Buddhist View on Death and Rebirth
By Ven. Thich Nguyen Tang
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As a Vietnamese Buddhist monk,
working as a Buddhist chaplain at several of Melbourne’s hospitals and as
well as Melbourne assessment prison, I have witnessed many personal
tragedies faced by the living and of course the very process of dying and
that of death and many of these poor people faced their death with fear,
with misery and pain before departing this world. With the images of all
these in my mind, on this occasion, I wish to share my view from the
perspective of a Buddhist and we hope that people would feel far more
relaxed in facing this inevitable end since it is really “not the end of
life”, according to our belief.
Death and the impermanence of life
In the teaching of the Buddha, all of us will
pass away eventually as a part in the natural process of birth, old-age
and death and that we should always keep in mind the impermanence of
life. The life that we all cherish and wish to hold on.
To Buddhism, however, death is not the end of
life, it is merely the end of the body we inhabit in this life, but our
spirit will still remain and seek out through the need of attachment,
attachment to a new body and new life. Where they will be born is a result
of the past and the accumulation of positive and negative action, and the
resultant karma (cause and effect) is a result of ones past actions.
This would lead to the person to be reborn in
one of 6 realms which are; heaven, human beings, Asura, hungry ghost,
animal and hell. Realms, according to the severity of ones karmic
actions, Buddhists believe however, none of these places are permanent and
one does not remain in any place indefinitely. So we can say that in
Buddhism, life does not end, merely goes on in other forms that are the
result of accumulated karma. Buddhism is a belief that emphasizes the
impermanence of lives, including all those beyond the present life. With
this in mind we should not fear death as it will lead to rebirth.
The fear of death stemmed from the fear of cease
to be existent and losing ones identity and foothold in the world. We see
our death coming long before its arrival, we notice impermanence in the
changes we see around us and to us in the arrival of aging and the
suffering due to losing our youth. Once we were strong and beautiful and
as we age, as we approach our final moments of life we realize how
fleeting such a comfortable place actually was.
Grieving
It is natural to grieve the loss of
family members and others we knew, as we adjust to living without their
presence and missing them as part of our lives. The death of a loved one,
or even someone we were not close to, is terribly painful event, as time
goes on and the people we know pass away along the journey of life, we are
reminded of our own inevitable ends in waiting and everything is a blip of
transience and impermanent.
At a certain moment, the world seems
suddenly so empty and the sense of desperation appears to be eternity.
The greater the element of grief and personal loss one tends to feel sorry
for oneself.
Some of us may have heard the story of
the women who came to the Buddha in great anguish, carrying her dead child
pleading him to bring the child back to life. The Buddha said “Bring to
me a mustard seed from any household where no-one had ever died and I will
fulfill your wish”. The woman’s attempt to search for such seed from
houses were in vain and of course she could not find any household in
which no-one had ever died and suddenly she realized the universality of
death.
Karma
According to Buddhism, our lives and
all that occurs in our lives is a result of Karma. Every action creates a
new karma, this karma or action is created with our body, our speech or
our mind and this action leaves a subtle imprint on our mind which has the
potential to ripen as future happiness or future suffering, depending on
whether the action was positive or negative.
If we bring happiness to people, we
will be happy. If we create suffering, we will experience suffering
either in this life or in a future one.
This is called the Law of Karma, or
the Law of Cause and Effect. Karmic law will lead the spirit of the dead
to be reborn, in realms which are suitable appropriate to their karmic
accumulations.
According to His Holiness, the 14 th
Dali Lama of Tibet, that to cultivate the good karma, our good actions are
an excellent way prepare for our death. Not performing evil deeds, keeping
our heart and mind pure, doing no harm, no killing, sexual misconduct or
lying, not using drugs or alcohol has very positive merit which enable us
to die as we have lived.
The way we pass reflects the way we
lived our lives, a good death putting a good stamp on a good life. As
Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote in his notebook; “Just as a well spent day
brings happy sleep, so a life well spent brings a happy death”. If we
have lived a life of emotional turmoil, of conflict selfish desire
unconcerned for others, our dying will be full of regrets, troubles and
pain. It is far better to care for the lives for all around us rather than
spending a fortune in prolonging life or seeking ways to extend it for
those who can afford it, at the expense of relieving suffering in more
practical ways. Improving the moral and spiritual quality of life
improves its quality for us all rather than the selfish individualism that
benefits the elite few who draw most resources.
Preparing for death and Buddhist rituals associated with dying
Buddhist clergy often remind their
followers about closeness of death, emphasize the importance in getting to
know death and take time to prepare for their own demise.
How do we prepare for death?. It is
really simple, just behave in a manner which you believe is responsible,
good and positive for yourself and towards others. This leads to calmness,
happiness and an outlook which contributes to a calm and controlled mind
at the time of death.
Through this positive and
compassionate outlook of life, always being aware of the impermanence of
life and having a loving attitude towards all living things in this
transient existence we will be free of fear in opposite to grasping
selfishly to life due to not having experienced happiness in life.
Having lead a responsible and
compassionate life and have no regrets when death approaches enables us to
surrender without a struggle to the inevitable and in a state of grace
which need not be as uncomfortable as we are led to believe. A dying
Buddhist person is likely to request the service of a monk or nun in their
particular tradition to assist in this process further, making the
transitional experience of death as peaceful and free of fear as can be
possibly achieved.
