THE MOMENT YOU CAN'T AVOID OR ESCAPE - YOUR DEATH

I have copied and pasted the special prayer below from http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2010/07/a-prayer.html

I feel that it is something valuable and meaningful that I can share with everyone.

There are so many people in our lives, so many friends, family members and even strangers that we have yet to meet - I asked myself, what is the best gift that I can give to each of them or all of them?

I found the answer in this very precious poem/prayer.

I feel that it is the best gift I can give you because it will help you think, even reciting it will bring much blessings because it is written by the Grand Master of the Gelugpa Tradition. He is noneother than HH Pabongka Rinpoche. You can read more about this glorious Master in http://blog.tsemtulku.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/2010/07/pabongka-rinpoche-18781941.html

Believe me when I say that the Buddhists in the world cannot have what we have today without this great Master's selfless extraordinary deeds. The Gelugpa cannot have what they have today for sure if it was not for him.

In HEARTSPOON - Pabongka illustrates for all of us to see and contemplate on the real meaning of our lives - beyond the fun, excitement, wealth, pleasures and etc.

He brings our minds to the truth and that is, at the end of it all, we all shall have to face the moment we cannot escape, or hide, or run from. No, we cannot avoid it. It is the only sure thing in our lives - that is, our moment of death.

In other words, if we do understand DEATH - we will understand LIFE. Only then, we will begin to live a life that is filled with purpose, passion, conviction and joy.

Otherwise, we are merely chasing after temporal pleasures and illusions or delusions.

WE will never know the true meaning of lasting happiness.

So, I would like to share this priceless poem and prayer with you in hope that it will become the guiding light in your life. As I cannot be there physically to listen to your problems or comfort and console you, may this bring you much solace and blessings.

Read it a few times if you have to, it is worth it.


HEARTSPOON by Kyabje Pabongka Rinpoche
Ah, the hurt!

Kind Lama, look to this pitiful one—

How I behave and how I’ve cheated myself my entire life.

Please, look upon this mindless one with compassion.


The essential advice to give yourself—Heart-Spoon—

Keep it deep within your heart.

Don’t be distracted; don’t be distracted!

Reflect upon the state of your life from the essential drop at your heart.

Since beginningless cyclic existence, which hasn’t ended up to now,

Though you’ve experienced countless cycles of rebirths—

Just so many variations on happiness and pain—

You’ve achieved not the slightest of benefit from them.


And though at present you’ve attained leisure and fortune so difficult to find,

Always till now, they’ve finished and been lost, have been empty and without meaning.

Now, if you care about yourself,

The time has come to practice the essence of future happiness— virtuous actions.


You appear so capable, smart, and clever, but you’re a fool

As long as you cling to the child’s play of the appearances of this life.

Suddenly you’re overwhelmed by the fearful Lord of Death

And, without hope or means to endure, there’s nothing you can do.

— This is going to happen to you!


Because you think, “I’m not going to die for some time, I’m not going to die for some time,”

While you’re distracted by the never-ending activities of this life,

Suddenly the fearful Lord of Death arrives,

Announcing, “Now it’s time to die.”

— This is going to happen to you!


Though you make arrangements, saying “tomorrow” and “tomorrow,”

Just then, suddenly, you have to go.

— This is going to happen to you!

And without choice, leaving behind in disarray

Your left-off work, left food and drink, you have to depart.

— This is going to happen to you!


There’s no time other than today to spread [your bedding] and go off to sleep;

Upon your last bed you fall like an old tree,

And others, unable to turn you with their [lily]-soft hands,

Tug at your clothes and blanket.

— This is going to happen to you!


Even if you completely wrap [your body] in last under and outer clothes,

Still you have no freedom to wear them other than just today,

And when [that body] becomes as rigid as earth and stone,

You behold for the first time your own corpse.

— This is going to happen to you!


Though you struggle to speak your last words,

Your will and expressions of sorrow,

Pitifully your tongue dries up, and you can’t make yourself clear—

An intense sadness overwhelms you.

— This is going to happen to you!

Though others put your final food, holy substances, and relics

With a trickle of water into your mouth,

You’re unable to swallow even a single drop,

And it overflows from the corpse’s mouth.

— This is going to happen to you!

Though surrounded by a circle of close relatives, heart-friends, and those near to your heart,

And even though they’re loving and distressed at the ending of your being together,

While crying and clinging,

Just then, you have to separate forever.

— This is going to happen to you!

Though you [experience] horrific hallucinations like a turbulence of waves

And are overcome by unbearable, excruciating pain,

Pitiful though you may be, there’s nothing to be done;

The appearances of this life are setting [like the sun].

— This is going to happen to you!


Though with unbearable compassion your lama and vajra-friends

Plead in your ear for a critical virtuous thought to arise,

And even though they do so with loving minds,

There’s no hope; it’s unthinkable.

— This is going to happen to you!

With an [expelled rasping] sound, “sor…sor…,” [at the time of death]

The movement of your breath builds faster and faster,

Then breaks like the string of a violin

And the end of your life has come to its close.

—This is going to happen to you!

There’ll come a time when your cherished and sadly lost lovely body

Is called “corpse”—disgusting and rotten,

And a time when your body, which can’t bear even rough bedding and mattress,

Is laid out on bare ground.

— This is going to happen to you!

There’ll come a time when your body, which can’t bear even a thorn,

Is chopped to pieces and [from the bone] its flesh is torn,

And a time when your body, which can’t stand even fleas and lice,

Is devoured by birds and dogs till nothing’s left.

— This is going to happen to you!


Though you [go to so much trouble blowing] “pur…pur…,” in dressing your body in the finest of clothes,

There’ll come a time when that body is placed within a burning house,

And your body, which can’t tolerate even the fire of [a glowing stick of] incense,

Must be burned in the midst of a fiery conflagration.

