Dying with Confidence Quotes

“The best time to practice, the best time to prepare for the reality of death, and the best time to clarify our own Dharma Visions, is the present. Don’t waste a moment.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“Then, he spoke these final words, “At the moment of death, the ability to abide in the nature of mind, the indivisible three kayas—with its empty essence, clear nature and all-pervasive compassion—is extremely important.” He spoke the seed syllable AH while seated in the vajra posture and then passed away.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“Beings living in the modern, degenerate age are continually tormented by five lethal poisons and drunk on the five sense objects following after fleeting worldly phenomena; distracted by unattainable worldly actions; believing that the insubstantial is substantial.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“There is a metaphor in the Tibetan texts that says that one who receives teachings but does not gain experience through practice is like a farmer who doesn’t tend his own fields—even as he constantly tells others how they should tend theirs. People today receive many teachings, but at the time of death have they gained enough experience to die well?”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“The great protector Maitreya said that when one realizes the state of equality, or the nature of mind, there are no lower realms or lower births. All is the expression of a pure land. We often think of the pure realms of realized beings as existing somewhere outside of us. It is important to realize that, in regards to a pure land, there is no place to go. The only pure realm is mastery of the mind.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“He said that a yogi must seriously examine the origin of the arising of fear, where fear abides, and where it ceases, in order to be completely free from the fear of death. When we examine the place of arising, abiding, and cessation of fear (or any afflictive emotion) and cannot find them, we should rest in the confidence that all phenomena are beyond arising, abiding, and cessation.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“Contemplate the Importance of Mastering the Mind Your mind must deal with every experience. Think about how attaining mastery over the mind will enable you to lose any fear of death. Come to the certainty that you must master your mind in order to die with confidence.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“To have fearless confidence upon which we can rely in the Bardo of Suchness, we must have practiced diligently in the Bardo of Birth and Living. We cannot naively think that meditative stability will somehow be naturally possible in this bardo. That is a fantasy we should abandon.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“When wind dissolves into consciousness, we are close to the moment of death, but according to Buddhist texts we are not actually dead until the “inner breath” ceases. The Bardo of Dying is not yet complete. This time, when the outer breath has ceased and before the inner breath ceases, is one of the most beneficial times for a lama to be present. It is very difficult for a dying person to recognize the moment when the outer breath ceases; we need knowledgeable entrusted Dharma friends, and our lama if possible, as well as incredible mindfulness at this time. Yet if we practice now, it will definitely benefit us! In the West, the signs of the dissolution of the elements may be difficult to notice if life-support technology takes over some of the dying person’s bodily functions. If we are practitioners with strong faith in Dharma and we believe that we are dying, we may want to decide in advance about using life support when we are at this advanced stage in the dying process, leaving advance directives to inform friends, family, and physicians about our wishes. This is, of course, a very emotional decision for the friends and family of the person who is dying, and one that is difficult to make when the process of death has actually begun. I believe that each and every being should have the right to make these decisions for themselves and to die as they wish.”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

“Protector, by your blessing and the mighty truth of the Rare and Supreme Three Roots, may all beings awaken from ignorance! While in the Bardo of Birth and Living, may beings first listen impartially to teachings, then cut through doubts about the meaning, and finally, take up the meaning that was understood. May they follow after the sacred ones who have come before, attain a fearless and confident death, and attain liberation free of the bardos!”
― Anyen Rinpoche, Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death