Archive Result

[0:00]

Question: If the meaning of who Alfred was [will be lost in the next life], what does keep on going from life to life? Is it an identity?

Answer: That is a personality.

Question: We call it identity or identification. Will the senses, perception that I have been before be lost completely?

Answer: That is an identity. If you have better identity it remains. But that is another identity unless we call it a real nature.

Question: Is it the identity that will be lost?

Answer: That is right. Identity of the being whoever that being might be, it has to remain, otherwise how we will identify [the sentient being].

Question: This ongoing identity has kind of personality characteristics which are continuation of the former one.

Answer: Yes. it is ongoing personality on which we can identify, but it might not be identity of the person. That is so subtle.

Question: Does the fear of the darkness remain?

Answer: The darkness is the last [thing that we recall before losing consciousness]. [We feel scared], because we are afraid of being lost in the dark. The darkness is identified within us. There is a lighting seed, some seal, so why would you be afraid of darkness, right? Why are you afraid of someone coming out of the closet and catch you? When we are kids, we are afraid there is a monster under the bed. There is no monster there. It is a different fear than the darkness, because darkness is associated with no more light, and no light is associated with being lost.

[0:03:15] So monster coming out of the bed, it is a true [fear of something present outside of us]. The fear of darkness lives within us. The light is associated with seeing, identifying, not being lost. That is what I mean when I say it is a fear of losing. However, the fear is not only about losing the sight, but mostly losing yourself, so you kind of won’t be here.

According to the spiritually developed person, all those fears are groundless fears. The second issue, [the fear of death], is unavoidable. It is better to get used to it, and it is much easier and better than to avoid it. This is what I was completing [explaining] earlier in the morning, to substitute the impossible. If not possible, make sure it works well. So that is how we do it. That what I mean it goes beyond. If I am frightened by the water, the best way is to get diluted [merged] into the water.

[0:06:09]

If you are afraid of the water, you let it a little bit of run, a little bit of run, you can’t never assume?

If you are afraid of the [deep] water, and you let it [run over you] a little bit, then another little bit, then another little bit, then you can’t never assume [acknowledge the fear].

If we let water to accumulate [gradually], we [will] stop being afraid. It is true, it is like that. It is learning how to cut through. If you get near the water, [get your feet wet] and gradually go deeper into the water, then further down, further down, and [eventually] you will learn how to swim for the rest of your life.

This is very similar to that [to process of overcoming the fear of death]. That is unwanted, ungrounded fear, so why should we be afraid of it? What we should be really afraid is what will happen after [the death]. We didn’t get to that level, we are stuck in between. So how do we get over there? [heavily signs].

What we are having to enter is the biggest question. The Buddha gave answer to that: either, best, the better. [either, better, the best]

[0:09:01]

The best would be to see the clear light of death [as Dharmakaya], and the bardo as Sambhogakaya and rebirth as Nirmanakaya. If you know how to do it, you do it. How many people know about Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya? Not a lot then… But everyone knows about bardo, right? [silence, quiet chatting in the background]

So [cycle of life?] becomes divided into three categories. Another four categories are: living death, living period, death, stage in between death and birth. The living period is between the birth and the death, and the period in between death and birth is called a bardo. The bardo means intermediate state in the Tibetan language. What really happens is when the individual dies and until he gets into the next life whatever it might be, the person has a life during the waiting period. It is a very different life. I don’t think it has any physical body but it has some shape. The people can see you. Maybe you are living here? But people can have same category.(?)

[0:12:02]

But you look differently, you don’t look like you had in your previous life. You look like yourself in the future life. When people [such as relatives, friends] see you, they have a difficult time to recognize who you are because you look different.

Bardo is your mental body that has a shape or form, but it is not a physical body. That form can’t touch another form, it is just a shape. It can go anywhere because it doesn’t have a technical body around [it doesn’t have a physical body limitations]. It moves with a speed of a thought, faster than lightning. You could seat here and talk to somebody in Tokyo, but then it is Lhasa and Hasa?[0:13:29], [then you move in] between LA and New York. The reason is that it is a mental body. When you are sitting here, you could imagine any city, any town within you mind in [a fraction of] time. Even now, it doesn’t take time, right? That means you mind is capable of perceiving like this [this way]. The mental body could get there like this, because it is a mental body. [speaks Tibetan]. The bardo can’t get stack anywhere and it has all five senses, six senses including consciousness. The bardo could see, hear and smell. Its food is a smell.

[0:15:03]

The smell could be food, too. That is why symptom … [of the cold is to lose the smell]. … when we are used to smell. [Laughing, audience is laughing, translator talks about “so you could put your shoes on ”].

In the Tibetan tradition, when somebody dies in the house, they put some kind of puja or fire. Tibetans go to temple and [perform puja there] and it burns for a while. That is why they are giving a food (refuge?) to that dead person. I don’t know if it is a religion or culture. I don’t know at all. In Buddhism, when the Buddha King had died, I was told they put a lot of fruits and other food for 30 days including the smells. There are different Tibetan lamas, rinpoches, plus the Buddhists well families [rich families?]. They all understand smells. I don’ know if it is a Buddhism or culture, but they do it. So anyway, one of the symptoms that you are in the bardo state is the sense of smell. It is very fragile yet very powerful in the sense of antibody so whatever you think you reach there, you need to draw another body out. Here individual.

The bardo is very fragile yet very powerful. If you are aware that you are in the bardo state, and hence have no physical body, you could choose [or to be drawn to] the new body for rebirth.

[0:18:0]

It could be a big freedom or it could be an atrocity too.

Anyway, I am trained that it is common to take a rebirth. Until it is time to take rebirth, they [sentient beings are] stuck in the bardo state. When that happens, they move freely. We call it a karmic magical power. Bardo could be everywhere, anywhere, move everything, but we don’t move it. We don’t see, hear, smell nor we can’t understand it. If the bardo comes and talks to us, we will not be able to notice him or her. Then the bardo gets so sad, immensely sad. “What have I done if they even talk to me? They turn away from me and all this …”, [bardo might lament]. This bardo has karmic [connection to those particular people]. Also, bardo is very, extremely fragile, and could die because of that sadness. The dying runs for a week. They can die seven times, and they can take rebirth seven times. It is maximum number. I don’t know why but that what it says.

[0:21:06]

So by 7 times of dying or 7 times of rebirth if you could not find future rebirth then they have to find somewhere to live anyway within that. When waiting period is over, it is like an American unemployment. They keep them for 7 weeks and then they take them off. It is not like that. [laughing] So anyway, basically that is part or bardo.

So the waiting period between dead and alive, rebirth. What are the normally people do? What is expected from the practitioner? If you are a Vajrayana practitioner, you try to live this particular period [to the fullest]. It is a wonderful subtle mind period, very vivid mind, very subtle. It is a wonderful opportunity to be able to concentrate on whatever subject you are concentrating. Whatever it is a wisdom, compassion or clear light. It could be a deity sight [visualization], guru devotion of prudence, taking refuge, renunciation of samsara life, or determination to be free [from samsara].

[0:24:24]

Whatever level you are, try to use that particular period to further advance your practice. That is what expected from the practitioner during the bardo state. [The teachers transformed], cheated death and reappeared as Sambhogakaya [during the bardo period]. It is a reason why it is very important for us. Do you think it is important one or what?

So that is basically this is [all] about bardo and [menanda sambala medo mo – said something in Tibetan/Sanskrit? [0:25:45]

Basically [at the end of the death process during the clear light stage], Dharmakaya comes first. Dharmakaya means you have developed a fully enlightened mind. You mind will become the one with that of the wisdom of all enlightened beings. This is what Dharmakaya really is. I am not sure if you understood what I have told you right now or not… The whole consciousness of all enlightened beings is a big lump sum careless [integrated together boundless] sea. When your real consciousness goes in there it becomes part of it.

People talk about it all the time, particularly in the age of the hard understanding because they do not understand it or [were] taught that.

[0:27:05]

We were talking about the Dharmakaya and what it is. Another kaya is how our mind of consciousness is actually becoming the part of the gold wisdom. That wisdom is another tangible. Therefore, it likes to appear as a tangible. So [during the bardo state] you take some kind of form whether it is a living being or whatever it is. This form arising from those things is called Sambhogakaya. That Sambhogakaya form is a bardo, that can’t be seen by everybody. It is not tangible, it is visible, but the visibility is limited to certain people. When you begin to see this is not a Dharamsala to be visible and tangible to all, then you take a different rebirth.

Following Buddha Shakyamuni, for example, what we see today is his physical form as Nirmanakaya Buddha. So there those deities and followers of deities [realm of deities] and all of it is Nirmanakaya. And that is [actual?] rebirth. When you take rebirth everybody will see it if you show it to people. “This is my baby”, they [say and] show it to everybody, and everybody could hear the baby crying, can see the baby smiling, and everybody can touch the baby.

[0:29:59]

That is Sambhogakaya. [That are Sambhogakaya and Nirmanakaya].

When I talked about Sambhogakaya or Nirmanakaya I meant to explain a little bit because it is not my main subject. However, I had to explain it because as I have said you can cheat the death and became that way. This is a Higher Vajrayana practice that [practitioners] could do. In order to do that, you have to be perfect in the basic foundation. The foundation here is actual meditation on that [death]. Do you have any questions on actual meditation on that [on death] today or tomorrow, because it is almost five o’clock?

Tomorrow we will practice meditation on that [death]. It has three roots, nine reasons [reasonings] and three revelations [convictions]. The three roots are: a definite nature of death, the uncertainty of the time of the death, and nothing can help but the Dharma at the time of the death [only our spiritual achievements are of value]. Nothing can help but the Dharma is actual another meditation at all, but the earlier Tibetan Buddhist masters found it very useful so they attached it here.

