So what we do at these events, it's been a while, but read and then run what's called Auto commentary on a book, one of my books, Otis prize. And so we're slowly. I think if we continue, maybe within next five years, we'll be done going through this book, preparing to die, practical advice and spiritual wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Buddhist tradition. So we left off last time on page 154 and one of the more esoteric, like healthy duty Tibetan Buddhist sections of the book, just before it transitions into some super practical stuff. So that's part of the dance of this tome is going from the esoteric to the exoteric, from the spiritual to the practical. And so I just got a couple pages left on the esoteric, kind of Tibetan side of things, and then we landed. So I think some pretty, pretty darn practical things. Okay, so this holiness Dingo can say, Rinpoche said that the best purification practice for the dead is the purification of the sixth round. So this is in the section, of course, what to do for others after they died. This is important to understand, because so many people feel that after somebody does leave this particular dimension, there's not a whole lot we can do. Well, that only reveals to me a subscription to this physicalist, materialist paradigm where, when somebody is gone, that's it. Well, the death is the end of the body. It's not the end of a relationship. And if reality is, in fact is is so many wisdom traditions proclaim, and a number of philosophy is also assert, if the world is not made of matter, but made of heart, mind spirit, well, I have one of those, or all three of those, heart, mind spirit, then what we do in here actually has a lot more power than you can imagine. So to speak out there, it's all in geek speak. It's all big one quantum field, and we're all excitations in this infinite field of well, subjectivity flipping over into philosophical terms. And so this is important easy for me to toss off, not so easy to really fully incorporate because we drunk this Kool Aid. But making the shift from a world made of matter to world made of mind, heart, spirit is colossal. It really shows then that we really can do a lot. Oh, okay, this practice cleanses the body of the six principle negative emotions, each one of which, by the way, is associated with around passion, aggression, ignorance, jealousy, pride and greed, and therefore blocks the door to rebirth in their respective realms. So, so there's two ways. This is an interjection. So there's two ways during the moment of death and beyond to work. Well, actually, right at the moment of death, let's just back down. We just looked at a bit. You can either open the highway to heaven, the stairway to heaven through practices like Paula, ejection of consciousness in Module recitation, like omami de Bucha. Or here you can close the realms, the doors to the to the lower realms. And so this kind of exemplifies the second means, and also these, these particular poisons, passion, aggression, ignorance, jealous of pride and greed. You want to get a preview of coming attractions. I mean, what is found out was found. Then you want to get a sense of perhaps where you might be ontologically reborn. Take a look at the states you want to have it now. This will give you a preview of coming attractions. What is found out is found. Then web page 154, this practice works directly with the root of rebirth. Can be done during life for ourselves, but here it is used to help those who have died. So gay Rinpoche says, quote, according to the dhantras, the negative emotions accumulate in the psycho spiritual system of subtle channels, the inner air and energy. Salon tigla. So these are, these are the massive there's a interjection here for me. So this is the what are called the inner yogas. Some scholars proclaim that if you divide Bucha Vajrayana Tantra into three classes, you get the formless meditations, you get the inner yogas. You get the deity yogas. So 1/3 of all Tibetan Tantras associated to these inner yogas. And so this takes advantage of that back to him. So the seed of the the seed of the hell realm and his cause anger are located at the soles of the feet a hungry ghost realm, and it caused avarice, rise at the base of the trunk, arrest at the base of the trunk. The animal realm, and it's caused ignorance, rest at the navel, the human realm, and it's caused doubt, rest at the heart, the demigod realm, and it's caused jealousy, reside at the throat and the God Realm, and it's caused pride reside at the corner of the hand. So obviously Rinpoche here is talking about the six realms of existence. Which we've talked about in different settings. Remember, it's depicted in the arguably the most famous scroll, Tibetan Tanka and all Buddhism, the baba chakra, the wheel of life, back to him. So in this practice, when each realm and its negative emotion is purified, the practitioner imagines that all the karma created by that particular emotion is now exhausted and that specific part of his body is associated with the karma of a particular emotion dissolves entirely into lights. That's a slightly non sequitur. Anyway. Leave it so when you do this practice for a dead person, imagine with all your heart and mind that at the end of this practice, all their karma is purified, and their body entire being dissolved into radiant, light, cool. End quote, I have not done this practice. So there are a number of these that I have done. There's also a number of these that I haven't done. I think you're starting to get a sense. I wouldn't say this is just a drop in the bucket, because this book is somewhat comprehensive, but one of the things that defines the Tibetan tradition, sometimes called upaya Yana, vehicle of skillful means, is there are dozens and dozens and dozens of different types of practices you can do for all kinds of conditions, for yourself and for others. So we're really deep into the kind of the arena of this aspect of it. So you Rinpoche has this caveat practice, traditional practices such as this require training and cannot be done. Cannot cannot be followed. Simply from this book, his book, The Tibetan Book of Living in dying, the shiftro practice. Now this is one I have done, discussed in chapter one, is also used to help others. Chitra means peaceful raffle. This refers, if you subscribe to this, to the 100 peaceful raffle archetypes, slash deities that appear in the luminous particle dermatop. I believe we discussed those earlier on, after doing the visualizations mentioned in chapter one, imagine that the deities radiate light to the dead person, purifying their negative karma, then recite the 100 syllable mantra, vajrasapha. Each one of these syllables is associated with one of these deities, who is the central deity of the Chitra mandala. This is a mantra for purification and healing. For those with a connection to female Buddhist there is red Tara. There's 21 versions of Tara, the red Tara meditation for the dead. Those familiar with Tara can invoke her blessing by calling her name while they're in the Bardos. Her blessing then directs their consciousness into her pure land or an auspicious rebirth again. It's best if the dead person did this practice during life, so that the habit arises automatically in the Bardo. Chuck de cau says she wrote an entire book on this quote, visualizing either Tara in the space in front of us or ourselves transformed into the wisdom body of Tara, we meditate the rainbow light shines from Tara's heart throughout the six realms in the Bardo and envelops the deceased wherever they are, purifying their karma and infusing them with Tara's radiant blessing, the more profound our realization of emptiness, the deeper is our experience that this is actually the case, not merely imagined light washing over imagined figures of the deceased, but minds unobstructed, quality of sheer clarity encompassing the mind streams of the deceased, purifying and blessing them, bringing forth their natural radiance, which dissolves into tariffs and light and experience. Quote, end. Quote, cool, out there, right? This stuff is so out there. The English version of a red tar practice written by Chuck trugo Rinpoche. I wouldn't say I officially studied with him a lot, but I had a wonderful opportunity to actually spend a fair amount of time with him when I was living in Kathmandu. What an amazing guy. He was so cool. An English version of the very Tara practice written, but chagatuku contains this very Tara meditation for the dance. So that's on the footnote. Finally, so your Rinpoche offers practices that we can do at the cremation to benefit the dead. So the idea, so the Why am I doing all this? Well, for some people who are really into the kind of whole Tibetan arena, gives you a sense of what you can track down and pursue, so to speak. And for others, like I alluded to briefly just second ago, it just gives you some sense of how many different things are actually available to you.
