Dzongsar 2

Aspiration Practice

Friend, hope for the Guest while you are alive.

Jump into experience while you are alive!

Think… and think… while you are alive.

What you call “salvation” belongs to the time before death.

If you don’t break your ropes while you are alive,

do you think ghosts will do it after?

The idea that the soul will rejoin with the ecstatic

just because the body is rotten – that is all fantasy.

What is found now is found then.

If you find nothing now, you will simply end up with

an apartment in the City of Death.

If you make love with the divine now, in the next life

you will have the face of satisfied desire.

So plunge into the truth, find out who the Teacher is, Believe in

the Great Sound!

Kabir says this: When the Guest is being searched for,

it is the intensity of the longing for the Guest that

does all the work.

Look at me, and you will see a slave of that intensity.

Kabir

Traditionally, the practice of surrendering to Buddha Amitabha

and saying prayers of aspiration to be reborn with him in Sukhavati

is said to be one of the best long-term preparations for death. It

is particularly recommended for those who are about to die. If

 

 

you prefer, you can surrender to Guru Rinpoche and aspire to be

reborn with him in Zangdokpalri, or to Arya Tara, whose buddha

realm is the Land of Turquoise Leaves, or to whichever buddha

and buddha realm you like best.

Amitabha Buddha

This last night of nights

bush clover whispers

“Buddha, Buddha…”

Ranseki

Out of compassion for those of us who need something tangible

to cling to, visualize, aspire and long for, Buddha gave many

teachings about Amitabha Buddha. Amitabha is usually said to be

red in colour and to dwell in Sukhavati – but not always. Amitabha

Buddha is actually none other than the ground of liberation that

we talked about earlier. So, even as you read this book, Amitabha

Buddha is with you. Just as retracing a lost cow’s hoofprints

eventually leads us to the cow, thinking about Amitabha and

his realm will lead us to our inherent Amitabha. This is why we

practise nurturing the aspiration to be reborn in Sukhavati.

There are many stories about how, in his previous lives

as a bodhisattva, the outer symbolic Amitabha made strong

aspirations to be of benefit to suffering beings. He prayed that by

merely thinking of his form or reciting his name, sentient beings

would instantly be reborn in Sukhavati after they die. This is why,

while they are alive, Buddhists make such an effort to get used to

thinking about Buddha Amitabha and reciting his mantra, and

why the path of aspiration is so cherished.

Sukhavati is said to lie in the westerly direction of the setting

sun. Although prayers of aspiration to be reborn in Sukhavati can

be recited at any time, Buddhists love to think about Buddha

 

Buddha Daibutsu (Amitabha Buddha)

 

 

Amitabha and his buddha realm as they enjoy a glorious sunset.

Feel completely confident, as you gaze towards the west, that

Sukhavati lies directly beneath the setting sun, and yearn from the

bottom of your heart to join Amitabha Buddha there the moment

you die.

Glorious descriptions of Sukhavati appear in many of the prayers

of aspiration that appear in the sutras and that were compiled by

the great Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist masters. Try

to picture Sukhavati in your mind’s eye: lush gardens with fresh

green lawns surrounded by majestic snow mountains, turquoise

lakes full of blossoming lotuses, elegant white swans, magnificent

palaces, delicate parasols, richly-ornamented canopies, jewelencrusted

pavilions, brilliantly-coloured birds and animals of all

kinds. Everything about Sukhavati has been designed to attract

and enthrall you.

In the midst of all this splendour stands Lord Amitabha’s

exquisite palace made of lapis lazuli, the finest jade, brilliant

diamonds and turquoise, all garlanded with pearls. Picture every

detail in your mind’s eye.

Lord Amitabha resides at the centre of the palace; glorious,

victorious and magnificent. Boundless rays of light stream from

his body and he exudes immeasurable, unconditional love and

compassion for all beings. He is surrounded by bodhisattvas

and offering gods and goddesses, all of whom exude love and

compassion as they wait for you to join them.

In front of Lord Amitabha is a lake full of blossoming lotus

buds through which beings are reborn every second. Fervently

wish to be reborn in this realm and yearn with all your heart to

see the lotuses for yourself.

To elaborate on this practice, imagine Avalokiteshvara sitting

to the right of Amitabha Buddha and Vajrapani to his left.

Avalokiteshvara is always ready to protect and guide you and

Vajrapani is always ready to dispel obstacles.

 

If you wish, you can offer prostrations to the west and make

offerings by scattering flowers, wiggling incense sticks, and

chanting namo amitabha, amitabha hrih, or …

Amitabha Name Mantra

om ami dheva hri

Amitabha Heart Mantra

om padma dhari hūṃ

Amitabha Dharani

tadyathā amite amitod bhave amita sambhave amita

vikrānta gāmini gagana kīrti kari sarva kleśa kṣayaṃ

kari svāhā

One of the best prayers of aspiration in the Tibetan language is

by Karma Chagme Rinpoche, also known as Raga Asey.

The Old Carpenter

The power of the practice of aspiration is often illustrated by a

traditional story about an old carpenter.

There was once an old carpenter who was very attached to

worldly life and to making money. Even on his deathbed, he was

worrying about finding his next job and calculating the money

he needed to earn from it. To his loving daughter it was obvious

that the old man was about to die, and equally obvious that he

was completely unprepared for what was to come. So she told

 

The Pure Land of the Buddha Amida

Why should I hesitate?

I have a travel permit

from Amida Buddha

Karai

 

the dying man that a rich lord from a faraway land wanted to

commission a building.

“Father, you have been summoned to Sukhavati to build a

palace for Lord Amitabha!”

The old man’s first reaction was annoyance. What a nuisance

that he felt so ill! It would make travelling even more difficult

than usual. Nevertheless, as he lay in bed, the old carpenter

started planning Lord Amitabha’s palace. He died just as he was

listing all the tools he would need, and was immediately reborn

in Sukhavati.

Extremely fortunate beings who have a great deal of merit are

blessed with the invaluable capacity of ‘belief’. If you are such

a person, the only thing you need to do is yearn to be reborn

with Buddha Amitabha in Sukhavati. If you start generating that

longing now, by the time death finds you, your longing will have

become so strong that it will fill your mind, leaving no room

for fear, panic, anguish, or anything else – a bit like the surge of

testosterone and adrenalin a football fan feels as he walks onto the

terraces for a Champion’s League final. If you truly believe, there

is nothing else to do. The moment you die, you will immediately

be reborn in Sukhavati.

What does this yearning and longing feel like? Imagine you

are deeply in love, but that your lover lives on the other side of

town. You miss him so much that you climb onto your roof

just to gaze in the direction of his house and, as you gaze, you

long to be with him. This is the kind of yearning and longing

you should develop for Amitabha, and it is an excellent way of

preparing for death.

Amitabha Buddha in Pure Land Buddhism

Pure Land Buddhism, sometimes referred to as Amidism, is

currently one of the most popular Schools of Buddhism in

 

 

East Asia. It is a form of devotional Buddhism that focuses

on Amitabha Buddha. Elements of Pure Land Buddhism can

be found in several schools of Buddhism in China and Japan.

Pure Land Buddhism teaches that you can be reborn in the

Pure Land – a perfect heavenly abode in which enlightenment

is guaranteed – solely through devotion to Amitabha Buddha.

The practice of reciting the mantra and sutra of Amitabha is

extremely popular in East Asia.

Chinese Mantra of Amitabha Buddha

namo amituofo

In Japan, Amitabha Buddha is known as Amida Butsu and

Amida Nyōrai (the Tatagatha Amitabha) and is the main deity of

the Japanese Pure Land School of Buddhism (Jōdoshū) and True

Pure Land School of Buddhism (Jōdoshinshū).

Amida Butsu is said to come to you as you are about to die to

lead you personally to the Pure Land. His exceptional power stems

from the great vow he made to continue liberating all sentient

beings until the hells are completely empty. By thinking of Amida

Butsu at the moment of death, even the most negative, selfish,

greedy, violent person can be reborn in his Pure Land.

Mantra of Amida Butsu

namu amida butsu

Mantra of Amida Nyōrai

om amirita teisei kara un

 

Guru Rinpoche

If you feel more closely connected to Guru Rinpoche,

Padmasambhava, yearn to be reborn in Zangdokpalri, the CopperColoured

Mountain of Glory.

The Copper-Coloured Mountain, which lies in the southwest,

is surrounded by oceans of blood, heaps of skulls, piles of

gold, and horned, man-eating demons, their fangs dripping with

fresh blood. Crowning the summit of the mountain is a palace

of crystal, lapis lazuli, rubies and emeralds. At the centre of the

palace on a jewelled moon and sun disc seat sits Guru Rinpoche,

Padmasambhava; beautiful, brilliant, majestic, glorious, victorious

and magnificent. Boundless rays of rainbow light stream from

his body and he exudes immeasurable unconditional love and

compassion for all beings. Mandarava, who is none other than

Guru Rinpoche in female form, sits to his right; Yeshe Tsogyal sits

to his left; and the great Buddhist masters of the past sit all over

the mountain like a blanket of snow.

