Reflections on death

All of us know that life is impermanent. We may die today or tomorrow, or we may live another ten, twenty-five or fifty years. But eventually we have to die.

People normally think of death as the end of human life. If life was as simple as this, then this would encourage us to fritter away our time with no purpose. But according to Buddhism, our life does not begin only at the moment of birth; and death too, does not imply the end of everything. We will have another life after death.

We will be reborn in another place and the cycle of life and death will continue endlessly. The constant rebirth into this suffering world is a bigger problem than the simple death at the end of each life. Constant rebirth is difficult to solve and it becomes a critical issue when we recognize and wish to overcome it.

Balance Sheet

This situation reminds me of my days in corporate sector. We used to “start” our business at the beginning of the financial year (1 April) and at the end of the year (31 March), we had to prepare a Trading and Profit and Loss account and Balance Sheet. The net profits, assets, liabilities and unsettled bills are carried forward to the next year.

This process repeats the following financial year, and every year thereafter until the day I severe connection with the organization. Intelligent corporate leaders plan to accumulate long term profits and increasingly valuable assets year after year. But this is not an easy task to fulfil.

How should we handle this problem? We can be more confident about the following year’s financial position if the current year’s business is stable and profitable. Everything will then run more smoothly next year. However, if this year results in a loss, then next year’s financial position will be tight. We may have to undergo difficulties, causing a lot of frustration, worry, and suffering for ourselves.

Life is the same. During the process between life and death, we have to develop merits (punna) and cut down demerits (papa), and this will certainly be a gain. If we improve ourselves and become a better person in this life, then we have created good prospects for our future lives.

Death

Let us first clarify our misunderstandings about "death" before we discuss "life". People normally have a fear of death. In fact, death is nothing to be afraid of. This is similar to the businessman who runs a business and manages it well developing an asset base until the closure of the financial year. When the New Year comes he will certainly enjoy a comfortable life. Therefore, as long as we have prepared well during our current lives (following our Dhamma principle), we will not be frightened when death comes.

In order to gain an understanding of the preciousness of life and how to make it meaningful we need to reflect on few points. (1) there is no possible way to escape death, (2) life has a definite, inflexible limit and each moment brings us closer to the end of this life, and (3) death may come at an unexpected moment.

When we reflect on these points, it can help us to realize that life is short and precious and that there is no time to lose. It can be very helpful when getting up each day to say to ourselves "today may be the last day of my life, let me live it therefore by making it as meaningful as possible, being of benefit to others."

Mortality

Buddhism teaches that we should not shrink from the fact of death but squarely confront it. Our contemporary culture has been described as one that seeks to avoid and deny the fundamental question of our mortality. It is the awareness of death, however, that compels us to examine our lives and to seek to live meaningfully.

Death enables us to treasure life; it awakens us to the preciousness of each shared moment. In the struggle to navigate the sorrow of death, we can forge a radiant treasure of fortitude in the depths of our being. Through that struggle, we become more aware of the dignity of life and more readily able to empathize with the suffering of others.

Desire

Everything in the universe, everything that happens, is part of a vast living web of interconnection. The vibrant energy we call life which flows throughout the universe has no beginning and no end. Life is a continuous, dynamic process of change.

Early Buddhist teachings, however, saw this process as one of inevitable suffering and focused on the possibility of opting out of it.

The Buddha perceived that desire is the fundamental impulse that drives life onward, tying us into the cycle of birth and death. At each moment, impulses of various desires prompt thought, speech and action, which comprise the latent force of our individual karma. Through these causes and effects, actions and reactions, we shape ourselves and our circumstances from instant to instant, perpetuating a fluid process that has continued over countless existences.

Moreover, the Buddha taught there is no permanent soul or self that has existed throughout all this time but simply the continuity of karmic energy that generates the illusion of an unchanging essence or self.

Eliminating desire, then, would cut off the energy that fuels the cycle of life and death, and at death, one’s life would be extinguished once and for all. This blissful state of annihilation – nirvana - was the final goal of early Buddhist teachings and continues to be regarded as such in Buddhist traditions today. Life, in this perspective, is a cycle of suffering from which one can eventually escape.

Four ways

According to Buddhism, Death can occur in any one of these four ways:

It can be due to the exhaustion of the life span assigned to beings of the particular species. This type of death is called Ayukkhaya. It can be due to the exhaustion of the Karmic energy that caused the birth of the deceased. This is called karmakkhaya. It can be due to the simultaneous exhaustion of the above mentioned two causes – Ubhayakkhaya. And lastly, it can be due to external circumstances, viz, accidents, untimely happenings – working of natural phenomenon. This is called Upacchedake.

There is an excellent analogy to explain these four types of death. It is the analogy of the oil lamp. The light in the oil lamp can be extinguished due to any one of four causes:-

The wick in the lamp burns up. This is likened to death through the exhaustion of the life span. The consummation of the oil in the lamp is likened to death through exhaustion of the Karmic energy. The consummation o the oil in the lamp and the burning off of the wick at the same time – is likened to death occurring through the combination of causes described in (i) and (ii) occurring simultaneously; and the effect of external factors such as the wind blowing out the light – is likened to death caused through external factors.

Therefore, Karma alone is not the cause of death. There are external contributory causes also. The Buddha’s teaching categorically states that Karma does not explain all happenings in our lives.

Overcome

Can we overcome death? The answer is – Yes, we can. This repetition of countless births or Samsara has to be stopped. It can be done only by deeply understanding Avijja (Ignorance) and Tanha (desire). These are the roots in this cycle of births and have to be exterminated. If we manage to do that, birth is overcome, death is conquered and Samsara is transcended and Nirvana is attained.