Before you begin your spiritual path, you need to understand four principles:

1. Impermanence. Everything in this world is impermanent; time mercilessly eats up human bodies.

2. The law of karma. The law of karma (cause and effect) works flawlessly for people - “what goes around comes around.”

3. Suffering. A person most often suffers because of his desires.

4. The Precious Human Birth. We must live our lives so that there will be no excruciating pain for the years lived unconsciously.

"To understand
                      that everything in samsara
                                                            leads to suffering –
                                                                                        is not enough,
Do you feel,
                as if stung
                              by the sting
                                              of birth and death?

Thinking
            about the law of karma –
                                                is not enough,
Do you fear
                  unconscious
                                    and impure actions
                                                  even in small things?
The mere desire for Liberation –
                                                    is not enough,
              whether you aspire
                                for Liberation,
                                      like an enslaved person
                                                                    in a cage?
The mere understanding
                  of the preciousness
                                        of human birth –
                                                      is not enough,
Do you feel,
            that everything but the Dharma –
                                                            is a waste
                                                                    of time?
A mere understanding of impermanence –
                                                        is not enough,

do you see 

             the conditioned life

                             as the dance of a criminal,

                                                          going to the gallows?

A mere interest in the Dharma –

                                                is not enough,

Do you have

                                    disgust

                                                  for samsara?

The mere recollection

                            of rebirths -

                                              is not enough,

Do you remember

                                 day and night

                                              of impermanence?

The mere desire to practice –

                                               is not enough,

Are you willing

                 to give your whole life, 

                                     your heart, and your thoughts

                                               to the practice of the Dharma?

The mere desire

                     of Liberation –

                                          is not enough,

Do you have the determination

                                             to practice Dharma,

                                                      like a warrior going into battle?"

From the song "Instructions on Not Enough and the Necessary."

Shri Guru Swami Vishnudevananda Giri

We live in our cramped little world of frozen ideas, like flies caught in a sticky web. That web is maya (illusion), a creeping whisper that keeps us asleep from birth to death. We sleep soundly, forgetting our true nature, the transcendental consciousness of Atman. We spend our lives dreaming, building castles of air in our minds, but in reality, we live like animals, worrying about momentary worldly pleasures. Never realizing our destiny, we waste precious years on work, food, sleep, life, and entertainment and go into oblivion in bewilderment and sadness.

Reality does not want to reckon with our dreams. Impermanence, transience, reincarnation, suffering – no high position, no big money, no reputation, no strong bonds, and no stable state system can protect against them. Furthermore, all this is because it is a part of the great dream named Samsara.

It is a world of suffering, a world of existence in duality. Our dreams lead us to believe in the reality of Samsara by wrapping our true Selves in the chains of false notions – personal, family, social, national, and human. We unthinkingly follow them, imitating others, unaware that once again, we have swallowed the bait – karma, a program laid down by ourselves in a past dream. Falling into the patterns of mass consciousness, we mechanically follow our role in society, like robots implementing the program of past karma. Then we create a new program to be implemented in the future. Our sleep is solid; it keeps us ignorant, making us believe, "I am a permanent being. This world is eternal and absolute. I must live this way."

To embark on the path of Liberation and Enlightenment is to begin to awaken. To wake up, we need to experience the shocking nakedness of being to see reality as it is.

The Four Awarenesses is a traditional meditation theme to awaken students and strengthen them on their path to Enlightenment.

THE FOUR AWARENESSES

The text of the "Laya Amrita Upadesha Chintamani."

    The yogi said: "This samsara is such that whether you are born a god, a human being, a spirit, or an animal until you are enlightened, there is no escape from suffering. Leaving all worldly cares, O wise one, immediately steer your boat to the shore of Enlightenment."

