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  • It is now about 100 years

  • that the theory of relativity and

  • the quantum physics, quantum mechanics,

  • brought a real earthquake into the classic ways of Science

  • - especially the physics, but the topic of Near-death experiences

  • it can bring even a bigger earthquake

  • - and not only to the neuroscience,

  • it can change our understanding of our life

  • because it can open a very big picture

  • above our existence.

  • In a way it may perhaps become even a challenge

  • for the modern time humanity

  • to integrate the implication of this phenomena.

  • Tibetan Master Kalu Rinpoche

  • You see?

  • So, the Near-death experiences are not real

  • in the way they appear to the dying people.

  • Similarly like this world around us

  • is not real in the way

  • we are perceiving it. And it is not only

  • the Buddhist wisdom and Buddhist insight

  • which is telling that. It is even our science which knows that as well.

  • Giving example:

  • the light and the colors

  • they don't exist. These are just

  • electromagnetic waves

  • of a very particular wave-length

  • and electromagnetic waves are colorless,

  • or even lightless -

  • it is the interpretation

  • of our eye and especially the brain

  • which gives the appearance of light and colors and shapes and all that.

  • But

  • the Buddhist teachings are also very

  • unequivocal about the other side

  • of this truth: that in the different frequencies of existence

  • - or if you like, in the different frequencies of appearances -

  • the experience of happiness

  • and sorrow is what it is.

  • You know, your tooth ache:

  • it's good to know it is just appearance

  • does it help you?

  • I think I don't need to explain what is meant by Near-death experiences

  • because this topic is now discussed everywhere.

  • You can find it even in the mainstream medias,

  • you will find it in professional literature, in the magazines,

  • even in daily newspapers... Usually there is an attempt

  • to explain it away in some way,

  • but also, to be honest, there is

  • also increasing number of articles popping up

  • representing rather the other side

  • of the discussion.

  • So, in this talk I would explore

  • the phenomenon of Near-death experiences

  • as objectively as I can,

  • assuming a position

  • from where I can cover, or even explain

  • all the confronting or

  • conflicting argumentation of the different sides of the discussion

  • - and let's be clear that

  • these involved sides of discussion have sometimes

  • substantial argumentation for their position. - Sometimes it is even

  • enhanced by emotions. You know, because it is such a sensitive topic.

  • The mainstream science, for example,

  • will try to explain the whole Near-death experience purely materialistically

  • as a result of the brain chemistry:

  • all these neurotransmitters, endorphins,

  • dopamine, serotonin, all that -

  • and certainly they have quite a heavy weighting argumentation.

  • For example, that you don't need

  • to be dying to have this kind of experiences similar to

  • Near-death experiences,

  • and it's true, another situations may lead to similar experiences.

  • But, actually, in the science the predominant

  • explanation is in this "dying brain surge"

  • kind of a last goodbye

  • of the dying brain, you know, putting out this final

  • spectacular firework of brain chemistry.

  • So, that would be the position of mainstream science.

  • But then we have another angle

  • of argumentation and this comes

  • from the side of psychology, coming with the hypothesis

  • that the Near-death experience can be

  • actually kind of recalling,

  • or reliving

  • of the trauma of birth - you know,

  • this tunnel and the white light

  • and the spiritual unconditioned love so many times reported

  • in the Near-death experiences,

  • comparing it with the birth channel, the baby coming out

  • to the dayligt, being covered

  • by the unconditioned love from the parents -

  • hmmm

  • So, that would be the argumentation

  • from the psychology side.

  • And then we have, of course, the religious community

  • seeing in it rather

  • the confirmation of the oldest religious idea actually

  • that there is a continuation

  • of existence after the body dies

  • this kind of afterlife, that only the soul is leaving

  • the dying body and goes its way

  • to the different destiny.

  • Actually, Buddhism is not really working with the concept of soul,

  • of eternal soul, but it has

  • the idea of eternal rebirth:

  • coming from lifetime to the other one

  • and again in different spheres of existence -

  • that is the Buddhist point of view.

  • It is clear that in my explanations I will use predominantly

  • the wisdom an insight coming from the Buddhist teachings

  • because it opens the biggest picture

  • above all these phenomena of Near-death experiences

  • of afterlife, even of this contemporary

  • existence here and now, explaining so many things.

  • So, in this talk

  • wanting to take this superposition

  • trying to incorporate all these kinds

  • of argumentation into one clear explanation.

  • It is little bit like

  • the three facets or three sides

  • of this strange object. So the circle would represent

  • let's say, the psychology view,

  • the square would represent the scientific way of explanation,

  • and the cross would be the religious way of understanding.

  • You know, like three facets of one object

  • and our task would be rather

  • to see the whole object

  • in one glance.

  • Not that one of these is correct at the other false,

  • that is not very helpful. The truth is mainly contained in this

  • kind of an explanation which covers all the existing ones.

  • - Actually, I've done it already,

  • if you have seen the Video "UFO and Buddhism"

  • in the second half, beside many other things,

  • I was also explaining this

  • juxtaposition of Darwinism and creationism

  • with this superposition, finding a kind of

  • position from where these two are fully

  • integrated - not that one is right and

  • the other is completely false, it doesn't work so.

  • The truth is more contained in this kind of

  • embracing all what we know. It is something like

  • searching for a common denominator.

  • You may know it from mathematic. If you have

  • let's say, number 2, 3, 4:

  • it is not 4 because the 3 is not properly contained in that,

  • it is not the 6, 9, no,

  • 12! You have to go up to 12

  • because all the three are properly

  • contained in that.

  • So, for task of this magnitude I will start with explanation,

  • with a fundamental explanation

  • of the relationship between brain and mind

  • because this is the foundation,

  • we have to start with that.

  • So, I will explain it with the help

  • of a computer

  • but I ask you, please, be attentive to it

  • even if it may appear to you somehow

  • primitive, or boring, or whatever. Stay attentive through this

  • little exercise

  • because I 'will refer to it many times

  • even later in this talk.

  • So, get it properly, here it is:

  • So, as you can see, I have attached many of the peripheral devices

  • to make the analogy to a living human being

  • as complete as possible.

  • The camera is really connected

  • and that's the symbol of a human seeing

  • and it works,

  • microphone is the hearing, symbol for the hearing ability.

  • Speaker is clear, that is the speaking,

  • and the modem connected to internet is the symbol for

  • our social contacts, socializing.

  • Keyboard and the mouse

  • is the symbol for

  • our active, for the active part of our life,

  • when we are doing things, executing things.

  • The mouse: symbol for decisions,

  • deciding every day many things.

  • The little light in the back is the symbol for

  • conceptual thinking - sometimes on,

  • sometimes off, and the hard disc,

  • the external hard drive, in this case

  • worldly data, the worldly

  • information stored in the memory.

  • And now we have the mind -

  • the notebook is the symbol, symbolizing the human mind,

  • and the screen = the consciousness.

  • The experience of our life is happening

  • actually, on the screen of consciousness,

  • and we see already now, experience is running.

  • So, I think that the representation of a living human being

  • is as complete as possible,

  • but now we have here two different switches:

  • one button has the label "OBE"

  • which means "out-of-body experience"

  • and the other one, the red one, has the label

  • "death of the body".

  • So first, let us see what will happen

  • when I press the OBE-button

  • let's do it - okay:

  • the notebook is now

  • undocked from the docking station

  • so the first think you can see

  • that the experience continues.

  • If we look in detail

  • to the docking station left behind

  • this is the representation of the human body

  • with the sensory organs and the brain

  • and now you see

  • that the mind actually is working even when it is undocked.

  • Very important message from that!

  • Now we can see that the notebook

  • has its own camera, has its own microphones, and the speaker,

  • and the keyboard, and the touchpad,

  • and the hard disk with its own memory

  • and only it is now wireless:

  • it has also antenna

  • so still connections with other beings is possible

  • buy the communication now

  • is more-or-less telepathic, it doesn't use normally

  • the slow human language

  • the contacts with other beings are now much

  • more direct mind-to-mind.

  • Now, this is the analogy for

  • out-of-body experiences some people are reporting

  • but what I mean, out-of-body experiences really verified

  • when the mind of the people really is witnessing something

  • which can be later verified and really

  • bringing testimony about things happening

  • in another places, so that's a classic

  • out-of-body experience. Now if we look back

  • in detail on the docking station

  • symbolizing the human body with the sensory organs

  • and the brain - all the material components

  • of our body -

  • it is still alive, some lights little are

  • on, but it is in a vegetative state,

  • it is like vegetable - the mind and consciousness has gone,

  • only the basic functions of

  • the body, of the living body, are still directed directly by brain:

  • the heartbeat, the breathing ..

  • Now, for the purpose of this demonstration I dared even

  • to open the docking station to see inside

  • so that what I'm doing now is like

  • neuro-surgeon opening the skull

  • in the case of human body

  • and, you see, here is the brain. This is the symbol for human brain

  • and you can see, there is quite lots of electronics

  • actually involved, these interfaces for the individual peripheral devices,

  • there is also the important

  • outlet from the docking station which connects

  • actually the notebook directly to the motherboard.

  • When the notebook is docked, the connection with the processor

  • is very direct: all these peripheral

  • devices are actually giving input and data

  • to do bus of the motherboard which is quite direct

  • to the processor itself. What I am actually showing

  • with this analogy is this very close relationship between brain

  • and mind. When it is docked, so it is very intimately

  • connected with the processor, with the

  • experience, but when it is

  • undocked, it has its own life

  • and goes its own way.

  • Now, the important message to the

  • neurologist, neuroscientists, when they are using

  • EEG (electroencephalograph) or

  • MRI (magnetic resonance imaging)

  • or cat scan (computed tomography)

  • they are not measuring

  • the activities of the mind, they are

  • measuring the activities of the docking station

  • = of the brain only! I think this is very important

  • message to the neurology and neuroscience.

  • So, let's put all back

  • and now let us see what will happen when I press the red button.

  • It's a little joke, but as the first thing

  • I was trying to turn the camera of the notebook

  • towards the docking station to symbolize

  • that what many near-death experiences or dying experiences

  • actually are reporting as the first thing: that they are hovering

  • over their body, witnessing frantic

  • activity of the doctors over the dead body - usually the near-death experience

  • starts like that

  • but then the mind

  • (the notebook) - the mind goes its own way

  • usually still having some kind of

  • etheric body, or fine-material body

  • which gradually dissolves anyway.

