Hey everybody, welcome to our ongoing bookstore group. I am actually pre recording this because I'm flying. I'm actually actually when you read this, read when you listen to this, I'll be in California doing some presentations at the science conference, and I still haven't figured out a way to emanate and be at two places at the same time. So I'm doing this like we did on the occasions when I'm on the road, and I just don't know any other way to do it. So we left off page 125 summary of these three practices, what to do for yourself after you die. Yeah, so here's a summary of the three practices that we listed on page 125, first, perceive everything in the bar to a sacred and realize it's all the play of your mind. Again, this is something that you train in during life. This is what's called daknong, or sacred outlook, pure perception, and it's one of the main practices, actually, in Vajrayana Tantra, is to work with us. And so if you do it now, you'll do it then just happens more naturally. Cultivation, I'm sorry, cultivate devotion to the Buddhas, your gurus and your meditation. Don't grasp or struggle. I mean, that's boy. It's an ingredient for success and the Bardos are in life. Don't grasp or struggle, open, open to whatever arises, and become one with it. Relax into the innate purity and goodness whatever you see, this is huge. I mean, easier said than done, but really big deal. And you just came back from enla Doing this inaugural week long program on Doctor sheet. It's amazing how those applies to that. Just relax and see the purity of goodness, whatever you see, whatever rises principles are exactly the same. Second calm and stabilize your mind. That's the shamatha part, right? Remember any form of spiritual support, be it a teacher or divine presence or a positive experience, keep your mind on the support without distraction, rely on the confidence you have developed with your meditations. It's also a really big deal. Let that good habit patterns that you've developed over your life take good care of you, right? So I can't be part of it. Says that confidence actually becomes your body in the Bardo. That's a really interesting statement, a body you have strengthened with the exercise of meditation. I mean, the stability is just like in a dream. The stability or lack thereof in a dream or nighttime dream or dream at the end of time, where is that stability come from? The stability of our mind. Because that's all there is. I mean, mind becomes reality in these domains, journey the Bardos is a journey of the mind. Remember that everything is exaggerated in the Bardos. Why? Because God becomes reality just like energy. There's nothing to dilute it. There's no distractions. This means that hesitation, the opposite of confidence, can flap you around like a flag in the wind. Or I like this image of a leaf like the autumn is starting to turn. When I was in upstate New York, it's really quite beautiful. The colors are changing. Leaves are falling like crazy. Winds blowing around. And I was walking around going, Wow, this is just like what it's going to be in the Bartle. It's kind of buffeted around by the winds, helpless, hapless, by the winds of karma. Feel compassion for other beings you may encounter, and recite any prayers or mantras you remember, help those you encounter in the Bardo. Once again, think of others. Bolititta doing this for the benefit of others. Laser red carpet for you in the Bardos, also darker. Nice, padded red carpet in the Bardos, nice, padded red carpet in your dark retreat cabin. What do you think that doing it for the benefit of others lays down that red carpet activate the force of your positive karma and sustain positive states of mind, single constructive thought by thinking of Buddha Amitabha and sukavedi, can project you went to was pure land, yeah? So that's the promise, right? But that's also the peril, because a single, Ill placed, bad thought can take you down and becomes reality content of your thoughts. Can you deal with the contents of your mind, your thoughts, and they're no longer mitigated, diluted by external distractions. Third, don't be angry or afraid. Right finger of fear. These are reifying motions. We've talked about this fear, super solid, reifying emotion. How solid you feel when you're afraid. Fear reifies the future. Anger, pretty similar. What does anger do? Reifies the past. It was grasping, just to complete the picture, grasping reifies the present. So here you have the three root poisons, passion, aggression and ignorance, basically fraying. Creasing. Redefine past, present and future. See everything is illusory, like a dream. Avoid negative states of mind. For a single negative thought can project you into a lower realm. Pray to whatever Divine Presence you have a connection with, and ask for their blessings and guidance. Remember checking emails, recommendation when in doubt, cry out from the bottom of your heart for help I. Help me. Help me. I like that. Keep your mind open, positive, stable and peaceful. Don't be swayed by anything. Hold your seat. Relate