Generally, life is a chain of births and deaths since every moment of life is the birth of a new moment and the death of a preceding moment. But conventionally, birth relates to the beginning of life and death to its end. As we have already taken birth in this life, the important thing for us to deal with is death. According to Buddhism, even for an unrealized person, if one can deal properly with the circumstances of the time of death, one’s next rebirth results in a pleasant life since everything functions through interdependent causation. A person who is an accomplished Dzogpa Chenpo trainee may attain the accomplishments at the time of death, in the intermediate state, or in the next rebirth. Accomplished Dzogpa Chenpo meditators are the most important amazing adepts of Tibet, for they die displaying the wondrous signs of achievement of enlightenment. They display numerous signs of attainments as a result of the training they have been pursuing.
Kunkhyen Jigmed Lingpa summarizes the significance of the signs divided into two categories:
As a result of the speed of attaining liberation, there are two types of (attainment at death).
(a) In (Dzogpa Chenpo), in order to attain the cessation of sorrow, the primordial nature, and the city of sacred peace, one exhausts the contaminated (elements of the mortal) body. The result is called the Fully Enlightened One (Samyaksambuddha).
(b) Death with display of five signs: the lights, sounds, images of peaceful and wrathful deities in bones, gDung (various colors which are indestructible; the white ones are the size of a pea, and the colored ones vary in size from a pea to a mustard seed. Ring-bSrel are white, destructible and vary in size from a sesame seed to an atom), and earth temblings. It is called the attainment of Manifesting Enlightenment (mNgon-ParSangs-rGyas-Pa, Abhibuddha).
Jigmed Tenpa’s Nyima explains the distinctions between the basis and the result:
If one does not recognize the single luminous innate mind, that is the basis of delusion. If one realizes and stabilizes it, that is the state of liberation. The first case is the basis and the second is the result. The Omniscient One (Long-chen Rabjam) has rejected the interpretation that they are the same. For the basis, a complete luminous absorption arises at each time of death, but by not realizing it, one returns to the delusory movements (Yo-Lang) of apprehended and apprehender. When one reaches the result, as one attains one’s own true essence, one will not return to delusion. So that is the difference between the basis and the result.
The most exceptional sign of Dzogpa Chenpo at death is the dissolving or transforming of the mortal body. As stated before, there are two main forms of dissolution of the mortal body:
(a) The attainment of the dissolution of the atoms or the most subtle particles (total dissolution) of the mortal body, popularly known as the attainment of Rainbow Body (’Ja-Lus), through training in Thregchod (Cutting Through)
(b) the attainment of the Light Body (A’od-Lus) or the Great Transformation (‘Pho-Ba Ch’en-Po) through training in Thodgal (Direct Approach).
Longchen Rabjam distinguishes these two attainments:
The cessation (or dissolution) of the elements at the time of perfection (of the attainment of) the meaning of primordial purity (Ka-Dag) (through the training of) Thregchod, and the exhaustion of elements by perfecting the spontaneous accomplishment (through the training of) Thodgal are similar in just having purified the internal and external gross elements. But in Thregchod, at the very instant of dissolving the partless particles, one attains liberation in the primordial purity, and there is no manifestation of Light Body. In Thodgal, with (the attainment of) Light Body one accomplishes the Great Transformation. So their difference lies in whether or not they have the Light Body in the attainment of liberation in the state of primordial purity.
Some Dzogpa Chenpo tantras, however, distinguish four forms of dissolution. The Nyida Khajor tantra says:
(a) The way of death of the Dakinis
(b) The way of death of the knowledge-holders
(c) Self-consuming like a fire, and
Invisible like space
In all of them, they exhaust their mortal elements of the body and become invisible and do not take any elemental form. This is what the supreme yogis enjoy.
Kunkhyen Jigmed Lingpa elaborates on the four ways of dissolution:
In the supreme way (of death), one dissolves one’s mortal body (in two ways): In Thregchod, one dissolves (the body as it is called) like space and like the way of death of the Dakinis. In the Thodgal, one dissolves (the body as it is called) like fire and like the way of death of a knowledge-holder. These are the four ways of dying for an accomplished Dzogpa Chenpo yogi.
First: Having purified (down to) the subtlest defilements of air/energy and mind which obscure the ultimate sphere, one attains the exhaustion of (phenomena into) the inner ultimat sphere (Nang-dByings), and thereby the external body dissolves into atoms [total dissolution]. At that very moment, the suchness of (one’s) intrinsic awareness, which was based in the (mortal) body, unites with the natural ultimate sphere (Rang-bZhin Ch’os-Kyi dByings), as the space in a vase merges with the outer space when the vase is broken. Then, having united the ultimate sphere and the intrinsic awareness in the (state of) equalness purity without separation, one becomes enlightened.
