Practices to Prepare 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 one,
My advice is to perform 20,000 Samayavajra.1 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.2
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 Thirty-five Buddhas 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..
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 Foundation Store. [Return to text]
2 The Union of Bliss and Emptiness, Shambhala Publications. [Return to text]