Tibetan Mindfulness of Death Meditation1

From Chapter 9 of Tsong Khapa's Stages on the Path of Enlightenment (aka The Nine-Point Death Meditation)

The faults of not cultivating mindfulness of death.

If you are thus seduced by the hope that this body and life will last for a long time, you will create a strong attachment to goods, services, and the like. As if swept away by the current of a river, you will be immersed in strong hostility toward what prevented you, or what you fear might prevent you, from having these objects of attachment; in delusion that is ignorant of their faults; and, as a consequence of these two, in afflictions such as pride and jealousy, as well as strong secondary afflictions. (145)

The benefits of cultivating mindfulness of death

Therefore, the thought that you will not die is the source of all deterioration, and the remedy for this is mindfulness of death, the source of all that is excellent. Consequently, you should not think that this is a practice for those who do not have some other profound teaching to cultivate in meditation. Nor should you think that although this is something worthy of meditation, you should cultivate it just a little at the beginning of the meditation session because it is not suitable for continuous practice. Rather, be certain from the depths of you heart that it is necessary in the beginning, middle, and end, and then cultivate it in meditation.(147)

The kind of mindfulness of death you should develop

Thus, when you contemplate impermanence again and again, you think, “I will undoubtedly separate from my body and resources soon,” and you stop craving that hopes not to leave them. Consequently, you will not fear death out of the distress of leaving.  (148)

How to cultivate mindfulness of death

By way of the three roots, nine reasons, and three decisions. The three roots are:

1. Death is certain

a- Death will definitely come and therefore cannot be avoided

The wise know that all

Who have come and will come perish,

Leave this body, and go to the next life.

Therefore, be sure to engage in pure behaviour by abiding in the teaching. (The Collection of Indicative Verses)(149)

b- Our lifetime cannot be extended and constantly diminishes

At the end of this life, the Lord of Death will destroy you and you will pass into the next world. Until then, there will never be a time when your life span does not diminish, whether you are going somewhere, walking around, or lying down. Thus, starting from the moment that you enter the womb, you do not remain for even an instant, but go headlong toward the next lifetime. Therefore, even your intervening life is exclusively consumed in a procession toward death led by messengers, sickness and aging. Consequently, do not rejoice in the thought that while you are living you are stationary and not moving toward the next lifetime. For example, when falling from the top of a high cliff, the time of falling to earth through space is not enjoyable. (150)

c- The certainty of death is such that even while you are alive, there is little time for spiritual practice

Even if you could live for the longest period explained above, it would be wrong to think that you have time. Much of your life has already been wasted. Half of what is left will be spent in sleep, and many of your waking hours well be wasted with other distractions. Further, as youth fades, the time of aging arrives. Your physical and mental strength deteriorate such that even if you want to practice religion, you lack the capacity to do so. Consequently, you have no more than a few chances to practice the teachings. (152)

Part 2 

Through the Gates of Gold, Chapter 1, part 4

Here the question  is considered how one is to know what the Gates of Gold are, or is it possible to gain a conception of them? And a certain number of keys are given. First of all by concentration focused on any one idea, knowledge will be gained. Second, by seeking, one can come closer to them. And third, the answer lies within.

“If, therefore, instead of accepting the unknown as unknowable, men were with one accord to turn their thoughts towards it, those Golden Gates would not remain so inexorably shut. It does but need a strong hand to push them open. The courage to enter them is the courage to search the recesses of one’s own nature without fear and without shame. In the fine part, the essence, the flavor of the man, is found the key which unlocks those great Gates. And when they open, what is it that is found? “

It is possible to get an idea by scanning accounts of written testimonies. These can help to awaken one’s intuition and develop the conviction one needs to make the efforts.

“What is to be found within the words of those books is to be found in each one of us; and it is impossible to find in literature or through any channel of thought that which does not exist in the man who studies. This is of course an evident fact known to all real students. But it has to be especially remembered in reference to this profound and obscure subject, as men so readily believe that nothing can exist for others where they themselves find emptiness.

Hidden behind the thin yet seemingly impassable veil which hides it from us as it hid all science, all art, all powers of man till he had the courage to tear away the screen. That courage comes only of conviction. When once man believes that the thing exists which he desires, he will obtain it at any cost. The difficulty in this case lies in man’s incredulity. It requires a great tide of thought and attention to set in towards the unknown region of man’s nature in order that its gates may be unlocked and its glorious vistas explored.”

