I was a little bit delayed with the Zoom meeting and I was in retreat last week I did another dark retreat. This one was in Oregon. And so with the silly busyness of my life, when I come back, I have the most ridiculous level of catch up in endless zoom meetings, you have no idea. And so I was talking to some people about funding for this stock retreat situation that many of you know I'm kind of the into it right now. And so we're looking for resources to build more cabins this guy cave channeling in Crestone, and then funding some scientific projects. And so yeah, sorry, thanks for your for your patience. Outside of that, unless I don't have any other announcements. You can hit the record button and we're just going to jump right. Thanks again for being patients. recording in progress. Yeah. So for those of you who may be new, a bit unlikely at this point, what we do on these gatherings, is I read a little bit from one of my books, we're going through this preparing to die thing, or run some auto commentary. Which is actually a somewhat traditional kind of deal. And then I will allow some opportunity for q&a. Because I am in this insane kind of ketchup thing. I have I do have another zoom this crazy. This is the fifth one for today. Fourth one, I have one an hour, so I may not be able to go as long as I normally do. And I ask for your understanding around that. I'm simply trying to serve all sentient beings, and sometimes it gets busy. Okay, so last time, if I remember correctly, we left off. Hold on, let me make sure Oh no. We went farther than your solo 11 leads all things. Yeah, here we go. Hello. Yeah, so hardcopy page 54. The section is on what to do for yourself before you die. And we left off on POA. And like I mentioned before in the last few sessions, because we're really in this quite concentrated somewhat dense part of the book The front front loading of this. I'm giving myself a license now to just charge head but to somewhat luxuriously run whatever commentary I have, because you know these topics there's so much to say hear right there just so incredibly rich. So POA, transfer of consciousness is perhaps the most famous of the esoteric practices. It's principally advisory on a method but there are sutra forms of POA bought for the general public. I'm curious, I'm going to do a real quick scan. If you can put your thumbs up or tell me how many people I'll go through the pages real quick. How many people here have had some training in POA? Raise your hand? Okay. 123 Okay, let me flip pages here. Yeah, hands going up. Skies had some. Right. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. This gives me some idea. Yeah. So cool. Well, let's talk about this. And where it fits in the in the Bardot's our consciousness habitually transfers into another form whether we like it or not. And so this is the really important thing to stay at the outset that poll is actually taking place all the time. The the mind consciousness is always being transferred. It's always being moved. And so what Hawaii is, is it's a kind of is called a forceful method of liberation. It's one of the few there's three or four that are called forceful the other ones are just parenthetically the inner heat Yoga is a man dark practice. That's another forceful method. They're called forceful because they're, they're somewhat non negotiable. They are impactful, and therefore they have a few. I mean, hazards may not be the right word, but I think you get the right idea. One has to be a little bit careful when you handle handle practices of this kind of impact. But the idea here is our consciousness will be transferred at the moment of death, whether we like it or not, just like it's being transferred moment to moment, by environmental conditions by whatever circumstance we find ourselves in. And so what POA does is replaces this kind of here Herodias POA is a voluntary and directed form of transference. So yeah, so perfect, very present. Without power, consciousness will be transferred by the uncontrollable winds of karma, which may result in an unfortunate birth. So this is the kicker your your mind your consciousness will be transferred whether you know it or not. And as I've been saying, in relationship to like the dream arena, how this relates to things like Dream Yoga and the like, is the basically the transfer that takes place at the end of life is basically the transfer of mind consciousness from one dream to the next. That's what the Bardo is, remember dream at the end of time. And so we're basically dream as manifestation of mind. We're basically transferring consciousness it's engaged in a type of power movement. Transitioning from one dream one manifestation of mind to the next. And as we'll talk about here are the five types of POA that I'll mention are five ways to effect this type of movement with intentionality. So that you don't just leave it up to your habits which may not be so great again, if you have really good powerful strong habits. Good karma which is best preparation for death is leading a really good life, then the force of heavy karma, initiates this kind of pull up the mind will naturally be moved by the current by the stream of this heavy karma. So this therefore, Paula, like so many other aspects of these teachings, the very multi Vaillant term has many different levels of application. Once again, if we don't take control what controls right like in a dream, you don't wake up and take control of your nighttime dream. What does your habits your karma, you know, wake up and take control at the dream at the end of time? What does your habits your karma? What is it that reincarnates your habits? Color Rinpoche says the verb poet and Tibetan carries the idea of leaving one place for another. For example, it is used to mean moving it is related to a technique used at the moment of death, which allows one to leave the six realms that compose samsara, and go to a land of pure manifestation as the land of Bliss also known as sukawati. Of course, the person knowing how to apply this meditation can go where he or she wants, by directing his or her thoughts at the right moment to one of those pure Lance, high fired spot on Fantastic. Well, we've talked about this, this narrative all the many times that reality is iterative. It's fractal in nature and so basically, what's happening with a close reading, like I'm suggesting here of things like POA is this particular process that Rinpoche just talked about, it's taking place all the time. Our mind is moving from one psychological