Antidoting Non-Recognition

The following is an excerpt from a teaching by Jetsunma Ahkon Lhamo offered during a Phowa retreat:

When we practice generation stage teachings, what are we practicing? We’re practicing perfect rebirth, enlightened rebirth. We are practicing letting go of our strong clinging to ego. We meditate on shunyata, realizing that the empty primordial wisdom nature is inseparable from that which is our display, and then we give rise to ourselves as the deity. Now if we give rise to ourselves as the deity, that is coming from a place of enlightened awareness, even though we ourselves are not enlightened. We’re practicing enlightened practice. So we give rise to ourselves as the deity, and we visualize that we are born on a lotus. That’s why the deity is seated on a lotus. What we are doing there is we are purifying our next rebirth. Our previous rebirth, since we were born as humans filled with desire, was not so auspicious. We saw our parents, we were running with fear, we had not recognized our mind, we were in a state of confusion. Then on top of it we felt lust and desire for our parents; we got stuck in the middle of that whole scenario. Lust and desire is the seed of our very lives. And of course, then, our experience was that when we were born we were born in pain, which if we had awakened or could be awakened or could taste the awakened nature, we would see that is not the case. We were not perceiving ourselves to be born in a lotus, We should have perceived the lotus of our birth as pure, without defilement, because it is the seat of our birth, and if we were awake we would have known that. But instead, what did we perceive ourselves coming out of? An ordinary physical body. The birth is painful; it is traumatic; it is messy. You can call it beautiful if you want to, if you are some kind of nature lover, but it ain’t pretty. I mean, you know, horse manure is natural too, but I’m not going to brush my teeth with it. It’s how we perceive ourselves, and it’s because we do not understand our nature. We had an ordinary birth, ordinary childhood, ordinary experiences, and here we are, ordinary. So now we are practicing for miraculous rebirth.

In generation stage practice, we practice the pure view of seeing our birth. Since we achieve the miraculous rebirth in our practice, and we give rise to the miraculous birth with the compassionate and pure intention, we are then practicing the view of being reborn on a lotus. Now if we could practice that well enough to recognize our nature within the bardo, literally one is reborn on a lotus. In Dewachen, in the pure lands, one is literally reborn on a lotus. That is the experience. It is a miraculous rebirth. One is born aware of one’s condition, with a stronger awareness and with a continuation.  It’s said, in Dewachen you are not only born aware but you are also born practicing the path. Of course, with pure view we understand that the seed of Buddhahood, the path of Buddhahood and the result of Buddhahood, while they seem to be three different things, are indistinguishable. So in the mind of enlightenment, that would make sense. To us, it doesn’t make sense. We are grappling here with the difference between ignorant awareness and enlightened awareness.

Within the bardo of becoming, since we have not recognized our nature, we will surely take rebirth in the six realms of cyclic existence. However, we can do much at this time to determine the extent of our next rebirth. First of all, both during the times of the appearances of the peaceful Buddhas and the wrathful Buddhas, if a person has practiced devotion to the point where they can call upon their spiritual mentor, their guru, and recognize the touch, or the scent, or the appearance, or the method of their guru as being present, they will be liberated through devotion, through seeing the guru. But you have to remember, to the degree that your devotion is a guiding force and a strength in your life now, to that degree it will be a guiding force and a strength in the bardo. That means not much yet. More devotion needs to be practiced. Even more so in the case of the bardo of becoming. When one is bound to go into the six realms of cyclic existence, one will surely take rebirth in the six realms unless one is somehow at that time able to recall the words of the teacher, the practice of the teacher, the kindness of the teacher, to reach out for the teacher, to recall and bring to oneself the mindfulness of the teacher—actually reach out for the teacher. In that bardo, the teacher can also appear and liberate. Still, through the force of devotion. Even then, that is the only exception. Otherwise, you will be reborn in the six realms of cyclic existence. But at that point you still have much that you can do.

At that point, the bardo takes on what appears to be seven day cycles, and they are seven day cycles of birth and death. They are very subtle expressions of the kind of death and rebirth that we have already experienced in the bardo. It’s like a subtle going to sleep and forgetfulness, and then a reemergence, a remembering that you are in the bardo knowing that you are dead; and you begin to wander in search for a life. At that point, you’re actually wandering. You’re moving closer to rebirth, so you have many of the faculties that you do in life: consciousness—the kind that thinks, the kind that discriminates in a certain way, but not enough to where reality seems very solid. So that part of the bardo can be very frightening. It’s very wispy, ghostly, but you have enough wherewithall to know that it’s wispy and ghostly. It’s kind of scary.

You see lots of different things that you have a harder time interpreting during this part of the bardo. The person in the bardo is able to travel instantaneously anywhere through thought, and they don’t know that. So what happens is many things come to your mind— too many things—and you seem almost mentally incontinent and confused.. At that point, the bardo becomes frightening enough that even lower rebirth seems to the person to be preferable to the confusion and kind of wishy-washiness that we’re experiencing in the bardo. But the teaching at this time is: Do not look for a place of safety during the time of becoming. When things become shady, when you appear to be wandering, when the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas have not appeared, do not be afraid. Stay where you are, do not exit. Remember the words of your teachers, do not exit at that time. Stay where you are; stay exactly where you are, and call for the teachers, the Buddhas and the Bodhisattvas to come to you. Do not exit. Call for the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to come to you. Call for your teacher. Remember that. I’m telling you this with directness and firmness, to plant it firmly in your mind so you will not forget. Call where you are. Do not wander. Just as you wander in your practice and you wander in your life, going from spiritual teaching to spiritual teaching, thoughtlessly seeking without any intention of finding, that habit will cause you to wander again, thinking that you and you alone must find the way, can find the way. And it is you and you alone who will get yourself lost, in truth. So stay where you are. Calm the mind, be at peace, and call your teacher. Prepare your mind to recognize your teacher. That is what you should do at that time. And at that point there is still the option of liberation.

However, if at the very last you have no memory of your teacher but you can remember one thing, at least, of all the births, and all the parents that are seen by you, —and you will see many different, potential parents, animal parents, non-physical parents even—look for those parents that are human.  And at that time you should pray for an auspicious rebirth with human parents who will help you to meet the Dharma immediately. You can make prayers at that time, and at that time they will be answered. But above and beyond every single effort that you might make, call to your teacher. And with that, and indistinguishable from that, at any time of the bardo, one can call for Lord Buddha Amitabha because it is uniquely and singularly Lord Buddha Amitabha who will answer your prayers at the time of death and becoming, because he has taken that vow. He has understood the sorrow that human beings are afflicted with and his compassion is very great concerning this condition of sentient beings. In a way you could say that that’s Amitabha’s specialty. Amitabha is especially moved by the plight of beings when they are lost and wandering like that. So you can call to your root guru, you can call to Lord Buddha Amitabha; and you can consider that they are the same and indistinguishable from one another.

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