Um, we left off last time page 257 or yoga, the universal process, which I think is a really pretty compelling aspect of the kind of fractal nature of all these different expressions of consciousness. Okay, so euphemisms and idioms for depth point to the intimate connection between the process of going to sleep, dreaming and waking up in the process of dying the after death state and being reborn. In fact, speaking of Robert Moss, he shares a had a podcast on his platform this week. How the Lakota is exactly the same. The Lakota tribe says exactly the same thing. That what we experience in sleep and dream is absolutely resonant with what we're going to experience and to dream at the end of time. They don't use the dreaming at the end. Of Time term. Remember that the contribution from the Tibetan approach would have had his euthanized we say things like you're here to put him to sleep right rest in peace is commonly spoken as a wish for someone who has died. If it's a natural death, people usually lie or usually die lying down the same posture we assume when we sleep. The Spanish writer so Vontae said there's very little difference between a man in his first sleep and a man in his last. The Talmud says that sleep is 160 if a part of death the connections are boundless and they really are boundless. Or you don't have to look far in the dream literature or the bar literature to realize how intimately they're connected. Roberts book, one of his many books, the dreamers Book of the Dead, talks quite extensively on this correlation from his perspective. And then he writes from Greek mythology, sleep and death of twins, matches brothers, twins, Hypnos and photos. Next, the goddess of the night and Arabist the god of darkness gave birth to twin boys, right the guy to sleep the god of death. Then hypnosis fathered Morpheus, the god of dreams. So even Western kind of intellectual or mythological history reiterates this fundamental narrative. The process of death and rebirth is also echoed in the arising of biting and cessation of each law. This is the most intimate expression so it happens in four dimensions. philosophers talk about it is the theory of recapitulation. So the most intimate is arising and biting it's the ceasing of every ceasing of every thought. The next would be rising or biting cessation of every day. The next would be every life and then just a little bit more conjecture, metaphysics, so the rising biting cessation of an entire cosmic system, the universe abides by the same principles, allegedly. Oh, here we go. Yeah, according to some mystical views, this process is repeated yet again. And arising by the Association of the cosmos. Saga Rinpoche firstly, the recurrent nature of this phenomena is the universal process. What I think is one of the best contributions of his book The Tibetan Book of Living in die. It has been it has an intuitive elegance and vast practical implications, because these very processes share similar characteristics. You know, they're iterative, they're, you know, this is healthy reductionism, where you can take the vast complexity, the amazing display of the human condition, life itself, and reduce it. To some fundamental parts that are then they kind of like a fractal right? They feed on each other and they reiterate, then you get the vast display of a complex reality as we know it. But healthy reductionism right memory with Roe said drive life into a corner, reduce it to its lowest terms. This is healthy reductionism precisely what the universal process articulates. You can use one to help you understand the other it's called a reciprocal hermeneutic and the philosophical terms nice big fancy term, hermeneutics the science of interpretation, the study of interpretation reciprocals what it sounds like use one interpretation to help you work with another. For example, you can use your understanding of the rising abiding cessation of a day to help you understand the same rising abiding cessation of a life, thought or dream. Take your insights from one level of the universal process and use them to help you understand the others in this way, can go back and forth between these different levels and strengthen your understanding of them all. So they bootstrap each other, they all lean on each other. You can use that we've been doing it from day one in this book. According to Khenpo, Carter Rinpoche and other masters Jim, you became about principally as a way to prepare for death. This is all over the place in the literature. And remember, this is one of the ways or main reasons I got into the whole Dream Yoga arena was through my study of the Bardo literature. Just keep hearing all the time. Sleep yoga, Dream Yoga, sleep yoga, Jamie, I'll get going, man. Maybe there's something here. So I actually back my way in to these natural practices started with Burley yoga. Universal process illustrates this connection. Dalai Lama says yeah, famous quote, well trained person can recognize a strict order in the four stages of falling asleep. And as well prepare, prepare to ascertain and analogous order in the dying process. This is from his really classic book, sleeping, dreaming, dying, oh, one of the earliest and I think best of the Mind and Life dialogues. Book I Rinpoche expands on this concept. Energy governing each element ceases to be functional and is absorbed into the energy of the following element. This is precisely what happens in the dissolution process. This process of absorption of the four elements into each other does not occur only at death. It also happens in extremely subtle matter manner when we fall asleep, or when a thought is removed from our mind. We got a pretty pretty high resolution, pretty nuanced perception to be able to suss this arrived, suss this out in the rising and binding cessation of every thought. That's not easy. And then classically right this is a review for many of you the three death Bartos. Six altogether six Bardot's in the Tibetan approach the Bardo of this life has three and Bardo death history. So in this life would be literally a part of life within the Bardo sleep and dream. And then the Bardo meditation the meditative mind is considered yet a third within the Bardo of life. And then these three death barters. The Tibetan conception of death involves a passage through three transitional states Bardot's right. First is the painful part. of dying, which begins with a condition that will end in death. Yeah, that's called birth. It's like, it's like Deepak Chopra allegedly said, Life.
What did he say?