The crematorium, Soham Rinpoche, the crematorium, or funeral pyre, is visualized as the mandala of Ashraf, 100 peaceful and raffle deities. And the deities are strongly visualized and their presence is invoked. The dead person's corpse is seen, is actually representing all his or her negative karma and obscurations as the corpse burns. These are consumed by the deities as a great feast and transmuted and transformed by them into their wisdom nature. Rays of light are imagined streaming out from the deities. The corpse is visualized dissolving completely into light as all the impurities of the dead person are purified in the blue. Blazing flames in Blade, the Blazing Flames of wisdom. As you visualize this, you can recite the 100 syllable or six syllable mantra, Varjo Safa, which is own Vajra home the ashes of the body and the Xinjiang I talked about that few pages back, can then be mixed with clay to make little images called satsas. These are blessed and dedicated on behalf the dead person to create auspicious conditions for a good future rebirth. So here's the way to work with this is, in my estimation, is this is one that's really great to talk to a monastery commission, a center like Vajra vija and Crestone, which I just visited a couple, actually, six years ago. There's lots of centers in the US, karma training New York. There's others in Kathmandu in Asia. This is kind of what they do. This is just part of their job description. And so when it comes to these little bit more esoteric things, I have some experience with some of them, but this is where the, so to speak, professionals come into play, and you tap into them, if this speaks to you. So the Gulu thing, I'm actually, with your permission, I'm going to just get skip over this, because I have not done a single one of these practices. And I well, actually, that's not entirely true. I've done some of them, but I think we're esoteric enough without reading and going through lists of things that like I have no idea what this is referring to, right? So if you have the book, this is one of the very few times when I just recommend, if you have a connection, just read through this. I'd rather actually skip just a little bit ahead, do the summary, and then turn to something that I think is a little bit more applicable and practical for us. So the summary here, these practices give us an idea of just how much is available to help the dead. Knowing about these rituals also helps if they are mentioned when we contact the retreat center or monastery, when all these practices, while all these practices are wonderful, loved ones may be too numb to do anything but grieve. The last thing we need is the pressure of conducting the perfect post death rituals, feeling that we're letting the dead person down only as for the stress this won't help us or the dead. This is when we rely on Dharma friends. Some of these practices resonate with you. Tell your friends in advance that you would like to do them and ask for the help if none of these practices speak to you, don't worry. Your love and compassion is what really matters. Summary instructions, this is for me, for how to help others after they die. Think of them only with love. Perform good deeds and dedicate the merit to them. Commission monasters or dharma centers to practice for them. Hey, there you go. There you have it. Okay, from the esoteric to the exoteric. Yeah, I like some of these header quotes. Henry Ford, before everything else, getting ready is the secret to success like no kidding. Steve Jobs, remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Yeah, that's spot on. So this is why we talked about, I guess, at this point, almost a year ago, remember the emphasis that was placed on the four thoughts that turned the mind, the four reminders, don't forget the four reminders. Those aren't in your kind of liturgical recitation curriculum. I recommend it. They're actually quite powerful. Okay, here we go. The practical preparations for death are not always separate from the spiritual preparations. What we do about organ donation, euthanasia or suicide will be directed by our spiritual views. The essence of practical preparation is to get the affairs of our life in order before we enter the Bardo of dying, since that can occur in the next moment, like one heartbeat away, one breath away from death still close. This means we need to get our affairs in order, finishing our business well in advance of this final deadline is a spiritual practice. So this the risk really can't be over emphasized. If those, those listening here have not done your advanced directives, let alone your dharma wills, what are you waiting for? And if you think it's a pain, it is. Don't do it for yourself. Think of others. Think of it. You know, doing Bodhisattva activity. You don't want to leave a mess behind. You don't want all your stuff to go into probate. You don't want all your friends and families and loved ones to take care of your mess, clean it up. Now leave, you know, what are they talking about, not leaving a carbon footprint. Well, don't, don't leave a karmic footprint. Do these? Do these exercises. Now, this cannot be overstated. I redid mine. You know, unless you die after you do it, your advanced directives, they need to be updated. So I updated mine just a little over your phone. Year ago, most people like the beginning of things, but have a harder time with proper endings. We don't enjoy the messy affairs at the end of life, such as cleaning up our estate, resolving painful relationship. We're facing the harsh reality of impermanence. Always remember, by the way, impermanence is the expression of emptiness, right? Permanence is the active expression of emptiness, but this is where rock meat bone, as they say in Tibet, or whether rubber hits the road as we might say, we can tell more about a person's character by the way they say goodbye than by the sugary way they say hello. Isn't that true? Isn't it true the way you leave a job, a relationship or whatever? Yeah, that's when you learn about people. Hellos are easy because they're full of a promise and potential of Life and Birth. Goodbyes always have a tiny smell of death. The true colors of a person are revealed more in the grace they bring to a divorce than the sweetness brought to an engagement. If you were to die today, what would remain unfinished that you really want to finish? These are these are powerful contemplations. Do you have any regrets? Have you found meaning in your life and meaning in your death? Are there any relationships you need to clean up? Do you need to express forgiveness? Have you written your advanced directives? Have you drafted a medical power of attorney? Oh, boy, really spent some time unpacking every one of these. Attorney John Scroggin, who I don't know, but I read, who developed the family love letter, comprehensive estate planning document, rights. Quote, 70% of Americans do not have an estate plan. Yikes. Failure to plan and a failure to provide basic information, in virtually every case, will create family conflict, cause the dissipation of assets you have spent a lifetime building, or result in the payment of income and estate taxes which might have been avoided easily. The emotional turmoil and family pain around death is often magnified by the resulting confusion over the plans, assets and desires of an incapacitated or deceased family member, the mental fogginess that accompanies the family's trauma is exaggerated by the inability to make basic decisions because of the lack of basic Information. Estate planning is not about death and taxes. Instead, it's about the legacy you leave behind when you no longer can help your family. Will you leave chaos, or will you leave a well conceived plan with information to help your family in his confused times? Now that's pretty solid. That's really saying solid advice. Back to the book, by dealing with the medical and legal issues in advance, we can better relax at the time of death and remember this is, oh, oil's coming up. I was just about to say it, it's coming right up. So I'm going to hold, yeah, this is a form of power, so hang it's coming up. This preparation also benefits others, because we're not leaving a metal or medical or legal mess behind. I am continually amazed at how many financial skeletons people keep on their closets. These skeletons come out after death. If you're part of the cleanup crew, be prepared for some unexpected financial or legal problems. So I bet if I looked and had everybody turn on the camera, there'd be a lot of nodding heads on this one, right? If you've been around people. Oy. Vey, gets intense, man, it's not easy. The main purpose of estate planning is to protect our loved ones, our disability and death will radically affect them. Give those who will be dealing with some of the most intense emotions of their life your final gift. Say to yourself, for the benefit of others, I will prepare for the medical and legal issues surrounding my death. By doing so, others will be free of this burden when I die,
