Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this brief 5-minute teaching, Ven Sanghy Khandro explores what happens immediately after death according to Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. She explains how consciousness reverses through the eight stages of dying, then enters the intermediate state, or bardo — a period lasting up to 49 days where the deceased possesses a subtle body resembling the form they will take in their next life. During this state, experiences are shaped entirely by karma: negative karma produces frightening visions, while positive karma brings pleasant ones. The being searches for suitable rebirth circumstances, guided by karmic connections with future parents. Khandro emphasizes that understanding these stages reduces fear at death and helps both the dying person recognize what they are experiencing and allows others to support them with knowledge. The talk concludes with an invitation to meditate on these eight stages.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 4.10 The Intermediate State and Rebirth.mp3
UUID: 6cae5eed-32ea-4965-877b-5f1b3f3b9a15
Teacher: Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald
Collection: Heart advice (Ven Sanghy Khandro aka Kathleen McDonald)
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 5.1 minutes
Words: ~775
So, once the clear light experience, the eighth stage of the death process, comes to an end, what happens is the mind, the consciousness then passes through the eight stages in a reverse order. So from the clear light, it goes to the black vision, then the red vision, then the white vision and so on through the other four stages. And as soon as this process begins, as soon as the mind goes back through these eight stages in reverse order, the person is actually no longer in this life. Because the point of death is actually when the clear light experience ends and the mind separates from this body and it then enters what is called the intermediate state or bardo in Tibetan. And in this state, one has a subtle body, like a spirit, that is able to pass through solid objects like walls and is able to travel very quickly or instantly to other places as soon as one thinks of other places.
And this is the body that one has, the subtle body of the intermediate state is the body that one has to connect this life to the next life. So the next rebirth doesn’t necessarily take place immediately after death, but there is usually a gap. This intermediate state or the Bardo state between the end of one life and the beginning of the next life. This gap could be up to forty nine days. That’s the maximum amount of time that one would be in the intermediate state.
And while one is in the intermediate state, again one has this very subtle body. And this body of the intermediate state is not in the form of the previous body, the one that you just left behind, but rather is in the form of the next body. So if you are going be born as a human being, as a male human being, for example, you will be born with that kind of body, but as a child. So you will have the body of a young boy in the intermediate state. At least that is the appearance, but it is not a physical body like we have now.
So in this intermediate state, one may have various experiences traveling here and there, meeting other beings in the intermediate state, having interactions with them and so on. And again, the kind of experiences that one has in this state would be dependent on the karma, whichever karma is most strong in your mind. If you have more negative karma, the experiences that you have will be unpleasant and even frightening. If you have more positive karma, the experiences that you have will be pleasant ones. You’ll have pleasant visions, beautiful visions, joyful ones.
And so again, this intermediate state may last anywhere from immediately, right after death, to forty nine days. And within this period of time, one is going around searching for a suitable place to be born. It’s like one has a strong wish to be born and is looking for the right circumstances. And again, that depends on one’s karma. Whichever karma you have that’s strongest, which kind of body you have, and also parents.
It’s necessary to have a karmic connection with a couple in order for them to be your parents, in order to be born to them. So one has various experiences, one has various adventures within this intermediate state. So at some point within the forty nine days after death, this Bardo being or intermediate state being will find a suitable place to be born and then will take birth in that situation and start a new life, the next life, the next rebirth. So that’s an explanation of the eight stages of the process of dying as well as what happens after death, just in brief. But it is helpful to have some understanding of these eight stages.
The more we understand them, the more prepared we’ll be for when death happens. We’ll be able to recognize what’s going on and just know, Oh, well, I’m at this stage and this is happening and so forth. So it will make death less frightening, less disturbing because we will understand what is happening and why it is happening to us. And it can also be helpful for us in helping someone who is dying to be able to know where they are at. Why they are experiencing what they are experiencing.
We know that they are going through these eight stages. So let’s pause, take a short break and then do a meditation on these eight stages of the death process.