Dying, Death and the Bardo
Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche
Tape 4
Continuing from where we left off yesterday morning, we're still concerned here with the second of the three parts or phases of the interval of possibility. At this point, the interval being, the person, the deceased is, as we saw, buffeted about by the violent wind of their own karma. Here wind should be understood to be metaphoric. It's not a literal wind. It means the force of the impulses, born from previous actions, throws them about beyond their control from place to place and experience to experience. And this is the principal experience normally of the second phase of the interval: being buffeted about by one's karma in that way. The duration, or life span, since the interval state is considered a state of being, it's said to have a duration or life span, the life span is uncertain. We generally classify it as forty-nine days because that seems to be the length of that interval for most beings and is also the average length.
For the first three and a half days after death and after the passing and nonrecognition of the ground clear light�Xand three and a half days means here until the sunrise on the fourth day after death�Xfor the first three and a half days, the consciousness of the deceased person is probably still going to be within their body and until the consciousness departs from the body, they're largely unconscious. They are sporadically conscious, but even when they're conscious they are still extremely confused, like someone who is strongly intoxicated or drunk. Eventually however, after the consciousness has emerged from the body, whether it does so immediately after the failure to recognize the ground clear light or after three and a half days, the person starts to have these experiences and hallucinations that characterize the second phase of the interval.
For much of the time, or some of the time in this second part of the interval, the deceased person will not know that they are dead. At times they may come to suspect it, but basically they won't have any more certainty that they are dead and in the interval than you normally have that you're dreaming, when you're dreaming. So they will be extremely agitated therefore by all of these strange things that keep happening to them. They encounter things that they've never seen before, beings that they've never seen before, hear sounds that they've never heard before, and also all of the agitation that is around them, all the rushing about and so on, because they don't know where they are and why they're there, will be extremely disturbing. They will still see those that they loved, their friends and family, and so on, and will try to communicate with them. Because the interval being does not realize that he or she, (I mean, we could call it "it" because it no longer really has gender, but that's rude so we'll say "he" or "she") because the interval being doesn't know that they are an interval being, they see no reason why when they speak to someone, they shouldn't answer them, but they don't of course because they're not visible to them. So they become frustrated and aggrieved by this, that every time they try to talk to one of their relatives or friends or loved ones, they're ignored. Eventually, they start to figure out the reason why; they start to figure out that they are dead. And once they have figured out that they're dead, they react even more strongly.
For example, when they see their corpse, their former aggregates, (it's polite to say their aggregates, but what it means is their corpse), once they see their corpse, they, for the first period of the interval, because they identify with that body so strongly, they will try to get back into it. And they won't be able to. And they'll be very attached to it and to how it's treated. They'll be very upset of course by seeing their dead body, but also attached to it. When they see their relatives and loved ones crying and grieving and so on, that will distress them. And when they see their stuff being divvied up, people making arrangements for the disposal of their wealth and belongings, they won't like that.
Their attitude towards their aggregates, (their former aggregates; their corpse) will alter over time for much the same reason that the identification with the mental body of habit alters, so that the perception of themselves as their preceding body starts to weaken and then be superceded by the subsequent one. Initially they will be very attached to the old body, the corpse, but eventually since the karma of being in that body is already over, the habit left behind by that karma will gradually weaken, so eventually they'll start to dislike it and they will be happier when they don't see it and want it to be disposed of.
However, although they want it to be disposed of, and they don't want to see it, they are still attached enough to it that they get very upset when it is disposed of. So for example, when their body is cremated or buried or cast into water and so on, they won't like that either. That will also upset them and especially they'll become very angry when people are disrespectful to their corpse�Xlike when they call it a "corpse." If they say, "Well that thing, it's a corpse, it's not so and so, it's just their body and so on," the way we speak of dead bodies, which we don't like. They will still have enough identification with that as their body, as part of them, that they'll be as upset by it, Rinpoche said, as they would have been if someone had said something about their body while they were still inhabiting it. Eventually, having realized that they are dead, when they see their loved ones grieving for them, they will attempt to comfort them.
