Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. Christele guides students through two meditative practices on death and rebirth, foundational topics in Buddhist study of impermanence. After opening with mindfulness of breath and motivation-setting, she explores how recognizing death’s certainty can redirect us toward virtuous action and genuine spiritual practice. The first meditation invites practitioners to imagine their dying vividly—lying down surrounded by loved ones, visualizing the physical dissolution of the body and the grief it causes—so that attachment and fear surface and can be observed. The second, esoteric meditation walks through the gradual dissolution of the four elements (earth, water, fire, wind) and the subsequent subtle mind stages: white vision, red vision, black vision, and finally clear light, the most refined level of consciousness where emptiness can be realized. She emphasizes that this process occurs unnoticed during ordinary sleep, fainting, and sexuality, and that unfamiliar practitioners will remain confused at death unless they prepare now.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Christele – Track 13.mp3
UUID: 9c2cd789-aa82-4ac0-92c9-6dd7bfbae120
Teacher: Christele
Collection: Death & Rebirth (Christele)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Words: ~11,248
I thought tonight we are going to start directly with the mindfulness meditation. To bring our mind here and we have done this one already a few times, especially for the one we did the module on how to meditate. And then we go straight into the motivation and the refuge prayer from this paper. So whenever the staff was ready we can start. So just adopt your meditation posture.
So it is better to adopt the seven point posture if you’re familiar with it, otherwise just make sure your back is straight but relaxed. So your hands are on your laps. Your feet are flat on the floor if you’re sitting on a chair or cross legged if you’re on the floor. Your eyes are a little bit open just to let some light in. The tip of your tongue is behind your upper teeth.
Now breathe a few times deep in and out. And every time you breathe out, you let go of all the tension to hold in your body and mind. Breathe out and let go 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. So 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 still left.
Tension in your body. Tension in your mind. Allow yourself to be completely here at Buddha’s, 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 that your mind is wandering off, bring it back gently to the body. Let the mind rest on the movements of the breath.
Every time you breathe out, you let go of more thoughts. And when you breathe in, you breathe in, just breathe, nothing else. No thoughts, no emotions, no opinions, just breathe. And your mind becomes more and more empty and you enjoy the empty, quiet space. Now your mind should be a lot calmer and clearer than it was before you started, allowing you to check your motivation for studying this topic more effectively.
So please do that. If you find that your motivation is one concerned with merely the comfort of this life, recognise that to be a negative motivation, the cause of suffering, and discard it. Now replace it with bodhicitta motivation: In order to reach enlightenment, I must complete the path to enlightenment. To do that, I need to study and practice all the teachings on the path. At this time I am studying the teaching on death and rebirth.
Therefore, I am doing this session in order to complete the path to enlightenment so that I can enlighten all sentient beings. Let the meaning of what you just thought sink in. Now you can open your eyes and join me in reciting the refuge prayers. I go for refuge until enlightenment, to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly. For my practice of giving and other perfections may I become a Buddha to benefit all sentient beings.
I go for refuge to enlightenment, to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly. For my practice of giving and other perfections, may I become a Buddha, to benefit all sentient beings? I go for refuge to enlightenment, to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the supreme assembly. For my practice of giving 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 be inseparable from the happiness that is free from suffering. May all sentient beings abide in equanimity, free from attachment from friends and hatred from enemies. So over the last few weeks we talked about the following, that we know that our body will end. We also know that our mind, at the time of death, will not end, that it will not be the end our suffering and ignorance.
And as his holiness Dalai Lama said, two things always follow you after death, your virtuous and non virtuous actions. If if you have created good karma, another good life will follow. If you have created many harmful actions, then your karma will lead you to misery. So basically you alone will suffer as a result of your non virtuous actions. Usually we think that the enemy is outside.
If somebody gets angry at us, we think that they are the real enemy, but the real enemy is inside. It is your anger and all the other afflictions. So that’s very important to really recognize that the enemy is inside. Because that’s going to lead you to a lower rebirth. And I just want to read you a story from this book.
It’s a short story, I’m not going to read the old book. It’s Steps on the Path to Enlightenment. It’s Lamrim Chenmo and it’s by Geshe Sopa. And it’s just a nice story I read the other night and I saw that one. That was a good one to illustrate what we’re talking about.
So there is a Tibetan story to illustrate this point. That the potential they leave on your mind stream will eventually ripen into a bad result. That is how karma works. Once a person was carving a small cube out of a huge hard rock, this was a very hard job.
Someone came along and asked, what are you doing? What would you do with that cube? The stone carver replied, nothing. I’m just going to throw it away. And this is what we are doing with our life.
We are working so hard to accumulate things, make money and become famous. What will we do with it all? We will leave it all behind. So I thought it was a good illustration. Basically by being aware of death, we can develop an attitude of concern for the future life.
The purpose of meditating on death is not to create the fear of separation from object, of attachment like your friend, your possessions and your body. You should worry about where you are going to go in your next life and all your future lives. You should worry about whether your next life will have better condition than this one or instead if you are going to a lower rebirth. In order to develop mindfulness of death, we went through the nine points meditation last time. We talked about the three main roots, which is death is certain, the time of death is uncertain, and at the time of death nothing will help you except the Dharma.
And then there were three reasons, per point, and then three conclusions, which was: Since death is definite, I must practice the Dharma. The time of death is uncertain, therefore I will practice the Dharma right away, and at the time of death, nothing except the Dharma will be of benefit. Basically, by doing this meditation, you should come to this conclusion. Not only must I practice the Dharma and practice it right now, I must also only practice the Dharma. And of course you’ve done your homework, so every day you’ve been meditating on it.
Yeah? Okay, good. So basically if you do the nine point meditation properly, you will very firmly set yourself on the Dharma path. And this path will lead from happiness to happiness. With worldly works, the happiness you experience always finishes, but the work goes on forever.
