Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Few dharma talks combine a systematic walkthrough of the six perfections with a guided death meditation in one session — this 65-minute class by Ven Jampa Gendun does both. He opens by framing the Mahāyāna as historically radical: unlike traditions requiring world-withdrawal, it insists inner peace and social engagement can coexist simultaneously. He traces the six perfections — generosity, ethics, tolerance, effort, concentration, and wisdom — as the Bodhisattva’s dual training in method and wisdom, with particular emphasis on generosity as cultivating non-attachment rather than mere charitable giving. The session then pivots to the death process: dissolution of the gross elements, the network of subtle channels and chakras, the journey of the white and red drops toward the clear light. Practical guidance on handling the dying body is woven in; next week’s topic — the five forces for ordinary practitioners at the time of death — is flagged at the close.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 28 HMA 1996 08 14.mp3
UUID: 34ea9bf0-65fd-4199-bf06-28e2993fa934
Teacher: Ven Jampa Gendun
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996-1997 (Ven Jampa Gendun)
Date: 1996-08-14
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 64.8 minutes
Words: ~7,442
So we’re beginning to make sure we do it in terms of adjusting our motivation. Continual process that we’re always involved in. Reorienting ourselves, redirecting ourselves, getting back in touch with what is of primary importance to ourselves, what are our priorities in life that we quite often get out of touch with in the normal activities of our everyday life. Where would I like to see my life go? Who would I like to be?
Five years from now, ten years from now, a lifetime from now. What’s important to each of us as very unique individuals. It’s quite we’ve quite often this cycle. So this is just an opportunity to take the time, create the space to reorient, get back in touch. And traditionally the term going for refuge, know, within the Buddhist context, our orientation, our direction are in terms of what is actually going to serve to help us solve our problems at our most fundamental level.
What can bring us to the sacred in our lives? Find some kind of peace for ourselves. And these are explained in terms of the Buddha Dharma and the Sangha community, the Sangha. And we again and again adjust our motivation as we do in terms of our talk, in terms of our personal practice, in terms of our motivation of our meditation sessions. And if you notice in the actual formula, the verse that we recite in going for refuge and awakening our heart is our motivation for going for refuge, the why behind what we do.
There is a line which says through the creative potential of my practicing generosity and the other perfections. And I thought having talked probably as best as I can which isn’t known to do that in terms of going through the Buddha Dharma Sangha and maybe briefly explaining what those lines mean in terms of the creative potential of my practice and generosity and the other perfections. May I achieve the state of the Buddha for the sake of all living beings? The creative potential of my practice of generosity in other perfections. Generosity and other perfections refers to the six perfections or sometimes referred to or translated as the transcendental practices.
I don’t know. I’m trying to decide what’s a better translation. Transcendental practices and the six perfections. Maybe you can give me some feedback on that. Anyway, these are the practices of a Bodhisattva.
And I’ve talked little bit about who or what a Bodhisattva might be. And as Bodhisattva is, Bodhi is awakening sattva, then the original meaning of that term can be taken back to the source of a hero, heroic, a courageous individual, someone who heroically dedicates their lives to the attainment of awakening and this for the sake of all living beings. And you know I talked about very briefly about the nature of what it means to be human, the dimensions of our being in terms of the two aspects to our self, the way that we actually live our everyday life, is in terms of a private self which is our own inner experience, the I of the inner dimension of our being. But there is another aspect to ourselves, the social aspect, that I which exists in relationship with the world about us, with other people. The I as within the social context of the dimension of life.
And there are these we are both self assertion and self integration are in fact two ways that we normally exist in our everyday life. That we have to pay attention to both of these aspects of ourselves, both of these dimensions to our being. That from the point of view of the universal vehicle, what is called the Mahāyāna, the lesser vehicle or the individual vehicle is seen to fall into the extreme of individualism. And by this it meant that there is an over emphasis on attaining an inner experience of peace. To neglect of the social aspect to ourselves, the social dimension to what it means to be a human being in the world.
