Dear friends around the world,

There are many ways for us to see the fragility and also the impermanence of life. Sometimes we get so caught up with the rules, emotions, wants, goals, activities that we don’t realize our lives can be snuffed out in just seconds. I watched this film over three decades ago with a friend and since then a few times again. It really sets reality straight for me. It affected me very deeply. It showed me what our lives are about or should be about. It may seem gruesome or difficult to watch for some, but why would it be difficult to see a facet of life that we need to one day experience? In Buddhist practices around the world for 2,500 years, many students are asked to meditate on the fragility of life in a cemetery or near corpses in order to appreciate that we will be like that one day soon and to not waste our lives on pettiness, hatred and harmful actions. We should appreciate our bodies and the short time we have to occupy our bodies. At the same time others treasure their bodies as much as we treasure our own and we should never harm others. The pain we feel is the pain others can feel and therefore never inflict pain. Ultimately at the time of death our wealth, lack of wealth, friends, family, attachments, travels, favored foods, partners, spouses, pets, positions, rank and power will be of no help to us whatsoever. If it is of no help, why spend a life time pursuing those things? Spirituality and our spiritual growth is the key and only thing that can help us. It behooves us to engage in spiritual practice now and go all the way.

This documentary film is powerful, truthful and taboo. I highly recommend everyone to watch and go beyond the visuals but contemplate deeply how fragile our bodies are. To grab the essence of life, make things easier for others and ourselves and never harm another sentient being be it animal or human. 

Sincerely,
Tsem Rinpoche

Recently, H.E. Tsem Rinpoche had some of us: Pastor Antoinette, Pastor Shin, Joy, Beatrix and Vinnie to watch this classic taboo documentary entitled “Faces of Death”.

Faces of Death (also released more recently as The Original Faces of Death) is a 1978 American mondo (exploitation pseudo-documentary) horror film directed by Conan LeCilaire and written by Alan Black. The film guides viewers through explicit scenes depicting a variety of ways to die and violent acts. This is also listed by Entertainment Weekly in the “Top 50 Cult Movies of All-Time”.

It was first released specifically for the Japanese market and became a huge success in Asia, even outperforming “Star Wars” in some cities. While it didn’t get theatrically picked up for the United States initially, one distributor did release it on videotape and an eighties legend was born. “Faces of Death” became one of the most notorious, controversial and talked about titles ever released, spawning many sequels and ripoffs.

We would like to share our reviews and thoughts with you after watching this documentary. You can watch this here too and tell us what you think.

WARNING: This video contains content that some viewers may find disturbing.

Faces of Death

Or view the video on the server at:
https://video.tsemtulku.com/videos/FacesOfDeath1978.mp4

Pastor Shin Tan

After its release in 1978, “Faces of Death” became one of the most popular cult horror videos in history, and watching it became a rite of passage for young horror fans who had to sneak the tape past their parents.

I had watched this many years ago, and this time around, I still find this almost two-hour pseudo-documentary interesting till the end. The narrator in the guise of a doctor, Dr. Frances B. Gross added more depth to the documentary of what could be just a stream of shocking imageries on death.

Many scenes are quite haunting, one after another to keep you on your toes: from an open heart surgery procedure, slaughterhouse, police shoot out, and Larry De Silva going through his final moments of electrocution. Get ready for horrifying deaths of every shape and size, including animal attacks, wartime deaths, crashes and brutal murders. The scenes are disturbing and despite some being staged (as admitted by the producers), they make you ‘walk-through’ death, although some of us may be unwilling participants. There is also a segment on ‘life after death’. “Faces of Death” is something that I would watch again, as Buddhists are encouraged to meditate and contemplate on death and our mortality.

These are 5 things that came into mind when I sat through the documentary.

1. Negative emotions should not be taken lightly

We find out at the end of the shoot out scene that the shooter has killed his wife and children. There is also a scene of a woman leaping off a tall building. What has driven this man to killed his beloved wife and his own flesh and blood? Everyone avoids death at all cost, so what psychosis caused us to irrationally put our loved ones to their end or take our own lives? It is perplexing and I can only conclude that it’s negative emotions. Sometimes the inner enemy of negative emotions is scarier than an outside enemy attacking us. Like what the narrator said, we would do actions that we would regret very much later. Larry De Silva killed a defenseless woman because she gave him a hard time when he wanted her wallet, that was the reason that led him to the electric chair.

