Death Is Like a Dream — Practice Daily

📖Master’s Reading

Many think death is nothingness; in truth the process of death is exactly like dreaming. The truth of the dharmadhātu is that in the bardo stage, all karma turns into lifelike illusion. If we cannot even control our everyday dreams and only panic and flee at fear, how can we control the soul's direction after death?

If you cannot turn your dream, you run along with it like a dreamer; chased in the dream, you are chased, and this decides where you go to be reborn. When a person is dying or has died, without the wisdom of the Dharma, facing the unknown darkness and karmic collection, it is like sinking into a nightmare from which one cannot wake. Unable to control the bardo's rebirth and the soul's direction, one is finally driven blindly into the six realms in fear.

So practice is never something done only after death. A true practitioner must learn to practice "transforming the mind" and "turning the dream" in daily life and in dreams. In ordinary time, plant the buddha-names, mantras and true Dharma deep in the mind. When we train the mind's stability daily, letting the mind abide always in light, then at the great pass of life and death these accumulated bright memories surface and light the road ahead. The everyday mind determines the future road. As long as, while alive, you keep practicing clarity, knowing this is a dream and reciting mantra to transform the mind, at death you can face illusion without fear and freely choose the home of liberation.

🌱Reflection for Daily Life

• The process of death is just like dreaming.
• Unable to turn the dream, you are reborn by karma.
• While alive, you must diligently practice transforming the mind.
• Without fear of illusion, freely choose liberation.
• The everyday mind determines the future road.