[0:32:59]

Basically, that is definite doesn’t necessary needed meditation because not all accept it. However, this acceptance is superficial. That is way of acceptance. There is a difference between the superficial acceptance and the real acceptance. The superficial acceptance we could all escape when we are trying to escape when we are trying to run away. The real one we really can’t. Normally, masters will give you three different level [level-based] ways of meditating. That is definite. We will do this tomorrow then. Do you have any questions?

Question: Is it possible that causes and impressions of the earlier lives have been taken into new life?

[0:35:24]

Answer: You know what I think had happened? They forgot to give an injection. The purest consciousness is not necessary. Pure or not pure [consciousness], they both will go away. That is why I have said that you don’t keep your personality completely. It is the same question as before.

Question: What happens with impressions left in our mind about events in this life, the memories about family and etc.? Will they remain in our consciousness after rebirth?

Answer: What had happened is that they forgot to give an injection so the people keep memory of the previous life. Actually, the shock may not be that strong. You know what makes you forget is the latest term of other shock, right? Even in our daily lives sometimes some events will give you certain shocks, but later you will forget. It is an Alzheimer’s disease in some cases, when you even forget your own name and everything else. What really happens is the living memory deteriorates. [Answering your question], I think it happens in the process, sometimes they forgot to give injections and sometimes they haven’t. Some people’s process is just easier. Is it seen it as fully developed consciousness and again the shock came. It is sort of jittered [pattern], and some matter becomes easier. It is just easier or whatever.

[0:38:52]

Question: There is nothing left behind for this person. Is the person who I have known as myself totally gone?

Answer: No, no, no. Whoever Marian is, it might not be called Marian, but it is not gone. You will leave everything except Marian [herself]. You might not be called Marian, but you mean Marian.

I don’t mean you leave everything here. If you leave everything, then what do you have left? Nothing. You don’t go big that way, but some kind of subtle changing? deviation. Actually, what it really is that you sort of rebuilding it up, rebuilding it up, then it is going to decrease down. The process already begins by age of 24 or 25. After that it continues to building it up, and then it is a reverse meltdown when from the peak level it is going to go down. It begins already and it will keep on going, keep on going, keep on going, and then it starts on settling it, very subtle thing. It goes so subtle, that we could call it continuation. That is a subtle continuation.

People have very romantic idea of reincarnation, then they initially think, “Yes, I will go now, but I will check it out and come back”. They think in those lines when they have this attitude. In the worst [cases] people think that reincarnation is so easy, and I am quite sure it is easier in Europe or America. Easily.

It is not a good idea, it is an escape. They don’t like an idea of the death, idea of losing everything, so they find an idea of the escape. They escape under an umbrella of reincarnation. So you are going to the toilet [bathroom], take a shower, change your skin, then come back. It is like you change your clothing, you change your skin and come back. This is an idea that they are getting, but it is not true.

[0:42:23]

You are not going to carry over the grossness, but yourself as a subtle matter you will carry over.

If you leave that, then it is not your reincarnation, it is somebody else reincarnation.

Question: What about previous connections, will the person remember?

Answer: That is what person remembers. The gross mental faculty called memory hasn’t been destroyed. That is as simple as that.

Question: In that single time that I have died those things will continue? [were carried over?]

Answer: Yes, they need that injection. This is mental faculty called memory, the memory hasn’t been yet destroyed. The memory sometimes won’t go, it is partially destroyed but pieces remain. It is very difficult to separate the principal consciousness and reflect of the mental faculties within that. The principal mind, principal consciousness will continue. That principal consciousness won’t have to reflect on the mental faculties. Some of them continued, but when the time is shot, that is not allowed?, if another life in between came, time is needed. The needed (loosened) mind is shocked nevertheless. Whatever the reason might be, that always happens.

[0:45:24]

Question: Is it possible that in the previous life people died by accident or very fast, so seems like they really haven’t finished with their life? Because it had happened so quickly, they haven’t had chance to digest what happened. Is it why they remember clearly what had happened to them in the previous life?

Answer: During the Buddha’s period where were no automobiles so they had less accidents. [audience laughing]

Question: [referring to the person in the audience?] Due to the fact that the girl was young, she still remembers a lot from her previous life. Is it the same principle that karmic lamas’ reincarnation is based on?

Answer: Yes.

Question: What does it mean if one had a glimpse of what had happened 14 years before you were born? What does it mean?

Answer: I wish I do. It could be reflection of your memory, or it could be nothing, total delusion, total hallucination… Every possibility is there, but you see a lot of things, a lot of planes?, and events taken place. The problem is that it could be only 90 percent valid reflection of the previous memory. However, sometimes it could be a spirit taking place under the dream. Spirits could show something in the dream. Who knows, these things could mean anything. Dreams are very strange things. In the Tibetan Vajrayana practice, they use dreams to figure out something. However, at the same time masters will tell you the example of annihilation [during] a dream. That is a dream.

Thank you, good night.