Member of the FPMT

Dear John,
I hope this is not too late.

The very best is if you can give some idea of the subtle mind at the time of death, according to Tantra, in the context of the evolution of the death process.

Generally, the best advice is to practice the good heart in life, ie bodhicitta. This purifies so much negative karma, even the very heavy ones, and stops us creating more negative karma. It is this negative karma that makes us fearful of death and makes the mind experience it in that way, especially the immeasurable suffering that arises later from that. It stops the suffering rebirths that arise from these negative actions.

The second thing is practicing living in morality, with precepts, taking the precepts from a spiritual master or in front of a holy object.

The essence is to accumulate merit and practice purification in everyday life in our relationships with sentient beings, serving others with a sincere heart, loving kindness, and compassion, doing hard work to benefit them, then making offerings to the Guru and Triple Gem.

In the lamrim it explains the four ways to accumulate powerful, extensive merit. It is good to attempt these in everyday life, while doing all the normal activities: eating, sleeping, walking, etc, rather than the actions being performed out of worldly desire (samsaric attachment).

It is very important to learn the five powers and to integrate them into our life. Also, it is important to learn the five powers to be practiced at death. These are very special practices to achieve enlightenment quickly. They involve Phowa, the transference of consciousness at the time of death into the Pure Land. In the Pure Land one receives teachings on the Mahayana and Vajrayana, which enable one to achieve enlightenment in one lifetime. How effective the Phowa is depends on how well one practices the five powers at death. This depends on how well one does the general practices during one’s life.

If one becomes accomplished in Phowa and receives the signs of accomplishment, then this can be the best public service—liberating others and helping them at the time of death.

I am just trying to give you the essence, and some clarity. I have tried to condense it all.
Much love...

My very dear Venerable Jeanette,

Regarding the obstacles to your life, it is good for your children to know, but don’t make it sound heavy. Make them aware of the possibility so that they are prepared in their minds. When you talk to them make it lighter, so their minds can get used to the idea, and they aren’t shocked.

Here are the five powers; it is still a work in progress.

With much love and prayers...

My very dear Nina,
Thank you very much for your e-mail. Please put effort into doing Medicine Buddha practice. If you recite Medicine Buddha’s name mantra every day, you won’t be reborn in the lower realms. In this way, you don’t have to be afraid of death—this practice takes care of this life. As Buddha told Ananda, even an animal hearing Medicine Buddha’s name won’t be reborn in the lower realms. It is also very powerful when reciting prayers to remember Medicine Buddha. You must remember Medicine Buddha. By reciting Medicine Buddha’s name, you receive the benefit of all the prayers that Medicine Buddha made in the past, and all your prayers will succeed.

If you want a very peaceful death and you want to have a happy rebirth in your next life—without mentioning liberation or enlightenment for sentient beings—you must do Medicine Buddha practice. Besides that, this practice is also extremely important if you want to be successful. Recite all seven names if possible. If not, recite at least one name. If possible, recite one mala.

I will send you a picture of Medicine Buddha. Look at Medicine Buddha and see nectar coming out from his heart, purifying your body, speech, and mind. Think that it purifies mainly you, then your family members, and then all sentient beings. If there is someone you want to pray for, who is sick or has died, then concentrate specifically on that person, and then all sentient beings. This is very good. This way you don’t have to worry about having a clear visualization. You just look at the picture and imagine that it is real.

Do the same with the 35 Buddhas. Don’t worry, the main thing is to have faith.

Before going to bed, you can recite long or short Vajrasattva mantras, 28 times, to purify negative karma. If we create one negative karma today and don’t purify it, it doubles tomorrow, then triples the next day, and so on. After a year, one negative karma grows to the size of the earth. Therefore, if you recite Vajrasattva mantras, you stop the negative karma from multiplying. Not only do you purify all the negative karma created today, this week, this month, this life, but all your negative karma created since beginningless rebirths is purified. We have negative karmas from beginningless rebirths. This means we will experience so much suffering again and again without end. You should think that your situation is like an emergency and it is urgent that you do Vajrasattva purification. It is a billion times greater an emergency and more urgent to purify negative karma than it is to rush to hospital if you have a heart attack or an injury.

These are my comments for your practice. Because we spend so much time eating, drinking and doing other things, not making time for practice means you don’t love yourself. Doing practice is the best for everything—for your health, long life, good rebirth, liberation from samsara, enlightenment—everything. To be able to offer perfect happiness to other sentient beings is what will really help others. If you don’t do that, it is due to your anger and attachment, ego, and working just for yourself. That only harms you. That is not the way to benefit yourself. That is the way to harm others and to block your ability to liberate others and bring them to enlightenment. This attitude even interferes with communication with others.

