The Guhyasamaja Presentation of the Process of Death

The Guhyasamaja Tantra (gSang-’dus rtsa-rgyud, Skt. Guhyasamāja Tantra) was the earliest tantra to appear in written form in India. It has numerous commentaries written by many well-known Indian masters of Madhyamaka, such as Nagarjuna, Aryadeva and Chandrakirti. Because these commentaries explain the theory of anuttarayoga tantra and provide the analytical tools for interpreting the root tantra texts, Guhyasamaja is known as “The King of Tantras.”

Central to the Guhyasamaja explanations is the presentation of the eight-step sequence through which our mental continuums enter a period of clear light of death from a rebirth existence and emerge from that period to a bardo existence, and then once again enter a clear light period and re-emerge from that into a rebirth state. This sequence entails the mental activity and energy-winds of our mental continuums passing in stages from grosser levels to the subtlest primordial one and then back again to grosser ones. When these two sequences occur under the influence of karma, each step in the two sequences is a form of conceptual mental activity, differing from each other in terms of level of subtlety or grossness. The appearance-making of solid existence and grasping for solid existence that occur on each step also differ from each other in the same manner in accordance with the diminishing movement of the energy-winds. In other words, the eight steps entail the gradual dissolution and re-formation of conceptual appearances of solid existence and of grasping for them to exist in the way that they appear to exist.

The eight stages of the advancing sequence (lugs-’byung), through which our mental continuums advance into its clear light state, are:

• Mirage-like (smig-rgyu lta-bu)
• Smoke-like (du-ba lta-bu)
• Like sparks of fire appearing in the sky (mkha’-snang me-khyer lta-bu) or like the sparks of lights of fireflies (srin-bu me-khyer lta-bu)
• Like a burning butter-lamp (mar-me ’bar-ba lta-bu)
• Appearance (snang-ba, appearance-congealing), or white appearance (snang-ba dkar-lam-pa)
• Increase (mched-pa, light-diffusion), or red increase (mched-pa dmar-lam-pa)
• Near-attainment (nyer-thob, threshold), or black near-attainment (nyer-thob nag-lam-pa)
• Clear light (’od-gsal).

The reversal sequence (lugs-ldog) emerging out of clear light is just the reverse:

• Clear light
• Black near-attainment
• Red increase
• White appearance
• Like a burning butter-lamp
• Like sparks of fire
• Smoke-like
• Mirage-like.

One further point needs to be mentioned in terms of these two sequences, and that has to do with the level of mental activity called the eighty indicative conceptual minds (kun-rtog brgyad-cu, eighty universally occurring primitive conceptual minds). I’ll explain a little about them shortly. According to the Gelug explanation, this entire level of mental activity ceases during the advancing sequence, starting with the arising of the burning butter-lamp stage and ending with the arising of the white appearance stage. It re-emerges and starts to function once more during the reversal sequence starting with the arising of the white appearance stage and ending with the arising of the burning butter-lamp stage. This stage of these eighty types of subtle indicative conceptual mental activity either ceasing or re-emerging, however, is not counted as a separate stage in addition to the eight. 

The Dissolution of the Energy-Winds

The process of dying, characterized by the eight stages of the advancing sequence, begins with the five principal and five auxiliary energy-winds of the subtle body starting to enter, abide and dissolve (zhugs-gnas-thim-gsum) in the central energy-channel (rtsa dbu-ma). The dissolution occurs in stages. The arising of the mirage-like mental activity, the first of the eight stages, occurs simultaneously with the start of this dissolution process.

The five principal energy-winds (gtso-bo’i rlung-lnga), with their locations during a rebirth period, are:

• Life-sustaining energy-wind (srog-’dzin-gyi rlung), at the heart, responsible for sustaining the connection between mental activity and the gross body, and thus for supporting and maintaining life
• Downward-voiding energy-wind (thur-sel-gyi rlung), at the private organ, responsible for passing and retaining urine, feces, semen and menstrual blood
• Upward-coursing energy-wind (gyen-rgyu’i rlung), at the throat, responsible for speaking, swallowing, eating and drinking
• Equalizing energy-wind (mnyam-gnas-kyi rlung), at the navel, responsible for supporting body temperature and for digestion of food and drink
• Pervading energy-wind (khyab-byed-kyi rlung), throughout the body, responsible for movement.

The five auxiliary energy-winds (yan-lag-gi rlung-lnga) are the physical supports or, in a sense, the vehicles for the five types of sensory consciousness. With the help of life-sustaining energy-wind, they enable these consciousnesses to course (rgyu-ba) from their appropriate branch energy-channels at the heart chakra to the external gateways of their appropriate cognitive sensors (dbang-po’i sgo). This coursing allows the sensory consciousnesses to become cognitively involved or engaged (’jug-pa) with their appropriate sensory objects (sights, sounds, smells, tastes and physical sensations), and thus to take (’dzin-pa) them as objects of cognition. 

The five are:

• Coursing energy-wind (rgyu-ba’i rlung), abiding at the eyes, enabling seeing; also called “naga energy-wind” (klu’i rlung)
• Exactingly coursing energy-wind (rnam-par-rgyu-ba’i rlung), abiding at the ears, enabling hearing; also called “tortoise energy-wind” (ru-sbal-gyi rlung)
• Properly coursing energy-wind (yang-dag-par rgyu-ba’i rlung), abiding at the nose, enabling smelling; also called “chameleon energy-wind” (rtsangs-pa’i rlung)
• Closely coursing energy-wind (rab-tu rgyu ba’i rlung), abiding at the tongue, enabling tasting; also called “given-by-the-gods energy-wind” (lhas-byin-gyi rlung)
• Emergent coursing energy-wind (nges-par rgyu-ba’i rlung), abiding throughout the body, enabling feeling physical sensations; also called “victorious-over-wealth energy-wind” (nor-las rgyal-gyi rlung).

