Namgyal Rinpoche –
DYING, DEATH & BARDO EXPOSITION
Original Compiler Cecilie Kwiat 1981
Re-edited Wesley Knapp 2014
Chapter One
AN INTRODUCTION
Consciousness, when bound to form, is profoundly influenced by the impulsion to maintain the integrity of that form. Because of the restrictions inherent in this conditioned state, over a period of time various beliefs are built up based on partial – if not total – misunderstanding of the nature of existence. Yet somehow beneath the welter of assumptions there is a sense that one has overlooked something, missed out somehow, and a general feeling of dissatisfaction or desire will arise. Although the being may not know what is wanting, there will follow diverse attempts to supersede that desire, most of which have every likelihood of ending in frustration. When one is limited in view, how is it possible to see the full range of choices which might lead to satisfaction? Perhaps through the process of trial and error, we learn to make wiser choices, learn to select options that give longer lasting relief from yearning, but even so it is likely that some wrinkle will eventually appear on the smooth complexion of life. All things being impermanent, changes will occur and what seemed at one time desirable will not necessarily remain so. Like Murphy’s Law states, whatever can go wrong probably will.
When what seemed worthwhile loses its value, frustration arises. With frustration comes anger which may very well push one into an even more unlikely compromise. To be fair, anger can also be used to cut off attachment to what is unsatisfactory, but the basic wanting is still there, still operative, and it will come to manifestation one way or another. If one remains blind to this process there is little possibility that the vicissitudes of life will do more than ingrain a greater desire for security, make one eager to find a refuge whether it be marriage, career, societal position, religion, or whatever. All one’s energies will go into safeguarding that choice from any alternative ‘truth’ and cultivating a milieu to give back the reassuring sound of agreement. One becomes ‘safe’, special, living in the centre of a cyclone. But unfortunately – or fortunately – movement occurs. Ice ages rise and fall – death is real. Anything short of conquering death is, however well-guarded, a perilous citadel. Whatever desires haven’t been transmuted (so that happiness no longer depends on particular supporting circumstances being present) will provoke suffering.
According to Sakyamuni Buddha, “To be conjoined with what one doesn’t want is suffering and to be separated from what wants is suffering”. Rather than coming to see the reality of this simple statement in our daily lives, most of us abdicate from our positions of power to enter a fantasy existence. If the situation is as is described we don’t want to know about it – it’s too overwhelming! Rarely do we even become conscious of the fact that we have chosen not to know, we just do as we’re told and accept what does not satisfy. We have exchanged our birthright for a bowl of lumpy porridge and we are busily keeping our breath to cool the porridge without seriously questioning whether that’s what we want to eat, let alone allowing ourselves to be aware of the inexorable approach behind our backs of the beast of time.
One of the prerequisites for liberation from suffering is the mind of question, the mind that seeks to know. In the Pali language this is called ‘dhamma vicaya’, investigation of law, and is one of the seven factors that lead to awakening. One who has awakened is called a Holder of the Diamond Mind because such a being can cut through the tangle of confusion and experience the universe as the clear dance of a multiplicity of occurrences, like the colours of a rainbow, yet remain in the understanding of the one light. Therefore without prejudice such a being can be said to know the real from the unreal. We are not given an unlimited number of tomorrows in which to decide who is responsible for the unsatisfactory aspects of our lives. What difference can it make who is responsible if that being is not you? Your responses rule your life and it doesn’t stop there. Your habitual responses will rule your death as well.
In the Buddhist teaching, death is defined as ‘the temporary ending of a temporary phenomenon.’ Usually the word appears conjoined with what is often regarded as its opposite – ‘jati-jaramarana’ – birth/ old age/death. At death one’s habitual actions and reactions, developed over a lifetime, project a crystallized image of one’s desires, aversions and beliefs into a new existence. There are four categories of death:
In the first, life comes to an end because the potential life span of that form is exhausted; Second, the reproducing ‘kammic’ field (seeds of activity waiting for a milieu in which to develop) is exhausted;
Third, the first and second occur concomitantly;
Fourth, an intervening ‘kamma’ (action) pre-empts that existence.
Using the analogy of an oil lamp, the first category is like the burning up of the wick; the second of the oil; the third when the two are exhausted simultaneously; and the fourth is as if a strong gust of wind blows out the flame. It is possible to extend the life span to some extent but the first category always remains a factor. The fourth of the above is usually understood as ‘untimely death.
At the time of death there is a continuum of a sort of energy field which is no longer able to maintain synthesis with the material form. Throughout one’s life there is unending movement or change occurring in the dialogue between form and that which is beyond form, moving into expression. The ‘streamings’ of energy are constantly altering the boundaries of form. Shaping never stops, you’re a continual shaper. Gusts of wind repeatedly come at you from between the floor-boards of your seemingly-secure abode but somehow they are not blowing you out, so eventually you begin to believe that you’re not about to be blown out. You take existence for granted but the lamp of individual survival is perpetually endangered. How is it possible to be protected from sudden ‘extinguishment’? How can you know you have found a safe refuge?
Fantasy can buffer you from life but only clear knowing can help you overcome death. All the hero figures of this world’s great, living mythologies concern themselves with this pivotal point – the resurrection from death. In some cultures you are told that this has been done for you by a Saviour. In others you are told that this is the task of every human being. But in all, the central question revolves around a need for greater understanding of what we call death.
In the Buddhist teaching one learns first to calm the bodily formations by the practice of morality. Then, when a basis of good feeling about oneself has been established, there begins the training of the mind. The practitioner must develop an all-embracing awareness, pay attention to detail and then wake up that awareness. This can only be done if the veils of ignorance, erected to lessen the pain of past suffering, are removed and one re-integrates the ‘locked-out’ aspects of one’s psyche. Clear seeing implies knowing how you came to be, how you continue and how you pass from manifestation. By re-experiencing the events of your coming-into-being, by knowing for yourself the laws of your present human form, and by becoming conscious of the energies that govern your comings and goings, you are freed to claim your human birthright. With clear understanding you could then draw on the expanded awareness of other ‘kammic’ manifestations. By moving beyond the limits of ‘self’ and opening to universal law you are bathed in the healing waters of compassion.
A part of the energy – or kammic thrust of rebirth – goes to fashion and maintain form, called in Pali ‘rupa’. Rupa gives a type of immunity to the gusting winds but it can be used up quickly, especially if one habitually engages in unskilful or unwholesome activities. Another part of the kammic thrust develops a kind of energy field of present circumstances to support the life form. This is also consumed in time. You are living in peril, consumed from without and consumed from within. The situation is perilous because of ‘avijja’ – ignorance. You allow ignorance to continue by surrendering your right to know – preferring habituation to conscious awareness of forms, feelings, states of mind and the whole range of miraculous phenomena that is given to you in every moment of life. In more modern terms one could call the dangerous element ‘neurosis’. Neurotic conditioning can be likened to that impulse which pulls a moth into a candle’s flame in response to information about warmth and light and blind to the dangers of fire. So we too, remain ignorant of burning due to habitual responses, not seeing how our unskilful actions cause our difficulties.
Experience provides a type of continuum or record of what was previously perceived as pleasurable, painful or neutral. This continuum subtly creates propensities which can develop into craving for (‘tanha’) and clinging to (‘upadana’) particular sets or circumstances that have the dubious distinction of being familiar and therefore seemingly secure. Occasionally, one might raise the question of whether or not he or she is ‘doing’ in life or ‘being done’. How often do you feel that you initiate any actions? Are you moved through life by pre-programmed reactions to the rise and fall of outer circumstances? If so, you are in a very vulnerable position. Most people badly need to develop greater awareness of their milieu to enable more skilful application of knowledge gained through past experience, thus over-ruling the automatic reactions motivated by greed, hatred and ignorance.
In the Buddhist teaching all actions (‘kamma’) can be specified as one of three types: ‘kusala kamma’, ‘akusala kamma’, and ‘kiriya kamma’. Usually construed as ‘wholesome’, ‘unwholesome’, and ‘neutral’ actions, there is more to this idea than just ‘being good’. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, we are told that after the calling into being, God looked upon his Creation and found it good. In a sense, kusala kamma is a bit like returning the favour. There is a note of respect for creation, of aligning oneself – certainly in aspiration – with the existent order, because it is worthy to do so. Kusala is the opposite of fearful. It is also considered to be powerful – because the individual is not pitted against the law, every kusala action has behind it the same harmony or force that moves the planets. When one is not obsessed with self-preservation motivated by fear, a natural interest in others emerges. Thus the greatest tool for increasing one’s sense of well-being is the practice of ‘dana’, generosity. To give is to dwell in the state of grace.
A particularly interesting aspect of Buddhist philosophy is the idea that to be born in the human realm requires a greater balance of wholesome propensities to be present. The human form cannot come into being unless there is a stronger motivation to virtue than to fear. Coded into your formation is a basic trust and respect for all sentience, and despite how terrifying the neurotic states might seem they are as nothing when compared to the depth of your being. Millenniums of struggle, by innumerable manifestations, have preceded the creation of ‘you’. Any form that did not accord with nature was submerged; only the ‘true’ survived, eventually to produce you. Thus, when Sakyamuni Buddha was tempted by all the forces of the ‘untrue’ (‘maras’) prior to his awakening, he touched the ground that was his support – saying in effect that the earth bore witness to his right to be, unmoved by desire or fear.
When on dwells in this natural state of mind there is no need to change the laws of creation, nor to protect oneself from their unfoldment. “Every being is the Buddha, every place is Nirvana, and every sound is the Divine Sound”. There is a difference however, between the true experience of equanimity and hedonistic indifference. To be neutral is not necessarily the same as being free from suffering. Sometimes the mud has only settled to the bottom of the pool, leaving the water to look deceptively clear. But any little earthquake – the change of a love affair, loss of position, the death of a near one – can shake things up, and where is the clarity to be found? Only when the waters of life are seen to be totally pure and one knows that this is so, can there be freedom from suffering. The temporary settling of the mud does allow one to see what remains to be done, as well as giving some respite from the blindness of un-skilful kamma . Especially at the time of death, it is helpful to allow the mud to settle. At that time one should encourage kusala states, speak of things that were a source of happiness during life, or simply be present at the death bed. Out of compassion for the dying person, introduce happiness, or better, a sense of interest in the process of dissolution. To sponsor kusala states is the greatest benefit you can achieve for someone undergoing the process of death/rebirth.
It was mentioned earlier that a part of the kammic thrust of birth goes toward shaping a core or fundament of being (which is unique to each individual) and part goes to develop a less dense energy field supportive to the rupa. This latter energy field contains within it all kamma, all possibilities of consciousness, and all potentialities of development. Within each being many eyes are present, not only the human ones! If one is grounded in a sense of kusala activity, should the boundaries of consciousness expand beyond rupa, the resultant revelations will be interpreted as divine. If there is general insecurity of being, any such expansion will be assumed as threatening, bedevilling. The faith that levels mountains and raises valleys is, in the Buddhist tradition, called ‘sadha’ and more than anything, sadha implies a sense of confidence. When this is present one can open to new levels of awareness; without it one trembles at the slightest shifting of the light. After a lifetime of habituation to form, great sadha is needed when the bonding of consciousness to rupa is dissolved if one is to make full use of this universal experience.
Heaven and hell states depend on the degree of grasping and clinging with which one meets new situations. Above all else the teaching of the Buddha is meant to foster peace, to lead one into a total experience of calm awareness in the process of life no less than in the process of death. In a sense, every moment is a death, a transmutation of form and energy, but few beings are able to maintain awareness of this play. We become so serious about all the wrong things that the real miracles, the truly important ‘functionings’ of the very cells of our being, become totally obscured from our understanding. The experience of faith allows us to let up for a moment from our continuous becoming and this gives rise to the true work – to question.
Question involves the whole of one’s being, not just the brain, and the insight that follows depth questioning also arises from the whole of one’s being. In the face of question, what seemed solid can begin to develop new dimensions and little ‘emptyings’ appear. What seemed empty begins to swirl with dust motes, potentialities of formation. Inner and outer, self and other – these boundaries begin to soften and one senses a dance of forming from undying emptying and emptying from beginningless forming. What is there to cling to in the essential emptying nature of all ‘formationing’? There is only a fluctuating field of consciousness, coming together in response to causeless conditions, arising and dissolving in accord with unending manifestation. Form is a temporarily bounded flow of energy, seemingly caught for a moment in a unified dance – like whirlwinds spinning in the alleys on a windy day. The whole of the universe is flows and turnings of energy – wheels within wheels within wheels. To the human perception there is an orderly progression of this dance.
This writing is an attempt to clearly set forth how one who is based in kusala states and possessing the mind of question might perceive the transmutation of ‘nama-rupa’ and thereby overcome being subject to death/rebirth.
Chapter 2
ABHIDHARMA EXPOSITION OF DEATH
First we shall consider how one of the most respected of the Buddhist texts analyses the process of dying. I am using for source material the ‘Abhidhammattha Sangaha’ – A Manual of the High Laws, an outline of Buddhist philosophy. In the section entitled “Procedure with regard to Decease and Rebirth” one finds the following: “The advent of death is fourfold – namely,
through the expiration of the age limit,
through the expiration of the (Reproductive) Kammic force,
through the (simultaneous) of both, and
through (the intervention of a ) Destructive Kamma.”
In the above: (i) Has to do with the formation of rupa in terms of its potential age limit or life expectancy, barring disease or accident. (ii) Refers to what in Pali is called ‘jivitindriya’, the energy flows of individual existence. The same reproductive kammic (or karmic in Sanskrit) force can be strong enough to impel or maintain three or four lifetimes. One could in this sense describe ego as a product of kamma or more specifically, of jivitindriya.