Before seriously embarking on spiritual practice, we must repeatedly ponder about our motivation in practice. Usually, to develop motivation in practice, it is recommended that we meditate on the Four Awarenesses, that is, by contemplating on impermanence, in particular, that there is an inexorable passage of time that cannot be beaten, that makes us grow old, die, and be reborn. It is a reflection on the preciousness of human birth when we have a chance in this physical body to attain awakening and escape from the cycle of birth and death. It is a reflection of cause and effect, that is, the law of karma. Finally, a meditation on the suffering arises when we do not take the path of awakening but the opposite path. It is said that these four reflections turn life upside down; they turn values upside down. It is true, indeed.

Until our lives are turned upside down in a certain way because of these reflections, our motivation for spiritual practice will be shallow, not serious. Conversely, through such reflections, we have become very deeply aware of impermanence, that with each passing day, we grow older and one day closer to death; no matter what we do, this process goes on, whether we remember it or not. And that our so-called important things to do may at some point get interrupted, be over, and never again happen, the most urgent things, the very most urgent things, because death exists. Moreover, as long as death exists, nothing has been solved until we have solved this great task of liberation from death. This kind of motivation gives us a healthy radicalism in the spiritual life and a lack of compromise. Until we develop such a motivation, – we shall always have compromises. When viewed from a worldly perspective, they can be assessed as one thing, but in the spiritual life, such compromises are fatal errors. There is a course of time that inevitably changes everything. It inevitably transforms us. However, because our consciousness is not very deep, we do not give it any importance. But when the passage of time transforms us more than we can control, we suddenly find that we have missed everything. If we make no effort, we suddenly find it too late.

It is often the case that a person in his youth has grand hopes, grand ambitions, plans, and things like that. He thinks, "There is a life still ahead of me." And others think of him as "has still got a life ahead of him." Then he spends some of his life in the hustle and bustle. When he tries a little bit to realize what he has come to, all of a sudden, it is apparent to him that the years are gone, the life force is running out, abilities are deteriorating, and things are beginning to get out of hand, and that he is just slowly leaving the arena. By this time, he may be happy to make an effort, to practice, but the inexorable course of time is at work – the Black Kala – the time in its destructive aspect. And there is nothing more he can do about it. All his outstanding plans hopes, and ambitions are suddenly seen as a dream because some new ones appear. The new reality – is the reality that cannot be controlled, and that is – impermanence. This very awareness of impermanence gives great maturity to the spiritual practitioner.

"Wealth, youth, and sons – do they give true happiness? – So sang one of the great saints. – O mind, do not chase after sensual pleasures, do not make plans, seek God." This wealth, youth, sons, family happiness, and money are meaningful only if you are immortal, and if you are not, they do not have much meaning because they all will disappear soon.

Important work, relationships, and other things are meaningful if you are immortal, and they will all soon disappear if you are mortal. Thus, it is much more essential to seek immortality than all these things because if you get immortality, you can keep them. However, if you do not get it, they are all useless.

Compared to the life of the gods, human life is like a flash of lightning – so short it is. One day of the Gods’ life lasts ten thousand human years, but unfortunately, people do not realize that. This lack of awareness of the passage of time causes humans to pay attention to unimportant, momentary things. Because we are unaware of the course of time, we cannot make big plans to achieve some important goals. As a rule, our objectives are momentary; they are defined by ten years, thirty years at most, and seventy or eighty years - which is the event horizon for us; we cannot even comprehend this. However, it is this very unawareness and unconsciousness that are very costly for every person. The cost is that one ends up leaving this world without having had time to realize anything, without having even had time to understand anything about oneself and the universe. Human ideas about themselves, the world, and the universe seem very immature and childish. And consequently, human life, as a whole, is built out of these infantile notions. However, it is much more essential to use this precious human birth for self-knowledge and education, to develop one’s higher conceptions of the world, oneself, and the universe, and to form a particular vector of action.

When we meditate on The Four Awarenesses, it helps to develop that particular necessary vector of action. And it does not mean getting depressed and thinking, "Yes, everything is temporary. What is the point of all this?" The practitioner understands all this, yet he keeps a joyful mind because, without a positive state of mind, he cannot practice; he can only be despondent or weep. A person’s life on the spiritual path is like smiling through tears. He understands the infinity of the world, the infinity of time, his mortality, and impermanence, and he realizes that he has little or no hope.

