The ultimate nature is our birthright, the foundation of each of our minds.
Most of us, however, can hardly conceive of its splendor — let alone of the possibility of uniting with it after death.
In Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth, Tulku Thondup offers a glimpse into our sublime potential to realise the truth at death if we devote ourselves to meditating on the nature of the mind.
Those who achieved the attainments described in the book started out as ordinary people, like us. They then devoted their lives to contemplating and maintaining the realisation of the ultimate nature.
However, doing even a little meditation will greatly help us when we die.
If we could glimpse the ultimate nature while we are alive or at death, that would create enormous merits to propel us toward a peaceful and joyous future.
Even simpler meditations and prayers penetrate into deep layers of our minds.
As layers peel off when we die or enter deeper states of consciousness, the fruits of our meditation emerge.
Pema Ozer, a Western lady, had been practicing Buddhism for only a few years when she was hospitalised for major surgery. As a child, her happiest moments had been riding along country roads with her grandfather in his horse-drawn buggy. After his death, she had always imagined that when her time arrived, he would meet her in his buggy. Sure enough, as her consciousness began to drift away on the operating table, she saw her grandfather waiting at a crossroads in his buggy.
She was about to join him when the Buddha appeared. Walking back and forth across the road to dissuade her from reaching her grandfather, the Buddha encouraged her to keep breathing. She did, and is healthy today.
The key is that her meditation experience emerged even though she had spent a relatively short time practicing at that point.
So it is essential to meditate on the nature of the mind as much as possible while we are alive.
Source: Based on the following book — Thondup, Tulku. Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2005.
The ultimate nature is our birthright, the foundation of each of our minds.
Most of us, however, can hardly conceive of its splendor — let alone of the possibility of uniting with it after death. …
However, doing even a little meditation will greatly help us when we die.
If we could glimpse the ultimate nature while we are alive or at death, that would create enormous merits to propel us toward a peaceful and joyous future.
Even simpler meditations and prayers penetrate into deep layers of our minds.
(Thondup, Tulku. Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth)