"Whether any of us are striving for Buddhahood […] doesn’t change the fact that how we practice today, in the moment, will determine how we receive the next moment, and the next, right up until our last.
[…]
Like anyone else, I have no idea what awaits when this body dies. I do know that I will die one day, and how I conduct myself in this life, knowing it is finite, matters. I know that I am more awake than I was even six months ago."
Yes. That is my credo as well. I would add: we are here for a reason, in this world of beauty. Not appreciating what we are given (there is no other planet like Earth) is a sin (or mistake, if one doesn't like the word "sin"). We have a body made for this world full of sounds and colors and smells and tastes and textures. We have a heart, made for love. We have skin, made for caresses. I am convinced that we are made to savor what is given to us, not to beat ourselves up because we like chocolate or have fallen in love. That would be ungrateful towards the big unknown that has provided us with these gifts.
I think the problem with attachment is not that we form an attachment (to a person or anything), it is that we can't let go when the time comes to move on, or that we even want to possess for ever and ever. How to let go is something we have to learn. Religions have been very good at forbidding and cultivating a guilty conscience in their flocks, but restrictions don't teach you anything apart from self-hatred.
I think we are most of all made to love and by loving we benefit the world more than by denying us love and companionship because of some precept. So, good for you that you found your beloved. 😊
"I think we are most of all made to love and by loving we benefit the world more than by denying us love and companionship because of some precept."
This, right here. So well put. :)
And thank you for commenting on this one! It's one of those posts I hadn't yet updated links on since switching platforms. Plus, whenever someone comments on a slogan it's an invitation for me to revisit it and see what still resonates and what might have changed. Seems this one continues to hold strong in my understanding as I originally wrote it. I'm so glad it also spoke to you.
I have now reached the second part of your double feature. I immediately came to think of a prayer that I heard from Pema Chödrön (I think it is originally from one of her teachers, Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche):
When the appearances of this life dissolve
may I with ease and great happiness
let go of all attachments to this life
like a son or daughter returning home.
This prayer accompanies me every day. I think one of the preparations for death should be that we symbolically pack a small bag with prayers and pictures to help us pass. We need to become very familiar with these prayers and pictures so that they appear for us even when we're are already half unconscious.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying tells you what to expect to see when you die. I have to say, I sincerely doubt that my subconscious will show me various buddhas with their consorts and wrathful deities with knives and whatnot. They are not part of my culture and I am not familiar with them on a deeper level. I also find the depictions of Tara interesting but they don't do anything for me, and I doubt very much that they will appear of their own accord when I die.
I've grown up a Protestant, without saints and with barren churches. It didn't bother me at all. In fact, I found Catholic churches overdecorated. But as I get older I realise that there is something important missing in my spiritual life. There is nothing visual I can hold on to or that will comfort me. So I have started a project to find illustrations of the divine qualities I hope to meet when the time arrives. It's not at all easy, but I managed to find something that for me embodies compassion. Even if this is the only illustration I can find (I'm still looking for an equivalent to the wrathful deities that stand for honesty and clarity) I'm okay.
Ah yes! When I did the Yarne retreat in 2018 we studied the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and Ani Pema spoke about the importance of finding the things that we think our consciousness is likely to conjure during the dying process that we can relate to, since the Five Buddhas are more likely to appear to folks who have a cultural relationship to them.
I know there is a recording of the talks she gave at that time, but she has since repeated the story in other talks about someone describing giant bunny rabbits coming to greet them in a near death experience. *laughs* Whatever works best!
That is a real consolation, to know that I don't have to try to conjure up diverse buddhas during my last breaths 😉. It took me a while to free myself from that idea. I thought for quite some time that Buddhists have great experience when it comes to death and the afterlife and if they say there will be buddhas then there will be buddhas, so I'd better get on with visualizing them. But I have thought long and hard about this and given up on buddhas and their consorts and other deities. I think what we see (if we see anything) are beings that comfort us. So I'm trying to get familiar with illustrations that serve the purpose of comfort.
I'm quite impressed by your portrait of Avalokiteshvara. It's brilliant. Is that an illustration you use for your practice or do you paint just for fun?
Hmmmm.... it is fun, but it's a deep practice project. I've been working on it since June of last year and...it's a lot! I've been a thangka artist since 2014 and this is the most intense one I've embarked on yet.
It is a beautiful thangka. I asked about whether it was something you did for fun because of the attributes you include. There was something playful about some of them. As it says: "Always maintain only a joyful mind".
"Whether any of us are striving for Buddhahood […] doesn’t change the fact that how we practice today, in the moment, will determine how we receive the next moment, and the next, right up until our last.
