Helcat commented:

Hi Deci

What I discussed are Tibetan Buddhist beliefs. From the Buddhist perspective, due to belief in reincarnation these practices are done to help guide you to achieving a better reincarnation. It is said that if you achieve enlightenment you become a Buddha, yet most Buddha do not choose to walk the earth, many go to the Buddha realm.

The reason why dying helps certain people achieve enlightenment is because dying is a process that dissolves the ego.

It takes many lifetimes to achieve enlightenment. There have only been 20+ known Buddhas throughout human history. This is how rare achieving enlightenment is. Enlightenment is a rare phenomenon. Rare in death and even rarer still  in life.

I believe that practicing meditation can do a lot of good and enact a lot of change even before achieving enlightenment. The Dalai Lama himself doesn’t claim to be enlightened. Many masters do not claim to be enlightened. Yet, they still help many people with the level of spiritual attainment that they have achieved.

Personally, I am doing these practices to benefit my mental health. Psychology is largely based on Buddhist practices and I have reached the limit of what psychology can achieve.

I’m guessing that you haven’t read the Tibetan Book of the Dead or the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Most people do not like discussing death. But there are Tibetan Buddhist practices that are heavily linked to death.

You’re right living and dying are reflections of similar phenomenon. Sleeping is considered to be a state similar to death. The quality of your sleep is considered a reflection of your practices.

Compassion is a big component that many masters discuss with building a level of attainment.

Who knew that the Tibetan Book of the Dead, while being a valuable incentive for those living during a time of death and dying without the will to enlightenment, also serves as a reference and source of comfort for the living in terms of its provisional tenets at a time of social loss, must, as well, be seen as a last-ditch device for the dying by its upholding the possibility of sudden enlightenment for those with the karmic potential at the time of their death, in order to see essence without needlessly having to experience the bardic realm when the veil between Creation and Nonorigination finally dissolves.

Dear Helcat, I speak from the perspective of enlightenment. Buddhas aren’t to be counted because they are numberless. Even so, in terms of the one who sees essence by virtue of the Absolute, no buddha can reach you there, anyway. So much for buddhas. What about those who, when they see a buddha in the street, can kill a buddha; when they see their lover, can kill their lover; when they see their selfish habit-induced views of self and other, right and wrong, good and bad, they can kill such views. That’s true liberation. Liberation is not buddhist nor is it buddhism. Buddhas aren’t buddhist. Such is complete reality.

No buddha, much less Buddhism, ever invent enlightenment. Your own mind right now is your inconceivable nature, which isn’t a matter of belief. Why? It’s your own mind right now, which is awareness, nonoriginated. This means that awareness (being your nature) isn’t created. So belief, per se, be it buddhist or otherwise, has no value in the face of direct experience. Why don’t people see? They do, but due to the fact that seeing relative to the person isn’t reality, such seeing isn’t real. Real seeing is transcendent. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s different, it’s just not bound by karma. That’s transcendent. Seeing with the awakened Dharma Eye, people do not go along with birth and death (cyclic situational and karmic change), they abide in nonorigination. Delusion and reality actually look exactly the same simply because they are the same. What’s different?

Seeing.

I have to say that the idea about you starting your own thread using your own words to discuss your experience of the early stages of learning buddhism is an excellent idea, because rebutting the concepts in your above quote would be completely off topic relative to the OP.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 7 months ago by deci.