Beyond death.

This is from the Tibetan Book of the Dead…it’s quite colourful! Facing death and beyond is really a psychological event – it is as natural as birth, so that’s ok.

This is just a brief outline, as I will go into more detail in later. How we view so-called death will influence how we view life. If we think life is just this one chance, then we will get old and die. If we view death like life as an opportunity to recognise projections as having no reality, we will not feel old, but stay young at heart. The body will still get old and die, but we will not believe we are old and die, or give up!

I totally trust these teachings, you will have to make your own mind up.

What we call death is called Bardo in Tibetan, meaning gap..in between. There is the bardo experience happening all the time – it’s part of our psychological make-up. We see life as one continuous event. ‘This is my life’. But it’s more like a cine film with individual frames, held together by karma. Karma is the glue that holds it all together, maintained by ‘consciousness’ at a gross level. Each moment there is a gap for a new life, but we hold on dearly to what we think we are because we are used to it. It’s so familiar it seems real…!?

There are six psychological profiles for sentient beings: human, animal, hungry ghost, jealous God and God realm. These are attitudes we hold. Each has both a wisdom style and neurotic style.

There are six major bardo moments. Bardo of life, bardo of dying, bardo of after life, bardo of becoming, bardo of dream and the bardo of meditation.

Depending on the training one has done in one’s life time will dictate what is recognised in the bardo states. This is why repetition of practice is so important. These bardo moments are moments one can recognise one’s true nature and become enlightened. Or, one can go to a higher realm to complete training. Or (as normally happens to sentient beings) we fear the bright lights and try to escape them, not being able to face the truth.

The so-called death period lasts for up to 49 days or seven weeks more or less. Most of us are driven on by karma – our neurotic style. Practitioners recognise that all projections as have NO reality.

The basis of these six psychological profiles are buddhas wisdoms: they are our essence. But the profiles also have a negative side. These Buddhas are represented by deities of brilliant coloured lights. In the first week after death, each deity will come towards us as a light. These are of peaceful in appearance, and will invite us to recognise the projection as our true nature. If we recognise this, we will become a buddha. At the same time a soft coloured light of our neurosis will appear, but it is inviting us to the lower realm of the negative aspect of the deity.

In the second week the deities return in their wrathful aspect: this is, in fact, intense love, to prevent us from becoming distracted. If you look up Avalokiteshvara (a peaceful deity) and Mahakala (a wroathful one), they are one and the same. We always have a choice. That’s if we know we have a choice.

After that, it’s a matter of choosing a new incarnation – but again, because we practised merely reacting in life, we are driven on by our self-imposed karma. It is said the precious human life is as difficult to achieve as a blind turtle coming up from the bottom of the ocean once every hundred years and sticking its head through a rubber ring floating on the surface.

We can now see why reacting through emotions – fear, pride, anger, jealousy, desire and ignorance – can cause us much suffering, with little or no control.

We need to see that this so-called death process is happening all the time, and it is our consciousness that is holding this illusion together.

Tony