How to Benefit the Dying

  1. Taking Care of the Sentient Being’s Mind
  2. Creating a Calm and Loving Space
  3. Intention to Help with Medication
  4. Creating a Holy Environment
  5. Holding a Stupa
  6. Breath Meditation
  7. Prayers for the Dead

After the Last Breath

  1. Powerful Mantras
  2. Actual Death in Buddhism
  3. Signs that the Consciousness has Left the Body

The Way of Death and Rebirth in the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition

Death Awareness in Tibetan Buddhism

by Sheila Duddy (continued)

How to Benefit the Dying

  1. The primary work of those taking care of the dying person is to take care of their mind, to put their mind at ease.
    1. To inspire the dying person to think of others with loving kindness and compassion in their heart and mind.
    2. To encourage the dying person to wish that others will be happy and free from suffering.
    3. To help the dying person, at the time of death, to die with a positive and happy mind that is filled with loving kindness and compassion for all sentient beings.
    4. To transform the dying persons mind to the positive thoughts and emotions so that they can die without anger, desire or attachment
    5. To create an environment in which the dying person dies with a calm and peaceful mind
      6. 

  2. It is felt to be more beneficial if the family and friends that surround the dying person don't cry or express negative emotions within hearing distance of the actively dying person. The loudness and sounds of family and friends crying, screaming, or wailing creates a clinging in the mind of the dying person. Rather, the sounds of chanting, prayers, or saying mantras aloud are beneficial to the dying person. Other than these sounds it is best to keep quiet and create a silent, calm, loving and peaceful atmosphere.
  3. It is felt to be acceptable to offer medications to a dying person with the intention of helping them to be able to think clearly. Pain relief can be scaled to the needs of the dying person, but medicating to relieve "mental anguish" is not advisable. Sedation of this sort prior to death can prevent the dying person from exhausting negative karma. Anguish can be fruitful if the person can experience it fully and finish that particular karma.
  4. Friends and family should work with the dying person to make the physical space that surrounds the dying person as beautiful as possible. Creating a beautiful space that is calm, peaceful, serene, and holy is very important. Because of this physical space the dying person's mind can be elevated and that can lessen any fear of dying and death that the person holds. There should be beautiful images, flowers, vast open views, and sacred images of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
  5. A chorten (stupa) can be placed on the dying persons chest or if they can, have them hold onto the chorten. Each time the chorten, a representation of Buddha's enlightened mind, touches them it purifies negative karma and creates peace and healing in their mind. The chorten assumes the representation of the five purified elements (earth, water, fire, air, space.) As a stabilizer the chorten removes obstacles and illness. The presence of a Chorten brings a sense of harmony to the whole environment.
  6. Stupa Statue (Click for large image.)
  7. Crystal Stupa (Click for large image.)
  8. Encourage the dying person to use breath meditation. This type of meditation will help them to let go of mundane thoughts and to concentrate solely on the movement of their breath as they inhale and exhale. A focus on breathing can help in developing calmness, pain control, acceptance, letting go, and removal of fear. Following the breath as it enters and exits the body can also help the dying person to get in touch with their inner stillness and peace of mind as they come to terms with their approaching death.
  9. Meditator Sitting (Click for large image.)
  10. As the dying person is getting closer to actual death, friends and family should tell them to just relax, to take it easy, and that there is nothing to fear. Those who are talking to the dying person should direct their touch to the crown of the head coaching the dying person to "Bring their consciousness up to the crown, to release out this way." Help them to visualize a Buddha above the crown that is waiting for them when they die. If they are not Buddhist, an angel, Jesus, or other revered figure could be visualized as waiting for them. Help them lead consciousness to the crown and that will help in a higher rebirth.
  11. As the time of death approaches the dying person should visualize Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light, above the crown of their head, make a supplication, and, if they can, do the Amitabha Buddha Sadhana or have arranged for a Buddhist lama or sangha to do the Sadhana for them. The dying person should develop a sincere Bodhisattva aspiration that all beings have happiness and well- being, and be free from suffering and confusion, and that all beings may become purified of their defilements and negative habitual patterns. At this point the dying person should surrender themself completely.
  12. Amitabha Buddha (Click for large image.)
  13. After the breath has ceased friends and family can chant powerful mantras for the dead person. They could also place the written mantras on the chest of the deceased. These mantras help purify negative karma and assure that being of having a good rebirth. Even though the outer breath and heart beat have stopped, it is some time before the moment when the consciousness actually leaves the body. A person can remain in this state up to three days before "death" is really actualized for a Buddhist. In Buddhism it is generally preferred that the body not be removed for disposal before one or more of the signs that the mind of clear light has occurred. Any violent or unnecessary moving of the body may disturb the end process of death as long as the consciousness is still within the body.

    14. Signs That Consciousness has Left the Body:

    1. A drop of red or white liquid emerges from the nose and sexual organs
    2. When all heat has left the area of the heart center
    3. When the body begins to smell or decompose
    4. A subtle awareness that consciousness has left, and the realization that the body has become an "empty shell"
    5. A slumping of the body of one who died in meditative posture
  14. *If the wish to donate one's organs is done with the motivation of genuine compassion for the benefit of others, then any disturbance to the death process that this may cause is far outweighed by the positive Karma that one is creating by this ultimate act of Generosity. Organ donation is another way in which one can die with a positive and compassionate mind.

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Stupa Crystal Stupa Meditator Amitabha Buddha