And that a holistic approach, that is an approach to mental health which is going to take in all aspects of ourselves, totality, the whole of ourselves, has to some way satisfy both of these areas of our needs. We want to experience some kind of inner peace. We want to experience the sacred within our lives. But we also have to acknowledge the fact that we live in a world with others. That we are inextricably related with the world and interdependent with the world.
And therefore we also not only have to find work towards some kind of inner peace for ourselves, but some kind of way of being in the world the most optimum way, most skillfully, most meaningfully being with others. So this is what the universal vehicle is emphasizing for us. That we can bring about the welfare of both ourselves, the two purposes of both ourselves and others. If we can attain a situation, the state of being, the capacities and the skills to be able to bring about our own welfare in terms of inner peace but also be able to develop the skills and abilities to be able to help others to experience that same peace that they too, just like ourselves, are looking for. And there’s nothing more that we can hope to ask for out of our life.
This takes in the totality of our dimensions of possible ways of being. So this is what the bodhisattva is working toward. And the way it’s worked toward is explained in terms of what are called method and wisdom. Method and wisdom. You know I mentioned that a spiritual journey involves placing one foot in front of the next, one foot in front of the next.
And generally we term these wisdom and compassion. One assisting and bringing the other to greater expression and greater force, greater power. Compassion can be also spoken of in terms of method when you come to the universal vehicle. In the lesser vehicle, the entire spiritual path is spoken of in terms of method and wisdom. But the word method has different meaning according to the vehicle, level of Buddhism we are looking at, what we’re talking about.
Within the individual vehicle, the lesser vehicle, in the individual vehicle, method is this determination to be free. You have the will to be free. That one wants to simply, one has a revulsion towards the reoccurring compulsive pattern of dissatisfactory existence. It’s like a bad dream that you don’t want to, that you want to end. You want to wake up from it.
You’re sick and tired of being sick and tired and you want to remove yourself from the whole situation entirely. It’s a very interesting notion in a way because it’s not too, you know we can perhaps intellectually in theory look down upon such people and think well I’m in it for others as well. But in fact it’s rather seductive and it has been seductive throughout the history of spiritual practice that many, many within the Indian traditions, of Hinduism, within the Buddhist traditions saw there was an allure of ending one’s own problem. This was, there this captivation with that one, and there was also the doctrinal notion that one had to leave the world in order to find what it is that we could most want for ourselves, in order that we could realize our potential. That we had to blank out the world.
There was no possible way of staying in the world and relating with others and still finding one’s own inner peace. This was a significant traditional way of thinking. But it was very much the the in terms of the the rise of the Bodhisattva idea within within Buddhism and and the notion that we could go beyond the the the limits of our present way of thinking whereby we could still maintain a state of inner peace while at the same time being in the world with others. This was a radical conception. Maybe we can’t quite get our minds around it at present what is being gotten at here or it’s taken for granted.
But in fact this was a radical way of thinking. For most it it was a withdrawal from the world. This was a trend within a great deal of Eastern thought that the various absorptions within the meditative concentration meant that we had to blank out the world. That we had to remove ourselves from the world if we were going to find peace from the reoccurring compulsive patterns within our lives. That there was no way that we could function in the world still be at peace.
That there was a limitation to the mind. But the great contribution in this respect, fact Buddha offered to spiritual practice, was that there was in fact very subtle factors within the mind which if removed one could simultaneously be open to the world, could relate with conventionalities, people and things about you but at the same time the mind could remain in peace within ultimate reality. That is to say there is a method whereby to achieve both a simultaneous realization of ultimate reality and conventional reality at the same time. That one didn’t have to either alternate between the two or simply remain in some kind of self oblivion, some kind of ultimate reality removed from the world. The way this operates, the way that one achieves that is in terms of method of wisdom.
Now, the method is the accumulation of creative potential. And what we mean by creative potential are the the actual means that the collection of creative potential operates on the basis of what I call the Six Perfections. These are activities which are motivated by compassion. Activities of generosity, ethics, tolerance, joyous effort, meditative concentration and wisdom. These are called the Six Perfections.
