MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page i Mind Beyond Death MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page ii MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page iii Mind Beyond Death by Dzogchen Ponlop Snow Lion Publications ithaca, new york MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page iv Snow Lion Publications P.O. Box 6483 Ithaca, NY 14851 USA (607) 273-8519 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 MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page v 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. MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page vi MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page vii 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 MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page viii 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 MBD_REV 05_08 7/7/09 12:23 PM Page ix 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