Audio recorded at Buddha House Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 113-minute session, Venerable Thubten Dondrub guides practitioners through the tantric Buddhist understanding of the death process—a teaching that forms the foundation of advanced practice. He begins with motivational context: why meditating on impermanence and mortality turns the mind away from saṃsāra toward genuine Dharma practice. He then walks through the eight stages of a natural death in detail: how the four elements (earth, water, fire, air) progressively lose potency; the sequence of visions that arise (mirage-like light, smoke, fire sparks, dull light, white light, red light, and finally clear light); the gradual cessation of gross, then subtle mind; and the manifestation of the primordial mind of clear light—the most subtle consciousness that remains until the very subtle mind leaves the body. He emphasizes that this teaching comes from tantric texts, not the sutras, and explains why understanding the death process is essential: completion-stage tantric practice replicates this process without dying, allowing advanced yogis to access the clear light mind while alive and achieve enlightenment rapidly. Throughout, he stresses that these visions occur nightly during sleep but happen too quickly to perceive, and that recognizing them at actual death requires extensive training. He addresses practical implications—how meditation on death motivates practice now, how familiarity with the process helps both the dying and those with them, and how this knowledge gradually frees the mind from denial of impermanence.
File metadata (for organising)
File: 2013 07 23 DB Death&Rebirth Dondrub Week3 230713.mp3
UUID: 1952c0bd-a51b-4285-bedb-692af0309336
Teacher: Ven Thubten Dondrub
Collection: DB Death & Rebirth (Ven Thubten Dondrub)
Date: 2013-07-23
Recorded at: Buddha House Adelaide
Duration: 113.0 minutes
Words: ~12,039
Welcome everyone to our third class about discovering something about death and rebirth. So if you’d like to join, we’ll do the the motivational prayer and as we’re doing this, to make it effective the tradition is sort of thinking or visualizing Śākyamūni Buddha seated on a lion throne, the lotus sun and moon in front of us. It’s thinking of the Buddha as the embodiment of all the qualities and aspects of the Three Jewels of refuge the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha and as we think of the Buddha as our possible source of refuge, inspiration and guidance Thinking that the Buddha is appearing here to remind us of our own Buddha nature and encouraging us to realize our Buddha potential. At the same time we try and think of all sentient beings surrounding us. Certainly starting with at least trying to have a strong sense of the people that we’re most connected to in this life.
Our parents on either side, family, friends and helpers behind us, harmers in front. At least try to have a sense of them, but as much as possible, to then open one’s mind to have an awareness and concern for all other sentient beings, humans, animals, preta beings, the hell beings, the demigods, the gods and so on. Trying to have that awareness that all these beings are intimately connected with me. They have been immensely kind to me, life after life will continue to be so while I remain in cyclic existence and to free myself of cyclic existence. I can only do that depending on these kind suffering beings and also to achieve enlightenment even though enlightenment is done for their sake, I can only do it depending on them.
They are immensely kind but also they are all suffering in cyclic existence. If we think about these things more and more, we can generate that greatly compassionate mind that leads to the bodhicitta thought that no matter what, I must use this, all future lives, to achieve enlightenment for their sake, to repay their kindness by leading them to enlightenment. So to achieve enlightenment we ourselves have to follow the path and that it depends on understanding the path. And a crucial part of entering the path, wanting to enter the path, wanting to work with one’s mind, get a good rebirth, achieve liberation and enlightenment comes from realizing more and more deeply how everything in cyclic existence is impermanent, how one is going to die again and again. This life is going to end.
All lives in saṃsāra will come to an end. There’s nothing that we can hold on to. So the more we realize this, this turns our mind away from any belief that there’s any pleasure, comfort, security in saṃsāra so that we can then really more and more engage our mind with what is really beneficial and meaningful for ourselves and others. That is the Dharma, which is only about taking care of our mind, cultivating it. Okay, so if you’d like to join my prayers, these are on page ten or the prayer.
I go for refuge until I am enlightened to the Buddha, the Dharma, the supreme assembly. By the merits I create, by practicing the Dharma, may I become a Buddha in order to benefit all sentient beings. I think the Buddha is pleased with your motivation and shows this by now coming to the crown of your head. When directly above our crown, we imagine the Buddha then dissolves into blissful golden light so that that light can pour down into us, blessing our minds so that we can really understand the teachings, blessing our mind to be able to integrate them into our life so that we can eventually gain the unmistaken transformative realizations. So then we can enhance that positive state of mind by briefly doing some breathing meditation, especially the nine round breathing exercise to help establish a calmer, clearer, more concentrated mind so that we can use that mind to listen to and think about the Buddha’s teachings tonight.
Okay. Thank you. So as I’ve mentioned, this topic of life about death and rebirth is taught in context that we have a mind that is beginningless and endless, but the mind is embodied in various kinds of physical bodies, but due to karma that the bodies the mind leaves those bodies so death occurs and when death occurs immediately after the rebirth starts and we can only have as while we’re in saṃsāra well rebirth only occurs in saṃsāra. It doesn’t occur anywhere else. And within saṃsāra there are only two kinds of rebirths we can have.
A good one such as a human or a rebirth or a rebirth as a demigod or in the so called god realms or we could have a really suffering rebirth as an animal in other lower realms. So we are encouraged to think about impermanence and death so that we don’t waste this life especially when we recognize that we have a precious human rebirth, the optimum chance to work with our mind, to free ourselves from suffering and achieve enlightenment for the sake of others. So we use this understanding of impermanence and death to motivate ourselves to give up what is harmful or negative so that we can apply our mind and energy more and more to what is virtuous and meaningful and beneficial. So that firstly we can get a good rebirth, then more with deeper practice we can free ourselves from cyclic existence altogether and then eventually achieve the highest goal of enlightenment. So to motivate us to think about impermanence and death more and more we need firstly to put some time into really convincing ourselves of all the harm to ourselves that will come if we don’t have the courage to think about death, our own death.
We have to think of the disadvantages and then we need to really think strongly, sincerely about the benefits that will come to ourselves now and in the future if we use this life to think more and more about impermanence and death. So then this will encourage us to really apply ourselves to this project of experiencing impermanence and the one’s own mortality more and more. So we’ve gone through those topics. We’ve gone through the the very important meditation of the nine round breathing nine round breathing. The nine-point death meditation, where we think about firstly how we’re definitely going to die.