to everything with egeminy equi with equanimity. Yeah, this is these are some pretty solid bullet point practices. And boy, does this sound like familiar. This is the way to go through the Bardo of this life. So in a way, at midlab, Bob Thurman was presenting on, in fact, the Bardos, the six Bardos, and saw you showing the extraordinary, ultimate equanimous nature, the similarities between all of them. So these teachings, obviously, they apply just as much to your meditation, to your life, to everything. Now, we can see why the preparatory practices like those outlined in chapter one, are so important. The momentum of these practices will automatically kick in during the Sparta and take good care of us. But practicing now, we are using the power of karma habit in a constructive way. Yeah, you know, stuffing the ballot box is always like to say which is going to come important in about seven weeks. We spend so much effort investing in our future, right? We invest in our IRAs 401, KS, pension plans, retirement portfolios, spiritual advisors, I guess that'd be me in this case, exhort us to invest in our much more important Bardo retirement plan, or immortality. That's a real IRA or immortality retirement account. That's what you really want to invest in. That's a market that doesn't crash. That's your real future. Don't worry so much about Social Security. Finance your karmic security. That's cute. Invest in your future lives now, investing so much in this life is like checking into a hotel for a few days and redecorating the room. What's the point. That's the common analogy. What's the point? ALAN WALLACE says this is great in light of death on Monday, desires are seen for what they are. Our desires for wealth, luxury, good food, praise, reputation, affection and acceptance by other people and so forth, are worth nothing in the face of death. And that's precisely their ultimate value. Now this is a great contemplation. Visualize, imagine yourself being on your deathbed to the every like, what do you want? What do you want on your mind? What's going to be on your mind? What matters when you died? What's What's your heart, your minds? The only thing you ever have is all that really matters. It's all you can take with you. Other this other stuff. These are the fetters. It's what holds you back. So your Rinpoche adds, why, if we are as pragmatic as we claim, don't we begin to ask ourselves, seriously, where does our real future lie? After all, very few of us live longer than 100 years, and after that, there stretches the whole of eternity unaccounted for long time, because the mind is no longer restricted by the body. It's sharper and more powerful. This is where the seven to nine times magnification, just like really, just like duck routine, just like psychedelics, non specific amplifier. What you bring in will be heightened. That's why Be careful what you bring in, whether it's your dark retreat cabin, whether it's the set mindset for the set setting part of psychedelics, or whether it's the ultimate dark retreat of death. This means that both positive negative experiences are heightened, but without a body, the mind is flighty. It's therefore harder to initiate new states of mind or to cultivate new habits. We need to rely on the good habits we bring with us. Tuku tuk Rinpoche summarizes quote, in this life, our mind is relatively stable because it is anchored in this gross and Earthly physical structure. This makes it easier to gain spiritual views and habits through meditation, but it is also harder to make big changes over improvements, precisely because the mind is trapped and programmed in the system of our rigid earthly body in the transitional journey of the Bardo, however, the mind is rapidly changing without any structural restriction, just like I dream. It is therefore easier to change or improve our future journey, but it is also much harder to find a path and focus on it, since there is no anchoring faculty of. Physical body,
our bodyless mind lives on with his past habits and floats rapidly, without break, at high speeds towards its future destiny, cool, karmic fire and brimstone. Can't put the fear of creator principle, because you don't need one Occam's razor. You can explain mind and reality without recourse to a career principle. So, as I say, often, with the fear of truth, habit karma, that's healthy fear, that's wholesome fear, other, okay, other practices for what to do for yourself after you die. Many masters proclaim that the best practice to do on the part of becoming and the best preparation for it is to recite the mantra of compassion, right? Om Mani piram, which blocks the doors to the six realms of samsara. The other mantra is to recite the head of Amitabha, om Mami dei wahri, then nebucha, which opens the door to rebirth into sakavadi. Keep your gaze up in the Bardo. Yeah. So this is from Ainun Rinpoche, who lives down 25 minutes from 20 minutes from here or more I'm at. Keep your gaze up in the Bardo. It's like an emergency poet, which predisposes you towards rebirth into a higher realm. The