It is possible to experience shock of such magnitude that the energy flows supporting the present life are, for a brief moment, interrupted, and in that instant seeds of activities of other lifetimes can become operational. There are many potentialities, many states within the kammic range of a human being. After receiving a major shock, if the rupa can still support consciousness it will likely be used as a basis for continuing activity, but not necessarily the same as was previously manifesting. One can find cases of amnesia or reports of people who experienced near-death states, who seemed quite changed thereby, perhaps developing new interests in their lives.
In the stories that are used as a means of teaching in the Buddhist tradition there are many illustrations of seeds of kamma becoming active due to present supportive circumstances. One example concerns a woman who had, due to kusala activities, achieved what could be described as a favourable rebirth. She was a member of a well-to-do family, intelligent and favoured with good health. One of her maids however, was a constant source of irritation to her. The woman was a reasonable being but the servant acted as though she were living out her life in a state of unrelenting indigestion. One day, while attended by this maid, the woman felt all patience dissolve in a great rush of anger. With the outer circumstances needed to nourish this anger being present, seeds of activity that for more than that lifetime had lain fallow were suddenly productive. The woman died in the throes of her anger and that mind state coloured the transmigration to a new birth. If, at the time of death, a strongly involving unwholesome situation occurs that links up with past unwholesome kammic associations, the past akusala actions take over and influence the place of birth.
Unwholesome situations can eat up the kusala kammic force of one’s life. Fear is the greatest consumer of life energy. You really should practice compassion in your life by developing awareness of your interactions with those who share your environment. People who would never let an angry word cross their lips might not hesitate for a moment to use up the lives of their compatriots with passive aggression. Nothing overt need be done – just a steady irritation of inertness can cost a tremendous outlay of energy on the part of those on the receiving end. Don’t only concern yourself with how you deal with gurus and the like – what about other people? Like Caesar, it would be beneficial for you to have someone at your shoulder to whisper in your ear at appropriate moments, “Remember, thou too art mortal.” And when you come to the end of this life the ‘you’ stops but the energy goes on to another shaping. Have compassion on ‘the being who is in the process of creation’ – the one to come, who will inherit all that you do.
If one were to understand the reproducing kamma and then gain insight into the laws that govern age limit, the potential energies of so-called ‘other lives’ could be used. For this work it is helpful to receive the initiation of the White Tara. Through diligent practice of this meditation it is possible to increase the life-span by evening out the expenditure of the jivitindriya. White Tara practice works to over-rule the possibilities of linking up with destructive kammic force from other times. The jivitindriya is the essential core of movement, that which sets up the turnings and orbits of energy in each human being. It is a bit like the DNA molecule, the word carrier by which each individual is called into being. The life which you now enjoy is created by jivitindriya. It is the vitality of your being and it is continuously collecting new data within a narrow range of sense impressions called ‘human being’.
Again, turning to “A Manual of Abhidhamma” we read in the notes following the section previously quoted:-
“Death is the temporary end of a temporary phenomenon. By death is meant the extinction of psychic life (jivitindriya), heat (usma-tejodhatu) and consciousness (vinnana) – of one individual in a particular existence. Death is not the complete annihilation of a being. Death in one place means the birth in another place – just as in conventional terms, the rising of the sun in one place means the setting of the sun in another place.”
Jivitindriya is the word that takes on flesh. At death this word is temporarily suspended; the vibration falls – or rises – into the totality of universal sound. Depending on the inner circumstances at the time of death; on whether the motivational landscape is composed of mountains and valleys of aversion and desire wrapped in a thick damper of fog – or whether one has come to dwell in the vastness of boundless realms – an echo of that word (which was an individual existence called ‘you’ but is no longer so) may carry the sound. At this new sounding a new being begins, activated by the echo with all its slight variances of magnification and slur – and reflecting within it propensities shaped by the circumstances that sent it on its way. Wherever this echoed word finds a place of appropriate response it will lodge, by the laws of mutual attraction, and take on flesh.
The process is irreversible once the echoed sounding begins. Up to a point, the consciousness is manoeuvrable; it is possible to guide the being into kusala states, away from motivations of greed or hatred. Again, from the Abhidhamma Manual:-
“Now to those who are about to die, at the moment of death, by the power of Kamma, one of the following presents itself through any of the six doors:
i A kamma that produces rebirth in the subsequent birth enters (the mind-door) according to circumstances.
ii An object such as a pre-conceived form and the like, or anything that was instrumental in the performance of the Kamma.
iii A symbolic destiny sign that should be got and experienced in the subsequent birth-place…”
…As a person is about to die a good or bad action may present itself before his mind’s eye. It may be either a meritorious or a de-meritorius weighty action (Garuka Kamma) such as jhana (ecstasies) or parricide, etc. They are so powerful that they eclipse all other actions and appear very vividly before the mental eye. If there is no weighty action, he may take for his object of the dying thought a kamma done or remembered immediately before death (asana kamma).
If it is a past action, strictly speaking, it is the good or bad thought experienced at the moment of performing the action that recurs at the death-moment.
Kamma nimitta is any sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or idea which was obtained at the time of the commission of the kamma, such as knives in the case of a butcher, patients in the case of a physician, flowers in the case of a devotee, etc.
By gati-namitta is meant some sign of the place where he is to take birth, an event which invariably happens to dying persons. When these indications of the future birth occur, and if they are bad, they can be turned into good. This is done by influencing the thoughts of the dying person, so that his good thoughts may now act as the proximate Kamma and counteract the influence of the Reproductive Kamma which would otherwise affect his subsequent birth.
These symbols of one’s destiny may be hellish fires, forests, mountainous regions, mother’s womb, celestial mansions, etc.
The Kamma is presented to the mind-door. Kamma nimitta may be presented to any one of the six doors according to circumstances. Gati-nimitta being always a physical sight is presented to the mind-door as a dream.”
If there has been no effort made in life to curtail akusala actions, let alone thoughts, and to transcend selfishness, what else can appear at the time of decease but unwholesome states of mind? The habitual inclination of one’s being takes over at death in the absence of knowledge of how to cultivate the good. In general, unless one has performed a particularly strong or – as the text says – ‘weighty wholesome or unwholesome’ action in life, there will be a tendency to identify with states that summarize the tone of one’s present life and the rebirth will carry forward much of the same quality – the same problems and desires, to have another ‘go’ at them. For most people, death/rebirth is rather like being sent back to the drawing board one more time.
The keynote of the kamma nimitta is a sense of familiarity. It could enter via any of the sense organs (called in Pali ‘dvara’- doors), appearing as; a sexual feeling, the smell of a garden, a typewriter, a taste, the sound of music or traffic, or a sensation linked to one’s past profession, etc. It is a resultant consciousness rather than an activating consciousness, whereas the last of the three signs mentioned in the text – gati-nimitta – is forward moving. Gati is a multidirectional word implying coming, going and being. The arising of this nimitta takes where one is coming from and projects that into where one is headed, while also gathering up the sense of one’s present state of being. It is a computation of all the bits and pieces of one’s life actions projected into some time or place of the birth to come. It always occurs before the actual moment of death. One should try to be aware of this last sign.
Even in cases of so-called ‘instantaneous’ death these processes occur. The laws of being are always fulfilled and these signs are part of the unravelling of individual existence, of the withdrawal of jivitindriya to the centre of one’s being and the subsequent sub-sumation of that energy. With the arising of the gati-nimitta there still remains some flexibility of action but after this point, once this sign is made firm, nothing can move it. The rebirth linking is actually accomplished before death. The new birth connection occurs in the subtle link-up just previous to death, but one needs to have developed the aware mind of depth meditation practice to track these phenomena as they manifest. The gati-nimitta and (if they occur), the garuka and kamma nimitta arise in what is called ‘javana’ in Pali.
Javana is translated into English as ‘impulsion mind states’ and in usual circumstances when it arises it lasts for seven ‘beats’ or moments of mind but at death it is weaker. I am not an Abhidhamma scholar, nor do I wish to worry the reader with too many details and run the risk of confusing a ‘list of names’ with a ‘sense of understanding’, but a brief glance at the Abhidhamma explanation of how this re-linking occurs can be helpful, so with one or two preliminary comments we will again turn to the text.
The Pali word ‘bhavanga’ (literally bhava-being + anga-continuum) describes the indispensable condition or qualification for existence. In ‘The Buddhist Dictionary’ compiled by Nyanatiloka it is described as “…having the nature of a process, literally a flux or stream (sota). Herein, since time immemorial, all impressions and experience are as it were stored up, or, better said, are functioning but concealed as such to full consciousness – from where however they occasionally emerge as subconscious phenomena and approach the threshold of full consciousness – or, crossing it become fully conscious. This so-called ‘sub-conscious life-stream’ – or undercurrent of life – is that by which might be explained the faculty of memory, paranormal psychic phenomena, mental and physical growth, Kamma and Rebirth, etc. An alternative rendering is ‘life-continuum’.
Bhavanga is a range of waves or frequencies. For existence in each realm there is a spectrum or band of waves selected out from a broader scope. The whole of the universe, un-manifest and manifest, can be experienced as wave-bands of energy in which a narrow segment represents what we call human being. The mind door of the senses (what you are conscious of) is like a cork floating on a current (javana) within an ocean (bhavanga) of currents and streamings, waves and ripples. Whenever no thought is present, for example in deep sleep, the being experiences bhavanga. Whether or not an awakened being has bhavanga is immaterial because such a being has fully experienced the sunya – essential void nature – of all existence.
The Manual of Abhidhamma, after mentioning the three different nimitta that can arise, goes on to say:-
“Thereafter attending to that object thus presented, the stream of consciousness, in accordance with the kamma that is to be matured, whether pure or corrupted and in conformity with the place where one is to be born, continually flows, inclining mostly towards that state. Or, that birth-reproductive Kamma presents itself to a sense door in the way of renewing.
To one who is nearing death, either at the end of a thought process or at the dissolution of bhavanga, the decease-consciousness – the consummation of the present life – arises and ceases in the way of death.
At the end of the cessation, immediately after which, based on the object thus obtained, whether with heart base or not – rebirth-consciousness arises and is established in the subsequent existence; enveloped accordingly by latent ignorance, rooted in latent craving, produced by action (kamma), conjoined with mental co-adjuncts, acting as the fore-runner to the co-existing states and linking the existences.”
Herein, in the dying thought-process, only five feeble moments of javana should be expected.
“Therefore when death occurs while the present object is being presented to the avenues (i.e. kamma nimitta to one of the five sense doors or gati-nimitta to the mind- door) then the rebirth consciousness and the bhavanga consciousness take a present object.
Thus, in rebirth in a sense-sphere, the kamma nimitta taken by any of the six doors, or gati-nimitta may be past or present.
But kamma is perceived by the mind-door only as a past object.
All these should be regarded as lesser objects (i.e. belonging to the kamma Sphere).
In rebirth in the realms of Forms the kamma symbol which is a concept (such as earth device, etc.) becomes the object.
So too in rebirth in formless realms only a kamma symbol which is a sublimated concept (such as a visualized ‘space’) becomes an object, according to circumstances.
To the mindless being only the vital ‘nonad’ – [namely the four elements of extension, cohesion, heat, motion (pathavi, apo, tejo, vayo); the four derivatives – colour, odour, taste, nutritive essence (vanna, qandha, rasa, aja) and physical life principle (jivitindriya)] establishes itself in the way of rebirth. Hence they are called materially reborn. Those born in formless realms are called mentally reborn. The rest are called mentally and materially reborn.
After one passes away from a Formless realm one is similarly born in a Formless realm but not in a lower Formless plane – and also in the sense sphere with three roots.
When one passes from a realm of Form one is not born without the three roots. After a birth, with the three roots one seeks rebirth in all states. The rest (namely those with two ‘roots’ and ‘no roots’) are reborn in the Sense Spheres.”
Before I attempt a fuller description of the three realms and what is meant by ‘roots’ and ‘rootless’, we can go a few pages ahead in the Manual and quote from the notes on this section:-
“Let us imagine for the sake of convenience that the dying person is to be reborn in the human plane and that his object is some good kamma.
His bhavanga consciousness, interrupted, vibrates for one thought moment and passes away. Thereafter the mind-door apprehending consciousness (manodvara-vajjana) arises and passes away. Then comes the psychologically important stage – javana process – which here runs only for five thought-moments by reason of its weakness, instead of the normal seven. As such it lacks all reproductive power, its main function being the mere regulation of the new existence – ‘abhinavakarana’.
The object in the present case being desirable, the consciousness he experiences is a moral one – automatic or prompted, accompanied by pleasure – and associated with wisdom or as the case may be. The ‘tadalambana’ consciousness (which has for its function a registering or identifying for two moments of the object so perceived) may or may not follow. After this occurs death consciousness (‘cuti citta’), the last thought moment to be experienced in this present life.
There is a misconception amongst some that the subsequent birth is conditioned by the last decease thought. What actually conditions rebirth is not this decease-thought, which in itself has no special function to perform, but that which is experienced during the javana process.
With the ceasing of the decease-consciousness death actually occurs. Then no material qualities born of mind and food (‘cittaja’ and ‘aharaja’ rupa) are produced. Only a series of material qualities born of heat (‘utuja’) goes on till the corpse is reduced to dust.
Now immediately after the dissolution of the decease-consciousness (cuti citta) there arises in a fresh existence the re-linking consciousness (‘patisandhi vinnana’). This is followed by sixteen bhavanga thought-moments.
Thereafter the mind-door apprehending consciousness (‘manodvaravajjana’) arises to be followed by seven javana thought-moments, developing a liking to the fresh existence (‘bhava nikanti javana’). Then the bhavanga consciousness arises and perishes and the stream of consciousness flows on ceaselessly.
In the case of formless realms there is no heart base.
So, to those who have thus got rebirth, immediately after the cessation of the re-linking (consciousness) a similar consciousness, depending on the same object, flows on in the absence of a thought process, uninterruptedly like a stream, until the arising of the decease-consciousness. Being an essential factor of life, this consciousness is known as bhavanga. At the end, in the way of dying, it arises as decease-consciousness and perishes. Thereafter the re-linking consciousness and others, revolving according to circumstances, like a wheel, continue to exist.
