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

194 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
self-cherishing is the best protection in life, but in fact the
opposite is true. Self-grasping creates self-cherishing, which in
turn creates an ingrained aversion to harm and suffering. However,
harm and suffering have no objective existence; what
gives them their existence and their power is only our aversion
to them. When you understand this, you understand then
that it is our aversion, in fact, that attracts to us every negativity
and obstacle that can possibly happen to us, and fills our
lives with nervous anxiety, expectation, and fear. Wear down
that aversion by wearing down the self-grasping mind and its
attachment to a nonexistent self, and you will wear down any
hold on you that any obstacle or negativity can have. For how
can you attack someone or something that is just not there?
It is compassion, then, that is the best protection; it is also,
as the great masters of the past have always known, the
source of all healing. Suppose you have a disease such as cancer
or AIDS. By taking on the sickness of those suffering like
you, in addition to your own pain, with a mind full of compassion
you will—beyond any doubt—purify the past negative
karma that is the cause, now and in the future, of the continuation
of your suffering.
In Tibet, I remember hearing, there were many extraordinary
cases of people, who when they heard they were dying
of a terminal illness, gave away everything they had and went
to the cemetery to die. There they practiced taking on the suffering
of others; and what is amazing is that instead of dying,
they returned home, fully healed.
Working with the dying, I have experienced again and again,
gives all who do so a direct opportunity to practice compassion
in action, and in the situation where it is probably most
deeply needed of all.
Your compassion can have perhaps three essential benefits
for the dying person: First, because it is opening your heart,
you will find it easier to show the dying person the kind of
unconditional love I have spoken about, and which they need
so much. On a deeper, spiritual level, I have seen again and
again how, if you try to embody compassion and act out of
the heart of compassion, you will create an atmosphere in
which the other person can be inspired to imagine the spiritual
dimension or even take up spiritual practice. On the deepest
level of all, if you do constantly practice compassion for