Audio recorded at Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide. Transcript auto-generated and AI-corrected; may contain errors.
About this talk. In this 63-minute teaching, Kyabje Rinpoche offers oral instruction on Phowa, the tantric practice of directing consciousness at death. He begins with tantra quotes that map where consciousness exits the body to different rebirths — deity realms, human, animal, hungry ghost, hell — and explains how mental blockage of eight body doors (while keeping the crown door open) directs consciousness upward. He guides practitioners through core visualizations: the central channel from navel to crown; subtle winds and accumulated merit blocking its lower opening; the body as radiant and empty; the mind as a sparkling white drop at the heart. He emphasizes relying on the guru, visualized as inseparable from Amitābha Buddha on one’s crown, and stresses training in Phowa now rather than attempting it at death. For practitioners who have received Phowa initiation.
File metadata (for organising)
File: Line in 0111 – KR.mp3
UUID: d49690cc-f312-4cec-8aa8-3c28b7e234b9
Teacher: Kyabje Rinpoche
Collection: Rinpoche's Story
Recorded at: Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Adelaide
Words: ~2,547
And then we have two quotes from two different tantras, the tantra of the four Vajra Seats and the Sampota tantra, which will be explained later on. So the quotes are quite cryptic. From the tantra of the four Vajra Seats, the navel leads to high rebirth of the desire of nature of desire. The drop to a body with form, in dependence on that, a place such as that. Without this no suffering.
From the nose one abides as a yakṣa, and from the ears as an established God. If it occurs from the eyes as a being of wisdom, and from the human apertures as a Lord, from the gate of existence as a preta, and from the urinary tract as an animal. From that place, which is waterless, swift as consciousness, it is to be known as rebirth in hell for the eighth. The various doors are to be understood as the various entrances to cyclic existence. In keeping with this quote from the tantra of the Four Vajra Seats, the which is which is probably a tantra of Heruka.
The Samputa tantra in a slightly more understandable version in the third chapter reads as follows. From the good path, one will abide in a pleasing place, and from the bad paths, one will endure the torments of existence. The drop at the navel and the crown, at the eye and the ear, as well as the nose, at the place of water and the waterless door, from the navel rebirth as a god of the desire realm, by the drop higher status with form. in dependence on this becoming a transmigrator, all transmigrators are to be carefully examined from the ear as a Yaksha, excuse me, from the nose as a Yaksha and from the ear as an established deity. If it occurs from the eye as a wisdom being, all humans become lords thereby from the door of existence as a preta and from the door of water, in other words, the urinary tract, as an animal from the waterless door in the hell realms.
So these two quotes refer to the passages which are used by consciousness at the time of death. If consciousness leaves from the crown, it is reborn as a deity of the formless realm. If it leaves from the aperture between the eyebrows as a deity of the form realm. If it leaves from the eyes as a human being, from the navel as a desire deity, deity of the desire realm, from the ears as a deity which is established. Remember, it says, when we speak of a deity which is established, it’s a certain category of deities.
From the nose as a Yaksha, from the urinary tract as an animal, from the mouth as a preta, and from the anus as a hell being. Therefore, in brief, generally speaking, there are nine doors. Of the nine doors, the eight ordinary doors apart from the crown, are all to be blocked and only the door of the crown is to be kept open. Now these nine doors have various physical blockages which may be flesh, bone, or skin. This is not what is referred to by blocking the door.
It is a mental blockage we have to engage in. And then continuing with our text, it is crucial to rely on the oral instructions of the teacher and to hear them completely and gain ascertainment with respect to them, and then interiorize these oral instructions. And in dependence on the speech of the teacher, these instructions, enter into the practice of Poa. There are several modes of blocking the sensory doors. In keeping with tantra, the sensory doors are blocked, the sensory gates are blocked by placing various syllables at the opening of the gates.
In this oral tradition, the central channel is visualized as starting somewhere below the navel and rising all the way up to the top of the Brahma aperture. Rinpoche says at this point we have to visualize our body and within our body there are three main channels, generally 72,000 channels, but there are three main channels. The central channel, Avadhūtī, Rasana and Lalana. Now, the central channel is the only one which preoccupies us in this practice. And the central channel has only two openings.