as with our spiritual practice, we're not doing this for ourselves. It's the act of a bodhisattva to deal with these matters. Now this, to me, is really very, very helpful. Just get out of yourself and into other, so to speak, right? Because this stuff is a nuisance. It's, it's expensive. Well, I mean, you can do some of the stuff. There are, there are places online where you can do this. All my professional legal friends obviously have reservations about that sort of thing. But anyway, that is an option. I can't speak with any authority about that, because I did not do mine that way. Back to the book. Finally, I like the timeless aspects of spiritual preparation, the practice. Aspects, facets are always in flux. Laws change, medicines advance and new counseling strategies develop. Guidelines below will be modified as their respective fields continue to evolve with the miracle the internet is easy to stay current with the topics discussed below. Yeah, always changing, always unless you're a professional in this arena, can be a little bit challenging to keep up on everything legal issues and obvious preparation is writing your will. There's a spiritual basis for doing so. By settling our business, in particular, by giving our possessions away, literally or through written intent, we will be removing some of the pain from the painful part of dying. Remember that the bar of dying is painful because it hurts to let go. We're forced to let go of everything we have and everything we think we are. Ouch. That's why it hurts, man, just like really deep retreat, letting go of everything we think we are was addressed in chapters three and four above, letting go of everything we have. It's going to be dealt with here. When it comes to death, the legal issues are as omnipresent as the spiritual The law applies to all three phases of what to do before, during and after death, there are matters that need to be dealt with. Before death, creating and filing all the papers during death, application of medical and durable power of attorney, living wills and after death, the implementation of wills and trusts. Just as our Maxim, the mind leads all things, applies to the spiritual the maxim the law follows all things, applies to spiritual matters concerning death right now. What a contrast to the last chapter. This is awesome plop right back into the earth by giving things away, writing advanced directives and drafting will we're practicing a form of POA. We call that POA means transference, moving or rejecting. In order to successfully move our consciousness forward, we have to cut the ties that hold us back. The term Advanced Directive is wonderful when it comes to POA after death, direct your consciousness to advance by allowing it to writing the documents that help everyone to let go and advance. This is on one level, this is patronizingly obvious, right? Simple, but simple doesn't always mean easy. So this is really, you know, when I'm teaching extensive, like, week long stuff, sometimes we go through this. The one time I actually brought an attorney with me, we went through it. That can get a little bit cumbersome, but it's, it's sometimes quite remarkable, until there is that kind of peer pressure or situation where these are strongly recommended. Amazing. What did he say? 70% of people have no estate plan, really. The poet discussed earlier is Tantra POA, which is a forceful method of transference. There are also sutra forms of POA, which are more gentle methods of moving consciousness. This part is interesting. One such method is called the application of the five powers. The second of these five powers is called the power of the white seed. Glenn Muller says, of this quote, try to read the mind of all forms of physical attachment in order to affect this, give away all wealth, property and possessions to noble purposes such as the poor and needy, the sick, educational institutions, hospitals, spiritual institutions and so forth. End quote. In other words, writing your will is a form of POA, right? I always remember, I don't think I said this yet, or maybe if I did, I forgot that allegedly, allegedly, when Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi died. He could put all his worldly possessions in a shoebox. I busted. I couldn't do it in two massive Atlas moving bands, right? Talk about like anti POA. Hardest thing is going to let go is to let go of all this stuff behind me, right? All these books, ah, I'm starting to give some of them away. Now. It's actually, it is. It is slightly painful, but, you know, I gotta practice what I preach. Boss, I need some extra shelf space for the new books. Let's get real. That's really what it's about. I need some extra shelf space for the new books and your piano, yeah, my piano, yeah, you wind up, birdie, yeah, oh, I just know you love your piano, yeah. It's in my study around the corner. I love my piano, yeah, that's going to be hard to get to let go of totally attachment binds us. Where was I? Here? It? Oh, yes, we want to travel light through the Bardos with just the bare essentials. Most of us, however, lumber through death with lots of luggage. I don't think I did. I put this in here before right this line from George Strait. Never seen a hearse with a luggage rack. That's so awesome. Never seen a hearse with a luggage rack. That's so great. Just as in life, this baggage pulls us down. All kinds of physical and emotional attachments hold us back in order to transfer your consciousness later, transfer your material possessions to others. Now, now this I have done, donated in my will, all my my books I've donated to Naropa University. You know, I have to think about my piano. Birdie. That's, that's a good one who's going to get my piano? Everything else is, yeah, it's already, it's not paper. I'm good with it. Attachment binds us to samsara during life and holds us back during death. Hinduism says that when we die, we'll move toward whatever we were most attached to at the moment of death. We want to remove those attachments so we can move forward. Trungpa Rinpoche says, quote, you are capable of making your consciousness step outside of your body when the time comes. This again means cutting through a lot of possessiveness towards one body, particularly the desire for possessions and entertainment. One has to have the power to remove clingings. You have to leave things behind which can be very scary and very unsatisfying. End. Quote, Yeah, hello. Attachment also causes pain for those left behind again. This is why. This is exactly why the painful Bardo dying is painful. If you die before you die on these levels, right? We talked about that before. Remember, if you die before you die, that thing, well, this is dying before you die at the kind of physical level, right? You do this, it becomes less painful. It's already you've dropped the load, let it go. Easier said than done. This is when you realize just how sticky the mind is, right? How we identify with form. The more successful you are, the more form you have, the more things you have, right? We're possessed by that which people we possess. Our desire to fill a void with physical or psychological stuff occurs constantly. We're afraid of silence and space. Why? Because it's the death space, right? Silence, stillness, spaciousness. What? What? Tenzo Wong over, which I love this. He talks about it with three pills. These are awesome. The three pills I take em every morning, right, stillness of body, silence of speech, spaciousness of mind. Fantastic. Along with my vitamins and whatnot. I take those three pills. I've added a fourth one another. Ask slowness. Slow, because I tend to get a little speedy. Maybe you've noticed this, too windy, too speedy. So I work, I work with, actually, all four pills. I have to take them every morning.
Would you say them again?
