The day I died

This freaked me out because I’ve nearly died eight times now, and every time it’s happened in the exact same way this video describes (and I didn’t realise how closely it matched until I watched the video!).

First, my hearing goes. There’s a loud ringing-buzzing sound in my ears and my hearing closes in, into the centre of my head. Next, my vision goes – it closes in from the outsides of my eye, until it reaches the centre and then no light comes through. Then, I cannot feel anymore. I experience this numbness for about five seconds, before I feel myself collapsing.

Then it’s a total blackout. I am aware that some kind of ‘I’ exists but I know that I am no longer in my body. It’s total darkness all around me, the darkest dark I have ever seen, and ‘I’ feel light.

Then from far far away, I hear voices. At first it’s indistinguishable but it slowly becomes clearer. When I’m with Rinpoche, I hear him shouting my name, asking me to follow his voice and to come back. Then the voice gets louder and clearer, and the ringing-buzzing sound comes back for a couple of seconds, before I can open my eyes again.

Everything is bright and clear, but my whole body feels extremely heavy. My neck can’t keep my head upright, and my limbs feel strange, like they don’t belong to me.

People say that they don’t believe in the Buddhist teachings on dying, and that’s fine by them but I know from my own many uncontrolled experiences, that death is exactly as what has been described by Buddha.

buddhism, buddhist, death, dharma, dying, teaching, travel, Tsem Tulku Rinpoche, video Reflections and Teachings