The Body at Death

There are two ways that the body can disappear at the time of death: The Body of Illusion and the rainbow body. For the Body of Illusion, luminosity and prana are united in ye shes (wisdom), and while the being is still in the defiled karmic body, this body can perform many kinds of miracles for the good of others. Finally at the moment of death the subtle prana of wisdom joins again with luminosity, and the vajra body is achieved.

At this point, the karmic body, made of gross elements, disappears and the corpse disappears into what might be called 'cosmic particles'. The rainbow body, on the other hand, is accomplished by the means of the 'great transference'.

The practices of trekcho followed by thogyal, precede this transference. At the fourth and ultimate stage of thogyal, the substance of the body, which is a combination of the elements, is refined and transferred into the subtle form of these elements, which is luminous coloured light. Only the hair and fingernails, which are the impurities of the body, remain behind. However, the person does not actually die, but transfers into a body of light, or rainbow form. This body is active and can only be seen by those with clarity of vision.

- adapted from pg 210, Notes, 'Women of Wisdom' by Tsultrim Allione.

I have been reading Western accounts of the choices and final acts that we take and make, or are given, in a 'good' death. I'm deeply drawn to working with age and death, with our human experience as we encounter both inevitabilities, with the ways that suffering can be alleviated, perhaps somewhat dispelled, through care.
Persistently, in the Vajrayana tradition, I am encouraged to look deeply into the luminosity and suchness, that permeates, even here, at death. I encounter my own death, the decay of the body, I learn to play a part of release, anicca anatta, dukkha, here in every moment and projected, into that one time, too. I learn the means by which palliative care may be extended to others - with a little polemic raised by those nearby to me lately about the word, I hesitate to use it, but compassion, in informed action, applies here, as nowhere.

My imagination has returned to life, in a way, by virtue of this book 'Women of Wisdom' by Lama Tsultrim - the Kagyu school of which she is a more than able teacher speaks to the part of my heart that makes my decisions grounded on dreams, visions, and the space of dharmas.

Even in death, even in death.