The Process

Your karma, which is the deepest level of your mind, exists throughout your life, but it is only fully awakened and realized at the moment of death. As each of the following levels of consciousness end, the following level increases in capacity

The 8 Levels of the Mind:

1 – Mirage. The cessation of Earth.
Bones and skin fade, loosing its hardness. Your body becomes thinner with old age. The water elements increase in the body.

2 – Smoke. The cessation of Water.
Blood and other liquids in your body dry up. Your mouth dries up; your sinuses become dry, etc. The fire elements in your body increase.

3 – Fireflies. The cessation of Fire.
Heat in your body diminishes, either from feet upwards to the head, or from the head downwards. Wind elements in your body increase.

4 – Flame of a Candle. The cessation of Wind.
Movement, breathing, beating of the heart ends. Consciousness increases in the mind. At this point, you would be considered medically dead, but consciousness still exists within the mind.

5 – Vivid White Sky.
Your consciousness is total whiteness, also described as a clear sky filled with moonlight. Conceptual thought ends. A subtle state of subject and object remains.

6 – Vivid Red Sky.
Your consciousness turns into a very vivid red or orange vastness, like a clear sky filled with sunlight.

7 – Vivid Black Sky.
Your consciousness is total blackness. This is called “near-attainment”. At this point, you are aware, but eventually you loose this as you slip into even darker blackness.

8 – Clear Light.
You become fully aware, also called the fundamental innate mind of clear light. It is this state that is the most pure and powerful level of consciousness. Some people stay in this state for a few weeks, or just a few minutes. In Buddhism, this state of a clear light mind has been achieved by some monks for up to 17 days after death, without decomposition of the body.



(this was ripped directly from the Dali Lama's book: How to Practice. Thanks Dali, you rock)