Meditation on the breath
We’re now ready to begin the fifth session in this module. Again, sit comfortably for meditation as you have been doing and generate the strong determination to concentrate on your breath without distraction. Then meditate on your breath for a few minutes, pressing the pause button on your CD player until you are ready to resume, at which point you can press the play button.
Motivation
If you have done the meditation on the breath effectively, your mind should be a lot calmer and clearer than it was before you started, allowing you to check your motivation for studying this topic more effectively, so please do that. If you find that your motivation is one concerned with merely the comfort of this life, recognize that to be a negative motivation, the cause of suffering, discard it, and replace it with bodhicitta motivation, the determination to reach enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings. Think, “I must reach enlightenment in order to enlighten all the kind mother sentient beings. In order to reach enlightenment I must complete the path to enlightenment, and to do that I need to study and practice all the teachings on the path. At this time I am studying the teaching on death and rebirth, therefore, I am doing this session in order to complete the path to enlightenment, so that I can enlighten all sentient beings.” Let the meaning of what you’ve just thought sink in.
Recapitulation
In the last session we discussed the six advantages of remembering impermanence and death and began the actual way of remembering death by looking at the first of the two parts of this, the nine-part death meditation: the three roots, the nine reasons and the three determinations. This time we are going to look at the second part of the actual way of remembering death, meditation on the aspects of death.
The actual way of remembering death: exoteric meditation on the aspects of death
To begin, I’d like to read a reasonably lengthy passage from His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s book, The Joy of Living and Dying in Peace, where His Holiness says,35
Usually when I describe the essence of Buddhism I say that at best, we should try to help others, and if we cannot help them, at least we should do them no harm. That is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching. I think this point is relevant even from the secular point of view. If an individual relates to others with compassion, in the long run he or she will definitely be a happier person. Negative activities may result in temporary gain, but deep in your heart you will always feel uneasy. The compassionate attitude does not mean a mere passive feeling of pity. In a competitive modern society sometimes we need to take a tough stand, but we can be tough and compassionate. When someone who lives in this way comes to the end of his or her life, I am certain he or she will die happily and without regret.
Embarking on a spiritual practice that is measured in lifetimes and eons gives you a different perspective on death. In the context of our existence through many successive lives, death is something like changing your clothes. When your clothes become old and worn out, you change them for new ones. This affects your attitude toward death. It gives rise to a clearer realization that death is a part of life. Grosser levels of mind are dependent on our brains so they continue to function only as long as the brain functions. As soon as the brain stops, these levels of mind automatically stop. The brain is a condition for the appearance of grosser levels of mind, but the substantial cause of the mind is the continuity of the subtle mind, which has no beginning.
When we are dying, other people can remind us to generate positive states of mind up to the point at which the gross level of consciousness dissolves, but once we have entered the state of subtle consciousness only the force of previous predispositions can help. At that point it is very difficult for anyone else to remind us about virtuous practice. Therefore, it is important to develop an awareness of death and to become familiar with ways to cope with the dissolution of the mind, right from the time of our youth. We can do this by rehearsing it through visualization. Then, instead of being afraid of death, we may feel a sense of excitement about it. We may feel that having made preparations for so many years, we should be able to meet the challenge of death effectively.
Once you have an experience of the deeper subtle mind in meditation, you can actually control your death. Of course, that can be done only when you reach an advanced level of practice. In tantra there are advanced practices such as the transference of consciousness, but I believe that the most important practice at the time of death is the awakening mind [bodhicitta]. That is what is most powerful. Although in my own daily practice, I meditate on the process of death in association with the various tantric practices seven or eight times a day, I am still convinced that I will find it easiest to remember the awakening mind, bodhicitta, when I die. That is the mind I really feel close to. Of course by meditating on death we also prepare ourselves for it, so we no longer need to worry about it. Although I am still not ready to face my actual death, I sometimes wonder how I will cope when actually faced with it. I am determined that if I live longer, I will be able to accomplish much more. My will to live is equal to my excitement about facing death.
Remembering death is part of Buddhist practice. There are different aspects to this. One is to meditate constantly about death as a means for enhancing detachment from this life and its attractions. Another aspect is to rehearse the process of death, to familiarize yourself with the different levels of mind that are experienced as you die. When coarser levels of mind cease, the subtler mind comes to the fore. Meditating on the process of death is important in order to gain deeper experience of the subtle mind.
