Liberation Upon the Last Thought before Death
---What All of Us Can Master
Vajra-guru ChihMin &
Vajra-guru HueiHwa
What is the truth of life? Life is simply the process of consecutive
births and deaths of a spirit or consciousness according to its karma. To
improve our lives we need to start working on our every thought from now on. For
our next lives, the most critical point is to control our last thought before
death so as to be reborn in a better place or get liberated –– This is the
spirit of "Liberation Upon One Thought". It sounds simple; but in
practice it could be extremely difficult. There are three critical points to
notice to help a dying to find liberation upon the last though: (a) Preventing
Obstacles (b) Skillful Guidance (c) Chanting Assistance.
Even if a person is announced dead by a doctor, it is improper to move
the body immediately or perform all kinds of treatments on the body. If someone
gets serious sicknesses, or is not cured after a tremendous amount of medication,
or is declared cureless by doctors, we should also guide him to chant Buddha’s
name.
The problem of life-and-death is the single most important thing in
one's lifetime. It is also a problem that everyone has to face. It can happen
anytime and anywhere. So, why don't we get well prepared while we are still
conscious? Also, we can start by participating in and propagating the activity
of the chanting assistance of “Liberation Upon One Thought” to benefit others
tremendously.
1. The Truth of Life
What is the truth of life? Life is simply the
process of consecutive births and deaths of a spirit or consciousness according
to its karma.
Then what is
karma? Karma is whatever we do, whatever we speak, and whatever we think about.
Each action, word, or thought carries some corresponding energy. No matter what
we do, the corresponding energy will be released, which will affect others and
bind ourselves. This functionality of actions is called force of karma.
When a spirit,
due to the force of karma, enters a womb, a life begins. When the embryo grows
up to a body, it will leave the mother body, which is called birth. When the
karmic conditions for the existence of the body ends, the consciousness will
leave the body, which is called death. After the consciousness leaves the body,
according to its karma it will find another womb, where another birth and death
begin. The processes of births and deaths never end, which is the truth of
life.
Since karma is
the result of our own actions, it can also be determined and changed by ourselves.
On the other hand, life and death follow the force of karma, therefore life and
death can also be determined and changed by ourselves. Similarly, whatever we
encounter, whatever happens to us, and whatever we lose, etc. in our lives, can
all be determined and changed by ourselves.
To change our
karma, our ways of living and dying, and our lives, we must start from our
daily life actions, speeches, and thoughts. With one more beneficial action,
speech, or thought in our lives, we create a bit more good karma, and
consequently our lives become a bit better. With one more harmful action,
speech, or thought in our lives, we create a bit bad karma, and consequently
our lives become a bit worse. If each word we speak, each action we do, or even
each thought we have, never harms but always benefits the others, then our
lives will be full of pure virtuous karma. Thus it is impossible for our lives
not to become better.
2. What Is "Liberation Upon One Thought"?
To improve our lives we need to start working on our
every thought from now on. To be reborn in a better place, we must control our
last thought before death.
Buddha Shakyamuni
taught us: "In the boundless universe, there are countless worlds and
countless Buddhas who are teaching sentient beings. To the west of our world,
there is a world called “Utmost Bliss (Sukhavati)”, where Buddha Amitabha is
saving sentient beings in numerous worlds along the ten directions. For each
sentient being who has heard his name, truly believes in Him, has made sincere
wishes to be reborn in the World of Utmost Bliss, chants His name mindfully, performs
all kinds of virtuous deeds, and never commits bad actions, Buddha Amitabha
will come to welcome and lead his consciousness to the Pureland of Utmost Bliss
at the time of death. In the Pureland, there are no afflicted emotions, no
pain, no old age or death, no poverty or sickness, and nothing but pure, ever
lasting and constant happiness. If one has never practiced in one's lifetime,
but hears the name of Buddha Amitabha at the time of death and sincerely chants
it, the person will also be reborn in the Pureland."