realm of existence all the time to the next and this is this is what actually will give you an indicator of where your consciousness will be moved at the end of life. Like Where does your mind move now? Where does it roll now? MindScape leads to landscape. You want to know get a preview of coming attractions after you die look at the types of mind states that you inhabit and take rebirth and now. So therefore principles of POA many other principles of the Bardo teachings can be applied to daily life in so many ways. That's really the point the immediacy of it all. That's why the Tibetan Book of the Dead which represents in a condensed form so many of these teachings is just as much about life. They're just two different iterations like the dream at the end of time is one iteration. My time dream is another iteration. And then this is a dream. So all these different dreams, you know, kind of recapitulate each other after we die consciousness leaves the body from one of nine exits. So this is where it does get a tad bit esoteric. The top of the head this is what what the nine are at the top of the head that's this is the Stairway to Heaven, Led Zeppelin was on to something right. So this is the Highway to Heaven, top of the head, the Brahma rendre. This is where you want to FedEx your consciousness at the moment of death. So what's called nirmanakaya POA, which we'll be talking about here, I think, quite shortly works with this. But the other classic exits and again, I have no memory and no personal experience. So I'm talking purely as a mouthpiece for the lineage the other exits are the eyes, the ears, the nose, the tongue, the navel, and then the lower urethra and anus and so yeah, I have to I have to my coal bear. John Stuart biting sense of humor is bursting to say something but I'm going to hold back. Oh, I have to refrain myself. I don't know where it leaves is not the principal karmic cause for where we will take rebirth. But it is a powerful contributing condition. And so this is precisely why things like my languaging Bardo and Pola are considered insurance dharma.
On one level, you don't need any of this stuff. I guess on one level, I'm an insurance salesman. So if you do your main practices properly, this is what's called Dharmakaya POA, the highest level of PA you don't need any of this the force of your habits the force of your recognition of nature of mind naturally takes care of itself. But these teachings, pure land and power are in the Pure Land pole and Bardo are in the tradition for a reason. Like insurance policy. They're there to catch you in case you need them. So after aware leaves is not the principal cause right? But a powerful contributing condition the principal causes what your habit patterns, your stream of mind. This exit is something we can't control. We want to direct our consciousness out the top of the head at a point eight finger woods behind a normal hairline. It's called the Brahma rendre the exit of Brahma, which lies at the top of the central channel of our inner subtle body. If consciousness transfers through this exit it will be directed towards rebirth into a pure land. And so they've actually done some studies there's some Japanese scholars that have done some studies you know, and again, I literally have not read this book since I wrote it. So if I'm going to be repeating myself, so be it. But I've been to I've been to practices around this which are really kind of wild. Maybe some of you have noticed this. There's there's a particular test that's done and I've been in these polar trainings where this is actually taking place where you work with this particular exercise. You're basically fundamentally my languaging rotor routing flossing out the central channel, creating this highway so that at the moment of doubt, consciousness will leave out the top. And so you're working with the winds and you're doing these visualization things and then what happens again, this is common, not common, but it's not unknown. You start to notice a little bit of itching on the top of your head you may notice some Exedy, like a little limp blood or like, and then at a certain point, you know, that's when you stop. You've certainly since you've accomplished the POA and one of the levels of fruition and this is like are you kidding me? But I've actually been in training sessions where I've seen this and this particular one case was was quite dramatic because what happens is at a certain point, if you do the practice, the teacher or one of the assistants will come by and they'll have a tiny piece of what's called kusa grass. Again, this is this is wild. Yes, but I've seen it. It's even wilder when you see it. And what they'll do is they'll actually walk around and they, you know, they know where to place it. So they'll tap around in here. And so if if the particular practice has been accomplished, which doesn't take that long, that's the cool thing about it. They can actually take this little piece of Khushi grass, which is you know, the size of a tiny straw, and I'm not kidding, it will just it will, they'll stick it there and it'll plant there and so they happen to do it with this one guy who was who was bald as a billiard ball. And so it was quite impactful because he was sitting in like the first or second row and they came up there and no kidding. You know, couple pop, pop, pop and ping. Here's this little stick stick of polar graph sticking out the top of this bald guy's head. It was it was like, oh, okay, this is kind of cool. And so Japanese scholars a number of years ago, and I think the footnote might be about this. Did some studies where they did collect indeed some physiological data about this. And it's not particularly surprise because even though this is an inner body process, it does have outer body correlates, analogs and therefore you can have these kinds of signs. Kind of tripping. Okay, even if we don't make it to a pure land, we're shooting for the top. falling short could mean we take rebirth in the human realm, which is the next best thing. So when we get into the Bardo, becoming self coming up later? Yeah. Short of taking rebirth in a pure land, which is really the best and most of us can do after we die. The next best thing, believe it or not, may not seem that way is rebirth into a human realm. And the reason for that is because of all the different realms of existence are 27 different states in the cosmology of the Buddhist way. That one can take birth in some sort of dimensions. The human realm is considered the most auspicious