Bardo teachings, the Alliance gaze. They talk about. You know, look forward, face forward, face forward. Remember that keeping your gaze up, literally looking up, facilitates POA, conversely, looking down, that's looking down into the soft lights. Looking straight ahead is suggestive of looking into the bright lights, which is the bright lights represent truth. Conversely, avoid looking down, which directs you to a lower realm. Right? Most animals are always looking down right when they're hardwired to do looking straight ahead directs you towards the human realm. Think about what's happening. Don't make impulsive moves. This is where impulse practice. Impulse Control is birth control. You can work this moment to moment, every time you reach for your phone, your fridge, the remote control. It's kind of automatic impulsivity we have that becomes quite damaging. Don't make impulsive moves. It can land you in karmically irreversible situations. Because you're becoming more desperate for a place of refuge, somebody you can identify with. It gets more difficult to control yourself the further you progress into this Bardo panic leads to bad choices. General rules, to slow down, right? Don't let the winds throw you around. Happens in life. Take control over what's happening by taking control of your mind, something you can really control. You can't really control phenomenal rising, really, yeah, maybe if you're a dictator for a little while, better to work with the dictates of your own mind. You control, control your relationship. You that's something you can't work on. And the Bardo becoming, you're like molten iron. With proper guidance, we can pour our formless awareness into any form and become anything we want. That's karmic Bardo becoming, or Bard Bob now calls it the Bardo procreation. Well, once we decide to take on a form or our karma decides for us, the mold iron cool solidifies into our entire at that point, we're stuck until it melts again. We're a karmic stiff. That's good. I like that. Yeah, karmic stiff once again. Now we have to wait until that form melts during our next death before we can become anything else. If everything else fails, yeah, here's a here's the quote from Chucky Nima. You instructs us to cry out to our teacher, which is a natural thing to do. Quote, I have no power to choose, so please bestow Your blessings that I may be born in a situation where I can connect with the teachings, receive the oral instructions, and quickly progress along the paths and stages towards enlightenment. Please make sure that I am not born as an ordinary person, ordinary meaning, without access to the teachings. Let me attain a precious human body. So precious human birth means a birth that's favorable, that's that's conducive to the truth, to the practice of the Dharma, that's a precious human birth. Oh yeah, yeah, that's cool. I remember this, yeah. I went through the whole book of the dead and extracted all this. Yeah, this is cool. God, there's a lot here, man. This is, this is nice advice from the the great liberation from hearing in the between the Book of the Dead. This is a mass mistranslation. This is. Of Evan Wentz, his first translation at this point, 70 years ago, the great liberation through hearing in the between. It's not exactly a bar and burning title. So once mistranslated, it The Tibetan Book of the Dead. I think, I'm not entirely sure, but I think because of the connection to the Tibetan Book of the I'm sorry, Egyptian Book of the Dead. And then ever since then, the 15 translations since then have all stayed with this slight mistranslation. Half of the great liberation of hearing in the between the Book of the Dead is devoted to guidance for the bar to be coming since the advice from other books is often taken from the central source. Here are the primary what to do and what not to do. Instructions from this text, the instructions are summarized in the main verse from this Bardo, thou, when the Bardo becoming dawns upon me, I will concentrate my mind when pointedly and strive to prolong the results of good karma, close the womb entrance and think of resistance. This is the time when perseverance and pure thought are needed. Bend and jealousy and meditate on the guru with his contour. Yeah. This is the kind of the pith instruction of the root verses of the Bardo, the contents, the condensed instructions from the entire book of the day. And so this is what I put together. Visualize your Yidam. This is your deity. Yidam is literally called binding deity. Visualize your Yidam, or Guru above your head and supplicate with intense devotion. Devotion really is such a massive important thing. Cut off yearning for a body and rest and non action, non distracted, undistracted, supplicate the through three jewels. What are the Three Jewels? The Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, do not lie in front of Yama. So this is that. This refers to that station and the bar to be coming where, allegedly, just like in a dream, you're put in front of the judge Yama. Obviously, he's not judging you. You're