Death and Deathlessness (Link #559)

What this episode covers

Speaker: Abba Hatcher. Abba applies the Madhyamika teachings on selflessness and absolute reality to the experience of death and impermanence. The death of her mother led her to contemplate the unity of the "two wings of the bird": the relative view of the appearance of death and the absolute, nondual view of the reality of deathlessness. When we mistakenly take the self to be real, independent, unitary and permanent, we separate ourselves from others and accept a dualistic view of the world defined in terms of subject-object relationships. The need to protect the self arises from this view, generating a fear of death. To protect the self from death and from our fear of death, we resist its reality along with all forms of impermanence. This view only generates more suffering. It is by realizing the selflessness of the self that we dissolve dualism and apprehend the nondual nature of absolute reality that excludes nothing. Such contemplations prepare us for the challenges we face when we die and enter the bardo.

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