Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth
His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama
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Death
Through the afflictions of desire, hatred and ignorance, contaminated
karma (actions) are performed, which establish potencies in the mind in the form of
predispositions. When a lifetime finishes, a person who has such predispositions is born
again in cyclic existence with a mind and body appropriated through these contaminated
causes.
Some persons die upon the full exhaustion of the impetus of that action
which, in another lifetime, laid the foundation for this one. Others die without having
used up their allotted time, through the incompletion of the causes of sustaining life,
such as lack or necessities. This is called untimely death, or death upon the consumption
of merit; for the impetus of the action that established this life remains, but external
concordant circumstances that are achieved through other meritorious actions in previous
lives do not.
A person dies within a virtuous, non-virtuous or neutral mind. In the
first case, the dying person might take to mind a virtuous object—such as the Three
Jewels (Buddha, his Doctrine and the Spiritual Community) or his own lama, thereby
generating a mind of faith. Or he or she might cultivate immeasurable equanimity, becoming
free from desire and hatred toward any sentient beings, or meditate on emptiness or
cultivate compassion. This can be done either through one's own remembering to do such or
through others' urging. If such attitudes are cultivated at the point of death, one dies
within a virtuous mind, through which one's rebirth is improved. It is good to die in this
way.
Sometimes, however, it happens that others, even though not purposely
seeking to arouse anger, annoy the dying person with their nervousness, thereby making him
or her angry. Sometimes, also, friends and relatives gather around the bed lamenting in
such a manner that they arouse manifest desire. Whether it be desire or hatred, if one
dies within a sinful attitude to which one is well accustomed, it is very dangerous.
Some die within a neutral attitude, neither taking a virtuous object to
mind nor generating desire or hatred.
These three attitudes—virtuous, non-virtuous and neutral—occur
until the point of the subtle mind of death. According to the sutra system, this final
subtle mind necessarily neutral; for, unlike Highest Yoga Tantra, sutra does not describe
techniques for transforming subtle minds into virtuous states, only for treating coarse
ones. A qualified practitioner of tantra, however, can convert the subtle minds associated
with death into a virtuous path consciousness. At that point one's practice is very
profound.
In any case, the attitude just before death is very important; for, if
even a moderately developed practitioner is disturbed at that time, manifest desire or
hatred will be generated. This is because we all have predispositions established by
former non-virtuous actions, which are ready to be activated upon meeting with
disadvantageous circumstances. It is these predispositions that provide the impetus for
lifetimes as animals, and so forth. Similarly, we have predispositions established by
former virtuous actions, which, upon meeting with advantageous circumstances, will provide
the impetus for lifetimes in happy migrations as humans and so forth.
These capacities that are already in our mental continuums are
nourished by attachment and grasping, leading to a bad or good rebirth. Thus, if the
predisposition left by a bad karma is activated, a life as an animal, hungry ghost or
hell-being will result.
Similarly, if a person who usually behaves sinfully dies within a
virtuous attitude, he or she will probably be reborn in a good situation. Therefore, it is
very important for both the dying person and those around him or her to avoid creating
situations of desire or hatred and instead to foster virtuous states of mind. We need to
know this.
Those who die within a virtuous attitude have a sense of passing from
darkness into light, are free of anxiety and see pleasant appearances. There are many
cases of very ill persons who, near the time of death, speak of being in great comfort
despite their illness. Others with little illness fall into great fright, with labored
breathing. These latter are sunk in non-virtuous thoughts, have a sense of going from
light to darkness and see unpleasant forms.
Some whose physical warmth has diminished through illness become
desirous of heat, thereby fortifying predispositions for rebirth as a being in a hot hell,
whereupon they take rebirth in a place of extreme heat. Others become attached to a
feeling of coolness wishing, for instance, for a drink water, they fortify predispositions
to be reborn as a being in a cold hell, thereby making the connection to such a rebirth.
Thus it is very important to avoid desirous thoughts at the time of death and direct the
mind to salutary objects.