Dharma work is a complete opposite. With Dharma, the work has an end, but the happiness it brings is everlasting. And I mentioned last week there’s also another way to develop mindfulness of death, and that’s what we’re going to talk about which is to come to the actual way of remembering death. There’s an exoteric meditation on the aspect of death and also an esoteric one. So we’re going to talk about that tonight.
But to begin, I’d like to read you, it’s pretty long, it’s a passage from His Holiness, Dalai Lama, from the books Joy of Living and Dying in Peace. So it’s pretty long but. Usually, when I describe the essence of Buddhism, I say that at best we should try to help others. And if we cannot help them, at least we should do them no harm. That is the essence of the Buddha’s teaching.
I think this point is relevant even from the secular point of view. If an individual relates to others with compassion, in the long run, he or she would definitely be a happier person. Negative activity may result in temporary gain, but deep in your heart, you will always feel uneasy. The compassionate attitude does not mean a mere passive feeling of pity. In a competitive modern society, sometimes we need to take a tough stand.
But we can be tough and compassionate. When someone who lives in this way comes to the end of his or her life, I am certain he or she will die happily without regret. Embarking on a spiritual practice that is mature in lifetimes and eons gives you a different perspective on death. In the context of our existence through many successive lives, death is something like changing your clothes. When your clothes become old and worn out, you change them for new ones.
And this affects your attitude toward death. It gives right to a clearer realisation that death is a part of life. Grosser levels of mind are dependent on our brains, so they continue to function as brain functions. As soon as the brain stops, these levels of mind automatically stop. The brain is a condition for the appearance of grosser levels of mind.
But the substantial cause of the mind is a continuity of the subtle mind, which has no beginning. When we are dying, other people can remind us to generate positive state of mind up to the point at which the gross level of consciousness dissolves. But once we have entered a state of subtle consciousness, only the force of the previous predisposition can help. At that point, it is very difficult for anyone else to remind us about virtuous practice. Therefore, it is important to develop an awareness of death and to become familiar with ways to cope with the dissolution of the mind, right from the time of our youth.
And we can do this by rehearsing it through visualization. Then, instead of being afraid of death, we may feel a sense of excitement about it. We may feel that having made preparation for so many years, we should be able to meet the challenge of death effectively. Once you have an experience of the deeper subtle mind meditation, you can actually control your death. Of course, it can be done only when you reach an advanced level of practice.
In Tantra, there are advanced practices such as the transference of consciousness, but I believe that the most important practice practice at the time of death is the awakening mind That is what is most powerful. Although in my daily practice, I meditate on the process of death in association with the various tantric practices seven or eight times a day, I am still convinced that I will find it easier to remember the awakening mind, bodhicitta, when I die. That is a mind I really feel close to. Of course, by meditating on death, we also prepare ourselves for it, so we no longer need to worry about it. Although I am still not ready to face my actual death, I sometimes wonder how we cope when actually faced with it.
I am determined that if I live longer, I will be able to accomplish much more. My will to live is equal to my excitement about death. Remembering death is part of Buddhist practice. There are different aspects to this. One is to meditate constantly about death as a means of enhancing detachment from this life and its attractions.
Another aspect is to rehearse the process of death, to familiarise yourself with the different levels of mind that are experienced as you die. When causal levels of mind cease, a subtle mind come to the fore. Meditating on the process of death is important in order to gain deeper experience of the subtle mind. Death means that his body has certain limits. When the body can no longer be sustained, we die and take on a new body.
The basic being ourselves that is designated onto the combination of body and mind persists after death. Also the particular body is no more. The subtle body remains. From that point of view, the being has no beginning or no end. It will remain until Buddhahood.
Nevertheless, people are afraid of death. Unless you can guarantee your future due to your positive actions during this lifetime, there is every danger of being reborn in an unfavorable state of existence. In this lifetime, even if you lose your own country and become a refugee, you are still leaving the human world. You can seek help and support, but after death you encounter entirely new circumstances. The ordinary we gain in this life is generally of no help after death.
If you have not made preparation, things could be unfortunate. The way to prepare is by training the mind. On one level, this means cultivating a sincere, compassionate motivation and performing positive action, serving other beings. On another level, it means controlling your mind, which is a more profound way for preparing for the future. Eventually, you can become master of your mind, which is the main purpose of meditation.
I thought it was interesting, A bit long, but yeah. So basically the purpose of this course is to clarify a little how to make the fact and imminence of our death useful for attaining enlightenment, for the sake of all sentient beings. And here we are trying to become more familiar with the aspect of death. So as I said, to remember death, there’s two sorts of meditations. There’s the exoteric meditation on the aspect of death and the esoteric one.
So basically, the exoteric one is when you’re doing your meditation you actually imagine you’re dying, but you really have to convince yourself that you are dying. So it’s one of the few meditations that you actually don’t sit on a cushion or a chair, you actually lie down. So you can do it on your bed, on the floor. So you imagine that you’ve got all your friends around you and your family. So yeah, they say you really, really develop this strong conviction, I am really dying.
And it is really the time of my death. And then you check how you feel. If you’re ready, what kind of mind, what kind of thought come up, what kind of attachment you’ve got, aversion. And they say here, to visualize your family and friends around you, think of each person one by one. And see how attachment arises to that person.
Understand what a great hindrance attachment will be for you to have a peaceful mind, a peaceful death and a constructive death. Then also they said to think about what’s going to happen to your body. So you can go into very graphic imagination, I mean, sort. So your body might be at an autopsy? So you can imagine them opening your body and getting everything out anywhere.
That you’re in a box? Coffin. Coffin. Thank you, coffin. And Your body is going to go underground, you can imagine the warmth and everything, or if you’re going to be cremated, imagine that your body gets burned.
Also instead of being called by your name, I mean, just think that you’re going to be called by the late so and so. So imagine all these things happening to you and see how you feel. See how strongly attachment to staying alive arises. Realise that attachment is a main hindrance to you having a favourable death and try to cut it off. But if you find this practice too hard to do, they recommend that you do it for one of your friends.
