Recording your progress, cool. And so we left off last time, page 115 esoteric practices, the very last section for what to do for others as they die. And then we transition into what to do for yourself after you die, because death is an illusion. You die, slash ego, because that's fake news. You don't exist, and that truth is revealed the moment of death. So I'll get to that in just a second. But esoteric practices, page 115 some of the contents of the Bardo package I showed that last time, that wonderful little package that I was informed in the chat column you can still get from Mambo banzo Bookstore upstate New York, can now be applied. The sacred pills can be placed under the lip. I did that with my mom, the sacred sand on the top of the Brahma rondra. I've done that. When I've done there's a particularly esoteric form this. It's called Iron hook of compassion. It's a type of POA that can be actually done for others. And so I was trained how to do this, which is really entertaining at cocktail parties, by the way, when things get really dull, I just eject somebody's consciousness out of their glass or whatever. Just kidding. It's actually a legitimate practice. And so I've engaged in some of these widely esoteric things. What a surprise. And the sacred sand on the top of the brahmarandra the top of the head, you can write the vajra guru mantra, ol Mahomet city home. It's the other thing that in the conversation with Gregory, that's so cool. We didn't get to it in this conversation, but I hope to bring him back, because there's so much to talk about. He has one of the most compelling chapters in this book about the power of mantra, Sonic, sacred sound that I've ever come across. I mean really, really interesting stuff. Uh, folded. Andrew, yeah, sorry, I
didn't mean to interrupt you.
We have a people are saying that we ended on 121,
not again, just before first step. Oh, you're right. That is like the fifth time I've done this. Alyssa, it's your fault. I will take the blame. I just like to have people correct me. I think repetition has gotten us into this mess. Repetition will get us out. Thank you for correcting me. Okay, the essence of spiritual practice is remembrance. That should tell you something about where I am. First step is, remember where you left off. Yes, I had it written down here. I just didn't get I didn't scroll far enough. Okay, the first and most important thing to do after death is to remember that you're dead, right? Recognize that you're dead, just like movie sixth sense. This isn't easy. Many people will not recognize this is exactly what happens. Oh, yeah, and I say it down here, this is exactly what happens in a non lucid dream. It's exactly the same thing. What is found now is found them will be non lucid to the really, basically unconscious in the Bardo, just as we are through our non lucid dreams without preparation. Most of us will black out at the end of the inner dissolution, and the next thing we know is we've been reborn. We will not experience the luminous Bardo Dharma top, maybe a few little flickers of light. If we don't do some of these practices, then even the Bardo of becoming will not be recognized exactly the same way. Most of us don't recognize our dreams. What takes control your habits, your karma, your samskaras, and next thing you know, you wake up into your next life, just like we wake up to the next day, unaware of what happened the last 24 hours, what is found else found then most of us aren't aware of our past lives, how we died in the last one, and how we took rebirth into this one. Similarly, the journey into our next incarnation happens without awareness, without lucidity. So this, again, is why the the lucid dreaming practices, the nocturnal meditations, come so deeply into play. Remember, according to Kempo karta, Rinpoche and others, Dream Yoga came about principally as a way to prepare for exactly this, to get a feel for this, look at what you're able to recognize or not every night, most of us don't recognize the final stages of falling asleep, a concordant experience of dying. What helps us with this liminal dreaming? The practice of liminal dreaming is all about this, or the state of deep freedom of sleep, lucid sleeping, a concordant experience of the bardo navata. And most of us don't wake up in our dreams. Lucid dreaming, a concordant experience, but the Bardo becoming so this is a recapitulations They say every night is the pop quiz for the final exam. This same process phenomenology as we. Iterated according to this tradition, every single night when you go to sleep, right? Thanatos got of death, Hypnose, god of sleep, not just brothers, twins. We just go blank, partly, remember some dreams and wake up the next morning, unaware of what happened during the past eight hours. We die to the day and take rebirth into tomorrow, unconscious of what happened in between. Tibetan saying asserts, based on my experience last night, I can infer I'm going to have a hard time in the Bardos. Well, if you do these practices, I can infer I'm going to have a good time in the Bardos, because I'll be lucid for the experience. Color Rinpoche says, Now this is the previous color, Rinpoche, the his his Yangtze, his rebirth. If you believe in this is actively teaching in the West. So this obviously comes from his predecessor, after death, during the period called the Bardo. Becoming a multitude of phenomena appear that while being product, productions of the mind only, are not recognized as such. What's the teaching of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, recognition and liberation are simultaneous, right? Non recognition and non liberation are also simultaneous. Back to him, the deceased person does not know, in fact, that he or she is in the Bardo and passes through all kinds of pleasant and unpleasant experiences, even if the person understands that he or she is dead, this discovery plunges him or her into such anguish and fear that the person falls again into a state of unconsciousness. So this is, I haven't written or published on this yet, but someday I will This to me, is the archetypal trauma. This is, this is the kind of trauma from which all samsara is a form of PTSD, right, post traumatic stress disorder, which is really what post truth stress disorder, a post truth samsaric disorder born from our egos, ability, the inability to acknowledge, recognize, the body of truth, the Dharmakaya, which is what's revealed to death. And so it's it's so shocking, right to the fully reified, solidified