These are the primary activities which a bodhisattva involves themselves in. Motivated by compassion. This is the empowering force. Now this will bring about, this leaves an imprint which will directly bring about what is called the form body of a Buddha. And that may perhaps this is getting a bit technical, but maybe it’s to begin to become familiar with some of this terminology, some of these ideas because they’re quite profound.
A form body of a Buddha. That is to say a body, a mode of being which can which can exist within the world, which can communicate and be with others. This is what this is the force behind that which finds expression of whereby the Buddha, let us say someone who has achieved awakening, can actually maintain existence within the conventional reality. That is the imprint or mainly due to the force of the collection of creative potential or merit. The usual term is merit.
There is, so that’s one of our steps. You know, we want, we’re looking at this holistically. That way we can maintain, we can fulfill the social aspects of ourselves, the social dimension to our being is through the practice of the Six Perfections motivated by compassion. The other is the accumulation of the collection of wisdom. This is the means by where we can achieve the welfare for ourselves in terms of finding inner peace, of removing all of the dysfunctional patterns from our mind and therefore all the sources of suffering such that they can never return again.
The imprint of the accumulation of the collection of wisdom brings about what is called the truth body or the dharmakaya. Okay? So this brings about the fulfillment of our experiential self. The I in terms of our own inner being. That the I of our inner being experiences only unrelenting peace, only unrelenting bliss.
While simultaneously the eye of the social aspect of ourselves is able to operate in the world to benefit others. These come about through these two steps of wisdom and method. Method is the six perfections or the six transcendental practices motivated by compassion. So I thought I’d just talk very briefly. Does that make a bit of sense?
I think it’s interesting from the point of view is, very practical in a relevant fashion is, you know, we want to be happier. And the notion is that mental health as a basis of happiness involves not only some kind of solitary realization, some kind of a direction of development which is focused upon ourselves and our own achievements. But simultaneously we have to be concerned about how we’re relating with others if we’re ever going to be happy, if we’re ever going to find mental health. How am I being with others? Person who is self centered and we know this from our own experience perhaps we haven’t seen the relevance of it to ourselves.
A person who is totally self centered, selfish, is very caught up in their own happiness, who has a great deal of anger, a great deal of hostility. But even people who find it difficult to trust others, to be open with others, to be vulnerable in the world. They too, these are areas they simply cannot find mental health. These are, these, you know, that we have if we’re going to be healthy mentally, if we’re going to grow, we have to make some kind of effort about relating with other people in the world. How we’re going to be with others.
Overcoming our selfishness, overcoming our mistrust, our defensiveness, these barriers that we place between ourselves and others. This is all as much a part of our practice as working on our own individual realization in terms of our own feelings of peace inside of ourselves. It’s not enough to sit on your cushion and feel warm and fuzzy. We actually have to work with the difficulties of being with other people as part of our program of mental health, as part of our program of growth and development. Now this is kind of the message when we bring it down to a more relevant level to ourselves in our everyday life.
So, the six perfections. Generosity, ethics, tolerance, patience, effort, sometimes called endeavor, meditative concentration and wisdom. So this is the way a bodhisattva, someone who has awakened their heart to all living beings and is really focused. Know, waking is very primary to their lives. It’s central to their lives for the sake of others.
Knowing that in fulfilling the needs of others, their own needs, their own welfare, they’re going to be brought about as a byproduct. They’re both, you know, the notion that the last will be first. So the Bodhisattva and the willingness to help others helps themselves. Whereas perhaps most of us have the opposite notion, you know, by trying to help ourselves to the exclusion of others, we in fact fail ourselves. We don’t achieve anything of what we might want.
It’s rather paradoxical but it’s only paradoxical to our lack of wisdom and our lack of compassion. The six perfections and six transcendental practices. There’s a verse. Various difficult practices such as generosity and moral ethics which include the welfare of sentient beings and tolerance while working for the benefit of others. By these three the element of Buddha evolves.
The element of Buddha is our Buddha nature. So these are actually the conducive conditions whereby we create the internal mental ecology whereby our own Buddha nature begins to evolve into ultimately a Buddha. And the second part of this, another verse, joyous effort in all spiritual practices, engaging in the mind in meditative concentration and constant firm wisdom. By these three also awakening is resolved. So, you know, the Sanskrit word, paramita, is usually translated as perfection.
