A teaching summary podcast of Death and Dying 1982 by Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen, recorded at Buddha House, Adelaide.
Death and Dying
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Tradition: Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism
Venue: Buddha House, Adelaide
Recordings: 2 teaching sessions (1982)
Source: Corrected transcripts from the Bodhi Archive
Overview
In this two-part teaching series, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen presents the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the death process, the intermediate state (bardo), and rebirth. Drawing on the Gelug presentation of tantra and Abhidharma, he explains the sequential dissolution of the elements and consciousnesses at death, the nature of the intermediate state being, and how one’s accumulated karma determines the quality of future rebirth.
These teachings are practical as well as doctrinal. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen addresses not only the technical stages of dying but also the ethical implications: why virtuous mental states at the time of death matter enormously, how practitioners at different levels can work with the signs of death, and the Buddhist perspective on difficult modern questions such as suicide and abortion. Throughout, he returns to the central theme that our present human rebirth is extraordinarily precious and should be used wisely.
The teachings presuppose some familiarity with basic Buddhist concepts such as karma, rebirth, and the afflictive emotions, but Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explains the more technical material on the subtle body — winds, channels (nadis), and drops (bindus) — in accessible terms, using analogies from everyday experience.
Key Teachings
The Three Visions at Death
Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen begins the first session by explaining the inner visions that arise during the dying process as the subtle winds dissolve into the central channel. These are internal experiences, not external phenomena.
White Vision: The white drop (bindu), inherited from the father’s seed, descends from the crown of the head toward the heart. This produces a white, luminous appearance.
Red Vision: The red drop, inherited from the mother’s seed, ascends from below the navel upward toward the heart. This produces a reddish appearance.
Black Vision: When the white and red drops converge at the heart, the subtle consciousness is enclosed between them. The dying person experiences a complete darkness, “like the darkness in the clear night of a clear space at night.” This is the black or dark vision.
The Clear Light
When the black vision dissolves, the dying person experiences what is called the “clear light.” Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explains this as follows: when the black vision extinguishes, the subtle wind that passes through the central channel becomes increasingly refined, and the very subtlest consciousness — the most fundamental level of mind — becomes free from contamination. As he puts it, “these two subtlest things, the inner wind and subtlest consciousness, become as clear as crystal. They become very clear without any sort of pollution, any sort of contamination.” When they reach this purity, the mind manifests its own true nature, which is the clear light.
This clear light experience is the most profound moment in the death process. It lasts only briefly — “just for a few minutes or just for a few moments” — and then the subtle mental consciousness departs the physical body and enters the intermediate state.
The Intermediate State (Bardo)
Once the clear light fades, the subtle mental consciousness leaves the body and enters the intermediate state. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen describes the intermediate state being in detail:
- Form: The intermediate being has a subtle, clear, and light form — not a gross physical body like ours. It possesses all sense faculties and organs but can pass through walls, rocks, and trees “without feeling of contact.”
- Shape: The form of the intermediate being corresponds to the realm of its destined rebirth. If a person is destined for human rebirth, the intermediate being takes a human-like form.
- Perception: Intermediate beings can perceive one another, “as we see each other.” They are aware of their surroundings and their own condition.
- Lifespan: The maximum lifespan of an intermediate being is seven weeks (forty-nine days). The minimum is one week. Each week, the intermediate being rushes forth seeking rebirth. If unable to find appropriate parents, it becomes unconscious at the end of each week, then revives to search again.
- Mode of dying in the bardo: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen uses a vivid analogy: when you breathe on a mirror, the condensation appears and then slowly shrinks and vanishes. In the same way, when the intermediate being fails to take rebirth, its form slowly dissolves back to the subtle mental consciousness, and the cycle begins again for the next week.
After the maximum of forty-nine days, every intermediate being must take rebirth according to their accumulated karma. There is no exception to this.
How the Intermediate Being Takes Rebirth
The intermediate being searches for parents with whom it has a karmic connection from previous lives. Once it finds suitable parents linked to it by the power of previous actions, the mental consciousness enters the mother’s womb. This is the moment of conception.
Higher and Lower Rebirths
In response to a student’s question about whether there are forms of existence higher than human, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen confirms that there are pure lands, obtained through the accumulation of very strong virtuous action. Conversely, through non-virtuous actions such as killing and taking what is not given, beings take lower rebirths such as those of animals.
He emphasises that the mental consciousness journeys unceasingly from life to life — “it never stops” — and this is precisely why understanding the process matters.
Karma and the Causes of Suffering
Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen identifies the root problem clearly: “We experience suffering, dissatisfactions, shortcomings, and disasters because of our commission of negativities through body, speech, and mind.” Among body, speech, and mind, the mind is principal and chief; body and speech act as its servants.
The crucial teaching is that these negativities can be purified. If one sincerely and honestly confesses past wrongdoing and applies the appropriate antidotes — engaging in virtuous action through body, speech, and mind — then negativities can definitely be purified. He presents a spectrum of results:
- Complete relinquishment: If we abandon negativities completely, “we will receive high rebirth next time.”
