Review
We are going through these graded stages for developing ourselves, working to achieve enlightenment. The first stage is to work toward having better rebirths in the future, specifically precious human rebirths, then to gain complete liberation from all types of uncontrollably recurring rebirths, and, finally, to reach the enlightened state where we would be able to know how best to help everybody else achieve liberation and enlightenment.
Initial Scope
We saw that with the initial stage motivation, we first need to appreciate the precious human rebirths that we have, recognizing the temporary freedoms or respites that we have from the worst states in which we wouldn’t be able to engage in any type of spiritual practice. Instead, we have many wonderful opportunities that enrich our lives, opportunities that enable us to practice and progress.
We saw how rare this precious human rebirth is by looking at its causes. Then we looked at how easily and automatically it will be lost at the time of death. Death will come for sure to everyone. Nobody knows when. The only things that will be of any help to prevent worst rebirths are the preventive measures that we have taken to avoid them. Preventive measures are what the Dharma is all about. It’s what we do to prevent or avoid suffering. It’s what holds us back – literally. The word "Dharma” means to hold one back from suffering.
We looked at the worst states of rebirths that could follow. These are rebirth as a trapped being, a so-called hell being, in one of the joyless realms, as a clutching ghost, or as a creeping creature, an animal. How awful it would be to be in those types of situations. The best way to get really horrified by all of that is to imagine ourselves actually being in those states. That, of course, leads to thinking how strongly we want to avoid them. We are really quite afraid of being in those states, but we see that there is a way to avoid that happening, which is to go in the safe direction of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. So, we see that we are not helpless, that the situation is not a hopeless one.
What we are looking at here is the deepest level: achieving the true stoppings of the causes that would bring those worst rebirths about and the understandings that would lead to those true stoppings. This is the deepest Dharma Gem. The Buddhas are those who have these true stoppings and understandings in full and who have indicated them to us, and the Arya Sangha are those who have them in part. This is the direction we want to go in. We, first, imagine ourselves already in these horrible rebirth states, desperately wanting to get out, and then turning in this safe direction to get out. We then imagine ourselves on the brink of falling off a cliff into these lower states, and, again, we put this direction in our lives to avoid falling over. Then, thirdly, we imagine ourselves away from the edge of that cliff but sliding toward it by the force of our karma. Again, we put this safe direction in our lives to avoid such a disaster. This is what we think when we repeat the refuge formula three times.
In order to actually go in that direction and to avoid the worst types of sufferings, those of the worst rebirth states, we need to avoid destructive behavior, which is their cause. For that, we had the whole discussion of karma. We went into great deal detail about the factors that make karmic consequences heavier as well as what we can do to lighten these things and eventually purify ourselves of having to experience the negative karmic consequences of our destructive behavior.
Now we are going in this positive direction, exercising restraint to prevent ourselves from acting in destructive ways. That means that when the wish or desire to act in a destructive way – to hurt somebody, to yell at them, to lie or whatever – comes up, we say “no”; we don’t follow it out. That is the constructive action of refraining.
Intermediate Scope
On the intermediate level, we see that even if we gain one of the better rebirths, we are still going to have various problems. As humans, for example, we are still going to be unhappy; we are still going to experience the suffering of suffering. In the higher realms, too, we still have the suffering of change, which is our ordinary happiness that doesn’t last, never satisfies and, eventually, turns into unhappiness. We want to avoid that as well. On the deepest level, what we want to avoid is uncontrollably recurring samsaric rebirth – the all-pervasive suffering – which is the basis for continuing to have the suffering of suffering and the suffering of change.
In order to overcome that all-pervasive suffering, we need to look more deeply at the causes of suffering. Destructive behavior, of course, is the cause for worse rebirth states, but a deeper, more general cause of suffering is the disturbing emotions. Some of them only accompany destructive states of mind. Others, like naivety and the unawareness of reality, accompany constructive states of mind as well. Such constructive states of mind are tainted with that confusion. So, tainted constructive actions are accompanied with such things as a grasping for a solid “me” – “I am so wonderful for doing this for you” – and lead to the suffering of change, our ordinary happiness.
This led us to a detailed discussion and analysis of the disturbing emotions and attitudes, both the root ones and the subsidiary, auxiliary, or secondary ones, however we want to translate these mental factors. We looked at the order in which these disturbing emotions arise as well as the causes for them to arise and to become even stronger.