Illness, I'm so sorry. You're just fearless. I love it. You want my piano now. You want these pills? No, I want this still. There we go, just for you. Bernie, right, well, okay, stillness of body, silence and speech, spaciousness of mind. Those are 10s of one yellows, three pills. And then I added a fourth slowness, slowness, which applies to me big time. That's what I need to work on. We're afraid of silence and space. That's a death space. So we fill it in conscious and subconscious ways, because we're afraid of death. This urge is amplified when a loved one dies. Have you noticed, God, I like, Have you noticed how often when somebody dies, how many people just kind of go into hyper, drive, hyperactivity, you know, they just go, they just go, like, super busy, super busy, just like why? Well, we once held so closely is gone and the space left behind becomes unbearable. We long to fill that emptiness, that space this, by the way, is what this is what hurls us, you know, from from the bar of dying into the Bardo becoming is our unwillingness and ability to hang out in that open space and that uncertainty and that groundlessness and that unknowing. No, we don't want to hang out in that open death space, so we clamor for the next job, the next relationship, the next whatever. That's how we habit patterns just force us into the bar to be coming. Okay, we have all seen pictures of spiritual teachers or heads of state being passed hand to hand above the heads of a crowd. People often snatch at bits of clothing or any other Memento they want a piece of what's leaving. This human tendency to fill space is portrayed in some teachings on death as grabbing possessions and our litigious society, even under the most loving conditions, a person's money and possessions are often a bone of contention. Yeah, family and friends trying to fill a longing to remain connected with the one who died, or merely try to satisfy their greed, this urge to fill the void left by death can cause loved ones to grasp at the possessions of the dead, which results in negative karma and a heap of unnecessary hurt. There's no need for them. I mean, it's understandable, right? Because that's just what ego lives on form. Ego is that ego is exclusive identification with form, and so more form the better. That's why, that's what drives this consumer materialistic culture. And so when things get pulled out from underneath you, we want to put things back underneath our feet. Grab, grab, grab and grasp. Right, grasp, grasp, grasp. As a dying person, offer a gift of kindness by dispersing your wealth and possessions through proper documentation. Now be aware of this human tendency to grab and make provisions to lessen it. There are stories of Tibetan masters who transferred their consciousness. In other words, they did POA before the Chinese could kill them as a way to protect the Chinese soldiers from accruing enormous negative karma. Similarly, through legal means, we can protect our families and friends from the karma of conflict and greed, protect them from collapsing into the whole of deficiency and from the grasping that often ensues. Alex Halpern, yeah, this is a friend of mine who wrote the section. There's a section up here. I may or may not read some of these insertions. We'll see. We'll explain most of the legal issues in detail below, but here's a brief summary that explains the legal terms. Yeah. So this is, this is good. This is a condensation kind of bullet point thing. This is helpful. And if there's any legal people here you want to chime in at the end, feel free to do so. So talk about going from the esoteric to the, you know, practical, exoteric. Here we go, or will or trust. Disposes of your assets. It's your final statement of what should happen to your material possessions. If you have children who are minors, these documents also convey your wishes of what should happen to your family in the event of your demise. An example would be the guardianship of your children a will identify as the people who will make decisions when you are dumb. It can dramatically reduce conflicts between family and friends who may want your assets. A Will or Trust can be used to make charitable gifts, to reduce estate taxes and to help heirs who may be minors who aren't able to manage their inherited assets, although it doesn't carry legal weight, a letter of instruction can be a useful supplement to a will, it lists the names and contact information of your attorneys, accountants and financial advisors for your executor. Obviously, the executor, right? This is the person who implements your wishes. Included in the will or trust is a personal property disposition list. This is where you can specify who will receive items of your personal property, but not real estate or money. If you're married, it helps to list what possessions belong to you and what belongs to your spot. So as you might suspect, I don't have a lot, a ton of like running auto commentary here. One, I'm not an attorney. Secondly, this is actually, I think, relatively self explanatory. So that's how I'm going to kind of clip through this. Let me see what we got here. Well, here, let's do this. I'm going to I'm going to ask you. So here we go, in the chat column. I'm going to read for a little while, but I'm going to ask you, let's vote. Let's vote. I'm going to ask you to write in the chat column if you think it's our the best use of our time together for me to just go ahead and read through this kind of stuff. These are, this is some of the sections that is like, I don't really have a lot to comment on this, right, because I'm not an attorney, and so right in the chat column, if it's if it's like, yeah, let's just continue. Let's go through this. Because I don't know about this stuff, because I'm basically just gonna be reading this, or I'll pause after I read a little bit to see what the vote is. I I'm very happy to kind of skip over this section and get to something that I could probably run with a little bit more auto commentary on. So feel free. This is the time to make your vote in the chat column. Com, please continue. Maybe Kate can help me here somebody, and then I'll take a look. Or we can skip ahead to something where you know a little bit more in the arena, where I can run some commentary. So where was I? Okay? I'm just going to go a little bit further, and then I'm pause. I'm going to take a quick look and see what the vote is. Want to make you guys happy a Living Will expresses your choices regarding the use of life sustaining treatments is used by your doctor or health agent, healthcare agent to understand and implement your end of life wishes. Making these wishes known can eliminate the expensive treatment when there is no reasonable hope for recovery. It can also reduce stress when painful decisions around life support can be made or have to be made, such as whether or not to administer, continue artificial IV nutrition or hydration, Five Wishes, a customizable living will, created by the nonprofit organization aging with dignity meets legal requirements in most states and simplifies the process of specifying how you are to be treated if you get seriously ill. Okay, so let me take a look at the chat. Skip, yeah, yeah, I'm kind of inclined, that's why I mentioned that. I'm kind of inclined to do that as well, because you guys can read this on your own, right? Yes, pets should also be mentioned in will. So I'm just gonna run a comment to yeah, there's a couple things here. Yes, yes, yeah, skip, skip, I agree. I agree. Thanks, everybody. Skip, skip, skip, I think it's I tend to agree. Cool, all right, let's do it. Yeah, we can't read this stuff, right? I don't need to plop through this. Also something to put you to sleep. So I'm also going to skip, you know, Alex helper and stuff is good again. Salsa is really good. But there are a number of insertions in this book where I asked professionals to do their thing. And Alex insertion is the first one and then the second one here. So if you go again, I'm skipping through this is actually in a certain way, it's kind of good, because otherwise we are going to be reading this book for the next two years. I have two more books I want to talk to you about, you know, a little bit you learn my darker tree book coming up. I want to talk to you. I want to read through the mindful now, what book? And then the reverse meditation book. So you'll see where we're going here, skipping, skipping, sipping. Then there's this whole thing by my dear friend Beth Patterson, a lawyer, um, very serious, concerted student of Paula Brache. She's got a really good thing on hospice. Same sort of deal, same sort of deal. Instead of me just reading it, we'll just skip it. Yay. Look at that. We accomplished a lot today. We're going to skip all the way up to page 191 caring for the dying. Oh, I can let me just finish this life the conclusion of that next section, I think this is the right thing to
do. I'm as the Buddhist teachings emphasize, and permanence and death are part of the natural order of things, not something to be hidden away in fear and despair. Death and Dying are integral parts of human existence and indeed, of human development and growth. Elizabeth Kubler Ross has observed quote, If you can begin to see death as an invisible but friendly companion on your life journey, you can learn to live your life rather than simply passing through it. That's good. End Quote, hospice care is available as a companion on that journey, enabling patients and loved ones to embrace the special and sacred stage of life with dignity, autonomy and peace, cool, Oh, yeah. So this same thing with the Christine's thing this, this could be my I mean, all the contributions in this book were so great. But this one from Christine, I thought was particularly potent. So again, for the purposes of, you know, I don't really have a ton that I could run commentary on this, so with your permission, we'll skip over that, because you can read this on your own. It's really good. And then my dear friend Mitchell Gersten, five psychological stages of dying and medical issues around death. This thing is also great. But, you know, here's one, one thing I will say about this is that the since Mitch wrote this, since, which was some 1012, years ago, the the five stages of Elizabeth, Google, Ross's approach have been, I wouldn't say debunked. That's not the right word, but have been updated in the those of you who are who have taken the preparing, did I program, which, by the way, I guess that's the other thing to announce. I forgot the new running of that is starting. On the 19th of March, I think Terry Daniels, who is one of the people that I interviewed for PDP, we get into this a little bit about how the five stages are like you know, most modern people who work in this field say, yeah, there's some provisional validity to Elizabeth's five stages, but generally they don't hold up like they did anymore. So here's where we're going to jump. We're going to jump all the way up to this little riff that I wrote.
Well actually, you know what I'm wondering. Let me, let me just look at this real quick, even though I think it's great, of course, because I wrote it. Do I really want to read this and talk about it? Because, again, this is almost in the arena of textbook information. Give me one second here, let me just
this is what my intuition is. Let's skip. Okay, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to make an executive decision unless somebody raises a big fit. Because as I, as I read over this, I think if we go all the way up to page 217, in the section that I wrote careful for the night, the last two sections on spiritual matrix, and then the section that empty the disease this, this is worth a little riff. So let me, let me start this first one, and then we'll probably stop then so we can have a chance to talk about whatever you want. Look at this. We've gone through like 40 pages today. This is awesome. This is great. Okay, so page 217, spiritual matrix. The rest of it, honestly, it's kind of textbook stuff. You I don't need to run commentary on it, but this part's Cool. Okay? Lins whites comment, the spirit does not get AIDS a cancer or AIDS or Alzheimer's, wanted to brief return to the spiritual matrix of all experience, understanding the spiritual context in which even most difficult physical events take place, can reframe an entire illness or death. This can instill ease into a difficult situation. This, I'm going to rinse on this a little bit, because this really is important. This, this goes on aligns with this whole notion of which level of body do we identify with. And so both Tibetan and Hindu approaches, whether it's the kayas in Tibetan Buddhism or the koshas in Hinduism, talk about the different dimensions of our being, right? So we have gross outer form, subtle inner form, very subtle inner most formless. And so this little riff, the spirit does not get cancer aids. This is really important, because if we identify exclusively with the outermost, superficial, most dimension of our being, which does get cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's and everything else and does die, we're going to suffer in direct proportions to that level of identification. And so a large part of what actually constitutes a spiritual path, as I've come to understand it, is indeed transferring your identity from these outermost dimensions into these interior most dimensions, into dimensions that are more subtle, that are more fundamentally indestructible, until you get to this literally called Magic, particularly the instructable continuum, the body mind matrix that in fact, does not enter space, does not enter time, is not subject to old age, sickness and death does not get sick, does not die, literally called the changeless nature, who you really are. So if we can again transfer identity from this outer shell, which is crumbling. This is gonna go got a gati. This is gone, right? This is how you get rid of the painful part of dying. That's outerwear, that's underwear, that's gone, because that's not who you really are. So this part's important. Back to the section. It's easy for a person afflicted with a disease and for those around them to start to identify with it. Boy, I've seen this so often career victims of their disease. While it's important to know about an illness, for obvious reasons, if we start to identify with the disease, we may contract around it. We may convince ourselves that our thought that the pathology is now who we are, or if we're a caregiver, who the patient is. In a recent article on autism, a writer for the New York Times remarked that, quote, The diagnosis of autism is in many ways central to their lives. End quote, self contraction in the ensuing reification is one of our more power, most powerful habits. This is when a disease of the body spreads to infect the mind and spirit. Have you noticed this with, with people? Have you noticed this with, with some people that have chronic illnesses? They just, I mean, something bad is nothing better than nothing. They actually identify the pathological form of identification. This is so unnecessary. I've seen many patients surrender unintentionally, or even. Willingly to a diagnosis. They will tell me about their cancer, for example, and convey a sense of dangerous acquiescence. What can I do about it? My doctor says the prognosis is bleak, the disease has taken control of my life. End. Quote, I'm not blaming doctors for there are many who deliver their diagnosis with empathy and compassion. There are also many patients who unconsciously enable their doctors and viewing them with God like powers of life and death. I'm also not saying that disease doesn't have the ability to overwhelm and adversely transform a person, profoundly changing the physical life. There are diseases where death is virtually guaranteed, yeah, like life. What a Deepak Chopra say. I think I said this earlier life is a sexually transmitted, terminal disease. It's true. What I am saying is that doctors, patients and caregivers need to be careful when it comes to promise, to the promise and peril of diagnosis. If something feels, for example, it sometimes feels, for example, like some patients have the excuse they have been waiting for to finally get them off the hook of life. They may say to themselves, quote, I'm no longer responsible for my life and my actions. This disease has taken over. Can't you see, this pathology is who I am. They have become the victim and surrender in a damaging way. Candace pert, oh, she's great. She died a couple years ago. She's the NIH psycho neuro immunologist, really cool gal who wrote this quite, quite beautiful, impactful book called molecules in motion. One of the back to her, one of the most eloquent Dr Candice pert, one of the most eloquent exponents of mind body medicine. Says, quote, take responsibility for your own health and illness. Delete phrases like my doctor won't let me, or my doctor says I have blah, blah, blah, and there's nothing I can do from your speech and thought patterns spot on end. Quote, there's a big difference between appreciating a diagnosis and identifying with it. We talk about surrendering to reality. This is not the surrender. When we talk about surrendering to reality, this is not the surrender. We're talking about disease may be temporarily, sorry. Disease may temp may be a temporary physical reality, and living in ignorance of it could lead to the other extreme level, being in denial. But this disease is not who you are, right? You have to see this. Gotta see this video. It's really quite powerful. It's called Bucha between two between worlds, or something between two worlds. There's a scene in there that's quite something. There's a scene where the guy, one of the main attendants of color Rinpoche, is talking about the day color Rinpoche was suffering from really, really severe diabetes, and he had to have one, if not maybe both of his legs amputated. I actually saw him like right after, recently, after this had happened, and I'll share that story in just a second. But in the film, The tending monk says, when he was talking to Rinpoche after the surgery or whatever he said, he said, Rinpoche, how are you doing? And Rinpoche said, Oh, fantastic, wonderful, best day of my life. And the monk drops his jaws and say, Rinpoche, you just got your legs cut off. He goes, Oh, fine. No big deal. Best day of my life. And so I thought it was like, You got to be kidding me. Well, I actually saw Rinpoche after that. I was working in Nepal at the time. This is one. In fact, this is when I interviewed him for the clip at the end of the book, and I walked into his space. I think I might share the story in this. I walked into his quarters, and I was actually somewhat shocked that they even let me in. I mean, he should have been, well, he should have been in ICU. I mean, he was just all due respect. He was just like a train wreck. I mean, he was like blind from his diabetes, his legs have been amputated. I mean, physically, he was just like a total wreck. But as I was talking to your tennis is like, you know, you sure it's okay to be here, Rinpoche caught my voice or something. He said, Come, come, come. And I am not kidding. He sat there with the most buoyant, light hearted I was just gobsmacked. It just stopped me cold. I mean, here was a guy who was obviously in a heap of hurts and a really serious physical condition, and yet he was playful and welcome and loving and warming, and that that transmission was one of the most powerful of my life, certainly in the writing this book, because it showed me so clearly that he was not identified with what's going on in his body. He was identified with his deep, deathless nature within and therefore, it just didn't matter if his tan was fading right. It just didn't matter what was happening to this outer shell, because that's not who we were, that he was. He was like. Identifying with it was a really profound experience. Okay, let's close this section now. Yeah, disease may be a temporary physical reality, and living in ignorance of it could lead to other extreme living and denial, but this disease is not who you are, your spirit, who you really are, will never get cancer and will never die. Be present for your disease, but don't endorse it. Identify with your immortal spirit, not the malfunction of the body that temporarily contains it. Oh, yeah. And this is great. This is from the Shambhala book. This is such a great quote by relating with the from Trungpa Rinpoche, by relating with the ordinary conditions of your conditions of your life, you might make a shocking discovery while drinking your cup of tea, you might discover that you are drinking tea in a vacuum. In fact, you are not even drinking the tea around, getting the disease. The hollowness of space is drinking the tea getting the disease. When you put on your makeup, you might discover that you are putting cosmetics on space.
You are beautifying space pure nothingness. Yeah, that's such a great quote the Mind Bender Doctor roses will let patients and loved ones to come to this temptation to pigeon hole and therefore to dismiss it's easy and convenient. What's being dismissed of the complex factors involved with the disease, the mysterious interplay between physical and spiritual in the context of a larger spiritual identity. In my practice of little medicine, the staff would often tell me, we have a biopsy in operatory one and they have an abscess on operatory two. It's true. Actually, it's true. Now we don't. We have a human being, a sacred expression, a pure spirit dealing with a temporary, physical hiccup. What? What did? What did? Oh yeah, here it is, it's coming up. Oh geez, okay, here it is, it's coming up. So when a patient gives me their health history and says, I have cancer, I feel like replying, don't let it have you. Don't let it possess you. Never forget is Stephen Levine says he wrote this great book a year to live. It's really good that we are spiritual beings with physical experiences, not physical beings with spiritual experiences spot on, we've got it completely backwards. That's a great one. This is why the teachings of part one, our spiritual preparation, come before and contain the considerations presented in part two, the practical preparation, while honoring a letter we should always take refuge in the former, like space itself, spirit easily contains and remains unaffected by anything that arises within it. The yoga teacher, a younger says, go though the body is subject to sickness, age, decay and death. The spirit remains unaffected. Birth and death are a natural phenomena, but the soul is not subject to birth and daddy, as a man, casting off worn out garments takes on new ones. So the DWELLER within the body, casting aside worn out bodies enters into others that are new spot. Ah, okay, so Whoa. Look at look how much we got done here. My gosh, we went from 154, to 219, speed reading today. This is awesome. So 31 love it, okay. Oh, boy. I also ran a little bit over. Sorry. Um, any questions comments before we close out, unfortunately, um, you know, we usually do this every two weeks. I will be in Costa Rica in two weeks. So what's the solution? Come see me there. So anyway, I'm such a bad, cheap salesman, it's like, pathetic. Okay, um, okay. Here's a question from Jim, can the Bardos also be considered as levels of mine? I know you previously referred to them as gaps. How many are there to pass through? Well, we're always in a Bardo. All right, so we got, there's six Bardos, three bars of death. We're talking about in this book, three bars of life. There's only, there's the only time Bardos don't exist is when you're awakened in some sorrow. You're always in between. And so there's, yeah, Bardos gap. So in a certain level, we're always, we're always in a Bardo. How many other pass through? Well, there's six formal ones, the three realms. And then, you know a really, I'm just going to refer you to this book. Trungpa Rinpoche wrote this really radical, brilliant book called transcending madness. Subtitle on something on the Bardos. It's a super interesting look at the bar. Those in the regard that you're talking about. Tim So on one level, there's six official Bardos, three of life, three of death. But on another level, where we're passing through these gaps, these transitional processes all the time. So I think I see quilley's hand is up. And then there's a couple things about, yeah, I can say a couple of things about my darker cheese. Okay, unmute yourself, dear. Nice to see you.
Yeah, I saw there was a few people asking about your dark retreat. It would be wonderful if you did like an event, you know, an hour where, where you told us about it, and then we could ask you about it, and sure
I can say a little bit now, if you're a Night Club member, and if Barry or somebody here can remember, I don't remember last year when I came out of the one that seeded the book, right basically, kind of downloaded channel, the whole book that was Back in November last year, right after that, when I came out, I was in an unusually open, kind of expressive phase before I contracted down, and so I kind of just unabashedly, just ran off, I wouldn't say ran off. Just talked about my experience from that retreat. Well, this one, yeah, you know a couple of things. I'm going to be doing a program with Bob Thorman again, Chief salesman, for a week non duality. What is it? Duck? We feed non duality at memline September, so I'm going to be doing a whole week with him. I can say a little bit about it now. It's obviously a big topic, because I'm writing at least two books on this, but just to say a little bit about it now, clearly, it's, it's, yeah, I was in it for a month. One of the longer ones this is, for me, it remains, hands down, the most transformational practice I've ever done. Without question, I started doing it 29 years ago, when I studied, started studying this stuff with my teacher, Campbell Rinpoche. So I've been exploring this for a long time. I've only come out of the closet a year ago, when I just it just seemed like the right time to do it. I originally started doing it as a form of Bardo yoga. So the doctor treat came about principally as a way to prepare for death. And because you went to the death space, it's like, it's like going into a Coffman, going into a tomb, it's really great. You love it. So it's super intense, as you might suspect. That's why it's so super transformative. It's basically, is the NBA superstar Ruby go bear, who did three days at Sky cave with my dear friend Scott Berman, said when he came out, you know, Dr Raji is meditation times 1000 there's real truth to that statement. It's it's meditation concentrate. It's just super condensed way to work with your mind and heart without distraction. And that's what makes it so powerful and also so challenging. It's profoundly revelatory of so many things. It's diagnostic and prescriptive. It shows, for me, our absolute lust for light and our raging addiction to distraction, and so when you go in there, I mean, it's all taken away, right? You can't, you can't really move. I mean, a little bit, you're basically forced. It's in the tradition, it's called a forceful method of liberation, because you wherever you go, there you are. You can't get away from yourself. It ran out of favor in the Tibetan tradition, because unprepared, unguided, over ambitious practitioners would go in for the 49 day Bardo thing, and instead of attaining enlightenment, they'd attain insanity, oops. And so I fell out of favor, and I write a little bit about the phenomenology of madness. In that regard, in the second book is really, I really get into a bit a brief comment is worth saying here, the reason things can become problematic and there's or they only become problematic when, when you reify, when you solidify the contents of your experience. So if you're in there, and everything that arises, and everything arises rather intensely, because, again, nothing's diluted, nothing, there's no distraction. If you take the contents of what arises literally, that's a form of psychosis. And so in a certain way, that's indicative of how we're all partially psychotic, because we do that in waking reality. But it's, gosh, there's so much to say. I mean, I've learned more about myself in that practice than anything else I've ever done. Because, again, you're forced to relate to the contents of your experience. And you're in a certain way, you're forced into kindness, into compassion, into love, into, you know, meta, Maitree, Corona, all these extraordinary qualities. Um. So in a certain way, you have no choice but to express them towards your yourself. Otherwise, there's no way you can do it. Right? It's what I've discovered is that you know Ken Wilber has not it's not just Ken, but the whole integral thing talks about these five vectors of psycho spiritual development, which I subscribe to, waking up, growing up, cleaning up, opening up, showing up, all five, with the maybe slight exception of showing up, because showing up is or you manifest on the world. But all, all four of the main vectors are fully exercised in this journey, the first entry levels, like when I started doing it, years ago, decades ago, my first experiences were really hard. I mean, like, super hard. And