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in Tibetan Buddhism, tukdam (Tibetan: ཐུགས་དམ་) is a meditative state that a human enters immediately after their death. It is believed that this state, observable as a delay in decomposition, is characterized by high accessibility of the mind, no longer burdened with the sensory inputs.

The tradition states that the tukdam is available to all people, but only the expert practitioners of meditation, when dying, can recognize it and use for spiritual purposes. In that time they are absorbed in 'Clear Light Stage', a process of inner dissolution of the five elements and consciousness back into the Primordial Light.

Description

The appearance of people that entered tukdam is described as "radiant", with the skin maintaining its softness and elasticity. Exit is manifested by the body beginning to decompose.

As Sogyal Rinpoche describes it in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying:

A realized practitioner continues to abide by the recognition of the nature of mind at the moment of death, and awakens into the Ground Luminosity when it manifests. He or she may even remain in that state for a number of days. Some practitioners and masters die sitting upright in that state for a number of days. Some practitioners and masters die sitting upright in meditation posture, and others in the "posture of the sleeping lion". Besides their perfect poise, there will be other signs that show they are resting in the state of the Ground Luminosity: There is still a certain color and glow in their face, the nose does not sink inward, the skin remains soft and flexible, the body does not become stiff, the eyes are said to keep a soft and compassionate glow, and there is still a warmth at the heart. Great care is taken that the master’s body is not touched, and silence is maintained until he or she has arisen from this state of meditation.

Scientific research

A hypothesis that tukdam corresponds to some residual brain activity after the clinical death had been tested using an electroencephalogram (EEG). No detectable EEG waveforms had been found.

See also

• Ayu Khandro
• Chatral Sangye Dorje
• Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche

References

1. ^ Lott et al. 2021.
2. "Crossing Over: How Science Is Redefining Life and Death". National Geographic. 3 March 2016. Retrieved 3 July 2018.
3. "Former Ganden Tripa Stays on 'Thukdam' for 18 Days". Phayul.com. 7 October 2008. Archived from the original on 3 July 2018.
4. Sogyal Rinpoche (2002), p. 266.

Works cited

• Lott, Dylan T.; Yeshi, Tenzin; Norchung, N.; Dolma, Sonam; et al. (28 January 2021). "No Detectable Electroencephalographic Activity After Clinical Declaration of Death Among Tibetan Buddhist Meditators in Apparent Tukdam, a Putative Postmortem Meditation State". Frontiers in Psychology. 11. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.599190. ISSN 1664-1078.
• Sogyal Rinpoche (2002). The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-250834-2.

Further reading

• Bärlocher, D. (1982). Testimonies of Tibetan Tulkus: A Research Among Reincarnate Buddhist Masters in Exile. Tibet-Institute. ISBN 978-3-7206-0009-5.
• Gouin, M. (2012). "Immediately After Death". Tibetan Rituals of Death: Buddhist Funerary Practices. Taylor & Francis. p. 15. ISBN 978-1-136-95918-9.
• Hale, Tom (30 September 2021). "Scientists Look At The Strange "Half-Dead" State Of Meditating Buddhist Monks". IFLScience. Retrieved 1 July 2024.
• Jackson, R. R. (2022). Rebirth: A Guide to Mind, Karma, and Cosmos in the Buddhist World. Shambhala. ISBN 978-0-8348-4424-7.
• Prude, Alyson (2019). "Death in Tibetan Buddhism". In Knepper, Timothy D.; Bregman, Lucy; Gottschalk, Mary (eds.). Death and Dying: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion. Springer International Publishing. pp. 125–142. ISBN 978-3-030-19300-3.
• Thompson, Evan (2014). Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-53831-2.
• Tidwell, T. L. (2024). "Life in suspension with death: Biocultural ontologies, perceptual cues, and biomarkers for the tibetan tukdam postmortem meditative state". Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry. doi:10.1007/s11013-023-09844-2. PMID 38393648.
• Zivkovic, T. (2013). Death and Reincarnation in Tibetan Buddhism: In-Between Bodies. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-134-59369-9.

External links

• The Field Study of Long-term Meditation Practitioners and the Tukdam Post-death Meditative State at the University of Wisconsin–Madison
• In depth discussion with Beri Sonam Wangchuk about meditative state of Thugdam on YouTube
• Tukdam: Spiritual Practice at the University of Virginia Mandala Collection
• Donagh Coleman. "Presence in Death". The Rubin Museum of Art.
• Tukdam: Between Worlds at IMDb

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