Living and Dying

This is a shortened description of the process of dying according to Sogyal Rinpoche in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. The scriptures are more complicated and include many subtle details. I hope this explanation respects the Tibetan tradition and Rinpoche’s original text. I recommend reading the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying to learn more.

Bardo states in the process of dying

Tibetan Buddhists have profound knowledge and traditions for how to understand death and the process of dying. For Tibetan practitioners, dreams are one important tool to discover the various interrelated aspects of mind and how to enter different levels of consciousness. These different stages of the mind are called bardos. For example going to sleep is similar to the bardo of dying, where elements and thoughts dissolve, opening the mind into the experience of the Ground Luminosity. Dreaming is a state for clairvoyance with a highly mobile mental body, a dream body, in which we undergo the experiences of dream world. They say that depending how your mind is in the sleep and dream state, indicates how your mind will be in the corresponding bardo states; the way in which you react to dreams, nightmares and difficulties shows how you might react after you die.

There are three bardo stages that consciousness (the nature of mind, as the Tibetans say it) goes through in the process of dying. For dedicated spiritual practitioner, there might be a chance to get enlightened but in most cases, the nature of mind is being reborn again in a new body.

The bardo stages are

• • The painful bardo of dying
  • The luminous bardo of dharmata
  • The karmic bardo of becoming.

Clear light

When we die, it is the death of the physical body. Also the ordinary aspect of our mind dies with all thought processes and negative emotions; anger, desire and ignorance. It is said that time of death is the moment of truth and the questions arise: “how was my life, what did I do to help myself and the others:. What is revealed at the moment of death is our absolute nature, and our relative nature, how we are and have been, in this life. The dying process of the body can be painful, because we might have difficulties to let go of what we had. The material life, samsara is all we have known.

“For someone who has completely let go during life, nothing happens at death because there’s nothing left to release. Bardos only exist in samsara, which is defined by grasping and attachment”.

 Andrew Holecek

Floating in the clear light

This first state is called the dawning of the Great Luminosity. It shouldn’t be mixed up with enlightenment, though for experienced practitioner it is possible to reach. That is to say with the understanding of death and with dedicated practice of meditation, this moment of death offers us an opportunity to reach final liberation, enlightenment. Unfortunately a person, who hasn’t stabilized his/her meditation practice, is most likely not able to experience anything. This moment will pass by in a very fast time. Only a dedicated practitioner can be able to maintain full awareness and merge into the light and stay there for a longer time.

“All beings have lived and died and been reborn countless times. Over and over again they have experienced the indescribable Clear Light. But because they are obscured by the darkness of ignorance, they wander endlessly in a limitless samsara”.

Padmasambhava

As for most of the people, if we fail to recognize the moment of Great Luminosity, we’ll fall into state of unconsciousness. Tibetans believe that this state can last for three and a half days. During that time, traditionally, the body stays unmoved and untouched. After that the consciousness finally leaves the body.

The “in between” state, bardo of dharmata

The following stage in the process of dying is to encounter the next bardo state. Bardo of dharmata (means: intrinsic nature of everything) is the naked nature of reality. Sogyal Rinpoche explains it as “the way night turns into day”. There is light that is revealed as an ocean of energy. Even modern physics has shown that all matter is energy, all matter is light. Light is energy and it is also information-content, form and structure. It is potential for everything. There is no sense of me or you to experience the bardo stages, but a body of light. How I understand this body of energy, is someone’s individual consciousness merging into universal consciousness.

Dissolving into wisdom

The bardo of dharmata has four different phases. They include dissolving into different lights. There will be also intensive, tremendous sounds and beams of light. There are visions of deities and Buddhas dissolving into you. In other words they are manifestations of all spirits who are not dependent on any country, religion or tradition. There is a dissolving into an ocean of wisdom; all wisdom that you know and don’t know is awakened in your mind as they are merging into you. All possibilities are present; from wisdom and liberation to confusion and rebirth. You will be able to know your past and future lives.