Yeah, life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease. Or some truth to that one, right? Not bad Deepak. What's called painful why? Because it hurts to let go and it's quite painful doesn't have to be painful. This process is analogous to that of falling asleep, which generally isn't painful because it's easy. To let go at the end of each day. Why? Because we know we're going to wake up the next morning. And so that's what the Bible teachings are about. If you have the same view that hey, I'm just going to sleep I'm going to wake up in another body and another life. You're going to go to, you're going to die with the same amount of fear that you bring every night when you go to sleep, nothing be afraid of. For someone well versed. Yes, for someone well versed in BARDA yoga, that same ease is applied at the end of each life. They go easy into that good night because their view allows them to see that the wake up into the next good day. This is a little rare find out. Still on Thomas's famous poem, right rage, rage against the dying of the light that one. At the end of the process of dying, the clear light mind is laid there. So this is precisely the small pitch. The dollar Mountain Center program in August is precisely on this one, the clear light Bardo, the correlate mine. This is analogous to the moment of dropping into deep dreamless formless sleep. That marks the end of the Bardo of dying in the beginning of a state called the luminous part of Dharma TA. Dharma ta means it's an untranslatable word really, isn't a suchness that pneus reality fundamentally, that which cannot be named, but of course, the traditions have dozens of names for that which cannot be named as virtually synonymous with the clear light mine suggested, as suggested by this part of being called luminous. So clear, light mind remember, remember, in the previous book, the dreams of light? I mean, how many chapters in that book did we talk about clear, light, clear being the empty aspect, light being the luminous aspect and the luminous emptiness thing being what the irreducible mind actually is. Most people blacked out at the moment of death and do not recognize their clear light mine just as happens with deep dreamless sleep. And this part will therefore last the time it takes to snap your fingers in fact for most people, there's no experience of this at all. Actually, I take that back. The experience is there but the recognition is not everybody experiences it, just like everybody experiences deep dreamless sleep, but without familiarity to these really subtle formless dimensions. There's no recognition, Blackout. So how do they say absence of awareness, awareness of absence is not absence of awareness. That's the classic one. Right?
The dead person's awareness
then stares. Why? Because it's not a wins in the heart center takes on a mental body and moves from the clear light mind the Dharma tie into the karmic Bardo, becoming which is analogous to dreams arising from deep dreamless sleep. This third vital last about 49 days on average. Don't ask me where they get that number. I have pressed so many teachers. Why is it 49 never received a satisfactory answer. Maybe they say well, it's just that's the way it is. That's not very satisfying. So I have no idea why they get 49 days. Where the mental body like the body in a dream is buffeted around by the winds of habit karma, just like when were tossed around by a non lucid dream. This makes total sense to me complete, complete, analogous state of consciousness. At the end of this Bardo, the dead person's consciousness finally grasps onto a form slash body and takes birth as that form. This and in that, again, I can't talk about all these things, but this is the transition from the second to the third Madonna of the links of dependent origination. So it is you see in the Bardo teachings everything is condensed in the bottle stuff, everything. This marks the beginning of the end of the Bardo, becoming, you finally become somebody and the beginning of the Bardo of this life. That's where we're at now. This is analogous to waking up in the morning and entering your day. The study and practices the three Bartles constitute the essence of Bardo yoga. Bardo practices are those that help you recognize these threes. Bardo states of mind now just as our nighttime Yogi's do and so this is why our next book, right I just hate what as far as I haven't have it right here. So our next book that we're going to be exploring is this one, the whole book is on this topic. So the preparing today practical advice and spiritual wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, a guide for those facing death and their caregivers including teachings from the great masters and useful advice on navigating end of life issues. So that's that's going to be our next book study group. And in this one, that's why I'm not going to spend too much time riffing on some of this stuff. Now, we're going to get into this in really tremendous detail. And why so well, because remember in the schema or my schema of the five nocturnal meditations, part of yoga transcends but includes them all. It's the culminating nocturnal practice, liminal, dreaming, lucid dreaming, Dream Yoga, sleep, yoga, Bardo yoga. And so that's why to me logically, it feels quite appropriate to jump into this tome, and really explore this particular expression of the subtle nocturnal mine in tremendous detail. More on that later. Okay, the measure of the path right? That's the moniker for Dream Yoga. Dream. Yoga prepares you for the Bardo of dying in the part of becoming. Sleep yoga prepares you for the Bardo Dharma top. And the Bardo teachings It is said that every night is a pop quiz that assesses your readiness and also helps you prepare for the final exam. Just like most of us do not recognize dreamless sleep or what the scientists called minimal phenomenal experience, which they're studying now in the labs with adept meditators who can maintain this tacit awareness 24/7 consciousness, never really fundamentally blacking out just like most of us do not recognize dreamless sleep or dreams were non lucid to both right. Most of us will not recognize any of the death. Barrios will wake up after death into our next life just like we woke up, wake up into our next day, non lucid to what happened the night quote unquote before. This is yet another instance of Dream Yoga as the measure of the path. When we recognize when we come to recognize dreams, as dreams lucidity will recognize the Bardo, becoming as the Bardo becoming. And this is huge. Then instead of being blown around buffeted around involuntarily after death by the force of our habits, that's what decides for you, you know, and the after death process, just like a nighttime dream, if you don't take attain lucidity, and therefore, some semblance of control over the contents of your dreaming, experience, the dreaming mind. What what does what chooses for you? What decides for you? Your happiness? Just like what happens every night when we sleep and actually what happens throughout most of our lives. You think you have free will you think you're making independent choices? Your habit patterns, and this is just put on steroids. This is just really amplified when you die. So without some degree of of lucidity and the control is correlative to that. These particular habit patterns are what choose for you what decide for you that's what makes your decisions. That's why Rinpoche Trump J said, Remember so famously, what is it? His answer to what is it that reincarnates you for this right? Your habits, your bad habits in particular?