Guru Rinpoche’s Palace at Zangdokpalri, the Copper-Coloured Mountain

 

 

Many prayers of aspiration to be reborn in Zangdokpalri are

available in English on various websites. Recite whichever prayer

you like best and offer prostrations to the south-west.

Arya Tara

Those who love Arya Tara will look towards the ‘Land of Turquoise

Leaves’, which lies in the north.

In Arya Tara’s buddha realm, all the living beings are female –

the bodhisattvas, the birds, the tigers, everyone. Arya Tara resides

at the centre of a magnificent, transparent lapis lazuli palace. She

is swift to act, peaceful and resplendent, and is surrounded by

buddhas, bodhisattvas and hundreds and thousands of dakinis

whose wisdom minds overflow with great love and compassion.

If you give yourself fully to these practices you will approach

both life and death in much the same way. Basically, neither living

nor dying will be such a big deal.

Whether your own death is hours away, or you are so young

and healthy that you barely give death a second thought, teach

yourself to think big. However immense and all-consuming the

 

 

task of enlightening all sentient beings may appear to be, take it on

joyfully. If you do, when eventually you find yourself confronted by

death, rather than becoming depressed about being the most useless,

doomed creature on the planet and wallowing in self-pity, you will

instead look forward to single-handedly completing your task.

If all this sounds too much for you, tell yourself:

I wish with all my heart to participate, assist and contribute

towards everything the other great bodhisattvas have ever

done and continue to do towards fulfilling the great vision of

bringing all sentient beings to enlightenment.

Yearn to become part of the bodhisattva community; long

with all your heart to contribute to their tremendous endeavour

in any capacity – footman, warrior, caterer, doctor, or whatever. If

you wish, make your aspirations in the words of great Shantideva:

May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,

A guide for those who journey on the road.

For those who wish to cross the water,

May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.

May I be an isle for those who yearn for land,

A lamp for those who long for light;

For all who need a resting place, a bed;

For those who need a servant, may I be their slave.

May l be the wishing jewel, the vase of wealth,

A word of power and the supreme healing,

May l be the tree of miracles,

For every being the abundant cow.

Just like the earth and space itself

And all the other mighty elements,

 

For boundless multitudes of beings

May l always be the ground of life, the source of

varied sustenance.

Thus for everything that lives,

As far as are the limits of the sky,

May l be constantly their source of livelihood

Until they pass beyond all sorrow.

Funeral scene from Akira Kurusawa’s Dreams

 

 

The process of dying and death itself are a little like dreaming.

Whether a dream is good or bad, once you know you are dreaming,

you are no longer shackled to the belief that what is happening

is real. Once you are free from ignorance and delusion, you no

longer have to suffer emotions like hope and fear, desire and anger,

pride and insecurity.

While you are alive, you experience the world through your

five senses; you hear a piece of piano music with your ears and

see a beautiful view with your eyes. These experiences can be

habit forming and, having seen one glorious sunset, you may well

continue to enjoy sunsets for the rest of your life.

In order to work properly, our five senses rely on the elements

that make up the human body. The shock of sudden death severely

disrupts these elements, and a slow, peaceful death simply wears

them out. Either way, once the elements have dissolved and you

are dead, your five senses no longer function. You will still be able

to perceive, but all your perceptions will be naked and unfiltered,

instantly changing how you interact with your surroundings. In the

same way that we must adapt to the loss of sight or hearing while we

are alive, being dead also requires that we make a few adjustments.

After you die, you will find yourself in a completely alien

environment. At this point, if you never worked with or trained

your mind while you were alive, you will most likely experience

great fear mingled with just a little hope. But if you did train

 

 

your mind – anything from a simple mindfulness practice to the

sophisticated mind-training techniques described in the tantric

texts – the perceptions and projections you experience as you die

and the way you monitor your mind, will be quite different.

A good Buddhist practitioner will probably be able to control

every moment of the process of dying and death. Even a mediocre

practitioner will be able to apply a certain amount of mindfulness,

which in itself can bring considerable relief. Whether you have

trained your mind or not, the most important piece of information

to remember is that, in the bardos, everything you experience is a

projection created by your own mind. Each person’s perception of

the bardos will therefore be quite different. And in the same way

that we sometimes see long-dead friends in our dreams, once we

are in the bardos, we may well bump into people we know.

Does Karma Affect the Dying Process?

Karma is so powerful that it influences every moment of life and

death. If you have very good karma, no matter how often you

move house, you will always end up somewhere lovely; however

often you advertise for new domestic help, you will always find

someone kind and honest; and whatever you eat will always

taste delicious. If you have very negative karma, no matter who

you date, you will always end up fighting, and the food other

people love will always make you sick. Similarly, how you die

will depend on your karma. If your karma is good, you won’t

resist the process of dying or create any drama and will face

death calmly and sensibly.

So, what is ‘good’ karma and what is ‘bad’ karma? It depends

on your individual outlook. One person may think that dying

surrounded by family and friends is good karma, whereas for

someone else, good karma would be dying alone in a thick forest,

with no tears or fuss. Others may think good karma is having

 

 

someone at their bedside as they die to remind them about what

they should do in the bardos or to recite the names of the buddhas

and bodhisattvas.

Karma will influence you all the way through the process

of dying, right up to the final dissolution. Crucially, your last

thought in the moment before you die will be the thread that

takes you into the bardos, permeating your bardo experience with

its own flavour and continuity.

Just as the quality of the seeds sown by a gardener affects the

quality and quantity of his crops, your good and bad past actions

will also determine where you are reborn. If the gardener plants

mouldy or crushed seeds, nothing will grow and the outcome will

be bad; if fresh, healthy seeds are sown, they will flourish and the

outcome will be good.

What Does the Moment of Death Feel Like?

Body and mind are intertwined inseparably throughout your life.

At the moment of death they split apart and, for the very first time,

your mind experiences what it is like to be separate from your body.

The body will then be burnt, buried or allowed to disintegrate

naturally, whereas the mind will continue. And how you experience

your mind once you are dead will be unlike anything you have

known before.

Imagine you were born wearing sunglasses. You wear them

constantly until the age of , then suddenly you take them off.

Instantly, the world around you changes completely. It may be

scary, unsettling or confusing, but however it affects you, there is

one thing you can be sure of: it will definitely be different. This is

what the moment of death is like.

The specifics of what happens when you die will depend on

how much experience you have of looking at your mind. As I have

already mentioned, if you didn’t work with your mind while you

 

 

were alive, the moment of death is likely to be terrifying. Your fear

will probably cause you to faint.

Whether or not you lose consciousness at death will depend

on how good you are at being conscious while you are alive – in

other words, on how mindful you are right now. The separation

of body and mind is a terrible shock. It’s like being hit on the

head with a baseball bat and most people faint. But just because

you are unconscious does not mean that you are inanimate, like

a block of wood. Your elements and sense consciousness dissolve

and your eyes, ears, tongue, and so on, cease to function, so you

will probably have no conscious memory of your previous life’s

thoughts or identity. And although you no longer experience gross

consciousness, you will never lose the consciousness that is selfawareness.

This self-awareness – the ‘nature of mind’ – can not

be lost.

Eventually you will regain consciousness. Even though you

are dead, you will be able to see, hear, feel, smell and touch,

but not with your body’s sense organs. In death, you perceive

everything directly with your mind: you see with your mind’s

eye, hear with your mind’s ear, feel with your mind’s body,

and so on. Precisely what you will perceive once you are dead

is hard to predict. You may see your relatives and friends, but

whether that makes you happy, sad or afraid will depend on your

situation. In the same way that mind plays tricks on you while

you are alive, it will also play tricks on you when you are dead.

So whatever you think you see will have been created by your

trickster mind.

Karma will have a big effect on your bardo experience because

alive or dead, you are always subject to your accumulated karma.

Devoted pet owners have asked me if this process is similar

for animals. An animal’s constitution, elements, senses, culture,

education and therefore projections are very different from those

of human beings. Apart from anything else, unlike human beings,

 

animals don’t make plans, build companies or oversee business

empires. An animal’s death and projections during and after death

will therefore also be different.

The projections tiny insects experience in life are not that

different to their projections after death. Insects and animals are

habitually in a state of panic and uncertainty while they are alive,

far more so than human beings, so the uncertainties of the bardo

state will not be unfamiliar to them.

What Will You See After You Die?

Broadly speaking, Buddhists say that what you see after you die

depends on your karma.

It is far too simplistic to stereotype cause and effect by saying

that bad actions always bring about bad experiences, but that

mistake is often made. Whether an action or situation is ‘good’

or ‘bad’ is extremely difficult to judge, because the quality of the

 

Rainbow scene from Akira Kurusawa’s Dreams

 

 

karma created depends entirely on the creator’s motivation. The

karmic consequence of any given action will therefore be different

for each individual.

But how can any of us be sure that we have the ‘right’

motivation? Our true motivation is extremely difficult to pin

down. However convinced we are that our intentions are good, it’s

so easy to kid ourselves about what drives our actions. Too often,

so-called ‘right’ motivation is rooted in selfishness. And without

being sure of our motivation, how can we be sure about the

effects a karma will bring about? There is no fixed result for each

individual karmic cause. For example, we usually imagine that

having a lot of money and being beautiful are good things, but

one look at popular media shows us that the rich and beautiful are

not necessarily happy. So the configurations of ‘good’ and ‘bad’

karma cannot be stereotyped, and neither can the effects.

