What looks like. Quilly. Really may have a question, but that's okay. Go ahead. Fire away. Quilly, if you have a question, unmute yourself. Will
you be, will we be able to get the recordings during the break? Like, can we listen to
everything else? Everything else will be, yeah, yes. It's not like we're shutting down. It's just nothing, nothing new and fresh and active. It's just going to be Yeah. Things are gonna Yeah, exactly. The research is gonna be there. So yeah. So those of you who may be new, what we do on these Thursdays, we've had a bit of a pause, but as a book study group, we go through a book. What a surprise. Happens to be one of mine, this thing, I think you know, probably in the next 10 years, we might get through it the preparing to die book, and we left off last time on page 142 but I did want to say one thing that was really interesting for me just this past weekend, that for those of you who are in the preparing to die community, we had our last session last Night. So this will be just a two minute repeat of that I was just this last week in San Francisco. Invitation only. Super interesting. AI event with 70 computational neuroscientists, physicists, mathematicians, really, really, really, interesting gig. And there were, I don't know, five so called contemplatives. There I was one of those so called contemplative scientists, whatever, whatever, I guess my what was my listening on this, the wording here, they like these big words, so I was interdisciplinary. How did they put it? Yeah, interdisciplinary, scholar, practitioner, and Tibetan Buddhism and other non dual wisdom traditions, right? Oh, I'm sure that impressed like nobody. But here's the reason I mentioned it. This is really cool, because I say this because sometimes this material can seem like, oh, like, what application does it have in the world? You know, teachings on emptiness and nature mind and bodhicitta and the Bodhisattva idea of what relevance is it to the world? Well, check this out. This is no small thing. So these people, this is called stem AI. There are a number of other AI systems being developed, as you might suspect, and some of these other pretty cool peeps were there, but I was one of the representatives of Tibetan Buddhism. There was a non dual Shabbat Tantra person. There one psychologist. And so what the reason we were there, which was really pretty darn cool, pretty open minded, is that some of the co founders of semi are sensitive enough to understand that AI systems and then what are called AGI artificial general intelligence, and then ASI artificial super intelligence. They're passionate enough to know that these systems are designed by people at certain developmental and worldview levels. So if you design these AI systems from a relatively lower level of development, egoic in nature, and you're basing this on materialistic outlooks, consumeristic outlooks, which which basically is almost axiomatic or a given. Well, lo and behold, what a surprise you get. AI systems that could be dangerous, that could be kind of dominating in spirit, following the this ridiculous Darwinian approach to things, and not Darwinian approaches have their place, but so, so check this out. And there's some current there's already some papers published, Mike Levin and others, Thomas doctor, really clever people are starting to publish pieces on what are called cognitive light cones and how they're actually discovering, check this out. This is so cool, how they're actually discovering that Bodhisattva principles can actually be used harnessed advantageously in the design of artificial intelligence. And now is that out there? Or what I mean talk about thinking outside the box? And so I was pressing the the main people that are one of the larger gatherings to just really put an exclamation point on this, like, okay, because a lot of the discussions and these breakout sessions were like, people were interested in emptiness, they were interested in in compassion and the Bodhisattva ideal. And so I drove home the point with these peeps, that that the reason you do this is that if you design an AI system that actually is built in, built into it are notions of service and beneficence and altruism. Then it's not going to take over the world, right? It's not going to dominate, and we're not going to be wiped off the map, because inherent in the in the people in the program, based on the view. These are the people that are designing it. Are these built in safety networks? Now, tell me that isn't original. Tell me that isn't really pretty darn cool. And so I was just thrilled that these people would have this kind of precious and one of the co founders has been attending some of my stuff, and so that's why he invited me along. And I was, I was like, there standing up for truth and standing up for, you know, the Bodhisattva ideal. And it was, it was kind of funny, because I went up to the big board, you know, we didn't, nobody knew really who everybody was. And so I'm up there with all these, like, nerdy, geeky scientist types, and some of them are, I'll speak No, pardon my French, so they're looking at this whole thing, and there's teachings on emptiness and compassion. And one of the guy goes, this is just bullshit. Like, what is this bullshit doing up here? And by the end of the week, it was no longer bullshit. By the end of the week, these guys are going, Whoa, whoa. This is really interesting, so that I wanted to share that with you, because it might seem like, ah, what are we doing with this stuff? Does it really matter in the world? Yes, it matters. And so stay tuned. I mean, wouldn't it be cool to have an artificial intelligence system that's actually designed to protect people that is not capable of actually taking over the world. There's no small thing. You know, it might sound like, Oh, this is just hyperbole, but one of the guys actually said this could change the world. I mean, I don't want to get too apocalyptic here, but could save the world. I mean, really, when you think about it, I mean, if AI goes ballistic, and you have no idea how fast this is developing and how incredibly sophisticated these systems are. It's insane. I don't know if you work with this stuff on AI is just unbelievable. So anyway, I wanted to share that with you, because to me, it was really inspiring to be it literally stem AI with some. I mean, these are like, incredibly intelligent people from Oxford and Harvard and Yale, all Ivy League schools, who were talking to people in the contemplative traditions about building safeguards for AI systems, like they're cool or what, huh? Okay, I just wanted to share that with you. Sidebar. Okay, so we left off last time. Seems like a jarring non sequitur, but that's okay. We left off last time after, oh, here it is. Chapter Six, what to do for others after they die. Page 142, want to help. So what I do if you haven't been here before, it was called an auto commentary. I read and riff. I'll do this for maybe half hour, 40 minutes, and there's the time to bring your questions, comments, whatever, where we have a chance to chat for a little bit at the end. So here we go. When to help. It's especially important to help those who have passed during the first three and a half weeks after death. This is when the Bardo being is still in the shape of a mental body. Oh, I have to share so I have to share this. Okay, so one of the one of the people connected to this is Mike Levin. This guy's going to win a Nobel