When the white and the red light come together, twenty to thirty minutes after cardiac arrest, thirty-three feelings of anger and forty feelings of attachment have returned into space. Now the seven emotions that arise out of stupidity dissolve. Beyond all impressions and experiences, all ideas and perceptions then finally disappear. Everything gets dark and quiet. This is the last moment in the bardo of dying.
The Clear Light of The Truth State
Now, the overwhelming radiance inherent in mind breaks through in a flash. This is the crucial moment that one can already focus on and look forward to during one’s lifetime, if one works with one’s mind. Now, after all, sensory impressions, expectations, and mixed emotions have dissolved, there is only one thing left: the experiencer itself, that which has always been sought after. It is never so directly “itself” as it is here. “It is a non-created, natural, non-artificial state of mind in which there is no arising, existing and passing away.”1 As a meditator, one tries to approach one’s own timeless nature in each state of absorption but usually remains trapped and influenced by changing experiences. Only after years of practice can the state be experienced that one simply gets as a gift in death. Whoever is able to hold it, hold out in it, and extend it into time and space, becomes a buddha himself. Just as a fish jumps out of the water, mind is free now, playful, and limitless. With the cessation of all binding, obstructing, and limiting effects of past actions and without the separation between the experiencer and the experienced, one experiences mind’s timeless essence. Beyond all notion of conscious and unconscious, not bound by any habits, and without distractions of a body, the awareness of the deceased now experiences its boundless luminosity at the heart level.
One dwells in an all-encompassing “aha” experience, similar to when a child in a dark hallway pushes open the door into a light-filled hall. Experiencing, experiencer, and the experienced are fresh, one and true in itself; everything is naked awareness—without any questioning. Insights that emerge in this moment directly connect the experiencer, the world, and the experience in the here and now.
The Tibetans speak of chönyi bardo, which, when translated from Sanskrit, means “the experience of Dharmata.” In the West, it is called “the intermediate state of suchness,” the radiant-conscious clear light, or the “Truth Space.” If this is experienced in the moment of death, it is also called “son-clear light.” It is utterly overwhelming in its power and experiences itself as a limitless radiance. Everything that can be experienced or imagined is inherent in the space of naked awareness. If one’s own “son-clear light” melts with the “mother-clear light” of the all-pervasive awareness of space, everything is recognized and realized and the state of the Great Seal is reached. The son corresponds to what the deceased experienced of the Clear Light during the melting phase of the meditation. The mother embodies the boundless and ever-present Clear Light, the state of timeless suchness that one meets now. Since one already knows the taste, one will spontaneously melt with it.
From this moment on, one is everything good, meaningful, and protective everywhere. But from this buddha level one no longer appears automatically with recognizable qualities and a body that is graspable by the senses.
Following one’s own earlier promises and the wishes of the students from this highest field of development, but also as a bodhisattva, one can let oneself be reborn in any desired location, work through several bodies at the same time, and, above all, appear wherever the beings have a connection to one.
Whether one has chosen at enlightenment to merge completely and limitlessly into conscious space as a blessing or to look again for a body in order to work for the direct benefit of beings, in both cases, there is no falling back into the conditioned world. However, the tie of a human body to the senses is connected with a lot of confusion through birth, childhood, and youth over the years, until mind experiences its familiar clarity again through meditation practice.
In Tibet this special relation to one’s own body was aptly called “illusory body” (Skt. nirmanakaya, Tib. tulku), since one experiences not being the body, but having it, and is very aware of the dreamlike character of all phenomena. From this moment on, by example, one opens the hearts of the students eager to learn. When leaving an illusory body—whether used for better or sometimes worse—everyone returns to the beyond-personal pure realms of the buddhas, with the recognition of the Clear Light. When seen in this way, there is no cause for concern that one might lose one’s realization while working for the benefit of all in the conditioned world. If emanations act strangely in the world, they, unfortunately, can only do less for beings in later incarnations.
Consciously dwelling in the Clear Light, therefore, brings forth an unshakeable, boundless realization. This state of inseparability of all phenomena corresponds to the Truth State (Dharmakaya) of mind. The path there is appropriately called “Phowa into the Truth State” (see Fig. Conscious Dying [in Chapter 8]).
