INTRODUCTION: DEATH IS NOT ALL.
The moment of death is the most important moment for every human being. Whether you are Oriental or Western, whether you are Buddhist or any other religion, religious or atheist - all the same, nothing different. The moment when the soul leaves the body will be a very important turning point as it will take you on a journey into a mysterious world.
When the last minute is over, you will stand at a crossroads. If you have prepared in advance, you will be ready to walk comfortably and confidently, like an eagle flying up into the sky. If you do not prepare in advance, according to Buddhist teachings, you will drift forever in the cycle of samsara.
Most people do not like to talk about death though it can not be avoided and can happen at any time. To think of death is to be afraid, let alone discuss death. For some people, there is no question of dying because they are so busy with the work of everyday life.
Although there are some who believe in the afterlife, many still think that death is the end, nothing more.
Today we are in the golden age of science and technology and we have a great knowledge of life but we do not know anything about death. Science and technology often do not give us information about whether our consciousness is still there after the last breath. Serious research on this issue is often dismissed by the medical and scientific community. In times of this skepticism, people often hesitate to believe that there is a future after fear of being ridiculed, superficial or naive.
Whenever we open up the television, we can see dramatic images of death - fictional deaths in movies or short videos about people around the world who die of illness or illness. because of violence. But we rarely see the natural and genuine images of ordinary people as they die or die. Is it that we often hear the flowery eulogy and see the body is placed neatly in the coffin of luxury flowers. If we dare to look closely at the realities of samsara, we will see the ever-changing cycles of existence that all beings must experience from birth to death and rebirth.
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE KILL?
The great religions of the world agree that death is not the end, and that a "something" still exists, but that the religions give different details and interpretations. The mind, consciousness, soul, spirit - whatever we call it - will continue to exist in one form or another. Buddhism defines "mind" (Tibetan: sem, sems , Sanskrit: chitta ) as the essential essence that remains after the body dies. Although our bodies disintegrate into the elements that make up it, our consciousness and consciousness are still and will be reincarnated in another life.
When we are alive, mind with the body, both create mundane form and give us a body. So throughout life, we always feel that we are a person with such a body. The effects of the environment and cultural habits also create a character for us. We have the feeling that our bodies and things, phenomena in the material world around us are sustainable; All the things that arise in our consciousness, which our senses perceive, seem completely real, outside of us and separate from our mind.
But at the moment of our death, all that diminishes. The mind is separated from the physical body and the body begins to rot. As soon as the mind leaves the body, what we see and the emotions we have in life will change completely. What we experience after death will be totally dependent on our mind, depending on the mental tendencies and familiar thoughts we have created and nurtured while we live.
If our mind is calm and happy, whatever we do is a manifestation of peace. What we say are gentle words. And so all our actions become good and we become a source of peace to all who come into contact with us. At the moment of death - when we are away from the bodily limbs, cultural constraints and the effects of the environment - we are free to enjoy the peace that is real the mind of us. Likewise, if in our life we learn how to properly meditate on death, all phenomena before us will appear as a world of peace and wisdom.
But if our mind is immersed in negative emotions like hatred, what we think is caused by the thoughts and emotions of burning anger. What we say and do will be the manifestation of anger. Peace will never get the chance to shine in our hearts. Our suffering will become a source of anger and suffering for those close to us. When we die, we may encounter a world of flames of hell - a manifestation of our own anger.
INDUSTRY, LAW ON NATURAL RESOURCES
The great religions in the world agree that the life of the good person, or help others will lead to a happy, happy birth. Meanwhile, the life of a person full of hatred and cruel will bring severe consequences. Christianity, for example, praises good deeds and works of charity, and Jews urge people to do good deeds according to God's command. Buddhists speak the blessings that we accumulate by fostering positive thoughts and actions. These religions and many other religions accept that there is a natural law of karma in the universe. Karma is the word that Buddhists use to refer to this law of cause and effect, which governs everything. Every act or thought that comes from our will becomes the cause of the resulting effect. In particular, Buddhism teaches in detail what specific behaviors will have consequences. In general, thoughts, emotions, words and positive behaviors create happiness; Conversely, negative behaviors and thoughts bring suffering - these are the manifestations of samsara.
All of our negative emotions, as well as our usual patterns of thinking, are rooted in what Buddhism calls clinging and binary notions that distinguish subject and object. Nagarjuna, one of the great philosophers of Buddhism, said: "All sentient beings are from the ego." It means that the tendency of our mind to cling to and attach to the objects of thought and awareness is the cause of our being born into the dualistic world.
Falling is the way of the mind perceiving its objects by seeing them as real entities that exist. The object of the mind consists of all phenomena arising in our consciousness, such as "me", "he", "him", "her", "money" or "table" as well as ideas, emotions and feelings like "pain". As soon as we cling to an object of the mind and insist that it is real, we have formed the subject-object dualism. Then the concept of "like" and "hate" the object of that mind will arise, which will further tighten our attachment to the object of the mind. Finally, there will be happy or painful emotions, intense emotions and heavy stress.
In the Buddhist view, "self" consists of "me" and "mine", but it also includes all phenomena arising in our consciousness. However, in terms of the highest level of Buddhism, there is no "self" as a real and permanent entity. Therefore, our attitude of self-attachment, based on ignorance. However, because we are in the bondage of kamma, our thoughts and actions of ignorance bring us suffering that is very real to us.
The clinging circle continues to repeat itself constantly as the causal order, the karmic law of life. The law of karma produces and strengthens the afflictions (Sanskrit: kleshasuch as kissing, hatred, stinginess, greed, jealousy, arrogance and fear. These defilements are rooted in egoism as the cause of rebirth, while positive minds are the means of deliverance.
Impermanent circumstances: life, death and rebirth take place not by our choice or by chance. No one else creates these situations for us. They are the reflections and reactions of our thoughts, words and actions. Therefore, we must train our minds and practice regularly to ensure that death and peaceful rebirth are attained.
BIRTH QUESTION FROM BIRTH
The endless cycle of birth and death in Sanskrit is called samsara. Sometimes it is depicted in the image of the wheel spinning nonstop. The cycle of samsara is divided into four periods, representing four different stages of experience.
1. The stage of life begins when we are conceived and terminate with an infirmity or a cause of death. Every moment of existence is also considered as a stage of life, arising and dissolving into an endless chain of ever-changing events between birth and death, wake and sleep, happiness and suffering.
2. The stage of death begins with an inability to pass or another cause and undergoes a complete decay when material, mental, and emotional elements dissolve. This stage ends with our breathing stopped.
