Near Death Experience (NDE)

[adept]

I'd like to expand on http://thetaobums.co...es/#entry335540 this topic here which has only scratched the surface of this incredible field of study.

I recently came across this account which is astounding http://www.allaboutc...lity/index.html

[konchog uma]

i think its amazing how the expectations or conditioning of the mind can influence what one experiences in the bardo... as if, if one was attached to their family, they will see ancestors, and if they are attached to religion, they will perceive angels and the light as "god", while shaivites perceive it as the kundalini of shakti, and buddhist as the buddha-nature or clear light.

 

how wonderful. Having been out there myself, i was pretty convinced when i came back that there was actually a god and that i was bathed in its energy for a nice short while. It was overwhelming bliss, like words cant describe.. like overfuckingwhelming, thats the best i can do with english. a cosmic tidal wave of unconditional love and ecstasy washing my mind and spirit. It was the most excellent experience of my life by leaps and bounds, i can't even think of number two... maybe my first internal orgasm or something that doesn't really even compare so its stupid to think about.

 

the best thing about my NDE is that it eradicated my fear of death. I will be happy to go, it is wonderful. Death is fun. as long as you go into the light that is... crucial point

 

edit: also want to link to http://www.nderf.org for more stories and where you can submit your own experience to the database if you have had one. yknow for the sake of science

Edited August 29, 2012 by anamatva

[adept]

i think its amazing how the expectations or conditioning of the mind can influence what one experiences in the bardo... as if, if one was attached to their family, they will see ancestors, and if they are attached to religion, they will perceive angels and the light as "god", while shaivites perceive it as the kundalini of shakti, and buddhist as the buddha-nature or clear light.

 

how wonderful. Having been out there myself, i was pretty convinced when i came back that there was actually a god and that i was bathed in its energy for a nice short while. It was overwhelming bliss, like words cant describe.. like overfuckingwhelming, thats the best i can do with english. a cosmic tidal wave of unconditional love and ecstasy washing my mind and spirit. It was the most excellent experience of my life by leaps and bounds, i can't even think of number two... maybe my first internal orgasm or something that doesn't really even compare so its stupid to think about.

 

the best thing about my NDE is that it eradicated my fear of death. I will be happy to go, it is wonderful. Death is fun. as long as you go into the light that is... crucial point

 

edit: also want to link to http://www.nderf.org for more stories and where you can submit your own experience to the database if you have had one. yknow for the sake of science

 

Thanks anamatva for sharing your thoughts. Wonderful.

For those of us that haven't had a NDE, but are convinced of it's authenticity, what kind of preparation practices can we do in this current life ?

 

p.s great link !

[Seth Ananda]

I just wrote this for the link given, but thought i'd post it here...

 

Another book that I found really Interesting, is Peter Novak's 'Lost secret of Death'. I think it may have been Serene Blue, who got me on to that ages ago. If it was, Thanks, and if it wasn't Thanks to whoever it was.

 

It boldly attempts to create a unified theory of after death experiences, buy looking at all the kinds of experiences people describe [NDE's & Regression] in the light of what he calls the Binary Soul Doctrine [bSD].

 

He points out accurately that probably every ancient theory of the soul, all over the world, has 2, 3 or more 'souls' that separate at some point after death, and it seems that all the diverse and sometimes conflicting experiences people have had can be accounted for, using the BSD model.

 

I personally think he over reaches in places, but he has done a superb job of compiling BSD teachings from all over the world in one place.

 

A big emphasis of the book is thinking about how to create a fusion or Marriage of our two primary souls, and there is also a lot of excellent research compiling how different Traditions have approached this Great Work...

 

It is very worth the read if you are interested in this subject

[konchog uma]

Thanks anamatva for sharing your thoughts. Wonderful.

For those of us that haven't had a NDE, but are convinced of it's authenticity, what kind of preparation practices can we do in this current life ?

 

p.s great link !

 

you are most welcome

 

i think that visualizing death and really preparing oneself for the eventuality in which they will not have a flesh body, or anywhere to go but into the bardo, is good. To familiarize oneself with the light is what the Bardo Thodol recommends, because a lot of people get "out there" and its like a dream, they are kind of on autopilot.. the great light appears and they fear it, they fear their own dissolution, the unmaking of themselves, and they run from it deeper in to the bardo. They can spend a lot of time in the inbetween, or they can in the snap of fingers enter the light. Some adepts can rest in the light for a long time, bathing in bliss and dissolving samskaras and obstructions effortlessly for ages on end.

 

So if one doesnt go into the light, where the will of divinity itself has a say in what happens to the person, they might go into the other portals into the worlds of gods or animals or to hell, they might, like in a dream, just do it habitually, not even really realizing skillfully that they were doing it as it was happening. So the best thing to do is be prepared to be confronted with an overwhelming light that has the potential to be terrifying because it will dissolve "you" and spit you back out somewhere else. But it is overwhelmingly agreed that entering the light and being absorbed is the best option, and the ticket to several other more interesting options, such as staying in the light for a long time, and being reborn in an enlightened realm like siddhaloka or a buddhist pure land etc.

 

Mark Griffin has an excellent excellent mp3 series on the Bardo Thodol here which is well worth $26.95 (and im poor) so checking that out might prove fruitful too.. i find that the original text by Padmasambhava is a little archaic and confusing, and that Mark's talks might be a lot better for westerners. btw its a 5 part talk, each part is like 70 minutes long

[konchog uma]

What death do you suggest visualizing? A fantasy/fantasies of death scenarios?

What about working on REMEMBERING past deaths that one has already gone through? The work on remembering might be really difficult work, but would be true-er to recall one's own experiences, no?

(Just curious, really.)

 

hi rainbowvein

 

i think that both of those approaches are good. What i had in mind when i said it was visualizing ones own death, not in a gory way, but just to imagine that one day your biological functions will cease and you will continue on. If a person has rehearsed this scenario in their mind, they can be a little more familiar and better prepared for it.

 

I think that realizing past lives is good too, but might not be within the scope of everyones abilities. So i agree its a good approach but i mentioned visualizing ones death because anyone can do that. So sure, it can take the form of fantasies or random death scenarios, but the point isn't to visualize 1001 ways to die lol... its to brace the mind for the dreamlike phantasmagoria which takes place after death, to put yourself in the place of a disembodied or noncorporeal entity, and be that as your self in the imagination, thats what is helpful in jogging realizations and setting oneself up for success in the bardo.

 

i don't think you have to practice all that much, or do it morbidly, i think that just preparing oneself for an overwhelming light and walking into it, something simple like that, is good. It causes one to gather their feelings about the people places and things of this lifetime into a neat bundle and accept and let them go as temporal. And it builds mental "muscle memory" so that when one is in the bardo they don't freak out and run around like a chicken.