  • Usually later on, it's just a mind and consciousness

  • witnessing some quite dynamic-dramatic

  • events - positive or negative -

  • and if we now look at the docking station, it's completely black,

  • the docking station the periphery = the brain

  • is now dead and experience on the

  • screen of consciousness continues. So, this is the message

  • I wanted to show the relationship between brain

  • and mind: when it is docked, very, very intimate,

  • very direct, but it can undock

  • and it can go its own way. And here is the summary

  • in a graphic form. If you look to the left side:

  • when the notebook is not connected

  • so the docking station is good for

  • absolutely nothing, even if the periphery

  • is switched on, everything in perfect condition

  • you cannot do anything with that.

  • So similarly, the human body and the brain:

  • even when sensory organs are intact and in perfect condition

  • the body is alive, but the consciousness and the mind is not connected

  • it's absolutely good for nothing,

  • it's like vegetable in the garden. Very different

  • with the notebook. When the notebook

  • is connected in the docking station, when it is docked,

  • so it is receiving the data from the peripheral devices

  • but when it is disconnected, when it is

  • undocked, it is still functioning very well, it has its own battery

  • and hard drive

  • antenna, display, but it is working

  • in a different mode, so similarly

  • the mind, the consciousness and the mind:

  • when it is docked or connected with the brain, with the body,

  • so it is receiving the data,

  • the information, from the sensory organs

  • and the brain, but when it is disconnected from the body

  • from the brain

  • it is still functioning very well, still very alive,

  • but functioning in somehow different mode -

  • we would say it is functioning in different frequency of reality,

  • in the spiritual reality.

  • You see? Simple as that.

  • Docking-undocking: as long you have it fresh in your mind,

  • I wanted also to include here

  • at least one authentic near-death experience report.

  • In this particular case

  • I think it is actually dying experience

  • because doctor Anthony Cicoria

  • was hit by a lightning and he died there.

  • Fortunately, he was resuscitated quite quickly.

  • I borrowed this video

  • from Spiritual masters web -

  • - Supreme masters web

  • lots of information there, I can recommend,

  • but it was too long. So I cut it together

  • taking just the relevant parts, putting it together, enjoy it!

  • I was standing

  • at the phone, the building got hit by lightning and

  • I remember hearing this loud crack

  • and I saw big flash of light come out of the phone

  • and it hit me right in the face, and

  • I remember seeing every bit of that

  • and when it hit me in the face, it just sent me flying backwards like a rag doll

  • and suddenly as I was going backwards

  • suddenly something changed and I was moving forwards

  • and I remember standing there thinking: this is

  • really strange. I know that I got hit

  • I know that something bad happened, that I went flying

  • backwards, but now I'm not going backwards anymore

  • I'm just standing here and I remember looking down at my feet and

  • and I look at the wall, on the phone, is dangling

  • and I still am mystified as to what had happened

  • but yet I had complete recall of

  • every millisecond of that time

  • and right about that

  • that moment, my mother-in-law who is at the top of the stairs

  • starts screaming and she starts running right at me

  • and I felt like a deer in the headlights.

  • I am looking at her: what's going on

  • and she ran right by me

  • and I turned to see where she was and I looked over on the ground

  • and I'm on the ground

  • and I thought, well I mean this is exactly what I thought

  • I'm dead!

  • and as I'm standing near

  • I'm watching what's happening and

  • there was somebody waiting to use the phone

  • and it turns out it was a nurse - in the middle of nowhere

  • waiting to use the phone - and so she drops down to the ground

  • to start doing CPR, and my mother-in-law was standing near

  • and all the other people were there by then and I'm still standing here

  • and I'm looking at them

  • I hear everything they're saying, but they can't hear me

  • and they can't see me, because I'm calling out to them

  • and at that point

  • it was interesting, because the first realization that I made was

  • "gee" there's not been a break

  • in conscious thought at all, so

  • whoever I am, is not in the body,

  • it's whatever form I'm in,

  • spiritual form, is who I am

  • because the consciousness is with me

  • all my thoughts are with me, all my memories are with me

  • and I thought

  • well, I guess there's no point in hanging

  • around here. The second thing that was very interesting to me, was that it was

  • very

  • dispassionate, there was no emotion associated with the fact that

  • I was dead, it was very matter-of-fact

  • oh well, I am, and so I

  • I thought there's no point staying here, so I turned

  • and I started to walk up the stairs

  • and I don't know where I was going but that just seemed to be

  • what I was going to do

  • as I'm looking down at my legs, I see my legs dissolved

  • and so suddenly I'm not

  • in solid form anymore, I can see that I'm becoming

  • a floating energy ball of some sort.

  • I go up, I float up the stairs,

  • I passed through the wall into the room where

  • all the family is and I saw my kids

  • and the rest of my family and my wife and

  • they were all having fun painting faces and I thought

  • they'll be fine and

  • there was no emotion associated with the fact that I wasn't going to see

  • them again,

  • it was just very matter-of-fact: they'll be fine and

  • I'm going some place else and I

  • floated out the building and when I get out of the building, when things really

  • started to happen.

  • As I get out of the building, all of a sudden I was wrapped in this

  • bluish white light.

  • At first I was like: okay, what is this

  • and I'm analyzing it as it's happening

  • and if you can imagine: absolute pure

  • love and peace.

  • That's what it felt like being in this light

  • and that's what this was like, but this was absolute love and peace

  • and it was like falling into a river of pure positive energy.

  • I knew that where I was going

  • felt pretty good because I could sense

  • that I was being taken some place and

  • I saw the really high points and low points of my life just kind

  • quickly go by, you know, with my kids

  • and, you know, I did this and I did that

  • but I was really happy about it, and then

  • right about the time that I was so happy

  • that I was going, all of the sudden

  • "bang" - I was back in my body

  • I was angry, I, you know, I remember

  • it hurt, I mean it, you know, I went from absolute bliss

  • to feeling, you know, like somebody's got punched in the mouth,

  • and I had a burn on my face and burn on my foot

  • and there's this poor woman who's doing CPR, and I just want to tell her to stop

  • but I'm still unconscious

  • I'm in the, you know, I'm stuck back in this body

  • it is unconscious but, you know,

  • my consciousness is still very aware of what's going on

  • then it seem like several minutes after

  • after that, that she stopped

  • and I managed to be able to open my eyes and everything was very fuzzy

  • and I

  • I sat up and I just wanted to say that

  • I was okay and I wanted to thank her.

  • Yes, then what is me? I think me is

  • spirit and the spirit lives on

  • and that we have

  • a memory of all the times we've come into this

  • earth plane and

  • we come, we cycle through in, and we keep going through this process

  • until we learned a good enough grade that we don't have to keep coming here

  • Wonderful story, wonderful report

  • and so many things contained in the report

  • of doctor Cicoria, and you also you can see so clearly this

  • ability of the mind to dock and

  • to undock from the brain, from the body

  • but let's be clear that in the real life there are also many stages

  • in between that some of the centers of the brain

  • are connected with the mind directly

  • but other centers may be shut down

  • or disconnected, or even undocked.

  • You know, so there are many, many stages

  • in between. One example of this partial disconnection between brain and the mind

  • are the dreams in the nightusually starting with a review of the

  • of the events of the day, sometimes even

  • older material is presenting itself for

  • kind of a review, material from the brain storage

  • already mentioned, symbolized in our analogy by the external hard drive

  • these are the memories, and

  • memories of events and experiences from this lifetime

  • all the conceptual thoughts and thinking and

  • kind of reflections and even feelings in the basic form.

  • When the brain gets damaged

  • so this kind of memory may not be

  • easily accessible anymore, let's say by

  • injury or Alzheimer. So this would be the first storage, brain storage,

  • but then usually the sleep

  • and the dream deepens, some of the

  • rational controlling functions of the brain

  • may be reduced or even suspended completely

  • so that the material, unresolved material from the second

  • storage may get

  • free access into the mind - in Buddhist teachings this is called

  • karma

  • karmic potentialities,

  • unresolved material getting into the perception.

  • Perception is the story maker, so the perception will make the

  • kind of stories out of these potentialities

  • presenting it to the consciousness - and we get

  • nice dreams, bad dreams, confused dreams

  • even nightmares. It may be helpful at this point to explain

  • how karma is understood in Buddhism.

  • The original meaning of the word karma

  • is 'action' or 'deed', but karma has in Buddhism much, much larger meaning:

  • it is the central part of the teaching of conditionality - causality,

  • it has central position in the teachings

  • of ethics, it is

  • a decisive factor in the process of rebirth - but

  • for the purpose of this presentation I prefer to present karma

  • in almost scientific way. The easiest way to understand it

  • imagine it as a kind of debt. When we

  • act against the nature of things, we create particular potential of

  • imbalance or disturbance. Karma is the thirsty line, the thirsty

  • track remaining behind our imperfect living,

  • the unfinished business, kind of positive or negative disbalance,

  • disturbance of equilibrium.

  • This "debt" goes with us in a latent form

  • waiting for the opportunity to return, or

  • discharge its potential back into life

  • to reinstall the equilibrium. We can understand karma

  • and its result to be a kind of basic law of nature

  • comparable little bit to the second law of thermodynamics

  • when imbalances

  • seek equilibrium. You can understand it even clearer

  • when you look into the life of fully realized, fully enlightened beings.

  • They live in harmony with the life,

  • in harmony with their personality and their nature,

  • and even if they do big

  • things, there isn't this kind of thirsty karma remaining behind their lives,

  • always being even with

  • everything on the spot. They live

  • with wisdom and compassion, they just respond to the

  • events coming to them from outside or inside.

  • But we? We react!

  • - that's the difference, driven by forces

  • of imperfection we react with emotions,

  • with liking and disliking, with desire,

  • resistance or delusion - and that's karma,

  • that creates karma! One of the chief producers of karma

  • is the attachment to the idea of "self",

  • this ego-obsession, "me"

  • and "mine", ego-centeredness, egoistic

  • attitudes. When the particular karma finds the opportunity

  • to discharge it's potential back into life

  • that's called "vipaka" - it is the time

  • when karma ripens and brings it's result,

  • and so we distinguish good karma

  • and bad karma, or better, wholesome karma

  • or unwholesome karma - both

  • is a kind of debt, both is a kind of disturbance

  • of equilibrium. When karma of wholesome things ripens

  • we are in happiness, when unwholesome karma

  • brings its result, we are in suffering.

  • Actions are not good or bad because of some divine definition.

  • Actions - but also

  • thoughts, speech, also mental attitudes

  • motivations, all that -

  • we distinguish wholesome or

  • unwholesome actions because of the result

  • they bring about. Is everything in our life result of karma?

