Book Notes

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - Sogyal Rinpoche

A few weeks ago, Q discovered a great book on Buddhist thought and philosophy entitled, 'The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying' by Sogyal Rinpoche.  Fort Bend library system had two copies in its system and on May 31, we ventured out to Sugar Land branch library and picked up a copy.  I have just finished my first read through the book, and will now revisit the first portion of the work that is more focused on the living rather than the dying and dead and take a few notes.

Chapter One - In the Mirror of Death
- For all its technological achievements, modern Western society has no real understanding of death - people either taught to deny death as it means nothing but annihilation and loss, or see death as something that will 'magically' just take care of itself, nothing to be concerned about.

- In spite of the teachings of the greatest spiritual traditions, including Christianity, that death is not the end, modern society is largely a spiritual desert.  Without any real or authentic faith in an afterlife, most people live lives deprived of any ultimate meaning.  This has disastrous effects that extend far beyond the individual.  Believing fundamentally that this life is the only one, modern people have developed no long-term vision.  There is nothing to prevent people from plundering the planet for their own immediate ends or from living very selfish lives.

-Very ironic that youth are highly educated in every subject except for the one that holds the entire meaning of life.

- According to the wisdom of the Buddha, we can actually use our lives to prepare for death. Death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected.

- Our existence is divided into 4 continuously interlinked realities: 1) life, 2) dying and death, 3) after death, 4) rebirth. These are known as the 4 bardos: 1) the natural bardo of this life, 2) the painful bardo of dying, 3) the luminous bardo of dharmata, 4) the karmic bardo of becoming.

- The teachings make it clear that if all we know of mind is the aspect of mind that dissolves when we die, we will have no idea of what continues, no knowledge of the new dimension of the deeper reality of the nature of the mind. It is vital to familiarize oneself with the nature of the mind while alive.  Only then will we be prepared when it reveals itself spontaneously and powerfully at the moment of death.

- Meditation is the only way we can repeatedly uncover and gradually realize and stabilize the nature of mind.

Chapter Two - Impermanence
- Two things certain about death: 1) It is absolutely certain we will die, 2) It is uncertain when we will die

- Life is futile when founded on a false belief in continuity and permance - people are in essence living corpses

- Most live lives per a pre-ordained plan.  We spend our youth being educated.  Then we find a job, meet someone, marry and have children.  We buy a house, try to be successful in business / career and aim for dreams like a country house or second car.  We plan for retirement.  Our lives are monotonous, petty, and repetitive, wasted in the pursuit of the trivial, because we seem to know of nothing better.

- The pace of life is so hectic that the last thing we have time to think of is death.  We smother our secret fears of impermanence by surrounding ourselves with more goods, more things, more comforts, only to find ourselves their slaves.  All our time and energy is exhausted simply maintaining them.

- People work for years and then retire, only to find they don't know what to do with themselves as they age and approach death.  Despite all the chatter about being practical, to be practical in the west means to be ignorantly and often selfishly short-sighted.  Our myopic focus on this life and this life only is the great deception, the source of the modern world's bleak and destructive materialism. No one talks about death or the afterlife as it is viewed as irrelevant.

- Two types of active laziness 1) Eastern type is practiced to perfection in India and consists of hanging out all day doing nothing and avoiding any type of useful work or activity. 2) Western laziness consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity so there is no time to confront or even look at the real issues.

- Our lives seem to live us, to posses their own momentum, to carry us away; in the end it's as if we have no choice or control over them. Of course we feel bad about this sometimes 'What am I doing with my life?!' but then the busyness returns and the question that could lead somewhere meaningful is forgotten, discarded.

- One of the chief reasons we have so much anguish and difficulty facing death is that we ignore the truth of impermanence.  We so desparately want things to continue on as is, but that is only make-believe.  Belief has little or nothing to do with reality.  The make-believe with its misinformation, ideas, assumptions, is the rickety foundation on which lives are constructed.

- The realization of impermanence is paradoxically the only thing we can hold onto.  Even Buddha died. The only thing we really have is nowness.

Chapter Three - Reflection and Change
- If everything is impermanent, then everything is what we call 'empty', which means lacking in any lasting, stable, and inherent existence; and all things, when seen in their true relation, are not independent but interdependent with all other things.  Nothing has any inherent existence on its own.

