At the moment of death, if we let go lightly, we go out into the light, toward the One, toward God. The only thing that died, after all, was another set of thoughts of who we were this time around.

The only reason a totally free being would choose to stay within the illusion is to relieve the suffering of all beings. This is the time when what’s known as “the Bodhisattva Vow” is taken. This is the only moment it’s real. Up until then it’s phony—it’s our karma working out. The moment we choose to come back, we have to push against that force t

Our personal story becomes a spiritual journey, our ego-centric universe becomes a particle in an infinite field of light.

The obvious predicament that the intellect has a difficult time with is the sneaking realization that more is never enough. Or, more is maybe enough for a moment, but it doesn’t last.

If we cling to anything in form, we’re going to suffer.

Part of becoming conscious is not trying to impose a limited rational model on how the world is but rather realizing that the rational model is a finite subsystem and that the law of the universe is infinite.

It might turn out that your Aunt Thelma was Buddha. She was cooking chicken soup, and you went to India and Tibet for forty years looking for somebody who looked like Buddha. You totally despaired, and in the despair, you gave up all your hope and all your models. You come home, and you walk in and there she is. You look, and you fall on your face

Thus the “guides” must be at a certain stage of their own evolution in order to be environments for awakening through death. They must have a connection with planes of consciousness beyond time and space that lead them to have a philosophical foundation that allows them to be balanced and without panic in the face of death. They must view death not

But the predicament is that enlightenment is not an achievement; enlightenment is a transformation of being. And the achiever goes as well as the achievement.