2. Unnecessary harming and killing of other beings, especially animals should stop

In this day and age, with a spectrum of distractions and entertainments and a more educated and conscious global society, we should not continue animal fighting. Also, do we really need to eat a monkey’s brain? Dr Frances’ decision to become vegetarian after watching how animals suffer in the slaughterhouse is a good prompt for all of us to rethink our diet. We make the choice of whether we want our stomach to be a green garden, or a ‘pet’ cemetery, a storehouse of rotten meat. I am also reminded of how warfare have killed so many countless beings. What did these ‘heroes’ die protecting? If people do not find ways to resolve conflicts, many lives will be wasted and many more will be devastated for the loss of these soldiers.

3. Wrong ideas and pursuits of happiness manifest in many ways

I think many, like me, will find the orgiastic cult’s practice of eating internal organs to achieve immortal life ridiculous. The community of “The Holiness Branch of the Church of God” who thought they are invincible because of their faith is also a reminder of how we can be misled easily.

I also thought about how much resources and finances were spent and gone to waste for cryonic. Preserving the ‘dead’ body or vessel in hope of reviving it without the knowledge of how to bring back the ‘essence’ of life – the mind or the soul, what use would that be? I doubt that medical technology in the next few hundred years can discover ways to achieve this. However, the existence of the cult and cryonic shows that some find these methods appealing, perhaps they are assured of their false sense of happiness and immortality.

4. We dig our own graves by not acknowledging the risks, but there is no way we can avoid death, and we have no control of it.

A victim of drowning who died falling into the water when he was drunk at the beach; a visitor to a park who went a little bit too close to a hungry bear; extreme sports enthusiasts and stunt men who were confident of their training and equipment which failed them; a flyer who wanted to impress his guests with his flying stunts; a game warden who underestimated the alligator he was dealing with; even our day-to-day travelling on the plane or motor-vehicles pose a threat to the continuation of our lives. We seem to take our lives for granted, or put ourselves in precarious situations, thinking that ‘it won’t be me next’. However, as the narrator reminded us, if it is our time to die, it doesn’t matter whether we are walking on the sidewalk or jumping out of a plane.

5. Since we cannot escape death, why not look for ways to ‘move on’?

The scene of parapsychologists tracking ghostly movement inside a “haunted house” suggests that ‘life after death’ is a possibility of what happened to us after death, and that death is not our final destination. This resonates with a statement made earlier in the film by an alleged L.A. county coroner who thinks that death is just a transition. The question posed that whether death is “the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end” is very apt. The ending of the documentary with a footage of babies being born, flowers blooming, deer running around in parks while an upbeat song entitled “Life’s a Stream” plays in the background also suggests the idea of reincarnation, which exists in many religions and culture.

Dr. Gross’ compulsion to understand death was much greater than just an obsession. Hence, for those who want a better ‘life’ after death (if you believe in reincarnation), perhaps it’s time to invest in learning and understanding death, just like Dr. Gross, “to discover the circle that forever repeats itself” instead of avoiding it.

The points above may have seemed common sense, but knowing something and doing something is a totally different ball game. Some scenes may be harrowing to watch or hard to stomach, but worse still is complacency of knowing the tragedy that will befall us and do nothing about it. This suffering of the circle of endless rebirth and death, as well as the causes of suffering are dependent on the state of our own mind, so if we can change our own mind, we can also eliminate suffering.

This documentary is an odyssey of death to remind myself of the reality that we live for a short amount of time and then, all of a sudden, we become nothing more than a memory. For the producers, “it was just an incredible adventure to go around the world and tell a story about death,” maybe just another exciting project in Hollywood, but my, his and our mortality is real.

Watching this, I rejoice that I had the chance to have heard the Dharma, Buddha’s teachings. The Buddha said 2500 years ago that “I teach suffering, its origin, cessation and path. That’s all I teach”.

The Four Noble Truths of Buddhism are stated in simple terms as:

• Suffering exists
• Suffering arises from attachment to desires
• Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases
• Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

This documentary explores the transitory death and events leading to it as a form of extreme suffering, but Buddhism teaches more, that our whole existence is plague with suffering, and the good news is there is a way out. This reaffirms my faith that what I have study and learnt is real and should put in more effort to study and understand Buddha’s teachings, and share them with more people.

