Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 117-minute teaching, Ven Robina Courtin unpacks Lama Zopa Rinpoche with a fundamental reframe: the point isn’t preparing for death, but for the next life. She anchors the teaching in the twelve links of dependent arising, explaining why the hours before breathing stops are critical—intense craving and grasping trigger the karmic seed determining rebirth. For helpers (nurses, family, friends), she outlines practical steps: maintain a peaceful environment; keep away those to whom the dying person is strongly attached; guide their mind toward what they believe (God, Buddha, Pure Land) through skilful words and praise of their qualities; place blessed texts and objects on the body; recite mantras continuously. She covers the eight stages of dying, what happens after breath stops, and the forty-nine days following. Stories punctuate the teaching—a fisherman bound by lifelong habit, spirits trapped by attachment to possessions, near-death visions shaped by belief. Grounded in karma as lived reality, pitched to both practitioners and newcomers.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 12 E 2016 07 31.mp3
UUID: 1dd7cbcc-aef2-40a7-b84d-650bf5799553
Teacher: Ven Robina Courtin
Collection: y Robina Courtin (Ven Robina Courtin)
Date: 2016-07-31
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 117.3 minutes
Words: ~21,336
Think. Just think. We’re going to be here for however long. All of us listening, including me, listening, believe me. Thinking, checking, you know, listening for some tools.
That’s the thing, it’s got be practical. It’s got to be practical. I always think if this was cooking class, if I just raved on about how nice cakes were and never gave you one recipe, you’d demand your money back, you know? Well the same here. So you’ve got to listen to it as advice.
Listen to it as advice. You might want the advice, it’s okay, you don’t have to take it. But that’s the way to hear it. That’s practical, you know, something practical. So to do what?
Practical what for? Well, tools to help us become this marvelous person the Buddha says we all can become. He’s got his views kind of pretty outrageous of what we are capable of for our sake. And of course, because we all live in this insane asylum together, this insane asylum together, we’re very social beings, then for others’ sake as well. The two wings of the bird, wisdom and compassion, bird needs two wings.
Compassion is the wish to help others, but that’s not what makes you help others, that’s wisdom. As His Holiness says, Compassion is not enough, gotta have wisdom. So with this in mind, we sing our little prayer that expresses the second two lines express this altruistic motivation. The first two lines express our reliance on the Buddhist teachings and so on. If we figure we are already Buddhists, if not, then you don’t have to worry about them.
So what we’re discussing is what’s in Rinpoche’s book, How to Enjoy Death, which is available from Wisdom as a hardback, you could also alternatively download a PDF from FPMT, which is a slightly different version of it, but that can be for your PDF, it can be free, your e reader. Basically, Rinpoche’s teachings started off, as I mentioned yesterday, in two thousand and three in France I mentioned, I’ll say it again where Rinpoche, he was giving another teaching at the centre there, in Lavaur, and then one of his older students came up and said, Rinpoche, her father had just died suddenly and she didn’t know what to do. So this is, I think, not untypical, you know? Here we are, many of us have been Buddhist for years and years and years, and we can’t know all about death because Buddha has it in your face all the time. But unless we really study this stuff, and that’s what I got from having to edit this book, you’ve got to really think of it deeply and be educated.
It’s like to educate it, educate it, not just thinking you like it liking it and knowing about it vaguely, but educated in it, you know? Then we know how to live our life well so we can die well so we can get another decent human life, or minimum, bare minimum, another decent human life next life. But here the book of course has to be addressed to people who help people because, you know, a lot of the advice is what to do after you’re dead. Well, you can’t do that, I’m sorry, you’ve to have someone do it for you. So the book is addressed to helping, you know, to helpers, which causes us.
It’s addressed to helping our loved ones. Well you know, as Rinpoche points out, our enemies are going to die as well so we can even help them too. So the essence of all the advice in the book, the essence of it, the point of it and this again is something that became really clear for me having to edit the book it isn’t actually to prepare for death The point is to prepare for the next life. Now that might take time for us as Buddhists, even as Buddhists, to get our head around. In the beginning when we first hear about reincarnation we’re kind of very vague and distant about kind of, yeah, okay, maybe, you know?
Because this bubble of this life, this reality is so stark for us. Maybe as we become Buddhist, stay Buddhist longer, we get used to the view of reincarnation, it starts to become more real for us. That’s certainly what happened for me, know. This is a really clear point. As Rinpoche says, first of all he said, you know, if you want to help somebody in this life, you have to the time they need you most is at the time of death.
And the reason is simple and simple and clear. And it’s technical. And even though I said it many times yesterday, still one of the questions reflected that even though I think it’s simple we can’t hear it properly. So I’ll try and keep emphasizing this point. It’s a technical point, because you know, when we were a little bit describing yesterday the stages of death, which will maybe go into more detail again today, let’s see what happens.
Taking this view of the death process, which is taken from the vajrayana tradition where there’s these really sophisticated understandings of the subtler physical and mental energies and this gradual deconstruction process of death. It’s very clear that you could say the hours before we stop breathing, generally speaking. In the hours before we stop breathing, and it could be minutes depending on the person, that is when, that period is when the karmic seed, like I used to say, from our bank vault of trillions of karmic seeds that we have planted over countless lives, the one that will determine our next life, that is when it’s triggered. And the point is this, and this is just from the Buddhist psychological perspective when the mind is negative, when the mind is freaking out which is the nature of ego and it’s just the nature of fear and panic and anger and depression and attachment and jealousy and drama and especially at the time of death attachment which is just rampant at the time of death, naturally, then the mind is that’s the neurosis manifesting, then that’s got this natural relationship with fear. Then when the mind is like that at the time of death, naturally a negative seed will be triggered which will throw us into a lower realm rebirth and that’s programmed before we even stop breathing.
That’s the point. So in our case, we can deduce logically. We must have died peacefully because a virtuous seed was triggered, which is the cause of how come we went a few weeks later, found our way definitely, inexorably, logically, not randomly to our present mummy’s human fallopian tube. I only discovered that recently. It was the fallopian tube where the egg and sperm come together, right?
Well that’s when you go in there. That’s when it happens. I like to say it’s got zero to do with your parents, you know? They’re lying there having fun, and then you stick your nose in. You come along.
So it’s cause of finding our mother’s and father’s egg and sperm. The main cause was some powerful, virtuous morality karmic seed practiced no doubt as Lama Zopa says in the context of keeping very strong vows in the context of a spiritual practice. And that seed was triggered at the time of our past death, before we lost the plot, before we stopped breathing. That’s the period when people need their help most, because that’s the period when the attachment is most strong. Maybe I’ll go to this a bit more here today about that grasping I mentioned it yesterday taking another model of Buddha’s teachings, another description of how things occur and how karma occurs, the twelve links of dependent arising, the Sūtra teaching.
And it’s in the book, you know. Maybe I’ll read from it, Rinpoche’s teachings, very helpful. According to that, as Amazopas says, some of the links play a really powerful role, particularly at time of death. And the ninth one, the eighth craving and the ninth grasping, which are just two words for intense, extra strong, powerful attachment energy. they manifest intensely at death.
Much more powerful than a daily life. And naturally, that’s what causes fear. That’s what causes fear. Fear is the worst way to die because that triggers a negative seed and it’s a natural thing. It’s not punishment, reward.
karma is a natural law. You know, Buddha observed it to be so. He didn’t make it up. It’s not his trip. He didn’t create it.
He’s observed it. It’s like botany or gravity. It merely occurs. Buddha has observed it. That’s the Buddha’s teaching, you know, from his observation.
So understanding these links a little bit, understanding the intensity of this grasping, and that’s why at the time of death a person needs us most, To help be like a rock like I said yesterday. To be there calm and steady and clear, giving them confidence, giving them courage. We all see, we all know ourselves. As soon as look at our lives, the second anything goes wrong, the first thing we do, we think of who to turn to, don’t we? Who to turn to?
Who can help us? Our beloved friend, whoever it is. We are fragile to find somebody to give our problem to, to share our problem with, to help us hold our problem. To look at the nightmare of so many people, all these old people becoming senile, some are awful places, for people who don’t care about them, children who don’t care, people who abuse old people. You hear these stories, hear these stories.
Nightmarish way to die, the worst way to die, the worst way. I mean we spend our lives not knowing how to control our minds, don’t we? We haven’t got a clue about our minds, most of us. So that at death it’s impossible to try and think of it, you know? So that’s what we needed most.
Kind people around us, kind nurses, kind helpers, the kind sweeper, doesn’t matter anybody to be there as a human support. So of course here Rinpoche’s book is related to Buddhists, you know? So we are, as a Buddhist, want someone to help us at the time of death, person has to know us well, know our practice, know what we want, know how to help us, know our mind, know what’s best, you know. I think I’ll read from Rinpoche a little bit about the grasping business it’s very interesting. I I told you yesterday when I was working on this book and I kind of felt it wasn’t finished, was a hard book to do for me as an editor.
So I some part wasn’t I told you I heard this thing about Amitābha’s Pure Land and then I became a complete fan of Amitābha’s Pure Land. Like I say, it’s on my itinerary now, it’s on my schedule. I always figure, like tomorrow, I’m flying to Melbourne, so I always figure in my mind it could be Amitābha’s Pure Land first. That’s okay, I’m happy with that. So I’m getting used to the idea of going to Amitābha’s Pure Land.
Then I think if I miss that plane, I’ll get a human one. And if I miss that one, well I’ll in trouble. You gotta pray for me, okay? So where’s your original book? So okay, the other part that was interesting for me, you see, Rinpoche’s been teaching for more than forty years, right?
All this stuff not all of it’s transcribed, but much of it’s transcribed. And the raw transcripts are like this kind of it’s like a mountain of clay, and you’ve got I’m not trying to make the editor important, but it sort of is an important role because Rinpoche teaches he just pours out of his mind, pours out of his heart, know? So when you transcribe it, it’s just like thousands of pages of words. And the person who’s a good transcriber, they’ll put commas and full stops in it hopefully, maybe even paragraph breaks, maybe even section breaks, but many don’t. So it’s just these pages and pages and pages and pages.
I mean pages. Can you imagine getting a book with It’s like unedited James Joyce, practically. So it’s really hard to find. Remember when he did this teaching in France, he said that was the basis of the book, he was happy with that. But you just could feel there was more that had to be done, you know?
So this one the piece that was missing was Amitābha’s Pure Land, is fantastic. It’s only short, but the other bit was I was reading Rinpoche’s teachings all the different times he’s taught on the death process, and suddenly this this particular thing grabbed me. So that made me have to then think I have to study the twelve links. I’ve never studied it before, I’ve never had a teaching on look another six months just to get clear. It’s only a small part of the book, but you know you’ve got to understand what you’re doing when you edit somebody else’s teachings, it’s a very big responsibility, otherwise you can misinterpret.
That’s terrible, you know? Poor Rinpoche channeling his thoughts through his idiot students, very brave of him. Really, very brave of him, really. You understand? Quite intense.
So these twelve links blew my mind, and this I think I mentioned it yesterday, but I’ll say it again. This is what she said. I have to find it. Alright. There we go.
Okay. This is Sūtra teachings, this is Buddha’s teachings. He described the process, you know, the different factors involved in our lives. Every day we’re creating countless series of lifetimes. cyclic existence operates through the twelve links of dependent arising.
The first one: ignorance, the root delusion, the root of all the problems, the fundamental cause of all suffering, all happiness, all lives, the way we are now within saṃsāra. Such that when that is cut by realizing emptiness, then you can’t go back, you can’t fall back, you can only go forward. Until then we’re just continuously cycling. So the root delusion is that on the basis of this assumption of an I, we then do actions, starting with intention mental action, which means karma mental action then followed through by actions of the body and speech. Let’s face it, our body and speech are the servants of the mind.
