| Overcome with Fear
of Death |
|
| The car of a student had broken down
on a busy highway in California. She sat stalled in the
fast lane as cars speeded past her. Overwhelmed by fear
of death, she managed to recite aloud the six-session
guru yoga and Tara’s mantra, and held a protection
packet in her hand. She prayed to be saved as the fear
of death arose. She wrote a letter asking what practices
she could do. |
Concerning your fear of death, the following will help immediately.
As a basis, do self-initiation four, three, or two times,
or at least once a month. For immediate protection, self-initiation
is best. Doing a short one every day is the best. This purifies
broken vows, reviving them and making them pure again. This
not only saves you from the lower realms, which have unbearable
suffering, but also from suffering there for long periods
of time, for eons. The main thing is that it is beneficial
to do self-initiation. It helps you achieve realizations,
as it is an extremely powerful method of purification. Other
practices help, but self-initiation is an emergency protection.
It helps with the fear of death.
Having strong compassion toward others is another important
thing. Then, there is also following the guru’s advice
in thought and action, which is guru devotion.
Prepare the mind every day. Practice the five powers*, so
that you can apply them at the time of death. If you can practice
these, you don’t need to practice phowa and so forth,
since the practice of the five powers becomes phowa.
Even if you practice phowa, what makes it successful is the
basis of having practiced the five powers as you near the
time of death and also integrating them into daily life. Dying
with bodhicitta is the best way to die, as you have heard
many times. This is immediate protection. Learn these things
and put them into practice.
Remember the five powers every day and be ready to die any
time, because death can come at any time. Don’t wait
until you have cancer or such a condition because untimely
death can happen at any moment. If you think, “I will
practice the five powers in the future,” death might
come before that. If you practice the five powers every day,
then when an earthquake, car accident, or heavy sickness comes,
you will be ready.
*The five powers are the power of the white seed, familiarity,
determination, repudiation, and prayer. For more detail, see
Pabongka Rinpoche’s Liberation
in the Palm of Your Hand.
[See more related advices from Rinpoche—particularly
on the five powers—in the Preparing
for Death section in the "Transitions" chapter
of the Advice Book.]
| Dealing with Fear |
|
| A student from Hong Kong had been very
ill with kidney problems. She often found herself frightened
at night-time and unable to sleep. She had dreamt three
times that she had been fired from her job, that she was
vomiting, and that there were feces on the floor. She
was afraid there was something very wrong and thought
perhaps she should quit her job. She wrote Rinpoche seeking
counsel. |
It is good to continue to work in your office. Vomiting and
defecating is a positive dream. Don’t worry.
Above your head, in your bedroom, you should keep His Holiness
the Dalai Lama’s portrait, a picture of 1,000-arm Chenrezig,
and my portrait. Believe that all the buddhas and the bodhisattvas
are there and are protecting you.
Recite the mantra of Tatagatha Victorious One Holder of
the Earth:
TAYATA DHARE DHARE DHARE NI BEDE SOHA
Recite this at least seven times a day, more is better. Do
this to fulfill all your wishes and all your prayers—positive
wishes that don’t harm others.
You should practice White
Umbrella deity mantra by completely taking refuge in the
White Umbrella deity. You can discuss this with the spiritual
program coordinator at your Dharma center. The mantra can
be in the text, or in the center of a protection mandala.
Recite it until you feel OK. It would be very good if you
could do this every day. Also, have a picture of White Umbrella
deity in your room to help with your health problems and also
for this present situation.
For your health problem, you should take some erma. Erma
is a delicious spice from Nepal. In my observations it came
out very good for your health.
May your life be most meaningful with bodhicitta, to benefit
others through the day and night.
Fear of Flying
A student was afraid of flying
Just before departure and during the flight, it is very good
to recite
the names of the ten directions' Buddhas. If you keep
on reciting the names, in whichever direction you are flying,
if you recite that Buddha’s names and pay one-pointed
attention to this, not only will you be free from danger,
but your wishes will be fulfilled. So not only is this for
safe travel, but for the successful fulfillment of whatever
goals you had for going in that direction.
It is very good to pray not just for your own safety, but
on behalf of all the people in the airplane—all 300
passengers and crew, or however many people there are—for
them all to have a safe journey. Not only that, but you can
pray that whoever this airplane carries may always be safe.
It’s very good to pray like that.
*See also Rinpoche's advice on Travel
and Immigration.
Fear of Snakes
A German woman had had a fear of snakes since she was
a child. At the age of nine, she saw a smashed snake in her
parents’ garden, and a woman in Germany, who was clairvoyant
but not Buddhist, told her that in a former life she had destroyed
people.
You do not need clairvoyance. This is explained by karma.
In a past life, after dying because of a snake killing you
or dying out of fear of snakes, this often goes into the next
life.
Some beings are born in a shape that gives fear to others.
It is just like that. Often it is a result of anger. One did
some unpleasant things to others, and now one fears the result.
Even I would run away when I see a snake. That is normal.
Think of the suffering of the snake: It has no chance. If
it had a choice, it would take another form. The snake itself
has a fear of eagles. Use the snake to generate compassion
and to develop bodhicitta. If you had the opportunity, you
would also choose another body, not a body that nobody likes.
Snakes are very afraid, they hide themselves and disappear
as soon as someone comes close.
Meditate on compassion, and you will reach enlightenment,
by understanding the suffering of the snake. Now the snake
becomes so compassionate. Now the snake is actually giving
you enlightenment, and you are able to liberate all sentient
beings. When you have compassion and bodhicitta, no snake
can give you harm.
For example, when St. Francis of Assisi met a dangerous
wolf, the wolf actually lay down on its back. St. Francis
tamed the wolf’s mind by the power of his compassion.
He told the wolf to stop harming others, and the wolf did.
No being could harm St. Francis of Assisi; even the elements
such as fire and water can be controlled by the power of compassion.
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