The Tibetan Book of the Dead – Quotes
BUDDHISM IN SUMMARY
“The realized individual is thenceforth held apart from suffering; not held in anything, but held out of binding patterns.”
“The Buddha used the Sanskrit word ‘Dharma’ to designate his Truth or Teaching.”
“Rather than being a founder of religion, he was primarily a critic of religion. He critiqued its absolutist tendencies, its devaluation of human reason, and its legitimation of unreasonable, arbitrary, and oppressive structures of authority. “
TIBETAN IDEAS ABOUT DEATH
“Human life is characterized as being midway between sates of excessive pain and states of excessive pleasure. A being assumes human rebirth from life in other forms by accumulating a vast amount of merit, through deeds of giving, moral interacting, and tolerating, and an equally vast amount of intelligence, through long efforts of developing critical wisdom and penetrating concentration.”
THE TIBETAN SCIENCE OF DEATH
“If we become nothing after death, we will not be there to regret having prepared for something. But if we are something after death, and we have not prepared at all, or are badly prepared, then we will ong feel bitter, painful regret. So we have everything to lose by not preparing, and nothing to gain; we have everything to gain by preparing, and nothing to lose. Should our preparation be for nothing, a little time spent on it in this life will not be regretted for eternity. Should our preparation be for something, the time taken away from it for the sake of this life’s business or pleasure will be deeply regretted for eternity as the waste of a vital resource.”
“Karma means action that causes development and change.”