They will say, "Don't worry, don't worry, I'm right here. Can't you see me? I'm right here." Well, of course, they [their loved ones] won't be able to see them, and finally they'll be so saddened by their inability to comfort their grieving survivors, that they will also start to grieve and cry and may get to the point of fainting, or almost fainting through grief and frustration. On the other hand, when they see people who aren't grieving, they'll be mad at that. Whether it's people who dislike them, who make jokes about them, or laugh or are otherwise disrespectful about them, when they are recently dead, or just don't care that they're dead and are laughing about something else or going about their lives normally, playing, entertaining themselves, they'll be very resentful of that. And they'll think, "How can they do that when I am in this state? I've just been pulled right out of my body, I'm wandering in the interval, I'm going through all of this, I can't communicate with anyone, and they're laughing and having a good time?"
And the interval being will actually feel enmity for those people, even though it may be not overtly disrespectful, it may be just that they didn't know the person, but they'll resent anyone who's going about their business as usual and not grieving, as much as they are distressed by those who are grieving. When the interval being sees the disposition of their possessions, especially those things that were particularly valuable to them or precious to them, even to the extent of seeing others make use of them, or seeing their being passed on and so on, they'll actually follow the stuff around. So the possessions of a recently deceased person are often a site where that person's consciousness will be attracted. And they'll follow the stuff wherever it is taken and very much resent it's use.
They'll think, "This thing or this stuff was worth so much to me. I put so much into it, and this person is using it up, or wasting it or destroying it and so on." This is one reason why in Tibet it was customary, soon after someone died, to offer at least a certain amount of their treasured possessions to the Three Jewels, to prevent these things being used in a way that the person would be upset by and to help them cut through their attachment to their previous possessions. Now, someone who has no instructions, someone who has not been taught how to prepare for the bardo, will experience the appearances of the interval of possibility, much the way we experience the dream state. They will have very little basis for knowing what is going on. Just as we are pretty well lost, most of the time when we are dreaming; we are at the mercy of the events that appear to be occurring, because we believe that they're real: we don't know we're dreaming. In the same way, the person, the average or untrained person, will, for some time not even know that they're dead, just as we don't know we dreaming, therefore they won't understand what they're undergoing, seeing, and hearing and will be totally at the mercy of their bewilderment and the bewildered appearances.
Therefore the aspiration says, "May I train myself in dream, which is the manner of appraisal of the path." And this refers to the practice of dream that is part of the Six Dharmas of Naropa and similar systems, in which one trains, Rinpoche said, to first of all develop the consistent ability to dream lucidly, to know that you're dreaming while you're dreaming, and thereafter to transform the dream state from impure appearances to the pure appearances, and so on. The reason why this practice exists, Rinpoche said, is largely because it is the best preparation for this phase of the interval. As long as you don't know you are dreaming when you are dreaming at night, you are not going to know that you're dead, when you're dead. So in order to be able to recognize that you're dead and in the interval, you need to be able to recognize that you're dreaming. In order to be able to transform the interval appearances, which is the principal method at this point, as we'll see, you need to be able to transform the appearances of dreams, as well.
In order to be able to do that, you need to prepare yourself�Xand at this point we're really entering the main instructions for dealing with this phase of the interval�Xyou need to prepare yourself by having a certain attitude towards conventional waking state appearances. In other words, in order to prepare for the interval, you need to gain a skill in dream. In order to gain skill in dream, you need to gain skill in relating to conventional appearances. Fundamentally, this consists of viewing, learning to constantly view, all the appearances of the daytime waking state as illusory, or like magical illusions. And this attitude of their being illusory needs to be reinforced and maintained until it gets to the point where the actual emptiness of appearances becomes an object of direct experience, where they manifest to you spontaneously and clearly, without your having to reinforce it conceptually as what they are, which is empty appearances, mere appearances, devoid of inherent existence.
So the attitude, of them being empty and illusory needs to be reinforced throughout the waking state, until you get to the point where the conceptual reinforcement, reminding yourself that they're empty, no longer becomes necessary and there is such a momentum or continuity of mindfulness and certainty, because it is not merely something you're telling yourself, it is the truth�Xcertainty about their emptiness, that they actually appear to you that way.
