Student and Teacher

Together on the Path

As students on the Tibetan Bön Buddhist path, we offer our teachers a range of questions from the simple to the complex. Here is a question about one's sense of being during the process of dying. It is an edited excerpt from oral teachings given by Geshe Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche at the European Summer Retreat in Buchenau, Germany, 2016.

Student: In which periods in the process of dying and after death does the sense of being dissolve, or does it dissolve at all?

Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche: The wrong sense of being dissolves. The right sense of being does not dissolve. When the wrong sense of being dissolves into that space, then the true sense of being is just there. In the bardo prayer we say: “May I become free from my possessions” because people are attached to their possessions, so may I overcome that; “may I overcome my attachment to my loved ones” because people are attached to their loved ones; then eventually, “may I overcome my own identity” – that’s the last one. So become free of my belongings, my loved ones and myself. But most of the time we say, belongings – yes; loved ones – maybe; me – no. The core one is me. These (belongings, loved ones, me) are significant, these are pieces of that wrong identity, but ultimately it’s not you.

So when you clearly let go, then you have this true sense of freedom of being: pure awareness is there; it’s much more fun. That’s the first bardo, the bardo of clear light. There everything dissolves and it’s so clear. But [often] you cannot recognize it. When something is okay, you don’t recognize it, because there’s no reflected place; you need a reflection, you need a mirror, there’s no mirror. It’s difficult to recognize. You have the possibility to recognize, but it’s very difficult, much more difficult than now. If you’re familiar with it now, you have more chances to recognize in the bardo.