By watching somebody else dying, I mean. Not in reality, but yeah. Perhaps a relative or a friend or even somebody healthy who suddenly got sick and died and was killed in an accident. So apply that person’s death to yourself. They said to use this practice as often as possible.
So if you go to funerals, if you see people being cremated, if you go to the cemetery, apply whatever you see to yourself because it is not a fantasy. Fantasy? Sooner or later you are going to die and that is going to happen to you. So the better it is for you to think about it now. And we’re going to do a short meditation on that after.
That might be a bit difficult for all of us to lie down but we can just sit for this time, you can do it at home lying down. Any question for this one? Are there particular realisations that are intended to be the focus of that? What do you think is going to happen when you do that? Well, I I mean, awareness of the attachments, I suppose.
Mhmm. But I’m just trying to go beyond that. So what are you going to do with your attachment when you arise? Just appreciate, you know, appreciate my life more and the things that I’m you know, giving me attachment to, I suppose. Basically, it’s really to make you think that death will come for sure, but also to really see your attachment and try to decrease this attachment.
If you’re not aware that you’re attached to somebody, you can’t work on it. By doing this meditation, the attachment will suddenly arise, especially if you’ve got kids or people who are very close to you. I don’t know what to do with this one myself, I’ve got kids, and I think there’s no way I can cut through this attachment, but I guess you need to be a very advanced practitioner to do that. It is strong, isn’t it, of the children? Yes.
And also to see what kind of feeling, if you’re scared, you know, or if you’re peaceful and you might have lots of regrets, you might think, oh, know, should have said that to this person, you know, so maybe you know you’re going to do that before you’re dying. So a lot of realization will come and that depends on your life. Yeah. I was just wondering if it’s suppose there’s applications in relation to how I go about living my life until I die, but it seems like the focus is on the benefits at the point of death. It is a benefit at the point of death but if you remember death and if you know you’re going to die, you’re going to try to engage in as many virtuous actions as you can during your life.
And there’s a lot of stories of people who actually got cancer or I’m reading this book, it’s a French doctor and he had cancer and he was saying he was so glad that he had cancer and nearly died because it really changed his life. He’s much more compassionate, basically his whole life turned upside down. So there’s a lot of advantages. But in a Buddhist point of view, the advantage is that you’re going to have a good death and so you’re going to have a better rebirth. And also wouldn’t it be to gain a greater appreciation of my life and my life could end tonight.
Yeah. That’s another aspect. Yeah. It’s to that idea of that I assume I’m gonna be around for another forty years. Yeah.
That’s right. Yeah. Thirty. Any more questions on this one? The other one is a bit more complicated because it’s really what happens to your mind and your body when you’re dying and I think most of us cannot remember that from our previous lives.
So we’re going to go through that. So what does exoteric mean and esoteric mean? Well I was going to look in the dictionary but from what I could understand, the exoteric is more external. Esoteric is what really is going to happen inside you. Am I correct?
But I was going to look for the exact definition but I didn’t have the chance to do that. Basically the esoteric way of We’re going to try to understand the process of dissolution of the elements and how to meditate on it. Normally, especially in our Western society, think that death occurs when the heart stops beating and there’s no more brain function. And this is what we say, you know, the person’s dead. But from a point of view, this is not when death occurs.
Death occurs when the mind leaves the body, and even after the signs of clinical death have appeared, the mind can still be in the body. And in a day that is neither sudden or not traumatic, the mind can take two to three days to separate from the body. So that’s why they say it’s very important not to move a body for the three days following the clinical death. So as it does, various changes occur in the mind body complex. Some of these are visible and manifest in what we call external signs that can be seen by an outside observer.
Others are internal and experienced only by the dying person. And this is what we call the process of dissolution. Still, in our society we move the body within hours, don’t we? Yeah, I know. So would that be okay, you’re talking about actually don’t bury or cremate the body?
No, not touching the body, not moving it. And we’re going to go through that when we’re going to do the session on how to help the dying. But it’s it’s better not to touch the body and not to move it for about three days, which is That’s impossible. Yeah, know. Yeah.
If you die in a hospital, that’s totally impossible. What’s the belief that will occur That will disturb the mind, the very subtle mind, and you can go straight into a lower rebirth. But I think that’s I mean, we’re going to go through that. There’s technique you can do to actually help the mind to get out of the body more quickly, and one to put on the hair or tap on the head but we’re going to go through that. I think legally, like I’ve been at deaths where it’s happened in the home, he died at like seven o’clock at night and we rang the doctor and the doctor said legally I should come now.
Oh really? But he trusted us, so he didn’t come until the next morning at about eleven o’clock in the morning so we could just leave him there. But then by law he had to go. Isn’t it? Yeah, because I heard that you don’t have to call them straight away, the person’s dead, you can’t The recitation of the definite, and that still has to happen, but they can stay behind, but you’ve just got to keep the room cool and observe all those things about the body lying there for Maybe the doctor can come and do it, you know, without disturbing the body too much.
The doctor came and then he said, ‘Look, now I have to inform the authorities’ and then everything got in motion and They came and took him away. Oh they came for you straight away? Well they came maybe at lunchtime then. But we couldn’t keep him there. Okay.
Well we’ll talk about that and see what we can do. I mean our society doesn’t really support that because they don’t believe in that. It might cause trouble with organ donation and things like that. That’s another topic, yeah. But Lama Zopa did answer this question about organ donation and some other teachers and I think what they say, if your motivation is really pure, it’s a good thing.
So the mind that arises at the moment of death is a very subtle mind. It’s a mind of clear light. The very subtle mind is the most refined level of mind within us. So what the yogi, the experienced meditator trained in this practice tries to do is to catch hold of that mind, of clear light, and use it to meditate on emptiness, on ultimate reality, and using it to enhance his or her realisation of emptiness at that time. Basically, since that is the most refined state of mind, the least obscure mind, it’s easier to realize emptiness with that mind, and basically it’s easier to get enlightened at that moment.