Prize, trust me, out of Tufts, there's a chance, I'm not exaggerating here, that this guy can cure cancer, and so he was one of the people. He wasn't at the meeting, but I had zoom with him, and he's doing some outrageous research. He wrote this paper that was one of the first inaugural publications on using Bodhisattva principles for AI, and he has this really interesting it gets a little geeky, but this really interesting kind of bow tie presentation of how it is that information is condensed in systems of intelligence and life, and when we riffed, I can't remember what page it's on in this book, but you know my, my trying to find it here, as I'm talking to you, my little hourglass diagram. Have you seen my hourglass diagram? Remember that it's in here somewhere when I when I would read his paper, and then I sent this to him. This whole mapping of the Bardos is completely resonant in this this kind of hourglass, which translates completely to his bow tie interpretation of the condensation of information systems and data. And so this is another point where something is super esoteric. Is Tibetan Bardo has, has real interest with really, really high level research scientists. It's just, it's exciting. So I'm sharing my excitement with you sidebar. I wanted to say that earlier. Okay, this is one of Bardo being is still in shape of a mental body similar to its previous physical body. I. And is lingering around familiar people and places due to habitual patterns, just like in a dream. We continue to see ourselves the way we were, just like in a dream,
consciousness comes into the Bardos wearing its old habits, which literally shape the mental body. And so I like to play, Lisa, here you've heard this, right? Old, you've heard the saying, Old habits die hard, right? Well, some habits are some habits are so old they don't die, they don't die. And again, playing on words, the principal habit. Really, it's called Baba samskara is the habit for habitation itself. I love the play on words. The principal habit is the habit for habitation, the habit for a body, the habit for form that's an abbot, a habit that's so old that it doesn't die. It continues that bhava samskara continues after you die. And that habit forming is a tautology. It's a redundancy. That habit form, then is literally what forms, shapes the formless mind into another body, right? So the power of habit, habits of Western translation for karma. One of the presentations at the AI event was literally the mathematics of karma. Can you believe this stuff? It was so cool. Okay, so as we progress through the Bardo, some teachers say the mental body slowly morphs into the shape of the body it will fully become in the next life, old habitual patterns fade and new ones take shape. Therefore the second three and a half weeks, or the second half of the Bardo becoming experience, if the Bardo being doesn't stay in for the full seven weeks, excuse me, is when the Bardo being turns towards its next life, karma, slash habit, takes control and locks the being into its next incarnation. Okay, cool, right? Well, how does this apply to us? Well, this is happening right now. Look at a dream, for instance. I've said this several times, if you don't wake up and take control of your dream, what shapes your dream? Which is your mind? What else is a dream made of? It's made of your mind. What shapes your dream? Your habits, your karma? This is why Trungpa Rinpoche famously said when asked, what is it that reincarnates? Remember your bad habits? That's just brilliant. What's your principle bad habit? The habit for habitation, the habit for form. What is ego? Ego's first and foremost, a body. Ego. Freud. Ego is exclusive identification with form. Eckhart Tola, that habit for body, that habit for form, is literally what then forms your mind. It happens every night, when you fall asleep, what shapes your formless mind into the shape of your dreams if you don't, your karma, your habits. Little bit harder to see. This is exactly what's happening right now. We're constantly being shaped subconsciously, unconsciously by these primary drivers perform. We should concentrate our efforts to help the deceased every week on the day that they died, in other words, on the seventh, 14th and 21st days after death. Now, another reason we want to do this. Those of you who took the preparing to die course, you know how much I rant over 12 weeks, three months, what's the central narrative? Have you taken that course over and over and over, overthrowing the tyranny of materialism we're afraid of death, or fear of death is directly proportional to our subscription to the pathological view of materialism, physicalism. So let that subscription run out. Don't renew it. Repeal and replace with a view, initially, of idealism. The world is made of mind, and then the world was called panentheism. So I'm getting a little geeky here, but it's helpful to know these views that we hold. Panentheism is that the world is not really made of mind. It's made of a mind that's that's God, like magnificent, kind and caring. And so Okay, well, this is another one. Well, why is this important? Well, because in the world, made of matter. When somebody dies, I can't do anything about that. They're gone, nothing, dead, no connection. Mada, well, sorry. Materialists, the world is not made of matter. The world is made of heart, mind, spirit. It's just this infinite field of interconnectivity and subjectivity. So therefore, when you die in a world that is made of mind, oh, I have a mind. You have a mind and heart. The nature of reality is mind and heart. And therefore this view empowers our ability to help people after death, to help people during death, because the statute of limitations of physicality don't apply in an idealistic pan, atheist worldview, space, time, causality don't work at these levels. And so therefore, if you really get this, you have so much more power than you think to help people. It's like being in it's like being in a, you know, metaphor, being in a you know, swimming pool. This is, just came to my mind really pure crystalline water. So it's pretty, pretty shaky analogy. But stay with me, and someone on the end of the pool is like drowning, and you create a little wave right on your side, and the wave comes over and splashes into their mouth. Pretty cheap, weak metaphor, but you get the idea if we're connected by these fields of infinite subjectivity where space, time and causality don't apply, we can help people. We can help people. Death may be the end of a body. It's not the end of a relationship. So this is why it's worth like in the pre preparing, did I program, if you take it, this is why 12 weeks over and over and over every conceivable way. One of the many narratives is overthrowing the tyranny of appearance, of materialism and physicalism. Because if you do that, changes everything changes, absolutely everything. Okay, so this is because the dying experience is repeated every seven days. I've asked, I cannot tell you how many teachers, well, why seven days? Nobody can give me an answer. I have no idea. They just say, well, that's just the way it is in the text, okay, whatever. Nobody can give me a reason, but that's okay. It's not a repeat of the dying process, since the physical body is already gone and then the dissolute, the and the dissolutions cannot take place. So Carlo Rinpoche explains at the end of him, I mean quote at the end of each week, there is the trauma of realizing that we