Although the tantric literature specifies that these ten energy-winds beginning to enter, abide and dissolve in the central energy-channel heralds the start of the death process, undoubtedly the four energy-winds of the gross elements also begin to enter, abide and dissolve into the central energy-channel at this same time. These four are:

• The energy-wind of gross earth (rags-pa’i sa’i rlung)
• The energy-wind of gross water (rags-pa’i chu’i rlung) 
• The energy-wind of gross earth (rags-pa’i me’i rlung)
• The energy-wind of gross wind (rags-pa’i rlung-gi rlung). 

The Twenty Gross Features

During the process of dying, various aspects of our gross physical body progressively become incapable of serving as the support for our mental activity. Consequently, our mental activity withdraws from them in the sense that it no longer relies on or is connected with them. As a result, certain types of mental activity also cease, and subtler types become more prominent. Those withdrawals and ceasings are referred to as “dissolutions.” 

The Guhyasamaja literature describes this dissolution process in terms of the twenty gross features (rags-pa gnyis-shu) that progressively fail. These are the five aggregates:

• Forms of physical objects
• Feelings of some level of happiness or unhappiness
• Distinguishing
• Other affecting variables, such as karmic urges
• Consciousness,

the four gross bodily elements:

• Earth
• Water
• Fire
• Wind,

the six cognitive sensors:

• Eye sensors
• Ear sensors
• Nose sensors
• Tongue sensors
• Body sensors
• Mind sensors,

and the five sense objects:

• Sights
• Sounds
• Smells
• Tastes
• Bodily sensations.

[See: Basic Scheme of the Five Aggregates. See also: The 5 Aggregates, 12 Cognitive Stimulators, 18 Sources]

Sometimes twenty-five gross features (rags-pa nyer-lnga) are listed, in which case added to the list are the five types of deep awareness, referring to the grossest basis level of the five:

• Mirror-like deep awareness
• Equalizing deep awareness
• Individualizing deep awareness
• Accomplishing deep awareness
• Sphere of reality deep awareness.

[See: Applying the Five Types of Deep Awareness]

What is actually dissolving, or rather beginning to enter, abide and dissolve in the central energy-channel, however, are the subtle energy-winds that support the various types of gross and subtle mental activity. One variant that happens is that the gross physical basis for supporting a certain subtle energy-wind no longer is able to support it. For example, when our mental activity withdraws from the earth element of our bodies, described in the texts as “earth dissolves into water,” what happens is that the earth element loses its ability to support a connection with the energy-wind of gross earth. Because of that, the energy-wind of gross earth begins to enter, abide and dissolve in the central channel, and the energy-wind of gross water becomes more prominent in supporting our mental activity. Another example is that the cognitive sensors of the eyes lose their ability to support the coursing energy-wind for our visual consciousness, and this coursing energy-wind also starts to enter, abide and dissolve in the central energy-channel. Another variant that happens is that, as other energy-winds begin to enter, abide and dissolve in the central energy-channel, they lose their ability to support certain mental factors included in the four mental aggregates, such as feeling a level of happiness or distinguishing. It is not that any feature of our gross body actually dissolves.

With each step in the dissolution, the withdrawal of our mental activity from each of the relevant gross features is indicated by an outer sign in terms of changes in our bodies, and the entire stage is indicated by an inner sign in terms of the special type of appearance that our conceptual mental activity produces. Please remember, we are referring here merely to mental appearances and not to anything that can be seen with our eyes. With each of these appearances, the seeming solidity of the appearance progressively starts to break up. The manner in which whatever appears seems to exist seems to be less solid. 

Let’s go through the eight stages as described in detail by Akya Yongdzin.

Mirage-like Mental Activity

With the attainment of the first stage in the advancing sequence, our mental activity withdraws from the five gross features associated with our aggregate of forms of physical phenomena (gzugs-kyi phung-po, Skt. rūpa-skandha), particularly our bodies, all at once: namely, our aggregate of forms, the earth element of our bodies, our eye sensors, sights experienced on our mental continuums and the basis level of our mirror-like deep awareness. 

• The outer sign that our mental activity has withdrawn from an aggregate of forms, specifically our bodies, is that our arms and legs feel lighter than before and our bodies shrink and become powerless. 
• The sign that the earth or solid element in our bodies no longer supports our mental activity is that our bodies get thinner, our arms and legs become flaccid, and we feel like we are sinking into the earth. Have you ever been lying in bed and felt as though you were falling off the bed, but in fact you hadn’t moved at all? This is the type of feeling that is mentioned here.
• When the eye sensors are no longer operating, we are no longer able to blink our eyes.
• When our mental continuums have stopped containing visual sights as their cognitive objects, the luster of our bodies fades, and we have no more strength. 
• When our mirror-like deep awareness is no longer operating, which normally mirrors the images of all the sights in our field of vision, our vision becomes unclear and blurred.
• With the earth element of our bodies having failed and the water element having become more prominent, the inner sign of this first stage is that everything appears to be like a mirage, no longer completely solid. Specifically, our conceptual mental activity gives rise to a bluish appearance, like that of a mirage of water when the rays of the sun strike the desert sands. 

Smoke-like Mental Activity

With the attainment of the second stage, our mental activity no longer supports the five gross features associated with our aggregate of feelings of levels of happiness (tshor-ba’i phung-po, Skt. vedanā-skandha): namely, our aggregate of feelings, the water element of our bodies, our ear sensors, sounds experienced on our mental continuums and the basis level of our equalizing deep awareness.

• The outer sign that our mental activity has withdrawn from supporting an aggregate of feelings is that we no longer experience feelings of happiness, unhappiness or neutral feelings accompanying the sensory cognitions that we still have left. 
• With our equalizing deep awareness having failed, which normally is aware of all feelings of some level of happiness or unhappiness as equally belonging to one class of phenomena, we no longer experience any feelings of happiness, unhappiness or neutral feelings even in our mental cognitions. 
• The sign that the water or liquid element in our bodies no longer supports our mental activity is that the saliva, sweat, urine, blood and semen in our bodies significantly dry up. Our mouths, noses and throats become dry, and we can no longer speak.
• When our mental activity has withdrawn from our ear sensors, we no longer hear external or internal sounds.
• When our mental continuums have stopped containing sounds as their cognitive objects, we no longer hear even an internal humming in our ears. 
• With the earth element of our bodies having failed and the water element having become more prominent, the inner sign of this second stage of the advancing sequence is that the mirage-like appearance now becomes hazy, like smoke. Specifically, our conceptual mental activity makes the bluish mirage-like appearance seem billowing, like the smoke that rises from a chimney in the midst of a mass of smoke. 