The purpose of that is to encourage us to start practicing. Then we think about how we could definitely die at any time. You know, and that’s to encourage us to practice now, to stop postponing. This my teacher, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, says is the key, you know, meditation to do in part, and it’s one of the key meditations in the whole practice, in the the whole Lam Rim to do is to develop the deeper and deeper understanding that I could die at any time, really, quite literally, even tonight, even in this room tonight, we could die. So and and and the the third part is to think about to, you know, again, check really carefully what is going to benefit me, what do I do that it will benefit me at the time of death, what will really benefit me.
And we should come to the conclusion that only genuine Dharma practice, not pretending Dharma practice, but authentic, sincere Dharma practice and the experience of that, only that will benefit at the time of death. It’s too late to practice sincere Dharma at the time of death. It’s too late if we haven’t practiced before. It’s only the results of sincere practice that will help us, really help us at the time of death. So on my next topic, tonight’s topic, is to go through the actual death process.
So many people ask in relation to all sorts of parts of the Buddhist teachings, well how do they how do you know this? Well I don’t know anything. I don’t know a thing. But how all of that is taught in the Buddhadharma, especially in the sutras coming directly from the Buddha, of course, are meant to reflect the direct perceptions of the Buddha. That’s what as I’ve somewhere mentioned here.
One term for the Buddha is he is the valid knower. Sounds a very boring, uninspiring term, but actually if you think in think about it, it’s something very profound because only the Buddha is is the only knower, the only being knowing things validly, unmistakenly. That’s what omniscient mind is. That’s why we put take refuge in it and therefore the Dharma which is a reflection of that valid knowing. And the whole, again, of the many underlying features of tenets of Buddhism, the Buddhadharma, is that if the mind is if the obscurations are removed from the mind, then the mind can know everything and anything.
Anything that exists. So the Buddha, even long before one becomes a Buddha, one can know through direct perception the death process. Remembering one’s own from past lives, also being able to see it occur in others if one is a highly evolved being. So that’s how this has been taught, that there’s not just something made up. And I’d really like to make the point, because what I’m going to say about the death process, some of it for some people will sound just really weird and strange and very medieval, some of it.
But actually this topic, the death process comes from the tantric teachings of the Buddha. It isn’t explained in the Theravāda as far as I know, but I’m not really familiar with the Theravāda teachings and the Pali Canon. But as far as I know, the death process wasn’t explained by the Buddha in that set of teachings. It’s not explained in the general Mahāyāna teachings. Death the only place where one can discover the death process as the Buddha understands it is in the tantric teachings which are the most advanced teachings of the Buddha.
Of course some people say they’re not Buddhism at all, they’re just horrible evil things. But actually one of the special features of Tibetan Buddhism is that it’s the only form of Buddhism that is preserved in its entirety all of the tantric teachings of the Buddha that enable one to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, including even in one lifetime. From the time you meet the Dharma to achieving enlightenment can be done in super exceptional cases in one single lifetime. So all schools of Tibetan Buddhism advocate the practice of Tantra. That’s the whole aim of the Buddhist the Tibetan Buddhist view of Buddhist practice.
It’s to practice Tantra in order to achieve enlightenment as quickly as possible, to stop the suffering of others quickly. Because otherwise enlightenment takes an incredibly long time. And while one’s taking an incredibly long time to get enlightened, mother sentient beings are miserable and causing everyone else to be other mother sentient beings to be miserable. So anyway, the Tibetan system, definitely the tantric teachings are the most wonderful, special, powerful, unique, advanced teachings. And this is what all the great lamas practice.
Lama Yeshe practiced it. He was a great yogi. Lama Zopa Rinpoche practices them. And of course, his holiness Dalai Lama is a great tantric yogi. He’s not just a simple Buddhist monk as he says all the time.
It’s huge lie. I’m just you know, he’s not a simple monk. You know, he’s not just a scholar. He is a great practitioner. And not just of the Mahāyāna, but of Tantra.
He’s a great lineage holder of the he’s a Mahasiddha, if anyone is on this planet. So what I’m trying to say in my usual long winded way is that, you know, tent if the tantric anyway there are four levels of tantra and at the highest levels there are two stages and the highest level is called completion stage tantra. And in a nutshell, completion stage tantra which is the most advanced super duper special practice in the entire universe. What this is about in a nutshell, it is about going through the death, forcing the death process to to occur but without dying. So it’s based on this teaching.
So what what what we’re going to go through. And normally people who haven’t got tantric empowerments are not supposed to know any of this. But all of this has now become quite public. It’s been translated into English and Western languages, and you can buy books about it. And it’s also taught reasonably generally.
So the point I’m trying to make is that if this teaching about the death process isn’t true, then all of Tantric Buddhism is total garbage. And that means all the Tibetan lamas are fakes because they’re they’re practicing something which is total garbage and doesn’t work. But you check for Tibetan lamas, and they aren’t. Well, some are. Excuse me.
But the real ones, like Lama’s Oprah Rinpochei and his holiness, the Dalai Lama, and other great beings, they aren’t fakes. They’re not deluded people. They have got authentic experience from doing these practices. So this is my point. I’m sorry.
You know? Yeah. This this is a really vital teaching. Because in a nutshell, what happens according to the tantric understanding is, as I’ve mentioned before, for those people who are familiar with the course on mind, tantric Buddhism talks about there are three levels of mind: the gross, subtle and very subtle. And and what happens in the death process is that the gross mind ceases, the subtle mind ceases, and what is left is the very, very subtle mind.
And this very subtle mind is is is temporary. I don’t to be honest, I I don’t I don’t know how to technique explain this properly, but that mind is this purest level of mind, this very refined subtle mind where none of the disturbing thoughts are operative at all. So if one can access this mind and use that mind to practice to generate bodhicitta and emptiness which are the two causes of enlightenment, it can be done very quickly and easily. And that’s what highest yoga tantra is about accessing the very subtle mind which is very very very difficult and dangerous. But that yeah.
And the very subtle mind manifests in the death process. So what a very advanced tantric yogi or yogi does is he or she is able through the power of their meditation to access that very subtle mind by forcing in a sense the what would you call it? It’s not the actual death process because if it was you you the yogi yogini would die, but it’s like well, it it’s it’s virtually the same as the death process. All the all the vision everything happens. The gross mind stops.
The subtle mind stops. And what arises is the very subtle mind. But instead of leaving the body, which is what happens in the death process, the yogini keeps it in there and uses that, meditates with that mind, cutting through all delusions, awakening all good qualities. So it is truly an amazing process, and it’s all based on the death process. So if this is wrong then nothing is true.
Virtually nothing about tantric Buddhism is right. But if you see these not as though they go around saying, you know, I’ve got these higher realizations and but what the qualities you can see in someone like His Holiness is not well, it’s not just. It comes from qualities of compassion, but how His Holiness has is able to manifest and access so much compassion is because he is able to access the very source of it, which is the very subtle mind, not the gross mind. Okay. So to understand the death process properly, just to nitpick a few background things, Right?
