Alan Roberts - Tibetan Book of the Dead (8 of 8)

[johnnielawson]

I am very interested in your lecture about The Tibetan Book of the Dead. As a visual artist searching for an understanding of where my creativity comes from, I found this very informative.

In part (8 0f 8), you say " individuals whose life is not perfect, who haven't become balanced human beings", inferring to artists amongst others. Could you explain this a bit more, please.

Kind regards Johnnie

[The5ilver]

Really glad that I Found this channel Alan thank you for sharing this considerable wisdom. You inspire me to ask about your picture maybe you already answer however most humbly , the spherical membrane is this a shared or individual realm, how and many are there at once over time, does this realm always become the planet Earth and does it work on a linear time scale?

For example when a person dies what happens to the sphere they were in, will they inevitably return to that sphere?

[alangroberts]

(cont)...

This idea is something that I believe in, that is I love it, but more important for discourse, it is also logically consistent with the premise that the soul is, and we are, that infinite engaged in observing individual life.

[alangroberts]

These forces and these alone are acting in all three Bardo states, so it is the body of inertia laid down by prior action driving this whole show. The choices open to the being are, as they were in life, to redirect the attention from external stimulation of the magical life display and hence gain self direction, or go with the whole performance and come under the control and direction of forces and processes that wax and wane, arouse and terrify of their due nature. Alan

[Stanislov89]

I am sorry, can you explain:"the body of inertia laid down by prior action"? Do you agree with this analysis of the Bardo? Is this (life in the moments after death when the soul leaves the body) as you believe it to be, or are you just trying to explain it in the way you think they were trying to express when it was written?

[alangroberts]

Hi Stanislav89. If we consider that the soul is that part of the infinite observing, and perhaps identifying with individual experience, then that part so identified may continue to identify and be attached to processes not seen completely and freely released. This happens continually in life as well as in death; or rather in all the little deaths that we experience in life when we have lost something we feel is vital to our existence, such as money, lover, job etc..

[alangroberts]

Hi Stanislov89, You have a valid point in that the individual does seem to be passively 'sucked, pushed and pulled around', and this is the tone from the translations that I have looked at. We have to remember, and perhaps I did not stess this enough in the talk that the forces sucking, pushing and pulling the being are the directions established throughout their life.

[Stanislov89]

Interesting stuff, Dr Roberts, but overall very "passive" in terms of consciousness of the soul- you imply that the soul has very little control over its future, unless it "clings" to consciousness at a certain level after death. Otherwise it is just sucked, pushed or pulled around without its own volition.