- Partial weakening: Even if we cannot relinquish completely, weakening the energy of our negativities will allow us to “progress our mental stage to a great extent.”
- Gradual improvement: Through progressively applying the actual antidote to our negativities, we improve steadily.
The Importance of the Last Moment of Consciousness
A major practical teaching concerns what happens in the mind at the moment of death. The last continuum of consciousness carries the seed of whatever mental state is present. If a person dies with a mind full of anger or negativity, “his rebirth will be very horrible.” Therefore, “we always emphasise at the time of dying or death, the last continuum should be virtuous consciousness or virtuous mind.”
This applies even in extreme circumstances. If someone is murdered but feels no anger toward the murderer — if they even generate kind-heartedness — “definitely he will have very good rebirth next time.” Conversely, if the dying person generates violence or negative mind, this poisons their future rebirth. “It completely depends on that person how he reacts during such situation at such moment.”
Suicide
Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen addresses the question of suicide directly. When a person commits suicide, the outcome is uncertain — we cannot know whether they will come back to experience their remaining lifespan or face results from other accumulated actions. However, if the act is committed with great anger, “that very moment becomes completely and totally non-virtuous,” and the last continuum of consciousness carries this non-virtuous seed, leading to a terrible rebirth.
Three Levels of Practitioners Facing Death
Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen describes how practitioners at three levels work with the signs of death:
The Greatest Practitioner: A highly realised person recognises the signs of dissolution as they arise and actively conjoins each sign with their meditative stabilisation (samadhi). From the very first sign through to the clear light, they merge their meditative experience with each stage. When they reach the clear light in union with their meditative stabilisation, “they receive the real power to take rebirth independently.” This is the mechanism behind the tulku (incarnate lama) tradition. Some such practitioners achieve the “rainbow body,” where their physical body becomes invisible, dissolving like a rainbow.
The Middling Practitioner: A person of moderate realisation may not be able to fully conjoin the signs with meditative stabilisation, but they “will always try to have signs” and strive to recognise them as clearly as possible, so that when they reach the clear light, they have some meditative awareness to bring to bear.
The Smallest Practitioner: Even someone with little knowledge of the technical signs, when they know death is approaching, “will always try to generate some sort of virtuous mind so that they can take rebirth next life in a better way.”
Tulkus (Incarnate Lamas)
The discussion of practitioners facing death leads naturally to the topic of tulkus. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explains that the true measure of whether someone is a genuine tulku is whether they took rebirth independently, through their own choice and power, rather than being propelled by contaminations and afflictions as ordinary beings are.
In Tibet, when recognising a tulku, they first ask the candidate to identify their previous possessions and personal items. Then they test the candidate’s mental realisations through various means. “When that person was quite successful in indicating the mental realisation as well as sorting out all previous things, we regard him as tulku.”
The Nature of Mind
In the second session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen presents the foundational teaching on the nature of mind. He uses two analogies:
- The sky and clouds: “The nature of the sky is clear, clean. But due to the temporal existence of cloud, we cannot see its nature clearly because the cloud obscures the nature of the sky.”
- Water and mud: “The nature of the water is clean and clear. Whereas when it is contaminated by mud, then we can’t see the clarity of the water, which is its nature.”
The key philosophical point: “The nature of our mind is clear and cognisant. It is not oneness with the delusions, afflictions, and contaminations.” These obscurations are temporary, not permanent or ultimate. They arise when conditions come together and depart when other conditions prevail. Therefore, they can be removed through practice — specifically through the Dharma, “which is the true antidote to those obscurations, those afflictions.”
Training the Mind
From this understanding of mind’s pure nature flows the practical programme. Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen outlines the training: “From the very beginning, taking the initial step, we need to familiarise our mind to perform those which are positive, those which are virtuous, and to remove, to refrain from those which are negative, from those which are by nature delusions.”
He is careful to note that this training should begin with “basic virtuous actions which are easy to adopt and easy to refrain from the negative things” — a graduated path appropriate to one’s capacity.
Development in the Womb
Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen briefly addresses the process of development after conception, noting that the baby changes dramatically week by week in the womb: “After each and every week, the baby developed to a great extent. Then all the limbs and other parts of the body appeared in their own shape, although not fully matured.” The process of entering the womb mirrors the dissolution at death, but in reverse.
Birth and Suffering
He describes birth as involving “terrible, unbearable suffering.” Even the touch of a hand that we consider soft feels rough to the newborn because of “the delicacy of the baby’s skin.” He notes that most babies cry at birth because of this suffering, “except those who come on this earth knowingly through their realisations” — that is, the tulkus.
Abortion
When asked about abortion in cases of severe disability, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen is notably careful. He confirms that when a doctor examines a well-developed baby in the womb — one that has formed limbs and can move — “that really harms the baby badly and seriously.” However, he explicitly declines to pass judgement on the broader ethical question, saying: “This point of view, it is end of the matter. It’s end of the talk. So I cannot comment anything on this point because it is beyond our sort of topic.”
Virtue Beyond Labels
Near the end of the second session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen offers a striking teaching about what truly matters. Whether someone calls themselves a practitioner or not is secondary to their actual conduct:
“Suppose if someone is identifying themselves as a great practitioner, and if he does positive things and beneficial things to others and himself, that is the real virtuous action, what we need.” But conversely, a person who claims the title without acting virtuously — “only living in such a community won’t prove one as a practitioner.”
The reverse is equally true: “If one says, ‘I am not a practitioner at all’ — no matter. But if he acts virtuously, tries to benefit others through a spiritual way of life, that thing should be done. And that is the main thing which gives us result.”
The essential criterion is the deed, not the assertion: “We cannot judge someone merely by one’s assertion. The most important is to engage into some deed in order to benefit others.”
The Preciousness of This Present Rebirth
Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen concludes the first session with a warm and characteristically direct statement about the value of our current human life. When a student asks whether we ever get a rest from the cycle of continual rebirth, he replies:
“We are taking a rest at this very minute. This present rebirth, which we have taken already, is very, very important and precious. If you like to take rest, we can take rest very comfortably in this rebirth. And if you want to do some job, you can do very comfortably in this rebirth. So this present rebirth is very, very precious and very, very important. And if one does realise its importance, one must utilise it in the proper way to achieve our ultimate goal.”
The Causal Continuum of Mind
In response to questions about whether a child’s mind comes from its parents, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen makes an important philosophical clarification. The causal continuum of mind — the main cause of one’s mental consciousness — must come from one’s own previous mental continuum, not from the parents. Parents may provide cooperative conditions (and this explains why intelligent parents sometimes have intelligent offspring), but they do not provide the causal cause of the child’s mind. The mind has its own beginningless continuum, travelling from life to life.
Key Terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Clear light | The most subtle level of consciousness, manifesting when the subtlest wind and subtlest mind become free of all contamination; the mind’s own true nature |
| Intermediate state (bardo) | The state between death and the next rebirth, lasting a maximum of forty-nine days |
| Intermediate being | The subtle-bodied being that exists in the bardo, possessing all sense faculties but able to pass through solid objects |
| Nadi | Channel in the subtle body through which inner winds travel; the central channel is most important |
| White drop/seed | The subtle essence inherited from the father, located at the crown of the head, which descends to the heart at death |
| Red drop/seed | The subtle essence inherited from the mother, located below the navel, which ascends to the heart at death |
| Subtle wind (lung/prana) | The inner energy that serves as the mount or vehicle of consciousness, flowing through the nadis |
| Meditative stabilisation (samadhi) | Concentrated meditative absorption; advanced practitioners use this to consciously navigate the death process |
| Tulku | An incarnate lama; one who takes rebirth intentionally through the power of realisation rather than being driven by afflictions |
| Afflictions/delusions | Mental states such as anger, hatred, jealousy, and ignorance that obscure the mind’s clear nature and drive the cycle of rebirth |
| Karma | The law of cause and effect governing actions; virtuous actions lead to good rebirth, non-virtuous actions to lower rebirth |
| Pure land | A realm of existence higher than human, obtained through very strong virtuous action |
| Transference of consciousness (phowa) | A practice for directing consciousness at the time of death |
| Rainbow body | The achievement of highly realised practitioners whose physical body dissolves at death, becoming invisible like a rainbow |
Practice Points
- Maintain virtuous mind at death: The mental state at the moment of death is critically important. The last continuum of consciousness carries the seed of one’s next rebirth. Always strive to generate virtuous mind, especially as death approaches.
- Purify negativities now: Sincerely confess past negative actions and apply the antidote of virtuous action through body, speech, and mind. Even partial weakening of negativities brings progress.
- Mind is chief: Among body, speech, and mind, the mind is principal. Transforming the mind is the foundation of all practice.
- Recognise the signs: Familiarise yourself with the stages of dissolution so that, depending on your level of practice, you can work with them at the time of death — whether fully conjoining them with meditative stabilisation, simply recognising them clearly, or at minimum generating a virtuous mental state.
- Do not generate anger at death: Even if one is murdered, generating kind-heartedness rather than anger toward the perpetrator ensures a good rebirth. The dying person’s mental response matters more than the external circumstances.
- Value this present life: This human rebirth is extremely precious and rare. Use it to train in virtue, benefit others, and progress toward the ultimate goal.
- Judge by deeds, not labels: What matters is not whether one calls oneself a practitioner but whether one’s actions actually benefit oneself and others. Engage in virtuous conduct regardless of religious identity.
- Begin with what is manageable: Start training with basic virtuous actions that are easy to adopt, and refrain from the most accessible negative actions first. The path is graduated.
- Understand mind’s nature: The nature of mind is clear and cognisant, like a cloudless sky or mudless water. Afflictions are temporary obscurations, not the mind’s essence. This understanding gives confidence that purification is possible.
- Help the dying: When someone is approaching death, help them generate virtuous states of mind. This is analogous to “last rites” in other traditions and serves the same essential purpose of ensuring the dying person’s mind is in a positive state.
This summary was compiled from 2 recorded teaching sessions by Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen at Buddha House, Adelaide. The full transcripts and original audio recordings are available at bodhiarchive.org.