Po-wa: Transference of Consciousness at
the Time of Death
Lama Thubten Yeshe
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First Discourse: 2nd March
Tonight we shall have a short introduction to the transference
of consciousness, known in Tibetan as po-wa. For
the practice at this time we shall use Amitabha Buddha as
our Refuge object. In fact, po-wa meditation can
be performed with many different meditational deities, such
as Vajra Yogini, Yamantaka and so forth, and all such meditations
derive not from Tibetan lamas but from the teachings of Shakyamuni
Buddha himself. To be precise, po-wa instructions
derive from the Guhyasamaja tantra, which contains a description
of this technical method even though it does not spell out
the instructions in the exact form in which they are practiced.
Although this subject matter belongs to the highest level
of tantra, many skillful Tibetan lamas have extracted it from
this context and have presented it in terms of the deities
of the lower levels of tantra. I myself received these instructions
in terms of Vajra Yogini, but I feel that it will be good
for Westerners, and myself as well, to have them explained
here in terms of Amitabha Buddha. My reasoning is that Amitabha
Buddha is less complex than other deities. Even more important
than this is the fact that most Westerners easily relate to
and understand Avalokiteshvara, and many of our students have
received his initiation. As you have great devotion to this
Lord of Compassion and as there is a close connection, or
agreement, between him and Amitabha, I thought it would be
beneficial to take advantage of these close connections and
present a practice that might prove useful to many interested
Westerners.
Although different po-wa instructions are given in terms of
different deities, the actual technical methods explained
in all of them are the same. There is really not much difference
between the actual method of po-wa as explained in terms of
Vajra Yogini and the method to be explained here in terms
of Amitabha. What is essential, however, is that we practice
with the right attitude. This is extremely important. For
example, some people may have heard that with po-wa instructions
it makes no difference if you commit heavy negativities, such
as killing your parents and so forth; you will still be able
to achieve a fortunate rebirth. But this is a mistaken attitude;
it does not work this way. Without depending on the creation
of virtuous karma and establishing the proper connection with
Amitabha Buddha, it is very difficult to achieve his pure
land. It is not some place you can fly to by jet. So we must
create the appropriate karma. This matter of karma is actually
quite simple. We do have devotion to Avalokiteshvara; we do
have confidence in the essence of Avalokiteshvara and Amitabha
Buddha, and to some extent we have a fairly good intellectual
notion of what Amitabha's pure land is. What we need, however,
is devotion. We need to maintain the correct attitude towards
these practices.
We know that our present situation—where we are now—is
dependent on karmic causation, and in our everyday life we
are constantly dealing with cause and effect. At the moment
we have enough good fortune not to have been born in one of
the three lower realms. We have certain powers and abilities
of mind, a certain strength of intellect and a certain freedom
of movement. Everything we are able to engage in comes from
the mind; this is karma as well. However, even though we now
have the human freedom to move about as we like, to avoid
unpleasant situations, and to pursue our desires and so forth,
no matter where we go we end up with miserable disappointment.
It does not matter where we go; unexpectedly we end up with
problems. All of us experience this. We are always experiencing
dissatisfaction and confusion, not to mention sickness, old
age, death and other worries. Thus, although we may have a
great wish to benefit others greatly as did Shakyamuni Buddha,
Padmasambhava, Je Tsong Khapa, Milarepa and many other great
teachers, our present circumstances makes this difficult,
if not impossible. Life in this desire realm is so difficult
that even our altruistic wishes remain unfulfilled. Therefore
it is extremely worthwhile to gain rebirth in Amitabha's pure
land.
Furthermore, by checking up on our own experience we discover
how slow we are. For instance, think of the time we have wasted
today. We have spent a great deal of our day in sleep and
other fruitless activities. The circumstances of our life-style
are overwhelming; it is not easy to transcend the nonsense
of our existence. This is also due to our karma. The paradise
of Amitabha's pure land, however, does not contain such difficulties
and hindrances. Even the name of mundane suffering does not
exist there. There is no illness, dying or suffering of birth.
Everyone reborn into this pure realm just appears there instantly
and receives teachings directly from Amitabha Buddha himself.
Merely by being in this pure realm one possesses the five
telepathic powers. All of these conducive conditions have
come about because of the prayers Amitabha Buddha sent forth
during the five hundred great aeons he traveled the bodhisattva
path. Therefore, anyone who is born in Amitabha's actual pure
land possesses extrasensory powers and experiences no confusion
of mind whatsoever. Furthermore, unlike the experience of
being in other higher realms, beings born into Amitabha's
pure land never fall down to a lower state.
