Beloved Students:

I greet each of you, dear ones, in the wondrous potential of “don’t know.” Since so many of you seem to be experiencing significant doses of “don’t know” in your personal lives, I thought it might be beneficial to all if we simply decided to celebrate it. Never forget the power of hanging in the state of “don’t know.” This is where you touch magnificent possibilities that are available to you if you can but hold the space for such in your movement through life.

Some of you, I notice, are experiencing this time in terms of suffering; perhaps thinking you would be better off – or at least feel better – if you could just know where Life is asking you to go. If you are honest with yourselves, however, you will recognize that the apparent need to know comes only from an ego that really wants to control the energy and flux around itself. That being the case, you can welcome the times as wonderfully instructional in liberating your ego from the old patterns to which it may be clinging.

For many of you, Willow’s transition served to enhance your dealings in “don’t know.” While this need not be the case, in truth, the passing of a dear friend often does facilitate deep levels of questioning within the self. Know that these times can be very precious. I have noted how many of you have taken a commitment to work with her over the 50-day time period (bardo) that falls immediately after death. You can be sure that your efforts are both comforting and instructive for her. And since this is a journey that you too will make some day, everything that you learn from the process can be helpful to you in your own journey. Indeed, you come to learn that your journey and the journey of a dear friend are not separate at all. What you have learned can now be of help to her. Yet, the very fact that you have helped her will end up being of benefit to you when your time comes to make the bardo journey.

As your Teacher, I must remind you to use the practices given you in our workshops to benefit both yourself and Willow at this time. If you are thinking of Willow and suddenly a fear manifests in your own consciousness, what better time to remove/release it than in the moment of its arising? Remember, you are not separate, even though her death appears to have created a separation that may seem impossible to span. Yet, because you know there is no separation (such is only a mental projection), you can benefit both yourself and her by employing the practices you have been given. Who can say whether the block of fear projection that dissolves is yours or hers? Again, such requires that you see beyond the obvious; and in so seeing, trust what you know, dissolve what you can, and be open to what the next moment may ask of you.

When one facilitates a friend in her/his transition from the physical realm, often one may feel engulfed in a rather surreal flow of time and energy following the transition. Often one has the sense of being literally jerked out of her/his own “little life” and thrown into a much bigger picture of the flow that Life is playing out. Such can force a kind of “reality check” on one’s own life. Often such can be a disquieting experience, and may even leave one in a rather numb, or disconnected state—perhaps even settling into a feeling of helplessness. Of course, this would be a highly productive time to pay keen attention to the mental projections that emanate from one’s own mind. One may be aware of a kind of hollowness or emptiness inside that may feel inconsolable. While some of this may be a result of the loss one feels for the transitioning person, often such is due to a direct encounter with the “big picture.” Because most spend so much time and energy in the smaller picture of their personal reality, being suddenly flung into a direct experience with the Ultimate can be very stunning for the mind. If one is paying attention, however, this is an opportune time to see through the mind’s workings.

In truth, Emptiness is a very big reality to approach, particularly as one enters the bardo. Most minds are literally turned upside down (some even experience a type of shattering) by directly experiencing Emptiness. Death (or what appears to be death) is a teacher. Its job is to remind you of the transitory nature of all things – even yourself. Death can, (and of course should) bring one into a direct experience of Emptiness. When all that you think you know (and all that you think you control) falls away, you must open to what lies beneath all those transient seeming “realities” you have previously trusted. Indeed: what else is there to arise when your own mind unravels before you, and you begin to see that it, too, was just an empty projection with no inherent reality of its own?

While one may expect such for the one who is transitioning from the physical state, what may be less expected is the impact for those left in physical form. By simply being part of the transition process, one necessarily touches something of the vastness the other one faces. This can be true in situations also where there are bonds of love and caring contributing to the experience, as well. As we continue to build the Vajra community, you will discover that the connections that are seeded among all of you who participate in this community will contribute significantly in all such situations.

One of the most important reasons for building spiritual community is to make these kinds of experiences available to all in the community – some of whom would not make themselves available for such were they not part of the community. Now of course, the kinds of connections we are talking about here are not only present at the times when members of the community transition from physical form. Ideally, you will come to experience them opening to you literally all the time. This means that as one of you comes to experience Emptiness directly, there will be a force field available to all the rest of you to enter that reality as well. These, of course, are the “big events” that trigger profound experiences of community by sharing the effects of deep spiritual connection. However, these experiences of deep spiritual connection are not available only at the “big events.” They are available at all realization levels along the way.

Such is why we have tried over the years to create a group of people literally all over the world who all listen to the same teachings each month. Such connects them to a realizational flow that I emanate with each teaching. Many of you have noted this fact and have commented upon it among yourselves. If practiced well, all these smaller levels of connection lead to very successful experiences when helping one in the community transition from the physical plane. Indeed, these practices lead one to embody what is called bodhichita, or the elevated desire that one attain liberation not for themselves alone, but for all sentient beings.

In truth, individuals can utter their desire for bodhichita in their meditations for years, even lifetimes. But until they are able to commit to becoming part of a spiritual community, it simply is not possible for them to attain Ultimate Bodhichita (i.e., the personal embodiment of bodhichita). Ultimate Bodhichita is something that can only be demonstrated – it cannot be uttered in the way lesser levels of bodhichita are proclaimed. Ultimate Bodhichita is literally the goal of the path, and it considers only what is best for everyone else (knowing that what is best for everyone else is also best for self, even though the ego may complain).

Please join me this month in listening to Journey into Consciousness, wherein we touch on these topics of the bigger picture. May this teaching help you to awaken to your true nature, and may it facilitate your journey into freedom, which aids you in the embodiment of Ultimate Bodhichita. May all of you be happy, abiding in the pure beauty of inner peace.