THUKDAM : Conscious Death

By His Grace and Blessing I write..

Thukdam;  Conscious Death

Introduction;  A few days ago on 22 May, a Tibetan monk Ven Tenzin Choedon passed into state of Thukdam at around 10 am at her residence in Kollega Tibetan Settlement , a place 70 kms from Mysuru in Karnataka, India. The lady monk is clinically dead but her body is still fresh showing no signs of decomposition, putrefaction or skin discoloration. She is said to have invoked what is described as Invocation of Subtle Consciousness. The following blog is a discussion about such practices and their scientific basis. The blogger will try to discuss metaphysics involved behind such phenomenon and also adduce some recorded historical evidence to it. The blogger then would share a personal experience with the readers.

Thukdam is a Buddhist meditative practice in which a realized Tibetan Buddhist master dies in a consciously controlled manner. It is practiced during the period of death of a Buddhist master, whereby all five elements of which the body is said to be composed of get dissolved with consciousness. Though they are clinically dead, the bodies remain fresh for days or weeks without any signs of decomposition. The realized master stays in a state of luminosity after his death. Sometimes the bodies have been found to emit fragrance as well. Thukdam is actually a Tibetan word, where Thuk means Mind and dam means standing for Samadhi. So it means mind in a Samadhi or meditative state. The practice is described in the Tibetan Book of Living and Dead. Many monks have been found in such states across the world and the research is still underway.

Ven , born in 1939 escaped  to India in 1959 after Chinese invasion of Tibet. Since 1976 to March 2020, Ven spent 44 years in a retreat at Holy caves of Guru Padmasambhava Charitable and Meditation Centre , Rewisar. She entered into Thukdam  at the age of 82 years.  6 Russian scientists are closely observing this Tibetan monk in deep meditative state. Last month, they spent a fortnight together to study altered state of consciousness.

The scientific study of Thukdam started a decade ago through an active collaboration between the Russian and Western scientists and Tibetan monks under instructions of His Holiness Dalai Lama. The scientists have since then taken a few masters of this meditation technique to their labs in Europe and have acclimatized them to various medical equipment aimed at measuring the brain activity. The team of scientists is looking for 2 factors;

1. Scientific aspect to find out how they can stabilize and control human mind with Thukdam being the key factor.
2. Investigation to understand neurophysiologic mechanism of meditation or how the practice works in relation to functioning of the nervous system.

It has been found that state of Thukdam can be achieved even when one is alive. A master can stay in that state for a long time and can return to active life. It means that a monk can enter into a state where he is clinically dead and can later return back from that state. However, right now there are no explanations to this phenomenon.

Historical Evidence;

“ No physical disintegration was visible in his body even 20 days after death. No indication of mold was visible on his skin, no visible drying up took place in the bodily tissues. This state of perfect preservation of body is, so far as we know from mortuary annals, an unparalleled “.

The above are the notarized observations of Director of Forest Law Memorial Park where  Paramhansa Yogananda was finally  laid to rest. The Yoganand’s body was apparently in a phenomenal state of immutability. This is an evidence of how physical bodies can remain immutable for many days even after death. In this case however, it was not Thukdam but Kriya Yoga which Yoganada practiced and propagated to the world.

Personal experience; I had a personal experience of such a phenomena from my early childhood days when my maternal grandfather passed away. My grandfather a week before his death had informed all of us  that his death was very near. He was in a perfectly healthy state and he had no history of any kind of disease. After a week he suffered a massive heart attack and left the body within a few moments of the attack. In fact he passed away with his back pressed against the wall and a bucket of milk held in his knees. He passed away in the evening while milking our domestic cow. The point is that till next morning his body was emitting fragrance and he had a smiling face even after 16 hours of death. Now this may not be Thukdam or anything like Paramhansa but it indicates that such things are possible. Some of the readers may be having first hand experiences or may have heard about such things from their parents or grandparents.

In fact when you search for such phenomenon in India, you are likely to come across many evidences. Sometimes these phenomenon are even more mysterious then Thukdam or Paramhansa Yogananda. Maharaji by whose grace and blessings I write all these blogs, had performed 1000’s of such miracles in his lifetime. In 1970’s for example, Maharaji  gave 35 years of life to a person who was declared dead. This person  lived for 35 more years.

Conclusion; The idea of this discussion is not to make you unscientific or irrational in your thinking. The idea is just to bring home the point that there are many things in our lives which don’t strictly get explained by the current developments in science or which don’t meet many of our rational criterion. Quantum mechanics/ Physics  is opening  new possibilities which no one could have imagined before (for example a body can be at 2 different places at the same time). Till the time we can find scientific/rational basis of practices like Thukdam we have to believe them the way they are. This may not appeal to our rational minds but this is something which cannot be denied out rightly. Till then enjoy this mystery called Life…the Lila of it all…a cosmic game which never ends and an infinite energy that pervades the whole universe with no beginning or end.

By His Grace and Blessings I write…..

Dr. Seema Chaudhary