judging yourself. Do not be afraid. Meditate on Mahamudra, right? The nature of mind. If you can't look closely at the nature of what makes you afraid? Remember your secret name if you have one, if you don't, don't worry about it. Don't create any feeling of passionate aggression. Why? Because those are reifying, right? Those are the solidifying poisons. Give up attachments and yearning for your possessions. Offer them to the Three Jewels. Look upon everything with pure thoughts. That's the pure perception thing. Again. Don't let any of the clashes, the conflicting emotions arise. I mean, easier said than done. Like, how's this going to happen if you don't work with it? Now, what can you expect to happen? This to happen if you haven't prepared. Whatever you concentrate on will come about just like in a dream. So do not think of evil actions, but remember the Dharma, the teachings, the transmissions. Now, you must concentrate your mind, one pointedly without distraction. One pointed concentration is the most important thing. Strive to prolong the results of good karma. This is very important. Do not forget. Do not be distracted. Now is the time which is the dividing line between going up and going down. This is repeated quite a bit in the Book of the Dead along this is the Shama depart along with the Vipassana. Parts recognition and liberation are simultaneous. If you have no practice, feel devotion, maintain pure thoughts, whatever light shines, meditate on that is the Lord of great compassion. There again. That's the mantra Om the like of Amitabha. I'm sorry not Amitabh chereshmara, this is the most profound essential point. Is this extremely important and prevents birth? Well, it prevents birth now as well, prevents rebirth into some sort states of mind. If you contemplate on him, if you recite his mantra, which is his acoustic form, it's a mind protection, protects you from birth. Now, over and over and over, right? Do not be distracted. This is it. Shamatha quote. Now is the time when, by slipping into laziness, even for a moment, you will suffer forever. Now is the time when, by concentrating one pointedly, you will be happy forever. Well, slightly hyperbolic, because nothing's forever. You're not gonna suffer forever, but you can be happy forever. Yeah, that's that part you can, for sure, do not enter between the couples making love. So this is the very, very end of the comrade bar to becoming. Now, this is kind of hardcore Bardo becoming teachings. You know, you get to the point where eventually you see your future parents and union, whatever they might be, animals, insects, human beings do.
Meditate on them as the guru and consulate mentally prostrate and make offerings to them and ask for teachings. This is a lot to keep in mind, right? So this is, I get a little chuckle out of this, actually, right? This is the bullet point, bullet points for the whole book. And it's like, okay, you're going through there. Okay, like, what's my checklist? Right? You're supposed to keep all this stuff in mind. Well, let her perfume, let her perfume to there. And all these different things are there. They're recourses. But the most important one is just what the open, relax, open, relax, look forward. Open, relax, look forward. See everything is unreal and illusory, which means what see, everything is empty. So this is the verse quoted. This is so great. I believe the non existent to exist. The untrue to be true. The illusion to be real. Therefore, I have wondered in samsara for so long now, if I do not realize that they are illusions, I shall still wander in samsara for a long time and certainly fall into the muddy swamp of samsara. Now they're all like dreams, like illusions, like echoes, like cities of Gandharvas, celestial musician school, the Marat, like mirages, images, optical illusions, the moon and water, they are not real, not even for a moment. By concentrating one pointedly on this conviction, belief in their reality is destroyed. And when one is inwardly convinced in such a way, belief in the self is is counteracted. If you understand unreality like this from the bottom of your heart, the womb entrance will certainly be closed. Classic, classic instruction. And then back to me, once again, don't feel that you have to do everything on this list, right? The lesson you want to do, if the overarching instruction is to relax, this can backfire. You get stressed out. How am I supposed to remember all this crap? So I think you get the idea right. Let it perfume, but don't get too wigged out. These are options we can draw upon in the Bardos, any one of which has the power to liberate us. Section on blocking the final two instructions for this Bardo bar will be coming. The last resort before taking birth is blocking the entrance to an unfortunate birth and choosing a fortunate one. These are the instructions for how to take a conscious so the conscious birthing means. What means lucid birthing lucid. It's like lucid dying again, just like in a dream. This is why you work with Dream Yoga to shape your mind voluntarily. This