Non-Duality: The Way of Liberation Part Four- Impermanence, Distraction, Emptiness & Meditation By Anthony Court In many of the great meditative traditions of the Far East, death and impermanence are the first things to be considered before any spiritual training is undertaken. This important exercise is deemed to be an essential prerequisite, because without this focusing of the mind on the inevitable outcome of sentient existence, the mind will remain in a state of ignorance (unquestioning) regarding this life. What emerge from this initial inquiry are questions that must inevitably be addressed before one can ‘see clearly’ the ‘ground’ on which all appearances (apparent objects) manifest. Then the questions that must arise should be ‘What is the nature of reality?’ and ‘what is the nature of mind?’ To ignore this vital and fundamental examination of ‘what is’, is like launching a boat out to sea without a rudder. Here in the culture of the West, death and impermanence are generally ignored and avoided. In the Dzogchen Tradition of Tibet they have a very famous saying; ‘Do not be distracted’ the ‘Western’ way of life has the very opposite outlook, distract yourself enough, and you can put off considering your inevitable demise. You don’t need me the name the distractions they are all around you, television, show business, sport, job, alcohol, drugs, family, home, religion, various philosophies and ideologies, together with the disturbing emotional states of ambition, greed, desire, the need to find security (you can make your own lists). To add to that list today you can also include the distraction of the new ‘spirituality movements’ everything that arises on the ‘Ground of all being’ (the inseparability of emptiness and cognition) is a distraction. By the focusing on death, the spiritual practioner is forced to question every aspect of their lives, and must ask…’what is real?’ In other words to repeat the earlier statement, ‘What is the nature of reality?’ and ‘what is the nature of mind?’ Very few cultures have studied the human mind and condition as deeply as the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. As the Dalai Lama famously quoted “While the West was exploring outer space, and going to the moon, we Tibetans (the yogis and sages) were exploring inner space and the nature of reality”. The majority of human beings will ‘leap over’ these two questions about the nature of reality and mind, deeming them as impossible, or too difficult to answer. However without a serious attempt to examination these vital points, whatever we do, follow, believe, practice and how we live our lives, can never be totally satisfactory, because we have never discovered the ‘Ground’ on which everything appears, we will mistake the appearances for reality, and continue to live in the delusional realm of duality, in other words ‘remain asleep’ An intellectual understanding will be of some initial help, but without the experience of ‘awakening’ we remain in the ‘samsaric’ darkness of ignorance. No religion, ideology, faith, belief, spiritual or physic abilities will be of any uses when we are dying, as they are all conditioned constructs of the conceptually creating aspect of the mind. All suffering is the ‘conditioned’ the realization of the ‘unconditioned’ is the beginning of liberation.
When the culture of Tibet is considered, it is not normally thought of as a ‘literary’ nation, but it has an extremely long and rich tradition of spiritual writings, history, poetry, logic, language, debate and commentaries by many of the greatest masters, meditators, sages and yogis of the last few thousand years. As stated earlier through meditation, study, and practice, the understanding of the dying process has been long understood. What follows, is a description of the dying process that can be found in many various manuals relation to death and dying. There are two common meditations on death in the Tibetan tradition. The first looks at the certainty and imminence of death and what will be of benefit at the time of death, in order to motivate us to make the best use of our lives. The second is a simulation or rehearsal of the actual death process, which familiarizes us with death and takes away the fear of the unknown, thus allowing us to die skilfully. Traditionally, in Buddhist countries, one is also encouraged to go to a cemetery or burial ground to contemplate on death and become familiar with this inevitable event. The first of these meditations is known as the nine-round death meditation, in which we contemplate the three roots, the nine reasoning’s, and the three convictions, as described below: A. DEATH IS CERTAIN 1. There is no possible way to escape death. No-one ever has, not even Jesus, Buddha, etc. Of the current world population of over 5 billion people, almost none will be alive in 100 years time. 2. Life has a definite, inflexible limit and each moment brings us closer to the finality of this life. We are dying from the moment we are born. 3. Death comes in a moment and its time is unexpected. All that separates us from the next life is one breath. Conviction: To practise the spiritual path and ripen our inner potential by cultivating positive mental qualities and abandoning disturbing mental qualities. B. THE TIME OF DEATH IS UNCERTAIN 4. The duration of our lifespan is uncertain. The young can die before the old, the healthy before the sick, etc. 5. There are many causes and circumstances that lead to death, but few that favour the sustenance of life. Even things that sustain life can kill us, for example food, motor vehicles, property. 6. The weakness and fragility of one's physical body contribute to life's uncertainty. The body can be easily destroyed by disease or accident, for example cancer, AIDS, vehicle accidents, other disasters. Conviction: To ripen our inner potential now, without delay. C. THE ONLY THING THAT CAN HELP US AT THE TIME OF DEATH IS OUR MENTAL/SPIRITUAL DEVELOPMENT
Because all that goes on to the next life is our subtle mind with its karmic (positive or negative) imprints. 7. Worldly possessions such as wealth, position, money can't help
