Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this five-minute teaching, Ven Sanghy Khandro walks through the dissolution of the fire and air elements — the third and fourth stages of dying according to Tibetan Buddhism. She describes the fire stage in detail: loss of bodily heat fading from the extremities while lingering in the chest, inability to eat or digest, drying of the senses, and inner visions of sparks and fireflies. The air stage brings complete immobility, severe confusion, cessation of breath, and visions shaped by one’s karma. A key contrast: while Western medicine marks death at the cessation of breathing, Tibetan Buddhism teaches that consciousness has not yet left the body. True death, according to this teaching, occurs later when consciousness separates.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 4.08 Dissolution of the Elements Fire and Air.mp3
UUID: 9009ef6c-7e69-4642-ba61-2fba93eecd7d
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: ~617
Then in the third stage, the element that absorbs or dissolves here is the fire element, which again is the heat in the body. So because of this, then the mouth, nose and eyes dry up completely and the warmth of the body begins to disappear. It usually starts to disappear from the extremities, hands and feet. Usually the last place where there is warmth or heat in the body is in the chest, the heart chakra. Hands and feet and extremities start to get cold.
And the heat fire element in the body is also responsible for digestion. So the dying person becomes unable to eat or drink or digest anything. And again, the mind can become confused or can alternate between confusion and clarity. Sometimes moments of clarity, other times moments of confusion. And it may become difficult to remember the names of people, even very close family and friends.
You might not even recognise them if they are standing in front of you. And the sense that dissolves at this stage is the sense of smell, being able to smell odours. And at this stage, the breathing might change, might become more laboured, more difficult. Breathing in, inhalation becomes more weak and exhalation becomes stronger and longer. And the inner vision experienced by the dying person at this stage is that of fireflies or sparks.
Like if there is a bonfire outside at night and sparks are flying into the air, flying around in the air from the bonfire. Or little fireflies flying around in dark space. The fourth stage of the death process involves the dissolution of the fourth element, the air element. Because of this, the person becomes immobile, is no longer able to move their body, their hands, arms, limbs. The body becomes completely immobile.
The mind can become very confused, bewildered, withdrawn from the outside world, unaware of the outside world. Everything becomes like a blur. Person feels as though they are losing touch with the outside world. The contact, awareness of the outside world is slipping away. Person is becoming more and more withdrawn into themselves.
And here the last two senses, the sense of taste and the sense of touch, tactile sensations, these dissolve. And the person may have visions. And the visions would depend on what kind of karma one has, whether positive or negative. If there is more negative karma, the person may have frightening visions. If there is a greater degree of positive karma, good karma, the person will have positive visions beautiful, pleasant visions.
And again the breathing, which has already become more difficult, continues to become more difficult, more laboured. And finally it stops altogether. So it is at this fourth stage of the death process that the person stops breathing. And according to Western science, Western medicine, it is the cessation of breathing that is the sign of death. So at this stage a person would be considered dead because they are no longer breathing.
However, according to this explanation of the death process found in Tibetan Buddhism, the person is not yet dead. Death only occurs when the consciousness separates from the body, leaves the body, which occurs later. So, even though the person has stopped breathing, they are not actually dead. So, in the person, the dying person’s mind, the last thoughts, gross thoughts, thoughts of one’s life and the outside world and so on finally cease. And the inner vision that the dying person has at this stage is that of a dim light, which is said to be similar to a candle, which is just about to go out.
Sort of the last dying flame of a candle.