is why you work with Mantra. Mantra voluntarily shapes your mind otherwise samsara, mantras take over. This is why you work with visualization practice. What does that do? Or active imagination, or imaginative practices that also actively shapes formless awareness? It's a form of voluntary conscious, of lucid birthing. This isn't easy, because the wind is picking up Trungpa Rinpoche. Rinpoche says, What is going on at this point is that through the force of very powerful karma, you are being impelled, or propelled into a state of such agitation that you will be extremely tempted to take rebirth and the first place of birth you perceive, if you just go along with the flow of or impulse of your karma, then you are apt to take birth mistakenly in extremely unfortunate circumstances. But if you can hold that right. Dharma, Dharma, remember, etymologically Dharma to hold, as in to seize hold and also to maintain contain. You can hold back with mindfulness and alertness and be very careful. Then you can choose a fortunate rebirth. You can make the decisions and they're lucidly, just like in a lucid dream. Otherwise, what what shapes you just like, what shapes you want to dream your habits. This point, you'll become extremely agitated, and if you give into the agitation and the panic, then you'll have no control whatsoever over your subsequent birth. Therefore you have to be very careful here. That's the key, right, mindfulness, careful, attentive. The Tibetan Book of the Dead offers five ways. Yeah, this is this is very real. It's a deep dive in your book here. Cool. The Book of the Dead offers five ways to block the entrance into a womb. These instructions deliver the same message in five different ways. Do not fall under the influence of passion and regression and do not make a bad decision. Francesca Freemantle, this is from her incredible book, luminous emptiness, understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead quote, closing the womb door really means cutting off the mental conditions required for entering a womb by transforming our perception and attitudes towards it. See, that's what you can change your relationship, your attitudes, by blocking the doors to samsara. We may find ourselves in Nirvana, because nirvana is the national state. If you simply stop leaving Nirvana, that is samsara is leaving it, you're always in Nirvana. So just stop leaving it. Stop distracting the centralist. In blocking the womb door to samsara, is to accept whatever arises with equanimity. So this is the handover heart practice that I'm always doing these days, right? Radical acceptance to whatever's arising in your experience the great equanimity that opens the door to Nirvana, that is nirvana. The five instructions are, first, when you see your parents and sexual union. Do not enter between them. Meditate on them as being your spiritual teacher in union with his or her spiritual spouse consort. Be devoted to them and request teachings. Second, if that doesn't work, and you find yourself being drawn nearer to them through what kind of primordial Oedipus complex really? Freudian Oedipus complex, attraction towards the opposite member, like if you were you're going to be born as a female, you're going to be attracted toward the father, repulsed towards the mother, and vice versa. This is the primordial Freudian Oedipus complex on the Bardo, really, if you don't have a deity, and then see them as turn Razi, bodhisattva of compassion in union with his concert. This is why it's so helpful to work with the energy of passion ahead of time. This is allow. This allows us to relate to the passion instead of from it, such a big central instruction, relate to your mind instead of from it, relating from it. That's no relationship at all. That's reactive, normal Miss relationship that we have to the contents of our mind. Third, if that doesn't work and you're still being drawn in, now is the time to turn away from passion and aggression. This is one The Tibetan Book of the death says that if you're going to be reborn as a male, you'll be attracted to your mother, just like I said, and have a version towards your father. Conversely, if you're going to be reborn as a female, you will feel compassion towards your father and aggression towards your mother. Roy, I don't think he knew about this. He'd probably get a big kick out of this. Don't act on this. Attraction or aversion, the two poisons that are built upon the root poison of ignorance. So both aggression and passion arise from the fact that you think there's something solid out there. That's the root poison, reification, born of ignorance. Fourth, if you still find yourself being drawn in, see your parents as they loose reforms they really are, this will stop you from entering between them. How can you harbor passion or regression for an illusion? This is where, again, the practice of illusory form, the practice of dream, yoga teachings and emptiness, that's all about this stuff. Quote from the book, by knowing from the depths of your heart that all these phenomena are unreal, the