Death means that this body has certain limits. When the body can no longer be sustained, we die and take on a new body. The basic being or self that is designated onto the combination of body and mind persists after death, although the particular body is no more. The subtle body remains. From that point of view, the being has no beginning or no end. It will remain until buddhahood. Nevertheless, people are afraid of death. Unless you can guarantee your future due to your positive actions during this lifetime, there is every danger of being reborn in an unfavorable state of existence. In this lifetime, even if you lose your own country and become a refugee, you are still living the human world. You can seek help and support. But after death you encounter entirely new circumstances.
The ordinary experience we gain in this life is generally of no help after death. If you have not made proper preparations, things could be unfortunate. The way to prepare is by training the mind. On one level this means cultivating a sincere, compassionate motivation and performing positive actions, serving other sentient beings. At another level it means controlling your mind, which is a more profound way for preparing for the future. Eventually you can become master of your mind, which is the main purpose of meditation.
That’s the end of the quotation from His Holiness’s book, and it goes without saying that His Holiness can express those ideas infinitely more clearly than I can. So I thought it worthwhile to read that to you.
The purpose of this course, then, is to clarify a little how to make the fact and imminence of our death useful for attaining enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings, and here we are trying to become more familiar with the aspects of death. In this session, we’ll be looking more at those.
Now, when it comes to the second way of actually remembering death, meditation on the aspects of death, Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey says there are an exoteric way of doing this and an esoteric of doing this.36 The exoteric way is to visualize yourself as lying on your bed dying, surrounded by your family and friends, all of whom are lamenting your passing, perhaps clutching at your arms and legs, begging you not to die. When discussing this section in Liberation in the Palm of your Hand, Pabongka Rinpoche says that we should recall things mentioned in Panchen Lama Losang Chökyi Gyältsän’s text, Petitions Made to be Freed from the Perilous Road of the Bardo.37
The bardo is the intermediate state, the state into which we pass at death before taking our next rebirth, and I’ll say a little more about it later on. Anyway, that’s the name of the text, and it has been translated with a commentary by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in a book called Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life. This is an excellent book and highly recommended for getting a deeper perspective on this topic of death and rebirth.
In Liberation, Pabongka Rinpoche quotes this text by the Panchen Lama:
When the doctor gives me up,
When rituals no longer work,
When friends have given up hope for my life,
When anything I do is futile,
May I be blessed to remember
My guru’s instructions.
In discussing this and the previous verses in Advice on Dying, His Holiness has a chapter on removing obstacles to obtaining favorable death, basically practicing Dharma and purifying with the four opponent powers as much as possible during life. There are said to be six essential purification practices to be done here: reciting the names of the buddhas, for example, the Thirty-five Buddhas and the seven Medicine Buddhas; reciting mantras, such as the Vajrasattva mantra; reciting certain sutras; meditating on emptiness; making offerings; and anything done in relation to images.38 For example, if we do Vajrasattva practices frequently—the three-month retreat and a short Vajrasattva practice every evening before going to bed39—this will be a great help in removing obstacles to a favorable death.
When actually discussing the verse that I’ve just quoted, His Holiness talks about gaining favorable conditions for the time of death, in particular, the five forces at the time of death, and I’ll mention these in just a moment. Geshe Dhargyey calls these five forces the Mahayana sutra—as opposed to tantra—approach to meditation on the aspects of death. However, what you do is lie down on the floor or on your bed and pretend you are dying. This is, perhaps, one of the few meditations done better lying down. With as much conviction as you can muster, tell yourself, “Now I really am dying.” Try to convince yourself that this really is the time of death. See how you feel. Are you ready? What kinds of mind come up? Visualize your family and friends around you; think of each person one by one. See how attachment arises to that person and understand what a great hindrance attachment will be to your having a peaceful, constructive death.
Also think about what’s going to happen to your body, your precious body, when you die. The body that you have protected so much from being scratched or injured is going to be completely cut open. Perhaps you’ll be autopsied. The top of your skull will be opened with a buzz saw and your brain taken out and put in a bottle. Your chest and abdominal cavities will be opened right up and your heart, lungs, intestines, liver, spleen, kidneys—all your internal organs—will be removed for examination. The body that you couldn’t bear being trapped in enclosed spaces will be crammed into a box and buried deep underground. The body that you couldn’t bear being burnt with even a stick of incense is going to go up in flames when you’re cremated. Instead of being called by your name, you’re going to be called the “late so and so.”