Chapter Four - The Nature of Mind
- The revolutionary insight of Buddhism is that life and death are in the mind, and nowhere else.

- There are many aspects of mind, but 2 stand out. 1) The ordinary mind (sem per Tibetans). This mind possesses discriminating awareness and a sense of duality. It is the discursive, dualistic, thinking mind , which can only function in relation to a projected and falsely perceived external reference point. It asserts, validates, and confirms its 'existence' by fragmenting, conceptualizing, and solidifying experience. The masters liken sem to a candle flame in an open doorway, vulnerable to all winds of circumstance. Seen from one angle, sem is flickering, unstable, grasping, and endlessly minding others' business, its energy consumed by projecting outwards. Seen in another way, the ordinary mind has a false, dull stability, a smug and self-protective inertia, a stone-like calm of ingrained habits.

- 2) The very nature of mind, its innermost essence which remains untouched by change or death. At present, it is hidden within our own mind, our sem, enveloped and obscured by the mental scurry of our thoughts and emotions.Just as clouds can be shifted by a strong gust of wind to reveal the shining sun and wide open sky, so, under special circumstances, some inspiration for us glimpses the nature of the mind. These glimpses have depth and degree, but each will bring some light of understanding, meaning , and freedom.  This is because the nature of mind is the very root of understanding.  In Tibetan, it is called Rigpa a primordial, pure, pristine, awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant, and always awake.

- The nature of mind is not exclusive to our mind only.  It is in fact the nature of everything.  It can never be said too often that to realize the nature of mind is to realize the nature of all things.

- At the heart of all religions is the certainty that there is a fundamental truth (Buddhism - buddha nature; Christianity - God; Hindus - the 'Self', 'Shiva', Brahman', and 'Vishnu'; Sufi mystics - 'the Hidden Essence') and that this life is a sacred opportunity to evolve and realize it.

- 'Buddha' has a much deeper meaning than that of the Indian prince Gautama Siddharta who reached enlightenment in the 6th century BC.  It means a person, any person, who has completely awakened from ignorance and opened to his vast potential of wisdom.  A buddha is one who has brought a final end of suffering and frustration and discovered a lasting and deathless happiness and peace.

- The buddha nature is the birthright of every sentinet being - enlightenment is within reach of all. even though we have the same inner nature of Buddha, we have not recognized it because it is so enclosed and wrapped up within our ordinary minds.

- The speakings speak of 4 faults
    1) The nature of the mind is too close to be recognized. As we are unable to see our own face, mind finds it difficult to ponder its own nature.
    2) It is too profound for us to fathom.
    3) It is too easy for us to believe.
    4) It is too wonderful for us to accomodate. The sheer immensity of it is too vast to fit into our narrow way of thinking.  We just can't believe it.  Nor can we possibly imagine that enlightenment is the real nature of our minds.

- Modern civilization is devoted to the cult of delusion.  There is no general information available as to the nature of the mind.   It is hardly ever written about by writers or intellectuals; modern philosophers do not speak of it directly; the majority of scientists deny it could possibly be there at all.  It plays no part in popular culture.We are actually educated into believing that nothing is real beyond what we can perceive with our ordinary senses.

- Because in our culture we overvalue the intellect, we would imagine that to become enlightened requires extraordinary intelligence.  In fact many kinds of cleverness are just further obscurations.  There is a Tibetan saying that goes, 'If you are too clever you may miss the point entirely.'  'The logical mind seems interesting, but it is the seed of delusion.' - Patrul Rinpoche

Chaper Five - Bringing the Mind Home
- Ignorance of our true nature is the root of all torment of samsara (the repeating cycle of birth life, and death), and the root of ignorance itself is the mind's habitual tendency to distraction.  To end the mind's distraction would be to end samsara itself - the key to this is to bring the mind home to its true nature through the practice of meditation.

- The gift of learning to meditate is the greatest gift you can give yourself in this life. It is only through meditation that you can undertake the journeyt to discover your true nature and so find the stability and confidence you need to live and die well. Meditation is the road to enlightenment.

