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Certain Proof of an Afterlife?
I just read this and, to me, it cracked off a big one on allot of the stuff we have been talking about here.
As Buddhists what should we say about this case? It seems to offer proof of an afterlife and yet, I guess, it might just be mysterious?
I think the poignant words that end this short but modern treatise say it all:
"'It's all right being sceptical about these things, but I'm the owner of two very old pennies now, and I'd love to know where they came from.'"
Let's break that down a bit:
Do you see what I am seeing?
If I wasn't unenlightened before, I certainly am now:p
High-5,
Mat
As Buddhists what should we say about this case? It seems to offer proof of an afterlife and yet, I guess, it might just be mysterious?
I think the poignant words that end this short but modern treatise say it all:
"'It's all right being sceptical about these things, but I'm the owner of two very old pennies now, and I'd love to know where they came from.'"
Let's break that down a bit:
- It's all right being sceptical about these things,
- but I'm the owner of two very old pennies now,
- and I'd love to know where they came from.
Do you see what I am seeing?
Being skeptical,
Old pennies,
Love.
If I wasn't unenlightened before, I certainly am now:p
High-5,
Mat
0
Comments
Through his Swiss contact, Tiso received the name of the monk whose body had vanished after his death:
Khenpo A-chos, a Gelugpa monk from Kham, Tibet, who died in 1998. Tiso was able to locate the village, situated in a remote area where Khenpo A-chos had his hermitage. He then went to the village and conducted taped interviews with eyewitnesses to Khenpo A-chos' death. He also spoke to many people who had known him.
"This was a very interesting man, aside from the way he died," observes Tiso. "Everyone mentioned his faithfulness to his vows, his purity of life, and how he often spoke of the importance of cultivating compassion. He had the ability to teach even the roughest and toughest of types how to be a little gentler, a little more mindful. To be in the man's presence changed people."
Tiso interviewed Lama Norta, a nephew of Khenpo Achos; Lama Sonam Gyamtso, a young disciple; and Lama A-chos, a dharma friend of the late Khenpo A-chos.
They described the following:
A few days before Khenpo A-chos died, a rainbow appeared directly above his hut. After he died, there were dozens of rainbows in the sky. Khenpo A-chos died lying on his right side. He wasn't sick; there appeared to be nothing wrong with him, and he was reciting the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM over and over. According to the eyewitnesses, after his breath stopped his flesh became kind of pinkish. One person said it turned brilliant white. All said it started to shine.
Lama A-chos suggested wrapping his friend's body in a yellow robe, the type all Gelug monks wear. As the days passed, they maintained they could see, through the robe, that his bones and his body were shrinking. They also heard beautiful, mysterious music coming from the sky, and they smelled perfume.
After seven days, they removed the yellow cloth, and no body remained. Lama Norta and a few other individuals claimed that after his death Khenpo A-chos appeared to them in visions and dreams.
Other Rainbow Body Manifestations
Francis Tiso remarks that one of is most intriguing interviews was with Lama A-chos. He told Tiso that when he died he too would manifest the rainbow body. "He showed us two photographs taken of him in the dark, and in these photographs his body radiated rays of light."
Because Lama A-chos emphasized that it was possible to manifest the rainbow body while still alive, not just in death, Tiso plans to return to Tibet with professional camera equipment to try to photograph this radiating light.
Other incidents of metanormal occurrences upon death are also being studied. For instance, two of Tiso's colleagues, were present for the postmortem process of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who died eight years ago. "This man was a very large-boned individual," says Tiso, "and it was reported that seven weeks after his death the flesh was reduced. That could have been done by chemical substances, however, the bones also shrank."
Shrinkage of the body occurred with another guru, Lama Thubten. His miniature-sized frame is now kept in a monastery in Manali, India. Tiso has ascertained that incidents of bodies shrinking or disappearing shortly after death were documented centuries ago, such as in the classic story of Milarepa, a Buddhist saint from Tibet who lived in the 11th century. Milarepa's biography was translated into French by Jacques Bacot in 1912, and into English by Walter Evans-Wentz in the 1920s.
"In the ninth chapter of this literary classic," explains Tiso, who wrote a dissertation about the Buddhist saint, "It states that his body completely disappeared shortly after his death."
Even the earliest biographies of Milarepa, says Tiso, attest to this phenomenon. In addition, accounts exist about the great eighth-century tantric master Padmasambhava and how his body vanished.
This opportunity is present in the Nyarong region in Tibet, where several incidences of the rainbow body are said to have occurred. The research team is now studying their way of life, especially their spiritual practices.
Tiso has also obtained copies of spiritual retreat manuals, which have been particularly helpful.
Lama A-chos told Tiso that it takes sixty years of intensive practice to achieve the rainbow body. "Whether it always takes that long, I don't know," acknowledges Tiso, "but we would like to be able to incorporate, in a respectful way, some of these practices into our own Western philosophical and religious traditions."
Bodily ascensions are mentioned in the Bible and other traditional texts for Enoch, Mary, Elijah, and possibly Moses. And there are numerous stories of saints materializing after their death, similar to the widespread phenomenon known as the "light-body."
by Sogyal Rinpoche
http://meetandgrow.com/forums/t/83.aspx
You should laugh more Sky;)
Good:)
Peace out
mat
You know sky, you take yourself and your presence on this forum far to seriously.
Just relax more, this is the internet:)
Peace out, (again);)
Mat
Ren, I know having accused you in the past of being dogmatic, I am now open up to an accusation of hypocrisy, but objectively, my gag was better than yours:p
I thank you;)
Mwwwah
Mat