't given up hope for samsara. Oh, the next relationship will make me happy. The next job the next house, the next car, their next book, The next teaching the next blah, blah, blah. Always holding the carrot out thinking, Oh, just give it let's give it one more try. One more chance, right? Yet doesn't work. Most of us spend our lives looking out at the world, chasing after thoughts and things. That's the definition of samsara. Looking out. We're distracted, literally pulled away pulled apart to distract from the present moment from reality. It's the unconscious practice of duality. Every time we capitulate to distraction. It is the unconscious practice of duality, which is no longer a practice, we've we've accomplished samsara, we perform it. Why? Because we practice it all the time. We're always meditating. And until we know otherwise, our default mode literally Default Mode Network, literally default mode is the unwitting practice of distraction, duality. We practice it all the time, every time we're distracted. And that's the signature of the Dark Age, the Kali Yuga. Increase levels accessibility to distraction. Distracted people don't notice things. We're distracted by everything rarely look into the mind, which is the ultimate source of all these things, objects if we turn our mind and look in the right direction, right hamartia the Greek word for sin, it's an archery term. To miss the mark. We missed the mark because our aim is 180 degrees off just a little bit off, right? Yeah, like 180 degrees, it couldn't be farther off. We're firing everything we do. Completely the wrong direction. Whenever we look outside think we can be happy by externality. Amazing. That's the real Original Sin missing the mark. If we turn our mind and look in the right direction with him, however, we will find our way to a good life and a good death instead of being carried away with the external constructs of mind. We finally examine the eternal the internal blueprints of mind itself and in so doing, deconstruct those external constructs. That's how the deconstruction process takes place. That's why my friend Luba laukkanen, the neuroscientists beautifully says, resting in the present moment is annihilation, I would say yes, but that even includes the annihilation of the present moment, even the present moment is annihilated. So fundamentally leave you completely empty handed in the fourth moment, beyond time. So the direction you want to know how the construction project takes place, is when you keep looking out. You turn the mind and that's when the demolition derby starts. That's when the deconstruction process happens. What happens when you die? You're forced within you can no longer look outside because all the sense faculties they would take you to a seeming outside world are shut down. Forced with him, forced into this level of insight. It is often said that the preliminaries are more important than the main practice and Tantra. That's a maxim that's a maximum of the Adriano Tantra. Lesson significance of these four reminders as a preliminary practice simply cannot be overstated. I remember this talk very well in Katmandu. chokyi, Nyima Rinpoche used to go to his Saturday morning talks every every week and I lived there for a year so that we could truly take them to heart 50% of the path to enlightenment would be complete. You're halfway there. If you take these reflections these these thoughts contemplations to heart, you're halfway there. Why? Because you finally given up hope for samsara. These contemplations develop revulsion new agent, definite emergence, to conditioned appearances, point out their utter futility and cause awareness to prefer itself rather than outwardly appearing objects. Again, this is the fruition of open awareness in particular, we turn the mind away from substitute gratifications and direct it towards authentic gratification, which can only be found with them. And that's why it doesn't matter what you do if you're looking for happiness outside. It's like Sylvia Borstein said happiness is an inside job. Never going to work. Doesn't matter how much money you have, how much power fame, whatever, looking in the wrong direction. That's just super samsara. The fourth thoughts remind us of the preciousness of this human life, that we are going to die. Oh my gosh. Do not forget, we're all free falling. We just never know we're going to hit the ground. One breath away from death. Karma follows us everywhere, right? What does it say the five remembrance is my actions are my only true belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand. Action. Les is in Tibetan word is lay action. Literally. That's the word for karma. In Tibetan lay action. samsara is a waste of time that only supplies suffering. Memorize them, they will reframe your life. Focus your mind and advise you in everything you do. It's like it's like, you know, the, the

the wheel of life the bhava chakra I have the Tonka in my study. I've actually my library outside. You've seen it the Wheel of Life held by Yama. Well, Yamas is behind us right now. You almost holding us now. And if we pay attention, we can feel his cold breath of death on our neck. He's back there. He's He's holding us right now. If we can feel his breath, before he crushes us out of our own breath, that's what's gonna happen right now. We're being held by him by the impermanence of his embrace. Death is just the expression of emptiness and permanence is just the expression of emptiness. If we can feel his cold breath on our neck, pay attention to and say, Man, I could die today. I'm telling you, it will completely reframe your life. Because eventually that embrace is what's going to turn into a crush. And he will crush right at the moment of death. He's going to crush the life and breath out of us. So feel his field his I wouldn't say embrace, right? Well, actually, it's the embrace of truth. It's the embrace of reality. So you could say that feel that field is called hold breath, let that inform you, as Don Juan said, Use death as your advisor. It's a game changer changes everything concentrates your life makes it more meaningful, more impactful. Really makes it reflect on like, what am I doing? At the end of my life? What is going to matter? What can I take with me? Just my mind. Remember ALAN WALLACE what he says so beautifully the moment of death imagine you're on your deathbed. Wonderful contemplation. At that moment of what value is your house, your portfolio, your car, fill in the blank, what value? That's precisely their inherent value now, radical simplicity. These teachings will radically simplify your life and show you what really matters working with your mind and heart helping others cumulating merit. That's what matters. Samuel Johnson, the author of the first English dictionary said I love this line. When a man knows he has to be hanged in a fortnight that concentrates his mind