But you need to be able to recognize it, and as we’re going to see, it’s very hard for us. So the practice of the esoteric technique of meditating on the aspect of death is tantric practice and it does require full initiation into Highest Yoga Tantra. So basically, what we’re going talk about tonight is what we can know. But there’s other things that we can’t know until we’ve got the initiation. So through our afflictions of desire, hatred and ignorance, the three poisons, contaminated karma is performed.
And that’s going to establish the potency in the mind in the form of predispositions. When a lifetime finishes, a person who has such predisposition is born again in cyclic existence. And three poisons, cause the four elements. The earth element, the water and fire and air, to come together and form a body. Want you to move it back because otherwise you’re not meant to see anything.
Is that okay for everybody here? Yeah? So we’ve got four elements. We’ve got the earth element. Element.
And that’s referred to the hard element of the body, so like the bone, the nails, the skin, the hair. And we’ve got the water element. And it comprises all the fluid in the body such as the urine, the bile, how do you say it in English? Bile. Bile, thank you.
And blood. We say beet in French. So fluids of the body. So we got the fire element. And that’s referred to the warmth that maintain the body.
And we’ve got the wind element. And that refers to the currents of air or energy that perform the physical function, such as swallowing and serve as a mount, a rider of consciousness. And on top of these four elements in our body we also have channels and drops. And we’ve got two more elements but it’s not in the body, I’m not even sure if we can put that element. It’s space and consciousness.
So the channels are the veins, the arteries, the nerve pathways, through which flow of blood and life and bile, weed and so on go through. So drops are the essential fluid that go through the channels. So the body of humans of this world have seventy two thousand channels. As well as the right, left and central channels. So it’s a bit more than seventy two thousand.
So these four, I mean the channel and the drop and everything, that’s a coarse, it’s from the coarse body. Okay, maybe I should stop here. That’s a coarse body. The body comprised of the channels, the wind, and the white and red drop. We’re going to come back to the white and the red drop a bit later and the channel two.
And the very subtle body is a wind that serves as a mount of the mind of clear light as well as a wind that abides in the indestructible drop at the heart. Now we’re going to come back through that when we do the dissolution. Is that clear? Yep. That’s not.
Sorry? That’s not. Okay. With respect to the channel of the septal body, there are three principal channels that run parallel to each other from the base of your trunk up to your crown of your head. So you’ve a central channel here and you’ve got the right and left on both sides and they kind of curl here and join the maybe I will use a description that might be easier than my explanation.
So you’ve got the three principal channels that run parallel to each other, from the base of the body trunk up to the crown of the head and then curved down to the middle of the forehead. In the middle is a central channel and on either side of it are the right and left channel. At certain points in the body, the right and the left channels call around and constrict the central channel. These nodes are known as chakra or the channel wheels. And there are four main chakras.
There’s a crown of the head, the throat, the heart and the navel. Is that okay? So smaller channels branch off from this chakra in a network of vein like pathway and it pervades the whole body. So that’s why there’s seventy two thousand of them coming from the channel. I mean from the chakra.
So this constriction at the chakra, during ordinary existence, the winds do not move upward and downward through the central channel because of them. So the wind doesn’t move inside the central channel except at the time of death. So at the time of death, all the winds in the seventy two thousand channel gather in the right and the left channel, so all your winds move. Then the winds in these two dissolve into the central channel. The wind in the upper part and lower part of the central channel finally dissolves into the indestructible life bearing wind at the heart.
Are going to go in detail with this process. Let’s look at it a little bit closer. So at the time the delusion arises or sickness or death, the elements are in balance. So at the time of death, the imbalance is rather severe. So it’s a big imbalance at the time of death, of your elements.
And what’s going to happen is that one element is going to sink or dissolve into the next element. It’s actually going to disappear into the next element. So due to this, a confusion or vision will come. Vision will come. So one element dissolves into the other one, we’ve got a vision coming and there’s another element that’s going to dissolve into another element and another vision is going to come.
Now I ‘m to go through all that. So the first one that’s going to dissolve is the earth element. So when this start to happen, you’ve got a handout by the way with all that, with the experience and the vision that come from that. So when this start to happen, we can see some external signs.
Basically, your body becomes weak. I’m going to put external sign. Weak body. You lose your power. Also your sight becomes unclear and dark.
So you lose your unclear sight. And you’ve got problem opening and closing your eyes at this time. Basically all the strength leaves your body. So that’s the external sign, but the internal sign that you’re going to notice So when the earth element dissolves into the water, it’s like a mirage like appearance. You know when you’re in a desert?
Dessert, yeah. And you see the mirage. So it’s like of water when the light of the sun strikes a desert in the summer. Okay. So the next element that’s going to dissolve is the water element that’s going to disappear.
So basically, at this time you can no longer experience pleasure or pain or neutral feelings. So you lose all that. And that’s usually with a sense of mental consciousness. So the fluid starts to dry, so that’s the external sign. Fluid dries up.
Dry up? Yeah. Thanks. And also your hearing, you’re going to lose your hearing. You cannot hear external but also internal sign, you know, that kind of bad thing you hear, so you can’t hear any of that.
And the vision that you’re going to experience is like a smoke like appearance. Like smoke billowing from a chimney in the midst of a mass of smoke. So it’s a bluish grey smoke that you’re going to see. So this is the external sign. If you look at somebody dying, can notice all that and this is what the dying person But even that, I mean that’s not easy to notice.
So the next element that’s going to dissolve is the fire element. So basically at this point you are no longer aware of the affairs of close relatives, so you can no longer remember the names, the face. The warmth of the body diminishes, so you’re losing your heat. And also your capacity to digest food. I guess you don’t want to eat at this point but and also you can’t smell anymore here.
Okay. What is more? And also you will notice that the inhalation through the nose is weak, whereas the exhalation is strong and lengthy. Okay. So that’s the external sign.