Sparks of Fire-like Mental Activity

When we attain the third stage of the advancing sequence, our mental activity has become so subtle that it withdraws from the five gross features associated with our aggregate of distinguishing (’du-shes-kyi phung-po, Skt. saṃjñā-skandha): namely, our aggregate of distinguishing, the fire element of our bodies, our nose sensors, smells experienced on our mental continuums and the basis level of our individualizing deep awareness.

• The outer sign that our mental activity no longer supports an aggregate of distinguishing is that we are no longer able to recall or even remain mindful of the significance of such things as who the people are that are close to us, like our parents, and so on.
• With our individualizing deep awareness having failed, which normally enables us to be mindful individually of the names for people and things, we are no longer able to recall or even remain mindful of the names of those close to us, such as our parents.
• The fire or heat element in our bodies no longer supports our mental activity, and so the various types of heat in our bodies, including our digestive heat, fade and so our ability to digest food or drink weakens. If we are to be reborn in one of the three worse rebirth states – as a trapped being in a joyless realm (a hell being), a clutching ghost (a hungry ghost) or a creeping creature (an animal) – the heat leaves our body first from its upper half. If we are to be reborn in one of the three better rebirth states – as a human, a would-be divine being (an anti-god) or a divine being (a god), it leaves first from the lower half of our bodies.
• With our mental activity having withdrawn from our nose sensors, our breathing becomes uneven, as if in two levels. Our inhalations through our nostrils are weak and shallow, whereas our exhalations are strong and lengthy.
• When our mental continuums have stopped containing smells as their cognitive objects, we no longer are able to smell any odors, pleasant or unpleasant.
• With the water element of our bodies having failed and the fire element having become more prominent, the inner sign of this stage is that the smoke-like appearance breaks up even further. Interspersed within the billowing bluish appearance, our conceptual mental activity makes an appearance like that of burning red sparks of fire in the sky caused by a whirling firebrand or like the flashes of the light of a swarm of fireflies. 

Butter-Lamp Flame-like Mental Activity

With the attainment of the fourth stage, our mental activity now withdraws from the seven gross features associated with our aggregate of other affecting variables (’du-byed-kyi phung-po, Skt. saṃskāra-skandha). The most prominent of these variables are our karmic urges to do, say or think something.

• The outer sign that our mental activity no longer supports an aggregate of other affecting variables, such as having urges to do something, we can no longer move or even shake our bodies. In fact, we no longer experience any karmic urges or impulses at all. 
• Our accomplishing deep awareness has also failed, so that we are no longer mindful of any worldly activities that need to be done or worldly necessities that need to be taken care of.
• Because the wind element in our bodies has stopped being able to support our mental activity, the five principal and five auxiliary energy-winds of our bodies have now completely left their usual locations in our bodies. The process of their entering, abiding and dissolving in the central channel is now complete in the sense that these winds have now shifted completely to our heart chakra within our central channel, where the final stages of the dissolution process will occur. Because of this shift, the usual functioning of these ten energy-winds has ceased. In addition, our inhalation and exhalation also stop.
• Our mental activity has withdrawn from our tongue sensors, and as an outer sign of this, our tongues have become thicker and shorter, and the base of our tongues has turned blue or green.
• The outer sign that our mental continuums have stopped containing any tastes as their cognitive objects is that our tongues can no longer experience any tastes.
• Our mental activity likewise has withdrawn from our body sensors, and our mental continuums no longer contain even any physical sensations as their cognitive objects. The outer sign of this is that we no longer feel any tactile or other physical sensations. Consequently, at this stage our mental continuums no longer give rise to any form of sensory cognition at all.
• With the fire element of our bodies having failed and the wind element having become more prominent, the inner sign of this fourth stage is that the appearance like sparks of fire in the sky has become even more subtle, so that our conceptual mental activity merely gives rise to an appearance that is like a small butter-lamp flame flickering in the wind or sputtering, about to go out. Some masters describe this sign to be more like a butter-lamp flame at the bottom of a well.

The Eighty Indicative Conceptual Minds

During the course of the next three stages of the advancing sequence, our mental activity progressively withdraws or, rather, stops giving rise to the gross features associated with our aggregate of types of consciousness (rnam-shes-kyi phung-po, Skt. vijñāna-skandha), namely: 

• Our mental consciousness, since all five of our sensory types of consciousness have already ceased 
• Our mental sensors, referring to moments of consciousness that serve as immediately preceding conditions for the arising of subsequent moments of the same level of mental activity
• Sphere of reality deep awareness.

Mental consciousness encompasses both several levels of conceptual cognition and both sensory and mental non-conceptual cognition. The five types of sensory non-conceptual cognitions cease progressively with the first four stages of the advancing sequence as the five types of sensory consciousness cease. The various levels of conceptual cognition cease progressively with each of the seven stages. Progressively ceasing during the first four steps is our gross conceptual mental activity (rtog-pa rags-pa) entailing our individual, personal concepts, memories and plans. In addition, before the final three stages in the sequence occur, our mental activity becomes so subtle that it can no longer give rise to the eighty indicative conceptual minds. As mentioned already, this is not counted as a separate stage of the advancing sequence.

No matter which samsaric rebirth state we have been born into, our mental activity gives rise to the eighty indicative subtle conceptual minds. I’m purposely refraining from calling them “subtle conceptual thoughts,” since our Western notion of “a thought” has various connotations that might confuse us, such as a thought to go to the store, a thought about my childhood friend, a thought about the future, a thought of anger, a rational or irrational thought, a conscious or an unconscious thought to murder someone and so on. And when we talk about thinking in general, it usually implies a train of thought, often but not necessarily analytical. Here in Buddhism, however, we are talking about something quite different when we discuss conceptual mental activity.

