Approaching Death with Dignity: A Dzogchen Reflection

Most of us do not think about death very often.

We keep it at the far edge of our mind, as something distant and abstract. We know death will come of course, but we rarely let that knowledge affect the way we live, practice, or meet this moment.

But from the Dzogchen point of view, death is not separate from this moment.

The way we experience death is connected to the way we experience everything else. The way we grasp at our experience now is the way we will grasp experience then. The way we relate to fear now is the way we will relate to fear then.

The Buddhist teachings on death and dying are not only about what happens when the body dies. They are about how experience unfolds, how we get caught up in it, and how we can learn to let things be as they are.

A simple way to say this in Dzogchen terms is that death is a karmic appearance.

That does not mean death is imaginary, or that grief is not real, or that the loss of someone we love does not matter. On the relative level, death is one of the most profound and painful experiences we face.

But as a Dzogchen practitioner, we need to look more deeply.

What is death as an experience?
What is the self that feels threatened by it?
What is the world we are afraid to lose?
And what remains when the relative appearances of our body, identity, memory, and experience of the world begin to fade away?

To understand this, we first have to understand karmic appearances.

Death is a karmic appearance

A karmic appearance is the world as it appears through the force of karma, conditioning, and habituation. We do not experience a neutral world or a pre-existing one. We experience a world shaped by our body, senses, memories, fears, desires, beliefs, and deeply ingrained patterns of perception.

Human karma gives rise to a human experience of the world. Animal karma gives rise to an animal experience. Neither is more true than the other. Even within the human world, each person lives inside a slightly different experience of reality. I experience the silence of a slow morning as peaceful, my daughter finds it boring.

The way what is happening appears to us is not separate from the mind that experiences it.

This is not difficult to see. We live this every day.

A thought pops into our head and we believe it or push it aside. An emotion stirs, and we become it or fight its presence. A person looks at us a certain way, and suddenly an entire story forms around it.

Most of the time, we do not experience appearances simply as appearances. We solidify them. We take them to be real, fixed, and truly existing. Then we react, chasing after what we want and resisting what we fear. We defend the self we believe is being threatened.

This is how the cycle of samsara unfolds.

In Dzogchen, appearances are understood differently. They are not rejected. They are not treated as obstacles. They are recognized as the energetic expression of awareness, or rigpa tsal in Tibetan.

Everything we experience is an appearance. Thoughts are an appearance in the mind. Emotions are an appearance. The way we perceive things is an appearance. The outer forms of the physical world are appearances. Our own body and sense of self is an appearance.

It's turtles all the way down. Everything we experience is the infinite play of rigpa tsal.

But none of these appearances have a lasting nature or independent existence. They are vivid, but empty. Clear, but without lasting substance. Present, but impossible to hold onto forever.

This is why Dzogchen practice is so direct.

We are not trying to eliminate or purify appearances. We are learning not to fixate on them and to let them be free in their own place.

Right now, everything you are experiencing is the energetic expression of awareness. Let it be as it is, and simple relax in the simplicity of the ground of being free from thought, imagination, or description.

Dzogchen approach to death and dying

When practicing Dzogchen meditation, a thought arises and we do not follow it. We do not suppress it. We simply let it be as it is. If we recognize its nature, it is free in its own place and dissolves by itself, just like the tracks of a bird flying through the sky (you can experience the bird flying through the sky, but there are no tracks).

In daily life, fear or anger arise. Praise and blame arise. Feelings of gain and loss arise. Again, the practice is the same. We learn to recognize appearances without solidifying them. We let experience arise and be free within awareness.

This is training for the process of death.

At the time of death, the appearances may be more intense. The physical body is fading away. Our senses start to withdraw. The familiar world we know and love falls away. The ordinary sense of self loses its ground.

For an untrained mind, this can be terrifying. The appearances of death and bardo are taken to be real and deterministic. Fear grabs hold of us and we search for any remnant of hope or salvation. Confusion gives rise to more uncertainty and doubt.

But for a practitioner, the instruction does not change. The principles are the same.

Recognize the appearance as appearance, as the energetic expression of awareness.

Let it be as it is.

Remain in the ground of awareness that is already stainless and ever-present.

From the Dzogchen point of view, the bardo is not somewhere else and we do not go somewhere else. There is nowhere else to go. Everything is the display of mind, the energetic expression of awareness appearing through the force of karma.

If we recognize that display, it is free in its own place and karma has no hold on us. Death is like changing clothes.

If we grasp that display as real, we cling dearly to this body as being our everything, our world. Of course that mindstream approaches death with fear, you're losing everything you know and hold onto.

This is why the practice we do now matters so much.

Every moment of fixation strengthens the habit of samsara. Every moment of release strengthens the possibility of liberation.

Death is not the first time we meet the unknown. We meet it with every appearance. We don't know how things are going to play out. The question is whether we recognize what is happening and can be present with it, regardless of the form it takes.

If we can learn to rest in the ground of awareness (Tib. rigpa zhi) now, while thoughts, emotions, and perceptions arise, then death is not fundamentally different. It is another appearance. A profound one, a powerful one for sure, but still an appearance.

And rangjung yeshe, naturally occurring ever-present awareness, is not harmed by appearances.

It is not born when the body is born. It does not die when the body dies.

To recognize this directly is the heart of liberation at the time of death.