Sacred art of dying

By Matt Hodd
From the Rigpa Ireland Newsletter

Please note that this event took place in February 2000 and does not occur annually. For a current schedule of upcoming events at the Spiritual Care Center at Dzogchen Beara please see events by country.

Chagdud Khandro teaching

Chagdud Khadro is the wife of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche and an experienced practitioner and teacher of phowa

The Sacred Art of Dying Retreat, which took place at Dzogchen Beara from 24 to 27 February 2000, represented a rare opportunity to get a good overview of the different Tibetan Buddhist practices and teachings that are associated with death and dying. The retreat was guided jointly by Chagdud Khadro, p'howa master and wife of H.E. Chagdud Tulku Rinpoche, and Christine Longaker, Education Director of the Spiritual Care Program.

Chagdud Khadro gave an Amitabha Empowerment and the necessary training to carry out p'howa. P'howa is the Vajrayana Buddhist technique of transferring our consciousness at the moment of death. It will ensure that we obtain favorable rebirth after death in Amitabha's Pure Land rather than a lower realm. Khadro points out that once we have mastered this technique, we will be able direct dying people towards enlightenment at death by doing p'howa for them.

Christine Longaker presented the Tibetan Buddhist vision of death and dying as outlined in her book Facing Death and Finding Hope. By performing practices such as tonglen, we can heal relationships with others and ourselves. This helps us to prepare for death and alleviate the suffering of those who are dying. Christine points out that we must train ourselves to realize that everything is an impermanent gift that we will have to let go of before death.

In summary, both teachers taught with compassion and clarity that death is important because it offers us one of our best opportunities to achieve enlightenment.

Related links