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Clarke Scott is a fully ordained Buddhist monk trained in the Tibetan tradition. A student of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, Clarke has received personal instructions—direct one-to-one instructions—on Madhyamaka philosophy and meditation from His Holiness. Recently Clarke moved to Tasmania to pursue a Ph.D in Buddhist philosophy from the University of Tasmania.

Prayers and meditations for the dying

Recently my blog posts have been focused on death or dying as one of my lama’s passed away.

Buddhism sees death as a natural part of life and something that is neither negative or bad. I even blogged about the death process here. Previous to these two posts, I wrote about the purpose of prayer in Buddhism. So in this post I want to combine these two themes and provide some ideas that may assist you or another through the process of dying.

Having a good death?

Is it possible to have a good death? Absolutely ! Generally speaking, death is seen by Buddhism as a great enemy – one that takes away the precious opportunity to practice Dharma. This is the reason for the images of death being demonic types.

As Milarepa said

Frightened of death I ran to the mountains to meditate. Now that I have seen the nature of my mind I welcome death.

You see, death to a Buddhist has contextual meaning. That is, when one is alive and healthy we use death meditation to shake us from laziness and complacency. Thinking about your own mortally is great motivation to practice and to improve our mind (remember that the goal of the Buddhist path is the freedom from dissatisfactoriness by replacing dysfunctional states of mind with functional ones). Because at the time of death nothing is of greater benefit than your practice. It is said that money can’t help you, how popular you were is no benefit and no matter how many pairs of shoes you have you cant take them with you.

But once death is a upon us, our focus and how we relate to death shifts from using it as a motivational tool to one of acceptance and letting go. In fact for great meditators, the time of death is an exciting time, as it is during the actual process of death that they gain access to the very subtle Clear Light mind and they have the chance to purify the last remnants of dualistic perception – thus achieving enlightenment.

How long can the process take?

It is said that the process of rebirth can take up to 49 days. For this reason prayers for the recently deceased should continue for that period of time. Can someone take rebirth sooner than 49 days? Yes, but you should still continue to say prayers for 49 days.

What to do before someone passes away?

1: Take time out to care for the dying person, make them feel that there is someone here to look after them, support them and listen. People need to feel that they are supported both before they die and after. So listen to them without judgement.

2: Stay focused on the positive and encourage the person to rejoice in their spiritual achievements regardless of how much or little practice they did during their life. Remind them of meditation retreats they did, talk about the good times or let them tell you stories of meeting great Lamas. This will uplift the dying persons mind…regrets at this point are useless! And it goes without saying that feelings of guilt and anger will only lead to problems.

3: It is especially useful to encourage and support letting go when the actual time has come. Therefore it is important to understand the process of dying. It is of no benefit to the dying person to tell them they won’t die or, to dismiss their feelings and words of letting go.

4: It is useful to arrange for the dying person (before they die) to give away their belongings, to make donations where they can, save the lives of animals, say goodbye to friends and to make funeral arrangements.
I have found that when I tell people that I will say prayers and meditate for them both before and after their death, and that I can say a couple of prayers at their funeral they are very very happy.

5: Help support faith, devotion and confidence by arranging the room with images such as Medicine Buddha, or one’s Lama. Try to minimize the display of loved ones as this can promote attachment, clinging and in extreme cases upset to dying person. Leaving a photo of a new grand child for example wont help the dying person. Showing them photos that are requested is fine but, continual reminders of what they will not see again will only result is a depressed mind.

6: Practice meditation together. I have been to see people dying of cancer in hospitals, where we performed Medicine Buddha puja, meditated on compassion and perform dedication prayers – the merit of the dying person is dedicated to their future good rebirth and the benefit of all sentient beings.

What to do after a loved one has passed away.

If you are not Buddhist, thinking good thoughts is the best advise. Not getting depressed and excessively crying over your loss will help both yourself and the recently deceased. If you are Buddhist below are a couple of short prayer you can request for someone dying or recently deceased.

Prayers for the dead and dying

Buddhist prayers for the dying

Chanting the names of Manjushri
Great Treasury of Excellence – The Prayer of the Path to Enlightenment.
The prayer benefiting past, present and future.
Long Life sutra.
Medicine Buddha sadhana.
White Tara long life sadhana.
Amitabha Sadhana – Transference of Consciousness.

If you would like to request prayers for the dying or recently deceased you can do so by contacting me http://lodenjinpa.com/about/

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