Medicine Buddha Practice

If you are not able to do Medicine Buddha puja, then do a short Medicine Buddha practice:

Visualize the Medicine Buddhas, inseparable from His Holiness the Dalai Lama, stacked up above the head [of the person who has just passed away].

Do the motivation, then recite the seven-limb prayer at least seven times for each of the limbs. Recite the limbs for offerings and rejoicing extensively, in order to collect a lot of merit.

Then recite each Medicine Buddha's name seven times and make request for [the Sangha person who has just passed away] to be born in a pure land or gain a perfect human rebirth and meet with Dharma at a young age and actualize the path in that life.

After reciting each name, that Medicine Buddha absorbs to the one below. When the last Medicine Buddha has been requested and is on the crown of the Sangha person who has passed away, recite the very long mantra three times, followed by a round of the short mantra. Light rays radiate out from the mantra at the Medicine Buddha's heart, purifying and blessing the person who has passed away and all sentient beings. Then the Medicine Buddha absorbs to the heart of the person who has passed away.

Finally there is a requesting prayer to Medicine Buddha and dedications.

Afterwards, recite the King of Prayers and Lama Tsongkhapa's Prayer for the Beginning, Middle and End of Practice.

This gives some idea of what Sangha can do when somebody dies. Do the short Medicine Buddha practice with meditation. You can do the longer one, but with this shorter one there is more meditation.

Otherwise you can do Lama Chöpa and when you get to the powa prayer [v. 112], just repeat it three times, chanting it slowly. The main thing is the visualization. As you recite the powa prayer, visualize the consciousness going up to the heart of Maitreya Buddha.

[You can find links to these practices in the FPMT Catalogue.]