Dying, Death and the Bardo
Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche
Tape 5
Side 1
[cont. some text is missing]
....involves the strong inculcation of a highly motivated aspiration. This is true whether you are training with the delusion of the waking state, of the dream state, or of the interval state. For example, in order to train with the dream state, Rinpoche said, the primary factor, initially is the generation of highly motivated aspiration immediately before sleep. The aspiration, "I will recognize that I'm dreaming, while I am dreaming. Recognizing it, I will not feel fear, no matter what I dream. I will transform the contents of dreams at will. I will change one thing into a hundred, for example my body into a hundred, I will change negative things into positive things and so on." This type of aspiration, "I must recognize the dream state and I must transform it," will give you the ability to do so. The aspiration itself, the highly motivated aspiration, is the primary factor in being able to do this. It is the same for the interval. Preparation for the interval consists in large part, Rinpoche said, of learning what will happen, bringing it to mind and consciously and repeatedly preparing yourself to respond to each stage of it as it comes up with the appropriate response or remedy.
Please dedicate the virtue of this session and all virtue accumulated by yourself and others throughout the past, present and future, to the gaining of the ability by yourself and each and every being, to recognize as they occur, the various experiences of the interval and the ability to respond to these with appropriate mindfulness and alertness, and thereby achieve liberation through rebirth in pure realms and so forth. And having achieved this, the activity by all of those liberated beings of liberating others until finally all six realms of sentient beings have without exception, achieved perfect awakening.
Questions and Answers:
Question: Rinpoche I have a question about the commitment that came up last night at the end of the empowerment, I didn't have time to eat the ten fish, but in particular you asked us not to harm sentient beings and also to avoid sexual misconduct, I think specifically if it would harm the other person. And especially since I'm single I'd like you to elaborate in as much detail as possible especially on the second of these two conditions.
Answer: Rape. Don't rape people.
Question: That's it?
Answer: Primarily, Rinpoche said that's what it means.
Question: I actually have a corollary question about the fish, joking aside. This is the first time that you've asked, at least in my presence for a life-releasing specifically. And I've always had a question about life-releasing because when you go to purchase something, earthworms for example, I looked into this at very great length and talked to scientists in Boston and everything. Of course the earthworm�Xthis is true. The earthworms for example come from Canada and they are picked up. I'm not kidding. I researched this. One kind comes from Canada and the other kind comes from Georgia. And for them to survive in New England, obviously you have to buy the Canadian ones. If you buy the Canadian ones, you're creating the karmic preconditions for more of these earthworms to be scooped up by hardworking Canadians in the north, who pick them up and it's a sort of cottage industry. And so when you go to release these lives, you're actually putting more lives in jeopardy or so it see it seems to me. Similarly with the fish, if you buy baitfish, you are creating a market for more baitfish. And so in a capitalist economy, I can see how this works very well in a sort of more traditional agrarian economy, but in a capitalist economy, whereby buying the earthworms or the fish I'm putting more lives in danger, how do I best effect this wish?
Answer: Well, we can't protect all beings. We have to protect the ones to which we have access. And even those ones we can't protect forever. We may only be able to lengthen their lives by so much as one day. So when you buy animals that are being sold for purposes that will involve their death, whether it's their consumption as is the case with fish that are sold live or their use as bait, as is the case with earthworms, even if they only survive for one day, that's probably one day longer than they would have survived otherwise.
Question: I have a question that's clearly with the bardo teachings, the precondition to being able to do anything successfully in this experience is having a very strong meditative stability that we can develop in this life. And this is a persistent problem in my practice. This is why I read a lot; it's because I have a very hard time getting any kind of stability in my meditation. Is there any further advice or further goosing I can have that will get this to work better?
Answer: Goosing, you mean like tilting? Tweaking?
Question: I keep reading these instructions. If there's any further....maybe a big stick to hit me on the head. I know that's a sort of more zen tradition, but I just thought I'd ask.
