Although most
religions have rites of passage for the dead, their teachings about
death itself (and what follows it) are few and far between. Religions'
vagueness and mystery surrounding this subject is reinforced by death
being a taboo topic in many cultures. Buddhism, in contrast to most
other faiths, deals with it head-on, in a very frank and quite detailed
way, both in theory and in practical preparation.
The Buddha
himself described death as the 'the greatest of all teachers', 'the
sickness' and 'the most important manifestation of impermanence'. It is
helpful to recall that most Buddhist cultures, even well into this
century, were made up of integral, extended families in which ageing
and dying happened in the home and not in external institutions such as
old peoples' homes and hospitals. People were confronted with mortality
as a real and recurring feature of daily life. It led to many natural
questions and was a constant reminder of the Buddha's teachings on
impermanence.
Since Buddhism's earliest days, Buddhist monks
have gone to funeral grounds to observe bodies left there to be eaten
by wild animals and insects. This may seem macabre and gruesome at
first, to a modern Western mind, but for monks it is an invaluable and
time-saving device. Many people have to wait decades - until parents or
spouses die - to go through the unique learning cycle afforded by
observing death at close hand. The meditator, calmly observing the
waxen, inanimate corpses deposited daily in charnel grounds, takes only
days or weeks to understand the point: the vital distinction between
the body and the mind which animates it. Believing in reincarnation, he
or she sees the biological shell as a guest-house in which the
travelling consciousness sojourns but briefly, soon to go to another,
quite different, place. This almost endless, age-old journey will
involve staying in hundreds, thousands, of such temporary residences
until liberating truths finally release the weary traveller.
Observing
this ephemeral fragility of life can sow the seeds of great compassion
for those who cling to it as though it would never end. Most
importantly, awareness of death leads to a awakened appreciation of
every precious moment of life. Each hour, each day, becomes a fresh
opportunity for working for the long-term spiritual weal rather than
inconsequential material pleasure. On a deeper level, death is not only
a physical reality but also a powerful metaphor for the psychological
death of ego which must occur before the mind is liberated into
limitless wisdom.
Preparing for death
Buddhists
prepare for death in many ways, depending upon how well they have
learnt to master their own minds, through meditation. In one way, the
finest and most thorough training is simply to lead a good and virtuous
life - physically, verbally and mentally. The good karma this creates
and the wholesome, virtuous mental reflexes it develops will become
one's best friends at the time of dying and in the after-death
experiences, when spontaneous reactions and the mighty drive of karma
prevail.
People used to meditation on specific Buddhas and
bodhisattvas - and in particular on Buddha Amitabha and bodhisattva
Avalokitesvara - will find special support at the time of death.
Through familiarity, they will welcome the experience of these beings
of light coming to receive them into their paradises. Most other people
are so totally overawed and frightened by such brilliant experiences
that they turn away from them and shelter in mind's shadows. Those who
have gone beyond the creative phase of meditation and who have
experienced voidness in its ultimate phase will maximise the brief
opportunity occurring soon after death, when the relative mind
dissolves into its absolute nature, like a raindrop falling back into
the ocean. There will be natural and lasting bliss and peace. For most
other people, it passes elusively, like a flash.
Other Buddhists
train in the bardo teachings. By familiarising themselves with the long
succession of experiences and hallucinations which follow death, they
prepare themselves for the real thing, rather like karate students
going through the various motions of combat in training for true
conflict. Even if, when the actual moment comes, they themselves are
incapable of mastering the situation in the traumatic, dream-like state
between lives, they may nevertheless respond more readily to the
psychic guidance given by lamas and friends reciting the traditional
bardo prayers designed to lead them through the experiences and into a
good rebirth.
Yet other accomplished meditators perform the
profound consciousness transference (po-wa) practices of vajrayana.
These enable the mind to be forcefully or peacefully (depending upon
the prowess of the meditator) fused with the primordial enlightened
mind of Buddha, either temporarily or permanently. Finally, those of
unwavering faith will experience their guru or their yidam coming to
welcome them away from the coarse, dark limitations of this life into
the boundless light and truth that is mind's true nature.