So the aspiration here is, "May I reach the point where wisdom has been attained." And wisdom here has the specific meaning, Rinpoche said, of the state of mind in which you directly see appearances as the unity of appearance and emptiness. And that is the prerequisite for being able to gain mastery over the dream state, and eventually the interval state as well. Now, what prevents this? What are the main obstacles that prevent us from doing this? And these obstacles are equally impediments to cultivation of awareness during the waking state, during the dream state, and therefore and most importantly, during the interval state as well.
There are three of them, and they are called "the three thieves," because they steal from you any chance of liberation, any chance of getting out of samsara. The first of these is doubt. Doubt in this case means, for example, doubt about "Are appearances empty or not? Is this the interval, or isn't it?" And so on. Doubt will prevent the faculty of mindfulness from being strong enough and focused enough, to cut through the illusion of appearances. So the first thief is doubt. And it's doubt that causes us constantly to reenter the samsaric cycle. It's doubt that prevents us first of all, from ever having the momentum necessary to break out of it.
The second thief is fixation on reality: fixation on the truth or reality of appearances as being what they appear to be. And this is what is maintained by doubt. This is what doubt prevents us from putting a stop to. Because, as long as you maintain this fixation on the reality of appearances, whether it is during this life or during the interval after death, then the habit, all of the habits of reacting to those appearances in certain ways, through the generation of kleshas and so on, will re-arise. And they will re-arise because you think these appearances are real and therefore you react to them the way you do.
The third thief is mindlessness. And mindlessness means lack of recollection of what it is you are attempting to keep in mind. The illusoriness of appearances, the fact that you are in the interval and so on. It is mindlessness, the lack of recollection, that causes us to keep on wandering endlessly, to be lost, to be at sea, or mindless.
So the aspiration here is, "May I become free from these three thieves who steal from me the opportunity of liberation from samsara."
Next we turn to the actual essential means by which one can achieve liberation in the second stage of the interval, and the reason why it is called the opportunity for the achievement of the samboghakaya. This "means" consists of the transformation of the appearance of your mental body into the body of the deity. This is why it depends upon the practice of the preceding life. Essentially, it consists of the employment, in the interval after death, and therefore must be the preparation in the preceding life, of the principal means or defining method of mantra or vajrayana, which is the most profound of all paths and does bring, it can bring, if properly employed, liberation at this point.
In detail, it consists of the perception, and in the case of the interval this will be the actual transformation of all appearances, the appearance of your own body, in that case the mental body and all other appearances, into the rainbow-like vajra body of the deity. The perception and therefore the transformation of all sounds into the mantra of the deity, the vajra sound of mantra, which is the unity of sound and emptiness. This is significant in the interval, especially because, don't forget, there are terrifying sounds, very loud sounds, like a billion thunderclaps heard simultaneously and so on, and these are so disturbing that one needs a means or method by which to alter your perception of them. And thirdly, the transformation of your perception and therefore experience of your mind itself, into the vajra mind, which is the mind that is the unity of bliss and emptiness.
So the aspiration here is that you become skilled in training in, and thereafter have the opportunity to employ in the interval these three essential points which make up the principal feature of the most profound path, the means of mantra. If these are employed, what happens is that the mental body of the being in the interval�Xwhich as we saw, is merely composed of the wind, of the life wind from the previous body, and the subtle mind, the all-basis consciousness principally�Xthat this mental body, composed purely of wind-mind, is transformed through the interval beings perception of it, into the illusory form or illusory body in the form of the deity.
This is subsequently further purified by the practitioner immersing his or her mind in the clear light on the basis of the cultivation or assuming of that illusory body and when the illusory body in the form of the deity is in that way purified by the purifying fire of the clear light, then it becomes "the body of great unity," which is endowed with the best of all aspects. "Best of all aspects" means an emptiness that is at the same time great bliss. So here the body, the illusory or miraculous body of great unity, refers to an illusory body that is inseparable from the purifying clear light. Otherwise put, Rinpoche said, this means a body of a deity in which the deity's form or body, and the deity's wisdom are a unity, or are inseparable. So that is the final aspiration, which is the aspiration, "May I achieve the samboghakaya in this second or principal phase of the interval of possibility."
