Practices at the Time of Death

Before the breath has stopped:

• The Heart Sutra and Diamond Cutter Sutra to be read loudly.
• The names of the eight Medicine Buddhas to be recited loudly.

After the breath has stopped, recite the following 25, 50 or more times:

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

To Bhagavan, Tathagata, Arhat, Perfectly Complete Buddha, Precious Ushnisha, I prostrate.

Rinpoche also asked for the body to be kept undisturbed for four days.

For the forty-nine days:

• The King of Prayers to be recited daily.
• The Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead to be recited daily.
• 100,000 tsog offerings with the Padmasambhava verses, most with Lama Chöpa tsog and some with Vajrayogini tsog.

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

If you can, invite the geshe to come and make prayers, and when your mother is passing away, you have to recite this mantra:

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

Recite this mantra during her last breaths. If she is able to hear it, then she will never ever be reborn in the lower realms.

She can remember His Holiness the Dalai Lama or you can mention my name or OM MANI PADME HUM. Let her remember His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Chenrezig, the painting I gave her. If she can remember that, then she can rely on that. She doesn’t need to think about any other things; she can just rely on that and take refuge in that. That is the best, so tell her that.

You should recite the Buddha’s name mantra (above) in your mum’s ear at the time of passing and tell her what she should rely on now at this time—His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Tell her not to be attached to anything and just to rely on His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Chenrezig, that’s all, then Chenrezig will help with everything and bring her to the pure land.

Recite the King of Prayers at the center. Students can gather and recite this, and if I have time I will come. You don't have to wait until after your mother passes away; it can happen before that. This came out as one of the best things to do.

Also recite A Prayer for the Beginning, Middle and End of Practice, by Lama Tsongkhapa.

Make money offerings to the Sangha when they are doing prayers for your mother, and you can also offer to lay people. Since most of them have received teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama or Ribur Rinpoche or Kirti Tsenshab Rinpoche, they become the disciples of your guru, so they are the guru’s pores. Generate bodhicitta motivation and think those people to whom you are making offerings are all the guru’s pores.

By thinking, “I am going to make offerings to them in this way,” even if you make offerings to just one Sangha or one lay person, because they are disciples of the same guru you collect much more merit, the highest merit. You collect so much merit, more extensive merit than having made offerings to numberless buddhas, Dharma and Sangha, and numberless statues, stupas and scriptures. That merit is very small compared to the merit of offering to one pore of the guru. This is the greatest merit, the most extensive merit, so you should motivate like that.

If you can come here before you go, I will give you one Heruka relic from Mount Kailash and you can put that in your mother’s mouth at the time of passing.

You should get the Liberation Box for death time from FPMT. It has mantras to put on the head and powa pills to put on the crown.

Of course, as you know, the body should not be taken out immediately after [the breath stops] so leave it there if you can—if possible until bodhicitta comes out. For women that means white seed comes from the nose and red seed comes from the sex organ; for men it is the opposite. When that happens, the mind has completely left the body. After that, there is the intermediate stage, as soon as the consciousness leaves [the body].

Anyone working in a center must know all these things and have many things prepared to arrange around someone when they are dead. For example, there is the Namgyälma protection amulet to put on the head. Make sure you remember; I think you have. You should also carry the Namgyälma mantra to put on the body.

If there is heat at the heart—even if there is no heat above or below in the body—then the consciousness is still there. If you hold or pinch the skin and it stays up, that means the consciousness is gone. If it drops immediately—like if you pinch your arm—that means the consciousness is still there.

Also, if the death smell comes out, then for sure the consciousness has left. Sometimes sick people have a smell, but death has a very strong smell.

When the body has to be moved, pull a hair at the center of the head and make that the first part of the body you touch. If you can't tell whether the consciousness has left, doing that helps the consciousness leave from there, without touching other parts of body. The benefit of this is the consciousness goes to a higher realm. If you touch the lower part of the body then [the consciousness] goes to the lower realms—[urinary meatus]: animal realm; anus: hell realm. If the consciousness goes from the mouth then maybe that person is reborn as a preta and if from the forehead, the person may be reborn as a human being.

