Incarnations, the dead and deities...

This is Barafundle's post from the "psychics, mediums and sensitives thread:"

I admit I haven't read all that's been written here, but, Norbu how does this fit in with the idea of the [url]bardo states described in Buddhism[/url]?

http://www.williamjames.com/transcripts/sogyal.htm

The life is, you see, this life itself; dying is the process of dying, and when the anger, desire, ignorance, all those that obscure our nature of mind, dies, revealing the fundamental luminosity, and then there comes the after-death state, where the clear light, or the intrinsic radiance, appears, which is traditionally in the teaching called the bardo of dharmata.

I believe I've had experience of disembodied people communicating with me on a couple of occasions. Personally I wouldn't want to make any kind of contact. They do their thing and I do mine. If guidance is needed in life I've generally found that there are quite a few live people who are easier to talk to.

To start this off. The idea of communicating with a person who has died would, under normal circumstances, be discouraged because the mindstream of the dead would be distracted from it's task in the death bardo, to realise it's essential nature or to attain an auspicious rebirth. Even family members are not present at the sky burial so that the departed mindstream is not distracted by morning relative.

Rituals, including the reading of the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), would take place during the death process and for a period of, I think, 30 days after the person has died. Reading the Bardo Thodol is to give advice to the mind stream of the dead person on how to negotiate the death process and encourage it to recognise it's own nature and be liberated from the cycle of rebirth.

I seem to remember from "Sacred Pipe" that the Oglala Sioux would not even mention the name of the dead after a similar sky burial ritual had taken place so that the departed soul would not be distracted from their journey. Maybe someone else has read this book and can correct me? (It was 30 years ago I read it and I didn't finish it.)

We can talk about deities and Buddhas and more about the bardo of dying tomorrow!

Norbu

This is Barafundle's post from the "psychics, mediums and sensitives thread:"

To start this off. The idea of communicating with a person who has died would, under normal circumstances, be discouraged because the mindstream of the dead would be distracted from it's task in the death bardo, to realise it's essential nature or to attain an auspicious rebirth. Even family members are not present at the sky burial so that the departed mindstream is not distracted by morning relative.

Rituals, including the reading of the Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), would take place during the death process and for a period of, I think, 30 days after the person has died. Reading the Bardo Thodol is to give advice to the mind stream of the dead person on how to negotiate the death process and encourage it to recognise it's own nature and be liberated from the cycle of rebirth.

I seem to remember from "Sacred Pipe" that the Oglala Sioux would not even mention the name of the dead after a similar sky burial ritual had taken place so that the departed soul would not be distracted from their journey. Maybe someone else has read this book and can correct me? (It was 30 years ago I read it and I didn't finish it.)

We can talk about deities and Buddhas and more about the bardo of dying tomorrow!

Norbu

How does anybody know what actually happens when we pass over.
Nearly all explanations are quotes from sources claiming to have inside knowledge. If I have read it right Buddhist are trying not to be reborn, where as Spiritualists regard re birth as an opportunity to further their development. If that is the case, it would appear that the Spiritualists need the earthly time for progress...This sounds logical to me as if progress is possible "on the other side", why get born in the first place.

Dear Norbu and everyone
I hope it is alright to bring your words here from the "psychics, mediums and sensitives thread"

Dear Flit,

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flit [url][/url]
Norbu, I love the story of your son. The way I see it, his help was unconditional. It is how it should be. The consequences that followed were something that I would say "Oh good!" to, but the reward is simply in the doing, anyway.

Isn't there some kind of principle of cause and effect going on here? Is it that kindness, by definition must be unconditional, and that kindness given tends to attract what we need? Do we need supernatural intervention other than this? It this not just natural?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flit [url][/url]
As I look around, just even yesterday I saw that help for each other, on the streets, in the living, is how it is, anyway, with no thought for what is in it "for me". We share this planet together and can share our love and living, if we chose to make that our focus.

Isn't that about all there is to it? And how much more are we part of this by noticing it? Or do we need the assistance of supernatural beings to persuade us to live like this?

Norbu

I hope it is alright to just try to share....
First,,, do I need assistance?
Yes I do.
Do I need the assistance of something that is super-natural? I am not so sure about that... you say this,, "... just natural?"
I like that idea, that this way of living could be just natural.
But the next word after super-natural is being.
So a super-natural being is a being that could "assist" us when necessary.
Assist us to what?
I see in your words there is the word persuade.
In my experience there is no persuading, not ever, not even a teeny little bit.
Persuading doesn't come into it.

I need to find another word other than super-natural and being.

The word that is easiest for me to use is "Love".
I believe that we all come from a place of Love and Love has many different levels and depths.
We, each of us are 3-d Love here but often we don't know it, we don't feel it, and it doesn't feel like Love living here.

The feeling within of Love assists me in the understanding of the true reality of Love here. There is no persuasion, no expectation of how I should live, there is just one-ness.

When you want to be-Love more than anything, it becomes a life-time living.

I couldn't do this on my own. I can't hug on my own. I can't love alone.
But I can begin to try to understand where the Love is in each situation I encounter and within each living person I meet on this planet I share this space with.

Does it make a difference?
To me, it does.
I can allow myself to reach out to touch to be to know to hear to listen to speak with to laugh to walk with and to laugh with again, I can begin to share joy and tears and oh so so so much I couldn't before.
Yes, Norbu, it is natural, but I wasn't. I was so not natural and yes Love does help me live, simply live, like others seem to be able to oh so naturally anyway.

I am amazed at this living we do and so in awe of how we do this.

Love can be within anyone here, and also from those who are not here. There can be Love within a sunset and in the flowers and really anything that moves me. There is such a depth of Love within the very fabric of our life. This is part of my life-time search, not for something "special" but for the actuality within the reality of this living.

So, now, I can begin to listen to the whisperings within my heart and to feel the way within the depths of my soul.

Norbu, the way I am, is just, I do the best I can to try to understand all this, I hope my sharing is okay.

And finally this string offers a environment for discussing experience or potential for communication or relationship with such beings.

I would just like to discuss the idea first of communication with something such as guides.

I was quite scared at the idea and didn't know what to expect but I asked and then left it to see what evolved.

I decided that if nothing happened, then I would know one of two things... either that I didn't have guides, or that the whole idea was made up. And to be truthful I didn't have an expectation of an answer.

When I did have a response, out of the blue, it was words in my head.
There was no mistaking this,.... they were not my words and it wasn't my inner voice. But, because, it came from within it was part of me and in me.

For this reason, I don't believe that we need to search for what is out there. We are born with ways of communication within us, we just need to begin a journey of rediscovery of the very fabric of our true nature and let the Love that we are overflow out of the very fabric of our being.

All that we are and all that we will be, is in us.