Theos-Talk Archives (November 1999 Message tl00194)

In a message dated 11/16/99 12:52:06 PM Central Standard Time,
gschueler@iximd.com writes:

> I think that most people
>  would agree that the life review comes prior to death (I have had several
of
>  these when death seemed imminent but didn't happen). Very few NDEs include
>  it.  The Tibetan Book of the Dead does agree with a preview of the next
>  upcoming life,
Hello,

There is the judgment scene in Yama's court which is sort of a moral
self-assessment.

>  I still say, for a variety of reasons, that your "immortal ego" is a
>  mayavic illusion. The "akasic" or akashic records are on the causal plane,
>  and it is only the "aroma" of each life that gets stored there. These
>  "records" form the skandhas of each reincarnation.

Two issues here.  First, according to Tibetan Buddhism, most ordinary
humans do not _have_ a "causal body."  Or at least, one that is
individualized.
To review, according to Tibetan Buddhism, the absolute is self-luminous
(svaprakasa) intrinsic awareness that has a male karuna-aspect (upaya) and a
female wisdom-aspect (prajna) that at the Adi-level, Samanabhadra, is
sovereign
mind and the great mother of infinite space.  There are really three
interdependent
elements here that will become, in one respect, the three gunas at a lower
level,
and in another, the spiritual elements (tanmatras) that in their tamasic
aspect, combined with the others, become the physical elements.  In their
subtle form,
these five elements correspond to the five skandhas (in their sattvic aspect)
and in their purest form to the five wisdom Buddhas, the five winds/energies
in their (rajasic aspect).  Only Buddhas have the causal body (karana
sarira).  The causal body is the body of self-origination or the absolute or
dharmadhatu.  This is the Vajra-Body.

Sentient beings have a causal level of support but are precisely in the
dependent
Non-Buddhas are caught in the co-origination cycle because they have not
"their own" causal power to be (causal body).  Thus, for non-enlightened
sentient beings, instead of the causal body being associated with the
indestructible awareness of buddhahood, it is the bliss sheath of
undifferentiated ignorance (ananda mayakosa) encountered in deep sleep as
turiya.  It is this ignorance and lack of being a causal being that is the
repository of karmic dispositions that comprise the alayavijnana.

By contrast, a Buddha, especially in Dzog chen, does not have a alayavijnana
because it is the consciousness continuum (bhavana) of primordial
ignorance/bliss within which karmic tendencies accumulate.

Depending upon the tenet system, either the skandha of consciousness
(vijnana) or a deeper consciousness is the necessary carrier within which
this continuum of "karma dispositions/ignorance/no causal power to be"
exists.  So, in any tenet system, consciousness is the constant between lives
(whether it is viewed as the sixth, seventh, eighth (store house of
yogacara), ninth (consciousness of the many as one of dzog chen and Shingon),
tenth (consciousness of the I as I of Dzog chen and Shingon's himitsu
shogon-shin - pudgala as this unigue Buddha sharing one indestructible causal
being with all Buddhas, one in essence yet as many persons - like the
Christian Trinity).  In orther words, Buddhahood _is_ the causal body.  To be
the causal body is to not be an entity with the alayavijana as a product of
turiya.

So, your statement that seeds of reincarnation lies at the causal level is
half-right,
but also, moves too much towards a nihilist/no one reincarnates position.

In Buddhism, to review, there are three bodies and five sheaths.  There is
the stula sarira (gross body).  It has two sheaths: the chemical-crust/food
sheath (annamayakosa) and the vital-etheric sheath (pranamayakosa).  There is
the suksma
sarira (subtle body).  It has two sheaths: the manomayakosa (mental sheath or
vehicle of the manas as the internal organ or antahkarana) and the
vijnanamayakosa
(consciousness sheath with potential-enlightenment or bodhi-citta within it -
otherwise it is the clouded vehicle of buddhi).  Then, there is the causal
(karana) level
where sentient beings have the ignorance/bliss sheath or anandamayakosa.  At
death, at least according to all non-Hinayana Buddhist schools, the only
thing that drops off is the gross body and its two sheaths.  Skandhas
disappear to the extent
that there is no field of functioning for them.  So, the following statement
is incorrect.

> It is the causal body (atma-buddhi-higher manas) that perpetuates
reincarnation,  > not the mental body (manas) which is new each time. In
fact, it is because the     > lower four bodies/principles are newly made
with each incarnation, that we can     > dismiss reincarnation for all
intents and purposes as not being applicable to         > human beings
(because human beings can be defined as the lower four of the      > seven
and thus are newly made each time).

And remember, the skandha of consciousness is the thread and continuum
(bhavana) between lives even for Hinayanists.  So, the following is
inaccurate.

> Only the skandhas or tendencies made in
> one life are carried over to another, not any "soul" or "immortal ego."

The point that should be brought out, which may be what is being said
here, is that every samsaric state is a "bardo" or "phase of passing" or
"phase of transit" or "intermediate phasing." So life, not just the
after-death state, is also a "bardo."  As such, the whole three
body/five sheath complex of a live sentient being "passes away"
in the process of this life as well as the next with the thread being
consciousness.  The Dzog chen point is that the causal level of
non-Buddhas, which is the ignorance/bliss sheath or anandamayakosa,
which with awareness is either the medium of deep sleep as awareness of
undifferentiated ignorance, or is both the dream sleep state and the
waking state (look at that verbal form "waking" we, in essence, are
stuck in the transition from being asleep to being fully awake, the
waking state is less dreamy/suggestible than the dream state but
still the state of waking up - not full wakefulness itself) as awareness
+ ignorance + alayavijanana, is the illusion of not being a Buddha.
Or, just as when you wake up from a dream you realize it didn't
happen, so when you really wake up you realize reincarnation
didn't happen, or rather, past lives are simultaneous aspects of
your uniqueness as this Buddha (not that one) that appear as such
in deluded conditions.  Imagine walking around a mandala/stupa
and you thought that each new turn and each new vista came into
existence the moment you saw it and went out of existence the moment
it passed from view instead of realizing that you are just seeing aspects
of a whole mandala/stupa.  That's the sudden view.  Welcome to the matrix
where a mandala/stupa looks like a past, present, and future because
of how our anxious grasping geshalts our life(ves), in grief, into at what
apparently just passed, in fear, at apparently what may come, and in
resentment/anger, at what apparently the present is!

Grigor