Contributors
Bonnie, Carmen
Key points of previous chapter
Summary of the chapter
Chapter 15 is a transition chapter: YMR is in Varanasi station, figuring out the next plans, observing and reflecting
- observes a group of Westerners
- recalls a story about a monastery in the French Alps: the “Memento Mori” ritual
- picks up a Guidebook on India and focuses on the special tour of the 4 primary Buddhist pilgrimage sites:
- Lumbini (birthplace of prince Siddharta Gautama)
- BodhGaya (awakening)
- Sarnath (teaching)
- Kushinangar (death)
Rinpoche makes 2 main digressions:
- enlightenment as a paradox
- suffering and its causes
Then Rinpoche embarks on a train directed to Gorakhpur and then Kushinangar, feels less intimidated and let discomfort be
Rinpoche reflects on the unhappiness of “modern people”, on their inability to accept impermanence and on their grasping at what is not available, as well as on the difficulty of cutting attachments (story of Patrul Rinpoche and the golden coin)
He concludes that the fear of death underlies the anxiety in modern world
Question
- What are your thoughts and possible fears [about death]?
- How do you relate to impermanence and death in this period of your life?
Meditation
Five remembrances: old age, sickness, death, impermanence, actions.
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