ego. It's so stunning. This truth, it's so bright. This is what the bright light means that it just blacks out. It's like, I can't deal with this. It's too traumatic. And so whereas this trauma lodge then in the very center of your body, your body then becomes an embodiment of this trauma, of this ignorance, it's at the center of ourselves, our relative self. Then what do we do? Out of Sight is not out of mind. Out of sight isn't to the unconscious mind. There that trauma of our inherent emptiness, our inherent egolessness, festers at the core of our being. And we span the vast entirety of our lives running away from the center of ourselves, running away from any interiority, running away from truth. So our entire life just becomes a very sophisticated avoidance strategy where we fundamentally, literally distract ourselves unto death, distract pull apart from this harshest nobles of all truths, that we don't exist. That's pretty traumatic. So what do we do on the path we die before we die, we titrate this trauma now so that when this harsh, unnegotiable, non compromising truth is revealed, we'll be able to say what Been there, done, that I'm already dead, right? I already don't exist. I appear, yes, I appear. You can put this postage stamp label on me, sticking on it. It's like putting a sticky note on space doesn't really stick. And so therefore, this is the logic behind the whole thing, which just makes so much sense. And then the Greeks, by the way, because I'm big into the Greeks, I mean Plato, his basic exhortation, right? Practice dying. I mean the essence of the really, the deep Greek tradition, Hellenic tradition, is, in fact, the job of the philosopher is to die before they die, this makes so much sense to me. So this trauma, this trauma, this this, this dislocation, translocation from truth takes place here, and then we, our lives are spent, reiterating, recapitulating this process back to him, the person who has practiced the instructions contained in the Bardo. The Dharma of the Bardo immediately recognized as being in the Bardo. That's lucidity. And from then on, applies the methods, allowing him or her to be completely liberated, even if this person cannot apply the methods, the capacity is present to freely move in the Bardo and to go through the land of Bliss. That's Amitabha. Is pure land is a covety or to another Pure Land instructions to the Bardo open up many possibilities. Yeah, that's pretty good. Cool. So before we can apply any remedy to the bardas, we first have to recognize where them How can you solve a problem you don't even know you have? Although? As we spin helplessly from life to life, recycling and the wheel of the bhava chakra, wheel of samsara existence, the practices for this recognition have been discussed others can help us recognize that we're dead and remind us of what to do. This is the purpose of guidebooks such as the Tibet Book of the Dead, precisely why it was written, if we could wake up to the fact that we're in the Bardos, that recognition creates a hitching post. Awareness itself provides a new formless reference point. This is everything here should be, quote, unquote. I mean, this is somewhat a myth of poetic rendering. It allows us to observe the display of our own mind instead of being swept away by it. In other words, it allows us to relate to our mind instead of from it. Relating from your mind is no relationship at all. That's samsara. That's archetypal non lucidity. That's what it means to be asleep. That's why the Buddha was what the ultimate lucid dreamer, the awakened one. All this ties together. We can now just passionately witness the mind the way we watch a movie or take control and direct the action, either way, recognition lucidity sets us free. Recognition and liberation are simultaneous. Both options can be experienced in dreams, witnessing dreams, also called Pel lucidity. Right when you wake up in your dreams, but elect not to engage them. You are lucid, but you just simply observe. You cultivate this witness awareness. Waking up in the dream and taking active control is more classic lucid dreaming, but lucidity, awareness, recognition that you're dreaming is common to both,
and so is the freedom from the contents of the dream, the contents of your own mind, right? What else is a dream? Beto mind. What is Dream code language for manifestation of mind. Where do you go when you die? From one dream to the next, from one manifestation of mind to the next, wonderful psychedelic experience. Psychedelic comes from the roots mind manifesting. It's all it's all the same, pretty trippy. It's all mind. You can't get away from mind, because that's all there is. That's where you go and when you die, where you want to know where you go. Transition from one dream to the next. Will you be lucid to it? If you are the dream no longer has power over you, just like in a lucid dream. Similarly, if you can recognize that you're in the Bardos, that recognition liberates. So this is no small thing. This is a big deal. This is the whole reason why Bardo Yoga is the fifth of the nocturnal meditations. It's completely resonant with all the principles of the previous four practices developing this lucidity because remember these processes, they're, they're, they're iterative, right? This is important to chaos and complexity theory, represented in these images of Mandelbrot sets and fractals, right? Reality is reiterative. You have very, very relatively simple principles that are then the mathematical terms are recursively repeated. They feed upon themselves, and that creates these amazingly complicated fractal like appearances. Well, reality is fractal in nature. Reality is iterative. It's reiterative. And so what we're doing here, just to reinstate it is, we're using one iteration Bardo yoga to help us understand another dream or sleep yoga. We can use either of those two to help us work with the Bardo of life through meditation. Basically same process, same phenomenology, taking place at these different levels of magnification. So to please, so to speak, makes total sense. Complete sense. Okay, after remembering waking up to the fact that you're dead is half the remedy. The next thing is not to be distracted right, from that recognition or from any meditation you may engage so this following line is one of the most common in the Tibetan Book of the Dead. This is the shamatha part. Do not be distracted. This is the dividing line where Buddhas and sentient beings are separated. It is said of this moment, in