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Kyabje Trijang Rimpoche

Kyabje Ling Rimpoche

Kyabje Lhatsun Rimpoche

Kyabje Zong Rimpoche

Gomo Rimpoche

9th Demo Rimpoche (his father)

Value of human life, death process, Bardo, Bardowas

Welcome to this Thursday evening as you know we will be continuously reading this Foundation of all Perfections and last week we talked about the karma if I remember correctly right? Okay did I say I vaguely remember that I would talk next week about Bardo I’m trying to find out from a couple of people and they all said no you didn’t really say what are we reading what line are we reading? Normally we just say it. Do anybody know? Those of you who are coming in, do you have the little piece of paper with you? If you have that it would be useful for you to look at it and when it is completed then you get a comprehensive picture. So to get a comprehensive picture it is nice to have it so then what happens is when its complete then you really have a complete solid thing otherwise you have a little here a little there and you won’t get get anything much you know you may hear something some words that you agree some that you don’t agree if you agree you shake your head if you don’t agree you say AHH I don’t know so you don’t get anything but if you have everything then you have some comprehensive essence of Tibetan Buddhist practice leading the individual from this level of the life to extraordinary spiritual development so that is the whole idea Kathy are you trying to tell me something? So Kathy says if you don’t have this copy there are copies available on the table.

Okay what line were we been reading before. So last week we were talking about the stage leading up to the to the death level I did not talk very detailed leading up to the death level so anyway it is good enough what we are doing here again I would like to remind you because otherwise we get this Thursday here and then one or two Thursdays and there is a gap and another Thursday and we will get lost completely so I don’t want to get lost so I really wanted to bring it down to the three most important points dealing with our spiritual path the three most important things the first important thing is actually dealing with the life looking at the life the value of the life the importantness of the life and appreciating life and all this and the life whatever we have good one or a great one is impermanent and what happens thereafter the gross example of the impermanence is death so what happens thereafter and what is relevant to the individual and these are the main points and why are we doing this we’re doing for two purposes by looking through that one appreciate the life two overcome our laziness three we seek freedom freedom from the delusions freedom from our neurosis spiritual practice is really people have a lot of different ideas about the spiritual path but what I know of the spiritual path what Buddha had shared about the spiritual path and the purpose of that is the individual each and every individual to be free from our neuroses are you with me? Thank you that is important if you lose that we have lost total focus and we are talking some branch here and there and it may be interesting but freedom from the neurosis freedom from anger freedom from hatred freedom from jealousy freedom from attachment and above all freedom from ignorance most important freedom from ignorance ignorance of not knowing as well as ignorance of wrong knowing both so this is the whole purpose one purpose here and how to achieve that purpose is then the steps they show here steps they showed here about the life how important it is what sort of potential do we have what capabilities do we have actually is nothing new we all know that life is important life is valuable we all know that there is no question that we don’t know we do know but simply it is reminder and it is the suggestion to the individual so they look at it a little bit differently rather than taking for granted it’s there it’s mine it’s wonderful, I mean its there as long as it moves as long as it doesn’t stop then it goes but you cannot take it for granted so you have to appreciate what you have it and the reason why to appreciate that is not only do you appreciate it but also you can get some kind of benefit out of this you really have that great thing in with you that wonderful life capability the great mind the brilliant mind and a wonderful body together can do tremendous things but if you can’t take any advantage out of this then what is the use? Right? It’s like something comes and something goes you know what I’m talking about? If you can’t take advantage people get money people get hundreds of thousands of dollars comes and goes and then it’s gone it’s gone and you’re in the same old condition again so that’s what happens right so in order to not have happen this because it is not very often you are going to get it so such a life we have here it has a tremendous value it has its importantness and we have to take advantage and make the best use of it that’s the whole idea did you get it? Right?