Pastor Antoinette Kass

The film Faces of Death shows us the reality of our human life. Often we see ourselves as permanent and the situations we abide in will last for a long time. Yet, things can change suddenly in a split of a second.

In my opinion, it is very important to watch this documentary as it shows how lucky we are. This precious life can be taken away at any moment, we do not know how and when. This truth is undeniable.

This video may seem gruesome but it is the truth we have to eventually face. Life is short and yet we have very little control over it. When we are caught up in emotional break-downs s or difficult situations, we tend to forget the fact that everything is impermanent, including the difficulties we face.

Nowadays we do not physically witness death as much compared to olden days. Most of the people die in hospitals far away from their home and family and taken care of by professionals. So it is easier to forget the existence of impermanence yet this doesn’t change the fact.

We are shown how cruel people act in front of helpless animals, hurting them and killing them without mercy. It might be for greed, for fun, for their job or whatever it was, we even train animals to kill their own breeds. We have taken our capacity and rights for granted, using them to abuse others especially the animals.

What I have learnt:

1. Our body is not ourselves. It is only a corpse, for us to use it well for others. Yet, we spend so much time to check on how we look, the cremes we use, the food we eat and so on, but eventually we will leave this body behind and it will rot.
2. Sometimes we do things without taking into account of its results. We need to remember that everything we do or don’t so will have results. We do not have forever, therefore it is very important to take actions now. With the correct motivation, we can do much better and receive positive results to benefit others and ourselves.
3. Humans have many different reasons to kill animals: for greed, culture… having no concern for the pain of the dying animal. It all arises from ignorance, attachment to have pleasure or driven by power.
4. Accidents happen all the time. Anything can happen. We don’t know when we will die and we don’t know how. Our body can easily be destroyed. We have no control.
5. We need to value this life as we have so many opportunities to do whatever that is necessary. We know that shopping and holidays will not give us what we really need, yet we procrastinate or just don’t do out of various reasons. We need to set our motivation firm so that we can improve and transform fir the better.

What will come after this life? The session with the medium, contact with a spirit, or rebirth as a baby. It depends on how we have lived our life.

I think this film will change my life as I will remember when I am caught in emotional struggles that the body is not me. My ego is not me, my emotions are not me. I feel very fortunate to have come across my teacher who teaches me the Dharma. I thought about the four noble truths as taught by the Buddha:

• Life is suffering
• There is a cause to suffering
• There is an end to suffering
• There is a way to the cessation of suffering

May this little write up encourage others to watch “The Faces of Death” so that they are inspired to do more and improve their live as long as they have the time.

Joy Kam

This movie is a good wake up call to the reality we will all face, which is inevitable– death. It showcases the many different ways we can all die and how fragile our human life is, and how we have also been giving death to others. Some scenes may appear quite gruesome, but for those who wish to go deeper in meditation, in Dharma, they will find this movie an opportunity to contemplate on ‘impermanence’, the true purpose of our being and the meaning of life. Below are five things that I realised from watching this and how it has created a difference in my life.

1. Our Body is Just a Shell

Seeing how people at the morgue are cut up, their heads being pulled out of their skulls just goes to show in the end this is what we will all end up being. Our body is just like a shell, and everything in it is actually quite disgusting. It is amazing how we deceive ourselves daily and work so extremely hard to literally preserve an ‘outer beauty’. All the make-up, plastic surgery and diets are all just a self-deception which makes us become more attached to a permanent self. In Buddhism we call this the self-projected false ‘I’ because it is based on our deluded projections, thinking we inherently exist. But truth be told, underneath all that skin covering our body; its guts, blood and organs, which are not something we would label as ‘beautiful’. Hence, when we meditate on corpses we can cut down our grasping on the self-cherishing ‘I’ and of this false projection that our body belongs to us. When we realise this we will be able to perceive life in a different perspective and appreciate it better and in this way we can live a more purposeful life.

2. The Human Ignorance

Humans are supposedly the most ‘intelligent’ creature on this planet, but we are also the most ignorant ones. We create technology to enhance our life, however this very same technology also creates ‘monsters’ that takes away life and harms others because we use them for the wrong reasons. For example a we create automobiles to bring us from point A to point B, this very object can also increase our ego which further increases our attachments, greed, jealousy, and even anger when we do not have this object which we perceive brings us ‘happiness’. This same object can also take away lives for example when we drive irresponsibly and kill someone by accident. This again is due to our selfish attachments to perhaps wanting pleasure for ourselves, e.g. drinking and driving, driving in a rush to go for a party and vacation and so on. So because of our careless driving due to our attachments which stems from our ignorant mind, we harm others. Due to this ignorant mind set we create a lot of suffering for others and ourselves because we would do everything in our power to be self-preserving. On top of that we would advertise this false concept of happiness to encourage more attachments in people, as we can see in today’s media.