The Six Realms

If you were an angry, aggressive person in life and your actions

were motivated by your anger, you will continue to be angry in

your next life. An angry person is hard to please, so you probably

won’t like where you live. However clean and white your freshly

laundered towels may seem, you will always find a stain. A rose

garden will only ever be a patch of thorny bushes. However soft

your sofa, you will never sit comfortably. However glorious the

weather, you will always be too hot or too cold. In fact, wherever

you are, you will never be at ease and there will always be something

to complain about. There is also a strong possibility that you will

be burnt, or mugged on the street, or stabbed. All of which is what

Buddhists describe as the hell realm.

Greedy misers, motivated solely by stinginess and avarice, take

their penny-pinching habits with them into their next life. As a

miser, not only are you miserly with others, but also with yourself.

 

Hell

 

 

You may own a great deal – three cars, two houses, cupboards

full of kitchen appliances, jewelry, and so on – but you never use

any of it yourself, or even consider sharing with those who have

nothing. If you finally did splash out on an expensive jacket, you

would probably die before you had the chance to remove the price

tag. You are far too stingy to eat in good restaurants yourself, so

it wouldn’t even occur to you to buy dinner for someone else.

However much you have, it is never enough, and when you die, you

will be tortured by the knowledge that your good-for-nothing, layabout

relatives will thoughtlessly fritter away your painstakingly

accumulated fortune. This is how Buddhists describe those who

dwell in the hungry ghost realm.

Some people are fundamentally ignorant of what is going

on around them. They may even deliberately decide not to

notice the sufferings of others. If you are this kind of person,

you do your best to avoid feeling sympathy for anyone, actively

encourage stupidity, ignorance and lack of empathy in others,

and take pride in being entirely unmoved by the suffering of a

turtle or lobster as it is plunged into boiled water for your lunch.

You educate yourself to form a thick skin so you feel nothing for

The Miser’s End

 

 

anyone, and you socialize with people just like you. You celebrate

your hardheartedness and teach your children and friends to be

as callous and cold as you are. Even if you own millions, you are

unable to bring yourself to toss a penny to a ragged street urchin

who has no hope of an education or of even seeing a toy, let alone

playing with one. When this kind of person is reborn, it will be as

a far more powerful being’s juicy snack. You will no longer have

a home or even a postal address, let alone a bank account. If in

your previous life you were a hunter, in your next life you will be

the hunted. Whenever you are lucky enough to find a handful of

food, you will be paranoid about protecting it and live in fear of

it being snatched away from you. Buddhists describe this realm

as the animal realm.

If you are jealous and act on your jealousy in this life, you

will also be jealous in your next life. You will be reborn into

a world where someone else always has what you long for: the

‘look’, the handbag, the shoes, the property, the partner. Even

if you ‘have it all’, you will worry that others have more than

you, and that everything they have is of better quality. Jealousy

and habitual overthinking will fuel your paranoia to such a

The Animal Realm

 

 

Warring Spirits

degree that you will never be able to relax. Your jealous, envious

mind will always find fault in those who are glorious, successful,

famous, respected and venerated. You will constantly practise

self-deception by convincing yourself that your jealous criticism

is actually objective analysis, free from emotional entanglement.

In reality, this kind of ‘critical thinking’ makes it impossible for

you to rejoice at another person’s joy or to share in their happiness.

Instead, your mind will be consumed by thoughts about how to

cut the person you are jealous of down to size. Buddhists call this

the asura realm.

 

If you are very proud and your life has been motivated by pride,

you will also be proud in your next life. Proud people are always

convinced that they inhabit the moral high ground. They are

born into a world where everyone suffers the same classic mix of

inferiority and superiority complexes. It is a very parochial world;

everyone is small-minded, provincial, insular, narrow, small-town,

inward-looking, limited, restricted, conservative, conventional,

short-sighted, petty, blinkered, myopic, introverted, illiberal and

intolerant. If you are born into this realm, no one will like you

and you won’t fit in. Yet, you will be proud to be a member of

a ‘free society’. Convinced that your view is the most objective

and the most democratic, you won’t hesitate to criticise others

for having another point of view or an alternative set of values.

Unable to tolerate any form of dissent, you will impose your values

and ways of life on those who, in your judgement, are primitive,

or inadequate, or ‘evil’ merely because they disagree with you.

Cloud Gazing

 

 

 

And by trying to force them to do as you do, you will make them

suffer. This is what Buddhists call the god realm.

The last of the six realms is the human realm. Although,

eventually, we must liberate ourselves from this realm too, if you

are not yet ready for enlightenment, it is the best realm to be reborn

into – temporarily. If this life was motivated by passion, you will

also be passionate in your next life, always busy and always up to

something. As a human being, you suffer from poverty mentality,

constant uncertainty and, of course, birth, old age, sickness and

death. You are surrounded by people and things you desire, but

you never get what you really want. And you always end up being

separated from your loved ones because you spend all your time

trying to make the money you think will need in a future that

never comes.

In spite of these disadvantages, the human realm is still the

preferred realm for spiritual people. For all our sufferings, human

beings enjoy rare moments of sanity, triggered by extreme sadness,

depression, misfortune and suffering. We also have the ability to

free ourselves from self-inflicted bondage, which is far harder to

achieve in the other realms.

By the way, although Buddhism describes six realms, samsara

is actually made up of countless realms, most of which we cannot

begin to imagine.

Judgement Day

Many religions warn that at death, their followers will appear

before a judge who will weigh their good actions against their

bad actions, then send those who have done more good than bad

to heaven and those who have done more bad than good to hell.

Buddhism, on the other hand, teaches that the only judge you will

stand before is your own mind.

 

 

Imagine you steal something from a friend and get away with

it. Although you avoid punishment, you still have to live with

yourself and for years your bad conscience makes you feel terrible.

Similarly, when you die, your guilty conscience will ensure that

you remember all the harmful, unkind things you have said

and done in your life and those memories will make you suffer.

But there will be no separate entity outside of yourself to sit in

judgement over you; no powerful, almighty being to weigh your

The Last Judgement

 

 

good actions against your bad on a set of scales, or to record

everything you have done in an enormous ledger. There will be no

external judgement passed on your life’s actions.

Buddhists believe the causes and conditions each of us gather

that have neither been subject to obstacles nor ripened into a

result do not dissipate on their own. Whether or not the intention

behind everything you have ever thought, said or done was good,

kind and virtuous, or bad, unkind and vindictive, if that karma

has not been purified, you will reap the results. This, of course,

could be interpreted as a kind of judgement. But it will be you who

judges your own motivation and actions, not an external entity.

Basically, your death, after-death experience and future rebirth

are determined by the causes, conditions, intentions and actions

that you have gathered during many lifetimes.

Do Heaven and Hell Exist?

Buddhism tells us that both heaven and hell are states of mind.

So, depending on how much control you have over your mind –

basically, whether or not you prepared for death during life – at

death you may imagine you are experiencing one or the other.

What you see will depend on what your mind projects. You may

not see the ox-headed hell guardians described in sacred Buddhist

texts; the creatures your imagination conjures could be even

more hideous. And by the way, creatures like the ox-headed hell

guardians are all symbolic.

With the right preparation and motivation you may experience

a projection of Amitabha’s realm, which is a Buddhist version of

heaven. But if your habits are driven by negative emotions, your

mind could just as easily project a hideous, terrifying and violently

volatile landscape – a hell realm. Either way, both experiences are

created and projected by mind. Neither exists outside your mind

and therefore neither heaven nor hell exists externally.

 

 

What Continues After Death?

Does a ‘me’ or a ‘self’ or a ‘soul’ continue after death? Yes. Just as there

has been a ‘me’ throughout your life, there is a ‘me’ that continues

after death. The ‘me’ I was yesterday continues to be the ‘me’ I am

today; the ‘me’ I was last year continues to be the ‘me’ I am this year.

And the ‘me’ I am today will continue to be ‘me’ after I die.

This ‘me’ is not like the religious concept of a soul that is

spoken of in the Abrahamic religions, it is merely an imputed

idea. In other words, ‘me’ is an illusion. But don’t despise ‘me’ just

because it is an illusion. All our illusions are very powerful and the

‘me’ illusion is the strongest of all.

The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that the Abrahamic

religions think of the soul as “the spiritual or immaterial part

of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal”. These

religions also believe that animals and other living beings have a

different kind of soul to human beings. Buddhists, on the other

hand, believe in continuity. We believe that our idea of a ‘me’

or a ‘self’ will continue after death and into a new life. But, of

course, we must also remember that the concept of ‘continuity’

is a relative truth, and like all relative truths, was arrived at by a

deceptive mind.

If I strike a match to light a white candle, then use that candle

to light a blue candle, is the same flame burning on both the white

and the blue candle? Yes and no. And ‘yes and no’ can be applied

to all relative truths. If you were to ask, is today’s ‘you’ the same as

tomorrow’s ‘you’, the answer would be yes and no, because there is

a continuation but only on the relative level.