Firstly what we need to understand is that the death process as it’s explained in the text, the tantric text which we have a a rough outline of it here, This is like a what do you call it an idealized generalized presentation. For any individual it can vary to some extent right it doesn’t have to be exactly exactly exactly like that. Nothing ever you know, like I’m sure people who are doctors and nurses here, you know, there’s you know, that you’re taught certain things happen in certain process, but not always exactly like that. For each individual, you know, things can manifest in different ways. Right?
So this is general explanation of what happens in the death process, but that’s one thing. So it’s a generalized idealized explanation. Secondly, the death process that it’s explained is how it would occur for a person who basically is dying of old age and has lived a good life, so they are dying purely from impermanence. To put it a strange way, they’re dying of impermanence and not through any debilitating sickness because if that a person has a really debilitating sickness that is really eating up the body, then the death process wouldn’t happen. Well, it would happen, but maybe not exactly that way.
And certainly some of the signs yeah. Yeah. Okay, that’s one thing. So just a super quick background, a little bit of tantric understanding to understand the death process. So according to the tantric view, our physical body is made up of four elements.
This is a little bit like medieval Western medicine as well. I again I don’t have to take this too concretely and get too uptight about it, but the four elements that make up the body are the earth element, the fire element, the water element, and the air element. So these are the four basic energies that make up the body. And what happens with the death process is that these energies start what happens is that our body is made up of these four elements or energies or whatever you want to call them, and because they’re impermanent, they lose their power over time. And the first one to lose its power or to start losing its power in an obvious way is the earth element.
So the earth element gives the body its solidity. Right? That’s what the earth element does. Yeah, in general the earth element which is present in every physical thing such as our body gives you know is responsible for the the solidity and what can one say anyway that’s rough yeah yeah so with aging the earth element starts declining and that’s why we get wrinkles and our hair turns grey and the skin is no longer nice and whatever it’s called plastic that’s not the word what is it elastic elastic yeah elastic not plastic what’s the law since mine was elastic or plastic so yeah So and that’s because the earth element is fading away, is losing it. But that that, for the average person, of course, happens gradually, step by step.
But but the death process, the actual death process starts when the earth element, because that’s the first of the four that starts really losing its power, for various reasons the earth element at some point which has been gradually, you know, in very subtle way, not noticeable ways, losing its potency suddenly very quickly starts to degenerate and that’s when the actual death process starts. You know, you can’t actually of course pinpoint that but that’s that’s basically what is happening. Again, we’re talking about this process of someone who is dying of old age, not because of sickness or having been run over or fallen over or bashed up or anything. They’re just simply dying of old age. According to the tantric understanding, as I’ve tried to say in the course about mind and its potential, the gross mind, which is the mind, the aspect of the mind which is functioning now for us, that gross mind definitely depends on this physical body and most particularly the nervous system and the brain.
Right? But it it does depend on that, but I I never know to express this properly. But that’s just a secondary dependency. What the gross mind really arises from and depends on is the subtle mind. So the subtle mind, what that depends on that doesn’t depend on this gross physical body at all.
What that depends on is the subtle body which we can say exists within this gross physical body and that subtle body which is sometimes like in new agey things and things as talked about, you know, they talk about the astral body. So in some ways that may be I don’t want to make too much you know what’s the word correspondence and correlation but there is this from a tantric point of view that we have within us this subtle body which is made up of all the subtle winds subtle winds which in Tibetan is called lung and in Sanskrit is called prana and in Chinese is called chi. I don’t know chi I think. But I’m not sure how much those three things are. Well, lung and prana maybe are the same.
I’m not sure how much. No. Yeah. Maybe chi is the same or very very similar. It is believed that those subtle winds flow through these various kinds of channels that make up the subtle body.
Right? So that just like our gross body sorry. I’m really not very good on bodies, but you have what? Veins or you’ve got capillaries, which are the smallest ones? Capillaries, veins, arteries and then something bigger aortas and stuff in the heart or something?
Anyway you’ve got different channels in which the blood flows in the same way according to the tantric understanding there are different sized channels that make up the subtle body. And the lower channels are there is what is called in Sanskrit it’s called something like the Sushumna or the central channel which runs just in front of the now one thing is that Tantric Buddhism and Hindu and Buddhist are different. There are similarities. You talk about channels and winds and chakras, but it’s different. Similar but different.
Not exactly the same. And you have these days all over the world. You can go to chakra workshops where you polish your chakras. From a Tibetan tantric point of view, this is utter rubbish. Utter well, I can’t say the word what that is.
It’s just total, total nonsense. You can’t polish your chakras or, you know, wake them up in a weekend or do anything like that from some kind of third rate, you know, person. Sorry. I’ll just make that really clear. It’s just yeah.
Actual tantric practice is super you know, actually working with Tibetan Buddhist you know, Buddhist tantric practice working with those chakras is an extremely complicated, super advanced practice that hardly anyone on the planet is capable of doing without going instantly berserk. Alright? Sorry. Yeah. You you don’t you can’t do weekends on this or even a month.
You know? So there is the central channel which runs in front of the spine from the crown. What do call this? No. No.
No. Just the whole physical thing with the baby. You know, what’s this called? Fontanel. Yeah.
From the Fontanel is where the central channel goes from there in front of the spine down below the navel. Either side there are two smaller channels those three channels are the main channels and branching out from the side channels are the smaller ones and then the other ones and all these different winds flow through these channels. These two side channels at various points are all knotted around the main channel, the central channel, causing the creation of what are called the chakras. So everyone thinks chakras are really mystical and wonderful but actually from Tibetan or in Buddhist tantric point of view the chakras are the problems because they’re knots. Chakra actually means a wheel, that’s all it means because if one could see these chakras they look like wheels because there’s all these silly knots, it looks like wheels.
So that some have more wheels, more knots than others. And because of these knots, the wheels in our subtle body aren’t flowing properly, and that’s why our mind is so agitated. That’s what causes the different delusions is because when different winds are flowing, energy, delusions manifest. For example, in a very very gross example, when when when you have a lot of desire or a lot of anger, even after the obvious anger or desire subsides, you can feel your body, you know, inside. That’s because the winds some various winds that normally aren’t moving are suddenly racing along in new channels and stuff, very roughly speaking.
Anyway, so then the so that’s the basis of the subtle mind are these subtle winds moving throughout the subtle body. And basis of the subtle mind is actually this one most important very subtle wind which is called the in tantra, the the I think I’ve forgotten. It’s called the All Pervading Life Wind. I’ll have to check. Anyway, there is the very, very most subtle wind energy which is like the most subtle physical energy in the universe.