In everyday life, attitudes of desire, hatred, jealousy and so forth,
to which we are well accustomed, become manifest with only slight provocation; but those
with which we have little familiarity take considerable provocation, such as recourse to
reasoning, to manifest themselves. Similarly, at the time of death, attitudes of long
familiarity usually take precedence and direct the rebirth. For this same reason, strong
attachment is generated for the self, since one fears that one's self is becoming
non-existent. This attachment serves as the connecting link to the intermediate state
between lives (bardo); the liking of a body, in turn, acts as a cause establishing the
body of the intermediate being.
For those strongly involved in non-virtuous actions, the warmth of the
body withdraws first from the upper part of the body and then from other parts; whereas,
for those strongly involved in virtuous actions, the warmth first withdraws from the feet.
In both cases, the warmth finally gathers at the heart, from which the consciousness
exits. Those particles of matter, of combined semen and blood, into which the
consciousness initially entered in the mother's womb at the beginning of the life, become
the center of the heart; and from that very same point the consciousness ultimately
departs at death.
Intermediate state
Immediately thereupon, the intermediate state begins—except for those
reborn in the formless realms of infinite space, infinite consciousness,
"nothingness" or peak of cyclic existence, for whom the new life begins
immediately upon death. Those born within the realms of desire and form must pass through
an intermediate state, during which a being has the form of the person as whom he or she
is to be reborn. The intermediate being has all five senses, but also clairvoyance,
unobstructiveness and an ability to arrive immediately wherever he or she wants. He or she
sees other intermediate beings of his or her own type— hell-being, hungry ghost, animal,
human, demigod or god—and can be seen by clairvoyants.
If a place of birth appropriate to one's predispositions is not found,
a small death occurs after seven days, and one is reborn into another intermediate state.
This can occur at most six times, with the result that the longest period spent in the
intermediate state is forty-nine days.
Rebirth
This means that those beings who, even a year after dying, report that
they have not found a birthplace are not in the intermediate state but have taken birth as
a spirit.
If taking rebirth as a human, one sees one's future mother and father
as if lying together. If one is to be reborn as a male, this sight generates desire for
the mother as well as hatred for the father—and vice versa if one is to be reborn as a
female. Being desirous, one rushes there to engage in copulation; but upon arrival, one
sees only the sexual organ of the desired partner. This creates anger, which causes
cessation of the intermediate state and makes the connection to the new life. One has
entered the mother's womb and begun a human life. When the father's semen and mother's
blood are conjoined with this life or consciousness, they naturally and gradually develop
into the elements of a human.
One is desirously attracted to one's future birthplace, even if it is
to be a hell. For instance, a butcher might see sheep in the distance as in a dream; upon
his rushing there to kill them, the appearance would fade, causing him to become angry,
whereupon the intermediate state would cease and his new life in hell begin. Also, as said
before, those to be reborn in hot hells are attracted to heat; in cold hells, to coolness.
The intermediate state of one who is to be reborn in a bad migration is itself very
frightful; in the end, one rushes to the place of rebirth and, when one's wish is not
achieved, gets angry, whereupon the intermediate state ceases and the new life begins.
The connection to a life is, therefore, made under the influence of
desire, hatred and ignorance. Until these afflictions are overcome, one is as if bound in
chains without freedom. Indeed, there are good and bad rebirths; but, while one is still
bound, one must bear the burden of mental and physical aggregates that are under the
influence of contaminated actions and afflictions. This is not done just once, but again
and again without break.
To overcome the sufferings of birth, aging, sickness and death, desire,
hatred and confusion must be overcome. Their root, in turn, is ignorance—the conception
of an inherent existence of persons and other phenomena. External medicines alleviate
superficial suffering but cannot cure the central problem. Internal practices—such as
resorting to specific antidotes to desire and hatred—are more helpful, but their effects
are temporary however, if one can destroy ignorance—their root—then all of these cease
of their accord.
If ignorance is eliminated, then the contaminated actions that depend
on it are stopped.
Furthermore, without ignorance, the attachment and predispositions
established by previous actions cease to operate, whereupon the cycle of uncontrolled
rebirth is ended.
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Source: http://www.lamayeshe.com/