  • - very often comes this question -

  • certainly not! Karmic forces are

  • only dispositions. Many things can happen to us in our life

  • but only that, which will somehow resonate

  • with elements from our karmic pool will

  • really touch us - positively or negatively.

  • Karma also steers the rebirth

  • of beings - you know, this is Buddhism - and then

  • we are born with unfinished karma from previous existences.

  • We consume karma during our lives but

  • by reacting and acting selfishly

  • we create new karmic forces - good

  • or bad. Buddhism teaches to create good karma,

  • but in the ultimate goal it

  • aims at ending karma altogether. So even the dreams

  • are kind of karma work, when some karmic stored

  • stuff presents itself to the mind for

  • integration, for healing.

  • But further. In our computer

  • analogy we have even a third gateway

  • of entry in our experience symbolized

  • on the picture by the Wi-Fi-antenna. It is a symbol

  • for input coming to the mind from transcendental

  • or spirituals zones, from

  • all kinds of different frequencies of reality.

  • Now, on the example of dreams we have seen

  • that the brain is not the producer of experience, neither it is

  • a receiver of experience or consciousness,

  • in a wakeful state - meaning

  • when the mind is docked in the brain

  • or to the brain - in that case the brain is something like

  • a pre-processor, or deliverer, or supplier

  • of worldly sensory impingements, feelings

  • and conceptual thoughts to the mindor more precisely,

  • to the perception of the mind. The brain

  • in this case floods the perception with worldly data

  • and the perception makes of it our life story

  • you know, the perception = the story maker,

  • but by functioning in this way, the brain

  • actually protects from, or shields the mind

  • of any transcendental or spiritual input

  • and access - and let's be clear

  • that this kind of "protection"

  • for ninety-five percent of people

  • is a blessing! It is really important

  • because more than half of the spiritual content and influence

  • is highly undesirable, even dangerous.

  • So many people damaged the natural protection by

  • drugs and ended in mental hospitals.

  • Therefore advanced spiritual practices

  • should be done only after clear and solid preparation

  • and appropriate purification - else

  • they may lead to unwanted or even

  • very unwanted results.

  • You see, I've put this on the paper because

  • it would be too difficult to formulate it correctly

  • in a concise way - and so here is the summary:

  • we should understand the brain to be rather a shield

  • or a defender, or actually

  • a blocker of any spiritual other-worldly

  • input. Everything which goes through the brain

  • into the mind is worldly and mundane by definition

  • and under normal circumstances

  • the worldly stuff has priority, so that the

  • other influences are blocked or

  • strongly reduced. But when the brain is partially

  • or fully disconnected, the experience of the mind

  • is increasingly shaped by the forces of karma

  • (that would be the second hard drive) which

  • under normal circumstances... of course the karma has

  • influence even into our everyday life

  • that what we are perceiving, or

  • better, how we are perceiving this multitude

  • of events happening to us, what we

  • are choosing, what we are focusing on

  • and how we experience it, that is

  • quite strongly influenced by the past karma.

  • So karma has

  • its influence even in our everyday life but

  • when the rational functions of the brain

  • are somehow reduced or partially disconnected, even blocked

  • then these things have free access

  • into the perception, into the mind. For

  • highly spiritual people this is the blessing, this is the

  • wanted opening, for

  • unprepared, unpurified people

  • this is curse, because they

  • then will be hunted by demons and all that

  • stuff of the low

  • spiritual areas. So, when the brain is partially or fully disconnected

  • the experience of the mind is increasingly shaped

  • by the forces of karma and impulses from the spiritual world -

  • and of course, when the body dies, that exactly is:

  • the rational filter has gone, all these rational

  • limitations or steering

  • have gone and now the mind is fully open

  • for the active karma

  • and for the influences

  • from the spiritually realities, different zones.

  • With this knowledge you will also better understand the function of different

  • spiritual practices.

  • Some of them use the brain

  • but majority of the practices are actually

  • designed to attenuate, or turn

  • off the conceptual functions of the brain

  • (= conceptual rational functions of the brain)

  • for example the work with Koan in Zen-Buddhism

  • that's one example, saturating,

  • or even over-saturating the brain

  • with an apparent nonsense

  • until it gives up

  • and opens the mind towards freedom. You know, this is a classic spiritual path

  • which is pretty sure that it will

  • open up to the wholesome or wanted

  • areas of spiritual

  • realities. Or the classical concentration meditation

  • using one single, non-conceptual meditation object

  • to fill the brain with it completely and so

  • to stop its coarse conceptual activities

  • enabling the mind to tune to refine subtle levels

  • of consciousness. Under meditation the majority of people

  • understands this, but of course there are many different kinds of meditations

  • and especially in Buddhism - this is just a secondary training

  • focusing and deepening

  • the concentration, but the core of the Buddhist teaching is

  • insight, wisdom,

  • which is not attained by pure

  • concentration of the mindanother time

  • I will speak about it more.

  • Now, some explanations: the mainstream science heaviest

  • argument for the "brain creates mind"

  • theory (which is actually

  • an assumption, brain creates consciousness, brain creates mind),

  • is the evident fact and truth

  • that with the help of chemical substances

  • it is possible to influence, even change

  • the experience of the mind. Psychoactive drugs

  • used in the therapy and psychiatry can change

  • the quality of life, psychedelic

  • chemical substances quite evidently can trigger

  • enormous dramatic and even spiritual experiences:

  • isn't it a rock-solid proof

  • that the experience, even transcendental experience is created

  • by material brain? (You know,

  • rhetoric question. Now comes the

  • rhetoric answer:) It is not! We can compare the function of

  • psychoactive drugs with influencing the

  • electronics of the docking station. If we go back to our computer analogy,

  • in the docking station if we influence the electronic in

  • any subtle way, or in any targeted way,

  • influencing this, it will influence the stream of data

  • coming to the notebook, certainly yes, and

  • of course, it is a very specific way we want to increase the colors, or

  • make it a little bit more quick, or whatever, so similarly this

  • psychoactive drugs are influencing the work of neurotransmitters and endorphins

  • and dopamine and all that

  • so that actually the brain works

  • somehow more smoothly, or as we want to Work,

  • so in that case, of course,

  • these drugs work, and can influence the quality of life,

  • but in no way they are proof

  • that the brain

  • is producer of consciousness or the producer of the mind -

  • that's the message here.

  • So the psychoactive chemical or biochemical drugs are not

  • influencing the mind directly but they are influencing

  • the workings of the material brain only.

  • Now, there are some scientific

  • experiments, when electromagnetic impulses were sent to the

  • temporal lobe of a volunteer using the spiritual helmet or

  • they call it the "God helmet". These people

  • were then reporting almost spiritual

  • experiences of oneness or even kind of a weak mystical experiences.

  • The mainstream science took this

  • as a proof and evidence that

  • all spiritual experiences are created by brain

  • and that they are the product of the brain.

  • The truth is actually exactly the opposite:

  • sending electric or electromagnetic waves

  • to some brain centers will certainly disturb, jam,

  • or hamper the normal brain

  • very subtle neuronal functions,

  • it will set certain brain areas

  • out of work, so that some of the transcendental contents

  • can address the mind - this is my explanation

  • to these very notable and interesting

  • experiments I was

  • tracing already quite some time ago thinking about how this would

  • be possible..

  • Another example: doctors gave

  • a dose of psilocybin to a volunteer

  • (psilocybin is the mushroom substance,

  • very strong hallucinogenic drug)

  • and they then put that person into MRI-scan

  • expecting spectacular firework

  • in the brain neuronal activity, but actually

  • the opposite was the result: some brain centers were

  • rather static or inactive. This is a story I only heard it,

  • I have no confirmation for that story

  • but it would go exactly in the same line

  • that the drugs actually, especially the psychedelic drugs,

  • are rather blocking or disturbing or switching off

  • some of the normal regular functions of the brain, this protective

  • function of the brain, so that the transcendental contents may

  • resonate, come in

  • into the mind and make its presentation so to say.

  • Actually, there is a confirmation for this experiment:

  • it was done by Professor David Nutt

  • and his group and what he said

  • about this experiment in a video clip: "... and what we found

  • was completely surprising and exactly the opposite

  • of what we predicted, because we found that psilocybin turned off

  • blood flow in the key parts of the brain such as the prefrontal cortex

  • the posterior cortex and the thalamus. When you look at those parts of the brain

  • you realize that they are actually the parts of the brain

  • which control and integrate the way in which the brain processes information.

  • They are the kind of gatekeeper regions

  • the nodes which regulate what you do and what you feel

  • and by switching those off, we can kind of liberate the rest of the brain

  • so that it can do other things and that's why you get the expansion of

  • consciousness."

  • The mind is not created by brain and these are all

  • indications for that, but what I would consider as a real proof

  • is one case from the collection of

  • Ian Stevenson. It was not collected by him,

  • it happened in Bangalore, in India, and it was collected by

  • doctor Satwan Pasricha, associated clinical professor

  • of National Institute of Mental health in May 1985.

  • Again,

  • to make this story short: Sumitra was

  • a bare-foot married village woman and she died of a seizure

  • they declared her dead, but after some time she woke up

  • as a completely different woman, as Shiva

  • a daughter of a schoolmaster, of a schoolteacher

  • from another village, which died violently

  • some years before.

  • Now, suddenly she did not recognize anybody

  • from her previous family, she found very strange to meet her

  • husband so-to-say, she started to address him in a very special way,

  • now she was a quite an intelligent woman, with a completely different

  • personality.

  • She could read and write. When the schoolmaster

  • from the other village heard about it, he came to see her -

  • she immediately recognized him, she

  • could actually recognize even the mother -

  • they made a kind of test visiting the family of this schoolteacher

  • there were quite a number of women all over

  • and they hid the mother into her special room

  • and Sumitra-Shiva was immediately

  • clear that mother is not here, she would go

  • to the room of the mother, she knew where it was.

  • She could remember 16 accounts of Shiva's life not mentioned

  • in any press reports, she

  • identified 22

  • relatives of Shiva from photograph, some of them naming

  • directly by name.

  • So, for me this is a very strong case showing

  • that the mind is not created by brain.

  • So, this was the first part of the talk and I have to admit that

  • actually the main purpose was to shake up

  • the mainstream neuro-scientists and their convictions

  • that the mind and the consciousness are created by material brain.

  • Wishing really,

  • inviting them to open up to a bigger perspective

  • on the complexity of the

  • human mentality and human consciousness.

  • It is not that simple as they

  • think and there are so many things coming

  • from different sides knocking at their

  • doors, you know, to explain

  • all these "anomalies" all these anomalies

  • like out-of-body experiences, like telepathy,

  • near-death experiences, how it would be possible that

  • with sending loving kindness you can influence other people

  • and it is true, it is even statistically

  • proven. Now, on the other side

  • I want also to acknowledge

  • the huge development in neuro-science

  • especially in the 5 last years, such a big step forward

  • in the research, in the results of the

  • research. Probably

  • also due to new generations of the scanners.

  • Tomography means the slicing

  • of the body with the scanner. Computed tomography is still using actually

  • radiation, X-ray, so

  • there is little concern about irradiation

  • of these organs you are

  • scanning. The MRI - magnetic resonance

  • is not using X-ray, it is using

  • very, very strong magnetssometimes the contrast still needs to be

  • increased

  • so there is sometimes intravenous

  • contrast medium injected. Even more so with the positron emission tomography PET

  • PET-scan is also using

  • intravenous medium, so

  • that the blood-saturated centers

  • in the body can be detected very

  • clearly, but the resolution of the PET-scan is not very good

  • so what is the new method: combining,

  • because each of these scanning methods

  • (including also the electro-encephalograph EEG), each of these methods

  • is good just for something and not so good for other things

  • so actually the new generations are now combining

  • usually two different methods together in one machine

  • so that the new project, the "Human connectome project" has been started.

  • and the ambitious aim

  • is to map the neuronal connections in the brain.

  • Before it was the Human genome project

  • mapping of the DNA, which is more-or-less concluded -

  • of course, the research continues, but the genome has been

  • decoded so to say, so now comes the brain -

  • and we are getting these very impressive beautiful pictures

  • even visually it is quite interesting,

  • but I think that these new

  • beginning results in this research

  • are bringing more questions than answers.

  • The idea was in neuro-science that

  • all these information

  • that is a kind of convergence of the information in the brain

  • so there would be a kind

  • of a center, where the consciousness is created and the mind is created

  • now look at these pictures:

  • the neuronal connections are rather running apart

  • instead of coming together.

  • So I think there are quite some new

  • wrinkles

  • on the forehead of the materialistic neuro-scientists

  • and new challenge actually appears

  • because if we look in the

  • old Abhidhamma, more than two thousand years old

  • in Buddhism, actually,

  • there are not five senses, there are six senses:

  • the five senses

  • we know plus mind, and

  • each of the senses has its base. So the seeing has the eye,

  • the hearing has the ear or the drum, the nose, the tongue,

  • the body for

  • touching, for the tactile qualities it is the whole

  • surface of the body and

  • the organ for the mind is defined as heart.

  • In Asia

  • you have, you get it even today

  • when "I think..." you know, pointing to the head

  • but the Asian people "I think..."

  • pointing to their hearts. So the influence of these

  • ancient ideas is still among the people there -

  • may be correct, it may be wrong

  • the knowledge of anatomy two thousand years ago

  • was certainly very basic but

  • these sages were actually approaching

  • the mind and body from completely different perspective

  • to understand it - so they may be

  • correct, there may be wrong - don't believe

  • just things too quickly even in the spirituality

  • what I say: that a healthy faith

  • and the healthy skepticism belongs to the healthy life

  • and belongs to the healthy spirituality as well,

  • but the fanatical faith

  • and obsessive skepticism

  • this is the way down, this is the way to blindness

  • and to be limited.

  • So this is my recommendation also for the neuro-science

  • to have its sceptics but

  • to also have open windows

  • for completely new way of understanding, especially if it promises

  • to explain so many new things. So this

  • can be said about the Human connectome project -

  • but actually more to this:

  • the brain plasticity, very well-known,

  • that if some center is damaged that

  • the brain can very nicely compensate after a while

  • it will create new connections

  • in the neuronal ways and functions.

  • So, I

  • think even that each person

  • is wired somehow differently. I suspect there is big difference

  • between the Asian brain

  • and the Western brain, that there is a different cultural background it's clear

  • I suspect that even the brain is wired differently.

  • I spent five years in Burma,

  • I know what I am talking about

  • and, moreover,

  • there are people walking among

  • us almost without a brain.

  • It is called "hydrocephalus"

  • it is this article I came across:

  • on the right side this is the brain of a normal average person

  • on the left side this is the hydrocephalus

  • when there is a huge cavity

  • filled with cerebrospinal fluid and

  • little bit of the brain tissue at the edges of the skull

  • and this is a person who has a job

  • as a civil servant, father of two children

  • actually they found it by chance

  • that he has this huge cavity

  • in the head, and his IQ

  • is under the average, that's true, 75 that's not very good,

  • the average would be 100 or 105

  • 110 and he has 75

  • but in a certain framework he can lead a normal life

  • you know, and how to explain

  • these things. For me it is just another

  • indication that the mind with its enormous complexity

  • is not created by brain. Look what the

  • famous professor Michio Kaku has to say

  • to this new discoveries. He is the cofounder of the string theory

  • so theoretical physicist of a great caliber I would say

  • of course, in this particular clip

  • he is talking to university students so also

  • he was tuning his language to the level of the audience

  • enjoy it. First of all: is the brain a digital computer?

  • For fifty years we thought yes, and the answer is really no.

  • The brain has no operating system, the brain

  • has no programming, there's no CPU

  • there are no subroutines, nothing. So what

  • is the brain? The brain is learning machine

  • it is a neural network of sort, which rewires itself

  • after learning every task. Therefore it does use some

  • digital some analog in a combination, but as you correctly pointed out

  • reading, reading what these neurons do

  • is beyond our capability. So what we do in the laboratories we cheat

  • we simply see a configuration of neurons corresponding to moving your arm like

  • this

  • then we create a dictionary - very clumsy

  • but that's what we do in the laboratory. You see!

  • So, considering the complexity of the mind

  • as well, I came across another

  • article, which was actually

  • exploring the complexity of the body,

  • of the human body - I could not believe it.

  • So I started to calculate it myself and in fact, I came to the double

  • of that incredible

  • message.

  • So, this article was describing the human body consisting of

  • 37 trillions of cells. The number,

  • the assessment is now higher, I remember

  • some twenty years ago it was something like ten trillions

  • now it is more, it is 37 trillions

  • of cells. Each cell has a nucleus

  • with chromosomes. Human cell has 23

  • chromosomes or chromosome

  • double, or chromosome pairs; and the chromosome actually it's

  • a DNA molecule coiled very tightly together.

  • The 23 chromosomes are

  • not the same, they are different in size but the average size

  • of DNA, if you straighten up

  • the molecule, so the average size is

  • 5 centimeters. If you would

  • straighten the DNA of one human cell and connect it together:

  • 230 centimeters,

  • over two meters - which is

  • a lot

  • because it is just a molecule, this double helix.

  • DNA is a molecule

  • 3 nanometers thin

  • which means 20,000 times

  • thinner than the human hair.

  • This article was just playing with the idea

  • that we would take DNA of one human body

  • straighten it up and connect: how long will be

  • this fiber?

  • From London to Paris? What do you think?

  • From London to New York - or

  • twenty times around the earth? What do you think?

  • All wrong,

  • all wrong! Terribly wrong:

  • million times around

  • the earth -

  • one human body. Actually according to my calculation

  • almost two million times around

  • the equator. This

  • enormous complexity of the human body!

  • And we are sometimes so stupid

  • referring to it

  • "my body". What is mine in that?

  • The digestion? Or the blood circulation, or the immune system?

  • The neuronal network? What is

  • mine in the body. Now

  • imagine if the mind would be more complex than the body -

  • possible, I don't know. So neuroscience is doing big step forwards?

  • In my understanding it is big

  • ant step forwards on

  • a journey many miles long.

  • I think with this preparation we are now ready

  • to proceed to the next chapter in this

  • exploration talk

  • not yet near-death experiences but out-of-body experiences.

  • Let's look at that phenomenon

  • little bit more precisely because that's kind of a between link

  • and we can understand the near-death experiences better

  • when we understand out-of-body experiences.

  • There are two kinds of them, but to start with that

  • I will take a kind of a reference

  • base, so that we have something solid

  • we can rely on, and I will take the

  • very detailed description

  • of out-of-body experience of psychologist doctor Susan Blackmore.

  • When she was young in Cambridge

  • she was exploring different area of

  • paranormal phenomena generally, but as a psychologist keeping

  • quite a sober view and mind over that, critical mind actually,

  • perhaps even too critical, materialistically colored,

  • they had some meeting and then

  • they went to their private rooms and

  • she described that they were using

  • cannabis - you know, this is the

  • academic cover-name for marihuana -

  • they were stoned on marihuana and

  • in that state she got extremely strong

  • out-of-body experience, starting with

  • disassociating from the body seeing

  • her from above, then continuing through the ceiling

  • and above the Cambridge building, then she would

  • travel towards the Mediterranean

  • then back over

  • Italy, Switzerland, then to New York and South America

  • then she would expand to the size of the universe

  • then again getting so small

  • she could not fit back into her body

  • she was travelling inside her body could not

  • wake up in her body, fortunately there have been friends around to

  • help her

  • finally she got kind of

  • back to have normal senses.

  • Now, in her report

  • two things are extremely valuable for

  • our exploration of near-death experiences.

  • When she was above the

  • Cambridge building she

  • moved a little bit, because you know, in this

  • out-of-body condition you can move to certain

  • limits by your will, by your wanting,

  • so she moved to the gutter

  • of the building (gutter is the rain-water channel

  • on the roof) looking at it

  • in detail and she could see that there are old

  • metallic gutters there

  • and then she continued the astral travelling

  • towards Mediterranean.

  • The next day she went out

  • wanting to see if

  • her vision from the out-of-body experience

  • really is matching the human world

  • reality and

  • looking at the gutters there were

  • new plastic ones! You see,

  • the out-of-body experience completely mind made.

  • So, that's the first very important message

  • from that report. The second one: for her

  • it felt so extremely real -

  • getting the second message from this side:

  • even if the things feel so

  • extremely real, substantial like this world

  • around me, doesn't mean that it is

  • real

  • and I take it as a very valuable information

  • because it is coming from a professional,

  • and if you

  • reflect deeply, you start to doubt

  • even our world around us because

  • it appears so extremely real to us -

  • but perhaps I will come to it a little bit later

  • there is a difference. So, I said

  • there are two different kinds of out-of-body experiences:

  • these, which are purely

  • kind of hallucinations of the mind

  • but there is the other one,

  • the other kind of out-of-body experiences

  • which can be corroborated,

  • veridical, they are called veridical when you can verify

  • that this out-of-body mind was witnessing something

  • which was really taking place in another location

  • and we have the report

  • of doctor Cicoria, the first part of it.

  • He was evidently out of his body

  • you know, seeing this phone

  • dangling, looking at his feet, still there

  • but when he turned, he could see his body people running to it

  • he could hear what they were

  • saying, but they could not hear him

  • and he was seeing

  • something which was taking place in

  • the earthly reality. - So, if you want to become

  • invisible, that would be the recipe.

  • Of course this is just the beginning

  • of the out-of-body experience in the

  • near-death experiences, later on, if we go

  • with the report of doctor Cicoria

  • he was floating over the stairs,

  • his feet, his legs were dissolving,

  • went through the wall into the room where

  • the children were painting faces.

  • We do not have any confirmation

  • if this was the earthly reality or

  • this was already a part of out-of-body experience

  • which is a pure projection. I don't have the information, could be both:

  • it could be that the children,

  • his family, really was there and the children were

  • painting some faces, but it can be also

  • that he was already detaching from the

  • human world frequency, going into the spiritual one.

  • The collection

  • of verified out-of-body experiences is actually quite large

  • and still growing, but it's true that

  • these things are happening mostly among the close

  • family members or relatives so that

  • the veridical weight of

  • these testimonies is not very high

  • therefore very special position

  • are receiving those cases which are happening in the hospitals

  • because the testimony is coming from professional personnel.

  • To name

  • at least the most famous ones: I would say Pam Reynolds.

  • In 1991 she developed a dangerous

  • aneurism very deep down in the brain

  • almost sitting on the brainstem, extremely difficult to get to it.

  • Aneurism is the ballooning of the blood vessel.

  • If that bursts

  • that is fatal, the patient would die.

  • So actually, Pam was in a critical condition

  • and everybody giving up because

  • to get to that aneurism without damaging

  • the brain was very, very difficult task.

  • Finally doctor Robert Spetzler took the case

  • in Phoenix, in Arizona but

  • he choose a very special condition for this very special case.

  • It this called the "deep hypothermic

  • cardiac arrest"

  • which means that for the main part of the surgery

  • Pam was put into death. This kind of

  • operation is called or nicknamed "standstill operation".

  • The procedure took

  • 7 hours,

  • starting with general anesthesia, the body was

  • pumped with phenobarbital, a medicament

  • to slowdown the brain metabolism

  • to get rid of the brain waves, then

  • started the external cooling of the body

  • to have more time for the main surgery.

  • Also the eyes were closed and taped

  • shut to avoid drying out

  • of the eyes, special beeping

  • modules were inserted into the ears

  • of the body to have the possibility to monitor the response of the brain and

  • the brain stem -

  • it was completely flat. In this condition

  • the body of Pam was wheeled into the operation theatre.

  • Now the second round of the preparations started

  • doctor Spetzler started to unpack

  • the bone saw to open the skull

  • and the cardiologists, the female

  • cardiologists started to connected the

  • heart-lung machine to cool the blood,

  • to cool the body even internally - and

  • at this time Pam's mind came out

  • of the body, undocked from the brain

  • and typically observing

  • these happenings in the operation theatre

  • from above, seeing her body. Actually her face was also covered with a drape

  • only the crown of the head was exposed for the surgery -

  • and this is the condition from which

  • her out-of-body experience comes: instrumented

  • completely, all the vital functions of the body was

  • monitored, closely observed, and she is bringing

  • testimony how the bone saw

  • looks like, that what doctor Spetzler was holding

  • in his hand, this very unexpected tool

  • bone saw - we would imagine something like that -

  • not at all, it's a kind of the pneumatic drill

  • actually, with interchangeable blades

  • and Pam is comparing the instrument

  • to the handle of her electric toothbrush.

  • She is correctly describing

  • also the case in which the interchangeable blades

  • are disposed, she is even correctly remembering the conversation going on

  • between doctor Spetzler and the cardiologist

  • because there is a problem,

  • blood vessels in the groin are too small

  • to connect the heart-lung machine so doctor is

  • instructing to try the other side.

  • The out-of-body experience of Pam is happening in this very closely observed

  • circumstances of the hospital of the operation theatre.

  • Later on the operation continues,

  • the body temperature is brought down to 15 degrees centigrade,

  • of course the heart stops by itself

  • the blood is drained from the brain

  • so that doctor Spetzler can use

  • his surgical microscope to perform the operation

  • and at this time Pam goes seamlessly

  • into her very elaborate near-death experience

  • and coming back after

  • worming of the body, coming back to tell us the story.

  • There was a very good BBC documentary

  • about this case, it is still available somewhere in the internet

  • and in that documentary Pam is giving her

  • commentary: "I was looking down at the body

  • I knew it was my body, but I didn't care.

  • My vantage point was sort of sitting

  • on doctor shoulder. I remembered the instrument in his hand

  • it looked like a handle of my electric toothbrush..."

  • and doctor Spetzler

  • later in the interview, he was reflecting the case

  • "I don't have an explanation for it

  • I don't know how it's possible for it to happen

  • considering the physiological state she's in

  • at the same time I have seen so many things

  • that I can't explain that I don't want to be so arrogant

  • as to be able to say that there is no way can happen."

  • This is a wonderful comment of

  • a high-level specialist to

  • express this kind of humbleness towards the mystery of

  • life, very beautiful. So, that was the Pam Reynolds case.

  • The other case is also very special

  • Vicky Umipeg Noratuk

  • woman born blind. She got married

  • but was involved in a very bad

  • car crash. In that

  • dying condition brought to the emergency unit

  • of a hospital - and classically

  • hovering above

  • the table, seeing the body on the table.

  • The special feature of this

  • particular case is that first time

  • in her life she could see - when she was dead!

  • Observing this frantic

  • activities of the doctors trying to

  • do the resuscitation. First she did not know it is her body

  • but as you can move in this condition

  • according to your will to some extent,

  • she moved to the hand hanging from the table

  • she recognized her wedding ring.

  • Therefore she understood it must be her body on the table.

  • But again, she did not stay very long and continued

  • into very spiritual kind of the heavenly

  • near-death experience which

  • she in this BBC Video commented like this:

  • "It is still very emotional thing

  • when I talk about this because there was a point

  • in which I could bring forth any knowledge I wanted to have

  • and it was like this place where all the knowledge Was

  • and then I was send back

  • and then I went back into my body and it was

  • excruciatingly painful and very heavy and I remember feeling

  • very sick." Just few words from Vicki

  • and we can feel the genuineness, the authenticity

  • of her deep spiritual experience. This is the reason why sometimes I put the

  • near-death experience of such an intensity

  • parallel or in juxtaposition with

  • and real enlightenment (of considerable intensity)

  • they are different, it is not possible to compare it

  • but the effect on the life

  • is similar, the life is changed.

  • But now coming to the final chapter

  • of this long explorative talk: near-death experiences -

  • what it is really? And

  • I would say, I would like to stay sober

  • throughout this exploration, not jumping

  • too quickly on any bias or any spiritual

  • believe, rather

  • at first to collect all the information available

  • and all the facts and trying to put it together

  • so that hopefully at the end it starts to make

  • a clear picture.

  • To start with: everybody is complaining about the fussiness of the term itself

  • "near-death experiences". I would recommend

  • three different distinct categories

  • dying experience, near-death experience

  • similar to near-death experience

  • and dying experience

  • really reserving it only for the cases

  • when there was an evident cardiac arrest,

  • there was no heartbeat, there was no blood circulation

  • and the report veridically, verifiably

  • comes from the time, when there was

  • clinical death. So, that would be the dying experience.

  • Real near-death experiences are extremely intensive,

  • clear experiences. They are not happening in the dying brain,

  • they even cannot happen in brain without fresh blood. They are happening in the

  • undocked mind. One example for that

  • I would take the case of

  • Stefan Jankovic, Stefan v. Jankovic

  • in Switzerland 1964

  • long time ago a horrible car crash

  • in high-speed he flew through the windshield

  • with his head. Everything broken,

  • blood everywhere. When the doctor finally arrived

  • the heart already stopped beating

  • so the doctor was trying resuscitation

  • put some injection into his arm - not helping, so

  • when he wanted to make the heart massage

  • he found out that the ribcage is broken so he couldn't do that

  • he declared him dead.

  • But also at that time arrived second doctor

  • perhaps he was living in the vicinity perhaps

  • he was one of the passengers - there was

  • a row of cars already and bystanders everywhere

  • so he came rushing and

  • talking shortly with the first doctor he checked

  • Stefan - declared also

  • clinically dead. So they were standing there

  • discussing a little bit the case and then the second doctor

  • came to the idea that he has adrenaline injection

  • in his emergency case so

  • why not to try. So he administered

  • an injection of adrenalin directly into the heart

  • of the body and the wonder happened after a while

  • the heart started to function, making pressure

  • so rapid transportation to the intensive unit

  • of the first hospital.

  • Now, probably this story is not quite unusual

  • what is unusual on this particular story

  • that Stefan was witnessing all that

  • hovering three meters over the scene

  • in this kind of

  • out-of-body condition - sometimes it is called the 5th dimension.

  • Sometimes people reporting

  • seeing everything from all sides at the same time

  • but actually what Stefan was

  • reporting, that he could actually

  • sense or feel the thoughts

  • of two bystanders as well, not only what was spoken there

  • that he was hearing that but even the thinking process of the

  • bystanders and

  • he noticed one religious lady

  • was praying actually: 'may all the sins

  • of this dying person be forgiven,

  • may he come to heaven'- and Stefan was

  • impressed by the wonderful act of compassion

  • and also he noticed the mental attitude of

  • another guy that he was rather critical

  • and angry sending negative thoughts towards that

  • what he was witnessing.

  • So, that's the special case that two doctors declared

  • clinical death and the report actually

  • of Stefan comes from that time - it is not

  • only veridical out-of-body experience

  • it's a dying experience. Some days later the 2nd doctor came

  • to visit Stefan in the hospital.

  • Stefan greeted him with a frown

  • 'What have you done to me to call me back into this

  • soring body' - and actually Stefan wrote in his book

  • that the dying was the best experience of his life.

  • So,

  • very specific case, very special. Pam Reynolds?