I have a very heavy accent so it’s difficult to hear sometimes but if you didn’t get it it is not very often that you can stop but you cannot keep raising your hand and all-time otherwise I would not be able to speak thank you so anyway... I’m lost (crowd less) yes take advantage and what kind of advantage can you take well materially whatever you want to we know we could do we are capable of doing it right and though we may call it scientific achievement as though somebody else other than human beings have done it it’s not true the human beings have done it materially we don’t have to talk about it as much as you as can develop materially and that much you have a potential to develop spiritually, this is what we have another potential to develop spiritually meaning that we will be totally free from those neurosis and we can bring other people also to that freedom state and that is the total achievement did you hear me? And that is a total achievement you can have the sky is the limit as the spiritual development and we look at people like Buddha and we look at them today and we pray to Buddha and we admire the Buddha and so does all other teachers and masters and founders and all this we do whether it is Judeo-Christian tradition or Hindu Muslim tradition or whatever so that’s what it is so the ultimate development and so according to the Buddha we are capable of achieving the state of the Buddha we don’t have to look at the Buddha and say how great it was in leave it there because we can make ourselves just like Buddha and as you know Buddha has not come as a fully enlightened Buddha and (bombed?) down here but as an ordinary being just like you and me and worked hard and developed and handled those neuroses and found a way and found the Buddha himself getting free from those neurosis and called the state of the Buddhahood had been obtained by working hard through spiritual path it is not that title that someone had conferred on Buddha no it is some kind of born together and (bombed?) down (bombed?) down sounds terrible.. but worked hard and developed and he shares his experience and tells people if you follow me if you do exactly like I did it I found the way out and why not you and that is Buddhism really truly people may think it’s sort of a religion it’s a philosophy it’s a way of life people talk all sorts of things the true Buddhism is Buddhas personal experience dealing with the neurosis and overcoming it and his personal experience that he is helping others bringing them on the path and delivering them the same state what Buddha had achieved and that is Buddhism 1345

Whether you call that a religion philosophy a way of life or whatever you may call it cult or anything it doesn’t matter you know so that’s what it is I don’t think anybody calls Buddhism a cult but I just said (he laughs) so anyway that is the true Buddhism so when we are talking here and the Buddha found out and first and foremost you have to realize the potential’s that you have and that’s why I am talking about life is important it is precious it is wonderful and you can do everything actually what is the purpose they try to establish? they try to establish that you can do it! that’s the main point you can do it are you with me? So then the second point they’ll talk to impermanence and dying and changing and ever changing and all this philosophy will come in between and make it going a little subtle and gross here and there but the main purpose is, the main point is you can do it but don’t be lazy that is the whole message. Because laziness is within our habit we will always like to delay or do it tomorrow or this and that and after I did this then I’ll do it and earlier Tibetan teachers used to say the activities that we have to carry the works that we have to do is like an old man’s beard no matter how much you pluck it it’ll come more and more the Tibetans used to pluck because there were no nice electrical shavers that we got now they didn’t have them in those days so I don’t think they even have the razor blade that we used to have ten or twenty years ago you know those things they don’t have that so the thing is they plucked that yes it’s a little bit painful but when you get used to it and you enjoy it too (he laughs crowd laughs) you can pluck that so they said activity is like that of an old man’s beard the more you pluck the more it will come just like that or it’s like a wave on the ocean you sit on the ocean when the waves are finished then I will go and do something it never finish right one after another so you look out and another one you know so if you keep on waiting for that to go away it will never go away so naturally the laziness is within our self and actually laziness controls us sort really controls us. (He stops to talk and joke with the crowd) Okay, what am I talking now? (The crowd laughs) laziness is within us and laziness controls us so we feel always the pulling back not wanting to do it not wanting to do it laziness is it is one of the biggest obstacles for the spiritual practitioner or for anything anything that you want to achieve the laziness will pull you back particularly in a spiritual practice you know why the inner evil is very much in love with us and so the he or she doesn’t want you to go away so pull you back as much as you could you know I mean? So they use any kind of mental excuses they can get it that is how the inner evil pulls the individual back so one of the best is laziness so you don’t feel like doing it or too tired or tomorrow or after this then I will do all this sort of thing so it’s a very powerful inner obstacle and how can you overcome that if you meditate on impermanence and in particular dying and the dying stage and that will tell you boy I don’t have much time who knows when it’s going to come who knows when I will have to go look around you know people get sick and people die for the doctors there may be some early warning but many of us you don’t get a warning do we all of a sudden it comes and goes people die when they are smoking a cigarette they got a couple of puffs out and then finished they go in between people do it always comes up on my head because of a nice good friend called George (Turing?) And he was very very nice former Tibetan officer you know and he was in sick and suddenly I got a message that he died and I said how did he die well he was smoking a cigarette and he got a couple of puffs and then falloff after lunch. You that’s true that reminds me all the time so while you are smoking, even those great teachers you know you look at the collected works they started writing something and it’s incomplete so we say a lot of those incomplete this incomplete that the reason why it was incomplete is because death had interrupted them so that comes very certain very certain and for some people you know you get a chronic illnesses and year after year you still living and then die ( he laughs) people have that too but many of them go through without any sign while you’re walking while you’re talking that does and you never know something called tomorrow whether that’s going to come first or something called death which is going to come first who knows truly (he speaks Tibetan) so you never know one of the Dalai Lama I think seven says whether the future life is going to come first or tomorrow is going to come first I have no idea so it is better for me to prepare for something called future. Basically if you look at our life we really don’t have much choice after we are born we will die the earlier Tibetan teachers used to give examples (he speaks Tibetan) they used to say the moment you are born you do not even have a single second to live you are running towards so called death it is true is true so by thinking those and that of laziness which pulls you back you may have a chance to overcome we have a chance to overcome that laziness the job of the laziness within our self is to pull you back to slow you down for our inner evil and the inner self the good self has to fight against that inner evil to overcome that laziness and that’s why meditation on death is really not only preparing yourself for going through the future life but also overcome the laziness because you know for us the life is such, particularly the American life, you know we have so many busy-ness and so many deadlines and so many things happening you know everything this festival that festival whatever it is one after another and it makes the life run much faster and we don’t realize how fast life is really going actually we thought it’s almost like end of nineteen ninety six but it’s already catching to the third month how fast it is running and within no time Christmas will come up again really true so this sort of thing happens and that keeps us you know not realizing how things are going fast you know 2441