Answer: Well, there are definitely means and instructions which will enable you to develop the type of stability that is needed to successfully traverse the interval. And, as you indicated in your question, we all want to achieve this kind of stability. It's achieved not by the practice necessarily of a large variety of techniques, but by the proper and stable implementation of any one complete technique of practice. By visualizing your body as Chenrezig, by visualizing the deity Chenrezig, and repeating the mantra, OM MANI PEME HUNG, and at the conclusion of the session, dissolving the appearance of the deity into emptiness, by these three techniques, you can achieve the necessary stability for traversing the interval, because the phase of the meditation where you withdraw or dissolve the appearance of the deity is how to cultivate familiarity with the clear light so that you can recognize the dharmakaya at death. Meditating upon your body as the body of Chenrezig, is how you can gain the ability to achieve liberation as the samboghakaya in the second phase of the interval. The repetition of the mantra OM MANI PEME HUNG, is how you can learn to view all sound, including the sounds that appear in the interval as mantra. And the motivation of great compassion with which you perform the whole practice, is the basis for the altruistic aspiration to be reborn as nirmanakaya for the benefit of others, which is the key to traversing the third phase of the interval. So doing this one complete technique will achieve everything you need in order to do this. In contrast to that, knowledge of a large number of techniques, without gaining stability in any one of them, will not bring this.
Question: Rinpoche, my question regards eating meat. I've been a Buddhist for, I don't know 25 years or something and I've never tried very hard to avoiding eating meat and it seems that maybe I should be doing that since we do live in a culture and an environment where it is possible to eat a fairly healthy, nutritious diet that excludes meat, unlike other Buddhist countries or environments where it wasn't so easy to do that. So I'm wondering if you would recommend that one should or myself should be trying, making more of an effort to develop a diet that excludes meat.
And secondly, if we are going to eat meat, a lot of us have been reading about these horrible meat factories where much of our meat comes from now, where the conditions for the animals are really even much more horrendous than they would be on a regular farm, and if we are going to eat meat if we should be trying to make sure that the meat that we are eating, even though it's passing through the requisite number of people, that it's not coming from these terrible places?
Answer: If you can stop eating meat, that would be wondrous, and I would thank you for doing so and rejoicing in your doing so. It is for all of the reasons you mentioned obviously better not to eat meat. If you cannot stop eating meat entirely, or if you find yourself travelling to places such as the other countries you mentioned where you more or less have to eat meat, then when you eat the meat, because you are making a physical connection with the animal by consuming it's flesh and absorbing it into your body, you should use the opportunity to make aspirations that that animal not be reborn in lower states. You can actually help the animal by doing this. Now I am not saying that that makes eating meat okay. I'm not saying that you can therefore think that, "Well, because I make these aspirations, there is no sin in eating meat." There is. It is very hard for me to say this because I have been unable to abandon the consumption of meat myself, so I'm not comfortable going around telling people not to meat, but if I am asked directly if it's better not to eat meat, I have to say yes.
Question: Thank you. Did you ask Rinpoche also about the meat factories?
Answer: I mentioned it and he didn't respond.
Question: Rinpoche, I have a question about recognizing the clear light at the time of death. And my understanding is that if one recognizes that, they achieve the dharmakaya, the absolute buddhahood. Now if somebody in their lifetime, like we are now, takes the bodhisattva vow, that is vowing to come back, return in physical form until all beings have achieved liberation, that's my understanding of that, so how do you reconcile these. Would that somehow be breaking their vow to achieve the dharmakaya state?
Answer: No, it's not a violation of the vow, because when someone achieves the dharmakaya, they don't abide in a passive state or a state without activity. It's not like some sort of permanent vacation. As soon as someone achieves or attains the dharmakaya, they automatically display the samboghakaya and by extension, nirmanakayas for the benefit of others. So in fact rather than being a contravention of it, it's the most perfect fulfillment of the Bodhisattva vow.