Now the rest of the text is devoted to the third and final phase of the interval of possibility. In the second phase we saw there was opportunity for achieving liberation through the transformation of one's mental body into the samboghakaya of one's deity and this obviously depends upon assiduous practice in the preceding life and obviously having received instruction. Therefore most people, most beings who find themselves in the second interval don't achieve liberation there because they have not done the preparation or even received the instruction which would enable them to do so. So if the being does not achieve liberation in the second interval, the third interval will begin.
The difference between the second and the third interval is that the third interval is said to begin at the point where the habits from the preceding life have weakened so much, that one is starting to identify primarily with the body of the next life. As a result, one feels extremely lost and is looking for a body, looking for a place to find birth. So the defining characteristic of the third interval of possibility is that one is searching for a birthplace, obsessively searching for a birthplace. Therefore the principal practice in this third interval is choosing a birthplace and avoiding conventional compulsive birth where one is put into a birthplace under the compulsion of one's karma and karmic impulses.
At this point, one has not only lost the previous physical body, but even the habit of it has thinned out or waned to the point where one feels extremely vulnerable and lost and so you feel at this point like a traveller who has not found a hotel or place to stay. Or another more compelling analogy is like someone who in the midst of battle has lost his horse, has fallen off his horse and is trying to get back onto it or get back onto any horse. And that's the sort of urgency that you feel at this point in the interval. So it's at this point that you are particularly subject to the compulsion to be reborn.
Now, when you start to look for a birthplace, and birthplace here does not necessarily mean the geographical thing, it means the container for the consciousness. So it can mean the womb if you are going to be born in a womb, or it depends on what the species is, but when you start to look for the birthplace, there will be certain indications which can show what sort of birth you are moving toward. Those who are going to be reborn as devas or gods, when they start searching for a birthplace, find themselves amidst all of the wealth and luxury of the god realms. And they are attracted to it. They see this wealth and luxury and they like it. And they want to stay there. There will be indications of this in the body they've left behind. Someone, who is moving toward a god or deva rebirth, their body will look pretty good. It will have a fairly good complexion. It will be pleasing; people will not find their body especially repulsive. The eyes will not be gaping wide open. They'll be half-open and it will probably smell good, within, you know, the limits. And because of the involvement of devas and devis in this, there could be rainbows appearing in the sky and rains of flowers and so on. None of this in this case means the person's achieved enlightenment or liberation at all. It just means they're headed for a higher rebirth.
Meanwhile, in the bardo, an interval being who's moving toward a deva rebirth, will see the occupations of the devas, gods and goddesses, being entertained and playing and so on. And seeing these things will think, "I want to go there." And it is actually their attachment to, their attraction to the activity of the gods, that forms the immediate condition for rebirth there. So those who are born as devas, while they are born because of their karma, the link, the actual immediate condition that propels them into that birthplace is attraction to those things.
The second of the higher realms is the realm of the asuras. And asuras are similar to gods except they are much more violent and aggressive. So the experience of someone who is going to be reborn as an asura is in general similar to the experience of someone who is going to be reborn a deva. But they feel more aggressive and more proud. And what they see rather than seeing the entertainment and amusements of the god, they see asura soldiers putting on armor and taking up sharp weapons and attacking one another and so on. And the warfare of the asuras is very fast and constant and violent. It's like constant lightening. And they see this and this gives rise to, in the case of the gods it was attachment or desire, in the case of the asuras this gives rise to a kind of proud anger. And they think, "Boy, I've got to join in that battle." It's another form of attachment, but it's an attachment that's an attachment to battle and conflict. And so they think, "I've got to go there." And that's the immediate condition, which propels them into that birth.
The third higher realm is the human realm. Those who are reborn in the human realm see human situations, human circumstances, such as the prosperity and wealth of humans and so on, and they are attracted to that: to the pleasures of the human realm. In particular, they are said to witness the union of their parents. And seeing the union of their parents, they give rise to intense desire for the parent who will be of the opposite sex, and intense resentment and jealousy of the parent who will be of the same sex. And in the human realm it's this combination of desire and aversion that propels them into the birthplace, which in the human case is the womb. What happens is that as a result of this combination of desire and aversion, the consciousness of the interval being dives into the body of the father, via one or another of the sense apertures. And then together with the father's sperm, ends up in the womb and the ovum of the mother. And at that point, once you are conceived, you are locked in.