Laziness, remedy to laziness weakening and dying

So what ever the opportunity where ever you could find without disturbing your work without disturbing your commitment where ever what ever you could find you it you have to make best use of it and it doesn’t mean you are interested in spiritual path so then I cannot work because I don’t have time to practice that is another laziness are you with me that is another laziness we simply don’t want to work so you using excuse of I have to practice that is such a terrible excuse I feel like using the “B” word but maybe I better not so that’s the one that is again laziness using from the other angle you know here you say well I have to do this, I have to do this I don’t have practice to do I can’t practice well and hear that if I do this I don’t have time to practice but how many times do you practice how many times you sit and chit chat and reminisce and waste time how many hours do you sleep? And how many hours do you go to a bar or whatever so spend time there so count all of them and see what is the really excuse laziness is something terrible within the individual the overcoming of the laziness is a strong will that within you what you call it diligent or enthusiasm whether you really enjoy doing it or not make it so interesting by yourself and be able to function like every normal human being to do both ways in spiritual way as well as material way and that is the need of the hour today actually that’s what it is so whatever the way may be to overcome the laziness is a meditation on the death and I talked the death the last time and I’m not in a talk again today but as Judy pointed out I said I would talk about Bardo so Bardo now this is totally going to sound like a ( fairytale?) story if you don’t mind gives me a little time to tell (fairytale?) stories what happens is Bardo is a state in between a state in between the present life and future life actually Bardo really means in between so it is particularly referenced to that so when does individual die what does death mean to the individual so I’m going to talk to you from the background of reincarnation I have to do it otherwise I will lose my job (crowd laughs) so I talk from the point of reincarnation so those of us who accept reincarnation and did I actually ever see reincarnation no I did not even if I did I don’t remember I don’t recall the famous Reagan word (crowd laughs) so that’s what it is (crowd laughs) so maybe it was true (Rimpoche laughs) so that’s what it is so anyway what does that mean those of us let’s presume for while we all accept reincarnation what does that mean the death here is now changing changing of our identity changing of changing the real identity the physical identity the voice identity and physical voice even the mind to some extent is the what we have is the combination of the body and mind and speech together as it is now this is our identity and when death comes what happens is we are separating the individual so-called I within that person who carries that identity card of the body mind speech combined is now changing now we are changing the individual within this identity we are changing that so we are separating the identity what we have we are separating we are disconnecting when we are disconnecting we disconnect the feelings we disconnect the recognitions we disconnect everything right? I’m just looking at you and I notice you’re wearing glasses and I’m also wearing glasses so this is another point here the point is our eyes become weak our eyes become weaker and weaker and then we put on the glasses right the purpose of putting on glasses is to see better right why inside this particular whatever we call it (oboe?) but the basis of the eye consciousness is it becomes weaker so we won’t be able to see so we put this up why will we not be able to see because it becomes weakened because these are a part of our earth element and this is a sign that we are disconnecting that the consciousness of the eye and the eye itself according to the Tibetan Buddhist tradition and learning this external thing what you see here the retina and all this are the external shell and we have something even bigger than that its some kind of subtle clean nice small little ball inside which is the basis of eye consciousness I hope there are no eye surgeons here (he laughs) so anyway so that becomes weak and when that becomes weaker the connection between the external thing and internal becomes weaker so we don’t see it it is a sign of disconnecting so is the ear right the miracle whatever they call it “ miracle ear” right so whatever they call it in here put in here so you don’t even see it whatever it is so you need that because the ear power is weakened so does the physical touch touch you know the touch is also the sensitivity that we have every part of body become weaker (he laughs) so it is disconnecting and then the smell and taste all of them are the withdrawing signs of disconnecting so finally even we withdraw from our memories so that’s why people don’t recognize people just before they die it is due to (tengap?) or due to dying whatever it is so it is the memories which then withdraw which in other words we are packing up packing up everything you know up to the age of twenty five we are building up everyday at twenty five we start going down packing begins there we started packing up and packing it takes a couple of years not fifty years or so but whatever so packing so actually we try to leave and we when move the house we do the same thing the things that we cannot carry with us we begin to drop them right so likewise we do the same thing and we disconnect disconnect ourself totally from the identity what we have and we leave the identity completed and when this packing is progressing and when it begins to complete and then senses are completely begin to withdraw and then the doctors call you brain-dead or whatever and they will pronounce you dead completely which means external elements and internal consciousness connections have been disconnected did the people really die at that time according to the Buddha? No. 3420