because it's, it's the, the one that is the most flexible and most open, the most porous. It's the one where you have less solidity it's the less it believe it or not, it's the least of reified of all the realms, including the god realms. So we're not completely spinning through all these different realms. They're super helpful, super impactful to know about, because these are psychological states that we cycled through all the time. And they're also ontological realms. They're like vanno realm was the only one we can see because we see animals we know pets, but these other realms are just as real or unreal as this. And so short of pure land, rebirth. This realm, believe it or not, is considered the best. And there are many reasons for that, but we'll maybe let that golfer now. The practice consists of opening the central channel through a series of visualization and breath control when the central channel has been cleared. Signs occur that indicate the practice has been accomplished. That's what I just mentioned. At the time of death practice turns into performance and you inject your consciousness through the clear pathway. Turning up the practice of poker every year, even if science were initially visible, helps keep the central channel open. If someone is doing poker for you, so this is actually quite interesting. There's a very beautiful practice. It's called the iron hook of compassion. And I learned it in a really long retreat, where where you can do this type of practice for others. And so you have the capacity people who are somewhat seasoned with this sort of thing can actually work to facilitate the transfer of some consciousness to other beings. And so let me just let me just share one story here. Again, I don't remember if this is in the footnotes, but there are a number of of incidences in the literature stories that you can read about. For instance, here's just one of many that I've read that there will be something like this happening. So there's a llama gets its high ranking Lama is riding on horseback with Chinese soldiers on either side, and then they're they're basically taking him down to a firing squad so they're taking him down. To assassinate him. And so, you know, sad to say, but the stories are not uncommon. And the llamas is like on the horse and he's singing and he's just like, you know, like, not wigged out whatsoever. singing, singing, singing and then all of a sudden, singing stops and basically, what happens is the type of religious suicide where what happens according to again, I have not personally witnessed this, but I have no reason to not believe it. Really, really powerful polar practitioners. In this case, these really High Lamas would actually eject their consciousness creating a type of religious suicide with the intentionality of preventing their executors of accruing vast negative karma. Because killing a high Lama Rinpoche was called one of the five you know, egregious, negative actions. You don't want to do that. And so these amazingly powerful stories of these llamas who had actually eject their consciousness intentionally, before executioner's would kill them as a way to prevent their executioner's from accruing this kind of negative karma. Take it or leave it. Yes if someone is doing if someone is doing poor for you, that's called the iron hook of compassion. We talked about that chapter six. You can help them with these instructions from onion Rinpoche Yeah, this is cool. I didn't Rinpoche is half hour down the road. I like this guy. So this is what he says in his book. I think dying with confidence. At the time of death, your consciousness will be very heavy. So even the simple effort of turning your eyes upward will make it lighter and easier for someone to help lift it out of you. And quote so this is like whoa, okay, like a wait a second world. This is kind of trippy. So this is actually again, I'm just going to I should stop acting as an apologist and just fearlessly proclaim what I read right instead of like, oh, well, whatever. I'm just going to put it out there you guys decide whether you like it or not.
One way these teachings come into play. And I work with this is like what do you do? When you know you're about to be killed? You're on a plane and you know you're going down. You pull out from a car, you know, you didn't see their truck coming. You got three seconds. You're gonna be dead. What do you do? Well, what Annie Rinpoche and others suggest two things. Number one, just like what he says here is literally look up. I mean, unless you're really really trained and POA. One thing you do is you literally look up, that brings the winds up that automatically tends to lift you up. And the second thing you do is you recite one of two mantras. One mantra is Oh, Mommy put me home. In the reason you recite this one, this is the mantra of generating the mantra of compassion is each one of these six syllables on mani padme hum is designed to close rebirth in one of the six realms. And so this is why people recite it constantly on life. Because it's a way remember what is mot what is mantra mind protection. The six syllable mantra protects the mind from moment to moment rebirth and the six realms of samsara passion, aggression, ignorance, jealousy, pride. The other thing the other monitor that you can elect to use is I'm a todos mantra on the day we're free. So the first one closes the doors the second one opens the doors. And so the next time you're in the way to practice this, and I do this, the next time you're in a really unsettling situation, let's say you're driving down the road, and you take a corner and deer hit a patch of ice and your car is spinning. Right? Well according to these teachings, and again, somewhat tongue in cheek here, you don't want to have you don't want to do something like oh shit. It's actually quite funny, but there's logic behind it right? Because based on the laws of proximate karma, and what's called the immediately preceding condition, the last thought you have on your mind has a very powerful impact on the succeeding moment of consciousness. And so I always say this somewhat tongue in cheek. If you if you recite the samsaric mantra, which we do all the time, oh shit, and you do it at the moment of potential death, you run the risk of being reborn as a dung beetle I got to have a little gallows humor, right? So this is the way you work with this and every time you have the urge to say oh shit, you know, you can say oh God, if you believe in that or better yet oh money buy me home. And so I do