The mind is the beginning of the process of intentional actions, karma. It means that. On the basis of this, and this is every millisecond, know, we’re doing this. And they leave imprints on our consciousness, where I think a great term is it programs our consciousness that we get. Buddha would really like that.
In a sense it’s almost more accurate than seeds, but they use the term seeds and imprints, you know. Programming is a great one. Every millisecond, every millisecond, every millisecond, because our mind is functioning every millisecond and as long as our mind is functioning it’s sowing seeds. It’s just natural, it’s just what it does Everything is it. So these leaves seeds, this then creates what they call name and form which essentially is the person.
Simple, you know? And then once we’re in the we get produced in the womb and we come out and then in relation to and then we have contact, then we have the sense bases, then we have contact with things. Every second, one of the mental factors. In the Buddhist model of the mind, it’s divided into different categories of states of mind when you study the text, Lorig. I think you’ve done it here in the past, I think you should certainly request it again.
There are five what they call always present mental factors states of mind we call them. They’re always functioning constantly. And one of these is called contact. One of these is called contact. It’s when an object like colour, you know, there’s colour, there’s red, that’s an object of the senses.
Color, eye consciousness and another aspect of that never mind kind of come together. This is contact they say. On the basis of this, then there’s a feeling. Feeling in Buddhism isn’t the way we think of it an emotion in general. Only three kinds of feeling: pleasant, unpleasant or neutral.
Let’s get to neutral. Basically every second our attachment is a junkie that’s craving pleasant feelings and every millisecond our attachment is craving to be free of unpleasant feelings. We’re either pleasant or unpleasant and we all know we spend our lives trying to get the nice things which we think will give good feelings and we try to avoid the things that will avoid the unpleasant feelings. We know that. So this feeling one is massive, and that’s every millisecond there’s a feeling, pleasant or unpleasant.
And on the basis of this because of attachment, then this is what perpetuates saṃsāra. So we continually want the pleasant feelings, then the chocolate turns up because of habit in the mind from past karma, we see that round triangle and then attachment makes this complete absurd drama queen exaggerated story of it, which then causes us to totally believe that when I get it it’ll trigger good feelings, so naturally we stuff it in the mouth. Not this hole, this one. We know, we’re very familiar. Then it triggers good feelings, so then you know of course we keep eating it hoping for more good feelings, but then unfortunately it turns into unhappy feelings, we get full and stuffed and get acid reflux, but then we forget that and we do it again the next day.
So this is what perpetuates saṃsāra. It’s a very technical explanation. It’s really fascinating how they describe it, you know. And all this is only we’re programmed with this from countless I mean the Buddha says countless lives. We come into this life programmed from the first, second of conception with your own tendencies, with your habits, with your karmic imprints.
Your mother and father are just these catalysts that give you a life, aren’t they kind? They give you a body, you know, so you can continue to create more ridiculous karma. So then on the base of that feeling craving comes, you know, that’s the point. And then we keep going, and then that leads to grasping which is even more so. In daily life craving is continuously happening and craving which is attachment like you know you’re sinking oh what’s missing?’ then you go ‘cake!’ and suddenly the light bulb goes on and then immediately the process of craving starts, the excitement, the anticipation.
The next level is grasping when you stand up and go and get it. So craving and grasping are happening all day, all day, unceasingly. Then there’s another thing called becoming which is very vague, I never understand it but never mind, but it happens especially at death. So all of these are constantly over a long time leaving these seeds which then lead to a birth. These all lead to a birth and there’s countless of these seeds every day being planted that we put imprints in the mind that are in our big petrol not petrol tank in our bank vault of the main karmic seeds, the throwing karmas, our bank vault of throwing karmas which then will cause a certain life, certain life, you know.
Then that finally leads to old age and then death. What’s interesting is birth starts the first second at conception. Old age starts the second second of conception, okay, after conception. Already it’s downhill from there, you’re heading towards death already. So I have to refrain myself when I see babies and I sort of want to say to the mother, well it’s nearly dead already is that you know make the most of it.
But I don’t, I refrain. So if you’ve got a new baby don’t take it too insulting, don’t be too shocked. But hear that, birth is beginning at the first second of conception, know, that’s birth in the twelve links and then old age begins the next second. Okay? Where’s the thumb?
Isn’t any. There’s not meant to be any. If you’re a body sufferer, can have your cake and eat it too. That’s what I figured, to the mummy, only time it’s pure land, get a few realisations, then I can come back and have fun, you see, as well as help people I don’t want to be too boring, I want to have fun as well. So you can have your cake and eat it too, I’m convinced.
But you’ve to be a bodhisattva, at least, if not a Buddha. Okay, so now let’s discuss the twelve links in relation to this human body that we have now. What caused our consciousness to join the egg and sperm in our mother’s womb? What made it go there? This is when I read the teachings, this what blew my mind, that’s why had to study it for six months so I could do this at a chapter, you know?
So in past lives, because of ignorance, the root delusion, marigpa, ignorance, ego grasping, ignorance. We created both non virtuous and virtuous karma. Okay, because of this ego grasping, even the good actions we do now are still informed by this ignorance. They’re virtuous, but there’s still mistake there and they’re going to perpetuate saṃsāra. It’s only when we’ve realized emptiness and perfected that that we cut that.
Our non virtue is a disaster. That’s motivated by the delusion. That’s impelled by ego grasping. But so is our virtue. Because as long as I believe and if I’m having anger towards you then that’s heavy duty, that’s double trouble.
It’s a negative action as well as one that keeps perpetuating saṃsāra. But the same with virtue. If I’m compassionate towards you, it’s still compassion is virtue and it’ll leave a positive seed and bring a good result but still it’s based upon the assumption of a self existent me having self existent compassion for a self existent you so still in saṃsāra. We have to understand that. So now in past lives because of ignorance we created both non virtuous and virtuous karma number two which planted seeds left potential in our consciousness number three.
So now at the time of this is the point now of what I read at the time of death of our life before this one whether you’re a human or an elephant or a kangaroo, okay? Craving arose. This eighth link which is happening every second of the day but in particular at death especially powerful this craving came at the time of death. To craving to not separate this is the point to craving particularly to not separate from this body. What is in daily life?
It’s craving to get the cake, the this, the that, the good feeling, whatever, always perking and moving ahead. But here at death it’s craving to hold on to this body. That’s the intense craving which is why there’s so much at death. That’s what Rinpoche says: Then fear arose because the attachment to not wanting to leave the body that’s what causes fear at the time of death. It’s very simple.
Is the body or is it the body? Body. I’m just reading Wilshire’s teachings. Darling, he’s not saying you’re not attached to your eye, of course you are, but he’s talking about the body. He’s saying it.
He means body. He meant I, he would have said it. I hope I haven’t misunderstood. He says body. It’s a very interesting point, isn’t it?
Good question. Then fear arose because of the attachment. Okay, not wanting to leave the body, that’s what causes fear. But after that, the ninth link grasping, which is even more powerful attachment, even more powerful. A stronger form of attachment.
This time in our case now this is what Rinpoche says, I blew my mind so I had to study it a stronger form of attachment. So he says this time it’s from us in our past life. In our case attachment for a future human body. So now in the case of someone who is going to be reborn in the hot hells, I don’t like to think about the hot hells but never mind, the craving is the same, not wanting to separate from their body but the grasping is to heat because they feel very cold. Many times dying people say they feel cold and beg for blankets, but even if you give them two or three it won’t be enough, their grasping to heat is so strong.
So the grasping of heat activates the grasping, the grasping in this case at heat, in the case of someone else activates a negative karmic seed from the bank vault, which is the second link. The seeds we plant that will produce future lifetimes. There are many seeds planted. Remember, there are four ways that our actions ripen in the future. The main way is a type of rebirth.
Then the residual result of those is the tendency to keep doing that action, having the action happen to you and an environmental result. So killing, in the case of killing, like I was the there’s this example of this boy who was a fisherman, I always tell this story. Met heard Rinpoche’s teachings more than twenty years ago, twenty five years ago at Kopan and she was in tears and said her boy who had been a fisherman all his life, he’s died five years before he was twenty nine. And she’d always thought that he died doing what he loved, like we’d like to think, you know? But he died drowned, he drowned.
He died drowning and he was a fisherman, he said all his life, he’s a little boy. The first second he meant fishing, felt he fell in love with fishing. So this is the point now. We can deduce from that he woke up in this life with a tendency to kill, a tendency. He didn’t get it from his mother and father, not from his mother, she didn’t like killing.
It was a tendency in his mind already and that’s the residual result of having killed in the past and having been in the lower realms in the past. So that main karma had run itself out like a petrol tank, ran out of petrol. But he hadn’t purified it. He hadn’t made a decision I will never kill again. And that’s why, as Lama Zopa says, living in vows I will never kill again and purifying the four opponent powers are the fundamental practices and especially purification.
He says we’re insane not to do it every day. Because when we understand this presence of karma and it really is an extremely sophisticated technical explanation of universes and how beings come into being and what is this and the cause of that. It’s phenomenal. I mean, you know, and I said Buddha didn’t make it up. He’s not a creator, he’s observed it, you know, with his mind, in subtle meditation obviously.
It’s a highly sophisticated explanation of the technical explanation of what has happened, what is suffering, what causes this, what causes that. So the main result of killing, so he left over, killed, the karma ran out from being in the lower realms because every second you have a suffering you exhaust the karma. Eventually it ran out and like a miracle one life you know he was dying as an animal. We’ve all been animals in the past, so clearly you can change from animal to human because here we are, we’re proof. He was an animal in a lower realm and at some point in the time of his death certain karmic was triggered, certain conditions activated one of his human virtuous karmic seeds from his human throwing karma bank vault.
So he got a decent human body again. He was born in California, this nice mummy. So if you look at the four ways that karma ripens, he had a lot of good karma. He had a really good human birth. He had very good tendencies, his mother said.
Kind, intelligent, loving, generous, all these things. But among those tendencies, like look at the human realm, most humans have a tendency to kill. Most religions even teach that it’s cool to kill. I’m not criticizing, it’s a fact. So there’s a tendency to kill, very strong insiders, look at this you know.
He had one of those. In his case it didn’t manifest until he met fishing. So what’s happening is this the tendency to kill is there, like a karmic imprint, and it’s like when you meet the object it’s like you know when you meet a person you feel familiar. Always think of Romeo and Juliet, know they felt they they in love you know or in West Side Story especially. When Tony’s singing you know Tony sings I got it on my iPad I saw it recently Tony’s singing Something’s Coming remember that song?
You know when something very powerful coming and you feel it coming, that’s how karma is. Something’s coming, because the karma between these two people was so intense, you and Tony, and he knew it was coming and then they met in like instantaneous recognition, had the dance, remember? And all the jets and the sharks all dancing then every time you see each other and everything else disappears. karma ripens! Well that’s how it was for this guy with fishing.
He didn’t think of fishing the moment before he goes fishing he can’t believe it you know because the karmic seed is there it’s triggered instantaneously attachment is triggered attachment makes it look divine it triggers a delicious feeling and so logically he deduces that fishing must cause a good feeling and of course he wants to keep fishing so he fished until he was twenty nine and then he died scuba diving. This is the tragedy of feeling and this is why living in vows is necessary, the only way we can get ahead of the game Lama Zopa was implying is to say those words He says to live in vows. He says just being good is not enough. And when he says the karma we must have created in the past life, the virtuous karma, the morality karma, the non killing, non stealing, non lying, non harming karma, is not just from being nice people. It has to have been practiced, he said, not only in the context of a spiritual path but in the context of keeping very powerful vows of morality.
So the point is this: karma is intention. If there’s no intention there’s no karma. How can there be? You know, there could be a mouse in your kitchen and you’re sitting there cooking the dinner for your family and you don’t see the mouse and your foot goes on it and it dies. Well there’s not a secret how can there be karma because your mind didn’t decide I will kill a mouse.