Therefore, concerning the right attitude we mentioned earlier,
we should be interested in discovering the quickest method
to benefit all mother sentient beings: you should be motivated
to be born in Amitabha's pure land solely because you feel
that this is the quickest way of accomplishing this aim. In
such a realm we can become enlightened in but one lifetime
and therefore benefit all beings. Thus you should adopt the
great enlightened attitude of bodhicitta. With this attitude
our meditation will be worthwhile. Otherwise, if we are interested
only in enhancing our reputation or building our ego, our
attitude is incorrect.
Although we should have such a strong bodhicitta attitude,
we should also be relaxed. This is very important. True bodhicitta
itself is a relaxed attitude. This is practical; if we are
uptight and someone comes to us with a problem, we will become
so nervous that we cannot offer help. But with a properly
relaxed bodhicitta attitude, we have the space to handle any
problem we may encounter. This is an essential point.
So all of us should approach these po-wa instructions
with the proper attitude. Yet it is important to realize that
anyone who has achieved enlightenment in this lifetime already
has no need whatsoever for these instructions on the transference
of consciousness. These teachings are not necessary for everyone.
For someone who has achieved enlightenment in this lifetime
with this body, these present teachings are useless. Po-wa
teachings are only for those people who feel that it is impossible
for them to gain enlightenment in this lifetime. They are
for someone who thinks, "I have received teachings on
the three principal paths; I have meditated on them; I have
received Vajrayana instructions and tried to practice the
generation stage, but I have discovered that it is not possible
for me to attain enlightenment in this lifetime. I can see
that according to my circumstances this would be impossible.
Therefore, I cannot stand to wait and have to go through the
suffering of confusion again; instead I must go to Amitabha's
pure land." (Therefore I cannot believe that so many
people have come to attend these teachings; does that mean
that none of you think that you can achieve enlightenment
in this lifetime?)
Also, you should recall the line in the guru puja: Lam-na
ma-zin chi-way du-je-na, which means, "Should we
not have completed the points of the path at the time of death."
This means that if you have practiced the bodhisattva path
but still have not attained the destination (enlightenment),
then you should practice po-wa. So it is only if
you cannot achieve your destination in this lifetime that
the practice of po-wa becomes necessary. In other
words, if you feel that it is utterly impossible for you to
attain enlightenment without going through the experience
of yet another lifetime—and you can be almost certain
about this—then you need to follow these po-wa
practices. This matter completely depends upon one's individual
experience. Philosophically, however, it is said that these
practices are for those who will not attain enlightenment
in this lifetime and definitely need another life to reach
their goal. Such people need to practice po-wa. We
all know that the samsaric realms are full of obstacles to
the completion of our practices. This is the logic to explain
why one would want to transfer one's consciousness to a pure
land.
Yet for the Western mind these po-wa instructions can present
a problem. We Tibetans generally have no difficulty believing
that it is possible to be reborn from a lotus, without depending
on a father and mother. Can the Western mind accept this?
Do you believe that it is possible to be reborn in a pure
land with either a human or a psychic body without a father
or a mother? According to the po-wa instructions this is what
happens—one is reborn instantly from a lotus flower. With
Amitabha's activity as a co-operative cause, your consciousness
is thrown like a seed into a lotus and it is from such a situation
that you are born immediately in his pure land. Furthermore,
once we are reborn in such a land we have no need to work
for a living, prepare food or engage in any other mundane
tasks. Everything that we might desire or need comes to us
intuitively and instantly.
I think it is very helpful to visualize these excellent qualities
of Amitabha's pure land; it is very helpful for eliminating
the lower, baser concepts we have about our environment. We
do in fact have such low conceptions. We always feel that
our environment is complicated. It does not matter where we
go; every environment we meet is complicated. For example,
when I go to America, everything seems to be polluted; when
I go to Italy, everything seems to be dirty; when I go to
Spain, neurotic energy seems to be coming in my ears; when
I go to England, the English uptight mind seems to come at
me; and when I go to France, their samsaric technology seems
to come after me. Thus we do need to develop a pure vision.
You know from the practice of tantra that it is important
to visualize yourself as a buddha and your surroundings as
a mandala; this is the pure land visualization. Thus it is
very good to bring to mind these excellent qualities of a
pure land.
The importance of this can be explained by example. When I
come to the Tushita Retreat Center in Dharamsala, I automatically
feel relaxed. Whenever I return from a tour to the West, I
always stop at Tushita, where I feel so comfortable. In my
small, quiet room there I experience release from the problems
people bombard me with. For me it is such a conducive environment.