How can one be
reborn in the Pureland simply by chanting the name of Buddha Amitabha before
death even if one has not practiced daily? That is because the last thought
before death is the thought at the crucial moment of life-and-death, and is the
thought at the turn of life and death. Consequently this thought is extremely
powerful. This thought may determine whether one is to be reborn in the
Pureland or to reenter the samsara, whether one is to be reborn in the heaven,
or degenerates to an animal, hungry ghost, or a hell being in the next
lifetime. If this thought is characterized by hatred, then dragged by the force
of hatred, one will fall into hell, or become a poisonous insect/animal. If
this thought is characterized by desire, then dragged by the force of desire,
one will be reborn in the realm of hungry ghost or animal. If this thought is
peaceful and calm, then one will be reborn as a human being. If one believes in
God and the last thought is praying to God, one will be able to communicate
with God and be reborn in the heaven as retinue of God.
Therefore if one
can direct the last thought before death toward Buddha, one would be responded
by Buddha and be reborn in a Buddha Field after death. Then immediately after one’s
last thought of this lifetime, his/her next life, which transcends the cycle of
life-and-death, appears in a lotus in the Utmost Bliss Pureland. This is what
is meant by “Liberation Upon One Thought”.
3. Why Should We Propagate Chanting Assistance
For "Liberation Upon One Thought"?
"Liberation Upon One Thought" sounds
simple. But in practice it could become extremely difficult. The reason is
that at the time of death, both one's body and mind suffer a great deal. It
would already be very difficult for one to remain calm, not to mention for one
to control the last thought and direct it toward Buddha. Unless one is a very
experienced practitioner, it would not be easy to rely solely upon one's own
power to be reborn in the Pureland through the last thought. Nevertheless, it
is a Buddhist practitioner's duty to “wish every sentient being to relieve all
sufferings while never strives for one's own happiness.” Therefore in Buddhism
there is a practice of “chanting assistance”, i.e. helping others to chant the
name of Buddha.
Chanting
assistance is a traditional Buddhist way of near death care. There are many
ways of chanting assistance, such as chanting assistance before death, chanting
assistance within eight hours of death, and chanting assistance during the
bardo period within three days of death. Even though all these ways of chanting
assistance carry the blessing of Buddhas and there are always auspicious signs
after the chanting assistance, the effectiveness of different ways of chanting
assistance are different. For the dying person it requires much less effort and
is much more effective to have chanting assistance before death than to have
chanting assistance after death. But for those providing the chanting
assistance, there are all kinds of problems to perform chanting assistance
before death, such as insufficient men power and the indefiniteness of time of
death.
We, ChihMin and
HueiHwa, always cherish the compassion of our lineage gurus that is no
different from that of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, and their great kindness
and expectations toward us offsprings. So we strive to work day and night,
without a day of laxness, on helping and saving sentient beings. Observing the
development of our Chanting Assistance Group, we have found that it is more or
less limited to chanting assistance after death and it is very rarely able to
do chanting assistance before death. Nevertheless, to save and help a dying
person more practically and effectively, it is the best to have chanting assistance
before death. Especially for most patients near death, their minds are tired
and extremely discursive. Since they may have never practiced chanting the name
of Buddha before, in addition that they are inflicted with all kinds of
sicknesses and attracted to all kinds of worldly concerns, it is impossible for
them to chant the name of Buddha wholeheartedly before death all by themselves.
At this critical moment of living-or-dying and rising-or-degenerating, if we
can help them to see, hear, or think about Buddha, so that the impression of
Buddha is directly related to the mental organ, then they will surely be reborn
in the Pureland.
During recent
years, the quiet and peaceful medical care has been greatly developed all over
the country, and the concept of near death care has also become more widely
spreaded. We would like to take this opportunity, disregard of our ignorance,
to advocate and spread the chanting assistance for liberation upon the last
thought before death. We would like to work with all Buddhism chanting
assistance groups, medical professionals and all people in the society to carry
out this extremely meaningful project that can benefit sentient beings
selflessly. We wish that everyone can control the last thought before death,
chant the name of Buddha, think about Buddha, see the images of Buddha, hear
the name of Buddha, return to the lotus Pureland all together, and attain
perfect enlightenment.
4. How to Perform Chanting Assistance to Liberate The Dying Upon the Last Thought?
To perform chanting assistance that helps a dying to
find liberation upon the last thought, there are three critical points to
notice:
1.
