Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 18-minute talk, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen provides detailed technical instruction on the anatomy involved in the death process. He begins with the system of white and red drops distributed throughout the 72,000-channel network, with concentrations at the crown and navel chakras, and explains how these withdraw and merge during death. He walks through the sequential visions: the near black vision as gross drops absorb into the subtle heart center, followed by luminosity when gross consciousness ceases. He then maps the central channel system, describing how sub-channels radiate outward like umbrella spokes at each major chakra. The teaching concludes with a preview of practical techniques (the five forces) for ordinary practitioners at the time of death. Aimed at those with foundational Buddhist training.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 08 H and M of A.mp3
UUID: 3072ef2e-83ba-4191-af5b-6ef87b144af2
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: The Heart and Mind of Awakening 1996 Jul-Sep (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 18.4 minutes
Words: ~1,377
I have to make the best allowance as we can. So just making allowance as we can. It’s not to touch the body if it’s possible — like, personalize it home by all means, use the body. So there are these — there are the inner white and red drops. There’s the gross white and red drop, the subtle white and red drops.
The gross drops pervade the body. It is said to be like frost on the inside. You know, these — there’s this inner network of channels. It’s said to be seventy-two thousand, like, passageways. The drops are said to cling to the surface of the inner parts of these channels like frost on the ground.
But mainly, these drops are concentrated at the crown, where the white drop is held in suspension, and the red drop, which is held in the navel chakra, the navel channel center, in suspension. So these are moving down. So the wind energies are being withdrawn in the gross body. They’re withdrawing into the central channel. So the energies which held them in suspension are being withdrawn, so they begin their journey.
They absorb into the subtle red and white drops, which have been present at the heart area throughout our life, at the heart within the heart’s central channel. This is called the indestructible drop. They absorb into the indestructible drop. Now these white — these are gross white and red drops, so they’re grosser than the drops that were present there before. So they, I think, have stripped away.
Near dark vision occurred. The vision of near black. It’s called the near attainment. It’s called near attainment because we’re near the rising of the clear light of death. So it’s due to the absorption of these gross white and red drops into the subtle white drop, the indestructible drop, which causes blackness.
The vision is blackness. Then they — and then — you know, how can you imagine? These are subtle materials, so they’re not going to — the gross material obstructs, that’s why the blackness. But the subtle ones are non-obstructed, and the consciousness is not obstructed. So they’re just passing through.
But momentarily, they enclose the subtle consciousness, the subtlest consciousness. Subtlest consciousness is always there, but we aren’t aware of it. It’s like a star during the day. You know, when you look up in the daytime sky, the stars are really there in the sky, but you can’t see them because there’s no contrast. Likewise, the subtlest consciousness is always present, but it’s being overwhelmed by gross consciousnesses.
At this point, all the gross consciousnesses are ceasing. Subtle consciousness is ceasing. But due to the obstruction now — the obstruction of the gross and subtle drop — it’s being encapsulated, and therefore there’s a vision of blackness. And then they continue to move on. So the consciousness is not obstructed.
The subtle red and white drops are not obstructive, so they just continue to move on. And since there are no gross consciousnesses, no subtle consciousnesses, and there’s an opening through to the passage — you know — the encapsulated consciousness has now been opened, and you experience its own luminosity. The luminosity that’s always been there. So they just continue to travel on. First encapsulating and then allowing the opening up. And so the — yeah.
That’s like spokes of an umbrella. The main central channels that we make use of in meditation and visualization are, for example — the crown chakra is like one with its spokes. You know? You see it? It’s just underneath the cranium.
It has thirty-two spokes. So that means — you know — there’s a vast network of channels running throughout the body, these channels. But they begin — you know — it’s like radiating out. First, you have one which splits off into two, each one of those splits off into two, so you have four, and each one of them splits off into four to sixteen, and it multiplies out and then pervades the entire body with these channels. Here there are mainly thirty-two main sub-channels entering into — you know, it’s like the spokes of this umbrella, which is the central channel, okay, facing downward.
At the throat channel wheel, there are sixteen facing upward. At the heart, there are eight facing downward. At the navel, there are sixty-four facing upward. So these are the ones that we visualize most, and there’s the secret place which is at the tip of the spine which has thirty-two, and then the tip of the genitals has eight. So it’s like, you know, like spokes of an umbrella.
And so like at the heart, there are eight. So there are four main and then each of them immediately split off into two. So it’s considered there are eight channels. So it’s like, you know, like some of these space stations they’ve designed — with like a donut, you know — where you take away the donut and have these arteries, have this, you know, where people live inside here. And then they have these chambers that go out and back, you know, where people can walk around. You know?
So inside — that’s your heart channel, but it’s slightly curved upward. And, you know, if there are tremendous details that you could go into if you’re interested in that. I think there are two books. One is one which describes the death process in great detail and the various wind energies, etcetera — it is Birth, Death, and the Intermediate State by Lati Rinpoche, translated by Jeffrey Hopkins. And the other is by — him. The Clear Light of Bliss goes into great depth of detail on the, you know, the channels, the colors of the channels, the types of wind energies — there are five types of main wind energies, five types of sub wind energies. So it’s quite a complicated system. Clear Light of Bliss goes into a great deal of explanation and how they’re using — I mean, in within traditional explanations of Tibetan Buddhism, a tree does not have consciousness, and a tree does not die. It withers and dries up but does not die.
You know, I mean, very strictly technically speaking, because they only attribute life in terms of that which has life-sustaining energy in combination with consciousness. Anyway, I’ll save it for next week. We’re going to talk about, you know, a great deal of what we’ve talked about. I think it’s useful as I said initially because, you know, if you begin to appreciate that there is a rational explanation for how consciousness continues on — which we’ll talk about more when we talk about rebirth — and the explanation or not — or whether we believe it or not — that’s a completely different matter. You know, I think if we’re open, we have to approach it with some kind of skepticism, open-minded about it. All of this is useful but also, you know, maybe we can demystify what occurs at the time of death. And now, you know — but it’s — we talked about how a great yogi might go through their death and what they can do at the time of death. Next week, we’ll talk about what are called the five forces. I just say — what we as ordinary individuals — how can we help ourselves at the time of death?
I guess most of the yogis — so we can employ what are called the five forces or the five strengths, and we’ll go through this in a way that we can. So a dedicated creative potential. In the land encircled by snow mountains, you are the source of all happiness and well-being. Powerful, remain till the end of the cycle of existence. May I quickly become an awakened spiritual master and lead each and every living being to that awakened realm through these careful actions. May the supreme joy of the awakened heart that has not arisen arise and grow, and may that which has arisen never diminish but increase more and more in all and in one.
Thank you very much. If you’d like to get a cup of