This example demonstrates the possibility that Amitabha's
pure land, created by his prayers over five hundred great
aeons, is a place where the mind can experience total and
unceasing awakening. It is a place where the mind never falls
asleep from this awakening, where there is no hatred, no aggression
and so forth. This is definitely possible.
As I said before, those who have no possibility of attaining
enlightenment in this lifetime and definitely need another
one should follow these po-wa instructions. What about ourselves?
In this case there is no certainty: maybe we shall become
enlightened in this lifetime, maybe not. This depends on many
co-operative circumstances. Thus it is very hard to say with
complete assurance that one either will or will not become
enlightened in this very lifetime. So the best thing to do
in either case is to make preparations now. It is never too
late to make such preparations. I heard that some monks at
Sera, when they heard that the Chinese were coming in 1959,
decided that it was no longer worthwhile to stay around, so
they practiced po-wa and left. In fact, many monks and geshes
have been successful in this practice.
It is very good to be able to have this ability and gaining
it is totally a matter of the human will. Bodhicitta, for
example, is a very powerful mind, both subjectively and objectively.
In the same way, when one has the proper will and the necessary
technical skill, it is definitely possible to transfer one's
consciousness to a pure land. Therefore, it is good to master
these technical methods, even if we do not feel we actually
need them. At the moment we may be healthy and think that
death won't come for a long time, but we cannot be sure about
this; we are never certain what will actually happen to us.
Therefore, it is wise to master these techniques now, so that
even if death comes sooner than we expect, we shall be prepared.
If we do not prepare ourselves beforehand, then it will be
impossible to practice the transference of consciousness when
death actually comes. There's a Tibetan proverb that says
that without training, a horse won't run correctly. Similarly,
if we are to perform po-wa successfully at the time of death,
we must train ourselves beforehand. Furthermore, even if we
don't need to practice po-wa ourselves, we can use it to help
others to transfer their consciousness.
Furthermore, if we possess such a technique, we can live our
lives without fear: we shall know that even if a disastrous
situation arises, there is something we can do. If we find
ourselves in a bad situation, we have the confidence of knowing
that we can go to a better place whenever we want. This allows
us to be relaxed instead of uptight.
It should also be understood that practicing po-wa and achieving
the pure land is not easy. Why? Because we are tied to the
desire realm by the iron chain of our grasping. As long as
we don't break this chain of attachment it will be impossible
for us to achieve Amitabha's pure land. Therefore, the necessary
preparation for this practice is developing the mind that
is unattached to possessions, friends and so forth. This is
the real preparation for this practice. The true obstacle
that prevents us from reaching Amitabha's pure land is our
grasping attitude. That is why in Tibet, when a monk knew
he was going to die, he would completely dispose of all his
material possessions, indicating precisely how they should
be distributed. Therefore, at the time of death there would
be nothing left for him to hold on to. In the West there is
the system of making one's will.
The point is that to be able to go to Amitabha's pure land,
you cannot be hung up with objects of temporal pleasure. This
is our usual problem, so of course it also interferes with
achieving Amitabha's pure land. In this regard there is the
story of the dying monk who had great difficulty transferring
his consciousness to the pure land of Tushita because he was
so attached to the butter in his butter tea. His guru realized
that his hangup was his attachment to the butter tea so he
told him, "There's better butter tea in Tushita."
This put the monk's mind at ease and he was then able to transfer
his consciousness easily.
Now let us turn from philosophical considerations to practical
ones. To accomplish po-wa we need a certain amount
of concentration. We also have a special need for preparing
our central channel (shushuma). We have to be able
to visualize this channel clearly, seeing it smaller on its
lower end than it is on its upper. This channel begins four
finger widths below the navel and goes straight up until it
ends at the crown of our head, eight finger widths behind
our hairline. It is of a clear crystal-like nature, not in
any way heavy or solid. It is very smooth and soft. It is
necessary to visualize this well, but that does not mean we
should squeeze our mind.
According to tantra there are gross, subtle and very subtle
levels of the mind. While practicing the po-wa visualizations
in preparation for death we utilize the gross levels of mind;
however, when the time comes for us actually to transfer our
consciousness, it is the very subtle level of mind that is
activated. At the time of our conception, when the germ cells
of our mother and father came together, they contained certain
delicate, clear, essential drops of energy. That subtle, essential
energy, present at the time of conception, still exists at
our heart center sitting within the central channel. This
very subtle drop of energy at our heart is known in Tibetan
as tig-le (Skt: bindu) and it is within
this tig-le that our very subtle mind is located.