If you really love yourself, then you should cherish others. Let go of the ego, because the ego is a great obstacle to happiness. Renunciation of samsara is also a way to love yourself, and so are bodhicitta and emptiness, and practicing morality. Living according to lay vows is a good way to take care of yourself and love yourself.

You should also do the following practices:

·Complete three nyung nes for your health.
·If you are asked to have an operation, do not have it.
·Have a ‘Puja Betraying the Death—Chi Lu’ performed for you. Ask Geshe Lama Konchok to do it for you. Next year, you should also do the Chi Lu Puja again.
·Pray very strongly to Medicine Buddha and recite more Medicine Buddha mantras every day for your health.
·Take at least two long-life initiations
·Make 3,000 long life tsatsas to pacify obstacles to your life, dedicating them to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and to all the holy beings who are in this world to benefit others.

I don’t know how to say how sorry I am, and how fantastic it is, that you have found this disease.

As a Dharma practitioner, it may be good to read the book Transforming Problems, if you think there is a need, and also to read talks I gave about thought transformation, of utilizing sicknesses on the path as a means of bringing happiness to all sentient beings, including bringing them to enlightenment. In this way, you use your sickness to practice bodhicitta, which means experiencing the illness on behalf of all sentient beings. So, you can do these things to make basic preparations. These are the most important methods. Try to use them as much as possible. Think that this is your best retreat, one hundred times more powerful than years of doing Vajrasattva retreat with a self-centered mind, with a comfortable life, and so forth. That is because, here, the fundamental practice is that you are giving your life to other sentient beings. You give your happiness to other sentient beings, and experience their sufferings yourself. The foundation of this practice is bodhicitta, exchanging self with others. So, study and practice every day, and remember as much as possible the practice of the five powers* near the time of death.

It is very important, too, that you remember those stories about the benefits of bodhicitta, about the benefits of generating great compassion. For example, remember how Asanga was able to see Maitreya Buddha only after he made a sacrifice. He was unable to see Maitreya just by doing retreat. He could see Maitreya only when he learned to appreciate great compassion, giving up his life for a wounded dog.

Then there was the disciple of the yogi Ngagpo Chöpa, who sacrificed himself by touching and carrying the female leper, whose body was totally blackened and ugly, filled with leprosy and pus. Then, as he was carrying her across a river, he was able to see that the leper woman was Vajrayogini. She took him to the pure land Kechara, in the same human body, which means that he became enlightened there.

There is also a story about when the Buddha was born in the hell realms, where he was pulling a carriage with another hell being. This is the very first time he generated great compassion. At that time, he thought of pulling the carriage by himself alone, thinking, why let the other person suffer? They were pulling the carriage over iron ground that was oneness with fire. So, he let the other hell being go free and pulled the carriage by himself and took on all the suffering. As soon as he did that, the karma guardians hit him on the head with a hammer. Immediately, his consciousness was transferred to Tushita pure land.

These are all the benefits of bodhicitta, of sacrificing one’s life for others, even for just one other sentient being. This is how to become enlightened very quickly, by sacrificing one’s life for one sentient being.

It is good to read the stories of the past lives of Guru Shakyamuni Buddha, how for three countless great eons he practiced charity—especially charity—and morality, patience, and the other perfections. He offered charity to others so many times, offering his eyes, limbs, even his whole body.

There is also a story about his practice of patience, and how he practiced charity by offering his body to ants. There was a king who came to look for his wife in the forest. He found his wife in the same area as the Buddha, who was a bodhisattva in that lifetime. The king got upset with the bodhisattva and asked him, “What are you doing?” The bodhisattva replied, “I’m meditating.” However, the king got angry and cut off one of the bodhisattva’s limbs. Then the king repeated his question and the bodhisattva answered the same way, so the king cut off another of his limbs. This went on until the king had cut off all four of the bodhisattva’s limbs. Then only his torso was left. When the people found him, they threw the rest of his body away, saying what was the use of that. But even then, the bodhisattva offered what was left of his body to the ants.

There is an incredibly inspiring lama, Je Drom Gonpa, who had a hermitage very high on the mountain above Sera Je monastery. He had a guru, Atsaya, from whom he received teachings on bodhicitta, and so was able to realize bodhicitta. One day, he saw his guru in the forest on the mountain. He was alone reading a text and making the thumbs-up sign with one of his hands.

“What are you doing?” Je Drom Gonpa asked.