this like you know, whenever some groundless, unsettling Bardo, like experience takes place, which why once you're sensitized to it happens all the time, instead of your usual samsaric contractive reactivity. Replace that literally just look up and recite the mantra. What is found now is found that you condition yourself to start to do this now. Guess what's gonna happen at the moment of death. You know, if you're going to be killed, suddenly, this good habit comes up, and then that will take good care of you. So the success of POA depends mostly on the weight of our unwholesome mental accumulations slash negative karma. Habit. They drag us down in life and especially in death, to facilitate transference. Cut your worldly attachments. Let me say this again, this is a form of sutra power. To facilitate transference cut your worldly attachments, as they say in the Bardo, you want to double entendre intended you want to travel with the lightest possible mind. You want to travel light in the Bartos light in both senses of that word, and is Lama Zopa and other teachers say this is beautiful statement bodhichitta is the lightest possible mind isn't that beautiful? The mind of compassion, the mind of love and altruism for others is the lightest possible mind. So this is actually another form of POA. And so you can join that with doing things like your advanced directives, reducing your attachments even on paper before you die. This is actually a preparatory POA type of practice. This is a way to actually start to reduce your load. So you travel light, you want to travel light, you want to look forward. When you're going into the Bardo. You know, you don't want to go through there like with a moving van you want to go through the like Gandhi remember, I always say this Gandhi, allegedly, you could put all his worldly possessions in a shoebox. Well, there's an aspiration. In a sense as we age we're all dying. Yes after age 25 For sure. Even if we don't have a terminal disease, so lighten your load. Now, that's the message here. Giving at any level is a preparation for POA. Look at the way many spiritual masters live their possessions amounts to nothing. And so then do the ties that bind them. I mean, it's just beautiful. Like Nietzsche said, you know, otherwise we're possessed by that which we feel we possess. In Tibetan the word for body as Lu, which is sometimes translated as something you leave behind like baggage. That's cool. Right? The logic is simple. lighten the load on your mind so you can easily move it drop any excess baggage as well. You want to get no grudges no whatever, clean up your act, clean up your business clean, clean, clean. Let it let it go. In addition to giving your physical possessions away as death approaches, you can make mental offerings with the intent to benefit others imagine giving them away or emphasize the sending part of Tom limb or by Giuliana students. This is the essence of the mandala offering, which represents offering the universe the problem after death is a weight problem. That's actually kind of clever I like that. Not only do we have a weight problems during life, we have weight excess baggage problems when we do. The problem after death is a weight problem. Spiritual Path is the diet that's clever. Now is not the time to latch on to things and thoughts creating a burden for your mind. Now is the time to let go and travel light. This by the way, boy, boy, you know I've been doing this this dark retreat stuff. Oh this maximum really comes into play in the dark because dark practices is really such a powerful practice for death. So you know you want to go you want to go into your dark retreat in the same way you go in to the ultimate documentary which is death itself with no baggage. Because otherwise what happens all that baggage gets loaded onto the dark. And then what happens the darkness gets heavy. You know everything all your all this crap you bring in there you transfer it onto the dark, and that's when dark retreat gets difficult because you loaded onto the dark, which is nothing it's neutral. You're the one that plasters all this crap onto it. And then when you're in there, the darkness feels oppressive health healthy, heavy, suffocating, but darkness isn't that that's just revelatory and indicative of all the crap you thrown onto it. So you know why, you know not only can you prepare for this in terms of the end of life, if you are interested in doing things like dark practice, this is one of the best things you can do before going into the dark. Leave everything at the door. You don't need anything in there. Second Amendment che empowers. Oh yeah, so he's the one that said it empowers the practice of bodhichitta in this regard. bodhichitta is our lightest mind it's light because it lacks the reference point of a self. Very nice. A selfish mind is our heaviest mind the anchor that holds us back in life or death. A selfless mind is light as a feather and easily moves forward. This is why the Dalai Lama says at the moment of death, I will meditate on bodhichitta you will help me continue on my way to enlightenment right? I mean what is Lama Zopa Rinpoche said this is what lays a red carpet for you in the Bardot's. So again, forget all this stuff. We get all the power forget all the Bardo, forget all this stuff. Just lead a good life. care for others be loving, like what my religion is kindness, love others take care of others. So you need you will be taken care of by the force of that goodness. So simple. You don't need any of the stuff. This is all insurance supplemental stuff just lead a good life. What is found that was found them enlightenment is such a beautiful word with many implications here implies the need to lighten up. What Wes Niska who recently died. I love this guy. He was a comic. Quite a beautiful Dharma teacher as well. He wicked sense of humor. And he said something around this it was just beautiful. He said enlightenment is the ultimate getting over yourself what a great line right? Get over it, man. Get over yourself. Right? That's what a great line enlightenment is the ultimate getting over yourself. Fantastic. Otherwise, why do you got to climb over yourself? Right? It's just as Wallace this hurdle, right? Get over it now, man. This guy was so funny. As we'll discuss later POA is one of the best practices for the post def Bardot's. To convey its power and importance, consider these statements from the Buddha Vadodara This is the primordial Buddha also called the Adi Buddha so this was also Dharmakaya Buddha.