wool mantras will certainly be obstructed. End Quote, so go Rinpoche then says, quote, ultimately, it is the mind's urge, this is great, to inhabit a particular realm that, again, impulsively, impels, propels us towards rebirth, reincarnation, and its tendency to solidify and to grasp that finds its ultimate expression in physical birth. It's happening moment to moment. We're taking rebirth in these six psychological realms of samsara all the time. What is found now is found then, if that doesn't work and you're still being sucked into it's being sucked in. The final instruction is to rest in the nature of mind. Bola primche says, quote, essentially, the entrance into another samsaric birth is stopped when we can connect as the holding part, when we can connect with the true nature of mind and the empty, luminous nature appearances. End. Quote, yeah, um, wonderful aspiration. Easier said than done, but if you work with it repeatedly do all these teachings and all the other dharmic practices that support it, then it does become easy, becomes this then becomes your default. This practice does you, becomes automatic. We can use these instructions now to prevent rebirth and unfortunate emotional states. This practice also prepares us for this stage of the Bardo. For example, if you're in a situation and feel anger building up, you know, in Dream Yoga language, you're just about to go non lucid and lose it. Don't give in to the urge to take rebirth and that hellish state of mind, you'll feel the contraction you're closing down around it. Practice equanimity, slow down, observe what's happening. Say to yourself, I don't want to go there. I don't need to be reborn in a state of anger. This is the way you practice rebirth, consciously.
Now you know. Day to day, moment to moment. This is what it means when the Book of the Dead says, close the womb, entrance and think of resistance. Think of Holding, holding. This is a time when perseverance and pure thought are needed, really. So what's point? Over and over, control your mind? Why by controlling your relationship and block the womb, door to anger by staying centered. This aspect again, exercise and sitting meditation. When we sit and label our thoughts thinking, we're fundamentally saying, I don't want to go there. I don't need to go there. I can release that energy. We're blocking the womb entrance the habitual pattern, the discursive thought and fantasy, choosing to stay in the present moment. We're stopping there it is, holding again, hold the flow of our mind from cutting deeper habitual grooves. The itch to act out and lust or anger is the same itch that eventually traps us into an entire life. Tango. Rimeje said, Yeah, remember when I read this in his wonderful short book, bodhisattvas control their thoughts, therefore they control their reverse. I would actually add them. They don't control it in terms of, like, muscling it right. Super intense concentration. No, they control it by swapping it with space. They control it like Suzuki usually. Roshi said, if you want to control herd of cattle, don't pack them into a corral. Give them a pasture. You control them with a relationship. And a relationship is brought about with space. But you can see you there are, there are two principle blocking mantras we already talked about them. These are the six syllable mantras that close the door to the six realms, Om Mani, Padme, hum, which you already discussed, and the new one, Ah ha, cha, sa ma. The second mantra comes from the dotras and is associated with the Book of the Dead. I have to say, in all candor, I don't work with this one. Just doesn't roll off my lips all that well. So this is, I mean, if it speaks to you, it's like, wow, this is so cool. Then that could be your ticket. I work with the other two all the time, but not this one. That's just me. Each syllable the first mantra is associated with purifying one of the six principal negative emotions, passion, aggression, ignorance, jealousy, pride and greed. It's a mantra of equanimity, the great equality one taste. By purifying these six states of mind, we block rebirth into their corresponding six state systems are existence as the Book of the Dead says quote on the sound of dharmata roars like 1000 thunders. May it all become the sound of the six syllables Omani Pabon, may it roar with a thunder of equanimity that's really nice in the borrowed becoming, there is a point where we'll come upon three deep chasms, like the three Grand Canyons of samsara. Unless we practice equanimity, we will fall into them. The Book of the Dead says, quote, you will be cut off by three precipices in front of you, white, red and black, deep and dreadful, and you will be on the point of falling down, falling down into them, Oh, child of noble family. They are not really precipices. They are aggression, passion and ignorance. But this is so cool, just like in your dream. Think symbolically, they represent these three biggest grooves, three principal forms of inappropriate relationship, passion, I want it. Aggression, I don't want