an instance, they are separated in an instant, complete enlightenment. Wow. What is line? By the way, the Vipassana aspect of the book is recognition and liberation are simultaneous. All practices in Buddhism can can be subsumed under either shamata or Vipassana. Do not be distracted. Means what distract means what pull apart. Do not be pulled apart from the reality of the Dharma a Bardo of dharmata. Do not be pulled apart from the present moment. Do not be distracted. This, by the way, is also the signature of the metacrisis of the dark age that we're living in. The Dark Age is just an iteration of distraction upon distraction upon distraction, fracture upon fracture, dismemberment upon dismemberment, is. This is the essence of the metacrisis. It's recursive. So if you understand this, this is why, what did laka Rinpoche say? To end distraction is to end samsara. Right? To amp distraction is to amp samsara. Well, what's happening in this amplified age of artificial light? Samsara is being amplified because distraction is being amplified. That's why the meta crisis is even given. Going more and more meta. It's going ballistic. Distraction is the heart of the whole bloody affair, really. Okay, after you wake up in the Bardo, steady your mind. And this is difficult because we have a shifty mental body that darts around at the speed of thought. I mean, look at your mind. Now, if you were to close your eyes and look at your mind, just watch it. One minute it's here, one minute it's there. I mean, it's the monkey mind swinging everywhere, everywhere. Now imagine having that mind, where that mind then becomes reality, just like in a dream. That's why dreams are so disjointed. Imagine that experience on the Bardo. That's why the Bardo is so unsettling and disjointed, because the mind moves at the speed of thought, which is faster than the speed of light, and that unstable, fleeting, flickering, saccadic mind is what creates the panic. If you think of Paris or New York or your home, you're instantly there. This is why Trungpa Rinpoche says, quote, the basic preparation for this Bardo consists of cultivating now while you are still alive, or the ability to rest your mind at will, and within that state of tranquil mind, the ability to make choices mindfully, lucidly. This means, I'm sorry, this needs to be cultivated during one's life, and if it is cultivated, it will be of great benefit during the Bardo becoming end quote, This is why we practice mindfulness. This is why we practice shamatha. The stability of your mind becomes your body. In the Bardo, let me say that again, the stability of your mind becomes your body. It's the only thing you it's just like in a dream. It's exactly like a dream. That's why it's called the dream at the end of time, excuse. Back to him, back to me. With a measure of stability, we can apply our meditations and attain liberation. This is why shamatha, tranquility, mindfulness, is such a powerful preparation for death. There is risk and reward in having a mental body. A mental body means it's easily directed, but it also means it's easily distracted, and this easily forgets. So this is what they say, just like in a dream. This is why we don't remember our dreams. You can have a moment of brief lucidity and recognition. But because you don't have a body, because memory is stored in the body of a subtle body, nothing, you forget. So you remember, you forget, you remember, you forget, just like in life. What creates memory? What strengthens memory? I should say mindfulness, recollection. It's the same, because if it's lightweight, it's as light as a thought. This body is easily tossed around by the karmic winds. This means that not only is it difficult to recognize you're dead, it's also easy to forget once you do recognize again. Look at your dreams. How stable is your mind, by the way, when you're having a unstable dream, an unclear dream, right? Where's that lack of stability and clarity and durability coming from? Is there, like some pre existing dreamscape that you're coming into and that there's a consequence of that? No, that's why the moniker of Dream Yoga is a measure of the path. This is why, when you do practices like mindfulness and the passion of dream, yoga is basically nocturnal. Vipassana stabilize your mind, clarify your mind. Well, what a surprise. Your dreams get more stable. Your dreams become more clear, until what there's a total democratization of consciousness. There's no difference between the waking and the dreaming state. This is not a metaphor. This is literal. What did Milarepa sing? Not seeing day and dream as differing? This is as meditation as it can be. So you want to see how stable you're going to be in the Bardo. Blow your stability your mind in your dreams, but your stability your mind now work with your mind now, even if you recognize it, how long can you remember to stay lucid? This is one reason that Tibetan Book of the Dead is meant to be read continuously for 49 days. Why? Because we forget you. The essence of spiritual practices, remembrance. I got busted on that. What's the essence of samsaric practice? Forgetfulness, distraction. We're always practicing. We're always meditating. Whether we know it or not, this is important. It's a big deal. Meditation, G, O, M, Gom, to become familiar with, we're always becoming increasingly familiar with either mindfulness or mindlessness, either compassion or selflessness. The mind is always becoming increasing so we're always meditating. This is why we are so good at mindlessness, selfishness, I guess me, especially my name. I don't even have to practice it anymore. I perform it. I've accomplished selfishness and mindlessness. I've accomplished it. I'm so good at it, I don't even have to think about it. It does me. I'm basically living on automatic ignorance. Why? Because I spent my life in the practice room. The stage is my life. This is so important. This is pure mechanics. This is just the physics of the whole deal. Well, guess what happens? You turn the tide right. Shift the direction. Start practicing selflessness, love, kindness, compassion, stability. And guess what happens? You become more and more familiar with that, then that takes good care of you. It's just it makes so much sense. Basic kind of physics, really causality. We don't know where the person, the the dead person, is on their journey, even if they hear the rendering the reading, I'm sorry, they tend to forget for 49 days. We remind them. It's as if we're practicing mindfulness for them.