3. The ultimate nature of the stage begins at the moment when the "light of the mind" - which is the true nature of the mind - appears. This stage is characterized by the immediate emergence of "illuminated illusions" - the appearance not only of light but also of sound and image. This stage ends when these illusions disappear. However, ordinary people do not realize these glowing illusions are indicative of their very nature. On the contrary, they view them as objects to fear or to cling to. For them, this experience only occurs in a short moment because they will fall into inanimate state.
4. A transitional or intermediate phase, beginning when the illusions disappear or when we begin to consciously return. This stage ends when we begin to be reborn.
In the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, all four stages described above are considered bardo - an intermediate or transitional stage - because each stage is between two other stages. Thus, our life is also called the medium, although it may sound strange, as it is a transition between birth and death. However, many people use only special intermediate words to indicate the time between death and rebirth - an important time, full of lively experiences and giving us valuable opportunities to determine the future. of me. Therefore, in this book I also use the word medium to refer to the fourth stage, the period between the moments of ultimate nature and the next rebirth.
OVERVIEW OF THE MEDICAL CENTER
To illustrate what might happen when we walk through the threshold of death and what we might encounter on the other side, I translated and recounted some of the strange stories in the Buddha's text. Tibetans of meditators have left their bodies for many days to travel around the invisible world. These meditators, called delogies , or "returning from the dead," reentered their bodies, documenting their incredible journeys: most of the hells and the higher realms.
The Pure Land is the extremely peaceful paradise where the Buddhas, the enlightened ones, have for compassion turned out so that the devotees are reborn there without having to attain sublime. Being reborn in pure land does not mean gaining enlightenment. But once we are reborn in the Pure Land, we will progress continuously to attain enlightenment.
Some deloges (ie, the departed ones go to the dead and return) recount their visits to the Pure Land, where they receive the teachings of the Buddhas. Some people focus more on depicting meditating with judicial trials and in various realms where ordinary beings can be reborn, such as the precepts of the pre-emptiness and the gods.
The stories of the delog very touching. Most of these people are very devout and are brought back to this world by the enlightened ones to tell us what awaits us ahead and how we must prepare for it. there. Each story is a gift to us, because by opening the door we can see countless future realities, after the present life, people from the dead return to open their eyes. of us and make us live better in our present life.
According to the experience of the delog, we are shared about the secrets that will become important in determining where we will reincarnate. We see the power of spiritual practices to purify our negative behaviors and ideas. We are aware of the power of prayer to help those who die have a better life. We observe sincerity - essentially a clever way to open our minds - which enables lama and revered beings to intervene for sentient beings in the middle period and lead them to the pure land.
The majority of souls returning from the dead carry messages from their relatives to their friends and relatives. Private messages with urgent need reinforce the basic message, advises us to change our lives while we are human and are given the opportunity to change.
In the West, those who have died clinically and resurrected sometimes have "near-death experiences." Although near-death experiences have many similarities with the experience of delusions , the near-death experience lasts only a few minutes, while the experiences of delusions often last many days. Those who pass away into the dead and return seem to go deeper into the realm after death.
I have many posts of these delog . But because of the limited number of pages, I only included in this book a small portion of those articles. The stories you will read in Chapters 2, 3 and 5 usually date from the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century (but not all have dates). However, delog is not a new phenomenon. Nor are they all Tibetans. We will discuss these in the teachings of the Buddha.
When reading these stories, some readers may wonder why the stories are in Tibetan cultural nuances, and the descriptions are the same as in traditional Tibetan Buddhist images. Why these delog This only meets the people who are known as Tibetans? Why do the judges look like judges in the traditional Buddhist image?
The important answer is that the scene that appears before our eyes in the middle of the body is a reflection of our habits and emotions. Anything we see and experience after death is consistent with our way of thinking that is shaped by our culture and belief. All of us - children or adults, devout or atheistic - are all affected by the habit of perceiving things that we have gathered. Because the delogs are Tibetan Buddhists or those who are close to Buddhism, they perceive things according to that vision.
However, while our habits are different in detail because we live in different cultures, we all - regardless of where we live - share the same way of looking at things in a different way. Think of the good work is rewarded, bad work is punished. We often live in hope and fear under the magical eyes of all that a mighty man or a magistrate imagines. Therefore, when we live without morality, we fear being judged, and after death we find a judge who pronounces a severe sentence against us.
In fact, there is no judge outside of us. No sentence at all. Our after-death experiences are just the dividends we receive from our spiritual and emotional investments. That is why the great Indian master Shantideva spoke about the realm of hell:
Who created the burning halls of hell?
Where did the fire come from?
The Buddha said:
"All are [reflections of] your unwholesome mind"
We can all see the power above us in the middle body. Tibetan documents depict a court ruled by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his assistants. In other cultures and beliefs, there is a divine sitting judge, a book in which an angel records merit and sin, or a balance to weigh good deeds. People who experience death in the West often depict "life renditions" in which they are encouraged to judge their own lives. However, all have one thing in common is that positive habits and actions will bring happiness, whereas negative habits and behaviors will lead to suffering.
REGENERATION
After leaving the middle body, we will be reborn with a form and another body. Just as our experience in the middle relies on our karmic actions, our mental and emotional tendencies, and our spiritual level, This is also the effect that will determine our rebirth.
It is possible to recognize our true nature - or our intrinsic sense - in the middle body, or in any of the four stages of life. If we can maintain that awareness, we will be fully enlightened, forever free from rebirth in the cycle of birth and death of ignorance. However, enlightenment requires years of pure dedication; It is impossible to attain enlightenment by attending only weekend seminars or meditation sessions in a few years. Successful practitioners - great masters who have attained enlightenment - can attain enlightenment and then choose to reincarnate themselves rather than reincarnate in the past. Their ordinary karma ceases or has been overcome. For them,
If we are always looking for enlightenment and always follow the path of good deeds, one day we will attain the goal of enlightenment. But the path that the full practitioners are going through is now ordinary people as we can not think of because we have not attained spirituality. As a result of the previous kamma, ordinary people like us will inevitably reincarnate into the six realms of samsara (described in chapter 6 "Rebirth").
Those who have spiritual practice and many blessings will enjoy future life in happy worlds. If we are calm, kind, caring and helpful, and if we create merit in words as well as in doing, we will be reborn in peaceful realms, bliss and goodness. If in this life we learn to look, think, feel and believe in the existence of a pure land, we will reincarnate into a pure land by virtue of the mental habits we have adopted. nourish Such a pure land is not the ultimate pure land of enlightenment, but a pure land which is very peaceful. We not only enjoy the peace of the pure land, but we also radiate the infinite blessings of the pure land to those who are willing to receive them. We will still be under the control of karmic law, but this will be a happy karmic cycle. Living a life of how to be reborn in such a pure land is a very real thing and many people can do it, and we must make that life our top priority. .