Some relevant passages from Light on the Path:

Close to the central heart of life, on any plane, there is knowledge, there order reigns completely; and chaos makes dim and confused the outer margin of the circle. In fact, life in every form bears a more or less strong resemblance to a philosophic school. There are always the devotees of knowledge who forget their own lives in their pursuit of it; there are always the flippant crowd who come and go — of such, Epictetus said that it was as easy to teach them philosophy as to eat custard with a fork.

He serves humanity and identifies himself with the whole world; he is ready to make vicarious sacrifice for it at any moment — by living not by dying for it. Why should he not die for it? Because he is part of the great whole, and one of the most valuable parts of it. Because he lives under laws of order which he does not desire to break. His life is not his own, but that of the forces which work behind him.

He is the flower of humanity, the bloom which contains the divine seed. He is, in his own person, a treasure of the universal nature, which is guarded and made safe in order that the fruition shall be perfected. It is only at definite periods of the world's history that he is allowed to go among the herd of men as their redeemer. But for those who have the power to separate themselves from this herd he is always at hand. And for those who are strong enough to conquer the vices of the personal human nature, as set forth in these four rules, he is consciously at hand, easily recognized, ready to answer.  (Comment 4)

Astrology: Summer Solstice June 21 2017 12:24 pm

Burning Down the House

As the Sun passes from Gemini to Cancer at the Summer Solstice, it is joined in a strong conjunction from Mercury, ruler of Gemini, also in conjunction with the Mid Heaven – this is good for new business ventures, sharpness of mind but also self-absorption and restless tension. Moreover, it makes for very strong-wills and brings much attention from authority, for better or worse, and public recognition from work, reputations can thrive or fall.

Sun/Mercury - Chiron - Saturn T-Square

However this high profile, upbeat energy gets a serious reality check from Saturn, which brings a sense of alienation and inhibition and possible negativity, gloominess and hypercriticism. Indeed, Chiron enters the scenario and will form a Sun – Saturn – Chiron T-Square making for a very intense focus on personal identity, self-esteem, repressed feelings and childhood wounds as well as difficulty getting a message across.

A very sensitive period for ego-based issues as weaknesses can be brought to the fore that may require attention. The Sun-Uranus Trine should help alleviate things with a sense of open-mindedness, self-awareness and intellectual creativity. Surprise sudden events can occur. And the long-standing Saturn-Uranus Trine should also help stabilize the new changes.

Mars-Jupiter-Pluto T-Square

If the previous T-Square represented significant personal challenge, there is also the strong Mars-Jupiter-Pluto T-Square, which is a continuation of the Spring Uranus-Jupiter-Pluto T-Square, signifying the ongoing call for radical socio-political change. Now the Jupiter-Uranus opposition has temporarily faded, replaced by a series of volatile Mars-Saturn and Mars-Pluto Oppositions and an upcoming Mars-Uranus Square. The effects of these can be noticed so far with high-profile terrorists attacks in the UK and political intrigues and turnarounds in the UK and the US.

So we have a Mars-Pluto opposition which brings severe power struggles, authoritarianism and fierce oppositions. The Mars-Jupiter Square brings tendencies over-extending oneself, ego inflation and over-optimism. The Jupiter-Pluto Square can bring conflict with power, obsession and fanaticism. The Moon-Pluto Trine can soften some of the sting of Pluto here. This powerful T-Square can represent a very ambitious, productive energy for change and restructuring, with the power to overcome obstacles.

Venus-Mars-Neptune &  Venus – Neptune – Pluto Minor Grand Trines

Fortunately, there are a couple of interesting Minor Grand Trines that help channel the volatile energies in a peaceful manner. The Venus-Mars-Neptune Trine brings a sense of altruism, charity, strong friendship and creative intellectual imagination to the mix.

There is also a Venus – Neptune – Pluto Minor Grand Trine symmetrically overlapping the other one, making a kind of butterfly formation of Trines and Sextiles. This brings depth to relationships, a sense of renewal  and mind-expanding introspection. These two aspects have a kind of beneficial hippy-trippy “Make love not war” vibe and Venus is kicking up quite a storm or sensual and romantic passions. Additionally, the Venus/ Neptune sextile forms a Yod with Jupiter, placing Jupiter at the apex of a very complex , symmetrical figure composed of a T-Square, Minor Grand Trine and a Yod (call it a Hyper-Yod, to coin a term, or maybe an X-Wing Fighter).