A lower up opening and an upper up opening on our crown. There are no other openings. So the question is how do we block the lower opening? We don’t block it in accordance with the practice in Tantras where a syllable is visualized at the level of the lower opening we want to block. Instead, we allow it to be blocked by its own force.
And the way this is done is that at the level of the lower opening of the central channel, we visualize a blockage or a door, if you want, which is in the appearance of a heap of rice in nature, in the nature of our collected roots of virtue, and the karmic winds which are connected with that. So we have this heap basically at the bottom of the center channel which blocks the lower aperture. Regarding the other doors, there is no need to visualize them as being blocked by syllables, since as Rinpoche explained, this little channel has only two apertures. Lower one is blocked. The other sense apertures do not concern us.
And then, we must visualize clearly at the very center of our body, very straight, as the text says, a bamboo arrow, which is probably the straightest thing available in Tibet, extending from below our navel all the way up to the crown, the Brahma aperture at the top of our head, the central channel, and then sitting in the meditation posture with seven characteristics, the posture of Vairochana, we must meditate on the fact that our body is totally empty. This is actually a physical emptiness. We’re not talking here of emptiness of inherent existence. And this actually has three different components. First, we meditate on the actual emptiness of the body, which is the fact that one’s body is not material in aspect as, for instance, the oar of a boat, but instead would be like the inside of a tent which is covered by a red silk roof.
So you would have the outer covering of the body, which is the skin, in this case a red silk roof, but the inside is completely empty. Or the other example which is given for this visualization is that our body would like would be like a bone trumpet. In other words, a length of femur from which the cartilage has been expelled. So there’s just a shell. And both the inside and the exterior parts of our body would be radiant and luminous.
So this is the first emptiness which must be visualized as a preliminary to the practice of Poa, the emptiness of the body. The second emptiness is to meditate on the emptiness of the channels. At this point we do not need to visualize clearly the two lateral channels, Rasana and Lalana. But the central channel must be visualized clearly. It has the following characteristics.
It is very smooth, oily in appearance, perfectly straight, and very soft and pliant. Its exterior skin is blue, while the interior is visualized as red. Regarding its width, it is said to be equal in width to a bamboo arrow shaft, which means, remember Jay says, approximately the width of one small finger. And it resembles or the visualization of the central channel in this practice resembles the visualization of an upside down brass horn whose upper part would be rising and rising until it touched the Brahma aperture at the crown. And we must imagine that it is so broad at this point that one could see from it the whole expanse of space.
Its lower aperture on the other hand becomes narrower and narrower. And then in some of the Poa commentaries, it is said that the central channel below the heart, but is probably in those commentaries above the navel, is said to be blocked by a heap of light. This is not the case in this tradition, which is Chöka Lama Rinpoche’s tradition, nor for that matter does the description of the actual position of the central channel in our text correspond exactly with Chonelama Rinpoche’s description since in our text it is said that central channel is slightly behind the central axis of the body. While in Chonelama’s tradition, which Rinpoche is imparting, it is exactly in the middle So the presentation here is in keeping with the presentation of the great Amdo teacher, Chonelama Rinpoche, who was one of the great teachers of Pabongka Rinpoche. So our text reads, my root teacher Chonelama Rinpoche, in his oral transmission on this practice said that the lower extremity of the central channel should not be blocked by light as in some commentaries on Poa.
Instead, one should visualize at the lower end of the central channel in nature, in the nature of the roots of merit accumulated previously, and in aspect in the form of a heap resembling somewhat a heap of rice, but constituted in actuality of the inner winds of the body moving fiercely that this actually is what blocks the lower extremity of the central channel. So this is the uncommon transmission of Chonelama Rinpoche. And regarding the visualization of the drop, at the center of one’s heart, in other words, in the central channel at the level of one’s heart, one’s mind is visualized as a drop of the size of a large lentil, white and sparkling. In other words, Rinpoche says it is radiant. And our text says that it is floating and bouncing like a light feather.
