S2 Special - Between Breaths (1/3) - The Afterlife

What if death isn’t a door slamming but a corridor unfolding? We sit with Live Buddha’s teachings and walk step by step through the six bardos—life, dreams, meditation, dying, luminous reality, and becoming—to rethink what happens at the edge of breath and beyond it. The journey starts with a stark sentence, nothing ends suddenly, then widens into a practice: you’re already in training, right now, in the bardo of life.

We move from story to structure—meeting a mentor who never raised his voice, then shifting into the clinical cadence of dying as the elements dissolve: strength leaves, fluids change, warmth retreats, and breath thins into stillness. Along the way, we examine why Tibetan families whisper, avoid arguments, and let the body rest undisturbed, not as superstition but as a compassionate design to reduce confusion. The heart of the teaching emerges when the clear light appears—pure awareness described across traditions. Recognition is the task; familiarity is the trap. When clarity feels foreign, the mind grasps, and luminous reality erupts as our own projections: fear as terrors, guilt as judgment, attachment as irresistible scenes that pull us off course.

If recognition slips, becoming begins. Habits and desires return like magnets, guiding rebirth not as reward or punishment but as momentum. We explore karma as the gravity of familiarity and ask how practice, meditation, and even cautiously guided psychedelic insights can help loosen the ego and rehearse recognition. The takeaway is both bracing and kind: death doesn’t create confusion; it reveals it. So we train now—simplifying attention, softening grasping, and learning to meet clarity without flinching. If that resonates, follow the series for part two, share this episode with someone who’s curious about afterlife and consciousness, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Please contact me at theunclewong@gmail.com

Transcript

Meeting Live Buddha In Shanghai

SPEAKER_01 0:00

What's up everyone? Welcome back to our special series with Asian Uncle. I'm your host, Uncle Wong. It turns out that statistically speaking, you guys really enjoy this afterlife death stuff. So I decided to make a special three-part series regarding my conversations with Live Buddha. And we did have many of these. So to start, I didn't learn about death in a temple or hospital, not even during that sky burial. Instead, I learned it in Shanghai, at the comfort of my own home, when Live Buddha had the time to visit me. Once he was passing through the city just for a couple days, there was no robes, no ceremony, no followers. And just a man, chubby old fella, normal clothes, sitting across from me like he was my best buddy. And because he's only a year older than me, so we had a lot to talk about. And because of this reason, I feel a special connection with him. Okay, now if I visit him, sometimes you will see hundreds and hundreds of followers next to him. I couldn't even get a word in with him. And but for some reason, I I just felt so close to him, and he spent so much time with me, much more than anybody else. So I feel blessed. And so I also feel like I had a calling to learn as much as I can. So I'm always asking him stupid ass questions. And yet he never gets uncomfortable or doesn't get upset. Never. Never seen him upset. He actually had a nephew once. When he visited him, he told me this. His nephew told me this that he has never seen Life Buddha get upset. And I told him to what extent, right? He said once he lived with him, and my buddy got drunk, his nephew. He got so drunk that he forgot to come home until like 6-7 the next morning. And Life Buddha just sat outside for hours waiting for him. And when he showed up, he felt horrible. But you know what Life Buddha did? He smiled, no reaction, nothing. Think about it. If it was me and you, oh my god, he would like I would be pissed. Like he I would be calling him, I'd be kicking down his door, right? But that's life Buddha for you. That's the type of man that was my mentor, was our mentor. And I decided to put a picture of him up on this episode for you guys to share with you guys. Honestly, thinking back now, out of all the questions, all the topics that I discussed with Live Buddha, the most interesting ones to me were about death, about afterlife, reincarnation, and even the ghost realms. Those were very interesting. And I'm here to share with you all, slowly by slowly. But that specific visit in Shanghai, we talked a lot about death. And that was one of the first questions I ever asked. What is death? Can you explain that to me? He didn't answer right away, of course, probably because he couldn't speak Chinese as well. But nonetheless, he tried his best and gave me an explanation.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

He started with nothing ends suddenly. That was it.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

There's no poetry, comfort or any feeling to be honest. It's just that. And I remember thinking that that's quite the opposite of how most of us live. We live like things end suddenly. Like someone's here, then they're gone. It's like a flip switch, and it's done. And I think LB's sentence wasn't sentimental. It was more like a diagnosis because he didn't know how to even start this conversation with me. And I began to ask more straightforward, what do you mean by nothing and suddenly? He patiently explained. Said that people when people say death, they only imagine one moment.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

But in Tibetan's view, it's more like a process. And you can prepare for this process. Because you're already preparing for it now. And at that moment he used a word that I'd never heard before. Or I heard of, but I never understood.

SPEAKER_01 5:02

In Chinese it's called Zhong Ying. And in direct translation, it's called the Bardo. He says simply the bardo means an in-between state. Between supposedly life and death, maybe. And so I asked, what do you mean, like purgatory? Kind of in-between state, like a my soul is out, ghostly kind of state. And he smiled like he's been asked this a thousand times. He said, no, it's not a place.

SPEAKER_00 5:36

It's not a physical place, but a mental state. And then he dropped the truth that made Tibetan Buddhism seem much different from anything else I've experienced.

What Is Death

SPEAKER_01 5:49

He said, There's more than one bardo. In fact, there's six bardos. And why does this matter? Because this wasn't just superstition. Because when Carl Jung discovered this, he was deeply fascinated. Because at the time he was doing research on cognitive science and this related to it. It was as if he found the key to the last puzzle of the equation. And so even he was admiring the depth of the psychology of how Buddhists explain death in the bardos. For instance, the six bardos would be the bardo of this life, meaning you're living not in a reality. You're living in a dream state. You're born, you live, and you die. And then within this bardo, there's also the bardo of dreams. When you're dreaming, you feel like you're separated from reality altogether.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

You're living in a different reality, but it seems real.

SPEAKER_01 7:09

And if you ever meditated before, you would feel that that is also a different state than your current life or when you're sleeping. Last but not least, there's the states that you have yet to experience. And that's the bardo of dying, which we're going to get into, the bardo of luminous reality, which is kind of difficult to comprehend, and then the bardo of becoming, or what we know as rebirth or reincarnation. For normal people, we only focus death on maybe the dying bardo, and perhaps luminous reality where we look forward to heaven or hell, right? Maybe not look forward to hell, but we look forward to some sort of an afterlife. And if you don't believe in reincarnation, then that bardo of becoming becomes obsolete.

SPEAKER_00 8:11

And that's what life Buddha said. People are obsessed with what happens after death. But you ignore what happens after death depends on what you practice before it.

The Six Bardos Explained

SPEAKER_01 8:25

And that's what it hit me with something, and that's when something uncomfortable hit me. And that's when something uncomfortable hit me. He says, Well, technically you are already in training. LB told me that the bottle of this life is already in between. It's between your last life and your future life. Because every moment is sandwiched between what just happened and what will happen. That's very philosophical. Take a moment to think that, to let that sink in. When death comes, it doesn't just give you a new mind. Okay, it gives you your mind minus all the distractions. That's something that really stuck with me. And I know it's kind of complicated, but bear with me. Because we all have these distractions, you're having it right now. As I'm explaining this, you're thinking, oh, what's for dinner? Is there going to be parking later? The phone, the noise, the work, your pride, your ego, entertainment, trauma, the people who piss us off. Death strips all that out. So if your mind is chaotic now, it will suddenly become more calm than you ever imagined.

SPEAKER_00 10:02

Because your body stopped working. Your pre-programmed human senses are gone now.

Training In The Bardo Of Life

SPEAKER_01 10:14

This is interesting because it reminds me of a lot of psychedelic drugs that are on the market now. I'm not saying it's good or bad, but I'm saying it gives a lot of people a different sense of reality. For instance, if you listen to Joe Rogan or Mike Tyson, their experience with psychedelics kind of mimics what happens during the barter where you're stripped completely of your ego and distractions. And so I personally think if you use psychedelics as a beneficial way to experience that, it might not be a bad thing. Because for most, you have such a strong ego, like myself too, that it takes that moment of death for you to realize, oh shit, this world does not revolve around just you. So in essence, I think what L I think what LB meant is that death doesn't create confusion, it reveals it. And then comes the bottle, I believe we have a way of actually proving it exists clinically. And here's where also Tibetan Buddhism gets clinical. Because the bottle of dying begins when the body starts to shut down. And if any of you are working as nurses or doctors, or even seeing somebody pass before your eyes throughout time, you would notice these certain experiences. Traditional Tibetan description talk about like a very illusional thing called the dissolution of elements. Because back then they didn't have chemistry. They didn't know the body had some sort of liquid, they didn't know about cellular structure. So instead, they they pegged it to certain things like earth, water, fire, air elements. Does that make sense? It's kind of like using primitive language to describe modern science. And therefore, it would translate into more of a lived experience than a chemical reaction. So for instance, all right, let me make an example: the earth. When the Tibetans say the earth dissolves, that means strength leaves the body. The sick would feel heavy, and they would start to lose physical control. And if you've seen someone pass, you know that this does exist. And then the next is also interesting. The water dissolves. Meaning the dying would feel dryness, thirst. Fluids in the body are changing. Next, fire dissolves. The warmth that you originally felt in your hands and your feet starts to withdraw. And what happens is your body gets colder and colder. Last but not least, the air dissolves. Breath becomes shallow, then irregular, then subtle. Finally, it stops. And so LB followed up by saying that people think dying is only pain. Yes, but dying is also confusion. And confusion can be louder than pain. He went on to explain why Tibetan families act a certain way around dying people, why they whisper, why they don't argue, or why they don't cry dramatically when the death is on their bed, when the dying is on their bed. Because tradition believes that as much as this seems superstitious to outsiders, they think the mind is still listening, even when the body appears gone or is clinically dead. And that leads to one of the most famous Tibetan customs. Don't disturb the body too quickly.

