Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this opening session of a module on death and rebirth, Christele guides practitioners through Buddhist perspectives on impermanence, the beginningless mind, and rebirth. She opens with a quotation from Lama Tsongkhapa on how life is as fragile as a water bubble and how karma follows consciousness after death. The talk outlines a six-session arc covering impermanence and reincarnation; the benefits of cultivating mindfulness of death; practices for deepening that mindfulness; reflection on future rebirths and the six realms; the actual death process and dissolution of consciousness; and how to support the dying. After grounding the group with a breathing exercise, she establishes motivation—emphasising that setting intention at the highest level (bodhicitta, enlightenment for all beings) transforms any spiritual action. The remainder of the session focuses on two foundational meditations: generating positive motivation through the refuge prayers, and tracing the continuity of mind backward through the day, childhood, birth, and conception to lay groundwork for understanding rebirth. Pitched at students new to meditation and the Discovering Buddhism program.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Christele – Death and Rebirth.mp3
UUID: 229aff16-0663-4928-91f4-7adf64098bb2
Teacher: Christele
Collection: Death & Rebirth (Christele)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~2,138
Okay, it’s working now. Zafo? Now. That better? Yes.
Yes? Yeah. Okay. It’s okay? Okay.
So, tonight, I’d like to to start with this quotation from Lama Tsongkhapa, from the Foundation of All Good Qualities. This life is as impermanent as a water bubble. Remember how quickly it decays and death comes. After death, just like a shadow follows the body, the results of black and white karma follow you. Finding firm
No? No. It is too loud for me but I don’t know why. Okay, sorry. So finding firm and definite conviction in this, please bless me always to be careful, to abandon even the slightest of negativities, to accomplish only virtuous deeds.
So basically, in this module, we’re going to see if we can get a better understanding of the meaning of these words from Lama Tsongkhapa. Okay. I’m just going to turn that around. Session one, we’re going to see what is according to Buddhism with impermanence, beginning less mind and reincarnation. Session two, we’re going to see the faults of not cultivating mindfulness of death and also the advantages of cultivating mindfulness of death.
Session three, how to cultivate mindfulness of death. Session four: Reflecting on future lives. We’re going to talk about the different realms of existence. Session five: We’re going to talk about the death process and the dissolution at the time of death. The last session is going to be how to help the dying.
Also, how to help yourself but how to help other people when they’re dying. I don’t know, it’s very light here. It’s not loud back here. Yeah?
I think there’s only this one walking. Or maybe this thing amplifies the sun actually. That might be the reason. Okay, that’s okay, I’ll get used to. How do you think about the back?
Feeling like it’s too loud? No, no. Anyone else feeling loud? I think it’s only me. Come and sit next to me.
No, no, it is very loud here. I think this thing amplifies. Anyway, that’s okay. I’ll get used to. We’re going to start with a breathing exercise, so just to bring our mind here at Buddha House and just to leave all our worries behind and just try to focus on why we’re here tonight.
Then we’re going to do the motivation, followed by the refuge prayers. You get me? Refuge prayers? You get me? There were none left.
No, how am I talking to them? What about the yellow booklets? You don’t have them anymore? I don’t know, like it. No, the booklet, that’s okay.
That’ll be okay. Thanks. And then we’re going to do a meditation on the continuity of the mind. And then we’re going to talk about impermanence, and then the mind, which is beginningless and endless, and also the reincarnation. And then we’re going to finish with a meditation on impermanence, and then the dedication prayers.
So, if everybody is familiar with meditation or anybody totally new to meditation here tonight? No? Okay, good. So sit comfortably. Make sure that your back is straight but relaxed.
If you are used to the seven points posture, you can adopt this posture. Otherwise, just put your hands on your laps or on your knees, but make sure your back is straight. Breathe a few times, deep in and out. Every time you breathe out, you let go of all the tension you hold in your body and your mind. Breathe out and let go of everything that kept your mind busy today.
Whatever has happened, has happened. We can’t change anything from the past. So let it go. Breathe out and let go all the worrying about the future. We create our future with our actions that we do in the present moment.
The best preparation for the future is to be mindful of the present moment. The more we can practice this, the more control we get. Breathe out and let go of all the tension that is left. The tension in your body, the tension in your mind. Allow yourself to be completely here, at Buddha House, in the meditation hall, on your chair or cushion.
Feel that there is no better place to be right now, that every part of your body and mind are happy to be here. And then just breathe. Breathe and be aware of your body. Your body is sitting. If you notice your mind is wandering off, bring it back gently back to the body.
Bring the mind back to the body. Let the mind rest on the movements of the breath Every time you breathe out, you let go of more thoughts. When you breathe in, you breathe in, just breathe. Nothing else. No thoughts, no emotions, opinions.
Just breathe. Your mind becomes more and more empty and you enjoy the empty, quiet space. And then allow yourself to come back to your body, to your senses. You can keep your eyes closed when I am going through the motivation if you want. In his book Making Life Meaningful, Lama Zopa Rinpoche talks a lot about the importance of motivation.
