By Loden Jinpa
http://lodenjinpa.com/death-process-in-buddhism/
DEATH AND DYING IN THE TIBETAN BUDDHIST TRADITION
Compiled
by: Ven. Pende Hawter
Death begins with the
sequential dissolution of the winds associated with the four
elements (earth, water, fire and air). "Earth" refers to the hard
factors of the body such as bone, and the dissolution of the wind
associated with it means that that wind is no longer capable of
serving as a mount or basis for consciousness. As a consequence of
its dissolution, the capacity of the wind associated with "water"
(the fluid factors of the body) to act as a mount for consciousness
becomes more manifest. The ceasing of this capacity in one element
and its greater manifestation in another is called "dissolution" -
it is not, therefore, a case of gross earth dissolving into
water.
Simultaneously with the dissolution of the earth element, four
other factors dissolve (see Chart 1), accompanied by external signs
(generally visible to others) and an internal sign (the inner
experience of the dying person). The same is repeated in serial
order for the other three elements (see Charts 2-4), with
corresponding external and internal signs.
..........
Upon the inception of the fifth cycle the mind begins to
dissolve, in the sense that coarser types cease and subtler minds
become manifest. First, conceptuality ceases, dissolving into a
mind of white appearance. This subtler mind, to which only a
vacuity filled by white light appears, is free from coarse
conceptuality. It, in turn, dissolves into a heightened mind of red
appearance, which then dissolves into a mind of black appearance.
At this point all that appears is a vacuity filled by blackness,
during which the person eventually becomes unconscious. In time
this is cleared away, leaving a totally clear emptiness (the mind
of clear light) free from the white, red and black appearances (see
Chart 5). This is the final vision of death.
This description of the various internal visions correlates closely
with the literature on the near-death experience. People who have
had a near-death experience often describe moving from darkness
(for example a black tunnel) towards a brilliant, peaceful, loving
light. A comprehensive study comparing death and near-death
experiences of Tibetans and Euro-Americans has shown many
similarities between the two (Carr, 1993). Care must be taken
though in such comparisons because the near-death experience is not
actual death, that is, the consciousness permanently leaving the
body.
Since the outer breath ceased some time before (in the fourth
cycle), from this point of view the point of actual death is
related not to the cessation of the outer breath but to the
appearance of the mind of clear light. A person can remain in this
state of lucid vacuity for up to three days, after which (if the
body has not been ravaged by illness) the external sign of drops of
red or white liquid emerging from the nose and sexual organ occur,
indicating the departure of consciousness.
Other signs of the
consciousness leaving the body are 1) when all heat has left the
area of the heart centre (in the centre of the chest), 2) the body
starts to smell or decompose, 3) a subtle awareness that the
consciousness has left and the body has become like 'an empty
shell', 4) a slumping of the body in a practitioner who has been
sitting in meditation after the stopping of the breath.
Buddhists generally
prefer that the body not be removed for disposal before one or more
of these signs occur, because until then the consciousness is still
in the body and any violent handling of it may disturb the end
processes of death. A Buddhist monk or nun or friend should
ideally be called in before the body is moved in order for the
appropriate prayers and procedures to be carried out.
