5 Elements

The Road Beyond this Life

An individual who achieves a fully perfected Light Body or Rainbow Body in this very life is like a hologram, a gossamer web of photons, a powerful electromagnetic field that holds to human form until that allotted moment when it is time to leave the bubble of flesh behind. In the dying process, such a being can negotiate the after-death or bardo (in between) state with certainty. They may move on to another life consciously, or manifest in a luminous pure land in a far off star system. But what about the rest of us? How can we learn to navigate this uncertain territory with any kind of clarity or direction? The presence of highly developed gurus with masterful techniques would be nice. I have been fortunate to witness such beings literally pluck a lost soul out of the after-death state, or send off an ordinary mortal (even an animal) into a cloud of rainbows on a clear sky day, through the practice of transference or powa. But such people don’t grow on trees. For ourselves, we need a method, a road map and an instruction booklet of some sort. Fortunately these do exist, thanks to the fact that we are not the first to face that precipice! Through the last 1,400 years of Vajrayana Buddhism, many brilliant minds have done the transformational work and traveled the internal dimensions of mind to investigate the territory. Others have died and come back as delogs (literally “returners from the beyond”) and written about their journey. This amazing legacy is available to us, no matter the stage of our development nor the state of our busy lives.

The Traditions

Tibetan Buddhism is vast in its range and depth. But undoubtedly the most well known and popular corner of that landscape is the book collection known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. First translated and published in the West by Walter Evans-Wentz in 1927, this text influenced a generation of thinkers. And in this century, Sogyal Rinpoche’s Book of Living and Dying was a pop sensation some 65 years later. Today we can find more than a dozen such books by Tibetan and Bhutanese masters and Western practitioners alike. They contain a wealth of valuable common-sense and Dharmic advice. Much of the content of these texts is based on Karma Lingpa’s collection of “revealed” texts from the 15th century. But regular readers will not be aware that this is just one of many systems of after-death teachings. Some 300 years earlier, the famed yogi and author Yonangpa relates knowing 16 different bardo traditions. The system of chöd of Tibet’s greatest female saint, MaChik Labdrön (1055–1149), also has a concise and powerful after-death guidance ritual that is quite distinct from the elaborate visions of Karma Lingpa’s Liberation Upon Hearing. Indeed, working with the transition states of living, dying, dreams, and the afterlife were well-established in the 1100s, originating with the teachings of the great 84 Mahasiddhas from 750 CE onward. Tilopa, Naropa, and Matripa were important adepts in the transition of these texts to the snowy fastness of the Tibetan plateau.

Stages of Bardo

The entire bardo process is generally divided into the dying stage, the intermediate or after-life stage, and the rebirth process. The various books of the dead represent very extensive and complex rituals with many moving parts, mostly concerned with the after-death process, extending from seven to 49 days. In this short article we are focusing on the dying process, particularly because it prominently involves a sequential dissolution of the Elements. It is notable that the Shangpa tradition (c. 1100), which came from two remarkable female mahasiddhas of India, Sukasiddhi and Niguma, has a practice focused solely on this dissolution process, a wonderful rehearsal for the act of dying. Compared with the more difficult after-death stage, conscious dying provides an opportunity for taking a massive spiritual leap forward. And it teaches us much about our ongoing investigation of both the Five Elements and the Light Body.

Dying well

The mindset of the dying process is a huge consideration and discussed widely in Western books on hospice and death caretaking (doola). The advice to be surrounded by smiling friends and well-wishers is not just based on sentiment and compassionate care. Yes, what we did in our life has great import, but there is also something within the Vajrayana tradition called “throwing karma.” This means that what we dwell on in the last days, hours, and minutes of life can propel us forward with either positive or hellish momentum. With regard to others, this is not the time for blame, shame, anger, hatred, jealousy, or a thousand other negative emotions. For ourselves, this is not the time for regret, self-admonition, self-pity, worrying, theorizing, fantasizing—or doubting. Letting go of all that, while appreciating the amazing life journey we have enjoyed, is a solid strategy. That is the karma (action) that throws us (propels the mind) past all kinds of obstacles and can even compensate for all manner of missteps that we have inevitably made in our lifetime. Love and compassion toward our loved ones, our helpers, and toward our spiritual teachers, is paramount. Now we are ready for the stages of Elemental dissolution.