Except for Buddhas, the mental continuums of everyone give rise to various levels of conceptual mental activity. Whether gross or subtle, this conceptual mental activity imputes a semitransparent metaphysical entity (spyi-mtshan, Skt. sāmānya-lakṣaṇa) onto the mental hologram that the mental activity in which it occurs makes appear. In the case of our gross conceptual mental activity, the metaphysical entity may be an object or meaning category (don-spyi, Skt. artha-sāmānya), such as the category “a dog,” or an audio category (sgra-spyi, Skt. śabda-sāmānya), such as the category of all pronunciations of the sound of the word “dog.” The mental aspect or mental hologram would be that of a specific dog, which may or may not be present.

With gross conceptual mental activity, then, we can imagine a generic dog or we can remember the sight of a specific animal or hear or remember the sound of its barking and cognize it as a dog. Our conceptual cognition of a dog may or may not be accompanied by a mental cognition of the sound of the word “dog.” 

In each lifetime, we need to learn all the audio, object and meaning categories that we will mix with our conceptual mental activity during that lifetime. We cannot see a specific animal and cognize it as a “mongoose” before we have learned what a mongoose is, for instance. The same is the case with hearing the sound of a word and cognizing what it means or what kind of object it refers to before we have learned that word. The only exceptions are those rare individuals who remember people, objects, events and sometimes even words from a previous life.

In the case of our subtle conceptual mental activity, the metaphysical entities that our mental continuums give rise to are eighty indicative conceptual minds. These include the primitive concepts of various positive and negative emotions, such as loving concern, compassion, hatred or fear; and what we in the West loosely call “feelings,” such as feeling bored or feeling certain. They also include the primitive concepts of various forms of feeling like doing something or wanting to do something, such as to eat something, to embrace someone or to gather possessions. We do not need to learn these; our mental activity gives rise to these eighty conceptual minds instinctively with every samsaric rebirth we take. Animals have these primitive concepts as well.

With these types of eighty indicative conceptual minds, we are not talking about the rough conceptual mental activity involved when, each time we experience instances of similar emotions or feelings that belong to the same category of emotion or feeling, we cognize them all through an object category such as “fear,” “loving concern” or “hunger.” In those cases, we are manifestly cognizing them conceptually as instances of fear, loving care or hunger, or as the meaning of the words “fear,” “loving concern” or “hunger.” We are talking here instead about a much more subtle, primitive conceptual process. 

My present understanding is that we are talking here about the subtle conceptual process underlying, for example, the arising of individual instances of karmic urges to perform similar actions that all belong to the same general category of primitive, universally occurring action, such as to eat something or to gather something as our possession. In other words, we need to have the primitive concept of the action of “eating” in order for each instance to arise of an urge to eat. Only on the basis of such type of subtle conceptual process, can we, each time that we are actually eating, cognize what we are doing through our gross concept of “eating.”

A similar subtle conceptual process underlies the arising of individual instances of constructive or disturbing emotions that all belong to the same general category of indicative conceptual minds, such as compassion or fear. It is almost like an instinct that in certain situations we experience fear. In other words, for fear to arise, there needs to be a primitive concept of such an emotion, through which each instance of fear arises. Then, when we are experiencing various individual instances of fear, we can cognize them all through our gross concept of fear in terms of “I am afraid.” 

Note that we are referring here to the arising of karmic urges and constructive or disturbing emotions that occur with the grosser levels of grasping for solid existence and the stronger movements of the energy-winds than those that accompany subtle and subtlest conceptual mental activity. Karmic urges and disturbing emotions can only arise with these grosser levels, and so at this stage in the advancing sequence, they no longer arise. It is my understanding that constructive emotions, however, such as loving concern and compassion, may still arise simultaneously with the four levels of manifest subtlest conceptual mental activity and their progressively subtler subtle grasping for solid existence and progressively weaker movements of energy-wind. They would only arise, however, if we had already developed unlabored (rtsol-med, Skt. aprayāsa) loving concern and compassion. In such cases, these constructive emotions would be subliminal (bag-la nyal) and the same level of conceptuality as the level of manifest subtlest conceptual mental activity that they accompany. They would not be arising based on the universally occurring primitive concepts of loving concern or compassion. 

The eighty kinds of subtle conceptual mental activity are also called the eighty kinds of “indicative nature conceptual mental activity” (rang-bzhin-gyi rnam-rtog). As Tsongkhapa explains, the term “indicative nature” is applied to them because they have certain characteristic features (mtshan-nyid, Skt. lakṣaṇa) that indicate the three subtlest appearance-makers – white appearance, red increase, and black near attainment. 

The eighty are divided into three groups of thirty-three, forty and seven types of subtle conceptual mental activity. 

• Thirty-three have the indicative nature of the appearance level of subtlest mental activity
• Forty have the indicative nature of the increase level of subtlest mental activity
• Nine have the indicative nature of the near-attainment level of subtlest mental activity. 

The indicative nature refers to the fact that the energy-winds of black near attainment, red increase and white appearance are progressively grosser and coarser and have progressively greater strengths of movement through the subtle energy-system of the body. Similarly, the energy-winds of the groups of thirty-three, forty and seven types of indicative conceptual mental activity are progressively grosser and coarser and also have progressively greater strengths of movement through the subtle energy-system of the body. Thus, the three gradations of strength of movement of the energy-winds of the three groups of indicative subtle conceptual mental activity are indicative of the three gradations of strength of movement of the energy-winds of the three subtlest appearance-makers. The way that the texts present this point is that, in terms of the reversal sequence, the three subtlest appearance-makers set as their after-impressions (lag-rjes) – literally their “hand-prints” – the three groups of indicative conceptual mental activity, one group for each. The “after-impressions” refer to a differing level of strength of movement of energy-wind.  