Do not perform emergency treatments, move the body,
change the clothes, wash the body,
cry, or make any kind of noises;
2.
Guide the patient skillfully to engender confidence
in the patient's mind;
3.
Make sure that he sees nothing but the Buddha, hears
nothing but the name of Buddha, thinks nothing but the Buddha, and continuously
concentrate on remembering Buddha until the consciousness leaves the body,
without a single moment's interruption.
(1) Preventing
Obstacles
For a patient who
is definitely approaching death, it is of most importance not to perform any
emergency treatments to save the patient's life. Instead send the patient to
his home immediately and let the patient's family make decisions on what to do
and make all the arrangements. The other way is to send the patient to the
Liberation Room (i.e. Chanting Assistance Room) in the hospital, and arrange
with the hospital so they do not perform emergency treatments and allow us time
to perform chanting assistance.
Why should we not
perform emergency treatments? The modern medical science pays attention only to
the condition of the body and uses instruments to judge whether the body is
alive, while ignoring the patient's spiritual aspects altogether. It is said that
when one dies, the consciousness needs to leave the body. During this process,
it is extremely painful and is described as to have a turtle taken off its
shell alive. Since the patients are almost exhausted and extremely sensitive,
even a slight touch would make them feel as been cut by a knife. But the
patient already has no control of the body. Neither can they tolerate such
misery beyond description, nor can they speak out. Therefore at this very
moment, it is very important not to move the body, not to rush to change
clothes for the patient or clean the body. If one tries to perform emergency
operations to save the life of a body that is approaching death according to
instruments, it is no different from putting the patient in hell. Torturing the
patient like this would easily make the patient angry and consequently fall
into lower realms.
On the other hand,
crying and making noises can disturb the patient's mind, which is also a great
suffering for the patient; in addition it would likely generate attachment in
the patient's mind and bring him/her back to the samsara.
(2) Skillful
Guidance
Besides preventing
all kinds of obstacles that can make the patient's body and mind suffer, we
need to guide him/her to let go of all his/her attachments to this life. We can
also briefly remind him about Buddha Amitabha and all those excellent virtues
of the Utmost
Bliss Pureland,
so he/she can generate faith in them and make aspirations to be reborn in the
Pureland.
To guide the
patient at this moment, it is important to use concise words and sentences and
be to the point, since the patient would not have enough energy to do
complicated thinking. For those who are almost or already in a half coma, the
guidance should be spoken very close to the patient’s ear, so it can be heard
easily.
The work of
guidance is best done by the patient’s relatives, since the voice of a relative
can be listened most easily. In case no relative is capable of the job,
professionals of the chanting assistance group should be asked to conduct the
guidance.
(3) Chanting
Assistance
After a brief
instruction that generates confidence in the patient's mind, it is time to
start the chanting assistance to have the patient remain mindful in the Buddha.
The key point for
chanting assistance is to make sure that what the patient sees, hears, and
thinks is nothing but the Buddha. Therefore if the dying is still conscious and
is able to see, a picture of the Buddha Amitabha standing with the gesture of
welcoming people to the Pureland should be placed at where he can see easily by
simply opening his eyes. The size of the picture should be large enough so that
the dying could easily see it clearly.
Second, we should
chant the Buddha’s name near the dying and let him/her hear it. If the dying can
speak, he/she should follow the chanting, either loudly or silently. If the
dying cannot speak, let him/her listen to the chanting of Buddha’s name constantly,
without a single moment of interruption. Since we don't know when the dying will
leave this world, his/her relatives should take the major responsibility of
chanting Buddha’s name consecutively. If there are not enough family
members, a chanting assistance group can be called to help. As is instructed by
Master YinKwang, the chanting is best done if divided into three shifts, with
each shift consists of one hour of chanting and two hours of rest. This would not
get people too tired and therefore is more long lasting. Of course it is also
fine to make proper adjustment according to the situation. The general
principle is to be able to chant continuously for a long time. This kind of
chanting should last until the dying gets reborn in the Pureland.