There’s no recognition, there’s no intention, there’s no motivation. There’s nothing, your mind doesn’t see it. Feet don’t create karma, what an absurd idea. karma’s done with the mind, everything starts with the mind, intention, everything exists on the tip of the wish room, says minds create karma. The word intention means karma.
No decision, no intention, no motivation, no karma. How can that be? Maybe you know you were drunk and you were abusing your husband at the same time that’s different you’re creating the negative karma being drunk and abusing your husband not of killing a mouse. So right this moment we’re not killing right? Probably not because there’s a mouse underneath and we can’t feel it under our bottom.
We’re not killing. So isn’t that nice? Aren’t we lucky we’re not killing? But we’re not creating any virtue of non killing, and we need in our bank vaults bucket loads of strong, delicious, delicious seeds of non killing. The basic level of morality karma is a proactive thing.
Merely being a nice person and not killing is because of our past virtue. We’ve created such virtuous come in the past that we’re born into a place like Adelaide, but I haven’t met even an ant since I’ve been in Adelaide. Are you hearing me? I haven’t met an ant or a mosquito or a mouse or a cockroach. You in India it’s like Jurassic Park.
They bombard you you know in Bodh Gaya at dusk in the summer it’s a carpet of sentient beings. You can’t exist without destroying countless sentient beings. I haven’t met one little bug yet. That’s due to our incredible virtue that we have harmed so we’ve got such non killing, non harming karma. It’s manifesting as having such a nice environment that you’re not demanding, you’re not forced to kill all the time.
That’s due to our virtue but don’t we’re resting on our laurels. It’s from our past virtue and we’re just simply it’s like we’ve a garden full of delicious veggies and we’re eating up all our veggies thinking aren’t we lucky? You’ve got to sow some more! How do you sow more by intentionally not killing? But if you’re never meeting a sentient being you don’t want to not kill, how can you create the karma of not killing?
We’re not. Are you communicating with me? We’re not creating any virtuous karma of not killing because we’re intending not to kill. So the only time we intend not to kill is when we meet a sentient being. Or easy peasy, live in vows.
It’s the point of vows, not some holy thing. vows are just practical. So as Lama Zopa says, you can be doing lots of pure, lots of practice, but not live in a vow of not killing, merely not having not you can be, you know, whereas another person merely has a vow not to kill but doesn’t do much else. That second person is constantly purifying their mind and constantly sowing positive seeds, popping them into their bank box. And twenty four hours a day, while they’re sleeping, eating, having sex with a new girlfriend, drinking beer at the pub, having a van not to kill, it’s the easiest way to live, you can stick your feet out and eat popcorn all day, know, at the television.
You’re trading far more virtue than a person you know it’s like walking downhill the other person’s kicking their head above water you know. vows are so powerful and Buddha says that vows are so potent that they’ve got there are subtle physical a subtle a subtle energy that’s visible to clairvoyance. Because you think about a vow that fisherman he it’s like he lived in a vow to kill. He defined himself as a fisherman Every decision in his life was based on how to when to go fishing when not to go fishing. Everything was in reference to fishing.
I’m not criticising just showing how karma works. Whereas another person might go fishing every now and again clearly not as heavy. So equally with virtue, you might be virtuous every now and again but if you’re living in a vow not to kill twenty four hours a day, you’re defining yourself as a non killing person. You’re defining yourself as a non harming person. It’s like absolutely incredible.
And according to all the Buddhist teachings, the power of vows is such as a psychological skill. It’s a psychological technique. Don’t think of it as religion. It’s impossible to create enough virtuous karma without vows. Because you know only when you’ve emptiness and Bodhicitta is your virtue very strong.
Right now the virtue we create is really weak because we don’t have much virtue. I mean it’s not being mean about us. I always say that when I’m being mean but it always sounds so heavy you know. When I read the Tibetans they sound like the most fundamentalist. But it’s hard to hear all this because we hear it like religion, you know?
But it’s so technical. It’s like discussing nutrition, mental nutrition, you know? So Living in vows is an easy way to put lots of seeds in your good bank vault and then purifying at the end of the day the fourth step of which is I will never kill. So you’re strengthening it, growing it all the time. We can’t get ahead of the game without these two tools.
This is junior school Buddhism, you know. So the main way karma ripens is the fully ripened result which is a type of rebirth. Then that fisherman, because he hadn’t purified all the aspects of killing, he had the residual result left over which is the worst one which is the tendency to kill. Look at all the humans every human got a human birth because of non killing. One track of karma is the type of birth you get, the next track of karma is your tendencies.
And look at humans, most humans kill something. So in most humans this is too shocking to hear, I’m just quoting the teachings, when they die we’ll go to the lower realms. It should be enough to make us weep with compassion, that’s the point, you know, first for ourselves. So feeling, I was talking about feeling wasn’t I, that’s the point of this feeling, and then because of attachment we’re junkies for the good feelings. The only way in our life we can see this is saṃsāra the only way most of the time we know how to trigger a pleasant feeling think about it all we want is pleasant feelings.
All we want is pleasant feelings. This is just natural, it’s called happiness. Pleasant feeling is another word for happiness. So we are driven every second having this body, having attachment, to constantly search out methods for getting good feelings. And think about it, the only method mostly that we know for triggering good feelings is getting objects of the senses.
And it’s natural in this body that we have. Yeah we get good feelings when we’re kind to people, aren’t we lucky? Aren’t we fortunate? But mostly because this body is so massive a role in our lives, we make the body the boss, as Lama Yeshe puts it, you know. It plays a massive role, even to the point in our culture where we are only our body.
They don’t even posit a mind. It’s only the body. So no wonder it’s not so hard to even hear these things, you know. So the body’s needs drives us every millisecond. So of course there’s attachment to I, but the major one is this body, you know, the one we define as ourselves, one we identify with totally, utterly every second.
So we’re craving good feelings all the time, pleasant feelings. So the only way we can get it is by getting the cake, getting the nice words, getting the nice sounds, getting the nice people, getting the nice temperature, getting the nice food, getting them whatever it is. The only way we know how to have a good feeling is by getting an object of the senses which is an object of attachment. So feeling and attachment are completely different. Feeling is pleasant or unpleasant.
Attachment is a state of mind that interprets something as being an object that will give me a good feeling. This is what saṃsāra is and so it’s difficult. It’s like a minefield to manage it all. So I’ve lost my page. We go.
No, I’m sorry I lost my page again. Okay, are we communicating again? Any question? All right all the yes again. Yes.
Any questions so far? Any questions? Possible to hang on a sec is anybody not here yesterday? Are you people Buddhists? Well this is brand new stuff to you.
You came for the death, didn’t you? Okay. Are some of you not Buddhists? I’m not being rude, I just need to know what to say. Are some of you not Buddhists and never come before?
Okay. This must be a bit overwhelming now, all these weird ideas. Anybody else? So any questions? Okay, yes, question.
I think it might be a good idea to transfer the craving to things into a rather Is that a question, darling? What’s the question? Might What’s the question? Best to have a question. Sure.
Do you think it makes sense to transfer the craving to things rather than craving to help people to fulfill your social responsibility? Of course, it’d be a wonderful idea. What’s good idea? Buddha would agree with you. Buddha would agree with you?
Yes. Buddha agrees with me. Any more questions? I ask you if you have a question? Because you didn’t come yesterday.
Did you have a particular date? Oh no that’s fine perfect were you here yesterday? Yes Oh okay so you heard yesterday? Oh thank you oh good now I’m happy I’m very pleased okay fantastic Okay. Are there any more questions?
No more questions for now. Okay. Okay. Okay. So okay.
Okay, this twelve links business. All right, back to the twelve links. Okay, so the point that Rinpoche is making is essentially this, you know, and this is sort of technical, maybe it just, you know, I don’t know, it was helpful or not, we’ll soon find out, I’m sorry if it’s not helpful. So this grasping, this is the point that Rinpoche is making, your question is a good question. So basically when we look at a Buddhist, hear about how attachment is you’ve got to give up attachment, you shouldn’t be attached blah blah blah I’m so attached blah blah blah attachment is the cause of suffering blah blah blah you know and then suddenly what Rinpoche is saying is that at the time of death we had strong attachment for a future human body.
Well he’s saying basically given that we have so much attachment, and because there’s attachment to this life and this body and my friends and my pension plan and my mommy and my daddy and my this and my pussy and my doggy, this is all our attachment like a vampire holding on to what we’ve got, right? But this is the one time we really can’t hold on to it because very logical, really simple, it’s so clear we can’t take it with us. It’s so blatantly, insanely clear, finally, this is when we have to say goodbye to it. Finally. Isn’t it?
It’s clear to us you know. So I don’t care whether you think you go to heaven or hell or a black hole or disappear into dust or another life. In the sense here what I’m saying is we can see no matter what happens after death you know you can’t bring it with you. Isn’t it? So if you’re a materialist I think the best we can think of is mostly the fear of death is like a black hole you’re going to fall into.
Isn’t it? Because that means nobody knows. That’s the way we talk in the West. So there’s no I think with that view alone, no wonder there’s so much fear. Because who the name of God in heaven wants to go into a black hole?
Do you understand? So no wonder there’s fear. Now the fact is, if you’re a Christian and you love God then you the way to help your Catholic mummy is you just flood her with the love of God every second. Tell her how God loves her. Tell her how it’s all the things that Rinpoche talks about.
The the whole section of the practice is what to talk about. Talk about heaven, describe it to her, read beautiful saint stories whatever, so her mind will be uplifted. And she will look forward to heaven. Look at one of the key characteristics of attachment. Characteristics of attachment is to look forward to something.
That’s exactly the function of attachment. Are you hearing me? Every day we do this. From the second we wake up, we’re always looking forward to the next thing, the next one, breakfast, the drive, now the work, now home, now lunch, now dinner. You understand?
Never ending. Never ending. Even our virtue, we’re attached to it like she says, better than nothing, I tell you. Because the Buddha’s view is, we’re going to be a while before we’ve got rid of attachment, so do not hold your breath, it’s profoundly subtle, it’s primordially deep. What Rinpoche is saying here is let’s be skillful and use our attachment.
Just your point. I remember first giving this manuscript to a friend, she said oh, Rinpoche can’t be saying that. And that’s what I did, I was surprised when I read it first, that we in our past life we had grasping, intense attachment for a human body. And that grasping, this is the point, that grasping, that ninth link, that is when all the energy is kicking in and now that is the trigger for the number two link which is the karma that will produce your next life. That grasping is the trigger it’s like all the conditions come together and then boom karma ripens.
That is the trigger, that grasping is the trigger for the second link which is the karmic seed in your bank vault. And in our case, in our case the seed was triggered that is the one that caused us several weeks later to run to our mummy’s human will, you know. So the grasping is a total delusion and its function is to trigger the the karmic seed, but it can be it can be the grasping can be for something positive and a skillful means. So your mommy is a Catholic, your mommy is Jewish, your mommy is a Hindu, your mommy is a what? She’s a communist, have no idea.
Maybe talk about Lenin or something, I don’t know. If you’re a communist or a materialist, you talk about their qualities, make them happy, lift their minds, lift their anxiety, make them feel loving and compassion, what a good life I’ve done, rejoicing in their good qualities, how happy everybody is, how we all love you, we’re so happy with you, you know, to help them relax and stop the grasping. But then you can’t look forward to anything because they don’t have a view, but if you’re a Christian look forward to heaven, look forward to God. With skillful means. Because then the grasping goes to that and you can let this stuff go.
And that grasping, because the mind is lifted, can trigger a virtuous virtuous karmic seed. It’s practical, it’s skillful, it’s technical. Are you hearing me? Yes. In our case, yeah.
