The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

114 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
example of compassion. Yet even when he became well
known he did not change. He still wore the same simple old
clothes, and he lived in one small room. When anyone came
and offered him a gift, he would make a present of it to his
next visitor. And if someone cooked for him, he would eat; if
not, he would go without.
One day a master whom I know well went to visit Kunu
Lama, to ask him some questions about the bardos. This master
is a professor, extremely well-versed in the tradition of the
Tibetan Book of the Dead, and experienced in the practices connected
with it. He told me how he asked his questions, and
then listened, spellbound, to Kunu Lama's reply. He had never
heard anything like it before. As Kunu Lama described the
bardos, it was so vivid and precise that it was as if he were
giving someone directions to go to Kensington High Street, or
Central Park, or the Champs Elysées. It was as if he was actually
there.
Kunu Lama was pointing out the bardos directly from his
own experience. A practitioner of his caliber has journeyed
through all the different dimensions of reality. And it is
because the bardo states are all contained within our minds
that they can be revealed and freed through the bardo practices.
These teachings come from the wisdom mind of the buddhas,
who can see life and death like looking in the palm of
their hand.
We too are buddhas. So if we can practice in the bardo of
this life, and go deeper and deeper into the nature of our
mind, then we can discover this knowledge of the bardos, and
the truth of these teachings will unfold in us by itself. That is
why the natural bardo of this life is of the utmost importance.
It is here and now that the whole preparation for all the bardos
takes place. "The supreme way of preparing," it is said, "is
now—to become enlightened in this lifetime."