Nevertheless, he pretends everything is normal, smiles, and goes forward without falling into despondency or confusion. And it is because discouragement and confusion are not the best friends on the path of spiritual practice. Moreover, we are not meditating on The Four Awarenesses to bring the mind into despair or confusion; we meditate to sober up. In the unconscious, we are intoxicated with maya and samsara no matter what we do, and The Four Awarenesses are like a cold shower on the head that makes us sober up a little bit and works out the suitable vector of life.

When we come in contact with the teachings, we suddenly discover them as the most incredible preciousness. When we come in contact with the practice, the method, all this must also be treasured as the most splendid jewel because the teaching and the practice can genuinely lead us out of this tangled labyrinth, the cycle of birth and death. The Teaching, The Practice, The Three Jewels, The Sangha – this is what is truly capable of giving us immortality. And not only immortality as an immortal consciousness but even physical immortality. Even this is possible if we practice and exercise mindfulness properly

The Basis For Dharma Practice – Is Four Awarenesses

The basis of Dharma practice consists of The Four Awarenesses. The Four Awarenesses are what make the spirit impeccable and alert. Many people prefer to avoid it when one lectures on these topics. I have noticed that people enjoy listening to lectures on such issues as lilas, mindless wisdom and mysteries of tantric practices, divine pride, and self-empowerment. These topics expand their consciousness; while the lecture is going on, they almost feel like somebody. But their minds shrink when you lecture on suffering, karma, hell, The Four Awarenesses, and Impermanence.

Furthermore, they get this feeling – "I do not like this Dharma." Like it or not, – It is there. No matter how you feel about it, death, hells, and samsara exist. And until you get rid of all that and develop the spirit of total impeccability, which makes the earth melt under your feet, you cannot even hope to achieve liberation or a higher birth.

It is this spirit that must burn within you. Furthermore, only with disciples with such a spirit will I talk about play, divine pride, lila, mindless wisdom, tantric practices, and everything else; if there is no such spirit, it will all be some showmanship.

So we must always compare our vision with that of the saints, who insist on that kind of spirit. It is the spirit with boundless faith, determination, and devotion to the Dharma.

Otherwise, the high Dharma of the gods, the inhabitants of heaven, will ultimately lead us into illusion, into delusion, dissipate the edge of the spirit, and make us slack, indulging in fantasies and weaknesses. It must never be allowed to happen.

Only infinite devotion to one’s path and mastery of the Dharma brought to the level of art can save us.

IMPERMANENCE

Today on my morning walk, I found a bull or a cow’s jaw-bone on the road, with two teeth in it. It was a jaw that belonged to someone’s head, and this head belonged to some living creature, some animal.

This animal was chewing, living, and sleeping. It was doing all the same things that we are doing now, the very the same. However, some time has passed, and all that’s left of it is a little jaw.

If we are just like animals, if we only do their actions, then all left of us after a while is that jaw or scattered bones.

Generally speaking, then, there will be little meaning in our lives as human species.

And the first step in spiritual practice is to understand this very deeply. That is, we need to give meaning to our human existence. Human existence has no value if we live somehow, like bulls or cows.

My only message is to persuade people to practice. A lit match symbolizes life. 10... 20... 30... 40 seconds—and it starts to burn fingers. Once that is understood, the rest is a matter of technique. You have to understand this very deeply.

A lit match – is our life. Forty seconds and it burns your fingers, and no matter how hard you try to hold it, you are left with this – no fire, no consciousness, and it’s a corpse.

You need to burn many boxes like that in front of you and do a lot of such meditations before you can explain it to yourself. When you explain everything to yourself, all fears and doubts go away, and there is an unyielding determination to go forward in the practice of the Truth. Then the soul begins to purify itself of all unnecessary things.

Sometimes it happens that when we become practitioners, we give our ego a chance to survive or give our worldly desires a chance to survive. Still, when the deepest part of our consciousness understands where the Truth is and discerns that, we will not be friends with our worldly desires and will not give our ego a chance to survive. We will provide our True Ego an opportunity to be born.

