The Great Secret of Mind

like the material for repairing a broken irrigation ditch so that the water flows
smoothly, we gain liberation.
Just as in the miracle of instantly reaching a place by the mere thought of going
there, those who can see the door of the Dzogchen view will understand the bardo
consciousness and will recollect the pure fields of nirmanakaya emanation of the
ten directions. With a strong aspiration to be in those fields, the tendency to
remain in the bardo existence dissolves, and as we enter the flow of blessings of
true reality, the pressure to reincarnate is released, and taking birth in a pure-
land, we attain buddha.
The rituals of the Perfect Completion of Life [gongdzok] to be performed each
week after the death are highly efficacious and must be done regularly and
punctually. The wise men of ancient days made the bardo of becoming a special
method of benefiting sentient beings by inviting a rigzin-lama trained in the
creation and completion yogas to create the mandala of wrathful and peaceful
deities. He calls the consciousness of the deceased into a name card and burns it,
and then bestowing empowerment, providing an introduction to the nature of
mind, and indicating the path, he impels consciousness toward a pure-land. This is
of great benefit to the deceased. Just as we can lead a wild horse into a cul-de-sac
ravine by the reins, in the same way, when devoted disciples who have kept their
commitments are in the bardo, a rigzin-lama can confidently lead them to safety.
In the story of Dzogchen Mingyur Namkha Dorje, merely by guiding his disciple
Nyak Kepon Shar by means of the wrathful and peaceful deities, he released him
from the lower realms into the human realm. If within the fourth day, we can
release consciousness from its place, it is of vital benefit to the deceased.
If the lama performs the sur offering ritual along with the tsok feast offerings
and butter lamp offering, the deceased will obtain food, drink, and clothing in the
bardo and again benefit will ensue. Consider the example of the beneficial effects
of a single sur offering rite. Once a group of Yilung men ventured out on a trading
expedition to Golok, and, after a protracted period, their families heard that they
had been robbed and killed by Golok bandits on the road. They invited Gyarong
Pontrul Rinpoche to perform the prayers for the deceased, and Rinpoche
performed a sur rite. One person in the group of traders, however, had escaped the
fate of his friends and was returning home despite the many difficulties of
hunger, thirst, and bitter cold. When he reached the high Changtang plateau, all of
a sudden he smelled burned sweet tsampa, and instantly he lost all his hunger and
thirst. When he reached home, he saw Rinpoche and his monks performing the
sur rite, and he realized where the smell of tsampa had come from. His family was
amazed at the effectiveness of Rinpoche’s ritual.
Moreover, the power of visualization and recitation of mantra by a lama
generates the compassionate attitude and a special samadhi for the deceased, and
the deceased will thus be released from the illusion of fear in the bardo and will
take rebirth in the nirmanakaya buddha-fields of Great Bliss (Sukhavati), in the
buddha-field of the Copper-Colored Mountain, or somewhere like that. Even if the
deceased is unaffected in that way, he or she will temporarily take birth in a
higher realm and finally attain nirvana or super-nirvana. So it is essential to