What about ordinary people with life filled with negative emotions? If our minds are engulfed in greed, hatred and delusion, we will surely face terrible reincarnation as a consequence of that sinking. As we go through the four transitional stages, the negative consequences of our negativity will be as if we are wearing black glasses that make what we see is dark. Rather than the familiar scenes we see when we are alive, now all around us are images, sounds, fears and miseries. These will be scenes that arise in our consciousness as the result of the very common negative mood we nurture while we are alive.
Many of us, whether or not we admit it, day after day stick to it and cherish it. This is a process that we are unaware of. Although outside of us may not think we are such "bad guys", but maybe somewhere in the soul, we are immersed in the feelings of malicious, selfish and desirable that the background modern culture encourages. We must not deceive ourselves anymore and begin to change our way of life from today while we are still fortunate to have the body and may have some degree of choice. Once we are dead, we will not be able to change because karma has already taken control. Force will push us into rebirth, may not be born into the human realm, and in those realms, We can not practice and we will not have spiritual progress. We will wander through the cycle of life and death endless suffering and suffering.
OUR FUTURE CHANGE
It is important to reiterate that the realms of hell or purity in which we can go or reincarnate are not world systems outside of us and are somewhere. The experiences of bliss or suffering in the various world systems after our death are only reflections of our karmic tendencies. It is like a dream journey, created by the very attachments of our mind. We should keep this in mind when we read about the consequences of karma. The mind develops its own experiences of happiness and suffering after death as a result of the tendencies that we have experienced through many lives. Due to the arising of the mind, these experiences also occur in the mind, not in any other place.
It is equally important to know that as long as we are alive we can still change and improve our future. Of course we are always subject to the limits of the laws of physics and the environment. But when we die, our minds will be less constrained by external forces. So, we will be motivated by the tendencies inherent in our minds that we have nurtured in the past. That is why the best way to improve our quality of life, death and the next life is to change our habits of thinking and feeling from good to good.
Thus, we have three options ahead when there is still time:
We can continue to endure the suffering of this life as we often endure without taking the opportunity to make a difference. The kamma of the mind, the afflictions, and the external situations will determine where we go in the next life. Then we will have no chance of happiness.
We can try to get the happiest and healthy state that ordinary samsara can bring. If we can live happily, happily, help and love others, we can be sure of a happier and healthier future, at least for a short time.
Or we can go through the cycle of birth and death and attain an eternally supreme state of peace called nirvana. Such an attainment can only be attained through the understanding of absolute truth through meditation, and is supported by proper ways of thinking, feeling and serving the other.
If we allow our minds to move in the right direction, what steps will we take that lead us closer to what we have aimed for?
The meditations and practices described in this book are mainly based on the rituals of the Buddha Sensei ( Amitabha ) and the Pure Land ( Sukhavati).) your. But there are also other Buddhas and other Pure Land where the ritual can still be used, and even the prayers of other religions which are not Buddhist but of a similar nature will also bring about the effect. fruit. It is important for us to prepare in advance by ritually reflecting in a ritual connected to a certain source of blessings.
In this book the phrase of the source of the blessing It refers to an object that we honor, pray or rely on and it is a person who can protect and protect us. The source of grace can be a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, a saint, a sage, or a great teacher. Any object of the mind is a powerful source of blessings if it has good qualities and is perceived by the mind as good. Those who are dying and those who die and those who help them must rely on the blessings of their blessings for prayer, meditation or ritual. The ultimate source of blessings is within ourselves, because we all have sense. However, when we have not yet realized our own potential, we still have to rely on a source of blessings outside to awaken our own nature and spiritual qualities.
In Tibetan Buddhism, repeating prayers of a source of blessings, such as reciting the name of the Buddha of Light, is one of the most popular ways to reach and receive the blessing of Germany. Buddha. The Buddha of Amitabha Buddha (Amitabha Buddha) freed the beings to recite his name with sincerity, just as a mother ran to her son when she heard the cry: "Mother "
One of my colleagues once asked the great meditation teacher Yokhog Chatralwa to give him some instructions on the Great Teaching ( Dzogchen ). Chatralwa replied like this without mentioning the Great Teachings:
First of all, try to recite the Buddha 's name 100 times a day. Then try to increase to 200, 300 times a day and keep going like that. If you can continue to recite each day more then a day will come at whatever you are doing what you feel the title of Buddha in place of his breath and the presence of the Buddha in my heart you will die with the title of the Buddha and to sense the presence of him, thanks to Germany, thanks to the blessing of Buddha and habits sincere devotees of you, all perception of you will Born as the Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light. Your future will be peaceful and happy. You will become a source of benefit to many others. That's great!
Even though I did not know it at that time, many years later I began to understand the words of the great Zen master, which was profound and meaningful.
If we have practiced mindfulness to see all as a Buddha and his pure land, even if we encounter negative images, sounds or emotions in the middle body, those will not be able to harm me and everything will become good phenomena. Just as we have a nightmare: if we realize that it is only a dream and an illusion, we can instantly turn it into harmless, which causes our attackers to disappear. go like dew in the sun early. Similarly, if we are aware of any frightening experience in the middle body as an illusion or as a pure land, that experience will become harmless and positive. The scary gods will turn into enlightened angels of wisdom and love, as we shall see later.
But we must start practicing right now, before death comes to us. If you practice everyday and many times a day, we will not be embarrassed when that important hour comes.
DEATH AND CEREMONIES FOR the dying
We have seen that we can do something to help themselves arrange important transition period of death. But the death of others, including those who have never had the opportunity to practice any prior doctrine? Can we, the living, help them?
Every religion has rituals or prayers to assist the dead or the dying, and comfort to the living. For example, in traditional Judaism, the dying people must read a confession and repentance, and others must help them do so if they have lost their ability. Once a person dies, relatives, periodically, will chant the Kadish - a Jew praising the name of God. In Islam, people gathered to pray the collective pray for the divine to forgive the dead. In Catholicism, there is a sacramental blessing for one person at the moment of death, the soul prayer for the dead and the funeral. Tibetan Buddhism also has a rich tradition of sacrifice for the dead and the dying.
In my turbulent life, I have had direct experiences in the household of the death of great masters, close friends and even people who are completely unfamiliar. Some are respected, powerful, and many people mourn. Some are poor people, no one is care, no one knows.
Since I was five years old, I lived and grew up in the Dodrupchen monastery - a famous monastery of Buddhism and meditation in East Tibet. Along with my brothers and sisters, I spent my whole life studying Buddhist teachings, chanting and meditation. After completing the initial practice, we study and meditate on higher teachings and begin work on community service. We are taught to help the dead and their relatives by sincerely praying, celebrating rituals, teaching catechism and meditating on the elaborate Tibetan Buddhist scriptures of the ritual. for the dead.
