In the Buddhist world we even in, in a way you can say you're always dying. You're already dying. So just thinking about it in those terms: what's the cultural impact of thinking about life as death, actually—as a process that maybe never ends?
for - adjacency - thinking of life as death - we are always dying - Deep Humanity - living is dying - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
I'll talk about some cases in a moment— there's very sudden decomposition when the "tukdam" ends. You can have people who have been in tukdam for 27 days and then on the— as one of the cases that we're gonna be publishing on soon— and on the 28th day there's like very dramatic decomposition. Just boom! It seems to happen.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Thukdam - can end suddenly and dramatically - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
And this is one of the big problems right now— [pointing at the slide] tukdam regularly occurs in non-experts, right? You find, you know, people who are not great trained tantric practitioners who know all the commentaries and, you know, who aren't even monks or nuns— who are just ordinary lay people—and they go into "tukdam."
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Tukdam - ordinary people with no training also go into Tukdam - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
I've encountered several people in the Kagyu and Nyingma traditions who say, "Oh, we, you know 'tukdam,' yeah, people go in 'tukdam,' "but it's like, you know, not that big a deal. It's, we don't care that much." Part of the reason they don't care that much is that the idea that you need to go into this completely, kind of, a state where there's no phenomenal content— that's just a pure clear light mind— actually is something that many of the contemporary practitioners and teachers in those lineages don't agree with.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Kagyu and Nyingma schools don't make a big deal out of Tukdam - nondual awareness can emerge with other techniques - key insight - Buddhism - Tibetan - Clear light meditation at time of death - Tukdam - a physiological technique - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
it's said that you can get there by doing like philosophical analysis, but this is using basically physiological techniques to get to the same place phenomenologically. So that's what "tukdam" is theoretically
for - key insight - Buddhism - Tibetan - Clear light meditation at time of death - Tukdam - a physiological technique to get to the same place as philosophical analysis - recognizing nondual, ultimate nature of reality - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
So the concept here is that you're actually no longer even capable of thinking, you're no longer capable of seeing, you're no longer capable of hearing, and so on. All that's left is just this kind of sheer consciousness itself, which doesn't even have a subject-object structure. So for the Gelugpas that lack of subject-object structure is not really relevant. For the other traditions it's extremely relevant, because it's said that if you're going to understand the nature of the mind, the fundamental distortion in the mind is precisely that subject-object structure. So you have to cultivate a non-dual awareness,
for - key insight - Buddhism - TIbetan - Clear light meditation - Tukdam at time of death - no longer capable of thinking, seeing, hearing, etc - all that's left is naked consciousness without even subject-object from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
in the Perfection Stage— what's called the Perfection Stage— one is going to actually begin to bring the winds into the central channel. And when one is able to do so and bring them into the heart cakra.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - meditation - Perfection stage - bring the winds into the central channel to the heart chakra - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
he made this three-dimensional, so this is the maṇḍala.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - Mandala - is a 2 dimensional representation that the practitioner must imagine as a 3 dimensional object - This is the generation stage practice - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
And how one is gonna do that, one is gonna become not you. You're gonna become somebody else—specifically, you're gonna become a fully enlightened tantric deity, right? And you, with a sense of what's called dignity or pride, right, the, the... "lha’i nga rgyal," the "pride of being the deity."
for - Buddhism - TIbetan - Clear light meditation - purpose of - deity visualization - become the deity to practice giving up your ordinary thoughts and feelings - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
Unexcelled Yoga Tantra
for - definition - unexcelled yoga tantra - the ultimate practice of simulating clear light meditation while still alive, in the Gelupa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
So what's the first thing to do? It's to stop being ordinary. So they say, "tha mal gyi rtog shes spang ba," "abandon ordinary thoughts and ordinary attitudes," ordinary experience.
for - Buddhism - TIbetan - clear light meditation - practice - how to practice simulation of Tukdam while still alive? - Stop ordinary thoughts and feelings - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
these winds, right— these energies—are already flowing, of course, and they flow in very deep patterns that basically constitute one's own ordinary identity. And so quite literally one's own ordinary identity is, is the patterning of these winds.
for - key insight - one's ordinary identity IS the pattern of the flow of the winds - this makes practice of Tukdam very difficult - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne - a tendency towards lust, aversion, etc is accompanied by a flow of wind. - to practice this during life, we have to get out of the deep patterns we identify with in life
There are different forms of energy, five primary forms and five secondary forms of energy, and they flow in channels in the body. And at the time of death, there, there's a certain kind of configuration of those energies that occur and you can actually, you can, in a sense, force those energies— maybe that's not the right term, but some people would agree with that metaphor— you can force those energies to enter into that configuration through various forms of yogic practices.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - clear light meditation practice - 5 primary and 5 secondary flows of energy in channels in the body - meditators practice a desired flow configuration at time of death - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
The simulation, however, requires a high degree of control over the winds— "rlung" in Tibetan or "vāyuḥ" in Sanskrit, not "prāṇa," but "vāyuḥ" in Sanskrit—that are involved in the death process.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - clear light meditation at time of death - can practice while alive a simulated version meditation - requires mastery of the internal "winds" - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
To rehearse that moment, essentially what one does, is you induce a simulated version of this clear light mind.
for - Buddhism - Tibetan - clear light meditation at time of death - can practice while alive a simulated version meditation - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
We wanna get down in a sense to the foundational state of mind, a most fundamental form of mind, and that occurs at death.
for - meditation - clear light meditation at time of death - Tukdam - why? The most fundamental state of mind occurs at the time of our death - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
if we're gonna really understand the ultimate nature of reality, it means to understand the ultimate nature of the mind
for - Buddhism - relationship between - ultimate nature of reality - ultimate nature of mind - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
Gelugpa tradition eventually rejects, really, almost everything about Yogācāra. But tantra itself really emerges out of that perspective, which is essentially that the only thing we have access to is our own experience.
for\ - Buddhism - relationship - Gelupa and Yogacara - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
The only way you can become a buddha is to see the nature of ultimate reality with the motivation of relieving the suffering of sentient beings. And in order to do that, you have to cultivate this wisdom.
for - Buddhism - Tantric logic - Become a buddha - to experience the ultimate nature of reality - to relieve suffering of others - cultivate wisdom - experience ultimate nature of mind - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
avidyā in Sanskrit or "ma rig pa" in Tibetan,
for - definition - avidya (Sanskrit) or Ma Ri Pa (Tibetan) - Fundamental misunderstanding (both intellectual and affective) about the (ultimate) nature of reality itself - from Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
from the standpoint of Mahāyāna theory that a buddha is special because a buddha can teach in this incredibly effective way.
for - Mahayana Buddhism - Lay description - Helping others to help themselves - Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
for - Tibetan Buddhism - Tukdam - John Dunne - Youtube - Between Life and Death: Understanding Tukdam - John D. Dunne
The four noble truths
for - adjacency - Buddhist teachings - Four Noble Truths - life and death - mortality salience - terror management technique
adjacency - between - Buddhist teachings - Four Noble Truths - life and death - mortality salience - terror management technique - adjacency relationship - The Four Noble Truths are: - the recognition of inherent suffering - the cause of suffering - understanding the cause of suffering - the cessation of suffering - and are really - a way to deal with mortality salience and therefore - a terror management technique
CollectionCho Chikun Encyclopedia of Life and Death - Elementary (350-499)Difficulty12 Kyu
bent four is alive unless it bends at 1-1