Furthermore, we need to think about this all the time without laziness. It is something we have to remind ourselves of constantly. When you remember it always, the mind becomes fresh, purified, and alert.

The practical purpose of the exercise is to turn the mind away from all the activities of this life. It is necessary that a feeling like that of a jaundice patient at the sight of unsuitable food be born. Realize that the only actions endowed with a worthy purpose are the practice of the Guru’s precepts. It is necessary to engender a firm faith and a desire to begin to practice them.

The meaning of life for an enslaved person is to become free, the purpose of life for a sick man is to heal, and the importance of life for one trapped in a cellar is to get to the light. The meaning of life for a lost man – is to find his way home; the purpose for a man caught in a swamp is to get out onto solid ground. And this is our situation.

We must realize, "We are in the prison of samsara. We must start spiritual practice immediately, get out of samsara, and find our way home."

We are sick of maya, with illusion. Nevertheless, we still do not want to realize this and consider our actions leading to death quite acceptable. However, this can only mean our utter ignorance because we think the meaning of our life is to remain quietly in the darkness of ignorance.

With a clear regular system of practice, a Guru’s guidance, secret initiations, accumulation of merit, breaking our false egos, and making retreats, what we do – is easier to call all of it a spiritual practice. Instead, these are amateur attempts at spirituality or a mixture of our spiritual fantasies, book ideas, and attempts at meditation. We cannot seriously progress with such an attitude of practice. However, the fact that we are in this particular state shows our contentment, and that we are content in this situation shows our karma of ignorance.

Here we must take heed and shout, "Help!" for being in ignorance when the world is trembling under the wind of impermanence, just like a drop of dew on a lotus petal, when suffering reigns all around, disease, old age, and death; when everyday living souls fall into the Lower Worlds, mired in materialistic conceptions – what could be worse for the soul!

You are deeply asleep in samsara in the heavy sleep of Maya – the illusory energy, and consider it normal. You are like a child playing with a poisonous potion. You are like a drunken man wandering toward the abyss. You are like a madman who does not remember himself. You are like a carefree-chattering man whose house is on fire. You are like a sick man who does not know he is ill and does not wish to be cured.

This samsara with its cares is but a passing mirage; the time of our life is like the summer season of an uttering moth. Attachments and affairs are like dreams.

You have forgotten your True Self, The God within, and have become servants of Samsara: houses and apartments, relatives, cars, cats, and dogs instead of servants of the God within. Your souls are burning in the fire of Samsara; save them quickly.

Constantly meditate deeply on this subject and make your life meaningful and righteous; look as hard as you can for the way back, and do not think about anything else. When you think of nothing but returning to your True State; you can say that your meditation is beginning to bear fruit.

So, let us reflect. This world is impermanent. Furthermore, when we are reborn, where to; into which world will the vector of our consciousness take us? It is crucial to track where to direct the vector of our consciousness.

For example, let us analyze the pleasures with which ordinary people are seized and the content of the movies they absorb. What elevates people’s energy? What excites the senses and evokes pleasure? It is, for example, thrillers. And what are thrillers? It is muladhara-chakra or the karma of Hell. In other words, people’s level is somewhere in the muladhara-chakra because they like to contemplate images of violence or murder. Fear and horror raise energy, and the muladhara-chakra vibrates. What else is there? Erotica, sex, or pornography is the second level, the svadhistana-chakra, and through this, the energy rises and brings pleasure. Action movies or sci-fi is the karma of struggle or the vishuddha-chakra. Love and scenes of affection are the anahata-chakra. In other words, modern people determine the directional vector by the chakras' mixed qualities.

If you analyze all this, the general vector will be directed somewhere between the World of People and the Imperfect Worlds. In other words – this is the bardo of 80-90% of modern people; this is their future life.

If we look at ourselves as we are now, this is how we have created ourselves. For example, we have problems or suffering, but it is all our creation. What did we make it with? – we make it with the actions of body, speech, and mind.

