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Discovering Buddhism

Death and Rebirth

In our busy lives, we are not aware that we are moving closer to our death

with each passing moment.

Often we don't even want to think about death

and believe it won't happen anytime soon.

Yet, death is definite and the time of death is uncertain.

The Buddha says the most intelligent way to make your life meaningful

is to remember your death and not to hide from it.

If you were to take a trip you'd prepare for it by looking at a map

so youÍd know where you were headed.

In the same way, we need to think

about the most important trip of this lifetime, our death and rebirth.

Remembering our death is an integral part of taking the essence of this life.

There is a profound power that is awakened in us

by contemplating death and rebirth,

we are inspired to practice the Dharma in everything we do

and not to waste another moment of our precious human lives.

MOTIVATION

Each of us is going to die, from the smallest to the largest animal,

from the poorest to the richest human being.

In this program we will examine the fact

that all of us will eventually have to face the suffering of death.

In this we are all alike.

And the truth is we don't know when our death will occur.

With this perspective,

not knowing which of our actions will be the very last in this lifetime,

the practice of motivation becomes especially important.

Therefore, before you listen to the teachings on death and rebirth,

generate in your mind an especially strong thought,

a strong motivation wishing to be able to use every moment of this life

in order to make it purposeful and meaningful

in order to eventually be able to liberate

all living beings from their suffering

and bring them to the happiness of enlightenment.

TEACHERS

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso has lived in India as the exiled

Head of State and Spiritual Leader of the Tibetan people since the Chinese occupation in1959.

His Holiness, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, is one of the most renowned and beloved spiritual leaders in the world

and has traveled over 46 nations as a major proponent of human rights and world peace.

It is necessary for the spiritual practitioner

to reflect upon impermanence and particularly death,

the possibility, inevitability of death and so on.

Impermanence in terms of the continuum, which is the reflection on death.

So when we talk about impermanence in the context here,

primary contemplations are reflection upon three important facts

which are that death is inevitable,

so far as the actual eventuality of death is concerned,

it is unpredictable, it can strike any moment,

and the third is that at the time of death,

only dharma, one's spiritual practice will be of benefit.

To take an example immediately of our own case,

for example, tonight, this night, most of us feel that we will be alive.

However, if you examine this carefully, we may think that yes,

I'm healthy, there is no medical or

physical conditions that threaten my life

and even if there are external kind of natural conditions such as earthquake,

if earthquake were to strike California tonight,

I may be able to escape and avoid the danger.

So one can conclude quite justifiably that ninety-nine per cent,

that we will be alive.

However, there is a one per cent.

We cannot say one hundred per cent with guarantee that we will be still alive.

So when the phenomenon called death really strikes,

at that instance then no matter how much wealth you have

they are of no significance,

your families and relatives are of no significance.

Even the very body that you have cherished and carried

and always had with you, will be no more.

It will be of no use for you.

For example, in my own case while I'm alive I have friends,

I have people to turn to when in need.

I can ask people to help me, people are willing to help me and so on.

But when I die, at that point no one can help me.

It's me, I myself alone who has to go on the path, who has to travel.

Then the question arises, what then? What then after death?

Here, of course, it brings up the issue of rebirth, the question of rebirth.

From the Buddhist point of view,

rebirth has to be understood in terms of a continuity of consciousness.

So one of the foundational premises

of the Buddhist understanding of the possibility of rebirth

is understanding the continuity of consciousness even after death.

Buddhists do not accept, do not posit

beginning to the continuum of consciousness

and Buddhists explains the nature and existence of consciousness

purely in terms of causes and conditions,

the principle of causes and conditions.

So as the text points out,

the question of where you will depart after the death

is influenced and determined by your own karmic collections,

not only of this life but also your past karmic actions.

And on this point as Vasubandhu has written that

because all of us will have enormous collections of karma

accumulated over many past lives,

so all of us will have karmic potentials to take rebirth

both in the lower realms of existence and more fortunate realms of existence.

Venerable Ribur Rinpoche was born in Eastern Tibet in 1923.

At the age of five, he was recognized by the Thirteenth Dalai Lama as the sixth incarnation of Sera-mae Ribur Rinpoche.

He entered Sera Monastic University in Lhasa and became a Geshe at age twenty-four.

He meditated and taught Dharma until 1959, after which he suffered under intense Chinese oppression for twenty-one years.

In 1980 he was allowed to perform some religious activities, and he helped build a new stupa for Pabongka Rinpoche at Sera.

Rinpoche teaches throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe.

In general, people in the West

donÍt want to hear about impermanence and death.

They become unhappy, they become sad, therefore better not to hear about it.