Element transitions

When the Elements drop away, they do so in sequence. If we have practiced working with the Five Elements, learning to dissolve them one into the other on a daily basis, we will already have a familiarity with what is to come. But beyond anything we can train for, something very special is about to happen, something that we would be fortunate to have experienced even once during our lifetime. Because, as each Element appears on the stage of mindbody, a kind of purification happens. One of the great hidden mysteries of our human incarnation is that there are different strata of Elemental forces within us, from gross to fine. We do not yet have a proper nomenclature for this energetic layering, though the basic bones are there. There is the traditional Samkhya or Hindu system of the five koshas or fields. J. G. Bennett provides us with a powerful system of 12 energies in his book Energies: Vital, Material and Cosmic, ranging from the mechanical to the cosmic, based on the works of his teacher, the famed mystic G. I. Gurdjieff. Ken Wilbur in his A Brief History of Everything (1996) and other books has an enlarged schema of eight, 12, or 13 patterns of personal and universal development. These all closely follow our knowledge of the Elements and sub-elements. We can conceive of them in a numerical sense. For example Fire Element appears on different levels: Fire-1 (molecular); F-2 (cellular); F-3 (biological); F-4 (bioenergetic), F-5 (psychological), and so on. Clearly there could be many more divisions and subdivisions, especially on the level of tissues, organs, and mind processes. But for now, this schema provides a framework for the reality of these levels. The deepest gift in all this is that our body contains the highest possible level of these Elemental matrices. Let us call this ultimate cosmic level “Element zero” (Element-0). These finest formative forces are usually not available to us. In life they are inextricably mixed with our material, biological, molecular, and even atomic identity. Much of the work of physical yoga, mantra recitation, meditation, visualization, and other sacred methods are involved with freeing up these primordially pure Elements. Indeed, Light Body formation is not other than freeing, collecting, condensing, activating, and co-mingling these original Elements.

In the Elemental dissolution process as described in traditional Tibetan texts, those pure Elements are described as goddesses, buddhas or dakinis. For many millennia, these indescribable and unutterable phenomena have been personified as spiritual beings, as a kind of bridge to our way of perceiving mundane reality. Since these Elements do entail the highest levels of consciousness, this is quite appropriate. The entire universe is sentient and everything partakes of varying levels of consciousness, from photons to space-time itself, and each strata of the Elements also encompass those stages of awareness.

Signs: outer, inner, and secret

Various outer manifestations and inner experiences of the Elements dissolving are extensively discussed in Tibetan texts and their translations. Descriptions of these sensations, sounds and visions help an outside observer to monitor the situation for the dying individual. And they can be useful but these signs can be difficult to grasp in the rapidly evolving situation. More accessible are the major shifts in energy that are taking place. Through familiarity with our usual bio-energy states and with the Elements on a day-to-day basis, we have a better chance of monitoring our process with a dispassionate curiosity and happy expectation. After all, we only get to do this once per lifetime. Before we can outline the stages, however, we need to clarify an important technical detail about the process called “untying the knots.”

Knots that are Not

Symbolic and mythological language is used in describing how the channels in the body are transformed. During yogic practices, or during the death process, there is an unraveling of the so-called “knots” within the subtle channels, particularly those that encircle the chakras. These entwinements need to be straightened out, so it goes, so that the winds or bio-energies can flow freely. Texts show painstaking line drawings of these tangled skeins, as well as a version of straightened channels. We now know that the primo vascular system is an important part of the subtle energy pathways, but the model of a kinked rubber hose should be understood as figurative, not literal. So what is being pointed at? During normal life, energy fields around the chakras have been enmeshed with our biophysical processes. When they are suddenly released—either through inner work or at death—that forcefield is withdrawn. The ultimate atom of the Elements is then set free. Whether this lives at the heart of the DNA spiral or in a different molecular or atomic formation, we can only suspect. But once freed, the process of merging the pure five elements with our impure elements is possible. If the “untying of the knots” is done in our meditative lifetime, through tummo or other tsa-lung (channels and psychic energy) methods, we are helping create Light Body. When it happens at the point of death, it is called the bardo of dying.

Stages of Dissolution

Earth Element is the first element to let go. The forces which hold our structure together, the forces of constructive energy in Bennett’s schema, begin to withdraw from the entire body. Where does it go? According to the Buddhist tradition, it dissolves back into the outer Earth element. This is consistent with the famous “dust to dust” pronouncement of Christianity. It also conforms to the schema of different levels of our Elemental mandala, where a more elevated or sophisticated level of the element downgrades into a more primitive or impure form. Solidity, structure, and stability fall away. At the same time the navel chakra field collapses, releasing the pure Earth Element (E-0). This enters the central channel of the body, the uma, and it is possible directly glimpse the Wisdom form of the Element, as the color yellow, a square, a buddha, a goddess.

Water Element is next in sequence. Traditional texts and their translations talk about Earth dissolving into Water. This should be understood as strictly metaphor. No Element actually merges or slips into another, but rather assumes prominence as its denser counterpart slips away. Fluidity, cohesion, and the connectedness of our “universal solvent” of water slips away. This is Bennett’s sensitive energy. Now the heart chakra bio-field collapses. It is possible to experience pure Water Element (W-0) as the Wisdom Element as a white color, a circle, or a white buddha. Once this happens, Water gives way to Fire.

