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Truly,
we human beings face two kinds of death: Death by untimely accidental conditions
and death caused by the exhaustion of our life-force. Before the conclusion
of our natural span of life, untimely death may be turned away by means
of the methods of long life practice. But where the cause of death is the
exhaustion of our natural span of life, then these methods will be of little
value. Our situation is like that of a oil lamp empty of its fuel. In that
case, there is little hope, save that the flame will soon be extinguished.
The
time for the death of your physical body has come upon you, as it must
come sometime to all mortal beings. What you are experiencing at this time
is the Bardo of Dying, which began with your present terminal illness.
You now lie on your death bed, your final resting place. Although the time
for your death has come, fear not, for this is not the end. Even as you
drawn your last breaths, your stream of conscious experience will continue.
What is most important now is for you to keep your mind peaceful and calm,
but fully alert. There is nothing more to be done in this life. Now is
the time to let everything go.
The
Approach of Death
The
time has now come for you to seek the path of light to the other shore,
beyond this present life and beyond the portals of death. This is the beginning
of your journey through the gateway into a new existence. So, there is
nothing to fear. You have made this same journey countless times before.
You will not become lost because the Guide will point the way. Yes, you
must leave this present life behind, with all its joys and sorrows. You
must leave behind all of your wealth and possessions, all of your friends
and kin and family, all of your lovers and your enemies; you must leave
behind even your present physical body to which you are so inordinately
attached. But the death of your physical body is not the end-- it is a
transition, a new beginning, a resurrection. The continuum of your consciousness
does not cease with the death of your physical body and your material brain.
Even without a physical body, your consciousness continues in space, because
it is the nature of space and light. Your beginningless stream of consciousness
continues to flow onward toward an unknown destiny, even after your physical
death. It is like a current of warm tropical water flowing through the
great ocean-- ever changing, yet ever the same current. Your karma cannot
be fully exhausted in this present lifetime alone, and so karma propels
your stream of consciousness into new lives and new existences. Death is
not the end.
At
the Time of Dying
That
which is called death has finally come upon you. Therefore, you should
consider matters carefully: You have arrived at the time of your death
and so now, by means of this experience of death, you should adopt the
attitude of the enlightened state of mind, thinking of all other living
beings, whose numbers are as vast as the sky itself, with boundless thoughts
of friendliness and compassion. For the sake of these living beings, at
the moment of death, you should come to recognize the Clear Light of Reality
as the very Nature of your own Mind. And coming to the supreme realization
of who you really are, you will act only for the good of others. But if
you do not attain this realization at present, then recognize the Bardo
for what it is, the intermediate state between death and rebirth, and recognize
all the visions seen in the lights of the Bardo to be the visible manifestations
of the energy of the your own Nature of Mind. This you must remember above
all else.
The
Bardo of Dying and the Dissolution of the Elements
In
this guided meditation you will be taken through three phases of your inevitable
future, which is known as the Bardo, the intermediate state between your
death and your rebirth into a new body and a new life. Traditionally, we
speak here of three Bardos. First, you will contract a terminal illness
and thereupon the various signs of impending death will appear for you
and be visible to others. Then you will enter into the process of dying.
This is characterized by experiencing the progressive dissolution of the
elements of your body. These elements are the modes in which your psychic
energy manifests itself and traditionally they are reckoned as five. They
are called earth, water, fire, air, and ether or space. These elements
correspond in your physical body to the psychic energy contained in your
flesh and bones, your blood and bodily fluids, your heat and digestion,
your breathing and nervous system, and your consciousness and aura, respectively.
Thus, in succession, earth will dissolve into water, water into fire, fire
into air, and air into space. During the course of this process of dissolution
of your energies, you will have many experiences and visions. Moreover,
there will occur external physical signs observable to others in your presence
and internal experiences of which only you are aware. Finally, your respiration,
or outer breathing, will cease and all those around you will think that
you are dead. But you are not yet dead and can even be revived and resuscitated
because for sometime your inner breathing, that is to say, the circulation
of your psychic energy, will continue. During this time, you will have
further interior experiences, such as the inner dissolution of your psyche
or emotions and your mind or thought process. Although to outsiders you
may appear cold, inert, and surely dead, your consciousness still remains
in your body, dwelling secretly in your heart center, where a slight warmth
may be detected. Finally, even your inner breathing will also come to cease
as your remaining psychic energies gather in your heart center and are
absorbed there.