because as much as you took time to dissolve in the external element you also have the internal elements internal elements will also took time to dissolving them particularly our consciousness of the mind or self or whatever you call it or I or soul or whatever particularly our consciousness where does our consciousness remain well normally you know in the eastern tradition we say at the heart level in the Western tradition we say in the brain so whatever it may be according to the Buddha the consciousness is really remains at the joining indestructible drops they call it the egg that we get from the mother and the sperm that we get from the father it becomes indestructible it cannot be separated until the individual dies that union of egg and sperm is the basis of the consciousness and to separate that it will take quite a long time it is not a blanket thing but it’s almost like it can take minutes to fifty two hours even to separate that and that’s why individual also remains within the same old body though the body is dead brain dead but it could be that long to actually the consciousness leaving because of these indestructible drops what we call that the egg and the sperm which needs to be separated and the consciousness has to leave so the moment you leave the consciousness okay make a little more clear to you to tell you that how do we know how do we know because individual person who are dying that person would have a feeling of whiteishness and a feeling of reddishness and a black dark feeling so these are the one follows another because of the sperm separation you have that whitish feeling when the egg powers going away you have the reddish feeling and after that you get darkness and the darkness is the (extra?) death which is the point where the individual’s consciousness is separating from that identity the moment you get the moment your separated completely and then you come out of the darkness then you coming to light so the moment you come into the light it is the beginning of the birth of Bardo are you with me? Bardo of the state in between is now born the state in between is different than what we have the physical body what we have we don’t have such a physical body like we do they have a sort of mental body they don’t have a physical body they have a mental body so because their body is a mental body so they don’t have the limitations that we have we have limitations today we have mind capacity and physical limitation so what happens is even though our mind goes somewhere we can’t get there because our physical is stuck here right we are here in suburban Detroit and we can think of New York Manhattan or we can think of San Francisco or Los Angeles but we can think our mind can get there but our body cannot get there we need to drag this body to get there either you want to put it in the car or train or whatever or you want to fly or whatever you want to do but you have to drag the body right so at the Bardo level since you don’t have a physical body you have a mind-body you don’t have that limitation the moment you think you get there so you think of Tokyo then you get in Tokyo the moment you think you get there so the limitation of the distance because of the body is cut that is one of the advantages or disadvantages of the individual Bardo life (he speaks Tibetan) it also has also all five senses like we do but the big question do I look like me before I died from my previous life at that time also from Buddha says no but we all like to look the same we are presuming we look the same people will even identify people will say I saw him I saw her send this message blah blah blah they’re not lying I have reasons but truly does the individual really look like the previous life according to the Buddha no each more looks like the future life whatever is going to happen do we see them in our ordinary eye by our ordinary eye no we don’t do they see among themselves yes yes they do see among themselves and they also see they can see by the psychic people who have great psychic power they can definitely see they can communicate with the Bardowa do you look like earlier life no you don’t can you get in some else’s physical body and talk yes you do you know I saw a movie with Whoopi Goldberg did you see that movie what is that called Ghost yeah and she change her physical body and you know somebody’s Bardowa came out and all this that is true that happens I don’t mean that movie is true but that exactly can happen and I came from such a place I did come up from a place like that where that happens all the time it’s something not unusual in old Tibetan it is not unusual it is exactly that way it happens so that’s all possible so the Bardowa Bardowa it doesn’t really look like the previous life it looks like the future life have you taken your future rebirth no it is not in your future rebirth that you are in the state in between and that is why it is called Bardo the idea sometimes you see in the movie people waiting in the line waiting to receive the judgment and all this I think there’s a lot of truth in that because I have edited a number of Tibetan books called return from death and many of them tell you the same thing I am not sure what I talk the other day so I had better not talk again so so the Bardowa this state state in between birth and life the maximum length of their life is seven days they can no longer live more than seven days they die every seven days so in the traditions in the Buddhist tradition they consider every seventh day after the people die it becomes important they do more prayers and more rituals and more things for the dead person because that is another difficult day for the dying person so every seventh day they can repeat seven times so the maximum life of the Bardo is forty nine days period you no longer remain in a state in between after forty nine days don’t ask me why I have no reason I’m simply telling you what I was taught and known and read and that’s what it is forty nine days (silence on tape)

