The Essence of Practice in Life and at Death

by Ringu Tulku Rinpoche

There are many things to remember in this practice and sometimes we can lose our way, so this point is an overview of the essential aspects of Mind Training. The forces or strengths explained here are the whole practice concentrated into a very concise form. These are key slogans that help us to return to our meditation throughout our daily activities, when our death approaches, and during the process of dying. No matter how exact the instructions we are given, we acquire the training by doing the practice. It is a method that we can rely on at every stage of our lives.

Gampopa was the favoured and best student of Jetsun Milarepa. When he had finished his studies and the time had come for him to leave his teacher and begin his independent practice, Milarepa came to bid him farewell and told him, “I have not given you my very highest teaching. It is too secret and you are not yet ready for it.” Gampopa was very despondent about this, but he was unable to persuade Milarepa to change his mind and eventually he set off to cross the river on his journey. Suddenly his teacher called him back. Since Gampopa was his closest disciple and the one who would carry on his work, he said he had decided to give him the special teaching after all. As Gampopa made offerings out of respect and love, Milarepa turned his back, lifted his robe, and exposed his bare buttocks saying, “. . . this is my most secret teaching.” Gampopa was startled to see that his teacher’s backside had become callused and as hard as rock from all the sitting meditation he had done.

THE FIVE FORCES

“Train in the five forces.”

In the earlier stages of the practice, we began to realise the positive benefits of working with the mind and developing generosity. Now we commit ourselves to maintaining all the good habits and qualities we have acquired. Each time we recall the forces our understanding goes higher, while our actions become more down to earth.

THE FORCE OF IMPETUS

This promotes our belief in the need to practice dharma. It helps us to see the value of it and to persevere with it. With this energy, we understand where our training will take us and what it is meant to achieve. We need an incentive to bring ourselves back to the reasons for our spiritual work. Without it, our training can turn into a boring routine or a ritual which has little or no meaning. At times, we may feel very inspired but this wears off and we need to maintain our momentum so that we do not neglect our practice or feel in conflict about it.

THE FORCE OF FAMILIARISATION 

We should feel so comfortable with our practice that it becomes “second nature.” We repeat and carry out our dharma activities as a regular and normal part of ordinary life and, as we get used to it, Lojong merges with everything we do. Meditation is not something alien or separate from us. It is all about us. We are the practice and everything we know and meet is also the practice.

THE FORCE OF VIRTUE

Never be complacent about doing worthwhile things. Aim to seek out and use every possibility to develop compassion. This force gives us the determination to practice skilful thoughts and actions from this moment until enlightenment. We dedicate ourselves to sowing good seeds repeatedly and accumulating virtue constantly. In every hour, day, month, and year of our lives we pledge to free all beings from suffering. At every New Year we remember this. If our motivation remains strong, we can move mountains.

THE FORCE OF REPUDIATION 

From the beginning of time suffering has come from our ego-clinging and aversion to suffering. We defeat these illusions by abandoning our selfishness and self-cherishing. This force is directed at completely disowning the ego and its influence.

THE FORCE OF PRAYER AND ASPIRATION 

As thoughts are the seeds of actions, prayer is a major agent in meditation practice to improve our devotion and increase our good intentions. It is not a petition to someone for relief but a directed wish for something to evolve and be beneficial. Nevertheless, we should be careful what we wish for. If we do not make wishes properly, we will ask for the wrong things. A short story called “The Monkey’s Paw” warns us about this. One stormy night a stranger knocked at the door of an old couple living in a small cottage and requested shelter from the rain. The couple invited him in. He was agitated and very restless. When they asked him what was the matter, he said he felt nervous because he had in his possession a monkey’s paw that would grant him three wishes and he was terrified he would ask for something foolish. They suggested that he give the paw to them if he was so uneasy and they would make good use of it. He gladly gave it and with great relief left the cottage. The couple made their first wish, asking for lots of money. The next morning, they had another visitor. Their son’s employer had come to tell them that he had been killed in an accident and to deliver a great deal of money in compensation. Their first request had been granted but their son was dead. They grieved for some time but soon remembered that they had two other wishes and quickly used the second to ask for their son to be returned to them. After a while there was a terrible noise and, looking out of the window, they saw that he had come out of his grave. He was a zombie. They were horrified and quickly used their final wish to send him back to his burial ground in peace. With this, all their wishes were gone.

If we pray for our spiritual activity to eventually bear fruit, it does not matter if we cannot yet create positive results. We may intend to act well but sometimes the conditions are not right or we lack the capacity. We can still wish for better opportunities in the future to accumulate merit.

“The instructions for how to die properly

are the five forces.”

Just as they provide a structure of practice for life, the forces also guide us at our death. As we are about to die we use them to help us but we apply them in a slightly different order.

THE FORCE OF VIRTUE 

When our death is approaching, we try to perform as many wholesome deeds as possible. Distributing our wealth and possessions and making offerings of all kinds increase our merit. Holding nothing back, we give away everything, abandoning all our attachments at the end of our life. A man who was nearing death in Tibet asked for all his gold and silver to be brought to his room and put under his pillow. He could not take it with him but he hated to leave it and wanted it nearby. He suffered terribly because he was going to be parted from his wealth. This is an attachment we can do without. Generosity frees us from clinging to our material surroundings. If we have no wealth to share, we offer the precious merit of all our good actions and thoughts in this lifetime.

THE FORCE OF REPUDIATION 

The sadness that we may feel as we face death occurs because we are attached to the physical body as our home and identity. Any anguish and distress we suffer when we are dying comes from the belief that we are losing a real, objective world and a beloved self. If nothing actually exists, then nothing dies so we must remind ourselves that our fear of death is due to a misunderstanding about life, caused by the ego. This body has never been ours. Trusting in our awareness of emptiness, we let go in order to become fearless and unattached. Sometimes people hold on and cannot die properly. That is not necessary. We can be at ease.

THE FORCE OF ASPIRATION 

At our death, we pray for a steadfast and enduring compassion in our next rebirth. We dedicate all the good deeds of this lifetime for the welfare of other beings. These prayers are very important at death. If we have neglected to accomplish many worthwhile things this time, we can vow to use the conditions we meet in the future to be more active in creating happiness.

THE FORCE OF IMPETUS

This gives us the determination to continue to practice compassion as our meditation until our very last breath. Such thoughts minimise delusion in the after death, bardo state and yield benefits in our next reincarnation. We pray for the strength to awaken and sustain our compassion as our life draws to an end, to achieve enlightened wisdom during death and in our next rebirth.

THE FORCE OF FAMILIARISATION 

When we are close to death and while dying, we continue to carry out our usual method of meditation. The practice that we are familiar and most comfortable with as part of our daily routine is the best support during the process of death. It allows us to work with our mind right to the end.

MEDITATION AT DEATH: PHOWA

There are also explicit meditation practices which can be applied at the time of death. In phowa, a specific technique which leads to the transference of consciousness, both concentration and confidence are very important. The mind must be focused on ultimate bodhicitta.

This is the best type of phowa practice because it expresses compassion, the essential nature of the enlightened mind. Doing this meditation will eventually lead us to the realisation of our Buddha-Nature. The practise itself is quite simple. Lying on the right side with the right nostril blocked by the right little finger, we do the tonglen exchange, taking on negative energy and sending positive wishes in return. We cut off all attachment and clinging to the things around us. None of our loved ones, friends, or relatives will be able to help us in any way at death. We are alone. We remind ourselves that birth and death are simply projections of mind. The illusion and the finality of death are created by the mind. Looking at the sky, we relax and rest our mind in boundless space.

Phowa is a practice which should be done repeatedly, all through our lives so that we can do it naturally and purposefully at the time of death. I have heard a story about a Tibetan who was dying and his family called the lama to be with him. The lama sat beside him and told him to think only of his root guru and forget everything else. He said, “I can’t recall my guru, I can only think of a sizzling sausage being warmed in the ashes of a fire.” The lama was very skilful: “That is excellent!” he said. “Dewachen, the paradise of the Amitaba Buddha, is full of sausages, they grow on every tree. You only have to open your mouth and you will have all the sausages you want. The colour of Amitaba is like the embers of a fire, so think of him and you will go to his realm.” It is said that the man went straight to the pure land of Dewachen.