It is hard to say if there is a larger significance, but I think it shows the pivotal role of Jupiter (in Libra) this year and the important Jupiter-Uranus Opposition. The key to solving the Jupiter tendency for over-indulgence and deluded optimism would be the Venus/Neptune Sextile acute sensitivity to the needs and feeling of loved ones and the willingness to put them before our own. The Mars/Neptune (Service, Charity) and Venus/Pluto (Profound relationship insights) Trines can possibly figure as effective keys in resolving this complex formation. This chart has some very difficult Pluto and Saturn aspects, but it also has some well-placed complementary easy aspects that gives it a very interesting complexity for dynamic evolution.


References:

Robert Hand, Planets in Transit

http://www.billherbst.com/Comm21.pdf

http://www.astrobarry.com/2017/may1117.php

https://stellargnosis.wordpress.com/2017/05/13/complex-mars-aspects-to-define-the-summer-of-love/

Theosophy Basics: The Doctrine of Cycles, part 2

More from Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled vol. 1, chap. 1:

Sacred Mathematics are key in understanding the evolutionary process, which has an involutionary phase from spiritual to material; and an evolutionary phase from material to spiritual, a return to the spiritual origin.

The sacred numbers of the universe in their esoteric combination solve the great problem and explain the theory of radiation and the cycle of the emanations. The lower orders before they develop into higher ones must emanate from the higher spiritual ones, and when arrived at the turning-point, be reabsorbed again into the infinite. (8)

Misconstrual of the esoteric concepts of the computation of cycles has lead adventist religious sects and all kinds of misguided apocalyptic prophecy theories.

This method of calculating by the neroses, without allowing any consideration for the secrecy in which the ancient philosophers, who were exclusively of the sacerdotal order, held their knowledge, gave rise to the greatest errors. It led the Jews, as well as some of the Christian Platonists, to maintain that the world would be destroyed at the end of six thousand years. Gale shows how firmly this belief was rooted in the Jews. It has also led modern scientists to discredit entirely the hypothesis of the ancients. It has given rise to the formation of different religious sects, which, like the Adventists of our century, are always living in the expectation of the approaching destruction of the world. (34)

The ancient cycle of the Great Year is a cycle of creation and destruction characterized by a formation period followed by a dissolution phase mark by a cataclysm and a changing of the earth poles.

At the close of each “great year,” called by Aristotle — according to Censorinus — the greatest, and which consists of six sars* our planet is subjected to a thorough physical revolution. The polar and equatorial climates gradually exchange places; the former moving slowly toward the Line, and the tropical zone, with its exuberant vegetation and swarming animal life, replacing the forbidding wastes of the icy poles. This change of climate is necessarily attended by cataclysms, earthquakes, and other cosmical throes.*

As the beds of the ocean are displaced, at the end of every decimillennium and about one neros, a semi-universal deluge like the legendary Noachian flood is brought about. This year was called the Heliacal by the Greeks; but no one outside the sanctuary knew anything certain either as to its duration or particulars. The winter of this year was called the Cataclysm or the Deluge, — the Summer, the Ecpyrosis. (30)

An explanation is given of the traditional Hindu concept of the Four Yugas, a key concept that is closely adopted for theosophical purposes.
The Neroses, the Vrihaspati, or the periods called yugas or kalpas, are life-problems to solve. The Satya-yug and Buddhistic cycles of chronology would make a mathematician stand aghast at the array of ciphers. The Maha-kalpa embraces an untold number of periods far SHAPE back in the antediluvian ages. Their system comprises a kalpa or grand period of 4,320,000,000 years, which they divide into four lesser yugas, running as follows:
1st. — Satya yug — 1,728,000 years.
2d. — Tretya yug — 1,296,000 years.
3d. — Dvapa yug —— 864,000 years.
4th. — Kali yug —— 432,000 years.
Total ————– 4,320,000 years.
which make one divine age or Maha-yug; seventy-one Maha-yugs make 306,720,000 years, to which is added a sandhi (or the time when day and night border on each other, morning and evening twilight), equal to a Satya-yug, 1,728,000, make a manwantara of 308,448,000 years;* fourteen manwantaras make 4,318,272,000 years; to which must be added a sandhi to begin the kalpa, 1,728,000 years, making the kalpa or grand period of 4,320,000,000 of years. As we are now only in the Kali-yug of the twenty-eighth age of the seventh manwantara of 308,448,000 years, we have yet sufficient time before us to wait before we reach even half of the time allotted to the world. (32)

Part 1