44 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
44 lines
9.5 KiB
Plaintext
## XIII. Death and Impermanence
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### Longevity and Euthanasia
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Q: I work in the life sciences and often visit cancer hospitals, where I see many patients suffering from 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, does choosing euthanasia count as suicide or killing?
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A: Whether we live to seventy or a hundred, or even a thousand or ten thousand years, we still have to face death; it is only a matter of sooner or later. So what is the meaning of living longer? The key is how we use our life. If we live merely for the sake of living, or even live painfully and meaninglessly, then in essence, a longer life and a shorter one aren't very different. Of course every living being wants to survive, and for ourselves and our families the feeling is different. Buddhism teaches that human life is precious and rare, and its value lies in using it to stop evil and cultivate good, benefiting ourselves and others. If we can make good use of this present life, a longer lifespan means more time to practice and more ability to benefit sentient beings. From this perspective, how long we live really does mean something different for ourselves and for society.
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From the shravaka precepts perspective, under no circumstances can we kill another or take our own life. But as a bodhisattva practitioner, if we see someone in extreme pain earnestly asking to be helped to end his life, and we, wishing to spare him such heavy suffering, are willing to bear the karmic consequence of killing to fulfill his wish, then from the bodhisattva precepts perspective this is not a precept violation.
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### Being Confident about Where One Is Going
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Q: My health is poor, and I worry that I might die any day. How should I practice to get healthy? And how can I be more confident about where I'll go after this life?
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A: Physical health depends on many factors. First, keep a good state of mind and let go of unnecessary mental burdens. Second, arrange your diet properly and don't create killing karma just to satisfy your taste buds. 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 receive the karmic reward of health. In addition, the right kind of meditation also benefits physical health.
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As for worrying about death, in fact contemplating death itself is a support for our practice. When we reflect that life is fragile and that we may not live to see evening, our attachment to the world decreases and we can make progress more quickly. Before we clearly understand the nature of the mind, we feel confused about life and death; precisely because we recognize this, we should practice even harder. Through contemplating death and impermanence and contemplating the suffering of samsara, we develop firm faith in the Three Jewels. As long as we deeply believe that the Three Jewels are the only true refuge in this world and keep them constantly in mind, whenever we leave this world we need not fear falling into the lower realms.
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### Turning Grief into Strength
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Q: My father passed away suddenly during an afternoon nap two years ago. My mother often says, tears streaming down her face, "Good is rewarded with good; why did such a kind father leave so quietly at such a young age?" I too have lived with intense guilt, feeling that I did not fulfill my father's wishes and did not take good care of him. How can my mother and I let go of this pain?
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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 change and impermanence; it doesn't unfold just as we'd like. In fact, death is something every person must face. In the Buddha's time, a child died young. His mother was heartbroken and carried the body everywhere, begging people to bring her 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 known death. Finally, through the Buddha's teaching, she recognized and accepted impermanence.
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Some people think that practicing Buddhism keeps us safe and makes everything go smoothly. In fact, from the perspective of practice, favorable conditions are not necessarily better than adverse conditions. Favorable conditions easily lead to attachment, while adverse conditions can help us see the way things really are. The key to learning Buddhism is to give us wisdom so we can accept all kinds of problems, keeping an ordinary mind whether things go well or go badly. It's not that everything can last forever, as we might hope; that's just 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 truly understand impermanence and accept the changes in our family, we'll know what we should do. Grief is understandable, but only by turning grief into strength, treasuring this human life, and seizing this life to practice can we benefit both ourselves and the deceased, and truly comfort the departed.
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### Impermanence Calls Us to Treasure This Life
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Q: Our family has always been kind to others; whenever we can help, we help. Yet in the past two years my father, grandmother, and grandfather passed away one after another. Why did they leave so soon? I have been quite puzzled and unable to get over it. How should I view this?
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A: Every life has its own karma. We have come together through endless samsara because of our affinities. But dependent origination is profound; how long we live and how long our relationships last are largely determined by past karma. That is to say, although being kind to others creates good karma, the results may not show up right away, and it doesn't necessarily mean a long life in this life. We hope for family reunions and relationships that last forever—this is only natural. But karmic results don't change just because we want them to.
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Learning Buddhism helps us understand impermanence, so we can accept all changes, including changes in ourselves and those 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 our lives and ultimately move toward awakening. Having this human body and being able to hear the Dharma and practice is an extremely rare opportunity, the result of good karma accumulated over many lifetimes and eons; every day is precious. If we don't 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 gaining a human body and hearing the true Dharma? Impermanence is happening every moment; death is the only end of this life. All of this reminds us to treasure the human body, make good use of this rare and easily lost opportunity, and help future lives ascend life after life.
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### Divination Is No Match for Living the Present Well
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Q: Folk practices like fortune-telling are popular. The Dharma teacher once said that although we shouldn't entirely believe them, they're not entirely superstition either. How should we actually view them? Especially when we run into adversity, we really want to know when our luck will turn.
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A: The Dharma explains the laws of how all things develop 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 logic. The key is whether it is accurate. This involves two issues: first, whether the method is effective—just like prospecting for minerals, the sensitivity and accuracy of the instrument are crucial; second, whether the practitioner's skill is up to par—if their learning is not refined, they're likely to misjudge.
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Buddhism doesn't 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 brought about by our own karma. Since it's self-created, we should accept it calmly. As for when luck will turn, it's not worked out 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 and spur us to diligence, becoming an essential support for our growth; then your luck has already turned right now.
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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 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 seize the present. Do well what should be done now, and the future will naturally be good.
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