Orange County Buddhist Church
Orange County Buddhist Church
This fall, in our Buddhist Education Center, I will be teaching a course titled, “The Buddhist Views of Life and Death.” In this eight week course, I will attempt to cover views of life and death beginning with Shakyamuni Buddha, and then on to views from the Zen, Tibetan, Pure Land, and Jodo Shinshu perspective. In this month’s article, I would like to introduce this topic for your thought.
In order to discuss the Buddhist view of life and death, we must first begin by discussing the non-dualistic view of life and death from the Buddhist perspective. In our western orientation, we look at things very dualistically. There is God and man, heaven and hell, good and evil, life and death. Growing up in western culture and society, we cannot help but think this way. We think that our life began at birth, in between there is life, and somewhere down the road, lies our death. However, Buddhism does not look at life and death in that manner.
Life does not begin at birth, and death is not simply something off in the future. Life and death are two sides of one reality. Really, I began to die the moment I was born. Death is right under my feet, each and every day that I live. I am living, but I am dying as well. In Buddhism, life and death are not two separate words. It is one word written with a compound of two Chinese characters, sho [生], which means “to live”, and shi [死], which means “to die”. Together, the compound is pronounced shoji, not shoshi. In order to properly translate this term, we would have to write it something like, life-death, or lifedeath, to express the non-dual aspect of the term.
When we look at life and death from a non-dualistic view, then death is not something far off in the future that I don’t want to think about, it is right under my feet. Not only is it right under my feet, but it is the one thing that gives the ultimate meaning to my life. The very fact that I am going to someday die, makes this one life, this one existence, the most amazing, cherished, and treasured thing I will ever have. That is why Buddhism deals with and talks about death a great deal, because it is the one thing that makes us awaken to life.
Last year when we experienced the great tragedy of Sept. 11th, we all experienced an uneasiness, an anxiety about our lives and the future. I think that the uneasiness and anxiety that we felt was the fact that each one of us realized, that could’ve been me in the World Trade Center, or that could’ve been me on one of those airplanes. How shocking to think that life could be taken away from us so quickly, and so tragically.
Buddhism is trying to awaken us to the fact that the reality of our impermanence is something that we face on a daily basis. At any moment our life could be taken away, by sudden illness, an accident, or who knows what. When we reflect in that manner, it is quite unnerving, disturbing, maybe even frightful, to think of our life ending at any time.
This fear, anxiety, and uneasiness, is not necessarily a negative thing to have. It can become the great impetus, the source of our truly seeking the path of the Buddha-Dharma.
Shakyamuni Buddha, during his early years is said to have gone out of the palace on four different occasions. On each excursion he saw something that changed his life. This is the famous episode of his going out of the four gates.
One each outing, he saw something that shook him up, and made him very reflective and depressed. Those four sightings were an old man, a sick man, death, and a monk. So sheltered was Prince Siddartha that even elderly people or sick people, he had never encountered. He was shocked to see a decrepit old man, to see a seriously ill man, and to see a funeral processional with people crying tears of sadness. Here we can see how Shakyamuni Buddha’s view of life and death was greatly shaped by this experience. The first noble truth of “Life is Suffering”, can be seen from his experience of going out of the four gates.
Young Siddartha was shaken up, fearful, and anxious about his pending future. What is the use of having wealth, fame, and status, if they cannot stop the tide of old age, sickness and death?
The fourth sighting, the monk, shocked Siddartha in a different way. The monk was an inspiration, an idea that was firmly planted in his heart and mind, that there was a way of life beyond sickness, old age, and death. Here was someone who had given up all worldly possessions, in pursuit of a truth that transcends the sufferings of life. Siddartha must’ve resolved then and there, to someday pursue that path himself.
Shakyamuni Buddha’s enlightenment, years later, was to finally resolve the question, the fear, the anxiety, the uneasiness, about life and death, for not only himself, but for all mankind. In awakening to enlightenment, he transcended the duality of life and death. He became one with the non-duality of life and death. He transcended time and space. He stood on the ground of all eternity.
From Shakyamuni Buddha, countless Buddhists for centuries have transcended the duality of life and death. They have resolved the question, the fear of death, and in so doing, have awakened to an unending source of life.
To give two short examples, one Zen Master, Ungo Kiyo who died at the age of 77 in the year 1659, writes his final words in the following death poem:
“I came into the world after Buddha.
I leave the world before Miroku.
Between the Buddha of the beginning
and the Buddha of the end
I am not born, I do not die.”
p. 126, Japanese Death Poems,
Yoel Hoffman.
This poem shows the transcending of life and death through enlightenment. “The world after Buddha”, means being born after Shakyamuni Buddha. “The world before Miroku” refers to being born in this world before the future Buddha, who is referred to as Miroku. “I am not born, I do not die” does not mean that the Zen Master is some kind of deity and is not human. He is human like everyone else. But yet, having transcended life and death, he does not see birth as a beginning, and death as an end. He has transcended the duality, and his heart and mind is immeasurable and unlimited.
Saichi, the Shin Buddhist Myokonin, also expresses the same transcendence of life and death in his poems on the Nembutsu.
“I, bound for death,
Am now made into the immortal
Namuamidabutsu.”
p. 186, Mysticism:
Christian and Buddhist
by D.T. Suzuki.
Here Saichi, as a human being, must die like everyone else. But yet, beyond this limited, one human life that we have, there is an infinite, immortal truth. That is the truth of Namuamidabutsu. Saichi’s heart is one with that timeless truth, therefore, when his life comes to an end, he becomes the immortal Namuamidabutsu itself.
Through listening to the Dharma, we too can transcend life and death, we too can become the immortal “Namuamidabutsu.”
Gassho,
Rev. Marvin Harada