Better not to think, yes, IÍll be dying sometime in the future,

but that doesnÍt mean I need to think about it now, otherwise IÍll get so sad.

So this is very wrong, very wrong, because itÍs the opposite way around.

If we donÍt want to be sad at the time of death,

completely overwhelmed with fear,

with fears not to be able to do anything,

the time is right now that we are alive that we have to think about it.

In this way, if we are able to think about it now correctly

and to make the right preparations,

it will be like the good child to go back home,

weÍll experience a great deal of happiness at the time of dying.

Even if youÍre able to recollect dharma practice,

if you donÍt recollect death and impermanence,

you wonÍt be practicing anyway.

You will only be thinking,

oh yes, I must practice dharma but I can do it tomorrow,

first I have to do something else, or I can do it the day after tomorrow

or I can do it next year and so forth.

As Lama Tsongkapa says in this way by thinking, I can do it later,

the whole life goes by and you wonÍt be able to achieve anything.

So even if you are able to recollect dharma practice

you wonÍt be able to practice it.

Therefore if you donÍt recollect impermanence and death,

you wonÍt be able to abandon the fantasies related to this life.

That means whatever dharma practice you will do, it wonÍt be pure dharma,

it wonÍt become dharma practice and your mind will be trapped

within the eight worldly dharmas.

In brief, no matter what kind of external or internal methods,

or wherever I go or whatever I do, they wonÍt prevent me from dying.

Therefore, definitely, I am going to die.

That is certain. IÍm not going to last in this place.

So think about the causes,

think about the causes that bring... one of the uncommon special causes

that result in precious human rebirth is the perfect practice of morality.

So, now, check in your mental continuum as the Kadampa Lama says,

if you want to know who you were before,

look at the condition of your life now.

If you want to know where youÍre going to be

or what youÍre going to be in the future,

look at the condition of your mind now.

So this is very true, the uncommon condition of achieving

a precious human rebirth is the practice of morality.

If those uncommon causes such as morality

have not been sown in the mental continuum

there's no way of achieving the results that one wished for.

The Advantages of Meditation on Death

1. You will practice Dharma perfectly. 2. You will destroy delusions and misdeeds.

3. You will begin practicing Dharma seriously. 4. It will inspire you to practice well.

5. It will bring your practice to completion. 6. You will live happily and die without regrets.

Born in Sweden, Venerable Karin Valham met the Dharma at Kopan Monastery where she ordained.

For over twenty years she has inspired thousands of westerners with her teachings on Buddhism at Kopan.

So this awareness that my life, my surrounding,

my experience of this world can cease, stop at any moment.

And I have to go alone and leave all this behind at any moment.

That daily awareness gives a certain sense of space.

Things don't feel so real, so permanent, so fixed, so dependable anymore.

The only thing we take with us is our mind.

Do we want to keep our mind diluted, attached, and fearful?

Is that what we want to take with us? We have to question ourselves.

Do I want to take with me anger, jealousy, resentment, pride,

and attachment that gives so much rise to fear and worry?

Those are not the things that we want to take with us at the time of death.

At the time of death, we all want to have a happy death, isn't it?

We want to have a peaceful happy death, so what state of mind is that?

That's detachment, compassion, kindness, wisdom.

If you meditate every day on your own impermanent nature,

and that my death can happen at any time,

it automatically generates a state of detachment.

Because it's like when we travel, we go from hotel room to hotel room.

When you travel you are living in the nature of impermanence.

You don't become attached to your hotel rooms,

you don't regard them as mine, and try to fix them up,

you just go, stay and then you are ok with leaving.

You don't even think about it, you just leave it behind and you go to the next.

That state of mind we need to cultivate in our daily life.

So you see, death is definite.

All of us are going to have to face death.

ThereÍs no escape, isnÍt it?

ThereÍs absolutely no escape, you know?

Nobody can avoid death, nobody can run away from death.

Nobody can escape death, nobody can bribe death.

Our death is hundred percent definite. WeÍre going to go one by one.

Few years, this room, empty, isnÍt it?

With fifty years, this room is definitely empty, I think.

All of us have died, and gone to some unknown destination.

Mind going to some unknown destination,

and the precious human life, finished.

No certainty to gain, regain, such a life situation, opportunity again.

It took us many years to get to this point, you know?

And, who knows whether even we will be born in a place

where we can practice dharma next life.

Then you feel this urgency, not to postpone dharma practice,

but to start from now.

Say how can I integrate dharma into my life now,

to make it meaningful from now on,

because my death can happen at any time.