There are signs to look for to verify that you are dead. These, these signs, by the way, these come from John control, older Chai, oh yeah. These are great. These are really cool from his tragedy of knowledge teachings. These are basically, these are the same as dream signs. Death signs are the same as dream signs. So these double. You can work both. These are great. First of these is kind of like, get, I get a chuckle out of these, because it's like a vampire movie. Some of the stuff you cast no shadow. I do this all the time. I told you about this before. I'm like this. I'm not kidding when I say this. I take my dog for a walk. I do this all the time. I want to create a good habit. I do a state check. I look for my shadow. Am I kidding? Shadow there? Okay, I'm probably still alive in the dream and in the bar dog. Shadow not there. Uh oh, uh oh. There's no sun or moon in the Bardo. So you cast no shadow. And so just like a dream sign, you look for a shadow. Uh, wait a second, there is no shadow. I'm either dreaming or dead. And at that moment, instead of freaking out, you go, Oh, my God, this, this is a dream sign or a death sign. You're lucid. What do I do? What am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? Oh, I remember on page 160 of this book, this is what I'm doing. This is what I'm supposed to do, right? Okay, I love this stuff. You cast no shadow. Are you looking to a mirror or other reflecting surface, and see no reflection. You walk on sand or snow and leave no footprints. Your body makes no sound. This next one doesn't apply to me. I always chuckle here. People don't respond to you. This sign no longer works for me. My dog doesn't even respond to me, so I have to mix this one off my list. Just kidding. Sort of you can move unimpeded to matter. You manifest miraculous power, such as the ability to fly, read minds or travel very quickly. You cannot see the sun or the moon. These are exactly dream signs. They're the same. These death signs totally double as lucid as dream signs. On the world of Dream Yoga, 100%
you these are
also some of these same indicators to help you recognize that you're in a dream. So you're doing double duty here. You're practicing to prepare for lucidity and labardo, and you're practicing for lucidity in the in the dream state. Same what is found that was found. Then look for these signs so to So recognize that you're dreaming or dead, look for these signs now create the habit karma of checking for these signs, and that habit will carry over into dress, into death and dream. Remind yourself to look for your shadows or check for your reflection. This practice also helps you flash on impermanence. Am I dead, dreaming or alive and awake right now? How do you know for sure? Right? Gotta do a state check. You cannot listen to this closely. You cannot assess whether you're lucid or not just by thinking that you are. You. Doesn't work. You have to do a state check. We think we're lucid now. Ah, what do you mean? I'm asleep. What do you mean I'm asleep? I'm awake. You may be awake in contrast to the nighttime dream, but if you see me as separate from you, if you see this world dualistically solid, lasting and independent, you're dreaming. This is what it means to be dreaming in the spiritual sense. So we think we're awake now, but if you see this world dualistically, hello, raise your hand. You are dreaming in the spiritual sense. You cannot assess whether you're awake, lucid or not, just by thinking that you are doesn't work self deception. Excuse me, once you realize you're dead, the impact can, in fact, be stunning if you're unprepared, you know, but if you're prepared, it's like, Oh yeah, okay, this I've been spending my entire life for this moment. I've been preparing for exactly this moment. It's coming. The Grim Reaper has his scythe and he's coming. But remember that scythe cuts, deception, this is so cool, right? He doesn't carry a hammer, right? He carries something that cuts, that reaps, cuts, deception, and it harvests. So look at the Grim Reaper as a harvester. It's not a harvest. Truth, if you are prepared, if you're not, leave that and fill in the blank. The Tibetan Book of the Dead says you will see your home and family as though you were meeting them in a dream. But although you speak to them, you'll get no reply, and you will see your relatives and friends weeping. So you will think, I'm dead. What shall I do? And you will feel intense pain, like the pain of a fish rolling in hot sand. Yikes. End. Quote, jagar culture. Rinpoche, who lives couple hours down the road, says this bar a quote, Bardo beings often don't know that they're dead. Most of the time they don't. They will, they will test themselves by jumping into a fire to see if they get burned, or jumping off a cliff to see if they get hurt. This is classic Dream Yoga practice, by the way, in the six yogas of Naropa, when they are not burned and not hurt, they suddenly realize that they're dead. And this comes as a great shock, right? This is the this is the impact. This is the trauma. This is the truth, post truth stress disorder comes from exactly this. Oh my gosh, I don't exist. Well, again, this is the kicker. You don't exist right now. I don't know I just is, like gallows humor. I get such a chuckle out of this. Just this just really kind of cracks me up. You're dead right now. So remember, remember David Loy is amazing teaching. So what do we do? Our fear of death is a secondary, inauthentic fear, completely unfair to death, just like dark, darkness, two things we project on to, more than anything, is darkness and death. We load it with all our projections, and that's why, that's why we're afraid of darkness. That's why I'm writing about my books. That's why dark retreat is so terrifying, because we we had just projected all our crap onto it. We project it into it, and that creates the pressure that we feel when we're in the dark. It's all your projections. That's what makes dark retreat oppressive. It's just your projections coming back. Same thing with death. You know where it's dark, it's a refuse heap. It's dark. Let's throw it into the dark. So we project the crap out of it? Well, no, we project a crap into it, and that's why we're so afraid of death. Death is neutral. So what do we do? David Loy, brilliant book, lacking transcendence, genius. We denied classic Freudian thing. We deny repress project. Let me say it again. We deny repress project out into the future, as far away as we can possibly get. What's farther away than death? There's nothing farther away than the refuse heap. At the end of life, we're heading into this refuse heap of all our refused experience, and so our fear of death is totally unfair to death, and it's an inauthentic fear. It's a secondary inauthentic fear, fake news. What are you really afraid of? You're already dead. You already don't exist. Your your your existence is inherently, fundamentally empty, right? Right? And so where's that denial? Then go to, not only to the end of life, but also to the center of ourselves. So we're sandwiched between this fear, this is amazing, and then we leave our lead our lives, basically trying to avoid this, avoid the center of ourselves, avoid the end of life, because we're afraid of truth. We're. Afraid of the fact that we don't exist. Yeah, this is really good stuff, even though experiences in the Bardo are dictated by the projections of your own mind. This is in the Bardo of becoming in the Bardo of dharmata, the projections are. They haven't. They haven't turned into projections. Yet in the bardomats radiance, the mind is just radiating the Bardo becoming flips that radiance into projection. So the same process of outflow, efflux takes place, but now instead of the pure radiance is subverted into projection. So fundamentally, we project the whole world. What did Jung say? I'm so deep into his work these days, as well. As you know, projection turns the world into a replica of one's unknown face. Write that down. What an amazing line. Projection turns the world into a replica of one's unknown face. We project the crap out of this world. You want to know where your unconscious