By Victor M Fontane
Being born and dying are exactly the same. When the new physical body is engendered and the spirit enters the seed, the elements of the physical body begin to be created, with what the mother feeds on: earth, water, fire, air and space to form cells, tissues, organs and systems of the future human being. As he grows and learns from the environment, creates his mental and knowledge bodies. With this, it grows, develops, ages and dies. The death process happens in the same way. It begins six months before death, that is, all the necessary conditions are gathered and the final process is the dissolution of all the elements that were formed to be born.
The process of dying is explained in considerable detail in the different Tibetan teachings.
Essentially it consists of two phases of dissolution: an outer dissolution, when the senses and elements dissolve, and an inner dissolution of the gross and subtle thought states and emotions. But first we need to understand the components of our mind, which disintegrate at death.
Our whole existence is determined by the elements: earth, water, fire, air and space. Through them our body is formed and maintained and when they dissolve, we die. The potential and quality of these five elements also exist within our mind. Mind’s ability to serve as the ground for all experience is the quality of earth; its continuity and adaptability is water; its clarity and capacity to perceive is fire; and its unlimited emptiness is space.
Once we have a physical body, we have what are known as the five skandhas – the aggregates that compose our whole mental and physical existence. They are the constituents of our experience, the support for the grasping of ego, and also the basis for the suffering of samsara. They are: form, feeling (sensation), perception (recognition, discrimination), intellect (formation, compositional factors) and consciousness.
All of these components will dissolve when we die. The process of dying is a complex and interdependent one, in which groups of related aspects of our body and mind disintegrate simultaneously. The result is that each stage of the dissolution has its physical and psychological effect on the dying person, and is reflected by external, physical signs as well as inner experiences.
The Outer Dissolution: the Senses and the Elements:
Earth
Water
Fire
Air
The Inner Dissolution
In the inner dissolution, where the gross and subtle thought states and emotions dissolve, four increasingly subtle levels of consciousness are to be encountered. With the disappearance of the wind that holds it there, the white essence (“white and blissful”) inherited from our father descends from the crown of our head through the central channel towards the heart. As an outer sign, there is an experience of whiteness, like a “pure sky struck by moonlight.” As an inner sign, our awareness becomes extremely clear, and all the thought states resulting from anger, thirty-three of them in all, come to an end. This phase is known as “Appearance”.
Then our mother’s essence (“red and hot”) begins to rise through our central channel from just below the navel. The outer sign is an experience of redness, like a sun shining in a pure sky. As an inner sign, there arises a great experience of bliss, as all the thought states associated with desire, forty in all, cease to function. This stage is known as “Increase”.
When the red and white essences meet at the heart, consciousness is enclosed between them. As an outer sign, we experience blackness, like an empty sky shrouded in utter darkness. The inner experience is of a state of mind free of thoughts. The seven thought states resulting from ignorance and delusion are brought to an end. This is known as “Full Attainment”.
Then, as we become slightly conscious again, the Ground Luminosity dawns, like an immaculate sky, free of clouds, fog or mist. It is sometimes called “the mind of clear light of death”. His Holiness the Dalai Lama says: “This consciousness is the innermost subtle mind. We call it the buddha nature, the real source of all consciousness. The continuum of this mind lasts even through Buddhahood.”
The Death of the “Poisons”
What then is happening when we die? It is as if we are returning to our original state, everything dissolves, as body and mind are unravelled. The three “poisons” – ignorance, desire, anger – all die, which means that all the negative emotions, the root of samsara, actually cease, and then there is a gap. And where does this process take us? To the primordial ground of the nature of mind, in all its purity and natural simplicity. Now everything that obscured it is removed and our true nature is revealed.
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