Awareness, subtle and ever-adapting, assumes the character of water and becomes the very consciousness of water, established within the vastness of ether. Just as, in dreams, a person perceives water within himself, so too does awareness take on countless forms. It shines forth with its own innate awareness of wind, remaining unchanged at its core; yet, this cleverness of consciousness conjures up what is not real, weaving the fabric of experience from imagination. All the states—space, wind, earth, water, and fire—are ultimately unreal, mere appearances within consciousness itself. This truth is known inwardly, as it is in dreams, imaginations, and meditations, where the mind creates and experiences worlds that have no enduring substance. Now, listen with attention to the teaching that brings about the cessation of all actions in this world. Hear about the sequence by which beings experience the results of their karma after death—a knowledge that is truly beneficial. At the dawn of creation, the order of things was established—sometimes single, sometimes double, triple, or fourfold in nature. Now, understand the order that governs the vitality of beings, their nourishment, and all that sustains life. The increase or decrease of a human being’s lifespan is determined by the purity or impurity of place, time, action, substance, and above all, by their own deeds. When a person’s prescribed duty declines, the lifespan of people in this world also diminishes; when it increases, lifespan grows; and when it is steady, life remains steady. A child meets death through actions that bring about death in childhood; a youth through actions that cause death in youth; and an elder through actions that lead to death in old age. Whoever performs their own duty as prescribed by scripture becomes a recipient of prosperity and lifespan, just as the scripture declares. Thus, according to their actions, a living being approaches the final state: speechless, vision fading, and pain arising at the vital points of the body. O gentle one, let us speak briefly about death: what makes death pleasant, what makes it painful, and what happens after dying? At the end of the body, there are three types of people who wish for death: the ignorant, the practitioner of concentration, and the person endowed with discernment. The practitioner and the one possessing discernment, having cultivated concentration, leave the body happily, departing with a sense of peace. But the ignorant, who have not attained the practice of concentration, do not gain liberation. At the time of their own death, they suffer greatly, helpless and without hope. When one is attached to sense objects, overwhelmed by the force of latent impressions, he falls into deep dejection, like a lotus withered and shrunken. A mind unrefined by scripture and devoted to the company of the wicked burns within at death, as if cast into fire. As death approaches, hoarseness of voice and distortion in vision arise, filling the mind with depression. The person’s appearance grows utterly dark, as if day has turned into night, and his form seems to wander aimlessly, surrounded by a dense, cloud-like gloom. Afflicted by pain at the vital points, his vision reels among trees; earth appears as sky, and sky seems as earth. He spins like the wheel of a well, tossed as if in the ocean, drawn as if into the sky, his mind inclined toward the sleep of dense clouds. He seems to have fallen into a dark pit, wedged between rocks; his tongue grows dull, as if self-paralyzed, and his mind feels torn apart. He appears to be falling from the path of the sky, caught in a whirlpool, riding a swiftly moving chariot, headed toward the mouth of the Himalayas. He sees the world spinning, as if making it luminous, as if touching the midst of fire; he is whirled about by a force, standing like a wind-driven machine. He is tossed about like an illusion, pulled as if by a rope, revolving as if in a whirlpool, set as if in a mechanical device with blades. He is driven like a blade of grass by the great wind of the ocean, carried far by a flood of water, falling as if into a submarine fire. He is as if falling in the endless sky, in a deep abyss, in the swirl of a wheel; experiencing the reversal of mountain and earth, he remains in that state. He is as if falling endlessly, or leaping up on all sides, startled by the sound of roaring, with all his senses fully active. Gradually, all his perceptions lose their meaning, just as the directions lose their brightness when the sun sets. His memory, grown thin, cannot distinguish before from after, just as at the end of twilight in the west, sight is lost in all directions. Bewildered, he loses the power of mental imagination; and lacking discernment, he sinks into great delusion. When this delusion takes hold, the breath no longer remains steady; and when the breath ceases to move as it does in life, delusion arises in full. Through mutual reinforcement, in the confusion of perception caused by delusion, the living being becomes insensible, like a stone, as if that were its original state. Why does this body, even when all its limbs are present, experience pain, delusion, fainting, confusion, disease, and insensibility? This is the activity known as karma, the vibration that began at creation. If there is suffering at this time, it is only for that duration. Just as a cluster of branches sways by its own nature, so too does this arise from the expansion of consciousness—there is no other cause. When, due to pain, the channels abandon their natural contraction and expansion, the vital airs leave the body and return to their own state. When the vital airs have entered but do not exit, or have exited but do not enter, when the airs no longer move through the channels, then, by this cessation, death occurs. When the air neither enters nor exits, because the body’s channels are impaired, then the person is said to be dead. The awareness, “I must perish at this time”—this knowledge, previously understood, proceeds toward that death when so impelled. Yet, the awareness that arose at the beginning of creation, “I must act thus in this way,” never proceeds to the destruction of the seed-form of consciousness. Thus, the journey of consciousness continues, ever unfolding, never truly ending.