Yeah. So just, yeah, just like the gross mind depends on this some physical has some dependency on some physical matter, the gross body, the subtle mind depends on a much more kind of physical entity, which is subtle body, the chakras and channels and winds. And that but the very subtle mind depends on this most subtle wind energy. Right? So and I’m sorry.
That’s a very poor, rough explanation, but that’s just a little bit of background to get some idea of what’s gonna happen in the death process. Right? So the death process, the ideal death process when one dies from old age, purely from old age, having not, you know, done too many berserk things physically and mentally, there are eight stages in that process. So I’d just like to go through those. But before, any questions so far that I could try and clarify?
Okay. Information is set out in your reading material. I won’t tell you where now. Some of you possibly already know, but don’t look at it now because so that’s only a simplified version of what is actually explained in the tantras. And I’m going to just do an even more simplified version of that just to emphasize the basic things which are happening.
So what happens the first thing as I said is that the the earth element in the body which is slowly degenerates over time as we get older and manifests as you know grey hairs and toothaches and old you know wrinkles and all that kind of stuff and getting spots on your your skin and all that stuff. Then then at some point, mainly, I suppose, because of the karma is running out, then suddenly that energy, the earth element energy really starts to suddenly decline and the death process starts. And as that is happening, even that death process could happen over a considerable period of time, months, maybe even longer, but certainly it could take months, could happen fairly quickly but if it happened quite slowly what happens, the signs are that the body becomes very thin and also the limbs become looser and looser. Also the body itself can become smaller and also the body becomes weak and powerless. The lustre of the body fades away.
Younger people have this, usually if they’re healthy, they’ve got this nice shiny thing about them. And with I increasing age, then that just just goes away. And that by the time of death, it’s gone, completely gone, unless one’s using some kind of beauty cream at the time. Sorry. Also at the same time one’s sight becomes very unclear and eventually by the time that process has come to an end one is not able to open the eyes anymore.
Also at the very end of that process when the earth element is really almost finished or gone, that the person dying has this sense because the solidity of the body has gone that they are being like their body is being sort of weighed down, like this great pressure on the body. And and so depending on your karma and how you’ve lived your life, that just that could become a terrifying experience because you you would feel like you’re being buried alive. But but for a practitioner or someone who’s lived a good life, they would still experience this pressure, you know, of, like, weight, all over the body. Also what would happen is that because the earth element has now lost its potency, then the next strongest element left is the water element and because of that what happens to the person dying is that they experience this vision, this illusory vision like a mirage, something like a mirage. Of course the average person certainly someone who doesn’t practice, hasn’t meditated and practiced and purified the mind, The average person wouldn’t have this vision they wouldn’t notice it.
Because just very quickly again according to the tantric teachings these visions that occur during the death process, these illusory visions that one has during the death process actually happen every night when we go to sleep. But they happen so quickly of course that there is no way we can perceive them. But they do actually occur. And when we wake up they occur in the reverse order. Also if and when you have an orgasm it also happens.
Not the death process, but the visions. But maybe it’s a little because the French call an orgasm, you know, a little petit mort. So maybe they knew something. Who knows? Anyway, yeah, so a large like vision like this kind of shimmering sort of silvery bluish light.
No, no, no. You’d be very lucky if you do. I think you see the average Tibetan Buddhist thinks I’m going to see this when I die but the chances are sorry, we won’t. But this is what actually happens, it is happening. And see of course in tantric practice someone who’s consciously working with you know at an advanced level doing this they train to be able to hold that vision for a long time so when the actual death process comes they do recognize it and they have because they have developed Samādhi, you know single pointed concentration, they can stay on that vision for a long time if they want to but especially when it comes to staying in the very subtle mind.
When the earth element completely finishes, the gross mind gives rise to this experience, this mirage like vision. So depending on all sorts of factors, how much one’s practice purified the mind, this that and the other, one might be able to perceive that and also how long you could perceive that, be conscious of it would also depend on many factors of how much you’ve practiced and purified your mind and so on. It’s a little bit like in our life now. I don’t know what a good example but you know if we’re reading a book or something maybe we can hear the television but we’re not paying attention so there’s some recognition of the sound but there’s no clarity with it, right? So depending on how much one’s worked with the mind that vision would occur but how much you’re actually conscious of it and have any clarity about it would vary enormously.
The average person wouldn’t have any consciousness of it at all. It would just happen and that’s it. All the visions would occur and you have no idea. Okay so now the water element is dominant but now that rapidly starts losing its potency So the water element of course is responsible for all the liquid aspect of the body and so the sign that the water element loses its potency is that all the liquid parts of the body dry up a great deal the saliva, sweat, urine, blood, even the regenerative fluids, what’s the other term for that, anyway, semen and so on decrease in the body. And also the body consciousness is no longer able to detect, recognize the three types of feelings, pleasant physical feeling, unpleasant physical feeling, even neutral feeling, the body, and then also the mind itself, the mental consciousness loses sense of feeling.
Also what happens is that the dying person is no longer able to hear external sounds. And eventually, when the water element completely fades away, what happens is that even this subtle buzzing in the ear, this very very subtle buzzing that occurs, even that ceases. So at the end of the second stage of the death process, basically you’re really able to see anything, you can’t open your eyes, you don’t have the energy to be able to open your eyes. So you’re not seeing anything. You’re not feeling anything, and you can’t hear anything.
It’s total silence. Once the water element has lost its potency, the fire element which gives all the heat in the body and enables the body to digest food and so on, that becomes the dominant element left. That again, although it becomes dominant, it’s rapidly declining. And as as a result, the dying person is no longer able to digest food and drink. So at some point, you know, even if you put food or drink in the person’s mouth, they can’t swallow it.
Even if they could swallow it, wouldn’t be able to digest it. That person is no longer mindful of of of people they’ve known. They have no ability to recognize, to know people around them. And at this stage, the breathing process becomes very labored so that the inhalation becomes very weak, very short. Yeah.
Suppose short and weak, you know, the person the dying person isn’t able to be able to inhale much breath, and the exhalation becomes much stronger and and longer. Also, at this point, the dying person can’t smell anything. The the sense consciousness is not operative. Oh, sorry. I’ve I’ve I’ve jumped a bit.
Sorry if I can go back. Disaster. So when when just going back. When when the the water element loses its potency at the very end, then the earth element the fire element becomes dominant. As a result of that the dying person is experiencing firstly you know the mirage like vision because of the earth element has faded away and it’s due to the dominance of the water element.