When ordinary people
die, the four elements separate from the consciousness consecutively, and bring
great sufferings to the dying. The organs corresponding to the six sense lose
their functionalities gradually, the body can not move, the mouth can not
speak, the vision is blurred, the nose and tongue senses then leave the body,
the mental sense becomes weak. On the other hand, the ear sense still exists
within since the ear and mental senses are the last ones to exit. This is the
most critical period for the ears to listen to the chanting of Buddha’s name.
When the voice of the chanting (of Buddha’s name) gets more and more remote,
until nothing is heard, the mental sense stops functioning. Therefore for the dying to get
liberated upon the last thought before death, this last thought must actually
be listening to the voice of chanting the name of Buddha Amitabha while the
mind is meditating on the Buddha’s Pureland. We sincerely hope that all
relatives, doctors, nurses, and Buddhists can grasp this precious opportunity at
the last second before people die, and help him/her listen to the Buddha’s
name, be reminded of the Buddha at the last thought, and gain certainty in
rebirth in the Pureland.
5. Aftermath Treatments
Even if a person is announced dead by a doctor, it
is improper to move the body immediately or perform all kinds of treatments on
the body. It is especially improper to send the body to a funeral house or store
it in a freezer. The reason is that even though judging from the outside appearances,
the body may have already stopped breathing, and the heart may have already
stopped beating. Nevertheless, actually it is very possible that there is still
fine breathing, and the consciousness still has not left the body. Therefore we
should continue to chant Buddha’s name, at least for another eight hours or
even twelve hours.
Twelve hours
after the breath stopped, we can then perform the worldly duties for the dead,
such as sending the body to a funeral house, washing the body, changing the
clothes, etc. Most people would worry about the stiffness of the body and not
being able to change the clothes. But as a matter of fact, for most deceased
people helped by the chanting assistance group, their bodies turn soft and
there have been no difficulties at all in changing clothes for them. Even if
the body gets stiff, we can still use towels soaked with warm water to cover
the joints, and the body will become soft again.
Within forty-nine
days of a person's death, the family members should try their best to do all
kinds of virtuous deeds for the deceased, such as help printing Buddhist
literatures in the name of the dead, helping the poor, making offerings to the
three jewels, etc., in order to increase good karmic conditions for the dead.
When a person is reborn in the Pureland, he would most likely be reborn in the
Land with Both Ordinary People and Saints, which has nine different levels.
Accumulating more merits will help the dead to be born to a higher level and
have even more wonderful achievements. In the mean time, relatives should also
not commit bad karmas, they should especially avoid killing animals as
offerings. It is the best if all family members can be vegetarian for
forty-nine days and do not add burden to the dead due to bad karmas.
6 How to Guide the Seriously Ills
If someone gets serious sicknesses, or is not cured
after a tremendous amount of medication, or is declared cureless by doctors, we
should also guide him to chant Buddha’s name. Buddha Sakyamuni once said
that: "If one can chant the Buddha Amitabha’s name once, the sins of birth
and death over eight billion eons will be purified." Bad karma can be
purified by chanting Buddha’s name. If a person has not yet reached the limit
of life, he will recover when the bad karma is purified. If the end of life is
reached, by purifying bad karma, he/she can be easily reborn into the Utmost
Bliss Pureland, where there is neither sufferings nor sicknesses. Therefore,
chanting Buddha’s name can save one's life if one is savable. If one is not
savable, one would leave this life and body behind and obtain a permanent and
deathless life.
But the first
step is for the dying to get rid of his/her attachment to this life, i.e. he/she
should become fearless of death. Only when a person becomes fearless of death that
he/she can generate a true confidence toward Buddha Amitabha. Only with a true
confidence can chanting the Buddha’s name become effective. That is, either the
person's life is saved or he/she gets reborn in the Pureland with no birth and
no death thereafter.
Thus the first
step is to guide the dying to generate confidence in Buddha Amitabha, make
aspirations to be reborn in the Pureland, see through the processes of birth
and death, and let go of all the attachments to self and the others, right and
wrong, gratitude and resentment, and gain and lose of this life. Then install
in his/her living place a large picture of Buddha Amitabha so that the dying
can see the picture all the time. Also ask the dying to chant Buddha’s name sincerely.