Question: Rinpoche, what kind of things can an individual practitioner do on the anniversary of someone who died and if the person will have already taken rebirth, is it still beneficial for them?
Answer: You can actually still benefit the person at any time, including the yearly observance of their passing, regardless of whether or not they have been reborn and regardless really of how long it has been since they were reborn. You can benefit them by doing meritorious things such as making offerings dedicated to them or in their name, and by dedicating the virtue of your usual virtuous activities especially to them on that time. In either case, you will be helping yourself and you will also be helping the other person. Although as you say, they will have taken rebirth by that point, one doesn't necessarily know what type of rebirth. And if they have taken an unfortunate rebirth you might be able to ameliorate their circumstances or even free them from that birth by doing virtue for their benefit.
It was not uncommon in Tibet for great lamas to be able to see where deceased people had been reborn. And they would sometimes, usually at the request of family members, determine this, and then advise the family on what needed to be done. He would say something like, "Your relative has been reborn in such and such lower state. In order to free them from this, the families should perform such and such practices, such and such virtuous endeavor and so on. Another thing that has happened throughout much of Tibetan history and still, Rinpoche said, can happen nowadays are what are called "returners." And returners are people who actually die. It's more than a near death experience. They actually die and then come back. And they've actually gone through the whole death process including the bardo or the interval, and are able, especially if they do this repeatedly, to see lower states and to contact people who have passed away. And sometimes, even if it has been years since someone has died and been reborn in a lower state, they will carry messages from them back to family, advising family about what needs to be done for their benefit and so on and this seems to be indeed effective.
Question: Rinpoche I have a question regarding the people who are on life support and they are staying for some time on life support, so there is no chance for them to recover. There's not any will left in this person. What should one do in that situation, where there are obstructions to the way a natural death would be supported, to end this suffering in the absence of a living will?
Answer: It's hard for me to answer this because, Rinpoche said, the actual affect of artificial life support, you know resuscitation and so on, on most people in the long run is hard to determine. What I can say, he said, is that if the person is a strong practitioner who has the chance to recognize the ground clear light at death, then it would be much better if they not be artificially resuscitated and their life not be artificially prolonged by life support mechanisms, because these things will prevent them from experiencing the ground clear light while they are still conscious and therefore able to recognize it. And when they eventually enter it, they'd be entering it from a state of unconsciousness, which would put them at a disadvantage.
This, however, is not really an issue with an ordinary person because an ordinary does not really have any significant chance of recognizing the ground clear light. So whether they enter it at a natural conscious death, or from a state of prolonged unconsciousness is largely irrelevant, because in either case, they are simply not going to recognize it. So for an ordinary person, it is hard to say whether or not artificial resuscitation and life support actually does them any harm, it may or may not. To give you an idea of someone for whom it was an issue, late Lama Ganga, the year before he passed away, said to me, Rinpoche said, "If I have merit, I will die in Tibet. If I can't manage that I'm going to make sure I die in India, but I don't dare die in America, because they won't let me die. They'll hook me up to these machines and I won't be able to die." Now I interpret, Rinpoche said, his remarks as a sort of indirect expression of his confidence and his ability to recognize the ground clear light and liberation in the bardo, and that's why it was an issue for him.
Question: I have a question. I heard a few stories of people who are dying and they are talking to their relatives�Xtheir relatives that were already dead for some time�Xand it looks like they saw them or heard them. And at which point, talking with relatives, having their presence could be helpful in our process of dying?
Translator: In other words, the dying person appears to be talking to people already dead?
Question: Yes.
Answer: Well, Rinpoche says he thinks that they are not actually seeing their relatives, that it's a hallucination produced by the habit of association with those people. Because you could actually only contact dead people when you are dead, when the shutdown or dissolution process was completed and if they are still talking then they are not dead yet. So it shouldn't be that. He thinks it's probably an appearance or hallucination that they are having through habit.