— This is going to happen to you!


There’ll come a time when, entering into roaring flames, all your flesh and bones are burned

And [reduced to] a pile of ash;

Or a time when your body, which can’t bear even heavy cloth,

Is wedged tight in a hole in the ground.

— This is going to happen to you!

There’ll come a time of the announcing, “the deceased, _______, him- or herself,”

At the beginning and end of your sweet name.

— This is going to happen to you!

And a time when the area is filled with the sobbing sounds

Of your affectionate, close companions and circle of servants.

— This is going to happen to you!

There’ll come a time when your clothes, hats, possessions, and livestock will be divided up

With nothing left in the four directions and corners,

And there’ll come a time when, in total despair, alone,

You reach the passage to the intermediate state.

— This is going to happen to you!


The terrors of the four fearful enemies descending upon you are going to come:

The appearance of being trapped under a mountain of packed rock and rubble,

And buried beneath a furious avalanche of earth— what to do?

The appearance of being set adrift on the surface of a vast sea

And carried away by violent, swirling waves—what to do?

The experience of your heart and ears being split open

By the sizzling and crackling sounds of a fiery conflagration— what to do?

The fearful experience of being enveloped and swept away

By the swirling dark winds of the end of an eon— what to do?


When you’re driven by the powerful red winds of karma

And swallowed up by a terrifying darkness—what to do?

When you’re bound with a lasso by the messengers of Yama

And, in total despair, are led away—what to do?

When you’re tortured in so many detestable ways

By ox- and scorpion-headed karmic agents—what to do?

When you’re before the Yama king, the Lord of Death,

As he weighs up the whites and blacks—your virtuous and non-virtuous actions—what to do?


When Yama exposes your lie of having spent

Your human life in attachment, hatred, and deceit— what to do?

When at Yama’s court the punishment that is the ripening effect

Of your negative actions [is meted out]—what to do?


When your naked body is stretched out on the glowing red-hot iron

ground in the fires of hell—what to do?

Though your body is cut to pieces by a rain of weapons,

Still you must experience it without dying—what to do?

Though you’re cooked in molten iron until your flesh falls away and your bones disintegrate,

Still you must experience it without dying—what to do?

Though your body and fire burn inseparably,

Still you must experience it without dying—what to do?

When your body is pierced by a freezing cold wind

And cracks into a hundred thousand pieces—what to do?

Having fallen into the miserable state of a hungry ghost with its hunger and thirst,

You have to starve for many years—what to do?

When you’ve become one of those stupid, dumb, unfortunate animals

That eat each other alive—what to do?

When the unbearable sufferings of the evil-gone realms

Have actually befallen you—what to do?

Now! Don’t be distracted! [With the sounds of hurrying] “la…ur…la…ur…,”

Right this moment is the time to steel your will.


It’s not only time—it’s almost too late.

Right now! Right now! “La…ur…la…ur…,” [apply yourself with] great force!


Holy precept of the lama, kind father;

Heart of the authoritative scriptures of the Victorious Losang;

Practice of the pure path of complete sutra and tantra;

It’s time to place real experience upon your mindstream.


Who’s the faster:

Yama, the Lord of Death,

Or you in your practice of realizing the essence of your eternal dream—

The welfare of both yourself and others—as much as you can each day?

Unifying the three doors [of your body, speech, and mind,

Put the whole of your effort into your practice.

COLOPHON

In response to a request in the past from Ngawang Nyandrag, who singlepointedly dedicated his life to practice, and a recent request from the manager of the Potala, Pelshi Kunngo Sönam Kunga, I was persuaded [to compose] for myself and all others "Heart-Spoon: Encouragement through Recollecting Impermanence". I, with the incarnation name of Pabongka, wrote this text at Tashi Dechen Monastery at Drula in the district of Kong.
[It was translated into English from Tibetan by Lama Zopa Rinpoche and Gelong Jampa Gendun at Chenrezig Institute on the auspicious occasion of its twentieth anniversary, September 1994.
Whatever merit may have been accumulated through the translation of these profound holy vajra-words of Pabongka Dechen Nyingpo—Heruka in human form—may they immediately and completely fulfill all his vast and profound wishes. And may anyone who touches this text, sees, hears, recalls, or practices it receive the blessings of holy Pabongka upon their mindstream and may they and all other sentient beings have the realization of impermanence in terms of death—the basis of the Lesser, Perfection, and Vajra Vehicles—and, quickly actualizing bodhicitta, may they all swiftly reach buddhahood.]


MAY GOODNESS AND VIRTUE FLOURISH


( A wonderful prayer to do daily to help us remember reality. Anything by Kyabje Pabongka would be tremendously beneficial. He never existed for himself but only for others..How fortunate we are to even hear his holy name.... Tsem Tulku)

Personal Thoughts to share:-

Now I know that I definitely did not understand life or death because I have taken so much for granted and thought that I could get away with it all. I had no regard for Karma because I thought it will all end at death. How foolish I was! Yes, I was a fool to think that I could just waste myself away and not face the consequences.

I no longer wish to waste one life after another. I truly would like to retain everything that I have the good fortune to learn, and take it with me to my next life. I would like to begin my next life with a 'head-start'. No more time and energy wasted in getting lost and then finding myself. This is the reason I want to go all the way. Hopefully at some point, I will begin to be less of a burden, and more of a benefit to everyone around me - including myself.

Heartspoon is beautiful, moving and precious. It is indeed the spoon that scoops the most prized jewel from the heart for us to 'digest'. As Pabongka wrote it with his heart to benefit others, Rinpoche has shared this from his heart to benefit us all.
We are truly well loved by so many great Masters. It is time to act and practice with all our might and heart.