Due to the ignorant mind, we put ourselves in situations that invite death or give death to others as shown in the video of people doing sacrificial rituals, where they would either kill an animal or another human being because it is perceived to get ‘closer to god’. How is it possible that harming and taking away someone else’s life can bring one close to heaven and ‘God’? This has always baffled me.

3. The Human Greed

The documentary also highlights human greed and how because of our greed, we kill for our food, for our clothes, for our livelihood. Because of greed we also destroy our own environment and we create more pain and suffering for ourselves. We prey on the weak like animals and we exploit them for our own benefit. Due to our greed and the need for profit we have been raping and robbing mother earth for her resources since day one, and even more so now with today’s technology. This greed of wanting more and never being satisfied fuels us to take and take while we destroy everything along our path, a great example is the meat industry. The need for eating meat has created huge slaughter houses where millions of animals are being killed each day. These slaughter houses produce green-house effect due to tons of animal waste that is being released into our environment. Believe it or not the meat industry produces more pollution than automobiles in over populated cities. This human greed will never end especially when materialism increases which directly increases our desires. Unfortunately it does not increase our ‘happiness’ otherwise all those who are wealthy would be ‘happy’ which is not the case 90% of the time. In fact most of the time those who are rich are the ones in deep depression. They spend their money and time either in therapy or they do more vice to pleasure themselves to cover their unhappiness.

4. Humans are the Most Inhumane

In the video Dr. Francis B. Gross said after seeing how meat is being processed, he himself would seriously consider being vegetarian. We, ‘the consumer’ will never ever see the gruesome, disgusting side of how our food is being produced, we only see them nicely packaged in glamorous supermarkets. So many animals die each day for our consumption because we think it is our right to eat them, or some may even say “God created them for us to eat”. How arrogant of us to think this way but when the tables are turned, I am sure we will not be spewing these same words.

For the people who work in the slaughter houses, it has become like a normal routine, killing becomes just another job no more no less and they do not even feel anything for the animals they kill. They become cold, they feel nothing, some will even torture these animals and this is how we humans become inhumane. When this happens we humans become the ‘animal’, we are the barbarians. Being the most intelligent life form on this planet, we are supposed to be the ones to protect those who are weak but instead we are the ones hurting them. When I first watch this movie it gave me a wake-up call to my conscience and hence encouraged me to cut down on my meat intake and it is from here I started becoming vegetarian. I believe for anyone who considers themselves an animal lover yet they still eat meat, they are not really animal lovers but they have a biased selective view on what is lovable and what is not for their own selfish attachments. Attachments are based on conditions we created mistakenly thinking it benefits us.

5. Death Does Not Discriminate

In the end death happens to everyone, rich or poor, young or old, it does not matter who you are, we cannot bribe death and it comes to us anytime, anywhere. It can happen to us if we walk down the street, if we cycle, even when we go for holidays and travel, like how the young boy who decided to go for a swim in the movie died. Our life can be taken in the blink of an eye as death really does not discriminate and when your time is up, it is up no matter how much you want to preserve it. This made me realise how fragile our human life is, and that our bodies are literally like huge egg shells that can be destroyed any time. It made me appreciate this human life more and how precious it actually is and because of this we can weigh what is truly important in life. In the end we have to leave everything behind, everything we earned, worked our whole lives for, the people we love, our so called friends and family are empty at the moment of death. Nothing and no one matters or can help us except our deeds and if we have Dharma, this is when the Buddha’s teachings become our guide.