Question: And another question, what about people who are from different denominations, who have a different kind of faith, different kind of beliefs. What is the chance of their liberation and what can be done for them in order to help them with this process?
Answer: With regard to your first question, Rinpoche said, I really don't know how to answer it. If I were to answer it by saying, "No, non-Buddhists have no chance for recognition and liberation," that would be no more than sectarian prejudice on my part. On the other hand, if I were to say, "Yes, they have chance for recognition and liberation," that would be sheer pretentiousness because to make that statement I would have had to have achieved the final result of their religion and know what abilities it bestowed. So I can't answer that question.
With regard to your second question, I think you would employ the same methods that you would use for a Buddhist except you would do it discretely. So for example, you could recite mantras or Buddhist names, such as OM MANI PEME HUNG and so on and dedicate the virtue or merit of that to the person, but you just wouldn't do it so that they heard it because that would disturb them, as we discussed yesterday. These things are beneficial to anyone. Not just to Buddhists. If you do something virtuous, such as reciting that mantra and dedicate the virtue to that person, the fact that they are themselves not Buddhists doesn't in any way prevent them from benefiting from it. The purpose of dharma is to benefit all beings of the six realms, not merely Buddhists.
Question: Rinpoche yesterday you spoke about karma being used up in the interval stage, and I wonder if you can elaborate more about karma and how we carry it forward into subsequent lives.
Answer: Karma abides within the all-basis consciousness of an individual and in the case of the interval it is this all-basis consciousness combined with this subtle wind, the life wind, that goes from life to life. So that wind mind serves as the container for the maintenance and transportation of karma. I need to make something clear however. When I said that the karma of the previous life was used up, I don't mean that all of the karma that had been accumulated that had led to the previous life was used up. I meant that whatever particular karma, whatever particular imprint of action led to that particular birth must be used up when that birth is finished. But this doesn't mean that all of the other karmic imprints that are stored within the all-basis consciousness have been wiped out or used up. They are all there.
The gap that is experienced in the interval consists of the fact that while the karmas are still present within one's being, the ripening of karma is temporarily dormant. It is a time when a karmically ripened situation, that is a set of karmically ripened aggregates during one's life, is not present. The previous one has been destroyed and used up and the next one, while the karma for it is present, has not ripened yet. This makes the situation one where changes can be affected because what prevents change is the limitation imposed upon you by fully ripened karma.
In other words, once a karma has resulted in it's fully ripened or fully matured result, which is the aggregates of a particular life, not much can be done about. You're stuck in that situation. But in between lives, while you have plenty of karma that needs to be purified, none of that karma is in a ripened state yet and therefore changes can be effected.
Question: Rinpoche, my question is, how can we as ordinary practitioners, myself or others, benefit the six realms in as far as specifically emptying the lower realms, which seems somewhat, at least for an ordinary level practitioner, seems somewhat hard to grasp. How can we do that, karmically speaking, now?
Translator: When you say emptying, you mean completely, once and for all, or you mean a bit?
Question: Well, I guess what I'm really alluding to is in liturgies there is the praise that, "May the lower realms be emptied." And so when this is our aspiration, how do we begin?
Answer: Even as ordinary sentient beings there is a great deal that we can do for others. Everytime that you do something virtuous and sincerely dedicate that virtue to others, you can, through the force of that virtue and through the force of that dedication, introduce virtuous habit into that beings continuum. And that virtuous habit which is produced by or introduced by force of your dedication and aspiration, will eventually cause them to achieve liberation, first of all from lower states and eventually from cyclic existence itself.
