Life is a revolving wheel of existence—a chain of endless birth, life, death, and rebirth.
If we can train our minds to be peaceful and loving, then whatever we say and do will naturally turn into healthy and beneficial words and deeds for ourselves and others. And then when we die, the experiences that we will have in the bardo [intermediate state] and in our next life will, according to Buddhism, also be the same. This is because our experiences are the fruits of the habitual seeds we have sown in our mental soil of the past.
Therefore, while we are alive, we must train our mind with prayers, meditations, and caring for others. Visualize, feel, and believe that we are in front of the Buddha of Loving-Kindness, with his all-knowing wisdom and unconditional love, in a heavenly world of light, peace, and joy. Then sing prayers with devotion—with the energy of joy and trust—to the Buddha. Sing with loving-kindness—wishing joy for all sentient beings.
The result will be that after death, and in our next life, the world that will appear to us will be a pure land of peace and joy. It will be the manifestation of the positive habits that we implanted in our mind stream during our meditations. For after death, no physical objects follow us. It’s only our minds—our mental habits—that follow us.
According to Buddhist esoteric teachings, if we are highly accomplished meditators, at death and in the bardo we will see and realize the intrinsic awareness, the true enlightened nature of our own mind, nakedly, as it is.
This intrinsic awareness is the primordial wisdom with its fivefold aspects and five Buddha Families with their pure lands. All these are the natural radiance and innate power of the intrinsic awareness itself, appearing nondually, dwelling indivisibly, functioning effortlessly, and remaining boundlessly. If we can realize and maintain it, we will attain buddhahood.
Although all of us will see the intrinsic awareness during death, the true nature of our mind, the experience is so brief that most of us will not even notice it, let alone maintain it. Many important Buddhist texts on death, such as the Tibetan Book of the Dead, put a premium on realizing the luminous bardo of dharmata. However, most of us are not serious meditators, let alone highly accomplished adepts.
So most of us, rather than expecting to realize the wisdom of intrinsic awareness during the most turbulent times of death and the bardo, should focus on training our familiar dualistic thoughts, emotional flames, and sensational experiences into positive qualities through prayers and meditations on devotion, light, and loving-kindness. Such training will be highly beneficial—and easier to do.
Source: Tulku Thondup in his Foreword to Holecek, Andrew. Preparing to Die: Practical Advice and Spiritual Wisdom from the Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. Boston & London: Snow Lion, 2013.
As stated, this website describes four principal meditations to develop the conditions necessary for rebirth in the Pure Land of Sukhavati.
Alexander Peck (March 5, 2022)
If we can train our minds to be peaceful and loving, then whatever we say and do will naturally turn into healthy and beneficial words and deeds for ourselves and others.
And then when we die, the experiences that we will have in the bardo [intermediate state] and in our next life will, according to Buddhism, also be the same. This is because our experiences are the fruits of the habitual seeds we have sown in our mental soil of the past.
(Tulku Thondup in his Foreword to Andrew Holecek’s book, Preparing to Die)