Imagination · “Feel It Real”
Essential Phowa
To purify the mind and merge it with an embodiment of enlightened light/love through visualization — used as a daily devotional/dying practice that cultivates trust, peace, and a felt union with ‘the truth you believe in.
Essential Phowa in 5 lines: Settle. Invoke, in the sky before you, the embodiment of the truth you believe in as radiant light. Pray to be purified; receive its stream of light cleansing you completely. Let your karmic body dissolve into light, soar up, and merge inseparably with that presence. Rest in oneness as long as you can; dedicate the merit. Practice often through life — not only at death.
What it is
Phowa (Tibetan: ‘pho ba, “transference”) is the Tibetan practice of directing consciousness, at the moment of death, into an enlightened state. Sogyal Rinpoche teaches a simplified, non-sectarian “Essential Phowa” in The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying — “a practice for our whole life as well as for the time of dying.” Its core is a visualization of merging: you invoke an embodiment of “ whatever truth you believe in“ as radiant light above/before you, receive its purifying light, dissolve your karmic body into light, and merge your mind inseparably with that presence, resting in oneness.
Because it is framed around “the truth you believe in,” it adapts to any faith or none.
The Method
Sogyal Rinpoche’s Essential Phowa (faithful paraphrase; short quotes attributed):
- Settle and bring the mind home. Sit calmly; relax body and mind for a few moments.
- Invoke the presence of light. “In the sky in front of you, invoke the embodiment of whatever truth you believe in, in the form of radiant light.” This may be Buddha, Christ, a divine being, or simply pure light/love — whatever is genuinely meaningful to you. Feel its presence vividly, full of love and compassion.
- Pray for purification. With heartfelt devotion, ask that “all my negative karma, destructive emotions, obscurations, and blockages be purified and removed.” Open to the presence completely.
- Receive the stream of light. Imagine the presence responds: “a stream of rays of light” pours from its heart into you, washing through your whole being, cleansing all negativity, suffering, and blockage. Feel yourself filled with light and blessing.
- Dissolve into light. “Your very body, itself created by karma, now dissolves completely into light.” The solid sense of self melts.
- Merge — soar up and unite. “The body of light you are now soars up into the sky and merges, inseparably, with the blissful presence of light.” Your mind and the wisdom-mind of the presence become one.
- Rest in oneness. “Remain in that state of oneness with the presence for as long as possible.” Simply abide, undistracted, in that union and peace.
- Dedicate. Conclude by dedicating the goodness of the practice to the benefit of all beings. Even simpler form Sogyal Rinpoche offers: “Simply merge your mind with the wisdom mind of the pure presence” — consider that your mind and the enlightened mind are one, and rest. He stresses practicing now, repeatedly, throughout life, so it becomes familiar and available at death. Abbreviated deathbed form (for helping another, done by the living): invoke the radiant presence filling the space; visualize the dying/just-deceased person’s consciousness as a small sphere of light flying up “like a shooting star” and dissolving into the heart of that presence; pray they are released into peace. (Sourcing note: steps, the “truth you believe in” framing, the dissolve/merge sequence, and quoted phrases are from The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying ch. 13–14. Faithful paraphrase with short attributed quotes. Full traditional phowa with the syllable HRIH and central channel is more elaborate and requires direct transmission — this is the simplified “essential” version Sogyal Rinpoche taught for general use.)
Source & Lineage
Phowa is one of the Six Yogas of Naropa and a core Nyingma/Kagyu deathbed practice, traditionally requiring transmission from a qualified lama. Sogyal Rinpoche (Nyingma/Dzogchen; founder of Rigpa) distilled the “Essential” form for a wide, interfaith audience in 1992, deliberately phrased so non-Buddhists could use it.
His student Christine Longaker and the Rigpa “Spiritual Care” programme developed it further for hospice settings. (Fair-use note: assess the practice on its merits, independently of later allegations against the teacher.)
The Traditions' versions
Traditional phowa (Six Yogas of Naropa) — the full, transmission-based form using HRIH and the central channel.
- Deity yoga / guru yoga — same dissolve-and-merge-with-light structure as devotional union.
- Christian “uniting with the Light of Christ” / dying into God — devotional surrender-into-light analogue.
- Guided imagery for dying / “the light” in near-death care — secular and pastoral parallels.
- Neville’s “merge into the state” / SATS — structurally akin: vividly assuming union with an imagined ideal in a relaxed state.
Common refinements
Flat, effortful visualizing. The power is in feeling the presence’s love and the light, not in straining for a perfect mental picture. Devotion over precision.
- Choosing an empty symbol. Use a presence that is genuinely meaningful to you (“the truth you believe in”) — a borrowed icon you don’t connect with won’t move the heart.
- Skipping the merge / rest. Beginners stop at receiving light; the heart of it is dissolving and resting in oneness — don’t rush past step 6–7.
- Practicing only in crisis. Sogyal Rinpoche insists on familiarity built over a lifetime; practiced only at a deathbed, it has no grounding.
- Imposing it on the dying. At a bedside, offer it gently and in the person’s own faith-language; never force religious imagery on someone.