The phrase commonly used in our liturgy, "Emptying samsara from it's depths," or sometimes "Emptying lower states from their depths," and so on, refers really to the principal aim, the principal goal, and principal aspiration of all Buddhas in their compassion, all bodhisattvas, and indeed of all who take the bodhisattva vow. But this is an open-ended aspiration in the sense that beings are limitless. So it is very difficult even to answer the question which is often posed, "whether there will or not ever come a time at which all beings have been liberated." And this remains what has been called a difficult point. However although we undertake the aspiration to bring all beings without exception to liberation, [tape change and some text might be missing]
Side 2
There are plenty of situations where even as ordinary and afflicted beings ourselves we can plant the seed of liberation in the being of another. For example, if you say the mantra, OM MANI PEME HUNG in the hearing of an animal that has died and so on, you plant the seed of liberation in that being. Anyone who is connected with the Buddha's teaching can do this. It does not require a state of attainment in order to be able to do this. You simply have to know that it can be done and do it.
Again, as was the case with the previous question, I can't assess whether those who are adherents of other religions can or cannot, because I just don't know, but what I can say is that is that those who have no connection to any spiritual tradition whatsoever can't do this because they had no means at their disposal to actually introduce the seed of liberation in another's being. They are those who we'd have to call truly ordinary in the full sense of the term. As unattained beings, who nevertheless have knowledge with which we can benefit others, while we are ordinary beings, we are the best among the ordinary because we have these means at our disposal for the benefit of others.
Question: Rinpoche in the U.S. we tend to so-called put pets to sleep when they are in their last day and when they are suffering a lot. How do you view this?
Answer: I don't think it's a very good thing, because it's true that animals can suffer tremendously when they're dying, and people merely wish to end their suffering. It's much better to attend and assist the animal during its dying process as much as you can, but allow the animal to die naturally rather than hastening its death by giving it the poison. People's motivation in doing this of course, is compassionate; they do it because they think that experience ceases with death, so therefore they think that the remaining experience of the animal is just going to be misery and suffering and they naturally want to spare the animal that suffering. So their motivation is compassionate. But as compassionate as it is it's based on a fundamental misunderstanding, which is the idea that experience ends with death.
The problem with the euthanasia, Rinpoche said, is that it often will precipitate a greater experience of suffering ensuing after the animal has died and we don't recognize that because we can't see it because the animal is no longer inhabiting its body, but for those reasons it's better if you can allow the animal to die naturally.
Question: Rinpoche, when in this process can a near death experience happen? And when it does, what is happening to the life wind. And the other part is, when I've read about near death experience for the most part people are saying that they see a beautiful, wonderful light and are drawn to it. But it seems that here we're saying either we're not going to recognize it or we would be so fearful of it...[transcriber can't understand the very end of this question].
Answer: Well, it seems that the common near death experience is the experience of either appearance or increase so they haven't reached the stage of attainment which is the stage where there is complete shutdown, so they are not at the point where the truly brilliant and threatening lights appear. They're experiencing the whiteness or the redness. And because it involves the shutdown of certain kinds of conceptuality it is experienced as pleasant by them.
Question: Then, so the lifewind is still within...
Answer: Yeah, its power is not entirely used up, otherwise they wouldn't be returning.
Question: Rinpoche, in the process of the lifewind and the... what is reborn, being reborn, in the modern context of scientific let's say artificial insemination or sort of your petrie dish conception taking place in a lab, how is this... I mean I can sort of see the same process of diving in, in a lab, but the whole idea of sort of diving in through an aperture in the male...
Translator: In other words, what takes the place of observing the union of the parents and what becomes the immediate condition? What makes them dive into the petrie dish?
Question: Yes, what are the mechanics of that?
Answer: It basically works the same way, just as it works the same way physically. The consciousness still identifies the substances, the ovum and the sperm, with the same kleshas. The kleshas are not only directed at the individuals they are directed at the substances themselves, the attraction and repulsion. And it's still the same kleshas that cause them to dive in. Because don't forget that the scientific understanding of artificial insemination and so on does not include anything about the way the intermediate being enters because they can't see it.