- Buddhist meditation masters know how flexible and workable the mind is.  If we train it, anything is possible.  In fact we train it, anything is possible.  In fact we are already perfectly trained by and for samsara, trained to get jealous, to grasp, to be anxious, sad, desparate, greedy, and angry.  We are trained to such an extent that negative emotions spontaneously arise without our even having to consciously generate them.  Devote the mind to confusion, and the mind will become a dark master of confusion, adept in addictions, subtle and perversely subtle in its slaveries. Devote it in meditation to the task of freeing itself from illusion, and we will find with time, patience, discipline, and the right training, our mind will begin to unknot itself and know essential bliss and clarity.

- The purpose of meditation is to awaken is us the sky-like nature of the mind and to awaken us to what we really are.  In the stillness and silence of meditation, we glimpse and return to the deep inner nature that we have long ago lost sight of amid the busyness and distraction of our minds. Meditation is bringing the mind home.

- By far the most important feature of meditation is not the technique, but the spirit: the skillful, inspired and creative way in which we practice, which could be called the 'posture'

- One posture from the ancient teachings of the Dzogchen:
    - Sit with the back straight like an 'arrow' or 'pile of coins'. The 'inner energy' or prana will flow easily through the subtle channels of the body and your mind will find its true state of rest\.  Don't force anything.The lower part of the spine has a natural curve; it should be relaxed but upright.  Your head should be balanced comfortably on your neck.  The shoulder and upper part of the torso carry the strength and grace of the posture and should be held in strong poise, but without any tension.
    - Sit with legs crossed.  You do not have to sit in the full lotus position.  The crossed legs express the unity of life and death, good and bad, skillful means and wisdom, masculine and feminine principles, samsara and nirvana; the humor of non-duality.
    - Keep eyes open - this is very important.  Once you feel established in calm, gradually open your eyes and you will find your gaze has become more peaceful and tranquil.  Look downward, along the line of your nose, at an angle of 45 degrees in front of you.  One practical tip is whenever your mind is wild, it is best to lower your gaze; whenever it is dull and sleepy, bring the gaze up. Once your mind is calm and the clarity of insight begins to arise, feel free to bring your gaze up, opening your eyes more and looking into the space directly in front of you.  This is the gaze recommended in the Dzogchen practice. Do not focus on anything in particular; instead turn back into your self slightly and let your gaze expand and become more spacious and pervasive.  You will find there is more peace, compassion , equanimity, and poise in your gaze.
    - There are several reasons for keeping the eyes open. You are less likely to drift off into sleep.  That way, meditation is less a means of running away from the world or escaping into a trance-like experience of an altered state of consciousness.  On the contrary, it is a direct way to help us truly understand ourselves and relate to life and the world.
    - In meditation, leave all senses - hearing, seeing, feeling - open , naturally, without grasping after their perceptions.  As Dudjom Rinpoche said, 'Though different forms [sounds, thoughts] are perceived, they are in essence empty; yet in the emptiness, one perceives forms [sounds, thoughts]. Whatever you see or hear, leave it as it is without grasping and without letting your attachment enter the perception.
    - According to the special luminosity preactice of Dzogchen, all the light of our wisdom-energy resides in the heart center, which is connected through 'wisdom channels' to the eyes.  The eyes are the 'doors' of the luminosity, so you keep them open so as to not block these wisdom channels.
    - Keep your mouth slightly open as to say a deep. relaxing 'Aaaah'.  By keeping the mouth slightly open and breathing mainly through the mouth, it is said the 'karmic winds' tat create discursive thoughts are less likely to arise and create obstacles in your mind and meditation.
    - Rest your hands comfortably covering your knees.  This is called the 'mind in comfort and ease' posture.