But it means, it has the idea, the reason that I tend, you know I’m trying to decide how to translate this word sometimes I think. The general translation is perfection. But I think in a way transcendental perfection or transcendental practice may be better. The reason because we get pretty heavy handed with ourselves, know, notion of being a perfections. And sort of if it has that connotation then I’d rather not use that word at all.
Know that somehow striving to be perfect in all that we do and it can be just another way that we can be find ourselves wanting, that we can be self oppressive toward ourselves. But the actual word has the meaning of of of gone over there, gone beyond, gone to the other shore. Isn’t the actual meaning of the term? You know, that’s why I think maybe transcendent. You know, going over there.
The practice of my my practice of generosity has gone over there. It’s not that it’s perfected. You know, if what do we mean to perfect the generosity? I mean, Buddha Śākyamūni, for example brought his practice of generosity to consummation. There’s still poor people in the world.
So it’s not a matter of you know filling up everybody’s alms bowls or just so that there’s no need in the world. Anyway, we’re going to talk about that. But there is a sense of transcendence in terms of our practice. These six primary practices of Bodhisattva are said to transcend ordinary spiritual practices through the force of the wisdom and compassion with which they are joined. So they transcend ordinary practices.
You know, the having awakened his mind, having awakened his heart, the Bodhisattvas accept sole responsibility to bring about the welfare of all other living beings. You know maybe this conception is beyond our present imagination. It doesn’t mean it’s not a possible way of thinking, a way of possibility in terms of compassion. To accept sole responsibility for the welfare of all living beings. Awakening his or her heart.
The implication of such a commitment if it’s totally to have, if it’s to have any meaning at all is that we have to actually respond to the needs of others. If I say I’m going to take responsibility for you, if it’s to translate into some sort of practical fashion, I have to develop the ability to respond. That’s what the word responsibility comes from. If I can’t respond to what it is that you need, if I’m not able to respond, how can I take responsibility? I can only take it in wishful thinking, not in practice.
And the Bodhisattva wants to be able to respond in practice, not in simply in which you want him to do so. Sure the wish comes before the practice. The sincerity, the genuine aspiration. But then there’s an actual involving oneself in developing the skills such that one will have developed the capacity to be able to respond. But not to respond in the ways of an ordinary attitude of the world.
Not in terms of attachment or aggression, in terms of pride. The ways that we normally operate in the world. But in ways which transcend us. To respond to all things. You know to be all things to all people so that by some means we might be able to help a few.
So the Bodhisattva tries to transcend in his responding to others the general attitudes of the world in terms of aggression, in terms of attachment and pride, etcetera. But also the practice of these various practices, the practice of generosity and ethics and so forth, are engaged in conjoined with the force of his or her wisdom. That is to say, you know, the bodhisattva involving themselves, say in a practice of generosity, while they’re involved in that practice, they are understanding that the practice of generosity is conjoined with the understanding that they themselves, the agent of the giving, that the object that they’re giving, the person to or whoever is being given to, and that which is being given are all empty of true existence. All that inherent existence. So there’s no grasping.
There’s no possibility of objectifying. I’m doing something for you. There is there is only the giving. There is there is no truly existing giver. No truly person being given to or there is no object.
Therefore, this the ability to give is unimaginably extended, infinite infinite possibility. There’s no there’s no holding on to truly existent objects. There’s no there’s no possibility of pride. There’s no possibility of objecting others in protecting something in return. Objectifying others.
So all of the Bodhisattva’s activities are thought to be conjoined with the understanding of emptiness and thereby transcend the ordinary attitudes of the world, ordinary generosity, ordinary ethics and so forth. No matter how altruistic the motivation behind those activities, those practices might be. So talking about these six perfections. You know, these are what, you know, this is the actual training, the primary training of a Bodhisattva in trying to become a Buddha, what they actually involve in self can in a very specific manner. The first of these six perfections are transcendental practice is generosity or giving.