Because of this difference in gradations of the strength of movement of their energy-winds, one Gelug master I consulted explained that, although most Gelug texts say that during the advancing sequence all eighty kinds of indicative conceptual mental activity cease as a whole in between the butter-lamp flame and appearance stages and re-emerge as a whole during the reversal sequence in between the appearance and butter-lamp flame stages, each of these processes happens in stages. During the advancing sequence, as the energy-winds become progressively subtler, first the group of thirty-three kinds of indicative conceptual mental activity ceases, then the group of forty and finally the group of seven. During the reversal sequence, as the energy-winds become progressively more gross and coarse, the order is reversed. This seems logical since the levels of grossness of the energy-winds of the three groups are different, as are the levels of strength of their movement through the subtle energy-system of the body. 

We should note that the Sakya tradition, followed also by the Kagyu tradition, explains that during the advancing sequence, the group of thirty-three kinds of indicative conceptual mental activity cease with the attainment of white appearance mental activity, the group of forty with the attainment of red increase, and the group of seven with the attainment of black near-attainment. The reverse occurs during the reversal sequence, with the group of seven re-occurring with the attainment of black near-attainment and so on.

The Three Subtlest Appearance-Makers 

There are two types of undissipating creative-energy drops (mi-shigs-pa’i thig-le). One refers to clear-light mental activity inseparably together with the subtlest energy-wind that is its support. This never dissipates, in the sense that it has no beginning and no end, from lifetime to lifetime, and continues even when we have attained liberation and enlightenment. It doesn’t ever deteriorate and cannot be destroyed by any circumstance. During our present lifetime as a human, it remains located at the center of our heart chakra. The subtlest energy-wind of the undissipating creative-energy drop is known as undissipating energy-wind (rlung mi-shigs-pa). This refers to our subtlest life-sustaining energy-wind (phra-ba’i srog-’dzin gyi rlung).

For ease of reference, let us call this creative energy-drop the “primordial undissipating drop.”

The other undissipating creative-energy drop is the one received from our parents at conception when we are born as a human. It consists of the combined white bodhichitta (byang-sems dkar-po) received from our father, carried with his sperm, and red bodhichitta (byang-sems dmar-po) received from our mother, carried with her ovum. Her ovum is referred to as a speck of blood. They are called “bodhichittas” because, based on advanced practices utilizing them, we can gain blissful non-conceptual cognition of deepest bodhichitta, namely voidness, with our clear-light mental activity and attain the aim of conventional bodhichitta, namely enlightenment. They are also known as the white source element (khams dkar-po) and red source element (khams dmar-po), since they are actually subtle elements and not gross ones. For ease of reference, let us call this creative energy-drop the “undissipating bodhichitta drop.”

Our undissipating bodhichitta drop also abides at our heart chakra, with our primordial undissipating drop merged with it. Like this primordial drop, it too neither dissipates nor degenerates from the moment of our conception to the moment of our death. Its continuity, however, does not extend before or after this lifetime. A small portion of its white part breaks off during the course of our development as a fetus and remains at our crown chakra. Likewise, a small portion of its red part also breaks off and remains at the navel chakra.

After the dissolution of the eighty kinds of indicative conceptual mental activity, the white bodhichitta at our crown chakra falls to our heart chakra. When this occurs, we experience white appearance subtlest mental activity. After that, the red bodhichitta at our navel chakra rises to our heart chakra. With this, we experience red increase subtlest mental activity. Next, the portions of the white and red bodhichittas that have come to the heart chakra join together, merging with the undissipating bodhichitta drop that is there merged with the primordial undissipating drop. When this occurs, we experience black near-attainment mental activity.

Black near-attainment mental activity has two phases. Tsongkhapa explains that during the first phase, “with mindfulness” (dran-can), we still have “mindfulness of an object-possessor” (yul-can-gyi dran-pa). “Mindfulness” is like a “mental glue” that holds our attention on a cognitive object, and an “object-possessor” refers to either a consciousness or a person, both of which continually have a cognitive object. During the second phase, “without mindfulness” (dran-med), this mindfulness has declined. It is misleading to say that during this second phase we are unconscious. As Tsongkhapa explains, at this point we still have “mindfulness of having faults” (skyon-can-gyi dran-pa), referring to the type of mindfulness that stays glued to its object of focus when, ordinarily, our alertness (shes-bzhin, Skt. samprajanya) keeps watch for any faults in our concentration.

As for meaning of the names “appearance,” “increase,” and “near-attainment,” Tsongkhapa explains that once the energy-winds that move our indicative conceptual mental activity have dissolved, an appearance like moonlight reflecting off a field of fresh snow. Based on this, the first of the three appearance-makers is called “appearance.” Moreover, since this level of subtlest conceptual mental activity is devoid of the eighty kinds of subtle conceptual mental activity and their energy-winds, it is called void (stong-pa, Skt. śūnya). It is through gateway of being much clearer (brighter) than moonlight, like sunlight is, that the next is called “increase appearance,” and as it is devoid of appearance and its winds, it is called very void (shin-tu stong-pa, atiśūnya). Since it has most unclear or unbright appearance like darkness of night and is near to clear light, the next stage is called near-attainment, and as is devoid of increase and its winds, is called great void (stong-pa chen-po, Skt. mahāśūnya). Since it is unclear, it is also called ignorance. Then, the subtlest non-conceptual mind that is devoid of the great void stage and is equivalent to the clear light mind is called all-void (thams-cad stong-pa, Skt. sarvaśūnya).

For all these four voids, the example is used of a clear autumn sky, since all the dust has been settled by the summer monsoon rains and it is free of clouds. Then it is either when it is pervaded by sunlight in the day (for increase), or by thick darkness from after twilight until the darkness clears away (for near-attainment), or, within that, when pervaded by moonlight from when the moon rises till false dawn (for appearance), or the self-color of the sky at false dawn when no moonlight (for all-void). When three deep awarenesses arise, at those times a hue or mode or tone aspect arises like those three types of sky.

