The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

346 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYINGshowing with total clarity the actual process of death, theactual process of life as well.Let us look now again at what happens to a person whodies, at each of the three crucial stages of death:1. At the culmination of the process of dying, after the dissolutionof elements, senses, and thought states, the ultimatenature of mind, the Ground Luminosity, is for a moment laidbare.2. Then, fleetingly, the radiance of that nature of mind isdisplayed and shines out in appearances of sound, colors, andlight.3. Next the dead person's consciousness awakens andenters into the bardo of becoming; his or her ordinary mindreturns, and takes on a manifestation—the form of the mentalbody—subject to the dictates of past karma and habits. Thesedrive the ordinary mind to cling onto the illusory bardo experiencesas something real and solid.So what do the bardo teachings show us that death is?Nothing less than three phases of a process of gradual manifestationof mind: from out of its very purest state of theessential nature of mind, through light and energy (the radianceof the nature of mind), and into increasing crystallizationinto a mental form. What unravels with such clarity in thebardo of dying, the bardo of dharmata, and the bardo ofbecoming, the teachings show us, is a threefold process: first,enfoldment leading to laying bare; second, spontaneous radiance;and third, crystallization and manifestation.The teachings draw us to go further. What they in factshow us—and I think this is a truly revolutionary insight, onethat, when it is understood, changes our view of everything—is that this threefold pattern does not only unfold in the processof dying and death: It is unfolding now, at this moment, atevery moment, within our mind, in our thoughts and emotions,and at every single level of our conscious experience.Another way the teachings offer us of understanding thisprocess is by looking at what is revealed at each phase of dyingand death. The teachings speak of three levels of being, towhich the Sanskrit name kaya is given. This word kaya literallymeans "body," but signifies here dimension, field, or basis.So let us look now at the threefold process from this perspective: