Use Your Life Wisely

Venerable Sangye Khadro leads a guided meditaiton contemplating our death with a focus on using this meditaiton to gain clarity about the meaning and purpose of our life, and how to use it to benefit others and ourselves in the best possible way.

Transcript

So,

Some of you are familiar with the idea of bodhicitta,

The altruistic intention to become a Buddha for the benefit of all living beings.

So,

If you're familiar with that and comfortable with that,

You can bring that into your mind as your reason,

Your motivation for joining this session and the other activities of the day.

So,

You can just recall that all living beings are suffering just as we are but don't want to suffer.

And they want to be happy just as we do,

But they often lack happiness,

Especially real long-lasting happiness,

Genuine happiness,

The happiness that comes about from positive states of mind,

Love,

Passion,

Wisdom.

And also,

We lack the highest happiness of liberation and enlightenment,

Although we do have the ability,

The potential to achieve those states of perfect peace and happiness.

So,

The altruistic intention is to aspire or even further than that,

To determine to do whatever we can,

Whatever we need to do in order to reach enlightenment ourselves so that we can help all other living beings reach that state as well.

And reaching enlightenment involves many different things such as learning the Dharma,

Practicing the Dharma,

Trying to live the Dharma as much as we can in our lives.

So,

You can think that that's your reason for participating in this session.

And any of you who are listening who are not so familiar with that way of thinking or not so comfortable with that way of thinking,

An alternative would be just thinking,

I want to make my life beneficial as much as I can for other people and for the world.

And I want to learn ways that I can do that.

I realize I need to work on myself.

I need to try to make my own mind more positive and less disturbed by emotions such as anger and anxiety and so on.

So,

I want to learn something here today that will help me to do that,

Help me to help others and to help the world.

So,

That might be a motivation that you are comfortable with.

So,

Bring that into your mind as your reason for participating in this session.

So,

For today's meditation,

I thought it would be beneficial to meditate on what is probably the most powerful manifestation of impermanence and that is death.

And it's kind of a tricky topic because our instinctive response to this whole idea of death and dying is probably to recoil from thinking about it or talking about it.

But the Buddha recommended that we do meditate on it and by doing so,

We gradually become more comfortable with it,

Less fearful of it and it has many beneficial repercussions on us and in our life.

So,

The usual way of doing meditation on death in the Lamrim,

The stages of the path to enlightenment,

Is by way of the nine-point meditation on death.

So,

I thought that we don't really have the time to do justice to all nine of the points in this session,

But I'll focus on some of the main points.

So,

The first main point is that death is definite.

This means that it's something that we will have to face one day,

But it's something that happens to everybody else.

No one is exempt from having to die.

So,

Here we try to wrap our mind around the fact that we are immortal.

We won't be here forever,

But one day we will have to die.

So,

A good way to get a sense of this is to think about how there have already been billions of people on this planet who have been born and have died since the beginning of humanity.

So,

Spend some time thinking about that and then reminding yourself that just as those people had to die,

One day it will be my turn.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You can also think about the people you yourself have known since your life began,

People who were part of your life,

Family members,

Neighbors,

Friends,

Teachers and so on,

Who have already passed away.

And then again remind yourself that's going to happen to me one day as well.

Thank you.

So we tend to make many plans for the future,

What we hope to do or need to do in the coming days,

Weeks,

Months and years.

But among our plans do we include death,

Dying?

Do we make plans for that?

After all that's really the only thing that will definitely happen in our lives.

All the other things we plan for are uncertain.

And that leads us to the next main point which is the time of our death is uncertain.

We can't be sure when it will happen.

Sometimes we might think or feel,

I'm not so old,

Death only happens to old people.

But think again.

Bring to mind examples of people you know or have heard of who died when they were still young,

Even as children or teenagers.

So age has nothing to do with when death happens to us.

And also the state of our health has nothing to do with it.

We might think that death only happens to people who are seriously ill and that's not me,

I'm healthy.

So it won't happen anytime soon.

And I think again,

Illness is only one cause of death but there are many others like accidents,

Natural disasters,

Being murdered,

Just dying in your sleep.

I bring to mind examples of people you know or have heard of who have died in such ways.

You Sometimes we might feel strong,

Full of energy,

Even invincible,

But life is actually quite fragile.

Even something as small as a bullet or a microscopic virus can rob us of all our energy and vitality and our very life itself.

So these kinds of thoughts might make us feel uncomfortable,

Even scared.

But that's not the purpose of the meditation,

Just to induce fear.

Rather,

The purpose is to realize that our life,

Our precious human life is limited in time so that we use it wisely in ways that are meaningful and beneficial for ourselves and others as much as we can.

And that's the purpose of the next main point in the meditation,

Looking at what will help us at the time of our death.

Here we look at three things.

One is material things,

All our possessions,

Our belongings,

Money,

House or apartment,

Clothes,

Books,

Furniture,

All of our electronic devices,

And so on.

All these material things we collect during our lives,

Can they help us at the time of death?

They might help us be comfortable and enjoy ourselves as we're getting close to death,

But when death actually happens,

We can't take any of these things with us.

We have to leave them all behind.

