Fruition Mind: The Best Safety Deposit for Samsara (or Nirvana) ?
Abstract: Once we mentioned that the only thing that is beneficial for us in this samsaric existence is the practice of spirituality. There is absolutely no guarantee that our materialistic possessions will remain same or our current prestige will continue to the next. It is quite the opposite! The practice of spirituality can be as simple as having a great devotion, faith towards your spiritual guru (i.e. Buddha), or following five precepts. It could be as great as attainment of a fruition mind through meditation. We may accumulate a lot of wealth; however the best safety deposit for our samsaric existence is the attainment of the fruition mind. It can happen in any stage of the path as well as in any of these paths: shravaka, silent buddha or bodhisattva. There is a 100% guarantee that this mind will certainly continue to the next, and will be your one and only safety measure.
Fig. 1: The best safety deposit: decide it yourself.
The safety deposits are of several kinds. They can be financial instruments ranging from fixed deposits to surety bonds which provide security to your materialistic valuables. However they do not last throughout your samsaric cycles. What transfers from this life to the next is your (evolved/degenerated) consciousness as an energy bubble. This article already discussed the transferring mechanism of this energy, either to the next life or anchoring in the fundamental universal source, depending on what we did in this life. This whole mechanism is a scientific process.
You could be a samsaric traveler, or a person who seeks nirvana through any spiritual path. For any person, the best safety deposit for their worldly existence is none other than their "awakened mind". As was mentioned before, as per Buddhist teachings, the awakening of a person is two fold: the energetical and their purity of mind. The first category is mandatory for bodhisattvas and all the Buddhist paths have to go through the second. In the 2nd category, we mainly discuss about the defilements and afflictions of the individual's mind. To illustrate the progression of this purification, we define the order of fetters that get eradicated during this process as follows.
Fig. 1: The purity of mind of all kind of adepts, reached by cutting through their fetters.
Note that, here we are only comparing the qualities of the purified state of mind between an Arhant and a Tenth Bhumi bodhisattva. Bodhisattva certainly possesses exalted wisdom and great compassion superior to the Arhant.
How the fruition of the path helps us on our deathbed ?
When you eradicate your fetters from the gross level of your mind to each fruition stage, the clear light of blissfulness appears during the meditation. This is indeed as a result of purifying your own defilement. Sometimes, the initial clear light as glimpses may appear to you due to chakra activation. However in order to retain this mind, Vipassana is mandatory !
Note that, sometimes Jhanic states (4th Jhana white light) can also be mistaken for the fruition mind. Meditators can usually distinguish these two clearly by developing more concentration during the meditation. In the Jhanic state, still very subtle mental activities can be noticed whilst in the fruition, the mind and individuality totally disappears to nothingness with a great bliss. However we should not be entangled too much in these meditative states as cutting through all fetters is our final goal. I will write a separate post to discuss these information in detail.
How is it related to the conditions on our deathbed, and how is it to our after life ? This is the burning question. Ever wonder what happens on our deathbed ? It is said that, we have to witness our own life story as a "movie" at this moment. At least many "old" practitioners in our lineage reported what it is like with the help of their deeper concentrations. They are given as follows:
1. Many people I know in my life, who were not meditative, witnessed their life story in either good or bad shape just before their final breath. Before their very life energy releases from the physical body. A few were smiling with their happy faces. But most endings were sorrowful. The people with happy endings at least recollected their good memories, recalled their unshakable faith in triple gems etc. They can be summarized as follows:
Fig. 2: How does this movie look like at a happy ending situation ? (It always ends with the act of the highest positive merits.)
Fig. 3: How it looks like at a sorrowful ending (It always ends with the act of the most negative deeds despite all the positive actions made during his life.)
WHY taking a human life can never be repaid by doing positive actions ? Taking or giving a life to this existence is solely determined by the karmic energies of beings and the inter-dependent-nature of the phenomena. Happening it in our own hands is against the natural order of the existence. This is why in almost all religions, the first percept is about not taking a life. Every (human) life in this existence has the potential to attain Buddhahood. Therefore, taking a human life is the greatest crime one can think of !