But when the water element fades away and the fire element becomes dominant, what happens is the dying person experiences what is called a smoke like vision. The mirage like vision fades away and is replaced by this smoke like vision. So it doesn’t mean the dying person is lying there thinking, oh, there’s a whole lot of smoke around me. It doesn’t mean that. They’re not con you know, but the vision if one could describe what the dying person is experiencing, if if they if they can experience it, would be you could describe it.
It it’s it’s like, you know, vast space pervaded by smoke. I’ve got yeah. Fog. Foggy. Smoky.
Yeah. Gray. Foggy. Smoke. Nothing else.
That’s it. First, there was just this, like, shimmery, silvery, bluey light, like, you know, seeing, like, on Australian roads on a hot sunny day way in the distance that that that something like that, I think, is described. Which one? The smoke one. Yeah.
The smoke one is when the water one finishes because now the the fire element has become dominant, that fire element, and at that point, the smoke vision arises. Okay? So that’s the second vision. So now I’ve mentioned that the signs of the fire element declining. You know?
One can’t digest food. The breathing becomes difficult. So when the fire element finally fades away, the remaining element left is the the active, is the air element. So as a result of that, when the fire element fades away, the smoke vision fades, and what arises is described as the the fire spark vision, a vision like sparks of fire. So what you would experience if you were lucky is a sense of, like, just far space, dark, and these tiny little, like, sparks of light just flying up all around everywhere.
Mirage, smoke, fire light, fire sparks. Yeah, because now the air element is the dominant one that’s active. Of course your body is still there, right? But the earth element of your body isn’t active anymore. And your body would still be warm, but the earth the the fire element is no longer active.
Well, possibly your body is getting colder, but it it still could be warm, but the the fire element has finished. Okay. Am I losing anyone? Got we’re getting an idea of what’s happening? Yeah.
So then the next stage is Now the grosser of the subtle winds in the body are now moving from all the distant parts of the body moving inwards, of absorbing into each other. And And because of that, because the grosser winds within the subtle body start absorbing towards the the three main channels. I’m just keeping it very simple here. This gets more complicated. But because of that, the gross wind, which we call the breath, ceases.
So of course the body can no longer perform any physical actions. The person is no longer mindful of any external thing. Once the breathing has ceased the tongue starts to become thick and short, and the root of the tongue starts to turn blue. And the spark like vision when the earth element the water element no, no, sorry the wind element has finally or at least the gross winds have ceased and so on absorbed and the breathing ceases. The spark like vision is replaced by a vision of dull light, very very dull light, Just basically sort of darkness pervaded by the the minimal light you could imagine.
Very sort of orangey, you know, like, you know, when a candle is going out, the the light which gets a very, you know, reddish orangey light but just pervading everything. That’s all that one, you know, could be aware of, you know, that vision, dull light vision. In the text, it’s it’s referred to as something else, but I’m deliberately avoiding that traditional term because it conjures up well, it’s normally called the butter lamp vision, but you don’t see a butter lamp or or or an electric lamp. Why they call it the butter lamp, I know I’m, you know, is that well, Lama has explained if if you were to have a butter because in Tibet they had butter lamps. If you were to put a butter lamp, a a lighted butter lamp in a pot in a dark room.
And just as that butter lamp was to go out, that’s the light that would be pervading. Yeah. But it’s not like you see a candle and you know, oh, this is a candle. It’s just the light from that, but the light that you would see emerging out of a pot in a dark room where the candle or butter lamp is just to go out. It’s like minimal light.
I don’t know it makes sense but dark light, very dark light. Minimal light. So, of course, for most, you know, in our culture, most cultures, when breathing ceases, the person is thought to be dead. But they’re not. From from the understand from the tantric point of view of Buddhism, the person is not dead.
What has happened is that now the gross mind has ceased. The gross mind has ceased because the things that support the gross mind, which is this body and particularly the energies of the body, the earth element, water element, fire element, and earth, the water and air element, gross water air element have ceased. So this body can’t function, the brain can’t function, the breathing has ceased. So it looks like death has occurred. But it hasn’t yet, because the subtle and very subtle mind are still in the body.
It’s only when the very subtle mind leaves does death occur. So now what happens, just keeping it very simply, that all the winds that normally are moving around the whole body, they absorb, the grosser ones absorb into the smaller channels, the subtler winds, and eventually all the winds have absorbed into the two side channels. There’s the central channel and the two side channels. So all of the winds have now at this stage moved into the right and left channels Now what happens is that the wheels in the two side channels move up the two side channels and start entering the central channel from the crown, and they start moving down towards the heart chakra because you have the crown chakra, the throat chakra, the heart chakra, the navel, the sex chakra. So there are those.
So the winds have entered these two side channels. They then they’re moving up. And now at this stage, by the time the breathing has ceased and the gross mind has stopped, these winds are now entering into the central channel and moving down towards the heart chakra. And what this causes the dying person to experience is a vision of white light. The dull light vision fades away And as the the the subtle winds move down the central channel, the the subtle mind, not the gross mind, the subtle mind is now giving rise to this experience of white light.
That completely depends on the individual but the thing is for your average person once the breathing stops the gross, the subtle and very subtle mind arise very quickly and leave. Yeah. Could be seconds very, very quickly. But depending on all sorts of, you know, people’s karma, practice, may maybe also the presence of lamas. No, no, no.
So it could last longer, know, longer periods than that. And of course it does also say in the teachings that even for an ordinary person the very subtle mind can stay in the body up to three days. But that’s not common. You know again we Buddhists like to think my body will be there for three days but it’s not common. It does happen.
I mean it’s more common among Lamas and there are all sorts of interesting stories of Lamas who have remained sitting up meditating in the clear light for example, His Holiness as Guru, Ling Rinpoche, stayed his very subtle mind stayed for ten days. Yeah. Well, you’re getting ahead of me. You know? But oh, you see, no.
No. I haven’t got we haven’t died, and it’s tea time. Do Do you want to die first and have tea or have tea and die? Or you can always die too. Okay.
Well, keep going. It’s okay. It’s not we’re almost dead by the way. I’ll try to answer those things after. So then what is now happening is in the next stage the winds that have entered the two side channels below the navel now enter the central channel from below the navel and start moving up towards the heart chakra.