Meditation masters use the moment of death to call attention to the possibilities of mind. Their art of controlling it is meant to awaken trust. I know three possibilities of how one can connect as a meditator to the Clear Light of the Truth State in the bardo of suchness:
- One simply breathes out the consciousness, and timeless space meets outside and inside, as Kalu Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche showed in their deaths (see “The Art of Dying,” [Chapter 9]). Just as the inside of the jar of Manibhadra, by breaking, became one with the surroundings, so too death offers the opportunity by becoming one to experience the fundamental truth of all life: like space, the essence of mind remains untouched by change and death.2
- Another form is the longer dwelling of the mind in a state of suchness in the heart of the deceased. It is called tudam in Tibetan. Here, as long as the mind doesn’t break away from it, the body stays warm and smooth and slowly gets ever smaller.3 It is said that the length of time one stays in this state depends on the wishes made during one’s lifetime. During this time, the mind goes through all the necessary stages of development until enlightenment.
- A third possibility is, with the help of a very difficult meditation that is applicable only in complete solitude, transforming the vibrations of the solid body into energy. In Tibetan, it is called djalu, which means “rainbow body.” Here only hair, nails, and teeth of the dead remain, which—hardly surprisingly—are revered as relics. I personally know of only one person from my years in the Himalayas who realized this: Karmapa’s silversmith from Rumtek.4 Unfortunately, this Phowa of the absolute highest realization is currently dying out in Tibet because the results do not agree much at all with the dialectical materialism of the Chinese Communists. Earlier, even the families of the yogis who realized this practice were killed.
Depending on the sharpness of mind and direction of the stored karmic impressions, at the end of each life, the Clear Light of the Truth State offers to the dying a flash-like experience of enlightenment that is to be kept. The best preparation for this moment is having confidence in the teaching and practicing the melting phase in daily meditation. If one succeeds in dwelling in the naked awareness of the experiencer and simply being “the perception itself,” undisturbed by mixed feelings, expectations, or sensory impressions, this is a first-class preparation for extending the arising Clear Light into the boundless, twenty to thirty minutes after the last breathing-out. Devotion and trust in enlightenment here give power, and whoever can stand for himself, because he thought, said, and also did the same thing and matured beyond-personally through love, has the opportunity in the intermediate state to realize the true nature of mind and ultimately to dwell in the so-called Truth State of mind.
But if one has meditated little or half-heartedly in life and has had little desire for the melting phase, the depth of the insight gained is not enough to reach enlightenment in the intermediate state. The Clear Light appears in death even for the smallest fly, but the ability to experience it and to consciously dwell in the here and now is the result of responsible honesty, brave intentions, regular practice, and wishes for enlightenment in this lifetime for the benefit of others. Whoever lived with little consciousness then experiences only a terrifying flash of one’s inherent wisdom after the darkness. Living without conviction and other kinds of cowardice are hereby fundamental obstacles for any realization, as is the tendency to hide from unpleasant facts or to leave the problems to the offspring. Being a bleeding-heart who does not want to see and disregarding as well as clinging to obviously outdated and harmful views, leaves behind difficult habits in mind.
In short, the experience of the timeless Clear Light is often so unfamiliar and powerful for non-meditators that they cannot stand it. If, in death, one backs off from the automatically enlightened vastness of space and its radiance, a deep unconsciousness, similar to a huge wave, crashes over one.
The Light Forms of The Joy State
If one has not been able to hold the Clear Light, this unconsciousness lasts about three days; many texts say seventy-two or more hours. According to my experience it is about sixty-eight hours for educated people. Then, mind, after deep unconsciousness, comes around again, either abruptly or as if out of a deep sleep.
One is still in the intermediate state of the ultimate nature, is still without an “I”-perception, and now gets a second chance to recognize one’s mind on a beyond-personal and liberating level through the melting with a familiar buddha form, and to thus liberate oneself.