The Clear Light Mental Activity of Death

After black near-attainment without mindfulness, we experience the actual clear light mental activity of death, and subsequent to that the consciousness leaves the body with the signs such as the bodhichittas falling from the nose and so forth. That signals the completion of the process of dying. You are now dead. 

After you have died, the very finest energy-wind, just after the mind has become a little bit more rough or gross, leaves the place of the heart of the old body, and it forms in another place; it arises in the form of the bardo being. When the consciousness transfers or leaves from the body, first it leaves from the heart, and then it can go out through any of the orifices, whether the crown of the head, the eyes, the ears or the lower orifices as well. If you are to be born in one of the lower realms, the consciousness will leave the body through one of the lower orifices. If you are to be reborn as a divine being or in the more fortunate aspect, it leaves through the crown of the head. There are signs also in terms of how the warmth leaves the body. If the warmth leaves the body from the bottom to the heart first, that is an indication that you will be born in a lower realm. If it leaves the body or dissipates from the head going down, that is an indication of being reborn in a higher realm.

Bardo existence in between rebirths begins with the first moment of threshold mental activity in the reversal sequence. Inseparable from clear light mental activity are five light-rays of the energy-wind of clear light. These five constitute the subtlest energy-wind. Due to the influence of the tendencies and habits of karma and the constant habits of confusion imputed on the mental continuum, clear light mental activity functions as the obtaining cause (nyer-len-gyi rgyu) and the five rays of the energy-wind of clear light serve as the simultaneously acting condition (lhan-cig byed rkyen) for the arising of threshold mental activity. Simultaneously with the arising of threshold mental activity, the five rays of the energy-wind of clear light function as the obtaining cause and the clear light mental activity serves as the simultaneously acting condition for the arising of a bardo body of subtle energy-wind. Threshold mental activity at the start of a bardo existence is followed by the rest of the reversal steps and continuous making of appearances of solidity as the bardo existence unfolds.

[See: Causes, Conditions and Results]

The bardo bodies of subtle energy-wind that we assume take the form of a facsimile (bzhin-lag) of the ones that we will have in the rebirth that will follow. If that rebirth is as a human, we appear similar to how we will look at the age of five or six. As for the colors of our bodies, if that rebirth is as a trapped being in one of the joyless realms (a hell being), which is always also with a human form, our bodies are black like charcoal. If we are to be reborn as clutching ghosts (hungry ghosts), our bodies are blue like water; as creeping creatures (animals), gray like smoke; as human beings, would-be divine anti-gods (asuras) or divine gods of the plane of desirable sense objects (the desire realm), they will be yellow like gold; and as gods of the plane of ethereal forms (the form realm), white.

As bardo beings, we have all the physical senses – seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling physical sensations. As for the general environment in which we see things, if we will be born in one of the three worse rebirth states, we primarily see everything dimly appearing in black darkness. If we will be reborn in one of the three better rebirth states, we see things appearing in pale whitish light, like the color of wool or on a moonlit night.

In addition, we have the extrasensory abilities to see clairvoyantly our friends and relatives and to remember our previous life. We also possess the extraphysical powers to enter without hindrance any place except a religious pilgrimage site, a temple or the womb of any female other than our future mother. As for how our bodies are oriented as we move about in the bardo state, if we will be reborn in one of the three worse rebirth states, we move about with our bodies being upside-down. If we will be reborn in one of the three better rebirth states of the plane of desirable sense objects, we move with our bodies being horizontal. If we will be reborn on the plane of ethereal forms, we move about with their bodies in an upright position.

According to Vasubandhu’s Treasure House of Special Topics of Knowledge (Chos mngon-pa’i mdzod, Skt. Abhidharmakosha), once we have begun our bardo existence, there is no possibility of changing the type of rebirth that will follow. Asanga, in his Anthology of Special Topics of Knowledge (Chos mngon-pa kun-las btus-pa, Skt. Abhidharmasamuccaya), the Mahayana abhidharma text, however, asserts that prayers made by close relatives and friends may be able to affect our future rebirth by activating different throwing and completing karma during our bardo, so that we will take a better rebirth. If someone not of our family or not karmically connected with us offers these prayers, they will have no effect.   

Bardo existence lasts seven days. If, however, during this time, we do not meet the circumstances of our next rebirth by the force of our throwing karma, we die a “small death” (’chi-ba chung-ba), with our mental continuums experiencing all eight stages of the entering sequence up to the clear light state. We then experience the entire reversal sequence once more and manifest another bardo body of the same color and form as before. We may experience a small death like this at the end of each seven-day period up to a maximum of seven times, so that forty-nine days may pass before taking rebirth. Our bardo existence ends with a final small death and entering sequence, after which our rebirth begins with threshold mental activity at the start of a reversal sequence.

This cycle of reversal and entering sequences repeats again and again in death, bardo and rebirth. It is the same with sleep, although the mental continuum only experiences a facsimile of its clear light state; it does not get quite as subtle as the actual clear light level. When we are completely awake, we have the experience of solidity. When we fall asleep, the appearance-making of solidity dissolves until we get close to clear light. In starting to dream, there is the reversal sequence, and we get the subtle appearance-making of solidity in dreams. Then the mental continuum goes back down to a facsimile of a clear light state. When we awaken, it comes back once more to the level of appearance-making of solidity during the awake state. Let us look at each of these steps, for example in the reversal sequence. 

To understand the steps of the reversal sequence, we need first to understand the three levels of conceptual mental activity. In general, conceptual mental activity cognizes its object through the medium of a semitransparent generally characterized phenomenon (spyi-mtshan, metaphysical entity), such as an audio category (sgra-spyi, sound universal), a meaning/object category (don-spyi, object universal) or a concept (rtog-pa) such as space. 

Valid conceptual cognition cognizes semitransparent generally characterized phenomena (such as the category “table”) and, through them, another type of generally characterized phenomenon – fully transparent conceptual representations (snang-ba, ideas). The conceptual representations are conceptually isolated items (ldog-pa, isolates), which are the type of “nothing other than” (ma-yin-pa-las log-pa) that arises in conceptual cognition and that represents the actual involved objects (’jug-yul) of the conceptual cognition. For example, in a conceptual cognition of a table, “nothing other than a table” arises, representing the form of a specific external table, and we label on it the category
“table.” The category is the appearing object (snang-yul) of the cognition. Through the filter of this semitransparent static (permanent) category and a fully transparent static conceptual representation, the conceptual cognition cognizes the form of a specific nonstatic (impermanent) external table that is its involved object, even if that table is not present. This is the Sautrantika assertion since that school does not accept imaginary forms that other systems assert as appearing. Bare cognition (mngon-sum, Skt. pratyakṣa), on the other hand, is occurring not through the medium of categories. 

There are different types and levels of conceptual mental activity. We can call them subtlest, subtle and gross; or by Western names such as personal and impersonal or unconscious, subconscious and conscious. Thus, we can describe them as the general appearance-making level, the impersonal level that even animals have, and then the personal level of our own personal ideas about this or that. Or we can speak of the subtlest level as unconscious appearance-making. It includes the last three steps leading to or coming out of clear light. Then there are the primitive subconscious conceptual minds, which we have even in dreams; and then the conscious level while awake. 

Every level of mental activity is giving rise to an appearance. The subtle level, for instance, has three stages, the first of which gives rise to an appearance of what is described as the night sky when there is no sunlight, no moonlight, and the darkness is starting to fade, like the very moment of predawn when the sky starts to turn a very deep blue. It is the basic level of the radio being on. This is according to the Gelug presentation and perhaps the Nyingma presentation as well, as it is in common with the rigpa (rig-pa, Skt. vidyā, pure awareness) level. Only on this level can we have pure appearances, the appearance of the interconnected totality of everything. 

The three subtle appearances are not only of a black, red or white lighting that are superficial truths fabricated from the energy-winds, but they are also the arising of progressively stronger movements of these energy-wind and stronger appearances of truly established existence. The appearances appears to be truly existent, but are like an illusion. Thus, the three appearances are not only appearances of superficial truth, but also appearances of a mode of existence. Note that they do not make the mode of existence, just an appearance of a mode of existence. For Gelug, the three appearances can only make an appearance of a false mode of existence, though it can make an accurate appearance of conventional truth.

It is my personal theory that the three appearances are progressive stages in establishing conventional appearances of superficial truth. First is the threshold activity of the black near-attainment level, so-called because it is like the threshold of clear light. It has two steps. The first is without mindfulness and the second is with mindfulness. Mindfulness (dran-pa, Skt. smṛti) is the mental factor that keeps hold onto an object and does not let go so that we stay focused on the object. It is like mental glue that keeps a hold on the appearances of solidity. If these stages are translated as conscious and unconscious, it could be very misleading. The distinction is whether the mental glue is there or not. That is why it is said that the longer we stay in the state of no more mindfulness, the stronger the realization of clear light. 

Then there is the light-diffusion activity or the red increase level. In a sense, light is diffusing out. It is not literally light. The subtle energy-wind is diffusing out in order to make an appearance.

The third step is appearance congealing activity of the white appearance level. Now the energy and light will start to congeal, like gelatin, into some sort of appearance, an appearance in the bardo or a dream. It is a subtle appearance of solidity. Together with this are the eighty indicative conceptual mental activities. These are conceptual activities like needing something, wanting to push something away, needing to be cuddled, the infants’ instinct to suck, or to go to sleep, or to be tired and so on. These are very primitive. Everybody has them. We do not have to have a highly developed mind to have them. 

These three steps are the first stage of the process of establishing a bardo existence or rebirth existence. How do we experience them? Again, the threshold appearance is of darkness, where there is no sunlight and no moonlight. Light diffusion is called red, like a red sunrise. Appearance congealing is an appearance of whiteness, like the white of moonlight reflecting on clean snow, very crisp and gentle. These are usually translated as black, white and black appearances, but that is misleading because we are not talking about the appearance. We are talking about the mind that is making these appearances arise. 

Please keep in mind that we are not talking about visual appearances. They are mental ones that will be the basis for the appearances of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and tactile sensations. We have to think about this. We are coming out of clear light. There is a feeling of diffusion. The material that makes up a feeling is coagulating into a feeling. I derive the terminology I am using from the description of what is actually happening. 

In the Guhyasamaja system, we speak of the two undissipating drops. As a review, the first is the primordial undissipating drop and is a drop in name only; it is the package of subtlest mind and subtlest wind together, which goes on forever. It is not that it is always the same entity, but its continuity is eternal. The second drop lasts only for the duration of a lifetime. It is referring primarily to a human lifetime. I must admit that I don’t know if other life forms share this. I think that animals have it, I am not sure that ghosts and so on have it. The main point is that humans do. 

This second drop is called the white and red bodhichitta received from the parents. It is not really referring to the physical substance. It is difficult to find appropriate translation terms. It is like a spark, a creative energy. It comes from the union of the sperm and egg, which are the source of the elements – solid, liquid and so on. At conception, the primordial undissipating drop, the subtlest mind and energy, takes this second one, the creative spark from the sperm and egg, as its basis. They connect. 

At conception?

There is a question about when exactly a rebirth begins. The continuity of the primordial undissipating drop that is the subtlest mind (clear light) and subtlest wind must connect to something during rebirth. What it connects with is the sperm and egg and this spark of creativity, the second drop. The spark of creativity comes from the parents together with the sperm and the egg. The sperm and egg are alive. I am calling this drop creative because it can grow and because we use it for creating appearances. It is variously called drop, seed, semen and so on.

Can it grow without the other drop?

