1. Rinpoche, a term of respect meaning “Precious One,” is given to highly revered teachers in Tibet. It was widely used in the central part of the country; but in eastern Tibet the title was held in such esteem that it tended to be applied only to the greatest masters.
2. A bodhisattva is a being whose sole wish is to benefit all sentient beings, and who therefore dedicates his or her entire life, work, and spiritual practice to the attainment of enlightenment, in order to be of the greatest possible help to other beings.
3. Jamyang Khyentse was also a leader, one who inspired movements of spiritual change; in everything he did, he promoted harmony and unity. He supported monasteries when they fell on hard times; he discovered unknown practitioners of great spiritual attainment; and he encouraged masters of little-known lineages, giving them his backing so they were recognized in the community. He had great magnetism and was like a living spiritual center in himself. Whenever there was a project that needed accomplishing, he attracted the best experts and craftsmen to work on it. From kings and princes down to the simplest person, he gave everyone his unstinting personal attention. There was no one who met him who did not have their own story to tell about him.
1. This account follows Khandro Tsering Chödrön’s memory of Lama Tseten’s death.
2. The name Lakar was given to the family by the great Tibetan saint Tsongkhapa in the fourteenth century, when he stopped at their home on his way to central Tibet from the northeastern province of Amdo.
3. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Life in Relation to Death (Cottage Grove, OR: Padma Publishing, 1987), 7.
4. Jose Antonio Lutzenberger quoted in the London Sunday Times, March 1991.
5. Robert A. F. Thurman in “MindScience”: An East-West Dialogue (Boston: Wisdom, 1991), 55.
6. Samsara is the uncontrolled cycle of birth and death in which sentient beings, driven by unskillful actions and destructive emotions, repeatedly perpetuate their own suffering. Nirvana is a state beyond suffering, the realization of the ultimate truth, or Buddhahood.
Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says: “When the nature of mind is recognized, it is called nirvana. When it is obscured by delusion, it is called samsara.”
1. Michel de Montaigne, The Essays of Michel de Montaigne, translated and edited by M. A. Screech (London: Allen Lane, 1991), 95.
2. Milarepa, The Hundred Thousand Songs of Milarepa, vol. 2, translated by Garma C. C. Chang (Boston: Shambhala, 1984), 634.
3. Songs of Spiritual Change: Selected Works of the Seventh Dalai Lama, translated by Glenn H. Mullin (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1982), 61.
4. Kenneth Ring, Heading Towards Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Quill, 1985), 69.
5. Raymond Moody, Jr., M.D., Life After Life (New York: Bantam, 1976), 6567.
6. Ring, Heading Towards Omega, 67.
7. In the Mahaparinirvana Sutra.
8. Gary Zukav, The Dancing Wu Li Masters (New York: Bantam, 1980), 197.
1. Kenneth Ring, Heading Towards Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Quill, 1985), 99.
2. Margot Grey, Return from Death: An Exploration of the Near-Death Experience. (London: Arkana, 1985), 97.
3. Dr. R. G. Owens and Freda Naylor, G.P., Living While Dying (Wellingborough, England: Thorsons, 1987), 59.
4. Tibet has its own traditional system of natural medicine, and its own particular understanding of disease. Tibetan doctors recognize certain disorders that are difficult for medicine alone to cure, so they recommend spiritual practices along with medical treatment. Patients who follow this practice are in many cases healed completely; at the very least they will become more receptive to the treatment they are being given.
5. Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Rest in Natural Great Peace: Songs of Experience (London: Rigpa, 1987), 27.
6. Portia Nelson, quoted in Charles L. Whitfield, M.D., Healing the Child Within (Orlando, FL: Health Communications, 1989).
7. “Eternity” in Blake: Complete Writings, edited by Geoffrey Keynes (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1972), 179.
