Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 45-minute session, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen teaches the five strengths—practical preparations for death and the intermediate state. Rather than addressing only advanced yogis, he speaks directly to ordinary practitioners, opening with a story of an old Tibetan monk who could not let go of his butter tea bowl until his teacher promised better tea awaited him in the next life. From there he walks through five core practices: the force of positive seed (releasing possessions and attachments); aspiring prayer (directing the mind toward compassion and awakening); repudiation (developing disgust toward afflictive emotions); determination (maintaining a positive state at death); and familiarity (rehearsing these practices throughout life). He emphasizes that the final thought at death is supremely powerful, shaping your next rebirth, and teaches the recommended position and Tonglen practice to anchor the dying mind in compassion.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 10 H and M of A.mp3
UUID: 81ad2a14-72f0-4cc9-9c5e-92ef2b3368a6
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: 45.5 minutes
Words: ~3,253
I’m going to help you. I’m going to take responsibility in helping you to solve your problem. And then commit myself to ensure that you’re happy. I’m going to help you to be happy. In a way I’m going to express my commitment to you at this very moment in my meditation — if I can develop my mind, my skills, my ability, then eventually I’m going to be a really significant practical benefit to you.
I can really do something, fulfilling my commitment to you, if I develop myself. And we’ll practice the nine-round breathing meditation. Coming down and up. Left channel, blocking the right. Breathing out the thick black smoke which carries the negativity associated with desire, an obstacle going off into the far distance and disappearing.
So in your own time, in your own pattern of rhythm, you have to see the nine-round breathing. And then bringing the mind to the breath. Now we’re going to meditate on appreciating ourselves and begin by thinking of a female who you admire, respect a great deal, that you look up to. And then what is it about her? What characteristics? What qualities does she possess that you admire and respect so much, that you look up to, that you value?
Now imagine that you yourself have the same quality, the same characteristic, and create an imaginary situation where you express this quality. So you’re going to play a role. You’re going to assume this quality that you now admire in this other female. Imagine it — completely feel it, identify with it, and express it in an imaginative situation. Now think of a male that you admire, that you respect.
And then, again, imagine that you yourself have the same quality, and you feel it, identify with it, and express it in an imaginary situation. Now think of a significant female in your life, one of your close friends — a female who you’re close to, good friends with, that you value your relationship with. What is it, do you suppose, that they admire about you? What qualities do you possess that they value, that they might respect? What is it about you that they care about so much?
Now imagine this. Now take up a significant male in your life. Someone that you are close to, that you have a close relationship with. What is it about you that they might admire, that they value about you? Increasing the imaginative. And then finally, what is it that you like about yourself? What quality within yourself that you at present value, you respect?
Then bring your mind back to the breath. Easy. Gently in on that flow of the breath. Now we’re almost through with death. Sure you’re dying to get through with death.
And we talked about the dying process and how, you know, some advanced yogis, especially advanced tantric practitioners, make use of the physiology and the psychology of the death transition as a means to attain awakening — liberation. But this is all very well and good for people who have spent a considerable part of their lives training for their death. But what about us? Ordinary people like ourselves. You know, what can we do to help ourselves at the time of death?
What can we do to help others at the time of death? So in terms of helping ourselves, we can make use of what is called the five practices called the five strengths, or five forces, sometimes called the five strengths, five powers. And it’s good that we talk a great deal about death and become aware of death. But it’s also good to perhaps begin to develop some kind of strategy for what you might do when death does occur — because it will occur — to create some kind of plan for yourself that you can put into effect and put in action when you’re dying. So the first of these five strengths is the force of positive seed, or more literally white seed — positive seed.
So, you know, this is a force which we begin to apply sometime before our actual death. When we become aware that we are shortly going to die in the very near future, we should begin to prepare by giving away what it is that we have — our wealth, our property, our various possessions — and giving it to our family, giving it to, you know, providing for their needs, making offerings to the Buddha, Dharma, the Sangha community, to our lamas, you know, to charitable organizations, to needy people, you know, whatever is worthwhile, whatever is useful. But to begin to give, to let go. And specifically, you know, the process is initiating letting go. We have to begin to give up in our minds any object which at the moment of our death we might develop attachment toward, that we might develop some kind of clinging toward. And it could be something insignificant, something terribly trivial.
You know, there’s a story about an old Tibetan monk who was dying. And this old Tibetan monk had a great liking for Tibetan tea — you know, Tibetan buttered tea. Don’t know if you’ve ever tasted it. People like it a great deal. It’s almost like soup.
Anyway, he associated his great liking for Tibetan butter tea with his old, you know, stained cracked wooden bowl that he drank it from. And the old monk was having a hard time of it. You know? He simply could not let go and move on. And then his teacher came to his bedside and, understanding the situation, understanding the problem, asked if he could have his bowl, his drinking bowl that he drank his butter tea from.