wonderfully. What a great line. Realize you could be hanging out in a fortnight you could be hanging by the end of today. How is that going to reframe your life? How is that going to help you live a more impactful concentrated in full life? What would you do if he had six months left to live? What would you cut out of your life? What would you do if you had a month a week a day? Fantastic. Fantastic contemplation. I did this with Paula premature I do it on my Bardo programs. Right a little grid. What would you do? If you had a month left? What would you stop doing? A week? A day? What would you do? What would you stop doing? I highly recommend you do this as a contemplation. The in the master and I Teesha said if you do not contemplate death in the morning, the morning is wasted. If you do not contemplate death in the afternoon, the afternoon is wasted. If you do not contemplate death in the evening, the evening is wasted and quote before reminders, remove the waste waste disposal system. So this is why it's really helpful on a practical way. If you haven't done this hospice volunteering, do the training incredibly impactful. Work with those who are transitioning. It's a fantastic service and a gift to others and those who do it you know, it will help you it will be forget the essence of spiritual practice is remembrance. The essence of samsaric practice is forgetfulness. Distraction is another synonym, right. We don't want to remember we want to forget these harsh Noble Truths. There are inconvenient truths, just like global warming. But spiritual warriors are willing to look at the truth willing to work and look at that bright light because these are the bright lights as they manifest in daily life. So contemplate these now take them to heart now, they will change the way you live. Okay, just a few more minutes, and then we'll pick it up next time. One of the best ways to prepare for death is to acknowledge that we really aren't going to die. We're falling in the dark and have no idea we're going to hit the ground. But a scholar and Klein, I met her last year actually met her previously but we're at a conference together at the University of Virginia with David Germano. What a wonderful human being such an amazing person, she gave her brilliant talk, we got to hang out quite a bit I developed so much respect for her life as a party on death row. Recognizing mortality means we are willing to see what's true. Right lights true. Seeing what is true is grounding. It brings us into the present and quote. We all know that we're going to die but we don't know it in our guts. It's just stuck up here. Right? We know it intellectually. But unless you live your life, this is the this is an example of hearing contemplating meditating. You're stuck just at the level of hearing. Yeah, I know. Everything's impermanent. Yeah, I know, I'm gonna die. Well, if you don't live your life, like you're gonna die today, if you haven't taken it into your body, and then it's just stuck up here. And for the vast majority people, that's where they leave it at best. They have a conceptual understanding of impermanence and death. Do they really believe it? Do they really feel it? Because if they did, they would practice as if their hair was on fire. They will live their life with exactly this kind of exhortation. Like do not waste the single breath. And so these contemplations, I cannot again, I cannot overemphasize the centrality the importance of the supreme contemplations, what are the Buddha's say? Excuse me, of all footprints, the footprint of the Buddha, the footprint of that slip of all footprints, the footprint of the elephant is the deepest and most supreme of All contemplations, the contemplations on impermanence and death are the deepest and most supreme. Why? They've reframe everything. Oh, here we go. Yes, see, great minds think alike. We all know that we're going to die. But if we don't know it in our guts we did. We would practice as if our hair was on fire. Trungpa Rinpoche said and until we take death to heart, spiritual practices dilettante ish, you're just a dilettante. Author Sam Harris. While we try not to think about it, nearly the only thing we can be certain of in this life is that we will die one day and leave everything behind. And yet, paradoxically, it seems almost impossible to believe that this is so surely I have to be an exception, right? Me, I'm going to be the first exception right here. Back to him. Our felt sense of what is real seems not to include our own death. We doubt the one thing that is not open to any doubt, at all. Great place to stop. Right really reflect little tiny little homework assignment means your MPJ often gives these little homework assignments. This is a good one, between between now and next time, two weeks. If you haven't done it already, memorize these four thoughts memorize these four reminders. When I did my three year retreat between year two and year three, we spent eight days on these two days on each 114 15 hours a day, non stop contemplation on these things. So between now and then, to whatever extent really get these into your system. Practice, do these suckers every day, until the mind does turn and you will know it turns when you start to live and breathe the truth of impermanence, when you really know nothing less man, that includes me. Right? finger snap, you see me do the math. Every finger stamp is a human being dying on this planet. Let alone all this. You know pallets that sentient forms animals trillions more though that everyone has a finger snap and one day you and I are just gonna be a finger snap and is from from a J said the universe will not blank when you die. One day, boom. You're done. Get this to heart practices for reminders 50% You're halfway there. Halfway there to enlightenment. Because you're finally pointing your mind and heart in the right direction within. Okay, so unfortunately, I can't take questions today, I haven't figured out a way to do that psychically yet, maybe by next two weeks, I'll figure that out. But between now and then little homework assignment, really, really memorize these babies, reflect on them, contemplate on them, get them into your system. And then get back to me on how these they start to work on you know how they start to change the way you live and breathe. So thanks for hanging out. I'm literally as you get this, I am on an airplane flying to Detroit. I'll be back in a couple of weeks live for that one if I live long enough. And we'll continue our Rob through this. So to whatever extent merit means anything to you yet right? Dedicate whatever we're doing for the benefit of all sentient beings always remembering that if what we're doing here is not a benefit to others or to the world. It's irrelevant. So always reframe that always reframe your experience with that as well. So thanks to Alyssa, thanks to all of you and see you in a couple of weeks.