it. Ignorance. Could care less. I mean, basically the entire palette of our emotional advert, or some versions of these three root poisons. And every time you capitulate, capitulate, the flow the mind runs through it. The flow cuts through Canyon gets deeper and deeper. That's the habit pattern. So when you're in the Bardos and you see these canyons, this is what they're representing, the Grand Canyons of a habit that you are then going to fall into and get swept away with, because you've been creating these canyons your entire life. It's so powerful. We are meeting the three deepest grooves we've cut during life, the tendency to slip into them yet again and therefore back into some sorrows, overwhelming habits cut grooves into the landscape of our lives and then force us to fall into repetitive forms of behavior. They form us. Habit forming is redundant, the tautology. They form us. Our habits form us. Their behavioral forming phenomena. It every time we react with passion, aggression or ignorance, we're digging ourselves deeper and deeper into these ruts. No wonder it's so hard to climb out of samsara. Well, this is, yeah, I meant this is good. Passion is present if you want something to keep happening, aversion is present if you want. Something to stop happening, and ignorance is present if you're not in touch with what's happening. I forgot about that. That's actually not bad. This unholy trinity describes how we relate to the virtually every moment, and therefore how we generate virtually every life. Amazing practice. Now we just found out. Let's find that. Okay, let's do one more section here. We're section. Here. We're clipping. Man, there's a lot of stuff. This is, this is cool, bright and soft light. So what do these what do these represent? What do these symbolize, as we progress into the barn of becoming chasms are replaced by lights. Both images represent the power of habit or karma to seduce us about halfway into the bard of becoming six soft and dull lights will appear. These are the soft lights of samsara, the signal the approach of our rebirth into one of the six realms. They're more seductive than the bright lights of Nirvana that we faced in the bard of dharmata, they're softer, they're more alluring, they're more familiar in the pejorative sense, and therefore we're seduced into looking down into these softer gaze. And they're not as penetrating, they're not as bright, they're not as true. The softer the light, the greater the seduction, right? You think of red light districts, I mean just energistically. And the softer the light, the lower the realm associated with that light. Think myth of poetically or do not don't think literally, literalism is just a byproduct of reification, solidifying. It's an anti emptiness point of view. That's where all the problems come from, literally taking everything reifying. In other words, the smoky light of the hell realm is softer and more seductive than the white light of the God Realm. The light of the realm into which you will be reborn will shine the most for you, and you will be drawn towards it. In Shambhala Buddhism, the bright lights are the rays of the Great Eastern sun, and the soft lights are the hazy rays of the setting sun. Most people are seduced into watching muted sunsets than they are the glaring sunrise. Oh yeah, yeah, that's really kind of true. So the softer lights invite us in in life, the bright lights represent the sometimes harsh truth of reality. They're absolutely connected to the principle of noble truths. Reality is often hard to accept. Excuse me, have you noticed, especially the reality of old, age, sickness and death, not so easy to accept, not so easy to relate to say yes to that's too bright instead of facing situations directly, we tend to look away into the softer lights of habitual pattern, comfort and deception, our preference or comfort over truth then seduces us into a particular and often lower realm response, this is great. This is this is just classic myth, mythopoetic rendering. This is the way to this is a more accurate way to look at reality. This draws us into rebirth, into lower states of consciousness. Whenever we tell a white lie, we're feeling the seduction of the soft lights by staying with the energy of a situation. I mean, it's not easy, right? It's not easy to to speak and live and be the truth. It's not easy by staying with the energy of a situation or emotion, which means not acting it out or repressing it. This is how we practice staying with the bright light. This is again, the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, the Book of the Dead upon close reading totally 100% the book of life, if we lose it emotionally, that's straying into the soft bites and taking birth and unfortunate emotional realms. Okay, a few more paragraphs than would be the dominant for today in the Bardos, a dull white light represents the realm of the gods, dull. Red light represents the realm of the jealous gods. Dull. Blue light the human realm, dull. Green light the animal realm, dull yellow light the Hungry Ghost and dull