Seven Points of Mind Training

Point 4 : Using Practice in One's Whole Life

18: The mahayana instruction for ejection of consciousness at death is the five strengths : how you conduct yourself is important.

Point Four : The mahayana instruction for ejection of consciousness at death is the five strengths : how you conduct yourself is important.

Commentary :

The second slogan of the fourth point of mind training is dealing with the future - our death. The question of death is very important. Realizing the truth of suffering and impermanence is a very important first step in realizing the Buddha's teaching altogether. All of us will die sooner or later. Some of us will die very soon and some of us might die later, but that is not particularly a reason for relaxing.

I would like to discuss the idea of making friends with our death. According to the tradition of ego-oriented culture, death is seen as a defeat and as an insult. Theistic disciplines try to teach us to develop a sense of eternity. But the basic Buddhist tradition, particularly the mahayana, teaches us that death is a deliberate act. Because we have been born, we have to die. That is a very obvious and sensible thing to say. But beyond that, we can make friends with our death and see how we can die as we are.

People usually try to ignore their death completely. If you say to somebody, " Do you realize that you could die tomorrow?" that person will say, "Don't be silly! I'm okay." That attitude is an attempt to avoid the fundamental ugliness existing in us. But death need not be regarded as the ultimate ugly situation that happens to us; instead it can be regarded as a way of extending ourselves into the next life. In this case, death is seen as an invitation to allow this thing we cherish so very much, called our body, to perish. We shave and we take showers and baths and we clothe ourselves quite beautifully, or somewhat beautifully. On the whole, we try to take very good care of the pet called our body. It is like having a little puppy - we don't want our pet to die. But this little pet called our body might leave us sooner or later - will leave us sooner or later.

So to begin with, we have to realize that anything could happen to any one of us. We could be very healthy - but we might not die from ill health, we could die from an accident. We could die from sickness, from terminal diseases of all kinds, and sometimes we die without any reason at all. Although we have no external or internal problems - we just suddenly perish. We run completely out of breath and drop dead on the spot. So the point is to familiarize ourselves completely with our own death.

You want to live so much, and in order to live you can't do this and you can't do that. You cannot even sit on a zafu (meditation cushion) properly because your fear of death is so strong that you think the circulation in your legs might be cut off. You are so afraid to die that any attack that comes to you, even a little splinter in your finger, means death. So this instruction on how to die is not necessarily only about how to die when your death comes to you, but it is also question of having to realize that death is always there.

One of the Kadam teachers who did these practices always put his drinking cup upside down on his table when he went to bed. Traditionally that means you're not going to be at home. You put your cup upside down so it won't get dusty. In that way you keep it clean and pure so that somebody else can use it. The point is that the teacher always thought he might die that night; therefore he turned his cup upside down. You might think that is rather an eccentric way of going about things, but still you should think twice or thrice when you say good night to somebody. You don't know whether or not you are going to see him or her tomorrow. That is a somewhat grim approach, if you view death as a disaster. But if you say good night nicely to somebody, that is a nice way to get out of your life, your body. It is a very humorous way of ending your life. There is a glory and humor in it. You don't need to die filled with remorse; you could die happily.

Like the last, this slogan is connected with the paramita of exertion. Exertion is a sense of joy in your practice. If you have practiced as much as you can in this life and are about to die, then if somebody says, "Look here, it is going to be very difficult for you to go beyond; may I pull the plug for you?," you should have learned to be able to say, "Yes, of course," and " Have a nice time." Plug pulled out.

After all, death is not that grim. It's just that we are actually embarrassed talking about it. Nowadays people have no problem talking about sex, or going to porno movies, but they have difficulty dealing with death. We are so embarrassed. It is a big deal to us, yet we have never actually wanted to reflect on death. We disregard the whole thing. We prefer to celebrate life rather than to prepare for death, or even to celebrate death. In Shambhala terms, refusing to relate with death is connected with what is called setting-sun logic. The whole philosophy of setting sun is to prevent the message of death altogether. It is about how to beautify ourselves, our bodies, so that we could become living corpses. The idea of a living corpse is contradictory in some sense, but it makes sense in terms of setting-sun vision: if we don't want to die, our corpse has to live a long time; it has to become a living corpse.

Unlike that logic, or the many points of view like that, this slogan tells us that it is important for us to realize that death is an important part of our practice, since we are all going to die and since we are all going to relate with our death anyway. It is about how to die from the basic point of view of our own practice.

The instruction for how to die in mahayana is the five strengths. So we have the five strengths, or the five powers, once again. Because these practices are very simple, and because this is the same list we just discussed, we don't have to go into them in great detail. Applying the five strengths in this connection is very simple and straightforward.

Strong determination, number one, is connected with taking a very strong stand: "I will maintain my basic egolessness, my basic sanity, even in my death." You should concentrate on twofold bodhichitta, repeating to yourself: "Before death and during the bardo, in all my births may I not be separated from twofold bodhichitta."

Familiarization is developing a general sense of mindfulness and awareness so that you do not panic because you are dying. You should develop the strength of familiarization, reminding yourself repeatedly of twofold bodhichitta.

The seed of virtue is connected with not resting, not taking any kind of break from your fear of death. It also has to do with overcoming your attachment to your belongings.

Reproach means realizing that this so-called ego does not actually exist. Therefore, you can say, "What am I afraid of, anyway? Go away, ego." Recognizing that all problems come from ego, all death is caused by ego you develop revulsion for ego and vow to overcome it.

And the last one, aspiration, is realizing that you have tremendous strength and desire to continue and to open yourself up. Therefore, you have nothing to regret when you die. You have already accomplished everything that you can accomplish. You have done everything: you have become a good practitioner and developed your basic practice completely; you have realized the meaning of shamatha and vipashyana, and you have realized the meaning of bodhichitta. If possible you should practice the sevenfold service, or puja. But if you cannot do that, you should think: "Through all my lives may I practice the precious bodhichitta. May I meet a guru who will teach me that. Please, three jewels, bless me so that I may do that."

Beyond all that, there is an interesting twist. The ultimate instruction on death is simply to try to rest your mind in the nature of ultimate bodhichitta. That is to say, you rest your mind in the nature of alaya and try to pass your breath in that way until you are actually dead.