Since the point of looking at all of this is to overcome the all-pervasive suffering, our uncontrollably recurring rebirth, we started to look at the more general presentation of how death, bardo and rebirth occur. We will look at this in much greater detail with the analysis of the 12 links of dependent arising, which describe how the disturbing emotions, then karma, drive this uncontrollably recurring rebirth. That leads to the discussion of how to get rid of the unawareness that underlies this whole mechanism.
Mind at the Time of Death (Continued)
In the general presentation of death, bardo and samsaric rebirth, we looked at the circumstances for dying and then started our discussion of the state of mind at the time of death. What we had mentioned in the last session was that if we have had mostly constructive states of mind while we were alive – we have built up a positive habit of thinking in constructive ways, having confident belief in the Triple Gems, our gurus, bodhicitta or something like that – then, at the time of death, when we still have rough distinguishing and are able to distinguish between this and that in general, either we ourselves remember or are reminded by somebody else of these constructive thoughts. We will stay in that constructive state of mind as we are dying until we lose the rough distinguishing.
We also saw that if we have been equally constructive and destructive during our lives, what our minds will become fixed on as we die will be whichever of these aspects, constructive or destructive, has been most powerful in our lives, and we will forget about everything else. Here we are taking a chance. If we have been in a mixed bag, as it were – sometimes being constructive, sometimes destructive – then whichever of these is more powerful will come up at the time of death, either from the force of our own memory or by being reminded by somebody else. And if we have been equally accustomed to both constructive and destructive things, whatever we recall first will be what we stay fixed on.
This is very horrifying. If we review our lives, what are the types of thoughts that we would find have been primary in our minds? I think that for many of us, it could be very strong desire – desire for money, for wealth, for love, for sex, for whatever. If we’ve always had this type of craving and seeking, that attachment would come up at the time of death. Or if we have been a very angry person, always getting irritated with things, always annoyed, getting quite hostile and very pessimistic and negative in our thinking, then that’s what’s likely to come up at the time of death.
We can see that quite easily in terms of, for instance, what comes up in our dreams. If before we have gone to sleep, we have been watching something on the TV or the internet that’s quite violent or sexual, our dreams tend to be affected by that. Those are the sorts of images that could come up as we are falling asleep. So, what’s going on in our minds at this time is similar to what will be going on in our minds as we are dying.
Why don’t we think a little bit about our own lives. What really have been the primary types of thought and behavior that we have had in our lives? It could even be attachment to work.
[meditation]
The second step is to make a strong resolution to stop polluting our minds, to stop conditioning them to negative types of thoughts, disturbing emotions and so on, in order to prevent them from automatically coming up as we are dying and activating the throwing karma that corresponds to that state of mind, one that would lead to quite a horrible rebirth.
Discussion
Participant: I think of my grandmother. I had quite an intense relationship with her before she died. For most of her life, she was quite a self-centered and rough person. Before she died, her health became very bad, but her mind, her personality, changed a lot: she became very thankful and very, very nice. She had a peaceful death. We saw her the day she died, and it was really nice for us to see how she died. For us, it looked like she died peacefully. So, I was wondering, because most of her life, her mind was self-centered and rough, not peaceful.
Dr. Berzin: How does this fit in with what we find in the text?
Participant 2: This is pretty similar to my granny as well.
Dr. Berzin: I don’t know. One can wonder if they felt regret as they realized that they were dying, as the energy became less. I don’t really know. Think about it. Does this teaching make any sort of sense? I was thinking primarily in terms of the analogy of what’s going on in our minds when we fall asleep. If we have been totally worried about or preoccupied with something during the day, it’s hard to quiet our minds of those thoughts as we are trying to fall asleep, isn’t it? But this change in personality that we often find at the very closing stages of our lives… I don’t know. What do you think? Let’s try to figure it out if we can.
Participant: I thought you said that we can have both constructive and destructive types of tendencies and that one type would tend to become more important at the end. But maybe this process of focusing on the one that’s stronger starts earlier.
Dr. Berzin: As it says here, whichever is the most powerful will start to take over, have the most influence. So, that could be the case. But you said your grandmother was quite irritated and uneasy and so on during her life. I think there is also a certain aspect that’s involved here, which is that our energy gets weaker. To stay irritated and very aggressive takes a lot of energy. So, in the final stages, maybe the energy is too weak.
[Participant comment]
Dr. Berzin: She is saying that some people, as they die – she gives the example of Alzheimer’s – have a period of being aggressive. If we have both constructive and destructive things in our life history, then, perhaps, we are able to make a choice in terms of which we want to focus on and emphasize as we are dying.
That fits in with my point that maybe we regret the negative things. But I don’t know that so many people would be that conscious. We don’t have that much distinguishing to be able to make that choice. With Alzheimer’s, having experienced that with my mother, most people go through an aggressive stage. But that comes up quite a ways before dying. I tend to think that that has to do with frustration – that they are not able to communicate. They forget what they were starting to say a few words down the sentence. And they become very isolated because they can’t communicate with anybody and don’t know how to do things. They are very bewildered. They don’t know how to use the toilet or how to brush their teeth. They don’t even know how to put on their glasses or lie down on the bed. That’s very frustrating. But that passes. At least, that’s what I saw with my mother. That seems to be the case with people in the Alzheimer’s ward.
What’s interesting with Alzheimer’s – and this is what the nurses said – is that what has been the dominant personality trait of the person lasts the longest. With Alzheimer’s, we progressively lose more and more of our personality traits and memory. With my mother, it was very interesting. She was always a very kind woman. Even when she was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s, what she wanted to do was walk around with the nurses and to help them take care of the other patients. If you brought her anything she liked, like ice cream, she refused to take it if she couldn’t share it with other patients that were there. To me, that was a clear indication of what she was left with toward the end. Obviously, at the very end, she was left with nothing.
I don’t know about this thing of people who were very irritable while they were alive becoming very peaceful as they die. Again, what actually is in their minds as they are dying, I don’t know. That’s what the text is primarily talking about, which is what’s going on at the moment of death that will activate our throwing karma.
Participant: The last year, my grandmother was in a nursing home, so she had to give up everything of her life before that. She knew that it was hopeless. A lot of the time, there was nobody around, so she appreciated any type of kindness or visiting or anything like that.
Dr. Berzin: Right, but the question is, when she was by herself, what was going on in her mind? Usually, these people are very depressed, very lonely and very pessimistic.
My aunt was in a nursing home for her last year. She died at 99. She was bored out of her mind as there was no stimulation whatsoever. Because her sight wasn’t good enough to read or to watch television and everybody around her was either completely hard of hearing or had dementia, she was totally unstimulated and bored. She just wanted to die. That’s not a very positive state of mind, actually. Perhaps she was rejoicing when she finally died, glad that it was finally over.
Participant: It can get worse.
Dr. Berzin: Right, especially for somebody who is dying of cancer or something else quite painful. There are lots and lots of different circumstances. But what is the point here of this teaching? The point is that we build up certain habits. Remember, one of the causes for disturbing emotions to arise is the influence of others, the influence of external stimuli.
In daily life, there are a lot of things that come up that we have to deal with. When we give all that up and go into a nursing home and are in bed all the time, we don’t have to deal with all these things. So, there was no stimulus for this disturbing attitude to come up, other than the tendency for that, the habits of that to remember this. That’s another factor. Everything networks together here.
Participant: Just to look at this from another angle, a friend of mine who works in an old age home said that nearly nobody dies peacefully. Most of the people, he said, die in fear and are totally unhappy.
Dr. Berzin: Right. They have a lot of aggression because don’t want that to be happening. They don’t want to let go.
It also says in the Dharma that if we have led very destructive lives, we’ll die with a great deal of anger, hostility and regret. If we have been constructive and so on, we won’t have any regrets when we die. We can die with peace of mind, especially if we have taken some preventive measures and have built that up as a strong habit to avoid worst rebirths and then focus on these positive things. Remember, we spoke about this in the last session. When something terrible happens to us, what’s the first thought that comes to our minds? We had a whole discussion about “oh shit.”
The text says,
Those who die with constructive minds seem to pass from darkness into light. They have pleasant and attractive images appear, as in a dream. They die comfortably, and, at the moment of death, no feelings of physical suffering arise. They die without anxiety.
Basically, one dies with peace of mind. “Constructive” means having refrained from negative behavior.
Participant: When I think of somebody who is not Buddhist, somebody who has always tried to do something good, but who does not believe in future lives, I can imagine that this person would die with a lot of anxiety.
Dr. Berzin: We don’t have to be a Buddhist to die in a peaceful, constructive state of mind.
Participant: No, I said I can imagine this person would die with a lot of anxiety.
Dr. Berzin: With a lot of anxiety? No, I don’t think so. Somebody like a Catholic nun, for instance, who has done wonderful good deeds her entire life would think, “I am going to heaven.” So, they wouldn’t die with anxiety.
Participant 2: She said somebody who doesn’t believe in future lives.
Dr. Berzin: Well, again, I am thinking of my aunt. My aunt definitely did not believe in afterlife. Her view of what happens after death is the big nothing. She welcomed death; she couldn’t wait for it. She was 99, and that body was finished. All her friends had died. Her husband had died. Even her daughter had died.
Participant: I think this process of not grasping for this life and thinking about being constructive isn’t necessarily a rational one. Some people don’t go through life in this rational way. That doesn’t mean that they stop thinking about what makes sense and what doesn’t or what’s correct and what’s not. That’s why some people who do all sorts of positive things, even without thinking about what’s going to happen in the next life, may go in peace.
Dr. Berzin: She is saying that some people have been very constructive their whole lives, but not on the rational basis of “doing this, I’ll ensure better rebirth,” and so on, can die with peace of mind anyway. Yes, because they think, “My life has been worthwhile. I’ve led a worthwhile life. It was a good life, and now it’s finished.”
The thing is, we could be perfectly rational about all of this up until the time when we are actually dying. When we are actually dying, if we are cognizant enough – we could be hit by a truck, but that is something different – but if we are cognizant enough… Think if we were in an airplane crash. The airplane is going down, and there is no hope. It’s going to take two minutes before it hits the ground and everyone is going to die. I can’t imagine that there are many on that plane who would not be absolutely terrified.
Participant: Everything would be flying around. Still, it would be a little bit easier than having a lot of pain or being choked. There is no chance that you can have a constructive mind at that time.
Dr. Berzin: There is a no chance to have a constructive mind at that time, to remember our gurus and bodhicitta – unless we have trained very, very strongly. And because we have been both constructive and destructive during our lives, fear could come up. And “oh, shit” could come up. It takes a tremendous amount of training; it’s not easy to gain liberation. Nobody said it was easy.
Having Cultivated a Destructive State of Mind
- Those who die with destructive states of mind, whether they are mindful on their own or are reminded by someone else, remember, or become mindful, of destructive states of mind such as attachment and apply to that so long as they still have rough distinguishing. They feel like they are going from light into darkness. Like in a nightmare, many unpleasant images arise. Those who have committed especially destructive actions have physical pain, their bodies shake, and they die in a state of agony.
So, we have very strong attachment – “I don’t want to leave all my loved ones, my possessions or my body” – and we are afraid of what may come later, even if it’s the big nothing. The big nothing is very frightening as well. As it says, it feels as if we are going into darkness rather than into light. Many unpleasant images like in the nightmares arise, and we feel terrible. We have pain, we start shaking, and die in a state of agony.
Participant: When my grandmother was dying, I told her, “Now you will go to your husband.” That was a while ago. I am wondering now whether that was wrong to say.
Dr. Berzin: I don’t know. What we say doesn’t necessarily have the effect that we think it might have. It might generate a happier state of mind, rather than attachment. I don’t know. It’s very tricky, the time of death.
Attachment to the Self Is a Main Cause for Attaining the Bardo
For all beings, the text says,
At the time of death, up until their distinguishing becomes unclear, attachment to the self with which beings have been accustomed for a long time arises. After that, due to the power of attachment to the self, they think, ‘I am ceasing to exist,” and they crave having a body. This is the cause for attaining the bardo except for those who are to be reborn on the plane of formless beings.
As we are dying, there is strong attachment to “me, me, me” – “Now I am leaving this body, and I want a body.” That will be the cause for attaining the bardo. We are talking about the immediate cause, what will immediately precede attaining the bardo. Obviously, there is a clear light of death and all of that, but this is speaking about what will bring on a bardo body and then being reborn. So, think about that.
If we were to give up this body, how strongly would we want another body to be able to continue with? And what type of self do we think we would be continuing with? I think it would tend to be a static “me,” the same “me.” We would go on with the false “me.” “Then, I can just continue doing what I was doing with my loved ones and friends.” That’s the view of the static, false “me.” And that gets into a whole discussion of what our understanding and view of the “me” is, the “me” in future lives.
[meditation]
They are very interesting questions. The thing that I found very helpful in dealing with this is knowing my teacher Serkong Rinpoche in two lifetimes and being very close to him in two lifetimes. And what is the relationship between the old one and the new one? The new one is now 27 years old; he is quite an adult already. There is continuity, but it’s not so easy to see what the continuity is. They are quite different in many ways. Obviously, different karma gets activated in each lifetime. So, of course, they are not going to be identical. There are certain traits, certain habits, that have been activated again, like feeling, from very, very early on, very close to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and to the old senior tutor, Ling Rinpoche, who has also been reborn and is one year younger than Serkong Rinpoche.
I remember very well, when Serkong Rinpoche was four and Ling Rinpoche was three, Serkong Rinpoche absolutely refused to sit on the same seat or on the same level as the three-year-old Ling Rinpoche. He would always sit lower than him. The type of respect that he had as a four-year-old for a three-year-old was quite extraordinary. Also, he has had a very, very close relationship with me since he was four years old. There are certain things that continue, but he is different. In this lifetime, he is a layman. He has given up his monk’s vows. The old one was certainly very strict with his monk’s vows. They are both very serious in terms of being teachers and studying very hard. They have a similar sense of humor and stuff like that. But it’s not the same.
So, what does it mean in terms of the continuity of “me” in a future lifetime? In my case, my name in this lifetime is Alex. It’s not going to be Alex now in another body. But that’s what we tend to think, isn’t it? It’s going to be “me” in another body with quite a solid view of “me.”
Participant: Does this question lead to grasping for a solid “me”?
Dr. Berzin: Right, that’s what we want to get rid of. That is exactly what is said here – grasping for a solid “me.” As we are dying, we want another body for that same solid “me.” That is the thought that hurls us into the bardo and into the next rebirth. That is what is really driving samsara.
The disturbing emotions and so on – whether we have attachment to peace of mind or whatever – will influence which type of throwing karma will cause our next rebirth. But regardless of what’s going on, there is this grasping for another body, for the same solid “me.” That’s what it’s talking about here. That’s quite profound and quite horrifying when we think how deeply ingrained this grasping for a solid “me” is. Obviously, there are many different levels of subtlety of what we mean by the solid “me”; I am just using that as a catchphrase. Think about that for a moment.
[meditation]
Basically, I am just translating from Lam-rim chen-mo and summarizing it.
At the End of the Death Process, Mind Is Ethically Neutral
With the onset of subtle distinguishing, the constructive or destructive states of mind stop and become unspecified. At that point, beings can no longer generate or retrieve the constructive or destructive states of mind with which they had become familiar, nor can others remind them.
At the onset of subtle distinguishing – so, after the grosser levels of distinguishing have ceased – the mind becomes “unspecified,” which means ethically neutral.
Where Heat Gathers and Leaves the Body
For those who die with a constructive state of mind, the heat leaves the body, first, from the bottom going up to the heart and, then, from the top down. If destructive, the heat first leaves from the head down to the heart, and then from the feet up to the heart. In both cases, the heat leaves from the heart.
This is the sutra explanation. The tantra explanation is slightly different. In anuttarayoga tantra, there is a very detailed discussion of the various stages by which the consciousness withdraws from the various elements in the body as its basis. Here, in sutra, we don’t have that type of discussion. In tantra, there are at least two descriptions of the stages by which the consciousness withdraws and becomes more and more subtle. There’s one that we find in general anuttarayoga tantra, and one that we find in Kalachakra. They are slightly different. But when we look more deeply at that, we see that they’re actually looking at different stages in the dissolution process.
The Bardo
So, we are dead now. Then it says,
Reaching the bardo is like tipping two sides of a scale. As the consciousness leaves, the bardo starts.
So, like when tipping the plates of a scale, as one side starts to go down, the other starts to go up. That means that the last moment of this life ends and the first moment of bardo begins immediately in the next moment. As one ends, the other begins. There is no interval in between.
The causes for bardo are attachment to one’s body, being filled with delight in the worldly activities that one had enjoyed before, and previously built-up destructive and constructive karma.
This is what we had before: we want to have a body for the solid “me” and to do the usual samsaric worldly things that we generally did before. The other cause is the previously built-up constructive or destructive karma.
A bardo being has full senses – sight, hearing and so on – and has a body like the one it will have in the next rebirth. It has extrasensory and extraphysical powers.
For humans, the body would be like an eight-year-old child. Also, a bardo being is able to go anywhere, pass through walls, and things like that, although there are a few restrictions on that.