Imagine all these things happening to you and see how you feel; see how strongly attachment to staying alive arises. Realize that attachment is the main hindrance to your having a favorable death and try to cut it off.
In the second session, we talked about Gampopa’s way of understanding our own impermanence in two ways: investigating impermanence within ourselves and applying others’ impermanence to ourselves. The former entailed the four different ways of meditating: on death, on the characteristics of death, on the exhaustion of life, and on separation. Now we come to thinking about applying others’ impermanence to ourselves.40 This means that when we hear of somebody else’s death, we should think, “That could just as easily have been me,” or, “Pretty soon that’s going to happen to me.”
If you find it too hard to practice your own death, you can practice meditating on impermanence by watching somebody else who’s dying: perhaps a relative or a friend, or even somebody healthy who suddenly got sick and died or was killed in an accident. Again, apply that person’s death to yourself. And as I mentioned before, if you see funerals, if you see people being cremated, if you go a cemetery, apply whatever you see to yourself, because it’s not a fantasy. Sooner or later you are definitely going to die, and the more you can think it’s going to happen soon, the better it is for you.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama says that there are two main obstacles to proper practice when dying: overwhelming suffering and mistaken appearances that give rise to lust, hatred or confusion. While trying to avoid these two obstacles, we need to generate virtuous attitudes by remembering our practice.41 We also need to do whatever we can to keep our mind positive.
In passing, His Holiness also says something interesting about pain-killing medicines.42
At death it is important to be free from medicines that would make you unable to think properly. For a religious practitioner mind-dulling drugs are to be avoided, since your mental consciousness must be as clear as possible. Taking an injection to allow a “peaceful death” could deprive the mind of the opportunity of manifesting in a virtuous way by reflecting on impermanence, generating faith, feeling compassion or meditating on selflessness. However, if a pain-killing drug that does not dull the mind is developed, it could even be useful, since you could continue your usual mental function, free from the distraction of pain.
Now before moving on to applying the five forces in order to gain favorable conditions at the time of death, I should say something about sutra and tantra, which I mentioned a moment ago when introducing the five forces. I am sure that by now you’re aware of the difference between sutra and tantra. We divide all of Buddhism into Hinayana and Mahayana, the Lesser Vehicle and the Great Vehicle. The Great Vehicle has these two divisions of sutra and tantra, which are also called Paramitayana and Vajrayana, respectively. By following the former, we can attain enlightenment in three countless great eons, an extremely long period of time, but by practicing tantra, it’s possible to attain enlightenment within the span of one short lifetime of a degenerate age.43
Geshe Dhargyey talks about different levels of practice, the most basic of which is simply keeping the good heart of love and compassion; if we can’t engage in serious meditation or philosophical study, at least we can try to practice loving kindness towards others, not only humans but all living beings. Practicing in this way causes negativity to slowly fall away and at the time of death we can take refuge in our teacher and the Three Jewels of Refuge and be confident of obtaining a good rebirth. We should strive to accomplish at least this minimum level of practice.
If we’re a little more ambitious, we’ll try to gain a degree of realization beyond mere intellectual understanding of the three principal aspects of the path—renunciation, bodhicitta and right view—and in order to enter the tantric path, the Vajrayana, we need to have at least a clear intellectual understanding of these three.
If we’re extremely fortunate, we’ll meet a tantric master, a Vajra guru, who’ll take us under his wing and give us initiations and tantric commentaries, and we’ll be able to practice the esoteric way of meditating on the aspects of death, which I’ll talk about in the sixth and final session of this module.
In the meantime, then, I want to talk about the five forces, which help us generate a virtuous frame of mind at the time of death. These instructions can actually be used before the clear light of death, when the clear light of death manifests, when the clear light of death ceases and the intermediate state begins, and during the intermediate state. What I mean by all these will become clear in the next session.
However, here, I’m going to quote His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the five forces.44
Through the following five forces your practice can have great effect:
1. The force of familiarity. Frequently cultivate and become accustomed to whatever your usual practice is—whether this is cultivation of the intention to be liberated from cyclic existence, cultivation of love and compassion, cultivation of an intention to gain enlightenment for the good of others, or cultivation of the stages of Highest Yoga Tantra.
2. The force of directing the future. Think, “I will maintain my practice in this life, the intermediate state, and future lives until I attain buddhahood.”