8. Alexandra David-Neel and Lama Yongden, The Superhuman Life of Gesar of Ling (Boston: Shambhala, 1987), Introduction.
9. In the Samadhirajasutra, quoted in Ancient Futures: Learning from Ladakh, Helena Norbert-Hodge (London: Rider, 1991), 72.
10. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, Life in Relation to Death (Cottage Grove, OR: Padma Publishing, 1987), 28.
11. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and about the Dalai Lama (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1990), 11314.
12. In Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, translated by Stephen Mitchell (New York: Vintage Books, 1986), 92.
13. A famous verse by Milarepa, quoted by Patrul Rinpoche in his Kunzang Lamé Shyalung.
1. Dudjom Rinpoche, Calling the Lama from Afar (London: Rigpa, 1980).
2. Chögyam Trungpa, The Heart of the Buddha (Boston: Shambhala, 1991), 23.
3. In this book, the ordinary mind, Sem, is referred to as “mind,” and the essential innermost pure awareness, Rigpa, is referred to as the “nature of mind.”
4. Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche (Nyoshul Khenpo), Rest in Natural Great Peace: Songs of Experience (London: Rigpa, 1989), 4.
5. John Myrdhin Reynolds, Self-Liberation through Seeing the Naked Awareness (New York: Station Hill, 1989), 10.
1. Thich Nhat Hanh, Old Path, White Clouds (Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991), 121.
2. The ferocious wild animals that were a threat in ancient times have today been replaced by other dangers: our wild and uncontrolled emotions.
3. Marion L. Matics, Entering the Path of Enlightenment: The Bodhicaryavatara of the Buddhist Poet Shantideva (London: George, Allen and Unwin, 1971), 162.
4. This direct encounter with mind’s innermost nature leads to the more advanced practices of meditation, such as Mahamudra and Dzogchen. I hope in a future book to be able to explore in greater depth the precise way in which the path of meditation develops through Shamatha and Vipashyana to Dzogchen.
5. The future Buddha, Maitreya, is in fact portrayed sitting on a chair.
6. You may not be following this practice now, but keeping the eyes open creates an auspicious condition for your practicing it in the future. See Chapter 10, “The Innermost Essence.”
7. See Appendix 4 for an explanation of this mantra.
8. Although I have given here a full instruction on the practice, it should be borne in mind that meditation cannot truly be learned from a book, but only with the guidance of a qualified teacher.
9. Rainer Maria Rilke in Duino Elegies.
10. Lewis Thompson, Mirror to the Light (Coventure).
1. Adapted from the “Middle Length Sayings,” quoted in H. W. Schumann, The Historical Buddha (London: Arkana, 1989), 5455.
2. Quoted in Hans TenDam, Exploring Reincarnation (London: Arkana, 1990), 377. Other figures in the West in modern history who have apparently believed in rebirth have included: Goethe, Schiller, Swedenborg, Tolstoy, Gauguin, Mahler, Arthur Conan Doyle, David Lloyd George, Kipling, Sibelius, and General Patton.
3. Some Buddhist scholars prefer the word rebirth to “reincarnation,” which they feel implies the notion of a “soul” that incarnates, and it is therefore not appropriate to Buddhism. The American statistics for belief in reincarnation appear in: George Gallup Jr., with William Proctor, Adventures in Immortality: A Look Beyond the Threshold of Death (London; Souvenir, 1983). A poll in the London Sunday Telegraph, April 15, 1979, indicated that 28 percent of British people believed in reincarnation.
4. Joan Forman, The Golden Shore (London: Futura, 1989), 15963.
5. Ian Stevenson, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation (Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press, 1974); Cases of the Reincarnation Type, vols. 14 (Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press, 19751983); Children Who Remember Previous Lives (Charlottesville: Univ. of Virginia Press, 1987).
6. Kalsang Yeshi, “Kamaljit Kour: Remembering a Past Life,” in Dreloma, no. 12 (New Delhi, June 1984): 2531.
7. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Life After Life (New York: Bantam, 1986), 94.