Second: It is the union of the body, the basis, and the intrinsic awareness, the based. The atoms of the body (of Dzogpa Chenpo adepts) are present (in one moment) but (in the next moment) they dissolve into the invisible (nature). At that very moment the intrinsic awareness dissolves into the ultimate sphere without return, like an arrow shot by a skilled archer. It is similar to the way that Dakinis or beings who have been born by miraculous birth die, their bodies (suddenly) becoming invisible. As stated before, it is the same as the manner in which Pang Sangye Gonpo, a direct disciple of Vairochana, died at Tragmar Gon of Tod Khung-rong and in which three followers of their lineage died in a single snake year, one after another, at Wa Senge Trag.
Third: The way of dissolving the intrinsic awareness after purifying he defilements of the air/energy and mind, as well as the ultimate sphere, the place where one attains liberation, are the same (as in the previous two cases). But (in this case), as the inner elements are exhausted, the physical mortal body dissolves into a light body (A’od-Phung). It is as when the fuel of a fire is burned, there is no more fuel for the fire to continue. For example, two disciples of Kyergom Zhigpo attained light bodies and disappeared into the sky in the cave of Dotshen.
Fourth: One dissolves his mortal body – created by the maturation (of karma and habituation) – into the light body and becomes visible to other beings in order to lead them to the doctrine. It is as when the knowledge-holders progress from one stage to another, they travel through the sky to other Buddha-fields with sounds and lights and serve the needs of others. And it is like Chetsun Senge Wang-chug, the lord of yogis, whose mortal body dissolved into light body with lights and sounds in the sky at Oyug Chikong.
The bodies of Dzogpa Chenpo meditators who still have residues of karmic maturations do not dissolve at death, and there are some whose accomplishments are fully perfected, but who, instead of dissolving their mortal bodies, leave them with gDung and Ringsel (relics) as objects of devotion for devotees. Also, some adepts leave their bodies with or without any sings because of various circumstances or purposes. Sogpo Tentar says:
Even if (a Dzogpa Chenpo adept) possesses the capacity to dissolve (the mortal body) through (his realization of the) view and meditation, he does not exhaust his Karmic energies (of remaining in the mortal form) but accepts (the responsibility of) the wheel of activities for the sake of the doctrine and beings. Even in their order to help beings with (the remains of their) gDung and Ring-sel, they (attain the accomplishment) in the manner of the state of Knowledge-holder with residues. This is like Jigmed Thrinle Odzer Palbar (1745-1821), the lord of the sages and the master of hundred Buddha families, and the illusory manifestation of the primordial Buddha Samantabhadra for the perception of the disciples.
Note: It is most common for us to interpret the term Dākinī to mean harmful spirits, but it means something else in the current Buddhist context. It normally refers to the feminine aspect of Enlightenment in Mantrayāna. In practice, this term also refers to enlightened women adepts who are also consorts (Karmamudrā) of adepts or Siddhas. A Dākinī represents various things at various levels. At the subtle most level, she represents the greatest insights regarding the phenomena and mind. In the next aspect, she symbolizes the pure wisdom-nature of the mind. At a grosser level, she is a deity or Yidam propitiated through rituals. At the outermost level, she is a woman who is a practitioner, a teacher, a consort to a Siddha, or all of them. Similar to our concept of seeing all women as Shakti, there is the practice by Tantric Buddhists to see all women as sacred manifestations of the Dākinī. Of course, it is pointed out by several experts that the wrathful spirits (usually traveling in the sky) known as maleficent to Hindu Tantras were later adopted by the Buddhists, and their image transformed to represent an altogether different concept. The wrathfulness of the earlier Dākinī was replaced by a more sensual and playful image, and this is true even within Hindu Tantra in several other cases. A typical Buddhist example is that of Vajrayoginī who exhibits both the older and later transformed aspects of the Dākinī. There is also a distinction made between laukika and lokottara categories of the Dākinī, the maleficent ones exclusively belonging to the former category. Then there is also an influence of the Iranian Peri on the formulation of the Tibetan Dākinī. Anyway, coming back to the topic, Dākinī here refers only to the feminine aspect of Enlightenment or to a female adept representing such attainment – Harsha