All we need to know about death, bardo and rebirth
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All we need to know about death, bardo and rebirth
Good reads: Peaceful Death Joyful Rebirth by Tulku Thondup
I am really happy to be sharing with you today a book I regard as one of the great treasures of Tibetan Buddhism. I have read it many times over the decades. And because when I read this kind of book I do so with a highlighter in my hand, my own copy is filled with passages in different colours, some faded with time – every one of them a gem.
Whenever I am asked to recommend a guide that clearly outlines the Tibetan Buddhist presentation of the death process, this is the one I recommend. It’s called Peaceful Death Joyful Rebirth and is written by Tulku Thondup, a Tibetan lama who first visited USA in 1980 as a visiting scholar at Harvard University. He subsequently lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he was an esteemed author and teacher.
Starting with the end in mind
Death may seem an odd choice of subject to be posting about at the start of the year, but I believe it is both crucial and highly appropriate. Many other voices may encourage us to focus on business, personal or travel plans, perhaps reviewing the year gone by or setting priorities for the one to come.
But how often are we encouraged to think about the only single thing we know for sure will happen to us? The one which, for all we know, we may experience before New Year’s Eve 2023? Our tendency is to think of death as well over the horizon, something we will have plenty of time to consider at some fictitious point in the future.
But as Lama Thondup himself observes: “Sitting beside a deathbed, staring into the face of life’s fragility, leaves us no secure corner to hide. It is always a powerful wake-up call.”
For me, his book is a dazzling motivation not only to stop postponing thoughts about our own death, but to see how we die as an entirely natural unfolding of how we live. And if we are to make the most of this extraordinary, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity - death, the time to start considering it is not the week before it happens, but here and now.
Much of this post consists of direct quotes from Tulku Thondup, because I don’t want to get in the way of his transmission to you. He combines his Tibetan background and rigorous monastic training with such lucidity that he is a joy to read. Please overlook the leaps between US and British English as we move from his words to mine - minor cognitive bumps compared to what we may experience in the bardo!
Who is Lama Thondup?
By way of background, he grew up at Dondrupchen Monastery in Eastern Tibet. Learning under the great master Kyala Khenpo, and other teachers he observed how: “While leading their lives to the fullest, they were always preparing for their deaths, knowing that life is short, death is certain, and what happens after death is of crucial importance for the future.”
The title ‘tulku’ actually means that Lama Thondup is the recognised reincarnation of a previously-known lama – that is, someone who has personally navigated the death process and chosen to be reborn to help others – us – in order to develop our practice to the point that we can do the same thing.
What comes through clearly even in the introduction of his book is that our experiences throughout our lives, in the bardo – or intermediary – state, and in whatever follows, arise from the same causes: “The changing theaters of life, death and afterdeath take place neither by choice nor by chance. No one else has created them for us. They are reflections and reactions of our own thoughts, words and deeds.”
“The terrain that unfolds before us in the bardo is a reflection of our habits and emotions.”
The basis of the Tibetan Buddhist understanding of the death process
“To illumine what it is like to cross the threshold of death and what we may meet on the other side, I have translated and retold some of the amazing stories in Tibetan Buddhist literature about meditators who leave their physical bodies for days at a time to travel through the invisible world. These meditators, known as delogs, or those who “return from death,” would then come back to their bodies and record their extraordinary journeys which could span the lowest rungs of hell and the sublime pure lands.”
Here Tulku Thondup is almost certainly being modest about the basis of his insights, which quite probably arise not only from the reports of delogs, but also from his own, direct experience. I should perhaps explain that there are advanced meditation practices in our tradition, accessible to those who have attained calm abiding or shamatha, which enable a meditator to simulate the death process. One’s breathing and heart stops, and one would be considered dead by the usual definitions. The practices have been followed for many centuries, and it is on the basis of the well-established experiences of those who conduct them that we have come to understand what happens in bardo and beyond.
The mind-based reality of how we experience life and death
Early on in his book, Lama Thondup outlines a common, human belief that death and judgement go hand-in-hand:
“We all share – regardless where we’re from – a mentality of seeing the world in terms of rewards and penalties for right and wrong. We constantly bounce between hope and fear under the all-seeing eyes of some imagined higher authority or judge. Our perceptions are soaked in this judgemental mentality. That is why, when we have been unvirtuous, we fear being judged, and after death we will perceive a judge handing us a harsh sentence.