8. Margot Grey, Return from Death: An Exploration of the Near-Death Experience (Boston and London: Arkana, 1985), 105.
9. Kenneth Ring, Heading Towards Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Quill, 1985), 156.
10. Interestingly Mozart, in a letter to his father, referred to death as “the true and best friend of humanity . . . the key which unlocks the door to our true state of happiness.” “At night,” he wrote, “I never lie down in my bed without thinking that perhaps (young as I am) I shall not live to see the next day and yet not one among my acquaintances could say that in my intercourse with them I am stubborn or morose—and for this source of happiness I thank my Creator every day and wish with all my heart the same for my fellow-creatures.” Mozart’s Letters, an illustrated edition, translated by Emily Anderson (London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1990).
11. Plato’s Republic, translated by F. M. Cornford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966), 350.
12. An explanation given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama during a public teaching in New York, October 1991.
13. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in a dialogue with David Bohm, in Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity, edited by Renée Weber (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986), 237.
14. H. W. Schumann, The Historical Buddha (London: Arkana, 1989), 139.
15. Schumann, The Historical Buddha, 55.
16. Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara), translated by Stephen Batchelor (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1979), 120.
17. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and about the Dalai Lama: (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1990), 58.
18. Saddharmapundarika Sutra, quoted in Tulku Thondup, Buddha Mind (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1989), 215.
19. David Lorimer treats this topic in depth in his Whole in One: The Near-Death Experience and the Ethic of Interconnectedness (London: Arkana, 1990).
20. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Reflections on Life After Life (London: Corgi, 1978), 35.
21. Ring, Heading Towards Omega, 71.
22. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., The Light Beyond (London: Pan, 1989), 38.
23. P. M. H. Atwater, Coming Back to Life (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1988), 36.
24. From Albert Einstein, Ideas and Opinions, translated by Sonja Bargmann (New York: Crown Publishers, 1954), quoted in Weber, ed., Dialogues with Scientists and Sages, 203.
25. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, My Land and My People: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama (London: Panther, 1964), 24.
1. Egyptian Book of the Dead is itself an artificial title coined by its translator, E. A. Wallis Budge, after the Arab Book of the Deceased, and having as little to do with the original title: “Coming Forth into the Day.”
2. See Chapter 10, “The Innermost Essence,” on Dzogchen. The Dzogchen Tantras are the original teachings of Dzogchen compiled by the first human Dzogchen master, Garab Dorje.
3. In Tibet masters did not make a show of their realization. They may have had immense psychic powers, but nearly always they kept them to themselves. This is what our tradition recommends. True masters never, on any occasion, use their powers for self-aggrandizement. They use them only when they know they will be of real benefit to others; or in special circumstances and a special environment, they may allow a few of their closest students to witness them.
1. Tulku Thondup, Buddha Mind (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1989), 211.
2. Kalu Rinpoche, Essence of the Dharma (Delhi, India: Tibet House), 206.
3. From “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” Blake: Complete Writings (Oxford and New York: OUP, 1972), 154.
4. The three kayas are the three aspects of the true nature of mind described in Chapter 4: its empty essence, radiant nature, and all-pervasive energy; see also Chapter 21, “The Universal Process.”
5. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (New York: Weatherhill, 1973), 21.
1. The Tantras are the teachings and writings that set out the practices of Vajrayana Buddhism, the stream of Buddhism prevalent in Tibet. The Tantric teachings are based on the principle of the transformation of impure vision into pure vision, through working with the body, energy, and mind. Tantric texts usually describe the mandala and meditation practices associated with a particular enlightened being or deity. Although they are called Tantras, the Dzogchen Tantras are a specific category of the Dzogchen teachings, which are not based on transformation but on self-liberation (see Chapter 10, “The Innermost Essence”).
2. Dilgo Khyentse, The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel: The Practice of Guru Yoga According to the Longchen Nyingthig Tradition (London and Boston: Shambhala, 1988), 51.
