Buddhist question about the Tibetan Book of the Dead??

Question

In the second chapter, "A Prayer for union with the Spiritual Teacher [entitled] Natural Liberation, without Renunciation of the Three Poisons", why does the prayer not involve renunciation?

"[Prayer for self empowerment],
...
Without renunciation of ignorance and delusion"

It also abandons renouncing desire and clinging, discordant views and aversion, and the subject-object dichotomy.

I thought that renunciation was very important to buddhists and monks, especially about the likes of desire! So why does the prayer specifically state the absence of renunciation?

Sorry for my ignorance on the matter but I am baffled by this!

Answer 1

Dear Friend,

I normally don't reply to Dharma discussions on the internet, because of it's impersonal nature. It's difficult
to really communicate and correct our thinking.

I hope you can be patient with my lengthy response.
I recommend that you quote the whole prayer so people
can clearly see the context. Fortunately, I have the text that you are referring to.

Taken out of context, a quoted passage can seem confusing. We need to know the level of the view where the passage is speaking from.

WE NEED RENUNCIATION. If you have thinking, you need renunciation. Just understanding a high view is not enough to erradicate the root of suffering, your negative thinking.

I had to respond to this because of a real misinterpretation of the view, meditation, and conduct of Tibetan Buddhism.

View: the nature of reality
Meditation: training the mind (includes aspiration, etc
Conduct: perfection of activity

This passage is an aspiration to be in non-dual union with the GURU who is the "embodiment of the Three Buddha Bodies" or the 3 kayas:

Dharmakaya-Buddha Body of Reality
Sambhogakaya-Buddha Body of Perfect Resource
Nirmanakaya-Buddha Body of Emanation

We need to understand what is the ground, the path, and the result. The ground, or nature, is the Dharmakaya, the path is our thinking, and the result is the realization of the Dharmakaya.

What we are talking about is the view of what the ground Buddha and Result Buddha are. This nature is beyond subject and object. It is perfect wisdom and therefore, as the prayer says, "Natural Liberation, without renunciation of ignorance and delusion...without renunciation of desire and clinging...without renunciation of discordant views and aversions...without renunciation of the subject-object dichotomy." ... Pages 26 and 27 of The Tibetan Book of the Dead.

It's the natural state of liberation that is without renunciation. Not our thinking. We need renunciation.

As a being, which is single present thinking only, we are not Buddhas (yet). We are Path Buddhas in that we have Buddha nature, but have not completely eliminated the cause of suffering, which is our 5 negative thinking. This prayer is an aspiration to accomplish the yoga, or union, with the nature of our thinking which is Buddha, embodied by our guru (according to our devotion and pure perception).

Sound confusing?

This is a prayer which is an aspiration. It is here for us to point to our nature and also point us towards the realization of that Buddha Quality.

If we have thinking, we are not enlightened.

We are on the path. We do not yet have zero negative thinking. While we still have negative thinking, we must have renunciation. Renunciation is our most precious jewel of our positive thinking. It is the root of a path that leads to enlightenment.

What is renunciation? First you need to know who "you" are.
In all universes “I” does not exist.
If something exists, it is the present moment only.
In the present moment,
The past does not exist
The future does not exist.
The Present Moment is almost beyond time
No time, no thinking.
No thinking, no time.

Who am I?
In all universes “I” does not exist.
The body is not “I”
The body does not contain “I”
Outside of the body, “I” does not exist.
and
Thinking is not “I”
Thinking does not contain “I”
Outside of thinking, “I” does not exist.

"I" is only a name or label for our thinking.

I am single present moment thinking only.
I am what I think.
Whatever I think naturally increases.
Thinking is impermanent.
The present moment thinking is the reincarnation of the past moment of thinking.
The present moment thinking will reincarnate as the next moment of thinking
Until I become Buddha, thinking will always reincarnate.

The power of thinking is Karma
Every thinking creates Karma
The past thought is gone, but the Karma of the past thought “remains” in the present moment.

Negative thinking creates negative karma and deletes positive karma.
Positive thinking creates positive karma and deletes negative karma.

Acting with negative intention creates more negative karma and results in my suffering.
Acting with positive intention creates more positive karma and results in my happiness.

All my phenomena is the creation of my Karma.
All my Karma is the creation of my thinking.