Trying to care for a dead person by celebrating the funeral may be the saddest moment, but also the most serene and serene moments in our lives. We do not wish for anything else as we use all the support that may come from our hearts to help this dying person on his or her important journey into the future. mysterious world. Beside a dying person or a dead person, the prayers from our hearts are taken up with our whole body and mind. The truth of life, the fragility of life exposed naked in front of us. For people who have just passed this life all the public, career, money suddenly dissipated. Even their most beloved body became humble, cold, cold,
The ceremony for the dying and the dying is among the most important rituals we perform to serve the community. Often, I assist older lamas to perform these ceremonies, but sometimes I also lead a group of lamas to celebrate the ceremony. On several occasions I presided over several weeks of rituals (I will sketch it out in Chapter 9). Often, we celebrate one or two hours of shorter ceremonies.
We are sitting right next to the dying person or dead body when performing the ceremony for that person. All rituals follow the basic steps: First, we begin by opening the mind with devotion towards the source of blessings, such as the Buddha of Infinite Light. Then we direct our mind to the dying or the dead with great compassion and unconditional love from the bottom of our hearts. With such an attitude of devotion and compassion, we begin the main rite: prayer, meditation and blessing from the source of the blessing of ourselves and the dead. Finally we see, feel and visualize all as one with absolute peace of mind. Finally, we dedicate the merit that we have created to the dead and to all sentient beings in our past lives as mothers and wish that the dead would be reborn in the Pure Land or reborn. born happy
I do not dare to give you the impression that I have the power to change the fate of another person or that I have the special ability to see a dying person. Where will the dead go? But thanks to my belief in the Buddha's teachings, after celebrating these rituals with great respect and affection, at least I myself feel very relaxed. I also feel grateful: "How fortunate I am to have the opportunity to be with these people the moment they need me most to try to help them in the best way I can." At the same time, I was careful not to go beyond my own spiritual, physical and spiritual limits.
Many ceremonies for the dying or dying are pleasant occasions with festive atmosphere as people recall all the peace that the lost have brought to them when these people are alive. . But there are moments of grief and disappointment when the separation between the living and the dead is too harsh; No one can reach the dead even though one can touch their body. The minds of the dead are in deep darkness, into a world of mysterious and lonely. Sitting next to the bed of the dead, looking directly at the fragility of life, we do not know where there is a safe place to hide. It is always a very strong call to awaken.
DEATH OF ONE SALESMAN
My first contact with death was a great source of joy and a great celebration. There is a great monk named Sonam Tragpa from the tribe Wangrol, my mother's tribe in Golok province in Eastern Tibet. The people of the tribe called him Pushul. He lived and taught in a small ascetic monastery far away from our monastery, it took two days to get to the horse. He is a great teacher and scholar, author of numerous treatises, and a great teacher of tantric meditation and great teachings, but his main prayers and reflections are The Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light.
Pushul died when he was about 60 years old. I was at a very young age. As soon as his messengers came to our monastery, I, along with my teacher, Kyala Khenpo and others rushed to the galloping horse to come to him. We went to his hermitage and it was already dark and we were welcomed by monks and Buddhist mourners.
I have a special relationship with Pushul. He was one of the teachers who realized, right after I was born, that I was the incarnation, or tulku , of his chief teacher. He is also the most important lama in my mother's tribal community. Therefore, I have a special duty to take care of your funeral.
At the instruction of my teacher, Kyala Khenpo, I went alone into the room of Pushul's lama. His body was lying in bed as a lying lion, a meditative posture. I was young so I did not think much about it, but I felt the room and the area was absolutely quiet. I touched his heart and I felt a bit warm, even though he died 48 hours ago. This is a sign that his mind is still in the state of immersion within his body. I told Khenpo, and he said, "No one is allowed to enter his room and not make any noise around the house, until his entering is finished." All prayers or rituals continued, but in tents far removed from his temple. Traditionally, even the proclamation of the death of a lama has been kept confidential for several days, but this is not the case. Sadness spread quickly in the tribal areas.
When I checked Pushul's lama the next morning, I felt the warmth in his heart was gone, so the four monks were invited. They bathed his body with artichoke juice, wiped dry with new white towels, and completed the preparations necessary to keep his body for days. Then they put him on a throne in the lotus position, wearing a robe, with a crown on his head. His hands were crossed at the heart, one of his hands holding the trinket and the other holding the bell. Flowers, lights, food and other supplies were placed on two low tables in front of him. I know very well that he himself will want the simplest funeral, but it has become a well-organized funeral because everyone in the community wants it.
Although there are only about three dozen monks in this ascetic monastery, each line of people from all walks of life goes to the monastery at night, praying and mourning.
During that time, we found a paper on it written by Pushul himself. The content is as follows: "As soon as I die, I will be reborn in the Pure Land. I have recited the Prajnaparamita Prajnaparamita, composed of 15 books, 108 times, and have reflected on the profound meaning of the Sutras in this life. Therefore, my name will be the Bodhisattva Sherab Nyingpo [Wisdom Heart]. Whoever prays with honor will be protected for all dangers that may be encountered in life. I will lead them into the Pure Land when they die. "
He ended his writings with the following five long lines for the followers to read:
In the Pure Land of Pure Land, Sherab Nyingpo.
In Snow Land [Tibetans] who used to be Sonam Tragpa.
The future will be the Infinite Buddha.
My lama - pray to you.
Bless us the birth of the Ultimate Powers.
This letter surprised us, because Pushul was famous for his humility and sincerity. He never said anything different to his true thoughts. Surprisingly, it was not the content of what he wrote because we all respected him, but it was his writing.
In the early morning of the eighth day, his body was cremated in a newly built stupa. The monks are busy carrying out cremation ceremonies. Crowds of worshipers stood on the hillside, trying to walk around cremation grounds to pay homage, chanting prayers. The whole funeral atmosphere was completely transformed into a joyful celebration of prayer, the echo of prayer and the music of the festival. I have never felt so much energy in deep sorrows, and many of the sounds of sincere devotion come from so many hearts, all blended into a magnificent ceremony.
Pushul's death clearly shows a great realization. As a child, he was a mentally retarded boy and his family had to bind him to stop him from hurting himself and others. But thanks to prayer and meditation, he has completely transformed himself and has attained the insignificant belief in rebirth in the Pureland of Pure Land and will lead all believers to the Pure Land. . Until today, I have never known anyone who is wise, cheerful and kind than you.
In his example, we can also transform us. We can also gain joy and confidence in fear and fear in life and death.
Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a late-stage psychoanalyst, leader in changing attitudes towards death and caring for the dying in the United States, reflected a similar view when she spoke. "The only thing clear in my efforts is the importance of life. I always say that death can be one of the greatest experiences. If every day you live well, you have nothing to fear. "END=NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.7/11/2018.