mind is. It's not inside your body. Your unconscious mind is not at a location. Your unconscious mind is this world. It's a projection. It's a total projection. So we ontologically project the fact that they're even something out there. There's nothing out there, out there. Even Wheeler said, this student of Einstein, there is no out there, out there. Even the notion of externality is a projection. There is no out there, out there. It's just like, like a dream. How can you say there's an out there in a dream. When you're in a dream and it's not lucid, seems to be an out there, out there. I'm doing all the stuff in the dream sure does seem that way. Fake News. You wake up in the morning, you look back, there's no out there, out there, in there. Well, that's pretty good. Well, that's actually pretty good. There's no out there, out there, in there. That's pretty good. I'll have to send that to John Wheeler. It's just your mind. So we project the notion of externality just like in a dream. We're doing it right now. We're doing it right now. You think I'm out there, separate from you yet, right and then on top of that primordial projection that we have the secondary, tertiary, quaternary projections that constitute, fundamentally, also levels of distraction that creates a metric crisis, one projection after another. Amazing. This is where the stuff blends in with Shadow Work, the deepest form of shadow work in the Union sense, this, this is pretty, pretty cool stuff. Okay, where was I here? This is so cool. Oh, yes. Uh, even though the experiences of the Bardo are dictated by the projections of your own mind, you may encounter other Bardo beings having similar experiences. So this is where it's different from a nighttime dream, just like in this waking state, this is not just your dream. I mean, they're always post this camp people I'm relating to in the nocturnal dream. It's just my mind solipsistic, but in the Bardo, you're bleeding through, and you can actually have communication with other Bardo beings. So this is now becomes not just your dream, but part of a collective dream. That makes it even more confusing. You are reaping all the effects of similar karma. The Tibetan Book of the Dead says again. Quote, those who are going to be born with the same nature will see one another in the Bartle state. So those who are going to be born as God see each other in the same way, whichever the six realms they are going to be born in, those of the same nature will see each other. End. Quote, your experience while alive is also dictated by the projections of your mind, but you still share many of these experiences with others. It's basically consensual projection, consensual hallucination. Amazing. Once you realize you're dead, then apply
the instructions you've been given, you wake up. It's just up. It's just like, it's just like, a bloody This is classic Dream Yoga. This is classic Dream Yoga. So, you know, I'm in my sleep lab. I wake up. Okay, I'm lucid. I'm lucid for the first, you know, first second, it's like, okay, okay, okay. What am I? What is I supposed to do tonight? What is my Oh, yeah, yeah, okay. I'm supposed to do this tonight. Boom, there I go. I started doing it exactly the same hat process. In the Bardo, you're dead, you wake up instead of freaking out, you go, Okay, I'm dead. I'm in the Bardo. What is I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do? Bingo, click, click, click, oh, yeah, I'm supposed to inject my mind as a comedy or whatever, right? It's exactly the same thing. Trust me on this. Trust the lineage. I'm not making this stuff up. Recognize that whatever appears as a projection of your own mind, just as in a dream, if you do generation stage practice, it's the other thing I talk about, by the way, with Gregory Shaw in this conversation, is. Using the power event, imagination, generation, stage, practice. He talks about that quite a bit. That's the essence of theology, basically embodying the descent of the gods. It's that the it's the same bloody thing. I mean studying theology and studying deity yoga and studying the stuff I see no difference. It's just deities are replaced with Gods. I was blown away. You have to, you have to read this book, listen to the podcast, Hellenic Tantra. I digress. If you do generation stage practice or proficient in Dream Yoga, then transfer your body into the body of your chosen deity. What's that? Stage Five Dream Yoga? That's what you do in stage five Dream Yoga, for Vajrayana practitioners, generation stage practice is the primary method for transforming the Bardo becoming along with Dream Yoga. This is because generation stage practice also known as what deity yoga practice, also known as yadam Yoga, also known as evolutionary yoga, according to Lama Yeshe, this is because generation stage meditation is designed to purify birth, whether it's the birth of a thought or the birth of an entire life. This again, God, there's so much here. This is like we're back to, like, where we were a month ago. This is Rich stuff, man. So the mind is always birthing. Remember, we've talked about this, right? The mind is always taking shape, always formless. Awareness is always birthing. That's just what it does. And if it doesn't take if you don't take control over that birthing process, what does your habits, your karma? What is it that reincarnates your habits, mostly the bad habit, habit for habitation. And so when you're working with mantra, what is Mantra? Mantra is voluntary birth control. You're voluntarily forming your mind in a sonic form, which is the acoustic form of the Deity. By the way, you're voluntarily shaping your mind, forming it. It's a voluntary form of rebirth. It purifies rebirth. It's a form of Tuku practice. You don't do it. What habits your discursive mind takes over and forms your mind with discursive samsaric habits, me, me, me, I, me, me, me, right? Mind, my mind, everything based on that, the mind is always birthing. So not only is it always birthing sonically, it's also birthing visually. This is act. This is visualization practice. This is a genius. I mean, this is a high, high spiritual technology of these practices. So when you're doing generation stage practice, you're forming your body in the shape of a deity. Why are you doing that, because the deity, the God represents these archetypal principles of your mind, exactly where you're going to go in your diet, exactly why it's called evolutionary yoga, because it lifts you up into these defied domains. And so by practicing this, I wish somebody would have told me this. I'm not kidding. 30 years ago, when I was doing millions of mantras and countless hours of recitation, visualization, I wish somebody would have told me this. Why am I doing this? Man? Well, you're doing it because your mind is always taking shape anyway. Purify the birth generation stage purifies birth, birth. Your mind voluntarily, consciously, lucidly, like a Tuku. This is Tuku practice. This is voluntary in your Monica practice, this is deep. So when you're doing these practices, these are all preparatory practices for death, all of them. This is so cool, whether it's the birth of a thought, a dream, or an entire life, at this stage in the Bardo of becoming or generation you are about to generate an entire life. This is why they say one. This is amazing, like one good news or bad news, one properly placed thought and visualization can hurl you into your entire next life. It's a form of dream incubation. This is life incubation. You want to incubate a good life, incubate a next dream, right? So the tradition This is like the fire and brims, either good news or bad news, depending on your mind, one properly placed form, right? Thought, take you into the god realms. One improperly placed, so to speak, karmic driven horror, you into the hell realm. So cool sort of generation stage practice shows you how to generate the best possible life. If you're not a tantrika, but you're not a practitioner or unable to apply your generation stage practice, then direct your mind towards a pure land. More on this below. For most of us, this is the best we can do in the Bardo Tuku kunda