are dead. In our minds plunge into another state of unconsciousness, like the one immediately after death, but not quite as intense. After each of these very short periods of unconsciousness, consciousness returns, and once more, the Mandalas of the deities present themselves, but now in a fragmentary and fleeting way, the successive opportunities afforded by these appearances are not as great as the first stage, but the possibility for liberation does occur throughout the after death experience, for sure. End, quote, well, it occurs under any circumstance, at any point. So it's not just the 49 day period, the opportunity for liberation occurs with recognition at any moment, any moment. Okay, back to the book. These are the days to focus on the rituals described below. Trung gun control writes. Quote, If the being is unable to begin the birth process within those first seven days, it undergoes a minor death, which is like fainting for a short time, and again, is born in the intermediate state. It may then begin the birth process within the next seven day period. If within that period it still does not meet with the number of factors necessary for taking birth, it will inevitably begin the process of taking birth within 49 days from the time of death. End quote, so I'm basically being here just a representative of the tradition. I have no idea, right? I have no memory of this, so I just, I'm just basically representing what is repeated. I guess there's some support here in so many different sources throughout the tradition. Okay, back to the book. For example, if a person died on Sunday before noon, the first focus day would be on the next Saturday. If they died afternoon, it would fall on the next Sunday, the fourth week after death, is considered particularly important because many beings don't stay in the Bardo longer than four weeks, 49 days is generally the longest one spends in the Bardo. So rituals are often done, done then, in other words, at the end of the 49 day period, one year after death, is another potent time to reach out. In addition to the time of death, there's also connection to the place of death. This is especially true if the death was traumatic. It's best if we can do our practices at that location and on those special times. But if we can't, don't worry about missing the ideal situation. You the ideal situation is our heartfelt motivation to help. That's that's super important, because a lot of times these conditions obviously just can't be met.
While these are special times to help. It's never too late. Space and time do not limit the power of compassion and the force of merit, even if the Bardo being has been reborn met it merit dedicated to them still helps. Finally, your efforts to help the dead, especially if you have a strong karmic connection, can be as effective as that of a spiritual master. It's just not the spiritually elite that can benefit the dead. That's another really important point. You know, this is this kind of poverty mentality that we have, like, you know, who am I to have this capacity to reach out, well, with your thoughts and your prayers and your motivation again, into the right view. That's why view is so important, lot more power than you think, until the heart center cools, or some blood comes out of the mouth or nose, signaling that the red Bindu has ascended and released the consciousness. The instruction here is, don't touch the lower parts of the body. So again, boy, we're deep into pretty esoteric Tibetan stuff here, right? Take it or leave it. This is just what the tradition says in countless texts. Wait until the dying process is complete so the consciousness isn't directed out of a lower exit. Direct your attention and contact to the top of the head. So I did this, like with both my parents. When I was with them, I was always and I do this when I'm around people who are actively dying. And almost an oxymoron, you know, to actively die. But you get the idea I was kind of behind them, around their head area, and always, you know, like caressing and touching the top of their head. And so, like, when my mom was, she was semi comatose. I mean, I was quite, quite, I wouldn't say, well, firmly. I was just, like, quite consistently, just kind of bringing attention to the top of her head, always. And then, on another level, over my life, I've had, I mean, opportunity doesn't seem like the right word, but the opportunity to be with pets that had to be put down and with every one of these, when the so called medicine is delivered with every single one of them, I'm in this case. And I'm sure the vets are looking at me like, boy, this guy is weird. I'm sitting there and I'm not just tapping, I'm flicking, I'm just I'm taking my finger and I'm going, boing, boing, boing, right on the top of the head the brahmarandra. Weird, yes, but it makes sense from Indic subtle body point of view that you want to direct the mind. The Bindu sa consciousness to the top is the Highway to Heaven. The brahmarandra, basically the the suture area, six, eight, finger, finger width, behind a normal hairline. That's where consciousness you want it ideally to leave. Okay, what else does it say here? Direct your attention and contact at the top of the head. Remember that it takes about 20 minutes for the inner dissolution to occur. If the dead person is an organ donor, the generosity of offering their body supersedes these instructions, and in that case, organ harvesting has to begin immediately. For a few days after death, don't disturb any of the dead person's possessions. Their consciousness may be attracted to these items, and messing with their stuff, their things could upset them. Although consciousness has left the body, the body still remains the main karmic link to this past life, the Bardo being often hovers around it, so treat the body with reverence and respect, bathe it, bless it, and tend to it with care. The following sections offer rituals and meditations that benefit the dead. These practices also benefit those left behind. They help us say goodbye and give us the feeling that we're doing something to help. The Tibetan tradition is fabulously rich in things we can do. Some of these rituals are esoteric, even for students of Tibetan Buddhism. And there's quite a vast literature now. I mean, I wrote this book, what, 12 years ago, since then, the publication from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, I mean, there, there is a lot of literature, yeah, I wouldn't say dozens, but at least a dozen books that have extraordinary levels of ritual and practice that can be done post i. Mortem, but they have been practiced for hundreds of years by the most realized beings on this planet. These are not empty rituals for social purposes. These are hard practices of a wisdom tradition designed to benefit those in need. We would do well to surrender to this wisdom and trust its methods. We will start with a simple practices, then progress into more esoteric practices. Cool, still with me. This is one of the more, yeah, this is one of the more kind of deep dive, esoteric aspects of our journey together. So the power of merit. This is probably the most important actually, one of the most effective things we can do to help the dead is to gather and dedicate merit to them. Marriage is the cosmic currency of Buddhism. It's something we gather to benefit ourselves, and it's something we can transfer to others. It's like mileage plus points, right? Mileage be a frequent