Question: Right, but in the description it seemed like and I could be confused here, maybe some clarification, it's almost like there is something of the union between the sperm and the ovum, but it was described that sort of....maybe I'm getting confused between the dissolution of the two drops, you know at the beginning thinking there are two distinct things here. Is it that the life wind and consciousness, the all basis consciousness goes into the sperm whether it's in a petrie dish or a man's body?
Answer: Yes.
Question: I have two related questions. When a being, if a being is to recognize the dharmakaya, is then the next step that they then would be capable of choosing a rebirth in a conscious way? And related to that, how then would a tulku go through the bardo?
Answer: Well, to answer your first question, if someone recognizes the ground clear light, they achieve the dharmakaya and at that point they do what any other buddha does. They just engage in boundless activity through emanation of various form bodies, from that point onward until samsara is over. Then to answer your second question, when a nirmanakaya passes from one life to the next they basically can do it any way they want to. And want they want is going to depend on what is going to be of the most benefit to the most beings. So they are not required to pass through a conventional bardo obviously. They may decide to visit the interval in order to benefit or if possible liberate other beings in the interval and there are many stories of nirmanakayas in between lives liberating countless beings in the interval, visiting lower states and liberating beings there and so on, but although they could go to or appear in the interval, they would not experience it as a state of compulsion nor as a state of fear or anxiety.
Question: Rinpoche, how can we use the process of falling asleep on a daily basis to help prepare for the process of death. I've heard that during the falling asleep process we go through, you know, some of the same dissolution and passing through the clear light. How can we use this? Can you elaborate a little more on what exactly occurs when we fall asleep?
Answer: Well, definitely there is a connection between the process of going to sleep and the dissolution at death, and this is one of the reasons why there is the practice of conscious dreaming or lucid dreaming and so on and that is how you develop the ability for this recognition.
Question: Rinpoche the teachings you have given us about the interval of opportunity have given me a very much needed basic education because I did not understand before how these practices, for instance, of Mahamudra and visualization related to opportunities like that. And I thank you profoundly for coming to Hartford and giving us this education. And it raises in my mind the question of opportunities in the interval between birth and death. Of course one knows of stories of great lamas who achieved liberation during their ordinary lives, like Naropa, Milarepa, etc. but the practices as I now understand it, what we do, are aimed at a better chance of achieving liberation during the interval of opportunity. Do I have this right? Are the opportunities in ordinary life that are still so considerable that it's worth aiming for those?
Answer: As you mentioned in your question, individuals like Naropa, Milarepa and many others achieved perfect awakening in this very life, before death and before encountering anything like the interval. As for whether we have the opportunity to do this and to achieve the same thing in this life, in terms of external resources, we do. We have the same dharma that they have, we receive the same instructions they that received and this dharma and these instructions really exist through their kindness. So from the point of view of external resources we have the opportunity.
The problem however, is that in general we don't have the same diligence that they had, we don't have the same discernment that they had, we don't have the same faith and we don't have the same devotion. If we have these things, if we have the same diligence, the same discernment and the same faith and devotion as them, we can and will achieve the same thing they achieved. So in that sense we do have the opportunity.
In general there are said to be three results of Vajrayana practice: the best result is to achieve perfect awakening, Buddhahood, in this very life; the second best result is to achieve it at death or in the interval and that is what we've been talking about it. And then at least, one can achieve it very quickly in a succession of seven or sixteen lifetimes. And this, for example, is the purpose of the practice where you take conscious birth through aspiration in a situation where you will be able to continue Vajrayana practice. The idea is that through further lifetimes you improve, life after life, until you have completed the whole journey.
The point I'm making is that even if we don't achieve Buddhahood in this lifetime, we are still in the very best of situations, because we are immersed in a system of teaching unique among all Buddhist vehicles, which can lead to awakening so quickly. And this teaching is unique to Buddha Sakyamuni, the historical Buddha. Basically, no buddha of the past has taught this and no buddha of the future will. So we are very fortunate in that somehow we have access to teachings that even within the Buddhist traditions in the more long-term sense, are unique.