“In reality there is no external judge. There is no sentence. Our after-death experiences are simply the dividends we earn from our own mental and emotional investments.”
“If we have been peaceful, kind, caring, helpful, and wise, and if we have put our meritorious attitudes into practice by word and deed, we will enjoy rebirths in the worlds of peaceful, joyful and helpful existence. If in this life we have practiced seeing, thinking, feeling and believing in the presence of a pure land, we will take birth in a pure land, because of the mental habits that we have cultivated.”
Elsewhere he emphasizes the mind-based nature of our reality, in life as well as death:
“The mind generates its own experiences of happiness and suffering after death as a result of tendencies gathered and reinforced through successive lifetimes. Produced by the mind, these experiences also take place in the mind, nowhere else.”
He cautions us strongly not to be delusional about our own mental state:
“Although externally we may not think of ourselves as such “bad” people, we may be secretly bathed in the toxic emotions, selfishness, and craving that modern culture encourages. We must stop fooling ourselves and start to change our ways this very day, while we are still lucky enough to be in a human body and have a degree of choice.”
The clear light of death
When we die, we all encounter what’s known as the clear light of death. For most beings, this momentary experience – and extraordinary opportunity for freedom - goes unrecognised. But with some meditative training, we can recognise and abide in it.
“When we read about light in these afterdeath descriptions, many of us might think, “Oh, yes, these must be beams of light or sunlight-like phenomena coming from somewhere.” But in true realization we are not perceiving those lights as objects – the objects of eye-consciousness – or phenomena produced by a particular source or coming from somewhere else. Light is clarity and luminosity, which is also peace, joy, bliss, openness, oneness, and all-knowing wisdom. We are the light, and the light is us: all are one.”
What is it like in the bardo state?
Only enlightened beings are able to remain in this exalted state. For the vast majority of us, whatever thought arises in our minds while in the clear light, propels us into the bardo, an intermediary state between the last lifetime and the one to come. Lama Thondup explains the bardo state in graphic detail. A few nuggets:
“We will find ourselves with any person or in any place that comes to our mind, unless the place is beyond our karmic range. If we think of New York City, we will be there instantly, without spending any time or effort to travel there, since our body is a mental, not a physical, one.
“Being able to travel is not our problem, but stability is. It is hard for us to stay in once place and to focus on any thought, as we are always moving, flickering, floating, and being driven about. We are constantly running, flying, and moving, like a feather in a storm, with no endurance.”
“In this life, our mind is relatively stable because it is anchored in this gross and physical structure. This makes it easier to gain spiritual views and habits through meditation. But it is also harder to make big changes or improvements, precisely because the mind is trapped and programmed in the system of our rigid, earthly body.
In the transitional journey of the bardo, however, the mind is rapidly changing without any structural restriction. It is therefore easier to change or improve our future journey. But it is also much harder to find a path and focus on it, since there is no anchoring faculty of a physical body. Our bodiless mind lives on with its past habits and floats rapidly without break at high speed toward its future destiny.”
“In the bardo our mind will be much clearer and more powerful than it is today. Its experiences will be much sharper and more sensitive. If we have gained positive experiences while alive, we will enjoy their effects in this transitional passage very easily, clearly and effectively.”
How meditating while alive helps us in the bardo
Positive experiences are the virtuous actions of body, speech and mind in which we have engaged while alive. And Tulku Thondup explains the particular benefits that arise from meditation, especially that of the mahamudra practice of mind-watching-mind:
“Although attaining enlightenment during the passage of ultimate nature requires advanced esoteric meditative training, even modest familiarity with the nature of mind can help us during this passage. We could have flickers of realizing the truth. Although this will not translate into liberation, the power of having even a brief experience of the true nature and its visions will greatly ease our fears and pains as we progress through the bardo. It will bring peace and joy, create meritorious karma and lead us toward a better future life.”
“As layers peel off when we die or enter deeper states of consciousness, the fruits of our meditation emerge …. So it is essential to meditate on the nature of the mind as much as possible while we are alive.”
Pure land practices
The lama shows how, for those of us who are not enlightened, but fortunate enough to engage in tantra practices, “Pure lands are ineffably joyful and peaceful paradises that the buddhas, the enlightened ones, manifested through their compassion so that devotees might take rebirth there without needing to be realized.”