The 9 Steps of Death Meditation A. Death is Certain 1. The Lord of Death is unstoppable 2. Life leaks away continually 3. There is not enough time to practice

The 9 Steps of Death Meditation B. The Time of Death is Uncertain 1. No telling when it would happen 2. No telling how it would happen 3. The body is fragile

The 9 Steps of Death Meditation C. Only Dharma Can Help When You Die 1. Wealth cannot help 2. Friends and family cannot help 3. Your body cannot help

Until the thought of

impermanence and death

arises in your mind,

the entire path of Dharma

is blocked. -Geshe Potowa

STUDENTS

What does DEATH AND REBIRTH mean to you?

I think a main motivation came from my work as an ambulance driver.

Where I saw many people dying

and I realized that people can die.

I saw immense suffering and I didnÍt see any peaceful death.

I read about peaceful deaths in books but this is not how people actually die.

They die screaming and full of fears,

ItÍs just horrible. ItÍs nightmares.

And so I remember especially, I went once to a case

where a young guy, the same age as me,

was stabbed down with a knife.

He was lying there in his blood, and screaming. He was dying.

And before, I was working on a farm,

I went to the slaughterhouse and I saw pigs dying,

and I thought, heÍs dying like these pigs. There is no difference.

But something in me knew

that itÍs not necessary to die like this, itÍs a mistake.

So, my practices and my life as a monk is a preparation for my death.

Not only for me to have a good death but also

to reach a level of practice where I can help other people to die.

That corpse they talk about is the very body you wear, meditator. - Jetsun Milarepa

The thing is that they always say you can die at any time you know.

And as a nurse, IÍve nursed people my own age, my own age,

who are dying of cancer, under terrible conditions,

terrible suffering and their whole body has changed

from what they usually recognize it as.

And I look at them and I think,

‘gosh, that could be me, that could really be me’.

But I think now whatÍs important is that,

every moment is an opportunity if you're still alive.

I think thatÍs the point, that every moment is so precious.

And we donÍt know how many moments we have left, so,

letÍs try to do the best we can with each moment

and it makes life much more pleasant and so much more meaningful.

And, thatÍs the other thing about people who are dying.

Then, they start to focus on was their life meaningful.

And itÍs important to focus on that now,

while we have time to do something about it,

rather than wait until weÍve only got two weeks left,

and we donÍt have any time to do all the things we really wanted to do.

So, thatÍs why I guess IÍm more motivated now.

We want things to stay the way they are,

they can never be that way because they never are that way,

so that reality really hit me.

I think if people die with a really happy frame of mind,

that they have more chance of going to a higher, a better rebirth.

Not going into lower realms, because, it would be so easy to die with fear

and then IÍm sure that wouldnÍt be a very good migration.

Cause you look at the animal realm, and itÍs all about fear.

All the animals are in fear.

So thatÍs very easy for me to believe in the animal realm,

and being born in the animal realm, because if people die in fear,

thatÍs probably where theyÍre going to go.

I was with a man who was a fisherman,

and you could just see that he had visions, like the lamas say,

of all the animals that he had killed.

And his eyes were going all over the place and he was terrified.

The other thing is that I try to get people to generate

some kind of love in their heart, love and appreciate for their family.

Sometimes they donÍt feel good about themselves.

They feel that theyÍve done nothing good in their lives and I say well,

you raised children, you raised a family,

and youÍve done a good job with this.

They should rejoice in what they have done.

What theyÍve done thatÍs good in their life.

Focus on that, thatÍs the important thing before they die,

it's focus on the good things.

And if they have regrets, then they see those regrets as positive,

as something that theyÍve learned in this life,

and even rejoice that theyÍve learned that,

They should stay positive.

There was a man from Burma, and he had a wife and two daughters,

and he was looked after by a hospice service in the city

and Amitaba was called in because we were the only Buddhist service.

So, he took his bed, a mattress, and put it in his shrine room in the house.

And he put his head towards his shrine and he told his wife

‘I don’t want much fuss over me, leave me alone, I’ve got to concentrate now because I’m going to die.’

And, all the public services who were looking after him,

never had seen this before, because usually, people are so scared

and they need so many drugs, especially mental drugs,

to calm people down, because theyÍre terrified.

But he didnÍt need anything, and all the other workers were so surprised,

‘he doesn’t need any drugs, he’s so calm’.

And everybody who came into the house

felt so peaceful, so unique, so unbelievable.

And his wife and his daughters looked after him.

It was like he was in his last retreat, before he died.

And he was just a model for everyone who came into the house.

Everyone spoke so highly of him,

and had never seen anything so peaceful before.

Please dedicate the positive energy generated by listening to these teachings,

so you can quickly attain Enlightenment for the benefit of all beings.