smoky light the realm of hell. Your body, your Bardo body, may begin to take on the color of the realm into which you will be reborn. Even at this point, it's possible for these lights to appear as the five wisdom lights. It's a basic principle of the Tantra. At any moment, it's never irreparable. It's never past that a point of no return. If you can make the recognition, it just gets harder to recognize. As the forces kick in, as the winds get stronger, as the habits get strong, it just gets harder. You know this, when you let the momentum and the energy of a particular clay show emotion arise, you catch it early. It's good. You can work with it pretty, pretty easy. You let it build up ahead of esteem gets harder. That's exactly what's happening here. This gets harder. You.
A basic principle that the Vajrayana is that wisdom can be found anywhere and at any time. If we can tap into the essence of whatever arises and not get swept up in the display, we free ourselves from the display. So remember this, you know that's the essence of samsara. The foundation of samsara is we lose the essence and the display. We lose the empty nature of things in the in the form of things, into the luminosity of things. That's archetypal, non lucidity. That's how we get lost in the dream. That's how we get lost in in the in life. That's how to find wisdom and confusion and instant liberation. Because of our habitual tendency of taking things to be solid. It's difficult to realize that the six realms are essentially psychological states. These realms are not created by a Supreme Being. They are created by the individual and collective karma of the beings that inhabit that realm. We are the creator of these three states as well as their experiencer, just as in a dream. This is a really profound statement. We are the creator of these states as well as their experiencer, just like in a dream. Now you see yet again why Dream Yoga came about, the double delusion, the nighttime dream, the example, Dream absolutely prepares us for the dream. At the end of time, came out Dream Yoga came about largely as a part for this Bardo for death. What is even harder to realize is that this process of projection and reification is taking place right now. We are currently in the human realm, a state of mind that has been frozen into a state of reality. Yeah. So where? Again, this is important. Where's samsara? We talk about samsara, samsara, samsara. Samsara is a state of mind. It's not a state in reality. There's no samsara out there. We're the ones that turn Nirvana into samsara. Same thing there's there's no Nirvana separate from the mind. Nirvana is a state of mind. This is something you can work with. You can control this. You can relate to this. Psychology leads to ontology. Or yeah, what does it say here? As in life, so and death? Psychology leads to ontology, what we think transforms into what we experience, into what we are, what we be. Key instruction for blocking the entrance into womb is to view whatever light arises as the deity, as being the deity of Chenrezig. Quote, this is most profound, crucial point. It is extremely important, because this oral instruction obstructs birth. End Quote, and this is, this is full blown tantric instruction, because the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Is a tantric text, and that's, that's what's being impacted here. Just to me, seems disingenuous. This is the core teaching in all the BARDA literature. Is the Tibetan Book of the Dead. So this whole section, this riff, is obviously honoring that. For some people, it works. For others, it doesn't. Don't worry if it doesn't. There's so many other things that we've already talked about in Mordecai. An alternative is to see the light is your meditation deity. If you do deity Yoga, you don't practice generate stage. If you don't, don't worry about it. The idea is to generate pure perception and transform the dull lights of samsara into nirvana. In a certain way. It's, yeah, you could say it's about transforming, but really it's also about recognition. Recognizing your mind is about to become your physical reality. If you can maintain pure perception, you will be reborn into a pure land. If you can't, your impure reactive mind will naturally lead you into an impure realm. The Tibetan Book of the Dead emphasizes this, that this is when perseverance and purity of perception are critical. Cool. Well, I think it's Yeah, 45 minutes on, this is a little heavy lifting. Maybe good enough for today. Obviously, I'm not available. You're not available. I'm available to do some Q and A but I'll try to make it up the next time we're together. And so yes, here you go. I'll be in La Santa Monica doing the science thingy, and then I'll see you all in a couple of weeks. We'll just continue our little journey through this book. So thanks again, everybody. Remember dedication to merit. If what we're doing here is not a benefit to others, it's irrelevant. So whatever merit we've accumulated, send it out to the world, and I'll see you around campus, so to speak. Chao you.