Elsewhere he describes how: “Hosts of divine beings, in male and female forms, will lead us on our path. Our mental body will soar away like a falcon through the boundless clear blue sky with a great display of magical offerings, sweetest music, and joyful dances filling the entire atmosphere. We will be welcomed to the most beautiful, peaceful, and joyful pure lands or paradises. We will also enjoy the power to lead many others to those pure lands with great celebration. All these things will only happen because of the spiritual preparations we have made while we were still alive.”
In short: “If we handle our lives well, death is certain to be a time of celebration. It will mark the end of old age and sickness, and the dawn of happiness.”
An uplifting conclusion
I love the sweet, humble and wonderfully positive note on which Lama Thondup ends his book:
“I myself am not someone who says a lot of prayers or observes long meditation sessions. But somewhat by nature and upbringing I am a fervent believer in the ever-presence of sublime qualities in us and outside us. We could call them buddha-qualities. Most of the time, I live in awe of them, enjoying their presence. So when I reach the fork in the road at the other side of this life, I am pretty hopeful that some peaceful and joyful faces will caringly guide me to a happier land for my rebirth, a land of peace and joy.
“I fervently wish that you, my dears, will enjoy the teachings of the Buddha and Buddhist masters that I have shared with you in this book, and that you will relish the benefits that I enjoyed or even better. How exciting to think of such a bright future for so many of us!”
All that remains is for me to wish you, my readers, a very special new year! May 2023 be a year in which we purify all negativities, cultivate all virtues, and deepen our meditation practice, thereby creating the basis for a happy life, a peaceful death and a joyful rebirth - wherever our minds take us. How fortunate are we to have discovered this sublime path to freedom?!
My apologies in advance that I won’t be able to respond to your comments immediately. I am attending a mahamudra retreat until the middle of January.
From the back cover:
The author of The Healing Power of Mind draws on Buddhist scripture, firsthand accounts, and other sources to present an overview of Tibetan Buddhist teachings on facing death with openness and insight
Buddhism teaches that death can be a springboard to enlightenment—yet for all but the most advanced meditators, it will be the gateway to countless future lives of suffering in samsara. Tulku Thondup wrote this guide to help us heal our fear and confusion about death and strengthen our practice in anticipation of this transition, and to help us realize the enlightened goal of ultimate peace and joy—not only for death and rebirth, but for this very lifetime. In simple language, he distills a vast range of sources, including scriptures, classic commentaries, oral teachings, and firsthand accounts. The book includes:
• An overview of the dying process, the after-death bardo states, and teachings on why, where, and how we take rebirth
• Accounts by Tibetan "near-death experiencers" (delogs), who returned from death with amazing reports of their visions
• Ways to train our minds during life, so that at death, all the phenomena before us will arise as a world of peace, joy, and enlightenment
• Simple meditations, prayers, and rituals to benefit the dead and dying
• Advice for caregivers, helpers, and survivors of the dying
By becoming intimate with this practice while we're alive, we can alleviate our fear of death, improve our appreciation of this life, and prepare for death in a very practical way, while planting the seeds for rebirth in the Pure Land.
Some wonderful endorsements:
"Tulku Thondup has opened this vast treasury of knowledge in a clear, simple, and powerful way for the modern audience.”—Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche, author of Turning the Mind into an Ally
"Tulku Thondup explains fully and clearly each stage of the process that leads from this life to the next. The book contains a valuable section devoted to the care and support of those who are approaching death, and includes a selection of meditations and rituals that may be used to help the dying and the dead, which will be of great benefit to many people. ” —Francesca Fremantle, author of Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead
All we need to know about death, bardo and rebirth
Very timely for me. One of our beloved cats is slowly leaving this life and my mother is slowly approaching her own end of life. My own life is somewhat precarious and this serves to remind me that this is all part of living and we must take the joys of each day as they come and to remember that what we do each day affects how we go forward. Thank you.
Thanks for this. I would aksi recommend "journey of souls" by Michael Newton. He took thousands of his patients into their life between physical lives through deep hypnosis. The people didn't know eachother and yet what they related was amazingly consistent. The only differences occurred depending on their own level of evolution.
I recommend this because it is a confirmation based not on a religious understanding but on an objective collection of evidence, that is impressive corroboration. We do all have guides, and we do receive help in what the Buddhists call the bardo before returning to a physical body. I found Michael Newton's book very rewarding to read.