The only time a ‘me’ or ‘self’ will not continue into a new life

is when we get enlightened. Once we are enlightened, the idea of a

‘self’ is no longer perpetuated and neither is the idea of ‘time’. For

the enlightened, there is, therefore, no such thing as continuity

or reincarnation.

 

 

Basically, the mind continues after the body dies and in

Buddhism, mind is more important than body. Without mind, the

body means nothing and, like clothes, can be changed and replaced.

Frost on grass:

a fleeting form

That is, and is not!

Zaishiki

Do We All Become Ghosts After Death?

There is no easy answer to this question.

Buddhists believe that while the relationship between mind

and body is extremely strong, they are fundamentally separate – if

you cut off your hand, your mind won’t get smaller. Buddhists

believe that ghosts are beings that lack corporeal substance and

therefore do not have a fully intact physical body of flesh and

blood, although some manifest parts of a body.

According to the Buddhist teachings, we become ghosts the

moment we die – not the kind of ghost described in western

cultures, but what Buddhists call a ‘bardo being’. A bardo being is

cognisant and, like a western ghost, lacks a solid body. This means

that neither western ghosts nor bardo beings need to use a door to

get from one room to another.

In most of the western cultures that believe in a soul, a ghost

is generally thought to be the visible but incorporeal expression

of the soul of a dead person. Buddhists, as I’ve already said, do

not believe in a soul as a truly existing phenomenon. So the

ghosts spoken of by those who believe in a truly existing soul are

necessarily different to the bardo beings that Buddhists believe in.

Like human beings, some ghosts are vicious and nasty, and

many are insecure. But a ghost’s first thought is not willfully to

 

 

harm others, it is how to survive. So obviously, if you threaten

a ghost’s survival, it won’t be happy. But as living beings have

physical bodies and ghosts don’t, there isn’t much a ghost can do.

Most of the living can’t see ghosts, but most ghosts can see the

living, which is a big disadvantage. People sit on ghosts’ seats all

the time because they can’t see the ghost that is already sitting

there. You could be sitting on a ghost’s seat right now.

Buddhists consider many of the spirits worshiped by shamans

to be ghosts, but such spirits only give very mediocre attainments,

like success in business, a good harvest, and so on.

Do We All Assume New Identities After Death?

Yes. But remember, ‘identity’ is an illusion. Are you sure you know

who you are right now, as you read this text? And how likely is

The Spirit of the Dead Keeps Watch

 

 

it that you will continue to be described as the mother of your

present daughter in your next life? Think about it! Based on the

laws of karma, if you are reborn as a chicken, your present daughter

might end up roasting you and serving you up for a family meal.

You will almost certainly meet your family and friends in

your next life – probably millions and millions of times. What

is far less certain is whether or not you will recognize or even

like each other. You might even take an instant dislike to your

previous life’s best friend and totally ignore them. Or, as I have

just said, you could find yourself being roasted by this lifetime’s

daughter for Sunday lunch.

If you are reborn into the same family, however much you

may have loved your parents and relatives this time round, in

your next life, you could end up despising them and everything

they hold dear. If you live in the same house, you may hate your

old-fashioned room. And what if you were reborn as a fly? The

fact that the house is its old ‘home’ would mean nothing to a fly.

What if you were to take rebirth in your present daughter’s womb?

That would make you your own grandchild. And by the time

you become an adult, you may have made a career out of fighting

against everything your grandparents stood for.

Fundamentally, human beings are chronically insecure

about who we really are. Our sense of identity is defined by our

nationality, religion and citizenship, then further shaped by the

groups we support. We may decide to become ardent supporters

of the NRA, or an animal conservation society to save the turtle

or protect the tiger, or join the ‘right’ clubs, pray with the most

‘righteous’ religious faction, or endeavour to live in what we believe

to be a ‘free’ country. And we do all this simply to reaffirm, again

and again, the kind of people we think we are.

So it’s worth bearing in mind that when we are dead and

roaming around in the bardos, not only will these insecurities

be a thousand times more intense, but our longing for a sense

 

 

of true identity will be ten thousand times more powerful.

Our unresolved sense of instability and uncertainty could then

become so inflamed and aggravated that we end up suffering from

unprecedented existential angst.

Can the Dead Talk to the Living?

You will probably be able to see the living for a few days after you

die and may even try to make contact with them. In practice, the

dead rarely interact successfully with the living and eventually are

unable to see the living at all.

One of the most painful experiences suffered by bardo beings

is the sudden loss of the kind of social interaction they were used

to while they were alive. They feel lost, abandoned and very

lonely. This is one of the reasons why the motivation and actions

of the living are so important, especially when it comes to the

distribution of the dead person’s money, resources and belongings.

The dead probably only react strongly to the living when they

are provoked. But extreme emotions are very dangerous for dead

The dead batallion from Akira Kurusawa‘s Dreams

 

 

people and if the bardo being were to get angry because a loathed

cousin had taken possession of a much-loved leather attaché case,

that flash of emotion could have the power to block the dead

person’s progress through the karmic bardo of becoming and may

even cause them to get stuck as a negative spirit. If that were to

happen, their bardo experience would not be limited to forty-nine

days, it could last for aeons.

How Long Before Rebirth?

The rule of thumb for how long it takes a dead person to pass

through the bardos into a new life is forty-nine days, but this is

another generalization. How long you spend in the bardos depends

on the force of your personal karma; it could be forty-nine years,

forty-nine aeons or forty-nine seconds.

The second after a person dies, if their karma is excellent,

they could attain enlightenment in the bardo of dharmata, but if

their karma is particularly bad, they might find themselves in the

deepest hell. If the dead person lacks the karma to secure a seat on

the plane to rebirth, they may have to wait in the bardos for aeons

and aeons. Basically, what happens at the moment of death and

how long each stage of the process of dying and rebirth lasts varies

from person to person.

Why Do We Lose Our Memories When We Die?

People lose their memories for many reasons. While we are alive,

our memories come and go all the time and the same is true once

we are dead.

Human beings tend to have one very strong habit that not

only overrules all our other habits, but actually destroys them.

This very common habitual tendency is what makes a spiritual

path work. On a spiritual path, we destroy our bad old habits by

 

 

applying better new ones, until eventually we transcend the path

of habit altogether.

The shock we experience when mind and body separate usually

causes us to lose our memories. If your propensity for anger and

aggression is strong while you are alive, and particularly if you

are angry and aggressive while you are dying, the impact of that

powerful emotion will not be easy to wipe out. The memory

of your habitual anger may well continue into your next life

where, once again, you will be an angry and aggressive person.

If while you were alive, you trained your mind in mindfulness,

love and compassion or made strong aspirations based on

bodhichitta, it is equally possible that the positive memory of your

compassionate, spiritual altruism will remain intact and you will

be a compassionate, spiritual person in your new life. Basically,

what you retain is connected with how good you are at controlling

your mind.

One of the possible by-products of a certain kind of character

and physical constitution is to be reborn with a photographic

memory. Another cause that leads to an excellent memory is to

have trained yourself to concentrate and not get carried away by

distractions. A good memory is strongly associated with spiritual

power, which may be how some memories survive the shock of

death and are carried through the bardos into the next life. Vivid

or traumatic memories sometimes survive death subconsciously and

may be why the mere thought of a spider makes some people cringe.

Alaya

Memory is not the only aspect of ourselves that could, potentially,

be carried into the bardos and the next rebirth.

Buddhists believe that the effects of karma are stored in what

we call the ‘alaya’, and that after death this alaya is carried into the

next life. Alaya isn’t like the Christian concept of soul. I am told

 

 

that Christians believe the soul you have now is exactly the same

soul that will go to heaven – or hell. If I have understood correctly,

Christians believe in a permanent, truly existing, unique soul.

Buddhists don’t; Buddhists believe in a continuum. We might

have been able to accept the idea of a soul if it were synonymous

with alaya, but it isn’t. This moment’s alaya is not the same as

tomorrow’s alaya, but neither are they totally separate entities.

Buddhists believe in the continuity of alaya in the same way Tom,

Dick and Harry believe they are the same men today that they

were yesterday. At the same time, as Mahayana Buddhism teaches

that everything carried forward in this continuum is illusory,

alaya is nothing more than an illusion.

You may think this sounds illogical, but for Buddhists all

concepts are illogical. The concepts of ‘direction’, ‘all’, ‘general’

and particularly of ‘continuity’ and ‘time’ are entirely arbitrary.

But just because an idea is arbitrary doesn’t mean it isn’t powerful.

And all these concepts are extremely powerful.

What is ‘time’? It depends. Are you asking as a philosopher,

a scientist, or a doctor’s receptionist? A doctor’s receptionist is

most interested in time as measured by a clock because he wants

to know that the doctor’s patients are ‘on time’. For a scientist,

“time is what the time variable t is denoting in the best theories

of fundamental science” . Whereas philosophers don’t care much

about a precise definition of the word ‘time’, but are very interested

in its characteristics.

The power of the arbitrariness of concepts is how illusion works.

A scarecrow creates the illusion of a human being, and that illusion

often does a good job of keeping crows at bay. Taking a medicinal

placebo can be such a potent illusion for some patients that their

illness is cured. And the illusion of democracy leads many people

to believe that freedom and fairness exist in this world. This is

how fundamentally illogical human beings function.

