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I have stopped publishing articles here and moved to a new site Clarke Scott's website

Clarke Scott is a fully ordained Buddhist monk trained in the Tibetan tradition. A student of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Clarke has received personal instructions—direct one-to-one instructions—on Madhyamaka philosophy and meditation from His Holiness. Recently Clarke moved to Tasmania to pursue a Ph.D in Buddhist philosophy from the University of Tasmania.

The lamas mind leaves his body

Geshe Jampa Gyatso has finished his meditation on Clear Light almost 7 days after he stopped breathing. This means his mind has left his body and in Buddhism this is the actual point of death.

It is believed that only holy beings can remain in meditation on the Clear Light for this period of time, and so it is very inspirational to see Geshe-la show us his skill as a final teaching.

In another event related to death…
In the last couple of days I was asked to counsel a Buddhist student dying of cancer and who had only days to live. We did Medicine Buddha puja together, recited his mantra and meditated on Lojong – a meditation where one visualizes taking on the suffering of all living beings and giving ones happiness and good qualities to others. She also passed away today.

In Tibetan Buddhism there is a detailed description of the death process. How the mind dissolves from course to subtle levels of consciousness and how that relates to the body.

As it has been a week for death, I thought it timely to write something about the death process, which I will do in an upcoming post.

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