Impermanence and Death

My most dear one,
How are you? Are you getting bored or blissing out up there? Because you like the house so much and really don’t want to leave, I checked and it comes out negative for you to continue to stay there too long. I don’t know when you are planning to move out, but according to my observation after some time something negative comes if you stay there. I don’t know what. Maybe you don’t have enough merit.

However, you have to remember impermanence and death. This is the very basis of Buddhist philosophy, what the Buddha taught, the very basic thing is that every day you could die. Also this is what Lama Tsongkhapa mentioned in the Lamrim Chenmo. If you think, “I will die today,” then that means you will practice Dharma today. Then if you die, it is very good, because you did the practice and made preparation for death. Thinking this way benefits both sides —this is a very basic thing.

If you don’t think that, then the very foundation of Buddhism doesn’t happen. You live life with the wrong concept, then it’s hard for any activity to become Dharma, even meditation or any daily life actions, such as eating, walking, sleeping, sitting, and so forth. These actions don’t become Dharma.

In your life, since Lama passed away I’m only one, I know you think that in your heart. We didn’t happen to talk much, but you know my heart and I know your heart, in an ordinary way.

I’m trying to finish my retreat, but I am just making noise, some mantras, which are called retreat, but it is not retreat. I thought I would send you some cards, and tell you something so you don’t get bored, and I hope to see you soon.

I heard that you forgot to offer even a drink of water to students and friends who worked so hard for you at your place. You must help people, because they are working very hard. This is besides bringing sentient beings to enlightenment.

I am thinking to offer the best lunch for the people, Tibetan food, on the day of the puja. I’m not sure how many people will come, but perhaps I may also need to use your kitchen. I may need two kitchens, one may not be enough. I can’t say, maybe a lot of people will come.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear one,
It’s been a long time since we have seen each other, but I do keep you in my heart. I have something for you to please think about.

Suddenly something happens and death comes, and then there can be great regret about not practicing Dharma. You can’t ignore what the Buddha said about impermanence and future lives.

With love and prayers...

My most dear one,
How are you? In reality, even if we believe that we will live for a long time, that we have so many years to live—like 100 years or more, and maybe after 100 years, we expect another hundred years (I’m joking)—in reality, there is nobody who has lived who has not died. Even this big earth has to perish after another great eon. Since every person who is born in this world is under the control of karma and delusion, there is nobody, nobody, since human beings started until now, who has lived without death. There is nobody.

Buddha has no death, because there is no cause of death. The cause of death is not outside but inside—karma and delusions. Buddha removed this inconceivable eons ago, because he purified the delusions and even the subtle obscurations which interrupt the omniscient mind, so it is impossible for the Buddha to experience death. There is no old age, no sickness, no death for him at all, but he showed holy deeds, passing away in the sorrowless state. If Buddha did not show death, then we would not appreciate his teachings and we would become very lazy. Buddha showed death to destroy the wrong concept of permanence of our lives, which are impermanent, and also to show us that we need to practice Dharma, because of suffering and the cause of suffering.

Suffering is not only pain, hunger, thirst, depression, not only that. Suffering refers to three things. The first is the suffering of suffering—all the suffering of samsara—the suffering of pain, rebirth, sickness and death, meeting undesirable objects and separating from desirable objects. There is no satisfaction. So this is the main suffering, not getting satisfaction. Then there is the suffering of the five aggregates.

The second kind of suffering is that all the samsaric pleasures are in the nature of suffering [ie the suffering of change]. So we buy houses, cars, whatever it is, but as the days and months go by, these things become more and more boring, less and less interesting. By seeing another car or house we want that one, so then the pleasure becomes more suffering of pain.

For example, when we feel very hot under a hot sun, then because of that, we get into cold water, so there is pleasure after we jump into the water. So how did the pleasure happen? First feeling cold started small, so that is what is called pleasure, then that feeling changes. As we stay longer in the water, the suffering of cold increases more and more and becomes the suffering of pain. Then, because of so much suffering of cold, we go in the hot sun, so then again we begin another pain, another pleasure, so one suffering stops and another suffering begins. So basically it is all suffering.

All the samsaric pleasures are like that. All the pleasures in the world are like that, no matter how much education we have —even the highest scientists and so forth. We see many singers and actors committing suicide—there are so many famous people who think their life is meaningless. Many people think like that because they haven’t met Dharma, so they are not actualizing the spiritual path, not even to achieve nirvana, not even to achieve mere liberation from samsara. Then there is no way to achieve the peerless happiness, full enlightenment.

These first two sufferings, the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change, the samsaric nature of pleasure, come from the third suffering, pervasive compounding suffering. That is, for example, our aggregates, which are under the control of karma and delusions, so they are pervaded by suffering. Our aggregates of body and mind are pervaded by suffering, so we experience all the sufferings.

The second reason is that these aggregates are contaminated by the seeds of disturbing thoughts, so the aggregates are pervaded by suffering. The continuity of consciousness carries past karmic imprints, especially nonvirtue, so there is compounding suffering of this life. Because we do not practice Dharma, we do not see how the nature of samsara is suffering, we don’t see that. We hallucinate, seeing this as pleasure. We don’t practice bodhicitta and we don’t practice emptiness, so especially when we meet indifferent objects, ignorance arises; when we meet desirable objects, attachment arises; and when we meet undesirable objects, anger arises.