So in which he says, it must be seen as extremely light and ready to fly off in the center of the central channel at the heart. So where should it be visualized? It should be visualized within the central channel, slightly in front of the heart in the aspect of a white drop of light. And then regarding its size, it is said that it should be like a large lentil. What is meant by this documentary says is that it should be the size of a large Tibetan black lentil, somewhat smaller than this actually, or the size of white mustard seed.
And it should be visualized as extremely light, like for instance, very small ball of cotton and very evanescent and ephemeral in the same way as the reflection of the moon in a pond of water is disturbed by the slightest breath of wind. And this drop, which is sparkling white with red reflections, must be visualized as totally indissociable in nature from all of the deities, which themselves are one with one supreme holy teacher. Moreover, this drop must be meditated upon as inseparable in nature from the extremely subtle winds and minds which constitute the basis of our mind. And at this point it is said in the root treatise, entering the battlefield of heroes, at this point abandon any attachment and desire for friends, relatives, abode, body or wealth. Since at the time of death it is indispensable to think in this way to practice Phowa.
Rinpoche says, any attachment at this point in time to friends, relatives, wealth, body and so forth, would hinder us in the practice of Phowa. So what you said, this point is extremely important to abandon any attachment and desire to relatives, friends, belongings, abode, wealth and so forth. Because this desire and attachment will prevent us from performing consciousness transference or Phowa. In the same way as if a stone were attached to the leg of a bird, the bird could not fly off, the weight of the stone would prevent this. So in the same way, attachment at this point prevents us from performing Phowa, and we should bring in the practice at this point the five reasons which are used in the Lamrim practice of consciousness transference to eliminate attachment.
So one of the key aspects of Phowa practice is practice at the time of conjoining Phowa with karma, in other words, at the time of death. However, if we don’t practice Poa at present, it will be impossible, or at least extremely difficult, to practice Phowa during the death process. So it’s at present that we must train in the practice of Poa. So how does one connect at the beginning this practice? Is connected to karma.
How does he create the karma to perform it? Visualizing on one’s crown, the guru who is the sum of all objects of refuge, with veneration, again and again take refuge and make strong requests. And although one has obtained the oral transmission of Phowa, if one doesn’t rely on the teacher, the guru, then there will be no results. And specifically, if one does not visualize the teacher from whom one has received Dharma as inseparable from Guru Amitābha, and merely pretends to meditate, then there will be no blessings. As the holy ones of the path said, that meditation on a Yidam, which is different from the Guru, leads to not even the slightest trace of realization in the continuum of the beings who practice thus.
Therefore, in keeping with this instruction, one should again and again make requests to the root Guru who is seen as inseparable from the protector Amitābha. And therefore, in keeping with the verse which reads holy guru who encapsulates all three objects of refuge, the sūtra requested by Punyashri says, Whichever being recollects for just one instant his teacher at the time of death, that being will have performed the supreme transference. In other words, this quote indicates clearly that recollecting the teacher at the time of death is the supreme practice of power. Now, Rinpoche says there are many forms of Poa.
One of the many forms of Poa, merely recollecting the teacher at the time of death is supreme because it guarantees that we will not be reborn in the lower realms. And then our text continues, and from the heart thereof, the heart of Amitābha on our crown, we visualize that the central channel rises up to this point in the aspect of a straw of light. And then there are numerous alternative ways of visualizing the hooks of light descending from the heart of the teacher. From among these, generally speaking, most famous is after visualizing one’s mind as a clear sparkling drop, to visualize on a throne on one’s crown, seated on a moon disc, the Guru Amitābha, and to visualize him as seated slightly behind the center of one’s crown and within his heart to visualize on a moon disc in the appearance of a reflection in a mirror of red crystal, the syllable HRIH, which is in the very nature of Guru Amitābha. And then we must visualize that Guru Amitābha is delighted and gazing down upon us says in a very clear voice, child, I will lead you to Sukhāvati.
Come quickly here to me. So it is it says, first come here, and then he must come to here. Okay.