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[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer

[steve]

On 10/19/2023 at 3:49 PM, Summer said:

Buddhists seem to be the only ones who have mapped the after life realms.

 

I'm no expert but will share some thoughts.

Other traditions have plenty to say about the after-life. Buddhists have a very useful paradigm but certainly not the only one. I don't personally look at such maps as some existential truth but rather as a perspective or a model rooted in culture, tradition, and many other variables. The realms described in Buddhist terminology do not only relate to our condition after death but are established by and experienced as an integral part of life. For me it is more valuable to relate to these realms as they are experienced in this very lifetime and how they affect my choices and actions; rather than imagine them as something distant that will be faced after death. 

 

 

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They make it seem like a hellish challenge to pass through them on the way to exit. Why is this?

 

At the time of death we lose the familiar way we experience ourselves completely. We lose the body, the elemental structure of our experience of reality, our sense perceptions, even our very sense of self. This completely unfamiliar and raw experience can be disorienting, jarring, and often terrifying. Our response to this profound change is rooted in our life experience and conditioning. I've gotten what I'm told is a small taste of this process through some of my training and related experiences. I think part of the reason the transition is presented in a way that sounds like a "hellish challenge" is to push people to take their practice more seriously so that when we are going through this extreme process of change we are familiar enough to fall back on our practices as a support and a guide. We have a tendency to towards procrastination and denial despite the certainty of our death and just like in any life and death circumstance, there can be an element of panic such that we forget our training and turn to whatever is most available and most familiar in our time of need. For those who follow the Bön and Buddhist paths, our response to the profound changes that occur at the time of death and our ability to recognize the nature of that experience determines if and how we are reborn so this becomes a very important consideration. 

 

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What does that say about the intent of whoever made this situation? Why make it so difficult? Doesn't that all stink a little bit? Like they want you to fail and keep coming back again.

 

The difficulty of this transition is largely related to unfamiliarity and resistance to change based on conditioned and habitual patterns and misidentification. The negativity we feel as we consider the end of our life is related to our mistaken identification with a sense of separateness that defines this current life. This situation is made by us - our minds, our emotions, our senses, and the patterns and consequences of our actions. The bardo practices are designed to support the recognition of our fundamental essence, a deeper truth of who and what we are, as we go through this process of transition. If we are able to recognize that essence and what is happening we are said to have a much better chance to influence our rebirth or the possibility of liberation during this transition. One way to look at the tendency of people to be reborn and cycle through samsara is that it gives us limitless life experiences and endless opportunities to be of benefit to both ourselves and others. What stinks is if we have an opportunity to make an impact on this process but waste it. 

 

I don't hold that anything I say is the right perspective or the only perspective, just my biased and personal perspective at the moment.

 

[Summer]

Edited January 28 by Summer

[Cobie]

Delete and forget about it.

Edited October 22, 2023 by Cobie

[Indiken]

1 hour ago, Summer said:

On the other hand isn't living, dying, having your memory wiped, being karma chameleoned in your next life then rinse and repeat a bit of a tricky offer? Come on, ref! 

 

you have to justify ethical behaviour somehow for thick shits.

 

1 hour ago, Summer said:

Sadly most people don't, won't or can't think or even consider freely.

 

too intense I think.