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

114 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGexample of compassion. Yet even when he became wellknown he did not change. He still wore the same simple oldclothes, and he lived in one small room. When anyone cameand offered him a gift, he would make a present of it to hisnext visitor. And if someone cooked for him, he would eat; ifnot, he would go without.One day a master whom I know well went to visit KunuLama, to ask him some questions about the bardos. This masteris a professor, extremely well-versed in the tradition of theTibetan Book of the Dead, and experienced in the practices connectedwith it. He told me how he asked his questions, andthen listened, spellbound, to Kunu Lama's reply. He had neverheard anything like it before. As Kunu Lama described thebardos, it was so vivid and precise that it was as if he weregiving someone directions to go to Kensington High Street, orCentral Park, or the Champs Elysées. It was as if he was actuallythere.Kunu Lama was pointing out the bardos directly from hisown experience. A practitioner of his caliber has journeyedthrough all the different dimensions of reality. And it isbecause the bardo states are all contained within our mindsthat 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 oftheir hand.We too are buddhas. So if we can practice in the bardo ofthis life, and go deeper and deeper into the nature of ourmind, then we can discover this knowledge of the bardos, andthe truth of these teachings will unfold in us by itself. That iswhy the natural bardo of this life is of the utmost importance.It is here and now that the whole preparation for all the bardostakes place. "The supreme way of preparing," it is said, "isnow—to become enlightened in this lifetime."