SPEAKER_00 14:57

It's sort of a post-mortem meditative state.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

It's believed to occur after clinical death in very advanced practitioners. Not like me and you, but people like Live Buddha, where the body is left undisturbed for at least three days. Because the consciousness is said to have still because the consciousness is said to remain in the body for that amount of time. But even if you don't believe what I'm saying, even if you don't believe this tradition, this behavior is meaningful and respectable. Because it doesn't rush the dead. That's a very different attitude than our modern world now, right? Where everything is just fast. Oh my god, ambulance, paperwork, timeline, schedule. Tibetans treat death like a ceremony that you don't interrupt. Very interesting. And now the moment we've all been waiting for. We've all heard this before. Clinically, it's been proven how when our mind shuts down, when our brain waves shut down, it does create this clear light. After the last breath, Tibet teaching says our consciousness encounters something called a clear light. And it's not just Tibet Buddhism. Christians, even atheists who've experienced who have experienced near death, also say that they saw a clear light. And when I asked LB what this clear light means, he says it's like the sky without clouds. Pure awareness. But here's where it breaks down. Because the Ban teaching says that most people can't recognize this. Because the light is so bright that it scares them away.

SPEAKER_00 17:11

Because it's not familiar.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

We are addicted to familiarity. Even suffering feels familiar. So if the mind can't recognize clarity at that moment, it panics. And it looks for something to hold on. And when it does, that's when the vision begins. Now the next stage of the Bardo, the luminous reality, is perhaps the most difficult to explain. And this is the part where most people understand. This is the part where most people misunderstand, too. Because they hear Tibet descriptions of fierce beings, loud sounds, bright colors, they assume it's mythology or superstition. And LB said it very clearly. He said these are not outside gods punishing you. And in essence, during that state, if you believe in Jesus, you would see him. If you believe in the devil, you might see him too. But whatever appears, he says, it's not a God punishing you. These are appearances of your own inner mind. Your fear becomes terrifying images.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

Your guilt becomes judgment. And attachment becomes longing memories.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

He says your mind projects like a dream. But you believe it's real because there's no body to anchor you in. And what does that closely resemble? It resembles us dreaming. Because when you're dreaming, you're not pretending either. You're fully inside the emotion, right? You're fully inside that state. Debardo is described like that. Just more intense. Because you can't wake up. We did an entire special on the Tibetan Book of the Dead. LB corrected me when I called it that. He said technically it's not for the dead. It's for consciousness. And if you look closely at what it says, it repeatedly tells the deceased you are dead. Do not fear. What you see is your own mind. Do not cling. Recognize the lights. Because Tibetans believe or assume something. Wild that the dead can still hear. So even if you don't believe it, it's a powerful practice for the living as well.

SPEAKER_00 20:12

It forces the family to speak calmly into the face of grief.

The Clinical Signs Of Dying

SPEAKER_01 20:21

And most importantly, it reminds everyone that's watching that death is coming for you too. And last but not least, it's the bardo of becoming reincarnation, rebirth. And the way LB described it, he said it's like a magnet. Because at that stage, if your mind still doesn't recognize what's happening, it enters this bardo. LB explained it that during this bardo, your habit returns, your desire returns, and then your mind looks for a home. It looks for a body to anchor on. And that's where rebirth happens. Not a reward or punishment, simply a direction.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Nobody assigns you a new life because familiarity pulls you in like gravity. That's the definition of karma.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

And finally, he told me something that sounded almost cruel. He says you don't go where you want, you go where you deserve to go. And that hit hard. Because we all like to think that we're in control of ourselves, of our lives, of our being, if not the outside world. But under that stress, we don't. Death is the biggest test. I remember asking him towards the end of the conversation, does death scare you? He smiled, not arrogantly, just gently like he always does. He says, Why am I afraid? Why should I be afraid? Why should you be afraid? You've been practicing this your whole life. And it was at that moment I realized Buddhism doesn't ask, where will you go after you die? It asks something harder to comprehend. Asks, will you recognize yourself when everything falls apart? I'm Uncle Wong. This is Asian Uncle. That's part one of Between Breaths. Thank you for tuning in for all your love and support. Join us again for part two. Peace.