And as a result of that, as that starts to dominate, become the dominant event, then the white vision fades away and instead the dying person, if they’re lucky, will experience a vision like coppery red light, like just vast space pervaded by this this, yeah, coppery red light. Like, again, this is not in the sutras, but but, like, you know, the you see the sun, you know, on on a really hot day in a in some Australian summer and when it’s setting in a on a dusty summer’s day, and you get that incredible light. Or I imagine this is just me, but I’m not when I was a kid, still do it. If if you lie, sit out in the sun and close your eyes, you know, you can you know, the the light goes and you can just see the blood in your eyelids. I think something like that, but darker because that’s kind of a bright red.
But this is a really sort of deep, dark, coppery red apparently. So then, next stage, next phase, is the winds are moving from the crown downwards, from the navel upwards and eventually these subtle winds move into the heart chakra, into what is called I can’t explain these things because I don’t know it all, and even if I did, wouldn’t be allowed to because it’s secret tantric stuff. But in the center of the heart chakra is what is called the indestructible drop. So the winds start entering into this indestructible drop inside in the center of the heart chakra. As a result of that, The red vision, the dark coppery red vision fades away, and there is just the experience of complete darkness.
And this is the last moment, the moments of the subtle mind gives rise to this experience of complete darkness. And in the teaching in the sūtra, the the tantra explaining this, it’s it says it’s one has the feeling of falling unconscious. This would only be for a yogi who’s awake and experiencing it. But at this point, even they have a sense of, like, becoming unconscious. And so now the because all the grosser minds have absorbed, That that’s what yeah.
So what is left what is left now is just the most subtle wind energy, the this all pervading life wind. That’s it abiding in the very center of the indestructible drop at the heart chakra. And so the subtle mind ceases because its base, the less subtle winds have ceased. They’ve absorbed into the single most subtle wind, yeah, which is in the very center of the heart. So now what manifests, what is finally left is the very subtle mind, which in Tantra is called the well, it has many names.
One name is called the primordial mind of clear light. Primordial in a sense that this is beginningless. It’s always existed. Because the subtle mind only you know, there is the subtle mind of this life and it ceases with this life in this process. It’s just stopped.
And the gross mind of this life ceases. Right? We’ve stopped it. Remember? Breathing stopped.
Gross mind stopped. Subtle winds enter the heart. The indestructor put drop, so subtle mind ceases. But what is left what is left is a mind that has always existed, has never been created, is beginningless, and that is the primordial mind of clear light. And when that manifests, then there is this experience of clear light.
The mind is called clear light because it also experiences what is called the clear light, which is very difficult to describe. It’s just light. In the Tibetan texts, it says it’s like the light coming from the full moon on in autumn. In autumn? Yeah.
In Tibet, where the where where the air is very clear. Right? So this is really So it’s the light from the moon, not the moon itself, but the light coming from the moon, from a full moon in autumn. I can’t quite get that image myself, but that’s the image of clear. Maybe you can.
No. I don’t think it means it’s very I don’t I yeah. It’s just clear. It’s very clear. It’s very clear.
And then once that manifests, then for the ordinary person, that very pro that primordial mind of clear light leaves the body. And that’s when death occurs. And the main sign for or one of the main signs, definite signs, that the very subtle mind has left the body is that the body starts to putrefy and smell. Because while while the mind is in the body, it won’t putrefy. You know?
I mean, you can you know, like, even while we’re alive now, we can have sores and things, but it won’t start really decaying. But it will once the very subtle mind has left. Other signs which they they the lamas use to check when a lama or a recognized great meditator dies is that because also according to the tantric tradition, when we are born, the subtle essence of the semen of our father stays in the crown chakra. It doesn’t mean the actual semen, but some kind of like the essential energy of semen remains in the crown chakra. In Tantra it’s called the white bodhicitta.
And the very subtle essential energy of the the ovum of our mother ovum? Yes. The ovum of our mother, remains in the must be in the sex chakra. So anyway, for a man, when they die someone who’s you know, like, for example, a lama, a a genuine lama, not, you know, a mealy like one with just a name, but the real rigidity practitioner, when they die, the Lamas who are alive check for to look that the very subtle mind is actually left is some blood coming from the nostrils and some semen from the penis. And they usually do that.
And just recently in Taiwan, one of the nuns who was a friend of mine, her name is Sophie Su, she died. And so some of the geshis there checked for those signs when she died before they said, yes, she’s gone. Don’t know. Possibly, the blood would be a sign for for women also, but I don’t know what the corresponding thing is. What kind of substance would come out from from but it it would have to be that.
I don’t know. Of course, it would be the semen energy because it came from the father, but it wouldn’t, of course, be semen. It would have some other form. So I I don’t know what they say about that. So, anyway, that’s the death process as it’s taught in the tantras.
And I say and I as I say, really, if that isn’t true, maybe hard to believe, but if this isn’t true, then tantra is nonsense, and people have spent for a thousand years practicing it. So I have great faith in this teaching. And I haven’t seen many people die, but I find and not just myself, other people who are familiar with have been taught this. When one’s with dying people, to some extent, you can you have some sense of these things happening or at least the outer signs, and it’s very extremely helpful to know. I’m I don’t know.
Sorry. Because this is really being this is teaching, like, from the point of view of someone who is a qualified tantric practitioner. This is what they need to know, and, of course, that wouldn’t happen in their case. That’s why I’m emphasizing this is, like, exactly how it would be for someone who has been a a really good practitioner and and especially trained in tantra, then they would be able to recognize consciously recognize as they’re dying these visions. Okay.
Thank you very much. Now that we’re all dead, we can have a cup of tea. Much more to add tonight other than few I do have some. But do you have some questions? Yeah.
Yeah. Is that a real event or is that somewhere in that process? No. It’s not in that process. No.
Because it’s they’re not actually dying. Although, I mean, I mean, because the death process can start and stop and reverse. That that’s also possible. And then have a false start. And then, know, you rebirth somehow.
So maybe the the the the near death experience is, you know, to some extent, like because I I mean, a lot of people talk about that the white light vision, know, of course that sounds like something but I’m not really sure if they are the same thing but Yes. Yes. But for that? No. No.
No. Definitely you would. No. No. You have heard that.
Yeah. Have read years ago all those books. Yeah. Yeah. I have met people who have had the experience.
So, yeah, no. I I don’t know how to it was very interesting. That’s for sure. Yeah. Practice.
Mhmm. Going Yes. Yes. Well, I think at this level you wouldn’t have to you wouldn’t visualize those things because they’d be happening because you’re replicating the death process more or less. So those visions would happen because you’re getting the winds into the channels and so those things happen, I think.
Well, let’s not go into that because that’s yeah, sorry. Yeah, it is. Yeah. This yeah. No questions?
Yes. Mhmm. Where do they go? It doesn’t go anywhere. It’s just everywhere.