When the last minute is over, you will stand at a crossroads. If you have prepared in advance, you will be ready to walk comfortably and confidently, like an eagle flying up into the sky. If you do not prepare in advance, according to Buddhist teachings, you will drift forever in the cycle of samsara.
Most people do not like to talk about death though it can not be avoided and can happen at any time. To think of death is to be afraid, let alone discuss death. For some people, there is no question of dying because they are so busy with the work of everyday life.
Although there are some who believe in the afterlife, many still think that death is the end, nothing more.
Today we are in the golden age of science and technology and we have a great knowledge of life but we do not know anything about death. Science and technology often do not give us information about whether our consciousness is still there after the last breath. Serious research on this issue is often dismissed by the medical and scientific community. In times of this skepticism, people often hesitate to believe that there is a future after fear of being ridiculed, superficial or naive.
Whenever we open up the television, we can see dramatic images of death - fictional deaths in movies or short videos about people around the world who die of illness or illness. because of violence. But we rarely see the natural and genuine images of ordinary people as they die or die. Is it that we often hear the flowery eulogy and see the body is placed neatly in the coffin of luxury flowers. If we dare to look closely at the realities of samsara, we will see the ever-changing cycles of existence that all beings must experience from birth to death and rebirth.
WHAT HAPPENS IF WE KILL?
The great religions of the world agree that death is not the end, and that a "something" still exists, but that the religions give different details and interpretations. The mind, consciousness, soul, spirit - whatever we call it - will continue to exist in one form or another. Buddhism defines "mind" (Tibetan: sem, sems , Sanskrit: chitta ) as the essential essence that remains after the body dies. Although our bodies disintegrate into the elements that make up it, our consciousness and consciousness are still and will be reincarnated in another life.
When we are alive, mind with the body, both create mundane form and give us a body. So throughout life, we always feel that we are a person with such a body. The effects of the environment and cultural habits also create a character for us. We have the feeling that our bodies and things, phenomena in the material world around us are sustainable; All the things that arise in our consciousness, which our senses perceive, seem completely real, outside of us and separate from our mind.
But at the moment of our death, all that diminishes. The mind is separated from the physical body and the body begins to rot. As soon as the mind leaves the body, what we see and the emotions we have in life will change completely. What we experience after death will be totally dependent on our mind, depending on the mental tendencies and familiar thoughts we have created and nurtured while we live.
If our mind is calm and happy, whatever we do is a manifestation of peace. What we say are gentle words. And so all our actions become good and we become a source of peace to all who come into contact with us. At the moment of death - when we are away from the bodily limbs, cultural constraints and the effects of the environment - we are free to enjoy the peace that is real the mind of us. Likewise, if in our life we learn how to properly meditate on death, all phenomena before us will appear as a world of peace and wisdom.
But if our mind is immersed in negative emotions like hatred, what we think is caused by the thoughts and emotions of burning anger. What we say and do will be the manifestation of anger. Peace will never get the chance to shine in our hearts. Our suffering will become a source of anger and suffering for those close to us. When we die, we may encounter a world of flames of hell - a manifestation of our own anger.
INDUSTRY, LAW ON NATURAL RESOURCES
The great religions in the world agree that the life of the good person, or help others will lead to a happy, happy birth. Meanwhile, the life of a person full of hatred and cruel will bring severe consequences. Christianity, for example, praises good deeds and works of charity, and Jews urge people to do good deeds according to God's command. Buddhists speak the blessings that we accumulate by fostering positive thoughts and actions. These religions and many other religions accept that there is a natural law of karma in the universe. Karma is the word that Buddhists use to refer to this law of cause and effect, which governs everything. Every act or thought that comes from our will becomes the cause of the resulting effect. In particular, Buddhism teaches in detail what specific behaviors will have consequences. In general, thoughts, emotions, words and positive behaviors create happiness; Conversely, negative behaviors and thoughts bring suffering - these are the manifestations of samsara.
All of our negative emotions, as well as our usual patterns of thinking, are rooted in what Buddhism calls clinging and binary notions that distinguish subject and object. Nagarjuna, one of the great philosophers of Buddhism, said: "All sentient beings are from the ego." It means that the tendency of our mind to cling to and attach to the objects of thought and awareness is the cause of our being born into the dualistic world.
Falling is the way of the mind perceiving its objects by seeing them as real entities that exist. The object of the mind consists of all phenomena arising in our consciousness, such as "me", "he", "him", "her", "money" or "table" as well as ideas, emotions and feelings like "pain". As soon as we cling to an object of the mind and insist that it is real, we have formed the subject-object dualism. Then the concept of "like" and "hate" the object of that mind will arise, which will further tighten our attachment to the object of the mind. Finally, there will be happy or painful emotions, intense emotions and heavy stress.
In the Buddhist view, "self" consists of "me" and "mine", but it also includes all phenomena arising in our consciousness. However, in terms of the highest level of Buddhism, there is no "self" as a real and permanent entity. Therefore, our attitude of self-attachment, based on ignorance. However, because we are in the bondage of kamma, our thoughts and actions of ignorance bring us suffering that is very real to us.
The clinging circle continues to repeat itself constantly as the causal order, the karmic law of life. The law of karma produces and strengthens the afflictions (Sanskrit: kleshasuch as kissing, hatred, stinginess, greed, jealousy, arrogance and fear. These defilements are rooted in egoism as the cause of rebirth, while positive minds are the means of deliverance.
Impermanent circumstances: life, death and rebirth take place not by our choice or by chance. No one else creates these situations for us. They are the reflections and reactions of our thoughts, words and actions. Therefore, we must train our minds and practice regularly to ensure that death and peaceful rebirth are attained.
BIRTH QUESTION FROM BIRTH
The endless cycle of birth and death in Sanskrit is called samsara. Sometimes it is depicted in the image of the wheel spinning nonstop. The cycle of samsara is divided into four periods, representing four different stages of experience.
1. The stage of life begins when we are conceived and terminate with an infirmity or a cause of death. Every moment of existence is also considered as a stage of life, arising and dissolving into an endless chain of ever-changing events between birth and death, wake and sleep, happiness and suffering.
2. The stage of death begins with an inability to pass or another cause and undergoes a complete decay when material, mental, and emotional elements dissolve. This stage ends with our breathing stopped.
3. The ultimate nature of the stage begins at the moment when the "light of the mind" - which is the true nature of the mind - appears. This stage is characterized by the immediate emergence of "illuminated illusions" - the appearance not only of light but also of sound and image. This stage ends when these illusions disappear. However, ordinary people do not realize these glowing illusions are indicative of their very nature. On the contrary, they view them as objects to fear or to cling to. For them, this experience only occurs in a short moment because they will fall into inanimate state.
4. A transitional or intermediate phase, beginning when the illusions disappear or when we begin to consciously return. This stage ends when we begin to be reborn.