But I mean, your question, I mean, if you’re dying you will still notice that. But you might not be that aware of it. So the vision that you’re going to have here is like a fire like appearance. It’s like burning red sparks seen within puff of smoke rising from a chimney. So red sparks.
The next one is the air element. So this one is going to slip away in the consciousness element. So at this point you can no longer perform physical actions and one is no longer mindful of external worldly activities purposes. One can no longer experience the six textures of smoothness or roughness. So all the winds at this point shift from their own abodes to the heart.
That’s where the winds start to shift, towards the heart. And the breath ceases to move in and out, you stop breathing. And, an external sign that the tongue becomes thick and short its root turns blue. And here at this point the vision that is going to arise is like a burning butter lamp like appearance, like the sputtering point of a butter lamp’s flame when it is about to go out. So after the four elements you saw the breathing stop.
To an observer, as I said, might be at the person’s dead. There’s no more external expressions of life in the body. So at this point, the subtle wind energies are withdrawing into the central channel. So, and you’ve got the white drop at the crown of your head. So you’ve got the wind going into the central channel, okay, and you’ve got the white drop at the crown of your head.
And the And these white drops are going to start descending. And that’s your heart chakra. And You’ve got the indestructible drop at this point. And that’s the essential life essence, that’s the life force. And I think they call it, Srog, no?
Okay, that’s okay. So that’s the life force, life essence. The white drop. This is the essence of the father’s sperm. And here, the wind is going to move towards the heart and the white drops going to descend, you’re going to experience four visions.
So that’s after the clinical death. That’s what we said not to move the body because you still have to go through a process. So you’ve got four visions. Four. Four, thank you.
I was just checking if you were listening. So, for vision, you’ve got the white vision, you’ve got a red vision, a black vision, and the clear light vision. The white vision is a reflection of the white of father aspect energy. At this point, the consciousness experiences great empty space. Like a white radiant light.
White light, great empty space. So you’ve got also so you’ve the white drop at the crown but you also have the red drop. I mean that must be at the navel chakra, I would say, the red drop. So the red drop is the it’s the mother aspect, the red energy, and that’s the mother’s blood.
Think that’s what they call it. So the mother aspect, the red energy, also draws into this drop here. This one comes up too. When this happens, you’re going to experience the red vision. And so you’re going to experience a red color and same thing, great empty space.
So when you experience the white vision, the red vision, the black vision is going to come. But it’s very quick, the black vision. And then after the black vision, there’s a clear light vision. And that’s which means experiencing a complete, gigantic, empty space. Into this empty space is a clean, clear light impression, which is a clear light experience.
During that of clear light experience, your consciousness does not experience sensory objects at all. All the objects of our ego are gone. But the problem is that when we are deluded, we are not aware. We are inflexible, confused and impure. Our sense consciousness is experiencing darkness.
But when we are clean, clear, we always experience a lot in front of us. So due to our ignorance, we might not be able to see that. What is the black energy? I don’t know, sorry. Just a vision, they don’t There was nothing in the text.
It’s a good question for Geshe la. So yeah, if we don’t have the three poison, we will have no problem when we are dying. Dying will then be blissful. So this process will be blissful and we’ll able to be aware of it. So there’s great meditators who remain in meditation during the day’s time.
And when they reach this point here, which is the most important, the clear light one, they can stay for days, weeks and months in this one. So even after breathing they can still be alive for many months, weeks and days. And there’s lots of stories. If you take the book by Sogyal Rinpoche, the Tibetan book of living and dying, It tells some very interesting stories about meditators being able to stay in this state. Body doesn’t smell, the body is basically still very fresh.
So according to some, this clear light is the emptiness of the mind. According to others, this is not a real emptiness but it is artificial and I’m not going to enter into a debate. Don’t ask me any question about that. The moment so it’s not finished. When the moment you hear, so you got a clear light and then you’re going to go in reverse.
You’re going to experience the black one, the red one and the white again. Then again all your superstitions arise. And then here you go into the Bardo state. So in the Bardo so when you are in the Bardo, your ego is built up again. So you’ve got your ego back.
You cannot lost it here through the process, but it’s coming back. In the Bardo, you going to take the form of the person whom you’re going to be reborn into. So if you’re going to be a hell being, be reborn into the hell realm, you’re going to take the form of a hell being. If you’re reborn as a human, you’re going to take the form of a human. So the intermediate state beings have all five senses but also they have clairvoyance.
I hope I didn’t say anything wrong, Shalu, but if you’re being a boy in the hell, you take the hell I’m not too sure about the hell I’m not too sure. Maybe it’s a question for Geshe la to know which body we take in the Bardo because I’m actually not too sure. But anyway, in the Bardo, we all have our five senses but we’ve got clairvoyance also. Basically, you got an ability to arrive immediately wherever you want. Also, they can see other intermittent state beings of their own type and can be seen by clairvoyants.
That’s very important that they’ve got clairvoyance. When we talk about helping other people dying, that’s a very important point to be aware that the person can be here with us. But of we can’t communicate and they can’t communicate with us. But they can hear us, they can see us. Basically, if a place of birth appropriate to one’s disposition is not found, a small death occurs after seven days.
So every seven days you’re going to go through the death process again in the Bardo for a limit of forty nine days. So that can be before the seven day is up, that can be, you know, but the maximum will be forty nine days in the Bardo. So yes, a death occurs and one is reborn into another intermediate state. And this can occur at most six times. And this means that those beings who even a year after dying report that they have not found a birthplace, are not in the intermediate state, but they have taken birth as a spirit.
So in taking rebirth as a human, you’re going to see your own father and your own mother lying on top of each other. So if one is to be reborn as male, you’re going to develop desire for your mother. Now if one is going to reborn as male, you’re going to develop desire for your mother and a hatred for your father. So what you’re going to do is take rebirth basically, you’re going to see your father and your mother. If you’re being reborn as male, you’re going to desire for the mother, hatred for the father, and reverse if you’re being born as a woman.