Remembrance Of Death

Imagine that the millions of people who came before we left their bodies and died, and the globe could be lined five times with their bones, every square inch of it. In the same way, many people are also dying now, – and all those who live now are candidates for the future. Absolutely all of them.

One must realize that death is inevitable, 100% guaranteed. It is a fact that cannot be ignored and has to be put at the center of one’s practice.

When meditating in this way, we have to realize that whenever we want to direct our soul toward something other than Truth or to let something different than the Three Jewels into the soul, we need to remember this meditation. Furthermore, realize that having something other than the Three Jewels in the soul is the devil. And what is the devil? It is worldly desires; there is no other devil.

He who has no memory of death has no memory of Dharma.

Meditate: Look at everything that is the object of attachment, anger, and ignorance; at all causal phenomena – self, action, object, friend, enemy, stranger – with awareness of reality: all these are transient and can disappear at any moment. All these phenomena change every second and can disappear at any moment.

Death can come at any moment to you, a friend, an enemy, or a stranger. Your possessions are also destroyed. Not only does it change every second, but it can be taken away at any moment.

So there is no reason to allow attachment, anger, or ignorance to arise toward these objects. Realize that they are all inherently transient and impermanent.

The essential remedy for thinking about worldly dharmas is to meditate on Impermanence and death. Whoever has no remembrance of death has no recollection of Dharma. Furthermore, even if you are mindful of Dharma, you are not practicing Dharma if you do not remember impermanence and death.

You can accept that death will come at any moment, but in everyday life, we tend to think that we will not die soon – not this year, not this week, not today, not now. Because of this, the practice of Dharma gets delayed. Even when you practice Dharma and do not remember impermanence and death, that is not pure Dharma.

If you do not think about impermanence and death, you are not practicing Dharma, which protects karma by discarding unwholesome actions and following virtue; instead, you constantly create bad karma. In this case, sadness and fear come at the moment of death, which means that you are already sensing signs of movement into the Lower Worlds. Many frightening visions may appear to you at the time of death.

Remembrance of impermanence and death accompanies meaningful life. Remembrance of impermanence and death is an effortless way to control obsessions. With its help, you can overcome your obscurations and attain the World of Absolute Freedom, Happiness, and Joy.

Closer And Closer To Death

Death is inevitable. There is no cure for it and no place to hide from it. No matter how sturdy our body is, life shrinks continually. Every time we repeat the mantra and move the bead on the rosary, our life becomes closer to the end with each mantra. Every step brings us closer to death when we leave here and go home. We come home, drink a cup of coffee, and get closer to the end with every sip. When we finish our cup of tea - that is how much life is gone precisely; that is how much closer we are to death. With each inhalation and exhalation, our life is getting shorter and shorter.

Meditate by looking at the clock: With each passing second, our life is getting closer to death. However, not because we wear a watch! Contemplating the clock is a compelling way to meditate on impermanence and death.

Every Second We Get Closer To Death

With every spoonful of rice brought to our mouth, our life moves towards the end. When we have finished that plate of rice, exactly that much of life is gone and precisely that much closer we are to death. As we read the newspaper, we are closer to the end with each page we read. Talking to people, we are closer to death with every spoken word. With every completed sentence, exactly that much life is gone. When we gossip for hours, precisely that much of our life is gone; when we get up and walk away, our life is that much closer to the end.

Moreover, once a part of our life has passed, we can no longer bring it back or change it. When a boxer or a car racer gets hurt, it can usually be fixed and happens more than once. However, once our life is gone, whether meaningful or wasted, it has gone forever. No part of a past life can be undone; all that is available is to work on the present and the future. You can fix the future and create a better one by making the present life meaningful.

In the Great Handbook, Je Tsongkapa says that a life of a hundred years can be divided into two parts: half of it passes in sleep – and that is not counting daytime sleep! – and most of the remaining fifty years of wakefulness is spent in quarrels, illness, and other meaningless activities. There is very little if we add up all the time spent on what we call Dharma practice. So try to make the most of that time because that is how to attain true happiness.