3. The force of wholesome seeds. Amass a force of meritorious action (good karma) to propel your practice.
4. The force of eradication. Decide that all phenomena such as birth, death and intermediate state exist only dependently—they do not have inherent existence, even in the slightest. Make this decision as part of your belief that self-cherishing is an enemy, thinking, “That I experience suffering in cyclic existence is due to self-cherishing; the root of self-cherishing comes from conceiving that beings and things inherently exist, whereas they do not.”
5. The force of wishing. Again and again make the following wish: “Even after dying may I attain a body that serves as a support for practicing the doctrine in my next life. Being cared for by an excellent spiritual guide, may I not be separated from practice.”These five forces are especially helpful in remembering to practice, even when it is hardest to do so.
This, then, is His Holiness’s description of the five forces. He then goes on to say,
When it is clear that someone is about to die, friends should not gather around the person in an attached way, grasping at the dying person’s hand, tearfully embracing him or her, or bemoaning the situation. This will not help at all; instead, such behavior serves to generate a desirous attitude in the dying person’s mind, ruining any chance of generating a virtuous one. Friends should help provide the right conditions for generation of virtue by reminding the person of religious instructions and practices, speaking gently into the ear until the external breath ceases.
For instance, if the dying person believes in a creator God, then thinking of God may make the person more comfortable, more peaceful, and have less attachment, fear and regret. If the person believes in rebirth, then thinking about a meaningful next life in the service of others will have similar results. A Buddhist could be mindful of Buddha and dedicate good deeds in this life toward a productive new life. A nonbeliever could similarly reflect that death is an integral part of life, and now that it is happening there is no use to worry. The main point is peace of mind in order not to disturb the process of death.
How we die and are reborn
The next thing I want to talk about here is how we die and are reborn. There is a section on this in the Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path, where Lama Tsongkhapa explains this in five parts:45
1. Causes of death
2. The mind at death
3. Where heat gathers
4. How you reach the intermediate state after death
5. How you then take rebirth
Before going into these, I need to say a little about karmic results. Karma is taught extensively in another module of this Discovering Buddhism program and it’s essential that you study that topic, as well as all the others, but briefly, there are four kinds of karmic result:
1. Throwing karma; and
2. Completing karma, which is divided into two:(a) Results similar to the cause, which is also divided into two:
(i) Results similar to the cause in experience;
(ii) Results similar to the cause in habit, or tendency; and(b) Environmental results.
Throwing, or precipitating, karma is that with which we are most concerned here, and it has this title because it is the natural force that throws, or projects, our consciousness into the next life. As we are dying, the terrifying thought “I’m becoming non-existent” arises, as I mentioned before. This causes us to crave for and grasp at the body, and this craving and grasping becomes the condition for the ripening of a throwing, or precipitating, karma, which causes us to take another body, no matter how horrible, how terrible. At that point we’re like a drowning person clutching at straws. If you’re drowning in the ocean and a tiny twig floats by, you’re so desperate to stay afloat that you’ll just grab it even though it doesn’t have the slightest possibility of holding you up.
Because our minds are so full of negative karmic imprints that we have been creating since beginningless times, since we have so few positive, or virtuous, imprints on our consciousness, it’s much more likely that at death, a negative throwing karma will arise, the kind of karma that throws us into the lower realms. So whatever horrible, lower realm body comes along—be it a hell being’s body, be it a hungry ghost body, be it an animal body—we’ll take it, because anything is better than becoming non-existent.
Of course, there is no chance of our becoming non-existent—the mind continues forever—but it’s karma that determines in which state it will continue, and that’s throwing karma, the karma that arises at the moment of death, the moment our consciousness finally separates from our body, when the clear light of death appears, which I will explain in the next session.
Once we’ve been thrown into that next life, then all the different completing karmas manifest, to complete that particular life. The karma similar to the cause in experience is the one where what we’ve done comes back upon us. Now, this is just as easily positive as negative, but since most of the karma we’ve been accumulating since beginningless time is negative, that’s usually what we have to deal with. If we’ve killed or harmed others, we will be killed or harmed in return. Whenever we experience premature death, whenever we experience terrible injury, that’s the sort of result that having killed or harmed others brings. Similarly, if our possessions are stolen or confiscated, if we lose things, if things break, that’s the sort of result that comes from having stolen or damaged the property of others, and so on.