flyer. Collect those points. You can use them for yourself, and then, you know, you can transfer these points to others, right? This is obviously a very Boy Scout, super naive way of approaching merit, that somehow merit are these kind of bonus points. It doesn't quite work that way. Merit is much more sophisticated. It's deeply connected to karma. People think, Oh, everybody knows what karma is. Hardly only a Buddha really fully comprehends karma. Karma is deeply connected to the teachings on emptiness. It's one of those complex descriptions of reality from all Indic points of view. And this is what this is, the whole laws that of all, the unfoldings of karma really take place in the Bardos, because death is the end of the karma that brought you into this life, the habit patterns, the complete suspension and the Bardo of dharmata, the reignition in the Bardo becoming and then the full propulsion back into the bar of life. So understanding these habit patterns and karma, if I was to write a new version, I would definitely have a much more extended version on working with habit slash karma. It's literally the stuff the world is made of. Learning about marriage can strengthen our desire to gather and dedicate it. So one way to learn about mera, by the way, the topic is huge, in addition to studying karmic texts in general, one really great way is to explore the Pure Land teachings. Because the pure, the Pure land itself, the biggest, I wouldn't say biggest, the most kind of famous, popular, Pure land of sukavati, Tewa Chan, it's real estate that's actually created by the power of merit. I mean, merit is what created that particular and all the other pure lands. So this is actually, this has real applicability in terms of understanding the manifestation of form, reality altogether. So the Indian master Nagarjuna said, quote, by generating the thought of enlightenment, bodhicitta, for the benefit of all beings, a mass of merit is collected. If this merit took form, it would more than fill the expanse of space. End, quote. Bucha scholar Louis Gomez, he was at a University of Michigan, died a couple years ago, wrote some really wonderful books on pure land. Quote, the power of good deeds can be harnessed, directed and transformed, so that through good deeds, one becomes capable of affecting the life of others and even capable of working wonders. Good deeds can affect changes in reality. Merit can produce wondrous deeds and events. End quote. In the Pure Land tradition, the power of merit literally creates world systems. So COVID was created by the oceans of merit dedicated by Amitabha Buddha. So he's the Buddha of this pure land in his previous countless lives. It's also the transfer of this mirror from Bucha, from Amitabha account, quote, unquote, into our own that helps us enter sukadi. According to the Kalachakra Tantra, it is collective karma. Marriage is a form of good karma that transforms into world systems. Yeah. So this is another area if you're really, really into this pretty dense reading, not easy that for the faint of heart, but the second chapter of the kala chakra, called the inner Kalachakra Tantra, translated with commentary by beyond Wallace's wife, facino Wallace, this is a real tour de force for understanding this, but it is not an easy read for the deeper divers these worlds then serve to contain the beings who generated that karma and who will now experience its fruits and.
The cosmology of merit may be difficult to grasp, but the practice of dedicating and collecting of it is easy. Merit is gathered by performing good deeds. So this is why so deeply connected to behavior habit, karma. It's a form of good karma. Delivering that marriage to others is accomplished by dedicating it properly, which means doing so with conviction and loving motivation. If you just mouth the words, some benefit might trickle if you really mean it, great benefit Boris forth. So this is where, again, the Empower of intentionality comes into play. That's the main driver. Mind moves all things so with a really powerful intentionality. Again, this is where you have so much more power than you can imagine. Back to the book to transfer merit properly. Do a good deed with that person or pet you want to dedicate it to. In mind, perform the deed with them in mind, and then dedicate it to them when the deed is done. This can be as simple as saying. Quote, I dedicate the merit of this action to all sentient beings, and especially to fill in their blank May it bring benefit? May it bring them benefit in solace? May it guide them into the best possible rebirth. End quote. This is a wonderful thing to do that anybody can do towards anybody who's transitioning or actually has transitioned, and this is a way to reach across these seeming barriers of time and space, which, again, don't apply here, and really, really help them back to the book The dying or dead person also gathers marriage by being the cause for the helpers motivation to generate the merit. It's particularly helpful to perform dharmic deeds, because dharmic activity is considered the most valuable Dharma is also the highest form of generosity. It's the highest form of giving. You can dedicate your spiritual practice, sponsor translation projects, send money to a Dharma Center, or sponsor someone in a tree. You can donate to the construction of spiritual project, like a stupa, monastery. Schedule monastic College, and then this is where it gets really interesting in the Vajrayana, right? Vajrayana practitioners can perform what's called a Ghana chakra feast offering or Sulkin Tibetan and the name of the deceased. The following thing, we did this a lot. We couldn't get out of the retreat center, but Gampo Abbey, every month they would do this, saving a lives practice. They go down to the piers, they buy the crabs, and then they take them a couple miles down the road and release them, right? And so people in communities will actually do things like go to a fish shop and buy, buy the worms or whatever, and go out and release them. So if that speaks to you, wonderful. This involves rescuing animals that would otherwise die. For example, buying and releasing Orange from bait shop in Buddhist countries, butter lamps are frequently offered after someone has died. This is really cool. If you've ever been to like Kathmandu or the Great Stupa in India. It's an amazing thing. At these big events, it's so cool. They will light, no exaggeration, 100,000 butter lamps and put them all around the stupid it's just the most magical thing. I asked Lama tempo around this about this 15 years ago, and he said that, you know what, what Bardo beings need is light, illumination, insight, and offering physical light, in that regard, represents that offering of light to illuminate their path and the darkness of the Bardos. This is lovely. Yes, butter lamps are frequently offered after someone has died, sometimes numbering over 100,000 I've seen it. It's so cool. This is an offering of light, a symbol of wisdom, which is what a Bardo being needs on their journey into darkness, ie confusion. You can give the possessions of the dead person to Goodwill, and again, waiting a few days after they have died to do so contribute in their name to humanitarian projects like hospice, orphanages or hospitals. You can give to charity, volunteer for a worthy cause, plant trees or pick up trash, right? List of beneficial activities you can do in their name is endless. The power of marriage can also bring