For those with primarily destructive past karma, the bardo appears like the pitch-black darkness of night. For those who are primarily constructive, it appears like a moonlit night. One sees beings who are of the same type as oneself, as well as the place where one is going to be reborn as.
I wonder what that means – that if we are in total darkness, total blackness, we see beings that look like us. Anyway, let’s leave that aside.
Then, color:
For someone who is to be reborn as a hell being, the body is like a charred log; for one to be born as an animal, it is smoke-colored; for one to be reborn as a hungry ghost, it is like the color of water.
I suppose that doesn’t mean colorless. Maybe that means like a blue lake or something like that.
For one who is to be reborn as a deity in the desire realm or as a human, the color is like that of gold; for one in the form realm, the color is white. Those to be reborn in the formless realm don’t have a bardo. Those to be reborn as deities move with their eyes and heads going upwards; those to be reborn as humans move with their heads looking straight forward; those to be reborn in a lower realm move with their head lowered and your eyes looking down. Beings in the bardo may remain up to seven days, though if they have not found the conditions for rebirth within that time, they take on another body and may remain up to seven weeks.
This is a very general description that, drawing from various texts, Tsongkhapa put together.
Let me ask you: When you dream, do you have an idea of what you look like in your dream? I don’t.
Participant: Do you ever have dreams that are like watching a movie in which you appear?
Dr. Berzin: I have never. You have that?
Participant: Yes.
Dr. Berzin: You do? What do you look like? Your normal form?
Participant: Close to.
Dr. Berzin: What are other people’s experiences?
Participant: I don’t remember a dream where I looked at myself, but I remember that I dreamt I was driving my motorcycle and that I had the bodily feeling of driving.
Dr. Berzin: That’s like normal life as well. In normal life, do we have any concept of what we look like as we are going through normal life? I don’t. For me, the dream is like that as well. I am a participant in a dream, but there is no sense of what I look like.
Participant: The same for me. Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was looking in a mirror, but I didn’t look like myself. I didn’t see myself really with a shape and…
Dr. Berzin: What did you see?
Participant: I closed my eyes, and when I opened them again, I saw my husband in the mirror next to me but not myself.
Dr. Berzin: That was very clear. That’s interesting. Anybody else?
It’s interesting. They say that in the bardo, our bodies are this color or that color. Are we even aware of that?
Participant: In dreams, I am aware of what I am doing and how it feels, but never what I look like.
Dr. Berzin: So, Jorge says you could look down at your arms and see what color your hand is. Do you ever, ever do that in a dream? If you do lucid dreaming, I suppose you could.
Participant: Then you are conscious enough.
Dr. Berzin: But that would be just out of curiosity. Why would you want to do that? The whole point of lucid dreaming, at least from the teachings that I’ve had, is either to recognize that everything is like an illusion – so, voidness meditation – or to do one of our tantric sadhana practices because in dreams, we can visualize very vividly without any distraction from our senses.
Participant: In the beginning, you have to stabilize, to have stable dreams…
Dr. Berzin: Yes, but not more entertainment programs. It’s not that, “Now I can fly,” and these sorts of things.
I have an interesting thing. In my dreams, very often I can, in a sense, fly. I can move very, very quickly. And I become conscious in my dream that I can do that. I know that I can do that and am conscious of the fact that I am doing that.
Participant: Out of habit.
Dr. Berzin: Out of habit of having been a bird or something. Maybe. I don’t know. Bardo is always described as being very similar to dreams.
After seven days in the bardo, we have what’s known as little death. It can repeat up to seven times – 49 days, according to abhidharma. The question, of course, is what kind of days because the days of the gods are longer than the days of the humans. Is it the days of the humans if we are going to be reborn as a human and days of gods if we are going to be reborn as a god? I have no idea. I have never debated abhidharma. In any case, it says that at the end of this 49-day period, we are going to be reborn as something, even if it is only as a fly for two minutes. Then, again, we re-enter the bardo from where we will reborn as something.
Rebirth
Then, in terms of birth:
If a being is to be born from a womb, it sees the same type of species as it will be born as. It wishes to be with them and desires to reach the place where they are. But it misconceives its father’s semen and its mother’s blood as its parents lying together – the parents are not lying together; yet, as if in an illusion, it sees them lying together – and becomes attached.
This I didn’t quite understand. This is what it says in the text. The parents aren’t actually lying in union, yet, somehow, we are attracted by the semen and the “blood,” which is what they call it for a woman, which is referring to the egg. We somehow see that, and as in an illusion, they appear to us as though they are lying together.
If it is to be born as a female, it turns away from the woman and has attachment to the male, wanting to sleep with him. If it is to be born as a man, it is the opposite.
They use the word “sleep” in Tibetan.
Now, what in the world goes on with someone who is going to be reborn gay? I have absolutely no idea. That’s just not mentioned.
Attachment draws the being closer and closer to the man and woman, arriving at a point where it can only see their genitals. Being angry at this sight, it dies and is reborn. During this time, the father has an orgasm. His semen joins with the egg and becomes a congealed mass. The being’s consciousness then enters this congealed mass and mixes with these two and with a trace of the great elements.
It’s unclear if the great elements are separate from the semen and egg or if they’re part of the semen and egg. They are the causes for the senses of another body. Again, it is not clear what the time interval is here between the orgasm and when the sperm and the egg congeal. And what does it mean to congeal? This is also unclear.
It says, “The consciousness enters that and mixes with that joined sperm and egg and the elements of the sperm and egg.” It’s unclear if the traces of the elements are those of the sperm and egg. In the Kalachakra description, which is not the sutra description, it is something called the subtlest drop, which consists of traces of elemental particles, that comes along with the subtlest wind, subtlest mind and subtlest speech, which is a package that goes one from lifetime to another, according to Kalachakra. In any case, this is what develops into a body.
If the being has accumulated little positive potential, it is born into a lower caste. It hears a loud noise and sees itself entering a marsh or thick forest.
Here, caste could also mean species; it’s the same word. Also, remember that this is talking about birth from a womb. And though this is describing birth for someone who has little positive potential, we have to have quite a bit of it to be reborn as a human.
If it has built up positive potential, it hears pleasant sounds and see itself entering a palace.
These are descriptions of when the consciousness actually enters the sperm and egg. There are also descriptions of how rebirth takes place in one of the other ways that are described in Buddhism: born from an egg; born from moisture and heat – I am not quite sure what that is referring to, but maybe mushroom or bacteria or who knows; and born from a lotus, which is transformation, sort of instantaneously appearing from a lotus, whatever that means. I didn’t copy all of that out. I don’t think that’s so relevant to our study.
So, these are the descriptions of death, bardo and rebirth, according to sutra, as put together in Lam-rim chen-mo by Tsongkhapa. Let us think about that. One, of course, would ask, is this really what happens? Is this fantastic or strange, or what? But then again, we have no idea what really happens with the bardo and rebirth process. What are the earliest things that go on with the consciousness? Also, it could say that the consciousness enters with the vision and so on of the sperm and egg and that it then takes quite a while for the aggregates to develop. All of this is described in the 12 links. During that time, maybe we are not very aware of anything. What’s described here is just what it feels like to enter a sperm and egg.
Participant: I was thinking that from the orgasm up to the connection of sperm to egg, there might be several hours, up to one, two, or maybe even three days.
Dr. Berzin: Exactly, this is what is unclear in this whole thing – what the time interval is between the male orgasm and when, as it says in the text, the sperm and egg (which they call “blood”) congeal. What does “congeal” mean? Does it mean being attached to the wall of the uterus? If the joined sperm and egg doesn’t join to the wall, it dies. We could say that that was a very short rebirth. But the point is, what does it mean even to say that it is congealed? One could say that it has to be developed enough to function as a basis for the consciousness. That leaves open a big, big area in terms of the abortion question and so on. When does it become a feasible basis? This is very, very difficult. From a medical point of view, it is impossible to say, and from a Buddhist point of view, it doesn’t make sense to say that it is instantaneous. There is room within the Buddhist explanation.
[Participant comment]
Dr. Berzin: We are speculating when it becomes a functioning basis. You are saying that when the sperm and egg join, then the egg forms a protective barrier so that no more sperm can enter it, join with it. As I say, this is a discussion where there is no definitive answer.
Let us conclude, then, our general presentation of death, bardo and rebirth. After this, we will start the discussion of the 12 links of dependent arising, which describe in much more detail how the whole death and rebirth process occurs under the influence of karma and the disturbing emotions. When we understand that mechanism in more depth, we can know exactly what the weakest point is and where we can attack it in order to overcome our uncontrollably recurring rebirths. Once we really understand that mechanism, then we can develop renunciation, being totally convinced that this is something that we want to get rid of.