I don’t think so. That is why I question whether ghosts have it. One undissipating drop, the primordially present one, is beginningless and is coming with our own continuum, and the other is coming from our parents. The sperm and the egg are the material aspect. We cannot call the creative spark “energy.” In the tantric discussion of the subtle mind, we speak of channels, winds and drops. The drops are moved by the winds through the channels. We have to make effort to gain some idea of what in the world this is talking about. If we use “energy” for both the winds and the drops, we miss the distinction between the two. There is a big difference. That is why I refer to these drops as creative sparks or energy drops, as opposed to the energy-winds. Although they are similar, the wind has movement. It makes appearances on the basis of the creativity spark. 

This is not easy to explain. The primordial undissipating drop that is part of our own continuum is not a drop; it is the subtlest wind and subtlest mind. We get the creative spark from our parents’ sperm and egg: red from the mother and white from the father. At what point does our own primordial drop connect with the parents’ drop? All we can say is that it occurs when the embryo, fetus or infant is able to serve as a functional basis for the primordial drop. At that point, rebirth begins. It is not at all clear when that actually happens.

According to the Guhyasamaja explanation, it happens at the time of conception. Our drop comes into the father’s head, goes down the central channel, out through the penis with the sperm, into the mother, and then it joins with the mother’s egg. This is not a literal description. It is a representation of the process to be used in meditation so that we can create the mandala and the body of the deity in a way that is analogous to rebirth. His Holiness and Western doctors have quite an interesting discussion about all of this. How much does the embryo need to develop before it can actually function as a basis for a living being? Does the fetus have to develop at least to the point of having some type of primitive nervous system that can transmit information? 

The fetus has to be on the grosser level to connect?

It makes the connection simultaneously with getting grosser. It is already at the point of threshold. What we are talking about is very subtle.

At the threshold, the red and white creativity sparks are clumped together. Our primordial drop is covered by it, which is why the appearance is of darkness. The red part goes down and eventually settles at what will become the navel chakra. It is like a walnut has opened up and light is diffusing out. The bottom drops out. That is the light diffusion. The white creative spark goes up to what will eventually become the crown chakra. At that point we get appearance congealing. 

Is this connected with the growth of the embryo or fetus?

Yes. In terms of entering clear light, during the process of dying, the white drop falls down from the crown chakra to the heart, and we get appearance congealing. Then the red drop starts to come up to the heart chakra from the navel chakra, and so we get the red light-diffusion. Then they come together at the heart, and we have the black threshold. It goes into clear light from there. There are many meditations in highest tantra in which we imagine the process happening.

We have just covered the description of the first four steps – clear light and the three unconscious appearance-making minds. It is subtle. At this point we have all of the primitive conceptual minds of fear, attachment, wanting to be hugged and so on. We probably get the grossest conceptual activity as well because in dreams and in the bardo we have our own conceptual ideas of people and so on.

The process continues beyond this level as it reemerges out of clear light during rebirth. The physical basis of the appearances we have been describing so far is the subtle wind, which came in the package from the parents. Our subtlest energy connects with the subtle energy in the sperm and egg and in a sense activates it so that it grows and develops. At this point, we have a package of the subtlest mind and wind as well as the indicative concepts and so on. Now the gross elements of the body become the basis for the appearance-making. The congealing of appearance was like very delicate white moonlight on snow. At this point, the appearance is described as the flame of a butter lamp at the bottom of a well. It is not like a photograph of a butter lamp at the bottom of a well. Appearances seem to be much more solid – whether they are of a sight, sound, feeling or whatever. 

Next, it connects to the air element of the physical body. The appearance is of sparks blowing all around. That is the sixth stage. Then the fire element is the basis, and we have a smoke-like appearance. Smoke seems a little more solid than just little flashes of light. When it connects with the water element, it becomes like a mirage, which appears even more solid than smoke. Finally, it connects with the earth element, and then we get a gross appearance of solidity. On the level of gross solidity, everything that we see all day long appears as if it were solidly existent, because of our limited viewpoint.

That is the process of the arising of gross solid appearance-making in the embryo and fetus. In terms of the teaching on the twelve links of dependent origination, it occurs when the embryo or fetus has reached the point where it experiences hot, cold, motion and other types of contacting awareness (reg-pa, Skt. sparśa). Although the twelve links of dependent origination describe the development of the fetus step by step, it is not easy to put it together with the Guhyasamaja description. 

To recapitulate, the dissolution process is as follows. First, the earth element becomes unable to support mental activity. Everything that appeared solidly starts to appear like a mirage. Do you ever have the feeling of falling when lying in bed? That is an example of mirage appearance with respect to feeling. Then the water element becomes unable to support mental activity, and the appearance is like smoke. When the fire element can no longer support mental activity, there are the sparks of light. When the wind element can no longer support it, the appearance is like a butter lamp. When the grosser levels of mind can no longer support it, the eighty indicative conceptual activities have stopped. There is the stage of appearance congealing as the white bodhichitta drops from the crown chakra to the heart. Then it gets even more subtle as it gets to light diffusion. That is when the red creative spark comes up from the navel to the heart. Then there is the threshold experience, the white and the red bodhichitta come together, and there is the appearance of darkness. At first, there is mindfulness, the mental glue that holds on to appearances of solidity, and then that mental glue dissipates. At that point, we get to the clear light. Our primodial undissipating drop can separate from the undissipating drop of the parents. That is death.

The reversal sequence, coming out of clear light into bardo and rebirth is as follows. Threshold is the beginning of bardo. In the bardo, we go up to the appearance congealing, with the eighty indicative conceptual minds. It is slightly different from dreaming because we don’t yet have an association with the drops from the next life’s parents. Still, it is grosser than the clear light level, the subtlest level. The Guhyasamaja system does not explain where the grosser level comes from. Kalachakra gives a clearer explanation.

There are the various subtle solid appearances of bardo, and after every seven days, we have a small death and reenter clear light. If there is the karmic connection to be born sooner, it will end sooner. In any case, there is a small death every seven days. This will repeat a maximum of seven times, making forty-nine days. By the end of those forty-nine days, there will have to be a rebirth, even if only for a few moments as an insect, for example. Rebirth goes from clear light to the appearance of gross solidity in connection with the embryo, which came from the parent’s sperm and egg and creative sparks.