- Three Methods of Meditation:
    1) Watching the Breath
      - Very ancient method found in all schools of Buddhism
      - Rest your attention lightly and mindfully on the breath
      - In the teaching of Buddha, the breath (prana in sanskrit) is said to be the 'vehicle of the mind' because it is the prana that makes the mind move. So when you calm the mind by working skillfully with breath, you are simultaneously and automatically taming and training the mind.
      - When you meditate, breathe naturally and focus your awareness lightly on the outhbreath. When you breathe out, just flow with the outbreath. Each time you breathe out, you are letting go and releasing all your grasping. Imagine your breath dissolving into the all-pervading expanse of truth. Each time you breathe out and before you breathe in again, you will find there will be a natural gap as the grasping dissolves.
    Rest in the gap, in the open space. When naturally you breathe in, don't focus particularly on the inbreath but go on resting your mind in the gap that has opened up.
     When practicing, it's important  not to get involved in mental commentary ('Now I'm breathing in, now I'm breathing out, etc...')  for mindfulness; what is important is pure presence.
     Don't concentrate too much on the breath - give it 25% of your attention, with the other 75% quietly and spaciously relaxed.  Rather than watching your breath, let yourself gradually identify with it as if you were becoming it.  Slowly, the breath, the breather and the breathing become one; duality and separation dissolve.
    2) Using an Object
      - Rest the mind lightly on an object. You can use an object of natural beauty that invokes a special feeling of inspiration for you such as a flower or crystal, but something that embodies the truth such as an image of Buddha or Christ is even more powerful.
    3) Reciting a Mantra
      - Unite the mind with the sound of a mantra.  The definition of mantra is 'that which protects the mind', either from negativity or from your own mind
      - When you are nervous, disoriented, or emotionally fragile, chanting a mantra inspoiringly can change the state of your mind completely by transforming its energy and atmosphere. How? Mantra is the essence of sound and the embodiment of truth in the form of sound.  Each syllable is impregnated with spiritual power, condenses a spiritual truth, and vibrates with the bleesing of the speech of the buddhas.  It is also said the mind rides on the subtle energy of the breath, the prana, which moves through and purifies the subtle channels of the body.  When you chant a mantra, you are charging your breath and energy with the energy of the mantra, and so working directly on your mind and subtle body.
     - The recommened mantra is OM HUM VAJRA GURU PADMA SIDDHI HUM (Tibetans pronounce, 'Om Ah Hung Benza Guru Pema Siddhi Hung').  This is the mantra of Padmasambhava, the mantra of all the buddhas, masters, and realized beings, and so uniquely powerful for peace, healing, transformation, and for protection in this violent, chaotic age.
      - Recite the mantra quietly, with deep attention and let your breath, awareness, and the mantra become slowly one.  Or chant it in an inspiring way, and rest in the profound silence that sometimes follows.

    - One master described meditation as 'mind, suspended in space, nowhere'. There is a famous saying, 'If the mind is not contrived, it is spontaneously blissful, just as [muddy] water, when not agitated, is by nature transparent and clear'. So take care not to impose anything on the mind.  When meditating, there should be no effort to control and no effort to be peaceful.  Don't be overly solemn or feel you are taking part in something special; let go even of the idea that you are meditating. Let your body remain as it is, and your breath as you find it.  Think of yourself as the sky, holding the whole universe.
    - In meditation, there has to be a delicate balance between relaxation and alertness.
    - When people first start to meditate, it is common to  find one's thoughts are running rampant, and have even become wilder than ever before.  But this is a good sign - far from meaning your thoughts have become wilder, it shows ypou have become quieter and are finally aware just how noisy your thoughts were to begin with. Whatever arises, keep being present, and keep returning to the breath even in the midst of all the confusion.
    - In ancient meditation instructions, it is said that at the beginning, thoughts will arrive one on top of the other, unitterupted, like a steep mountain waterfall. Gradually as you perfect meditation, thought s become like the water in a deep, narrow gorge, then a great river slowly winding down to the sea, and finally like a still and placid ocean, ruffled only by the occasional ripple or wave.