But, you know, what do we mean by that? You know, the practice of generosity is not simply a matter of becoming increasingly charitable, you know, handing over more and more of what it is that we have. In practice it may come down to that. The giving of various forms of generosity. For example, the forms of giving of money, of giving materials, of giving time, giving energy.
That’s an area of giving. There’s a generosity of protection from fear. Giving security and safety to someone or something or an animal. There’s the generosity of giving the Dharma, teaching. That’s another type of generosity.
So whatever it is that we do, whatever it is that may be needed, giving that. But it may come down to all of that but the emphasis in the practice of generosity is in our willingness to give. It’s not so much what we give but the emphasis in our capacity, developing the capacity to give in terms of giving up mine. My possessions, my territory, my privacy, my security, my knowledge. Being able to let go of all that.
In other words, you know, the practice of generosity lies not so much in the actual giving as it does in the letting go of attachment. Cultivating non-attachment. The letting go of the need to hold on to ourselves and whatever it is that we identify ourselves with. Giving up a decentralized approach to our relationship. The generosity of communicating and participating in the world of others.
Sort of a spontaneous, non objectifying environmental generosity responding to whatever needs are present. Okay? So, that’s the first of these six perfections. The way that we can begin to orientate ourselves, areas that we can begin to concentrate in terms of our practice, generosity, in terms of And what they really might mean for us and how they are relevant to us in our practice and the very fact that they are needed. You know, in terms of dismantling the world of ego, is normally the basis from which we operate.
Okay? The way that we can dismantle it in a very nonviolent manner, in a very systematic, impeccable manner without self oppression, without doing violence in harm to ourselves. But nonetheless, you know, bringing about in the end that we can And be able to help ourselves in a very realistic fashion to be able to get along better with others. Have better relationships. Things will go smoother in terms of working with us.
So involving ourselves in this practice for the Buddha’s life, you know, where an individual whose primary inner focus is attainment of Buddhahood. Now this becomes primary to their life. However, you know, we might look at what we mean by a Buddha, you know, for ourselves as ordinary individuals. As someone who has got their life together to a large degree, is of use to themselves and others, who is very cheerful, cheerful. Functions well.
A happy, healthy, loving, caring human being. And we can begin to orientate ourselves for becoming being that person. And the way that we can become that is the method, techniques. We have to actually do something. Wishing is terribly important but sincerity in itself isn’t enough.
We have to act. And we act by implementing the means, the techniques, the training which we call dharma. Gaining the realization and the understanding or the only dysfunctional pattern of our mind. And this process occurs within the social which has been one of the main obstacles to our ever finding what it is that we want most out of our life. And then it becomes meaningful.
It becomes part of the solution rather than becoming part of the problem. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Community, I go for refuge until awaiting me through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of the Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Community, I go for refuge until awakening. Through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma, may I achieve the state of a Buddha for the sake of all living beings. To the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Community, I go for refuge until awakening.
Through the creative potential of my listening to the Dharma. May I achieve the state of the Buddha for the sake of all living beings? Reverently, I pay homage with my body, speech, mind, I present clouds of every type of offering that is actual and imagined. I disclose all my destructive acts accumulated since time without beginning. I rejoice in the virtue of holy and ordinary beings.
Please remain until cyclic existence has ended and turn the wheel of Dharma for living beings. I dedicate the skillful actions of myself and others to the great awakening. If you like to stand for a moment, stretch your legs. We’re going to be meditating on the death process. And we’re going to do as we as we usually do in terms of adjusting our motivation, development of love and compassion.
We’ll we’ll do the the nine-round breathing meditation. Then we’ll do mindfulness of breathing. And then we’ll go through the death process. And I’ll lead imaginatively, okay? I don’t want anybody dying on me.
I’ll lead you through. And the only reason I’m giving you preliminary is that maybe you might like this particular evening to lie down. Know, don’t feel in any way obligated or self conscious about either laying, lying down or not just to be able to perhaps become more involved in this this process meditation. So by all means, the only yeah. I don’t know if some of you are aware that in in the eastern tradition, and I I realize this is a tradition of the the it’s not necessarily western.