We can't even take one cent,

One dollar,

One piece of clothing.

And then there are people,

Family,

The friends that we stay connected with during our life.

They might be able to give us a certain amount of help as we're approaching death,

Psychological,

Emotional support,

Physical support,

But when death actually happens,

They too have to be left behind.

Even if one of our dearest friends wanted to go with us,

When we die,

That's just not possible.

We go alone,

Leaving everyone behind.

And then there's our body,

Which has been our constant companion from the very beginning,

Of our life.

And we've had lots of fun with our body.

We probably tend to identify with our body.

This is me.

But that too will be left behind when we die.

So according to Buddhism,

Death is the point at which our mind,

That part of us that experiences things,

Thinking and feeling and knowing and experiencing,

So that part of us,

Which is like a continuously flowing stream,

Not a physical thing,

But non-physical,

Non-material,

Just mere awareness.

So our mind leaves our body,

Separates from our body,

The physical part of us,

And goes on and will take another life,

A rebirth.

Death is not a total end of our existence.

It's just a change,

A transformation from one life to another.

So our body,

Our family and friends,

Our material possessions can't really help us at the time of death.

They have to be left behind.

And also,

If we have strong attachment to any of these things,

That could be a hindrance to being able to die peacefully.

Because from the Buddhist point of view,

And it's true for all religious and spiritual traditions,

The most important thing is to be able to die with a state of mind that is calm and peaceful,

Accepting,

Not fighting or resisting what's happening,

Not attached to anything we're leaving behind,

But ready to go to what comes next with confidence,

With clarity,

With positive thoughts and feelings in our mind.

So that's the ideal way to die.

So what will enable us to die in such a way,

To die with such a state of mind?

So the Buddhist answer to that,

And again,

I'm sure it's true for all religious and spiritual traditions,

Is spiritual practice,

Religious practice that we engage in during our life.

So this will help us die with a positive,

Peaceful state of mind.

But since according to Buddhism,

Our mind doesn't end,

But it goes on to another life.

The only thing we do take with us into the next life is our karma,

Seeds or imprints left on our mind by the actions that we do during our life.

And if we do good actions,

Virtuous actions,

They leave seeds on our mind that will bring good experiences,

Good rebirth,

Pleasant,

Happy experiences in our next life.

But negative actions,

Harmful actions that we do like killing,

Stealing,

Being deceitful,

Being selfish and so on,

These leave imprints in our mind that will bring about painful and pleasant experiences in our next life.

So it's only natural that we want good experiences and not bad ones.

So it's up to us.

It's not up to anyone else like a creator,

God,

A judge who decides where we go and what happens to us.

We are the creators of our own future experiences,

Good or bad.

Now,

If that makes sense to you,

Then it should make sense that we try the best we can during our life to refrain from doing harmful actions,

Negative unethical actions,

Killing and stealing and so on,

And we try our best to do virtuous positive actions like helping others,

Being generous,

Living ethically.

So if we do this,

It will be beneficial for our next life and the causes for good rebirth and good experiences next time and avoid painful bad experiences.

But living in this way will also enable us to have a more peaceful,

Calm,

Positive state of mind at the time of death as we are dying.

Now,

Contemplate these ideas.

See if they make sense to you and if you can,

Make such a determination to live your life in this way.

You So now,

Some of you listening might have doubt about this whole idea of rebirth.

Our mind goes on and takes another life after this one.

It is difficult to be sure of that,

But try at least to keep your mind open to that possibility.

After all,

It was taught by the Buddha.

He spoke about it numerous times in numerous ways in his teachings.

So why would he talk about it if it wasn't true?

Was the Buddha someone who would lie to us,

Deceive us?

And some people will say,

Well,

The Buddha only talked about it because it's what everybody believed in.

So he was just talking in accordance with people's beliefs.

But that isn't true.

It was actually a hot topic at that time with different religious teachers saying different things.

Some agreed with it,

And some denied it,

Rejected it.

And the Buddha wasn't someone who would just go along with what people thought if it wasn't true.

For example,

He rejected the idea of a soul or an atman,

Permanent person that goes to future lives.

He also didn't agree with the practice of sacrificing animals in the caste system.

So he would speak out if he didn't agree with something.

But he didn't reject rebirth.

Instead,

He taught it.

So you can ask yourself,

Why did he teach it?

And anyway,

The most important thing to take away from this meditation is to feel some determination to live our lives wisely,

Carefully,

Refraining from harmful,

Non-virtuous actions as much as we can,

Doing positive,

Virtuous actions as much as we can,

Living an ethical life to the best of our ability and acquainting our minds with positive mental states such as loving kindness and compassion and wisdom,

Joy,

Equanimity.

If we live our lives in this way,

It's definite.

At the time of death,

We'll be able to have a positive state of mind and die peacefully.

And if there is another life,

Well,

That will go well.

You you

Reviews

Inspiring guidance to focus on impermanence as a motivation to live a kind life. Very accessible to all types of practitioners. In gratitude

Thank you so very kindly for that, specifically this topic much gratitude!
Namaste 🙏🏼 🌺

« Live your life wisely «  🥰🧘 Thank you! 🙏

Thank you, wise transforming words!