then I, you know, because I had so much time to go in and explore and play, you know, I started, by the way, just so, you know, I started with one day, three days, five days, seven days. And then it just grows. And so if you drip it, titrate it, that way, you get used to it. It's not that challenging. But the first, first couple retreats, I mean, I'd be lying if I thought I told you I enjoyed it, and they were easy, like a cold like a cold plunge, right? Cold plunges are really good for you, but do you really enjoy it? This is like kind of a shock therapy plunge, in the sense that this is, maybe this is one of the most important thing is that it's shock therapy. It's like a cold plunge, because it forces you to do nothing. Yes, you can do all these different meditations, and there are really cool things you can do, especially Tantra level dark retreats, but what I call Sutro level dark retreats, one day to five days, by far, the most important thing to do is just absolutely nothing. And you realize how hard it is to do that the best thing to do is just lie on the floor shavasana, like corpse pose, and just die. Let let the darkness penetrate you or to saturate you deeper divers. Darkness is homologous to emptiness, and so that's why you go into that space, because you're entering the space of complete, utter emptiness. And from that, you know, one of the things that qualifies that retreat is it's a tremendous practice of emergence. You just open. Relax, open. That's the opening up. And everything comes up. It's just the most amazing thing. And so I wanted to say something just briefly about why it was so hard at first, and why it got easier. This is worth throwing into the mix. Took me a while to figure this out, because eventually it did get easier. The Darkness wasn't so suffocating, it wasn't so heavy, it actually became easier, the more familiar I became with it meditation to become familiar with, and then I started to really reflect on, I mean, I've learned so much from this. Is one of the reasons it's got easier, because I started doing the work of cleaning up Shadow Work projections. So what I discovered was, originally, dark retreat was only as hard as I was. In other words, I projected all my crap onto it, into it, and so that's why, when I first came in, it was so heavy, oppressive questioning. Darkness isn't heavy, oppressive, crushing. Darkness is neutral. It's just a metaphysical mirror. So what was happening is, as I started doing this unwitting process of cleaning up Shadow Work, depth psychology, the deepest levels, I started owning up to all my projections. You can't project in the dark. It's like throwing a boomerang. If you throw a boomerang in the dark, it's just going to whack you on the back of the head. So you can't project anywhere. And so what happens is, you're forced to own up to your projections. It's the most amazing shadow work. I mean, trust my the Deaf psychologists get a hold of this ever freaking Field Day. And so what I discovered over the years is they got lighter and easier. It's like I was owning up to all my projections. You know, the weight was taken away because I was owning up to the crap I had thrown into in the dark. So I I say this because the only thing we project onto, more than darker and are adversely affected by, is what death. This is why we're so afraid of death. Death is so scary and heavy. No, it's not. It's completely unfair to death. Death is the most natural graceful thing. You just have to just let go and not do. And so I say this because this is one of the great discoveries of the Bardo yoga aspect of it is, it's the same thing applies to death. We project the crap out of it. We protect all our crap into it, and that's why we're so adversely affected by it. And so you may notice is, as you go through this book and things like preparing, did I program and whatnot, your fear of death will hopefully lessen, because you're owning up your projections, yeah. And then the death just becomes no big deal, just like darkness becomes no big deal. So there's a ton to say here. I'm just gonna say one last thing. And then I'll stop, just to show you how deep it goes. So this is a little bit of geek speak, but this is really big deal. So what I discovered over many, many, many, many of these things over years is a process of the Tibetans talk about as wrong bop self fall, which is the mind falling into itself. Rumi talks about it is the mind falling into wider, wider rings of being. And so what I discovered over, you know, nobody taught me this. I just discovered it
is you get, you get a an amazing tour of what's called, this is my labeling, and I talk about this on the second book the even the evolutionary sedimentation of the unconscious mind. In other words, you start to see, over many, many years, deep meditation, death, dark practice. Dark practice just accelerates. It is a mind falls into itself. It's falling down and into and through all the stratifications that sediment, sedimentation, levels of the unconscious mind. This is beyond profound, because darkness is a, it's a I talk about it as a color of non duality. It's a duality, Decimator, inside and outside. Breakdown, night and day breakdown. You can't tell if you're awake or asleep. You don't know what time of day it is. Your world is turned inside out and upside down. Self, another, disappear, space and time, just deconstruct again. It's a death space. Everything falls apart, and as you go through this decimation, which is so cool, feel like fun. Sign me up, one of the most important things that happens is the the boundary, the duality between the conscious and the unconscious mind falls apart. This is huge. You realize that the unconscious mind is not unconscious, just obfuscated. Yeah, you're there is no such thing as an unconscious mind. It's the obfuscated mind. Well, what is it obfuscated by? What is it obscured by? Check this out, light. What a kicker. You know, light doesn't reveal at this level. Light conceals just like, I mean, you're probably dark where you live, but if you were to step outside in the middle of the day, this, to me, was a tectonic discovery. You step outside in the middle of the day, there's just, there's a 10s of 1000s of stars up there. Can't see them, none. Why? Because they're obfuscated by what one sun, the solar centric, wake centric this, this is, this is indicative of metacognition and the conscious mind. It's all blotted out by the light. What happens when that sun sets, just like what happens when you go into death, into dark? All the stars come out. What are the stars representing? They represent the unconscious mind and the deities and the gods. And so when you're in there for a really long time, well, guess who you bump into as you go down the sedimentation levels of the unconscious mind. You go through the the refuse heat. That's why the first part is challenging, the first couple times where I tell you, they were no fun, and I wish I would have known then what I know now. You're going through the refuse heap of the repressed elements of your unconscious mind. It's like, almost like a test. It's like a gauntlet, and as you fall down and through that, well, guess what happens then you go through the deeper levels of the unconscious mind, into and through the collective unconscious mind, the archetypes, and then even below that, the deities, the gods, they come out. So you meet them in there. Now, what that means that I'm not going to go there, that's a little bit beyond the scope. But this, you don't think this is going to change you. So, so you come out and and all of a sudden. This is why the whole, this whole book, just blew into my mind last year. This is, I think, why artists, creative types are going to really groove on this practice. They already are. This is an unbelievable arena for creativity. You know, you break down this boundary between the obfuscated mind, the unconscious mind, and the unconscious mind. Well, guess what happens? Emergence. It all comes up originally. It's all the shit. Remember, it's like, What trupamache Say, meditation isn't a sedative, it's a laxative. Well, at first, there's a lot of laxating going on, and that's why the first couple ones are like, not easy man, because you're dealing with all your shit. And that's usually enough for people to say, there's no effing way I'm not doing this. There's just no way. Wow, you