Buddha Shakyamuni taught the Dharma in order to wake up all sentient beings and dispel the hindrances that have bothered us for such a long time. These negativities will not just go away or be cleared up by anything except teachings on love, compassion, and wisdom. Why can’t the Buddha just wash away our difficulties? We create the dense stains of our own negative emotions—therefore, only we can remove them. The Buddha has shown us skillful techniques and methods that will completely uproot the cause of our troubles, but we ourselves must apply these methods with joyful effort for them to work.

The practice of Phowa is designed to release and liberate duality conceptions into wisdom awareness. Phowa is so profound, direct, and swift that if we apply this technique at the time of death, we can achieve buddhahood, even if we haven’t had the time or ability to meditate very much during our lifetime. Without any other meditation, this practice leads directly to realization. In brief, Phowa is the Vajrayana technique for transferring your consciousness to the pure land of Amitabha at the moment of death. Once you reach this pure land, you will unfailingly proceed through the stages of the path until you reach full enlightenment.

For study: Essential Journey of Life and Death: Volume Two; Using Dream Yoga and Phowa as the Path

Essential Journey of Life and Death: Volume Two

Retreat begins Saturday, July 14, with morning practice at 7am, breakfast and registration 8-10; and first teaching at 10am.

Retreat concludes around 1:00pm on Sunday, July 22.