My very dear, most kind, most precious, wish-fulfilling one,
It is such a surprise that your mother has lived this long. It has given you an incredible opportunity to serve your mother, and also in the past your father.

I think I have explained the power of the objects of merit to you in the past. There is the Buddha's teaching on the kindness of the mother and father.

One of my gurus, Zong Rinpoche, the ex-abbot of Shartse Monastery, was very strong at the monastery and very strict in the monastic code. In the end, the Tibetan government had to ask him to be a bit more loose.

Rinpoche mentioned in the Yamantaka teaching that repaying the kindness of our parents is very important. When Zong Rinpoche’s parents came to see him, he wanted to clean the floor where the parents were staying himself. It wasn't because Zong Rinpoche felt attached to them, it was because of seeing the kindness of his parents, as well as what the Buddha explained about the kindness of parents.

Zong Rinpoche wanted very much to do that service for his parents but he wasn’t able to, as he was prevented by others who felt he shouldn’t spend his time like that. Rinpoche did manage to do other things for his parents. He really wanted to serve his parents very much.

You were able to serve your mother for many years, however, in my case I didn’t get to serve my mother as I lived very far away. Even when I was in Solo Khumbu, I didn’t get to do it. As you know, my mother recited 50,000 mani mantras every day, but later in her life it was less.

I think she was able to reincarnate mainly because of becoming nun. Then she reincarnated as a boy and became a monk, but the boy’s life was short. He was an incredibly nice boy. When he was inaugurated at four years old, his voice was very fascinating to listen to, very sweet. If his life was in the hands of a good meditator or practitioner, he would have been very beneficial for sentient beings.

1. If you are there when your mother passes away, recite loudly in her ear the Buddha’s name mantra, Protecting for the Three Lower Realms:

CHOM DÄN DÄ DE ZHIN SHEG PA DRA CHOM PA YANG DAG PAR DZOG PÄI SANG GYÄ RIN CHHEN TSUG TOR CHÄN LA CHHAG TSHÄL LO

Recite this mantra seven times or more in her ear when she is passing away. By hearing this mantra, one will never be reborn in the lower realms and one will be liberated and will be able to enlighten all sentient beings from the oceans of samsara.

Then you can use any other method, such as powa, to not be reborn in the lower realms as well.

2. Do the short Medicine Buddha practice after this mantra is recited.

3. After that, powa can be done.

These are the things the geshes or Sangha can do. Of course, some things you can do yourself also.

I don’t know about hospital regulations, but since you’re the main person you can definitely pray. When she can hear the prayer, that is the best. Even if the priest is there, you can pray and Geshe-la can come to pray. There is no conflict there. Anyone can pray; there is no complication there.

To do Medicine Buddha puja is very important. After passing, you can do Medicine Buddha puja every seven days up to 49 days. You can even do it every year. There is a lot of information in my recent book How to Enjoy Death. Doing puja before is very important.

4. In my observation, these pujas came out beneficial to do for your mother:

• Prajnaparamita: to be recited four times by monks at Drepung Loseling Monastery.
• Prajnaparamita: to be recited once by Tsawa khang tsen at Sera Je Monastery.

5. Do Mitugpa jang wa. That is very important to do after the death.

6. Build a stupa for your mother, however, it’s important the stupa is built where people can circumambulate and therefore get benefit.

We have had some very beautiful stupas made overseas, for example, in Boston and Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. They also attract a lot of interest from schools and so on, which visit the stupa out of cultural interest.

I know I have mentioned the benefits of building a stupa or statue many times already.

Whether a believer or non-believer, just by seeing a painting of the Buddha or a statue of the Buddha, that person collects numberless merits, greater than someone who makes an offering of universes full of jewels to the solitary realizer arhats equaling the number of atoms or sand grains of the universe. So offering to that number of solitary realizer arhats. For how long? For one hundred eons, if you keep offering for that long.

