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This book is actually a tibetan manual for a dying person on how to proceed with his mind during the process. It's not a poem nor mystical metaphore about anyth
by kunley 16y ago
This book is actually a tibetan manual for a dying person on how to proceed with his mind during the process. It's not a poem nor mystical metaphore about anything not related to dying.
One of the translations of the original sub-title is: "the precious way of liberation through listening", meaning that the purpose was to read it to the dying person in order to liberate his mind from the subconscious baggage which resurfaces and takes over during dying.
The images, scenes and dramatis personae (including gods, demons and stuff) occuring in the text are all projections of the subconscious impressions in mind, accumulated during a life and resurfacing when dying. The fact that this is not explained in the book is because every tibetan buddhist knows / takes for granted that mind works this way, so there's no need to explain it additionally.
The other funny thing and a source of misconception is the translation: while tibetan culture was perceived inferior, mystical and over-religious by westerners, it was actually discovering lots of stuff about consciousness and subconsciousness since centuries, same as the whole buddhism. But the western discoverers couldn't believe that tibetans, being technologically inferior, were able to make a progress in different areas, so when translating they didn't used then-new terminology like counsciousness and stuff, but used church-like terminology like if they were translating european middle-ages material. This trend, though diminishing, continues to this day.
My advice is to remember this book was written for different people and then translated using language and metaphors the translators could bear. Yet since 70s some people made a huge advance of making a connection between asian and western way of thinking in order to bring the buddhist methods to the west, cutting off the misconceptions and cultural baggages. Such teachers, whether would they be Zen or Diamond Way representatives, can teach practical stuff on what to do during dying or how to help dying people in our modern world. If anyone's interested I'd reach such teachers instead of taking such books too seriously.
- rblion 16y agoNothing is permanent and we are all dying people, if you really think about it. The book is about shedding all the layers of delusion that separate man from the universe. Einstein believed Buddhism would be an ideal candidate for a universal religion for lifeforms outside of Earth too. What I got from the book is a simple way to focus on the immaterial instead of the material. To see the entire universe with consciousness and compassion instead of an expanse to be colonized and conquered. I think the world is just reaching a point where the Eastern and Western perspectives are starting to become one. The 21st century is the dawn of the universal age where we all start to realize we are made of equal atoms and cells striving for survival and transcendence. This book seems to be in tune with modern science journals too.
- robin_reala 16y ago[citation needed]?
- rblion 16y agohttp://tricycleblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/einsteins-quotes-on-buddhism/ http://tricycleblog.wordpress.com/2007/10/26/einsteins-quote...
- robin_reala 16y agoThanks, interesting.
- kunley 16y agoI'm happy this book inspired you into some thinking. The question is, how is it going to practically change your life in a long term? I'm making this point just to strike a common misconception, not that you're certainly in it, but for anyone reading this thread. People often have an impression that buddhism is mystical, it says about all things being one and that if they got into it seriously they would be given next levels of beautiful thoughts and ideas up to the final nirvana. It's not like that at all. Buddhism is practical. Deadly practical. Meaning one has to fight his own limitations first. You get some meditations and instructions from a teacher, usually tied specifically to you, and you do meditate. It changes you. Ego fights back. But if you continue the practice you loose some previous obstacles and in general you see a new value in your relations with people, your view, in everyday things. Then another obstacles come, and so on. The crucial are meditations from a teacher - it all makes sense only when you trust him. The trust must be earned somehow, it's not measurable. One of the meditations is a conscious dying meditation which I for example relearn every year. Others work best if you repeat them every day. It changes you inevitably. There's no warranty it will change you for the good, but you observe yourself. You observe the mind. It's a constant work, meant to finally relax you not tire you, though. All this sweat is for understanding that everything we feel and see, including material world, is only a projection of the mind, so it's best to focus on mind itself instead of images which it mirrors. And keep this view possibly all the time. Of course this view is kinda related to recent discoveries of science, esp. quantum physics and so on. But what does it mean in an everyday life? Did Einstein had a hunch buddhism is related to physics and is probably very useful? Yes. Did he follow that path? No. Did he remember in every minute of his life that things are impermanent and world is a dream? Probably not. Was he impervious to anger because of that understanding? Probably not. Some people say he was terrible person, others say he was excellent and nice. Whatever. Einstein's words may be a trampoline for someone to become interested in buddhism but he's no expert on the topic. So, to really judge if it works it'd best to actually find the people who do it, or even know such people and compare how they behaved in the past and how they behave now. I know it's not easy. But Einstein, well, is dead... We're not, yet. edit: Thank you HNers if you read this, these are important things and it seemed urgent to share my few cents.