Chapter 10 of "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying"--"The Innermost Essence"--is a masterpiece of enlightenment literature. The last section of it, though, "The Rainbow Body," is a bit much for this old boy born and bred in the so-called scientific age. Of course, science is just the highest form of solving crossword puzzles and by no means an end in itself. We formulate them ourselves, solve them, then move on to the next, never paying attention or tribute to the unchanging blank page on which all is written. Anyway, Christians might find that section rather interesting from the standpoint of Jesus' empty tomb. Then again, Christians aren't likely to burn their fingers handling satanic literature like TBLD.
Each night I walk about 4 miles. Each month and now each week I spend more and more of these walks in what can only be described as a samadhi or Rigpa state: the feet keep walking but I have nothing to do with them as body dissolves and mind jabbers less and less, at a distance. I can say this with certainty born of experience: in the absence of body there does remain a kind of empty radiance, and in the absence of mind a boundless freedom that could be termed bliss. I understand now why some masters were known to smile at impending death, even calling it "home."
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