Every individual is a composite of body and mind.
The body is like a hotel where the mind—the consciousness—resides and functions as long as conditions allow.
When the last moments of life arrive, the mind departs from the body and starts transmigrating from rebirth to rebirth, just as travelers move from one hotel to another.
The body, however, dissolves into the earth and disappears forever.
Our identity—who we are—is our mind, not the belongings that we have collected every minute of our waking life, the loved ones in whom we have invested our energy, or even the body that we have cherished. The mind leaves behind all of that at the time of death.
But our karma—the healthy and unhealthy deeds and their associated mental habits that we have stored as seeds in our mind-stream during our lifetime—will produce as its fruition a pleasant or unpleasant world around us and joyful or painful experiences in us.
The effects of loving thoughts, pure perceptions, and devotional energies today will produce pure lands and peace and joy tomorrow.
Therefore, heartfelt meditations and prayers, even if they are simple in form, will change the qualities and habits of our minds now and will produce ultimate peace and joy in the future.
Imagine the image and presence of Amitabha Buddha, the Buddha of Infinite Light; imagine the light of all-knowing wisdom and unconditional love.
Open your heart to him with devotion, joy, and trust and pray for his blessings for all.
Receive the blessings in the form of wisdom light of unconditional love and share them with all.
Purify and transform the whole universe into a world of blessing light of unconditional love, omniscient wisdom, and ultimate peace.
When our minds are fully open to and deeply enjoying the qualities of the Buddha, the Buddha presence has awakened in our own hearts. Then, the whole universe will appear to us as the pure land. That is where we will take rebirth and from where we will serve many.
We pay great attention to the details of our daily life, but spare no thought for the life that comes after death, though it will be our never-ending future. Abu Patrul Rinpoche lamented:
Whoever I look at, they are all about to die.
Whoever I think about, they are all counting on living forever.
Having seen such heart-rending phenomena,
My mind has rushed to the mountain solitude [to meditate].
Tulku Thondup Rinpoche (The Buddhayana Foundation, USA)
Source: Based on Anyen Rinpoche. Dying with Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death. Wisdom Publications. Kindle Edition.
Death will come to us, just as it has come to everyone who has come before us.
Is a cemetery located in your city or town?
Find a cemetery, and take a walk through the gravestones on your lunch hour or after work.
Notice how many people are buried there. Take some time to look at the headstones. Notice the years in which people were born and when they died. Notice how old each person was. Each gravestone was paid for and designed by a loving family member or relative. However, even the loving relatives of the deceased may no longer be alive.
Today, try to connect with the reality of death for some of the deceased and their family members, understanding that you share this same reality.
(Anyen Rinpoche; Choying Zangmo, Allison. Living and Dying with Confidence: A Day-by-Day Guide.)