So if you’re coming to the time of your death and you have a strong grasping for mice or strong grasping to be a cockroach. Does it work that way? Yeah, course it does, absolutely. So look at most of our lives, we think of animals or creatures, have aversion for them, you’re really attached to your pets, you know, being really attached to your pet straight to become a pussycat, of course. That’s the point.
That’s the point. So you can actually be deluded enough to be attracted to copulating cockroaches. Oh god look at all the people call furries. You know about furries? Have you heard of furries Gabe?
You don’t know the I’ve never heard of a fairy one. What world do you live in you people? I read all the news. Furries, I mean I remember in Vanity Fair twenty five years ago I first read about furries that these human beings, they say themselves as mostly vaguely gay, me, that’s their views, this man their attachment is having sexual contact with stuffed toys. Not just animals.
He said this fellow, he tried animal, human size appropriate animals like German Shepherds, but he prefers his stuffed toys. So he spends all his money on eBay. And they all have their conferences and wear their mouse and their cockroaches their that animals, I know, cockroaches, I’m not sure, but you know, cute animals. They say it’s cartoon like. And they all meet in their conferences and they have their own language and their own way of world and they talk.
And they completely identify with animals. He said, know, they prefer the furries, they call themselves furries and there’s a whole variation of them now. So when you think of karma, if karma is the way the world exists we create everything from our thoughts. Now I can just I mean, you’re all laughing, of course, but I’m trying to think, what is the cause? There he is a human being when he was six years old, he’s at the sports, he’s an American, at the sports.
Then all the other boys no doubt got turned on by the girls, you know? I always forget their names. Cheerleaders. Cheerleaders. But he got turned on by the Mickey Mouse mascot.
Now my friend Panos, who’s Greek, he told me when he was six, he’s walking down the street of Athens with his Greek Orthodox mummy, and he sees a poster of a half naked lady at a cinema and he says, his squeaky little voice, I can’t get up there anymore, Mummy why is my penis standing up? He got turned on by a girl shape well guess why because he’s got attachment to girl, female, human shapes. Well if you’re think of our culture in this last hundred years especially America and we’ve all got a part of it. Cartoons, personified animals. The Buddha’s point is this, everything any sentient being ever sees or hears, hears the point, gets imprinted in the mind.
We’re programming our mind as one mama said it’s like all our lives we’re taking photos and everything is stored. What do you think the cause of this life is? Then meeting that person, having this one do it, raping me here, loving me there, giving me money here, liking this, not liking that, wanting to fish, wanting to have sex with a stuffed toy, programmed from having in the past and much of it from animal lives you know. So then guess who’s turning into a furry this life, he’s got a nice Christian, he’s a nice white Christian boy. They’re mostly techies though, they’re vaguely techie.
So he said, you know, had all the they went to their conferences in their hotels and things, furries all meet. So he was a nice Christian boy, a nice white Christian American boy, okay? So he’s got virtue, morality, but all his life and his past life, think of America, of who we are, and get about culture. You spend all your childhood and our minds when we’re very small children are just driven by astonishing creativity. That’s attachment energy.
Excited attachment, thinking, fantasies, stories, you know? So what are you spending your life in? Reading comics, having your pets and having your stuffed toys? You’re totally obsessed with personified animals. It leaves imprints in the mind.
So then what’s you see what sexual attachment is? It’s just very strong attachment. There’s no difference between attachment to sex, attachment to killing or attachment to food. It’s just strong, that’s all. And the one of bodies is very strong.
So then any strong attachment to anything becomes extra strong next life, so that’s what we label sexual. So then they’re born up, they wake up in this life and his little thing stood up when he saw Mickey Mouse. So he spends his life of course believing in this, know, his right to be what he is and so he spends his life, you know, he pointed out the stuff Toygu likes to have sex with. So yes is the answer. We create our own realities, so we’d better watch what goes on in our minds, Buddha says.
Not being fundamentalist, just being practical, that’s all. No one’s going to punish you, we do it to ourselves. We’re the creators of our own reality, that’s the joke, you know. But in our culture we go, oh, I’m allowed, we’re allowed to think what we like. Or we go, oh, it’s only in the mind.
Like I mentioned, you know, this anyway, somebody else had a question? I’ve heard a voice. Yes. It’s like people who say and they wanna come back as their cat because they seem to die having a good Everybody says that. humans will guarantee you will, know?
Don’t worry about it. You know, karma takes care. That’s right, exactly. Every word counts, every thought counts, says. Everything gets stored in the mind.
It’s not how we can be clairvoyant. I remember reading recently, I saw, I told you about YouTube, this one young American woman was always depressed since her mummy left her when she was young, took care of the children, then she got married, she had children, she’s a very nice girl, always depressed, and she killed herself. Well, she tried. She reported this vividest of vivid crystal clear vision as she called it of every major event in her life starting from the second she was born. Well that’s imprinted her mind.
You see we’re stick as post, we don’t remember ninety percent of even today forget about even a past life. But all the memories are there, and when we’ve accessed when we’ve got single point of concentration or access our subtle mind, she did when she tried to kill herself, when you dream, that’s your subtle mind, then it’s all attainable for us, it’s all there for us. So nothing goes astray. Every imprint, every desire, every craving, every wish, every fantasy, every everything stays in the mind and then grows and manifests, you know. Buddha says literally, this is the meaning of karma, as His Holiness calls it, self creation.
It’s interesting, it’s an interesting view. Attachment, so the fisherman, he might live out his orgasms, his little thing didn’t probably stand up when he went fishing, but he certainly got excited. But torturers, that’s how they talk. We just think this is monstrous, don’t want to think about it. But I mean one torture, one American serial killer, He reported about how when he, since he was tiny, he was compelled to torture the creatures because he got pleasure.
There’s one fellow called BTK, he’s in Kansas I think, they don’t have death row there so he’s still in prison. He killed like thirty five people, over thirty years he called himself bind, torture, kill. He lived in this fantasy world and he would catch people, he’d get people, kidnap them, mummies and daddies or partners or couples or families and he would bind them and then torture them. And he said and he got orgasms from it. His thing stood up when that happened, because that’s habit, you see everything’s habit.
And when you’ve got the strong habit to do, it triggers good feelings. Might, we just, I mean aren’t we lucky having the pathetic old habit to stuff a bit of cake in mouth? Aren’t we fortunate? So don’t get too depressed please. Do you understand?
Can you imagine the torture of being a pedophile? Okay, keep them out of the way. But can you imagine the torture of wanting to torture all the time and unable to think of anything else? A friend of mine on death row in Kentucky, he said, Mitz, the Buddhist, he said this friend, the guy I know, he says, Rabina, he thinks about torture all day. This is what attachment energy does from having in the past, a habit.
We should be in tears of compassion. Yes, protect them. I’m glad he’s on death row. Can’t do it to other people. This is our poor demented minds, know.
We have no idea why we think things. People go mad every day, no idea what’s in their mind, why? You know, they knew their mummy didn’t teach them. You brought them all with you. Habits.
For me, at least that’s an explanation. You can’t blame God for it. That’s an interesting view. I find karma so powerful, know, I swear to you. At least there’s an explanation.
So then watch our minds like a whore. Yeah. Rabin, have you ever heard of can you hear me? Yes. Have you ever heard of self fulfilling prophecy?
Yes darling. That’s the same, isn’t it? Well it’s not quite the same sweetheart, it’s sort of vaguely similar. No, I disagree. That means be careful what you think because it’ll happen, we think like next day, we’re talking like next life.
There’s a much more subtle meaning. You’re right, you’re true, you’re not wrong, it’s true, it’s not wrong, but it’s not really the same because it means usually like, well you think of it today, it’ll happen tomorrow, that’s what people tend to think, isn’t it? They’re not talking about past lives, are they? No. Not true.
That’s right, exactly. So we’re talking past lives. I’m talking about, I’m specifically meaning past lives. That’s my point. That’s the point here, not just this life.
Because you know, if Buddha would say if you spend your life killing, next life you’ll suffer from it. You don’t suffer this life, do you? If you kill every day, you don’t even get killed you might live till you’re ninety seven. If you steal every day one of the karmic results is to be stolen from, and not just life, it might not happen. And so, you know, liking your toys when you’re a little girl, you don’t get, you know, you’re not getting turned on by it, it’s only next life that the attachment grows mightily, and then you’re attracted to having sex with your Mickey Mouse toy, you know?
So yes you’re not wrong, it’s true, but this is more a long term one and mainly about next lives because the energy grows massively more strong next life. And the same, luckily with virtue and compassion. But yes, it’s a good point isn’t it? For sure I’ve heard about it. Where that originated, I don’t know.
Is it a Catholic Christian teaching or is it just some do you know where it came from, the history of it? I think it was part of the personal growth movement. Oh I see, okay, very good. No I understand, that makes sense. Was that more?
Yes. Oh, was just about attachment to our pets. Is there a question? Well, it’s like how I mean I have kittens and I’ve always had cats for many years, how not to become attached to your business such I’m carer. That’s what practice is.
And that’s where if you think of what’s Okay, if you’re a carer, that’s a good point now. Okay, if you’re a carer for a baby or an old person, your job is to know what they need, isn’t it? Would you agree? Would you agree with that? That’s a carer, isn’t it?
Well if you saw yourself really as a carer of a pet, and you were, let’s say, a Buddhist, then you would only be trying to do what you can to help their mind for future life, but I bet ninety percent of us Buddhists in this room never think of it because we’re so attached to our cute little kitten. Lama Zopa says if you can see the mind of your cute little cat and kitten just for a moment had a direct experience of their mind, the suffering of their mind would be so unbearable you’d never want to sleep again and waste a single second of this human life. Do you see them like that? I don’t think so. That’s because we have No way, all I can do is to, like this morning, I’ll treat it up, put on some Buddha mantras.
Okay, good. Then that’s the point. This is it, that’s your job. So that’s the point. Nothing else you can do, can feed them, but every time you feed them that is using up their merit, so at least give them the dharma because that can help their mind.
Then you understand, that’s your job. Meanwhile you’re using your attachment to be useful to them, otherwise it’s just fulfilling our needs, isn’t it? That’s exactly the right to think of what’s best for them, that’s exactly the point. And of course the Buddhist view, understanding this business of a mind, that’s the point, to leave imprints in their mind, you know? And to do something in such a way they’re not going to become attached to me because I may not be there.
No, no, just as well they are attached to you because at least if they die, that can be the grasping that can trigger them to get a human birth. That’s what I’m suggesting. May not be there. No, no, whatever then, can’t help that, never mind. They’ve got a calming connection with you, put it that way, and they’ll meet you again and you’ll lead them to enlightenment.
You’ll have them by the scruff of their neck. That’s right, there you go. So this grasping is what I’m getting at, okay? The intensity of this grasping, how to use it skillfully, your point in general in daily life, at least be attached to something that can help you. So the time of death, it’s a practical issue.
I think when we hear the Buddhist one, gotta give up attachment, it sounds kind of heavy, you know? But we understand at the time of death, it’s practical. Otherwise, you’re gonna be dragged screaming, you know, out of that door. But if you’ve given it up you’re able to go bye bye and some people are, some people die really nicely. And they’re able to let go, they have compassion, they have love, they’re happy to move on if they have faith in God or something.
That’s the way to die. And then that’s because there’s no attachment, therefore there’s no fear. But that grasping is still gonna happen until you’re highly realized no matter what. But that can hook onto the human life or go to the the pure realm, the Buddha realms or whatever, you know? Skillful means, it’s skillful means.
Do you understand the point? That’s why if you are a Buddhist and you do take the business of karma, you know, as your working hypothesis, which is like I like to say it, and it’s that you who are the creator of your future, then just like I said, if if you wanna go on a holiday, you gotta first say May I go on a holiday? Well it’s called aspiration. I want. That’s the first step.
May I walk out the door? Is the first step in walking out the door. My legs are not the first step, my mind is wanting to walk out the door, that’s the first one. So I want to go to France. Then you don’t just sit there and cross your fingers.