can't lie in the bed that you made, right? But if you understand that, right? And the shit hits the fan, actually, you can't fan it anymore. So it really comes up, you're going to be willing. I say, I'm going to jump like, to this. I'm going to work with it. So, oh my gosh, I could talk about this for you know, here's my manuscript. Where is it? I don't have it some, yeah, I could talk about this for a week. Super into it. It's beyond profound. I'm trying to work with this book in some scientists. We got a grant to study it. More grants coming up. We're going to try to bring this practice the scale, not contra level stuff that's still prescription stuff. I'm not going there. I'm. But the sutra level stuff, which is super profound. Anybody can do this. My dear friend Scott Berman at Sky cave does this. The only problem is he's booked out three years. So, you know, home practice. I'm writing about doing home practice, doing what's called a gray retreat, which is weaving in and out of the darkness. That's really the way to start, so that you then drip, you titrate it, so it doesn't just basically freak you out. Because, at first, you know, because we're not familiar with it, you know, because we project everything into it. It is not easy. But if you have the right view, if you titrate it, if you drip it, it's, it's, I think, potentially ironically, it could be an antidote to the dark age. And so I write in the book, I guess I can't help myself to say more. I write in the book about this practice takes you in our in our scientific languaging. When we write our proposals, we're talking about it the reduction base of innate wholeness. This, this practice is the mind falls into itself. It's going to fall into the reduction base of innate bound to a wholeness. And that's why hundreds of people, and look at all the testimonies of sky keep come out. Hundreds of people come out with Borderline miraculous insights, cures, creativity. It's like insane, all the stuff that happens in just three days. And so, you know, I was like, Why? Why? Why? Why? I think I've kind of got a beat on it, and the scientists seem to agree with me, because they're going to study it with me. So anyway, super cool. I'm not sure how much to say, because it is massive. Let me just see if there's anything here before we go, because I have not had dinner yet. So anyway, yeah, thanks for asking. Yeah, it's, this is a no big deal. Big Deal practice on one level, there's nothing magical about it. It's just a really concentrated way to work with who you are. There's no environment. Just imagine, you know, being in a place where you can't move, you can't wait, you can, but not much. You just can't get away from yourself. So you learn a lot about who you are. You learn, you learn a lot about you know who you are. And the more you learn, the more glorious it gets. After you go through the crap show, right, then all these really quite spectacular dimensions of your brain come forth. And so I can see why, totally, I can see why it came about as a preparation for the Bardos. Because you go through the Bardos in there, it's a death space. So, you know. But the thing I shared this with Bob Therma last year, the tomb, after a certain point, the tomb transforms into a womb. And so as I, as I shared with Bob, a womb with no view. Remember that movie? A room with a view? Well, this is a womb with a no view. Ah, well, the womb with no view is the best view, because that's the view of emptiness, not fine. Anyway, blah, blah, blah, you can see, I can't help myself, right? Thank you for asking. That's a brief 15 minute blah, blah blah on how I spent my summer vacation. Hey, let me just say one more thing about this, again, I can't stop this is actually kind of cool. So before I went in, this is kind of cool. So before I went in, we're at this, this kind of fancy dinner party with all these people, I found it kind of painful. But I get dragged into these things and, and, and, you know, about an hour and a half into this with five, I don't know how many glasses of wine, people are getting sloppy, you know, and like, somehow it's, I think my wife said something about, well, you know, Andrew's going to be spending a month in the dark. I it was actually what happened then. Was incredibly interesting. This conversation that was like people, I mean, just like what you might suspect, just trivial, meaningless, whatever conversation, it stopped dead cold. People went, Oh, what? And then what actually ensued was quite beautiful. It's like people, like, instantly got kind of sober in a certain way. And we had a really beautiful, profound conversation for about an hour, people asking me, like, why are you doing this? And so I actually found that quite revelatory. Here were people again, I'm not criticizing, it's just what people do, like, distracted and borderline, I mean, getting drunk and just sloppy as I'll get out talking about whatever, and all of a sudden the conversation, the trim tab, it just shifted in this direction. There's something so primordial, so elemental. You may not be able to identify it, but darkness is the most fundamental primordial dimension. Everything arises from darkness, not light. You'll see this in every world, wisdom tradition, the book of Genesis, Hinduism, Buddhism, this is the primordial matrix. Is this darkness. And so even though people may not be able to identify why, they may be simultaneously freaked out and also drawn to it is because, I think there's an intuition, intimation that there's some. Really deep with this stuff, and there is and so that was kind of cool. Okay, last thing here, let me get through this, and then we'll stop
from Chris reading the end of luminous emptiness. What a great book. Really brought the Bardo of this life to luminous animation with a chaotic interaction between various heads of state, Yeah, no kidding. Like I have to say that Francesca Fremantle book really brought in consequence their inconsequential actions to life. Yeah, she is such a rock star. I love her. I spent time with her in London a couple years ago. We both really groove on dead white man's music. She's a classical pianist, as am I. Hey, maybe I should get my piano to her. She's the best, and her book is stunning. Okay, Patrick, if Yama holds a wheel of life? Who holds the wheel of Yama? Dharma Datu, yes. Bucha, heart, mind, exactly. Yes. The wisdom of the all accomplishing space. Dharma Datu holds Yama. Does this mean there are actually seven realms of existence? Well, they're actually 20, depending on who you talk to. There are 27 realms, pure lands. Talk about this, but here's the deal. When you get outside of samsara, you don't talk about existence or non existence. These are trans conceptual, trans dimensional realms that they don't abide by the principles of existence as we know it. But that's a good question. Yeah, Chris, well, I'm with you on that, bro. Yeah, it's, it's a tragic comedy we're living. It's not even a comedy. It's tragic, wrong? Bop, yes, that's it self. Fall, okay, yeah, dharma doctor, you got it, d h a t u, dharma Datu, D, H, A, T, U as an element. It's the fundamental. Sometimes Vajra Datu is synonymous, but it's, it's, it's a fundamental space, the groundless space that holds Yama and everything else. Okay, everybody, nice to see you. Come join us in Costa Rica, really, it's such a gorgeous place, and we do have some spaces left. I'm such a cheap salesman. This is what I am with these Bardo teachings. I don't know if you've noticed this. I'm just an insurance salesman. I mean, I'm not criticizing insurance people. The Bardo teachings are just insurance dharma. You don't need them. If you do your regular practice, you don't need the Bardo teachings. But they're in the tradition, for a reason I talk about it is Bardo dharma. I'm sorry, insurance dharma. So I'm an insurance salesman, so come see us in Costa Rica. Otherwise, I'll see you when I come back on the other end. And nice to be with everybody in a little bit of cyberspace. Great to see everybody. Remember, don't don't forget. We dedicate some merit to whatever extent. We send out everything we've gathered for the benefit of all sentient beings, people in the White House, people in government, oh, boy, there's some merit. We need a FedEx over there, and let's see if we can do some good in this world. Bucha, everybody. Talk to you later. Bye. Bye.
