Abortion thoughts

[Guest guest]

I'm always fascinated by this one.Certainly life begins at the

instant of conception. The Tibetan Buddhist description of the growth

of the foetus is quite fascinating inasmuch as it actually describes it

from inside - in terms of what's happing energywise. Almost any

occidendal account i've read is speaking of dead foetuses at various

stages and the descriptions are of what seems to have happened

externally up to that point.

Briefly put, the actual meeting of the sperm cell and ovum, calls in a

third entity as it were - calls in a rider - an awareness which is not

inherent in material (witness how dead and 'material' a dead body

is)(before it becomes host my pullulating other lives of course)... the

body is made up of its solidity, its fluids, its empty spaces and its

warmth. None of these is conscious.

Consciousness also never changes. Like a mirror, it reflects what is

before it, life, death, happiness, sorrow, bliss, terror, but -

ultimately - none of these change its basic nature which simply to be

aware - to be witness - and to be nothing in itself except this faculty

for being aware. This is what comes and goes and rides bodily forms

that seem to be born and to die after a brief period of maturity and

(optimally) the creation of further bodies of the same nature that can

play host to awareness.

Awareness was never born and never dies... it has always been... since

before even time and space (it's first two vectors) came into being.

Awareness is the is of what is. Without it, nothing is. And yet, when

you look for it it has no form, no colour, no shape, and not even a

'seat'... We say,

for example, (us accidental occidentals), that awareness is seated in

the brain, but when we point to ourselves, we don't point at the head -

pointing at the head means that you or someone else a bit doolally - we

point at the chest, at the heart. The Chinese, Sanskrit and Tibetan

words for mind all mean heart... This is not to say that the

brain is unimportant - obviously it is, but it is an instrument, if you

like, of awareness, not its home.

That being - because it almost invariably sets itself up as a centre

and what is peripheral to it and then splits itself off from the

periphery - is what comes into the meeting of spermcell and ovum. Why

don't we remember this? If you've seen that instant on film you'll know

that it's pretty damn shocking - extremely violent - a literal slamming

together and almost simultaneous destruction of all the other

spermcells around. I think most of us are quite shocked, not least

inasmuch as the bardo - the intermediate state - between life and life

is quite scary in itself... One generally flees one's way through it in

utter terror at the nightmarish experiences there as the structures of

the past consciousness begin to fall apart and themselves die...

One comes screaming out of the bardo into what looks very often like

some form of safe haven - a crevice in a rock, a hollow log, or - for

those whose karma really is clean, a beautiful house or temple and into

this extremely violent explosion whereby one fuses with the material

energies of the father and mother and the growth process slowly begins.

Some extraordinary books on the subject are:Advice on Dying and Living a Better Life - HIis Holiness the Dalai Lama [RIDER PUBLICATIONS, 2002]The Jewel Ornament of Liberation - various versions... H. V. Guenther [RIDER, 1970]

Khenpo Konchog Gyaltsen Rinpoche [sNOW LION, 1998] Ken & Katia Holmes [ALTEA PUBLISHING, 1995]*

The Life and Teaching of Naropa - H. V. Guenther [OXFORD, 1963]The Tibetan Book of the Dead - Gyurme Dorje [http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780670858866,00.html]

The Mirror of Mindfulness - Tsele Natsok Rangdrol [RANGJUNG YESHE PUBLICATIONS, 1987]Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth in Tibetan Buddhism - Lati Rinbochay & Hopkins [RIDER, 1979]

and, of courseThe Tibetan Book of Living and Dying - Sogyal Rinpoche [RIDER, 2002]*As Gems of Dharma, Jewels of FreedomThis

is not to pooh-pooh the occidental version - On the contrary, I believe

a marriage of both views is of primal importance - Not least for the

beings who are dying because of ignorance.Of course the arguments for abortion

are many and cogent (at least on their level). The arguments against

are often far more confused and ignorant than those for it. Here,

however, is an argument which might render the question - and the moral

imperative of the question - far more subtle.

I, personally, can see abortion as a possibility where the birth of the

child will really harm or endanger the situation of the mother and/or the child itself.On the

other hand, it was never promised that life would be fun, or even easy,

but there are very few who would give up the chance for it if given the

choice. No-one, as far as I know, gives up their life easily, not even

those who take their own. There is always some sort of struggle. And

taking the life of another living being - and particularly a defenceless

living being - has never been considered among the better ways to

accumulate good karma even in ignorance.

There are exceptions to everything, of course, and an action that is

'good' in one context may be very harmful in another.This is where the

subtlety comes in.

Under separate cover (since neither Jungfire nor negcap accept

attachments) I can send anyone interested copies of two translations on

the subject of the intermediate states I've recently made from the

Tibetan, one the introduction to an empowerment given by my own

teacher, His Holiness Düd'jom Rinpoche, and the other of a trio of

short texts by the 14th. c. polymath, Longchenpa (klong chen rab 'byams)

...-- As within, so without~ Alice O. Howell-- As within, so without~ Alice O. Howell