    - Some people think when they mediatate, there should be no thoughts or emotions at all. When thoughts or emotions do arise, they become annoyed and exasparated and feel they have failed.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  There is a Tibetan saying,'It's a tall order to ask for meat without bones, and teas without leaves'.  So long as you have a mind, there will be thoughts and emotions.
    - The ocean has waves, but the ocean is not particularly disturbed by them. The waves are the very nature of the ocean. Waves will rise, but where do they go - back into the ocean.  And where do they come from - the ocean.  In the same manner, thoughts and emotions are the very nature of the mind. The rise from the mind, but also dissolve back into the mind.  Whatever arises, do not see it as a problem.  If you do not impulsively react, if you are only patient, it will once again settle back into its essential nature.
    - Whatever thoughts or emotions arise, allow them to rise and settle without any constraint like waves in an ocean. Don't grasp at it, feed it, indulge it, cling to it or try to solidify it.  Neither follow thoughts or invite them.  Be like the ocean looking down at its own waves or the sky gazing down on the clouds that pass through it.  The secret is to not 'think' about thoughts, but allow them to flow through the mind while keeping your mind free of after thoughts.
     - In the ordinary mind, we perceive the stream of thoughts as continuous, but in reality that is not the case.  There is a gap between each thought.  When the last thought is done, and the next thought not yet begun, there will always be a gap in which the Rigpa, the nature of the mind , is revealed.  The work of meditation is to allow thoughts to slow down so as to make the gap between thoughts increasingly apparent.
     - As the meditation practice advances there will be experiences, both good and bad.  You might experience states of bliss, clarity, or absence of thoughts.  In and of themselves these are good things, but if you get attached to them they become obstacles. Experiences are not realization themselves but as long as we remain unattached, they become materials for realization.
    - Negative experiences can be misleading because we interpret them as a bad sign. But in fact they are blessings in disguise.  Don't react to them with aversion like you might normally do, but recognize them for wht they truly are - merely experiences, illusory, and dream-like.
     - Whater method of meditation is employed, drop it or simply let it dissolve when you find you have naturally arrived at a state of alert, expansive, vibrant peace. Then remain there quietly, undistracted without using any particualr method, as the method has acheived its purpose.  Once you stray or do become distracted, return to whatever method is most effective.
    - How long should one meditate? 20 min is good, but there really is no hard and fast rule. The point is not how long one meditates, but whether the practice brings a certain state of mindfulness and presence.  Five minutes of wakeful sitting practice is of far greater value than 20 minutes of dozing. Beginners should practice in short sessions - 4 or 5 minutes, followed by a one minute break.  During the break, let go of mindfulness altogether.  Sometimes at the very moment one takes a break is when mediation actually happens.  After the break, resume your method.  The breaks in a short session will oftern make the mediation more real and inspiring - they will take the clumsy, irksome rigidity, solemnity, and unnaturalness out of your practice, and bring more focus and ease.  Gradually through the interplay of breaks and sitting, the barrier between mediation and everyday life will crumble.
    - What really matters is not just the meditation session, but the state of mind you find yourself in after meditation. You should find and prolong a calm and centered state in everything you do. When you reenter everyday life, let the wisdom, insight, compassion, humor, fluidity, spaciousness, and detachment that mediation brings pervade your day-to-day experience.
    - All too oftern, people come to mediate in the hope of extraordinary results, like visions and lights or some supernatural experience. When no such thing occurs, they feel disappointed.  But the real miracle of meditation is more ordinary and useful.  it is a subtle transformation and this transformation happens not only in your mind and in your emotions, but actually in your body. It is very healing.

