O Son/daughter enlightened family, what is called “Death” has now arrived, so adopt this attitude: “I have arrived at the time of death, so now, by means of this death, I will adopt only the attitude of the enlightened state of mind, Loving kindness and compassion, and attain perfect enlightenment for the sake of all sentient beings who are as limitless space…”
Sogyal Rinpoche a tibetan lama said in his book, The Tibetan Book of living and Dying that one of his students came to him and said ” my friend is only twenty five he is in pain and dying of leukaemia he is already frighteningly bitter, I am terrified that he will drawn in bitterness. He keeps asking me : “what can I do with all this useless, horrible suffering?”
My heart went to her and her friend. Perhaps nothing is as painful as believing that there is no use to the pain you going through. I told my student there was a way her friend could transform his death even now, and even in the great pain he was enduring: to dedicate with all his heart, the suffering of his dying, and his death itself, to the benefit and ultimate happiness of others. Happyho also provide best Meditation classes and yoga classes in Noida and Delhi NCR India area.
I told her to him : ” I know how much pain you are in. Imagine now all the others in the world who are in a pain like yours, or even greater. Fill your heart with compassion for them. And pray to whom ever you believe in and ask that your suffering should help alleviate theirs. Again and again dedicate your pain to the alleviation of their pain. And you will quickly discover in your self a new source of strength, a compassion you will hardly be able now to imagine, and a certainty, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that your suffering is not only not being wasted, but has now miraculous meaning. “
What I was describing to my student was intact the practice of Tonglen, but which takes on a very special significance when someone is terminally ill or dying.
If you have an illness like cancer or AIDS, try as intensively as you can to imagine every other person in the world who has the same disease as you.
Say to yourself with deep compassion : “May I take on the suffering of everyone who has this terrible illness. May they be free from this affliction and from all their sufferings.”
Then imagine that their illness and tumors leave their bodies in the form of smoke, and dissolve into your illness and tumors. When you breathe in, you breathe in all their sufferings, and when you breathe out, you breathe out total healing and well-being. Each time you do this practice, believe with complete conviction, that they are now healed.
As you approach death, think continually to yourself: “May I take on the suffering, the fear, and loneliness of all the others all over the world who are dying or will die. May they all be freed from pain and confusion, may they all find comfort and peace of mind. May whatever suffering I am enduring now and will endure in the future help them towards a good rebirth and ultimate enlightenment.”
I know and I firmly believe that there is no need for anyone on earth to die in resentment and bittiness. No suffering, however dreadful, is or can be meaningless if it is dedicated to the alleviation of the suffering of others.