8. Relatives and friends can neither prevent death nor go with us. 9. Even our own precious body is of no help to us. We have to leave it behind like a shell, an empty husk, an overcoat. Conviction: To ripen our inner potential purely, without staining our efforts with attachment to worldly concerns. The second meditation simulates or rehearses the actual death process. Knowledge of this process is particularly important because advanced practitioners can engage in a series of yoga’s that are modelled on death, intermediate state (Tibetan: bardo) and rebirth until they gain such control over them that they are no longer subject to ordinary uncontrolled death and rebirth. It is therefore essential for the practitioner to know the stages of death and the mind-body relationship behind them. The description of this is based on a presentation of the winds, or currents of energy that serve as foundations for various levels of consciousness and the channels in which they flow. Upon the serial collapse of the ability of these winds to serve as bases of consciousness, the internal and external events of death unfold. Through the power of meditation, the yogi makes the coarse winds dissolve into the very subtle life-bearing wind at the heart. This yoga mirrors the process that occurs at death and involves concentration on the psychic channels and the channel-centres (chakras) inside the body. At the channel-centres there are white and red drops, upon which physical and mental health are based. The white is predominant at the top of the head and the red at the solar plexus. These drops have their origin in a white and red drop at the heart centre, and this drop is the size of a small pea and has a white top and red bottom. It is called the indestructible drop, since it lasts until death. The very subtle life-bearing wind dwells inside it and, at death, all winds ultimately dissolve into it, whereupon the clear light vision of death dawns. The physiology of death revolves around changes in the winds, channels and drops. Psychologically, due to the fact that consciousnesses of varying grossness and subtlety depend on the winds, like a rider on a horse, their dissolving or loss of ability to serve as bases of consciousness induces radical changes in conscious experience. Death begins with the sequential dissolution of the winds associated with the four elements (earth, water, fire and air). "Earth" refers to the hard factors of the body such as bone, and the dissolution of the wind associated with it means that that wind is no longer capable of serving as a mount or basis for consciousness. As a consequence of its dissolution, the capacity of the wind associated with "water" (the fluid factors of the body) to act as a mount for consciousness becomes more manifest. The ceasing of this capacity in one element and its greater manifestation in another is called "dissolution" - it is not, therefore, a case of gross earth dissolving into water. Simultaneously with the dissolution of the earth element, four other factors dissolve (see Chart 1), accompanied by external signs (generally visible to others) and an internal sign (the inner experience of the dying person). The same is repeated in serial order for the other three elements (see Charts 2-4), with corresponding external and internal signs.
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CHART 1: FIRST CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign earth element
body becomes very thin, limbs loose; sense that body is sinking under the earth
aggregate of forms
limbs become smaller, body becomes weak and powerless
basic mirror-like wisdom (our ordinary consciousness that sight becomes unclear and dark clearly perceives many objects simultaneously) eye sense
one cannot open or close eyes
colours and shapes
luster of body diminishes; one's strength is consumed
appearance of mirages
. CHART 2: SECOND CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign water element
saliva, sweat, urine, blood and regenerative fluid dry greatly
body consciousness can no longer aggregate of feelings (pleasure, experience the three types of pain and neutrality) feelings that accompany sense consciousnesses basic wisdom of equality (our one is no longer mindful of the ordinary consciousness mindful feelings accompanying the mental of pleasure, pain and neutral consciousness feelings as feelings) ear sense
one no longer hears external or internal sounds
sounds
'ur' sound in ears no longer arises
appearance of smoke
. CHART 3: THIRD CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign fire element
one cannot digest food or drink
aggregate of discrimination
one is no longer mindful of affairs of close persons
basic wisdom of analysis (our ordinary consciousness mindful one can no longer remember the of the individual names, names of close persons purposes and so forth of close persons) nose sense
inhalation weak, exhalation strong and lengthy
odors
one cannot smell
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appearance of fireflies or sparks within smoke
CHART 4: FOURTH CYCLE OF SIMULTANEOUS DISSOLUTION Factor dissolving External sign Internal sign wind element
the ten winds move to heart; inhalation and exhalation ceases
aggregate of compositional factors
one cannot perform physical actions
basic wisdom of achieving activities (our ordinary one is no longer mindful of external consciousness mindful of worldly activities, purposes and so external activities, purposes and forth so forth) tongue sense
tongue becomes thick and short; root of tongue becomes blue
tastes
one cannot experience tastes
body sense and tangible objects
one cannot experience smoothness or roughness
appearance of a sputtering butter-lamp about to go out
. CHART 5: FIFTH TO EIGTH CYCLES OF DISSOLUTION Factor dissolving Cause of appearance Internal sign FIFTH CYCLE eighty conceptions
winds in right and left channels at first, burning butter-lamp; above heart enter central channel at then, clear vacuity filled with top of head white light
SIXTH CYCLE mind of white appearance
winds in right and left channels very clear vacuity filled with below heart enter central channel at red light base of spine
SEVENTH CYCLE mind of red increase
at first, vacuity filled with upper and lower winds gather at thick darkness; then as if heart; then winds enter drop at heart swooning unconsciously
EIGHTH CYCLE mind of black near-attainment
very clear vacuity free of the all winds dissolve into the very subtle white, red and black life-bearing wind in the indestructible appearances - the mind of drop at the heart clear light of death
(The above charts are taken from "Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism" by Lati Rinpoche and Jeffrey Hopkins) Upon the inception of the fifth cycle the mind begins to dissolve, in the sense that coarser types cease and subtler minds become manifest. First, conceptuality ceases, dissolving into a mind of white appearance. This subtler mind, to which only a vacuity filled by white light appears, is free from coarse conceptuality. It, in turn, dissolves into a heightened mind of red appearance, which then dissolves into a mind of black appearance.
