Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute talk, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen teaches the signs of death: distant signs (wilting garlands, clothes mysteriously dirtying, unexplained sweating) and close signs (fading body light, water clinging to the body, strong attachment to a person or place). Attachment during death binds consciousness to the body; Tibetan custom reads astrological charts to release these ties. Gods facing death know their coming fall into lower realms, bringing immense suffering. By contrast, only the human realm allows new merit accumulation. Through concrete examples—sunshine’s warmth becoming painful heat, hunger returning after satiation—he teaches the three types of suffering and shows why any body born of karma and delusion is inherently suffering. Liberation requires abandoning attachment, anger, and ignorance. He concludes that human rebirth, even as a poor person reciting mantra, far surpasses godhood.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 42 GP 1996 08 11.mp3
UUID: 49998c78-1694-4943-aeca-0682008df60a
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Graduated Path (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996-08-11
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.3 minutes
Words: ~2,477
To that card. Whenever as soon as it puts on, suddenly the the flower garland becomes old. If that happens, then it’s a sign of death for that No. It’s for that card. So so then next is that the the cloth cloth that the or the dress that I wear on.
Becomes dirty or catches dirt which even if they are wearing a brand new dress, suddenly it catches the dirt and becomes dirty. So, then another next type of sign of death which is that the body sweats, which are not like other time when usually when you’re walking or doing something, you saw it. But just when you put it’s relaxing, the time when you’re just relaxing, again your body sweats. So, when that appears then again it’s a sign of death. Or if the body gathers different dust or dirt which never been there.
So, these five are known as the five signs of death, which are known as the distant ones. So, these what is it, sign of death which are the distant one, those five of the distant one, which is also possible to human beings. So, these five signs of death, is known as the distant one, can appear like one year or sometime before that. But then the second one, the five sign of death is very close to death here. These five signs appear.
So, the five close signs of death, those are the gods, such as the gods of the desire realms and so on, they have their own body light, light in their body. And these lights, the lights weakens, the brightness of the light weakens. So, then the second sign of that is that, for example, when we take shower now, the water just goes down and doesn’t stick to our body. But then when this sign appears, when we take shower, the water somehow stays in the body. Then, next one is that whatever ornaments or things that you’re wearing gives unpleasant sound.
Yeah, unpleasant sound. Then So then next one is like closing your eyes, which is when this sign of death appears. You can feel like opening your eyes, always wanting to keep it close there. Then, the next one is like a chunk. And another one is getting attached to one place.
So, like getting attached to one place, which is that even that can happen to human beings when they when they are dying. For some, they get attached to one place. So, for some, are attached to their wife or husband. For some they are attached to their children. For some they are attached to water, dogs, cats, and so on, getting attached to these different things.
So, because of getting attached to this one thing or one place that it makes harder to that person’s consciousness to leave the body because that being whoever it might be, is attached to that that particular thing. So so as as a Tibetan custom, when a person dies, suddenly they read the the astrological chart, and then explains to what that person is attached to. And whatever the person is attached to does any ritual practice to free that person from that So, as an example, like in the world, like if there is some sickness or illness that can be caught from someone else, and if some other person is having that illness then most of the people don’t go near to that person or stays away from. Similar to that, when the guards, when they have this sign of death appearing to them, approaching to them, all the other gods, their friends or whoever, they stay a distance from them. They don’t come close to them.
So, even the close friends that they have normally, they also stay quite distant from them. Like, they come and offer them a flower garland. But putting on top of a tip of a stick and then putting on to them and telling that one who is dying. Saying that make prayers to be born in the world, in the Jambudvipa. And again, accumulate merit and make possible again to get reborn back in the God’s realm by giving this kind of advice.
So also the gods are known as they know the three things which are they know the past, and they also know the present and they also know the future, what kind of causes that they have collected in the past, they know that. They also know the present, what kind of revert that they will take and what kind of situation they have there. And also, know what kind of future they have. So, because of knowing these things too gives them strong mental sufferings. So, another thing in the culture that, how do say, no way you can accumulate virtue which having compassion towards others or either no way you can generate the thought of renunciation by understanding the sufferings of oneself or taking the experience of suffering that one goes through.
There’s no way that they can experience that or they can go through that and generate the thought of renunciation. Possible in the So, because the curriculum, they don’t accumulate new merits. Enjoy all the merits that they have collected in the past and their merits, I would say, gets finished. They finish using their merits and because of that, more likely most of the gods take their birth into lower realms. And gods, they come to know all this, that that that all this, and and when this when the sign of death appears to them, they come to know all this.
And they can also see where they are getting reborn. And because of that, they go through great sufferings. So, the best place for accumulating merit is this world, or known as the Southern Continent. That is the best place where we can accumulate great merit. So, because of that, this is the best place where you can accumulate the merit.
This is not a time to enjoy the merit that we have accumulated, but it’s the time for us to, I would say, accumulate the merit. So, as an example, for example, what we wear, any sort of clothing that we wear, the one which is costing ten dollars and the one which is costing twenty dollars Whichever we buy and use that, Like the wand that you receive from the teacher is the same. So whatever that we enjoy, whether the things that we wear, whether the place where we live or the things that we eat or the car that we drive, the more expensive we use, the more merit that we use up. So, for sense of dharma practitioner, what we need is just enough to eat that which fills our stomach and just to put something on which keeps us warm. If we have that much that’s enough.