You know you put into your calendar January the seventh going to France and you get to January seventh. Oh what happened? How come I’m not in France? Well you never bothered to create the causes. You didn’t buy the ticket.
You didn’t save your money. You didn’t get time off from work. It won’t happen. You’ve got to first have the wish, then you create the causes. So it’s really practical.
You want a human life, then you’ve got know what the causes are. Well, live in vows of non killing, non lying, non stealing, and purify your karma and do a little few little extra pieces and you can sit back relax because that’ll be the cause of a human body. Very simple, very simple. Want it, create the causes and it’ll come. karma’s natural, it’s a natural law.
You know when you become a gardener, have to this is why the analogy of seeds and fruits for me is such a powerful one. You first got to want a garden. So you don’t just go oh I’ll have a garden and you will go to the shop and buy any old seed and chuck them in the ground randomly. No, every single seed you plant and this is a point about karma now every seed you plant is based upon what you want in the future isn’t it? Do you see my point now?
This is a powerful example. This is the analogy of karma. Right now the things we do is because we want the result now. I want a good feeling now, shove in the cake, you know. But if I want a human body, if I want to go to Amitābha’s Pure Land, I should decide and then I’ve got to see what are the causes.
It’s like if I want a carrot, I want carrots in my garden, I have to know well, I want you have to know the result. You want a carrot. So then you gotta go buy a carrot seed, isn’t it? It’s obvious. It’s completely a no brainer.
You gotta know what you want first, and then you plant the seeds. You gotta know what kind of rebirth you want, then you plant the seeds. It’s not complicated. What we tend to do as Buddhists, we kind of like, you know, my feeling is sometimes I used to think, you know, I’m a good girl really, and Lama Zopa will see I’m a good girl, he’ll sort of take care of me. No, it’s not his business.
It’s my job. I want a human birth, so that means don’t kill, don’t lie, don’t steal, live in the morality of vows, and purify my vows. Purify my negative cum every day, the four opponent powers. And then do a bit of extra connect to the Buddha, do some aspirations and do some good practices and add a bit of virtue to the mix, but the basic is junior school, the basic is living vows and purify. That’s the cause of getting a decent human body.
And then you want to link to the Buddhas, then do Buddhist things, and you’ll have imprints of the Buddha, and then you’ll meet the Buddhas again. Get born to a Buddhist mummy instead of a communist mummy or something. You know, you’ve got the wrong rebirth in the wrong country. You want the right rebirth in the right country. It’s up to you.
It’s up to you. So why do you think we’re all sitting here in Adelaide in Buddha House in nineteen twenty thousand something? Isn’t it? What do you think the cause is? Because past lives, probably bloody Tibetans obviously, because we’re Tibetan Buddhists, clearly made strong aspirations to get a decent human birth when we can meet the Dharma.
Well guess what? We are just wish fulfilling, whatever the word is, exactly that. We are experiencing the fruits of exactly what we did in the past. We’re experiencing the carrots, we get carrots now. We did it.
We forgot we did it. We think someone else gave it to us. We think it’s random. No. We created it.
So then keep sowing more seeds, please, for more carrots. And there’s only two options, human or Amitābha’s Pure Land. According to this view here, you know. It’s not complicated. It’s like I go to those shops, the health shops and the homeopaths are great.
The homeopaths have a little book of A to Z diseases and then A to Z medicines. It’s really helpful. You look up the disease and there’s an anika, okay there’s A anika, thank you. It’s like that. I want a human body, okay what are the causes?
Just do it, you know we’re very good organising things, it’s not complicated. Then karma takes care, mummy as she says, you know. Anyway, we communicating here? Yes. Alright.
That’ll do for that one. So okay. So let’s go to this I’ll go to some of the chapters now where we say the sec okay. The first section of the book is sort of how to think about death and reincarnation, the background about what happens after death and how you know don’t be afraid and attachment, give up attachment, live a good life, you know all this business. And then the next slide is the technical thing of what happens to death and the eight stages of death and twelve links, and all that stuff’s there.
And then the practices to do during the months and weeks before death, there’s a whole bunch. So what, you know, what Rinpoche talks about I’ll just go through some of these then now. There’s all this first section, you know, create a good use of environment, then all the practices what to see and touch, what to think about, what to hear, what to meditate on, how to deal by negative karma, and then finally what to do during the hours before death, as when all this stuff happens, you know? That’s the critical time. The next section is what to do during the hours and days after the breath has stopped.
This is crucial for Buddhism, After the three days. And then what to do after the mind has left the body, which is, you know, and then what to do the next forty nine days. So as a whole more than half the practices are what to do once the person’s, you know, stopped breathing. So many things we can do. So let’s just look at a few of Ruche’s thoughts and things.
You know, so Rinpoche says, you know, as we’ve discussed, a good rebirth, a human rebirth or a Buddha or a pure land, depends on dying peacefully with virtuous thoughts. These two come together. When the mind’s deluded, the mind’s neurotic, the mind’s completely full of negativity, anger and attachment, fear and drama which triggers negative seeds. It’s just natural, it’s not punishment, it’s natural. When the mind’s peaceful, it’s virtuous, and it can trigger virtuous seeds.
Okay. So therefore, because it’s so critical that time, as Rinpoche says, the people surrounding the person who’s dying, you know, friends, family, personal carers have a big responsibility. I’ll put it this way: whatever arises in your your loved one’s mind, whether their thoughts are virtuous or non virtuous, very much depends upon you and other helpers, how you behave towards them. It is a great responsibility, you know? If you’re not careful, if you don’t have this education, that the way you behave affects the mind of the person and therefore their future life, you’ll only harm them and not help them.
And that’s the point, it’s a shift, if you’ve got the Buddhist approach, it’s a shift from helping them now. Which is a nurse’s job, you know if you’re just a nurse and not a Buddhist isn’t it Gabe? Your job is to help their body and help them be peaceful now isn’t it? But here the context is bigger and you’ve got to train yourself to think that you know. Like I said, what really struck me editing this book, it isn’t about preparing for death.
It’s just this inconvenient drag of a thing that has to happen. We’re actually preparing for the next life, if you’ve the Buddhist view. It’s like if you’re a devoted Catholic, you’re preparing to go to heaven. It’s the same meaning, you know? So helper should be close to the dying person.
Know, Rinpoche says that people who help who give advice and support and especially the one who one of the practices when you first stop breathing, this always sounds very funny, one of the first practices to do, the Buddhist ones, as soon as you stop breathing, they say you shout the name of their guru in their ear or if it’s God they love, you shout Jesus, know, shout because I mean their ears have gone already so you’ve to shout loud. That sounds very funny. It’s one of the lame practices. Who says the name of the person’s guru in their ear when their breath stops, they shouldn’t be someone they dislike, in fact there should be a pure relationship between the people. It’s kind of obvious, you know.
I can only imagine how distressing it must be in hospitals when people can’t stand the nurses. Must be very distressing, wouldn’t it be? I mean, you notice that? Or generally speaking, the nurses are kind in your unit? Generally speaking, they’re very good.
But it will be distressing, wouldn’t it? I imagine so. Some people maybe aren’t the kindest sometimes, either they get angrier, they get upset, naturally, we’re humans, aren’t we? We don’t always get on with everybody do we? No we don’t, that’s right.
But that’s the one about here, if you do choose to be that helper, you know. If you really can’t be kind to your mother, I suggest you back off and leave her alone, know. If you’re gonna be a bully, some people are, I mean some people old people become intolerable, I mean I’d probably kill people. Do you understand? Because you’re really impatient kind of person, you know?
And you people get irritated. I know one person, I know this daughter who’s been helping her old mother for years. I mean she’s tortured because she gets angry easily, And I can imagine you would! So you’ve got to be so careful, especially when they’re dying, you know? Do you understand, don’t you?
Not easy. So in order to ensure that attachment doesn’t arise in your loved one’s mind, especially when the time of death is close, okay, it’s best not to allow anyone for whom they have strong attachment to be in their presence. I mean this is a tough one. This is really a tough one because we don’t have that view in our culture. All the family hover around, you know, the animals thinking it’s kind of lump.
It can be, but you’ve got to be wise, you know, and think of this person. And that’s also where the thing is, you know, when we really do understand the Buddhist view about the mind, that when the person’s in a coma, we just tend to assume they’re noticing. But this is just not true, you know. It’s unbelievably important to keep the same energy in the room when they’re in a coma, when they’re asleep, peaceful, quiet, only the Dharma sounds. Not any garbage, any emotion, any dramas out the room please.
I don’t to think of it as their gig, know, but everything should be perfect for that person. Everything in that room, every bottle, every bit of medicine, every picture, every sound, every thing, every person should be only for the benefit of that person to help them not be attached, be fearful, not be distressed. This is a massive responsibility, more than just their body, you know, not their body at all, we’re talking about their mind. That’s the point, to understand that one, you know? There’s a nice little prayer in here, remember she has prayer for helpers.
May whoever sees me, touches me, remembers me, thinks about me, talks about me, praises me, even criticizes me, may they immediately be free from all spirit harms and negative karma, and may they complete the path and achieve full enlightenment as soon as possible. So you should think this, you know? Use your wisdom, as Rinpoche says. The more you understand what you are supposed to do for your own death, the more you’ll know how to help your loved ones. All this is obviously for oneself.
Then you know how to help your loved one. Then you know how to help, you know? When you know how to die with a peaceful mind, can confidently help your loved ones. You need to be skillful in advising your loved ones according to their state of mind, background, their life, whether they’re non believer or have a religion or whatever, you’ve got be so skillful. And even among Buddhists, like I said one of my friends recently, she didn’t want to know about being treated like a dying person.
Get out of my face, I’ll do my own prayers, my own medicine. So you’ve to know how much affection, how close, how distant, you’re aware how to help the person. But the bottom line is your presence should make them peaceful and virtuous, that’s the bottom line. They should trust you. You know?
And of course the major point here, which is not the western view, is that remember as I mentioned before, even if the in the book, even if the dying person doesn’t have any, you know, doesn’t think about Buddha’s teachings or anything, it’s still good for them to hear the practices. But receiving the benefits of reciting or hearing them doesn’t require devotion. So even when you’re unconscious, when the mouse is there, the ant, the baby, the senile grandma, Having just the sound quietly of say mantras, and anyway just the pure peaceful sound is magic. Not to mention that because it hooks the energy of the Buddhas, know, and brings them close, that’s the way to think about it. It can help the person.
Like I told you they said about my story about my friend Judy in a total deep coma, the only thing she could remember crystal clear was the words of these teachers that she’d had, know, her gurus, when I said the words, those are only thing she remembered. The words, you know. It’s gonna be powerful. So make the place beautiful, like I’m just saying, you know. And then of course if you’re like a typical one of your Buddhist, anything in the room, like I said before, for these two senses are so powerful.
And the touch, the third one touch. Somebody says you’re really into all this, all these different practices can have, things to see, things to hear, things to touch, you know, that can leave virtuous imprints in the mind. Keep the room really nice and no tobacco. Tobacco is said to be a really heavy kind of herb that attracts very negative spirits according to the Buddhist view. Because it’s to do with attachment, know?
It attracts very heavy spirits, negative beings. So no tobacco. Don’t bring anywhere near, don’t bring your tobacco breath. Just a point of clarification, Rubina, it says smoke here, does that not count? It says no tobacco.
No tobacco, so it says smoke. Just to clarify, does that mean incense isn’t allowed? It’s not tobacco, is it? No. It says tobacco.
Hey, Jesse, read the heading. What does it say? No tobacco. Well then why are you asking? Because it doesn’t mention tobacco.
A heading implies what’s underneath it refers to the heading. You can write things, don’t you? Yes. Jesse? Tell them, girl.