Rinpoche offers the following advice, realize that you are at the most crucial juncture in your life. This is, this is the most important moment in your life. Death is the most important moment in your life. Really watch. I was. Talking to. Who was I talking to about this? Oh, Anthony bass, yeah, when I was chatting with him about this, watch the Martin Scorsese two part, four hour documentary he did with George Harrison. About George Harrison, have you seen this? Have you seen this? At the very end of it, it's awesome. And then Hamish at the very end of this, what does George say? My life has been about preparing for death. I mean, like high five. George Harrison, right? I mean, just beautiful. For the sake of your future, it can't waste a moment. This is your greatest opportunity to advance more if you're prepared. Oh, this is so cool. If you are prepared, there are more opportunities for rapid psychospiritual evolution in the Bardos than in life. Why? Because the environment is so empty, it's so fluid, it's plasma, nothing's formed yet. And so that emptiness, you know, is either either a blessing or a curse. If you know how to swim, it's a blessing. If you don't know how to swim, not so great. You go down into your habits. Okay? Number two, remember and feel happy about whatever spiritual path you have pursued in your life, right? Take refuge, relax and take comfort, even if you don't do these so called esoteric practices. Don't worry about it. Do the practice that you're the most familiar with, they say, going into the Bardos, holding the hand of the practice like an old friend. Don't worry about, oh my gosh, I should be doing this. Oh my gosh, no. Whatever practice you feel most comfortable with, most stable with, it makes you what? Relax. Relax. You know, all this stuff can seem so complicated. Remember we said this, we I guess me and my microbiome. We said this long time ago. All this complexity reduces. This is the power of reductionism into the simple instruction, relax. That's it. If you want two words, open and relax, that's it. You don't need any of this stuff. All she have to do is open and relax. That's it. This stuff is just insurance. This is insurance dharma. This is insurance policy because you say open and relax. People go, okay, too simple. Well, simple doesn't mean easy. I need something more. Okay, if open and relax isn't enough, that this is what these are the Mahamudra teachings. They're the highest teachings of the most simple. The more advanced the practice and teaching gets. Have you noticed? The simpler it gets? These the most advanced practice of all. What do nothing. Anupaya, the path of no path, non distracted, non meditation, the most advanced of all practices, just do nothing. But we can't do that because we're human. Doings. I gotta do something about my death. I gotta do something. And on one level, of course, we are doing something. We're studying this. We're practicing because this is the parachute. This is your insurance policy. But on one level, you don't need this insurance dharma. This is supplemental. This is why Bardo yoga is it's not the main root yogurt. This is a supplemental yoga practice. On one level, you don't need it, but it's there in the tradition for a reason. You know, it's insurance policy, and I am an insurance salesman. That's what I do. It's my job. I sell death insurance, not life insurance. I sell death insurance. Yes, if that'll be the great source of joy, peace and strength for you, last one, remember any of the following three practices according to your ability and experience, and try to stay with that practice without distraction. Oh, geez, I want to maintain, I should say, leave some room for discussion. So this is going to be a nail biter until episode what 27
we'll come back. Stay tuned to return, and this time, of course, I'll forget mark the thing. But this is, this is, this is cool. This, actually, this. This excites me a little bit. This stuff, I forgot this kind of deeper stuff was in here. This is neat. So 125, next time. Gosh, that the way we're going here. Yeah. Maybe by the end of this, kalpa would be done with this book. So hey, what's the rush? Hasten slowly, like Miller rapa said, right? So open it up for discussion. One one question did come in from malaria? This is a good one, and then I'll open it up for Q and A or just offerings. Doesn't have to just be questions. So been listening to your prepared that I talks on dark retreat? Yep, I'm now thank you for doing that. I'm now uncertain whether I should practice open awareness with eyes open or use an eye mask to simulate dark retreat. Can you please talk about the purpose and difference of each so that I know why I'm doing the practice one way or the other? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, doing both, right? So open awareness with eyes open. You know, this is these practices have all particular applicability, applicabilities and bandwidths. They work with different dimensions of mine. And so they all have their, I wouldn't say, strengths and weaknesses. That's not the right way. But they all have their bandwidth of applicability. And so open awareness is again the most formless meditation that one can do before you get into the full formless practices of Muhammad Judson. And so therefore, the practice of open awareness that I write about pretty extensively in my reverse meditation book, this is a magnificently powerful, impactful practice to work with these really formless dimensions of mind. Super powerful, underutilized meditation in my book, and obviously duck retreat, I'm super big into that. It's it's different in that here, when you're practicing, like with a Manta Eiffel mask, like we'll be doing at memo, you know, I guess they're gonna have five rooms set up for us there, which is pretty cool that they're similar, of course, because you can't silo the mind. There's mind has different bandwidth, but they all interdigitate. They all cross pollinate, so you can't silo off one aspect from the other. But dark retreat has a different bandwidth of applicability. Yes, it's connected to open awareness, because you're working with awareness. But dark retreat itself, simulated with a with an eye mask, is actually not about sensory it's not sensory deprivation. It's, it's, it's about curtailing the outward bind, bound distracted mind, removing the principal sources of distraction, which is principally the most dualistic, senses of sight, number one, sound, number two, and inviting interiority. There, it's a highly interiorized practice. And this is one of the things, by the way I did talk about with Gregory, one of his great insights in the book was higher, really, in this case, in this tradition, higher means inner. Higher means inner. So the highest practices are the innermost practices. The highest practices are the ones that bring you most inside in a certain way, until you basically break down the boundary between inside and outside. So because Lori, because these practices are so huge, I'm not sure how much farther you want to go with this, but they're they're pretty different. One is mixing your mind with with light and space and sound and everything. The other is, is completely curtailing any sensory outflow, pratyara withdrawal, bringing all the senses in reducing to the to the fundamental reduction base of the sense of action or touch, the most non dualistic of senses, and then allowing the the process of the unconscious mind to arise more overtly. So, you know, saying more than that, again, if you're here and you want to direct me in a certain direction, I hesitate, just because both of these practices are so big. There's so much to say that outside of those two, I'm not entirely sure, unless you're here, where you want me to go with
that. Yeah, I am here. Oh, you are far away. Oh, cool, yes. So as you know, I'm doing the one year long applied union course, so I'm thinking actually that that doing open awareness, but with the eye mask, will actually be useful for the work that I'm doing with my applied studies in that it will be more inwardly focused, as opposed to working with with eyes, with eyes open.
