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Medicine Buddha statue at Buddha Amitabha Pure Land, Washington, US, June 2015. Photo by Chris Majors.
It is difficult to accept the inevitability of our own deaths or the deaths of our loved ones. And although avoiding death is not possible, it is possible to prepare for death and equip ourselves with tools to help those around us engage with their own deaths in the most beneficial way.
Essential Advice for Students
Lama Zopa Rinpoche had repeatedly taught that Medicine Buddha practice, such as the Medicine Buddha Puja, the Wish-Fulfilling Jewel, is the main spiritual activity to engage in before, during, and after death. FPMT now makes available Medicine Buddha ritual sets to help students better practice according to Rinpoche’s advice.
Rinpoche has recommended as an additional essential practice to recite Eight Prayers to Benefit the Dead, which is usually recited by Gelug monasteries to benefit those who have recently died.
Essential Advice for Centers
All FPMT centers, projects, and services are encouraged to have a least one student who has done the Heart Advice for Death and Dying course and knows how to use the Liberation Box, a collection of tools for the time of death.
This package is a collection of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s essential advice and commentaries for the time of death and for finding the deepest fulfillment in life. Teachings by Lama Zopa Rinpoche include, “The Nine-Point Meditation on Death,” “The Process of Dying,” “Preparing for Death,” “Practicing the Five Powers,” “Caring for the Dying and the Dead,” “Essential Activities at the Death Time,” and “Mantras to Benefit the Dying and Dead.” This collection also includes an MP3 CD of eleven hours of teachings on death by Ven. Sangye Khadro. In addition to the book and CD, this material is also available as a structured study program.
Heart Advice for Death and Dying is available as a hardcopy book, ebook, and FPMT Online Learning Center program, and as hardcopy and digital programs for hosting centers.
Liberation Box
This collection of tools for the time of death has been assembled according to Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s advice and contains powerful methods for ensuring a fortunate rebirth for those who have died or are in the process of dying. It is available as a hardcopy collection in English, French, or Spanish; or in an English-language digital edition.
Liberation Box, hardcopy collection with optional books
Heart Practices for Death and Dying
This condensed resource book, available in hardcopy and digital formats, provides the heart practices to do at the time of death, including the Medicine Buddha puja and the traditional eight prayers done in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. This collection also contains the most powerful mantras to say for those who are dying or who have died, teachings on their precise benefits, as well as a sheet of mantras to place on the body of one who has died. It contains precious texts to benefit the minds of those who are dying by relieving pain and purifying negative karma.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche with ‘How to Enjoy Death,’ Osel Labrang, Sera Monastery, India, December 2015
Rinpoche’s Latest Book on Death and Dying
How to Enjoy Death
A unique new collection, How to Enjoy Death: Preparing to Meet Life’s Final Challenge Without Fear, brings together all the extensive commentary from Lama Zopa Rinpoche as well as a number of essential prayers, practices, and other materials that Lama Zopa Rinpoche has compiled over the years, skillfully edited by Ven. Robina Courtin.
“We Buddhists all know about death and impermanence, but when death comes into our lives we often panic and don’t know what to do to help,” said Ven. Robina. “Rinpoche lays out all the instructions so clearly, one step at a time, for how to help our loved ones: what to do in the months and weeks before death, what to do in the hours before death, at the time the breath stops, and in the three days as well as the forty-nine days after death, including transforming our loved one’s ashes into a holy object.”
All of the practices one needs to be prepared to face death are included, making this an essential reference for Tibetan Buddhist practitioners, caregivers, hospice workers, and chaplains.
Resource Page
The FPMT Death and Dying: Heart Practices and Advice webpage is kept up to date with all of Lama Zopa Rinpoche’s latest advice and materials concerning death and dying.
Through comprehensive study programs, practice materials, and training seminars, FPMT Education nourishes the development of compassion, wisdom, kindness, and true happiness in individuals of all ages.