In the Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, all four stages described above are considered bardo - an intermediate or transitional stage - because each stage is between two other stages. Thus, our life is also called the medium, although it may sound strange, as it is a transition between birth and death. However, many people use only special intermediate words to indicate the time between death and rebirth - an important time, full of lively experiences and giving us valuable opportunities to determine the future. of me. Therefore, in this book I also use the word medium to refer to the fourth stage, the period between the moments of ultimate nature and the next rebirth.
OVERVIEW OF THE MEDICAL CENTER
To illustrate what might happen when we walk through the threshold of death and what we might encounter on the other side, I translated and recounted some of the strange stories in the Buddha's text. Tibetans of meditators have left their bodies for many days to travel around the invisible world. These meditators, called delogies , or "returning from the dead," reentered their bodies, documenting their incredible journeys: most of the hells and the higher realms.
The Pure Land is the extremely peaceful paradise where the Buddhas, the enlightened ones, have for compassion turned out so that the devotees are reborn there without having to attain sublime. Being reborn in pure land does not mean gaining enlightenment. But once we are reborn in the Pure Land, we will progress continuously to attain enlightenment.
Some deloges (ie, the departed ones go to the dead and return) recount their visits to the Pure Land, where they receive the teachings of the Buddhas. Some people focus more on depicting meditating with judicial trials and in various realms where ordinary beings can be reborn, such as the precepts of the pre-emptiness and the gods.
The stories of the delog very touching. Most of these people are very devout and are brought back to this world by the enlightened ones to tell us what awaits us ahead and how we must prepare for it. there. Each story is a gift to us, because by opening the door we can see countless future realities, after the present life, people from the dead return to open their eyes. of us and make us live better in our present life.
According to the experience of the delog, we are shared about the secrets that will become important in determining where we will reincarnate. We see the power of spiritual practices to purify our negative behaviors and ideas. We are aware of the power of prayer to help those who die have a better life. We observe sincerity - essentially a clever way to open our minds - which enables lama and revered beings to intervene for sentient beings in the middle period and lead them to the pure land.
The majority of souls returning from the dead carry messages from their relatives to their friends and relatives. Private messages with urgent need reinforce the basic message, advises us to change our lives while we are human and are given the opportunity to change.
In the West, those who have died clinically and resurrected sometimes have "near-death experiences." Although near-death experiences have many similarities with the experience of delusions , the near-death experience lasts only a few minutes, while the experiences of delusions often last many days. Those who pass away into the dead and return seem to go deeper into the realm after death.
I have many posts of these delog . But because of the limited number of pages, I only included in this book a small portion of those articles. The stories you will read in Chapters 2, 3 and 5 usually date from the nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century (but not all have dates). However, delog is not a new phenomenon. Nor are they all Tibetans. We will discuss these in the teachings of the Buddha.
When reading these stories, some readers may wonder why the stories are in Tibetan cultural nuances, and the descriptions are the same as in traditional Tibetan Buddhist images. Why these delog This only meets the people who are known as Tibetans? Why do the judges look like judges in the traditional Buddhist image?
The important answer is that the scene that appears before our eyes in the middle of the body is a reflection of our habits and emotions. Anything we see and experience after death is consistent with our way of thinking that is shaped by our culture and belief. All of us - children or adults, devout or atheistic - are all affected by the habit of perceiving things that we have gathered. Because the delogs are Tibetan Buddhists or those who are close to Buddhism, they perceive things according to that vision.
However, while our habits are different in detail because we live in different cultures, we all - regardless of where we live - share the same way of looking at things in a different way. Think of the good work is rewarded, bad work is punished. We often live in hope and fear under the magical eyes of all that a mighty man or a magistrate imagines. Therefore, when we live without morality, we fear being judged, and after death we find a judge who pronounces a severe sentence against us.
In fact, there is no judge outside of us. No sentence at all. Our after-death experiences are just the dividends we receive from our spiritual and emotional investments. That is why the great Indian master Shantideva spoke about the realm of hell:
Who created the burning halls of hell?
Where did the fire come from?
The Buddha said:
"All are [reflections of] your unwholesome mind"
We can all see the power above us in the middle body. Tibetan documents depict a court ruled by His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his assistants. In other cultures and beliefs, there is a divine sitting judge, a book in which an angel records merit and sin, or a balance to weigh good deeds. People who experience death in the West often depict "life renditions" in which they are encouraged to judge their own lives. However, all have one thing in common is that positive habits and actions will bring happiness, whereas negative habits and behaviors will lead to suffering.
REGENERATION
After leaving the middle body, we will be reborn with a form and another body. Just as our experience in the middle relies on our karmic actions, our mental and emotional tendencies, and our spiritual level, This is also the effect that will determine our rebirth.
It is possible to recognize our true nature - or our intrinsic sense - in the middle body, or in any of the four stages of life. If we can maintain that awareness, we will be fully enlightened, forever free from rebirth in the cycle of birth and death of ignorance. However, enlightenment requires years of pure dedication; It is impossible to attain enlightenment by attending only weekend seminars or meditation sessions in a few years. Successful practitioners - great masters who have attained enlightenment - can attain enlightenment and then choose to reincarnate themselves rather than reincarnate in the past. Their ordinary karma ceases or has been overcome. For them,
If we are always looking for enlightenment and always follow the path of good deeds, one day we will attain the goal of enlightenment. But the path that the full practitioners are going through is now ordinary people as we can not think of because we have not attained spirituality. As a result of the previous kamma, ordinary people like us will inevitably reincarnate into the six realms of samsara (described in chapter 6 "Rebirth").
Those who have spiritual practice and many blessings will enjoy future life in happy worlds. If we are calm, kind, caring and helpful, and if we create merit in words as well as in doing, we will be reborn in peaceful realms, bliss and goodness. If in this life we learn to look, think, feel and believe in the existence of a pure land, we will reincarnate into a pure land by virtue of the mental habits we have adopted. nourish Such a pure land is not the ultimate pure land of enlightenment, but a pure land which is very peaceful. We not only enjoy the peace of the pure land, but we also radiate the infinite blessings of the pure land to those who are willing to receive them. We will still be under the control of karmic law, but this will be a happy karmic cycle. Living a life of how to be reborn in such a pure land is a very real thing and many people can do it, and we must make that life our top priority. .
What about ordinary people with life filled with negative emotions? If our minds are engulfed in greed, hatred and delusion, we will surely face terrible reincarnation as a consequence of that sinking. As we go through the four transitional stages, the negative consequences of our negativity will be as if we are wearing black glasses that make what we see is dark. Rather than the familiar scenes we see when we are alive, now all around us are images, sounds, fears and miseries. These will be scenes that arise in our consciousness as the result of the very common negative mood we nurture while we are alive.
