Серия ежедневной практики, курс 05 — Медитация о смерти и о конце смерти (1999, Роли), занятие 3

[Speaker 1]
Okay, watch your breath, okay? Pretty deep breaths, but nothing forced, and keep your mind on the touch of the breath as it goes to the front of your nose. If you're by yourself it would be one round of ten, the out-breath being the first half, the in-breath being the second half, which is not the same as when you're swimming when you're a kid.

And do one round of ten is okay, two is better, probably. Three if your mind is crazy. Then I'd give up and go on to the next lesson.

[Speaker 2]
Now do kundu noble look means focus on the Lama who's in your heart and ask them for their blessings during the meditation.

[Speaker 1]
Then do the first lam rim, which is the coming out of the woods, and struggling at the table, and thinking that you don't want to live your life like that, and just struggling for things, being weighed down by them, and all the bad karma associated with that. I forgot to say the opposite of the wind in the channels thing about getting younger is that if you go on doing bad deeds your whole life, and I don't mean killing people or robbing banks, I mean little irritated thoughts all day, then naturally it will affect your channels and the accumulated damage just kills you. So think about the minor bad deeds that are caused by not doing what you would do if you were going to die tonight.

Then go on to the bridge and imagine all the major possessions you have, and the major commitments you have, the major ways that you spend your time, and imagine redesigning them or dropping some of them altogether to lighten your life up, as if you were going to die tonight. Evaluate the major things in your house in light of the fact that you're going to die tonight and see which ones you would throw out. Then at the end of the bridge is this scary thing, scared of death, scared to die, death meditation, which is a frightening thing, being nervous about death or paralyzed by thinking about it.

[Speaker 2]
Then you break through those people with those swords, and you know, just practice remembering that that is not death meditation.

[Speaker 1]
Then go on to the real death meditation, just very light, very strong, very supple, very vibrant, crossing the grass, almost in a dance, and very light, all the dirt and all the heavy things just gone, and you're in very light, almost like silk clothing, silk, very light silk things on you, and you're like happily dancing across the meadow. And think of what it represents, which is real good death meditation, where every day you wake up, you do exactly what you're going to do as if you were going to die tonight. Then when you lay down to go to bed, you feel good, you feel like you did the right thing today, did the best you could, and if you died tonight you'd be happy.

And what would it be like to keep thinking that way day after day, week after week, month after month, unencumbered?

[Speaker 2]
You get to the first door, a huge, like, oaken door.

[Speaker 1]
You see it like a yellowish color, a golden yellow color, and you stop there and you look at it and you think that this door represents the first of the three big divisions of this meditation, and that's that death is certain. You enter the door and it's a sort of a dark, cool room, like an earthen walls, and circular, and to your right, you know, it's this huge animal that would like to kill you, and it's chained up, and it's like wild and trying to reach you, and that represents that death is not something you can stop. Once it comes, you can't stop it.

Once the karma wears out, then it's impossible that you would see a living thing when you looked at your body, and it could wear out at any minute. Then you walk to the center of the room, and on a small pedestal is a, or a stand is an hourglass, and you look at it and think about the fact that your life is always draining away, leaking away, every day. I see all these pictures of my Dharma brothers and sisters when they were young, you know, when they first met the Dharma, and they look so great.

You know, they look so wonderful, and then time just slips by, and your body sags and wears down, and that's the, it's happening now as we talk and think about it. And then imagine yourself running down a corridor, and I see the corridor kind of dark with stonish walls, and pictures on the walls every six feet apart, and they have a little light over them, and it's one of the lamas I studied with, or one of the teachings I had. And imagining rushing down the hallway, and not able to take the time to practice Dhamma, or to meditate well, and it's sort of a frustrated feeling, that I never have time to really delve into things, and I never have time to practice like I'd like to, and even when I'm on retreat, the time flies away.

[Speaker 2]
And use the hallway to remember that. Then bring your mind back into your heart, and say goodbye to your lama there, and they like touch your head and bless you. You're small, right?

And then dedicate the good karma to other people.

[Speaker 1]
More specifically, that you become like your lama, or you become your lama, and that would be the best way to serve on it. Your perfect lama. Your lama as a perfect being.

Maybe we don't see them that way right now, but as they are as a perfect being.

[Speaker 2]
Okay, relax.