When Rinpoche first made me watch this movie about 10 years ago, it gave a good shock to my system because, in all honesty, the world shelters us. Now the 2nd time watching, it gives me further affirmation that we should not cling on to our body and our self-cherishing mind that this body of ours is ‘permanent’, or that it even belongs to us, because if it did we will not have to leave it and our body will not rot. One thing is for sure, this life is not the only life but it is more like a stopping point as we journey to another rebirth. Although our body may be gone, our mind still continues. Hence our body is just a vessel and from the moment we are born we are like walking corpses heading into our inevitable future. This gives me a new perspective on life and death and I find it funny how we deceive ourselves daily and cause so much suffering to ourselves when we cling on to all our hang ups, projections and self-created conditions of how things should be or how the world should operate. Even when a new baby is born, we think we are celebrating life but in reality it is the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end, either way we look at it death and life are both ends of the same stick. Hence life and death is synonymous. This is why in Buddhism our aim is to get out of this vicious cycle of existence. This is the reason why I stuck to Buddhism and appreciate how the dharma has helped me re-evaluate what is truly important in life because everything else out there is truly quite empty and when you have heard the truth, you will not want to go back out there suffering through the same mundane cycle of existence, going through the motions aimlessly in life which was what I was doing before I met H.E. Tsem Rinpoche, my Guru who showed me the truth. I am truly fortunate to have met Rinpoche whom I am forever grateful and who woke me from all my inner and outer demons and to give me another perspective to look at things and life, so that I may let go, heal and focus out to lead a meaningful happy life.

Vinnie Tan

The movie film of “Faces of Death”reflects how unpredicted life is and that we have no control over what will happen to us. We may be the richest, poorest, fattest, skinniest, best looking, or ugliest person. But when we leave this earth, it does not matter how our body looks. We came to this earth with nothing, and when we leave, it is the same.

I enjoyed myself during the movie as the movie made me think on a deeper level on what life is about. We spent so much time letting our bodies enjoy, yet, when time is up, we leave instantly. There is nothing within our own ability to extend our lives when it is time to leave this body of ours. It is thought intriguing because it shows us facts and truths that usually we would not want to face. It shows us the truth of what really happens. It is something that we would usually brush it off and try to not think on a deeper level as we do not want to face the truth.

When we face and understand the truth that is shown, we will definitely feel lighter and there will be a change in us, because the film has helped us to understand a side of truth that we have not seen.

From this movie, these five points have stood out for me. Making me think on a deeper level, understanding that what we go through is all emptiness. Just like what Buddha has taught us.

1. Looks

In life, we have put in so much effort to dress for the occasion or to achieve a certain look to be accepted for who we are. Yet, this materialistic look that we are trying our best to achieve is all empty and pointless. Simple reason, we will all be lying lifeless one day. When that happens, our looks and material things that we once cared so much for will not make a difference anymore. What we have placed focus on in our lives no longer matters.

To add salt to the wound, we will look all the same when we die. With that thought, making ourselves the “best” is no longer a big deal, as we now know that it is all just an illusion and perception that we have for the things around us.

It has made me realize that no matter how much time we put in to “maintain” what we have, when our time is up all these work that we have done to “maintain” will not help us anymore. It is true that we can put in effort to make our bodies healthier, so that we will not be bound by our bodily conditions. However, when we pass away, what is left as a legacy will be based on the works that we have done that benefited the society. Nothing else will make a difference. Reason being that no matter how much effort we put in to “maintain” our bodies, it will rot anyway.

Through that, it inspires me use whatever limited time that I have left to do something that is beneficial.

2. Impermanence

Life and the things around us are not permanent. At any point of time, it is possible for us to leave this world, moving on to something that we are uncertain about.

This has made an impact for me as I now know that I should never take what I have for granted. Being alive in this world each day is considered as a blessing and we should be grateful for it.

In the film, it is shown how impermanent life is through the scene where the ranger was capturing the alligator. One minute he was alive and being interviewed, the next, he was dragged off the boat and torn into shreds by the alligator. With this, it shows how unpredictable life is.

With nothing being permanent, we can have wealth now that will be lost the very next minute. We should appreciate life and everyone that is around us. Although we may get angry with some people around us, but to have them in our lives it is considered as a blessing. Reason being that through them we are able to grow and mature in ways that we may think is impossible.

3. Control

Constantly in life, we think we have it all and we are constantly planning for our future. Planning to reach a certain goal at a certain age. What we tend to forget is, we are not in control of our life. How long we can live in this lifetime has all been decided by our karma. Although we are able to “extend” our lives by collecting merits, but we will never know exactly how much time we have.

Many people told me that I am still young, and I should be doing something else before I do dharma. They told me that I can do that when I am older. What they fail to recall is that we do not know when our lives would end. We can think that we will live up to 70, but the reality is that we can face an accident and be dead the very next minute. There is nothing that we can do to prevent that. So even if we have planned to do dharma or charitable work when we are older, if death comes, we have to leave everything behind. Nothing will be able to stop us from leaving.