Boy. Just clarifying. No, that’s not clarifying. That’s an unnecessary question. I’m not being mean to.
I know Jesse. Jesse, I don’t believe you. The heading says tobacco. Yeah. But it doesn’t mention tobacco there.
The heading says tobacco. Yes. It says do not allow anyone to smoke anywhere near the dying person’. Does it say that in your book? Yes.
So who smokes incense around here lately? Smokes incense? Jesse! Come on, leave it. Sure.
I understand. I’m very happy you understand. Thank you for your question. Are you clear now? Yes.
Jussen would like something like a mechanistic explanation of why tobacco is harmful. No, he didn’t ask that. Shush, you mind your own business. She’s a helpful girl as well. No, he doesn’t ask I was just wondering if it was Oh god almighty, can you leave us alone?
Shut up, just shut up. Excuse me. You better keep smiling, I get accused of abuse sometimes. Was that abusive? Are you sure?
I like this to be honest. Okay so no pets and no animal skins. Mean we don’t have animal skins, Tibetans love their animal skins, know, probably. We don’t have animal skins, so we might have, you know, keep them out of the way. Remember she says you shouldn’t allow any cats and dogs in the room, especially cats.
It’s said that their hair is polluted. Not my cats. Everybody thinks they’re cats are body suckers. I’ve never met a person who doesn’t think their cat’s special. Like their babies.
So Rinpoche says, and he’s quoting a book here, quite a lot he quotes this particular book that was published by the Tibetans to help in Dharamsala for the Tibetan people to remember all, you know, to know all their traditions and things. Tibetan ceremonies for the dead. The author says that if the person who is dying is lying on an animal’s skin, should remove it before they die, the same as if they’re wearing an animal skin or are covered by one. It says that being around animal skins at the time of death makes transference of consciousness. Particular practice is where you can actually encourage the consciousness to leave for a pure land.
It makes it very difficult. And also they say that the hair of cats, it can attract spirits. Cats particularly, their energy is very polluted. You can still be attached to your pet, it’s alright, it’s okay. It’s like saying you’re attached to your snake, it doesn’t mean the snake won’t eat you, does So we’re just pointing out a characteristic.
And this is according to these Tibetans, you know. And of course a calm and peaceful environment. You must not create a situation that disturbs your loved one’s mind, makes them angry or upset. Don’t have anyone emotional in the room, especially when death is close. It’s best that people don’t cry within hearing distance of your loved one.
This type of thing you know. And quiet, you know quiet. I probably wouldn’t be any good in a death room at all. I mean they say even I’ve heard, I know people’s experiences who work with the dying, that when you’re dying, because your mind literally, you see, literally your mind’s going from gross to subtle. So your mind becomes unbelievably sensitive.
The tiniest noise can be beyond distressing. Know? Yeah. Is that timing of not crying in front of the person Can’t hear you, darling. Sorry.
Is that timing very limited to when they can still hear, like their ears are still working at that stage of death? What’s the subject of your sentence? I’m sorry, not having people crying in the room. No, the whole time even though, I mean like I said, okay, your senses stop but all the time we’re reporting all these experiences of people having out of body experiences, people in their dreams hearing what’s going on. You remember that?
I told you that experience I had as a retreat. So even though the ear consciousness has ceased, I heard everything. So the mind is capable, even though it’s disembodied, is capable of seeing and hearing, the subtle mind is. So then that is that’s the point. Those three days after their Constantly peaceful quiet like a shrine room.
Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely. More than anything. Yes, exactly. A quiet refrigerator. That’s right, a quiet refrigerator.
So okay, so the next section is what the different practices are what to see and touch. Rinpoche is really into all these things, you’ve got all these practices you know. So see holy images. Again remember everything we see and hear leaves imprints, leaves imprints. So show statues or pictures of the gurus and the buddhas, or if it’s Jesus they love, you know, whatever.
And then repetition into showing mantras, all these different mantras. He’s discovered mantras that no one has heard of. It took so long to work out all these mantras, you know. Touch holy things like touch texts, one of these big ones is to have texts on the body, you know, like with Catholics when we had, you know, what do you call it? Scapulars.
Scapulars, that’s right, same deal. And then stupa, have stupas, prayer wheels, blessing cords. I haven’t got one on me, yes here. You know those red cords you have on there? They’re blessed by so they’re good to put on the body as well.
On your dead animals as well. Like if you might have a, you know, you can carry blessing cords with you, say you’re a dead kangaroo, you get off and you put the blessing cord or you put mantras on the kangaroo’s body, it can help. We say mantras and it’s here, know. And there’s another practice later on, Rinpoche has one of the things when he does all his mantras all day, has talcum powder or seeds and then after all his mantras, because you bless your breath and then you blow on it, so then he says he stops and puts that onto the dead animals you know you can sprinkle it on the body of the loved one as well as the dead animals any animals you meet or any ants or whatever or the dead cockroaches or dead mouse whatever. Next one is what to think about and there’s lots of things in Hiru Mishai mentions, know.
One of the first ones of course is make sure your loved one has given away their possessions. I mean that’s obviously for us we have a will and that’s very powerful because we are so attached to our things and this can become quite difficult, know. So really important in your mind to have given it all away, truly have let go of it. And don’t use it like politics, like some people do with a family, you you give this lot and that lot, you create all this division. Just give it away, let go.
And one of the powerful practices to do after the person’s died, if they haven’t given everything away, give everything away. It’s so beneficial for their karma to give everything away, give it all away, consciously give it away, you know. It’s very interesting stories about spirits. These wonderful stories actually, very funny. The type of rebirth, you know, of spirits is due to intense, intense attachment and grasping.
So this is one of the lama, Geshe Lama Konchog. Did he even come here? Gabe? Geshe Lama Konchog? He never came to Adelaide.
He came to Australia in the 90s, he was at Chenrezig. He never came here. Amazing yogi, you know the one I’m talking about? Okay. He’s an amazing yogi who left Tibet you know, soon after, and he spent years and years in caves.
He was naked, no clothing, no food, no sleep. An amazing holy being. Lama Zopa said he lived in Vajrayoginī’s Pure Land, you know? So anyway, after Lama Yeshe passed away at Kopan in eighty three, four, suddenly this Lama turned up. He was an old friend of Lama’s from the monasteries in Tibet, you know.
This old Lama turned up and people wondered who this country bumpkin was. He’d spent his years naked in caves in the six foot of snow in the winter with no clothing and no food, he looked pretty rough, a bit rough, you know? He thought it was this country bumpkin, well he was Vajrayoginī, living in the Pure Lands. So anyway he turned up at Kopan, as Lama Zopa said, when Lama Yeshe passed away, all the smiles Kopan went away. And when Geshe Lama Konchog came all the smiles came back.
People adored him there. So he passed away in two thousand and one. Anyway the point is he lived up in the mountains up there. This highly evolved being, Bodhicitta, emptiness, clairvoyance all this business right? Whatever, whatever.
So there’s this wonderful stories about spirits. There’s one nun, you know when people get possessed? Well, I mean, call it, you know, when people hear voices? Well, often that’s spirits in the Buddhist view. You know, you actually are hearing voices.
Spirit beings whom you have some karma with, use your body, possess you and harm you, you know, there’s many terrible stories. So this particular story, this one nun, he was up in one of his caves and these nuns came up crying, ani’s gone crazy, ani’s gone crazy, ani – they use that word for nun. So he said okay it’s cool, I can go down and help her, know, so he went down for twelve hours down. We went down there half the time because he had such control over all his subtle energies, was able to walk on the wind, he’d ride the wind, they can do that, know, so he doesn’t have to touch the ground, so he sailed down there on the wind. People saw him do this when he wasn’t noticing, you know?
When you have these tantric yogis have complete control over the body and the mind, so they can manipulate the energies of the universe, that’s how they talk. So anyway, he got down there, and there’s this nun in the bed without the nuns, and supposedly, we’ll take this as a given, she’s possessed by this spirit. And she’s, you know, she’s and he comes up to her and he he because the spirit, they’ve got masses of grasping and attachment. This is what the suffering is intensely strong, and their minds are conjoined with their energy, they’ve got bodies, they’re like fitting from pillar to post driven by attachment, a billion times stronger than ours, more distressing. And so I guess what you’re attaching, you’re attached to things aren’t we?
So anyway, this nun, the spirit in the nun’s body, he wants to know what he wants, that’s what they asked. So Geshe-la said to him, the spirit, what do you want? And the spirit in the body of the nun with a deep voice said, I want my pink thermos with the white flowers, I want my pink thermos with the white flowers. Sure enough there it was and the nuns remembered this villager who died recently had given this nun a pot of the thermos of tea but she forgot to give it back. Because they’re really poor up there anyway, he’s attached to his thermos.
When he dies, he’s attached to his pathetic thermos. So please be careful people, because it’s a thermos, We’ve got houses of things, wardrobes of things, bank full of things, safes full of things. Right? This is the thermos. So he died with attachment.
So he’s running to get his thermos, so he has to go in the nun, you know? He’s completely distressed. So anyway, because again I knew who the spirit was, what they do is they in this case they give the thermos away, make it useful. Generosity, give it away. Generosity for the sake of the poor person.
But I know another story, I haven’t finished the story yet, but another story one time in Kopan Monastery during one of these courses one girl there went wacky, you know, people get wacky when they go to spiritual things. So he said they went to see him, Geshe Lama Konchog he said she’s possessed, but you’ll find something in her luggage that’s linked to the spirit. So they found this Jewish object and the girl said that her father had given it to her and got it from a they were Jewish bought it in an antique store. Well I have second thoughts now about secondhand things because you bring the bloody spirit with you, you know? So anyway, she was completely berserk with his spirit possessing her, and so what they do in this case, and I’ve seen it many times, because he didn’t know who the spirit was, they had no connection, so they shout at the spirit to make them go.
And so he’s beating her with a shoe, the poor girl’s being beaten with a shoe and he’s shouting at the spirit in Tibetan, they must be multi lingual because they can all you know they say we know all about you, there’s no reason to keep you here, you go now, that’s right they’ve got to throw the object away as far as possible to break the connection, then you go and they threaten you know, this can help the spirit go. I heard Lama Zopa, he used very peaceful methods, There’s one lady in Singapore, he spent hours and hours trying to work out what the spirit would want, what would make them leave, know, so finally the spirit accepted a cup of tea and they agreed to go. But some spirits won’t go and that’s why people have nightmarish suffering. A friend of mine recently unbelievable, I I took it as a given that it was spirits. She remembered the day all of a sudden in Canada, I’ve been emailing me, you know?
And all of a sudden she remembered the moment sitting in a cafe, suddenly something strongly went into her left side, she remembers, and from that second, these voices, many beings she said, and she’d be tortured. She’d email me, she could hardly think, could hardly see, I was strangling her. I believed her completely, you know, totally accepted. So she was very clear, and now I think her father’s locked her up and I can’t get any contact with her. And Rama’s over did prayers, nothing seemed to make them go away, the karma’s so strong.
It’s that karmic connection between people. I mean you can have a person who stalks you and abuses you in a human form, well these are spirits you know, whom you’ve got strong karma with, whom you’ve harmed from past lives. Anyway, attachment, spirits of attachment you know. So give your things away, give things away, have no connection because you’ve got to run after them, get born as a spirit, you want them back. There’s no help at all.
Pick you up ghosts who haunt houses, it’s exactly this, Exactly the point, you know. You’re attached to that place and that’s our worst delusion isn’t it in our world. Look at us, we might be raping and murdering too many people, look at us though, it’s attachment to things holding on clinging, you know. My daughter many years ago overseas and most of her possessions were given away. I invited her friends it was after a year, I’d say, but I invited her friends to come and take her things.
But in the house there are still many letters that she wrote and I’m just photograph albums. But they’re your but they’re your possessions, not hers. Okay. See, they’re not her possessions. They’re your possessions, darling.