You may have killed a Brahmin every day or committed the five acts with immediate retribution. Yeah, one of the 5x with immediate retribution like I mentioned is killing like an hour Hydra teacher killing your parents. Don't do that. But once you encounter these instructions, you will beyond any doubt be liberated. Yeah, so here's just a little bit of supporting statement. Oh, this is cool from all over the place. Nice. Tilopa, the father of the Kagyu lineage says POA is the only method and the Dharma were being can be liberated without profound meditation experiences. And quote, Padma Sun bhava, the tantric Buddhist said everyone knows about Buddhahood through meditation, but I know a path without meditation. Pola Naropa supreme scholar practitioner said the nine openings open and samsara but one opening opens up to Maha Mudra to enlightenment, close the nine right? That's all I mean. Padma home duct tapes. It's a duct tape boa. Closes those nine portals and open the one Oh mommy they were three that opens the central channel. Do not doubt that it leads to liberation Milarepa. These instructions should blend transfer in link. I'm sorry. These instructions which blend transfer and link are the essential guide to overcoming the intermediate state. Is there anyone with such a path how heavy the person whose life channel enters life energy enters the central channel, how wonderful he arrives in absolute space. Patrul Rinpoche unlike the other practices, these instructions on the profound path of transference do not require a long training period. Signs of success will definitely come after one week. They can actually come faster than that actually. I mean, again, I didn't weekend trainings, where people have pretty pretty remarkable signs within a couple of days. That is why the method is called the teaching that brings Buddhahood without any meditation and that is why everyone should take this unsurpassable shortcut as their daily practice. And finally, Lama Yeshe che we all we call transference of consciousness, a super method, even a person who has done incredibly negative things can say goodbye to all of his negativity, if he uses this method perfectly at the time of death and dies with a clean, clear mind. Since death really is a kind of final destination. We have to make sure we're clean and clear at that time if we can. That's our insurance. For a perfect next slide spot up there and again, you don't need this insurance policy if you're doing all your other good stuff. Okay, I can go a little bit further. I do have I unfortunately I do have another Can you believe it? I have another zoom call. I think I told you at seven o'clock my time so I got another 20 minutes and I do want to give some of the questions but I can speak a little bit more now. About two more really cool about doing honor practices, the peaceful wrathful deity of sutra which is really what the word means. And then Basha supper practice so let's start this section. For serious students, the Shiite tro the Tibetans, she means peaceful through means raffle is important for the practice of for the Bardo Dharma TA. It prepares us to recognize the peaceful and wrathful deities. So people who are listening here like if you really want to drink the Kool Aid, if you really want to go gung ho, you know, getting pole instruction from make sure that just no matter anybody, um, there are people that are offering it out there, ie yanks eat it, you know, be careful. You want to get it from a fully authorized teacher so Poway is another wonderful thing to get training with. And then the other thing here is these, this peaceful rattle in Parliament was called a Shinto empowerment for the really deep divers if you can get these helpful, not mandatory again, but but helpful. The idea here is if we can become familiar with the deities now recognition and liberation can be attained them all such a rich topic, this deity thing. In this practice, we imagined our body as the mandala of the deities, right. The peaceful deities are visualized in our heart, the wrathful ones in our head and then you know, the the semi raffle ones are in your throat. Chakra practice requires an empowerment and specific instructions. Trungpa Rinpoche says when the wrathful deities appear, someone who has no experience of meditation who is unfamiliar with the appearances of the deities will be terrified and will suffer tremendously. So meditation on the wrathful deities in particular during one's life is recommended. So let me just say a little bit about this whole deity thing, because this is this is big, this is really important. What what do the deities actually represent? Well, they're archetypes, they're rare. They're really analogous in a very compelling way to the to the Greek gods, honestly, they really are. And so they're they represent the the empty templates of reality. That's what archetypes are. And so when you go through a really deep meditation practice, or when you die, which is basically nothing more than a kind of raffle form of meditation, because you're forced to meditate, you're forced to relate to your mind. That's what meditation is. Why because there's nothing else. So the whole process that's why death, I consider death to be a raffle form of liberation. That's all it is. Death in itself as a raffle form of liberation because it's uncompromising, non negotiable. You're basically forced to relate to your mind. Because if somebody's forcing you it's because there's nothing else it's just like a dream. Hence, dream at the end of time. And so this is where it is super helpful to understand the dimensions and the structure and the strata of your mind. This is what the whole path is about understanding who you are and who you are not. And so this is where the east and west really come together. In a really compelling way. You know, creating the kind of broad spectrum, representation of the structure the unconscious mind. This also comes into play with the beautiful line from my friend Bob Thurman, where he says, I mean, when he's taught when he said this once I was just blown away. He said it's not safe to die. As long as you have an unconscious mind, right? You've heard me say this. That's an