Many of us, whether or not we admit it, day after day stick to it and cherish it. This is a process that we are unaware of. Although outside of us may not think we are such "bad guys", but maybe somewhere in the soul, we are immersed in the feelings of malicious, selfish and desirable that the background modern culture encourages. We must not deceive ourselves anymore and begin to change our way of life from today while we are still fortunate to have the body and may have some degree of choice. Once we are dead, we will not be able to change because karma has already taken control. Force will push us into rebirth, may not be born into the human realm, and in those realms, We can not practice and we will not have spiritual progress. We will wander through the cycle of life and death endless suffering and suffering.
OUR FUTURE CHANGE
It is important to reiterate that the realms of hell or purity in which we can go or reincarnate are not world systems outside of us and are somewhere. The experiences of bliss or suffering in the various world systems after our death are only reflections of our karmic tendencies. It is like a dream journey, created by the very attachments of our mind. We should keep this in mind when we read about the consequences of karma. The mind develops its own experiences of happiness and suffering after death as a result of the tendencies that we have experienced through many lives. Due to the arising of the mind, these experiences also occur in the mind, not in any other place.
It is equally important to know that as long as we are alive we can still change and improve our future. Of course we are always subject to the limits of the laws of physics and the environment. But when we die, our minds will be less constrained by external forces. So, we will be motivated by the tendencies inherent in our minds that we have nurtured in the past. That is why the best way to improve our quality of life, death and the next life is to change our habits of thinking and feeling from good to good.
Thus, we have three options ahead when there is still time:
We can continue to endure the suffering of this life as we often endure without taking the opportunity to make a difference. The kamma of the mind, the afflictions, and the external situations will determine where we go in the next life. Then we will have no chance of happiness.
We can try to get the happiest and healthy state that ordinary samsara can bring. If we can live happily, happily, help and love others, we can be sure of a happier and healthier future, at least for a short time.
Or we can go through the cycle of birth and death and attain an eternally supreme state of peace called nirvana. Such an attainment can only be attained through the understanding of absolute truth through meditation, and is supported by proper ways of thinking, feeling and serving the other.
If we allow our minds to move in the right direction, what steps will we take that lead us closer to what we have aimed for?
The meditations and practices described in this book are mainly based on the rituals of the Buddha Sensei ( Amitabha ) and the Pure Land ( Sukhavati).) your. But there are also other Buddhas and other Pure Land where the ritual can still be used, and even the prayers of other religions which are not Buddhist but of a similar nature will also bring about the effect. fruit. It is important for us to prepare in advance by ritually reflecting in a ritual connected to a certain source of blessings.
In this book the phrase of the source of the blessing It refers to an object that we honor, pray or rely on and it is a person who can protect and protect us. The source of grace can be a Buddha, a Bodhisattva, a saint, a sage, or a great teacher. Any object of the mind is a powerful source of blessings if it has good qualities and is perceived by the mind as good. Those who are dying and those who die and those who help them must rely on the blessings of their blessings for prayer, meditation or ritual. The ultimate source of blessings is within ourselves, because we all have sense. However, when we have not yet realized our own potential, we still have to rely on a source of blessings outside to awaken our own nature and spiritual qualities.
In Tibetan Buddhism, repeating prayers of a source of blessings, such as reciting the name of the Buddha of Light, is one of the most popular ways to reach and receive the blessing of Germany. Buddha. The Buddha of Amitabha Buddha (Amitabha Buddha) freed the beings to recite his name with sincerity, just as a mother ran to her son when she heard the cry: "Mother "
One of my colleagues once asked the great meditation teacher Yokhog Chatralwa to give him some instructions on the Great Teaching ( Dzogchen ). Chatralwa replied like this without mentioning the Great Teachings:
First of all, try to recite the Buddha 's name 100 times a day. Then try to increase to 200, 300 times a day and keep going like that. If you can continue to recite each day more then a day will come at whatever you are doing what you feel the title of Buddha in place of his breath and the presence of the Buddha in my heart you will die with the title of the Buddha and to sense the presence of him, thanks to Germany, thanks to the blessing of Buddha and habits sincere devotees of you, all perception of you will Born as the Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light. Your future will be peaceful and happy. You will become a source of benefit to many others. That's great!
Even though I did not know it at that time, many years later I began to understand the words of the great Zen master, which was profound and meaningful.
If we have practiced mindfulness to see all as a Buddha and his pure land, even if we encounter negative images, sounds or emotions in the middle body, those will not be able to harm me and everything will become good phenomena. Just as we have a nightmare: if we realize that it is only a dream and an illusion, we can instantly turn it into harmless, which causes our attackers to disappear. go like dew in the sun early. Similarly, if we are aware of any frightening experience in the middle body as an illusion or as a pure land, that experience will become harmless and positive. The scary gods will turn into enlightened angels of wisdom and love, as we shall see later.
But we must start practicing right now, before death comes to us. If you practice everyday and many times a day, we will not be embarrassed when that important hour comes.
DEATH AND CEREMONIES FOR the dying
We have seen that we can do something to help themselves arrange important transition period of death. But the death of others, including those who have never had the opportunity to practice any prior doctrine? Can we, the living, help them?
Every religion has rituals or prayers to assist the dead or the dying, and comfort to the living. For example, in traditional Judaism, the dying people must read a confession and repentance, and others must help them do so if they have lost their ability. Once a person dies, relatives, periodically, will chant the Kadish - a Jew praising the name of God. In Islam, people gathered to pray the collective pray for the divine to forgive the dead. In Catholicism, there is a sacramental blessing for one person at the moment of death, the soul prayer for the dead and the funeral. Tibetan Buddhism also has a rich tradition of sacrifice for the dead and the dying.
In my turbulent life, I have had direct experiences in the household of the death of great masters, close friends and even people who are completely unfamiliar. Some are respected, powerful, and many people mourn. Some are poor people, no one is care, no one knows.
Since I was five years old, I lived and grew up in the Dodrupchen monastery - a famous monastery of Buddhism and meditation in East Tibet. Along with my brothers and sisters, I spent my whole life studying Buddhist teachings, chanting and meditation. After completing the initial practice, we study and meditate on higher teachings and begin work on community service. We are taught to help the dead and their relatives by sincerely praying, celebrating rituals, teaching catechism and meditating on the elaborate Tibetan Buddhist scriptures of the ritual. for the dead.