But see, I think that’s the trouble with our language and we are not really it’s very difficult for us, I think, to conceive of what the mind is because we’re when you say where does it go, it sounds like a thing that would go anywhere, but the mind isn’t a thing. It’s not a physical thing that goes. Because in the teaching as it mentions, I myself have a whole lot of questions about this, that it says, you know, this very subtle mind leaves this body. So I’m not quite sure what that actually means. Because it sounds like there’s this little little teeny mind right right inside your heart there.
But the mind isn’t a teeny little thing. So this is all just kind of skillful means to explain something which is inexplicable for our minds or mine. You didn’t talk about rebirth at that level. Mean from a Buddhist point of view once someone even before enlightenment you’re you know in the path to enlightenment, you’ve you’ve become a bodhisattva. Then you become an ārya bodhisattva when you directly realize emptiness.
When you’re an ārya bodhisattva, you enter what are called the Bodhisattva levels or the Bodhisattva Bhumis of which there are ten stages, ten levels of Ārya Bodhisattvas. At the end of the seventh level you’re out of cyclic existence. Someone who has completed the seventh level of Ārya Bodhisattvaship has got out of cyclic existence. So they don’t take they don’t there’s no way they can take ordinary rebirth in a saṃsāra. They’re not reborn reborn through the power of karma.
Or even before that, they stopped being reborn through the power of karma. But anyway so at at the eighth, ninth, and tenth levels, bodhisattvas manifest being reborn in this world, you know, but not not through the power of aspiration. But they but they are they themselves are not in saṃsāra. They enter a samsaric realm, but they themselves aren’t in saṃsāra, they manifest a body, you know, they manifest going through the process of entering, for example, a human womb and being born, but it’s all it’s not what we do. It’s not what we are doing.
They’re just manifesting all of that for our sake. And they can do millions at the same time, not just one body. They can manifest millions of bodies all over the place. No no no no. That I don’t know.
See that particular teaching about the Bardo Thodol text comes from the Nyingmapa tradition. It is it is not in the Gelugpa tradition. That that whole thing is not taught in the Gelugpa. So Gelugpa tradition. So I don’t know how those two things come together.
But, see, what we’ve just gone through is the bare bones of the process. Yeah? And particularly for someone who is having a good death, and they’ve they’ve they’ve you know they’ve died in a very completely natural way from natural causes in a very natural way and so on. But at any level, at any stage in those visions, think I’m not mistaken depending on your karma and how you’ve lived your life, those visions could be experienced in so many different ways from extremely terrifying to very pleasant. And of course, many people don’t even see them.
They occur, but they are not consciously experienced. Is a little text some of you may be familiar with written by Pabongka Rinpoche which has the very strange name of what’s it called? The Heart Spoon of the Fortunate. And in there, in that text, he talks about these visions but from a point of view of someone not a practitioner who’s failed to practice because it’s a it’s a text encouraging people to practice. So he’s saying what’s got what what are you going to do when this well I can’t remember the exact words but what he’s alluding to is he says what are you going to do when this that, you know, the first thing when the your body is squashed and it feels like you’re being buried under tons of earth?
What are you gonna do? In other words, you’re gonna scream like hell because you haven’t practiced. You haven’t got any preparation. And he goes on like that in this text. What are you gonna do when the next thing happens?
And what are you gonna do when the next one and the next one? And he explains it from a kind of a scary point of view. But here we’ve been describing it from a point of view of a person who’s been practicing. So it’s not scary. You know, it’s they they just see you know, they just experience that vision.
That’s all in a very clinical way. Oh, this is happening. Oh, now this. Now this. And and, of course, you know, you know, from the tantric point of view, the purpose of training in this is that when the death process actually comes, one one has trained so that one will be able to recognize what is happening.
One will be able to recognize the visions. So you we one will know, oh, now this is happening to me. Now and then that’s gonna happen. And so it’s not scary. And the ultimate the final purpose, of course, is that one will be conscious when the clear light manifests, and you’ll be able to stay in it.
And that’s when one can quickly achieve enlightenment. Go along if you can’t, you know because some people have achieved enlightenment in that, you know, when they died in the in in that in the clear light. And if they if you can’t get enlightened, at least you can advance a lot further than you were before because one is operating using the most subtle mind. So it’s very easy if one has studied emptiness, then when you’re actually in the clear light mind, it’s very easy to realize emptiness directly. And it’s also very easy in the clear light mind, having trained in the ordinary way in developing compassion, to be able to awaken great compassion and love with that perfectly pure pristine mind of clear light.
What? Well, one can control the death process, one will have a good death and therefore a good rebirth for sure. That that’s that’s one basic thing. Yeah. Definitely.
If you know what’s happening to you, then you can maintain a calm, stable, virtuous mind. And then for sure, one will have a good rebirth. Sorry, we’re not having group discussions. I I planned, but we’re having discussions so I hope it’s okay. There’s not enough time to get the group discussion going now.
Next week, sorry. But if you’ve got some questions first. What do you mean a cognitive capacity of for what? When we conceive of the music particularly Yeah. Actually, is why all that cognitive the conceptual minds cease at that point with the subtle mind.
They are what are called the eighty conceptual minds. They all come to see, you know, cease. Yeah. Well, But what it’s experiencing in general are those visions. That’s it.
Yes. Yes. Yeah. Because yes, it’s not like that. It’s not like, oh, it is really clunky, the way I described it.
Like, here’s me, and here’s this vision. Because, of course, as you’re dying and by the especially by the time your breathing has stopped and the subtle mind, sense that any conscious sense of self has gone and the sense of this me is fading. I mean there’s still of course a very subtle self grasping going on but it’s not like, ah, here I am dying, I am seeing this. It’s not like that especially for an ordinary person. I’m really not sure what it’s like for a yogi.
It’s a yeah here’s just give a rough idea of the basis of what’s happening not all the other twiddly bits the just the basic stuff that’s happening. Sorry, I missed a bit. Naturally, I have no idea. I think some people I don’t know. Maybe less these days, but people do die just from being old.
To some extent, yes, yes, yeah, yeah. They do happen in some way, but exactly how, yeah. But but some of these things wouldn’t happen quickly you know like the the like if you get hit by a car accident, your earth element doesn’t dissolve so that you become thin. Oh, yeah. No.
So some of things don’t happen, but other things, you know Just the gross element. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Did you say that during the clear light period, one can experience emptiness and bodhicitta more directly Yes. Yes but this is only if one’s trained you know and super you know done an incredible practice to be able to yeah. Like I said, every night, these visions occur. Has anyone seen them yet? Or even not not only every night when we go to sleep, when orgasm occurs.