When the time comes to transfer our consciousness it is this
very subtle energy together with our very subtle mind that
is propelled up our central channel, out of the crown of our
head and into Amitabha's pure land.
Tonight's practice will be to visualize the central channel,
which should be seen as closer to our back, a little bit in
front of our spine, closed at the bottom for the time being
and open at the crown of our head. Then see the fundamental
energy of the tig-le, or seed-syllable, as sitting
like a small pea within this channel at the level of the heart.
After focussing your attention on this seed syllable, if you
can you should try to bring it up to the throat level and
then to the crown. From this vantage point look down the central
channel and try to see its interior as clearly as possible.
Then have the seed syllable descend until it reaches the throat
center, the heart center and then all the way down to the
navel. This way of exploring the central channel is an excellent
preparation for the actual practice of po-wa.
Before doing the meditation thus described it is helpful
to visualize Amitabha Buddha seated in space in front of you
at the level of your forehead. He is ruby red in color and
his entire body is made out of transparent, radiant light.
In the actual po-wa practices he will be visualized
above the crown of your head, but now at the preliminary stage
it is permissible to see him in front of yourself facing you.
You should begin your practice by taking Refuge in Amitabha
and then visualize that radiant light energy comes from him
down into your central channel and completely purifies you
of all hindrances to the practice. This light especially purifies
your indecisive mind and the grasping attitude with which
you are attached to objects of the desire realm. Such purification
is very useful and should be done extensively. By means of
such purification visualization you slowly transform your
gross physical body into one of radiant light. Once you have
accomplished this transformation in your meditation it is
much easier to visualize the central channel within your body.
Meditating on the body as being transparent makes it easier
to visualize the central channel and the blissful seed-syllable
at your heart. This seed-syllable, or tig-le, should
be seen as white in color, clear as crystal and with a slight
reddish tint. This seed-syllable is a small radiant point
of light, like a tiny star vibrating with a white radiance
and having a reddish glow. Focus your concentration on this
seed-syllable and then move it to the various centers as described
above. As you move the seed-syllable up and down the central
channel you should pause for a while in each of the centers.
For example, when you reach the throat center you should stop
there and send forth radiant light. Visualize that this light
removes whatever blockages might be obstructing the throat
center, thereby allowing energy to flow smoothly through the
many minor channels that make up the throat chakra. This same
type of purification visualization should be done at the other
chakras as well.
In order to strengthen your visualization of the central channel
and the seed-syllable, you can do this visualization in conjunction
with holding the vase breath. This technique will be discussed
and practiced in more detail later. In brief, it entails bringing
a long, slow breath down into the abdomen and then tightening
the lower muscles of the pelvic floor (those involved in retaining
urine, feces, etc.), and then, while holding this breath,
focussing your attention on the seed-syllable at your heart.
At the point where it is just becoming difficult to hold your
breath any longer, you can breath out a long, slow exhalation
through either your nostrils or your mouth. Holding the vase
breath in this way helps your mind experience bliss and enhances
your concentration. Breathing in deeply and tightening your
lower muscles slightly causes the upper and lower energies
to meet, and this meeting in turn produces a blissful feeling.
If and when this experience arises you should let go of it;
you need to learn to give up grasping at pleasure and not
pay emotional attention to it. This is the true training of
the mind and something we all need.
Concerning the visualization of the central channel, you should
choose a dimension that is comfortable for you. At this point
in the practice, whether you visualize it as narrow as a pencil
or as wide as your arm does not matter, but you should see
it as wider at the top than the bottom. This practice of po-wa
is not easy; it is not something completely unrelated to your
individual karma. On the contrary, it has a lot to do with
your karma. Therefore you should do the practice in a way
that is most comfortable for you as an individual.
In addition to the technical methods mentioned so far, there
are other things you can do to enhance your practice. For
instance, when you go to sleep tonight, feel that you are
going to Amitabha's pure land. When you lie in your bed, think
that your head is resting in Amitabha Buddha's lap. When you
wake up in the morning you should feel that you are being
roused from sleep by the sound of Amitabha's wisdom bell telling
you it is time to arise. Then visualize that Amitabha himself
sinks into you, and when you come to the next meditation session
feel that you are again on your way to Amitabha's pure land.
This way of thinking and practicing is very good—much better
than our ordinary confused and nonsensical way of thinking
and acting.
So that is enough for this lecture. As always, we should finish
with an attitude of dedication, dedicating all our energy
to rebirth in the pure land of Amitabha's buddha field in
order to benefit all mother sentient beings most quickly.
Thank you.
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