Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 46-minute teaching, Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen explores the intermediate state of consciousness between death and rebirth, explaining how beings encounter their next rebirth according to the twelve links of dependent arising. He details the forms of rebirth—womb-born, moisture-born, and miraculous birth—and how intermediate beings are drawn toward specific conditions based on their karma and attachments. He then focuses on ignorance as the first link of dependent arising, the root cause of suffering, distinguishing between three types: simple non-knowing, doubt-based ignorance, and grasping at a mistaken understanding of permanence and inherent self. Using the image of a blind person from the Wheel of Life diagram and the analogy of a rope mistaken for a snake, Geshe Dhawa clarifies how ignorance prevents beings from understanding the law of cause and effect. He concludes by addressing the critical moment of death, when training in virtue becomes essential to influence one’s future rebirth.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 06 WoL.mp3
UUID: 6fbf2af5-db29-405c-89cb-3827ad0d1492
Teacher: Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen
Collection: Wheel of Life (Geshe Dhawa Gyaltsen)
Date: 1996 (exact day not recorded)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 45.7 minutes
Words: ~1,672
So then once a being is in the intermediate state, in the lower tenet it says that you cannot change to a different form from there — you have to take the form of that being in its next rebirth. But then in the upper tenet — which is known as in the tantric teachings — it says that it is possible even in the intermediate state that one can change. So the period of the intermediate beings — it is said to be at least seven weeks.
So of those intermediate beings, I explained that every seven days — every one week — they have to go through a small death. And like that, so within forty-nine days, the intermediate being will take another rebirth. So in the intermediate state, the being searches for the place to take its birth in. As was explained before, those three points which I explained before: when the intermediate being sees the union of father and mother, then they desire that and they are drawn to it. And then out of that, they enter into the womb of the mother.
So there are six different parts of the body — like the lower part of the intestine and the other six parts — at the center of which the intermediate being takes conception.
So this explanation is according to the womb-born, which is known as womb-born beings. And the other beings which are born out of moisture, and born out of miraculous birth — these have a different explanation. So if it is moisture — heat and moisture — then it is said that the intermediate being gets attached to smell. And out of that, all the five aggregates arise spontaneously.
So the miraculous birth: the intermediate beings who take miraculous birth are those who get attached to the places. Out of that — getting attached to the places — all the five aggregates arise spontaneously. So as in the very beginning, when how the human beings first came — if they were the very fortunate human beings — those human beings of the first era are known as very fortunate, and they are also known as human beings who had a miraculous birth.
So for the miraculous birth, it doesn’t need to have all these three points — just desiring the place, and they get born into that. So after here, the explanations I have given are: first, the explanation of the three animals; and then secondly, the two parts — the black and white paths. So now, the outer circle where the drawings are symbolizes the twelve links of dependent arising. So I will explain the first one, that is the ignorance.
So on the right side of the Wheel of Life, you see a person — a blind person — leaning on a walking stick. Some different drawings: some show a person carrying the walking stick, some without. But the person is blind.
So this blind person symbolizes the first of the twelve links of dependent arising — that is the ignorance. Just as the blind person cannot lead himself or herself to his or her destination — so as that example — similarly, ignorance is what obstructs one from understanding the twelve links of dependent arising and the emptiness. And it is what leads one to wrong actions.
So it leads to wrong actions, which then, carelessly — without analyzing the actions, what one is doing — one just engages in the act without doing any analysis. Whether virtue or non-virtue, one carelessly engages in those actions.
So the first, ignorance, has this nature: ignorance is known as the mental factor that has the nature of not knowing — not knowing the object. Such as not knowing the law of karma, or not knowing the twelve links of dependent arising. That is the first one — that is the ignorance.
So ignorance — not knowing — has different kinds. One is not knowing the mere nature of the object. And then another type of ignorance which is known as that arising from doubt. Out of doubt, you have a type of ignorance. So then another type of ignorance is that of holding a mistaken understanding — a wrong understanding.