Just as here, so again in the subsequent existence there arise re-linking consciousness, life-continuum, thought process, and decease-consciousness. Again, with rebirth and life-continuum this stream of consciousness turns round.
The enlightened, disciplining themselves long, understanding the impermanence (of life], will realize the Deathless State and, completely cutting off of attachment, attain Peace.”
The gati-nimitta, as a summation of being, acts as a coding or shaping agent for rebirth into one of three general spheres (or worlds) called Loka. The whole universe is comprised of these worlds or types of existence:
Kama-Loka – the sensuous world sphere – extends from the various hells, through the animal, hungry ghost, demon, human, and six lower heaven realms
Rupa Loka – the form world sphere – sometimes referred to as the Material World, is the realm of the remaining four types of devas or radiant beings.
Arupa-Loka – the formless world sphere – or the Formless Realm, has four classes of beings who have no corporeality, only mental properties.
If the gatinimitta, or the five javana moments preceeding death consciousness – have as foundation adosa (non-aversion), alobha (non-greed) and amoha (non-delusion) – this is called a being reborn with three noble root-conditions and will find existence among human or deva realms. With no root-conditions present at the arising of the gati-nimitta or the five javana moments preceeding death, the consciousness is experiencing at that time – and will find rebirth in – one of the four lower states of existence: That is; hell states, animal realms, hungry ghost realms, and demon realms.
If rebirth is achieved as a human it is likely that he or she will not have the life force necessary to build and maintain the ideal form of that world sphere and during gestation will be crippled or sensually limited in some way. What we earlier referred to as the fundamental shaping kamma responsible for the integrity of form, will lack sufficient power to fully develop, due to unwholesome motivation.
Hell states, like all states short of total knowing, are relative to one’s awareness of them. And they are always self-made. At the time of death one might become fearful of losing ‘control’, of losing one’s identity, without even knowing what it is that one is protecting. This could become a blind grasping fear state as the life force is expended and it will be this that is carried forward to continue, unaware, in like manner. It’s not quite so solid and defined as one is led to believe, this process of dying. There’s no definitive point where you are approached by St. Peter and told “Okay, drop all that now and follow me. I‘ll take care of everything.” Death, like rebirth, is illusion in which you believe. One who is born in hell doesn’t necessarily know its hell – it’s just familiar. If you’d like to know a bit about your present hell states analyze the temperature changes in your body during the day. Ask yourself whether you tend to feel cool or warm. Why do you need more warmth? Why do you need cold? It might prove helpful to train yourself to wear a similar weight of clothing all year round and have the body do the work of temperature regulation.
Death occurs with the withdrawal of the jivitindriya from the various parts of the body into the heart centre. This experience manifests as an image-ideal energy summarization of form rather like ‘you’ in your dreams, a form that feels appropriate to your being. If this summation consciousness is boundless – beyond form – at death the consciousness experiences the beyond-form as its next existence. If it is not, it is reborn immediately in what is called the Bardo in Tibet – the intermediate state – where (depending on the degree of true understanding present) it will be subject to the winds of projection and the laws of rebirth in Kama or Rupa Loka.
Consciousness can use the intermediate state as a means of release from being subject to the blindly conditioned, endless round of birth-death-bardo but to do so is far from an easy task. Because for the being undergoing this experience there is great confusion, coupled with a sense of the familiar, unless in life one has made efforts to cut through the hypnosis of family and cultural conditioning and established the mind that seeks to know – unattached to praise or blame – it is all but impossible to utilize the opportunity of awakening presented as the face of death
Chapter Three
ENERGY BODY
Jesus said to his followers that he gave them the keys to the kingdom that they might “…loose what shall be loosed and bind what shall be bound.” The keys to the kingdom, loosing and binding, are given to all beings. When they are understood in more than an intellectual sense one becomes the charioteer, able to ride the unending play of ubiquitous radiant energy without being deceived, without being pulled this way and that by appearance, or tossed like a piece of flotsam on the ocean’s restless waves. The study of birth/death leads to direct realization of the laws that govern all existence. Certainly life itself is composed of a series of minor death/rebirth states, most notably seen in the circadian sleep/wake cycle.
In spite of the obviousness of this dhamma many people cling to a notion of having some sort of permanency and consider their lives as set into an unchanging mould. Some even go so far as to project their views onto after-life states as well, although the most casual observer of life can readily see that it is impossible to resist change. The name you were called at the age of ten may be the same one you continue to answer to, but the ‘you’ has certainly evolved, in habit and outlook in the intervening time. In fact, nothing is bound, there is only continuous change. When one comprehends that there is merely phenomena arising and passing away, matter flowing now here, now there – that Reality is a verb – the natural joy of the undying play of the universe breaks thorough previously limited conceptions. Direct understanding is the sword that cuts through the bonds of suffering.
Simply because things in their essential nature are void, forming can arise. Because there is forming there is emptying. Forming itself is the emptying of other formings, moving divisions of space. There is no form in the universe, there is just emptiness forming. Because this is so, liberation from suffering is possible. By using insight into the truth of impermanence one is no longer susceptible to attachment and aversion, and one can dwell in the continuum of peace. I realize that very often people are so addicted to their states of anxiety that to even suggest peaceful existence as a possible way of life – and by the way, the continuum of peace is also very lively – is unthinkable, but for those who are disenchanted with the illogical round of ambition/ security/fear, this teaching is worth putting to the test. Let us therefore examine how human beings die.
The Tibetan form of Buddhism, although couched in the language of that isolated culture has, since its development until recent events, been free of admixture from other sources so we shall turn to this school to discover the meditator ‘s path to exploring death, the intermediate state and the rebirth. Especially if you lack familiarity with dream states or the more subtle levels of mind some of what follows will be of a highly speculative nature. You are advised therefore to utilize the mind of question, explore dreams, read much of the works of Jung, Grof, mythology, modern physics and science fiction to help yourself become susceptible to ideas. I suggest that you explore colours, paint or colour a picture every day and when you have finished it, forget about criticism. Just offer it up to whatever Gods may be; wipe the slate clean and start again, most important of all, practice mindfulness of the body.
Explore your senses; find out what role feelings play, what is emotion, what is thought. How does it feel not to have any thoughts running in the mind? Be curious. By doing so you might discover that there is more actual seeing in the tip of your little finger than there is in all the busyness of what you think you’re on about. The cells of your being at this moment are getting on with the transmutation of forms and energies, loosening and binding, while you are kept safely out of mischief by being involved with transient desires and aversions, perhaps brightly coloured but largely infantile. If you wish to expand your sphere of conscious involvement be prepared to open your mind to an endlessly fascinating universe of interpenetrating truths, the rise and fall of play in the fields of creation.
In Buddhadhamma one often finds that the mundane – or non-transcendental – state of understanding is equated to the element iron. The practitioner is to transmute the ‘iron’ to ‘diamond’; much as in the West the alchemist transmutes ‘lead’ to ‘gold’. The Tibetan texts that refer to the three stages of Death, Bardo and Birth speak in terms of transmuting these ‘iron elements’ into the three living bodies of purity. The three bodies are called Dharmakaya (Truth Body), Sambhogakaya (Radiant or Bliss Body), and Nirmanakaya (Physical or Six-sense base Body).The generally understood meaning of the word ‘body’ could be misleading to some minds so perhaps it might be safer to think in terms of ‘grouping’ or composite form’. The coding that unfolds the human being contains within it the template of these bodies so every person has the potential to realize the three. (You might review what was said in the previous chapter regarding the three realms or spheres of existence.) Nirmanakaya is form, Dharmakaya is formless and Sambhogakaya pertains to the dance of energy between these two. Sambhogakaya is the loosening and binding of form and formless states. One’s emotional responses are a major key to the understanding of this realm.
In the west the word ‘spirit’ is often used to indicate the moving force behind manifestation. In the east the word ‘prana’ bears the same general meaning. It is interesting to note that both these words are related to the idea of ‘wind’ – the invisible mover. In the west one prays for the spirit to descend to the fleshly level. In the east mystics are somewhat more pragmatic, in spite of what seems to other eyes as so much superstitious belief in rule and ritual – there is a very definite, orderly progression to be followed for conscious mastery of the movement of spirit or prana. Given such a pragmatic approach it is not surprising that a whole language structure, even a science, has been built up over the centuries in eastern societies. This science has been tested and retested by many thousands of practitioners; it rests on a long history of success. It invites the interested to see for themselves how viable it is.
The meditator who wishes to explore the movements of spirit – I prefer to use the word ‘energy’ – in the physical body must learn to watch with detachment the flows of mind and body throughout the day, not just during an hour or so set aside for being ‘spiritual’. By directly experiencing the flows in your being over and over again eventually the mind becomes centred enough to note details of movement and you can begin to collect data in earnest. Don’t however confuse data for the full picture.
Tibetan teaching states that there are 72,000 channels of prana throughout the body and of the 72,000 channels three are the main ones. These three, called the central, right and left channels, are said to run from the head to the base of the spine. There are, along the central channel, nexus points where various side streamings come together, called chakras in Sanskrit. The word chakra means orb, circle, disc, wheel, to turn, to cycle. The chakras could be thought of not so much as wheels but as cycles of time, pulsations with different peak periods. Throughout one’s life they oscillate with waxing and waning energy flows. The rhythms of their movements get up a network or interchange of probability. Chakras are actually wheels of becoming that pattern the manifestation and dissolution of being (which is occurring all the time). They are the sustenance of moving time.
For the moment we will turn our attention to five of the major nexus points or energy centres in the human makeup, which are as follows:
-The Mahasukha Chakra, located at the crown of the head, with 32 ‘spokes’ or ‘petals’. Mahasukha means great bliss, Great Goodness.
-The Sambhogha Chakra, located at the throat – the energy centre, the regulator, with 16 spokes or petals.
-The Dhamma Chakra, located at the heart centre (which is 10 finger-widths above the navel), is the Centre of Law. It has 8 spokes. Sometimes it is called ‘the centre of phenomena’. Within the heart there is said to be a small globe or seed, about ¼” in diameter, the top of which is white and the bottom red. This is the nucleus from which phenomena is produced.
-The Nirmana Chakra, the Transformation Centre (where forms are changed) is four finger-widths below the navel. It has 64 spokes or petals.
-The Sukhapala Chakra, the Good (or Joyous) Power Guardian Centre, sometimes called the secret centre – although this is a misnomer. More correctly, it is the Centre of Revealed Secrets. It has 32 spokes or petals and is located at the base of the spine, roughly halfway between the anus and genitals.
It is possible to relate the channels and nexus points to the teaching of western medicine and find certain parallels of understanding although you are not advised to get too involved in comparisons. Certainly, knowledge of anatomy is very helpful for the development of awareness however. The physical body can be thought of as a manifestation of the elements interacting, the energy body as the subtle or electro-magnetic propensities of the elements before their substance has taken on density. It might be useful to look at an ancient creation myth at this point, bearing in mind that this is a parable relating to the creation of each being as well as of beginningless beginning’.
According to this myth during the first aeon – that is, at a time of no solidity, just an undulation – came the formation of this world system. Within the undulation a series of planets or centres of energy began to form – nexus points coalesced, setting up lines of inter-action. The flux between centres traced out an ‘ideal’ form, an ‘astrobody’. The beings thus formed had seven characteristics.
The seven features marking these early-form humans were as follows: (l) spontaneous birth; (2) a lifespan with no definable beginning or end, so therefore immeasurable; (3) the proto-type of all the sense faculties, waiting to be used; (4) a body formed of light or like a field of light; (5) this light-body bearing within it all possibilities of form including the marks that indicate a Buddha, all potentialities present; (6) ability to receive nourishment directly from energy in its subtle forms rather than from course food; (7) not bound by time and space, able to move without obstruction through time and space.
However these beings were bound by propensities or attachments and due to the activation of these they ‘ate’ or took in denser substances. Something akin to a gravitational pull took over with the arising of attachment to food – and this caused these beings to put on mass. Then there occurred a greater binding, with coarse nutriment and an evolution rather like passing from atomic to molecular structure.
Because there was intake there was also something – excluded what will call the unrefined part of the nutriment – and thus with the arising of the molecular basis came a need for discharge so differentiation (or sexuality) developed. (A predisposition for intake and discharge necessitates sexuality. In fact, one could say that predisposition is attraction/intake – repulsion/discharge.)
Two beings at this stage of formation were attracted to each other. From molecules come cells and the cells wish to replicate. Attachment is matter’s way of responding to other forms. From the intermingling of these two beings’, a sentient being formed in the womb. Each cell has within it a womb principle. The body is full of little wombs and where there is a womb it will be filled. Thus came into being the womb-born species, the species of replicating cells.
Each step of this myth could be described as the activation of a level of consciousness or the movement of a different vibration of spirit/energy. It is not suggested that you take the myth literally but within it there are many possibilities for the intuitive mind to garner. The physical body puts on flesh around a network of energy lines. One who wishes to see more deeply into the mysteries of existence and death must study these channels of the finer material of formation. The practice that trains this subtle awareness is called by the Tibetans ‘Arising Yoga’ (sKyed.Rim). More exactly it could be called in English ‘Creative Imagination Meditation’. Using this method one practices a series of visualization exercises and disciplines of body, speech and mind in order to come to know the networks that make up what is called the Body of Bliss. Then the work of loosening and binding begins; one perceives the fluctuations of energy and pierces the veil that they weave to experience face to face ‘the weaver’. This second practice is called by the Tibetans rDsogs.Rim, usually translated into English as Perfecting Yoga.
Life itself is the unconscious practice of Arising and Perfecting Yogas, culminating after the moment of death in the experiences of the Dharmakaya, the Truth Body. But because beings have no understanding of this process they are unable to gain any integral benefit – and more often than not they fall from this Truth into states of confusion. To counteract this confusion the stages of death can be delineated, symbolically practiced and, hopefully, mastered within the span of one lifetime.