2. Meditators and yogis whom I have met during my journey, generally show equanimity, serenity at this moment. Their biggest asset was the result of their own practice; fruition of the path. If you had one of the above attainments as a shravaka, or a bodhisattva, and if the meditative absorption is very stable, that fruition mind would appear to you at the end of this movie clip no matter what you did in your life (even the strongest negative actions can be altered → but the negative ones are usually settled before the death i.e. Angulimala, Milarepa). The last scene of this movie clip is your fruition mind, which appears in a blink of an eye. It is 100% guaranteed !!!
Is it only on our deathbed ?
No. Sometimes when you are at a life threatening situation, or even at extreme physical pain (i.e. Kidney Stone), this fruition mind might appear to you. This is mainly due to the feeling of detachment of our consciousness from our physical body, although it does not really happen. The bottom-line is, the only thing that remains with us throughout our life is, what we practice !
How is this sequence arranged by our consciousness itself (or universe) ?
For a seasoned meditator, this is not a big secret. When he moves from his gross consciousness to this subtle level of consciousness (fruition mind), his mind moves from the daily memories, recent concerns to the long term episodic memories, sometimes through his deep, uncleaned fetters to the fruition clear light. In this way, the temporary mind stream traverses through all layers of the mind and terminates at the "no mind" state.
The dissolution of our mind on deathbed is similar in fashion, except to the fact that, it is not a temporary mind stream. Instead, the movie clip we watch is the mind stream of that entire lifetime. So that, the strongest memories and our actions of highest merits will come to the surface during this movie clip. This is how our consciousness operates when its dissolution comes.
Does god decide our next life or is it inter-dependent-origination ?
We briefly discussed about the inter-dependent and cause-and-effect nature of existence, energies at several occasions. In fact, Buddhism places its main focus on this aspect in its teaching. Many worldly phenomena can be explained clearly and scientifically by using this format. Moreover it should be noted that, the typical "karma-and-effect" we find in Hinduism and other tradition is just a subset of cause-and-effect in Buddhist teachings.
In certain religious beliefs, the judgement of our character on our deathbed is decided by an omnipresent god. But this process is more of a scientific one as illustrate below:
1. When the life energy wants to leave the physical body, it needs an input to decide the outcome, the location of next birth. This input is usually taken from the mind stream that is generated at the deathbed as explained in Fig. 2-4.
2. This is embedded as a memory in the energy that gets transferred from this life to the next birth. At the bardo level, this memory will be used to direct the life energy to its corresponding next energy level: it may be physical or non-physical. This post briefly talks about this transfer !
For a seasoned meditator, this is not a big secret. When he moves from his gross consciousness to this subtle level of consciousness (fruition mind), his mind moves from the daily memories, recent concerns to the long term episodic memories, sometimes through his deep, uncleaned fetters to the fruition clear light. In this way, the temporary mind stream traverses through all layers of the mind and terminates at the "no mind" state.
The dissolution of our mind on deathbed is similar in fashion, except to the fact that, it is not a temporary mind stream. Instead, the movie clip we watch is the mind stream of that entire lifetime. So that, the strongest memories and our actions of highest merits will come to the surface during this movie clip. This is how our consciousness operates when its dissolution comes.
Does god decide our next life or is it inter-dependent-origination ?
We briefly discussed about the inter-dependent and cause-and-effect nature of existence, energies at several occasions. In fact, Buddhism places its main focus on this aspect in its teaching. Many worldly phenomena can be explained clearly and scientifically by using this format. Moreover it should be noted that, the typical "karma-and-effect" we find in Hinduism and other tradition is just a subset of cause-and-effect in Buddhist teachings.
In certain religious beliefs, the judgement of our character on our deathbed is decided by an omnipresent god. But this process is more of a scientific one as illustrate below:
1. When the life energy wants to leave the physical body, it needs an input to decide the outcome, the location of next birth. This input is usually taken from the mind stream that is generated at the deathbed as explained in Fig. 2-4.
2. This is embedded as a memory in the energy that gets transferred from this life to the next birth. At the bardo level, this memory will be used to direct the life energy to its corresponding next energy level: it may be physical or non-physical. This post briefly talks about this transfer !
3. This memory, the physical body, the life stream as energy through the bardo state, finally sets our destination in this way.
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