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+## XIII. Death and Impermanence
+
+### Longevity and Euthanasia
+
+Q: I work in the life sciences and often visit tumor hospitals, where I see many patients tormented by illness. Nowadays many scientists study longevity diets, hoping to find ways to extend human life. In fact, although technology has raised average life expectancy to over seventy, the span of truly healthy years is only about fifty, and quality of life after that is not high. Does research aimed at extending life have any meaning? Also, how does Buddhism view euthanasia? If someone has an incurable disease, suffers unbearably, and only drains money and energy, is choosing euthanasia considered suicide or killing?
+
+A: Whether one lives to seventy or a hundred, or even a thousand or ten thousand years, one must eventually face birth and death; it is only a matter of sooner or later. So what is the meaning of living longer? The key lies in how we use our life. If we live merely for the sake of living, or even live painfully and meaninglessly, then in essence there is little difference between a longer or shorter life. Of course every being has the desire to survive, and for oneself and one's family the feeling is different. Buddhism holds that the human body is hard to obtain, and its value lies in using it to stop evil and cultivate good, to benefit oneself and benefit others. If we can make good use of this present life, a longer lifespan means more time for practice and more ability to benefit sentient beings. From this angle, the length of life does have different meaning for oneself and for society.
+
+From the shravaka-precept perspective, under no circumstances may one kill another or oneself. But as a bodhisattva practitioner, if one sees someone in extreme pain earnestly asking to be helped to end his life, and the bodhisattva, wishing to spare him such heavy suffering, is willing to bear the karmic retribution of killing in order to grant his wish, then from the bodhisattva-precept perspective this is not a precept violation.
+
+### Being Confident about Where One Is Going
+
+Q: My health is poor, and I worry that I might die any day. How should I practice to make the body healthy? And how can I be more confident about where I will go in this life?
+
+A: Physical health depends on many factors. First, maintain a good state of mind and set down unnecessary psychological burdens. Second, arrange your diet properly and do not create killing karma for the pleasure of the palate. Third, get plenty of outdoor exercise. From the Dharma perspective, we also encourage releasing living beings and caring for animals with compassion. When you spare beings from untimely death and help them live in peace, you will naturally reap the karmic result of health. In addition, proper meditative practice also benefits physical health.
+
+As for worrying about death, in fact contemplating death itself is a supportive condition for progress in practice. When we reflect that life is fragile and that we may not last until evening, our attachment to the world decreases and we can enter the practice state more quickly. Before we clearly understand the mind-nature, we feel confused about birth and death; precisely because we recognize this, we must strive all the harder in practice. Through contemplating death and impermanence and contemplating the suffering of samsara, we give rise to firm faith in the Three Jewels. As long as we deeply believe that the Three Jewels are the only refuge in the world and keep them constantly in mind, whenever we leave this world we need not fear falling into the evil realms.
+
+### Turning Grief into Strength
+
+Q: My father passed away suddenly during an afternoon nap two years ago. My mother often says through tears, "Good is rewarded with good; why did such a kind father leave so silently at such a young age?" I too have lived in intense self-blame, feeling that I did not fulfill my father's wishes and did not take good care of him. How can my mother and I release this pain?
+
+A: Everyone hopes for a happy family, long-lived parents, and filial children, but worldly cause and effect are extremely complex, including karma from this life and from past lives. This makes life full of impermanent change; it does not unfold just as we wish. In fact, death is something every person must face. In the time of the Buddha, a child died young. His mother was heartbroken and carried the body everywhere, begging people to bring the child back to life. Guided by others, she came to the Buddha. The Buddha told her, "As long as you find a household where no one has ever died and ask them for a little mustard seed, I can bring the child back to life." The mother thought there was finally hope, but after asking everywhere she found that every family had experienced death. Finally, under the Buddha's teaching, she recognized and accepted impermanence.
+
+Some people think that learning Buddhism ensures safety and smooth sailing. In fact, from the perspective of practice, favorable circumstances are not necessarily better than adverse ones. Because favorable circumstances easily give rise to attachment, while adverse circumstances can help us see the truth of the world. The key of learning Buddhism is to give us wisdom so that we have the ability to accept all kinds of problems, keeping an ordinary mind when things go well and still keeping an ordinary mind when things go badly. It is not, as we used to expect, that everything can last forever; that is only an illusion. Not only will our parents leave the world, but we too will leave the world. In less than a hundred years, everyone here will be gone. When we clearly understand the principle of impermanence, while accepting family changes, we will know what we ourselves should do. Grief is understandable, but only by turning grief into strength, treasuring the human body, and seizing the time in this life to practice can we benefit both ourselves and the deceased, and truly comfort the departed.
+
+### Impermanence Calls Us to Treasure This Life
+
+Q: Our family has always been kind to others; whenever we can help, we do. Yet in the past two years my father, grandmother, and grandfather passed away one after another. Why did they leave so quickly? I have been quite puzzled and unable to move on. How should I view this?
+
+A: Every life has its own karma. We have come together through endless samsara because we have affinities. But dependent origination is profound; the length of this life's lifespan and the duration of our affinities are largely determined by past karma. That is to say, although being kind to others creates good karma, the results may not be seen immediately, nor does it necessarily mean long life in this present life. We hope for family reunion and relationships that last forever—this is natural human feeling. But karmic results do not shift according to our expectations.
+
+Learning Buddhism helps us establish an understanding of impermanence, thereby accepting all changes, including those affecting ourselves and the people around us. They will depart, and we too will depart; even the earth will one day be destroyed. In this world, the only meaningful thing is to elevate the quality of life and ultimately move toward awakening. That we now have the human body and can hear the Dharma and practice is an extremely rare opportunity, the ripening of good karma accumulated over many lives and eons; every day is very precious. If we do not treasure it and use it to practice diligently, the next life will come in the blink of an eye. Can we still be sure of obtaining the human body and hearing the true Dharma? Impermanence is happening every moment; death is the only end of this present life. All of this reminds us to treasure the human body, make good use of this rare and easily lost opportunity, and cause future lives to ascend life after life.
+
+### Doing the Present Well Is Better Than Fortune-Telling
+
+Q: Folk practices like fortune-telling are popular. The teacher once said that although such things should not be fully believed, neither are they entirely superstition. How should we actually regard them? Especially when encountering adverse circumstances, one really wants to know when one's luck will turn.
+
+A: The Dharma explains the laws of development of all things through dependent origination and cause and effect, including arising, abiding, and ceasing. Since there are laws, they are predictable. From this perspective, fortune-telling is not groundless; it has its reasoning. The key is whether it is accurate. This involves two issues: first, whether the method used is effective—just like prospecting for minerals, the sensitivity and accuracy of the instrument are crucial; second, whether the practitioner's skill is adequate—if one's learning is not refined, it is easy to misjudge.
+
+Buddhism does not advocate fortune-telling. Instead, it teaches us to "work hard on the causes and let the results unfold as they may." Destiny is a result, attracted by one's own karma. Since it is self-created, one should accept it calmly. As for when luck will turn, it is not calculated by divination but depends on whether you have the wisdom to transform it. If you can view it with wisdom, adverse circumstances can serve as a warning, spur diligence, and become an indispensable supportive condition for life's growth; then your luck has already turned in this very moment.
+
+On the other hand, if we want a good future, we must understand what causes produce what happy results—for example, what causes physical health, what causes sound character, what causes harmonious interpersonal relationships—and then work hard on those causes. Life is an endless accumulation. The boundless past comes to rest in the present; the infinite future begins with the present. What we think and do now determines what we will become in the future. Therefore, the key is to grasp the present. Do well what should be done now, and the future will naturally be good.