We can see these aggregates are compounding suffering, which leaves a negative imprint, and causes future life rebirth and future life suffering. This is the main suffering, so Buddhists should generate the thought to be free from this suffering, to totally cease this suffering forever. This complete cessation is ultimate happiness. There is not a chance of coming back from it because there is no cause to suffer again. This is called nirvana, the sorrowless state, the blissful state of peace. To achieve this, we must achieve the antidote of the right path: wisdom directly perceiving emptiness.

So therefore you can see how important it is in our life to study and realize emptiness. Now, next, we need to actualize great compassion towards every sentient being, then after that we become bodhisattvas. We enter the Mahayana path, the five paths to enlightenment, and we complete the practice of the paramita path, so we can cease the subtle obscuration, which is mainly to achieve omniscient mind. Then we can complete all the realizations and achieve the fully knowing mind; then we can free numberless hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, intermediate state beings, humans, asuras and suras from the oceans of samsaric suffering.

Sorry the letter became long, but it is most important to understand and read. Even to read!

Zopa

My dear one,
Life is very short. We can’t say how short it is—we may die today or tomorrow, so take it easy and don’t worry so much. The main thing is to purify past negative karma and always collect extensive merits by chanting OM MANI PADME HUM and the Seven Medicine Buddhas’ names—doing this is the same as having done Medicine Buddha puja.

Then do lamrim prayers, such as Calling the Guru from Afar, the short and long one, and other lamrim prayers. Even if you can’t do other practices, just do this much. This is the best preparation for enlightenment, so that you can soon give happiness to all sentient beings—to the numberless sentient beings, numberless hell beings, numberless pretas, numberless animals, numberless human beings, numberless asuras, numberless suras and the numberless intermediate state beings.

This is the most important thing in the life; there is nothing more important than this. This is benefiting all sentient beings.

Thank you very, very much for your concern for me—to go to mainland China and to receive the doctors’ suggestions, that you thought to do, etc. Hopefully I will still go in the future.

With much love and prayers

Lama Zopa

PS: When your family was suffering and experiencing problems, I prayed to help and now when I am experiencing suffering, your family is praying to help me, so this is very good. We are one, so that means we are one person in reality, with different bodies—small, big, old, fat, skinny, etc. Thank you.

Commentary:

This hourglass is to show how life is finishing so fast. Your life has a certain number of hours, minutes, seconds and split seconds; it is finishing so fast. During this time, how much of your life has been used to practice Dharma? How much has been used as the cause of the lower realms, with the heaviest suffering for the longest time, for an unimaginable time, longer than the duration of suffering in the human realm or the deva realms? How much is virtue and how is much non-virtue?

It is good to reflect like this. It is very good to use this for the realization of impermanence and death. It makes you do something worthwhile during this time, during this hour while the sand grains are dropping.

When half the sand grains have dropped, are almost gone, then it is good to reflect how much virtue has been done and how much non-virtue, how much of your life has been wasted and how much of your life has been meaningful.

When all the sand grains have fallen, when it has finished, think how much of your life has been wasted and how much of your life has been made meaningful.

With regard to your question about introducing the death evolution for people to understand about the mind and about reincarnation, and for them to understand how this life came from karma, it is true that in the past during the Kopan courses I tried to use many logical reasonings to prove reincarnation. But it seemed that for some people, those reasonings didn’t change their concepts much. However, when I led the death evolution meditation, it had a very strong effect on people. Then they started to change their concrete concepts, their fixed ideas. Many people had very strong experiences. That meditation was stronger than the other meditations on impermanence and death, because those people experienced more clear concentration and a more stable mind.

It is explained in one text that the indestructible seed is secret. However, I used this meditation in the Kopan courses and also in a text called The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun. That was in very early times, when I was trying to practice a little Dharma and change my mind. I thought it was a very effective meditation, so I used it. It only involves talking about the ordinary base. It does not involve talking about the tantric method, so that is OK. During the early times, it was one of the most interesting subjects of the Kopan courses. It had the greatest effect. But I don’t think I asked any of my gurus about introducing the subject before putting it into The Wish-Fulfilling Golden Sun.

There is no problem with leading people through the absorptions. The only problem would be to talk about the extremely subtle consciousness, and its location and those things. But it is OK to talk about the ordinary base.

So, I think that although some lamas might regard this very strictly, others would say it is OK. For sure, Lama Yeshe would say OK. I don’t remember whether I asked him. I think that I did check later, but I don’t really remember the answer now. Maybe I discussed it with Lama and maybe Lama said OK, but I really don’t recall. I think there can be different answers, some very strict and some not.

My point of view is that if something is not beneficial and is dangerous, then it is secret. On the other hand, if something is beneficial and generates more faith in reincarnation and so forth, then it is OK. For example, in the case of people for whom the Prasangika view does not fit, such that if the Prasangika view were taught to them, they would fall into a nihilistic view, then those teachings should be secret for them. Apart from whether or not one has an initiation, if there is a danger of someone losing his or her faith, generating heresy and so forth, that subject becomes secret for that kind of mind. This is normally what I think. So, for the time being you can follow this philosophy, my Mickey Mouse philosophy.

As far as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha absorbing, generally in tantra, for those who have received a highest yoga tantra initiation, the deities absorb from the crown of the head. Without an initiation, then the deity melts into light and is absorbed into the point between the brows, blessing the body, speech, and mind. One should think, “I have received the deity’s blessing.” That is generally how it is explained.

However, in the case of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, I checked with Denma Locho Rinpoche who said that it is OK for people without a great initiation to generate themselves as Guru Shakyamuni Buddha. This is not the case with Medicine Buddha, for example. But because Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is the founder of the Buddha Dharma in this period, one can do it. Thus, absorbing and generating Guru Shakyamuni Buddha is OK.