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

240 THE TIBETAN BOOK OF LIVING AND DYING
you die, is to invoke wholeheartedly all the buddhas and your
master. Pray that, through regretting all your negative actions
in this and other lives, they may be purified, and that you
may die consciously and at peace, gain a good rebirth, and
ultimately achieve liberation.
Make a one-pointed and concentrated wish that you will be
reborn either in a pure realm or as a human being, but in
order to protect, nurture, and help others. To die with such
love and such tender compassion in your heart until your last
breath is said in the Tibetan tradition to be another form of
phowa, and it will ensure that you will at least attain another
precious human body.
To create the most positive possible imprint on the mindstream
before death is essential. The most effective practice of
all to achieve this is a simple practice of Guru Yoga, where the
dying person merges his or her mind with the wisdom mind
of the master, or Buddha, or any enlightened being. Even if
you cannot visualize your master at this moment, try at least
to remember him, think of him in your heart, and die in a
state of devotion. When your consciousness awakens again
after death, this imprint of the master's presence will awaken
with you, and you will be liberated. If you die remembering
the master, then the possibilities of his or her grace are limitless:
even the display of sound, light, and color in the bardo of
dharmata may arise as the master's blessing and the radiance
of his or her wisdom nature.
If the master is present at the deathbed, he or she will
ensure that the mindstream of the dying person is imprinted
with his or her presence. The master may, to retrieve the
dying person from other distractions, make some striking and
significant remark. He or she might say in a loud voice:
"Remember me!" The master will draw the dying person's
attention in whatever way is necessary, and create an indelible
impression that will return as a memory of the master in the
bardo state. When one well-known teacher's mother was
dying and slipping into a coma, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche was
present at her bedside and did something very unusual. He
slapped her on the leg. If she did not forget Dilgo Khyentse
Rinpoche as she entered into death, she would have been
blessed indeed.
In our tradition ordinary practitioners will also pray to
whichever buddha they feel devotion for, and with whom
they feel a karmic connection. If it is Padmasambhava, they
will pray to be born in his glorious pure realm, the Palace of