Question asked by Audrey Leong
Referring to one of the rinpoche's blog while you still can, to visualize in detail of our death. My friend discourage me to do it because i have mental illness. May I know the correct way and the thing i need to take note while doing this visualization.
https://www.tsemrinpoche.com/tsem-tulku-rinpoche/buddhas-dharma/while-i-still-can-趁我还行.html
Dear Audrey,
I’m sorry to learn you have mental illness. May you be blessed by the Three Jewels and recover fully from your illness. The visualisation of the death process is to prepare oneself mentally so that we will not be afraid when we suddenly come face to face with death. It would be good to begin with meditation on death and impermanence as well as the precious human existence.
The best way to overcome our attachment to worldly activities is to contemplate on death and impermanence. When we meditate on death, we will fully understand what impermanence means.
In fact the problems we encounter in life come from the idea that things are permanent, that everything will stay as it is for a very long time. Our small daily problems seem so important that we forget how precious life is.
When we understand death and impermanence we will appreciate our precious human life, become less attached to our worldly enjoyments, and our faith in the Dharma will grow. We become less unhappy, more open-minded, wiser, more carefree and relaxed. When confronted with death, our petty problems become insignificant. We will not let ourselves be affected by small things and we will have a clearer and more detached view of life in this world. This will reduce our psychological problems.
Therefore, we should try to practice Dharma diligently and not waste our precious human existence. Meditate on this strongly.