[…]
Like anyone else, I have no idea what awaits when this body dies. I do know that I will die one day, and how I conduct myself in this life, knowing it is finite, matters. I know that I am more awake than I was even six months ago."
Yes. That is my credo as well. I would add: we are here for a reason, in this world of beauty. Not appreciating what we are given (there is no other planet like Earth) is a sin (or mistake, if one doesn't like the word "sin"). We have a body made for this world full of sounds and colors and smells and tastes and textures. We have a heart, made for love. We have skin, made for caresses. I am convinced that we are made to savor what is given to us, not to beat ourselves up because we like chocolate or have fallen in love. That would be ungrateful towards the big unknown that has provided us with these gifts.
I think the problem with attachment is not that we form an attachment (to a person or anything), it is that we can't let go when the time comes to move on, or that we even want to possess for ever and ever. How to let go is something we have to learn. Religions have been very good at forbidding and cultivating a guilty conscience in their flocks, but restrictions don't teach you anything apart from self-hatred.
I think we are most of all made to love and by loving we benefit the world more than by denying us love and companionship because of some precept. So, good for you that you found your beloved. 😊
"I think we are most of all made to love and by loving we benefit the world more than by denying us love and companionship because of some precept."
This, right here. So well put. :)
And thank you for commenting on this one! It's one of those posts I hadn't yet updated links on since switching platforms. Plus, whenever someone comments on a slogan it's an invitation for me to revisit it and see what still resonates and what might have changed. Seems this one continues to hold strong in my understanding as I originally wrote it. I'm so glad it also spoke to you.
I have now reached the second part of your double feature. I immediately came to think of a prayer that I heard from Pema Chödrön (I think it is originally from one of her teachers, Dzigar Kongtrül Rinpoche):
When the appearances of this life dissolve
may I with ease and great happiness
let go of all attachments to this life
like a son or daughter returning home.
This prayer accompanies me every day. I think one of the preparations for death should be that we symbolically pack a small bag with prayers and pictures to help us pass. We need to become very familiar with these prayers and pictures so that they appear for us even when we're are already half unconscious.
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying tells you what to expect to see when you die. I have to say, I sincerely doubt that my subconscious will show me various buddhas with their consorts and wrathful deities with knives and whatnot. They are not part of my culture and I am not familiar with them on a deeper level. I also find the depictions of Tara interesting but they don't do anything for me, and I doubt very much that they will appear of their own accord when I die.
I've grown up a Protestant, without saints and with barren churches. It didn't bother me at all. In fact, I found Catholic churches overdecorated. But as I get older I realise that there is something important missing in my spiritual life. There is nothing visual I can hold on to or that will comfort me. So I have started a project to find illustrations of the divine qualities I hope to meet when the time arrives. It's not at all easy, but I managed to find something that for me embodies compassion. Even if this is the only illustration I can find (I'm still looking for an equivalent to the wrathful deities that stand for honesty and clarity) I'm okay.
Ah yes! When I did the Yarne retreat in 2018 we studied the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, and Ani Pema spoke about the importance of finding the things that we think our consciousness is likely to conjure during the dying process that we can relate to, since the Five Buddhas are more likely to appear to folks who have a cultural relationship to them.
I know there is a recording of the talks she gave at that time, but she has since repeated the story in other talks about someone describing giant bunny rabbits coming to greet them in a near death experience. *laughs* Whatever works best!
That is a real consolation, to know that I don't have to try to conjure up diverse buddhas during my last breaths 😉. It took me a while to free myself from that idea. I thought for quite some time that Buddhists have great experience when it comes to death and the afterlife and if they say there will be buddhas then there will be buddhas, so I'd better get on with visualizing them. But I have thought long and hard about this and given up on buddhas and their consorts and other deities. I think what we see (if we see anything) are beings that comfort us. So I'm trying to get familiar with illustrations that serve the purpose of comfort.
I'm quite impressed by your portrait of Avalokiteshvara. It's brilliant. Is that an illustration you use for your practice or do you paint just for fun?
Hmmmm.... it is fun, but it's a deep practice project. I've been working on it since June of last year and...it's a lot! I've been a thangka artist since 2014 and this is the most intense one I've embarked on yet.
A post from early on about the practice: https://open.substack.com/pub/kschatch/p/preparing-the-grid?r=ntqgr&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
It is a beautiful thangka. I asked about whether it was something you did for fun because of the attributes you include. There was something playful about some of them. As it says: "Always maintain only a joyful mind".