Just like a lucid
dream, there may be limited control over the bottle content, but endless options for controlling how we relate to that content. In other words, we can have the power of choice which can ultimately lead to choosing our next form, the next scene we wish to inhabit or in this case your entire next life. In an even more advanced level, someone who recognizes dreamless sleep will also recognize the Bardo Dharma top but that person there's no Bardo becoming no more dreams of any sort. If they and again we started talking about non duality, when you're talking about non duality, when you talk about the Bardo Dharma talk, everything has to be put in quotation points because there is no day there is no you there is no other it's not easy to put in dualistic language. If they do dream or take on form, they do so lucidly and they're voluntarily therefore voluntarily, they can come back in whatever form whatsoever with complete freedom of choice to help others wake up to the freedom they literally embody. So this is the applied emptiness thing. So you returned to declare like mine emptiness, apply the emptiness is what compassion and so is that for that compassion, that love that then then you harness voluntarily not involuntarily, to take another round for the benefit of others. Without this lucidity and control the rest of us reforming and currently and voluntarily due to the force of our habits, and we will continue to do so ad infinitum until we become lucid. To this process and take control. I thought about this a lot. This is really this is really interesting. Wouldn't say depressing, but interesting. They their wisdom traditions talk about we've been recycling through the wheel of samsara from beginningless time and have you ever thought about that? I mean, beginningless time is a really long time. So if you believe again, hey, I have no idea. But he believes in what these wisdom traditions are asserting. That we enter this cosmic deep ecological recycling process over and over and over again until there's some level of awareness I mean, there's nobody judging this there's nobody there pointing you go through door one you go through door to know your habits, your lucidity, your level of recognition, or their or lack thereof. So this stuff here is no small thing. And why should it stop? Why will it end it won't just keeps recycling Yes, keeps recycling until you wake up to the process and therefore can do something about it. This control of course, is nothing more than control over what our own mind right what is the Bardo made of? Is there are pre existing Bartel landscape there. No, it's just your mind. What are dreams made of? Is there a pre existing dreamscape in there? No, it's just your mind is all about working with one's mind heart. Just that the journey through the Bardot's is nothing more than a journey into our own mind. Don't once again Dream Yoga isn't fundamentally about controlling your dreams. It's about controlling your mind relating to your mind understanding your mind. Popular saying and Tibet allegedly I've never heard it but the texts based on my experience last night I can infer I'm going to have a hard time and the Bardot's tomorrow. I actually liked it. That's that's pretty good. Or right. Oh wait here. I wait. I say it here so I'll just continue. This could be set by someone who was not prepared for the test. But for someone who has prepared that's why we're doing all this stuff. Reading this book studying practicing learning. They can infer they're going to have a good time in the Bardot's. Instead of dreading the final exam. They look forward to passing it with flying colors and stress it instead of stressing out about death. They can relax, which is the core instruction for life and death only thing you need to do to have a good death just relax. And this question is asked a lot. So this is from Jessica Rinpoche his book. Professional does one need to be lucid dreaming to experience lucid dying Guru Rinpoche author of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and therefore a primary resource on the Bardo teaching says quote, If the dream state is apprehended seven times the transitional process following death will be recognized and quote which guttural Rinpoche as his commentary. The reference to recognizing the dream state seven times implies that one can recognize the dream state basically on somewhat of a regular basis. So these are archetypal numbers. mean some level of proficiency and lucidity. If you maintain the ability through the rest of your life, then the chances are very good that you'll be able to recognize the transitional process following death. And so that's why this is the one of the fruition of aspects of these nocturnal meditations, right. Literally preparing for lucidity at the dream at the end of time. The threefold pattern we see in the Bardo teachings so so your average age has not only unfold in the process of dying and birth. It is unfolding now, at this moment at every moment within our mind. This, he says is a truly revolutionary insight. One which when it is understood changes our view of everything I actually think that's spot on. I think that's really 100% True. And of course that pattern unfolds each and every night. As we have seen throughout our journey. everything unfolds within the mind because there is only the mind. Not just our mind, but if we cast a even wider open net. That's why I brought in Bernardo kastrup, analytic idealist. Reality is of the nature of mentation. It is of the nature of mind. It's idealism, there's only mind. I'm studying. In fact, just before I came down here, I was rereading the literature on the eight consciousnesses because this stuff is so complex, it's so profound, always going back and there's so much to learn. Over and over and over again. It's just mind consciousness. Eight right now you're looking at what you're looking at it raise your gaze, look up. This is the eighth consciousness you look at seemingly external, reified, solid dualistic world. No. It's just the eighth consciousness appearing as it far. Your inner landscape your body your thoughts is eighth consciousness as appearing as if near it's all mind.
Nothing but mind
the radical monism of all the non dual wisdom traditions. You know, basically a model ism this man ism thing also applies to materialism. Right? So the materialistic view is also monistic it's all made of matter, right? I mean, like no way I mean, not even close the idealists, wisdom traditions, profess and all these other countless different variations of modernism, world as of the nature of awareness, mind consciousness, depending on how you define these terms. Waking dreaming, sleeping and dying are all voyages of the mind. Now this is the personal mind, individual mindstream Santana chip at something in any out of terabyte in terms that's also then part of this stream of mind at large altogether. So as you might suspect this is a colossal topic, both in philosophy idealism, starting with content even later, I mean, so many ficta shilling Hegel, I mean, so many amazing philosophers. And then even more compellingly, the non dualism teachers have professed this for 1000s of years before the Westerners got on board. Okay, so the epilogue oh my gosh here we are. We're gonna finish this we're gonna do it. We began this book talking about the commonality of sleep how sleep is a unifying factor of humanity. It's not only human beings that share the sleep but all sentient beings. Interesting studies recently I think I posted something nightclub not that long ago about spiders and dreams or something like that. I can't remember exactly. But in fact, I haven't read this book. My friend Sean told me I should read this book. I haven't I haven't bought it yet, but I'm going to something like a how animals dream. Elissa Note to self remind me to order this book. He raved about it. Shan Shan as you know, is a rock star right? He said Andrew, you got to read this book. But you know, I think this top shelf here. Behind me is all the books that are in line to be read right at least right? Here's here's the way I deal with my books. I figure if I guess have them in my house like Edgar Casey, there's kind of some osmotic thing that takes place. You know, if I just fill my fill my house with books, even if I don't read half of them. I have this like, Oh, it's just you know, just somehow the words and you know that all it's gonna filter through. I don't even have to read