“Reading the Buddha’s past life stories,” his guru replied. He was giving the thumbs-up sign to Guru Shakyamuni Buddha to show how very worthwhile it is to be a human being. The Buddha made it worthwhile to take a human body. You can also ask Geshe-la to tell you more stories of this kind to inspire you.

Other things you can do are the Namgyalma mantra, not only for a long life but for powerful purification. Other people can do Medicine Buddha practice for you. They can also recite Amitayus’ mantra for you. Visualize nectar flowing from Buddha Amitayus and entering your body and mind, purifying all obscurations and obstacles to life, diseases, spirit harms, and so forth, and filling your body with the nectar of immortality. While they are doing this for you, they can also do it for others, for all the other beings with cancer, life obstacles, for those people who do good things for others, and for those beings who change their minds from harming others to helping others. They can also pray for their own long life. Other people can do group practices or can do them individually.

Also, since you have been doing Vajrayogini practice, Vajrayogini is a very important solution for your life situation at this critical point. Vajrayogini becomes the most precious thing for you. You should do the self-initiation once a week, if you cannot do it every day.

Other people can help you. Other Sangha or lay people can come and pray with you. Or if you wish to practice alone, that is OK too. You can invite anyone that you like, anyone that you feel comfortable with. You can also invite Geshe-la to practice it from time to time with other people. Then, Geshe-la can do the chanting in Tibetan. It is very good that way. Also, if Khensur Rinpoche is visiting the area, you can invite him to do Vajrayogini practice with you.

During the Vajrayogini self-initiation, you can take shortcuts. You can leave out the long prayers at the point where you make extensive offerings and just do the mantra of the offerings. You don’t need to recite the prayer. The most important part is after completing the sadhana, when you take the vows. This is the key thing, reviving your vows and making them pure, and then there is introducing the secret Vajrayogini. Even if you don’t do that part, you can do the last part where it says “now the four initiations.” You can do this sometimes. You can do any version, according to your convenience. Put more effort into this, on the basis of bodhicitta practice. You can also take the Vajrayogini initiation, if you feel like it, from Geshe Tashi Tsering. As different types of dreams occur, we can check which practices you should do, as they can change.

Your main refuge should be dying with bodhicitta, experiencing the suffering of the deaths of all sentient beings. Also, regarding karma, keep on praying that whatever suffering sentient beings have, may it ripen on you. Using your breathing, meditate on their specific sufferings.

When, according to your dreams and your physical health, it is time to die, maybe it would be better for you to lie down in the lion position, like Guru Shakyamuni Buddha did when passing away into the sorrowless state. This helps the mind to be transferred into virtue more easily. It reminds you of Buddha, and so also leaves a positive imprint. It is easier to stop attachment, anger, and so forth. You can lie down like that, unless you prefer to sit. Generally, it is better to die in the lion position, as the Buddha did.

Then, you should ask people to put Lama Tsongkhapa’s lamrim text on your pillow at your head. This also helps prevent you from falling into the lower realms. During this time it is up to you whether you wish to be quiet, or if you want Geshe-la and others to come and recite prayers, for example, Vajrayogini practice or Medicine Buddha, and so forth.

So, go ahead, enjoy your death. Make the best use of it. Take the greatest profit from it. Like the most successful business person in the world, become a billionaire. I will pray for you. Don’t worry. You met His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Lama Yeshe, and many other great bodhisattvas. You met Mahayana Buddhism. You heard complete teachings on the complete path, and specialized in the quickest path to enlightenment. You have prepared so much, done lots of meditation on the lamrim, and benefited lots of people. Rejoice in this many times every day.

It might also be possible for you to recover; but as a Dharma practitioner, the best psychology is to decide every day, “I am going to die today.” That is the best practice.

I want to say thank you very much for everything, for your own practice and your help benefiting so many people and the organization, as well as your service for Lama and myself, and for your prayers. Thank you very much.

Since there has been a strong karmic connection between us, we may meet somewhere. Please enjoy good luck.
With much love and prayers...

* The five powers are the power of the white seed, the power of the attitude, the power of blaming the one, the power of prayer, and the power of training. See the section titled The Moment of Death for more details.

Preparing for Death
A 65-year old woman wrote asking what was the best practice to do to be prepared when death came, and also to guard her health. She was doing many different practices, and felt unsure as to what she should be focusing on primarily.

My dear Elaine,
My advice is to perform 20,000 Samayavajra. Use the same visualization as for Vajrasattva practice, on the crown of your head with nectar coming down, and the three purifications, downward, upward, and instantaneous. According to my observation, this is what you should do.

You should especially purify negative karma with the guru. If you have received a highest tantric initiation, you should do Guru Puja every day. Study His Holiness' commentary to the practice.