you say shadow trailing or something yes trail after one like the shadow trails after the body so it is the karma this is the karmic control it is not we control our karma controls ourselves so whatever the good karma that we have and if you are fortunate enough if you are lucky enough we click to one of our good karma we may become a better human being than what we are today more handsome more rich whatever you want to talk we may become that or if you are not lucky enough you could also connect the karma to other than human being may be a cockroach or a snake or a scorpion or a porcupine or an armadillo or anything or a raccoon all of them are possible according to the Buddha now this is what it is once you left this (?) you are back in the big old ocean again and where are you going to be is entirely up to your own karma nobody else select nobody else appoints it is your own deeds that will click you that’s what it is death is like that of a huge cyclone you are caught in that you fly with that you have no idea where you’re going to be dropped that’s what it is that is the reason why we do remind people (?) impermanent dying is important and don’t submit to the laziness because you can have control in your hand where you want to go you can choose the choice is possible you know what I mean 4735

So it is possible that you have to earn the choice nobody will give it to you or no you can’t buy it you have to earn by yourself by doing a perfect practice that is importance on this point another thing is if you practice spiritual practice carefully even you may not be able to choose by yourself how you are going to take your future rebirth but possibilities well the best is transforming I didn’t even touch that transforming the death into a great opportunity and making it it is not applicable for us right at this moment so that is why I did not even touch that is a different thing for different people (he laughs)