solace to those who wonder how a non Buddhist might fare in the Bardo, right? Well, they can have as good a journey as anybody else. Right, doesn't matter. Any good person automatically accumulates merit and is taken care of by the force of that merit. So this, again, is why Remember earlier this book, both love rice. And the Dalai Lama say, you know you want to lay a red carpet for yourself. Well, living a life of bodhichitta is really like accumulating merit for yourself that lays the red carpet for you, doing that and then dedicating that lays a red carpet for others. Proper dedication of merit is important because it multiplies the power of the good deed. Tukutu Rinpoche says, So, this is great. I mean, I love this stuff because it's so trippy. It's just so out there from a materialistic, physicalist point of view, this is just BS. It's like, Ah, this is just like metaphysical Tibetan mumbo jumbo. Well, it's just like the scientists who were dissing this thing before they knew better. That's only because they're looking at the world through these physicalistic eyes, materialistic eyes. And if you transfer and understand world is not made of matter, nobody, nobody's ever experienced matter. There's no such thing as matter. If you really understand that the world is made like dream stuff, then all of a sudden the stuff like, all of a sudden, all this stuff just becomes more magical, more real. And so what's really fun around this? There's a whole battery of texts around this, from the Tibetan tradition, the work of Alexander David Neal, blazing splendor, the lives of tukul Rinpoche, the unbelievable stories that are recounted there. The work of Jeffrey cripple, the Rice University Scholar, and his extraordinary research on just really wonderful, bizarre, weird stuff that happens around the world. The work of Patrick harpour. There's an enormous literature about basically studying these just out of this world, weird kind of things. And this, the weirdness is only weird from a materialistic perspective. You know, when the world is actually empty in nature, what does it say when the when with a world of emptiness, anything is possible, and the world is made, so to speak, of emptiness, without a world of recognition of emptiness, nothing is possible. And so that's where this others otherwise, just like this is just outrageous. This is just ridiculous, cultural metaphysical mumbo jumbo. I don't think so. Tuku tundra Rinpoche says, in order to enjoy a peaceful and happy life and rebirth, it is essential to accumulate merits and cultivate positive qualities. Whatever happiness and peace you are enjoying today is the direct result of your meritorious behavior in the past. To further improve your future life, you must continue to make more merits by performing virtuous deeds, just as you gain physical well being by providing your body with proper nourishment and exercise, so you must care for your spiritual health by making merits. Dedicating merits multiplies their power exponentially. The greater the scope of the dedication, the greater the power. So dedicate merits, not just to the deceased but to all mother beings as the cause of their happiness and enlightenment, then enormous merits will redound to them next make aspirations. This is a way to invest merits for a particular goal and further magnify them, using your dedicated merits is the seed make aspirations that all mother beings may enjoy the fruits of happiness and rebirth in the Pure Land. But I was talking very specifically. This is from his book, peaceful death, the joyful rebirth, one of the rare, really lovely kind of expositions of the Pure Land doctrine. And he's talking about one of the principal ways of the four main kind of categories for what gets you to a pure land is marriage. Is the biggie. Beings in the Bardo in particular need us to dedicate merits and make aspirations for them if we repeatedly dedicated whatever merits we and the dead person accumulated, no matter how meager to that person and all mother beings for their rebirth in the Pure Land, we can be sure that the merits will cause that result. Cool, okay, we can go just a little bit more. Okay. Back to Me. Giving merits away doesn't work the same way as giving something material away. When you give your merit to all beings, not just to one, the merit doesn't lessen like a material offering. My lesson, the merit ironically grows. So by dedicating it to all beings, you're not watering down the merit, you're beefing it up. Kenpo carta Rinpoche says, I find, I find this stuff, personally, I find these, these supporting statements from all over the place, really pretty helpful, because otherwise, again, and maybe for many of you listening here, it doesn't have that
kind of challenging belief thing going on. But for other people, it's like, well, wait a second. I'm not so sure about this. So having all these. Supporting coast is one reason I do the research to slap this stuff together. So Kempa character says, if you dedicate the merit to one person around one situation, then that merit will ripen only once, and the merit will be exhausted. But if you dedicate the merit to all sentient beings, the merit becomes inexhaustible. Merit can also create affluence and wealth for you. But this karmic ripening happens just once, and it is then exhausted with a mind of enlightenment. Bodhichitta, dedicating the marriage of all beings, the merit becomes inexhaustible. That's really beautiful. See, the logic doesn't quite work the same way as it does in the material world, the merit of an act can be lost if it's not dedicated. If someone gets angry before the dedication, the air the anger can erase the merit. So you should dedicate the merit of your good action. Every time you perform them, it's like hitting the save icon on your computer after you've written something important, dedicate the merit from your meal or your exercise. Dedicate the merit after you read some Dharma after your day of work. Train yourself to dedicate the good that you do. And you actually may find yourself doing more good. I like that. That's actually pretty good. So here's a Western kind of translation. So to speak of it. From B Allen Wallace, I really like this guy. Marriage can be understood as spiritual power that manifests in day to day experience. When marriage or spiritual power is strong, there's little resistance to practicing the Dharma and practice itself is empowered. Tibetans explain that people who make rapid progress in the Dharma, gaining one insight after another, enter a practice already having a lot of merit. By the same theory, it is possible to serve, strive diligently and make little progress. Tibetans explain this problem as being due to too little merit. Merit is a fuel that empowers spiritual practice. Just as merit can be accumulated, it can also be dissipated by doing harm in general, mental afflictions, these are what are called the clays. You know, basically emotional upheaval dissipate the merit the mental affliction that is like a black hole sucking up merit worse than all the others is anger, right? Okay, let me just go one more, two more paragraphs to try to finish this section, and then we can chat, if you like, the classic way together marriage is through the practice of the first five paramitas, or perfections, literally meaning crossed over, generosity, discipline, patience, exertion and meditation. The paramitas are a Buddhist practice. These are, you know, transcendent actions