© Thubten Chodron. For free distribution and not to be sold (see below for additional use information).
About the book
In this volume, Venerable Chodron teaches the intermediate scope – the path in common with a middle level practitioners. Such a person has the determination to be free of cyclic existence and to attain the peace of liberation. Their aspiration develops by meditating on the four noble truths, the disadvantages of cyclic existence, the nature of afflictions and the factors that give rise to them. The three higher trainings in ethical conduct, concentration and wisdom are the practices that support the aims of the intermediate scope practitioner.
These ebooks contain lightly-edited transcripts of teachings given by Venerable Thubten Chodron at Dharma Friendship Foundation, Seattle, from 1991-1994.
Chapters
- True Suffering
- The Origin of Suffering
- How the Afflictions Keep Us in Cyclic Existence
- The 12 Links of Dependent Arising
- The Path to Liberation
Excerpt: The importance of dying peacefully
One of my students in Singapore was dying. He was young and he had cancer. He was an incredible person. Sharing his death was the greatest gift somebody had ever given me. He called his family— his sister and brother-in-law—together one day with me, another friend, and the mortician, and gave instructions on how he wanted it to be. He looked at his sister and said, “I love you, but if you’re going to be in the room crying, I don’t want you there. If you cry, you go out to the other room.” It was incredible. He was so clear. And she respected this. There was one night (which turned out to be a false alarm), we thought he was dying, but the family didn’t cry, because they knew he didn’t want them to.
It’s important to have a smooth passage, without a lot of disturbances. This is what makes it very hard to die in hospitals. Doctors and nurses are always coming by and monitoring this and poking you for that. If you know that somebody is not going to live more than a few hours longer, it’s better to just take all the tubes out, stop all the monitors, stop the resuscitation, and allow them to go naturally without so much invasive stuff, which can be damaging. Somebody’s trying to concentrate and be aware, but they’re getting poked and jabbed.
That’s why they say if you know somebody is dying, try and help them clear up their worldly things. I think in most cases, it’s good that somebody knows that they’re dying, so that they can take care of their worldly things. This way when they die, they don’t have to worry about it.
Copyright © 2015-2016 by Venerable Thubten Chodron. For free distribution. All rights reserved. For personal, noncommercial use only. This book may be printed or downloaded electronically, in whole or in part, for personal use by individuals or Buddhist groups. Permission is required to publish and distribute this book on any information storage and retrieval system, such as, but not limited to, a blog or website. To request permission to use this book in ways that are not expressly granted here, please contact communication(dot)sravasti(at)gmail(dot)com.