Simply, the mind continues,
because as we've discussed in previous times,
the mind is a stream of awareness,
which is not generated from physical causes.
And so although the, as it were, the hotel of the body
collapses at the moment of death,
collapses as a suitable kind of receptacle
for the stream of consciousness,
the stream of consciousness travels on.
Therefore, what happens, as it were,
to that stream is dependent, to a large extent upon
what are the imprints, the karmic imprints,
that come to dominate at the time of death.
Those are the drivers that push the stream of consciousness
towards rebirth. That is to say, if one hasn't,
as it were, cut through that chain
of karmic impressions through developing wisdom,
transcendental wisdom in one's life,
then one is still subject to its influence,
and the mind, therefore, will be driven on to rebirth.
But immediately at the time of death,
the mind experiences a kind of gap, a kind of space or gap
between the moment of death, of one lifetime,
and the arising into the next life,
within one of the samsaric realms.
And we call this, a Tibetan term for this
is bardo, an intermediate state.
Actually, there's an intermediate state here and now,
present in this very moment, even in this so-called,
kind of, embodied life.
The bardo is merely the presence of ultimate reality,
which was there at all times
and which is most evident in the space between thoughts
that can sometimes arise for us,
in meditation, or sometimes through other kind of
interruptions in the normal kind
of flow of conceptualisation.
The bardo is also present, in a manifest way,
at the time of falling asleep,
in the period between falling asleep
and the dream state, the dreams beginning to manifest.
So, when we talk about the bardo,
the gap between death and rebirth,
or more properly, reconception,
we should understand this is not going
to some heavenly realm or going to some kind of god place
or meeting a god or something,
it is actually just the mind resolving
into its own fundamental nature,
which we call the luminosity or the clear light.
But it's there at all times, this clear light,
this basic luminosity, as I say,
at all times even now, if we could but just recognise it.
So, in that sense, the process of death is just simply that,
just mind temporarily settling
in its unconditioned, actual nature.
Now, if we can recognise that nature,
that clear light nature at the moment of,
the full moment of death, then liberation is possible,
which has come about, the possibility
of recognising it, depends upon how much we've trained
in meditation during life.
If we are not able to settle in the clear light
as it shines, as it radiates at the moment of death,
inevitably, the karmic imprints
which are accompanying the stream of consciousness
will begin to become active in the death state,
in the postmortem state.
And then, out of the stirring into activity
of the karmic impressions will come the various experiences,
hallucinatory experiences that one has in the bardo realm.
But if we can recognise those appearances
of lights and rays and drops and so on,
if we can recognise them as nothing more
than the radiance of our mind, simply,
the kind of energetic manifestation of the radiance of mind,
then again, recognition of the true nature of mind
is possible, and with that, liberation,
and with that, Buddhahood.
But if we are not able, due to the heavy,
heavy dominance of our karmic imprints,
if we're not able to recognise these manifestations
as simply the mind, then, inevitably,
we're driven on towards rebirth.
It's as if the karmic imprints become heavier and heavier
in their influence in the after death state,
and that inevitably brings us to rebirth.
And rebirth into whatever realm is kind of,
as it were, in tune with those dominant karmic imprints
that are manifesting then.
It's important to realise that actually,
there are countless karmic imprints
that are accompanying the mindstream,
but they don't all become dominant after death.
It's the ones that become dominant
which will force us on to the appropriate rebirth.
So if we have the karmic imprints
which were in tune with human life,
through prior practice of humane qualities
such as virtue, we're likely to be reborn
into the human realm, but if other imprints
become dominant at that time, we will be drawn
into those other realms.
Again, I should stress, there's no God directing this,
there's nobody in charge of it,
there's no after death police force,
there's no after death immigration service,
you are just pushed on,
as indeed we are in this life.
We're pushed into various actions
and various ways of thinking
by the influence of these unacknowledged karmic imprints
that we carry with us right now.
And only by decisively looking into the nature of mind
do we cut through these imprints.
So we should be training for the bardo, so to speak,
right now and even if we're unable to achieve
full liberation during this life,
it will mean that it is much easier to do so
at the time of the bardo.