 

Although alaya is illusory, when memories fade – and they tend

to fade quickly both in life and death – alaya does not disappear. The

illusion of alaya continues until the consequences and effects of the

karma accumulated over many lifetimes are purified or destroyed.

You may not be able to remember your past actions, but that doesn’t

mean the effects of that karma have been purged. They haven’t.

The effects of your karma will continue to create more delusions,

more hope and more fear, and will also induce more actions. This is

why the wheel of cyclic existence continues to turn. Until the seed

of alaya is burnt, destroyed, uprooted or sterilized, the projection

of the six realms will not cease and you will continue to suffer, feel

pain and so on.

Rebirth

There is a great deal of skepticism these days about reincarnation,

or rebirth. So much so that new Buddhists often wonder if they

really will be reborn after they die.

Every day, we take for granted that there will be a tomorrow,

but in reality, we are making a gross assumption – the kind of

assumption that philosophers describe as an ‘imputed projection’.

However, just because tomorrow is an assumption doesn’t mean

that tomorrow doesn’t exist. The same goes for everything in the

relative world. Everything exists because we make assumptions,

yet every single element in the relative world is an illusion, a

dream. Although sentient beings like you and me believe these

illusions to be real, we are, in fact, completely deluded! And while

we continue to take these illusions seriously, we are not only

subject to the delusion of rebirth, but also to the delusions of death

and of this very moment.

Do you believe that right now you are reading a book? If you

do, you are delusional.

 

 

Do you believe that the ‘you’ who was reading this book

yesterday is the same ‘you’ who is reading it today? If you do, you

are delusional.

As everything is a delusion, the belief in rebirth and the belief

that there is no such thing as rebirth after death must both be

delusions. But as I mentioned earlier, just because something is

a delusion doesn’t mean that it isn’t powerful; all delusions are

extremely powerful.

Can Rebirth Be Proved?

Dr. Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia dedicated much of

his -year career to documenting thousands of cases of children

who claimed to remember their previous lives. Does his work

prove that rebirth really exists? In a way, yes it does. But from

a Buddhist perspective, a concept like rebirth is a relative truth,

never the absolute truth. Buddhists can only accept the kind of

research Dr. Stevenson came up with on a relative level because at

no point did Buddha say that rebirth exists as an absolute truth.

For myself, my belief in continuity is neither reinforced nor

weakened just because researchers at a university have finally

discovered its power. Rebirth is simply an imputed relative

phenomenon, albeit a very powerful one. So for me, rebirth just is.

Frankly speaking, whether we remember who we were in our

past lives or not isn’t important – most of the time there is not

much worth remembering anyway.

One of the reasons Buddhists prepare for death and the bardos

while they are still alive is to secure a better life next time around.

In this context, ‘better’ does not mean richer, healthier, or more

beautiful. ‘Better’ means that you are not greedy and that you are

sane, loving, kind, honest and susceptible to the truth. In other

words, ‘better’ means having the opportunity in your next life to

become better acquainted with the Dharma.

 

 

What signs indicate that death is about to happen?

I suspect that people these days don’t have time to look for or notice

the signs that foretell imminent death. Some signs are obvious:

your joints stiffen, your skin wrinkles and your health deteriorates.

This is your body’s way of telling you that you are approaching

death. But as modern people put so much effort into covering up

such signs, I doubt that many will want to seek them out, let alone

actually talk about death. How many -star hotels offer weekend

courses about what happens as you die?

In addition to the signs that we constantly miss, there are

many other feelings and sensations that presage death, including

premonitions in dreams – I suspect most modern people would

laugh at the idea of contemplating such things. The signs that

Tibetans and Bhutanese rely on, most of which are deeply rooted

in Himalayan folklore rather than Buddhadharma, include the

following.

Rest your forehead in your right palm and look at the inside of

your wrist. Is there is an empty strip between your hand and your

arm? If there is, you will die in seven days.

If you dream of riding a donkey facing backwards, you will die

in seven days.

When you stand with your back to the sun in front of a wall, if

no steam rises from your shadow’s head, death is imminent.

 

 

The particular caw of a crow is also listed as a sign in the

tantric texts. Although all these signs are relative truths, it isn’t

easy to write them off as mere cultural belief because many are

unique and mystical in ways that are difficult either to fully accept

or utterly reject.

Is there a method for pinpointing the time of my death before

it happens?

In the Himalayas there are still great masters who have the ability

to pinpoint the moment you will die. But if you are aged years

or more, I suggest you consider that all the signs of imminent

death are already present and start your preparations – you have

nothing to lose and everything to gain. Actually, the moment we

are born we should all write a will, but for most modern people

that would be too much, too soon.

Thinking about my own death seems morbid and discouraging.

I feel afraid and get depressed.

Life and death are the same. So if thinking about death depresses

you, contemplate life instead.

Should I buy a burial plot for my dying relative? Or would it

be inauspicious?

This kind of preparation is not considered to be inauspicious by

Buddhism, but some cultures may disagree. The Buddha himself

made no recommendations about acquiring burial plots.

Could a non-Buddhist be reborn in a ‘pure land’ after death?

If the non-Buddhist’s friends and family do good deeds in their

name and enlist the help of a sublime being to wholeheartedly

dedicate practices, meditation and prayers on their behalf, even

the least virtuous person will have the opportunity to be reborn

in a pure land – but only if they rejoice at everything their

 

 

family and friends do for them. Once we are dead, we will

probably panic and may become so emotional and angry that

the chances of us actually rejoicing at the good deeds done on

our behalf are very slim. So, generally speaking, it is not wise

to rely wholly on the efficacy of last-minute good deeds and

practices. Apart from anything else, it is increasingly difficult

to find sublime beings who are able to help.

Can you explain the phenomenon known as the ‘last radiance of

the setting sun’, when the dying person feels well and pain-free

just before they pass away?

I’m not exactly sure what you mean, but it is said that those who

have gathered many favourable causes and conditions sometimes

feel better just before they pass away. If such a person were read

the instructions that appear on page , they would probably be

able to remain calm as they die, understand what is being said to

them, and then follow the advice.

Is it possible for the soul or spirit to return to a corpse after it has

been separated by death?

In rare cases, yes. Even though a bardo being’s greatest wish is to

return to life and reclaim their bodies, almost none can accomplish

it. One of their problems is that, after just a few days or at most

a few weeks, they cannot recognize their old body. Nevertheless,

they have one-track minds and are desperate to find a body in

which to rest, hide and function as a human being. Their longing

to live and to communicate is therefore very strong.

Stories about resurrection are told all over the world, so it must

still happen, even today. Perhaps the most famous of all Tibetan

resurrection stories is about a woman called Nangsa Obum.

Nangsa Obum was a very beautiful, kind young girl whose

only wish was to practise the Dharma. One day, a wealthy man,

enchanted by her beauty, tricked her into marrying his son. Not

 

 

long after the marriage, Nangsa Obum was given the keys of the

family storehouse and put in charge of running the household.

Her sister-in-law was furious! Her jealousy and anger led her not

only to beat Nangsa Obum savagely but also to accuse her of

having an affair. Infuriated, Nangsa Obum’s husband battered his

wife to death.

Once she was dead, Nangsa Obum saw the blissful realms where

the virtuous are reborn and the eighteen hells that are reserved for

the non-virtuous. Suddenly, she found herself standing before the

Lord of Death – she was very nervous. But it was clear to the

Lord of Death that Nangsa Obum was a great dakini and that

she was entirely pure and blameless. Knowing that she would be

of great benefit to the living, he sent her back to her body which,

on the advice of a local astrologer, had been laid in a cave on

a mountainside.

Before long, Nangsa Obum was found by her husband’s

servants and returned to her family home. Everyone was delighted

and sincerely apologized for their treatment of her. She stayed

with them for a while, but as none of the family was genuinely

interested in the Dharma she begged to be allowed to return to her

parents’ home. Reluctantly, her husband and his family let her go.

At home, Nangsa Obum told her parents about everything

that had happened to her. They welcomed her back and all seemed

well until her mother realized that Nangsa would never listen to

her advice about family life and children. In a fit of anger, she

threw her daughter out of the house.

Far from being upset, Nangsa saw it as the opportunity she

had been waiting for to devote all her time to the Dharma. She

made her way to the nearest monastery and insisted on being

admitted. At first, the lama refused, but when Nangsa threatened

to kill herself if she was turned away, the lama allowed her join the

monastery and she was initiated into the Tantric path. After three

months of retreat she attained realization.

 

 

By this time, Nangsa’s husband’s family had discovered that

she was living at Sera Yalung Monastery and set off with an army

to kill all the monks, destroy the monastery and reclaim Nangsa.

A terrible battle ensued. Many monks were slaughtered and even

more were wounded. Just as the family was about to murder the

lama, he flew into the air, magically revived the dead, healed the

wounded and began berating the great lords and their army for

their treatment of Nangsa and for not practising the Dharma.

He then asked Nangsa to reveal her realization for everyone to

see, which she did. The entire family were utterly ashamed of

themselves, lay down their arms and instantly vowed to follow

the Dharma.

This mass conversion was the talk of the region. Soon Nangsa’s

parents heard about all that had happened and they too dedicated

the rest of their lives to practising the Dharma.