amazing statement. What does it really mean? Well, guess what comes forth when you die? Habits? Where are your habits stored in your unconscious mind? So what creates a so called perilous journey through the Bardot's is not some pre existing Bardo scape? There is no so pre existing Bardo. The Bardo is just your mind. revealed and released without mediation. The journey of the Bardot's is a journey of the mind. And so what happens in the whole process, the death process is a part of dying, the dying, actual dying luminous Bardo automata and then the rebirth is basically a plunging through the upper dimensions of the unconscious mind, all the way down to the super unconscious mind, which is the clear light mind. And then if you don't recognize and understand that pinging back up until you eat a dimension that you are recognized that you can't recognize that's what creates the kind of process phenomenology or rebirth. And so where the deities fit in this is so interesting. These deities are these archetypes they represent literally archetype means first form, and so they're literally the first forms that we represent in forms of light and sound like my voice has a particular form, but it's mostly formless. Life has a particular form, but it's mostly formless. And so when you're doing these deity practices, you're visualizing yourself as a deity. That's the light part. You're reciting the mantra. That's the sound part. And therefore you're becoming familiar with this upper frequency bandwidth of this tour dimension of your being. And so then what happens when you go through the Bardo process and you cut through all the you know, upper levels of the unconscious mind that's the more kind of uncomfortable part. You start to drop down into, and then through these archetypal principles, and that's what the deities represent. They represent these fundamental archetypes and so once you're familiar sensitized to the principles that they represent either in eastern form by understanding the deity principles in Tibetan Buddhism, or like I mentioned, I'm super into the way the West relates to this through through their gods the mythologies, the gods and goddesses a Greek mythology. This stuff is bloody interesting. And the parallels between this and deity principle are like they're isomorphic. I mean, you're talking about the same bloody thing. And so this is fantastically beautiful, because what happens is, when all the kind of reified, projected aspects of our
frozen mind start to melt in the dyeing process, everything is going to fundamentally this mind falls into itself. It's going to fall into these archetypal principles. That's what the deities represent. That's what they are. And so therefore, if you understand this properly, you start to recognize these deities in drag. You start to realize that they're manifesting and all our emotions they're manifesting and all these impulses. So the 100 Peaceful wrathful deities are nothing more than archetypal representations of the mind. And so therefore, this you know, this is incredibly impactful in terms of understanding that these deities are playing themselves out all the time, all the time. There isn't one thought that arises one emotion, one mental content that isn't an expression of these archetypal principles. It's just that what happens when you die, is those archetypes are revealed in raw, unmediated form archetypal form. And so if we're not familiar with them, the very definition of meditation, what happens when I recognize them? And so therefore, we will miss that particular opportunity for recognition and liberation in this particular bandwidth of the Bardo experience. And so understanding the deity principle is a big deal on another level, and then I'll pause because they do want to get some questions is, the deity represents purity, and deity, this is my languaging around the deity use of the opposites to deify is the opposite of reify. So this is my languaging but I think it plays when you're staining reality into impurity. The stain is reification you're making things solid and real. That's when you lose the deity principle you fought you frozen it when that is melted, which is what happens in death and dreams. are indeed meditation. reification is replaced with deification, I like that it becomes then purified. And that's what the deity represents. The Deity represents purity, it represents the first expressions of emptiness. And so therefore, if we understand this, you start to see the genius of the Deity principle. And then for me, I mean, I am just so excited to go into all these texts I've had for years and I've never really really I mean, I read Joseph Campbell, I read you know, some of them are over the counter explorations of Greek mythology. But now with the work of Peter Kingsley and a bunch of other people, I'm really starting to dive into the Greek gods and goddesses in realizing these are kissing cousin to the to the Tibet deities, I mean, absolutely, positively. And so on one level is kind of cool because whether we know it or not, we live in this particular legacy of you know, Greek intellectual thought, in mythology. So I'm gonna draw a little line here. Again, I don't want to race through I want to get some of the questions that were put in there 10. But I didn't want to get there a couple of questions that were piped in and then we can have a little discussion before I have to, unfortunately run off crazy this human this human race thing, right. It's appropriately named the human race to where as a human race to the next damn zoom call, right? I mean, this act of busyness is just ridiculous. Alas, alas, such is the samsaric agenda. I can handle it, I think. Okay. Okay, question sir. I like it when they say sir man, you must be talking to somebody else. In Buddhism, what are some of the signs that a soul may be stuck in the Bardo state and hanging around the physical world with unfinished business? When I watched my dog die years ago, his eyes clouded over pretty quickly after he stopped breathing. Do you know if a similar thing happens with people? Can you watch the light in someone's eyes disappear if the eyes are the windows to the soul? Is this light of the eyes tied to