And then what’s going to happen is that because you’ve got so much desire, one rushes there to engage in copulation. But upon arrival, one sees only the sexual organ of the desired partner and this is going to create anger which causes cessation of the intermediate state and makes a connection to the new life. Do you want me to repeat that? I’m just reading here. So, if one is to be reborn as a male, in taking rebirth as a human, one sees one’s future mother and father as if lying together.
If one is to be reborn as a male, this sight generates desire for the mother as well as hatred for the father and vice versa if one is to be reborn as a female. Being I don’t know how to pronounce that desirous? I mean having strong desire. One rushes there to engage in copulation, but upon arrival, one sees only the sexual organ of the desired partner. Partner.
This creates anger which causes cessation of the intermediate state. Shouldn’t it be the organ of the hated partner? Yeah, that’s what I was thinking when I was reading it. Yeah, there must be a mistake I made. Okay, so the hatred partner.
I would double check that, but it doesn’t make sense otherwise. I mean, they should be happy. So anyway. Yeah it’s going to create anger. And now I don’t know why am I So which causes cessation of the intermediate state and makes a connection to the new life.
So you got desire, then anger arise, then you make the connection because it’s an afflictive emotion. One has entered the mother’s womb and began a human life. So when the father’s semen and the mother’s blood are conjoined with his life or consciousness, they naturally and gradually develop into the elements of a human. They say that one is desirously attracted to one’s future birthplace and even if it’s hell. They give the example of a butcher.
So a butcher might see a sheep in the distance, as in a dream. Upon his rushing there to kill them, the appearance will fade causing him to become angry, whereupon state will cease and his new life in hell begins. So he’s got desire and then anger because the sheep disappear and that’s where it’s going to go into hell. Sheep or sheep? Sheep.
Cows? The animals. Sheep, yes, sorry. So you pick whether you’ll be male or female? No, you don’t.
You don’t? No, you don’t. Your afflictions and your emotions. You don’t really pick where you’re going to be born. It’s too strong emotion, it’s too strong affliction.
Yeah, your emotion takes you to where you’re Yeah. So if you had like your six days and you couldn’t get to the sixth one and think, oh I prefer the first one. That’d be nice, yeah. No, you don’t. Unless you’re a very advanced practitioner and yes, you’ve got the element of choice, but otherwise, no.
Mean when we see now that we can barely control our anger when something happens, so imagine when, I don’t know, you’re the battle state. And was it right if after the forty nine days if you go nowhere then you stay in spirit? Is that what you’re saying? Well this I’m not sure. I said that people who claim they’re still in the Bardo after forty nine days and not their spirit.
So what happens after forty nine days if you haven’t taken rebirth? I’m not too sure about that. Does that mean I’ve been reborn as a spirit or something? There might be, I don’t know. That where clairvoyants can see?
Well during all the time in the body you’ve got clairvoyants. Okay. Ask your child all these questions because I don’t know. Very hard because we can’t remember that. Which process, you know when you say every seven days goes through the death process?
Which part of the death process? All of it. All of it. Which part are you talking about? That person’s on the restroom?
I don’t know. Sorry. What I gave in the text I took for. Yeah. That’s a good question but if you’ve a body you’re going to go through all the stages again.
But then what kind of body you’ve got in the vital state? But you take another body in the Bardo state. But if you haven’t got another body You take another body in the Bardo state before being reborn. You’ve got a body. It’s not the same body as us, and that’s the question for Geshe la in the Bardo state.
So where do you pick that body? You’ve got the five senses. Where do you pick the body? I don’t know. Yeah, wonder where those five senses came from.
I don’t know. So it’s not a body like this, it’s an entity of some Yes, that’s got all the senses as well. Do you want to write down all the questions for Geshe la for a second? That’d be interesting to see what he says. Anyway, the connection to your life is therefore met under the influence of desire, hatred and ignorance.
So until we overcome this affliction, one is as if bound by chains without freedom. So we’ve got no freedom. If we got a V3 poison, we’ve got we’ve got no freedom. So we can have a good rebirth, but while one is still bound, one must bear the burden of mental and physical aggregates that are under the influence of contaminated action and affliction. And this is not done once, but again and again with a break.
That’s what we’ve been doing all the time. It’s hot, you want to open the window? They say that the experience which happens during the death process, we’re actually going through it during the day, especially And it’s the same as during the time of sleep. So we are going through all that during the time of sleep, maybe not stopping breathing but I’m talking about the vision, guess. It’s the experience.
So yeah, the experience without the second colon. So it’s the experience. When we fall asleep, we’re going through that but we’re not aware of it. So it’s going to be very hard to be aware at the time of death if we can’t see it now. Also, when we faint, have an orgasm or sneeze.
Of course it’s very quick. So this means that we have experienced the death process many times but we are not conscious or sensitive to recognize it. We do not comprehend our own own experience. So even during this life, we have many times gone through the experience of the elements dissolving and we have had the visions of white, red, dark and clear light. But because we are so ignorant, we are not conscious of them.
If you are conscious or sensitive, intensively aware of all your actions, you can notice this death process occurring in your life. So you’ve already experienced that. Okay. No more questions? So it’s difficult topic and you need somebody with much more knowledge to take you through that.
We obviously need someone with a bed and memory. Yes, that too, with clairvoyance, I don’t know. Maybe they can’t see all that. But it would be interesting to ask all these questions together, shall I, when we have the question and answer? So anyway, this was just an introduction on the death process.
We’re going to do meditation on the, as I say, ex I don’t know what time is it? Oh, we’ve got time, that’s good. On the exoteric meditation and also a short one on the esoteric meditation on the aspect of death. Stella, can you go through this week about what we do to someone who dies or is that next week? No, next week, not to ninth.
When is the weekend? On the weekend. No, not this weekend. No. I’ve talked to my head.
Maybe five o’clock. Grab a grab a look at their website. Who does that? Can you Rinpoche? Probably.
No. I don’t think so. No. No. Does it Ilya?
