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Mini-Series: Life, Death & Totality - Members
This mini-series of four classes offers guidance and direction for our relationship with Life and Death; a path to reframe our reality and live in acceptance and conscious awareness of who we are. We will discuss our reluctance to accept death and how that affects our ability to live life with fullness. Join Carlos de León to explore psychological and spiritual perspectives on the wonder of Life and the inescapability of Death.
Mini-Series
- Instructor: Carlos de León
- Four Online Sessions (2 hours each)
- English Interpretation
- Access: 6 Months
About the Program
Inasmuch as everything born dies, there are taboos, fears, and misunderstandings in the West, interestingly resolved by familiarity with Eastern philosophy. The process of death and rebirth is fully and stunningly described by Tibetan Buddhism. There is a paradox that we can't resolve if we don't embrace life and death as one experience; their seeming separation hides a meaning that makes spiritual realization next to impossible.
One obstacle is the view that life is the unique property of the body and, as such, life ends with the body’s death. Death becomes a door that closes forever, independent of one's belief in a heaven or hell, where there is no second chance.
As a study, the process and topic of Death can constitute a spiritual path, a way to approach the levels of consciousness that, ordinarily, we do not contact. It also offers a way to reaffirm the meaning of one's own personal quest. We will discuss our reluctance to accept death and how that affects our ability to live with fullness.
Carlos’ Words...
I am convinced that we need to reframe our reality and live in acceptance and conscious awareness of who we are, and that doesn't come by itself. We need to have the right understanding, the right intention, and the right effort to do it.
To help in the process, I share different spiritual practices that we can use to reach totality and a better chance for liberation… tools with which we can also help others.
"As we live, we will die, and as we die, we will fulfill our life."
~ Carlos de León
Program Highlights:
- Clarify resistance to the uncontrollable, and discover how negation is a defense and collective poison;
- Finding the “Here and Now”; given to us by the experience of Love, Meditation, and Death;
- Gain a fuller appreciation of the "Love we Live"; the loss of "Natural Love", and how we can heal our orality and selfishness with the practices of Tonglen; the Prayer of Saint Francis; and embracing "Love is to Love Others";
- Through meditating, we wake up with an opportunity to apply a conscious effort to love through the practices of returning to our "True Nature", purifying "Karma", and purifying our "Spiritual Poisons";
- In dying, we are reborn; the gift of death. Heal fear with the practices of Tara and White Mahakala, the healer of the Bardo.
Practices for Preparation of Death, for yourself and to Serve Others:
- Cultivating a contemplative state through Dzogchen Meditations (”Great Perfection" or "Great Completion"), a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence;
- Meditating on the Six Bardos; the Tibetan word bardo (བར་དོ་ Wylie: bar do) means “intermediate state"—also translated as "transitional state" or "liminal state";
- Providing assistance to others in the process of death, helping others to depart and transition, and having the possibility of liberating at the moment of death.
The teachings are complemented by experiential online practices to help ignite preparedness and/or strengthen our connection to Death. Whether you are new to the Ontogony Teachings, or you are an advanced practitioner of one of the paths, this series is designed to illuminate and further the course of your journey, living your life to its fullest and creating an adequate environment for a conscious death and a transition with Grace.