the soul or spirit in Buddhism? Or any other religion you have learned about? Not that I know of. I mean, you know, yes, for sure. Something happens with the eyes. Absolutely. You know, like when someone's dying. If you look at even before the rise gets super cloudy, you can I mean, you can just tell something's happening. But in the in the traditions that I've studied, I don't know of any overt correlation to what happens visually to what's happening with with the eyes and the windows of the soul thing. That's not to say that's not a legitimate exploration. I'm just not aware of any kind of supporting principles with that. However, the first part of the question, what are some of the signs that a soul may be stuck in the Bardo state and hanging around? Well, if you're sensitive to it, you'll pick it up. You'll feel it. You know that we're awash in non human intelligences, constantly. And if you're anything like an empath, or psychic or open you know if you're a little Whirlpool dissociative thing using language, I mean, talking about tends to open and relax. Do you start to pick up these vibes and these these forces in these beings all the time, they'll manifest in your dreams, you'll feel them that sort of thing. And so the literature here this on this one, the literature is huge. There's a lot about the sorts of things they call a Gandharvas mono Maya's made of mind. So what that word means we can append the word ghost that obviously carries some, you know, kind of flaky New Age connotation. So even though it's descriptive, unfortunately, it's laden. But definitely people because they haven't traveled light. They stick around they they can they have a time they don't even know they're dead. It's like the sixth sense. The biggest problem in the Bardo is not knowing that you're in them, and so they can hang around for a while. Reggie Ray and his beautiful book Secrets of the virtual world. One of the last chapters has quite a wonderful tongue, a tongue in cheek haunting story. of a particular type of scenario up at dollar Mountain Center where this there was a child that had died. And they had to do the ceremony Rinpoche Trungpa Rinpoche at that time, could feel that he knew what to do. And so this is this part of your question. Yes. Absolutely. They stick around they try to reenter the body, they stick around with their possessions, especially the first three weeks. And this is why if we know that we can be super helpful later on in this book, I will talk about this ways to work with this. But that's enough for now because the other question is a bit long. Okay. This is a good one. I had a couple questions about POA. First, you have said that in the case of sudden death, once you do that generates the 601 Mater. That's one option. If one has trained in POA and connects with the practice, is it okay to do the Amitabha mantra instead? Spot on? Yes. That's what I said today. Absolutely. My second question is a bit more involved. I'm going to read it quickly. Hope it's okay. It has to do with the relationship between nirmanakaya POA and the after death Bartos? Yeah, so this is a good question. I've heard it a number of times, but it's a good one. My understanding is that at some point after the outer breathing stops with the successful power the consciousness transfers out of the crown chakra and goes to a pure land correct but if one is able to recognize the ground luminosity, clear light at the end of the end of dissolution, and enter took Tom doesn't consciousness remain in the body during this process? Yes, it does. It can seem that doing Pola then would preclude the possibility of Dharmakaya liberation. Well, the here's this is the key and this is what's important. And I've asked llamas about this, and I'll read the rest of your question later. There does seem to be an implied supremacy, the Dharmakaya POA as being number one, symbol GokaiOh. POA being number two, we haven't talked about that yet. nirmanakaya, POA being number three but that's not true. And I've asked Lamas about this because I had exactly the same question. You know, why? Why would you hedge your bets and shoot for an amount of kya realm when you can just wait till you reach the Dharmakaya with the clear light. So I've had this exact same question. And the thing to remember is that these kayas, even though they can be heuristically centrifuges out, remember that they're all fundamentally interconnected. They're all entangled. And so liberation at one or the other. Kya is not superior. That's the key. And I've asked teachers about this because I had exactly the same question. So you may think that the Dharmakaya thing is supreme, but the teachers I've asked, said the liberation that any level of any of the kinds is supreme, Supreme is equivalent. So they continue and even apart from the issue of suppose location of consciousness, the consciousness does not have a location. Consciousness is inherent. The suppose location is a temporary contraction of the self sense located consciousness is inherent in reality. Just by looking at the temporal sequence of events, it would seem that the transfer of consciousness to a pure land occurs before the dying person has had a chance to attain liberation at the end of the Bardo of dying during the Bardo of domata. Yes, Your logic is correct. At least if this person is doing poor for themselves, you can appear that one would have to choose beforehand between the choice and the chance of attaining full enlightenment and being reborn in Amitabh is puroland which seems odd. So I asked, I knew Rinpoche this question in you suggested, if you want that if you do the POA in the nature of mind state that would lead to Dharmakaya liberation spot on 100%. Is this your understanding as well? Yes, but it's not necessarily supreme. Otherwise what happens is you get into this kind of spiritual bypass thing, but somehow everything has to be Dharmakaya. Well, if you just look at the you know, the open, empty nature, whatever arises Dharmakaya is inherent in any experience. So this is where we have to, you know, be a little careful with a heuristic aspect of centrifuging out the three kayas. It's a good question. However, I'm not dissing it at all.