that culminates in the sixth paramita, what's called prajna, right, the perfection of wisdom, cultivating the four immeasurables. You know, this loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity also generates immeasurable merit in daily activity. We can recite mantras and dedicate the recitation. There are endless liturgies to recite and dedicate, but one of the most powerful is the king of aspiration. Prayers, the aspiration for noble, excellent conduct. By Samantha Badra, so again, these are just classic ways. You know, people just want something more traditional. According to Kemper Rinpoche, one of my main teachers, this is an especially powerful liturgy to recite for people who have committed suicide. Rinpoche says that this prayer should be recited 1000 times by loved ones and dedicated to the one who had committed suicide. Because gathering merit is so simple and because it's not material, we don't believe in its power. How can it be so easy to help others, especially the dead? But the power of marriage is fathomless, just like karma, the esoteric practices below aren't necessarily more effective than gathering and dedicating merit. Indeed, one of the reasons to do the following practices, which we'll pick up in a few weeks, is to gather, magnify and then direct the merit to the dying or dead person. If you don't connect to the following rituals, then relying on the power of merit alone will help. So what do we got two more paragraphs we can finish. We saw how powerful mindfulness is in preparing for the Bardos. MERIT has a similar potency. And this is, I mean, it's really great because again, once you kind of wrap your mind around it, this is accessible. This is relatively easy, simple, along with equanimity, the baseline instruction for the Bardos is mindfulness and merit. These practices alone can carry you and others through the Bardo. So a little riff on aspirational prayers, Tong Lin, and then we're done for the reading part for today. Aspirational prayers are connected to the dedication of merit. You can write your own by the way, you can make your own aspirational prayer. We were actually instructed to do this. It's a really interesting thing to do. It's a fun exercise. Aspirational prayers are forward prayers, so to speak, that invest and amplify merit towards a specific goal. Dedication and aspiration are like lasers. They concentrate a diffuse beam of light, quote, unquote, into a powerful ray that can cut through anything and therefore reach anybody anywhere. The biggest, the biggest challenge for Skeptical Westerners is believing in this stuff. Rinpoche talks about how aspirations have real force at the time of death. Quote Buddha Shakyamuni, that's the historical Buddha. Told many stories to illustrate why someone had become his disciple, or why someone in particular had become one of his gifted disciples, in many instances, the main cause he gave was that these people had made virtuous aspirations while they weren't dying. So what wishes you make at the time of death will have a great impact on your rebirth. This is really worth keeping in mind. This is why it's also helpful to do these things before you fall asleep. Every night, I do a little version of this pretty much every single night. It kind of primes the palm through habituation and repetition. Okay? Last little section, Tong Lin, the practice of sending and taking is very helpful after someone has died, on the in breath, absorb the dead person's confusion through every pore of your body. On the out breath, send out light and love from the center of your boundless heart. Imagine that by doing so, you are clearing their mind and illuminating their path through the darkness of death. Cool. Okay, so that ends session 29 Yeah, this is great. So we will pick this up. I think at this point, with a little break they were coming up in 2025 amazing, right? But any questions, comments, offerings, it doesn't have to be a question. It can be an offering, more than welcome. I'll check the chat box to see if there's anything there, but otherwise, Barbara, mute yourself and fire away.
Okay, hi, thank you. I have a you're hearing me, right? I can hear it. Yeah, okay. I have a couple of questions. One, I think is rather simple. The other maybe not so much so from what I understanding. So if this is a time of year when, like, I'm making contribution to various charities, or I buy somebody a homeless guy lunch, in addition to doing that, I'm also saying, May these benefits, May these offerings be of benefit to countless centine Beans kind of a thing. That's
a beautiful I actually thought about that half an hour ago. So yeah, thank you for sharing that. That's spot on.
Okay, then the other thing, there was another smaller one, but I can't remember it. So the other one, though, is the bigger one that I have trouble with generally. So you know, in accepting and what you were saying, well, like these things have worked for highly realized beings for many years, meaning Tibetan practitioners, presumably in Tibet so how does that jive with what's happening to Tibetans in the past 50 years, if they're all of this aspiration and all this dedication and generation of merit and so forth, right?
Yeah, I've asked a bunch of teachers this. It's actually quite interesting, and especially when, when the the Tibetans knew they were about to be invaded. If you watch some of the films they're they ramped up all their practices, you know, they they did all these protected things, and then, and then, and then people say, Well, geez. Well, that shows you that stuff doesn't work. Well, really, these, these things practice. They protect the Dharma, right? They protect the Dharma. And so look at what has happened with the diaspora from the Tibetan invasion. I mean, dharma is now spread across the Tibetan Dharma is now spread across the world because of this. So the Lord works in mysterious ways. I you know, this stuff is so mind many but I had exact, I remember asking Trungpa Rinpoche exactly this question. It's like I didn't get it. You know, here they are. They're doing all these big rituals to protect the Chinese invasion. It didn't work. Well. Who says, you know, the Dharma now is all over the world. So it depends on what level of. Protection you're talking about. And it also depends. I mean, this is where the karmic thing is. This is really complex stuff, and we tend to think in binary, Aristotelian, Boolean, black and white, linear ways. But reality doesn't work that way. Reality is not linear. It's non Boolean. It's dial atheist in nature. It's non Aristotelian and so you literally. And one of the best books, I have it right here because I'm going to be interviewing this guy. I don't know if I post this up. This is one of the better ones I read in the last four months by Jeffrey Kripal, how to think impossibly about souls, UFOs, time, belief and everything else. Highly recommend it. And the reason I really groove on this kind of stuff is because here, this guy's not a Buddhist, he's just a really rigorous, clear thinking scholar, and he's willing to take on some really out of the box topics in order to stretch our ways of thinking and knowing. It's quite a brilliant book. So we have to open our minds and hearts, step out of our perception boxes, think in non linear ways
and in non very short term ways. So who knows that this is part of some larger fabric of exactly that's spot on relieving stuff, I guess, because otherwise I get really stuck.