Unaffected by ideas of a self, a body or its sensory impressions, everything appears on the highest level of pure form. All beings are then buddhas, as one has always imagined it after the melting phase in meditation. All sounds are mantras, and all thoughts self-arisen direct wisdom. This state usually lasts one week—that means from the third to the tenth day—and expresses the playful Joy State of mind (Skt. sambhogakaya, Tib. longku) between the Truth State (Skt. dharmakaya, Tib. chöku) that was missed in death and the powerful Emanation State (Skt. nirmanakaya, Tib. tulku) that will appear later. The beyond-personal three states are also forms of expression of the ultimate State of Essence (Skt. svabhavikakaya, Tib. ngowonyiku), just as humidity, clouds, rain, and snow are all forms of water.
In this second part of the bardo of suchness, the mind dwells in its richness of pure phenomena. One experiences the enlightening buddha forms and their power-fields, but only if one has developed a relationship to them in past lives through blessing, transmission, guided meditations, and empowerments and if the building-up phase of the meditation (in which one adjusts to its light-energy forms) was practiced well. It is like a sky full of radiant light. Some see moving lights or spots of light there; others experience a buddha or even a hundred buddha forms.
The teachings described here were given by Buddha to his closest students. Over the centuries, they were passed on in India, often orally, and the accuracy of the transmission was confirmed again and again through the state of absorption and the memory of the respective transmission holders. In Tibet, these were enlightened accomplishers like Guru Rinpoche, Marpa, and the Karmapas.
There were two transmissions from India. The old tantras5 (i.e. the secret teachings of Buddha encompassing body, speech, and mind) reached Tibet around the year 750 through Guru Rinpoche in a form equipped with many details. They include the bardo texts, translated and explained in many languages, and very precisely describe the process of the individual impressions and experiences in this intermediate state, as well as the possibilities for those who received a special Buddhist empowerment called shitro.6 Through this empowerment, the subconscious appears in the intermediate state of the ultimate nature as one hundred different buddhas: forty-two peaceful forms then condense out of the energy center at the heart level and fifty-eight critically protective ones from the head center.
In the new tantras, which came to Tibet with Marpa and the second Buddhist wave around 1050, however, the peaceful and protecting forms are not described at all because, in fact, only those who are highly realized can hold such pictorial experiences. Since they are often portrayed in magnificent painted thangkas and in the books of many of my teachers and colleagues, I will not expand on them in detail.
It is more important that one meditates on a particular buddha form during life, repeats his mantra, and enjoys the building-up phase. In the intermediate state of suchness, this buddha form will manifest as a self-arisen expression of mind. One doesn’t have to imagine it anymore. It is the directly shining experience (the Clear Light of the Joy State). If one has recognized it, one melts with it and thus gains liberation. This process is also called Phowa into the Joy State. Then one no longer has to live through the intermediate state of becoming and experiences the fruits of one’s meditation.
Here one’s own buddha nature appears unveiled in all its richness and without attachment to an imagined “I,” bringing all levels of space and appearance together in a fulfilling way. It testifies to the unity of experiencer, experience, and the experienced, shows itself always anew, and makes the blessing of an all-encompassing outer and inner view of the world come alive. People who have not trained their minds and have developed little awareness “toward the inner,” do not even notice this second part of the bardo of suchness, or only in flash-like, emerging moments of bright colors, dazzling lights, sharp sounds, and terrifying shapes. Everything is so radiant and loud that one cannot stand the intensity, turns away from it in fear, or becomes unconscious again after a very short time.
- Lopön Tsechu Rinpoche, “The Intermediate States,” part 3, “The Bardo of Clear Light,” in Buddhism Today, 10 (2001), 9. ↩︎
- See Chapter 3, “Preparation for Death.” ↩︎
- Ole Nydahl, Riding the Tiger, (Blue Dolphin Publishing, 1992) and Chapter 8 of this book, “Conscious Dying.” ↩︎
- See “Conscious Dying.” ↩︎
- The old tantras had already been destroyed by the shamans in 800 AD. ↩︎
- Detailed explanations can be found from my teacher Tenga Rinpoche, from whom I and others received the Shitro-initiation several times. See Tenga Rinpoche, Transition and Liberation, 1996. ↩︎