First you have to realize that a solitary realizer arhat is free from samsara and delusion and karma. [Just by seeing the painting or statue of the Buddha] you collect much more merit than [offering to] the hearer-listener arhats.

There is one story, in ancient times in India there was someone who did not have any realizations, who offered medicinal food to four ordinary monks. That doesn’t mean arya beings, transcendental beings who have directly realized and seen emptiness, so not that. That person offered this medicinal food only one time, then after he died he was born as a most powerful wealthy king in India, King Kashika. Of course this was also the result of many lifetimes, because karma is expandable, therefore after many lifetimes, this can happen. This is to give you one small example.

Now here if you offer universes full of jewels to arhats who are free from samsara, the result is most unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable. This just helps you to understand more easily. If you offer universes full of jewels to the number of arhats equaling a handful of sand grains. Wow wow, wow. Even just that, it’s uncountable, offering to that many arhats.

If you think about the number of sand grains or dust particles the size of the house—wow—and you make offering to that many arhats—wow—you can’t imagine the merit. Now think you are offering to the number of arhats equaling the sand grains or dust particles in one country, that many. From this you can figure out, then the size of the universe. It’s amazing, amazing, amazing, so unbelievable.

Even a non-believer, anybody who looks at a statue or painting of Buddha, is able to create numberless great merits just by seeing it. Therefore, any painting or any statue—as big as a mountain or even a very small picture, or one photo that has a thousand buddhas in it—you can’t imagine the merits you collect just by seeing it.

Now like that, the Maitreya Buddha statue will be so big and many people from all around the world will come to see it. So many sentient beings in the world will create unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable merit just by seeing the statue. This is without talking about them doing prostration, circumambulation, offerings; without talking about any of these things.

It is said that we collect numberless greater merits, greater than seeing, if we make flower offering, light offering, incense offering, prostrations and so forth. [From this we collect] numberless great merits, more than seeing a statue of the Buddha. Wow, wow, wow, you can’t imagine. You can’t imagine the merits. Wow, wow, wow. Unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, unbelievable, most unbelievable merits, the cause of happiness and success up to enlightenment.

With much love and prayers ...

If your mother will die soon, it’s not beneficial to keep her in hospital. If she is still conscious and having pain, then just give her some medicine to bring the pain down and bring her back to home.

Recite the sutra Entering the Great City of Vaishali to her. She can listen to the audio recording* or someone can also recite it to her.

You need to do the Medicine Buddha puja there and if you can, arrange for Drati Khangtsen [a monastic house at Sera Je Monastery, South India] to do the long Medicine Buddha puja five times for her.

[*You can find the audio for this sutra as an MP3 file Recitations for Alleviating Pain in the FPMT Catalogue. To find the PDF file of the sutra Entering the City of Vaishali, go to "Sutras and Dharanis" in the FPMT Catalogue.]

What is best to help and support her now is the recitation of the Golden Light Sutra. The students there can do it for her, and others who know her in other areas can do it for her. It’s not necessary to be in her presence. Rinpoche is starting himself now with some other students. The Sutra should be recited a minimum of three time, but of course the more the better.  

Chenrezig practice can also be done. The essence of the Chenrezig practice for her is to recite the Mani mantra [OM MANI PADME HUM] and visualize powerful white light coming from Chenrezig’s heart to her, purifying all her negative karma, like very bright sunlight suddenly coming into a dark room. At the end visualize her being in the pure land of Chenrezig, strongly purified of all her negative karmas.

The Namgyalma mantra should be recited with the same visualization, with Namgyalma purifying her of all her negative karma.

1. Visualize yourself as Namgyalma, with the long Namgyalma mantra at your heart. At the center of your heart is the dying person and around her are all sentient beings. Recite the mantra, with light radiating out from the mantra purifying the dying person and all sentient beings of all the negative karma, obscurations, spirit harm and disease.

2. Visualize the deity Namgyalma in front of you. Powerful light comes from Namgyalma to your heart, where you visualize the dying person at the center, with all sentient beings surrounding her. This purifies her of all the negative karma, obscurations, spirit harm and disease.