Yeah, I see. I mean, I see, I see, no, no problem with that whatsoever. So can you say a little bit more about how you think this can help you with the Jungian program? I'm curious, what
that I think it'll tap More into my unconscious mind with because when I do open awareness with eyes open, I mean, that's very useful for then going about my daily life, because obviously I'm going around my daily life with my eyes open. But I think, I think doing, doing with the eyes closed, with the eye mask, again, will just help me tap into my unconscious more.
Yeah, I completely agree. I completely agree. And so again, this is the really cool thing about these practices, right? So the mind is, is, is vast, complex. Has multi different, multitudinous arrays of manifestation, all these different practices. And there's one reason, by the way, that I'm just so that's why I love Nando Shaiva Tantra, slash Kashmir Shaivism. That's why I love Tibetan Buddhism. There's so many practices and so. Indeed, with what you're sharing, I see no issue with that whatsoever. You know, the ability to kind of, then kind of cross pollinate between these two practices, absolutely. I mean, why not? Why not? And so, yeah, go for it. Great. Thank you. Yeah, use your understanding of both to bootstrap and support the other, right? Because, again, you're always working with mine. They're just designed to work with different domains, but you can absolutely positively kind of do these hybrid approaches, especially when you're working with things like uni and depth psychology.
That's great. Yeah, thank
you. Cool. Yeah. Good question. Hey, Kimberly, unmute yourself, dear.
Hello. How are you?
I'm good.
That's good. Um, I just want to say that I really share your enthusiasm with all these teachings, awesome, amazing. And I actually wrote down at the beginning of the class something I wanted to ask you, which you actually answered, but I'll just kind of go through it anyway. Um, so I was making this very loose correlation with Tantra, Alchemy and depth psychology, like Jung psychology, and then Tantra kind of deals with the deities and works with Didi yoga, doing like the transformation, where alchemy kind of, I'm not sure about this, But alchemy kind of deals with more like the demons and using theog, or is that like off the track, not really alchemy, that's more like the Greek. What you were saying?
Well, they're, they're, they're connected, for sure.
There's an overlap, yeah?
Sure, yeah. By the way, just for listeners, um, diamond. I mean, just there's a diamond. Sorry, yeah. When Christianity got its myths on the diamond principle, they turned diamonds, D, A, i, m, O, N, into demons. So it is demonic in the best sense of that word. And so that, yeah, so the relationship of of Theurgy, platonic Theurgy, Neoplatonic, theog and alchemy? Oh, for sure, there's a lot. I mean, the alchemical traditions have a lot of resemblance with both Tantra and Theurgy. Yeah, in that they a lot of them work with the principles of transformation, transmutation. A lot of them work with going into the lead to transform that into gold. And, you know, Alchemy works with fundamentally transforming the consciousness of the alchemist. I mean, you're basically, you're working with these agencies of metallurgy and the like, but fundamentally, they're designed to transform the consciousness of the alchemist itself. And this is quite interesting. You know, just like with Plato, most people don't realize that Plato had two principal manifestations. One was the the classic logos phase, which is what the Western tradition emphasizes, logic, rationality and all that. But he also had a massive mythos. He was, he was just a psychic, right, Mystic in exactly the same way Isaac Newton, right, the father of physics, short of Einstein, the greatest physicist in history, he spent, I don't know exactly what proportion, but a vast majority of his life was studying what alchemy. So anyway, I don't want to go too far, yeah,
yes, there's definitely yeah. And then correlation with that would have like a Jungian psychology, and he would work with the archetypes and enjoy like the active imagination. So kind of deity yoga? I've kind of linked deity yoga with third G and active imagination. Yes,
they're all deeply connected, especially theog and deity yoga are. I mean, they're almost the same thing, yeah, active imagination. Maybe it depends on how deep you want to look and interpolate and extrapolate, how young work with imagination. Yeah. Oh, it's more. Yeah. Again, I'm hesitant to go into those waters, because it's, it's another one of these kind of deep topics in the realm of depth psychology, but I think, yes, definitely with the org and deity yoga, absolutely positively, if you're careful with the role of active imagination, maybe, but I would be a little bit more careful with that one doesn't have quite the same level of attraction, at least for me. Sorry, you go. Okay,
I'm done. Okay. So what I was kind of thinking is like, you know, third G is about, like insulting something, like the daemon into, you know, physical material, where I see Didi yoga, as in, souling the deity into our consciousness or our eager instruction. So yeah, yes, and