It is said that the work of liberation is the most difficult and subtle understanding to acquire. There are many schools in this world that lay claim to possessing the only true way to come to mastery of death and rather than adding one’s voice to this deafening chorus it seems wiser to consider what insights they all share. First and foremost is the admonition to refrain from wrongdoing, certainly at the level of apprenticeship. In Christianity you are encouraged not to ‘sin’; in the Moslem tradition you are reminded of ‘keeping the law’ and in Buddhism you are told to act with ‘virtue or merit’. All three of these examples, regardless of the name in which they are upheld, indicate the need to put aside the personal view or at least temper it with some aspiration to know or respect a greater authority; to ally oneself with the force behind all life. The Tibetans have a prayer which begins, “All beings our mothers, limitless as the sky…”
If one were to join forces with all of creation it would not be possible to ‘sin’, for all sin comes down to whether or not you are abiding in a state of love and respect. The only law is to honour the ‘creator’, to act in accordance with all creation. (I hesitate somewhat to use the word creator because to many people that immediately signifies a starting point, a beginning – definitely a non-Buddhist concept! But for the sake of expression I will leave it stand.) To abandon thoughts motivated by ambition, to let go of self-clinging and come into union with all life gives each action performed a universal force. You aren’t performing anything when motivated by loving compassion; you are then simply an expression of all creation, thrown up by the will of existence for the greater glory of the mystery. When you act for all manifestation then all manifestation is your support. Thus the Buddhist admonishment to “…cease to do evil, learn to do good, purify the mind” is equivalent to inviting you to walk in the way of power. It is possible with the support of all beings – and for the sake of all beings – to awaken in this lifetime. Awakening isn’t personal in the sense that it is the natural result of fulfilling the laws. Liberation comes through acting in accord with dhamma, not by pitting oneself against it. One does not fulfill the law by ordering the waves to run contrary to their nature, only by realizing that millions of years of evolution have led to the knowledge and aspirations called ‘self’. The ground of your being is the shared struggle of the manifest and un-manifest word to come to total comprehension. You should respect it.
So the texts say that great ‘merit’ is needed to make a definitive breakthrough in this life, but in fact the merit is already present. What needs doing is the realization that this IS so, that one is supported by all sentience in the quest for awakening. In Buddhism this is the real meaning behind the Sangha or community – not just the order of monks who, by wearing saffron coloured robes, signal their aspiration to do this work. When one has awakened to this level of confidence it is possible to understand the turnings of the wheels that sustain us all.
The spirit or energy that breathes life into the human realm is called in Tibetan, “Srog.rLung” and in Sanskrit, “Pranavayu”. The Tibetan “rLung” is considered to be one of the three humours of the body; existing in every organ, circulating along the 72,000 channels and the cause of virtually all movement. The other two humours, if you will bear with the medieval terminology for the moment, have the properties of bile or acidity and phlegm or stickiness. Any illnesses are said to be caused by imbalances of these three constituents. Of the three, rLung or Prana, is the regulator. It can be further categorized into five types, each of which plays a specific part in formation, maintenance and dissolution of life. At first the child growing in the womb is just the heart-base, the being-formation. Eventually it will have impressions and build up what will become ego but it begins as a quiescent energy pulse. During the first month of gestation the prevalent prana streaming is called in Tibetan Srog.Dzin; the heart centre, life support energy that is responsible in the human being for breathing. In the second month the downward clearing energy plays a predominant role. Its task is that of purgation, discharge of excrement etcetera. In Tibetan it is called Thur.Sel. The Me.mNam energy develops its greatest influence during the third month and begins the process of digestion, separating the usable nutriment from that which will not be assimilated by an action described as fiery. In the fourth month the upward running (Gyen.rGyu) energy takes over the major role of development through the task of regulation of growth as well as enlivening the faculty of speech. In the fifth month the Khyab.Byad, that which permeates and causes muscular motion is engaged in its development of the foetus.
In some ways of explaining the functions of the chakras the heart centre is said to be the seat of the energy flow activated at conception and during the first month of uterine existence; the centre of revealed secrets the seat of those energies chiefly responsible for the second month; the transformation centre of the third, the throat centre of the fourth and the forehead centre of the fifth. The fifth to tenth month (a month being measured by the lunar cycle, pregnancy generally lasts into the tenth month) see the development of the elements earth, water, fire, air and space [or ether] in their capacities of refining the senses as follows: sixth month, earth subtle energy refines the eyes; seventh month, water subtle energy refines the ears; eighth month, fire subtle energy refines the sense of smell; ninth month, air subtle energy refines the tongue and sense of taste; tenth month, the ether or space subtle energy refines the form. Each of these stages is experienced by consciousness and duly recorded. As each takes its appointed role again in the process of dissolution of form, their action is marked by the appearance of very singular ‘nimitta’ or signs. The meditator who practices correctly, moves in an orderly progression through each of these various stages, noting the apprehended sign, while consciously taking part in the transmutation process.
The basic principles of Tibetan Tantric practice are founded on a belief in the inseparable nature of the physical and universal or law bodies. Physically, human life begins when the sperm and egg, containing within them all the information necessary to form a unique human entity based on generations of safety-tested models, come together with a third factor in supportive circumstances. Similarly the Tibetans refer to red and white seeds or drops which combine within the heart centre, forming the nucleus of being. Just as in every cell of the body one finds DNA coding, so too every part of the body contains the white and red seeds, although in particular areas one will predominate the other. The white, for example, is in greatest evidence at the crown of the head, the centre of great bliss, and the red at the transformation centre, just below the navel.
Even before death the subtle energies of the elements begin to withdraw from worldly involvement, beginning with the earth (hardness, extension) constituent. The co-relation between shrinking and old-age is not unknown to western medicine. At death the final stages of withdrawal move fairly rapidly: extension is subsumed into the watery, cohesive element which is subsumed into the fiery element (caloricity). This in turn is subsumed into the vibratory, air element. The energy streamings throughout the 72,000 channels now become ten confluences which move to the heart centre. The white from the crown of the head moves down the central channel to the heart, following which the red raises to that same centre. All the energies are consummated in the heart’s nucleus. From this point they will exit the body.
Each of these shifts occurs with an increasing degree of subtlety. One who is not conversant with the more dramatic movements of energy/consciousness that are part of every day life – somewhat comparable to the so-called ‘bio rhythms’ – may undergo the experience of death in a growing state of confusion as they feel the familiar slipping away, beyond the reach of their awareness. They may have a sensation of swooning (which is very common at this time) and be overcome by fear. Therefore the meditator is instructed to develop non-clinging awareness of the impermanent aspect of all manifestations, to see all conditioned states of existence as transient. Written on the Taj Mahal in India is the message “Life is a bridge, don’t build your house on it.” When the conditions that support the blossoming of a flower are withdrawn why cling to the fading petals? Better to allow them to become compost and enrich the earth for the next season’s seeding – putting your energies into studying the dhamma of seeds to know what has been nourishing and therefore, what will be conducive to harvest in the future. It is possible for you to take a more active part in creation if you don’t waste lifetimes railing against unreality. Only the real has the power of conquest over suffering. It may be very comfortable to admire all types of growth equally but when it comes down to the crunch there is no substitute for knowing which seeds nourish and which do not. Only to the awakened mind is there no benefit in knowing which seeds grow flowers and which grow weeds. All things are beneficial when one is liberated from ignorance.
Chapter Four
SAMBHOGAKAYA/KARMIC ENERGIES AND SUBSUMATION
An individual is the working of kamma. Kamma means, very simply, action. It generally denotes wholesome or unwholesome volition which in combination with various mental factors causes rebirth and shapes the events of life. A human being is movements of space, fluctuations on either side of a zero point – a weaving of invisible threads. When there is an action (kamma) there is usually a reaction (kamma vipaka). The Buddha, in a discourse to his followers, said: “Volition, oh monks, is what I call action, for through volition one performs the action by body, speech or mind.” There are six conditions of kamma and thus of kamma-vipaka; greed, hatred, delusion, non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion. The Buddha also said; “Owners of their kamma are the beings; heirs of their kamma, the kamma is their womb from which they are born, their kamma is their friend, their refuge. Whatever kamma they perform, good or bad, thereof they will be the heirs.” Dependant on the strength of volition, kamma can be understood in terms of different potentialities. First, regenerative or productive kamma; second, supportive or consolidating kamma which does not itself produce vipaka but maintains and supports the productive kamma; third, counteractive or suppressive kamma which counteracts the vipaka of a previous action; and finally, destructive or supplanting kamma which can – given the supportive circumstances – supplant the influence of a weaker volition.
In the first chapter I mentioned briefly that a part of kammic energies goes toward fashioning and maintaining form. Taking this idea further one can say that the energy field called individual existence is a composite of myriad streamings of volition; an ever-changing kammic seed-bag that sprouts an action here, another there, while generally responding to physical and mental experiences translated into terms of pleasure/pain for the organism. One is reminded somewhat of “Alice Through the Looking Glass” where that delightful character, caught by the beauty of the bulrushes lining the bank, pulls herself and her small craft along the stream by plucking armful after armful of the scented plants which she quickly throws behind her into the boat. There they lie, piled up and fading, while unmindful even of the direction in which her actions carry her, she reaches for more and more.
The kammic seeds that function as regenerative or productive actions produce what in Buddhadhamma are known as the five aggregates or groups of existence. These (called in Sanskrit ‘Skandha’, in Pali ‘Khandha’) are aspects which the Buddha named to sum up the physical and mental properties of existence. The combination of these five working together are what the ignorant assume to be the personality or self-identity. They are; corporeality (rupa), feeling (vedana), perception (sanna), mental formationing (sankhara), and consciousness (vinnana). When one accomplishes a human birth one is granted these five basic tools or powers. The degree to which they are consciously used as powers is remarkably variable from being to being. When they are raised to their highest performance they are called the Five Wisdoms.
Thus the very common aggregate of form, rupa, when fully realized and mastered no longer acts to imprison one. It is actually the Mirror-Like Wisdom – that which reflects what light is shone upon it and that which is reflected, according to the inner understanding. In the Western tradition there is a saying, “As above so below, as without so within.” Form is created by consciousness. To master the transmutation of form – that is, to take part in the dance of manifestation without being subject to suffering – it is only necessary to stop clinging to form. Allow the Mirror-Like Wisdom to manifest as naturally as the full moon might appear from behind a cover of cloud, by the practice of awareness of form. Prejudgment causes the conditions that trap one in unsatisfactory states where the mirror-like aspect of form reflects stupidity or Ignorance rather than Wisdom. Even, however, in the most painful hell-states this aggregate continues to be the Mirror-Like Wisdom by unerringly revealing exactly what one is creating. We are always in a perfect fit. By acknowledging this truth one can begin to use the mirroring form as an aid to awakening.
The second aggregate, of feeling, vedana, is linked to the Wisdom of Equality. “Every sound is the Divine Sound” – it’s all vibration. Pleasure, pain or neutrality are all flavours of the one substance that nourishes one’s being. The human psyche is capable of feeding on all experiences, not condemned to forever seek out those particular tastes that uphold our individual patterns of conditioning. No matter what the involvement, feelings are participating. They are well worth exploring in themselves. By learning how to ride one’s feelings rather than being driven by them this aggregate is realized as the Wisdom of Equality, the Power of ‘choiceless-ly’ being open to experience. Exploring what is occurring brings – like virtue – its own reward.
Sanna, perception, becomes the Wisdom of Discrimination when the unobscured mind is free to record perceived data. Without the necessity of having to reduce everything to a size that fits one’s limited concept of the universe yet still utilizing the faculty of memory, perception is wondrous, enriching. From a few basic laws of structure come myriad possibilities; the jewelled luminosity of creation opens to the discriminating wisdom of mind. Not only does every cloud have a silver lining, but every silver lining has a cloud – and some are pink, some purple, some thick, some thin. If nothing ever happens in your life, activate the aggregate of perception. Develop it into the Power of Discrimination by analyzing what kind of nothing is happening. It’s very difficult to maintain a state of depression if one becomes interested in that state!’ Discrimination has something of the sword about it, an ability to penetrate to essential levels of activity without being confused by surface static. Perception is not a matter of judgment; it’s more a matter of knowing things as they are. It’s a great help in this world to know what animal one is tracking through the forests!
The aggregate of Sankhara or mental ‘formationing’ when raised to its highest potentiality becomes the Wisdom of Volition, the wisdom of knowing what is wanting. This brings one in touch with the so-called ‘unconscious’ levels of mind, the templates of creation ‘desirous of expression’. When not you but the universe is acting, freedom of activity is the order of the day. Something of this understanding is contained in the prayer “Thy will be done”. In fact, nothing else is possible. When this is understood there is no need to set oneself up as Supreme Regulator of Existence. When the true Emperor is on his throne all the ministers, file clerks and workers of every description go about their business in harmony. Every action meshes with the whole, seasons rise and fall in their proper order when sankhara is used as the Wisdom of Volition.
The fifth aggregate, vinnana or consciousness, is the wisdom of dhamma, of Knowing the Nature of Phenomena. It is best observed in terms of mental texture or state of mind. Sometimes one perceives the mind-state as dull or clear, angry or joyous, brittle or flexible. Watching these textures of consciousness will give clues to vinnana. In a sense the four previously described aggregates act as the base or supporting circumstance of consciousness although the five are present in a state of mutual conditioning. Vinnana furnishes the bare cognition of objects while vedana, sanna and sankhara provide more specialized data. According to Abhidhamma there are 89 classifications of consciousness.
Before going on to examine in greater detail the orderly subsumation of the vital energies and the various signs that arise in conjunction with each stage of the dissolution of life it might be helpful to introduce some further ideas – particularly about the channels along which prana is said to flow. In an earlier chapter reference was made to the 72,000 channels – often called nadis – and the three main channels; giving the location of the latter as being in the centre of the body running roughly parallel to the spine.