The rest of the day, you should live with a bodhicitta motivation. Live your life to serve others. Think, “I’m here to free all sentient beings from samsara, and lead them to enlightenment, bringing them happiness in this life and in all future lives and liberation from samsara.”

The other practice is to integrate your life with the five powers. This is the fundamental practice. It makes life most meaningful, and beneficial for all sentient beings, and also prevents one from creating obstacles on the path. One can do other practices—sadhanas and mantras—but this is the foundation. You should also know the five powers for the time of death. If you are able to practice the five powers in your daily life, then you will be able to practice them at the time of death. First, you must know the outline of the two sets of five powers. You should check in the teachings on the seven-point mind training. There are five powers to be practiced in daily life, and five powers to practice at the time of death.

It is very good to think every morning: “I will die today.” Then, the day you die, you won’t be shocked. This helps you to accept death. Using the same meditation, when you find out you are going to die, at that time put all your effort into generating bodhicitta, giving sentient beings all your happiness, merit, and possessions. Meditate that they receive all this, and it causes them to actualize the path and achieve enlightenment. Do this while generating great loving kindness, wishing them to have happiness, and wishing that you cause them to have it. Then generate compassion and take on their suffering, sickness, and especially death. Take all these into your heart, as you breathe in, and give them to your ego to destroy it. Then, your ego becomes non-existent. Give the sufferings and sicknesses also to the emotional “I,” which appears to exist from its own side, but is actually non-existent. This emotional “I” becomes completely non-existent. Try to die with this motivation. If you die with this thought, your death becomes a cause of your enlightenment, and the cause for the enlightenment of all sentient beings. Also, live your life with this precious thought, which is all-fulfilling for you, and all-fulfilling for all sentient beings.

But the key thing is to always make a resolution early in the morning not to be controlled by self-cherishing thoughts, resolving that, “From now on, until death, especially today, I will never be separated from bodhicitta.” The rest of the day, putting all your effort into it, try to perform all your other activities with that thought. When you collect merits each day, dedicate them to actualizing bodhicitta, both for yourself and for all sentient beings. Dedicate them to be able to generate bodhicitta in this life and all future lives. Study teachings on bodhicitta so you can see that it has great meaning in one’s life. Knowing its extensive benefits, you can enjoy your life practicing bodhicitta.

Before going to bed, if you can, perform the 35-Buddha practice by reciting their names. If you can do the practice with prostrations, that would be good. If you can do it three times or more, that is also good. Also do Vajrasattva practice, a minimum of 21 times. Do the elaborate dedication by reciting the King of Prayers. It is easy to recite this prayer. If you can’t, then dedicate the merits to actualize bodhicitta, and do the Samantabhadra dedication, then dedicate to be able to actualize Lama Tsongkhapa’s stainless and complete path, which unifies sutra and tantra in one’s mind, and also dedicate firmly for the students and benefactors of the FPMT and all sentient beings to flourish forever. If possible, dedicate after each merit you collect. If that is not possible, then dedicate in the morning after your practice, and when going to bed.

You should do the commitments you have received from Lama Yeshe. They are there to purify your mind and for you to gain realizations. When you practice Guru Puja in the morning, there is a lamrim prayer that is part of it. You must concentrate well while doing this prayer. It is a very skillful means to plant seeds of the whole path during just a few minutes, and it becomes a meditation on the entire lamrim.
With much love and prayers..

Making a Will
While giving advice on preparing for death and dying, Rinpoche commented on the importance of settling finances before death approaches, and using one’s wealth charitably.

To make a will now is extremely wise, as death can happen at any time. Although your wealth is essence-less, in order for your wealth not to be wasted, and also so that it is not used to generate negative karma, to make it meaningful, you can use it to enlighten sentient beings. That is an extremely good idea. Otherwise, there is usually a lot of fighting after a person dies, and a lot of court cases.

The best thing to do is to practice as much as possible, collect merit, and if you have wealth, be generous and make charitable offerings during your lifetime. That’s the best.

More advice by Lama Zopa on this topic:
Donating Organs and the Time of Death: a conversation with an elderly woman about death.
Impermanence and Death: a lecture during the 6th Kopan Course, April 1974

Notes:
1. Samayavajra (skt.) or Dam Tsig Dorje (tib.) is a purification practice, a powerful method of purifying broken samaya (sacred words of honor), especially negative karmas created by disciples with their gurus and each other. The sadhana is available from the FPMT Shop.

2. His Holiness the Dalai Lama's commentary on Guru Yoga Practice is titled The Union of Bliss & Emptiness. Originally published by Snow Lion Publications, it is now out of print, but copies can be found through Amazon.com.