I have done many bad and shameful things and I have never

followed a spiritual path. How can I avoid hell or a bad rebirth?

Buddhists say we should prepare for death while we are still alive,

so I think it would be best if you were to start preparing right

now. In spite of your negative actions, if you have the merit to

have met and made a good karmic link with someone who is able

to give you the pith instructions about what to do after you die,

it is possible for you to avoid a bad rebirth and hell. Whether you

do or not will depend on how fully you trust your instructor and

the instructions.

What is a ‘pith instruction’? Imagine you have invited your boss

to your home for dinner. At the last moment, she phones to say

her partner is vegan and currently eating only salad. This throws

you into a panic because, although you have plenty of salad, you

have never once made a successful salad dressing. You phone your

best friend, who is an excellent cook, and beg his advice. “Just mix

some good olive oil with a spoonful of lemon juice or balsamic

 

 

vinegar and a pinch of salt. It’ll be delicious.” His instructions,

based on his own experience, are simple and clear – just like the

pith instructions.

At the moment of death, the instructions needed to overcome

the nightmare of dying must be extremely simple and crystal

clear. Pith instructions are designed to explain exactly what is

happening as it happens, and to tell the dying person what they

must do once they are dead.

According to the Tantrayana, even though a person’s actions

during life were negative and they made no spiritual connections, if

they have the merit to encounter a method like ‘liberation through

wearing’ (tagdrol), there is a good chance that they will be liberated

at the moment of death – see page .

Like all tantric methods, the success of the tagdrol method relies

entirely on devotion and unconditional trust. So, if the dead person

or the person who places the tagdrol on the corpse really trust this

method, the tagdrol will have the power to make a very positive

impact on the bardo being, even if those close to the dead person

consider tagdrol to be a meaningless superstition.

When does my consciousness enter its next life? The moment the

foetus is formed? When the sperm enters the egg? Just before the

baby is born? Or when?

It depends. The question suggests that we will all be reborn as

human beings, but that is not necessarily the case. Not all those

who were human in one life will be reborn human in the next life –

they could be reborn as a cicada or a butterfly, neither of which

reproduce using a sperm and an egg. Or they could be reborn in

the god realm as a celestial being, where again, no sperm or eggs

are involved in reproduction.

Exactly when the consciousness enters its next body depends

on the karmic forces that are pushing or pulling that consciousness

towards its next rebirth.

 

 

For example, if you are about to be reborn as a human being,

you will experience hazy visions of your parents copulating. If you

then feel desire for your mother and anger at your father, you will

be reborn as a boy, a son; if you feel desire for your father and

anger at your mother, you will be reborn as a girl, a daughter.

The emotions that trigger our entrance into the human realm are

therefore usually dominated by anger and desire.

The trigger for being reborn into the asura realm is an attraction

to and enjoyment of disputes, fist fights or any kind of quarrel.

If you hear beautiful music or get the impression that you are

in a luxurious mansion, you will be reborn into a god realm.

If you hear the screams and cries of loved ones and try to help

them, you risk being led into the hell realms.

But remember, all these examples are generalizations.

 

 

What can we do for our dying loved ones, especially if they are or

were not spiritually-minded, let alone Buddhist? Will encouraging

the dying and the dead to take refuge and arouse bodhichitta

really help? And could a non-Buddhist really understand the

bardo teachings? These are very good questions.

Confidence and Motivation

First of all, the fact that you want to help the dying person –

that you are even thinking about them – indicates that there is a

spiritual or karmic link between you.

How many people, animals or insects are dying at this very

moment? Are we thinking about all of them? No. Even though, as

good bodhisattvas, we are supposed to care for all sentient beings,

in practice we rarely do. We tend only to think about those close

to us.

Whether they realize it or not, everyone you have a relationship

with must have a connection with the Dharma. Why? Because

they have a connection with you and you have a connection with

the Dharma. The fact that you want to help them means they must

have some merit. So your dying non-Buddhist friend must have an

indirect connection with the Dharma through you – a connection

that will really help them. This is how connections work.

 

 

You may be poor and powerless from a worldly point of view,

but at the moment of death, a rich, famous, powerful person

who is clueless about anything spiritual will be of no use to your

friend whatsoever. Your concern for your dying friend’s well-being

and willingness to support and care for them is the best news

they could possibly have. You may be the only person they know

who has a connection with the Dharma and is able to give them

the information they need to navigate the process of death and

beyond, and to do the relevant practices. So your good aspirations,

guidance and dedication are the only truly useful help they will be

offered. They are incredibly fortunate to know you.

With the right motivation, you can be confident that whatever

you do will help. Even if you lose your temper because you are overtired

or frustrated, it won’t be a big deal. After all, who knows what

truly helps and what doesn’t? Everyone is different, so it’s impossible

to say. All you can do is offer the help you believe will work best.

Create a Calm and Peaceful Atmosphere

If the dying person is in pain and terrified but unwilling to tolerate

spiritual discussion or practices, don’t try to impose any of your

Buddhist ideas or methods on them. Simply create a harmonious

and peaceful environment, and always be honest and direct.

The calmer a person is at death the better. This means that

the attitude, bearing and body language of the friends, family and

those caring for the dying person are important, because it is up to

them to create a calm and loving atmosphere. Most important of

all is your motivation. Bear this in mind when you find yourself

overwhelmed by emotion; instead of breaking down, try to focus on

calmly and gently embodying kindness and compassion.

Surprisingly, perhaps, non-Buddhists often end up facing death

in a calmer frame of mind than many Buddhists; just because a

person is a Buddhist doesn’t automatically mean they are calm.

 

 

Someone who is twitchy and agitated, nervous and fidgety,

obsessive and unable to let go in life won’t suddenly become calm

and still just because they are about to die.

Also bear in mind that physical nervousness and agitation

don’t necessarily mean that the dying person is not focussed or

that they don’t know what they should be doing. So don’t try to

foist your interpretation of their frame of mind on them.

If the dying person is a Shravakayana practitioner, they will

try to dwell in egolessness or think about the Buddha, Dharma

and Sangha.

If the person is a Mahayana Buddhist, they will try to dwell in

the view of shunyata.

A Tantrika will think about their guru as they die, or the names

and forms of Amitabha Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, Akshobhya

Buddha, Avalokiteshvara, Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava,

Manjushri, Arya Tara, and so on. And at the moment of death,

they will think of their personal deity – their ‘yidam’.

Always Tell the Truth

Till now

I thought that only

others die—

that such happiness

should fall to me!

Ryoto

However difficult the truth may be to hear, it is always best

to be honest with a dying person. Most of us would rather avoid

telling a person we love that they are dying, even when it is

blatantly obvious. Often we lie because we don’t want to admit to

ourselves that someone we love is about to leave us. Hope makes

us hide the facts from both ourselves and our loved one.

 

 

People who never had a spiritual life sometimes imagine that

they are the only ones ever to have experienced the suffering of

death. Obviously this is not true, so remind them that no one on

this earth has a choice about dying: everyone must die, including

them. It is also worth pointing out that there is no telling which

of you will die first. Your loved one may be in the midst of the

process of dying, but accidents happen and as none of us knows

when and how we will die, there is no guarantee that you won’t

die before they do.

Can I Really Help?

Without being enlightened it is impossible to be certain whether

anything you do will really help a dying person or, for that matter,

a living person. With the best of intentions, you may encourage a

sick friend to take a particular medicine, but you will never know

if it helped or made things worse. Your friend’s health may appear

to improve dramatically, but in the long-run the side-effects could

be devastating – or vice versa.

But as I have already said, the most important thing about

the help you offer is your motivation. If you have a kind heart

and a pleasant smile, if you are warm, polite and humble, and

if you genuinely wish to improve another person’s life or death,

whether they are agnostic, atheist, or a complete stranger, they will

appreciate everything you do for them. In fact, they will probably

appreciate your help more than the help that’s offered by someone

who is closer to them but who only acts out of duty, not love.

Should We Talk About Death?

Buddha said that of all mindfulness meditations, the mindfulness

of death is the most important, and so discussions about death are

never inauspicious. In fact, we should all talk about it far more

 

 

than we do. We will all have to die, so death isn’t just a subject

for the dying or the very old. I think we should encourage people

to think and talk about death far more than they do. Perhaps we

should sponsor giant billboards in big cities and subway stations

that say things like, ‘Your life is ticking away’ and ‘Every second

brings you closer to death’. And shouldn’t birthday celebrations

include the reminder that death is now one year closer?

If you live among materialists who dismiss anything spiritual

as mere superstition, you will need to be quite skilful about how

you introduce death into a conversation. In this human realm,

difficult-to-handle subjects tend to be ignored or denied, so by

bringing up the subject of death too directly you risk alienating

those you are trying to help.

“Your life is ticking away”

 

 

Concentrate instead on gently introducing a little general

information about impermanence. Point out that impermanence

and change aren’t necessarily negative. In fact, impermanence is

what makes improvement and change possible. Tell them that

it’s because everything is impermanent that we can change our

lives for the better. But before any improvements can be made,

we must first understand and accept the impermanent nature of

phenomena. After that, you can gradually introduce the fact that

life itself is impermanent.