The Time Of Death Is Unknown

No one can predict the time of his death. Some people die at three months, and some part in the prime of life. Some die at forty, and some die at eighty. There are no guarantees at the time of death.

At this very moment, people are dying in hospitals whose cases doctors consider hopeless, who have a few days, hours, and minutes to live. They are considered dying because they are close to death, yet they have some time to live. They are not dead yet. Think about it: “It is the same with me – I am dying too.” Do not think that if you do not have a terminal illness, you will not die or that you will not die very soon. That is not true at all. Meditate on this when you wake up in the morning. Remember that you, too, are dying, just like the people in the hospital that are recognized as dying. You may not have that long to live.

You may even die before the sick. You may reason people will die soon because they have a particular disease. Nevertheless, many healthy people who did not have a condition died today. The time of death does not depend on the presence of disease; even an early death does not depend on the disease. It is the same even for a healthy person: the end can come any time.

You die. Second, by the second, you are approaching death, and there is not much time left for you. Life is short. People with serious illnesses are regarded as dying; those who visit them are not considered dying but living. However, there is no difference. Both are equal in their consistent approach to death and the fact that there is little time left.

Moreover, death can occur at any moment. The time of death is uncertain, and there are three reasons. First, everything in the world is uncertain, and life is even more unpredictable in times of decline, such as in the present. Secondly, there are too few circumstances conducive to life and many conducive to death, and even that which would generally be conducive to our survival can cause death.

Life is full of circumstances that promote death. All the obscurations in our minds, such as thoughts of worldly dharmas that awaken other bad thoughts that lead to severe obstacles and heavy karma – are circumstances conducive to death. Suddenly there may be obstacles to continuing life, and dreams may show signs of death or something similar.

Also, this body is as fragile as a soap bubble. Negative thinking factors upset the winds within the body, which then causes the four elements to agitate. It can threaten your health and life and even lead to death. However, if you attain Enlightenment, the end of that body will not affect your state of liberation at all.

So many people have already died.

Many people we knew, who were close to us, have already died. Of those who have died, there are only names and portraits and people who still remember them. By this time next year, it could happen to us, too. Nothing will be left, just a name to remember and pictures to look at.

Meditate on your death now. Think of your body being carried away in a coffin from your home to the cemetery and buried in the ground. Or meditate on your body in a coffin before it is burned. What is left - is just your possessions. Think about that.

Think about karma and rebirth. Whether rebirth is good or bad depends on whether karma is good or bad. Remember that death can come suddenly. You are active, working, and suddenly your eyes roll up, and you die. You may even feel signs of movement into the Lower Worlds. Suddenly, amid some activity, the body turns into a corpse, breathless and immovable.

Furthermore, this can happen at any moment. You will lose everything if you do not practice, but your practice will necessarily surpass impermanence. Let us exceed it.

Tomorrow May Be Too Late

People die when they drink tea; the cup does not have time to touch their lips before they die at the table. People die before they finish the food on their plates. Every day people die doing something. It happens every day.

So something has to be done to make this life meaningful. It is the same for the terminally ill, whose life may be short, and for perfectly healthy people.

The best thing to do is to realize daily, “Today will be my last day.” That solves all problems. Once you make that decision, you get rid of your problems.

Problems arise from your false ideas and false perceptions. Thinking that – today we are going to die cuts off all these ideas and concerns.

What would you do with your life if you were to die today? Just thinking that you are going to die today is not enough; the thought should encourage you to practice Dharma and not waste your life. What will you do with your life whether you live another hour or a hundred years?

The answer you will find in all the sacred texts of yoga and Buddhism is to surrender immediately and entirely to the Dharma, that is, to take the vows of sannyasi or monk and walk firmly on the path to ultimate Liberation. Nothing else will help you.

Everything Is Transitory

There is no place on Earth where death cannot find us, even if we keep looking around as if in a doubtful and dangerous land... If only there were some way to shelter from the strokes of death... Living an ordinary, mundane life to avoid death would not cut it.

People come and go, running and dancing, and not a word about death. It all seems well and fine. However, when death suddenly appears to them, to their wives, children, and friends, taking them by surprise, unprepared, what storms of passion overwhelm them then; what weeping, what rage, and what despair!...