Since it is unpredictable when the dying will leave this world, which could be
a long time later for some people, it is better off to prepare an electronic
chanting machine that plays the chanting of the Buddha’s name. We can play it
near his/her ears or let the dying carry the machine and hear the chanting
constantly. This reminds him not to forget chanting the Buddha’s name. Whenever
available the family members should chant the Buddha’s name together with him.
If the patient is
already too sick to chant Buddha’s name by him/herself, we should then help him/her
to do it through chanting with him/her or by using electronic chanting machines.
We should let the dying hear the chanting all the time and ask him/her to follow
the chanting by heart.
In addition, one
can also apply for a quiet and peaceful therapy (in hospitals or at home), or
consult with quiet and peaceful therapy professionals about the corresponding
guidance work.
When the
phenomena of dying appears, we should start the chanting assistance, as
described above, to help him/her gain liberation in the Pureland upon the last
thought before death.
7. What Everyone of Us Should Be Prepared For
The problem of life-and-death is the single most important thing in one's lifetime. It is also a problem that everyone has to face. It can happen anytime and anywhere. So, why don't we get well prepared while we are still conscious?
We may
communicate with our family members and relatives beforehand and reach agreements
about the necessary treatments when we become critically sick and after our
death. We can also set up a will
and ask them to proceed according to the will. But all these would depend on the
others to help us chanting, which is not really secure.
Luckily, in
additional to this way that depends upon other people, there is still another
way which we can have self-control. That is, as mentioned above, what Buddha
Sakyamuni told us, if we can believe in Buddha Amitabha, we can make an
aspiration now to be reborn in the Utmost Bliss Pureland when our lives end.
Then we should never forget Buddha Amitabha from now on. We should chant the
name of Buddha Amitabha constantly and learn his spirit of helping and saving
sentient beings selflessly. Under any given situation, we should think only
about how to benefit the others, and never hurt the others. If we can practice like this
continuously, we would naturally not forget Buddha Amitabha at the time of
death, and Buddha Amitabha would certainly come to welcome us to his Pureland.
This is the way that we can have control by ourselves.
Of course the
safest way is to have both. On one hand we start practicing from now on, and on
the other hand we also ask the others to lend us a hand when we are about to
die.
8. Let Us All Propagate the Activity
Since we want to learn Buddha Amitabha's spirit of
benefiting sentient beings, as a first step, we can start by participating in
and propagating the activity of the chanting assistance of “Liberation Upon One
Thought.” There are many benefits of assisting others through chanting Buddha’s
name. On one hand we can learn, from practice, of how to remain calm and how to
get reborn in the Pureland at the time of our own death. On the other hand, helping one
person to get reborn in the Pureland will make one pure connection with the
Pureland for us. Helping tens, hundreds, and thousands of people would mean
tens, hundreds, and thousands of connections with the Pureland. When we are
about to die, all these pure connections will ripen. All those who you once helped to get
reborn in the Pureland will come to your help and welcome you to the
Pureland. Also, helping one
person get reborn in the Pureland is not helping only one to become a Bodhisattva.
He/She will come back to this world according to his aspirations and save
countless sentient beings to get reborn in the Pureland. After these countless
sentient beings are reborn in the Pureland, each of them will also come back to
save countless beings. Such merit is immeasurable no matter how we calculate it,
and all these merits will become the "capitals" for us to get reborn
in the Pureland in the future.
Thus, we hope
every man and woman, whoever sees, hears, and knows this information, can
participate in this activity and work together in getting others and ourselves
liberated so that everyone's life can have a perfect ending.
Here we would
specifically like to request the participation of doctors and nurses. This is
because you are those who have first hand contact with seriously ill or dying
patients, and the patients and their relatives always have particular
confidence in you. So if each doctor or nurse can support, work with, or even
participate in the chanting group, it would certainly make the activity even
more smooth and perfect, than what the others can do. The principle of
medication is to save people's lives. If saving one's life of this lifetime
becomes impossible while we can further help saving his spirit and
consciousness, aren’t we saving one's life at a higher level? Therefor we
sincerely ask all doctors and nurses, based upon the number one code of saving
people's lives, to work together and save the permanent and deathless lives of
people.