Saturday, Oct. 27, 2007 - 12:06 p.m.
Daili Lama in Canada
**********************
he had some cool things to say here just a week after visiting George Bush
"From the Buddhist viewpoint,
in the mind, or consciousness,
there are very different levels," he said.
1) The first
is the awakened state,
or normal consciousness.
2) The second
is the clear dream state.
3) The third level
is a deep sleep without dreams,
4) the fourth
the unconsciousness of fainting,
"something like a coma," he said.
5) The scientific controversy,
and the source of the
Tibetan Buddhist belief in
reincarnation, enters at the fifth level.
the "clear light state of mind,"
which persists even after physical death,
preserving the bodies of Tibetan Buddhist monks for as much as a month after their hearts stop beating.
"In some cases, before they die, because of long illness [they had a] very weak body, their face also very weak. After death, after all brain function stops, at that stage, we say they remain in the clear light state of mind.
"So, our explanation is,
at that time,
the lowest consciousness
or subtlest consciousness,
still in the body," he said.
"According to our scripture
and our tradition,
that mind is more or less
independent from the brain.
So that mind
is the basis of our theory
of rebirth from previous life."