Of course, how you approach the subject of death will depend

on the person you are trying to help. Materialistic people tend

only to care about their own money, their worldly power and

position, and how their networks and connections can bring

them more money and power. Such people don’t bother visiting

museums because for them, it’s a waste of time and time is money.

They would never consider getting up early to enjoy a sunrise, or

change their plans to see the sun set – not unless they wanted to

impress another rich person by using it as a backdrop for a selfie.

So starting a conversation about death or anything spiritual with

such a person is far from easy. If you can’t talk about poetry or

philosophy with someone because there is no money to be made

from either, how can you talk about death? All you can do for

materialistic people is pray for them.

Having said that, many people who appear to be committed

materialists can be surprisingly spiritual, they just don’t realize

it. Having experienced so much of the world in the pursuit

of material satisfaction – they have been everywhere, done

everything, eaten at all the best restaurants in the world, and so

on – when an apparent materialist becomes weary of the high

life, they have a much better chance of becoming genuinely

spiritual than many self-professed Buddhists, Christians or

Hindus. Often people who claim to be ‘spiritual’ are little more

than spiritual materialists who spend their lives deceiving both

 

 

themselves and others. And they are the most difficult to deal

with when it comes to discussing death or any form of genuine

spiritual practice.

Although your friends and family tell you that they are not

spiritual, if they take pleasure in magical and mystical pursuits

like poetry or philosophy, and if they are sentimental and

romantic enough to gaze at a sunset imagining it will be the last

they ever see, they may well have the capacity to hear the truth.

So try offering them a little information about the Dharma, but

don’t drown them in it! The most precious gift you can give your

friends, children and family is the Dharma. Try pouring just

a little into their ears, but don’t overdo it. And don’t ever use a

Dharma argument to correct their behaviour. It’s far better to wait

until someone does something admirable, motivated by altruism,

before introducing a compatible aspect of the Dharma as a way of

agreeing with and encouraging them. Never impose your beliefs

on others – it won’t help.

How to Comfort the Dying

Encourage the dying person to let go of all their attachment to

and worry about unfinished business, tasks, plans, and so on,

and not to dwell on thoughts of their loved ones, houses, jobs or

anything that ties them to this life. I have mentioned this before

and it is very important.

Advise the dying person to calm their minds and prepare for

the next phase by making good aspirations. What kind of good

aspirations could a non-Buddhist make? They could, for example,

wish for:

– a genuinely good person to run for president of the

United States in the next elections

– environmental problems associated with global warming

to be resolved

 

 

– more trees to be planted and nurtured

– inexpensive solutions to debilitating, chronic diseases

to be discovered, with no nasty side-effects

– a car to be invented that runs on free, clean energy,

leaves no carbon footprint and emits positive energy

into the environment

If you know the dying person personally, you will have some

idea about what they believe in. Even the worst person in the world

must believe in something that isn’t harmful, so capitalize on that

belief. Perhaps they could aspire for a two-day working week?

You could also try suggesting that the dying person does

something to bring themselves fame once they are dead. Perhaps

they could donate all their money to erecting the kind of billboard

I mentioned earlier, that reminds the rest of us about the reality of

death – a reality that we all have to face. Or something like that.

Ask the dying person if there is anything they want you to

do for them. Ask them what should be done with their money,

investments, property and belongings, and promise you will do

your best to ensure that their wishes are carried out to the letter.

Some people spend their whole lives worrying about their material

goods and that won’t suddenly change just because they are dying.

But knowing that you will do everything in your power to carry

out their wishes may help calm their anxieties. This is another

reason why it’s a good idea to tell those you care about that they

are dying.

If the dying person is a Shravakayana or Mahayana Buddhist,

remind them of the importance of aspiration. Encourage them

to aspire to become enlightened, to be reborn with the ability to

be of benefit to others and to encounter the right path – Buddha

Shakyamuni’s path of loving compassion and non-duality.

Continue repeating this same message either verbally or mentally,

even after the person has died.

 

 

If the dying person is a Tantrika, read the simplified instructions

that appear on page . If you prefer, you could read from Great

Liberation through Hearing in the Bardo , or choose any of the

authentic bardo instructions, elaborate or simple, that you are

familiar with, or one of the many others texts that are available for

download, for example:

• The Excellent Path to Perfect Liberation: A Guidance Practice (Nedren) for

the Dukngal Rangdrol (Natural Liberation of Suffering) Practice of the Great

Compassionate One from the Longchen Nyingtik by Dodrupchen Jigme

Trinle Ozer: www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/dodrupchen-I/

excellent-path-to-perfect-liberation

• Root Verses of the Six Bardos by Karma Lingpa: www.lotsawahouse.org/

tibetan-masters/karma-lingpa/root-verses-six-bardos

• Crucial Advice: A Complete Set of Instructions for the Bardos by Longchen

Rabjam www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/longchen-rabjam/

complete-set-instructions

Read the instructions out loud to the Tantrika as a reminder

about what is happening and what they should do.

If the dying person’s relatives are Buddhists, they could read

an Amitabha Sutra out loud or chant the mantra or dharani they

like best.

• The shorter Amitabha sutra is available for download from the

website: read. .co/translation/UT – – .html

Tell the dying person’s relatives and friends that, according to

the bardo teachings, their loved one’s awareness and perception

will continue to function for anything from a few hours to several

days after death. This means that the dead person’s mind will be

able to see and hear what goes on among the family after their body

has been pronounced dead. This is why, traditionally, Tibetans

always advise a dying person’s family to avoid talking about the

will and fighting over the person’s belongings. The family is also

advised not to give away the dead person’s property, or break up

their collections for as long as possible.

 

 

Feelings of Guilt

Dying people are sometimes wracked with guilt about having

done terrible things during their lives. If you are with a dying

Buddhist who has a bad conscience about their past behaviour,

suggest they free themselves from that guilt by taking the guilt of

all sentient beings upon themselves through Tonglen practice (see

page ): “May the guilt of all sentient beings come to me.” By

doing so, not only will they be able to shed their own bad conscience,

they will also feel good about having performed a tremendously

heroic act that will have accumulated a huge amount of merit.

That merit can then be dedicated towards the enlightenment of

all sentient beings, making yet more merit that can be dedicated

towards a better rebirth for everyone, including themselves.

If you think it will help, tell the dying person that, according

to the Buddha, the guilt they feel was created by their own minds

and so it is just another self-created projection that they should

definitely not allow themselves to become obsessed by.

You could also suggest that the dying person visualize all the

buddhas and bodhisattvas in the sky in front of them and, from

the bottom of their heart, confess everything they feel guilty about.

To a dying Tantrika, you could suggest that they chant the

Akshobhya mantra or Vajrasattva’s one hundred-syllable mantra.

 

 

Akshobhya Dharani

name ratna trayaya om kamkani kamkani rocani rocani

trotani trotani trasani trasani pratihana pratihana sarva

karma paramparani me sarva sattvananca svaha

Buddha Akshobya

 

 

One Hundred-Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva

om vajrasattva samaya manupalaya

vajrasattva tenopa tishtha dridho me bhawa

sutokhayo me bhawa supokhayo me bhawa anurakto

me bhawa

sarwa siddhi me prayaccha sarwa karma su tsa me

tsittam shreyang kuru hung ha ha ha ha ho bhagawan

sarwa tathagata vajra ma me munca vajri bhawa maha

samaya sattva ah

Six-Syllable Mantra of Vajrasattva

om vajra sattva hum

Vajrasattva

 

What to Say

to a Dying Person

The teachings of the Shravakayana and the Mahayana say very

little about the bardos and the Vajrayana teachings say a great

deal. While all Buddhists encourage everyone to prepare for

death while they are still alive, it’s the Vajrayana that points to the

moment of death as a unique juncture in a human being’s life. It’s

a moment of extraordinary spiritual opportunities that should not

be wasted. The message here is: it’s never too late. At the moment a

person dies, their mind is the clearest it has ever been and becomes

clearer still once the body is dead. So if you can win that person’s

attention moments before they die – make them look at you and

listen to what you have to say – the chances of them grasping what

is happening and what is about to happen are very good indeed.

As I mentioned earlier, while we are alive, we understand,

communicate and interact using our own set of unique filters. Each

person’s individual filters determine what they see, so while we are

alive, none of us sees anything nakedly. Our eyes are not cameras

that merely capture images of whatever stands directly in front of

us because our eyes are driven by our minds. Mind chooses which

images it registers and how to interpret those images, based on

cultural conditioning, hang-ups, the books we read, the coffee we

drink, the people we hang out with, and so on. So it is in the mind that

the spectator, the act of spectating and all our personal influences are

 

 

filtered, and it is in the mind that our interpretations come together

to create the phenomena of hope, fear, misunderstanding, and so on.

Whether you are a Buddhist or not, the mind separates from

the body in exactly the same way. Our senses and sense objects

also disintegrate in exactly the same way. Without those filters,

your eyes cannot see, your ears cannot hear, your tongue cannot

taste, and so on. Imagine a spring morning starts out cold, but as

high temperatures are predicted for later on, you wear six layers

of clothing. The disintegration of the senses is like peeling away

those six layers as the temperature rises. Gradually your senses slip

away until, for the first time ever, your mind is completely naked.

