In the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, there are highly developed
practices to transfer our minds with highly developed practices to
pure lands and they are called phowa. It is basically a meditation
to prepare the mind to effect from the moment of death and enter a
pure land. Here's what I found on Wikipedia on this subject.:-
Phowa (Wylie: 'pho ba; also
spelled Powa or Poa phonetically;
Sanskrit: saṃkrānti) is a Vajrayāna Buddhist meditation practice. It may be
described as "the practice of conscious dying", "transference of
consciousness at the time of death", "mindstream transference", or “enlightenment
without meditation” (Wylie: ma-sgom sangs-rgyas).
The method can be applied at the moment of death to transfer one's
consciousness through the top of the head directly into aBuddha-field of one’s choice. By so doing, one
bypasses some of the typical experiences that are said to occur
after death.[1]Example destinations are Sukhāvatī, Abhirati, Ghanavyūha, Aṭakāvatī, Mount Potala, the
Copper-Colored Mountain (Wylie:Zangs-mdog dpal-ri),
and Tuṣita;[2] the most popular is Sukhavati.[citation
needed] Phowa is also
performed by specialists (Wylie:’pho-’debs bla-ma) on the behalf of
the deceased, as a post-mortem ritual.[citation
needed]
The mark of a successful Phowa practice is a small drop of blood
directly from the center of the vertex. To demonstrate a successful
practice traditionally a Kusha-grass was pushed into the small
opening created in the fontanel.[3][4]
The main lineage of phowa is one of
the Six yogas of Naropa, although other transmissions
also exist.[citation
needed] The chödsubsumes within its auspices aspects of
phowa sadhana.[5]
The Kagyu phowa lineage is from
the Six yogas of Naropa. Nāropa received it from the Indian
mahāsiddha Tilopa and later passed it to his Tibetan
disciple Marpa. Nāropa’s teachings describe a second method
of ’pho-ba that entails the transference of
one’s consciousness to another body (Wylie: ’pho-ba grong-’jug).[citation
needed] Milarepa’s query regarding these teachings forced
Marpa to search for explanatory treatises on the subject among his
Indian manuscripts, and, having found none, to return to India to
obtain more scriptures.[6]
The Drikung Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism is known for their phowa
teachings. A major pilgrimage and cultural celebration is known in
the Tibetan world as the Great Drikung
Phowa (Wylie: ’Bri-gung ’pho-ba chen-mo).
This festival was traditionally held once in every twelve-year
calendrical cycle, and its last observance took place in August
1992 in gTer-sgrom, Central Tibet, after a hiatus of 36 years due
to a ban enforced by the Chinese authorities.[7] His Eminence Choeje Ayang Rinpoche
from Eastern Tibet belongs to the Drikung school and is an
authority on Buddhist afterlife rituals; he gives teachings and
initiations to the practice of phowa annually
in Bodh Gaya, India.[8]
Some lineages of phowa include a rite of
incision, or opening of the sahasrara at the cranial zenith, to
assist with transferral.[9]
Shugchang, et al., in an exegesis of
the Zhitro, discuss phowa in Dzogchen:
Phowa has many different meanings; in Tibetan it means
"transferring consciousness." The highest form is known as the
phowa of the dharmakaya which is meditation on the great
perfection. When you do Dzogchen meditation, there's no need to
transfer anything, because there's nothing to transfer, no place to
transfer it, nor anyone to do it. That's the highest, and greatest
phowa practice.[10]