So you might not be aware of it, and you might not feel that it’s necessary to follow it because we are in the west, but just out of respect for our teachers and and the Tibetan tradition that it’s it’s considered no mannered, disrespectful to point your feet, your soles of your feet at a at a a respected teacher or a holy object such as, you know, images things of this nature. So if you’d like to understand, I I wanted to draw that is that if you want to lie down, point your head this way. Okay? But anyway, you’re welcome to lie down and just put your hands hands to your side, palms up. And just you can just, you know, let yourself go into this meditation.
You know? Maybe so I won’t disturb you. I’ll just talk just a few words about what we’re gonna do in We’ve talked a great deal about the death process, about the way the elements dissolving, about the collapsing of the gross elements of earth, water, fire, and wind energy. And there are specific external signs and there is specific internal experiences and visions which the dying person goes through and I’m going to run through these. But in the course of these, you know, we’re doing this in order to, it takes the mystery out of and therefore the fear surrounding what might happen at the actual time of our death.
We try to follow this process imaginatively as vividly as possible. Understand that everything that you’re experiencing that you’re going to go through is all coming from your own mind. There’s nothing to be afraid of. You If fear, sometimes people become afraid or sometimes people experience strange sensations or have very bewildered thoughts that images float up in their mind. Or maybe even wonderful feelings, this sort feeling might come to mind.
Are, one of the part of this training is to simply become aware that this is only part of my mind. It’s only arising out of my mind just like green images. They only arise out of factors within your own mind. So one needn’t give them any reality divorced from that, thinking that they exist out there independent of my mind. That we can simply note them as thinking or feeling and then come back to the meditation which is being described.
So don’t get hung up with anything along the way whether it’s desirable or undesirable. It’s all just the play of the mind. Don’t become preoccupied with whatever comes up. Don’t become locked in it. You know, come back to the imaginative experience of the meditation.
That that’s what we’re trying to bring. This this sequential dissolution of the elements of the other gross body, the subtle body, and come down to the most subtle consciousness. Yeah, so this is kind of just to put some kind of context because some people do have unusual experiences when they go to and by all means be open to that but don’t become overwhelmed by them. Don’t become preoccupied. Don’t become distracted by them.
Simply note them and come back to process which is being described. So one can relax. There’s nothing to be afraid of the entire process. Okay? So if you like to lie down, lie on your back.
Alright. You know, don’t self consciousness if you want to have to. You’re quite welcome to sit either in a chair or on the floor. So there’s you know just a comfortable posture where you won’t have to move around. You won’t have to disturb your body.
Can become completely engrossed in the activities of your mental consciousness as as the description proceed. Okay. First of you know, just get in touch with the body as we use the term in terms of noticing any tensions or any tightness within the body. It is said the clear light experience is the final state of consciousness in this life that we go down to. So that even an ordinary individual can stay from three hours to three days.
It’s a natural death. People who have been practicing in the higher stages of yoga or tantra, they can remain in the state for for weeks. That is their consciousness still within their body. It’s only when there’s a subtle movement of the wind energy and that the re birth process actually begins in the consciousness. It’s a combination of subtle mood consciousness.
So it’s hard to, I mean, it’s to for most okay. There’s there’s things. I mean, if we can, it’s it’s most it’s often enough to disturb the body, to allow this process to occur naturally, to allow the consciousness. You know, when we when we use the term clear light of death in terms of ourselves as ordinary people, the clear light is merely a name that is given to that consciousness. It’s not the actual clear light.
The actual clear light is a consciousness realizing emptiness. Well, I think ordinary individual individuals, we are not realizing evidence. And still they give this concept with that name because it occurs at the same at the same point in the death process. So we we probably aren’t the ordinary individual is not probably going to be a moment of the culmination of years of practice. It’s not going to probably be a a moment of ultimate liberation.
But still, it would be best not to disturb the body until there’s certain external signs of death. If the body has to be touched, and there is some dispute around this, there’s a very traditional thinking around this, that it makes a difference where the where the consciousness exits the body. So if the body needs to be disturbed for some reason, then to to touch the head first. Don’t touch any other part of the body. If if possible, leave the body until there’s certain external signs of death occur.