  • No, I would not call her into this first category, into the second one

  • = near-death experiences. The characteristic of the second

  • category I would define as:

  • the life integrity is seriously endangered

  • and there is a story coming from that condition

  • but the heart is possibly working, the breath

  • can be added by ventilator, certainly a critical

  • condition, but there is the circulation

  • of blood. This is the significant difference between the first category and the

  • second one.

  • So, Pam Reynolds

  • because remembering that there was a discussion what she

  • actually reported between the doctor Spetzler

  • and the assisting doctor to connect probably the heart-lung

  • machine to pump the blood out of the system to cool the blood,

  • - possibly that

  • at that stage the heart was still working. So out of cautiousness

  • second category. But

  • her out-of body experience is 100%

  • veridical. She witnessed something

  • when the eyes were clearly taped

  • the auditory pathways were monitored by

  • electroencephalograph on the brainstem

  • - flat - so clear case.

  • Also the

  • doctor Cicoria,

  • second category. He was electrocuted

  • but who knows? Perhaps his heart was still beating

  • I don't know. So, out of cautiousness second category.

  • But a classical representation

  • of second category would be doctor Alexander,

  • Eben Alexander.

  • The special case or the special

  • feature of that case that he is

  • neuro-surgeon and he was with

  • serious meningitis - encephalitis

  • I don't know exactly the difference, swelling of the brain,

  • deadly, critical, so,

  • actually fully complying with the second category

  • but I think his heart was beating, he was in deep coma

  • seven days, big

  • near-death experience, quite popular

  • in books. To the second category

  • certainly belongs also coming

  • out of anesthesia (narcosis)

  • after operation, after the surgery the life integrity can be quite seriously in

  • question.

  • So people sometimes reporting near-death experience.

  • Into the second category

  • I would take also people falling

  • from cliff, the life integrity

  • is seriously endangered, I guess,

  • it fulfils the second category, but what they

  • are reporting is rather the

  • life review, the events of the life

  • rapidly flashing in front of their

  • mental eye. It's just one

  • element of a classical near-death experience, but why I am mentioning that

  • because the term "near-death experiences"

  • was coined to this

  • kind of experience in the end of nineteenth-century

  • so it's really very old

  • and needs revision, I guess. But

  • all the other cases I would put it into the third category

  • because this basically has nothing to do with a real near-death experience,

  • keeping it nicely way apart.

  • Seizures

  • it can be deadly, but usually not.

  • Another case of the third category:

  • extreme stress, you know, life integrity not in danger.

  • or extreme meditation - well,

  • perhaps the ego is dying, but life integrity no, no, no.

  • All the drug reports:

  • ketamine mmm very special

  • drug, actually used in medicine sometimes

  • because it has an anesthetic effect

  • there is a kind of a detachment

  • even from the feeling of self - so today it is usually taken as a party drug.

  • Sometimes like floating,

  • kind of an out-of-body, but forget it: this has nothing to do with the real

  • near-death experience. The atmosphere is completely different,

  • and the effect. The same with the pilots,

  • fighter pilots: sometimes they are making sharp turns

  • when they are on mission. So, in the training they are prepared in

  • a big centrifuge to be exposed to the surge of gravity

  • and they are actually going to 9 "G" =

  • nine times the gravitational pull

  • what we are experiencing on the surface of the earth

  • so they go nine times over. So everything

  • extremely heavy - of course, even the blood. So the heart cannot

  • pump it up to the brain.

  • So, pilots coming out of the centrifuge

  • on the verge of fainting, reporting strange things

  • but again, I was reading some of these,

  • far away from the atmosphere of near-death experience.

  • You know, if this would be near-death experience, so

  • I would qualify in that case as well. What happened to me?

  • In a long retreat in the mountains

  • there was a period of very well going,

  • very easily going practice. Sitting for a very long time, three-four hours,

  • feeling absolutely refreshed.

  • So from one of these sittings I stood up

  • abruptly: instantly fainting!

  • I collapsed. The same effect:

  • the pressure of the heart was adjusted

  • for the sitting position. When I stood up

  • so rapidly, so suddenly, of course,

  • the heart cannot change the pressure so quickly.

  • I went down, I was unconscious for a while

  • - which I don't remember. I remember

  • coming back when the mind started

  • to "re-dock", docking

  • again with the brain, with the psyche,

  • with the neurotic patterns of the mind

  • this heaviness, the limitations from this

  • free flowing of the free mind.

  • So,

  • yes, the mind can dock and undock.

  • Perhaps the fighter pilots can qualify as

  • a partial undocking, that's okay,

  • but don't put it into the category of near-death experiences.

  • And all the drug experiences:

  • actually, doctor Rick Strassman made

  • lots of experiments with DMT - dimethiltryptamine,

  • extremely strong and powerful psychedelic

  • hallucinogenic drug - onset

  • within seconds! and

  • because it was for a scientific research

  • he took only professional volunteers

  • with lots of experience with drugs

  • to have really valuable reports from them -

  • and perhaps two of them, of many,

  • have reported vaguely similar to

  • near-death experience, but the majority was

  • rather reporting encounters with completely different life forms

  • that was the majority

  • of these special trips, completely

  • different life entities, interacting with them -

  • that was the routine experience.

  • I even thought that perhaps Rick Strassman two of them has

  • overdosed - no,no,no, just thinking, just joking.

  • Similarly with the CO2 - all this kind of

  • cheap-shots from the sceptics, from the mainstream science materialists.

  • Drowning will hold

  • even on the halm of straw! You know,

  • muddying the water so that it is not clear.

  • CO2 that it causes near-death experience,

  • co2 in a bloodstream! People

  • in serious condition, life condition - probably the breathing is not working

  • well

  • so there is too much co2 in the bloodstream

  • you know, mixing the cause with the result.

  • So that too much

  • carbon dioxide in the bloodstream would be rather the result of the critical

  • condition

  • so enough with all this. Now

  • getting into the serious reflections

  • about near-death experiencesand again:

  • I would like to take a kind of a solid foundation what

  • we can rely on, or take quite some reference from that

  • and this time I would take the "Tibetan Book of death and dying"

  • "Bardo Thodol", many things coming from that.

  • It's an old literature, I read it some

  • thirty-five years ago, but I think the major

  • points I will remember correctly. First of all

  • "bardo" means transition,

  • the state of transition. So when the body dies, there is some time of a transition.

  • Theravada Buddhism would like

  • to put last conscious moment

  • "cuti" followed by the "patisandhi" which is the rebirth consciousness

  • of the next life - like an instant

  • following. But

  • I think more

  • suitable to speak about this transition state

  • in between which the "Bardo Thodol" is describing in

  • such colorful images. So, "bardo" meaning

  • transition, and the book is speaking about three

  • stages within that. Bardo of dying,

  • Bardo of Dharmata and Bardo of rebirth,

  • indicating that there is a kind of

  • development in that quite long

  • between-state. So that would be the next message,

  • and if you read if you remember the Bardo Thodol,

  • actually from the beautiful white light

  • of death, which the near-death experiencers are

  • describing with indescribable

  • beauty and nobility

  • and sublimity, wisdom, unconditional love -

  • all the superlatives, but then

  • the Bardo Thodol actually describes this stages it goes down.

  • In the Dharmata the first encounter is with the beautiful deities,

  • but then the wrathful, the fearful deities

  • and only then comes the Bardo of rebirth.

  • The Buddhist teachings are quite clear

  • that the rebirth in the same level

  • like again as a human, is extremely rare.

  • It's true that Bardo Thodol

  • declares that there is a possibility to exit

  • into next rebirth in any of these stages

  • and I think from the white light even

  • to exit to the Nirvana, or some

  • Tibetan teachings even take the white light to be Nirvana

  • or Rigpa - not really

  • in Theravada, Nirvana is not light,

  • certainly not. But certainly

  • very high spiritual state, clearly.

  • So, there is a development going down, you know, message

  • to all those near-death experiencers

  • who wants to die as soon as possible

  • again to experience this beauty -

  • be careful because the near-death

  • experience is just the beginning of the between state

  • and who knows how it goes after.

  • You know, take the case

  • of Howard Storm with

  • his stomach rupture, and he was dying of pain actually

  • late night in the hospital no surgeon,

  • so getting out of his body he was taken by beings

  • into the long corridor getting dark, getting darker

  • and hell, really, experienced hell.

  • So you know...

  • Next message

  • from Bardo Thodol appearing repeatedly in the text:

  • it is just projection,

  • it is just projection of your karma, so,

  • don't take it lightly because it's

  • serious, evidently, but it is just projection.

  • Very important message because that's also my understanding

  • that near-death experiences are projection of karma.

  • Perhaps the last thing which I would take from the Tibetans,

  • explaining that after the body dies

  • there is a kind of unconscious break

  • they say average is 2-3 days

  • when the mind

  • wakes up into this new condition in the Bardo-state

  • and everything is enhanced: the bliss

  • is much stronger than anything on the earth, the horror is stronger than

  • anything on the earth, the colors the feelings, everything's

  • more direct.

  • So, there is a gap and

  • this would explain why majority of people even with the cardiac arrest

  • doesn't remember anything, because

  • they were still in the gap, they came back before

  • the mind would wake up into the

  • in-between state. It's true

  • that occasionally we are having also

  • report of an almost seamless exit

  • from the body, real undocking

  • into the out-of-body experience.

  • Doctor Cicoria is one case.

  • Mickey Robinson - another case.

  • He was actually involved in

  • plane crash, dosed with kerosene, burning.

  • In the hospital dying of pain actually

  • of the burns and he said: 'like if you take

  • a glove off the hand' he was in the

  • spiritual world. Actually I would

  • turn it that the glove remained in the bed

  • and the hand would go into the spiritual world.

  • So, occasionally there is

  • almost no break, but I think, majority there is a break.

  • So, these are the things from the

  • Tibetan Book of Death. It's

  • an old literature, 14 century,

  • it seems that even in this

  • area there is a kind of a development.

  • The old religions

  • usually speak about a kind of judgment

  • and even some of the Asian or

  • Arabic near-death experiences really have this

  • kind of an atmosphere like to be sentenced by a tribunal

  • or at least being handled

  • quite bureaucratically.

  • The Indian traditions speak

  • often about God Yama,

  • God of death - Yama, weighting the

  • deeds: black stone for bad deeds,

  • white stone for good deeds on the scales

  • which will be more heavy that will be the destiny,

  • but if you take the Western near-death experiences, the majority

  • you know, this extremely beautiful

  • kind of peace - at least the beginning

  • of this afterlife,

  • between state. So, perhaps there is even some

  • development in that. Actually, what is this

  • judgment, these people would report as an

  • life review - again it is a kind of a review

  • of the events of the life, very quickly,

  • even doctor Cicoria

  • was reporting some, Stefan was reporting much more, about 2,000

  • his assessment 2000 rapidly flashing

  • pictures of the life situations. I would understand it

  • in the help of my analogy

  • with the computer: this is the time when the docking station with the periphery

  • is dying

  • the body with all the sensory organs and brain is dying.