But he quickly added, you know, where you’re going, they have even better butter tea than they do here. And the monk let go, and he died peacefully. So that was quite a simple case. It might not be so simple in our cases for us to be able to move on. So essentially, this idea of a positive seed is to accumulate creative potential, to accumulate merit, but most emphasis is on the process of letting go.
You know, letting go of our attachments. Whether it’s to people, to things, to our own body. You know, saying your goodbyes, putting your affairs in order as we talked about last week — you know, making out a will very clearly so it doesn’t have to come up in your mind at the time of death. Giving up possessions, giving everything away, you know, becoming mindful of the fact that everything that is born is due to decay, our own body. And beginning to accept this fact.
You’re not going to recover. You’re going to have to give it all away. So begin to give it away. It’s going to be taken away from you forcibly. You’re going to be separated whether you wish it or not, so begin to let go.
Accepting that fact. Accepting and getting on with the impermanence of life. You know, maybe this is something we should be doing. This is an important part of Buddhist practice over the course of our life. As part of our practice throughout our life, you know, you’re going to have to give up everything at some time, sooner or later.
So this first force reminds us of that fact and of the necessity to begin the process now. You know? Not — when it becomes apparent that you’re going to die, that you’re not going to recover from this particular illness, from this particular accident — start to begin to let things go. Give things away quite literally. Put your affairs in order.
Begin the process now. You know, and at the actual time of death, as the various signs of the death process begin to take place — you’re beginning to sincerely dedicate all our possessions. You know, this is just something in your mind that you’re doing. You’ve taken care of everything as physically well as possible.
But even to emphasize that — you know — giving away everything, letting go of our possessions, our creative potential, our merit, even our own body, and dedicating anything and everything in which we may hold still harbor some attachment toward, some lingering attachment, some clinging — dedicate to all sentient beings. May this be of use to all living beings in some way — letting go. You know, to let go of everything, to clear yourself out, to clean house, to mentally give it all up, give it all away until there’s nothing left. There’s just you, your mind, and the imprints which have been placed upon your mind through your various actions, through your various purposes.
These are the only things left that are going to go together to your future life. And it’s like mental house cleaning, hygiene, stripping down to the nakedness of your own mind, giving everything away. Clean, clear. The second force is the force of aspiring prayer. You know, we’re trying to give the mind some kind of directionality through this process.
It’s going to be tossed by various forces like a leaf blowing by the karmic wind. And we want to, as best we can, give it some kind of direction, at least some type of control over the process. So as death approaches, we have to begin to cut through all the possible fears, all the confusion which may begin to arise for ourselves. You know, try — don’t let those minds of fear and confusion and panic and bewilderment overwhelm you, take you over — begin to cut through and down to your underlying deeper values. You know, what is of really ultimate concern to you?
And begin to concentrate and focus on those, not allowing your mind to be distracted to the will and events which might be occurring, the experiences which you’re undergoing, what is surrounding you at the time. You know, especially in terms of our practice, trying to focus upon the awakening heart — the awakened heart of love and compassion — and the awakened mind, wisdom, understanding ultimate truth, as best we can in terms of our limited understanding and ability. Again and again, you know, making heartfelt prayers, aspirations to the Buddhas, to the Dharma, the spiritual community, to our lamas, that they will never be separated from me — may I never be separated from my Dharma practice. No matter what else may occur, may I always have the opportunity to continue on with my practice, to meet with a fully qualified Lama, to meet with the teaching and with the spiritual community where I can awaken my heart, where I can awaken my mind. Making such types of prayer and dedicating all of your possessions, all of your creative potential, even your own body to that end.
Whatever is left, may it go toward that. For example, this is a prayer which is mentioned in one mind training text: Now and at all times — throughout my death, in the intermediate stage, the next and all subsequent rebirths — bless me to never be parted from this spiritual practice. May I always be guided by true spiritual teachers who repeatedly lead me to generate the awakened heart.
You know, may I just be able to hear the word awakened heart in my future life. May I be able to remember it during the intermediate state. That has profound effects upon the mind. It’s just aspiration. Prayer means the path of wishing, creating a directionality for your mind through positive wishing.
So the force of aspiring prayer — wishing in the depth of your heart what it is that you want as your death approaches. Thirdly, is the force of repudiation. Repudiation. This involves — to repudiate has the idea of what it is that you don’t want and making it clear for yourself. Basically what you don’t want is suffering.
And what are the real sources of suffering? Essentially self-centeredness and self-grasping, essentially. But also what arises from all the various afflictive emotions such as attachment, hatred, pride and jealousy. And in time, you know, if we begin to associate suffering with these states of mind, with these patterns of thought, they’re going to be less likely to arise. We begin to repudiate — we begin to disassociate ourselves from them more and more. So it involves developing and maintaining a deeply felt sense of repulsion towards the afflictive emotions.