it. Edgar Cayce he allegedly had this power. He could sleep on top of a book and understand the entire contents. I guess maybe I don't know. So, tongue in cheek. This not not tongue in cheek in terms of all the books I have to read. I mean this is my this is my hungry ghosts realm. This is what I grasp after. But I grasp a mindfully a mindful grasper after thoughts ideas, right? I do it mindfully. That's that's the way I rationalize everything right? If I'm wrong speeching somebody right at least are rationalizing because I'm aware that I'm doing it. Joking sort of mindful wrong speech somehow negate some of the bad karma. Just being playful being a little goofy. Now we can see that just by that is biological camaraderie is just the outer level of a deeper spiritual union. And this actually this is actually this is pretty important stuff. Here's the inner level and a lovely way to come full circle. When we drop below the superficial psyche, remember basically six consciousness where a difference is virtually synonymous with division, where discrimination, strife and warfare is sparked by the illusion of separateness we start to descend to our common spiritual roots. We do this every night. We disconnect from the superficial layers of mind and connect to our shared awakened nature. A unified clear light by its author Kat Duff says, this is nice, our carefully constructed notion of ourselves of where we end in the world begins dissolves without our knowing. Ah, but see, we can know it. And I wrote this before I did. I started riffing on liminal dreaming, I retrofitted remember I retrofitted liminal dreaming as the first of the five. This is precisely the major contribution of liminality and liminal dreaming hypnagogic hypnopompic. You can see the deconstruction of the narrative structure of the self sense. You can witness this you can learn every night when you fall asleep, kind of a witnessing capacity pet lucidity. You can step back so to speak, and watch the dissolution of the self sense take place. It dissolves without our knowing that's non lucid liminal dreaming we want to become aware of it become lucid. We see it every night when we fall asleep. What is Rumi Rumi says it beautifully. Something like dropping into wider and wider rings of being I mean, what a beautiful line. And then every morning when you wake up, the whole thing is flipped in the narrative structure the self sense comes back online the self the self has to quite literally be remembered every morning when you wake up. And lightning speeds it happens every between every moment the Abbe Dharma tells you this but a psychology moment to moment a moment the self sense has to be reconstructed. Remembered that's why playfully say Right? Ego is the world's fastest construction company. I wish I would have hired them. When I did my remodeling last year. I had the world's slowest construction company or he goes the fastest author. It can script lightning fast memory it can script the storyline of your life moment to moment and lightning speeds. It's amazing. I mean, this whole the speed of the mind thing is something I've been super fascinated with forever. Back to their sleep requires that we forget our individual superficial selves and in doing so we can remember our unified and collective self big S who we truly are. So this is not Hindu language. You have to be a little careful here. This is Turia the fourth. The big self is Hindu language. It's the same thing as selflessness and read my dear friend David Lloyd is a wonderful book non duality in Buddhism and beyond. He argues this convincingly and I've always felt this, but as egoless Buddhists, egolessness selflessness is phenomenologically identical to Hindus big S self. It's the same it's the same thing. And I think I can argue that point. So a little bit of introjection, to what's called Turia, the big self s, returning to the fourth state beyond waking beyond dreaming, beyond even deep dreamless sleep because deep dreamless sleep at the intermediate bandwidth is still a consciousness. You got to drop below that to get to Turia so called. Some scholars use the word ninth consciousness, but it's really not. It's basically the clear light mind, Turia and Advaita Vedanta that's, that's it that's, that's mocha. That's what you want to actualize Kashmir Shaivism have something different to say they go not quite. But we don't want to go too far into that unless you want to in the q&a, because there's a difference between what's called Turiya you've heard me riff on this and then Tria Tita beyond the fourth theory a Tita is not the fifth. It's basically taking the quality of Korea and then bringing it back and that's exactly where I'm going. So I don't want to preempt that so hang tight. I'll come back to this. This commonality resembles Jung's collective unconscious but goes even deeper. When we wake up to the clear light mind, this is our collective soup or consciousness or shared Buddha nature. So not only do we yoke with each other at this deepest level, we also commune with the divine the Buddha within the dream researchers Jiang aka Bach and Harry hunt, assert, quote, the farther down the rabbit hole you go, the more collective the experience becomes and the more sublime that's a great statement. That's really pretty cool. The farther down you go, the more collective the experience becomes until you drop into this common bed of mind every night. We may not You're not know it yet. This unified field of being may not be recognized yet but this is where we go every night. This is what we fall into and we drop into the deepest sleep and arise from when we enter each day. At this ground zero level of being ignorance is replaced with insight. Consciousness is supplanted with wisdom. multiplicity is replaced with unity and war is replaced with love duality melts back into non duality every single night and this is why we don't recognize it. Because we identify almost exclusively with duality. So non duality is revealed. We're not familiar with it very definition of meditation, right? We black out, no non duality nothing nada blackout. We literally go unconscious. Not for the mind. Its training does not for the mind. It is tuned into these really subtle dimensions they light up and so luminosity yoga. So much here. Remember, this is William James. Remember that reality is what you attend to. William James famous line attend to the superficial psyche. You know consciousness is one through six that are facing out. Well there we go, which is always looking out and you will skim the surface of life and forever remain asleep.
And then you may be wondering like something's missing. It doesn't fit. It feels like something's missing. Something's missing. Well, there is something missing the unified nature of your consciousness and with all humanity and all sentient lifeforce. Yeah, there's a lot that's missing. You never know who you really are. You forget amnesia. You remain a victim of primordial identity theft, right a crime that takes place constantly in broad daylight every time you identify exclusively. With form body.
precisely when ego is
you remain a victim of primordial identity theft and attendance to the veneer of your being. Reverse your gaze and attend to your clear light mind right reality is what you attend to. Which will always invite you in and you will wake up to your true nature. You can work with this right now. Pay more attention to the background of your experience the ground instead of the figure. This is a really wonderful practice to do. We're always getting entangled and lost and appearances. We're paying too much attention to the figures. Pay attention to the background, in this case, pay more attention to space. So really interesting exercise to do. To walk around we take just like just like the clear light mind spaces but again, space is not the same as the clear light mind is formless awareness but it's also not different. And so we don't pay attention to a formless space because there's nothing happening right we pay attention to everything that arises in space may gesticulating me flapping my lips, all the crap in my background, everything you see around you. That's what we pay attention to. That's what we attend to forms. And that draws us out in a way. So one way to work with this on a moment to moment basis is literally practice background awareness, space. Pay more attention to space, not the objects that fill that space. So really profound, practical practice.
