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Tibetan Book of Living and Dying
Sogyal Rinpoche

In this book Sogyal Rinpoche, a Tibetan tulka (enlightened teacher), tries to inspire a quiet revolution in the whole way we look at death and care for the dying, and the whole way we look at life and care for the living. As he points out: "Sometimes I think that the greatest achievement of modern culture is its brilliant selling of samsara (living in a state of illusion and its barren distractions). Modern society seems to me a celebration of all the things that lead away from the truth, make truth hard to live for, and discourage people from even believing that it exists. And to think that all this springs from a civilization that claims to adore life, but actually starves it of any real meaning; that endlessly speaks of making people ¡®happy¡¯, but in fact blocks their way to the source of real joy.¡±

Sogyal indicates that in the Tibetan Buddhist cosmology, the way we live our life has enormous effects on how we die and what goes on afterwards. The best preparation for death is to become more and more enlightened in this life.

The time of death itself is what called one of "high leverage." Normally we identify our consciousness with our body, which patterns and constrains it. As the body and brain break down and consciousness goes through various stages of freeing itself from the body, deliberate and healthy actions of consciousness can have a much greater effect in moving you toward liberation and/or a much better new incarnation than similar actions during ordinary life. That's the high leverage.

Sogyal says ¡°All the greatest spiritual traditions of the world, including of course Christianity, have told us clearly that death is not the end. They have all handed down a vision of some sort of life to come, which infuses this life that we are leading now with sacred meaning. But despite their teaching, modern society is largely a spiritual desert where the vast majority imagine that this life is all that there is. Without any real or authentic faith in an afterlife, most people live lives deprived of any ultimate meaning.

¡°I have come to realize that the disastrous effects of the denial of death go far beyond the individual: They effect the whole planet. Believing fundamentally that this life is the only one, modern people have developed no long-term vision. So there is nothing to restrain them from plundering the planet for their own immediate ends and from living in a selfish way that is fatal for the future."

In the Tibetan teachings, life and death are seen as a whole, where fundamentally they both really exist nowhere else but in the essential nature of mind - the whole universe is contained in mind. When one understands the nature of mind, they have the VIEW. There are two basic aspects to mind ¨C the relative and the intrinsic. The relative aspect of mind is, by analogy, the ¡°cloud¡± level where all our thoughts, emotions, and desires exist: the relative aspect of mind is where we have all the confusion. But then behind the cloud-like mind is the intrinsic aspect of mind ¨C the ¡°blue sky¡± of fundamental awareness and ¡°sun¡± of compassion ¨C which is beyond birth and death. Understanding the nature of mind leads to deep insights into not only the nature of our human experience, but also the nature of the universe ¨C for the mind is the universal ordering principle. All the happiness and suffering comes from nowhere but our minds. This understanding or wisdom of mind is the VIEW, without which there is not really a source of spiritual realization (also called liberation, or enlightenment).

When the relative aspect clouds move away to reveal the intrinsic sky, and the sun of one¡¯s inner compassion comes forth, one attains the VIEW ¨C and the deepest compassions are inspired by the deepest state of wisdom. Here we really come to understand the nature of our mind and we become free of ourselves; the limitation of our ego dissolves in a sense. Then we see the world in a totally different light; we see beings in a much purer or in a truer way, and from that comes a kind of limitless compassion.

Again, the clouds are the ordinary mind, and sometimes there¡¯s a wind of inspiration when the clouds are dispersed away, revealing the sky-like nature of mind. From out of the sky-like nature of mind comes the compassion of the sun that shines forth and you see really truly, without any bias at all. The usual path to the VIEW is through meditation; therein arises the union of wisdom and compassion, and out of the state of wisdom comes the real compassion.

Yet along with the intrinsic - or absolute - VIEW, it is necessary to develop compassion on the relative level ¨C in the here and now world. E.g. in Buddhism there are two aspects of truth ¨C the relative truth, which is conventional truth, and the absolute, ultimate, intrinsic truth. In only understanding the intrinsic, and not seeing the danger in not training in applied compassion at the relative/conventional level, one may become arrogant. Greater understanding of both aspects of the nature of mind naturally makes one more compassionate.

Sogyal quotes Milarepa, the early Tibetan saint/yogi who said, "In horror of death I took to the mountains, and meditated on the uncertainty and the hour of death. Now capturing the fortress of deathless, unending nature of mind, all fear of death is done and over with." Sogyal observes that ordinarily when we do not have the understanding of the deeper nature of mind, then of course there is fear. In fact the fear comes ultimately from ignorance. And the greatest way to remove the ignorance is by realizing the nature of mind. When one realizes the nature of mind, it¡¯s just as when there's light there is no darkness - the darkness is merely an absence of light.

