Which means that this life that we’re in at the moment is very temporary as well, and will not last for more than a few hundred more months, at most. Luckily, this is not who we are.
Me, for example, I’m 25 years old (yah!). I’m a Buddhist. I’m either American or English (depending on how I feel). I currently live and work in Denver, Colorado, I don’t have a lot of money in my bank account, but luckily or foolishly I don’t care too much. My mother is called Sally, my friend is called so and so. I am currently looking after a foster kitten called Dexton. I do a bit of editing. I like walking in the Botanical Gardens. Etc. I used to live here, there, everywhere. This is who I am.” But of course that’s not who we are! (Certainly not who you are – but also not who I am!) Nowhere close. We don’t really know who we are unless we understand our mind.
As a friend of mine put it the other day, we need to embrace the consciousness that is at the heart of life. For our life is our mind, our mind is our life. If we think about what life is, it is animation, isn’t it? It is awareness, it is experience, it is mind. It’s not body. Shantideva goes so far as to say that we are animated corpses! When we see a dead body, especially if it belonged to someone close to us, it is clear that it is not them, that they’ve left.
Our life, our mind, is continuously becoming, continuously flowing. From life to life we go through stages of consciousness — we’re alive, then we go through the death process, then we go through an intermediate state or “bardo”, which is like a dream state, after which we “wake up” in another life. You can read about this cycle of consciousness in the chapter on Understanding the Mind in Introduction to Buddhism. With powerful mindfulness and concentration we can be cognizant of this cycle of consciousness and remember past lives – without mindfulness we can barely remember what we had for lunch last Wednesday. Based on his first-hand experience, Buddha Shakyamuni and many other realized meditators since his time have had a lot to say about the cycle of life. For example, Clear Light of Bliss gives a very detailed description of what happens during the death process from the subjective point of view of the person who is dying rather than the onlookers. (This is very helpful for us and also helps us help others who are dying.)
Does anyone remember their dreaming last night? I dreamt that I was about to crash in an airplane. I’m happy to say
If we understand and identify our life as our mind, and if we understand that our mind is beginingless and endless, we start to get a very, very different understanding of who we are, do we not? We understand we are travelers, that this life is a detail — to be honest it’s got no more substantial reality than last night’s dream. It feels endless while it’s going on because of our permanent grasping. We think that this is all that there is. It’s me and this body and these friends, this job, this house, etc. It feels like it is really going on while its happening, doesn’t it? But, when we die it disappears like last night’s dream. Sometimes a dream seems to go on forever – but the moment we wake up it has gone. This life is like that. As we approach our death, we’ll see that this life was a completely fleeting dream-like appearance. It feels real because of our ignorance, because we’re grasping it as real, not because it is real. We’re also grasping it as if it is permanent, but that doesn’t mean that it is. We need to question appearances more deeply if we are to figure out who we are and what is going on.
Part 4 is here.
11 Comments
Let’s get to Buddhahood as quick as we can 🙂
Hi Luna! Love your blog! I up-graded my phone one day last week and I now have a phone that works for the internet, so I now can follow you on my phone! Thank you for all your inspiring articles! I always get something out of them. I like the bit in this article where you say our mind is our life and our life is our mind:)
A smart phone indeed 🙂 Thank you for your kind comment.
Wonderful article Luna, very useful and profound, helps me not to grasp so much to this body and this life, but to understand we are passengers for a certain period of time, having this experience , our real nature will never die.
Our mind goes on forever, so it is so important that we get it under control once and for all. x
This is a great post that helps me stay more in the now;)
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Thanks Tom, glad you like it.
Thank you for sharing your kind wisdom. Your article has helped me loosen my self grasping
Great 🙂
I love to read your posts 😃 they remind me of the true reality of life ! Getting my shopping today I saw people buying for Christmas some with mountains of food to match their life style others with tiny amounts which looked like they were living in the moment happy to be in it too enjoying fresh small amount of food but looked very happy and healthy 😉 a lady serving on one till looked very stressed while another serving was trying to cheer her up 😔 some of the staff really do not enjoy serving at Christmas but it comes and goes in a flash if they could realise this they would enjoy their days much more even when there are disgruntled customers with minds stressing over who has the biggest Turkey !
Holiday season can be extra stressful due to heightened expectations ~ may everyone live in the moment, peacefully.