Fire Element begins to be released in its mundane form. The pilot light of cellular machinery, our internal combustion, begins to take flight. The throat bio-field or chakra plexus collapses. Heat dissipates from the head down to the feet and out (the reverse in experienced meditators) and the Wisdom Fire element is released and slips into the central channel. If our mind is lucid and calm enough, we may glimpse or meet directly, the primal Element of Fire (F-0) as a red color, a triangle, or a red buddha or goddess of the Western direction.

Air Element now takes center stage. The power that moves our tissues, nerve impulses, even the atomic vibration of our molecular structure, begins to lose momentum. The pelvic chakra bio-field collapses, releasing the primal Air Element. The four winds (upper, lower, digestive, pervading) all dissolve into the life-upholding wind, which then enters into the five-element life force channel at the heart. The outer breath stops at this point. And Air “dissolves” into Space. We may experience a green color, a semi-circle, or the form of the enlightened beings that personify this Element.

Space Element. The last step is described differently in various traditions. In the Karma Lingpa cycle, Space Element dissolves first, before Earth. In other lineages, Air is said to dissolve into consciousness directly, and only then into Space. This seems to be a conflation between local space and ultimate Space (i.e. S-1–5 with S-0). Here we follow with logical sequence in which Air finally dissolves into Space. The head chakra field collapses, releasing the pure Space element bindu, which enters the central channel. Finally Space gives way to pure consciousness. The bio-energetic field of our five mundane Elements have all dissipated, releasing the original matrix of the Pure Five, which now travel through the central channel to the heart. The accompanying diagram gives some visual sense to these transitions points, and the meditations which can be built around them.

Death is the beginning

After these stages, a new series of transformations begins, which brings the upper and lower polarities of our being together, as discussed in my previous essay on uniting above and below.* This is done during the practice of tummo, neidan, and other advanced tantric, alchemical, or yogic practices. This also happens during deep sleep. The descent of the white seed of the father from above—the mind of experience—and the red seed of the mother from below—the wisdom mind—and their merger at the heart, is a story for another day. And much more could also be said about the Elemental journey just described, especially in light of the psychological components that must fall away at each stage. The crucial understanding is that we have no less than five opportunities to step directly through the doorway of Elemental purity. And each of those thresholds leads to illumination, the chance to avoid any further illusory meandering in the after-life landscape. Instead, we can return home, merging into the luminous openness where our limited ego-self is neither useful nor needed.

Further Union

In our continued investigation of the process of inner union, we have looked at the meaning and practice of uniting our left and right sides. These could be expressed as our male-female polarity or rationality and intuition. We also began to examine the union of our upper and lower poles, the literal unity of heaven and earth, spirituality and embodiment, mind and body, depending on nomenclature or tradition. Thus we have spoken of two dimensions of top to bottom and side to side. But beyond the vertical and horizontal, our three dimensional being also has an “anterior-posterior” reality, a front to back. Our side to side polarity is fairly symmetrical and complementary. Our vertical polarity is about two radically different poles, but that are anatomical variations on the same theme. Our upper limbs and lower limbs, their bones and muscles, are different versions of a pattern, one designed for maximum stability and locomotion (our legs), the other made for flexibility and extremely fine motor skills.

There are many other correlations in internal organs, with the heart at the center of the upright span. Plants are quite different, with root and flowering tops not being at all analogies of each other. When it comes to our front-back polarity, the differences are not variations on a theme like either the right-left or up-down contrasts. They do not reflect each other, mirror-like. The back of the head really is the back, and the front the front. All sense organs face forward, even though we like to think that some people seem to have “eyes in the back of their heads.” The heel and the toe move in one direction and were designed for a single orientation. We may come to understand why this is so by looking at the union that is necessary between the two.

Back to Front

In the transformative methods of Chinese qi gong practice, the “back-to-front” union is accomplished through the important “microcosmic orbit.” Visualized energy is sent down through the front meridians of the body, and then up through the back meridian, through the brain, across the bridge formed by pressing the tongue against the palate—and down the front again. The benefits of this technique are enormous, both in terms of overall vitality and as a requirement for later transformations. In Vajrayana, this process takes place during the visualizations of karmamudra, where there is a real or imaged sexual union and energy flow between lovers. The circular motion is the same, though the location of the visualized “loop” moves forward six to ten inches. In karmamudra, the forward flow is in front of one, as a real or imagined partner. The returning backward flow is not up the back, but through the central channel within the spinal cord. In a number of deity and protector practices, as well as during empowerments, the flow of mantras makes a similar circuit. In this case, the deity is in the sky, far in front of our own form. Now the energy must fly through the air before re-entering oneself. Also, the direction of the flow can go either way, forward or reverse. Mantra chains enter our mouths and circulate down into our heart or navel during empowerments. In certain meditation practices they will travel to the navel plexus of the deity, up through their heart and back out of their mouth. It is an extraordinary process of spiritual transmission, exchange, and unification itself.