Animals are in general�Xand the first of the lower realms is the animal realm�Xso bewildered that they are reborn, you are born as an animal through a sort of compulsive or almost instinctive and very primitive reaction that is again compounded of attachment and aversion and depending upon what type of animal it is, it will be something to do with a womb or an egg, and so on. But it's similar to the human one except that it's much coarser. The emotions are coarser and the bewilderment is stronger.
Pretas, the second of the lower states and also particularly miserable animals, animals that are particularly, what we would call, low on the evolutionary thing, but animals that are primitive species or undeveloped species and pretas don't generally take birth through attachment. Interval beings don't look at the preta realm or the realm of being some form of microscopic life or something and think, "Boy, I really want to go there." That's not the way it works. In this case, what drives you into that type of birth, of course the cause is you karma, but the proximate or immediate condition is fleeing something else. You end up choosing that rebirth because there is something else that you are so afraid of that you take shelter from it in that birth. And the things that you are fleeing can be things like a violently turbulent ocean, or a forest fire or a landslide or earthquake, such as the destruction of an entire mountain, or a fierce wind that sounds like a wind that breaks up a planet at the end of time. It could also be things like hearing the sound of terrifying beings, their violent cries of war and so on. Or you could see various demonic creatures such as yakshas or fierce predators such as predatory animals and so on. Or you could be driven into the birth by a blizzard.
In short, if you are going to be reborn a preta or a lower animal, you are fleeing something and you try to get as far away as possible and you naturally flee into something that looks like a close, confining and dark space that is a shelter. So you are afraid of being out in the open�Xand these include things like caves, and holes in the earth, hollow tree trunks, holes in walls or buildings, in between the leaves of thick foliage. In short, you go into some kind of dark, dark space. And it is the attitude of desire for that dark space of shelter, that in reaction to fleeing from something you are afraid of, that causes you to be reborn as a preta or lower animal.
The third of the lower states are the hell realms. Because there are very many different hell realms, the actual circumstances, which propel birth in these, can vary quite a bit. But one of the things that serve as a proximate or immediate condition for hellish rebirth is, the interval being will see a kind of attractive forest or mountainside and they'll see wild animals moving around and what appear to be hunters hunting them. They'll see this and they'll be attracted to this action of hunting. They'll think, "I have to go there, I want to take part of this and kill some too." That will pull them into the situation but as soon as they are locked into it, the whole thing will change. And the animals that are being hunted and possibly also the hunters will change into demonic beings, the servants or henchmen of Yama. Henchpersons, maybe. And these will grab hold of you, take you into custody and pull you down to hell, where they will start doing their stuff: killing you, cutting you up, doing all the things that happen to you in hell.
Other beings that are born in hell, actually especially if they led particularly bad lives, they won't even get that far in the bardo. Sometimes, even while they are still alive, as they are dying, they'll start to see, actually see the henchpersons of Yama, the servants of Yama and they'll be terrified by this and they'll die in a state of terror. Such persons, and in general those who are reborn in hell, leave behind bodies that people find unaccountably scary. They just look at their body and they feel freaked out and the body will actually look unpleasant, not just scary but also unpleasant as well.
Sometimes also, someone who is going to be reborn in hell will lose consciousness as they are dying, before the whole dissolution or shut down process is completed. They lose consciousness in reaction to the agony of death, then they faint as they die. Then they wake up unaware of course that they're dead, and they wake up after the whole dissolution process has gone through without their being conscious. And of course their first thought is, "Where and what is my body?" As soon as they think that, a body is formed and in this particular case, not all hell beings but one particular way in which beings go there, their mental body, their interval body is not like their preceding aggregate. It's a sphere, a round, globular mass, with one eye that is in the top of it. So it's like a kind of a ball, with an eye. That's what they think it is; I mean that's how they perceive it. Then it seems to be blown upward by a very fierce wind. It's blown way up on a fierce wind and then the wind stops and it falls down and it lands on this ground or surface of red-hot metal, red-hot iron. And as soon as it lands, it splatters and melts and reforms instantly into the horrific body of a hell being.
Hell beings have extremely sensitive, physically sensitive but also extremely horrific bodies. And then, as soon as the hell body has been formed, then they are apprehended by the hell guardians, the guards of that particular hell, who start to torture them and kill them in various ways. Many, not all, but many of the beings who are reborn in either the hell realms, or as pretas, witness or seem to experience themselves being led in front of Yamaraja, the Lord of the Dead, by his henchpersons and then they are put on trial with Yama as the judge, and everything they did is recounted, in other words they are charged and then they are judged and, in a state of great terror, are led into their next rebirth. This does not happen universally. This does not happen, Rinpoche said, to everyone who is reborn in those realms, but it does appear to happen to some.
Yet another proximate condition for rebirth in a hell is where, if you are going to be reborn in a hot hell, sometimes what will happen, is in the interval you start to experience intense cold and you flee from the intense cold and you think, "I really want to go to a warm place," and the warmest place your mind can find is the realm in which you are going to be reborn, and then you are born there and it's too warm. If you're going to be reborn in a cold hell, then the opposite happens, you start to experience suffering of intense heat in the interval. You flee that and you are reborn in a cold hell. So sometimes, even in the hell realms, beings are born through a kind of craving that is produced by rejection of one thing and choosing something else in its stead.
In general you can also classify the immediate or proximate conditions for rebirth based on the type of rebirth physically from among the four types: instantaneous moisture and warmth, egg and womb. Beings that are born instantaneously, that is without physical generation, mostly the immediate condition for taking birth is attachment to the place or location. Beings that are born in a species that is produced by heat and moisture are generally cast into that birth through attachment to scent and taste. And beings that are born in either womb or egg, are generally cast into that birth by attachment to the sexual union of their parents, which forms the physical condition for that birth as well.
In this way, in any case, through various forms of bewilderment and bewildered appearances which arise in the interval, causing you to generate attachment for a mode of rebirth and therefore be cast into it, in this way, the wheel of birth after birth keeps on turning. And it never stops because each time we die, we again find ourselves compelled to and take and attach to a certain type of rebirth.
Now, that describes the situation of the third phase or third part of the interval of possibility. Next the text focuses on the instructions or means by which we can avoid negative rebirths.
The first and primary instruction is to�Xwhatever you see, whether pleasant and attractive or unpleasant and frightening, whatever you see or experience in this point in the interval�Xrely upon the remedy for whatever type of reaction you would normally have toward that appearance. To rely upon the remedy of course, you must have tamed your mind, so therefore, in order for you to have any resources at this point in the interval, you must have trained yourself in the various remedies, for the various types of things and reactions to those things which are going to happen or might happen at this point, and you must have the necessary ability, you must have the ability needed to keep your mind tamed and in control under those circumstances.
So the aspiration here is, "May I therefore at that point be not separated from whatever yogic practices I am trained in." So at this point as in the two earlier stages of the interval, what happens to you principally depends upon the degree of your training and the degree of your ability to bring that training along with you into the afterdeath state. So at this point, as before, you would apply whatever your principal training in practice is. Whether it is the practice of Mahamudra, or the Great Perfection or the Great Middle Way, or the cultivation of a state of great and impartial compassion, any of these means can be used at this point in the interval.
Now there are particular means as well that can be helpful, for example the four roots or principals among the Six Dharmas. The practice of Chandali, which is called here the self-blazing of bliss and warmth and the practice of the Illusory Body, where you learn to view all that appears and everything that exists as illusory and in that way you bring about the self-liberation of the eight mundane dharmas. The instructions on Dream, where you cause the bewilderment of the dream state to be purified within the dream state itself, and the practices concerning the Clear Light, in general and specifically, through which all forms of bewilderment and ignorance, the waking state, the state of deep sleep and so forth are purified.
So, at this point you would apply whichever practice or combination of practices you are particularly trained in. For example, someone who has generated a stable practice of the generation stage, which means the visualization of deities, would at this point employ both the visualization of him or herself as their deity and also the recognition of the forms that appear to them as deities. That is to say, they not only transform the appearances but also are able to recognize the continuing appearances of deities. Normally beings in the interval do, Rinpoche said, do see actual deities appearing before them, but because they are threatened by these appearances, some of which are wrathful, and all of which as we saw before are intimidating in their brilliance, because they are threatened by these, they don't recognize them as deities, or sources of refuge and they flee from them. Someone who is assiduously trained in the generation stage may be able to recognize these and also to transform the experience of the interval into the appearance of deities along with all of their features and scepters and so on, the sound of mantras and so on.