At this point all that appears is a vacuity filled by blackness, during which the person eventually becomes unconscious. In time this is cleared away, leaving a totally clear emptiness (the mind of clear light) free from the white, red and black appearances (see Chart 5). This is the final vision of death. I would add a personal note here; the father of one of my teachers died a few years ago, and remained in a seated meditational posture for fifteen days, without any outward signs of decay. Many people in the West talk of experiencing previous lives, but mainly it comes from wishful and creative thinking. It is said in Tibet, that rebirth is inevitable (where there is no control to the outcome), but to consciously be able to reincarnate takes a life time of rigorous spiritual practice (a spiritual practice that brings about an awakening). It is normally high lamas and yogis who have to ability to choose to reincarnate as this goes with the vow, not to take enlightenment until all beings are freed from suffering. If Westerners genuinely believed in previous, and the possibility of future lives then their attention and practice would take on a considerably more intense mode of urgency. The ultimate view and understanding of spiritual practice is impossible without some knowledge of voidness, or emptiness. All conditioned phenomenon are do not exist in the way we think that they do. They are empty of any fixed, permanent or objective reality (thing we take as being real) Nothing exists from its own side, including ourselves. For example let’s apply some analytical thinking. Is there such a thing (object) as a car? Well relatively yes, but ultimately no. Let me explain. Is the sound ‘car’ the object car? No, obviously it’s just a sound, so is the word ‘car’ also a car, no it’s just a word, and both the sound car and the written word car would probably be different in other languages. So for a moment imagine a big shiny car in front of you. Is that imagined car the real thing? No, of course not. Now stand in front of the actual thing. Now you say this is a car, this is the real thing. O.K. now say I take one of the wheels off. Is it still a car? I’ll take off some more bits and pieces; let’s say the bumper and the steering wheel. Is this still a car? You see, not only a car, but all conditioned phenomenon (things) are dependant on ‘other things’ they do not exist as permanent fixed objects. So a car exists on the conditioned/conventional level only, but not on the absolute/unconditioned level. Therefore all phenomenon are impermanent and transient, including ourselves, thinking otherwise is the cause of all suffering. We are identifying ourselves with an impossible way of being. We believe that this ‘I’ or ‘Me’ is a fixed permanent thing (object) this ‘egoic mind’, like the car, is dependant on, and created by all conditions and circumstances. So all modes of being are illusion in sense of any fixed, permanent unchanging self. Whatever is undertaken in your life, and whatever you believed to be true, is the cause of suffering. No spiritual, religious or any other undertaking can free you from this unenlightened, unawake state of conditioned existence, because whatever phenomenon, visions, abilities, (of psychic or spiritual power) arise, will all arise within the ‘conditioned’ experience. That’s why when Catholics see visions, they see the Virgin Mary; they do not see Avalokiteshvara the Buddhist deity of compassion. Hindu visions will produce Vishnu, and not Jesus, and Muslims will see Allah and not Lao Tzu. Many visionaries may see ‘God’ but it will be there own conditioned idea of ‘god’.
This is why all religions and spiritual traditions believe that they alone have the right way and everyone else is wrong. So now, apply what ‘you believe to be true’ to this way of seeing and answer you own questions. Is it any wonder that the whole world is in conflict? It’s very much like everyone is skating on a frozen sea, trying this form of religion or that form of spirituality, but really just going around in circles. While the vast ocean of spaciousness and freedom is there beneath their feet. Breaking through the ice takes effort, not belief, or faith. Meditation on death and impermanence should initiate a serious investigation. At the time of death the dogma of religion and the spiritual games will be of no use here, or as Nietzsche said: “A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything”. There are no answers in the world of duality; one must try seriously to break through. Release all conditioned ideas, and live spontaneously free from all restrictions. Our true self is unconditioned; clear away the clouds of obscuration’s and return to your enlightened, primordial, natural state of naked awareness, free of ‘this and that’. Coming articles in this feature on non-duality will look at the Zen and Chan Traditions, Science and non duality, and Meditation, Contemplation and Non meditation Anthony Courtwww.internaldynamics.co.uk