The-Tibetan-Book-of-Living-and-Dying

FOURTEEN
The Practices for Dying
I REMEMBER HOW PEOPLE would often come to see
my master, Jamyang Khyentse, simply to ask for his guidance for
the moment of death. He was so loved and revered throughout
Tibet, especially in the eastern province of Kham, that some
would travel for months on end to meet him and get his blessing
just once before they died. All my masters would give this as
their advice, for this is the essence of what is needed as you
come to die: "Be free of attachment and aversion. Keep your
mind pure. And unite your mind with the Buddha."
The whole Buddhist attitude toward the moment of death
can be summed up in this one verse by Padmasambhava from
the cycle of the Tibetan Book of the Dead:
Now when the bardo of dying dawns upon me,
I will abandon all grasping, yearning, and attachment,
Enter undistracted into clear awareness of the teaching,
And eject my consciousness into the space of unborn Rigpa;
As I leave this compound body of flesh and blood
I will know it to be a transitory illusion.
At the moment of death, there are two things that count:
whatever we have done in our lives, and what state of mind
we are in at that moment. Even if we have accumulated a lot
of negative karma, if we are able really to make a change of
heart at the moment of death, it can decisively influence our
future and transform our karma, for the moment of death is
an exceptionally powerful opportunity for purifying karma.
THE MOMENT OF DEATH
Remember that all the habits and tendencies that are stored
in the ground of our ordinary mind are lying ready to be
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