WHAT HAPPENS AFTER DEATH? AND CAN WE BECOME IMMORTAL?
"The Tibetans and Shamans alike, taught that there’s nothing to fear about death.
They saw death as a transition to a new state of being, a wild adventure that uncovers the infinite part of our being.
This part of us that exists beyond time and space can be accessed through meditation and journeying. It is our undying nature. According to the Tibetan Buddhist sages, there are many stages between living and dying.
We can walk through these stages, like steps to a complex dance, while we’re alive, so that we know exactly what to do when the time comes for our transition.
The beauty is indescribable. In the final stage, you emerge in a field of clear light, you feel the presence of every being you’ve ever known. You are everything and everything is you.
While we never truly know death until we go through it, we can venture into infinity while we are alive and return with this ancient wisdom to guide us.
Death is a journey, and like any journey, it can have harrowing moments, but if we are prepared, we have a better chance of successfully crossing the threshold."
I am currently doing an online course about the 'Elixir of Immortality' with Rob Thurman (Tibetan Buddhism Teacher and authour of 'Tibetan Book of the Dead' and Alberto Villoldo (Andean Shamanic Practicioner). I am deepening my conscious preparation for death and live fully alive in the in between. We will all dye one day and my cancer initiation in far advanced stadium is a calling into deepening the conscious death threshold.
In my twenties, I cared for my mother for over an year until she died from third sort of cancer and already read a lot about the Tibetan Book of Death. My Siberian Shamanic Education of many years taught me many practices of conscious death rituals. Now I really feel like my main Beregini Goddess Energy of the Wise Raven helps me to fluently transverse between life and death waters. I have actually got an online course where I am teaching Siberian Shamanic Journeys to the Underworld and back, also with my main ally the raven.
We are constantly in between life-death- rebirth states and my current cancer initiation provides an even more deepening embodied experience for conscious preparation for death.
8 Stages of Death that are knows as Dissolutions in Buddhism and the Tibetan Book of the Dead:
I practice this 8 stages of death that I learned from Rob Thurman every day before I am going to sleep:
Preparation
Sit comfortably and relax your body. (You might also like to do this meditation lying down—however, if you do so, be sure that you do not fall asleep!) Relax your mind by letting go of or putting aside any other thoughts – of the past or future, people, activities, etc. Decide to keep your attention focused on the meditation, and to bring it back any time it wanders away.
Motivation
Generate a positive, altruistic motivation for doing the meditation, for example: ”I am doing this meditation to make myself more familiar with the reality of death, so that I will prepare myself for death by doing as much spiritual practice as possible during my life. In that way I can be more helpful to others—I can help them overcome their fear of death, live their lives more wisely, and die more peacefully.”
Body of the meditation
The process of dying involves a progressive loss of physical, sensory, and mental functions, as nervous activity closes down from the periphery to deep within the nervous system. Imagine yourself dying a natural death, and experiencing the following eight stages as the components of your mind and body gradually absorb. Try to imagine these experiences as vividly as possible. On the first four stages of the death process, the mind is still on the gross level. The gross level of mind includes our thoughts and sense perceptions; these gradually diminish over these four stages.
1. The earth element absorbs; the mirage vision appears
The earth element is the quality of solidity in our body. As it absorbs, your body loses strength, becomes thinner and weaker, and you feel drained of energy. You might feel as if you are falling, or sinking under the earth. It becomes difficult to sit upright, or to hold anything. Your body color fades, and your cheeks become sunken. Also, your eyesight becomes unclear, and it becomes difficult to open and close the eyes. These are the outer signs of the first stage of the death process, and the inner sign is a vision of a shimmering, silver-blue mirage.
2. The water element absorbs; the vision of smoke appears.
The water element consists of all the fluids in the body, as well as the quality of cohesion—what makes everything stick together. As is absorbs, you start to feel dry in the eyes, mouth and throat. It becomes difficult to move the tongue. Feelings of pleasure and displeasure in your body diminish. Your sense of hearing weakens, and the ringing in the ears ceases. Your mind may become hazy, frustrated, nervous. You experience an inner vision of a haze with swirling wisps of smoke.
3. The fire element absorbs; the vision of sparks appears.
The fire element is the heat in our body. At this stage, your mouth and nose dry up completely. The warmth of the body begins to disappear, usually from the feet and hands to heart. You can no longer eat, drink or digest anything. Your mind alternates between clarity and confusion. You can’t remember the names of people, even family and friends; you may not even recognize them. Your sense of smell weakens, and your breathing becomes difficult: breathing in becomes very weak, and breathing out becomes stronger and longer. You experience an inner vision of shimmering red sparks dancing above an open fire, like fireflies.
4. The air element absorbs; the vision of a dying flame appears.
At this stage, you can no longer move your limbs; your body becomes immobile. Your mind becomes bewildered, unaware of the outside world. Everything becomes a blur. Your last feeling of contact with the environment is slipping away. Your sense of taste and sense of touch dissolve. You may have visions—frightening ones, if you’ve done lots of negative things in your life, or beautiful, joyful ones if you’ve done lots of good things… Your breathing becomes more and more difficult, then it stops altogether. The last thoughts now cease, and you have an inner vision of a dim red-blue light, or of the last flickering of a candle-flame which is about to go out. Gross consciousness has now ceased, and over the next four stages of the death process, the mind becomes more and more subtle.
5. White vision.
Here, you have a vision of a very clear, empty sky, like the sky in autumn, full of the brightness of the full moon.
6. Red vision.
This is an inner vision like a clear, empty sky filled with the rays of a copperred sunset.
7. Black vision.
This is a vision of total darkness, like dark and empty space. It ends in a momentary complete loss of consciousness.
8. Clear-light vision The mind is now at its most subtle level, that of the clear light of death. The appearance is like that of the autumn sky at dawn, completely pure and empty, and filled with clear, colorless light.
Keep your mind focused on this experience for as long as you can without letting the mind be distracted by anything else. If it does become distracted, bring it back to the clear-light experience. Remember that this is the most pure, subtle level of your mind…..
When the clear light of death ceases, the consciousness passes back through the stages of dissolution in reverse order: the black vision, then the red vision, and so forth. As soon as this process begins, the person is in the intermediate (Tib: bardo) state, with a subtle body that can travel instantly to any place it thinks of, pass through walls, etc. , as it searches for its next rebirth.
The form of the bardo body is that of the next rebirth A lifetime in the intermediate state can last from a moment to seven days, depending on whether or not a suitable birthplace is found. If one is not found within seven days, the being undergoes a “small death,” briefly experiencing the eight stages of death, and then again experiences the eight stages in reverse order as he/she takes another intermediate state rebirth. This can happen for a total of seven rebirths, or forty-nine days, in the intermediate state, during which time a place of rebirth is found.
Dedication
Dedicate the merit of the meditation that you will be able to develop the wisdom, compassion and other qualities and realizations that will enable your to free yourself from the cycle of death and rebirth, so that you can help all other beings to likewise become free and be able to experience true, lasting peace and happiness….
More information can be found in the following books:
Death, Intermediate State and Rebirth, by Lati Rinpoche and Jeffrey Hopkins. Snow Lion
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, translated by Robert A.F. Thurman. Harper Collins
The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Sogyal Rinpoche. Harper Collins.