Thinking is relative truth.
Relative truth is interdependent origination.

THE REALIZATION OF RELATIVE TRUTH IS ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

Absolute Truth is the non-dual union of interdependent origination and emptiness.

The nature of my present thinking is Vast Awakening.
The nature of my present thinking is:

True Happiness
Zero Negative Thinking
Zero Negative Karma
Boundless Compassion
Immeasurable Wisdom
Indestructible Bliss
Incalculable Luminosity
Unsurpassable Enlightenment

BODHI
BUDDHA
SANGYE
VAST AWAKENING

Renunciation:

Renunciation is the first of our FIVE POSITIVE THINKING.

Our Five Positive Thinking is Dharma. It is the way to true happiness.
Renunciation
Compassion
Faith
Loving Kindness
Wisdom

The object of renunciation is our NEGATIVE THINKING ONLY.

We renounce our 5 negative thinking:
Anger
Jealousy
Greed
Pride
Ignorance

The object of our renunciation is NOT our families, our jobs, our health, our material possessions or our appearance.

We renounce our negative thinking because it is the cause of our suffering and the condition of other’s suffering. Renunciation looks like anger, but the object is our negative thinking. Renunciation is not giving up our stuff or relationships. It is directed solely at our negative thinking.

How do we distinguish between anger and renunciation?
Fear
Fear is anger. We fear the “effect” or experience of suffering and make more suffering. When we reject the experience of the ripening of suffering, we are angry. Which, in turn, creates more suffering.

RENUNCIATION REJECTS THE CAUSE OF SUFFERING: OUR NEGATIVE THINKING

Focusing on the cause frees us to live freely accepting the experience or effect of suffering with no agitation. This acceptance can be called hope because we accept suffering and therefore have courage and perseverance. Our only rejection is our negative thinking.

People fail to see the connection between thinking and suffering. Some think it comes from nowhere like it’s “fate” or “fortune.” Others mistakenly think it comes from circumstances or others such as our parents, friends, enemies, or government.

Believing that suffering just “happens” is like gnawing on the question mark in the statement “WHY?”...It just makes you more angry. You meditate and "chew" on this uncertainty.

Believing that someone caused your suffering increases your suffering because you think you have no control and therefore there is no way out.

On the other hand, suffering has cause and condition:
Your 5 Negative Thinking are your cause. Other's 5 Negative Thinking are your condition.

No one can MAKE you suffer. You need to have the cause present in your mind (negative thinking and Negative Karma, the negative power of your thinking).

Reject the cause. Reduce the cause. Eliminate the cause.
Renounce your negative thinking.

The prayer says:

"How needing of compassion are suffering sentient beings, right here, who are driven on though cyclic existence by delusion and confusion...Because they do not understand that their own mind [thinking] is the Buddha-Body of Reality, free from extremes!
May they all actualise the Buddha-Body of Reality!"

Compassion is helping other's develop and perfect their renunciation (renouncing their 5 negative thinking).

Reading the whole prayer in context and having a teacher explain this will elimanate any confusion. This is why we need a teacher. This is why this prayer was written. To call the teacher to help us clear up our confusion.

How treacherous our path will be if we think that we don't need renunciation. Without renunciation, no compassion. With no renunciation and no compassion, then there's no faith, loving-kindness, or wisdom.

May all beings be free of suffering and negative thinking.

Thank you,
Jigme-La

Answer 2

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is greatly misunderstood in the west. To a great extent this has to do with how it was translated and marketed. Because of western familiarity with the Egyptian "Book of the Dead," the Tibetan book was given this western name. It is really about how to live your life, how to prepare for and transcend death. It is a very complex work and translated without interpretation that makes it relevant to westerners. I usually recommend that people instead read "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dieing" by Sogyal Rinpoche, which elaborates upon the Book of the Dead and places it into context.

With regards to renunciation, the Buddhist view is that there is nothing to renounce. All perceptions, including your perception that you are renouncing something or even that there is something to renounce, are mental formations and do not ultimately and inherently exist. Because Buddhists, especially ordained monks, live such simple and uncluttered lives, people often think that they have "renounced" western ways, materialism, etc. But in fact Buddhist practice is not about renunciation as much as it is about seeing things as they really are. When you realize that everything you perceive as solid and real in the world is merely a dependent arising of countless causes, conditions and perceptions, then you understand the inherent emptiness of all phenomena. If phenomena including your perceptions are empty of any inherent existence, there is nothing left to renounce.

Answer 3

There are different paths in Buddhism, called "gradual" or "sudden." Renunciation is part of the gradual path and is not what you think. It is not "giving up" pleasure, but is the natural recognition that temporary pleasure brings pain (which leads to letting go).

The "sudden" path involves a recognition of the very nature of the mind itself...it is the mind seeing it (the mind) is both empty of substance and yet luminous (i.e., "illuminates" by seeing, byu cognition). In the latter, there has to be a complete letting go and, therefore, automatically incorporates any notion of "surrender" or any other provisional practice. It is the ultimate goal, near to Buddhahood.

Answer 4

Hi,

I am not going to try and answer your question from some bogus 'position' of 'knowledge', because I am no 'expert' on Buddhism. I am just offering my understanding in the hope that maybe it triggers something useful, and if not .... well .... then it doesn't really matter too much, does it ? ;-)

There are hundreds, maybe thousands, of variants on the general theme of Buddhist thought. Some do seem to promote rather harsh renunciation as a 'fast track' to understanding, and some are much more 'relaxed'. My own understanding is that Gautama Siddhartha tried many paths to reach his goal, and in the end he found the 'Middle Way'.

According to the story he didn't do this walled up in a monastery in Tibet, deprived of food, water, human company, he did it sitting quietly under a tree.

He did, again, as I understand it, 'conjure' up his 'demons', his innermost and darkest fears, and faced them, and went 'through' them, and finally he saw them for what they were, just illusions fabricated by his own perceptions.

In modern day terms I think that he 'real'-ised that the world of physical manifestation is the exact oppposite of what it seems, there is no 'objective reality' remote from our perceptions, there is no 'objective reality' at all. There is us, the collective Cosmic Observer, creating the physical realm by the very act of imagining it, and observing it, and making of it whatever we choose to make.

In the light of this perspective it seems to me that a rejection of renunciation makes perfect sense .... if that makes sense to the subject. ;-)

How many 'Buddhas' are there ?

What did the Buddha tell to do if we saw him in our path ?

There is no 'Path', there is only the 'path' that each of us chooses.

Just my thoughts. Be well.

Just read Buddhamonkeyboy's answer and couldn't resist editing in a 'star', thanks very much. I love that book. :-)

Answer 5

In the Buddhist world-view, a person after death faces scenes from the karmic residue of his previous life. Such scenes, according to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, are often nightmarish or wrathful in some stages of the intermediate state. Those who cannot reconcile with the effects from their past life may be caught in the intermediate realm, haunting the persons from that life as ghostly spirits until they can admit the fact of their death and accept their new destiny. The point of reading the Tibetan Book of the Dead is to be prepared for such experiences and visions, and through spiritual intent to navigate oneself in their midst toward the most beneficial rebirth, if not complete liberation from the cycle. Sometimes this text is read to the bodies, and hopefully the spirits, of the departed for their support and encouragement.

Craving, aversion and delusion are everybody's problem and are referred to in the Buddhadharma as the three poisons or the three roots of unskillfulness. A person who has extinguished these three poisons in himself is called holy. One who aims to practice Bodhisattva Dharma should practice generosity, compassion and wisdom, which are the antidotes for these three roots of unskillfulness. It is said that if the protecting embankment of the precepts is broken, the evil waves of the three poisons will overflow, flooding and destroying the personality.

Answer 6

You might ask it again during the day. There are a couple of Buddhists who are in here at that time.

I'll star the question, also, to draw attention to it.

Answer 7

There are many people who would laugh at the prospect of altering their fates. This is due to the fact that it thinks that nobody gets more that exactly what is written in his destiny.

Answer 8

In the beginning one adopts ethical behavior; in the middle the Prajnaparamita; at the end, one abandons all views.

Answer 9

My friend, I don't know the answer. I starred the question. I hope someone who does know the answer posts a good reply. It is really a very intelligent question.

Answer 10

I can't find my copy but in the clear awareness that is first experienced at death everything is enlightenment. Everything is enlightenment now. When ignorance and delusion are seen for what they are, they are enlightenment. ~ : )