How to Die Professionally: Hybrid- in-person and Online, with Drubpon Pema Rigdzin (Lama Freddie).
Death is a topic most of us are not trained to meet with grace, and yet it is the one appointment none of us will miss. Like life itself, death is not a single moment but an ongoing progression, a transition that can be approached with awareness, preparation, and presence.
The Vajrayāna tradition offers a profound roadmap for this journey. For practitioners with devotion and some degree of training, the moment of death can become the greatest opportunity for awakening, what Lama Tharchin Rinpoche called dying professionally.
Whether you are supporting a loved one, working in care or medicine, simply wishing to live more fully by befriending impermanence, or understanding the profound methods on the path of Vajrayāna, this day is for you.
How do we prepare for this threshold? And how does that preparation become a source of support for others?
The first part grounds us in the relative and secular foundations of end-of-life care: ethical sensibilities, practical preparedness, and contemplative grounding. Through open dialogue, we explore how to meet our fears honestly and prepare with genuine confidence.
The second part goes deeper into the wisdom methods of the Vajrayāna tradition. Through inquiry and exploration of real-life scenarios, we strengthen our understanding of dharma, steady our confidence, and arrive at greater clarity in the moment of transition.
Open to all. A recording will be available for later review and study.
Lama Freddie is an Interfaith Spiritual Care Provider at Stanford Healthcare and a former Chaplain with the Hospice of Santa Cruz. He has trained in Tibetan Buddhism for over thirty years and completed extensive Vajrayāna retreats, including two traditional three-year retreats under the guidance of Lama Tharchin Rinpoche. Lama Freddie is the Retreat Teacher (Drubpon) for the Three-Year Retreat Drub Nyiy Döjö Gatsal, founded by Lama Tharchin Rinpoche in 1992, a lead ritual chanter (umdze), and a mentor in the Ngondro Program of the Vajrayāna Foundation. An acupuncturist and a physical therapist in his native country of Brazil and a keen researcher of ancestral forms of healing, Lama Freddie’s activities have expanded to serve communities in the US and worldwide through authentic dharma and unique healing methods. He is the co-founder of Lhamen Foundation.
(flier art by Pema Tintin Tsehring)