Todayand#8217;s FBA Dharmabyte, and#8220;Practising Purely,and#8221; by Varjadarshini, is from the third talk in a five-part series from Tiratanalokaand#8217;s retreat on the and#8220;Four Mind Turningsand#8221; of the Tibetan tradition titled: and#8220;The Transitoriness of Life and the Certainty of Death.and#8221;
Dharmabytes from free buddhist audio
Practising Purely
[music playing] 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 then, at the time of death, only the Dharma is of benefit. So this leads us to, I must practice purely. And I wasn't sure what this meant, I must practice purely. So I thought about it a bit, and in a way, maybe what it means is I must practice with insight in mind. So I must practice with that big perspective, not just in order to be a bit happier, in order to cope a little bit better with samsara, in order to get on with people a bit better. And so what does it mean to practice purely? I think it probably means to practice with insight in mind. So to practice in a way that changes us fundamentally in our deepest self, because that deeper self is all we've got at the point of death, so that needs to be changed. It's not that we're trying to fix samsara, so I think that's a really easy mistake to make, is that going for refuge and Buddhism is about being better at life, being better at samsara. And it's not, because samsara is samsara, and the only solution is to get out of it, to step outside of it, to see through it, whatever image we like to use. And one of the things that we need to do is we need to rely on something other than the material plane. So again, this has been in my mind quite a lot, with my dad's death, is how much I rely on the material plane. And I think this is a really hard one for me, because I am so, I'm quite outer. I don't have a very strong kind of inner life, or, well I think I do in a certain way, but I want to make things, I want things to be manifest, if you see what I mean. So like my practice has always been to work. I like to make shrines, I like to make talks, it's like to kind of manifest something. And just this idea of actually relying on something that is non-material. So where we go in our meditation, where we sometimes go in our meditation, that there is a sort of, there's another kind of plane to existence, however we experience it. And that's where we've got to put our reliance, that's what we've got to start relying on more than the material plane, not that they're kind of separate. But yeah, I was just thinking that I really don't think I would be very good at being dead. I was thinking this yesterday, I had a sort of anxiety about it, and I just thought, oh I really don't think I'd be very good at being dead, because there's nothing to do, which I'm not very good at. And you have to go there on your own, which I'm not very good at. And I was just thinking about how I'm not very good in a way, I'm not very good at solitary retreats, I'm better at kind of people and things and doing things and stuff. And I did, yesterday I was just thinking, oh God, I really must go on solitary and start sort of practicing. Because I really don't think I would be very good, you know. We've given my experience of solitary and I think it might be similar. You've not got any of you familiar stuff around you, you're not at home. This is all these things about being dead that I don't think I'd be very good at. So in a way we are sort of practicing, or being dead in a way, or for dying. So abandoning actions done solely for this life. It's not that those things won't have an effect in this life, they will have an effect. If we develop matter, we develop fearlessness and so on, they will have an effect in this life. But it's abandoning the actions that are done solely for this life and don't have any effect on our most essential core. So another little quote by Lama Guntan Constrone. Not a made up name, I don't think, who says, "The Lord of Death who dwells in the South does not consider the state of your plan. You should speak with him. When he comes to call on you, he will not ask if you are young or old, high or low, rich or poor, ready or not. All are forced to go alone, leaving behind their unfinished works. The thread of life is suddenly broken, like a rope snapping under a heavy load. There is not time for plan making. To die without spiritual knowledge is to die in pathetic helplessness. We hope you enjoyed today's Dharma Bite. Please help us keep this free. Make a contribution at freebuddhistaudio.com/donny. And thank you. [music] [music] [music] You You