The Process of Death

After the manas decides to depart from the body, the Alaya consciousness cooperates with this departure. The process of death is complex and may take eight or more than ten hours before true death occurs. As the Alaya consciousness relinquishes the body, the physical form becomes cold and rigid due to the disintegration of the four elements. At this point, what is the manas doing? Has it departed from the body? When the six consciousnesses cease, the manas will depart. However, because the manas clings to all dharmas, including its own corpse, it inevitably remains attached to the corpse. Consequently, the Tathagatagarbha cannot completely disregard this corpse, though the manner of its involvement differs significantly from how it manages the five aggregates. Thus, the corpse ultimately cannot function like the five-aggregate body and will gradually decay and vanish. Then the manas clings to the remaining bones, and the Tathagatagarbha likewise cannot entirely disregard the bones, though its management of them differs from its management of the five-aggregate body and the corpse, resulting in the bones gradually weathering away.

Even if the manas does not cling to the corpse or bones, the corpse and bones still bear personal markers and information that cannot be erased. Those with great supernatural powers can discern all information about the past and future of the bone's owner from a single bone. If you wish no one to know, you must refrain from doing it yourself; the traces of karma can never be erased. Over countless eons, an individual has enacted innumerable dramas, yet they themselves have forgotten all but the dramas of others.