Mind Beyond Death

357 Pages·2006·2.52 MB·English

by  Dzogchen Ponlop

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Mind Beyond Death
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Mind Beyond Death
by Dzogchen Ponlop
Snow Lion Publications
ithaca, new york
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Snow Lion Publications
P.O. Box 6483
Ithaca, NY 14851 USA
[phone]
www.snowlionpub.com
Copyright © 2006, 2008 Dzogchen Ponlop
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced by
any means without prior written permission from the publisher.
Printed in the USA on acid-free recycled paper.
ISBN-10: 1-55939-301-7
ISBN-13: 978-1-55939-301-0
Designed and typeset by Gopa & Ted2, Inc.
The Library of Congress catalogued the previous edition
of this book as follows:
Dzogchen Ponlop, Rinpoche, 1965-
Mind beyond death / by Dzogchen Ponlop.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-55939-276-1 (alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-55939-276-2 (alk. paper)
1. Intermediate state—Buddhism. 2. Death—Religious aspects—
Buddhism. 3. Spiritual life—Buddhism. 4. Buddhism—China—
Tibet—Doctrines. I. Title.
BQ4490.D96 2007
294.3'423—dc22 200603968
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This book is dedicated to my beloved father,
the late Dhamchoe Yongdu,
and my kind mother, Lekshey Drolma,
for giving birth to endless precious opportunities
to develop wisdom and compassion.
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Table of Contents
Foreword by Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso Rinpoche xv
Foreword by Venerable Alak Zenkar Rinpoche
Tibetan xvii
English xxiii
Editors’ Note xxix
Introduction: Gambling with the Lord of Death 1
1.The Moment of Truth 9
The Bardo Teachings 11
What Is Bardo? 12
Conceptual and Essence Bardos 13
The Fork in the Road 14
Trapped in Time 15
Neither Here nor There 16
Day-to-day Business 17
Overwhelming Emotions 18
Message from the Lineage 20
Classifications of the Bardos 21
Sources of the Bardo Teachings 23
The Six Root Verses of the Six Bardos 25
2. Pure Delusion: The Natural Bardo of This Life 27
The Dance of Appearances 28
Pure and Impure Appearances 30
Embodied Mind 32
The Three Stages of the Path 34
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viii Mind Beyond Death
The Stage of Study 36
The Stage of Contemplation 38
Practices for the Stage of Contemplation 39
Befriending Intense Emotions 42
The Stage of Meditation 43
Foundational Practices: Training and Purification 45
Settling the Mind: The Three Postures 46
The Actual Practice: Padmasambhava’s Instructions for Shamatha 49
Shamatha with External Object 50
Shamatha with White Bindu Visualization 51
Shamatha with Red Bindu Visualization 51
Shamatha without Object 52
Deity Yoga 54
Setting a Specific Intention for Our Practice 56
For Only So Long 58
3. Waking the Dreamer: The Bardo of Dream 61
Appearance-Emptiness 62
Impure and Pure Dreams 65
Entering the Dream State 65
Continuation of Confusion 66
Waking Up in the Dream 67
Training in the Illusory Body 68
Training in Dream Yoga 77
Training in Luminosity Yoga 86
Fruition of Training 87
Dreams and Dreamers 89
Looking at the Dream 89
Looking at the Dreamer 90
Looking at the Time Span 91
Lighting a Torch in the Darkness 92
4. Mastering The Mind: The Bardo of Meditation 95
Meditation as Bardo 96
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Contents ix
Vipashyana 97
Domesticating Wild Mind 99
Stages of Training in Selflessness 100
Pointing-out Mind’s Nature 103
Looking Directly at Mind 104
Gaining Certainty in Liberation 107
Three Words That Strike the Vital Point 107
Dzogchen’s Four Great Modes of Liberation 108
Taking the Message of Liberation to Heart 110
Accepting and Rejecting 111
Self-existing Wisdom 113
Letting Go of Freedom 114
The Nature of All 115
Guarding Awareness 116
Path of Skillful Means 117
Connecting the Bardos of Life and Death 118
5. Evaporating Reality: The Painful Bardo of Dying 119
Attachment to This Life 121
Three Capacities of Practitioners 122
Preparing For Death 125
Dissolving of the Elements 126
Coarse and Subtle Bodies 126
The Coarse Dissolution Process 129
The Subtle Dissolution Process 134
The Stages of Luminosity 139
Practices For Dying 141
Path of Devotion 141
Recognizing a Last Chance 142
The Practice of Phowa 143
Methods of Transformation 147
Sudden Death 153
All Practices Are Phowa 154
Planning our Last Thought 155
Looking Ahead 156
Aiming for the Highest 157