I interviewed Reed Bye, Ph.D., who teaches English at Naropa University , which has a strong association with Buddhism. I sent him the following questions about Buddhist thinking regarding death and what happens next, and he inserted his answers.
1. How does a Buddhist prepare for death during his/her life? Right at the end of his/her life?
The Buddhist view is that moments and states of being come and go all the time; life can change very suddenly, as we know. Death is one of those moments. In life we work with not grasping onto things, which will inevitably change anyway. That is the practice of meditation.
2. Do Buddhists ever say they have memories of former lives? Have any former lives ever been documented?
Some so-called "realized" people, ones who have understood the true nature of mind and reality, and want to help others understand it too (they are called "bodhisattvas" in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition), are said to be able to remember details of former lives.
3. Is the next life on earth something you worry about?
I worry a little that if I died with a lot of anger at someone or something, or really stupidly unconscious, that that mental state would influence the rebirth.
4. Could you lead a good life and be reborn as an animal?
A bodhisattva could, it is said; if he chose a situation like that to help other beings. Aside from that, anything can happen, esp. (as in the question above) if the mind is confused one way or another when it dies.
5. Do you have the sense you could reach Nirvana? Is heaven different from Nirvana?
Nirvana is the other side of confusion, a kind of awakened state, but different from most ideas of heaven. In the Buddhist view, nothing really exists ultimately, only relatively, so the idea that "I" will be reborn as "me" in a happy state somehow is delusion. It is really just stubborn mental habits that carry on, just like they do in life. If we can free ourselves from these mental patterns that tend to make our lives automatic, then the true nature of our mind expresses itself as clarity and awareness at death.
6. How are Buddhist cadavers treated? Is it true that no one should touch the corpse for a period of time so that the spirit can go into a better life?
Something like that, I hear. The body is said to die in stages, not all at once. And mind and body are not separate as long as the body is alive, so it is good if the body can rest undisturbed for awhile. (About three days I have heard is good).
7. How can you get out of Hell?
First, I think you must realize you are in it. Then, look into what you do that keeps you there.
8. Do Buddhists always choose cremation to dispose of their bodies? Would this new technique of freeze drying and becoming compost be all right?
Cremation seems common, but once the body is dead, there probably would be no problem with freeze drying and composting.
I asked Reed Bye about the “stubborn mental habits” that keep us from getting to Nirvana. He said that these are our ideas about ourselves including our memories and our needs and greed for things in this world that give us our sense of self. This is what we are afraid of losing when we die. We are afraid of becoming nothingness, and we don’t understand that Nirvana is nothingness. He suggested that I have a look at a book called Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa, which is about Buddhist concepts of self-knowledge being the way to solve the problems in the world. I found this quote that describes the “stubborn mental habits” in a way that I understand them.
At the root, fear means the fear of death which means simply the death of “me”. Ego is the name for all the ideas, images, and feelings we have about who we are or want to be. It is also the root of fear. Stepping out of the cocoon of “me” is a slow process of learning about fear. What I think I understand is that the less we are obsessed with ourselves and the more unselfish we become, the better the next life our spirit is born into will be. We have to keep dying and being reborn until we don’t want anything for ourselves anymore and get rid of our egotism and our fear of not existing as ourselves. Then we have enlightenment and will be in Nirvana.
I found this explanation of how to get ready to die as a Buddhist in an essay online called “Buddhist View on Death and Rebirth” by Ven.Thich Nguyen Tang:
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. (www.urbandharma.org/udharma5/viewdeath.html )
Obviously, it is not so easy to let go of our idea of ourselves or else we would all be Buddhas in Nirvana. Reed Bye said it is the hardest thing to do in the world and that is why people who practice Buddhism do meditations which get harder and harder progressively. For people who don’t meditate we can try to take good actions in our lives and not cause suffering for others. (This sounds like existentialism to me., doing good deeds and then being part of the universe.) Then at least we have a better chance of being born into a good life the next time.
No comments:
Post a Comment