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

302 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGYet, as the teachings are always so inspiringly reminding us,there is always hope; now is the time for prayer. By wishingand concentrating intensely, even at this moment, you can stillbe reborn in one of the buddha realms, or else you can generatea deep aspiration to be reborn in a human family whereyou may be able to meet the spiritual path and continuetoward liberation. If you have a strong karma that impels youtoward a particular realm, you may have no choice; however,your past aspiration and prayers can help you to reshape yourdestiny, so you may be reborn into a life that will lead oneday to liberation.Even as you enter the womb, you can go on praying forthis to happen. Even now, you can visualize yourself as anyenlightened being, traditionally the masters say asVajrasattva, 10 bless the womb you are entering as a sacredenvironment, "a palace of the gods," and continue to practice.Now when the bardo of becoming dawns upon me,I will concentrate my mind one-pointedly,And strive to prolong the results of good karma,Close the entrance to rebirth, and try to keep from being reborn.This is the time when perseverance and pure perception areneeded;Abandon negative emotions, and meditate on the master.Ultimately it is the mind's urge to inhabit a particular realmthat impels us toward reincarnation, and its tendency to solidifyand to grasp that finds its ultimate expression in physicalrebirth. This is the next stage in the process of manifestationthat we have seen taking place throughout the bardos.If you succeed in directing the mind toward a human birth,you have come full circle. You are poised to be born againinto the natural bardo of this life. When you see your fatherand mother in intercourse, your mind is ineluctably drawn in,and enters the womb. This signals the end of the bardo ofbecoming, as your mind rapidly reexperiences yet again thesigns of the phases of dissolution and the dawning of theGround Luminosity. Then the black experience of full attainmentarises again, and at the same moment the connection tothe new womb is made.So life begins, as it ends, with the Ground Luminosity.