not different people but people like us who had much more time and energy put in and had a variety of different practices for them there is a chance and hope of transforming the death it is not an ordinary death becoming an extraordinary death and becoming something else after death, it’s there but I’m not even touching that I’m simply telling you it’s there if I don’t tell that people may think there’s nothing so sometimes I have to say it but it’s not applicable for us right now what is applicable for us is one thing is gaining some kind of control and if not possible lucky enough to click to a good karma and even probably more than that is sometimes there’s an opportunity to cheat the death, to cheat the death did you hear me yes you heard me right you can cheat your death and not by declaring your death and you’ll be hiding somewhere else (crowd laughs) but actually you can transform your own consciousness actually not transform it is transport actually the word they use here is a terrible one you can ejaculate your consciousness (crowd laughs) that is not a very nice word (Rimpoche laughs) yeah actually it is transport out transport out out of your own old identity before the identity becomes dismantled and the identity is becoming no longer identifiable so you can transport that there is also such a practice been shared by Tibetan Buddhism and it’s there to so these are the two things applicable for us and these two are applicable transforming is a little difficult but whatever it may be the most important thing is when we have built a lot of awareness within our lifetime whatever we do whatever we think whatever we function awareness the awareness will remind us whether we are doing good or we are doing bad if you don’t have awareness time goes days sunrises and sunsets Monday comes Sunday comes and the first day comes and the thirty first comes New Year’s comes Christmas comes so without awareness it goes until someone says hey it’s time for you to go so awareness does what does awareness do awareness keeps your opportunity to sit back what I do today did I achieve something did I receive something did I benefit myself did I benefit others or did I harm myself did I harm others awareness that awareness makes you ever to do something beneficial for you and others those beneficial works that you do for yourself and others will make you to click to the better karma I’m not sure whether I talked here or not we had a visitor a head lama of (LaDock?) his Holiness (Kuchef Bargula?) about a year ago right it was in the winter right anyway he came and he’s a great being a great lama he gave a number of different initiations to the people in Jewel Heart and all this sort of thing he did and one day he was telling me I’ve been so busy today I didn’t make any preparations for me he used the word (Lam Yah?) meaning that in traditionally Tibet you did not have hotels and motels so whatever you go the journey you make you carry your own food you carry your own blankets and cans and whatever you need you have to carry because not necessarily there’s a city or town or village available and there’s certainly no motels or hotels so you have to make all preparations those preparations are called (Lam Yah?) in Tibetan so he said well I haven’t made any (Lam Yah?) for me today so he doesn’t need (Lam Yah?) for show but he’s reminding us that we have to make our (Lam Yah?) every day you know what I mean so every day we have awareness awareness helps us to build the (Lam Yah?) the things you need for journey so this (Lam Yah?) becomes very handy to you at the moment of death actually it is more important and more valuable and more helpful than that of your life insurance true your life insurance is well it may be materializing and maturing at that time but you have nothing to do with that maybe some lawyers probably you know probably using that thing so this is better than life insurance that doesn’t mean you don’t have to have life insurance either it is also useful for people who are (?) So it is very important to balancing the spiritual way of looking and the material way of functioning both have to be balancing so you do need not only life insurance you also need karmic insurance too so you need both so balancing it you know. So that’s what it is that is the reason why our karma whether it is more positive karma or negative Karma what you have and that makes us to be able to click the positive karmic life or negative karmic life so that’s what it is and that’s the reason why purification is become important in all the spiritual practice whatever tradition might be the purification is very important that is the true reason why purification is the one which purifies negative Karma when you purify your negative Karma you become rich with positive karma so you’re sure your future is positive are you with me? Thank you and that’s why awareness is important and that’s why every day whatever you do give yourself a little time did I collect my (Lam Yah?) for the today for my future (Lam Yah?) Did I collect or did I not collect so if you did not collect today you try to collect a doubled amount tomorrow so that’s how you build it. So now you may think I mentioned all this so after saying all this you may think the future life is the most important goal of this practice no it’s not future life is important but not the most important the most important is freedom as long as you don’t have the freedom from your neurosis good or bad the future life same thing will repeat repeat the same thing so that’s called Samsara the circle of life so the Buddha said you can cut the chain and get out in the freedom and that is more important than even your future life okay? That’s what it is so we are all working for cutting the chain of continuation of life without our control death birth death birth death birth without our control we are looking for cutting out of death and giving a freedom for ourselves freedom from anger from hatred from jealousy from attachment and ignorance this is more important than the future life. And if that’s the most important no but I won’t talk to you today I keep my mouth shut any questions?

Audience: Often people think that if someone dies in their sleep that is sort of fortunate or lucky because they didn’t have to face something how in the Tibetan tradition you being awake and aware of dying compared to dying when you are sleeping?

Rimpoche: Even if you die in your sleep you go through your processing the individual is aware of it it is not that the individual does not know for us it this looks like he was sleeping and in the sleep he died 10008

But we don’t know what’s going through with that individual particularly we really don’t know when people dying through we simply see outside the physical moment and there after we don’t know anything beyond that so the individual definitely going through with all the processes eight different processes are going through them is it beautiful death beautiful of its own and not necessarily beautiful to everybody some people have terrible difficulties some people have very comfortable easy way of getting out. So it has some problems

Audience: do Buddhists believe in a supreme being and if they do what do they call it

Rimpoche: Buddha

audience: I thought Buddha was a human being

Rimpoche: yes but we all being capable of becoming Buddha once you call it enlightened being be enlightened that’s called enlightened being thats right And a supreme, and that’s a good question, is the Buddhists are atheists? Maybe, maybe

audience: does the amount of pain and suffering just prior to death have any relationship to two burning karma.