The result similar to the cause in habit, or tendency, is where we have the impulse to continue doing things that we’ve done before. If we have the habit of harming others in this life, that’s the result similar to the cause of having harmed others in previous lives. If we have the tendency to steal, to lie, to speak harshly and so forth, these also are results similar to the cause, similar to having done those kinds of action in previous lives.
The environmental result is the karma that determines the sort of family into which we’re born, the kind of social setting into which we’re born, the country, the geographic environment, even the universe into which we’re born. Everything having to do with our environment is the result of this kind of karma. Wherever we find ourselves during our life is also the ripening of the environmental karmic result.
Precipitating karma arises only once per lifetime and throws us into the next life, the rest of that lifetime being spent experiencing the three kinds of completing karma.
Now I’ll return to how we die and are reborn.
1. The causes of death
We can die because of exhaustion of our lifespan, which means we’ve used up all of the lifespan that was projected by our previous karma. We can also die from exhaustion of our merit, for example, dying through deprivation of the necessities of life. There’s also death from failing to avoid danger. These, broadly, are the causes of death.
2. The mind at death
Next is the mind at death, and here we can die with a virtuous mind, a non-virtuous mind and with a mind that is ethically neutral.
Dying with a virtuous mind happens when we remember virtue on our own or through being reminded by others. This is what His Holiness mentioned before, when he spoke about cultivating the five forces. They help us die with a virtuous mind. When we talk about experiencing karma similar to the cause in habit, it’s not only that we experience in this life the results of karma created in previous lives; we also develop habits in this life. Therefore, if from this moment on we can habituate our mind to virtue as much as possible, it will be much easier for us to die with a virtuous mind. Also, if in this life we practice purification as much as we can, again it will be much easier for us to die with a virtuous mind.
Lama Tsongkhapa says that if we cultivate virtue, when we die we seem to pass from darkness into light and pleasant, attractive images appear to us, as though in a dream. Thus we die comfortably, and at the point of death, intense fear or suffering do not rise in our bodies and the final agony of death is minimal.
We die with a non-virtuous mind if, for example, we are surrounded by grieving relatives, and attachment arises strongly within us, or if we feel miserly about our possessions, not wanting to leave them, or if we cling to our body, as I mentioned before. Clinging to the body causes us to take the intermediate state body, which although not a gross body, is similar in shape to the body we’re going to take in our next life. People dying with a non-virtuous mind seem to pass from light into dark and have nightmarish visions.
People who, for example, have been butchers may have the appearance that they’re being attacked by animals similar to those they have killed. Also, people dying in a negative state of mind experience a lot of physical pain, their hair stands on end, their hands and feet shake, they lose control of urine and feces, their eyes roll back, they drool and so forth.
Those who die with an ethically neutral mind die with neither these pleasant nor unpleasant images.
3. Where the heat gathers
Lama Tsongkhapa says,46
Among those who are currently cultivating non-virtue, consciousness leaves the body coming down from the upper parts, which becomes cold first. When it reaches the heart, it leaves the body. The consciousness of someone who is currently cultivating virtue leaves coming up from the lower parts and the body becomes cold from lower parts. In both cases consciousness leaves from the heart. The point at which consciousness first enters the fertilized ovum becomes the body’s heart; consciousness finally leaves the body from where it first entered.
4. How you reach the intermediate state after death
The consciousness leaves from the heart and reaches the intermediate state immediately, and the intermediate state is contingent upon our having become attached to our body and being filled with delight in our previous worldly activities, and karma, either virtuous or non-virtuous. The intermediate state being possesses a complete set of sense faculties and has the form of the body that it will take in the realm into which it will be reborn.
The intermediate state being has no resistance to matter, is indestructible and has many psychic powers, such as the ability to fly or to immediately appear at any place it thinks of, no matter how far away it is. But these powers are karmically determined; they are not the result of spiritual practice and are, of course, lost immediately upon rebirth. However, the intermediate state being also experiences great sufferings, such as sinking in the ocean, being blown about by the wind, being burned by fire and so forth. There is really no control, and it’s a very fearful kind of existence.
The maximum time one can spend in the intermediate state, the bardo, is forty-nine days. If the intermediate state being doesn’t find rebirth in the realm into which it is going to be reborn within the first seven days, its body dies and it is immediately reborn in a similar one. Again, if rebirth is not found within the next seven days, that body dies and another similar one is taken. This process can continue up to a maximum of forty-nine days, by which time rebirth will definitely have been found.