Reverse your gaze
and attend to your clear light mind the back ground from which everything arises which will always invite you in it sends the mind in an object less direction. We're always sending the mind and directions of objectivity quite literally. Send the mind in an object less dimension direction. This is how you wake up to your true nature. This is great. This is a total advertisement for what I'm doing at the mela event with Bob Thurman in September. This is exactly a preview of that the whole week is on this stuff. Love it. As we've seen if you're aware of it, where the the most awake, right, the most enlightened indeed. dreamless sleep. Conversely, were the most asleep the most unenlightened in so called waking life. We've got the whole thing back afterwards. We think we're awake right now. yet. We're actually the most asleep in this reified so called waking state. It's just a big joke. painful, painful joke. Conversely, we're the most asleep, the most unenlightened and so called waking life. The French philosopher Montaigne says sleeping we are awake and waking. Asleep. But as are those the ultimate lucid dreamers who wake up to this realization, sentient beings are those who do not. When we wake up in the morning and head out into the world, we've actually fallen asleep and samsara This is precisely what the Buddha woke up from. The Buddha woke up from the awakened one, what did he wake up from? What did he wake up to? He woke up from precisely this nightmare of samsara, the nightmare of duality, the nightmare of objectivity, the nightmare of getting lost and entangled in form.
We stepped out into the USA, we step out onto the path of the outsider, right, the cheaper trajectory and begin to sleepwalk through life. When we go to sleep consciously at night and head back in we have a precious opportunity to wake up. We've stepped onto the path of the insider, the non pa literally Tibetan word for Buddhist insider non PA and begin the journey. Into awakening. Outsiders arise every morning unaware of what they've just left behind. This is what creates the ineffable sense that something is missing and therefore ignites to search to find it. Oh my gosh, we don't have time but this is precisely what happens at the end. Of the Bardo of Dharma tie when you return. The mother and child luminosity unite. This is precisely the phenomenology that takes place in rebirth. You're going to jump out of the lap of the Primordial Mother out of space into the ironic search for her creating the genesis of samsara in exactly the iterative way that we're talking about here. So this is the universal process. I can't quite riff on this. That's why the whole next book I'm on preparing to die is on this as well. So now you see the sequence why we're going into Bardo yoga next. This stuff is so cool. ignites the painful search to find it. The it takes many substitute forms from the search of happiness to the pursuit of pleasure to the quest for meaning. So remember this right those of you who took the happiness course, the pursuit of enlightenment is basically the pursuit of happiness becoming conscious. When infinity is trapped into the finer tune of the spacetime coordinates we know as our self sense, creates this kind of tension. Infinity doesn't fit into finitude. And so there's this this discord, there's this, this ineffable longing, this tension for resolution. We don't know what it is. We just know something is missing. Well, in an unconditioned, a conventional unconscious, non lucid where Hey, to search for happiness, temporary respite from that tension doesn't work because it's not the real deal, ultimate and authentic substitute gratification. When that same longing becomes conscious. That's called the search for enlightenment. So a quest for conventional happiness is a substitute non lucid iteration of the longing for enlightenment. You just don't know it. So as spiritual practitioners we're longing for enlightenment. Well, we're longing now for unconditional happiness for the real real The Full Monty the real deal. Not this other stuff that never satisfies. Yes from the search for happiness to the pursuit of pleasure, right life, liberty and the it's guaranteed in the American right Bill of Rights. Right. Well, it's the bill of slavery, fundamentally, life liberty and the pursuit of I mean, if there's pursued, I mean, forget it. You've ensured this is so this is such a kicker, right? You've ensured your misery. If you think you're gonna find happiness in conventional ways. I love this. This is great. This is like fire and brimstone crap right here. This is cool. But it's so profound. I mean, this will save you if you take this to heart. This will save you so much time and money, man. I mean, this is like the most practical thing you can ever do. Why do you go after that job that made that car fill in the blank? Why? Because you feel this tension. You feel this itch, you don't know what it's about. So you scratch it the way everybody else does. It doesn't work. And so what happens then insatiable consumerism born from this false view of materialism, I mean, there's holes that you get, you can explain right here. I'm telling you, man, you can explain all of samsara with these fundamental principles. No kidding. All comes down to this stuff. Until the authentic itch is identified. Right? The misplays clear light mind is finally seen as what we truly crave. It's what we are. We're craving what we are that's the kicker. How can you attain something you already are doesn't work. Something is missing a theft has occurred. But in this crime nobody has taken the item your precious to nature. Sorry, your precious to identity from you. You just dropped it. This is kind of clever writing actually. I love I love reading my stuff because like I mentioned you know I never read my books after they're put in print until I do this. It's kind of fun. For me, complete self indulgent self aggrandizement. This makes me feel good. You just dropped it. It has fallen from the pocket of your memory. Yeah, this is cool. Here's the summarizing point. A year and a half later. Pay attention at our core, below any superficial language beneath any gender, race, color or creed underneath even the slightest scent of duality and difference we are absolutely all the same. practices of the night lead us to this common groundless ground and awaken us to the universality of the human condition. For you see when you go to sleep you're actually going to need to me and every other sentient being on this planet. At this deepest possible level. We're going to sleep together to rest in the same luxurious bed of the primal mind. Rumi put it this way. So beautiful. out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field I'll meet you there. When the soul lies down and that grass the world is too full to talk about ideas, language, and even the phrase each other doesn't make any sense. When How beautiful is that? That's amazing. Reminds me of what Ramana Maharshi famously said, when asked how do we help how do we best help others remember his answer? What others I mean, beautiful. Beautiful, how do we help others?
What others?
