In todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Ted Hughes on the Bardo Thodol and#8221; Candradasa reads a fascinating, poetic rendering of this ancient Buddhist text on death and dying.
From the talk, and#8220;Death and the Biggest Questions of Alland#8221; 2005, as part of series: and#8220;Religion Without Godand#8221; given at the Portsmouth (NH, USA) Buddhist Center, 2012.
[music] Dharma Bites is brought to you by Free Buddhist Audio, the Dharma for your life. Our work is funded entirely by donations from our generous listeners. If you would like to help us keep this free, make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. Thank you, and happy listening. So I want to finish by just reading a passage from the Tibetan Book of the Dead. A completely different tradition of looking at death in a Buddhist context, but that has its seed and its origin in that vision of the Buddha, looking back with his divine eye and seeing how all this continues in a way regardless of your life and regardless of your death, but including your life and including your death all quite beautifully. Now again, this is Ted Hughes. Ted Hughes translated to bits, or did a version of bits of the Tibetan Book of the Dead, and I'm just going to read you one section. Interestingly, he sets it up as a drama with different voices, a bit like Shakespeare again, where all players on the stage. Am I to be plunged forever in the fleshly anguish of an earthly existence? I am a being of evil karma. I am a slave of evil karma. Evil karma drives you to the doors of wombs. I see males and females. I see males embracing females. Keep from between them. The womb opens between them. Regard them as our guru and as the divine mother. Bow down before them, worship with order, exercising faith now, closing the womb. The male stirs me to hatred, but the female draws me in longing. Abandon attraction and repulsion. Your evil karma veraciously hungers for rebirth. Resolve now, never to act upon attraction or repulsion. Hold your resolve, closing the womb. Days as I am by evil karma, the harry desire I have been by the bardo, the four elements in eruption and the unrelenting voices. All your experience is but a mirage, mirrored or echoed. All your experience, all is unreal. Meditate on this. Your lust or belief in their reality will fade from you. What is to be gained lusting for attachment to these illusions? What advantage, fleeing and terror from these illusions? All is unreal. Draw this teaching into your mind's inner continuum, closing the womb. Very different kind of take on this. But again, in terms of texture and feeling, I think it engenders a certain sense of urgency. Whatever your motivation or inspiration to practice the Dharma, whether it's something to do with this life's experience or whether it's something to do with the excitement of ideas or a vision that you've been inspired by, life and death are calling us. How will we answer? How will we act? How will we answer? How will we act? We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donate. And thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