Sogyal however cautions against acting glibly as if we are not afraid of death, observing that everyone ¨C including himself if distracted or not mindful, fears death; that the sense that death is quite natural and OK is a very nice theory ¨C until you are about to die. As is said in the teachings, "In an instant, complete enlightenment; or - in an instant, complete confusion¡±.

He points out, though, that when you start really looking into death, in a sense you are really looking into life itself. In fact death is like a mirror in which the true meaning of life is reflected. By this process one defines one's life; one becomes less trivial; one sees one's priorities more clearly. One has long-term vision, has more understanding of the consequences of actions, as well as more compassion. So by reflecting on this kind of thought, in a sense it gives the greatest pleasure.

And also it¡¯s important to understand that life is impermanent, so it's essentially futile to crave and grasp. So it really drives one to look deeper, to say, "If everything is changing, if everything is impermanent, what is there that really lasts or survives?" When one really asks that question deeper and deeper, one realizes that everything in this life is interdependent. Nothing has any inherent existing nature, but yet since everything is impermanent, nature itself is empty. And so are one's actions, good or bad; intention and motivation are more important than good or bad actions. Intention and motivation are what really counts. So then one realizes that behind all that impermanence, something is discovered which is difficult to name or actually conceptualize, but something deeper, which Milarepa calls the deathless unending nature of mind. One discovers - beyond the clouds - a sky-like nature of mind, where one realizes there is -- in this domain of the nature of mind, both birth and death.

The teacher of the present Dalai Lama observed that the various ¡®bardo states¡¯ - the intermediate states between life, death and reincarnation - are themselves nowhere but in the nature on one¡¯s mind. Life and bardo are like a dream, particularly when we awaken from either.

Continuing the ¡°dream¡± analogy, Sogyal indicates that the state before we have dreams, when it's just a deep sleep with no thoughts, is very similar to the intrinsic state. Bear in mind that there are several different states of bardos. There's life, dying, death, and rebirth, plus the inter-connective bardos between those states. The life bardo is the process of this life itself, just as our dying bardo is our process of dying. When the anger, desire, ignorance - all those impurities that obscure our nature of mind - die off, revealing the fundamental luminosity, there comes the after-death bardo state, where the clear light, or the intrinsic radiance, appears, which is traditionally in the teaching called the bardo of dharmata. And then the next is the bardo of becoming.

Now actually if you were to use a kind of comparison that when you go to sleep it's like a dying, then that state before you dream - the state which many of us are not aware of, because it's such a subtle state of consciousness that only someone who's really trained in the advanced practice of meditation can be aware of - that is the state of bardo of dharmata. And then occurs the bardo of becoming, because in the earlier state of bardo of dharmata there is really no mental body, only the body of light; whereas in the bardo of becoming, which is before you take on the rebirth, in that bardo transition plane, you have a mental body. And that bardo of becoming is compared to a dream.

To better understand the nature of mind, meditation is the primary tool to work with during our daily lives; another tool is ¡°dream yoga¡± at night (similar in some ways to what in the West is called lucid dreaming). In meditation, the goal is to find the gaps between our thoughts (clouds) through which the ¡°blue sky¡± of pure awareness can be glimpsed. Although we may feel that our thoughts are continuous - the illusion of continuity - in fact there are different ¡°frames¡± ¨C gaps between our thoughts; when the present thought ceases, and the next thought has not yet arisen, then in this gap is revealed the ¡°blue sky¡± of the intrinsic nature of our mind.

It is said of a supreme practitioner of meditation and the mind teachings that he meets death with joy; a mediocre practitioner meets death without apprehension; an ordinary practitioner meets death without regrets.

As to the actual death process: ¡°when the process of death begins -- there is the outer dissolution of our body and the elements, but there is also inner dissolution, where all that clouds our mind actually dies. There is actually a gap, a natural gap; like your anger dies, your desire, all the thought states of desire die, and ignorance dies. And so there comes a gap in which the true nature of mind, which is known as the state of clear light, the fundamental nature of clear light, or the grand luminosity. If one has been prepared, made familiar with this, during one's life -- that means if you're familiar with the nature of mind -- then at that moment of death one recognizes the intrinsic reality. But even though it happens to everybody, if there is not the recognition, then, you see -- for example, I have very bad eyesight, so if I take off my glasses I don't see you very clearly. So it's not that you're not there; you're very much there, but I do not see you. Just in the same way, even though the ground luminosity appears, you would not be able to recognize it.

So the teachings equip you. That's why also when you die, it is really important to let go of your attachment and aversion and yearning; the teaching says at the moment of death to let go of attachment and to then clear, enter and strengthen one¡¯s intrinsic mind; and creation of a peaceful environment helps in the gaining of the understanding and the recognition. That's why in the teaching, I try to show how important it is for us to really create that last moment - the most important moment in one's life - as peaceful, as inspiring as possible. Because there is the real opportunity for liberation.