What is this Thing Called Death ?
By Bhikkhu Thitapuñño
EDITOR’S NOTE:
The Birken Forest Monastery is located in Princeton, British Columbia in Canada. The following thoughts on death, dying and “mudita” or sympathetic joy by resident monk Bhikku Thitapunno are excerpted from the monastery’s Winter newsletter and are reprinted here with permission.
“And what, friends, is death? … The passing of beings out of the various orders of being, their passing away, dissolution, disappearance, dying, completion of time, dissolution of aggregates, laying down of the body – this is called death.” The Buddha (M.141).
EVEN THOUGH WE ARE perceptive beings we misapprehend or ignore the basic marks of our experience. This happens because the mind engages in unskillful modes of perception, thought and view.
The first mark or characteristic of existence which we overlook is considered to be (in the teachings of the Buddha) impermanence (anicca). Impermanence in this context means that all mental and physical phenomena continuously arise and disappear in gross and subtle forms. Yet the mind operates in a selective mode so that this characteristic is overlooked. This is because of ignorance or not knowing (avijja), a mental factor present in the minds of all but fully enlightened beings.
When this not knowing specifically interferes with perception we refer to it as a distortion or perversion of perception (in Pali, sañña-vipallasa). Perceptions are woven into thoughts, and in turn, repeated streams of thought “solidify” into what we call views. So, likewise, we refer to perversions of thought (citta-vipallasa) and view (ditthi-vipallasa) manifesting in the ordinary mind.
There are four types of perversions of perception operating at these three levels. With respect to impermanence, when we perceive, think and view the impermanent as permanent — the first type of perversion — this refers in particular to mind and body. The discordance between reality and our perceptions, thoughts and views results in friction, stress, fear and many other forms of suffering when confronted with, for example, the fact of human death (a gross manifestation of impermanence). The three other types of perversion are: seeking happiness in those things which lead to suffering; the notion of an intrinsically permanent self in that which is not self; and regarding the foul as beautiful.
Reflecting on human death one may consider the matter from the related points of view of “What is to be done about it?” and “What is to be understood about it?” If one is aware of death as a threat, as something utterly undesirable, then both doing and understanding are to be taken as imperatives — and not to be thought of as mere abstract postulates. It ought to be something we eventually act upon.
Often, people make a distinction as to what should be done at any stage in one’s life and what is to be attempted when death is imminent. This is really a false, imaginary distinction supported by the perversions mentioned above.
DEATH IS ACTUALLY IMMINENT. It overhangs and may fall on us at any time with or without warning. From a Buddhist point-of-view, doing and understanding something about this matter of death are complementary notions that support each other.
If one has not really understood the gravity of the situation, one will not be strongly compelled to deal with it. It is just another way of saying that one does not really understand impermanence. Until one really does, one will continue living and experiencing reality in an unenlightened way. The measure of understanding may be gauged by the amount of suffering one undergoes when faced with the loss of relatives, friends or one’s body. Much understanding, little pain; little understanding, much pain!
“Doing” is to be understood in the sense of the possible courses of action one may take given the constant threat of death. “Understanding” is to be arrived at by means of insight into the true nature of existence. This insight, which arises through meditative effort, then provides the understanding about the causes of death, the possible outcomes of death, and the actual possibility of an escape from death. This last prospect is something unthinkable by the ordinary person. But for the practitioner of the Buddhist path it represents the ultimate goal, the final escape from the continuous cycle of birth and death.
An answer to precisely the question, “What is to be done in the face of death?” was drawn from King Pasenadi, the ruler of the ancient Indian kingdom of Kosala. A poignant simile was presented to him by the Buddha 25 centuries ago (S 3:25). He was asked what he would do if from the four directions messengers came to warn him of the impending menace posed by four mountains as high as the heavens that were advancing towards him, each from a corresponding direction, crushing and destroying without mercy every living thing.
The king answered that he could do nothing else but walk the path of Dhamma, cultivate the wholesome, and perform meritorious deeds. The Buddha approved of his answer by emphatically reaffirming the very same statement after pointing out that birth, sickness, ageing and death were likewise approaching him.
THE KING’S ANSWER MAKES implicit reference to the courses of action that are meritorious and produce agreeable results. These meritorious deeds in themselves may not provide a final solution to the problem of death. But they are means towards the improvement of our present or future state of existence, which in turn may be the basis for the practice of the path to liberation from the samsaric cycle.
A definitive solution to the problem is also pointed out in the king’s answer. This comes about if one is able to complete the “path of Dhamma,” the Noble Eightfold Path, issuing in the supramundane realization of nibbana. But before one walks the path it is necessary to get on the path. How so? What would be a compelling motivation?
The many kinds of suffering experienced by sentient beings in general, and on account of death in particular, may trigger the motivation for the emergence of a sense of spiritual urgency (samvega) and may be the cause for the arising of faith (saddha). When these are present, an individual may embark in a search for answers that may be conducive to the end of suffering and death.
THE BUDDHA POINTS OUT THAT there are two possible kinds of search, one being noble and the other ignoble (M.26). The ignoble search is that of the person who looks for an answer in those things that precisely are themselves subject to death and are sources of suffering. This refers to all those mundane things that are dear to us, which we are infatuated with and cling to because we see them in a deluded (or perverted) way as sources of stability and happiness. Such things are our dear ones, our bodies, physical and mental objects, and our views about the self and the world.
The noble search is undertaken by the person who begins to understand the danger in all actualities due to their conditioned and unsatisfactory nature, their impermanence, and their emptiness with respect to some inherent graspable or controllable essence. When that person understands in this way, there is a sense of revulsion, of disenchantment and a turning away from these very things. For Buddhist practitioners this leads to dispassion with regard to all mundane things followed by a search for the supreme security from the bondage of repeated birth and death.
In the Buddhist path the search finally issues in the realization of the unconditioned, the deathless, nibbana. The teachings of the Buddha are ultimately directed towards the culmination of this noble search. Anything else falling short of freedom from samsara is not the goal of the teachings. The Buddha’s path leading to the deathless is basically a path of discernment leading gradually towards a proper or “right” view of reality.
Quoted passages from “The Middle Length Discourses,” translated by Bhikkhu Nanamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi, Wisdom Publications. Brackets include author’s addition.
Source : www.hundredmountain.com