  • So all that what was stored in the brain

  • (in the analogy that was the external hard disk)

  • all unresolved stuff is a karmic potential. The potential cannot just disappear

  • tracelessly. That's against the physics.

  • So it is the essence of the life,

  • unresolved life situations and deeds

  • that it is transferred as a kind of essence

  • into the storage of the notebook which survives.

  • Now it is a pure karmic potential

  • from the past life, kind of a

  • summary of the karma of the ending life.

  • Speaking

  • about the understanding of

  • death and rebirth in Buddhism, Buddhism has

  • actually the idea of an endless rebirth in different spheres

  • of existence - so

  • what is actually giving the direction of

  • the next rebirth? - Karma.

  • Karma activated in the time of dying.

  • So, it is not necessarily the whole karmic

  • package which can be quite..

  • containing probably everything, you know, through all this life,

  • the previous lives, all that, unresolved karma,

  • a lot of that - no, it is just the karma

  • activated in the time of dying

  • and there are four cases: "garuka karma" means

  • very strong karmic force. So, if you killed your parents

  • or killed a saint, that's the Garuka

  • karma which will influence the quality of your life

  • already on earth but even more after.

  • But Garuka karma can be also positive.

  • So, if you got Enlightenment, significant intensity

  • of Enlightenment it will certainly

  • influence the quality of your life already on the earth

  • but even more after. But this is not always the case

  • so, then there are two others:

  • death proximate karma or

  • habitual karma and the order is not really given because

  • rather what is stronger. Death proximate

  • the mental state, the memory which

  • came during dying can very well influence

  • the direction of the whole afterlife, of the rebirth.

  • or habitual karma

  • that what was done repeatedly during the life, accumulated strength

  • so it can very well influence the rebirth,

  • the direction of the rebirth. But then comes the fourth one

  • and that's the problem:

  • any karma, any unresolved karma can get

  • activated and that's the scary part of the whole thing

  • and that's what brought me to Buddhism.

  • The simile

  • for that is given with the cows, when the country man comes in the morning

  • open the fence: Which cow will

  • get first. So if there is a strong

  • bull - that's the Garuka karma.

  • But probably there isn't any

  • so then it is these two: either the cow which is the nearest

  • to the gate or the cow which habitually goes first.

  • But if this is not exactly the case, then

  • any of the cows - you know, here we are!

  • So this is the explanation in Buddhism.

  • Now talking about the different spheres

  • of existence or as I call it

  • the different frequencies of appearances

  • I have this

  • diagram, using that very often,

  • I think at least once I should

  • give credit to the authors of that:

  • designed by Sunanda Lim

  • compiled by Venerable Achara Suvanno Mahathera.

  • So it's a typical

  • list of worlds

  • the planes of existence, meaning

  • that all these frequencies

  • of existence are inhabited by beings.

  • These are worlds

  • actually, of beings. We are here,

  • we are quite low, still there are four

  • levels under the human ones, which

  • is understood as the spheres of misery

  • or great misery and

  • all that actually, above the human,

  • levels of devas or angels

  • this is the sphere of fine-materiality

  • the Gods, the Brahmas and the high devas,

  • and the immaterial spheres, the Arupa loka.

  • and so this is the understanding in Buddhism

  • this all are spheres of rebirth

  • the rebirth can go

  • actually, to any of these spheres

  • whatever, according to the activated karma

  • and here

  • in this diagram the spheres are actually

  • painted one over the other.

  • In my understanding I would

  • put quite some space in-between - for a quite good reason.

  • I would compare these spheres of existence

  • to the radio stations, you know, they are stations

  • which you can tune in and quite a lot of space in between

  • what is the characteristic of the radio

  • station?

  • All those who are tuned to the same frequency

  • are actually receiving the same kind of broadcasting,

  • the same like

  • all humans are interpreting the world

  • in a similar way: this is the table, this is the

  • tree, everybody agrees this is the house, this is a lake

  • and is this sky, you know, this is red, this is brown -

  • more-or-less everybody agrees with that.

  • So, that's because

  • all are tuned to the same frequency. So these would be like the

  • radio station shared by many

  • but there is evidently also in between state

  • which is the Bardo.

  • Actually, all these spheres except this

  • are spheres of nama-rupa. Nama

  • is mentality, rupa is materiality.

  • So in Buddhism we have two different types of phenomena.

  • All phenomena are empty - probably

  • today it would be rather defined as "virtual

  • realities", you know, spheres

  • of virtual realities.

  • But still, two types: mental

  • and 'material' phenomena. So Buddhism

  • would teach that all these spheres of beings,

  • all these worlds are just empty phenomena rolling.

  • But the phenomena

  • the existence and happening of these phenomena is real. Buddha

  • would never deny that. The beings

  • in this lower field are actually experiencing

  • their worlds exactly as we do

  • with this solid objects all around them

  • kind of a heavy solid materiality

  • all around them. In the blue

  • fine-material spheres the materiality is much more subtle

  • only shapes and

  • the immaterial spheres. Now, why I would put some space in between:

  • the state of Bardo

  • has not "solid" materiality

  • I would call it a "mental materiality": it is

  • a pure projection, there is not this kind

  • of solid materiality

  • which would obey to the law of physics,

  • mathematic, chemistry,

  • electricity, gravity, all that. That's the difference

  • that the beings of the particular sphere

  • are sharing material phenomena

  • which makes the whole sphere

  • somehow more static. When it is only

  • materiality made by mind, so

  • it is much more fluent, changeable. Here on earth when you

  • wake up in the morning you wake up to the same room you went

  • to sleep the day before. In this Bardo

  • between stage everything is changing

  • from minute to minute. So that would

  • explain

  • why the people in the near-death experiences

  • everybody is actually reporting something quite different

  • because the experience is completely individual

  • Certainly there may be some influence from

  • beings from the other side so to say which are

  • tuned to the same between-frequency, possible

  • but generally that's an area of

  • individual projection. This is again

  • quite a substantial central message

  • from this talk - better I'll take it from the paper.

  • When you examined the authentic

  • near-death experiences in Internet beside many heavenly, exalted, luminous ones

  • you will find also deeply horrifying hell

  • experiences. They are not so many, perhaps

  • in the relation 1 to 10 or

  • 2 to 10, but my suspicion is

  • that the hell experiences are under-reported.

  • Quite understandably, because of the stigma

  • these people may get from there environment. Even if people don't believe

  • in the religion, there is still this background idea

  • that only bad people experience hell

  • which is evidently not true!

  • Examining these hell accounts carefully

  • beside a real disgust for the whole existence and rebirth

  • in Samsara, on top of that I got for a while

  • creepy feeling of apparent cosmic injustice.

  • In Buddhism, if you know the law of karma correctly,

  • you'll get a clearer understanding or even

  • assertion that there is a basic universal justice

  • but this justice or perhaps we should say rather

  • cosmic equilibrium - it works

  • only when we consider extremely long periods of time.

  • In a given cases -like

  • within one lifetime-

  • irregularities are quite possible.

  • Buddhism is teaching

  • conditionality: cause and effect, like for example

  • karma-vipaka relationship, meaning

  • things do not happen in our life just by chance

  • or coincidence. There are many references in the Scriptures

  • supporting this kind of fundamental universal justice.

  • Even for the direction of rebirth

  • the Buddha gave clear general metaphor: if stones

  • mixed with liquid butter are thrown into water

  • by nature the stones will go down

  • and the butter will go up. That was his simile illustrating the basic

  • function

  • of karma during rebirth. But

  • on other occasions Buddha also clearly declared

  • occasional irregularities. The Samsara

  • and karma are not a mechanical clockwork

  • not at all! If you study the different kinds of near-death experiences

  • quite possibly the difficult hellish reports

  • may reveal the nature of near-death experiences more clearly

  • then the exalted ones. It will become clear

  • that the form, the form (!) of the near-death experiences

  • is a mental fabrication, or better,

  • mental karma fabrication similar to

  • our dreams. You can feel

  • in these stories the typical dream language, this sudden changes of the

  • place and scene

  • without any logic, the emotional charge

  • in these stories, or, another element of the dream language,

  • substituting one thing by other thing,

  • etc. Bryan Melvin near-death experience is one of the most intensive

  • horrifying one. After such

  • a shock no wonder that after being

  • "saved" by Jesus in the end of his near-death experience

  • he became dedicated Christian evangelist.

  • The same Mickey Robinson

  • or Howard Storm. The hell

  • near-death experience of Howard Storm brought even the thought

  • to me, that the experienced horror may be linked in some way to the extreme

  • pain of his physical body. When the mind

  • undocks bodily pain instantly disappear,

  • logically, but if later the mind comes closer to the ailing body

  • and connects just a little bit, the intensive pain

  • may give rise to the hell imaginary in the mind.

  • But probably this explanation is not correct

  • because it doesn't fit to all of the hell stories.

  • You know, Howard Storm,

  • actually his stomach ruptured

  • and he suffered extreme pain, he was dying of pain actually

  • they could not find a surgeon, so he

  • got a very extended near-death experience - the horror one,

  • and again, in the end he was as if saved by divine beings.

  • Saartje's near-death experience

  • became hellish ominous - but even more so

  • when the police and the medic came, or even broke

  • into her room and she, in a state of a serious bodily distress,

  • woke up from her near-death experience into her body.

  • Again a kind of dream language interpretation

  • of the heavy situation. Police came in

  • and she was actually getting

  • this very ominous

  • end of her near-death experience. But

  • her experience was not that intensive as the other ones.

  • I have great respect and I am sending

  • great gratitude to all these people who came forward

  • and shared their difficult stories

  • but also I fully understand

  • all those, who did not come forward.

  • These highly colorful reports convincted me

  • that the form of near-death experiences stories

  • is a creation of the undocked

  • mind but on the other side

  • that the near-death experience phenomenon itself

  • is a highly important, often coded

  • encounter with deeper layers of one's own being

  • in other spiritual systems

  • often referred to as "higher self"

  • or "high self" or even

  • as an encounter with God or Jesus.