Forever In-Between: Bardo
Buddhists
believe nothing lasts. Everything is always in a state of change. When
viewing things with microscopic precision, it becomes clear to them
that, in the world of mind, consciousness is renewed every split second
and that, in the world of matter, atomic particles are always in flux
and movement. Tantric teachings describe all existence as a migration
from what was to what will be. In that sense, all is bardo or
'in-betweening'. However, this continual flux, viewed macroscopically
as beings' lives, has four distinct phases, each with its own very
specific type of experience.
Being born and being alive is known
as the this life bardo: the most powerful phase of them all. In it, one
has more control over the mind than in the other three bardo and can
choose lucidly how to act physically and verbally. The period at the
end of life, as one dies, is the traumatic dying bardo. The breakdown
of the biological support of life during this period engenders a series
of moods and feelings which are hard to dominate. The moment
immediately after death, usually very brief, when the primordial nature
of existence manifests, is the expanse of purity bardo. The ensuing
dream-like state between lives, in which one has little or no choice of
action, is known as the becoming bardo.
The Traumatic Bardo of Dying
What
exactly do Buddhists believe happens at death? It can be summed up
technically as the progressive cessation of activity of the five
bio-dynamic forces (prana) and the resorption of the bodily elements.
As
the digestive bio-dynamic (Fire Companion prana) degrades, food can no
longer be digested and bodily heat diminishes, from its extremities
inwards. As the oxygenating bio-dynamic (Life Sustaining prana)
degrades, the mind becomes unclear and confused. As the excreting
biodynamic (Downward Expeller prana) degrades, one can no longer
eliminate bodily wastes. As the energising bio-dynamic (Upward-Moving
prana) degrades, one can no longer eat or drink and finds it
increasingly difficult to breathe. When the motility bio-dynamic
degrades, the limbs can no longer function and the blood vessels shrink.
As
the earth element dissolves into the water element, one can no longer
stand, the head lolls, the face takes on a grey complexion and one
loses saliva. One feels dull and depressed. When the water element then
dissolves into the fire element, the mouth dries up and the tongue
becomes hard and twisted. One feels hazy and irritable. As the fire
element dissolves into the wind element, the body loses its warmth and
the breath feels cold on the nose and lips. One vacillates between
clarity and confusion. When the wind element then dissolves into
consciousness, the breath starts to rattle and the eyes roll upwards.
Inwardly one is bewildered and can hallucinate, positively or
negatively depending upon one's karma.
Simultaneously, the five
secondary pranas, governing the senses, disappear. One can no longer
clearly perceive external forms, sounds, odours, tastes or physical
sensations. Then, consciousness dissolves into space and breathing
stops. The body lustre fades and rapidly becomes cadaveric but there
remains a slight warmth around the heart. Some texts say that, in
certain cases, some people can still recover at this point. Beyond it,
there is no hope.
The mind is then left to experience the fruits
of its own actions and the enormous range of possibilities from this
point onwards is largely dependent upon mental habits while alive.
Those well-trained in meditation have a chance to fuse into the clear
light of absolute reality, which shines soon after death. Others may
have beautiful experiences. Others, on the contrary, may be terrified
and enter a long-enduring nightmare.
The Primordial Purity Bardo
As
the components of this life's consciousness collapse back into what is
eternal and universal, there is a short but vital opportunity to fuse
with the Buddha within. Very experienced meditators can use this to the
full but, for most people, it is a brief and unrecognisable flash to
which they react with all the reflexes of personality, thereby steering
themselves away from the eternal and back into the stream of rebirth.
The Becoming Bardo
Rebirth
does not happen immediately after the moment of primordial purity.
Before the next conception comes the 'intermediate state' (becoming
bardo) experience, familiar to many people through what has become
known as 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead'. This title was borrowed by
Evans-Wentz from the famous Egyptian Book of the Dead but the parallel
between the two books is far from obvious. A more precise translation
of the Tibetan text's title would be Liberation through Hearing in the
Intermediate State. The work is, in effect, a vivid description of the
forty-nine main stages of experience following death, along with
instructions about how best to relate to them. The text is read into
the dying person's ear, and can also be recited by lamas or by
relatives, as a prayer, during the forty-nine days following death, in
the hope of guiding the deceased's mind in its confused travels.
The
above are but a few general details from the complete trainings for
death given in tantric texts. Advanced meditators, in long retreats,
prepare their minds systematically for all these experience and there
were two special places in Tibet where yogis could actually go through
a simulation of the forty-nine-day bardo in the total darkness of a
special retreat centre.