So the first type of ignorance is that confused state of mind which does not know the cause and the result of the object, and does not know the main nature of the object, and does not know any other explanation or different reasons about that object. And even if one is to think or contemplate over the phenomena or the object, still one doesn’t understand. It is that confused state of mind.
So then the second type of ignorance is that of ignorance arising from doubt — which is: whether the law of cause and effect exists or not, or whether the teachings of the Buddha exist or not. That doubt, one has, because of not knowing — because of ignorance.
So then the third type of ignorance is holding or grasping to wrong understanding: holding things which are impermanent to be permanent, and holding things which have no inherent self to have an inherent self. So that mental factor which holds this is known as ignorance.
So as an example of the first type of ignorance: like in a dark place, say there is a striped rope, and not knowing what it is — not knowing what the striped rope is — is like the first type of ignorance. So then the second type of ignorance: the darkness clears a little bit, and then you see the rope, the striped rope. And now you have the doubt — whether it is a snake or not. That is that type of ignorance. So then the third type of ignorance as example: holding that striped rope to be a snake. Like, holding it to be a real snake. That is holding to a mistaken understanding. So the third type of ignorance is known as — so that third type of ignorance is the main ignorance of the twelve links of dependent arising.
So this grasping to a mistaken understanding — that ignorance — is also known as the root of saṃsāra. So the ignorance that acts as a cause of saṃsāra — the root of saṃsāra — has four possibilities. So the ignorance such as grasping to the existing of self: the holding or asserting the existence of self of phenomena — it is known as the root of saṃsāra — but it is not the ignorance which is explained as the first link from the twelve links of dependent arising.
So next in the teaching, Geshe-la said he will explain, out of ignorance, how karmas are created and the rest — how the rest of the twelve links of dependent arising come into existence — and that will be explained in the next teachings. This part Geshe-la explained: the ignorance that is explained from the twelve links of dependent arising, and the ignorance that is explained as the root of saṃsāra — and there are four possibilities — and Geshe-la just explained one, which is the grasping at the self of a phenomenon. Grasping at the self of a phenomenon is the ignorance which is known as the root of saṃsāra, but not the ignorance that is explained from the twelve links of dependent arising.
So the arhat, having abandoned — how to say — the root of — what is it — root of saṃsāra, because they have abandoned the obscurations of these things.
How tired are you? Any questions?
Of your past life? Okay. It is said that it is very difficult for that being — the intermediate being — to remember the teachings that he or she received in their past life. But the thing is that while one is in the intermediate state, what type of experience one has depends upon what type of imprints one has left from the past life — like how strong a suffering one experiences in that state, or how little suffering one experiences in that state.
So as Geshe-la is saying, it is very hard — very difficult — to remember the teachings that one had in one’s previous life. So the very important state is just before the mind rises into the subtle mind. Just at that state it is very important to remember the teachings. But once one is already in the subtle mind — when one already has the subtle mind — the subtle mind is said to be between states. And at the time when the subtle mind arises, then that mind is not virtue, not non-virtue — it becomes neutral. So before it turns into the subtle mind, if one is able to generate a virtuous mind, then that helps greatly — which then leads the mind into a virtuous state.
So to make it also possible at that very time of death to have this positive — this virtuous state of mind — we train from now. And if one is accustomed with one’s practice, then it is easily turned into that state — that virtuous state — at that very time.
She was saying that even though it is projected by one karma, according to the upper school — the upper tenet — it is said that it is possible to change. So it is possible to change. And it is said that at the seventeen levels of the god’s state, those two — even if you are at the very top of the god’s state of the seventeen levels — it is said that even if you have that karma, at that point you can still change and take another rebirth. And also in the intermediate state, it is possible for the intermediate being to achieve liberation. So do you have other questions?
So those smells are the intermediate beings — are they just in form? Yes, the form — the intermediate —