The distinction. I think that’s okay. They’re your possessions to remind you of your beloved daughter, you know, that’s okay. I just wouldn’t want to think that that was an attachment that was her in any No, that’s your attachment. No, that’s not hers.
That’s yours darling, and that’s not But that’s okay, they don’t have any fears about that. No sweetheart. My question about that is when I do want to let go of certain of those things, I’ve always felt it needed to be some sort of simple but sacred act. Absolutely. Would you recommend?
Besides her letters and photos you have other things like jewels or something? Jewels are easy because they can be given away. Well they can even be given to put into statues. That’d be so special. But otherwise, I’ll tell you what, have you got any of her ashes?
Not now, we release them at a property even though they are. One of the practices which I recommend, which we’re going to talk about later, we’ll do it now, is you get any of their it doesn’t say their possessions, says usually their ashes or their hair or their bones, and you mix it with you have them made into statues or stupas, so that becomes unbelievably blessed. I’ll go into it in more detail. But my feeling is why not even it’s just my own thought now. Why not even burn her things and then have a little stupa made or a little stupa.
You know those little Buddhist images, tsa tsa, the little images? And have it mixed with the plaster and have it just blessed. As a ritual thing for yourself, makes it so holy and so special, you know? That make sense? Yes.
Don’t you worry about your attachment, it’s okay. So then, if they have faith in their Guru or the Buddha, talk about it. If they have faith in God, talk about it. And don’t be scared, we’ll get very fearful, you know? And you don’t start sort of shoving God down your grandma’s throat.
But you could talk about how you love God. Maybe you know I’ll talking about God late, you know and she’ll be so happy to hear what she wants to oh shut up or oh really? And you’ll listen, you’ll hear whether she wants to know more. She We know ourselves when we’re sick or old, and because we’ve spent our lives not working on our minds, especially when we’re sick or old, you can’t control any thoughts, and it’s full of anxiety and your guilt and your bad and your worries and your fears. So you’ve got to be brave to check what’s happening and put positive things in it.
And if they do have some connection with God, remind them, you know, and talk about yourself not putting it onto them, then they might like it. Be brave though, you’ve got to try things, don’t get worried. Talk about Amitābha’s Pure Land, or heaven. There’s one of the texts in here, Lama Tsongkhapa’s description of Amitābha’s pure land read it to people, you know? Heaven the same.
I remember Nancy Reagan when she died, because she was very attached to Ronnie, wasn’t she? And she went to Billy Graham and she said, can you promise me I will see Ronnie in heaven? He said, yes. So she relaxed. Let’s hope she didn’t go to the lower realms out of attachment.
Let’s hope she went to somewhere where someone looking like Ronnie was there. Let’s hope. Buddha manifesting as Ronnie for Nancy’s sake. Another interesting experience about spirit type things. I’ll finish the thermos.
Yeah, what happened was, because he knew, Geshe-la knew who the villager was, and the villager knew Geshe-la. Because when Geshe-la was coming in the door because he’s a spirit he doesn’t have a gross body so he’s clairvoyant these spirits are clairvoyant and he knew Genla was coming and he felt ashamed in the nun you know he said no no Genla he didn’t want to look you know because it was his lama so anyway Geshe-la knew he could help him and then at some point before he finished the job of helping the spirit leave, the spirit was crying, saying, I can’t find my way. I can’t find my way. That’s very moving actually, because, you know, it’s like in a dream. Know in a dream, you flit from pillar to post, don’t you?
There’s no sense of space and time, there’s no sense of kind of being in charge of anything. You’re kind of here and there, you fly, you’re down, you’re up, you fall, it’s weird, you know? Well, that’s how spirits are, but ten times more suffering. No sense of what’s going on, driven driven by attachment every thought. You know how our mind just flips from pillar to post?
Well, their mind is conjoined with air, so literally they flips from pillar to post. It’s intense suffering. Some spirits can be really, really unbelievable agony of suffering. Attachment suffering, you know? Okay?
Anyway, this is another story. Right, I’m tell another story. This is a bit different story. This is very interesting. Saw years ago on the web, somebody showed me twenty years ago more, twenty five years ago, a story about some Christian doctor in America who interviewed his patience and they’ve got near death experiences, but not white like ones, hell like.
Because everybody thinks it’s lovely in white light. But this is very interesting, interesting, interesting. So there are two stories, and I think I’ve got them a bit mixed up. But anyway one of them was this fellow I’m so sorry. Could you hear me okay?
Yes, I’m doing fine. I shout loud enough don’t I? So this one story was this fellow who was a businessman, he said he was a bit mean to his wife and kind of selfish, when he told the story of what happened. He was very sick, was in hospital and was waiting for his heart operation and he was really anxious about when they were going to come and get him. And all of a sudden he found himself by the bed talking to his wife and he was he remembered he got mad at her because she didn’t respond.
Then he looked at the bed and he saw a body in the bed and he kind of vaguely twigged that it was his body, but he had left his body basically. So he’s walking, then he heard these voices in the corridor, Come on John, they’re all good they’re taking me to my operation. So he said there were all these creepy crawly knights and then gradually gradually becoming brutal and ripping his flesh and abusing him. But so first of all, I find this very fascinating. He said the walk along that corridor took as long as walking from here to Alaska.
Well even if it was like next door state, except Alaska’s on the other side of Canada isn’t it? I think, isn’t it? Anyway, he said, in other words, I think you can’t be out of your body very long, can you? Before you’re brain dead, right? Do you understand what I’m saying?
So he probably has a few moments, but his experience of time, isn’t that interesting? It took as long as walking from here to Alaska. So anyway what happened was, after they’d abused him and ripped his flesh, then they left him. And he said he was in the depths of darkness and despair, the likes of which he’d never known and he didn’t know what to do. So he said he hadn’t prayed since a little boy so he started to pray and he said our father who art in heaven he couldn’t go any further.
Then he tried the Lord is my shepherd he couldn’t go any further and then he just cried out Jesus help me! So I said to him way over there a tiny light came and it got bigger and more powerful and more radiant completely healed him completely blissful he said it would have been if he’d been in his real body it would have consumed him it was so intense it was Jesus you know completely embraced with bliss and love of course he wanted to go with Jesus but Jesus told him to go back and he did and he served Jesus and you would wouldn’t you? I mean you know? So the other story, so this is the interesting point this one so you know like a Buddhist if you’ve got a Buddhist imprint you wouldn’t have been calling out for Jesus you’d call out Green Tārā and guess who’d come it’d be Green Tārā, well he’d get a shock if he saw Green Tārā wouldn’t he, a naked green lady, he’d get a big surprise so it’s karmic imprints on your mind, whatever you’re familiar with, the shape that is coming, you understand my point? There’s a shape for someone you’re familiar with.
So you know the Buddhist will cry out Mother Tārā, will she come? You’ll see that karmic vision you know, you create the karmic vision. So the other story was that he was an alcoholic and he said he was mean to his wife as well, they’re both mean to their wives. So basically he died and he was walking along a tunnel, they were talking about tunnels, but at the end of his tunnel was not white light, believe me, there was this conflagration, it was hell. And all his friends who died, he saw them there.
Now clearly, if you’re in fire, you clearly can’t be in your human body but that’s the karmic vision people have. You know when you see a house that’s haunted you see the eighteenth century lady in her eighteenth century clothes don’t you? Because that’s how she looked then. So we have the karmic vision of that person. So he’s coming between his own friends in this fire, this conflagration you know.
And they were shouting at him Go back, don’t come here, go back, back, go back. Well he went back and he served Jesus as well. And again, you would, wouldn’t you? So this is like all these experiences you hear about outer body and people having they all interpret their things differently, know? They might call it God or they might call because that’s what you call it, because that’s what you know.
Do you understand? But the main point for me is the constant in this is there’s more than just the body. A lot of people’s experiences are constantly proving it, but you know when you’re cynical, you think there’s a lot of rubbish, they’re all insane, you know? The entire world is insane if you’re a materialist. They’re all idiot and deluded.
I mean the arrogance actually of materialists is quite shocking, isn’t it? Because they think they know the truth, you know? So it’s very interesting. I think that’s the point for me. You know, how you interpret it, if it’s Jesus or God or heaven or hell or, you know, whatever, but the experiences of it are so constant, it’s very interesting.
Okay, so I’ll tell you that. Next, talk about your loved ones’ qualities. This is the most unbelievable gift you can give all day every day. Start now, don’t wait till they’re dying. You understand?
So even your mother’s been mean, I don’t care praise her, thank her, write her a letter before she dies. I love you mum, I love you and I thank you for being my mother, thank you for being my father, even though they abused you, I don’t care. Okay, if you’re not ready, don’t. I’m not forcing. You have a strong karmic history with your mommy and daddy, know.
Intense history from countless lives. Just heal it, fix it, and make lift their little hearts up, you know? Isn’t it? I mean my mother was tormented by the guilt of what she didn’t do right, you know. Tormented.
That’s what mommies do, isn’t it? Thank her, love her, thank her, thank her. Talking about compassion, depends on the person’s mind. Talking about everyone else’s suffering, maybe you don’t want to know. Depends on the person, what works for their mind.
Some people love to talk about compassion, to do the Tonglen practice because it’s incredible. Next lot is what to hear. This is examples, but the key one is if they like God, talk about God, talk about heaven. If they like Buddha, talk about Buddha, talk about the Guru, talk about Pure Lands. And talk about their good qualities.
That’s the key one. That’s a miraculous gift you can give to anybody. Praise them, thank them, so special. You know yourself, person says one kind word to you, it’s like nectar on our heart, isn’t it? And we’re not brave enough to say it to ourselves, we need someone else to say it to us, so that’s just how they are.
Flood them with love and kindness. Even if you’re a nurse in a hospital, I’m sure you did a wonderful job in your life, you’ve been such a good person, you gave your life to other people, you were such a good wife, blah blah blah. Say it! It’s unbelievable gift, nectar, you know, makes their mind virtuous, makes their mind peaceful, lifts their heart up. What to hear?
Well, mantras day and night, teachings if you’re a Buddhist, day and night. Hear the names of the Buddha, hear mantras, again this list is talking about the longest chapter, looking at all the names of the mantras, it’s so confusing. Mirrors of them, which has got so many. Whichever one you like, you know? Next one: what to meditate on.
Rinpoche has made up lots of guided meditations, like Medicine Buddha. Some of you Buddhists know, he says Medicine Buddha before, middle, end, and back all the time. Best practice. If you choose one practice of all these eighty seven in this book, choose Medicine Best they say, best, best. The mantra or the practice, best.
Just the best, amazing, for everything. Meditate on Tonglen, that amazing meditation of giving and taking, for people with a brave mind, Rinpoche said. To use their own suffering and their own death as a way of wanting to give to others, know, take on the suffering of others. Very special, it’s an amazing practice. Then okay, meditate on the death process, which we didn’t mention much yesterday, just mentioned it very briefly, there’s eight stages.
Jesse asked me if can go into more detail, it’s in the book. But it’s a really good practice, you read through and it’s written down in the book as a brief meditation. So to your loved one, just read it through so they can think about it. And then the more you’re familiar with that process, you know, even if at the time of death you can’t actually experience it as it’s happening, but maybe some imprints could be there, know, it’s really helpful to do that. But of course that’s for the person who’s Buddhist.
You know, there’s lots of guided meditations Rinpoche’s got here. Sleep, like if you really love Jesus, you have them Jesus on the pillow and they’re sleeping in Jesus’ lap, or Our Lady, whoever you like, you know, or the Guru, the Buddha, whatever. Meditate on emptiness, meditate on the emptiness of death, meditate on the emptiness of the mind, help your loved one with their daily practices, especially Buddhists, you know? Know all their daily practices and recite them for them. Because when you’re sick and old and dying, you can’t put two or two together, it’s so good to do that.
