Transcript → Q+A w/Andrew | 97 | August 10th, 2023
*I am part of the pdp and last night you spoke about your cat .My cat has cancer and not much time left. How can i help his transition?
*In another session I thought I heard that it is important after death to leave the deceased’s’ body with no interference or procedures for at least 20 minutes.
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Listening to your conversation with Robert Moss, I find myself wondering what the relationship between dreaming and the sambhogakaya after-death state. When I think of the process of death: once I’ve ‘missed’ the dharmakaya ‘realm’ from my lack of ability to recognize/relax into it, and before I anxiously start seeking a womb-door to take a body yet again, and ‘fall through’ that middle realm of ‘the peaceful-wrathful deities,’ how I better understand the sambhogaya process. I imagine that the experience of ‘pure land’ in the after-state, is an aspect of the sambhogakaya. And, focusing on that state and Amitabha ‘keeps one’ from ‘falling’ into the nirmanakaya ‘plunge’. Do I have that at all right?
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Are there any lucid dreaming practices we can use to help get clarity for decision making?
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In Chapter 11 of Dream Yoga you quote Traleg Rinpoche as giving three qualities which distinguish clarity dreams from samsaric dreams ((1) they are gripping/persuasive, (2) the content is weighty and applicable and (3) how the dream came to you and its usually positive nature). Please could you explain these three qualities in more detail as well as how they differ from similar qualities of samsaric dreams (e.g. how can we distinguish a gripping dream of clarity from a samsaric dream which is also gripping)
In his later years, my father, who had dementia, donated thousands of dollars to fake charities–organizations that claimed to help veterans, abused animals, vision impaired individuals, you name it. (Ultimately, we were able to prevent him from doing this, but not before it had made a pretty significant dent in his relatively modest savings.)
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I’d like to believe that since his heart was in the right place, Dad accumulated merit by donating his hard earned money, even though these organizations didn’t actually help anyone except for themselves. What do you think?
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Many NDE’s describe an afterlife of loving support and reuniting with transitioned loved ones. How convincing are these experiences in describing the nature of the afterlife? How are NDE accounts included/explained in Buddhist Dharma?
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How will I know when it is right to apply for long term retreat?
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I understand “regular” coffee stays in the body and can interfere with sleep. How about de-caf? Is the small amount of caffeine in de-caf still a concern?
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How would you advise one to approach dying in a lucid dream? Would it be a good idea to recite a mantra or focus one’s attention at the crown of the head? Or should such practices be reserved for the time of one’s actual death?
