If we understand the nature of the mind, we can also understand the existence of past and future lives. Many people believe that when the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind ceases and the mind becomes non-existent, like a candle flame going out when all the wax has burned. There are even some people who contemplate committing suicide in the hope that if they die their problems and sufferings will come to an end. However, these ideas are completely wrong. As explained in Appendix I, our body and mind are separate entities, and so even though the body disintegrates at death, the continuum of the mind remains unbroken. Instead of ceasing, the mind simply leaves the present body and goes to the next life. For ordinary beings, therefore, rather than releasing us from suffering, death only brings new sufferings. Not understanding this, many people destroy their precious human life by committing suicide.
One way to gain an understanding of past and future lives is to examine the process of sleeping, dreaming, and waking, because this closely resembles the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth. When we fall asleep, our gross inner winds gather and dissolve inwards, and our mind becomes progressively more and more subtle until it transforms into the very subtle mind of the clear light of sleep. While the clear light of sleep is manifest, we experience deep sleep, and to others we resemble a dead person. When the clear light of sleep ends, our mind becomes gradually more and more gross and we pass through the various levels of the dream state. Finally, our normal powers of memory and mental control are restored and we wake up. When this happens, our dream world disappears and we perceive the world of the waking state.
A very similar process occurs when we die. As we die, our winds dissolve inwards and our mind becomes progressively more and more subtle until the very subtle mind of the clear light of death becomes manifest. The experience of the clear light of death is very similar to the experience of deep sleep. After the clear light of death has ceased, we experience the stages of the intermediate state, or bardo in Tibetan, which is a dream-like state that occurs between death and rebirth. After a few days or weeks, the intermediate state ends and we take rebirth. Just as when we wake from sleep, the dream world disappears and we perceive the world of the waking state, so, when we take rebirth, the appearances of the intermediate state cease and we perceive the world of our next life.
The only significant difference between the process of sleeping, dreaming, and waking and the process of death, intermediate state, and rebirth is that after the clear light of sleep has ceased, the relationship between our mind and our present body remains intact, whereas after the clear light of death this relationship is broken. By contemplating this, we shall gain conviction in the existence of past and future lives.
We generally believe that the things we perceive in dreams are unreal whereas the things we perceive when we are awake are true; but Buddha said that all phenomena are like dreams in that they are mere appearances to mind. For those who can interpret them correctly, dreams have great significance. For example, if we dream that we visit a particular country to which we have not been in this life, our dream will indicate one of four things: that we have been to that country in a previous life, that we shall visit it later in this life, that we shall visit it in a future life, or that it has some personal significance for us, as it would, for example, if we had recently received a letter from that country or had seen a television programme about it. Similarly, if we dream we are flying, it may mean that in a previous life we were a being who could fly, such as a bird or a meditator with miracle powers, or it may predict that we shall become such a being in the future. A flying dream may also have a less literal meaning, symbolizing an improvement in our health or state of mind.
It was with the help of dreams that I was able to discover where my mother was reborn after she had died. Just before she died, my mother dozed off for a few minutes and when she woke she told my sister, who was attending her, that she had dreamed of me and that in her dream I had offered her a traditional white scarf, or khatag. I took this dream to mean that I would be able to help my mother in her next life and so, after she died, I prayed every day for her to be reborn in England, where I was living, so that I would have the opportunity to meet and recognize her reincarnation. I made strong requests to my Dharmapala to show me clear signs of where my mother’s reincarnation could be found.
Later, I had three dreams that seemed to be significant. In the first, I dreamed that I met my mother in a place I took to be England. I asked her how she had travelled from India to England, but she replied that she had come not from India but from Switzerland. In the second dream, I saw my mother talking to a group of people. I approached her and spoke to her in Tibetan, but she did not seem to understand what I was saying. While she was alive, my mother spoke only Tibetan, but in this dream she spoke English fluently. I asked her why she had forgotten Tibetan, but she did not reply. Later in the same dream, I dreamed of a Western couple who are helping with the development of Dharma Centres in Britain.