Classical expositions place the central channel from the base of the spine – or the genitals – to the crown of the head where it curves around somewhat like the crook of a shepherd’s staff to terminate at a point between the eyebrows. The side channels are said to run parallel to this central nadi (about ½” distant) but at the upper end they extend down to the two nostrils. It is also said that these secondary channels wind around each of the chakras along the central channel, thus restricting the flow of energy up and down this main nadi during one’s lifetime. The heart centre is said to be wrapped six times – that is – by three windings of each side channel.
I refer the interested reader to the excellent work of Garma C.C. Chang for further clarification of this and related subjects – in particular his translation and annotation of ‘Teachings of Tibetan Yoga’ published by The Citadel Press, Secaucus New Jersey,.
The Sanskrit word ‘nadi’ literally means root, origin, primary cause or source. In Tibetan it is ‘rTsa’ – in Sanskrit synonyms are ‘sira’ (vein or artery), ‘dhamani’ (intestine, bowel), or ‘stambha’ (pulse).
The name for the central nadi (the channel of union) in Tibetan is ‘dBu.ha’, pronounced ‘Uma’ or ‘Wuma’. In Sanskrit it is called ‘susumna’ or ‘avadhuti’. There is a suggestion in the origins of this word of keeping to the middle way, thus avoiding the extremes of nihilistic or eternalistic beliefs. ‘U’ in Tibetan by itself means ‘head’.
The right channel, the solar channel, (in Tibetan, Ro. POa; in Sanskrit Pingala ) is sometimes depicted as filled with minute suns or ‘sindhura’ powder to represent red secretions. ‘Ro’ by itself is equivalent to the Sanskrit word ‘Rasa’ which means taste; flavour, savour, or residue, remains, sediment. It can also mean physical body, particularly in reference to a corpse. Ro.Ma literally means anything from which the juice, spirit or essence has been extracted. A secondary meaning is grass.
The left channel, sometimes depicted as filled with minute moons or white secretions such as semen, is often called the lunar channel. In Tibetan it is ‘rKyang.Ma’, in Sanskrit ‘Ida’. [‘rKyang’ on its own means each, single, simple, alone.]
The collective name for the three channels in Tibetan is ‘Srog.rTsa.Ring.Po’ – which translates as ‘long-life roots’. ‘Srog’ in Sanskrit is ‘prana’ – [‘jiva’ in English is life] – ‘rTsa’ in Sanskrit is ‘nadi’ – [‘mula’ in English is ‘root’, ‘channel’] – ‘Ring.Po’ in English is ‘long (time)’, ‘length’ (of time). A synonymous name is ‘gShi.Ma’, meaning root or seed. ‘gShi’ is ground; basis, foundation, original cause, exciting cause, that which gives origin to, or from which arises a thing.
Having thus embroiled you, patient reader, in a morass of technicality, I now hasten to provide relief, using the scriptures as means. The Buddha Sakyamuni is on record as saying, “I, too, use concepts but I am not fooled thereby.” Teaching methods are devised for the use of human consciousness, to enable one to cut through the veils of illusion and cognize reality. The five groups or aggregates are in fact an abstract classification, an aid to coming to true understanding. All the pretty pictures of neatly drawn nadis and chakras are fine, but experience is really the only essential understanding. Knowing this, the wise have contrived systems that immerse the mind in profitable question and act as stepping stones for the establishment of calm. When calm awareness is present the so-called ‘higher’ experiences will arise. They are already arising constantly but while the mind is heavily involved in confusion one cannot be aware of the subtleties of reality.
By employing techniques one can counteract the blindness of ignorance and bring consciousness – which is not something separate from energy – to a mid-point, to the centre of the centre. Basic Theravadan ‘kasina’ work is excellent training in proper meditational skills. In this practice one constructs an outer symbol or representation of a universal phenomenon and disciplines oneself to bring it within, have it appear in the mind’s eye. Results may come very quickly or it may take considerable time – the time element has little to do with the degree of success. Meditation is not a stage performance. Eventually something of the outer symbol will appear and then, of course, the novice becomes very excited. “Ha, I’ve got it” he thinks and mentally lunges toward it, at which it vanishes away. Through trial and error, but especially through interest in the process, slowly the mind settles, becomes calm. When one drops judgments of good/bad and allows the question of the kasina to work, the inner sign will arise without effort, centred and complete. The quality of the vision is in direct proportion to the state of mind of the meditator.
Any qualified teaching method works because it parallels the actual awakening process. Lacking a valid system, one can search blindly, lifetime after lifetime with little success regardless of one’s good intentions. Direction is needed, and it is provided by transmission from those who have gone before. A teacher sets the student the task of creatively imagining what is real, shaping the mind with concepts of reality until reality itself is invoked and the concepts drop away. One moment of reality destroys the darkness of centuries of doubt. But holding on to a candle in the dead of night, without lighting it, doesn’t increase one’s vision. It is not the candle – or the system of teaching – that brings one to the awakening.
The task is to use what is given so that you are able to attain something beyond. So we say there is a central and side channel – but in fact there is not. There is just loosening and binding. Or, if you prefer, we could say that everything is right and left ‘channeling’ electromagnetic fields coming into alignment and shifting, moving into new flow patterns. The chakras are, as everybody knows, turnings up and down the central channel, but the central channel itself is not a ‘thing’, it is just the movement of prana. It is a balance point created by the side channels. Or we could say that the central channel is ‘bhavanga’, a double helix of movement. Experiencing the central channel is like turning inside out, turning in the seat of consciousness. I recommend somersaults or – for the less adventurous – cartwheels, as a method to invoke the central experience of ‘the turning’.
A mudra is a position of the dance, a mantra is a mind-shaping tool, a mandala is for mind-expansion. These are examples of systems designed to trigger awareness of experiences that are always occurring. When awareness dawns every sound is mantra, every movement is mudra, every manifestation is the undying body of compassion. The use of knowledge in a methodical way develops skill in means to reach an end, which in this case is actually a beginning. Although any written teaching is already decadent, not the ultimate truth, the general pattern or indication of the unfolding of human potential into full being-knowing can be to some extent delineated. Each being who undertakes this work will find that in spirit the method holds true although in the letter there will be variations from person to person. Depending on the capabilities and talents of each individual the order of arising nimitta may be slightly changed – or one person may find that for a long period of time few experiences manifest while another has the opposite situation to sort out. In a sense, for every student a new teaching comes into being. You might also consider that no two bags of garbage smell the same.
One of the few warnings that are given to practitioners should be set out for your consideration. In the Buddhist tradition one is cautioned against talking about one’s own, or listening to another’s meditation experiences, except in dialogue with one’s teacher. Such discursive activity will, at the very least, serve only to further states of confusion due to the above stated variables. There is also great danger of clinging to small puddles and so never finding one’s way to the ocean of bliss if one uses meditation results for the aggrandizement of ego-view. At the end of each meditation session the practitioner should quickly review the hour and then make an offering of the work done for the sake of all beings, moved by the spirit of compassion. It’s no good clinging to the revelations one meets on the path anyway. They are transient fruits. Accept them for what they are and pass on. As the Buddha said, “This teaching is excellent in the beginning, excellent in the middle, excellent in the end.”
By setting aside the usual worldly ambitions that restrict one’s understanding of excellence there is a flowering of the compassionate mind. If there is no compassion present, regardless of circumstances, one is dwelling in a hell state. With compassion present all things are possible, all doors open. Compassion reverses the flow of grasping energy and brings one to the heart’s core of understanding, cooling the mind. Complete filling with compassion is said to be one of the fruits tasted by those who have transformed birth into the body of emanation (Nirmanakaya) – death into truth body (Dharmakaya) – and the Bardo (‘Bar’ is between, ‘do’ is two) or intermediate state into the undying bliss body (Sambhogakaya).
The process of awakening simulates the experience of death/rebirth-into-bardo with one difference. One passes through, (as did Sakyamuni Buddha at the time of his attainment) the eight absorptions one after the other, from the form to the formless realms. Then this process reverses and, unless destined for rebirth in an Arupa or Formless Realm, consciousness moves from formless to form states.
Once more there is a reversal of this procedure, going through the four rupa jhanas or form absorptions – but at the mid-point between form and formless – by developing insight with regard to impermanence, dissatisfaction and impersonality, the seeds of kamma are extinguished and liberation is attained. This is called ‘Awakening’.
The difference between the death process and the awakening process occurring in this lifetime – other than the cultivation of insight – is that in the awakening process life is not exhausted, the element of heat is present, and the bodily, verbal and mental functions are not destroyed. The veil of petty discursiveness is lifted and life meets life, face to face.
At the time of death the energies are subsumed in eight stages of dissolution. In the first four stages twenty-two factors of existence are withdrawn from worldly interaction. These twenty-two factors are responsible for the manifestation and maintenance of form or rupa. In the last four stages the remaining three factors, determining the manifestation and maintenance of consciousness, are subsumed.
The first four stages of dissolution are marked by the appearance of both internal and external nimitta or signs, while the last four, being movements of very subtle energy (or consciousness) are paralleled by internal nimitta only. Another way of explaining the first four stages of withdrawing life force is to speak in terms of elemental energies, and the last four in terms of the four arupa jhanas or formless absorptions.
In the study of Abhidhamma one learns that wherever one element manifests the others will also be present to some extent. Thus in the process of dissolution of the elements there is no absolutely clear delineation of each element separately being subsumed. As the predominant element of one phase is shifting there can occur at about the same time signs of another elemental energy. The ending of one stage overlaps the beginning of another. Hence the order of arising nimitta may vary somewhat from being to being. That is why one occasionally finds the sequence of nimitta altered in different texts, but nonetheless the stages of dissolution move in an orderly progression. The order is based on the dhammas or truths of each individual undergoing the experiences. Rather than attempting to trace out all the possible variations that might occur we will here examine the prototype or Pith Instruction. The intelligent reader, having this useful guide to work from, will be able to discern the orderly progression of law within the many-shadowed complexity of appearance.
In the first phase of energies withdrawing from life the prana that functions as elemental earth is subsumed. The body thins. The limbs become loose or limp and the being experiences a feeling of sinking or falling. He may call out for support at this point. This marks the dissolution of the aggregate of form, noted by an increase of the shrinking common to old age and accompanied by an overwhelming sense of strength of the body ebbing away. Of the five Wisdoms this is the time when the Mirror-Like Wisdom loses its potency and the eye-sense which is related to form (responsive to shape and colour by sensitivity to the reflection of light) – fails. An aspect of Mirror-Like Wisdom is that one can only see what is within one’s comprehension. The world reflects what you know and at death the world that you know fades. An inner sign arises in the appearance of swirling mirages, almost of the quality of billowing blue smoke. Outwardly one’s vision has darkened and one is no longer able to move the eyelids at will. The blue colour is the herald of death’s appearance. Basically in this first stage the energy that sustains physical contact is subsumed.
In the next stage the elemental energies connected with water withdraw from manifestation and bodily secretions stopped. The aggregate of feeling ceases to function and one no longer distinguishes between the relative states of pleasure/pain that have heretofore very subtly, even subliminally, swayed one’s judgements. (It is worthy of note, by the way, that the more wholesome one’s mind state, the less problematic is pain. It can be something one observes with interest rather than something one fears.) Now the Wisdom of Equality fades and one is no longer aware of the feelings that in life are triggered off by changing mental states. The evaluating process disengages from outer circumstances. As pain goes, the thirty-three discriminating thoughts or concepts characteristic of anger begin to subside or loosen. At this time generally the ear sense base fails and one no longer hears physical sounds. There may still be a type of hearing but not connected to the realm of the physical human body. The ‘ur’ sound heard when one is utterly silent, the sound of the human ear, is no longer discerned. Also, the sense of balance, the orientation in space maintained by the inner ear, shuts down. The inner sign of mirages becomes more smoke-like – billowing clouds of smoke on smoke undulate in the mind’s eye.
The life energies vanish – or are subsumed one into the other – in a movement that can seem either simultaneous or sequential, or fluctuate between the two. When one element is withdrawn into the energy base the others increase in intensity. The process usually moves quite rapidly once begun. Now the fire elemental energy reverses its direction and is withdrawn toward the non-material spheres. Digestion processes stop. The temperature of the body may go totally out of whack. One might experience sudden fever, followed by withdrawal of caloricity. The aggregate of perception fades, memory goes, and one is no longer able to discriminate between outer phenomena, is not aware of the names of family members and friends. The psyche is no longer involved with categories and meanings. Now the forty concepts characteristic of lust or desire are loosened and pleasure is no longer a motivating factor. The sense of smell cuts out, the breathing changes and inhalation becomes weak while exhalation is strong and lengthy. The internal sign at this stage is the arising of sparks within the smoke. These are usually a yellow or orange colour, like the sparks seen from a chimney at night.
The elemental energies of air or vibration now loosen their hold on the body. Just as in the uterine existence; the flow of prana moved from the heart centre to the centre of revealed secrets, then to the transformation centre, the throat centre, the joints of the body, followed by the transmission from the subtle energy body of the vibration of the elements developing eye sense through earth, ear sense through water, nose through fire, taste/touch through air and bodily form through ether or space – so now these 10 winds or pranas are withdrawn from the flesh.
The ‘word’ is removed from the casing in the reverse order that it took on its living clay. The ten vibrations of prana are withdrawn to the heart base. Breathing stops, as does the elimination process, bodily heat, taste and sense of touch, and physical action. The inner doors of the senses are no longer operative. Energy withdraws from the physical body and the aggregate of mental ‘formationing’ ceases to function. The volitional energy – the Wisdom of Volition – is no longer driving the body. Now the seven concepts of the characteristic of delusion (primitive views of reality) or ignorance are loosened and one is unconcerned with worldly activities and ambitions for this or future lives. The tongue becomes thick and shortened, it’s root ‘blues’. In the mind’s eye the internal sign arises of a sputtering point of light, like a butter lamp about to go out. This is the break-up of form but not of emotions. Whatever emotional contradictions have remained unresolved no longer have the focal power of the body through which to operate. Like a black hole in space they are capable of exerting tremendous gravitational pulls on the fine-material body of bardo (which is somewhat like, for example, the body that you assume in dream states), subjecting the being to their influence in that state.