Motivation is the most important factor in determining whether an action becomes positive or negative. In other words, whether the action will be the cause of happiness or the cause of suffering. If we don’t make a conscious effort to generate positive motivations, it’s almost certain that our actions are going to be negative. We have been following our mind without understanding how it works since beginningless time. That is why we are still in cyclic existence, why we are still subject to death and rebirth, why without choice we have to experience all kinds of suffering that we don’t want, and why it’s very hard for us to find any satisfaction or lasting happiness.
Lama Zopa says: It is extremely important for us to know how best to live our daily lives. This depends upon our knowing what is a spiritual action and what is not. The difference between what is dharma and what is not dharma. The benefits of having this knowledge are incredible, infinite. If we don’t make an effort to generate positive motivation, we are going to be acting under the influence of one of the three poisonous minds: ignorance, attachment and aversion.
Most often, on basis of ignorance, it will be attachment, where we are attached to simply the happiness, the comfort of this life alone. Actions done out of ignorance, attachment and aversion leave negative imprints on our consciousness. And sooner sooner or later, in this life, the next, or in some future life, these imprints ripen into the experience of suffering. Therefore, we need to cultivate one of the three levels of positive motivation. This has been covered in other Discovering Buddhism courses, so I’m going to talk briefly about each of these motivations.
The lowest level of motivation is the motivation of avoiding rebirth in the three lower realms. It’s the motivation to attain a higher rebirth. The second or intermediate level of positive motivation is that where we do things in order to attain liberation from all cyclic existence, to attain nirvana or individual liberation, a state of everlasting blissful peace for ourselves alone. The highest level of positive motivation is where we seek enlightenment, not for our own benefit, but as a tool or an instrument that we can use to bring other sentient beings, all other sentient beings, without any exception, to enlightenment. This higher state of mental development, the same level of mind attained by the Buddha, the level of mind beyond which there is no higher level, the greatest possible experience of happiness.
And this is what we should set our sights upon. This motivation is bodhicitta. So try to set your motivation for doing this death and rebirth module, this entire Discovering Buddhism program at the highest level by thinking. I am doing this program, I am doing this course, I am studying this teaching on death and rebirth in order to reach enlightenment for the sole purpose of enlightening all mother sentient beings. Spend a few moments reflecting on your motivation for being here tonight.
And if you wish, you can join me in the refuge prayer. I go for refuge until I am enlightened: To the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly, my practice of listening to the teachings and other perfections. May I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. I go for refuge until I am enlightened: to the Buddha, the Dharma, and Supreme Assembly. By my practice of listening to the teachings and other perfection, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Supreme Assembly. For my practice of listening to the teaching and other perfections, may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings. May all sentient beings have happiness and the causes of happiness. May all sentient beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. May all sentient beings never be separated from the happiness that is free from suffering.
May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment for friends and hatred for enemies. You can stretch your leg if you want and then we are going to do a meditation on the continuity of the mind. See, you can adopt here, seven point posture. If you’re sitting on a cushion on the floor, you can cross your leg in the full lotus position or half lotus or just simply cross. If you’re sitting on a chair, just make sure your feet are flat on the ground.
Your right hand is on your left hand with the thumb touching. Your back is straight. Your head is slightly tilted forward. Your eyes are a little bit open just to allow some light to get in. The tip of the tongue, touch the palate behind the upper teeth.
Just spend a few moments just breathe in and out. Just feeling the sensation of your breath in and out at the opening of the nostril. Again, let all your thoughts go like clouds in the sky. Now bring to mind your state of mind at some time during the day, such as before you sat down to meditate. Then follow the flow of your mind movements backward through time earlier and earlier in the day.
For example, start with your state of mind at breakfast this morning and follow your consciousness backward from there. Irrespective Irrespective of the contents of your mind, whether you have thoughts, perceptions, memories or sensations, just follow the trail of your conscious processes backward through time, moment by moment, to the immediately preceding moment, and before that, and before that. Continue Continue to follow your consciousness backward, observing the relationship between each conscious moment. Does each moment of consciousness exist independently of the moments before and after it? How is each mind moment related to the mind moment that came before it?
To the one after it. Follow your consciousness backward through time, from today to yesterday to the day before that. Then move further and further into the past, following your conscious flow backward into last month, last year, into your childhood. Observe closely how each moment of mind arises. Where does it come from?
Is each moment of conscious activity linked to the previous moment or not? What seems to be the cause of each moment in that stream of moments? Trace your consciousness through your childhood into your infancy, right up to the moment of your birth. With practice and meditation, you must start to actually be able to remember these periods of your life. If you cannot, it is sufficient to extrapolate your current experience and to use your imagination about those early years.
Try to follow your mental processes back even further through the process of being born back into the womb. Then follow your experience even further back to the moment of conception to before you were conceived. Once you have meditated on the above and have gained some feeling or direct experience, and this may require several meditation sessions, then you will be able to contemplate the following question. You will see with this meditation that each moment of consciousness is a part of a continuum of perceptions, emotions, of conscious activity of mind. Each moment arises from the previous moment.
Given this reality, at the moment of birth, is it sensible to think that a child’s consciousness simply comes into being out of nothingness? Or is there, once again, a previous moment of mind, from which that first moment after conception arises. Okay. So how do you feel? Okay to start the teaching now?
So we’re going to