Can't open them.

Just seeing this now, Louise. This is such a poignant way of viewing refuge. I'm sure the boat people will pop up in my mind from time to time now. Buddha begins the Four Noble Truths with Suffering and the Cause of Suffering. Many people point to some suffering on their own path, which brought them to take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Yes the determination of these boat people was unshakeable, and it got me thinking. Are they not just normal people who have come face to face with circumstances they find unbearable? And yet, it seems that not everybody in their same circumstances made the same choice, even among those who could do so. So the motivation to take refuge comes from suffering, but maybe it also comes from how clearly we see the suffering and the things which cause of our suffering. Perhaps only with a clear view of that will we be moved to end the suffering by taking the Path which leads to the end of suffering on the other shore. At that point, those people were motivated to leave, and maybe not just for themselves, but for their child or a parent. Then those boat people found the strength to make their brave choice. They are inspiring.

I once had a dog who would look at my finger when I tried to point him to something. So when I say that we can misinterpret our own experiences, the point is more that we fail to recognize the reality of our experiences. I think accomplishing sadhana practice and meditation are about training to recognize. That's my opinion, anyway.

Oh, that's so nice! When we die, do we dream that we die?

I contemplated what "spiritual independence" means to me, but then I asked Betty about it, because I think I must have nodded out when Khandro-la was speaking on this! Betty tells me she was really struck that it meant making your own practice experience authentic and not dependent upon something conceptual, outside yourself. She says it means really experiencing yourself being Vajrayogini, for example, and seeing everything as a Pure Land. As Khandro-la has told us, the Dharma is not a set of books or prayers so much as what we embody in our own lives. My thoughts on "spiritual independence" were similar, I suppose. I do think it's important to study and listen to teachers (and try not to nod off), but then, as the Buddha taught, we need to test it in our own experience. That way, it becomes something real, beyond any explanation. Experiences are funny, though. Although viscerally true, we do not always interpret them correctly. I think that's why we are so fortunate to receive authentic teachings from the lineage of Tsongkhapa and other Masters. Any experiences we have occur in the manner which they do, but we can be guided in contemplating and then understanding them in our own experience.