Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 5-minute talk, Ven Sangye Khadro guides students through the first two stages of the dying process as taught in Tibetan Buddhism. She details the dissolution of the earth element—experienced as bodily weakness, difficulty moving, pallor, and sensations of sinking—with eyesight dimming and an inner vision of a mirage-like shimmer. She then explains the water element’s dissolution: increasing dryness throughout the body, loss of hearing, mental confusion, and a subjective vision of smoke. Throughout, she distinguishes between external signs that relatives and hospice workers can observe and the internal experiences of the dying person. These stages may unfold gradually in natural death from illness but pass almost imperceptibly in sudden death.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 4.07 Dissolution of the Elements Earth and Water.mp3
UUID: 64e26e77-3d55-4f9d-86b0-0bae4f0d7aca
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: Heart advice (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 5.0 minutes
Words: ~692
In the first stage of the death process, the earth element absorbs. So again, the earth element refers to the hard solid parts of the body as well as the quality of hardness or solidity in the body. So because of the dissolution of the earth element, the person who is dying will experience their body becoming weaker and thinner. They feel like they are losing strength, their energy is draining out. They may feel as though they are kind of sinking into the bed they are lying on.
They may feel as if they are falling. And it becomes more and more difficult to move their body, to sit upright, to hold something in their hand. Apparently, people who often accompany someone who is dying, who are present when someone is dying, for example, the hospice movement, they say that one of the symptoms of a person who is getting close to death is that they may become somewhat agitated and they may pull at their clothing or at their blankets, their bedding and grab onto something at the side of the bed. So I wonder if this could be a sign of the earth element absorbing and the person feels as though they are sinking and trying to struggle to get up again, struggle to grab onto something. Other changes that occur on this stage are that the colour of the body can fade, the person becomes very pale, the cheeks can become sunken.
And sense of the five senses, the sense that dissolves at this stage is the visual sense, the sense of seeing. So the person’s ability to see, their eyesight becomes more and more unclear and it even becomes difficult to open and close the eyes. So these are signs of this stage that can be observed by people around the one who is dying. But then there is the inner sign experienced only by the person who is dying. And this is said to be a vision of a mirage.
A kind of silvery blue shimmering like when we are in a desert and we see a mirage. So they have this kind of vision within their mind. So these are signs that show one is in this first stage of the dying process. And there is no certainty as to how long it takes to go through these eight stages. It depends on how one dies.
In the case of a sudden death, for example in a car accident, one would pass through these stages very, very quickly and it would be very hard to recognize them. But in the case of a natural death, a death from illness or from age, old age, then these stages might take place over a number of hours or even days. So that was the first stage. The second stage involves the dissolution of the water element, which again refers to the fluids in the body and also the element of cohesion. And so because of the dissolution of the water element, the person dying starts to feel very dry.
The mouth becomes dry, the eyes, nose and throat become more dry, and it becomes very difficult to move your tongue. And the sense that dissolves at this point is the sense of hearing, the ability to hear. So this weakens and one is no longer able to hear outside sounds. And even the ringing in the ears that we usually have, that ceases. And the mind at this point may become confused or hazy, frustrated, agitated.
And it is said that feelings of pleasure and displeasure in the body diminish. You are no longer aware of pleasure and displeasure in the body. And the inner sign or vision that is experienced by the dying person at this stage is that of smoke. Like if there is incense burning in the room or if people are smoking in a room, there is often this sort of cloud of smoke or haze of smoke that is just sitting in the air in the room. So the dying person has that kind of vision of smoke hanging in the air.