Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Tibetan Buddhist Prayer for Death and Dying: Amitabha Mantra

 
(Wind Tree Studios) April 26, 2020. This chant was recorded at a home studio with the vocals performed on all five tracks.

A few years ago, a YouTube viewer in Europe was teaching his mother the Amitabha Sadhana by showing her this video on the practice. Unfortunately, she was succumbing to cancer, and he contacted me to express gratitude for the chant and video.

During our correspondence, he asked if I knew of a long playing Amitabha Mantra chant that she could listen to while resting. It was their hope that she could immerse herself in the vibration of the mantra during her final days.

There was no such version. This latest chant video is an attempt to create such an offering for those who are in poor health and may be passing away. Particularly now, with ever-growing numbers of people having to die alone in quarantine due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this may help them.


This mantra may also be very good for healthy people to listen to and chant. Chanting along with this video can also be a meaningful and transformative experience. It is my aspiration that this mantra chant will bring assurance, comfort, peace, bliss, realization, luminosity, and infinity to anyone who is ill and may be dying.

May it also bring these same qualities to loved ones who may be present during these periods of intense suffering, profound transition, and impermanence. The mantra -- Om Ami Dewa Hri -- carries the blessings of Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light.

This mantra is central to the Phowa practice a kind of Vajrayana Buddhist meditation. Phowa is described as "the practice of conscious dying," "transference of consciousness at the time of death," "mind stream transference," or “enlightenment without meditation.”

May all beings be immersed in the sacred vibration of the Amitabha Mantra now and in all future lives! Any merit derived from these activities is dedicated to the benefit off all sentient beings! May all sentient beings be happy and free of suffering!

For a longer version of this chant please click here: youtu.be/symL4dxnoGk. For a deeper look into these topics, I highly recommend Sogyal Rinpoche's acclaimed masterpiece The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. Free audio copy: youtu.be/0GTh5L44HF4.

For more information about the formal practice itself, please visit my other video: Amitabha Sadhana & Mudras – Tibetan Vajrayana Mantra Meditation.

This was recorded in a home studio with vocals on all five tracks. The voice tracks gradually vary in number to add a subtle dynamism to an otherwise monotonous piece. The steady repetition of the mantra produces a trance affect that I hope will allow sick and dying people to comfortably rest their awareness in a sub-participatory entrainment as the sacred vibration of the mantra is experienced.

May they pass instantly into the Pure Land of Sukhavati! A long-playing version of this chant can be found here: youtu.be/symL4dxnoGk.

All of Wind Tree Studios media creations are available for use in other projects. Wind Tree Studios is also available for hire in helping us bring our creative dreams to life and share them with the world as we have done.

Please contact us directly with any inquiries. Douglas and Linda: windtreestudios@yahoo.com

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