In all of these cases, this front-back integration is a profound process with many symbolic and actual meanings. Most commonly spoken of is the union of self and other, of inner and outer worlds. This really means the coming together of awareness (the self) with the experienced phenomena. This dual-worldly integration is also called the union of skillful means (Tib: thab) and wisdom (sherab). Vajrayana tells us that this is the most basic error of pure awareness: to split experience and experiencer into “it” and “I.” This turns pure knowingness (rigpa) into ignorance or mistaken, illusory experience (ma-rigpa). It is where all the trouble of experiencing oneself as an actor in the world, a “stranger in a strange land,” begins.

Past & Present

Our back is where we have been, not where we are going. It is the past, while our front is the future. In the middle, we are meant to be fully present. We actually lie on our backs to let go of our intellectual experience and sink into imaginal and pre-verbal realms. This union is the synchronizing of the unconscious and conscious, but also the coming in of life energy (up the back) and manifesting that energy into the world. This process helps one live in both those worlds, either of which alone can consume one, preventing true liberation.

Conscious and Unconscious

Another clear division between our front and back haves, is that in the person facing you “what you see is what you get.” Facial expressions, the depth and connection of the eyes, the forward gestures, all have to do with a full presentation of the person. Of course there is much unseen and unknown, and that is precisely what is “behind the eyes.” The back is tantamount to the interior, the unknown or unknowable, the subconscious (a theoretical construct) or the unconscious. Our back is what even we don’t know about ourselves, or what is creeping up on us. Integrating back and front is a reconnection of biology and psychology, of something primal and mechanical with something very advanced and aware. Small wonder that the practice of microcosmic orbit or karmamudra has a strong sexual connection. This too is the ultimate union of unconscious or preconscious being, pure awareness, with the mundane intellectual version of life.

Within the Central Channel

The yogic practitioner has gone to great efforts to guide the body’s energies toward the center, having corralled, controlled, and forced them to enter into the core pillar of the energetic pathway called the central or middle channel (Uma). This is where union can take place. It is possible to enter the central channel through other means, and specifically through other chakras. For example, meditation on symbols, sounds, or feelings of love and devotion in the heart charka have been used by Christian, Sufic, Hindu, and Buddhist meditators for millennia. However, meditators can get into trouble if energies become stuck in the head, heart, or throat charkas, or if they are too forcibly engaged. The abdomen tends to be the most robust and safe area to secure entry.

The Lower Gate

The Tradition

Every spiritual tradition, and many related health systems, recognize the navel area to be a special accumulator of energy, and indeed a source of the life force itself. In Japan, it is called the hara and is considered the source of vitality and physical prowess that is also central to the practice of martial arts. In Tibetan Buddhism, it is known as the emanation wheel or chakra (trulpai khorlo). It is taught that this is the place from which the whole of creation or phenomenal appearances arises. This is graphically portrayed in the Shangpa practice of illusory body, where one visualizes all beings of the six realms as emanating from that center.

The navel is the center of gravity of the upright human form, the balance point of posture and weight distribution. It is a hub of another magnificent polarity in the body—the two parts of the autonomic nervous system. The sympathetic is the “yang” or masculine functions of reaction, drive, defense, and attack. The opposing parasympathetic is the “yin,” passive, nutritive, nourishing, relaxing. These are constantly working in tandem to maintain the appropriate tone for whatever is going on in our body and mind, controlling respiration, digestion, cardiac function, blood flow, and so on. These nerves pervade the entire body, from the smallest of blood vessels to the contraction of the large muscles of the colon, bladder, and heart. We have already seen the sympathetic chain on the right and left sides of the spine. Here in the lower abdomen, the mesenteric plexus is part of the “second brain,” the massive neuronal matrix that lives in and around the gut.

The Missing Alchemy

Once at the threshold of the central channel, the journey toward the upper pole, the apex or nadir, must take place for ultimate union. But how can this be carried out, especially since Western science truly abandons us at this juncture. To understand the next phase, we rely instead on ancient science. And that leads us to the Five Elements—earth, water, fire, air, and space—the basic substrata from which all is created. It is in the crucible of their transformative powers that we can emulate death and have our poles give birth to a new cosmic self, where the word “self” losings its usual meaning. And this is what we undertake in next month’s article.

Rainbow Body 9: Dying into the (Elemental) Light