Someone who has cultivated the practice of devotion in the practice of guru yoga at this point would principally practice guru yoga. And by visualizing their guru on top of their head and supplicating their guru for rebirth in a pure realm, could succeed at this point even in this third phase of the interval, in being reborn in a completely pure realm. This is not because gurus favor those who pray to them over those who don't. Authentic gurus have equal compassion for all beings and are utterly impartial. But the condition of the person's devoted supplication is needed for the guru to lead you to the pure realm. So practitioners of guru yoga would employ that method at this point in the interval and could achieve liberation through it.
Another factor that is important here is the moral discipline you've maintained. Those who have maintained flawless moral discipline, such as authentic monastics and so forth, in the immediately preceding life, can invoke the power of that, the merit of it, the momentum of it and so on. It will counteract the kleshas, desire and so forth, which form the proximate or immediate conditions for rebirth, and also by dedicating the virtue or merit of it to rebirth in a pure realm, they will be able to achieve that.
Another faculty is, regardless of specific technique, the power of intensive mindfulness and alertness itself can be evoked, regardless of it's association with one technique or another at this point in the interval. In short, at this point, what the person is trying to do is block the gates to rebirth in any impure realm. So the first thing you want to do in this third stage or phase of the interval of possibility is to avoid samsaric rebirth altogether and be reborn only in a pure realm, if you can, using any of the particular methods that were just described.
If, however, the force or compulsion of karma is so strong that you can't stop yourself from being reborn in samsara, then your next resort is to choose a better rather than worse birth. And the birth you want to choose at this point is one where you will be able to practice the Vajrayana and proceed toward awakening. So you choose to be reborn as a human being possessing the six elements and specifically a human being who will in that life have access to and complete the practice of the supreme path of Vajrayana.
So the aspiration here is, "May I create the excellent interdependent circumstances for the continued practice of this path."
Here, in order to choose an appropriate rebirth, you regard your taking birth at this point as an act of conscious emanation. That is to say, you achieve an emanation body in the sense of consciously choosing birth, rather than being born through the forms of karmic compulsion described earlier. You do this through the aspiration that you undertake or accept the type of birth that will be of the most benefit: the most benefit to others and the most benefit for your own completion of the path. So you choose the family, you choose the gender, race, country, social circumstances and so on, whatever you want, whatever you decide is going to be best. You may choose to be male, you may choose to be female, you may choose to be born in one place, you may choose to be born in another, the point is here you gain and employ the power of choice. In order to do this most effectively, you apply the faculties of mindfulness and alertness throughout the conception, gestation and birth process, if you can, so you do not succumb to the confusion and the bewilderment which normally fetuses undergo.
The aspiration here is to do this principally in the way that you maintain mindfulness and alertness during the threefold process of conception, gestation and birth, through applying the wisdom of the third empowerment. So the aspiration here is that you achieve a form of birth that will cause you to be happy in that life and proceed to further happiness because you use the life for the practice of dharma.
So your aspiration is to take birth in such a form that is going to be most beneficial. It could be and we saw earlier, this is usually your first resort, a birth in a pure realm, in which case you would continue from then on, unless there was specific reason to do otherwise, to be reborn in pure realm after pure realm, or through compassion, you could also take rebirth in an impure realm, such as this one, and also having achieved the higher levels, you would in any case produce emanations in both pure and impure realms. So in short your aspiration is that in the long run you be able to accomplish all forms of buddha activity, through producing countless emanations in both pure and impure realms.
Next, the text summarizes everything that has gone before and it says, "In brief, from now on, may I always prepare myself for the interval by thinking, 'This is what I will do when this happens. This is going to happen; I will do this.' And by consciously engaging my mind in this preparation, and perfecting it, not merely thinking about it from time to time, but consciously training my mind in this preparation, as soon as the particular circumstances arise, because I'm prepared I will be able to respond to them appropriately with preparedness." In that way, the text concludes, "May I train in [end of tape 4]
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