At
this time, when both your outer and your inner breathing have ceased, although
your consciousness has not yet exited your old physical body, you will
find yourself in a vast dark space like the sky at midnight devoid of stars.
You are not really unconscious, but simply suspended in the darkness of
space, as if some one has turned out the light and you find yourself in
a totally dark room. How long this experience of total darkness remains
depends on individual karma. But then the dawn of the Clear Light of Awareness
will come inevitably upon you because now your body and your mind have
all been stripped from you and you find yourself completely naked. But
you have not ceased to exist. The space all about you will appear to become
like the vast open cloudless sky in the east at dawn. This light grows
brighter and brighter, as when the sun still invisible approaches the horizon
from below. If at this time you recognize this Clear Light of Awareness
to be the self-manifestation of the Nature of your own Mind, you will then
merge into this light. Becoming one with it, you be delivered from the
delusions of cyclical existence and from the necessity for future rebirths
in the lower realms of Samsara. You will have ascended beyond the stars
and returned home. And there will be no further need for you to enter into
and experience the Bardo, for you have now passed beyond the beginningless
cycle of death and rebirth.
But
if you fail to recognize this Clear Light of dawn as your own face reflected
in the mirror of empty space, you will fall away from it in confusion and
in fear of loosing yourself in its radiance. You will seek to avoid it
and flee from its clear brilliance. You will faint away into unconsciousness
and fall back into the outer darkness. Having fled from the dawn of your
own Awareness, you will descend again into the darkness of night, and you
will experience a period of unconsciousness. Only at the end of this time,
extending from a few minutes to three and a half days, will your consciousness
leave your body and finally separate from it. Therefore, during this time,
your body should not be disturbed unnecessarily nor disposed of for burial
or cremation. Finally, your consciousness, as a small speck of light, being
composed of both subtle mind and very subtle psychic energy, exits your
body into the surrounding space through one of its orifices, such as the
crown of your head, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth, and so on.
This period of time, from the contracting of your terminal illness until
your consciousness leaves your dead body behind, is known as the First
Bardo, the Bardo of Dying.
Out-of-the-Body
Experience in the Bardo
Next,
you will enter into the after-death experience proper known as the intermediate
state between death and rebirth. When your outer and your inner breathing
have ceased, your consciousness exits your old physical body, discarding
it like an old suit of clothes. However, during this time of unconsciousness,
which lasts for an uncertain period of time, your memories and your past
karma will begin to reawaken, like the dreams that come upon you in the
night when you fall asleep. Your mind and your psyche begin to function
and operate again with thoughts and emotions. Then, when you awaken from
your state of unconsciousness, you will find yourself in the Bardo. You
will discover yourself inhabiting a subtle body composed of psychic energy,
with your mind and your sense faculties functioning intact. This mind-made
body, this subtle energy structure that embodies and encompasses your consciousness,
which is created for you by your memories and your past karma, is not something
physical, but an immaterial spirit body. Now you are truly dead and departed
this world. This spirit-body resembles in almost every way, including its
clothes, your previous physical body that you possessed before you died.
However, it is free of all diseases, feels no pain and suffers no infirmities
or absence of limbs. At first, finding yourself in this body, you wander
about your old haunts and familiar scenes. You may not even realize that
you are dead. You try to speak to your friends and relatives, but they
cannot see or hear you. Suddenly you see your previous body lying dead
and awaiting burial or disposal. Now, indeed, you realize that you are
dead. Failing in all your futile attempts to re-enter your old inert corpse,
you now set out, seeking a new body and birthplace.
