• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

There are three principles, or methods, for maintaining the view in difficult circumstances:

Simply be present, fully there, without judgment or prejudice, with whatever occurs. Again and again, use mindfulness to see whatever it is, just as it is. Just see what’s there.

Try to see difficult circumstances and happenings as bad-tasting medicine or learning experiences. Look at the reality of the situation without resistance, struggle, aversion, or avoidance. Try the tonglen practice of breathing in and willingly assuming the burden. Remember that everything is grist for the mill of awareness. The particular difficulty can transform your awareness, right now.

Recognize whatever arises as pure energy, like a magical display or projection of awareness and wisdom itself. It is part of the entire mandala of wholeness and integral being. Enjoy the spectacle; watch the show; observe the parade with its dramatic and colorful floats. Observe the play of light and shadow. Here before you is the natural great perfection of things just as they are.

CONSCIOUS LIVING,

CONSCIOUS DYING

Now when the bardo of dying dawns upon

me,

I will abandon all grasping, yearning and

attachment,

Enter undistracted into clear awareness of the

teaching,

And eject my consciousness into the space of

unborn

Awareness. As I leave this compound body of flesh and

blood

I will know it to be a transitory illusion.

—PADMA SAMBHAVA, IN THE TIBETAN BOOK OF THE DEAD

In Tibetan teachings, death is but another moment during which to practice mindfulness. Remembering the inevitability of our own death—addressing the unavoidable fact of our own mortality and the impermanence of all things—can be the most liberating of meditations. It introduces the reality of how things actually are, helps loosen gross egotism, attachment, and short-sightedness—and places our lives in proper perspective.

Death is a mirror, which reflects and illumines both the vanity and the meaning of our lives. Death is the moment of truth, when we come face to face with reality. For all of us, it is also a moment of opportunity when we can realize our true original self-nature. Death is more certain than love and more surely in store for each of us than either ill health or old age. Perennial wisdom tells us that we would do well to prepare for our demise, and thus be better prepared to live, as well as die, in an enlightened manner.

It is said that at death, two things count: whatever we have done in our lives, and the state of mind we are in at the moment of death. These two factors determine what ensues. Buddha taught that the actual experience at the time of death is crucial regarding the next rebirth, and that at the actual moment of death, extraordinarily profound spiritual experiences occur, providing a gateway to great liberation. Therefore, the physical atmosphere and states of mind of those surrounding someone who is dying are extremely important; peace, comfort, gentleness, love, acceptance, and harmony help usher the deceased onward in the best possible manner.

Traditionally in Tibet, the Bardo Thodol, which we know as The Tibetan Book of the Dead, is read at the bedside while someone is dying, and for several days thereafter. It is a guided meditation read aloud, usually by a lama, to help direct the dead and dying through the various transitional bardo states. This marvelous ancient work is a wisdom scripture that helps lead us to freedom and enlightenment through recognition of the clear light of reality at the time of death and afterward. It also reveals how to recognize and realize the clear light (the luminous innate quality of natural mind) within each of us, in this very life. Although ostensibly written to provide comfort, guidance, and liberation-through-hearing to the dead and dying, the Bardo Thodol shows us how to live, for each and every moment is both a birth and a death.

Bardo is a Tibetan word that means “in between” or “in transition.” It is taught that there are six bardo