Book Report: In Love with the World

54. Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, In Love with the World: A Monk's Journey through the Bardos of Living and Dying (2019) (11/1/21)

In 2011, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, age 36, left the safe confines of his monastery in secret, set on engaging in a wandering retreat. His account covers the first three weeks of his experience, as he grapples first with the discomfort of being out in the world—on a train, in a bustling city, in several sacred sites where the Buddha had been—among all manner of people, with no attendants and very little money, and then with a bout of food poisoning that brings him close to death. Throughout all this he meditates—which means, according to the book's glossary, "working with the mind in an intentional way in order to recognize its inherently wakeful qualities." This includes being aware of physical (dis)comfort, of emotional stress or ease, of yearnings and acceptance. 

Much of the focus of the book is on "the bardos of living and dying." As he explains (again in the invaluable glossary), the term bardo is "commonly used to describe an intermediate state between one life and the next; also understood as stages in one's journey through life and death, which can be interpreted as either physical processes or as states of mind during this lifetime; each bardo state provides heightened opportunities to recognize unconditioned reality." In this book, six bardos are referenced: those of this life, of meditation, of sleep and dreams, of dying, of dharmata (the "true nature of things that is beyond all beliefs and concepts"—this bardo comes after physical death), and of becoming.

The rhythm of the book, alternating between descriptions of his movements in the world, his awareness of his thoughts and feelings, and explications of Buddhist philosophy, is just right. The overall message, it seems to me, is to grasp that, in fact, we are constantly dying—transitioning from one state of awareness to another—and that our task is to stay open. As he puts it in a letter that he leaves for his students,

All that we are looking for in life—all the happiness, content-ment, and peace of mind—is right here in the present moment. Our very own awareness is itself fundamentally pure and good. The only problem is that we get so caught up in the ups and downs of life that we don't take the time to pause and notice what we already have.
     Don't forget to make space in your life to recognize the richness of your basic nature, to see the purity of your being and let its innate qualities of love, compassion, and wisdom naturally emerge. Nurture this recognition as you would a small seedling. Allow it to flourish.
     . . . Where you are and whatever you are doing, pause from time to time and relax your mind. You don't have to change anything about your experience. You can let thoughts and feelings come and go freely, and leave your senses wide open. Make friends with your experience and see if you can notice the spacious awareness that is with you all the time. Everything you ever wanted is right here in this present moment of awareness.

In this book, Mingyur Rinpoche relates his own experience with encountering true, deep, life-changing awareness. He went on to spend four and a half years in his wandering retreat.

Here is a short video in which he discusses what his near-death experience taught him about our ability to change.