I hear you. I'm with you. It's the same thing. It's like this just doesn't kind of make sense. But, you know, sometimes nonsensical thinking is is more sensical than so called linear Aristotelian types of thinking. So to me, that's important. We just have to, you know, we have to just open it, you know, here's one of my favorite lines, you know, it's important to have an open mind, but if your mind is too open, your brains will fall out. That's also really important. It's just not, it's not radically relativism. It's not sliding scale on a post truth world, there are there are some absolutes, there are these reference points are not immutable. And so that's the other thing to keep in mind. And somewhere we bounce between these two. And for me, agnosticism is really quite an elegant thing. You know the what called divine ignorance. Zen calls the don't know mind just suspending and being open. Francesca Varela talked about is the power of the open question.
On the other hand, you talk about in here, about, though, how many Westerners don't believe this sort of thing, like, don't believe that dedicating merit does or accumulating merit does anything. So it's like, again, that's this fine balance. Then, I guess,
yeah. And again, that view comes from a direct result of their world views, their systems of physicalism, materialism. I mean, this is such a dead led a dead, flat land reductionist shrink wrap world view. There's no magic or wonder in that world view at all. It's basically represented by the scientific method, which only works under extremely controlled, replicable conditions. Well, sorry, the world is not extremely controlled and replicable in that way. So when scientists do this, and I understand why they do it, to remove the hidden variables so they can get some results. They somehow think that all a manifest reality should somehow be laboratory shrunk this way to bring about truth. It's ridiculous. That's when science flips into scientism. Don't get me started on that
one. No, yeah. I was just kind of saying that there seemed to be that the two in the one hand, you were saying, you know, that you were kind of saying, don't believe everything or or, you know, have an open mind, but not necessarily a total belief. But on the other hand, not believing at all is not the way to go either. It seems well.
I mean, that's, again, this is a really big this. You should read Jeffrey spoke because he talks a ton about the extraordinary limitations of belief, period. So I if you really want to go deeper, Jeffrey, I really like this book a lot. He agreed to do a podcast with me in January. So I hope to bring, I hope to We'll bring him on in January, and we're going to be talking about this kind of stuff, because I think it's
important. And one really quick. So if a person's been dead for a number of years, yeah, um, presumably they will have already taken rebirth. And so doing these things is not particularly helpful. It's
less effective because they're already right now, you remember the Bardo thing. It's like, in the Bardos, the promise is the peril. It's like having a big tree stump on land that 25 people can't move. You put it in water, one person can move it. So the reason it's more efficacious on the Bardos is because they're still in a very fluid environment in one person, ie, the power of your merit has. More power in that fluidity, but once that mind is is settled, concretized, reified into a form, into a body. Yes, it's a little bit less effective. It doesn't mean it's ineffectual. It works at subtle levels, but it's less effective. That is true. Okay, thank you. All right, hey, clearly unmute yourself, and by the way, you were right here in the chat column. Bhava samskara, that's exactly what it is. So you got it. Bhava samskara, you nailed it.
So Andrew, in the course either live or unteachable. I believe you said that animals do not make progress in their rebirth. However, this chapter didn't sound like that. And if, if they are making Pro, if they aren't making progress, why would you be tapping their head? And if they aren't making progress, how do they get ahead? How do they ever stop being animals? Yeah, good.
Good question. So they're not making progress because intentionality and metacognition are not operative like they are for us. But they're making progress in the sense that they're purifying the karma that brought them into the animal realm. See, so the karma the pure, the progress is made through the purification of the karma that brought them into that less than Adventist estate. And that's why, during moments of transition, doing these sorts of things will help them, because when that when they drop their cat suit, it's just like when we drop our human suit, there's this ultimate, ultimate kind of democratization of awareness. They we all return, allegedly all sentient beings, to this primordial reduction base of Formless awareness. And then who knows, you may swap out your human suit suit for their cat suit, and you know your pet will be your owner in your next life. So, so something along those lines, okay, yeah, kind of makes sense, doesn't it, in its own interesting way. Okay, all right. Anybody else are we good? Oh, Patrick, well, I like it when a question starts with sir. That makes me feel so important. Thank you, sir. What is the best book, other than yours for prayers and rituals to do for the dead? Yeah, there's a bunch. I really like Trungpa tundra, rinpoche's book, peaceful death, joyful reboot. Peaceful death, joyful rebirth. That's quite good. Onion. Rinpoche, a n y e n, book called Dying with confidence is quite good. So Rinpoche, Tibetan, Book of Living and Dying, the appendix is quite good. Lama, Zopa, Rinpoche, I don't what's it called? Oh, yeah, I'd have to go to my library. He wrote quite a big book. That's probably the biggest anthology compilation of techniques I've ever come across. So there's a bunch you mentioned the name of a Buddhist guy earlier, but did not catch it or the title of his book, yeah, I'm not sure which guy that might have been. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It looks like Alyssa COVID, Jeffrey cripple, yeah. Okay, and you Hey, Theo, unmute yourself. Cool. Hi.
