The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

"Make haste slowly."

As Tibet's famous poet saint, Milarepa, said: "My religion is to live---and die--without regret." "Natural of mind", realization of the nature of mind, which you could call our innermost essence, that truth we all search for, is the key to understanding life and death. For what happens at the moment of death is that the ordinary mind and its delusions die, and in that gap the boundless sky-like nature of our mind is uncovered. This essential natural of mind is the background to the whole of life and death, like the sky, which folds the whole universe in its embrace. A description of the nature of mind leads naturally into a complete instruction on meditation, for mediation is the only way we can repeatedly uncover and gradually realize and stabilize that nature of mind. An explanation will then be given of the nature of human evolution, rebirth, and karma, so as to provide and context of our path through life and death. The bardo teachings show us precisely what will happen if we prepare for death and what will happen if we do not. The choice could be clearer. If we refuse to accept death now, throughout our lives, at the moment of death, and thereafter. The effects of this refusal will ravage this life and all the lives to come. We will not be able to live our lives fully; we ourselves that has to die. This ignorance will rob and trap us endlessly in the realm of illusion, ocean of suffering that we Buddists call samara. Yet the fundamental message of the Buddist teachings is that if we are prepared, there is tremendous hope, both in life and death. The teachings reveal to us the possibility of an astounding and finally boundless freedom, which is ours to work for now, in life--the freedom that will also enable us to choose our death and so to choose our rebirth. For someone who has prepared and practiced, death comes not as a defeat but a triumph, the glowing and most glorious moment of life.

-Death is neither depressing nor exciting; it is simply a fact of life. -How sad it is that most of us only begin to appreciate our life when we are on the point of dying. -What more chilling commentary on the modern world could there be than that most people die unprepared for death, as they lived, unprepared for life? -According to the wisdom of budda, we can actually use our lives to prepare for death.....we can make of every moment an opportunity to change and to prepare--wholeheartedly, precisely, and with peace of mind---for death and eternity. -In the buddist approach, life and death are seen as one while, where death is the beginning of another chapter of life, death is a mirror in which the entire meaning of life is reflected. -Bardo The intermediate state between death and rebirth. The bardos are particularly powerful opportunities for liberation because there are, the teachings show us, certain moments that are much more powerful than others and much more charged with potential. Tibetan Buddist divide our entire existence into four continuously interlinked realities: 1,life-----The natural bardo of this life 2,dying and death-----The painful bardo of dying 3,after death-----The luminous bardo of dharmata 4,rebirth------The karmic bardo of becoming