Visions
in the Bardo of Reality
Gradually
the familiar scenes begin to fade away and you find your mind increasingly
distracted. You wander through many strange and alien landscapes, always
searching for something, but never quite knowing what that might be. Eventually
the sky opens up before you, becoming a deep blue in color. During successive
cycles, you may come to experience five lesser clear lights in five extraordinary
primary colors in succession-- white, blue, yellow, red, and green. Then
these bright clear lights may become as big as mountains and even come
to fill the entire sky before you. In these lights you may see visions
of the celestial hierarchies that span the heavens. You may see whatever
gods you worship, sitting on their thrones, surrounded by choirs of angels,
coming to you from the heights of heaven. But failing to recognize these
secondary clear lights and these peaceful serene images as the self-manifestations
of your own energy of Mind, you again attempt to flee from them in fear
of being overwhelmed. Thereupon, during the successive cycles you may see
more vibrant and darker images of the infernal hierarchies. Again failing
to recognize these archetypal images and symbols, both beautiful and terrifying,
as self-manifestations of your own energy of Mind, you again attempt to
flee from them in fear of being overwhelmed. But these archetypal images
are only manifestations of your own purified consciousness. They come from
within you, but are projected out into space. Yet, not recognizing them
and fearing them in your ignorance, in terror you flee from them and therefore
fall once more from the fullness of Reality into deprivation.
Once
again, you will faint and find yourself in a state of unconsciousness for
what may seem like many days. However, if in your present life you have
been a practitioner of meditation and have experienced these clear light
visions in your practice, you will greet them as old friends. Even if you
do not recognize them in the Bardo to be the projections of your own Mind,
they will remain before your consciousness in all their radiant splendor.
But if you are not a practitioner, these clear lights will flash by you
in less than a moment, like distant flashes of lightening on the dark horizon
at midnight. Thus, this Second Bardo, the Bardo of the Clear Light of Reality,
will pass you by. You return from the archetypal world to the world of
formation that is the domain of your own personal karma.
The
Bardo of Rebirth and the Confrontation with Conscience
Next, you will then awaken in the Third Bardo, the Bardo of the Process of Rebirth. You will find yourself once more inhabiting a subtle body composed of psychic energy, with your mind and sense faculties totally intact, but, nevertheless, this is still just an immaterial spirit body. This body will also resemble the body you possessed in your previous life. At first you may seek out again your old haunts and familiar scenes, although your mind and your vision is far less clear and focused than it was in the previous Bardo. There is much more confusion here. It is like you find yourself in a dream, where the scenes change about you with increasing rapidity and instability. You may try to speak to your friends and relatives, but they can neither see nor hear you as they go about there daily lives in your absence. Failing even to find your old body, you now enter into the process of rebirth and now set out once again seeking a new birthplace, but with a greater feeling of desperation. You may encounter many different spirit beings like yourself who are also searching, but these encounters will be fleeting and give little comfort. You will see many visions of colored lights and hear strange and frightening sounds like thunder; you will experience many varied landscapes like you are in a dream, for you now come to experience your personal karma in a very visible form. But if you fail to recognize these as karmic visions created by your own Mind, the winds of your karma will drive you relentlessly onward, like a frail leaf blown about to and fro by the autumn winds. At last you will come to stand before the gates of hell itself and there you will see the great court of justice. Entering within this awesome structure, you find yourself in the presence of the Judge of the Dead who is stern and terrifying in appearance and who holds the mirror of karma in which you see the face of your own soul reflected as it really is. The good and the evil that you have done during your life are weighed before you in the full view of the court. If you recognize that the dark and solemn form of the judge is actually your own conscience manifesting in visible form before you, even here, in the court of karma, you can obtain liberation. If not, the dull lights that are the pathways to future rebirth in Samsara manifest before you. And you must take one of these roads. You are irresistibly drawn to one of them and the winds of karma become like a hurricane.
Human Rebirth
In this dull light the form of your old body from your previous life begins to fade away and now you will come more and more to resemble the body you will have in your future rebirth. Impulsively, you search for a place of rebirth in accordance with the unconscious propensities of your karma. Finally, you will see your future parents mating and you will feel attracted to them. Depending on whether you will be reborn in a male or a female body, you will feel sexual attraction toward one parent and aggression and jealousy toward the other parent. At the moment of conception, when the white element, the sperm of your father, unites with the red element, the egg of your mother, you will be irresistibly drawn into the womb of your future mother. You are now about to embark on a new life in a new body.
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