Lama Tsongkhapa gives a great deal of detail about the intermediate state in the Great Treatise, as does His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Advice on Dying, so I’m not going to spend any more time on this topic here, but I strongly recommend that you consult those and other texts that explain about the bardo.
5. How you then take rebirth
Again, there’s much detail on this in the Great Treatise and I’m not going to talk more about this here. Please study the Great Treatise if you want to know more.
Conclusion
To get a better understanding of the whole process of living in cyclic existence, of creating karma, of dying and being reborn, of going from one realm to another, you should really study the twelve links of dependent arising in some detail. I’m not sure which module of the Discovering Buddhism program covers this topic, but you should certainly study the Great Treatise, Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand, His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Meaning of Life from a Buddhist Perspective and other books, because an understanding of the twelve links is essential for understanding the whole process of cyclic existence and liberation from it.
Just before we finish this session, I’d like to relate a couple of stories that illustrate how attachment interferes with our being able to leave our body and die in a constructive way.
One is about an old monk who had spent many years practicing transferring his consciousness to the pure land of Tushita. This practice is called po-wa in Tibetan and I’ll mention it again in the next session. Anyway, as the time came for him to die, he sat up in the meditation posture, told his students to leave him alone in his room, but before they did so, they brought him a cup full of butter tea and set it before him as a final offering, as was the custom in Tibet. So he tried to do his practice of mind transference, but because of his attachment to the butter tea he wasn’t able to finally let go. One of his teachers became aware of the problem he was having, so came into the old monk’s room and whispered in his ear, “There’s better butter tea in Tushita”! Hearing this, the old monk was able to let go of his attachment and transferred his consciousness to the pure land.
In his book, Good Life, Good Death, Gehlek Rinpoche tells a similar story, saying first, if there’s anything that might hold you back, get rid of it immediately so that it won’t be there when you die, because it can really interfere with the process. He then tells the story about a man who was trying to transfer his consciousness but couldn’t do so, and his teacher, Gomo Rinpoche, went to see what was wrong and saw his disciple wearing a lovely, brand-new shirt. So the master asked his disciple, “Where did you get that shirt?” and the old man said, “It’s nice, isn’t it? Do you like it? A friend of mine gave it to me the day before yesterday and I put it on this morning.” Then Rinpoche said, “Yes, I like it very much; please give it to me.” But his student hesitated, “I don’t know. I really, really like it.” But Rinpoche insisted, “I want that shirt, and if you don’t give it to me, we’ll have nothing more to do with each other.” With that, the old man took off his shirt and Rinpoche ripped it up right before his eyes. After that, the old man was able to die very easily.
The smart practitioners try to give everything away before they die, books, clothes, everything, so that there’ll be absolutely nothing to hold them back; no objects of attachment holding them back. We should learn from the experience of these true practitioners.
Meditation
Before going on to the next session, please do Meditation 3 again, the nine-part death meditation and meditation on the exoteric aspects of death.
Dedication
And now, once more, let’s dedicate our merit. We began by generating bodhicitta, we continued by discussing the Buddhadharma, and now we complete this perfect action by dedicating the merit in this way: “Because of this merit, may our teachers have long and healthy lives in order to teach the Dharma, may the Dharma spread throughout infinite space in all directions, and as a result, may all sentient beings quickly reach enlightenment.”
Thank you very much.
35 Joy of Living and Dying, pp. 27-30. [Return to text]
36 See Geshe Dhargyey’s article, Death and the Way. [Return to text]
37 Liberation, p. 358. [Return to text]
38 Liberation, p. 220. [Return to text]
39 For example, Daily Purification: A Short Vajrasattva Meditation. [Return to text]
40 Jewel Ornament, pp. 90-1. [Return to text]
41 Advice on Dying, Chapters 4 & 5. [Return to text]
42 Advice on Dying, pp. 104-5. [Return to text]
43 Our relatively short life spans indicate that we’re living in a degenerate age, which has five characteristics: short life spans, scarce means of subsistence, mental afflictions, strong wrong views and weak sentient beings. [Return to text]
44 Advice on Dying, pp. 108-11. See also Liberation, pp. 612-16, and Death and the Way. [Return to text]
45 Great Treatise, pp. 307-313. [Return to text]
46 Great Treatise, p. 309. [Return to text]
Sources for these publications can be found on the References page.