Rimpoche: everything is a karmic consequences however you cannot finish your karma by burning it and that would be too much work to do it is better to neutralize and you don’t have to experience much it’s always better because then it will continue keep on continue

audience is it different when someone commits suicide

Rimpoche: no whether you commit suicide by yourself or someone else kills you or you die with the normal death for people who die with an accident the process is much shorter they say if you really died on that moment all these eight difference steps that go through will go through but can be less than a second of each so you may or may not even recognize but they do go through with that process completely and the dying process is the same whatever and how ever you may die whatever causes the people may die the processes is supposed to be the same. Thank you

audience: is this forty nine day period that you mentioned is that accepted it be forty nine days as we know or is time a different term.

Rimpoche: good question it’s complicated we as a human being count human forty nine days but for the person whoever is seeking for the future life it may have a different timing but people who does something through practice through ritual through prayer or dying we keep that human day as the principal counting but you never know.

Audience: are you in contact with other people during this period of time or is that also relative?

Rimpoche: could be really do really do that person doesn’t really know necessarily know that you died so you tell certainly oh how come I feel much better what happened how come so suddenly you begin to find you are jumping here and you find there and you find there and also you find that you would like to live on the trees or under the trees or remaining there or sometimes the rain falls and it becomes so unbearable painful and you find yourself taking shade under a tiny little branch of a tree or something like that so this sort of feeling sort of tell you that you died but sometimes it’s not necessarily individual think that you died at the same time sometimes they also have obstacle to see their old body too some people do see it some people don’t most of them don’t some people begin to see their old dead body and they say hey what happened and they get a shock and they die again, it is really true they die again it’s not necessarily that they live seven days any shock and the Bardowa can die.

audience: you mentioned that when you go though the whitish feeling that is a separation from the sperm from the male and the egg from the female how is that going to work when they start cloning people you have a female cell injected into a female egg

Rimpoche: I have no idea (audience laughs) but I’m not going to rule out possibilities I’m quite sure it can work but it is very hard for me to accept it will be the same person from whom you had what you call it taking the cells I will have a very hard to accept that will be the same person but they will definitely be a clone duplication of a human being I don’t see why not even before they produce the sheep I always think they can I’m quite sure there’ll be a different being there a different being is that your children I’m not sure I don’t know is that your extension yes it is your extension as far as the physical is concerned it might not be your extension as far as your consciousness is concerned there are zillions of consciousness waiting to take a human rebirth so they all easily to click it’s possible lady over here?

Audience: do Buddhists believe in the end of the world?

Rimpoche: yes but not one big boom. Destruction will be gradually done it’s already begin we have all sort of fire and flood and this and that an excess of snow and excess of water and excess of dryness oh definitely but it will be a slow process rather than a whole big boom.

Audience: you talk about choices and I was wondering what you thought or what you would conclude about fate or predetermination?

Rimpoche: Predetermination is a little difficult in the Buddhist principle we believe that we are responsible to ourselves that is a very important key so we are responsible to ourselves and therefore whatever our future going to be we will be doing it whether it is pre-designed by some other than yourself probably no but it is your own karma it will be there you don’t have a choice but someone else did not put that on you either it is your own deed that will come back to you whether it is good one or a bad one if it’s a bad one it will harm you if it’s a good one it will make you joyful.

Audience: I work with hospice

Rimpoche: that is great work

Audience: we use medication quite heavily at the end of life I’ve been reading this book the “Tibetan Book of Living and Dying” and in it he seems to allude to the fact that use of medications may not be helpful for the person that it may take away from the experience of dying or the experience of learning could you address that at all?