Like, Okay. Yes, what? Yeah, maybe it’s for Keisha. No, don’t ask me. No.
Good. I couldn’t find the question really, so it’s bit pointless. Sorry? It’s not actually your thing and I can’t even formulate the question, so. That’s going to be even harder.
Next week also we’re going to go through the six realms of existence, so to know what’s going to happen when you take a rebirth in one of the realms. And then we should have time to start on how to help the dying. I might actually invite Jan Voon for the death and dying group. I I was gonna ask Yeah. Go.
Yeah. Does this happen to, like, like, you know, some of my work with women who are very advanced pregnancy and that the babies die. Right? So does this happen to those little babies as well? Yeah.
And if you It happens, yeah. If you die in an accident, traumatic accident, usually it happens like that very quickly, all this process. So can I just ask a question? I was reading Sogyal Rinpoche and he was saying that they can still be around us, they can’t talk to us, we can’t see them. And he said that’s why it’s very important that we don’t engage in gossiping about the dead person and also arguing about the possessions and that we don’t show too much overbearing grief because I can really disturb them in a battle state.
And when you do all your practices to help them die, also to do it with a very pure heart and lots of compassion. It’s changed because culturally speaking, showing grief has been a very important part of it. Even higher people to show grief, know the person that’s paid to show grief. You might need to put that on hold for forty nine days, which is hard. But if you really want to help them, this is what you need to do.
He’s actually coming to Adelaide next year. Yes. Oh wow, excellent. Oh excellent. Oh good.
Well that’d be nice. But the book is excellent and that he wrote. It’s like a bible on days. Okay, so I’m going to as a conclusion, instead of doing it to myself, thought I’m going to bring you a passage from Geshe Sopa because it kind of summarises everything. Can I ask one more question?
Yes. If you’re an ant, do you experience that? So it’s any being any sense of being Yeah. What happens if somebody if somebody dies and their body is kind of blown up or they lose their body instantly? That’s going to disturb this process for sure, yeah.
And I think the chances of having a lower rebirth is higher. Even if it’s not their fault. Karma is karma. But you can still help them, you know. Then we shouldn’t get cremated?
Your consciousness is going to leave your body, usually after three days. That can be quicker, that can be put in straight away. If you move your body, even if your body’s been moved, your consciousness can still leave after three days? Yeah, but that’s going to disturb. They say that if it lives through the head, I think, that means it’s a good rebirth.
I might be wrong. And if it leaves through the feet or another part of your body, it’s more chance of going into a lower rebirth. So I guess if you move the body you’re going to disturb the process. Do burials or cremations? Saw a movie, it was in Tibet, there was a person who died and they cut off the body to pieces and gave it to the bird.
Oh yes, that’s a very good culture. But also was it a belief system, like you know how Catholics believe in Well after your consciousness is gone, it’s gone, you know your body is useless. So basically it doesn’t matter what you do, is it? Well as long, actually it doesn’t matter, no it does matter because a person who would die might not be happy if you do whatever you want with the body so you need to take that into account. Because when they see it they might be upset if they want it to be cremated and Buddhism.
Where do plants fit in all this? Like the concept of plants and things as well. Not in Buddhism, they’re not sentient beings. Not sentient, but they’ve been shown to have They don’t have any consciousness. But they’ve been shown to have emotional empathy with you, like, release I don’t know.
I mean, you need to but according to Buddhism they’re not, but you can ask the question to Geshe la. Yeah, actually somebody did investigate that. Yeah, and what did you say? Somebody asked if trees were sentient beings and he said, No. And then other people sitting around went, I don’t agree with that.
So but he said himself has said, like, when science has proved worse and wrong, we must accept science. And science has proved that plants, you express feeling. They feel pain. Feel Did they? Yeah.
They have, like, a whole body system. They are living creatures. Are plants and trees. I believe they recognize a certain being, but Isn’t that how it’s Is it? No, because if you’re a hell being you No, you’ve got a consciousness, that’s what sentient beings mean, a mind.
Literally sentient beings having the five senses. I’m saying in Buddhism it doesn’t necessarily mean It’s got a mind or consciousness, yeah. Because if you’re a spirit or a hungry ghost, know, you’ve got your five senses. Senses. Anyway, okay.
Conclusion by Geshe Sopa. So this gives you a brief idea of the death process. Whilst dharma practitioner learns about how to prepare for it and undertake those measures while they are alive. As a result of their preparation, they will be able to understand what is going on at the actual time of death. There will be no need for fear and confusion.
Those who have not prepared will be completely lost when all this experience arises. That is why we must prepare beforehand by practising the dharma. Do as much as you can now and it will benefit you at the time of death. There are those who always delay even though they have some interest in this area. They deceive themselves saying, okay, it might be that way, but I will practice this later when I get older and I have finished all the things that I have to do.
This attitude is a bad friend, leading you right to the gates of death. It keeps you from acting until death is right in front of you. Then you are finished. It is too late. You cannot do anything.
Your friend has deceived you. And, yeah, he said, in order to conquer this attitude, you must cultivate an awareness of death and impermanence before it is too late. This will lead you to engage in really energetic and heartfelt practice. Well, can keep on if you want to. This productive attitude will become spontaneous.
Naturally, without having to force yourself, you will do whatever is necessary to prepare. This is how it is for great yogis. Of course, not everyone can gain this experience right away. For certain people it is a little easier, for others it can be quite hard, and for some it will look like it is impossible. It won’t come quickly for everybody because it is not easy.
You have to consistently and patiently follow a long, long path of practice. The level of difficulty also depends upon the strengths of person’s ignorance and mental afflictions. But everybody has the ability. Everybody has a chance to be successful in this practice. And you can begin right away.
You step onto the path right now, then you take another step, and you go a little further. Your practice will get better and better, just slowly continue to practice in this way. This is the best way to go about it. Okay. Do you want to do the meditation now?