no. I mean, there's two. Again, there's relative and absolute approaches to both these practices. So one is, in fact, this, this kind of insulting or even descent of the Deity, you know, into the into the visualization, the descent of the. Deity versus Theurgy. But another, I think, more accurate approach, is the deity is already there. It's an act of recognition. Nothing needs to be descended. That's a slightly provisional but dualistic stance, that I am not pure, I'm not divine. I somehow, this is a little bit, well, I was going to say Neil Plotinus, but this is one subtle difference that that on one level, for sure, on a relative level, you're invoking descending, you're inviting the the the deity, to enter. That's relative, that's still dualistic. There's this little cosmological dualism taking place there. The primary issue is one, the recognition you already are the deity you just have to recognize. So that's actually quite important, because then what are you doing? There's still there's still an achievement, there's still something other than what's here. And so as subtle as it is, it's still dualistic. And so when you understand the true archetypal nature of these things, you already are the deity you just forgot. It's an act of recognition. So it's a subtle but important difference, because otherwise it's like, oh, there's something deficient in my world. I have to purify the world. No, you have to purify your perception. Remember, the path is perceptual, not actual. So even here the this is where, this is where even the supplement of the orgy and Tantra is transcended but included by the full formless meditations. They actually go a step beyond, you know, they completely acknowledge these but they're actually more subtle, and I think it's super important, because otherwise you get stuck in the very subtle, dualistic
traps, thinkings, yeah, and I don't know if you quickly got time, if you can just speak on the so there's deities, the diamonds and the archetypes, like they're all, I don't know. I feel like they're all the same, and I know they're, by nature, slippery and not meant to be pinned down. But I would just love to hear
how together. Well, oh, geez, that's yes. I mean, this is a massive topic. These are, these are archetypal principles, right? So they're multivalent, polysemous principles. So when you talk about deity, just deity alone, there's so many applications of the Deity principle. Deity fundamentally represents purity. It's basically a recognition of the empty nature of things. What was the second one archetype?
The diamonds?
Yeah, so, so the diamond, you know, these are mediators between the gods. It's another massive, multivalent principles. So the book I'm almost finished reading, I highly recommend it. Patrick harpoor's Demonic reality, a field feel guide reading the secret file at the moment, yeah, but read diamond a field guide to the underworld, other world. Then you'll see just how big this demonic principle is. So it's these. Are you I would get spanked if I tried to shrink wrap the enormity of the demonic arena. Same thing with archetypes. This is a massive archetype. Are you talking about Jungian archetypes? Are you talking about platonic archetypes? So I'm gonna fudge on this one, because this is such a set of huge topics that, yeah, it's worth doing the kind of cross cultural whatever I think it's, I love it, but it's just a really, really deep dive, and I'm extremely hesitant to Do bullet point, convenient shrink wrap, sound by this, it's, it doesn't, it doesn't do justice than the complexity of these topics. These are really, really big topics. So does that make sense? I
think, yeah, no. I think just your that, you know, explanation on it just really helps as well that, yeah, company, yeah.
I mean just, why not throw the gods in there? I mean, because they're not quite the same, right? The gods are not quite the same as the diamonds. What is their relationship to the deities? Well, it depends on how you engage those terms. So I love this stuff. I mean, I'm totally love this stuff, but I do get a little queasy about quick soundbite answers. Thanks so much I appreciate it. Okay, I'm just going through the chat com to see if I'm missing anything otherwise, yeah, David Lloyd's title like and transcendence. There you go. I interviewed him. He's a dear friend of mine. Edge of mind, maybe three years ago. Check it out. He's written about 17 books like and transcendence is his favorite, and it's my favorite as well. It's really good. Uh, let's see what else here? What about your good habits? How much I don't have any here's, here's, here's an A. Of the path being smart out to be aside. The process of the path is to transform bad habits into good habits, until you transcend habits altogether. Because it's only a Buddha that is habit free. It's only a Buddha that is karmic free. So yes, what we're doing here, relatively is we're creating good habits, and then the force of those good habits will take good care of us, but eventually you want to transcend all habits, and only, only the awakened ones are literally habit free, and habit what do they do? Habit forming is a tautology. I mean, we're we're always just being formed by our habits. They're our makers. Another word is for them, basically some scaras. When you meet your when you die, you will meet your maker. What's your maker? Your unconscious mind, your samskaras, your habits. That's what makes us now, whether we know it or not, okay, are we missing anything here? Uh,
uh, demonic reality, yeah. Demonic reality, cool, yeah, somebody should have gotten back to you about the scholarship thing, Hamish, so I'll have Alyssa follow up with you specifically. So can we put a note to that? Alyssa to reach out to. Hey, Michelle, there. So any anything else we good to go my friends. So meet me and Ella, or come online. It should be a hoot, especially first day with Tony. I'm super looking forward to that. He's coming out from New York. He's the psychedelic researcher. We're going to have a whole first day with him, talking about the role of entheogens, thanatogens. My I love new words. I coined this. I like this. I'm going to put an RX patent on it. Thanatogens, right, using these agents, um, especially psychedelic. I'm sorry, psilocybin to prepare for the end of life, so that underneath all these narratives of um, virtual reality, dark retreat psychedelics is going to be using these for Bardo principles for end of life. That's the underlying theme that's going to be riffed on there. So until then, remember right dedication to merit. If what we're doing is not a benefit to others, it's irrelevant. It's irrelevant. We're doing this to help the planet and to help each other. So with that in mind, we dedicate merit to all sentient beings, to the planet itself. And I'll be back after I come back from them in two weeks. We'll see you then. Otherwise, you know all the other activities that are happening around nightclub and whatnot. So nice to see everybody. Appreciate it. Ciao, you.