Just as, you know, we talked about, a textbook case of death where there’s no great disease ravaged the body, these white and red drops will continue their journey. And the red drops will eventually be said that there’ll be a drop of red drop of substance. This substance will emerge from the nostril and a white drop will emerge from the genital area. And that’s a textbook case. It might not occur.
But so just if we cannot if we cannot disturb the body. If the body has to disturb, best to touch it first at the crown of the head. And can actually pull it here from the from the body’s crown. That that is said that the contents will be attracted in that direction. And and that there is a traditional thinking which says that if the body emerges, if the consciousness emerges through the crown aperture, there’s an open there’s sort of an opening in the crown of head.
This will be a bring about a favorable rebirth. So that’s the so optimally leaving the body alone is the external side that you have to complete. If you have to move you have to touch the body first touching the crown of the head and pulling back there. There’s there’s various rituals that can be done like putting some kind of butter on top of the crown of the head. And this way, let the body be touched the crown of head for hair, for example.
For somebody who’s been practicing, especially who who might be involved in in the practice that they work their life, Then, really, they’re they’re great. Not not to. And then he’s really doing all the efforts that they put in. Because they’re trying at the moment when the clear light dawns to realize emptiness. That’s what they’ve been working for.
The longer they can remain in that state, the more the more obscurations in mind that they’re able to remove, the deeper the penetration of that So that there is there are these there are the in the white and red drop. There’s a gross white and red drop, subtle white red drop. The gross drops pervade the body. It is said to be like froth on the inside, you know, there’s this inner network of channels. It’s gonna be seventy two thousand, like passageways.
The drops sort of cling to the surface of these parts of these channels like frost on the ground. But mainly the drops are concentrated at the crown, the white drop itself, suspension, and the red drop which is held in the navel chakra, the navel channel center. So these are moving down. So the wind energies are being withdrawn in the gross body. They’re withdrawing into the central channel so the energies which which held them in suspension are being withdrawn so they begin their journey.
They absorb into the subtle red and white drop which has been present at the heart area throughout our life. Within the heart’s central channel. This is called the indestructible drop. They absorb into the indestructible drop. Now these these white these are gross white and red drop.
So the the the the the drops that were present there before. So they they obstruct. This is why the the black the the near dark vision occurred. The the vision of near black. Yeah.
It’s called the near attainment. It’s called near attainment because when you look when you’re the the rising of the death of the clear eyed death. So it’s due to the absorption of this gross white light may drop into the subtle white drop, indestructible drop which causes blackness. Then they, I mean how does, how can you imagine? These are these are subtle material, so they’re not going to the the gross material is obstructed.
That’s why the blackness, but the subtle ones are nonobstructed, and consciousness is nonobstructed. So they’re just passing through. But momentarily, they enclose the subtle consciousness, the subtle most consciousness. Subtle most consciousness is always there, but we aren’t aware of it. It’s like a star during the day.
You know, when you look up in the day today’s sky, there are you’re the stars in the sky, but you can’t see them because there’s no contrast. Likewise, the subtlest consciousness is is always present, but it’s being overwhelmed by gross consciousness. At this point, all the gross consciousness are ceasing. Subtle consciousness is ceasing. But due to the obstruction, now the obstruction of the gross and subtle drop, it’s being encapsulated and therefore there’s a vision of blackness.
And then and then they continue to move on. The consciousness is not obstructive. The subtle red and white drops are not obstructive, so they just continue to move on. And the and the the and since there are no gross consciousness, subtle consciousness, and there’s an opening due to the passage, you know, the the encapsulated consciousness now has now been opened, then you experience it’s own luminosity. The luminosity that’s always been there.
So they just continue to travel on. First, encapsulating and then allowing the opening up, and one experiences a clear light of death. They they continue continue on. Is that I don’t know if that’s helpful. Does that answer your question?
So the the the yeah. That’s like spokes of an umbrella. The main central channels that we make use of in meditation and visualization are, for example, the crown chakra. It’s like an upside-down umbrella with its spokes. You know, It’s just underneath the cranium.
