2 Questions From Sogyal Rinpoche

I started reading The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying by Sogyal Rinpoche and these two questions stuck with me.

Apparently, someone approached him and said that what he says is common sense that everyone knows this. Sogyal replied: "Ask yourself these two questions:

1. Do I remember at every moment that I am dying, and everyone and everything else is, and so treat all my beings at all times with compassion?

2. Has my understanding of death and impermanence become so keen and so urgent that I am devoting every second to the pursuit of enlightenment?

If you can answer 'yes' to both of these, then you have really understood impermanence."

Dire Warning for Humanity

This comes as no surprise to anyone who is aware that we are in the midst of Kali Yuga but in order to spark an awakening we should make others aware as well.

I believe the Brazilian Minister for the Environment, who is responsible for the Amazonian rainforest, cogently puts it as:

Modern industrial society is a fanatical religion. We are demolishing, poisoning, destroying all life-systems on the planet. We are signing IOUs our children will not be able to pay ... We are acting as if we were the last generation on the planet. Without a radical change in heart, in mind, in vision, the earth will end up like Venus, charred and dead.

The source of these short-sighted, destructive actions by a collective humanity is not mere selfishness or greed but the mistaken belief that this short life-span of ours is our only life to live.  Since we've got only one shot at this, might as well let the world go to damn — to hell with our descendants. A dramatic shift in consciousness has to occur before we can close this chapter of Kali Yuga and usher in the enlightened age of Satya Yuga.