Death and Happiness: Exploring the Temporalities of the Meditated Death and Everyday Life in Tibetan Buddhist Practice of Tukdam.

Tibetan Buddhist practitioners believe that meditating on death is key to well-being in daily life. Based on an 18-month ethnographic study, this article explores how the concept of tukdam—a meditative state entered while dying that involves resting in extremely subtle consciousness—informs Tibetan communities beyond just accomplished adepts, framing how death and dying are conceived. The article asks why Tibetans see death meditation as central to day-to-day happiness and how the temporality of meditated death relates to ordinary life. It proposes that practices culminating in tukdam symbolize an 'ideal' death that guides approaches to dying for oneself and others, offering a moral heuristic for transforming orientations to self and others and cultivating compassion and resilience.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Although tukdam-a meditative state entered through various practices resting in extremely subtle consciousness while dying-is seen to only be achieved by adept practitioners, the philosophy and psychology that underpin tukdam inform Tibetan communities beyond just accomplished adepts and frame the very way death and dying is conceived. Based on an 18-month ethnographic study, this article explores the significance of death as a Tibetan Buddhist cultural-reference that offers a moral heuristic ground for adaptive methods in transforming orientations to self and others and in cultivating compassion and resilience. Tibetan Buddhist practitioners emphasize a strong correlation between a true understanding of self and sustained happiness. This article thus asks a dual conceptual question: (1) Why do Tibetans believe that meditating on death is the key to experiences of well-being in their day-to-day life? (2) What is the relation between the temporalities of the meditated death and that of the day-to-day life? Furthermore, the article proposes that Tibetan Buddhist practices that culminate in tukdam symbolize the way death and dying is assumed to be approached more broadly beyond advanced practitioners, and thereby, provides a cultural model for an "ideal" death that guides approaches to dying for oneself and others.