Good evening. Actually, my question sort of riffs off of Patrick's, which was during the preparing to die. Course you had shared the practices the night, practices and mantras of that you use in terms of Manjushri and Shen raising mantras, which I've been just so fascinated. I can't I can't even tell you how peaceful it's become to have this night practice. There I am. I'm like Andrew says, hand on heart. It's just so, so beautiful. I'm wondering though, is there a book? I mean, it's well, I'll ask it this way. Is there a book or a script of mantras that will help me express the my mantra practice even more fully, or
a wonderful book? Oh, one day, New Year's resolution that will never happen. Oh, here it is. That's about here, no momento portable or see right here.
Yeah, the power of mantra, vital practices for transformation. Lama, Zopa, Rinpoche, lovely, lovely book.
Okay, thank you. Do I have time for one more? So, um. Um, I just lost a very close girlfriend a couple hours ago,
a couple Oh, I'm sorry. It
felt very good to be here with my community, and it feels like what I put into practice, and you even said it today, tonight, during the course, that death may be the end of the physical body, but of not the end of the relationship, and that has been a profound transformation of understanding for myself, having my father pass just a while ago, and putting that into practice, my question to you is, if I were to say that to my friend's spouse, there's like, such a sense of closed closeness, or there's not that aperture that's open for many, many people to see death as nothing else than the end. And I just, I'm that kind of personality that I would love to explore and have that conversation with my colleagues and friends that are more closed down, and I just don't seem to find a way to open that portal of understanding. And I, and I, I was just curious if you come across that, and maybe you don't even attend to it, maybe you just let that go. But I
have, I do have a solution for you, okay, slip some LSD into their water system.
Okay, it's, you
know, it's hard. It's, you know, they talk in the tradition. It's a nice analogy of the three types of container for the teachings, for transmission, whatever one is, you know, the ideal one is a container that's upright, that's clean, that doesn't have any holes in it. Then you have the other types. Then you have a container that's upright, but it's tainted, right? So then the teachings are poured in, and they're immediately distorted or twisted based on the taints, or the container has a hole in it, the teachings come and they flow right out. And then, you know, for people in the Western world who drink the physicalist, materialist Kool Aid, which is what most of us do, this is the container, the glass, the cup that's completely upside down. So it's it just, it just doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's like pounding your head against the pavement. And at that point, there's, you know, there's this has to do with, with merit, with karma. It some people just, it's tricky, because you don't want to get elitist and all that kind of thing. You know, I have more karma than you. Oh, good God, that's in a distortion. But how else do you explain them, a Mozart, a meditative Mozart, versus someone else. I mean, some people come in just incredibly right, really gifted and really predisposed. You can't biology, genetics does not explain all that. And so this is where you enter these kind of really interesting domains. And unfortunately, a lot of people for so many reasons, you know, fear and enculturation and belief systems and materialism. And there's so many forces of the dark side, developmental, ontological, epistemological, working against us. Honestly, it's a bloody miracle that anybody's interested in this stuff. And so there's the best we can do. Is is little. We just do the best we can with open minds and hearts. We plant seeds just by the way. We live without intentionality. Some land on concrete, they do nothing. They wither and die. Some land in fertile soil, and they and they come to fruition. And our job, like one of the low John slogans is, don't expect applause. You just do it without any hope of anything in return. Yes, because you have no idea, you know, sometimes a particular word, just the gesture, just something a couple years later, 70s are going to come back and say, you know, there was just one thing you said to me three years ago that really started me thinking, and that's the best we can do, because otherwise, what you know, you become a proselytizer, you start knocking on doors. I'm not saying that's totally the wrong thing to do, but does it really work? I don't think so. So, you know, the thing to me is, you have the right intention, you have a good heart. You just do what you can like, like, I mean, this, think about this. This has been going on for 1000s upon 1000s of years. Completely enlightened beings with tremendous power have not been able to convert. I mean, the Buddha's cousin, Devadatta tried to kill them, right? That teaching is in the tradition for exactly this reason that the some. People just, they're just not and it's tricky to say they're not ready for it, right? Because that just seems elitist. Again, yeah, um, you get the idea. But some people are just have no interest. They're not inclined. They're the upside down containers, and it's not our job, unless you are invited into a debate to convince them. Um, same thing to do when someone is dying. Don't convince them. Don't do anything there. Be open. Yes,
I completely agree. And I always say when I see any type of resistance, I just go soft, hard. Yeah, exactly.
No, you can't. You can't. You just, you can't control another person's karma. For sure.
May I give you in the community, my friend's name too. Can
I ask you for your friend's name? Okay? Yeah, please, go ahead. You can do it now.
No, I know. Sorry. Oh, sorry, okay. Laura rap sorry, okay. Laura rap, Laura Rapp,
wonderful. Thank you. Theo, thank you. Thank you so much so, yeah, I will dedicate to Mary specifically. But before we do that, I think there's some traction in the chat column. And speaking of endings and transitions and minor deaths, sweet Alyssa, who has been with us for four plus years, is spending going to be spending more time with her family. She's been incredibly gracious through these past four years. Incredibly gracious in this transition period is we look for a replacement, which, of course, is impossible. We'll never find a replacement for her. But I want to share directly to her, in front of all of you, just how much she has meant to us and to me, it's just been enormous, so deep, deep love to you, Alyssa, thank you so much. We dedicate our merit to you in the next stage in your life. We dedicate our merit to Laura, all sentient beings who need in this world of such of such pain and suffering. And may you have the happiest and best of holiday seasons. There'll be a few other events before we go officially offline for a little break. But much love to you all, and we shall continue this endless journey to who knows where, with open hearts and minds for the benefit of all beings. So Ciao, everybody. Much love. Happy holidays. You.