Before and at the moment of death and
for a period after death, the monk, nun or spiritual friends will read
prayers and chants from the Buddhist Scriptures. In Buddhist traditions,
this death bed chanting is regarded as very important and is ideally the
last thing the Buddhist hears. Buddhists believe that we can actively
assist and bring relief to the dying members through assisting the dying
through the process of dying.
Through Buddhist doctrine we are told
by Buddhist masters that the final moment of our consciousness is
paramount, the most important moment of all. If the ill person is in
hospital and the diagnosis is grim that the person cannot possibly
survived, the family should call in the Buddhist priest to pray for the
loved one so that at the final moment, the right state of mind has been
generated within the person and they can find their way into a higher
state of rebirth as they leave the present lives.
The nurses and family members are not
supposed to touch the corpse, having to wait 3-8 hours after breathing
ceases before touching the body for any preparation after the death. We
Buddhists believe that the spirit of a person will linger on for sometime
and can be affected by what happened to the corpse. It is important that
the body is treated gently and with respect and that the priest can help
the spirit continues its journey calmly to higher states, not causing the
spirit to becoming angry and confused and may be more likely to be reborn
into the lower realms.
In the Mahayana Buddhism, especially,
Vietnamese tradition we pray for the dead for 49 days after passing away,
49 being the estimated time it takes for the spirit to be reborn again
into a new life. Some spirits are reborn 3 days, 21 days, 49 days or 100
days after death, and in some cases even 7 years.
Rebirth
The concept of rebirth or
reincarnation has become more popular in the west in recent years due to
the influence of Tibetan Buddhism, especially, the Tibetan Book of
Living and Dying (by Sogyal Rinpoche, 1992) became a best seller in
the USA and has been widely read throughout the developed countries by new
generations who are concerned with alternative thinking and eastern
cultural perspectives. Naturally people concern with life beyond death
was stimulated by the ideas contained in such philosophies and beliefs.
Nirvana
The supreme aim of Buddhism is to
obtain nirvana or enlightenment. This translated means a state
of liberation or illumination from the limitations of existence. It
is the liberation from the cycle of rebirth through countless lives up and
down the 6 states of existence. It is obtained through the extinction of
desire.
Nirvana is a state that is obtainable
in this life through the right aspiration, purity of life, and the
elimination of egotism. This cessation of existence as we know it, the
attainment of being, as distinct from becoming.
The Buddha speaks of it as ‘unborn,
un-originated, uncreated, unformed’, contrasting it with the
‘born, originated, created, and formed phenomenal world’. Those who
have obtained the state of Nirvana are called Buddhas. Gautama Siddhartha
had obtained this state and had become a Buddha at 35. However it is now
believed that it was only after he had passed away that he reached such a
place of perfect tranquility, because some residue of human defilement
would continue to exist as long as his physical body existed.
According to Buddhism if a human does
not obtain nirvana or enlightenment, as it is known, the person
cannot escape the cycle of death and rebirth and are inevitably be reborn
into the 6 possible states beyond this our present life, these being in
order from the highest to lowest;
·
Heaven. In Buddhism there are 37 different levels of
heaven where beings experience peace and long lasting happiness without
suffering in the heavenly environment.
·
Human life. In Buddhism we can be reborn into human
life over and over, either wealthy or poor, beautiful or not so, and every
state between and both as it it is served up to us. Anything can happen,
as is found in human life and society all around us as we are familiar
with in the day to day human world in is myriad of possibilities. What we
get is a result of our Karma of what we have dragged with us from previous
existences and how it manifests in our temporary present lives.
·
Asura. A spiritual state of Demi-Gods but not the
happy state experienced by the gods in the heavens above this state. The
Demi-Gods are consumed with jealousy, because unlike humans, they can
clearly see the superior situation of the gods in the heavens above them.
They constantly compete and struggle with the gods due to their
dissatisfaction with their desires from the others.
·
Hungry Ghost. This spiritual realm of those
who committed excessive amounts of evil deeds and who are obsessed with
finding food and drink which they cannot experience and thus remain
unsatisfied and tortured by the experience. They exhaust themselves in the
constant fruitless searching.
·
Animals. This realm is visible to humans and it is
where spirits of humans are reborn if they have killed animals or have
committed a lot of other evil acts. Animals do not have the freedom that
humans would experience due to being a subject constantly hunted by
humans, farmed and used in farming, also as beasts for entertainment.
·
Hell. This realm is not visible to humans. It
is a place where beings born there experience a constant state of searing
pain and the various types of hell realms reads like a variety of horrific
torture chambers. Those with a great deal of negative Karma can remain in
such places for eons of time.
To conclude, as already mentioned,
none of us can avoid death and if we are not free from the vicious cycle
of death and rebirth, we are doomed to the endless cycles of life and
death and its paradoxical nature of suffering, of happiness and sadness,
youth and ageing, healthiness and sickness, pain and death, all because we
are so attached to the existence in the first place.
The Buddha urged us to prepare for
death, to prepare for that journey by cleansing the mind and not being so
attached to things, to be able to let go and release ourselves for needing
to be, from needing to have. Through this we will not suffer so much as we
pass through the final stage of the present life, we can let go, be
grateful for what we had but not clutch to it, not try to ensure
permanency and cause ourselves to suffer more than we need to. This way we
can end the cycle and leave forever, obtaining nirvana and release from
the cycle of death and rebirth.
( This essay has been presented at the
conference “Dying, Death and Grieving – a cultural Perspective“, RMIT
University, Storey Hall, 349 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, 22nd
and 23rd March 22, 2002. For further information on the
conference, please contact Lynn Cain, +61-3-9457 4697).