From the fifth to the eighth cycles of subsumation the mental base is desegregated, merged into one. In the fifth cycle the eighty concepts or occupations of mind (previously loosened during the second, third and fourth stages) are dissolved and the prana of mind that has served to create these eighty reverses it’s flow. The subtle energy above the heart centre in the right and left channels gathers in the crown cakra, located at the top of the head on the central nadi. Due to the rush of energy at this nexus point, its binding or knot-like characteristic is loosened. Those aspects of the individual that could be equated to the genetic coding obtained from the father are released. At this point the mind is clear of concepts although there is still present the duality of nama-rupa [name-form]. Subject/object-making is going but there is still distinction between the energies of mind-matter. The sign of the sputtering lamp fades into a clear white moonlight shining in the darkness. The light that was previously poured into eighty vases or bubblings of energy is now diffused. This is called the Light of Revelation. This and the next three stages are like washes of light of different intensities.
In the sixth subsumation the energy that manifested as the Light of Revelation is dissolved into the next stage and there appears The Light of Augmentation. The prana in the right and left channels below the heart centre gathers at the base of the spine in the Central Channel, loosening the knot-like quality of that centre. In the previous stage those genetic traits inherited from one’s father were abandoned; now, coding obtained from the mother is left behind. There is a sense of augmentation of the light, a shift to greater clarity of mind. One experiences a heightened vacuity, free of defilement and pervaded by sunlight of a slight red-orange hue. The chakra at the navel, the Transformation Centre loosens somewhat at this point.
Now the prana gathered at either end of the Central Channel moves to enter the nucleus in the Heart Centre and the Light of Near-Attainment dawns. The six-sided knot at the heart chakra is loosened by the force of these moving energies and the Red light of Augmentation is replaced by the appearance of a deep indigo light, a thick darkness of vacuity. All of the previously bound and differentiated energies of mind merge into the heart’s nucleus with its white and red drops or seeds. As this happens the dark light manifests; the light of Near Attainment, on the threshold of the Clear Light. This is the sign of the total emptying out of individual consciousness. The absolute basis of being becomes manifest and pure mindfulness arises. At this point there is usually a reaction of swooning; the experience is overwhelming. It is pure mindfulness, but not mindful of any thing.
The eighth cycle of subsumation of energy, when the prana gathered in the heart is subsumed into the seeds or drops within the nucleus, is signaled by the appearance of the Clear Light of Death. This state is totally unmarked by moon light, sun light or dark light. It is extremely lucid, non-conceptual, non-dualistic. The centre of the jivitindriya having been drawn in to itself, one experiences the essence which is sunya – void. A l l of the weavings are undone, leaving the intelligent energy clear, without manifestation of any sort. From the point of view of ego motivated by fearful concepts this might be regarded as a terrifying state, but in the fifth stage of dissolution volitional mind states ceased to function and now all that is left is a state of utmost purity. Death is not fearful, it is simply cessation, the total clarity of universal emptying. “No man,” say the Western Teachings, “can see God face to face and live.” The experience of totality is beyond the limited screen of ‘man. Meeting with it implies a complete change of lineage, a ‘going beyond’.
In meditational terminology the texts speak of the “son-light” merging with the “mother-light” which is the “clear light of death”. By perseverance and proper focus the meditator is able to develop awareness to the point that he or she can undergo the eight stages of dissolution with full knowledge, thus dispelling the forces of ignorance that have prolonged subjugation to unhappy states of existence.
Chapter Five
THROUGH BARDO
Everyone is destined to achieve the awakening, to experience the Body of Truth that manifests as the Clear Light (death), the Body of Bliss (bardo existence) and the Body of Emanation (rebirth), but not everyone is capable of utilizing these achievements. If one cannot perceive the energy that nourishes the various mental formations, the most subtle manifestations of form, it is not likely that one will be aware of the dawning of even the first of the four emptyings of consciousness, the formless states. To the mind that cannot sense these laws in operation everything seems to just vanish away. The dance of energy, however, prevails, moving from form to form by the way of no-form. Great calm and non-clinging are needed to master this dance. For most beings when the dense, physical body is subsumed into the seemingly magical body of bardo the experience is somewhat like starring in one’s own version of the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Happenings move one hither and yon, whether you will it or not. Can you say what motivations will be harnessed to the opportunity of death-rebirth? What motivations are running you now? The awakening – in a sense – is guaranteed; the real question is, what can you do with it?
Who are you when you have given your bones back to your father and your flesh back to your mother?
According to the Tibetan tradition one generally abides in the Clear Light for about three days. Then within that experience there is a quiver, a ripple – the flow of javanna. Thus begins a movement within the Body of Truth; neither an arising nor a descending, just a movement. Now from the heart’s nucleus all the prana of the white drop emerges from the base of the spine, while that of the nature of the red exits from the nose. (There are sometimes physical signs of these departures on the corpse.) Simultaneously, the very subtle energy of the essential jivitindriya leaves the heart and exits the body from any one of several areas, depending on the type of rebirth that is to be established. This consciousness-base is like a crystal or translucent light, almost snow-white but shining with the radiance of five colours: white, red, yellow, green and blue. This is the life spectrum (the jivitindriya range) of a human-type ‘astral or bardo body. It will act as the interlinking or working basis of the motive force, projected as an energy form into the new existence of bardo. It will also act as an on-going, shaping agent of that form.
These two aspects of kammic energies (working basis and shaping agent) are sometimes referred to as the ‘substantial cause of form’ and the ‘co-operative cause of mind’ of the bardo existence. In fact, to define them as causal is an error. The so-called substantial cause is the root upon which present experiences are dependant, and roots are not a cause. In a sense the organism decision-making process working on the basis of previous data is what is referred to as substantial cause. This process could be described as mental volition, so long as one includes those spheres of mind that operate beyond the realm of ego. This interlinking substantial cause can be compared to the flow of a river; the co-operative cause would then be like the banks of that river, shaping the flow to some extent while also being shaped by it.
There is no primary cause although one can see that there is reason for the river to flow and for the banks to manifest in particular ways. From the very no-beginning cycle, from rain clouds to ocean, the human being can discover reasons for this or that manifestation of water – so too, with the undying body of form. When we speak of cause and effect it is necessary to remember that we are using relative rather than absolute truth. There is in fact no prime moving subject or object, just situations with many options. The practitioner tries to keep an open mind, to note all the variables – the awakened mind is open. An open mind has penetrated the illusion of ‘cause’ and is freed from the limitations of time/space.
The consciousness of the Clear Light acts as the heart base or ground of being. It also acts as the maintenance mind. The Clear Light is the ‘mother light, the kamma or energy manifestation of totality which is sometimes referred to as the Alaya Consciousness. With the movement of javana within that, some aspect of the mother light ripples toward a forming. This ripple of javanna is the rebirth kamma, a motive force with a set or pre-conditioned basis of potentiality, an impulse active within a specific range and with a particular amount of life force behind it. The range of a human birth manifests first as a translucent light of five-coloured radiance. The particular mixture of clarity and proportion of these lights in an individual has already been set or fixed at the time of death. They are coded ‘human’ at this point; in the process of bardo the shaping continues and the possibilities of that range are sorted through. The choices where the coding will find a fit will become fewer and fewer until, out of all the myriad possibilities of rebirth, very specific formation will come into manifestation. The whole process is kamma vipaka or resultant consciousness. The applied or conscious energy of a lifetime conjoins with and shapes the karmic energy of the alaya into the next life. How one has applied consciousness determines the rippling formation within the Clear Light.
One can observe something of this process in life, in particular in sleep and dream states which are ‘little death and bardo’ experiences. The body that appears as ‘you’ in dreams holds very important clues to how you are applying the consciousness in this lifetime and hence, to what type of future birth you are now shaping. In falling to sleep there is a replication on a smaller scale of the process of death, from the subsumation of earth energy as consciousness withdraws from applied participation with the body, through to the Clear Light which manifests in deepest sleep. (In sleep this Clear Light is called the ‘son light’, in death it is called the ‘mother light’. One’s task is to ‘wake up’ to the Clear Light that manifests in sleep and to be able to bring the awakened awareness of the son light into union with the mother light.) With the onset of dreams there is a ripple in the deep sleep state and then a movement through the various levels to the formation of the dream body. Following the dream, again consciousness passes into deep sleep.
In the morning, when one wakes up, the consciousness goes through the eight stages of coming into form, into earth, and another day begins. It’s a day, and all the events it contains are likely enough to be predictable, but it is unique as well. Another day with all its subtle shapings and changes is not yesterday, nor is it tomorrow. There may be similarities, but variables are also present and the greatest of these is awareness. It is excellent practice to train yourself in awareness of the sleep process. As a first step in this direction you might watch to see whether you fall asleep and wake up on the inhalation or exhalation of breath.
The bardo body is both shape and unshape. It is based on the very subtle, intelligent energy that makes up all forms, that has existed throughout beginningless time. That intelligent energy is all that there is. All the parts are not separate from that, thus enlightenment or liberation from suffering is possible. From within the vast potential of the Intelligent Energy comes a particular movement-shaping which still bears the characteristics of all potentialities, like a stream flowing within a stream. This stream within the greater stream becomes more defined until eventually it will be so precisely set that it will fit in with two other codings (the future mother and father) so well that the three characteristics will merge as one human being.
The potential of universal expression becomes specialized through a reversal of the eight stages that marked the process of dying. In this first stage the coding of kammic energy (ripple of javana) signals the cessation of death. The Clear Light fades and the Bardo Body manifests. The commencement of bardo existence is marked by the arising of the black light of Near Attainment. The jivitindriya with its five radiances takes on the aspects of humanness in an energy or ghost form which will be replicated physically when rebirth is accomplished. This Bardo body is completely grown on its appearance with the sense bases operating and all parts functional. The white and red drops have reversed their previous movement, the white now ascending to the heart and the red descending to that centre, and consciousness moves into a new range. At death one has been turned inside out, now one is turned outside in and in this process a new set of aggregates, a shake-up of the possibilities is set. The human consciousness – a relationship between form and space – is on its way to manifestation in a spontaneous, causeless universe. There is no cause. There is no time. The process is totally devoid of a starting point. The manifestations that seem separate are inextricably interwoven into the fabric of the whole. Pick up one thread and you get the whole tapestry. There is only the weaving of sunya and to catch that fish you have to swallow the whole ocean!
From the Black Light of Near Attainment the bardo being moves into the experience of the Red Light of Augmentation, then the Moon-White Light of Revelation, the reappearance of the sputtering lamp, sparks, billows of smoke and, finally, mirage. To think that at any time the Clear Light actually ceases to be present is the great delusion. The Clear Light is unending. Just as the screen upon which one watches a movie being projected remains steadily present whatever scenes may fall upon it, so too with the Clear Light. Whatever particular movie you are engrossed in, it is totally dependent on the Clear Light. And just as in the stories told to and by humans, certain plots and situations tend to repeat regardless of culture or creed, (perhaps because they are central to the human condition) so too one finds at the time of death certain nimitta or signs arising, essential to this level of consciousness. These signs are presented at death/ rebirth to all people, whether or not they have heard this teaching. They will be interpreted in accord with the conditioned understanding each being has adopted, so that for a Christian the figure of Christ might appear where a Buddhist would see the form of Chenreizig, but whatever the projection the sign can be identified as a collective consciousness symbol of a universal law.
We only see what we already know, yet we hold the potential knowing of all dhamma as our birthright. Because for one reason or another most beings lack the energy to look beyond what they are told they know, there is no preparation made to go beyond conditioned beliefs, yet between the beads of individual understanding there runs a thread of wisdom that has never been exhausted, infinite in its potential. New – to you – symbols can arise, new understandings can awaken greater wisdom. Universal forms do exist – one need not fear falling into chaos should there be a moment’s respite from continuously projecting previous understandings into future becoming.
If you were to occasionally hold back from having your will being done it might be of interest to see what forms the rest of the universe is projecting. You may even find yourself willing to enter into and explore other projections, lose yourself and gain universal understanding. Better to choose exploration than to wall oneself away and one day have to face the intrusion of forces that have no respect for the desire for security.
Death-bardo is a universal projection of such magnitude there is no possible means to resist it. But in another way of looking at it, this process is very much ‘business-as-usual’. The habitual projections by which you have – consciously or unconsciously – shaped your existence continue to reverberate. Although there is death of the ego there is no death of motive force, of energy. One day you will have to get off the horse you are riding and someone else will have to get on. Practice compassion for the being further down the line who’s going to pick up what you leave. Once the Clear Light has emerged from the shadows of individual screening, whatever actions have been seeded (although for the duration of that light they will temporarily subside) will not be stopped. In the physical world one can become aware of motivation, and learn to resist actions that lead to suffering. In the bardo existence nothing can stop desire-action.
Having been stripped of the dense form of an elemental body, the consciousness dwells in something like an atomic or electromagnetic field-force patterning form. This bardo body easily passes through things that are obstacles to physical movement and so it does, being particularly responsive to smells. The Tibetans refer to bardo beings as ‘smell-eaters’. In life the strongest human sense is generally sight, in the intermediate state a being is nourished by smell, moved by attraction/repulsion to chemical releases with very little likelihood of consciously monitoring the process. If you have read anything about insects or flowers (the old story about the birds and the bees) you might be aware of the amazing way minute amounts of a hormonal secretion can be picked up many miles from its source by some creature who had previously been minding his own business, happily enjoying the day. When he perceives ‘That Smell’, however, the instinctual level takes over and he is compelled to travel incredible distances, pulled willy-nilly by his response to the release of a chemical in the air.