3. A dakini is a female embodiment of enlightened energy.
4. A stupa is a three-dimensional construction symbolizing the mind of the buddhas. It often contains the relics of great masters.
5. Dilgo Khyentse, The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, 11. This quotation contains many traditional elements, and a similar praise of the master is found in the writings of Patrul Rinpoche.
6. Matthew 7:7.
7. Dilgo Khyentse, The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, 3.
8. From the Guru Yoga in Jikmé Lingpa’s famous preliminary practice to his cycle of Dzogchen teachings: Longchen Nyingtik.
9. Dilgo Khyentse, The Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, 83.
1. The Ngöndro is divided traditionally into two parts. The Outer Preliminaries, beginning with the Invocation of the Lama, consist of contemplation on the uniqueness of human life, impermanence, karma, and the suffering of samsara. The Inner Preliminaries are Taking Refuge, Generating Bodhicitta (the Heart of the Enlightened Mind), Vajrasattva purification, Mandala Offering, and then finally, Guru Yoga, followed by the Phowa (the Transference of Consciousness) and the dedication.
2. This is not the place to explore in detail these preliminary practices. I hope in the future to be able to publish a full explanation of them for those who are interested in following them.
3. Dzogchen Monastery was a monastic university founded in the seventeenth century in Kham, eastern Tibet, which was one of the largest and most influential centers of the tradition of Padmasambhava and the Dzogchen teachings until its destruction by the Chinese in 1959. It had a renowned study college, and produced scholars and teachers of the very highest caliber, such as Patrul Rinpoche (180887) and Mipham (18461912). With the blessing of the Dalai Lama, the monastery has been rebuilt in exile by the Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche in Mysore in the south of India.
4. Quoted in Tulku Thondup Rinpoche, Buddha Mind, 128.
5. A mandala usually means the sacred environment and dwelling of a buddha, bodhisattva, or deity, which is visualized by the practitioner in Tantric practice.
6. One sure way I have found of discerning whether you are in the state of Rigpa is by the presence of its sky-like Essence, its radiant Nature, and its unimpeded Energy of compassion, as well as the five wisdoms, with their qualities of openness, precision, all-embracing equality, discernment, and spontaneous accomplishment, as described on page 157.
7. Through the practice of Tögal, an accomplished practitioner can realize the three kayas in one lifetime (see Chapter 21, “The Universal Process”). This is the Fruition of Dzogchen.
8. From a teaching given in Helsinki, Finland, in 1988.
1. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying (New York: Collier, 1970), 50.
2. Dame Cicely Saunders, “I Was Sick and You Visited Me,” Christian Nurse International, 3, no. 4 (1987).
3. Dame Cicely Saunders, “Spiritual Pain,” a paper presented at St. Christopher’s Hospice Fourth International Conference, London 1987, published in Hospital Chaplain (March 1988).
4. Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying, 36.
5. I strongly recommend her detailed book on how to care for the dying, Facing Death and Finding Hope (Doubleday, 1997).
1. Often people have asked me: “Does this mean that it is somehow wrong to look after ourselves, and care for our own needs?” It cannot be said too often that the self-cherishing which is destroyed by compassion is the grasping and cherishing of a false self, as we saw in Chapter 8. To say that self-cherishing is the root of all harm should never be misunderstood as meaning either that it is selfish, or wrong, to be kind to ourselves or that by simply thinking of others our problems will dissolve of their own accord. As I have explained in Chapter 5, being generous to ourselves, making friends with ourselves, and uncovering our own kindness and confidence, are central to, and implicit in, the teachings. We uncover our own Good Heart, our fundamental goodness, and that is the aspect of ourselves that we identify with and encourage. We shall see later in this chapter, in the “Tonglen” practice, how important it is to begin by working on ourselves, strengthening our love and compassion, before going on to help others. Otherwise our “help” could ultimately be motivated by a subtle selfishness; it could become just a burden to others; it could even make them dependent on us, so robbing them of the opportunity to take responsibility for themselves, and obstructing their development.