Thus, as I understand and study more about the true facts in life, I have come to realize that we do not have any control over life. There is no use for us to make all the fancy plans that will happen 20 years later when we do not what is in store next for us. However, what we can do now is to make full use of our time doing things that we will be proud of.

4. Equality

In life, we constantly think that we are more superior compared to another person or being. What we fail to realize is that we are all the same no matter if we are a world leader, a road sweeper, a homeless, or an animal. What made us different is the projection that we have for the terms and labels that we have put in place.

When we pass away and our bodies are left lifeless, we are no different from anyone else. By that time, we are just all slabs of meat, no different from the meat that we consume. It is funny and weird for us to constantly think that we are more superior than another because of our background or status.

It is from all these perceived labels that have that made us forget that we are all the same. We started off with nothing, and we will end with nothing. No one is better than another.

Thus, with this in mind, we should never look down on someone because of their background or how they behave. We should reach out to all, not just the people that we love, but to strangers and all beings that we cross path with. Through our actions of no-discrimination, we will be able to help other beings ease their pain be it emotional or physical.

5. Our minds

The human mind is the most destructive “machine” there is on earth. It is because of our projections that we have for things that make us do things that are unspeakable. Due to the greed, desire, and attachments that we as human beings have, we kill, harm, cheat, and destroy what our environment has given us. We have not been grateful to all items that are being provided for us.

It is because of our desire of fulfilling our taste buds, we have created slaughter houses that kills millions each year. Because of our desire to have power, wars happen and people’s lives are sacrificed. All these killings happened because we want to be pleased in one way or another. We have never thought of how to help the environment, but we have destroyed what is given to us. Everything like this happen because we want this physical “meat” body of ours to have a good life. However, what we do not think about is how much we have cause pain to others because of our actions that are lead on by our desires to please this meat suit.

The film has made me understand why we exist in this world. The purpose of life that we learn from the media has all been wrong. What the media has taught us has made us destroy our surroundings, making us unhappier then we already are. We put in so much effort and time to maintain this body that we have, yet it betrays us by dying and giving out substances that are all negative.

The movie has made me understand that in life, there is a bigger meaning than what we think we are around for. We are able to do so much more than what we think we are able to when we set our minds to it. With logic and common sense, we are able to outweigh that curiosity that will lead us to do silly things in life that we will regret. It is only by helping others and focusing out we will be able to achieve more in life.

Beatrix Ooi

I first watched this documentary about 6 to 8 years ago, during that time it was Rinpoche who asked me to watch the movie, I remember very clearly that I watched it with my younger brother, Edward. People may ask why did Rinpoche encourage children to watch documentary like this? This documentary has certainly made a huge impact in my life, and I am very thankful that I was given the opportunity to watch and learn. Yes the video was gruesome, it was disgusting and horrible, well what can you expect from a 11 year old right? But now, at the age of 19, I have had different realisation watching it for the second time.

The 4 noble truths taught by the Lord Buddha is definitely real and it’s undeniable as the entire video has portrayed how fragile human life is. We go through birth, old age, sickness and  death. The very fact of our existence is suffering, we are made to suffer and some, depends on their individual karma, they have to suffer more. The nature of our human body IS suffering.

Therefore, no matter how much money we spend on our body, how much time we spend on travelling, how much delicious food we eat, how much fame we possess and so on; all of them will fade eventually because everything is impermanent, our existence, our body is built to suffer and it will never end as long as we continue to abide in samsara. Well people may say that how can we do that now since we are abiding in samsara? Start practising, start focusing out, start being kind and have integrity and so forth; This was what the Buddha did to achieve enlightenment, he ran away from home, abandoned his kingdom and his wealth to meditate in order to seek ‘the way out’. The only way was through enlightenment and he did it, he liberated himself from samsara and also taught others the path to enlightenment.

Yes enlightenment is a very big word, it’s easier to say than actually doing it, but if we don’t start practising now, how much more longer do we have to wait until we get over our projections and comfort zones? Time has never been on our side and it never will, there’s really no point wasting time hesitating and thinking whether we should, will we do it, can we do it or not.

