We may have our vision of a perfect death, but life doesn’t always cooperate.

One out of ten people will die suddenly and unexpectedly. What should we do if we’re about to die in an accident?

The instruction is simple: bring your awareness to the top of your head, and recite the mantra OM MANI PADME HUM.

Bringing awareness to the top of your head is a form of emergency phowa.

Reciting the mantra of Chenrezig, the bodhisattva of compassion, closes the doors to the six realms of samsara. It also invokes his blessing. If compassion has a sound, it is OM MANI PADME HUM.

[Note: Each syllable in this mantra is associated with one of the six realms and can block rebirth into these realms. om blocks entry into the god realms; ma blocks the jealous god realms; ni, the human realm; pad, the animal realm; me, the hungry ghost realm; and hum, the hell realms.

This mantra, perhaps the most famous in Tibetan Buddhism, also serves to block entry into each of the psychological states associated with the six realms, thereby preventing moment-to-moment rebirth in samsara: om blocks pride (of the gods); ma blocks envy (of the jealous gods); ni blocks passion (of humans); pad blocks ignorance (of animals); me blocks greed (of hungry ghosts); and hum blocks aggression (of hell realm beings). If left unchecked during life, each of these six psychological realms can propel a person into its corresponding ontological realm after death. See “The Benefits of Powerful Mantras,” in Advice and Practices for Death and Dying for the Benefit of Self and Others, a commentary by Lama Zopa Rinpoche, for the unimaginable benefits of reciting this mantra.]

By bringing your awareness to the top of your head, you open the door to rebirth in the pure realms. [This is one reason we visualize deities on top of our head in deity yoga. As usual, there are variations in the preparation for sudden death. For example, you can replace Chenrezig’s mantra with that of Amitabha, om amidewa hrih. Instead of closing the wrong doors, with this mantra you open the right one. The point is to keep it simple.]

This can be done by visualizing your guru or a deity directly above you, or by merely turning your gaze upward.

If you panic and can’t remember what to do, then cry out to your teacher or a spiritual being for help.

Instead of having “Oh shit!” on your mind when you’re about to die, it’s better to have your teacher or Amitabha on your mind and to be reborn in his pure land.

The way to practice for sudden death is to recite the mantra, or visualize the deity, whenever you receive sudden bad news or are somehow shocked.

Any experience that throws you into a feeling of groundlessness is an opportunity to practice for sudden death. It’s like appending “Bless you!” after someone sneezes. For most people this polite habit is automatic, but it didn’t happen automatically. You had to practice it.

[Note: This is an exercise in prospective memory, which is remembering to do something in the future. It is a central practice in lucid dreaming/dream yoga, where one trains to remember to wake up while dreaming. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche recommends that one prepare for sudden death by repeatedly flashing onto mahamudra or dzogchen awareness throughout the day. This can be tied to a prospective memory exercise. For example, every time you hear a plane, or a car honk, sensitize yourself to open your mind to pure awareness. Just instantly relax and open.]

When your lover tells you he or she is leaving you, have the presence of mind to say to yourself, OM MANI PADME HUM. Or a friend just died, OM MANI PADME HUM. You just got fired, OM MANI PADME HUM. Small sudden deaths happen all the time and give us opportunities to practice for the big one.

I started practicing this whenever I read about a violent death in the paper or heard about it on the news. A suicide bomber blew up twenty people, OM MANI PADME HUM; a teenager was killed in a car accident, OM MANI PADME HUM; a tornado destroyed an entire town, OM MANI PADME HUM.

My usual response had been to close down around such news. It was too painful. But this “bless you” mantra showed me how to keep my heart open, and to connect to the suffering of others.

After a few weeks of mindful effort, this good habit took root. With this preliminary practice directed to others, I was then able to extend it to my own daily deaths.

If you’re trained in phowa, then the instructions for sudden death may vary depending on your training. But the essential practice is simple, which is what we need in a time of crisis. Gauge your readiness for sudden death by looking at how you react to critical situations.

When you wake up sweating from a nightmare, do you respond with practice or don’t you? When a car cuts you off and almost sends you into the ditch, what happens to your mind? Use any heart-pounding situation both to assess your readiness, and to practice for, any heart-stopping accidents.

[Note: What about dying in your sleep? Is there any disadvantage to that? The only disadvantage for a practitioner is that they lose the opportunity to employ the law of proximate karma – unless they happen to be lucid dreaming or lucid sleeping when they die. (See note below on the four forms of transitional karma.) So nirmanakaya phowa (what we usually think of as phowa) would not be an option. The practitioner also loses the opportunity to engage any other death practice that requires conscious awareness, like mantra recitation. For most people, dying in their sleep means the remaining three laws of karma would take over and play out: heavy, habitual, or random karma. However, there are four other forms of phowa which could be engaged if the person was a good practitioner. Dharmakaya phowa is essentially resting in the nature of mind, and takes place spontaneously for one versed in the formless meditations. Sambhogakaya phowa is the fruition of generation stage practice, and could also arise naturally as a result of the person’s yidam practice. Guru yoga phowa is a devotion phowa, which would require more conscious effort. The fifth form of phowa, celestial, or kechari phowa, is a lucid dreaming phowa (associated with dream yoga in the Six Yogas of Naropa). If you are trained in lucid dreaming/dream yoga, this is the phowa to use if you die in your sleep. See Thrangu Rinpoche, Journey of the Mind, 42–52. Many people die in coma-like states or in sleep. It does not mean a second-class death. Strong practitioners will be fine no matter how they die. Other people will have to take refuge in the strength of their karma and in their ability to wake up in the bardos. This, yet again, is why proficiency in dream (or sleep) yoga is of such benefit. If the person can wake up to the fact that they are in the bardos, they can then use any of the techniques mentioned later in this book for negotiating those bardos skillfully. If they can’t, they have to rely on their good karma.]

[Note: The power of proximate karma, is the second of the four types of karma that operate in any moment of transition, any bardo, and that dictate the form of the next moment or next life. Phowa, Pure Land practice, and dream yoga all take advantage of this second form of transitional karma. A Pure Land practitioner, for example, will recite countless Amitabha mantras as a way to pave the road for rebirth in Sukhavati. If you have Amitabha on your mind now, that can transport you to his pure land when you die. These four types of karma are listed in order of power and importance: (1) heavy, or weighty karma, the karma that is the most intense; (2) proximate karma, that which is the nearest, or most immediately precedes the next moment or life; (3) habitual karma, the karma of our habits; (4) random karma, from past lives, or past moments. Proximate karma, and therefore phowa and Pure Land practice, works with the principle that the last thing on your mind before you enter a bardo tends to be the first thing on your mind when you come out of it. Working with proximate karma is like leaving a nice welcoming gift for yourself that greets you on the other side. See Jack Kornfield, A Path With Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life (New York: Bantam Books, 1993), 277, for more on these four types of karma.]

Source: Based on Holecek, Andrew. Preparing to Die. Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

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