Psychotherapists say too that one of the core tasks for their clients is to develop self-respect and “positive self-regard,” to heal their feelings of lack and inner impoverishment, and to allow them the experience of well-being that is an essential part of our development as human beings.
2. Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara), translated by Stephen Batchelor (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1979), 12021.
3. The Dalai Lama, A Policy of Kindness: An Anthology of Writings by and about the Dalai Lama (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1990), 53.
4. Quoted in Acquainted with the Night: A Year on the Frontiers of Death, Allegra Taylor (London: Fontana, 1989), 145.
5. Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, 34.
6. The teachings define these four “immeasurable qualities” with great precision: loving kindness is the wish to bring happiness to those who lack happiness; compassion is the desire to free those who are suffering from their suffering; joy is the wish that the happiness people have found will never desert them; and equanimity is to see and treat all without bias, attachment, or aversion, but with boundless love and compassion.
7. Bodhichitta is categorized in a number of ways. The distinction between “Bodhichitta in aspiration” and “Bodhichitta in action” is portrayed by Shantideva as being like the difference between deciding to go somewhere and making the voyage. Bodhichitta is also categorized into “relative,” or “conventional Bodhichitta,” and “ultimate Bodhichitta.” Relative Bodhichitta entails the compassionate wish to attain enlightenment for the benefit of all living beings, and the training outlined here. Ultimate Bodhichitta is the direct insight into the ultimate nature of things.
8. In Chapter 13, “Spiritual Help for the Dying,” I shall explain how the dying person can practice Tonglen.
9. Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, 119.
1. Dame Cicely Saunders, “Spiritual Pain,” a paper presented at St. Christopher’s Hospice Fourth International Conference, London 1987, published in Hospital Chaplain (March 1988).
2. Stephen Levine, interviewed by Peggy Roggenbuck, New Age Magazine, September 1979, 50.
3. Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö wrote this in his Heart Advice for my great-aunt Ani Pelu (London: Rigpa Publications, 1981).
4. An audio cassette of readings from the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying is available to help people who are dying.
5. “Son/daughter of an enlightened family”: All sentient beings are at one stage or another of purifying and revealing their inherent buddha nature and are therefore collectively known as “the enlightened family.”
6. The Sanskrit word Dharma has many meanings. Here it means the Buddhist teaching as a whole. As Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says: “The expression of the Buddha’s wisdom for the sake of all sentient beings.” Dharma can mean Truth or ultimate reality; dharma also signifies any phenomenon or mental object.
7. Lama Norlha in Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1986), 155.
8. Marion L. Matics, Entering the Path of Enlightenment: The Bodhicaryavatara of the Buddhist Poet Shantideva (London: George, Allen and Unwin, 1971), 154; Shantideva, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life (Bodhicaryavatara), translated by Stephen Batchelor (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1979), 3032.
1. Lati Rinbochay and Jeffrey Hopkins, Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1985), 9.
2. A collection of photographs of the people and places mentioned in this book will be published in the near future.
3. From Francesca Fremantle and Chögyam Trungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead (Boston: Shambhala, 1975), 68.
4. See Appendix 4 for an explanation of this mantra.
5. See Chapter 15, “The Process of Dying.”
6. One text explains: “The route through which the consciousness escapes determines the future rebirth. If it escapes through the anus, rebirth will be in the hell realm; if through the genital organ, the animal realm; if through the mouth, the hungry ghost realm; if through the nose, the human and spirit realms; if through the navel, the realm of ‘desire gods’; if through the ears, the demigods; if through the eyes, the ‘form god’ realm; and if through the top of the head (four finger-widths back from the hairline), the ‘formless god’ realm. If the consciousness escapes through the crown of the head, the being will be reborn in Dewachen, the western paradise of Amitabha.” In Lama Lodö, Bardo Teachings (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1987), 11.