Existence in bardo is very much that way. One is moved by what are called the winds of kamma, blindly driven in response to the interchange of desire-action with various smells or chemical triggers. Time and space are no obstacles to movement. The body of bardo is not subject to growth and cannot be obstructed or destroyed by any outer force, although it can be tantalized, manipulated, danced about-by desire. Eventually there emerges the strongest desire – a yearning for the seeming refuge of rebirth. The process of bardo is complete when rebirth is attained – thus it is said that the bardo-dweller is only stopped by a womb.
If after seven days of being tossed on the sea of energy, blown by the winds of kamma now here and now there, the smell-eater has not found an energy field (womb) able to receive it, there is a recurrence of death. Consciousness again passes through the eight stages of subsumation of energy, but very rapidly. From the Clear Light again a rippling occurs and a bardo being comes into existence in the same manner as previously described. This death-within-bardo can repeat up to seven times, at the end of which, time rebirth occurs. To understand the measurement of “day” in a realm where time and space have no real function, remember that the energy body is most clearly defined as cyclings of energy. A day for humans of this earth is the cycle of the planet around the sun, the rise and fall of one period of solar manifestation. Because the consciousness bears the imprint of previous actions the same circadian rhythms would continue to pulse in bardo. Thus a day in bardo is measured by the energy cycles to which the previous individual had been attuned.
I mentioned earlier that when the essential consciousness leaves the heart’s nucleus after the experience of the Clear Light of Death it can exit the body from any one of several areas, depending on the coding for rebirth. One can find texts which give detailed descriptions of how this dhamma unfolds; here I will refer in general to place of exit and corresponding rebirth consciousness. If the crystal light of five radiances leaves the body from the crown of the head after exiting from the heart’s nucleus it will seek rebirth in a radiant or angelic body; if from the heart/navel area it will move toward the human range of manifestation; if it exits from the lower body or feet it will incline to animal, ghost or hell existences. From the moment of appearance in the bardo the being is cast as an idealized prototype of the life form which seeks rebirth. The bardo body has the colour and form corresponding to the motivation for its existence, the form most suitable for expression of a particular kammic range.
Often one sees with the mind’s eye a texture like a veil or cloth, a type of weaving, in deep states of consciousness. This is a nimitta or sign for rebirth. The colour it bears is highly indicative of the type of creature one is shaping. It can range from a shimmering, moon-light whiteness to much darker tones. A being who has signed his destiny for hell states will see a charred grey colour; one who is motivated to existence in the hungry ghost realms will see a watery-grey, turgid weave, one who seeks an animal’s body sees a smokey-coloured veil. The higher planes are heralded by lighter colours. Sounds also occur during the death-bardo experience, with qualities corresponding to the motive force of the traveller. One last note on the bardo body: sensual defects occur in the womb – the bardo form is idealized, complete. How that prototype body develops has more to do with the many interactions of events while within the womb.
When the consciousness is compelled by a total desire for seeing the nature of reality (in other words, motivated by interest) the neuroses of conditioned existence are set aside. Without effort such a being meets all phenomena with loving-kindness. When one dwells in a state of such wholesomeness whenever the consciousness focuses on a happening it does so with compassion. A being that dwells continually in this way, motivated by loving-kindness and compassion, is called a tulku by the Tibetans. Rather than being subject to the unsatisfactory nature of aversion and desire in the realm of bardo such a being moves with equanimity through this intermediate existence, able to utilize every experience and come into rebirth in a calm, clear attitude of mind. (It is said that a Bodhisattva is like a peacock because that bird can eat berries which to others are poisonous without any discomfort. The only change the poison affects is that the colour of his plumage becomes brighter.) Such a being is not motivated to seek rebirth for the sake of self to the exclusion of all else because he has become one with the only sure refuge.
A Bodhisattva, (that is, one who has attained the stage of awakening but has not passed into the fruition of that stage, remaining one step from completion for the sake of all sentient beings) is said to have a bardo body that resembles a cluster of galaxies, with the jivitindriya or rebirth-coding range extending to all world spheres. Hence, anywhere in the vastness of galactic potentiality such a being can be born and wherever they come into manifestation they exhibit universal wisdom. Because they have understood the ultimate state of sunya and taken refuge in that it does not matter how many arms or legs they form, what appearance they enliven. All forms are the unending joy of spontaneous arising.
This is not the case for the majority of beings seeking rebirth. Exhausted and confused by the continuous movement, buffeted by the ever-shifting winds of kamma, the consciousness becomes more and more eager to find somewhere to cling. When the ‘smell’ given off by the father and mother copulating is perceived, the Bardo being dresses it in the fantasy he most desires, shaping that fantasy to accord with past experiences. Although the entire potential of the universe is contained in one’s energy field and therefore the possibility of clearly seeing the situation is present, because of the great confusion of bardo it is extremely difficult to maintain equanimity and thus clarity of perception is rarely part of the rebirth process. Desire colours the impressions received, distorting one’s judgments, and the being moves quickly towards the object that has been made desirable. Given the necessary physical base – that is an egg and a sperm, properly formed and free of disease, meeting in an environment conducive to growth – and if there is no kammic force that would block entry into the mixed coding of those two operating in the bardo being, the consciousness is pulled swiftly toward conception.
A strong attraction for union with, one of the two parents wells up in the bardo being upon seeing them – or whatever projection has been crafted onto them – together. If the consciousness will develop as a male that attraction is for the mother; if as a female the father is the desired partner. As the bardo being moves to embrace the object of attraction suddenly the image of that fades, to be replaced by an image of the genitals, or some unexpected factor. Desire abruptly ends and the bardo being is caught up in a surge of anger/frustration. The energy of that aversion propels him into rebirth. Thus begins the death of the intermediate state.
When the father and mother are in union with each other the concentration of awareness in the genitals and the movement of energy there changes the prana flows in the channels. The transformation centre loosens and energy from the side channels mixes in it, then moves up to a nexus point just above the navel, called the Solassakaya Cakra. An experience of heat from that centre melts the red and white elements throughout the 72,000 channels. There is a great physical and mental bliss which pervades the being which is followed by a moment of intense desire. At this point the two polar points of the central channel are lined up, the energy rises from the base and descends from the crown, mixing together into a thickening froth of white and red. The dying consciousness of the bardo being enters into the midst of this, and there is a fusing together of the three elements, which forms a sort of triple helix. The white, red and crystal are set; the white and red forming a sort of pink froth into which the crystal, like a jewel in the centre of a lotus, is set. The intermediate being can enter this matrix by way of three doors, depending on the clarity of motivation. The Desire arising for either father or mother seals the sexual development of the new birth; the doorway through which consciousness moves to merge with the frothy mixture of the red and white elements indicate the character traits likely to develop. Consciousness can enter via the crown of the head, the mouth or the genitals.
Once the consciousness has entered the womb, the lights vanish, the winds of kamma cease, and the stages of subsumation very quickly dawn. From the Clear Light a ripple makes the connection to the new life forming in the midst of the frothy mixture. The stages unfold in their order, with rebirth definitely set at the dawning of the light of near-attainment. The process of forming the physical body around the unfolding energy flows has already been described in the third chapter of this writing. The real authority for understanding this development, however, is within the realm of your personal experience and it is to that source I would refer you.
For those who wish to master the phenomena of death/bardo/rebirth it is extremely important to first become conscious of emotional habituation and second, transform these states into wholesome, aware activity. Emotions are one of the major keys to understanding the prana flow, and hence to the shaping of jivitindriya. It is very comfortable to think that everyone is destined to awaken, to think that we are all in the process of evolution, and heaven – and hell – knows, we like our comforts! We can put to sleep the niggling voice that is heard to murmur whenever we perform an unwholesome act if we are assured that by doing so we can remain in a continuum of our relatively pleasant life situation, but there’s the problem.
Comfort, like suffering, is relative – and relative to your potential – unless you are awakened you are suffering. Open your skull and see the pleasures you could have, see what emotional flavours are tainting the Clear Light of reality. When you are least prepared these shadows may very well enwrap you in suffering. Stir yourself while you have some sense of comfort to question the relevance of false views. Sakyamuni Buddha, being interested in reality, noted to his followers once that he had observed that when a dog eats something disagreeable and later vomits it up he circles back to sniff at it again and again. Somewhat like the dog, your consciousness will return to its sickness, circling back to it as long as it is there. Surely you can find better things to draw you! In this teaching it is necessary to ask question, to clear away confused states by removing their roots and knowing for oneself what is real. One of the questions that should always be asked is when you should accept a comfortable state and when you should question your comfort.
Although, we are in the process of evolution it does not necessarily follow that this automatically produces higher states of existence. Evolution is essentially a process of coping with changing situations, learning at the organism level how to be well suited to our environment. Obviously this learning is slanted toward elements we focus on as essential factors of life, thus discrimination is called for. Even if it were the case that we successfully managed to adapt ourselves so that we evolved into the realm of devas or angels, can you suppose that any existence dependant on conditions can be maintained eternally? However long a pleasurable existence may last, eventually it will be subject to change and the suffering caused by the loss of enjoyment is not lessened by the memory of past pleasures.
Evolution can also imply movement away from a milieu, but whatever its direction it denotes change. If one practices non-clinging the process of evolution confers not only the suffering of impermanence an incentive to seek liberation can be gained by clearly seeing this law in operation. People who live in zones where there are radical changes in the seasons have an additional boost to the possibility of awakening. Think how intelligent you’d be if there were eight rather than four seasonal changes in the year! You might become so involved in awareness you would develop the motivation of an Arahat! For some beings maybe rebirth as a fish would result in higher levels of consciousness because it would be such a learning experience. Before we get too involved in senseless speculations I would like to stress that the most profound action one can perform is to put aside hopes and fears for the future and develop an enlightened attitude about the present situation. The enlightened attitude is the state of questioning what is occurring, seeking the revelations of truth. When one is devotedly interested in seeing the reality of immediate conditions the process of evolution is worthy of trust.
Chapter Six
PRACTICALITIES
Death is the natural law. There is no need to purify or to stop the manifestations of death/bardo/rebirth as they are in themselves pure. One’s attention should therefore focus on the impure, on the attitudes that inspire clinging to impermanent states. Death is the Clear Light, the Truth Body – Bardo is the energy dance, the Bliss Body – Rebirth is the Undying Body of Compassion. If you are subject to suffering it is because you are experiencing ‘tanha’ – the Clear Light is not. Sakyamuni Buddha said, “There is suffering but no one suffering.”
There is illusion interwoven with illusion which is believed to be real by an illusory being. When the illusion is seen for what it is, realization is purified and the three paths (death, bardo, rebirth) are revealed as a trinity of actuality – Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya. Clarity of awareness, the degree to which projections or primitive beliefs about reality are absent, determines the depth of realization. To come to understand truth one must therefore begin by practicing awareness and when this practice has been established then one must wake up the awareness. When subject-object making has become intelligence, aware of the patterns of movement of intelligent energy, the blind builder (kamma) is toppled from his throne and order is restored.
Four efforts are required, said the Buddha, to come to the realization which liberates one from suffering. First, the aspirant must stop indulging in unwholesome activities. When an unwholesome mind-state arises, cut it off. Focus the mind – or emotions – on something that promotes the positive. Then, the second effort, take steps to ensure that one leaves no opportunity for the arising of unwholesome states in the future. Third, celebrate the wholesome states that are already present, focus on the good. Fourth, make room for the increase of the whole-some in the future.
If you cannot differentiate between wholesome and unwholesome states of mind, practice the ‘paramis’, in particular the discipline of giving. Some instructions say that you should give six gifts every day. They need not all be material gifts; sometimes giving a few moments of silence is a great boon! Before going to sleep at night review the six givings you had the good fortune to offer that day. By making a habit of such activity an unshakable faith will be established. With the establishment of faith (confidence) very naturally there is an increase in works, in making real the unreal, which in turn leads to greater insight, to realization. These four efforts are necessary because whatever in one’s being is not active is subject to the forces that prolong ignorance. It is a misconception to believe that you are ‘working out kamma’ – in fact, kamma continually takes you for a work-out! Turn the tables, reverse your consciousness – or maybe your unconsciousness – and, taking hold of the present situation, apply yourself to the work of salvation with diligence.
The sutta-pitika, the basket of verbal teachings, is useful for the form or coarse states of understanding but unless these teachings are applied one remains caught in conceptualization. The subtle, pre-conscious states are involved by means of works and realization. These are called the Higher Yogas in the Tibetan teachings. There is a bridge between the form and formless states on which one must stand to utilize threshold material. Little surety can be gained by wandering through the inner and outer tangles of mind; one must come to the middle way.
There is a story told about a learner who, realizing the unsatisfactory nature of existence, began to seek a place of refuge. After much wandering he came to a temple, above which was written “LOOK WITHIN”, so of course, in he went. How long he spent within no one knows. Many marvels greeted him there, not the least of which being the sound of his own voice murmuring through the columns and pillars, reverberating from the domed ceilings. No need to mention how entranced he became by the rainbows of shifting light cast by the clear light as it poured through the many-coloured windows – or how his mind soared in the confines of the sacred geometry that formed the basis of design. It will suffice to say that he liked it there. But every Narcissus might presumably – given enough time – become bored, and eventually this feeling bit at our hero. He alternated between falling into a sort of reverie and examining in detail aspects of his environment until in the process of the latter he discovered written above the door the words “LOOK WITHOUT”. Out he went – and after a time, in again, then out, then in. Then out. He might have spent several years in this round of activity but fortuitously he dropped from exhaustion right on the t h r e s h o l d of the temple. His head sank back to rest on the door-frame and his eyes traveled unceremoniously up. Printed in the middle of the lintel he saw the single instruction “LOOK”. So too, one must arrive at the mid-point with no desire, just open to seeing. But the multiplicity of Maya, of illusion, is so overwhelming that one needs some guidance, some direction, in order to come out of the labyrinth – be it inner or outer, to a place of refuge where true seeing is a possibility.