It has thirty two spokes. So that means it’s a you know, there’s just like this vast network of like channels running throughout the body, these channels. And they begin to they begin to, you know, it’s like radiating out the pursuit. You have one which splits off into two and each one of those splits off into two so you have four and each one of those splits up into four to sixteen and multiplies out and pervades the entire body with these channels. Here, there are mainly thirty two main subchannels entering into, you know, it’s like the spokes of this umbrella which is the central channel facing downwards.
At the throat, central channel, at the throat channel wheel there are sixteen facing upwards. At the heart, there are eight facing downward. At the navel, there are sixty four facing upward. So these these are the ones that we we recognize most and there’s the secret chakra which is at the tip of the spine which has thirty thirty two and then the tip of the of the genitals has eight. So it’s like a, you know, like spokes of an umbrella.
And so like at the heart there are eight. So there are four main and each of them immediately split off into two. So it’s considered there are eight channels. So it’s like, you know, like like some of these space stations they designed with like a donut. You know, take away the donut and have these arteries where people live inside here.
And then they have these these chambers that go out and pass anywhere people can walk around. So inside that so that’s your heart channel. It’s slightly curved upward and there’s tremendous details with it that you can go into if you’re interested. There’s two books. One is one is in general, which describes the death process in great detail and the various wind energy, etcetera.
There’s Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth by Lati Rinpoche, translated by Jeffrey Hopkins. And the other is channels, the colors of the channels, the types of wind energy. There’s there’s five types of main wind energy, five type sub and energy. So it’s quite a complicated system. Very interesting.
The other work goes into a great deal of explanation and and how they’re using in meditation. And the Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth goes into the death process in great detail. So this will be good resources. And and and within traditional explanations of Buddhism, a tree does not have consciousness and a tree does not die. It it it withers and dries up but does not die.
And I I mean, very strictly technically speaking because it’s never they only attribute life in terms of that which has life sustaining energy in combination with consciousness. So, only sentient beings and trees and plants are not in general, we would say Yeah. Yeah. I can appreciate that. I mean, even having anger at a door is creating karma, a negative karma.
I mean, the object doesn’t have to be living in order to create negative karma due to the intention of the person having that present positive or neutral. Why you did it? Really? I haven’t quite got through death. Anyway, I’ll save it for next week.
We’re going to talk about a great deal of what we’ve talked about. I think it’s useful as I said initially because if you begin to appreciate that there is a rational explanation for how consciousness continues on, which we’ll talk about more when we talk about rebirth and the logic of rebirth. But there is a mechanism and there is some physiology and psychology involved. This is not a wishful notion that there is some kind of explanation that we can go into whether whether it’s skepticism, open minded hope that it’s the Dalai Lama says, he says that no scientist can prove the non-existence of rebirth. So at least we have to be open minded and skeptical about it.
All of this is useful but also we can demystify what occurs at the time of death. And now we talked about how a great yogi might go through their death and what they can do at the time of death. Next week we’ll talk about what are called the five forces. Everything what we as ordinary or, you know, as ordinary individuals, what how how can we help ourselves at the time of death? You I get most of the yogis, tantric practitioners, they spend a great deal of their life involved in in these meditations and development of concentration and visualization and working with the energies in the body and they deploy it over the course of their life.
Bring it to a kind of a cOmination at this point of the death. You know, we we don’t have the karma to be involved in that. We don’t have the inclination or, you know, other demands. What can we do to help ourselves? I think it’s good to have a plan.
It’s quite useful, a strategy where you don’t panic, you just not be bewildered and confused, but organizing some kind of death plan. So we can employ what are called the five forces or the five strengths and we’ll go through this in a way that we can ensure the outcome of our death even though for ourselves. Perhaps So we’re dedicated. Creative potential. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being.
Please remain for the end of cycle of existence. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm through these careful actions. May the supreme joy of the awakened heart that has not arisen arise and grow. And may that which has arisen never diminished but increase more and more. I’d like to get a cup of tea.
Save our discussion otherwise. Have a good week.