7. The research was reported in “Psychophysiological Changes Due to the Performance of the Phowa Ritual,” Research for Religion and Parapsychology, Journal No. 17 (December 1987), published by the International Association for Religion and Parapsychology, Tokyo, Japan.
8. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche told me of a number of such cases. When the famous Dzogchen master Khenpo Ngakchung was still a young boy, he once saw the corpse of a calf that had died of starvation at the end of winter. He was filled with compassion and prayed strongly for the animal, visualizing its consciousness traveling to the paradise of Buddha Amitabha. At that moment a hole appeared in the top of the calf’s skull, from which blood and fluid flowed.
9. There are also certain buddhas who pledged that whoever hears their name at the moment of death will be helped. Simply reciting their names into the ear of the dying person can be of benefit. This is also done for animals when they die.
10. Literally the “prana-mind”: one master explains that “prana” expresses mind’s aspect of mobility, and “mind” its aspect of awareness, but they are essentially one and the same thing.
11. Padmasambhava’s explanation is quoted by Tsele Natsok Rangdrol in his well-known explanation of the cycle of four bardos, published in English as the Mirror of Mindfulness (Boston: Shambhala, 1989).
1. These are methods of observing your shadow in the sky at certain times and on particular days of the month.
2. Ambrosia Heart Tantra, annotated and translated by Dr. Yeshi Dhondhen and Jhampa Kelsang (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1977), 33.
3. In Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1986), 59.
4. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche explains that the pure wisdom winds are present together with the impure karmic winds, but as long as the karmic winds are predominant, the wisdom winds are obstructed. When the karmic winds are brought into the central channel through yoga practice, they vanish, and only the wisdom winds circulate through the channels.
5. C. Trungpa Rinpoche, Glimpses of Abhidharma (Boulder, CO: Prajna, 1975), 3.
6. In Inquiring Mind, 6, no. 2, Winter/Spring 1990, from a teaching by Kalu Rinpoche in 1982.
7. The order of appearance of Increase and Appearance varies. It can depend, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche says, on which emotion is stronger in the individual: desire or anger.
8. There are various accounts of this process of inner dissolution; here I have chosen one of the simpler descriptions, written by Patrul Rinpoche. Often the black experience is called “Attainment,” and the arising of the Ground Luminosity, which is recognized by a trained practitioner, “Full Attainment.”
9. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Dalai Lama at Harvard (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1988), 45.
10. See Chapter 21, “The Universal Process,” and also C. Trungpa Rinpoche’s commentary in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Francesca Fremantle and Chögyam Trungpa (London: Shambhala, 1975), 129.
1. “His Holiness in Zion, Illinois,” in Vajradhatu Sun, vol. 4, no. 2 (Boulder, CO, Dec. 1981Jan. 1982): 3. (It is now called Shambhala Sun.)
2. Bokar Tulku Rinpoche, in “An Open Letter to Disciples and Friends of Kalu Rinpoche,” May 15, 1989.
3. The Sutras are the scriptures that are the original teachings of the Buddha; they often take the form of a dialogue between the Buddha and his disciples, explaining a particular theme.
1. In Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity, edited by Renée Weber (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986), 4546.
2. Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1986), 61.
3. Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma, 62.
4. This is the bodhisattva Samantabhadra and not the Primordial Buddha.
5. See Chapter 21. In this passage, I am most grateful for the kind suggestions of Dr. Gyurme Dorje, whose translation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead, edited by himself and Graham Coleman, was scheduled to be published by Penguin in 1993.
1. Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1986), 18.
2. It is said that there are only two places the mental body cannot go: the womb of its future mother and Vajrasana, the place where all the buddhas become enlightened. These two places represent the entrance to samsata and nirvana. In other words, to be reborn or gain enlightenment would bring an end to its life in this bardo.
3. There exist accounts of masters who were able to perceive bardo beings, or even travel to the bardo realm.
4. Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, The Bardo Guidebook (Kathmandu: Rangjung Yeshe, 1991), 14.