Chapter Six -  Evolution, Karma, and Rebirth
    - Since the dawn of history, reincarnation and a firm faith in life after death have occupied an essential place in nearly all the world's religions.  Belief in rebirth existed amidst Christians in the early history of Christianity and persisted in various forms until the Middle Ages. Origen, one of the most influential of the church fathers believed in the pre-existence of souls and wrote, 'Each soul comes to this world reinforced by the vistories or enfeebled by the defeats of its previous lives.' Although Christianity later rejected the belief in reincarnation, traces of it can be found throughout the Renaissance in the writings of major romantic poets like Blake and Shelley.
    - Henry Ford wrote, ' I adopted the theory of reincarnation when I was 26.  Religion offered nothing to the point. Even work could not give me complete satisfaction.  Work is futile if we cannot utilize the experience we collect in one life in the next.  When I discovered reincarnation ... time was no longer limited.  I was no longer a slave to the hands of the clock....I would like to communicate to others the calmness that the long view of life gives us.'
    - If there was nothing to reincarnation, why have all the major religions believed in a life after this one? People often ask why, if reincarnation is a fact, they have no recollection of their previous lives?  But why should they?  After all, experiences of our childhood, or yesterday, or even an hour ago were vivd while they were occurring, but the memory of most of them have since totally eroded to the point that they cannot be recalled.  How much more is recall problematic when it has to stretch across bodies, not just across time in a single body?
    - There have been substantiated reports of individuals who have recalled elements of their past lives that they had no other way of knowing that proved to be accurate.  Recall is not common, but it occurs. Many of these cases have been collected by Dr Ian Stevenson  of the University of Virginia.
    - Many people who experience a near death experience return with the conviction that life continues after death
    - From the Buddhist perspective, the main argument that establishes rebirth is one based on a profound understanding of the continuity of the mind. Where does consciousness come from? It cannot arise out of nowhere.  Per the Dalai Lama: PP: {On the material plane for every particle there is a continuum in the past that results in the present state of matter.  There is some basis, energy, or source which allows mind, when inteeracting with material particles, to be capable of producing conscious living beings. If you trace our present mind or consciousness back, you will find you are tracing the origien of the continuity of the mind, just like the origen of the material universe, into an infinite dimension.  It is beginningless. Therefore there must be succesive rebirths that allow for the continuum of mind.  Buddhism believes in universal causation, that enerything is subject to change, and to causes and conditions.  No place is given to a divine creator or to beings who are self-created, rather everything arises as a consequence of causes and conditions....Mind and matter, although dependent on one another, cannot serve as substantial causes for each other.
    - Most people take the word reincarnation to imply there is some 'thing' that reincarnates, which travels from life to life.  But Buddhism does not believe in an independent and unchangingentity like a soul or ego that survives the death of the body.  What provides the continuity is not an entity, but the ultimately subtlest level of consciousness. The Dalai Lama explains, 'According to the Buddhist explanation, the ultimate creative principle is consciousness.  There are different levels of consciousness. What we call the innermost subtle consciousness is always there.  The continuity of that consciousness is almost like something permanent, like the space particles.  In the field of matter, that is the space-particles; in the field of consciousness, it is the Clear Light....The Clear Light, with its special energy, makes the connections with consciousness'.
    - Karma is the natural law of cause and effect, and it is the truth and driving force behind rebirth.
    - There are many kinds of karma: international karma, national karma, the karma of a city, and individual karma.  All are intricately related, and only understood in their full complexity by an enlightened being.
    - In simplest terms, karma means that whatever we do, with our body, speech, or mind, will have a corresponding result. Each action, even the smallest, is pregnant with its consequences.
    - Karma does not decay like external things, or ever become inoperative. It cannot be destroyed 'by time, fire, or water'. Its power will never disappear until it has ripened.
    - Although all the results of our actions in both this life and previous lives may not yet have ripened, inevitably they will later in this life or throughout future lives.  Results often catch up to us long after the causative action took place and by then we are unable to connect the results with their corresponding actions.
    - It is extremely difficult to pin down a definitive cause for any particular result because any event can be an extremely complicated mixture of many karmas ripening together.
    - What else but karma can even begin to explain satisfyingly the extreme and extraordinary differences between us? Even though we may be born in the same family, country, or similar circumstances, we all have widely varying characters, totally different things happen to us, and we all have different talents, inclinations, and desires.
    - Buddha said, 'What you are is what you have been, what you will be is what you do now.'
    - The kind of birth we will have in our next life is determined by our actions in this one.  It is important to remember the effect of our actions depends entirely on the intent or motivation behind them, not their scale.
    - Because the law of karma is inevitabloe and infallible, whenever we harm others, we are harming ourselves; whenever we bring happiness to others, we are bringing ourselves future happiness.
    - The belief in reincarnation shows there is some kind of ultimate justice or goodness to the universe.
    - Karma is not fatalistic or predetermined.  Karma means our ability to create and change. As everything is impermanent, fluid and interdependent, how we act and think inevitably changes the future.