So, you won’t go in more detail into that. It’s the time for us to accumulate merit, so we should accumulate merit. So even getting reborn in the god’s realm, one is still not free from sufferings. So, are like the signs of the death that is experienced by the gods of the desire realms and also similar to that of the gods of the upper realms to have similar types of sufferings. So, for some the gods of the Form Realm, they come to achieve clairvoyance through their concentration practice.
So, when they come to achieve that, they mistake it with liberation and they think that they have achieved the liberation. But then because of through their clairvoyance they see them again getting reborn into the lower realms such as in the hell and so on. That because of that they see that through their clairvoyance that they disbelieve in the teachings of Buddha saying that by achieving liberation you’re free of suffering and so on. They lose their belief in that and because of that they again fall down into hell realms. So, it’s said that it’s much better to be born in the human realm as an old person, male or female, reciting mantra than getting, what is it, born or reborn in the in the gods’ realm.
So, as we have to take a rebirth and out of common delusions, So, of those rebirth, if we were to take a human rebirth, even a poor one, poor old male or female reciting mantra, that is the best. And so, we should make prayers to be born as a human. And that’s where you can accumulate merit and so on. So, these places, wherever we are, we are reborn. In the gods’ realm, in the gods’ realm, even in the human realm such as like successful place like America, Australia, the poverty bed, anywhere are born, anywhere wherever we are born, are not free of sufferings.
So, as taking example to this country, that it is a very prosperous country which economically or in any way, either way, that it’s a very prosperous country comparing to Asia. Even if you want to travel to different states or different place, you can easily travel. But still if we think ourselves, we are not free of sufferings. So, that as we all recognize as something being suffering or something which suffering is the suffering of suffering which is of the three types of suffering. And the next one which we say it’s happiness and which all people think it’s happiness.
That is known as the second type of suffering, which is suffering of change. So, maybe some might think that what we see as happiness is Geshe-la is telling it’s not happiness. Some might not believe, but it’s not, what do say, Geshe-la’s explanation is saying it’s the explanation coming from Lamrim teachings. So, to which we say happiness is proven that it’s not happiness. Being suffering, there are reasons and different proofs which I’ve given in the teachings.
So, one of the things that if you what we say as happiness, if stay on that state for a long time, then it changes into suffering. So, when the weather is cold, the first time like walking in the sunny spot or place. The first moment when you got there in the sun, get there in the sun, we experienced happiness. So, at that point where one sees as a pleasure or happiness, it’s showing that past sufferings are coming to cease and it’s a starting of a next suffering which is starting from little to big here. So which which is like on the very first moment, like suffering gets little by little, which then staying there long in the sun when you get burned or feel very hot.
Then at that point, it’s like suffering of heat, is like a full suffering of heat. So, that’s a full suffering of heat. So, which shows that it’s not free of sufferings. And similarly, when we eat too much we have a problem of stomach and again when we don’t eat we have suffering of hunger or gas inside the stomach and so on. So, when we look into this then it shows that it’s not completely free from So, next one which is pervasive suffering, That is this body that we have which is the product of calm and delusion.
So, any of the five aggregates, we do have any of the five aggregates, whichever we take to the power of common delusions, one is not free from suffering. One has to go through sufferings. What we have to do is we have to become free from this body which is produced by common So, to become free from this contaminated body, we first need to know what causes these such as the karma and delusions. One need to recognize the karma and also recognize the delusions. Such as delusions are known as those of the attachment, anger and ignorance.
So then by avoiding these three, the attachment, anger and ignorance, then one can also become free from this body, this contaminated body or one will achieve the state of the arhats. So we stop here. Mhmm. You stop. Mhmm.
I can tell you. We do some question and answer. Okay. Sorry? Uh-huh.
Mhmm. Mhmm. So, to be reborn in the upper realms, the humans and gods realm, said we need to accumulate a merit. One had to accumulate a merit and the merit is what causes one to take the birth in the upper realms. So, as human beings, we are born here in the human realm, and this is also because of our merit.
So, the gods’ realm is like we are born in the gods’ realm because of our merit. Because of our merit, as I said, the god’s palace and all their wealth and possessions, all those that they enjoy, it’s because of their merits. As it said that in the god’s realm that you don’t come to accumulate new merit. That whatever merit that you have accumulated, will end or it will finish up there, used up in the god’s realm. And then as I said in earlier teaching that most likely that all the gods, most of the gods will be reborn in the lower realms.
So, as an example, if we have some money, we have already saved some money. If we use what we have saved, then it will come to an end one day if we don’t save more on top of that. So, which we finish up what we have saved and become poor and similar to that, like merit that we have accumulated in the past finishes up or used up in the Gospel and then because of that the only place that they take the birth is in the long run. Because of that, it’s advisable for us to enjoy the merits. At the same time, we should also accumulate the merits.
Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, as Gesheeler was giving this example, like say if there’s three storehouse, then the top store the gods and the demigods and the humans. So, the demigods are born there.
We get reborn in the demigods because of our merit too. So, of these different kamas, the karma which are known as virtuous karma or meritorious karma causes us to be born in the desired realm and that of karma which is known as the immovable karma which causes us to be born in the upper realms. So how these are, what is it, located? Is that one on top of the another one? These different residents or the place where these things reside, this is a sign that might be not so pleasant to explain.
Yeah. There’s six of the desire realm and then form realm seventeen.