Or help your loved one do that practice called transference of consciousness. Some people actually get the initiation and they attempt to do it. But that’s quite advanced, to have such control that as you’re dying you can kind of cause your consciousness to leave the crown chakra. You’re pretty together if you can do that. Then there’s all the purification practices of course.
You know, you recite the thirty five Buddhas, you can do the four opponent powers of Vajrasattva, there’s a beautiful practice called Samayavajra for those who’ve got vows and commitments to purify your broken commitments. You can offer torma, you can do self initiation for people with highest yoga tantra, all these practices, they’re all in the book, all in the book. And now finally, what to do during the hours before death, which clearly means you’ve to recognise it. Who has lots of experience with dying people? Have you had that many dying people?
So do you notice that it’s probably as Rinpoche seems to suggest that it’s maybe two -three hours before they stop breathing, when the actual eight stages start? When the eyes stop blinking and that kind of thing? Which is an indication that it’s a couple of hours before death, Rinpoche says. What’s your experience? It varies, Rinpoche.
Tell me about what you’ve observed it varies depending on where Do we have the microphone Jesse darling? No Tell me what because it’s very hard they never say how long it takes but Rinpoche seems to indicate One of the signs he said let me just say this first. He says know, remember I said the first of the senses to go is the eye consciousness? Yeah, the eyes. That’s a sense isn’t it?
Yeah, right, that’s right, the element, the earth element and the eyes. So Rinpoche says one of the signs of imminent death, maybe a couple of hours, is if the eyes are open and they don’t blink. So that’s an example he says. So tell me about what you’ve seen then.
Yes. Or sometimes the eyes are closed. It’s the most clear sign for me personally is the breathing of the patient. And so their breathing pattern changes, and so you can roughly determine that a patient is close to death because they breathe in and then they breathe out really a lot longer. Long and short, yeah.
And then shorter in between. So that’s an hour, a day? What are you saying? Generally speaking, it can be a couple of days beforehand, actually. But is that the actual eight stages?
This is my point. It’s a very specific thing, these eight stages. I mean, you could argue we’re dying slowly anyway. People get senile, they lose their memory, their senses go, but that’s not the beginning of the actual death process. So that’s what I’m asking.
I mean, can you really be clear about that? No. I’m I’m personally not clear about it. I mean, and I’m not there for an extended period of time. I’ll go in and out.
Yes. But but as, you know, nurses and and medical practitioners, you can you can generally tell by the breathing that the patient’s coming close to taking their last breath. But, yes, usually they’re inert, not responding. Their eyes may be open, but more generally they’re I understand. But one thing that’s quite noticeable to me is when the patient actually’s breathing stops is that then the body tends to relax.
So there’s quite often a change in expression when the breathing When the breathing stops. Not immediately, but if you’re able to leave them, then quite often there’s a depending on the type of death they’ve had, often they can look very peaceful sometimes. I understand. Do you notice a difference? Can you tell sometimes that the mind goes quickly?
Can you tell the difference between a mind being there and a mind not being there? People often say you can’t do this. I’m not very experienced with that, but I I do know that I try to. Well, if I have the opportunity and I’m it’s it’s known on the ward that I, you know, like to do this. Same answer.
Opportunity to speak to have some time with a patient after their breathing has stopped and after their family has left, then I’ll go in and say Medicine Buddha mantras and I’ve got Okay. Blessing cords. Yes. Okay. I do try.
I mean, I don’t know if I do it or not, but I do try to When do you do that? This one, the crowd. Yeah. When? When?
Just if I have the opportunity. You I can’t time these things because it’s but it’s after generally after the breathing has stopped. But how long normally okay. Because the way Lama Zopa says it, once the breath has stopped and they and just before the body has to go is when you do that. You leave the body as long as you can.
Yes. And the only one you have to force to be moved the body, then you do this one. Yeah. But it’s for me, it’s a timing thing. If I if I do it when the opportunity arises.
But you do it very vigorously, so don’t be polite about it. Well I do have a good know, some of these patience don’t have hair. Oh so you tap. Yeah. Tap really strongly.
Don’t be polite. I have blessing cords as well. Do you pop it around their neck? Well I usually put it on the crown as well. Then you take it off again.
Then recycle for the next one. So have got any other blessed stuff? You still got their crowns like the blessed substances? Don’t usually use anything with me. Bring out your little kit, you know?
Her little secret nurse’s kit. Nobody ever knows what I do. Your friends don’t know you do this? Well my nursing friends don’t. Okay, good.
I see. Any other yes, tell me your Okay, I’ve been with some dying people I’m not in nursing now but my eighteen and a half year old Burmese cat died the middle of last year and so leading up to that his breathing changed but then he did lose eye consciousness because I did do a couple of things like that and you could see that he wasn’t blinking, so that had gone. But he had the mantras going, and I had photographs of the Dalai Lama and Medicine Buddha around him. It’s nice to have that information that you want to do these things. That’s the thing, might not be Buddhists but we all feel what can I do, we want to feel I can do something?
We all feel we want to do something. Even here we’re having prayers, mate, if you’re not a Buddhist or even having blessing the ashes or something so special, I’ll discuss that after lunch or something. And I was fortunate that I could have him home overnight. Yes. So the next morning, and I turned him on his right side after, but he didn’t stop because that’s the way the Buddha died.
And the next morning and so later on I made a cup of tea and I went in and sat with him and we had the mantras going. So I left him like that until the next morning when I was able to wash his body. Why do wash his body? Well they do pee and stuff like that. He doesn’t care anymore, luckily he does.
How I feel. Did you check his mind had gone though? You didn’t do that hard hair? Well no I didn’t do that because I wasn’t wet but I did tap probably as best I could but not with his fingers right. You didn’t check the mind had gone though?
No no because I probably didn’t know what was That’s right, exactly, I understand. That’s a good one, I I did the best that I could. I felt so happy that I could have him there overnight before before he went into the fridge. Absolutely, yeah that’s exactly right. Totally right.
Can I just ask another question? I seem to have spoken a lot about this, about the animals and you talked about the best thing to do for them I’ve got like two dogs and four cats at home with their ashes waiting Can you do that later? It’s called Jungwa, it’s an amazing practice, it’s the most Rinpoche really waxes lyrical about the benefit for the people, for the being of this practice. We’ll discuss it later, absolutely. Time for lunch.
What happens? Yes, talk to me. When we’re talking about the physical observation of very close to the end of life, I’ve noticed that the peripheral circulation shuts down. Tell me about what that means. So the hands, the feet, the arms, legs become cold.
Yes, that’s right. It’s probably three to four hours before the death and it’s a very reliable, frequent occurrence. Okay, this is perfect because it’s exactly fitting with the Buddhist one as the consciousness starts to go through the stages, yes, heat, the third point is when the heat element ceases, and that’s when the heat starts to leave the body. So that is a really good sign, of course, I forgot about that. Because also what’s interesting, by the way, the way they say is, like I said before, the karmic seed that will determine your next life is triggered before you even stop breathing.
And they say if you’re going be born in the lower realms, the heat leaves the head first and your feet stay toasty. And if you’re going to be born in the upper realms, the feet get cold first and your head stays toasty. Not that you can make much difference to it once the karma’s ripened, but yes, the limbs, the extremities being cold, that’s a perfect sign. And that’s why if you did check here, the heat should still be the last place for the heat to go is the heart chakra. That’s right.
Yep, and you’ve tested that? Oh yes. Okay, that’s helpful, that’s good. What about you and the heat? Have you noticed the heat business?
Have you felt their toes and everything? Yes, their feet get cold. And their heads you’ve noticed the heat though. But in relation to how long before they stop breathing is what I’m asking. Relation to how long before they stopped breathing is what I’m asking.
Have you noticed the relationship of the heat? That’s a really good point, thank you. Can’t say definitively. Yes, sweetheart. One experience that I’ve noticed with people that are dying is and it’s quite interesting with talking about the earth element is a feeling of total heaviness in their arms and their legs and often in their chest.
And obviously their life energy is very low then anyway, but there’s this real weight. That’s what they say about the earth element that the body becomes of looser but heavy and the feeling you have, they say, is like you’re sinking. And even Rinpoche says sometimes you almost can reach up. That’s a very interesting point. I remember one time when I got very sick in India, I had hepatitis and malaria no one noticed the malaria because I had all these fevers but I was bright yellow right?
But I had this malaria for like weeks I’d lost like thirty pounds in ten days I was in fifty degree deli with no air conditioning I was completely out of my brain, I tell you. Curtis said, remember they said I was close to death. I mean I just felt terrible, didn’t know what close to death meant. But I remember the feeling of sinking into the bed, my body, the earth element was going, you know? I obviously didn’t die yet, but the feeling of sinking, that’s how they say illness element, body very heavy, you know?
It’s interesting, isn’t it? But what happened was my friends just saw me bright yellow and I figured it was fevers of my hepatitis, but they usually go after a few days, but I was just weeks, or days, probably ten days, just completely hallucinating these fevers, you know? And then someone saw me with a fever and they recognized immediately it was malaria. And then what happened was I knew I had to get out of India, I’d die otherwise. It was fifty degrees in Delhi, fifty degrees, you know, there was no air conditioning, I’ll never forget as long as I lived.
So my sister Jan was so kind from Brisbane, she flew overnight to Singapore to pick me up and I mean the airlines let me fly, was bright yellow, know, they let me fly, I was hallucinating in bright yellow. They let me fly, thank goodness, to Singapore and my sister picked me up and then I took six months to hallucinate, to recuperate and then I got malaria again the next year crawling on the ground up the hill to Kopan, crawling but I didn’t take any of that medicine and my liver is completely fine again, presume. Anyway, that was my story. So I think it’s lunchtime people. So talk about death, if you want, and whatever.
Discuss these things, bring up stories, it’s nice to hear the stories, okay? And enjoy your lunch, we just okay. Enjoy your lunch, go on. What? Oh you’re gonna come here, okay.
Listen, would anybody there’s more than thirty of you here, would you come up here? Please Judy. I have these friends in prison, I write to them, I’ve known many of them for like twenty years, eighteen years right? And oh my god you did each one, that’s amazing. So what happened was they absolutely adore getting postcards.
I can’t tell you how they love getting postcards. So here’s these postcards of Adelaide, they would just completely love it, can’t tell you. So if you would like to, it’s only about thirty blokes, oh you’ve you’ve wrote them all out for God almighty sake Judy, look at you, blow me! So Judy’s written out each one. Been checked as well.
God help me. So if anybody would like to take a piece paper, there’s like David Burton, he’s England, most in America. And some of them like, here’s Yan Chew, so on the ones you’re a bit ambivalent about how you address them, it’s Dear Yan Chew. So write a postcard to say, Here we are in Adelaide, we’re a course with me, hope you were here, something cute and then sign it your name and Rubina so they know where it’s from, know, if you’d like. So there’s thirty about, so here they are and the names grab a name and grab a postcard and if you’d like to post it to the person in the USA, otherwise give it back and I’ll mail it.
Pay for the postage. Yeah alright, you clear? If you’d like. They love getting postcards, I can’t tell you. Thank you.
There they are Judy, thank you darling. And I’ll get my advertisements, more advertisements! We ran out of trek postcards I saw. We’re leading a trek to Lawudo, you know Lama’s place up in the mountains next year April fifteen days, that’s April five, look up Lawudo, maybe you’re not, Judy or whatever, a sign up, that’s to raise money for Lama’s own cave up there, five hundred dollars of the fare goes to there. The other thing I do every year, which is the next one in November, is a pilgrimage.
I think you’ve done something with Dundrum haven’t you? Here, amazing. We did three weeks, starting in Kathmandu, and we go to all the holy places of the Buddha, and the next one is in November, I think. And every year we do that, that raises money for Liberation Prison Project. That’s my advertisement.
Thank you.