Both dreams seemed to give clues as to where my mother had been reborn. Two days after the second dream, the husband of the couple of whom I had dreamed visited me and told me that his wife was pregnant. I immediately remembered my dream and thought that her baby might be my mother’s reincarnation. The fact that in the dream my mother had forgotten Tibetan and spoke only English suggested that she would be reborn in an English-speaking country, and the presence of this couple in the dream might have been an indication that they were her parents. I then performed a traditional divination together with ritual prayers, called a mo in Tibetan, and this indicated that their child was my mother’s reincarnation. I was very happy but did not say anything to anyone.
One night I dreamed about my mother again and again. The next morning, I considered the matter carefully and reached a decision. If the baby had been born that night, then it was definitely my mother’s reincarnation, but if it had not, I would need to make further examinations. Having made this decision, I telephoned the husband, who gave me the good news that his wife had given birth to a baby girl the previous night. I was delighted and performed a puja, or offering ceremony, as a thanksgiving to my Dharmapala.
A few days later, the father telephoned and told me that if he recited the mantra of Buddha Avalokiteshvara, OM MANI PÄME HUM, when the baby cried, she would immediately stop crying and appear to be listening to the mantra. He asked me why this was and I replied that it was because of her tendencies from her previous life. I knew that my mother had recited this mantra with strong faith throughout her life.
The child was named Amaravajra. Later, when my mother’s brother, Kuten Lama, visited England and saw Amaravajra for the first time, he was astonished by how affectionate she was towards him. He said that it was as if she recognized him. I also had the same experience. Although I was able to visit the young child only very occasionally, she was always extremely happy to see me.
When Amaravajra started to talk, one day she pointed to a dog and said, ‘kyi, kyi’. After this, she used to say ‘kyi’ many times whenever she saw a dog. Her father asked me if ‘kyi’ meant anything, and I told him that in the dialect of western Tibet, which is where my mother lived, ‘kyi’ means ‘dog’. This was not the only Tibetan word the little girl uttered spontaneously.
I later heard through my sister’s husband that, after my mother’s death, a Tibetan astrologer had predicted that my mother would be born as a female in a country with a language other than Tibetan. This story comes from my own personal experience, but if we investigate we can find many other true stories about how people have been able to recognize the reincarnations of their Teachers, parents, friends, and others. If we contemplate such stories, and reflect on the nature of the mind and the experience of dreams, we shall definitely become convinced of the existence of past and future lives.
In his Tantric teachings, Buddha taught a special practice called ‘transference of consciousness into another body’. This practice became quite widespread in the early days of Buddhism in Tibet. One practitioner who mastered it was Tarma Dode, the son of the famous Tibetan lay Lama and translator, Marpa. One day, while riding a horse, Tarma Dode fell and fatally injured his body. Knowing that his son had mastered the practice of transference of consciousness, Marpa immediately began searching for a corpse into which Tarma Dode could transfer his consciousness. Unable to find a human corpse, Marpa brought his son a pigeon’s corpse, which would serve as a temporary abode for his mind until he could find a suitable human corpse. Tarma Dode then ejected his mind from his dying human body and entered into the corpse of the pigeon. Immediately, Tarma Dode’s old human body died and the pigeon’s body came back to life. Tarma Dode’s body was now the body of a pigeon, but his mind was still the mind of a human being.
Since he did not want his son to remain in the form of a pigeon, Marpa continued to search for a qualified human corpse. One day, with his clairvoyance, he saw that a Buddhist Teacher had just died in India and that his disciples had taken his corpse to the cemetery. Marpa told his son to fly to India as quickly as possible. Tarma Dode then flew to India in his pigeon’s body and, when he arrived at the place where the Teacher’s corpse had been left, he ejected his mind from the pigeon’s body and entered the corpse. The body of the pigeon immediately died and the body of the deceased Teacher came back to life. Tarma Dode then spent the remainder of his life as an Indian Teacher known as Tiwu Sangnak Dongpo. Some years later, Marpa’s principal disciple, Milarepa, sent his own disciple, Rechungpa, to India to receive special teachings from Tiwu Sangnak Dongpo. When Rechungpa returned to Tibet, he offered these instructions to Milarepa.
There are many other examples of past meditators who could transfer their consciousness into other bodies. It is said that Marpa himself practised transference of consciousness into another body four times during his life. If mind and body were the same entity, how would it be possible for these meditators to transfer their consciousness in this way? If we contemplate true stories such as these with a positive mind, it will help us to understand how it is possible for consciousness to continue beyond the death of the body. This in turn will make it very easy for us to understand the existence of past and future lives.