Raise your hand you're helping yourself man. Big self, that little self. Do you remember where the mind goes in deep dreamless sleep that falls from the head and returns to the heart in a yoga solution right? Every night you and I meet at the level of our heart. Our practice is not to forget the essence of spiritual practice is remembrance. Not to forget this nightly reunion Mother and Child reunion. I mean, Paul Simon was onto this common popular culture, Mother and Child reunion. Practice is not to forget this nightly reunion when we come back to the surface of life and sustain our heart connection is the Neo Platanus the philosopher Plotinus said they have seen God and they do not remember we suffer from this primordial amnesia, right? PTSD, Post truth samsaric disorder. This is exactly where the Bartle stuff comes into play. Fundamental PTSD 12 from the Donna we don't just see him we become him. We're all God at heart we just forgot. And there's lovely things from kit from Cat Cat Duff. We may not remember that place of peace in the morning but I believe we can see it in the faces of those deeply asleep. There is an almost angelic look to these to those calm countenances gazing upon the face of someone sleeping peacefully. It seems as though we are given the opportunity to see someone through the eyes of God.
Map bad yeah, this
is cool. Yesterday a mouse was trapped inside my study which faces out into a large yard. Show you the yard field actually. I opened the door and tried to coax him back outside but he just kept racing back and forth along the back wall. Although
he finally settled into a corner and I gaze that this terrified little guy cowering just a few feet away about afraid of mice. So after a few minutes of looking at my new friend, I slowly walked over and picked him up as I held him I could feel his beating heart. In that instant I felt a heart connection and realized he's just like me. He too wants to be happy. He too wants to avoid suffering. My warm beating heart is just like his and so as yours. I walked him to the edge of my yard and set him free. My feeling is hard. I touched my own I realized yet again. That is when I get stuck in only seeing outer forms that I lose inner connections. When I felt this tiny heart beating in my hands my view immediately changed from outer to inner from appearance to reality. I'm wearing a human costume and he's clothed the mouth attire. But underneath the outfitting we share the same naked heart. I may have set him free to run into the field but he momentarily set me free from my exclusive identification without a form. So the next time you see me, my mouse or anyone else, remember that we've met before. Just last night we are sharing the same primordial bed of mind and heart. Remember, at this most fundamental of love, we're still together
cool. Not the writing but we feathers Yeah, that was kind of sweet. I actually, you know, yeah, that's kind of sweet. I know.
A little tear to my eye. So 37 sessions later, right? One session every two weeks. That's like a year and a half. We have finished. It never finished but we finished this particular romp. And so now you can start to see now you start to see like the logic okay, like why are we doing this? Well because Bardo yoga. I mean, that's like that's the fruition. So starting in two weeks, we're going to jump into this book. There's a lot here, as you'll see, and a lot of really, really practical stuff. A lot of really cool. Something else spiritual stuff. But I think it's a fantastic sequel to what we've experienced with the Dream Yoga Book. And so if there any questions or comments or offerings, I'll check the chat column. This is an opportunity to say something or if you don't have anything to say we can call it
oh from Tim.
Okay, Andrew, in your understanding what causes amnesia? Why do we forget? Want to remember? Yeah, okay. Yes. So in my languaging Tim I thought about this a ton man, because I was trying to figure out something that I've never read. In my somewhat exhaustive reading and study of the 12 links of dependent origination. You always want to teach on the Bardot's you'll see it behind me. In fact, I have it on the wall, right, right there. intellectual content to the Buddha's awakening, the first really first turning exposition of emptiness and the Tera Vaada approach to the Bardot's. The 12 lengths are terrified and Bardo teaching. And so one thing that I could never figure out and I never read it was okay, all the links are no link stands alone. Every link is conditioned by the preceding link and conditions, the succeeding link, and so they always say, Okay, we start with link number one ignorance. And then I said, okay, but they don't stand alone. So I started really, we started thinking we're thinking, okay, okay, so what really conditions? Ignorance is death. The 12th length, the 12th Madonna is death. And so then as a character, how does how is death conditioned ignorance? Well, this is just my interpretation of this whole thing. See if it speaks to you. Is that when when you know when you land into the diamond top, the clear light mind the Dharmakaya literally body of truth, this is where you go when you die. You're going to return you're going to dissolve out of the world of fake news into real news. Dharmakaya the real heart, noblest of all truths that you don't exist. That's what emptiness is you don't exist even now. Different story closely connected. So what happens is this this noble truth is that's why they talk about the bright lights and the Bardo. These are like street lights. Now bright lights mean that bright light of truth. And so I really reflected on this. It's like the truth. The luminosity is so stunning. It's so blinding the truth. is so intense. To the untamed, untrained, egoic contracted mind that it basically just like PTSD, it just smacks it smacks the dissolving ego with a light force a thermonuclear light floor so powerful. The ego just is basically the mind is stunned. It's in it's like this PTSD and then sort that okay, well, I think it really is a kind of PTSD then and I thought, not just post traumatic stress disorder, post truth, right? Post truth samsaric disorder. So all of samsara is born from this such as PTSD is post truth samsaric disorder. The truth of reality is laid bare. It's too much because it's too little, too much for the ego. So the ego is stunned, blinded. What represents the first Madonna, the blind grandmother that's the blindness of the first Madonna is stunned, like when you remember those old Flash cubes, right? You had those big old cameras with a big flash ball and they they'd flash off and then for a couple of seconds, you couldn't see squat, you're temporarily blinded. Why? Because the light so bright, your pupils just freeze in a contraction. You can't see squat. Exactly the same thing happens. You're stunned. Too much light, too luminous, too bright. The clear light mind is too bright. And so it stuns the egoic mind into what ignorance it's too impactful. And there's this kind of trauma response that then basically, this is so interesting talk about the deepest levels of trauma. I mean, you know, I've been doing a lot I attended this conference, there was all this stuff with Schwartz, Richard Schwartz, who does a ton of family systems type stuff. Vander Kolk, the guy who wrote your body keeps the score was there over and over and over people are talking about trauma, trauma, trauma, trauma. 100 I agree with that. 1,000% but not a single one of them went far enough. Not a single one of them went back and said hey, you want to see the real trauma happens in the Bardot's. So, boy, so much to say about that, my friend but that's that to me, the whole post traumatic post truth, samsara disorder, which we spend our entire lives still running away from this fundamental truth that we don't exist. So more more to say about that precisely what the next book is about, but good question. Okay. Oh yeah. Dr. J man. From the Philadelphia 70 Sixers member Dr. J. Well,
anyways, getting back to what you said earlier, right at the beginning of your talk about the 49 days after death, and it's probably over 40 years ago, I first read The Tibetan Book of the Dead. And I can't remember the details but it was similar to what you were saying that there's this period after death, where I don't know you're not quite separated from your body, but you're out there. And after 49 days, then it's over. That's what I say. Then, years later, I read another book called The American Book. Of The
Day. Yeah, that goal goals book, whatever. Yeah, yeah, that's interesting book. So
there's some really practical question, you know, there are just Korean in our family. And what how does like cremation fit into this, is that against or is there something you know, is that somehow born in the process? Of what?
I'm not clear what
that 49 day period is? You're not completely separated from the body? No, no, no, you
are you are you're gone. Within 20 minutes, you're gone. The only being that stays longer than 20 minutes, roughly. You know, I love that the way that Tibetans say this the time it takes to eat a meal. Hey, are you talking about McDonald's subway? Are you talking about a five course meal you get the idea? About 20 minutes, give or take who knows what. But for the untamed untrained mind, you are out of your body within 20 minutes for someone who rests and took down the post death meditative absorption thing which I talked about in the other book. That's a different story. And therefore there are certain things that that can be done again I've asked I cannot tell you how many teachers I've asked about this. Because the classic instruction is Don't touch the body don't disturb it for three days. Yeah, well, where does organ donation fit into that where it is? I mean, this is like, it is not easy to do. Even today, I mean you have to have it illegally. It's a challenge. You gotta put the body. It's just difficult. That's all the stuff we talked about in the next book. But fundamentally, the literature is pretty clear here. And it makes total sense to me. Within 20 minutes, you're out of there, you're gone. And then you know, that's why you don't recognize the Bardo Dhamma talk is that you're still in the body post death. And then POA, you go out through one of the nine gates all the Bartel stuff, you immediately accrue all the wins, the mental body is created and then you flip into the Bardo becoming. And then you enter this really discombobulated state where you're there and then you come back you try it I mean, all this stuff, the barter literature talks about all the stuff I talked about in the book. But but you're basically the the literature is pretty clear. You're out of your body within within 20 minutes. I did want to say one thing, this is kind of interesting. I reflected on this as well. After the Buddha attained his enlightenment, and Bodh Gaya right. Guess how long he hung around underneath the Bodhi tree before he decided to do something at the exhortation of the of the Hindu gods. Guess how long 40 Let me finish up 49 days I mean, how interesting is that? So the bar the Buddha before he actually stepped into the world to start teaching rested, basically figuring I don't know what I mean. I'm sure he wasn't thinking this but like, the the lore is that these teachings are so subtle. They're so profound. Nobody's ever going to get this stuff. I'm just going to stay quiet in the forest. And then allegedly, the Hindu gods came down and said, No, no, you have a responsibility at you know, take this as a wonderful parable. But the point for us is how long did he rest, so to speak? What did what was the kind of duration before he stepped into the world? 49 days? An interesting coincidence. Right? So anyway, gerrae cut you off. Are you going to say something else?
Yeah, because it's now a period in the medical literature, right? The out of the body experience is real. I mean, this is not written in the hardcore medical literature. I just read an article about somebody who died, they put them in the war. There were absolutely positively no signs of life in any way, shape, or form. And he came and then they went back out of the body experience and they could describe details that the people there in the room couldn't see themselves, right.
Yeah, there's hundreds of these types of cases. And still, yeah, the community dismisses it as some like even Eben Alexander stuff. I mean, it's just like, absurd. So I'm with you on that. Yeah. The literature has been there forever. The stories are amazing, pretty solid, documented, but the Western scientific community. I mean, it's like one of the scientists once said, I wouldn't believe it even if it was true, but at least at least they're being honest. Right? So that's the hubris of the materialistic whole thing. Don't get me going on that because I really start ranting.
Right? But I read this in some it was it was like a miracle. Not like a blog. But this was reported in the hardcore medical literature very recently. Somebody who experienced this.
Yeah, it's there. Um, the literature is amazing. It's they're so cool. All right. Before I get to is that Jill is there Yeah, just one second Joe. Let me get these real quick. There's one or two in the chat. If it is our bad habits that reincarnate what happens to our good habits? Excellent. There are good habits. Those good habits can reincarnate. This is a great one. This is why the single best thing you can do. If you're not doing like formal official practice is just be a good person and lead a good life. That's it. I mean, you know it's like a Lama Zopa Rinpoche says something a slight extrapolation. But he says, bodhichitta you know, the heart of loving kindness and compassion lays a red carpet for you in the Bardot's. You want to have a good Bardo journey, create good habits during life. So this is exactly right. Generally, this is so the process of the path briefly. Transform all bad karma into good karma, bad habits into good habits. Until eventually you transform all habits into no habits. It's only a Buddha. That's habit free. It's only a Buddha that is karma free. Every other sentient being by definition is afflicted by karma and habit. But until then, this is why all the precepts are there, all the Hinayana Mahayana stuff that everybody skips over to get to the good tantric goodies, then the tantric goodies don't work because there's not enough good habits good karma, slash merit, create the maturation that's involved. The holding environment is involved with these tantric practices to work. So good habits high five, man that's it. You want to have a good life? I mean, a good death. lead a good life, that good karma? It's like It's like the mafia, right? I think I said this No, you'll read this and the next book. You know, when when somebody says I'll take care of it. Well, that's different. Is that like Mother Teresa saying or a mafia boss? Or math if mafia boss says I'll take care of it, I'd be a little bit worried. So what kind of care you're going to take right starting to do a little goofy here, but that's okay. All right, if you could give us three takeaways from this book. Oh, Pauline, and you put me on the spot that you wish everyone could remember and really take into their lives. What would they be? A three takeaways? Well, one is everything is mind. The only as Campbell Carter remember, he says the only obstacle is to regard something as other than mind. That's it. And our language, it's all a dream. What is a dream manifestation of mine? It's all a dream. That's number one. Number two, wake up. Wake up into that dream. You realize I didn't say wake up from it. I said wake up into it. become lucid number three, use that lucidity. That wisdom expresses His compassion to wake other people up. There you go. One, two and three. It's all mind right. become lucid to that mind and it's a manifestation and then use that lucidity to help others. There you go. That's what my top three points from the whole book. Okay, Joe.
