Practices at the Time of Death

Please think in this way when you organize the recitation of the Tengyur. Of course you know this already, but it’s a reminder. What your wife needs at this most important time is merit, so when you have the Tengyur recited, think all the monks are the pores of the one holy guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, therefore the merit of making offerings to the pores is unbelievable. It is unbelievable, unbelievable! There is so much more merit than making offerings to other holy objects that fill the entire universes that exist. This way you can create incredible merit, which is what your wife needs now.

I am doing many prayers and pujas for her also.

Dear Kim,
I have checked. Please do the following pujas:

• Medicine Buddha puja: five times
• The long version of Medicine Buddha puja

It is best if these pujas are done at Kopan Monastery and Nunnery.

Also, please make:

• 100,000 tsa-tsas of the three Buddhas: Manjushri, Chenrezig, and Vajrapani
• 300,000 tsa-tsas of Lama Tsongkhapa

If you and your family can’t manage all of them, request Kopan Nunnery to help with doing some. You can make an offering to the nunnery.

Also, you need to ask the Kopan Nunnery to recite the Prajnaparamita for your brother.

I send my love and prayers, and hope to meet you soon. 

You don’t need to worry at all, you don’t need to have any fear, because you have had a good life, excellent—you are a nun and you practiced sutra and tantra.

Do tong-len as much as you can and rely on bodhicitta. This is the best way to die, and because we don’t know when we will die, we must prepare for it now. Anyway, this is good preparation, no matter what happens.

You have had a very good life, so you don’t need to be afraid; you don’t need to have any fear. The best thing to do is bodhicitta meditation. Your main refuge should be bodhicitta, and thinking that your guru and Amitabha are as one on your crown, so that is the main object of refuge. Then do tong-len, to experience all sentient beings’ pain—even death—by yourself.

Let them all be free from death and all the sufferings. So, generate that wish. Think this way, without clinging to your family, friends, etc, any of the things, and mainly do bodhicitta and tong-len. The main thing is, there is nothing to worry about, no clinging to sentient beings.

Then on your crown, the guru is in the aspect of Amitabha Buddha. So, Amitabha is on your crown and you are looking up, like looking up an upside-down trumpet. The bottom part is open, up to the crown and straight down the body. It is closer to your back, and it is made of light; it is in nature of light (this is important). There is no hole, so it is blocked at the ends. Then your consciousness, which you see as a bright, white red drop, is in your heart. So, looking up into Amitabha’s heart, you are ready to jump up at any minute; it is very blissful.

Then shoot your consciousness to Amitabha’s pure land, but first to Amitabha’s heart. Your consciousness, in the nature of red light, goes up (jumps up) to Amitabha’s heart, through the channel, so Amitabha completely hooks your consciousness. As it shoots up, make strong prayers to be reborn in Amitabha’s pure land to be able to liberate sentient beings. Make very strong prayers to Amitabha, so he completely hooks your consciousness in one second, heart to heart, and takes you to the pure land. So, you absorb into Amitabha’s heart. Then you come out born in a lotus and receive teachings from Amitabha.

In the pure land all the trees and petals of the flowers and the leaves are all making the sound of Dharma, the teachings of Buddha. Even the sound of the wind is Dharma; the wind blowing in the trees and the birds are making the sound of pure Dharma. All the trees are wish-granting trees and the ground is lapis lazuli, very blissful. Everything is wish-fulfilling and there is no suffering.

You are in my heart and I am making prayers for you.

It is inappropriate to not tell her that she is dying, as that is withholding important and relevant information. Knowing that she only has a very short time to live should help her to make what time is left to her most useful; this is very critical for her.

Regarding chemotherapy treatment, my observation is that this would be very bad. There are two pujas to be done:

• Chag-sum
• Gyab-shi

You could ask one of the geshes there if they can do these, for example, Geshe Doga, Geshe Dawa, Geshe Tashi Tsering or Khensur Rinpoche. I will also arrange some pujas here. Of course, it is important to do them quickly.

Tell her that all these pujas and practices, like the tsa-tsas, are all being done for the purpose of purification for her good rebirth and that she should not worry. This is what I am saying to her. The main thing for her is to practice bodhicitta, always keeping it in her mind. She should keep repeating, "I am going to die for the benefit of all sentient beings, and the practice and service I am doing and have done is for the benefit of sentient beings."

I would like to sponsor 100,000 tsa-tsas, so we will talk to Ven. Munsel and try to arrange the 100,000 with her. Although Ven. Munsel might not ask for anything for making the tsa-tsas it is very important to make an offering for her service, to create merit and dedicate it to Tenzin.

This is what needs to be done now:

• Recitation of the 8,000 stanzas (a monk should do this in your father's presence).
• When that is finished, the monk should recite the Lamrim Chenmo.
• Recite the Maitreya Buddha mantra or play a recording of it, as much as possible.
• Recite the Namgyalma mantra or play a recording of it, as much as possible.

Dearest Charlotte, 
You have heard Dharma from many, especially myself. This world doesn’t last, nor does this universe, even it will become empty. The teachings say there are 100,000,000 universes—nothing lasts. We are all in the same situation. I want you to think of this from time to time. We are impermanent in nature, of the nature of impermanence. At the same time, we have so much potential to help and make others happy. It is very important for you to now help your Mum and pray for her immediate recovery or birth in a pure land, to have a perfect human rebirth, and especially to meet Tantra in the future.

Now, here are the things you can do for your Mum:

1. Recite the Thirty-five Buddhas (visualize them on her crown). Pray in her ear and visualize them purifying all her negative karma.

2. Then, another time, do Medicine Buddha practice. Visualize the seven Medicine Buddhas on her head, purifying negative karma, and making strong prayers for her. Sometimes chant the long Medicine Buddha mantra.

3. When you do the Medicine Buddha practice, at the end, visualize Medicine Buddha absorbing into light, entering her, and absorbing into her heart. Then, the extremely subtle mind of Medicine Buddha becomes one with her body, speech, and mind at her heart. Then, visualize Tara on her crown and make strong prayers to Tara to take her to the pure land. Then visualize Tara sending a beam of red light down to her heart (where she is one with Medicine Buddha in his extremely subtle form, like the size of a mustard seed). The beam of red light hooks her and draws her up to Tara, and then Tara takes her to the pure land, a very very blissful place, extremely wonderful, where Tara is giving teachings, etc.

Sometimes, practice Medicine Buddha, and sometimes, the Thirty-five Buddhas.

At other times, when you can, recite the Diamond Cutter Sutra. Most important is purifying the negative karma.

As I mentioned before to my attendant, we are doing pujas here and also arranging them with Kopan Nunnery. I will sponsor these.

With much love and prayer...