If so, and if one is done, nature might practice could you view Poway as ideally, an aid to resting in the nature of mind at the time of death? Well, it depends on what type of poor you're talking about. It sounds like you're talking about nirmanakaya POA the idea that there is a potential conflict between POA or puroland practice generally in nature on practice makes me uneasy. Okay, you don't have to be an easy, they're equivalent. And it would be necessary. It'd be nice to believe that they are completely consistent with one another. Yeah. So yeah. I mean, this is a good question. And that really I've asked this a number of times that different teachers, and this is the response I've heard, and it makes a lot of sense to me. Hey, Ian, I can't remember who asked Matt, if you're here and have a follow up on that more than welcome. Otherwise, let me get back to you real quick. I'll see what's in the chat column. And then unfortunately, my I have to eject my consciousness into the next zoom call it can you believe that my pathetic life it's like ridiculous.
Hey, um, so I'm volunteer at a personal care home where they take care of hospice patients, and because they don't have to abide by Medicare requirements and having four or more patients there. They take people that are really at death's door. And so there's there's a lot of deaths like I'll go in one week and the person's alert and talking and then I go back and they're dead. But yeah, I was doing green Tara practice recently and this patient while I was holding her hand when she died and that made me wonder if I as a person who is present in a circumstance like that is doing the actual deity practice, something that you would recommend or
absolutely 100% Yes. Yeah. Absolutely. Because, you know, for a number of reasons. One is the stability that this particular practice brings about in your own mind and heart. And the kind of mind space that it cultivates within you, is contagious. You're again in the spirit of transference you're radiating slash transferring your state of mind whether you know it or not all the time. And so when you're around death and dying people you know this, the BB, the boundaries break down, the everything becomes more porous and mind is slipping into space, literally. And so by engaging either in green Tara or honestly any other meditation, that brings about a level of stability, love, tremendously helpful, or simply just not in a dismissive way, simply sitting in shamatha, stabilizing your mind, tremendously helpful. So whatever practice from your side that resonates with you, that speaks with you, that makes you feel centered and gathered, while you're helping them more than you can imagine, because they're being attracted to your mindspace Christine Longacre, a student of luck. I remember che goes so far as to say and I don't I believe her. In this regard. You can actually meditate for that. Person. This is a type of power for them in a certain sense. You are literally meditating for that person, you become their proxy. And so therefore, the stability of that practice is absolutely of benefit to those who are transitioning. 100% Okay, yeah. And speaking of your situation, I remember very clearly the first time I went to India, I went to Calcutta and I visited Mother Teresa's hospice and downtown Calcutta. Lordy, if you've ever been there, wow, you walk in the door. There's no waiting room. You walk in there and there's 100 People that are dying. It's in tents. It was that was a major, major experience being in her hospice centers like amazing. So thank you for doing the work that you do. Wonderful. And rely on Tara. She'll help you and she'll help others. Okay. Okay, I got two quick minutes. Speaking of the human race, can you tell us more about the dark practice that you're doing is this place in Colorado so yeah, Christopher. Boy, there's so much to say here. I'm not sure if you're doing the PDP thing or not i rift quite a bit about it yesterday in the PDP thing. Yeah, I do it in two places. I do it in tumbling and Crestone. But mostly, that's a little bit harder to get into sky cave and Oregon is where it was last week. In fact, honestly, that's where I was before he came on. We're looking for funding for these. That's where I'm going in two minutes. When I get off. I'm talking to another funder, about building more cabins in caves. So that's why you should let me go with with ease so I'm trying to get more of these units built so people like us can get up there. And do these things. It's a very, very powerful practice. Yeah, Sky caves. Super cool. Scott, who runs that places a rock star? Are these dark retreat practices giving you a boost to your lucid dreaming 1,000% Tim, in fact, I'm meeting next Tuesday with another zoom call with a team of scientists at Northwestern University. We're going to start studying, we're going to do multi track studies with dark retreatants. I'm talking to scientists from six different institutions. The one next Tuesday is in fact about studying dark retreat for increased enhanced lucidity with liminal dreaming lucid dreaming, Dream Yoga and sleep yoga. 100% and I write in this book I'm writing I write pretty extensively about why that's the case. I wish I had more time to riff on it now but 100% Okay, last one for now. Unfortunately if What if anything does the Buddhists say you say about ghosts Yeah, there is real or unreal as we are. I and others I've had experiences have recently died loved ones appearing briefly. Yes. What is that? Well, that's them appearing to you briefly. That's what it is. You know what does Jeffrey credible say my favorite line from him the weirder it is their true or it is just remove the cataracts of confusion, open your mind and heart. And you will start to notice this stuff all over the place. It's the most magical consequence of opening your mind and heart. And so dear friends, really I honestly I'm not kidding. I was late because I was meeting with a big funder. I have to run to another zoom because I'm meeting with another funder. Appreciate your understanding everybody really dedicate the merit to all sentient beings who need it. It's not just for us remember if what we're doing is not a benefit to others. It's irrelevant. It's totally irrelevant if what we're doing here can't help others in the world. So with that said, much love to you. You know where to find me so to speak. I'm off to my next zoom call. Ciao. recording stopped
