Saturday, September 28, 2013

No.167 - Practice Virtues to go to the Pure Realm.

It is just as when important lamas or dignitaries travel, their monks and attendants go on before them to prepare the place and the kitchen so that they can welcome them, it is said that in exactly the same way, due to their specific karmic perceptions, evildoers will behold the henchmen of Yama. Welcoming them and leading them to hell, while those who have practiced virtue will be greeted by celestial beings and by their gurus, and will be led to the pure realms.


Summing up the situation, Shantiveda says that the thought never came to his mind that he himself was a brief and transient phenomenon – like a traveler passing through or an insect that lives for only a season. He does not know where he comes from and where he will go. And the time will soon arrive when he will cease to be. Without knowledge and understanding, he says, he has clung to the notion that things are permanent; he was confused about what was to be done and what was not to be done.

 The Nectar of Manjushri's Speech (Verse 37/38)