Also in the teachings, it says when you sneeze, it happens. So have you had any of these visions yet? I haven’t. So to be able to actually have any conscious awareness of these visions as one’s dying is a great accomplishment that one has really have to prepare. This doesn’t mean if you don’t have these visions you’re not conscious of these visions, you’re gonna have a bad death, and therefore bad it doesn’t mean that.
Certainly not. But to be able to actually have the clarity of the the presence of mind, the clarity and stability of mind to be able to observe, you know, be mindful of these visions at the time of death, one will have to practice in you know, at a very high level to to do that. And and, you know, there are many within that. There’s you know, some people are able to stay in that state for a short time. Others can do it longer.
And then what they can do in that time also varies greatly. Well, to be honest, no. I don’t think well, what you don’t start talking about how to help dying people. That’s a different thing. What you do Yeah.
What I mean, how do we use that? I mean, because on each occasion, I’m I don’t I don’t mean to be a half empty cup person, but not everyone dies that way. Oh, I know that. Yeah. You’re right.
Yeah. You’re I probably the minority would die that way. Yeah. No. They haven’t.
Don’t be sorry. It’s a good question. Many people have had that kind of experience and I mean there could be minor reasons, because some people do die very well So but again, just to be very prosaic, I think one thing is that when you sorry if this probably sounds very bad, but when you’re with a dying person and they die, you have a very strong sense of being alive, which is so wonderful. I I I have to confess. I was with but I I I was with my father when he well, when he was dying, I actually went home because the nurse said he’s he could be in this state for days.
She said, I’ve seen people like this, hang on like this. And I’d sat up all night with my father. So then I went home. As soon as I got home, there was a phone call saying and I think that’s also one of the things that often happens is the dying person waits till you go, but he wasn’t conscious, he was unconscious, but this anyway. But I I felt kind of guilty about it, but actually after my, you know, I was sad that my father had died and everything, but also I remember walking home to the bus from the hospital, and I had this kind of incredible lightness and, yes, and I think it was just I wasn’t glad that my it had nothing to do with being glad that my father died.
It was just, I think, a sense of of actually when you bit have been with a dying person and and I’d just seen his body, you know, his dead body and sat with it for a while, then you you have somehow this sense of being alive, which is actually a pretty even in saṃsāra, it’s a pretty magical, amazing thing to just breathe. As Nāgārjuna says, just to be able to breathe in and breathe out is magical. But, yeah, I I’ve heard people who’ve who’ve been around, people who have died, not children, but who say that, you know, sometimes there’s just this incredible peace and joy. Expert yeah. So and it may be something to do with, you know, all all of that that, you know, the ordinary stuff in the mind has just ceased, and there’s just momentarily the the influence of pure, you know, pure mind.
Maybe it’s got something I don’t know. But the only thing to do is to realize there is this amazing potential in our minds. So we we we’ve actually the course, the talk has died, but I I I’ve gotta try to breathe alive just for a few minutes. If you can please bear with me. So meditating on the death process is really, really helpful to do regularly to have some because it I think it can definitely help us when we’re dying even if I’m saying maybe contradictory but even if we don’t have any clarity of this you know if we if we when we come to die and we’ve been familiar with this death process I think some just somehow it helps.
And it certainly it helps to know these things when one is with people who are dying. Yeah. And the people who are actually dying and and and their family and friends. So it’s really, you know, really helpful, very important to do this meditation, the nine point meditation, but also this death process meditation. But also another meditation you can do on the death process is just to reflect and this is part of your homework is just to think just imagine different possible ways oneself could die like oh, I could die when I’m really old in bed at home or in a hospital or I could die soon as I am now because of a disease or an accident.
You could imagine these different kinds of ways of dying, where you are, what you’re like, what happens, who’s there or who’s not there. But mainly focusing on, you know, what you experience or what you could possibly experience, that can be helpful because we have no idea how when we’re going to die. We have no idea how we’re going to die, where we will die, who will be there, if anyone, when we die. So we can think about those things. And and then another jolly thing you can do, which is similar and it it sounds depressing and why do it, but also it’s very, very helpful.
It’s part of the tradition is that to get a sense of impermanence and I could die at any time is and there’s a there’s a whole teaching on this and I can only just vaguely remember some points but for example it says something like, like you you when you get in your car you get or a car or your car you get in your car and you think this is the last time I’m ever going to get in this car. The next time my body is in a car, it’ll be a hearse. Right? Or when I go home tonight and then you I think I’ve mentioned this. You open the door and you look in and then you look at all your stuff and you think, you know, this is the last time I’m gonna see it tomorrow.
It’s all gonna you know, the dealers will come, pick it all up, put it in the junk shop, and sell it. And then you think, oh, when you put your clothes on in the morning, this is the last time. Or your your nicest piece of clothing, you put it on and you think this could be the last time. The next the next bit of clothing goes on my body is my shroud. So there’s you know, the you know, when you’re eating, this is the last meal.
Tomorrow, I won’t even I won’t they won’t even be throwing a fries in my mouth. I won’t put anything in there. Sorry. Like that. Good.
Great. That’s one of the things encouraged. We’ll get to that if there’s time. What to do? Yeah.
Giving away all your stuff. Yeah. Okay. That’s it. Now we stop.
So thank you very much for your attention. I something intelligent, useful has been said. Please try and remember it. So we can dedicate the positive understanding, good energy we’ve generated tonight. May this become a cause for us to realize impermanence and mortality so that we can more or more let go of what is harmful and meaningless in our lives and engage more and more with what is deeply beneficial, meaningful, virtuous, skillful, wise and so on.
Not only for our own sake and our family and friends but for the sake of all kind suffering sentient beings who suffer because of impermanence and death. Sorry. Being comfortable with death oneself and accepting it and whatever is also there are many ways to be able to develop compassion and one way is then you can see how much people suffer from denying their own mortality and impermanence. There’s so much suffering in the world because people live in the denial of impermanence and live in denial that they’re going to die. They’re really suffering because of it.
And there’s so much suffering because of that attitude and not wanting to know about, oh, that’s depressing and stupid to think about those things. But if we’re trapped in that, you know, we can’t be of much help or whatever. But if we can free our mind a little bit from that that mindset, then we can be of so much more benefit to others, and we can then feel the suffering that others are undergoing because they are trapped in that mindset of denial. Okay, thank you. So if you’d like to join in the dedication, page ten.
Just the words of these virtuous actions may I quickly attain the state of a Guru Buddha and let all living beings without exception into that enlightened state. May the precious bodhicitta mind not yet born arise and grow. May that born have no decline but increase forevermore. So for those who would like to join, we have finished with three prostrations.