A Daily Practice For Recognizing the Inner Radiance at the Time of Death
When the time of death arrives, I will adopt an altruistic motivation and concentrate my thinking as follows: ‘I have arrived at the time of death, so now, relying on the process of death, I will single mindedly cultivate an altruistic intention. I will meditate on the generation of loving kindness, compassion and an altruistic intention to attain enlightenment. For the benefit of all sentient beings, who are as limitless as space, I must attain perfect buddhahood. And in particular, [I will think]: ‘At this moment, for the sake of all sentient beings, I will recognize [the time of death as [the arising of] inner radiance, the Buddha-body of reality, and while in that state, I will attain the supreme accomplishment of the Great Seal, and thereby act for the good of all sentient beings. If I do not achieve this accomplishment, then, recognizing the intermediate states as it is, I will actualize the coalescent Buddha-body of the Great Seal during the intermediate state, and thereby, manifesting in order to instruct each in accordance with his or her needs, I will act for the benefit of all sentient beings, who are as limitless as space.’ Without giving up the focus on cultivating an altruistic intention, in the above way, I will recollect the meditative experiences which I formerly developed. When pure inner radiance, reality itself, arises before me, I will recognize it! This radiant essence that is my conscious awareness is a brilliant emptiness. It is beyond substance, beyond characteristics and beyond colour, completely empty of inherent existence in any respect whatsoever. The essence of my own conscious awareness is emptiness. Yet, this is not a vacuous or nihilistic emptiness; This, my very own conscious awareness, is unimpededly radiant, brilliant and vibrant. The utterly indivisible presence of these two: the essence of my own awareness, which is empty, without inherent existence with respect to any substance whatsoever, and my own conscious awareness, which is vibrant and radiantly present, is the Buddha-body of reality. This intrinsic awareness, manifest in a great mass of light, in which radiance and emptiness are indivisible, is the buddha [nature] of unchanging light, beyond birth or death. Just to recognize this is enough! If I recognize this brilliant essence of my own conscious awareness to be the buddha [nature], then to gaze into intrinsic awareness is to abide in the enlightened intention of all the buddhas. I will recognize signs of the dissolution of the elements: I will recognize the shimmering mirage of Earth dissolving, I will recognize the smoke of Water dissolving, I will recognize the fireflies of Fire dissolving, I will recognize the candle flame of Wind dissolving, I will recognize a brilliant whiteness as the White Drop flows downward, I will recognize the brilliant redness as the Red Drop flows upward, I will recognize the blackness as the Red and White Drops meet at the heart. As soon as my respiration ceases, [the luminosity] known as the ‘inner radiance of the first intermediate state’,... will arise. ... all phenomena will become empty and utterly naked like space. [At the same time], a naked awareness will arise, not extraneous [to myself], but radiant, empty and without horizon or center. At that moment, I will personally recognize this intrinsic nature and rest in the state of that [experience]. |
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