Question: Rinpoche, am I understanding correctly that when you are reborn in the human realm, you are able to know your parents at that point.
Translator: You mean, before you are born there?
Question: Yeah, when you are jumping in there.
Translator: What do you mean by "know"?
Question: That we are able to see them.
Answer: Yes, you see them and that's why you generate the kleshas, the attachment and aversion that cause the birth.
Question: I've also heard it said that you can see a few years into your life. Is that...?
Answer: Well, in the sense that you already are acquiring a mental body that has the appearance of your future physical body and that would give you some idea, but Rinpoche said, I don't know how precise it is and I don't know if that means you would actually have conscious knowledge, "I'm going to be so and so, the child of so and so and so and so."
Question: Rinpoche, my question concerns dealing with ordinary reality, dream state and also visualization practice. Since I was a child I've had a very interesting connection with reality. At times it seems to me that I have some since of emptiness, some lasting sense and as I've developed my practice that has increased somewhat. However, I think that I've reached kind of a plateau regarding that.
At the same time I also have had a very active dream life, which is occasionally lucid, and have gained some insight from that as well. However, I seem to have a great deal of difficulty with visualization practice. It seems to me like having lucid dreaming, having a sense of emptiness, it would make sense therefore that I would be able to have some connection with visualization practice. However, to me I feel almost blind. I have some sense of it, but it's not visual. And I'm wondering on the one hand, what I'm experiencing. Do you think that I'm somehow deluding myself, that I'm somehow being trapped in my own mind or misapprehending what I am experiencing as emptiness, and the second part would be how I can increase the success with visualization practice?
Answer: Since you have the at least sporadic ability of lucid dreaming, you should try this: in a lucid dream, go to a cliff or precipice or confront something that would normally terrify you like like a predator of some kind and see if these disturb you, because you know you're dreaming. See if the knowledge that you are dreaming prevents you from any way in being afraid of these things.
Or try encountering something that you really like, something that you would really enjoy. And see if the encounter with something with which you are attached produces any kind of disturbance in your mind. If it doesn't, if the lucidity of the dream state causes you to be unaffected by frightening or pleasant images, then that's really good.
With regard to your experience of emptiness, Rinpoche says, it's very difficult simply through your mentioning it to know exactly what it is or what's going on. One thing that it could be is that you somehow had spontaneous experiences of your mind in a state of what's called "natural rest," where your mind simply just comes to a state of natural or unfabricated rest. If that is what you've been experiencing, then you should be able to apply that easily to visualization practice.
To do so, you would start with a fundament of visualization, such as for example, the syllable hrih. And generate a clear appearance of that alone, transferring the state of natural rest with which you are already familiar to the mental focus on the syllable. You should be able to generate clear appearance of that and then gradually extend it to more elaborate visualizations. If that's not what's going on, if that's not what you are experiencing, you may be experiencing a mere absence of mental content which sometimes people experience as a kind of voidness or emptiness. If it's a mere absence of mental content, then it's of no use whatsoever. It's not going to help visualization or anything else. It's just a mental phenomenon like any other.
But with regard to the generation stage in general, we all want clear visualization and we're all very concerned with it, and of course it's excellent if your visualization is clear. There's nothing wrong with that. But the actual clarity of the visualization is not the most important factor. If you can recollect that the form of the deity which you are attempting successfully or unsuccessfully to visualize clearly, is vivid but insubstantial, has the insubstantially but colorful vividness of a rainbow, if you recognize that the deity is insubstantial but vivid, then even if the image is extremely vague, then the practice is successful, because the main point of it is being practiced. It is the insubstantial vividness of the image than is more important than the degree of clarity. It's quite possible that someone might have the technical ability to generate an extremely clear image, but see it as substantial. Under those circumstances, it would be unsuccessful practice of the generation stage.
Thank you, it seems our time is up.
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