I don’t want anything to do with it, and towards cyclic existence in general. You know, this compulsive recurring cyclic existence — this recurring dissatisfactory pattern under the influence of afflictive emotions and karma. You know, it’s like a nightmare and I never wanted to go through it again. And making it clear in that mind what it is that you don’t want to go through. So we’re beginning to give the mind some kind of directionality about what it is the way we want it to go and the way we don’t want it to go.
And beginning to clarify that for ourselves. And develop, say clearly: I don’t want to be associated with hatred, with violence, with all of this neurosis that has dominated my life up to now. You know, actually feeling a certain disgust, exhaustion towards that way of being. And then the fourth force — you know, as our death is approaching — the force of determination. You know, really beginning to give the mind some kind of direction.
You know, set a strong intention to keep a positive state, and this is terribly important. You know, if we do nothing else — to maintain a positive state, or minimally a neutral state, but hopefully a positive state — a positive mind throughout the transition of death and the intermediate state and into the future. I read a quote by His Holiness the Dalai Lama where he says, our state of mind at death is all important. If we die in a positive frame of mind, we can improve our next birth despite our negative karma.
And if we are upset and distressed, it may have a detrimental effect even though we may have used our lives well. This means that the last thought and emotion that we have before we die has an extremely powerful determining effect on our immediate future. The mind of a dying person is usually entirely occupied by one obsession which returns again and again. So at the moment of death our minds are totally vulnerable and exposed to whatever thought preoccupies us. That last thought or emotion we have can be magnified out of all proportion and flood our whole perception.
You know, what types of thoughts are you preoccupied with? That is a summarization of your life — and beginning to determine, by the force of your intent, about what thought, what emotion is going to occupy your mind, is going to preoccupy you. You know? Don’t — it’s like taking control of the process, not allowing your mind to simply be buffeted about by experience, by fear, by pain, but to maintain direction, to maintain control. You know, most especially resolve that you’re going to generate and not be separated from compassion.
If we can do this, then we can rest assured that our death and our rebirth will go well. If we can, combine this with the wisdom of understanding emptiness. And if we can, we’re trying to determine: may I, through this entire process, not be separated from compassion of the awakened heart? And the real thought — the benefit and care for others. May I be able to see things in terms of emptiness — that they don’t exist out there independent of my own mind, that they are merely appearances arising from my mind — as best we can in terms of our present limit of understanding.
So the fourth force — the force of determination — a strong intention about what you want to occur, the emotions that you want to arise, the thoughts that you want to experience through this transition period. And finally, the fifth force — the force of familiarity. So, you know, in general, we should have a training program for ourselves in terms of acquainting ourselves with how we’re going to die, you know, so that at the moment of our death, we can avoid any type of panic. It also will lessen our fear. We can have sort of a program which we can initiate, that we’ve worked on.
Most especially, to familiarize ourselves with the awakened heart, compassion, and wisdom — the awakened mind, understanding of emptiness. So that by familiarizing ourselves with these over the course of our life, we can make use of them at the time of our death. So at the time of our death, having some program. Now if you can, you can sit in the sevenfold posture that we generally meditate in, while you’re actually in the course of the death process. You know, for most of us this might not be a real option.
We can die in the same bodily position that the Buddha passed into nirvana — parinirvana. We can lie on our right side with our head directed to the north. Now this is the position that is recommended. You might find it useful. The ring finger, locking the right nostril.
Your palm resting on your cheek. Your head facing north. Now, you know, we talked about the fact that wind energy is running through the right and left channel and that the wind energy running through the right channel is most associated with anger. The thinking behind blocking the right nostril and lying on your right side is that this will inhibit the flow of wind energies through the right channel and thus inhibit the arising of anger. So blocking the right nostril with your ring finger, your left arm along your body, then try to generate the awakened heart.
Try to generate love and compassion. And the practice which is most emphasized in terms of generation of compassion is, while you’re still breathing, to make use of that breath in the practice of Tonglen — that is, taking and giving. Taking and giving. Taking on the suffering of others and giving away our happiness and well-being.
We’re going to go into this practice in detail when we come to the second of the three principal aspects of the path, the awakened heart — the development of bodhicitta. This is an important practice in mind training. So while you’re still breathing, and having locked the nostril, imagining that you’re taking upon yourself the sufferings of others — compassionately taking upon the sufferings of others and lovingly giving away your happiness, your well-being, whatever, everything that you have left. And by the force of our awakened mind, our wisdom, not to cling to anything, you know, resting the mind in the understanding that all that is going to appear to you over the course of this transition does not exist out there independent of your own mind, but is in fact dependent upon your mind and the karmic imprints which are being activated. If we can die in such a way, in such awareness, with such dignity, with such positive state of mind — there is no doubt.