To start taking away from death its most significant advantage, let us adhere to a method directly opposite to what is most usual. Let us take away from death its foreignness. Let us become acquainted with it. Let us become accustomed to it and turn our minds to death more often. We do not know where death awaits us, so let us expect it everywhere. Practically mastering death means practically mastering freedom. One, who has learned to die, has forgotten how to be enslaved.

Why is it so tricky to practically master death and virtually master freedom? Furthermore, why, for what reason, are we so afraid of death; – that we are so scared to face it? Somewhere in our hearts, we know we cannot look away from death forever. In Milarepa’s words, “that object which we call ‘corpse’ and makes us so terrified lives with us here and now.” The longer we try not to face death, the more we ignore it, the more fear and uncertainty accumulate, and the more they haunt us. Moreover, the more we try to escape that fear, the more monstrous it becomes.

Death – is a great mystery, and two things can be said about it: We can be sure that we are going to die, and we have no certainty as to when or how we die.

Thus, the only thing we can be sure of is that we know nothing certain about the hour of our death, and this serves to justify looking directly into the face of death. In this, we are like toddlers playing hide-and-seek, who close their eyes, thinking no one can see them.

So why do we live in such terror of death? Because we instinctively want to live and go on living, death is the cruel end of all we know. We feel that with its coming, we will be involved in something completely unknown to us or become something completely different. We imagine ourselves, lost and confused, in extremely unfamiliar surroundings. Our imagination draws us to an anxious awakening, alone, in a foreign country, without knowledge of the language, with no money, no passport, no friends, and no idea to whom to turn.

We live under the mask of our adopted individuality in a neurotic fairy tale world. This world may seem strikingly authentic to us until death shatters its illusion and drives us out of the hiding place where we have been hiding. What happens then to those who have no notion of a deeper reality?

When we die, we leave everything behind, above all, the body we have so valued, which we have mindlessly relied on and tried so hard to keep alive. However, we can no longer rely on our minds any more than we can depend on our bodies. Our thoughts constantly bounce around; therefore, relying on the mind at the moment of death is an unreasonable (absurd) risk.

Of the West, Dudjom Rinpoche said: “It is a very civilized country. They have such wonderful dwellings for corpses. However, notice how wonderful their dwellings are for living corpses.”

How empty and futile life can be based on the false belief in duration and permanence. When we live like this, we become unconscious, living corpses, as Dudjom Rinpoche said.

Most of us do live this way: according to a predetermined plan. We spend our youth getting an education. Then we get a job, get married, and build a house, trying to succeed in business, striving to fulfill the dream of buying a car. The most critical choice facing some of us is where to go on vacation. Our lives are monotonous and shallow and consist of repetitive events, and we squander them in pursuit of trivial goals because we do not know any better.

Our lives are so fast that there is no time to think about death. We suppress our secret fears that everything is transitory, surrounding ourselves with more and more things, only to become enslaved to them. Soon our only goal in life becomes preserving all that is unchanging and permanent. Furthermore, when change occurs, we find a means to counteract it – some clever temporary solution to the problem. Until a severe illness or misfortune shakes us out of our stupor, our lives flow this way.

We cannot say we have given much time and thought to this life. Please think of the people, working for years, who, when they retire, they do not know what to do with themselves as they age and approach death. Despite all our talk about being practical, in the West, being practical means being ignorant and, often selfishly, short-sighted. Nobody talks about death, and no one talks about life after death because people have been led to believe that such talk will only hinder our so-called “progress” in this world.

However, if our deepest desire is to live and go on living, why do we mindlessly insist that death is the end of everything? Why not at least try to explore the possibility of life after death? Given our pragmatism, why don’t we ask ourselves seriously: “What is our real future?” After all, no one lives more than a hundred plus years. Moreover, after that stretches all of Eternity, nothing is known about it... It is in our power to know its splendor by engaging in the persistent practice of Truth. It is in our power to know its splendor by engaging in the persistent practice of Truth.