When energy cast in a human mould dances between form and formless states the eighty ways to spin the red and white thread of duality can come unstrung. One experiences this every night in sleep and dream states and therefore dreams provide an ideal opportunity to work with the intermediate state of existence. The degree of clinging (or ego-centeredness, in Western language) determines the path of dreams no less than it sets the coursings of bardo. Whether one consciously experiences the free flow of energy or is caught up in nightmare is directly the result of one’s actions. Because so much of life is spent in sleep it would be beneficial to learn how to bring awareness into that state, so let us briefly explore some introductory methods of Dream Yoga, bearing in mind that the ways in which one enters the dream are not substantially different from the ways in which consciousness enters the intermediate state.
As mentioned previously, the elements do not need to be changed or purified but conscious involvement in the process of dreams is necessary to avoid being subjected to unwholesome states. One can use mantra as a thread for awareness to follow as it enters the realm of Maya so that one can become the conscious weaver of illusion. The material to be worked is already established but the pattern, the dynamics of interaction, depends on the skill of the craftsman. Energy is in a constant flow of intercoursing communication and when one can take clear readings of this flow the shapings of becoming are mastered.
The first step in developing this mastery is to state that this is your aspiration, to resolve to become conscious in deep sleep and dream-states. When this has been verbalized, imagine the figure of a kalyana-mitta (a suitable friend that is, a teacher) at your head. Ask that figure for help in carrying out your resolution. Now, beginning from the crown of your head, imagine your body becoming empty. Travel down the length of the body to your toes until your physical form is visualized like a skin-balloon filled with space. Any thoughts, feelings, visualizations that arise should be seen to be as insubstantial as a wind blowing in space; emptiness moving on emptiness. This should be done fairly quickly. Sweep through an area, empty it, and pass on. Don’t get caught up in a dialogue about whether or not it’s working. If you say it’s empty, it’s empty!
For the practice of Dream Yoga it is helpful to lie on the right side, the right hand beneath the head, the left arm resting along the left side and the legs straight. A fairly high pillow is usually used. Make sure the bedding is not too heavy or too warm. Deep sleep is less likely to produce results and these details of posture and temperature can make a difference. Ideally one should sleep very lightly, occasionally coming to the awake state during the night. (Generally the hours just before one gets up are the best time to do dream work.) Before going into sleep, centre awareness at the throat and imagine a white globe there, sounding the mantra OM. Feel the consciousness in the body, don’t wander from that. Each person has an ideal point of balance within their being, and keeping a sense of that centre helps maintain awareness during sleep. (The balance point of energy in dream can be represented by the ideal body of Platonic terminology.) You can centre the energy in the body by watching the breath rise and fall at the nostrils as you go into and come out of sleep. Watch the consciousness go into sleep; be intelligently aware during the dream, and watch the waking process.
Upon waking review the image of body and the feelings that appeared during dreams in particular. The central feeling of dreams gives a direct reading of the state of one’s energy field, shows the state of the driving force of one’s being. There is no need to interpret the dreams, just bring them to consciousness by doing review work. Any concepts you come up with about what this or that indicates, will probably just fool you anyway. Trust the material to interpret itself if you just pay attention to the details of the presentation. If you find the general feeling in dreams to be one of a nightmarish quality, rather than picking at the unwholesome get on with the practice of such practicalities as non-slander. If no greed or hatred is present there’s just seeing, whether asleep or awake. There’s no need to hate hatred or hate greed. The best results can be gained by dropping such unprofitable habits in favour of simple review work. (One might also bear in mind that so-called ‘bad dreams’ occasionally arise as a sign that the unresolved depth neuroses are being brought to consciousness to be healed.) Try not to wake too suddenly. As you come out of sleep spend a few minutes reviewing the night’s activities. If you wake during the night review the last sleep cycle, then state your aspiration again and watch the mind return to sleep. In deep sleep the energies gather at the heart, moving from there into dreams. In a sense one could say that a dream is the agitation of prana, a movement away from the constantly whirling dervish of energy in the heart which is the centre of life. Dreams are the manifestations of the Clear Light in shadow play. In their own nature they are empty.
There are four types of dreams: somatic, kammic, telepathic and precognitive. Information relayed by the senses to the mind (tangled bed clothing, the activity of digestion and so forth) make up the basis for the majority of dreams which belong to the first category. Based on somatic readings, the mind will weave various interpretations. That is the kammic level that most beings remember. Occasionally the other two types of dreams will occur, but don’t be too impressed by the idea of prophetic dreams. Jesus gave excellent advice when he asked “Have you found the beginning that you enquire about the end?” Look at the roots that are operating now rather than being drawn in to speculation about the future if you really intend to master the dance of energy. In the physical body every morning you have breakfast, but the energy body fields don’t keep any fasts to be broken – they are constantly involved with nutriment, with shaping. Never mind where it’s going; what is it shaping now? What is being nourished? And what is the nourishment? Cut off the fetters of attachment that promote fantasy and become involved in learning. Much data needs to be gathered before one can say “I know the laws of shaping.” Become a collector by day and night. The practices outlined thus far will serve to set one on the way to mastery of illusion. These visualizations can also be used as day-time meditations in an upright posture if one wishes to deepen the question.
By working with these suggestions it should be possible to utilize the dreams as energy body (thus transmuting the elements of bardo), and deep sleep can be experienced as the Clear Light. One who has done this work properly will have no difficulty in waking to the Clear Light while in deep sleep. For further instruction one should seek out a qualified teacher and request direction. The previously mentioned book translated and annotated by Garrna C.C. Chang, “Teachings of Tibetan Yoga” is very useful.
To promote kusala actions (in particular on the subtler levels) in terms of removing hindrances and dissolving obstructions one should do the following meditation. First draw an outer meditation object (kasina) in the shape of a six-petalled lotus, in the centre of which is a circle. The diameter of the whole kasina should be one hand span (fingers out stretched) plus four fingers (held together) in width. While you are thus engaged repeat the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM (PADME is pronounced paymay).
Do the work as neatly as possible: the better the quality of the outer kasina, the smoother the practice will go. The central circle should then be coloured crystal-white, with a ¼ cm border of the five colours (white, red, yellow, green, blue) radiating from it. While you are doing this, visualize the white globe and say OM MANI PADME HUM HRIH with the accent on the HRIH. Begin at the top and, moving clockwise colour in the petals of the lotus, for each colour and petal stressing one syllable of the mantra as follows:
first petal – milk white OM mani padme hum
second petal – green om MAni padme hum
third petal – yellow om maNI padme hum
fourth petal – sky-blue om mani PAdme hum
fifth petal – red om mani paDME hum
sixth petal – blue-black (indigo) om mani padme HUM
Take the kasina and place it where it will be just slightly below eye-level when you are seated in front of it. Arrange yourself comfortably at a distance of 1½ times the length from fingertip to elbow. It is preferable to sit cross-legged but if you can’t don’t struggle with pain. Sit in a chair if you must, but make sure however you sit that the spine is held straight. Also be sure that you are wearing loose clothing, and that at least an hour has passed since you ate a meal. But these things are basics of meditation practice; they should not need to be listed here. Begin by stating one’s aspiration (i.e. to increase the state of compassion for the sake of all beings), imaging the Kalyana-Mitta above the head, and empty the body. With a rosary (108 beads plus the ‘Guru’ or head bead) start repeating the mantra while you allow your eyes to rest on the white petal, stressing the syllable Om. Look for a moment at the outer kasina – [don’t stare] – then close the eyes, keep saying the mantra, and try to see the kasina within. For the second rosary repeat this process but focus on the green petal and stress the syllable MA. Carry on through the remaining four petals, doing one rosary for each petal and stressing the syllable that relates to that colour. The seventh rosary centers on the white circle in the centre and one now adds the syllable HRIH to the end of the mantra, giving stress to it. Continue to visualize each petal and then the central disc, following the order outlined above for one hour. At the end of the hour share the good results gained by this practice with all sentient beings, and then spend a minute or two in review. Notice what degree of clarity was present, when the mind felt sluggish and when it felt restless, what results were produced by the different colours and so forth. Do this practice once a day.
After a week of the above described meditation practice has been established, alter the meditation as follows:
Begin as usual, stating aspiration, visualizing the teacher and emptying the body. Before working with the outer kasina imagine a crystal white light above the head and begin saying the mantra 0M MANI PADME HUM. As you say the mantra imagine the light coming in to the crown of your head and dripping into your body. The head becomes filled with light, then the torso, then the legs. The light spreads out from you, in all directions, pervading the universe. You should spend about 20 minutes on this practice, then imagine in your heart centre a smaller replica of your kasina. Concentrating on the white petal and stressing the OM syllable do a rosary of the mantra. Imagine the white colour spreading through your body and emanating out in all directions as far as you wish. Carry on in this way with the remaining petals, but not with the center circle and the HRIH syllable. Imagine that each of the six colours, as it radiates from the lotus in your heart to spread in all directions, has the power to dissolve all defilements. In particular the white OM dissolves pride, the green MA dissolves envy, the yellow NI dissolves doubt-desire, the sky-blue PA dissolves non-learning or stupidity, the red DME dissolves greed desire, and the blue-black HUM dissolves hatred. At the end of 5 5minutes do a rosary stressing the OM and adding HRIH and imaging the white light returning to the circle in the centre of the lotus (which can be visualized as a diamond light) and purified by that centre, then do the same with the remaining lights and syllables. Then imagine the crystal light above your head dissolves and enters your heart. Sit in equanimity for a moment. Then share the merit and do a review. (A review is not picky – it is simply paying attention to the details of the practice. Be wary of a compulsive need to be clever. One who doesn’t know but has interest is able to learn.)
Additional exercises can be suggested, but you should feel free to explore the ideas that intuition provides. Do some drawing of the stages of formation in the womb to awaken question and insight into the laws of formation. Draw an oval shaped creamy coloured form. Do another with five bumps on it, vaguely turtle-shaped. Draw a fish, or a whole page of fish. Draw a pig or boar shaped figure, then a figure that has a lion shaped silhouette, and finally a dwarf. To gain insight into the elements (and the senses) draw a geometric representation of a stupa. The square base can be coloured yellow (earth), the globe that rests on that, light blue (water), above that a red triangle (fire) upon which rests a green crescent (air). It. should be topped by a smaller circle or bindu from which a tail spirals up, (space and consciousness). The whole stupa rests on three steps. This can be used beneficially as a kasina.
One can also meditate on such natural objects as seeds, particularly round white seeds about the size of a grain of millet, or crystals. Draw and study the Ying/Yang symbol. Meditate on a dorje. Do a representational drawing of the chakras lined above each other with the 32 lines of the crown chakra turned down like an umbrella, the 16 lines of the throat chakra turned up, the 8 lines of the heart centre turned down and the 64 lines of the transformation centre turned up. During the day occasionally imagine a five pointed star shining on your forehead. If it is possible obtain the initiations of Vajra Sattva and Chenreizig from a teacher. Whether or not you are able to receive these teachings, follow the advice given by St. Paul and “pray without ceasing” for the clear mind to arise and loving-kindness to dispel all clinging. This means that you should see life as a dream and empty the mind of all unworthy ambitions.
When one approaches each moment empty of preconceptions new knowledge can come forth. Even if you see only one aspect clearly in the light of revelation many results will flow from that one seeing. By living in a cluttered way, trying to see too much, it is not possible to focus on anything in depth – so, even if you suddenly became aware of the dance of angels on your head that seeing would be swallowed up in the ‘busyness’ of life. Many opportunities are showered upon human beings but because few people are ready to make use of what is given these moments slide by and are gone. Only an empty cup is ready to receive…
Due to the Great Compassion of Namgyal Rinpoche I have been able to compile these notes on the little understood subject of Death-Rebirth. As the level of understanding in this being is not very great it is quite likely that there are mistakes and shortcomings contained in this presentation. Nonetheless, I offer it in the hopes that it may be useful to some. May this work go forward in the same spirit of generosity in which my teacher, the Venerable Namgyal Rinpoche, continues to shower the blessings of the dhamma on those who wish to learn. Perhaps some light of the teachings I have heard will shine through the limitations guiding beings on their way. With that aspiration I offer these words. May all beings come to clear understanding. May all hearts abide in Loving Kindness. Cecilie Kwiat March 1981
The Venerated Guru Karma Tenzing Dorje Namgyal Rinpoche’s gift of this brilliant exposition on Dying, Death and the Bardo is truly an invaluable treasure. We all must die and we all will know someone who dies. Moved by the lack of realization and any skill to be of real help to my mother Virginia Knapp, [who died on January 27th 2014 aged 93 in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada; whom, with members of our family we cremated on January 30th] – and thinking that there must be others like myself who feel inadequate and unworthy to guide or even offer services to the living, dying and dead – such as those other beings, including my father Bruce Knapp and Deborah O’Connell at whose deaths, funerals, cremations and memorials Angela and I have officiated – I have re-edited and re-formatted these notes by Cecilie Kwiat, with gratitude also to her.
There are 3 different paper editions of these teachings in the www.namgyal.ca Archive here so I know they have been in use for many years in different parts of the world. Now, they have been made available on the internet to those who wish to train themselves and prepare for their own inevitable death. But mainly I felt it would be of great benefit to offer these Teachings, in conjunction with some of the traditional instructions and services to those who, like us, have received the Phowa and Bardo transmissions from Namgyal Rinpoche and other Great Lamas so that they may offer of themselves, if so requested – even if, like us, they feel unworthy and lacking realisation…
Sakya Shasanadhara Lama K. Sangye Senge Gyaltsen [Wesley Knapp] Sakya Thubten Namgyal Ling, Canada, January 2014