Trying to care for a dead person by celebrating the funeral may be the saddest moment, but also the most serene and serene moments in our lives. We do not wish for anything else as we use all the support that may come from our hearts to help this dying person on his or her important journey into the future. mysterious world. Beside a dying person or a dead person, the prayers from our hearts are taken up with our whole body and mind. The truth of life, the fragility of life exposed naked in front of us. For people who have just passed this life all the public, career, money suddenly dissipated. Even their most beloved body became humble, cold, cold,
The ceremony for the dying and the dying is among the most important rituals we perform to serve the community. Often, I assist older lamas to perform these ceremonies, but sometimes I also lead a group of lamas to celebrate the ceremony. On several occasions I presided over several weeks of rituals (I will sketch it out in Chapter 9). Often, we celebrate one or two hours of shorter ceremonies.
We are sitting right next to the dying person or dead body when performing the ceremony for that person. All rituals follow the basic steps: First, we begin by opening the mind with devotion towards the source of blessings, such as the Buddha of Infinite Light. Then we direct our mind to the dying or the dead with great compassion and unconditional love from the bottom of our hearts. With such an attitude of devotion and compassion, we begin the main rite: prayer, meditation and blessing from the source of the blessing of ourselves and the dead. Finally we see, feel and visualize all as one with absolute peace of mind. Finally, we dedicate the merit that we have created to the dead and to all sentient beings in our past lives as mothers and wish that the dead would be reborn in the Pure Land or reborn. born happy
I do not dare to give you the impression that I have the power to change the fate of another person or that I have the special ability to see a dying person. Where will the dead go? But thanks to my belief in the Buddha's teachings, after celebrating these rituals with great respect and affection, at least I myself feel very relaxed. I also feel grateful: "How fortunate I am to have the opportunity to be with these people the moment they need me most to try to help them in the best way I can." At the same time, I was careful not to go beyond my own spiritual, physical and spiritual limits.
Many ceremonies for the dying or dying are pleasant occasions with festive atmosphere as people recall all the peace that the lost have brought to them when these people are alive. . But there are moments of grief and disappointment when the separation between the living and the dead is too harsh; No one can reach the dead even though one can touch their body. The minds of the dead are in deep darkness, into a world of mysterious and lonely. Sitting next to the bed of the dead, looking directly at the fragility of life, we do not know where there is a safe place to hide. It is always a very strong call to awaken.
DEATH OF ONE SALESMAN
My first contact with death was a great source of joy and a great celebration. There is a great monk named Sonam Tragpa from the tribe Wangrol, my mother's tribe in Golok province in Eastern Tibet. The people of the tribe called him Pushul. He lived and taught in a small ascetic monastery far away from our monastery, it took two days to get to the horse. He is a great teacher and scholar, author of numerous treatises, and a great teacher of tantric meditation and great teachings, but his main prayers and reflections are The Pure Land of the Buddha of Infinite Light.
Pushul died when he was about 60 years old. I was at a very young age. As soon as his messengers came to our monastery, I, along with my teacher, Kyala Khenpo and others rushed to the galloping horse to come to him. We went to his hermitage and it was already dark and we were welcomed by monks and Buddhist mourners.
I have a special relationship with Pushul. He was one of the teachers who realized, right after I was born, that I was the incarnation, or tulku , of his chief teacher. He is also the most important lama in my mother's tribal community. Therefore, I have a special duty to take care of your funeral.
At the instruction of my teacher, Kyala Khenpo, I went alone into the room of Pushul's lama. His body was lying in bed as a lying lion, a meditative posture. I was young so I did not think much about it, but I felt the room and the area was absolutely quiet. I touched his heart and I felt a bit warm, even though he died 48 hours ago. This is a sign that his mind is still in the state of immersion within his body. I told Khenpo, and he said, "No one is allowed to enter his room and not make any noise around the house, until his entering is finished." All prayers or rituals continued, but in tents far removed from his temple. Traditionally, even the proclamation of the death of a lama has been kept confidential for several days, but this is not the case. Sadness spread quickly in the tribal areas.
When I checked Pushul's lama the next morning, I felt the warmth in his heart was gone, so the four monks were invited. They bathed his body with artichoke juice, wiped dry with new white towels, and completed the preparations necessary to keep his body for days. Then they put him on a throne in the lotus position, wearing a robe, with a crown on his head. His hands were crossed at the heart, one of his hands holding the trinket and the other holding the bell. Flowers, lights, food and other supplies were placed on two low tables in front of him. I know very well that he himself will want the simplest funeral, but it has become a well-organized funeral because everyone in the community wants it.
Although there are only about three dozen monks in this ascetic monastery, each line of people from all walks of life goes to the monastery at night, praying and mourning.
During that time, we found a paper on it written by Pushul himself. The content is as follows: "As soon as I die, I will be reborn in the Pure Land. I have recited the Prajnaparamita Prajnaparamita, composed of 15 books, 108 times, and have reflected on the profound meaning of the Sutras in this life. Therefore, my name will be the Bodhisattva Sherab Nyingpo [Wisdom Heart]. Whoever prays with honor will be protected for all dangers that may be encountered in life. I will lead them into the Pure Land when they die. "
He ended his writings with the following five long lines for the followers to read:
In the Pure Land of Pure Land, Sherab Nyingpo.
In Snow Land [Tibetans] who used to be Sonam Tragpa.
The future will be the Infinite Buddha.
My lama - pray to you.
Bless us the birth of the Ultimate Powers.
This letter surprised us, because Pushul was famous for his humility and sincerity. He never said anything different to his true thoughts. Surprisingly, it was not the content of what he wrote because we all respected him, but it was his writing.
In the early morning of the eighth day, his body was cremated in a newly built stupa. The monks are busy carrying out cremation ceremonies. Crowds of worshipers stood on the hillside, trying to walk around cremation grounds to pay homage, chanting prayers. The whole funeral atmosphere was completely transformed into a joyful celebration of prayer, the echo of prayer and the music of the festival. I have never felt so much energy in deep sorrows, and many of the sounds of sincere devotion come from so many hearts, all blended into a magnificent ceremony.
Pushul's death clearly shows a great realization. As a child, he was a mentally retarded boy and his family had to bind him to stop him from hurting himself and others. But thanks to prayer and meditation, he has completely transformed himself and has attained the insignificant belief in rebirth in the Pureland of Pure Land and will lead all believers to the Pure Land. . Until today, I have never known anyone who is wise, cheerful and kind than you.
In his example, we can also transform us. We can also gain joy and confidence in fear and fear in life and death.
Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, a late-stage psychoanalyst, leader in changing attitudes towards death and caring for the dying in the United States, reflected a similar view when she spoke. "The only thing clear in my efforts is the importance of life. I always say that death can be one of the greatest experiences. If every day you live well, you have nothing to fear. "END=NAM MO SAKYAMUNI BUDDHA.( 3 TIMES ).VIETNAMESE TRANSLATE ENGLISH BY=THICH CHAN TANH.VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST NUN=GOLDEN AMITABHA MONASTERY=AUSTRALIA,SYDNEY.7/11/2018.
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