I think I'm unmuted. Can you hear me? Okay,
I can hear ya. Yeah,
it's good to see you.
Yeah. Nice to see you. Yeah.
I think that I don't know where i Quiet think this but I think that when I'm, I'm dead. There is no time.
You literally run out of time. That's quite true.
Not that I ran out of it, but that there isn't there there a damn thing about the 49 days that there? There isn't time as we see it. And I'm wondering if you agree with that. And if so, there's something that you could say that would make us understand it or get us a little bit closer to understanding that.
Sure. I wish you would have asked that earlier, but we just ran out of time.
I'll get back to that we ran out of time. So you're spot on or being space time and causality are all constructs. The even the physicist will tell you this, you know, read or read listen to that. There's a Princeton physicist named Nima. Or Connie Hamid. I think Iranian pm eminent physicist, you can check out the talk. Space Time is doomed. So even the physicists now will tell you this. Hey, Jerry, Jerry, you gotta mute yourself there but otherwise we're gonna hear your phone call with your friend. So space time in addition to the self being a construct, space time, causality these are all constructs. And as you go into deep dreamless sleep, this is the process of deconstruction as you die. This is also non negotiable, deconstruction. And so you enter this what's called literally the fourth moment, right? This but a standard time, but a standard time, where time doesn't exist. And so it's time is basically a complete utter construct, for sure. And so these practices will reveal that to you. So it's not just a scientific proclamation or a philosophical, rhetorical expression. It becomes your direct experience. So this is where death is going to take you and you know, if you're not familiar with it, literally when you run out of time, you run out of space, you run out of the self that is simultaneously co constructed with that, then you're going to contract away from this truth out of fear. And the minute you contract away, that contraction is the genesis of the whole crap show. The whole thing starts with that primordial contraction right?
So if we go back to my original confusion and take it in terms of the dream, okay. In the dream, there is time. And in the deep sleep, there is not time. Well, when
you're experiencing the dream. Let me ask you this, when you're experiencing the dream as a dreamer Are you experiencing time are you retrofitting it in? See these things start to come up? I don't know. Yeah, exactly. Well pay attention because it's fall asleep. These These processes are partially deconstructed space, time, causality or partially deconstructed in the dream arena. Okay, by the laws of physics don't apply there, which is why you can fly and walk through walls and do these all miraculous stuff. Because the mind hasn't fully reified into so called physical form, even though there is no physicality. It's an illusion. What creates the dream arena is a partially de reified, or if you're going from the dream state up partially reified. And so, so spacetime, they're, you know, pretty flexible, pretty mercurial pretty malleable. By definition, that's what that's what makes it dream like and then when you go into the full dreamless state and there's absolutely no space, no time, no nothing. But again, that doesn't mean there's an absence of awareness. There's just an awareness of absence. And there's nothing there no thing nothing bad's emptiness. No, everything's been deconstructed at that level, but we're not familiar with that. We're too afraid of it. So what do we do we just basically, you know, plug your ears blink our eyes and just say this, you know, I'm just gonna black out until this crap show disappears because there's no room for personal identity on that, right. But the whole thing makes so much sense. It's just so logical. The whole thing makes so much bloody sense. And the same thing applies when you die. The dream at the end of time, exactly the same phenomenology. Okay, say yes, yes. Okay. All right. Hey, this was so fun. Really. It's kind of celebratory. If I had a bottle of champagne I try not to drink alcohol. Because I'm high on life. I'm intoxicated on life. But if I did, I'd pop a bottle of champagne. We got through this thing. Next book, like I mentioned, shameless self promotion, right? I keep writing these. I have to write these damn books, so that I can keep pumping through them with us in a in a book study group. So we'll do this one starting in two weeks. And I'm going to be inviting you and you'll be noticing some some friends from our Preparing to die program that we just started last night. They're going to be joining us for this particular adventure, which is kind of cool, wonderful people. A number of people here are also doing the PDP training thing. So I'll say more about that later. But yeah, it's nice to read these nice little thoughts. Thank you, everybody. It really has been a great adventure. Thanks, Alyssa, for always sending me the link to these talks. You know, I've done how many of these 100 of them and I always say, an hour before Alisa, can you send me the link? Man such a Luddite? I'm such an idiot. So she brings it to me. So big thanks to her. Big thanks to you for showing up. It's really it's kind of been fun. I really do enjoy these gigs. And so two weeks, we'll come back we'll pick it up again, with preparing to daybook. And again, if it means something to you, if dedication of merit means anything if it doesn't, don't worry about it. We talk more about merit and this upcoming book, everything we've gathered here, we give it send it out to the universe to everybody that needs it, bring it all send it out all sentient beings who could use a little bit of help including us. And then on that note of the dedication. If you want to take your cameras and turn them on, we do this geeky kind of cool, waving thing where you can say how much you like everybody. Which is true, right? Which is really true. And until next time, I'll be back in a couple of weeks. We'll pick this up with the latest book, but this is it's been a great time over the last 18 months really appreciate your participation. Until then. lucidity high five. Bye, everybody.