Chapter Seven - Bardos and Other Realities
    - Bardo is a Tibetan word that simply means 'transition' or a gap between the completion of one situation and the onset of another.
    - We can divide the whole of our existence into four realities: 1) the 'natural' bardo of this life, 2) the 'painful' bardo of dying, 3) the 'luminous' bardo of dharmata, 4) the 'karmic' bardo of becoming
    - The natural bardo of this life spans the entire time between birth and death. With our typically narrow perspective, this lifetime may seem much more than just a bardo, a transition, but compared to the enormous length and duration of our karmic history, the time we spend in this life is relatively short. The teachings indicate emphatically that the bardo of this life is the only time to prepare for death.
    - The painful bardo of death lasts from the beginning of the process of dying through to the end of what is known as the 'inner respiration'.  This then culminates in the dawning of the nature of the mind, what is called the 'Ground Luminoisuty' at the moment of death.
    - The luminous bardo of dharmata encompasses the after-death experience of the radiance of the nature of mind, the luminosity or 'Clear Light', which manifests as sound, color, and light.
    - The karmic bardo of becoming is what is generally called the Bardo which lasts right up until the moment we take on a new birth.

Chapter Eight - This Life, the Natural Bardo
    - Ego is the adsence of true knowledge of who we really are togeter with its result: a doomed clutching on, at all costs, to a cobbled together and makeshift image of ourselves, an inevitably chameleon charlatan self that keeps changing as it valiantly strives to keep alive the fiction of its existence.
    - In Tibetan, ego is called 'dak dzin' which means 'grasping to a self.'  Ego is then defined as incessant movements of grasping at a delusionory notion of 'I' and 'mine', self and other, and all the concepts, ideas, desires, and activity that will sustain that false construction. Such a grasping is futile from the start and condemned to frustration as there is no basis or truth in it. The fact that we need to grasp at all and go on grasping shows that in the depth of our being we know the self does not inherently exist.  From this secret, unnerving knowledge spring all our fundamental insecurities and fears.
    - As long as we don;t unmask the ego, it continues to hhodwink us. Lifetimes of ignorance have brought us to identify the whole of our being with ego. Its greates triumph is to inveigle us into believing its interests are our interests and even into identifying our very own survival as its own.  This is a savage irony, considering the ego and its grasping are at the root of all pain and suffering.
    - To end the bizarre tyranny of the ego is why we go on the spiritual path.  The truth is simple and the teachings extremely clear, but time and time again when the truth begins to touch and move an individual searching for something more meaningful in life, the ego will try to complicate things because it is fundamentally threatened.
    - Two people have been living inside of us our entire lives.  One is the ego, garrulous, demanding, hysterical, calculating.  The other is the hidden spiritual being whose voice of wisdom you have only rarelyn heard or attended to.  As you listen more to teachings, comtemplate them, and integrate them into your life, your inner voice, your innate wisdom of discernment, what is called in Buddhism 'discriminating awareness' is awakened and strenghtened and you start to distinguish between its guidance and the various clamoring and enthralling voices of the ego.  The momory of your real nature begins to return to you.
    - As we begin to make progress along the path towards enlightment, doubt will rear its ugly head. Doubt can be an even greater block to human advancement than desire and attachment. Our society promotes cleverness instead of wisdom, and celebrates the most superficial, harsh, and least useful aspects of our intelligence.  We have become so falsely 'sophisticated' and neurotic that we take doubt itself for truth when doubt is nothing more than the ego's desparate attempt to defend itself from wisdom.

Chapter Nine - The Spiritual Path
    - All the spiritual teachers of humanity have delivered the same message: the purpose of life on earth is to acheive union with oyur fundamental, enlightened nature. There is only one way to do this and that is to undertake a spiritual journey with all the ardor, intelligence, courage, and resolve for transformation we can muster.
    - Death says to Nachiketas in the Katha Upanishad,'There is the path of wisdom and the path of ignorance. They are far apart and lead to different ends... Abiding in the midst of ignorance, thinking themselves wise and learned, fools go aimlessly hither and thither like the blind led by the blind. What lies beyond life shines not to those who are childish, carelss, or deluded by wealth.'
    - To follow the path of wisdom has never been more urgent and difficult.  Our society is dedicated almost entirely to the celebration of the ego, with all its sad fantasies about success and power, and it celebrates those very forces of grred and ignorance that are destroying the planet.
    - We all have the karma to meet one spiritual path or another, and it is up to each individual to follow with complete sincerity that path one finds most inspiring. Read the great spiritual books of all traditions, come to some understanding of what the masters mean by liberation and enlightenment, and find which approach to absolute reality attracts and suits you most. Exercise in your search as much discernment as possible. The spiritual path demands more intelligence, more sober understanding, more subtle powers of discrimination than any other discipline because the highest truth is at stake. Use your common sense at every moment. Come to the path as humorously aware as possible of the baggage you will be bringing with you: your lacks, fantasies, failings, and projections. Blend, with a soaring awareness of what your true nature might be, a down-to-earth and level-headed humility, and a clear appreciation of where you are on your spiritual journey and what remains to be understood and accomplished.
    - As the Buddha said in his first teaching, the root of all suffering in samsara is ignorance.  Ingnorance, until we free ourselves from it, can seem endless and even when we have embarked on a spiritual path our search is fogged by it.
    - All the buddhas, bodhisattvas, and enlightened beings are present at all moments to help us. All we need to do to receive direct help is to ask. Didn't Christ also say,'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened unto you. Everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth.' And yet asking is what we find the hardest.