Rimpoche: I don’t know but medication will probably medication may disturb the alertness of the individual and that way if the individual has some practice if the individual has something to do or something to think something to use and then it may be an obstacle little bit but if the individual doesn’t have any practice or anything to think the alertness will not be that much different to the individual I would rather have them to have medication it less pain for sure that’s what I feel I’m sure that (?) Rimpoche who is the author of the Tibetan book living and dying will probably be a great being but that’s my personal opinion. Last week I was in Cleveland 11050

at the Case Western Reserve Medical School’s continuing medical education with a Tibetan doctor who was visiting from Dharamsala and one of the physicians in there asked a question saying that what do you think about giving heavy medication which has a strong side effect and such a side effect may even shorten the life of the individual and what do you think? that was the question and the Tibetan doctor he was an older gentleman seventy four or seventy five years old and he was brought up in Tibet before nineteen fifty nine and after fifty nine he was put in a Communist Chinese prison for a long time and he came out of the prison in the nineteen eighties and came up to Dharamsala and became the Dalai Lama’s personal physician he was even before nineteen fifty nine and he become now he was shocked and surprised and he said what kind of medication is that so the translator said some chemical combination together and I said the question is, what would you do? he said we don’t have such medication we don’t have such a medication and we don’t give a medication that harms the people and I said maybe not harming but maybe it is getting better but in the long run maybe it shortens life but I can’t say it kills the person but I won’t give it and that was sort of his answer so I have nothing to interpret on that just just have to leave it there.

Audience: would you be able to share what your game plan will be at the time of your death?

Rimpoche: (he laughs) wonderful question! I only hope I will have the separation of the body and the consciousness without much suffering.

Audience: that kind of fits with what I was going to ask you how important is it as far as your mindfulness at the time of your death and the content of your consciousness and what effect can it have on you in making your transition?

Rimpoche: Death itself is such a subtle mind very is subtle mind so therefore in that period there is no awareness for whatsoever in the period before that where there is a little awareness which is extremely important what does people do when you die what do people do when you die if you have a spiritual practice what would you do?

Audience: Prayer

Rimpoche: Pray! yeah why not? It depends on the individual if you have great wisdom and understanding of the nature of reality you focus on that it is the truly showing you everything whatever you have experienced is once like a dream and it is gone it is the true face of the nature of reality so you have an understanding of emptiness what you call it the wisdom understanding the nature of reality you focus on that and intensify your understanding of emptiness and go with that if you were incapable of doing that and then you focus on compassion love, die with compassion, live with compassion, and die with compassion that is the second choice and if you are not capable of that then pray (audience laughs) yeah really pray when you’re in life pray when you’re dying and even if you’re not capable of that then think positively don’t submit yourself to neurosis think positive (?) Like Timothy Leary thinking of space, thinking of space positiveness and people near you can help you to remind the person when you go through that stage and these are the possibilities you have you can do this you can say this that’s why Timothy Leary got upset why and why not after I talked to him on the phone that’s what I’m saying space thinking so that’s it when I was told he said why I got worried and afterwards they told me he said why not lie down (?) (Rimpoche and audience laughs)

audience: somehow I got into me that when you have these agitated emotions such as anger jealousy attachment delusion (?) this is kind like a pre-mature Bardo script already you are already experiencing a kind of after death experience (?) and you talked about that too and the second thing is kind of a thought along the way that I picked up years ago that kind of supports the medic idea

if we can see it as death and the proper whole process to that it can be very sacred but also at the same time you are dying you are being born right once you can really get into that things being born (?)

Rimpoche: you are absolutely right to go with your first question the agitated state what you have here is actually the Bardowas life intensified like a hundred thousand times more than what we experience the body is very fragile mental body so they die most of the Bardowas deaths are because of agitated state of mind shock and they also I didn’t even talk about the bad part of it the bad part of it is something that’s horrible people get caught in the fear caught in some kind of avalanche or stuck buried under of eighty feet of snow or something or you are caught in the cyclone and carried by air all sorts of terrible.....

Audience: (?) Said that you can say that this is just a projections of your mind (?)

Rimpoche: you can say that now (audience laughs:) it is only a projection of your mind and it’s not a reality but it is a true way of doing it but will that work? it is very difficult if you yourself if you are thrown out in a haunted house in a dark room and you said oh ghost is only a projection of my mind and I’m not going to worry about it you can say that and say it loud enough but suddenly when you hear the door open (Rimpoche make a sound like a ghost) OHHHH (audience and Rimpoche laughs) and a very similar thing can happen at the proper stages so that’s what it is anyway I think I better call it a day and thank you so much for being here week after week really and I do hope this will have some benefit for you when it is complete and worked out together and so some benefit to thank you