5. This scene occurs in Tibetan folk dramas and operas, and is also reported by the “déloks” (see Chapter 20, “The Near-Death Experience: A Staircase to Heaven?”).
6. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Reflections on Life After Life (New York: Bantam, 1977), 32.
7. Kenneth Ring, Heading Towards Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Quill, 1985), 70.
8. It is said that whenever a couple make love, crowds of bardo beings gather, hoping to have the karmic connection to be reborn. One succeeds and the others die of despair; this can occur as the weekly experience of death in the bardo.
9. Fremantle and Trungpa, Tibetan Book of the Dead, 86.
10. Vajrasattva is the central deity of the Hundred Peaceful and Wrathful Deities. See Chapter 19, “Helping after Death.”
1. See Appendix 4 for an explanation of this mantra.
2. Yet, in the case of a spiritual practitioner who has died, and who sees friends and relatives grasping and insincere after his death, it is possible that instead of being hurt and angry, he might be able to realize that all their behavior is simply the nature of samsara. From this he might generate a deep sense of renunciation and compassion, which could be of great benefit to him in the bardo of becoming.
3. When we ask a master to practice and pray for a dead person, it is a custom to send a donation of money, however small it might be. The donation establishes a tangible connection between the dead person and the master, who will always use this money exclusively to pay for the rituals for the dead, or make offerings at holy shrines, or dedicate it in their name to his or her work.
4. An answer given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to a number of questions on death and dying. See Appendix 2, note 1.
5. Traditional practices such as this require training and cannot be followed simply from this book. Certain practices also require transmission and empowerment from a qualified master. I look forward to organizing training programs in the future on the Buddhist approach to death and caring for the dying that will include some of these methods. A simple ceremony and guidance for the dead will then be available, based on the advice of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.
6. The Hundred Syllable Mantra is om vajra sattva samaya manupalaya vajra sattva tenopa tishtha dri dho me bhawa sutokhayo me bhawa supokhayo me bhawa anurakto me bhawa sarwa siddhi me prayatsa sarwa karma sutsa me tsittam shriyam kuru hum ha ha ha ha ho bhagawan sarwa tathacata vajra mamemuntsa vajribhawa maha samayasattva ah.
7. Judy Tatelbaum, The Courage to Grieve: Creative Living, Recovery and Growth through Grief (New York: Harper & Row, 1980).
8. From “Dove that Ventured Outside” in The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, edited and translated by Stephen Mitchell (New York: Vintage Books, 1984), 293.
9. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in “The Child Will Always Be There. Real Love Doesn’t Die,” by Daniel Coleman, Psychology Today (September 1976), 52.
10. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Reflections on Life After Life (New York: Bantam, 1977), 112.
1. Bede, A History of the English Church and People, translated by Leo Sherley-Price (Harmondsworth, England: Penguin Books 1968), 42021.
2. In George Gallup Jr., with William Proctor, Adventures in Immortality: A Lock Beyond the Threshold of Death (London: Souvenir, 1983).
3. Kenneth Ring, Life at Death: A Scientific Investigation of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Quill, 1982), 55.
4. Ring, Life at Death, 63.
5. Margot Grey, Return from Death: An Exploration of the Near-Death Experience (Boston and London: Arkana, 1985), 42.
6. Melvin Morse, Closer to the Light: Learning from Children’s Near-Death Experiences (New York: Villard, 1990), 115.
7. Grey, Return from Death, 47.
8. Michael Sabom, Recollections of Death: A Medical Investigation of the Near-Death Experience (London: Corgi, 1982), 66.
9. Ring, Life at Death, 59.
10. Grey, Return from Death, 46.
11. Grey, Return from Death, 33.
12. Grey, Return from Death, 53.
13. Morse, Closer to the Light, 120.
14. Morse, Closer to the Light, 181.
15. Grey, Return from Death, 35.
16. Ring, Life at Death, 45.
17. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 37.
18. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 155.
19. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 37.
20. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 40.
21. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 56.
22. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 5455.
23. Kenneth Ring, Heading Towards Omega: In Search of the Meaning of the Near-Death Experience (New York: Quill, 1985), 199.
24. Raymond A. Moody, Jr., Reflections on Life After Life (London: Corgi, 1978), 10.
25. Moody, Reflections, 14.
26. Grey, Return from Death, 52.
27. Sabom, Recollections of Death, 71.
28. Grey, Return from Death, 50.
29. Moody, Reflections, 17.
30. Grey, Return from Death, 51.
31. Grey, Return from Death, 59.
32. Grey, Return from Death, 65.
33. Grey, Return from Death, 63.
34. Grey, Return from Death, 70.
35. Moody, Reflections, 19.
36. Françoise Pommaret, Les Revenants de l’Au-Delà dans le Monde Tibétain (Paris: Editions du CNRS, 1989).
37. In the Hindu tradition, kundalini refers to the awakening of the subtle energy that can bring about a psycho-physiological transformation and union with the divine.
38. Grey, Return from Death, 194.
39. Ring, Life at Death, 145.
40. Morse, Closer to the Light, 193.
41. Morse, Closer to the Light, 93.
42. From The NDE: As Experienced in Children, a lecture for IANDS.
43. From The NDE: Can It Be Explained in Science?, a lecture for IANDS.
44. Ring, Heading Towards Omega, 7.
1. J. M. Reynolds, Self-Liberation through Seeing with Naked Awareness (New York: Station Hill, 1989), 13.
2. In “Auguries of Innocence,” Blake: Complete Writings (Oxford and New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972), 431.
3. Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma, 38.
4. See, for example, the Dalai Lama, et al., MindScience: An East-West Dialogue (Boston: Wisdom, 1991).
5. Renée Weber, ed., Dialogues with Scientists and Sages: The Search for Unity (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1986), 9394.
6. Weber, Scientists and Sages, 48.
7. David Bohm, Unfolding Meaning: A Weekend of Dialogue with David Bohm (London: Ark, 1987), 73.
8. Bohm, Unfolding Meaning, 9091.
9. Paavo Pylkkänen, ed., The Search for Meaning (Wellingborough: Crucible, 1989), 51; David Bohm, Unfolding Meaning, 93.
10. David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Ark 1988), xi.
11. Bohm, Unfolding Meaning, 107, 96.
1. Thomas Merton, The Wisdom of the Desert (New York: New Directions, 1960), 11.
1. I have asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, and other masters a number of questions about death and dying, including issues such as life support and euthanasia, and throughout this chapter I shall quote some of their replies. I hope to publish their answers in detail in the future.
2. Melvin Morse, Closer to the Light (New York: Villard Books, 1990), 72.
3. Gallup poll cited in Newsweek, August 26, 1991, p. 41.
4. Kalu Rinpoche, The Gem Ornament (Ithaca, NY: Snow Lion, 1986), 194.
5. In Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Questions on Death and Dying (New York: Macmillan, 1974), 84.
6. Dame Cicely Saunders in “A Commitment to Care,” Raft, The Journal of the Buddhist Hospice Trust, 2, Winter 1989/90, London, p. 10.
7. Kalu Rinpoche, The Gem Ornament, 194.
1. There are three negative activities of the body: taking life, stealing, and sexual misconduct; four of the speech: lies, harsh words, slander, and gossip; and three of the mind: avarice, malice, and wrong views.
2. Nadi, prana, and bindu in Sanskrit; tsa, lung, and tiklé in Tibetan. See Chapter 15, “The Process of Dying.”
3. Five buddha families and five wisdoms usually appear in the teachings; the sixth buddha family here embraces all the other five together.
4. Kalu Rinpoche, The Dharma (Albany: State Univ. of New York Press, 1986), 53.