People die every day, accidents happen every moment even when we are taking our own sweet time having a nice meal, a nice bath, a nice gym session and so forth, therefore we must not be so arrogant to think that it will never happen to us. It will, it’s just the matter of time. Hence, do we really think that we have control over time? Do we still think that we will never get into a fatal accident or get a heart attack and just drop dead? People may think that it’s taboo this and taboo that, well if we don’t recognise the truths now, it will be too late when it happens.

1. What is Right and What is Wrong?

When we think about these two words, what do they really mean? Most of the time, we would always find ourselves arguing with others and trying to get our points across, because we want to be right, we want to win and we do not want to be judged. Again, this shows how egoistic our mind is, we fight to the death to be right, but we  lost a lot of good people and things in the process. When the time comes for us to leave the body, it will not matter anymore whether we are right or wrong. So why do we care so much if we are right or wrong? It doesn’t matter as long as we can work harmoniously with our peers or colleagues and get things done.

2. Cult vs Dorje Shugden

In the video, there’s a section of it that shows a cult practice. They partake dead body as they believe that it will give them immortality. Now that is a real cult practice, what came immediately into my mind was how Dorje Shugden practice is being accused of a cult, but how much do these people really understand the word ‘cult’? We don’t eat dead people in this case, we don’t harm people and the lineage promotes nothing else but compassion and integrity. It is written in the scriptures that Dorje Shugden is an emanation of Manjushri, so if his practice is a cult, are these people saying they have more wisdom than all the great masters who practised and are still practising Dorje Shugden? His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama was once a Dorje Shugden practitioner for 30 years, does it mean His Holiness was a cult follower too? It doesn’t matter if His Holiness has abandoned the practice or not. Take for example, when you stab someone with a knife, just because you stop stabbing it doesn’t mean you’re not guilty or the person is not hurt, the person still experiences pain. Yes the wound will heal overtime, but the scar is there and it will always be there even though that person has stopped stabbing. My point is, it doesn’t matter if it was a past practice or a present practice, the point is, it has been practised by His Holiness.

3. Cause and Effect

The very fundamental basis of why mankind are experiencing natural disasters is because we are selfish and greedy, we pollute the environment, we create conflicts and disharmony that leads to wars. When that happens, people bomb each other and by doing so, they further destroy the eco-system and environment. When we do not take care of our belongings, take for an example, they wear out very quickly. We are not taking good care of our mother earth and she is wearing out, therefore we should stop putting the blame onto others to avoid responsibilities. Whether we want to accept it or not, we still have to bear the consequences of our actions. We must start taking actions to protect the earth before it’s too late.

4. Appreciating What We Have

We must always have gratitude and be appreciative of what we possess. People who live in Africa especially, suffer from starvation and very often, they starve to death. Most of us have a pretty easy life, we can always get want we want and eat what we want. Having a good life like that has made most of us become greedy and unappreciative, it doesn’t make us a bad person but it’s a very bad habit to have. We become very picky over our food, the reason why we are picky is because we have a choice to not eat what is provided, we have the option to have something else. Whereas, those who are poor and do not have easy access to food, they have no choice but to eat whatever they can find. Sadly, many of them do not have the privilege to have food, not even as simple as a piece of bread or cracker.

5. Attachment vs Death

The very existence of spirits have proven how important it is to be freed of attachments so that when the time for us to leave comes, we can focus the mind on the practices we have done to take a better rebirth. The reason why spirits linger around is because they have attached themselves to an object or a person or a pet and so forth. Hence when they pass on, they are not ready to let go of these possessions, so they can’t move on and hang around. His possessions, her possessions, my possessions, possession is a very dangerous word. What is truly ours? All that we have will eventually fade away, even the body we have now is not ours. The body is just a vehicle for the consciousness/ soul, the body dies off but the mind will continue to reincarnate and take on the next vehicle aka a new body. Therefore I have realised that we must not be too fixated on what we have now because the nature of everything is impermanent, claiming ownership over things that we don’t have control of is what drives us down.

Watching the video has made me realised a lot of things, including of having a few new perspectives on human life and how it should be. It teaches me to be more appreciative, to put in my best in everything that I do, almost like there’s no tomorrow. To most of the people it may seems negative to think this way, but contrastingly, it makes me realise that time is not on my side. If I am going to die tomorrow, I do not want to die achieving nothing in my life. Dharma is very important in this modern era where all sorts of new attachments are being developed every day. Without the Dharma, we are like a tiny little fish who wanders in the great ocean of danger and obstacles.

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