  • But if we consider

  • that the higher echelons of consciousness are actually interconnected

  • in direction of oneness, everything becoming one,

  • so even such an interpretation as

  • encounter with God or Jesus cannot be actually considered as

  • quite wrong. We should understand that a being,

  • a person, has many psychological, but even spiritual

  • layers, in Buddhist language we can say

  • many karma layers. I had somehow comparable encounter with

  • deeper layer of myself,

  • of my being, at the beginning

  • of my meditation practice. Therefore I can give my personal thoughts to that.

  • This very noble, very high

  • "instance" felt extremely superior

  • to the everyday little ego, it was not

  • really any "self" at all but it was something

  • like very advanced "instance"

  • in the very middle of my own being

  • or better: me "beingness",

  • extremely powerful,

  • in an advanced way extremely fatherly,

  • concerned fully with spiritual progress

  • of the much lower ego. It was not

  • more "me", it was above

  • that limitation, it was also clear

  • that this "instance" is able to arrange

  • anything in order to advance spiritual progress

  • of the given individual, far, far beyond

  • ego's typical concerns, worries

  • fears, pain and happiness.

  • Sometimes

  • even little bit like when you want to bring your

  • ailing dog to the veterinarian... But here we are coming to the central paradox

  • of the near-death experience phenomena: from the worldly perspective

  • near-death experience belong to the category of dreams

  • or mental projections, but as to their content,

  • intensity and significance they can be the most important,

  • decisive and pivotal event

  • in the existence of an individual.

  • Perhaps, when all this will become more clear,

  • then psychology will start to develop

  • kind of a "scientific religion"

  • to prevent people to have hell

  • experience when the body dies.

  • Speaking

  • about the middle of our own being: that was my first

  • image of rebirth and it is still the best

  • I have actually. In death

  • beings are released from their bodies,

  • leaving all behind, and they are coming to the center of their beingness

  • which they experience as the great white light of the death and dying,

  • but because there is still unresolved karma

  • the karma will bring them down into some next existence.

  • This was actually

  • my image that in dying the

  • stream of consciousness, the stream of mind

  • is coming into its own center interpreted as the white light

  • of the death, this enormous beauty

  • and knowledge and loving kindness - all these superlatives

  • but because there is still unresolved karma

  • the mind will fall down

  • into next existence, into next individual

  • mind and body, having another lifetime

  • leaving that again, dying again,

  • coming to the white light of the death again, but missing it again

  • falling into next rebirth, and again

  • another lifetime, sometimes missing the

  • white light by far, falling into next existence

  • and again until we learn

  • and we don't need to come anymore. One of the most simple and most beautiful

  • images

  • of the aim of all great spiritual systems

  • is the picture of the path towards

  • the center. The spiritual paths

  • are connecting us and bringing us to the center of our own

  • being. Some Buddhist systems

  • call it emptiness, you can call it fullness

  • it's the same: coming home.

  • We live in the outskirts in the periphery of our true beingness,

  • in a kind of exile and separation for very long time.

  • On the spiritual way we are putting aside

  • our attachments and merging in the vortex of presence.

  • The opening can happen in a click

  • but usually it is a long way

  • because we love our

  • prison.

  • So, I think with that I have actually explained majority

  • of the near-death experiences

  • disagreeing partially with everybody.

  • Certainly I disagree with the materialistic

  • understanding not-understanding of reality,

  • the psychological

  • kind of approach has much more to say

  • as I started, You know, this similarity

  • of the birth channel with the birth of the baby

  • to compare it with the tunnel and coming to the white light

  • no,no,no this is just a coincidental

  • kind of similarity. Meeting

  • the departed ones - there is absolutely no meaning in that

  • no, but the psychological explanation

  • has at least this phenomenon

  • of projection, psychology works a lot with projection

  • we are projecting our own material around us

  • that's very well-known and in a near-death experience really this is

  • something going on

  • a lot. So, certainly, psychology has little bit more to say

  • but I have little bit disagreement even with the spiritual

  • community

  • which takes quite often the life just

  • as a kind of dream, hallucination

  • a thought - actually

  • there was a movie "Jonathan Livingston Seagull"

  • some 35 years ago

  • has quite

  • touched me somewhere, and if you have seen it

  • the novel was written by Richard Bach

  • Neil Diamond made the music, and

  • the departed Jonathan gets the teaching

  • from Chang, I think, was then wise

  • seagull teaching him and the conversation

  • goes like this, Chang is explaining to him:

  • "your whole body from wing tip to wing tip

  • is nothing more than your thought itself

  • in a form you can see. Break the chains

  • of your thought and you break the chains

  • of your body too" - I don't agree with that.

  • The thoughts are not made of cells

  • molecules and atoms. Spiritual community

  • jumping on that kind of explanation

  • 'everything is just a thought-form' - not really,

  • not everything. There are material phenomena

  • as well, Abhidhamma is very clear about it "nama-rupa"

  • nama is everything

  • conscious the consciousness and the mental factors,

  • but there are also rupa phenomena

  • which are not conscious and these are

  • the earth, water, fire, airin Abhidhamma

  • understood as nothing material, please be careful,

  • these are only characteristics out of which

  • the mind creates the appearance on this material world

  • around us, not that there would be

  • anything substantial, hard, heavy

  • out there - that's our illusion

  • that's the world of appearances. According to this highest kind of

  • insight, highest kind of

  • truth or reality, these are only qualities.

  • It is like things are painted with different colors

  • in our mind.

  • I would compare it - what we know

  • quite, what is familiar to us, we know

  • that all the colors of the world are just combination

  • of three primary colors, we know that.

  • If you look on a television with a magnifying glass

  • you will see just 3 primary colors

  • and everything what appears on a television is

  • the admixture of three primary colors so similarly

  • our mind works with these

  • four elementary qualities

  • painting appearance

  • of the material world around us. That's Abhidhamma.

  • Do you think that in this the Buddhism and Abhidhamma went

  • too far, too far-fetched, too fantastic to be true?

  • Not at all, science knows these things long time ago, I told you already

  • in the beginning.

  • Listen what said one of the greatest physicists of modern time,

  • the central figure of quantum mechanics Niels Bohr

  • almost a century ago: "The common sense view of the world

  • in terms of objects that really exist

  • out there, independently of our observation

  • totally collapses in the face

  • of the quantum factor", quantum mechanic.

  • And Niels Bohr again:

  • "If quantum mechanics hasn't profoundly shocked you

  • you haven't understood it yet." And I would say

  • if Buddhism hasn't profoundly shocked you

  • you haven't understood it yet! Einstein was never happy with quantum

  • theory

  • though he agreed that all its conclusion and axioms were

  • scientifically

  • perfectly correct but still, this is his kind of

  • defiance quote: "I like to think the moon

  • is there even if I am not looking at it."

  • According to Abhidhamma the moon is

  • not there when you don't watch it, but the moon is not there even if you

  • and many others are watching. According to

  • Abhidhamma there are only rupas - empty phenomena happening

  • that's all, that's the ultimate reality

  • of the moon. But

  • on the other side Einstein agreed

  • and admitted: "Reality is merely an illusion

  • although, very persistent one!"

  • good to know: he is here referring to our everyday sense of

  • reality. But more important than Einstein's thoughts

  • is he the quote from Eugene Wigner, the Nobel Prize scientist of the 20th

  • century:

  • "...the very study of the external world

  • led to the scientific conclusion

  • that the content of consciousness

  • is the ultimate universal reality."

  • content of consciousness

  • is the ultimate universal realityand that science!

  • It sounds like a handshake

  • between science and Buddhism indeed. Do you remember the quote in the

  • beginning? Kalu Rinpoche?

  • "You live in illusion

  • and the appearance of things. There is reality,

  • you are that reality (your consciousness is the reality)

  • but you don't know it (you project it). When you understand this

  • you will see that you are nothing (there is not

  • a real you), and being nothing

  • you are everything (everything you can conceive

  • is just the content of your consciousness, you

  • are everything), and that's all."

  • - actually it this not all, because there is one more step

  • to accomplish: to free oneself from

  • all this appearances, illusions and hallucinations.

  • And now we are coming to the end

  • of this long, long talk. Do the pieces of the puzzle come together?

  • Are they starting to give a clearer picture now?

  • Can we perhaps even

  • answer this strange, creepy

  • question: is the heaven

  • and hell real? - well

  • what we can say with full certainty,

  • considering this great number

  • of near-death experiencers authentic reports,

  • what we can say with absolute certainty

  • that heaven

  • and hell happens. - - to whom?

  • to everybody? for how long?

  • how real? how intensive? - I leave it open.

  • I'll leave it to you to connect the dots

  • according to your sources of information

  • your own reflections, your beliefs.

  • Actually the Buddhism was never so much

  • concerned about the degree of

  • reality of - all of these

  • planes of existence.

  • It was always

  • somewhere around the teaching but

  • it was never really the central point. The real point of the teaching

  • of Buddha's concern was

  • always: the connected feelings

  • of happiness and sorrow, of bliss

  • and horror, that these feelings and emotions

  • are what they are. At this point usually

  • bringing an example of the bad ones: when we have a nightmare in the night

  • really horror, horror dream, waking up still full of fear

  • uuuff, it was only a dream, you know,

  • trying to shake it off. Only a dream?

  • really? So why is your pajamas sweat through?

  • if it was only a dream! You know,

  • this is the scary part of it, that during dreaming

  • this was your reality. So even

  • if all this, all this spheres actually

  • are just pure hallucinations, pure projections,

  • pure appearances, spheres of

  • dreams and appearances, the happiness and sorrow

  • is what it is.

  • Certainly, even according to Buddhist teachings to be reborn

  • in some of these high divine places

  • is a really very beautiful, noble

  • and blissful state of existence

  • but the real aim of Buddha's teaching is nowhere here

  • because Buddha was actually directing

  • the people who follow to full

  • awakening from all kinds of appearances and dreams and delusions and

  • illusions, to mature

  • the existence to the level of Nibbanic peace.

  • Nirvana - the blissful,

  • very, very sublime state of peace and freedom,

  • the liberation - so that we don't need to come again.

  • I like this picture. It is little bit like a symbolic portrait

  • of Samsara - the ever turning

  • self-sustaining perpetuum mobile of

  • all living and dying beings in the whole

  • Omniverse.

  • Is it beautiful?

  • Is it horrifying?

  • Unfortunately, it is both.

It is now about 100 years

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瀕死體驗--NDE--與佛教--阿信奧塔瑪。 (Near Death Experiences - NDE - and Buddhism - Ashin Ottama)

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    Hhart Budha 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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