For most of us, the effect is overwhelming.

In life, when you look at a wall, influences from your culture

and habit make you see that wall as a house. As your habits wear

out, the wall will start to look less like a wall and more like a

pile of bricks. And once the habit has worn away completely,

however hard you stare at the wall, you simply won’t know what

you are looking at. Once the body is dead, everything the naked

mind experiences will be entirely unfiltered, and all the subtle

phenomena – the sounds, tastes, smells, and so on – will be

strange and terrifying. Yet, if you are given the right information

at the right time, the mind’s very nakedness will allow you to see

and understand what is going on far more quickly than when you

were alive. Buddhists describe this naked mind as ‘buddha mind’.

The Power of ‘Buddha’

Don’t worry about whether or not the dead person knows anything

about the Buddha or Buddhism. Since their perceptions are no

longer filtered, bardo beings are one hundred times more aware

than when they were alive. And it is precisely because the dead are

more aware that it is so important for the living to encourage them

to take refuge and introduce them to the bardo teachings.

 

 

The idea of ‘buddha’ is extremely profound. When you tell

a bardo being about ‘buddha’, you are introducing them to the

idea that the Buddha is the nature of their mind. In many ways,

it’s perfect timing, because bardo beings are perhaps closer to the

nature of mind than any other sentient being.

 

If the dying person is agnostic or atheist or even a complete

stranger, and if they are not upset by you talking to them, say:

You are now dying.

Death comes to everyone.

We all die!

You are not the only person who has ever had to face death.

None of us knows precisely when we will die.

Today, it is you who are dying,

But anything could happen,

And I could still die before you.

Don’t worry about your life,

Don’t worry about your friends and family,

Don’t worry about your work.

Instead, seize the opportunity to be peaceful and present.

In the same spirit, say whatever you feel needs to be said, but

say it gently and kindly. Then chant:

namo buddhāya

namo dharmāya

namo saṃghāya

Homage to the Buddha,

Homage to the Dharma,

Homage to the Sangha.

 

 

om ye dharma hetu prabhawa

hetun teshan tathagato hyavadat teshan tsa yo nirodha

ewam vade mahashramanah soha

All phenomena arise from causes;

Those causes have been taught by the Tathagata,

And their cessation too has been proclaimed by the

Great Shramana.

If the dying person is willing to listen, tell them about the

bardos as simply as you can. Tell them Buddhists believe that after

we die, our essence passes through what we call a ‘bardo’ and that

it’s like going on a journey. This is the one journey that everyone

eventually has to make and only ends once we are reborn into our

next life. Tell them that although Buddhists prefer to prepare for

the experiences they will encounter in the bardos while they are

alive, it’s never too late.

These days, most people feel that while a person is still alive

they must never be forced to do anything against their will. But

once they are dead and just a consciousness – a bardo being –

everything changes. Apart from anything else, the bardo being

will probably be terrified because they have no idea about what is

happening to them and may be desperate for your help.

Ideally, a dying person’s mind should be calm and at ease as they

die. For most of us, though, our biggest problem at death will be

the same as our biggest problem in life: selfishness and a relentless

fixation on ourselves. To counter this kind of selfishness, Buddhists

try to think of others. So, as you sit with a dying person, try to

encourage them to think beyond themselves by making a heartfelt

wish that all sentient beings are well and happy. By doing so, they

will face death feeling braver and more courageous. You could also

read the following verse out loud, as a reminder, or ask a member of

the dying person’s family or a close friend to read it for them.

 

 

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the causes

of happiness,

Be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May they never be separated from the great happiness

devoid of suffering,

May they dwell in the great equanimity that is free from

attachment and aversion.

Depending on the situation, you could try introducing the

dying person to the power of aspiration and Tonglen practice. Tell

them how they can help both themselves and others by aspiring,

at the moment of death, to take on all the fear, pain, guilt and

paranoia experienced by sentient beings: “May the fear, pain, guilt

and paranoia of all sentient beings come to me.” Pema Chödrön,

one of the great Trungpa Rinpoche’s most well-known students,

explains how this practice works on page .

The Moment of Death

Be sure you tell the dying person what is happening to them,

lovingly and compassionately.

Now that your senses no longer function,

Your mind is independent, naked, clear and present;

Never before will you have experienced

What you are experiencing right now.

This is the Buddha.

Speak clearly, gently and confidently, but don’t mince your

words. Your intentions are good, so there is no need to worry about

being too pushy. In fact, at this point, by all means be pushy! It will

take less than a split second for the dead person’s consciousness to

experience their mind nakedly and, although that experience may

only last for another split second, it’s so important that they ‘get

 

 

it’. This is why the best thing you can do is to keep repeating these

instructions, again and again.

A dead person cannot nod or say thank you and they certainly

cannot give you a reward. So you will never know if you have

been heard or if what you say helps. This makes guiding someone

through the process of dying and death an act of utterly selfless

giving. And as you have nothing to gain from helping in this way, it

may be the one time this life that your actions are entirely altruistic.

If you cannot guide someone because, for example, members

of their family are present at their bedside and easily upset by

anything spiritual, always remember that you can tell the dying

person all this information once they are dead. And who knows,

after death may be the perfect time for them to take refuge. Even

if it isn’t, nothing you say can hurt them in any way. However

prejudiced or anti-religion the dying or dead person may be, it is

your practice of compassion and bodhichitta that really matters;

don’t underestimate its effect! If you tell someone who is clinically

dead and already in the bardos that they should take refuge, I am

certain they will do as they are told – they may be so terrified that

they are willing to try anything.

Resting in the nature of your mind is the supreme practice for the

moment of death. If you have received the relevant instructions and

are a practitioner of the nature of mind, this is all you need to do.

Immediately After the Moment of Death

Read the verses of taking refuge out loud once again, confidently,

but gently.

namo buddhāya guruve

namo dharmāya tāyine

namo saṃghāya mahate tribhyopi

satataṃ namaḥ

 

 

Homage to the Buddha, the teacher;

Homage to the Dharma, the protector;

Homage to the great Sangha –

To all three, I continually offer homage.

buddhaṃ sharaṇaṃ gacchāmi

dharmaṃ sharaṇaṃ gacchāmi

samghaṃ sharaṇaṃ gacchāmi

I take refuge in the Buddha.

I take refuge in the Dharma.

I take refuge in the Sangha.

In the Buddha, the Dharma and the Supreme Assembly

I take refuge until I attain enlightenment.

Through the merit of practising generosity, and so on,

May I attain buddhahood for the benefit of all beings.

Until the essence of enlightenment is reached,

I go for refuge to the Buddhas.

Also I take refuge in the Dharma

And in all the host of Bodhisattvas.

Always address the dying or dead person by name.

O Son or Daughter of a Noble family,

[name of dead person]

You are now dead.

Even if you are not religious,

The best thing you can do now is take refuge.

Listen to what I am about to say, then repeat after me:

I take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

O Son or Daughter of a Noble family,

[name of dead person]

Now that you are dead, your mind is extremely powerful,

 

 

Far more powerful than the minds of the living.

Make good use of this power.

Use it to help others.

Think:

I want to continue to help all living beings on this planet;

All human beings, all living creatures and the

natural environment.

I want to eradicate poverty, disease, inequality and injustice.

I want everyone to see and recognize the truth.

I want to wake everyone up from the delusion that life will

last forever.

I want everyone to see through the illusion that

Money, power and relationships are real, permanent

and everlasting.

May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the causes

of happiness,

Be free from suffering and the causes of suffering,

May they never be separate from the great happiness devoid

of suffering,

And may they dwell in the great equanimity that is free from

attachment and aversion.

If there is anything else you want to say to the dead person –

the bardo being – say it now, kindly and gently.

namo buddhāya

namo dharmāya

namo saṃghāya

Homage to the Buddha,

Homage to the Dharma,

Homage to the Sangha.

 

 

om ye dharma hetu prabhawa hetun teshan

tathagato hyavadat teshan tsa yo nirodha ewam vade

mahashramanah soha

All phenomena arise from causes;

Those causes have been taught by the Tathagata,

And their cessation too has been proclaimed by the

Great Shramana.

Tell the dead person that they have nothing to lose by listening

to what you have to say. Introduce them to the concept of ‘bardo’

and tell them about the bardo of dying, and so on.

You can now offer the dead person the same instructions you

would give a Buddhist. Bardo beings can follow mental recitation,

so if for any reason it isn’t possible for you to say the instructions out

loud, read the following pages silently. If your dead friend belongs

to one of the more dogmatic religions that only allows family to

approach a dead body, you may not be allowed to see them once

they are dead. In this case, introduce your friend to the teachings

from your own home. Don’t worry, the moment you address them

by name they will recognize your voice.

No matter who you are helping, always repeat the teachings

and instructions as many times as you can. Actually, there is an

argument for continuing to repeat everything for several weeks

because, unless you are omniscient, you will have no way of

knowing whether or not the dead person has heard and understood

what you have told them.

Of course, if the dead person were to discover that there is no

such thing as a ‘next life’, nothing you say will make any difference

to them. But if they do wake up to find that everything the bardo

teachings describe is true, the information you give them may be

the most invaluable advice they have ever received.