Yeah. Do the first one and then I ring the bell and we can have two minutes to stretch the leg, then we go into the other one. Do you want to stretch your leg now maybe? So as I said, the first one usually it’s better to do it lying down. So it’s up to you.
I mean if you want to do it lying down now, that’s fine or you can just do it sitting down or on a cushion. I’m not going to do it for too long but that will give you an idea of how to do it when you’re at home. The feet. There’s a picture everywhere. Okay.
So maybe start by concentrating on your breath again for a few moments, the air going in and out. So now imagine that you have suddenly collapsed on the floor and that you are really about to die. Think I am dying. This is it. Now I am really dying.
Or you can imagine that you’re lying on a hospital bed after a period of illness and you think I am dying. This is it. No, I am really dying. You are surrounded by your friends and loved one. I am really about to die.
My friends and family who have always enjoyed being with me, have always laughed and smiled with me, will soon be crying and talking about my death. This body, which have always covered with cloth and protected from the elements, will soon become like stone or wood with no feelings whatsoever. This body, which could not bear being touched by even the tip of a burning stick of incense, will soon be cremated in a fire. This body, which I have preserved so well, will soon become a part of ash. This body, which I always took around to different places all over the world, will soon be put in a box and buried under six feet of dirt.
This body, which couldn’t bear being stung by a tiny mosquito, will soon be full of worms eating it from the inside out. Soon I won’t be able to see, hear, talk or even breathe. Soon I will be a corpse and the people who love to hug and touch my body won’t even be able to look at it, let alone touch it. So when you do this meditation, think this and whatever, all those similar thoughts you can come up to, can come up with as if you are actually dying and check to see how you feel. Are you ready to go without regret?
And it’s good to practice this meditation over and over again. When you go to bed at night, instead of thinking that you are going to sleep, think that you are dying and see how you feel. Feel. So how did you feel? It can be a bit scary, no?
It’s almost quite similar to when you’re doing that meditation on seeking the eye and you chop your body up into pieces. Mhmm. Trying to find, you know, you’ve opened your rib cage and. Yeah. And if you do that, you’re less scared actually.
If you think of emptiness, it’s not that scary. Okay. Any other comments? I’ll go. So you’re ready to do the second one.
That’s nine o’clock. Okay. You ready? Yep. So same thing.
Just spend a few moment again to and bring your attention to your breath. And also remind yourself your motivation for being here and doing this meditation. And keep in mind that we are going to do this meditation with the understanding that this is going to happen to me. I am going to die. Therefore, I must become familiar with this process in life so that I can handle it constructively when it actually happens.
Now think and visualize as follows. As my earth element dissolves, my body becomes thin, my limbs uncontrolled. And it feels like I am being buried under a great weight of earth. My limbs seem to shrivel, and my body becomes weak and powerless. My eyesight becomes unclear and I can no longer open or close close my eyes.
The radiance of my body diminishes, my strength weakens. And to my mind there appears a vision like a mirage. As my water element dissolves, my saliva, sweat and other fluids dry up. I can no longer experience physical, pleasant, unpleasant or neutral feelings. I am also no longer mindful of the feelings that accompany my mental consciousness.
I no longer hear external or internal sounds, even the inner buzzing in my ears disappears. And to my mind there appears a vision of smoke. As my fire element dissolves, I can no longer digest food or drink. I lose mindfulness of the affairs of those close to me and I can no longer remember their names. My inhalation becomes weak and my exhalation becomes labored and long.
I can no longer smell things. And to my mind there appears a vision of sparks of fire. As my wind element dissolves, my inhalation and exhalation cease altogether. I can no longer perform any physical actions. I cannot move at all.
I am no longer mindful of external activities, their purposes and so forth. My tongue becomes thick and short and its root turn blue. I can no longer experience tastes or fix things with my body. To my mind, there appears a vision like the last flickering of a candle. As my eighty gross conceptions dissolve, there appears to my mind a white vision, a clear emptiness filled with white light.
Then there appears to my mind the red vision, a clear emptiness filled with red light. Then there appears to my mind the black vision, an emptiness filled with thick darkness. Darkness. Finally, there appears to my mind a clear light vision, complete emptiness and clarity. At this point, concentrate on the appearance of this clear light mind.
Think, all things are empty of inherent existence. Nothing exists under its own power from its own side. All phenomena are interdependent and exist by being merely labelled by the mind. And let your mind become one with infinite space in nature of clear light and concentrate for as long as you can on that. Now let’s dedicate the merit of having done these two meditations and also having listened to the teaching.
And think because of the merit I have created, studying and practising the teachings on death and rebirth. May the Dharma spread throughout infinite space in all directions, and may all sentient beings quickly reach enlightenment. Okay, so we can do, if you want, read the dedication prayer. On this one. Due to the merits of this virtuous action, may I quickly attain the two sets of a Guru Buddha’s qualities and lead all living beings without exception into an enlightened state.
May the supreme good fortune that has arisen not diminish but increase more and more, but increase more and more. So you’ve got two handouts tonight, you’ve got to say the eight stages of dissolution during the death process. Geshe Sopa did that.
There the homework. And also, last week, was talking about the book from Lama Zopa, Making Life Meaningful. There’s a few copy outside if you want to take that with you. Okay. And thank you.
So yeah. Just quickly with So the understanding of being in Bardo for that period of time, you I would have thought that it would be more of a less likely to be deluded because we’re not attached to our physical form now, and we get sent all our delusions of this worldly life. We’re going beyond that. And yet, by the sound of it, we’re just as deluded, if not more so. Your ego builds up in the Bardo, you’ve your ego back.
Get your ego back. Yeah, that’s what they say. You’ve got a form, you’ve got a body, you’ve got an intermediate body, and you lose it every seven days. Are you choosing which realm to be? You’re not choosing, you’re kind of prepared.
Right, so here you guys are already with you at that point. Yeah, it builds up again when you go from the clear light black, vision, red vision, and white vision, and then it builds up in the Bardo state. Ask Geshe-la again because I’m not an expert.