In this unfolding process, the mind and its fundamental nature are becoming more revealed towards the next bardo stage. One should not confuse the nature of mind with the ordinary thinking mind, but understand it is pure, pristine awareness that is at once intelligent, cognizant, radiant and always awake.

The bardo of becoming

The previous bardo state (bardo of dharmata) most likely happens in the snap of a finger. Most of us will be in an unconscious state. In case a person is not capable to recognize these different bardo stages of death, they will be drawn back to the cycle of samsara; the cycle of life and death. The third bardo of death is the bardo of becoming.

“Am I a ghost?”

Whereas in the bardo of dharmata we had a body of light (energy), in this bardo we have a mental body. The mental body possesses all senses. It is invisible for living beings, but it can see or be seen by other bardo-beings, those who have died before us. This mental body has no limits; it can move through walls and travel wherever it wants to go. Mental activity is rapid; thoughts come in and we are able to do many things at once. The mind works similarly as it does while we are alive; it clings to experiences, repeating habits and set patterns. It believes that all experiences are ultimately real. Because the past life patterns and habits are appearing, this is also known as the karmic bardo of becoming.

During this bardo, there is an impression of who we were in our previous life. We don’t realize we are dead and we try to do things that we used to do when we were alive. We’ll see our family and relatives weeping over our death. The mental body is vulnerable to all thoughts and judgements that might arise. Because there is no physical body to ground it, these thoughts become the reality.

This overwhelming power of thought is the key issue in the bardo of becoming. It exposes all the mental imprints and tendencies that we had in our life. In this bardo one might become a victim for these tendencies, if we don’t check and become aware of them during this lifetime. Meanwhile in this bardo, any positive thoughts and remembering spiritual practices can help us to free us and to reach enlightenment.

On the way to a new life

Rinpoche describes it as if we were suddenly awakened to intermediate state that lies between death and new rebirth. That is to say a state of reawakening and activation for the seeds of all habitual tendencies, (karmic actions, samskaras). This is the state of entering the womb for the next life. In this bardo, we will make a karmic connection with our future parents.

Sogyal Rinpoche describes it as a transit lounge, in which you can wait for up to 49 days before transferring to the next life. For those who have lived extremely beneficial and positive lives, their trained minds and spiritual practice carries them directly into a good rebirth. For those whose life was negative and harmful, they travel quickly down their next birth. With advanced spiritual practice we can train to maintain awareness for not letting any of the negative emotions to lead us towards a unfortunate rebirth.

There are different directions calling you. Depending which one you choose, defines if you’ll be born as a human or animal. It is very difficult for the mind to see what is the best direction to follow. Sometimes we might get confused and mistake a good birthplace a bad one, and vice versa. However, if you choose the path of being born as a human, you’ll be taken to a place where you see your future parents making love and you’ll feel strong attachment and will to find a physical body to be born in.

Yoga Philosophy series by Anni Rainio

1. 1. Is there afterlife?
   2. What makes life suffering
   3. Reincarnation vs. Rebirth
   4. Do our present actions affect our future life?
   5. Transcending the fear of death
   6. How to find life purpose
   7. Acting from compassion
   8. Process of dying according to Tibetan Buddhism
   9. Process of dying – Perspectives from Hindu philosophies
   10. Breaking the cycle of samsara
   11. Enlightenment

Recommended readings on life, death, and the afterlife

The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Four Chapters on Freedom

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About the Author

This blog post is written by Anni Rainio, Doron Yoga Teacher -alumni, who is doing her 300h yoga teacher studies at Doron Yoga & Zen Center. She wrote a thesis about process of dying and rebirth from the yogic and Buddhist perspectives. This series of Yoga Philosophy blog texts are giving tastes of her theoretical studies. Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts either here or to annirainio@gmail.com.

Check out Anni’s website: www.annirainio.com