BUDDHISM AND DEATH | Zen Wisdom

QUESTION:
How does Buddhism explain death? What happens between death and the next life? What carries over from one life to the next? How should one practice in the face of death? Are there certain changes one should make?

SHIH-FU:
For most human beings, death is very frightening to face. It is an inevitable event all of us must come to grips with. However, the ways ordinary sentient beings and enlightened beings view death are different. Furthermore, conventional Buddhism and Ch’an have different perspectives on death.

Conventional Buddhism speaks of two types of death ─ that for ordinary sentient beings and that for saints. Accumulated karma determines to what life an ordinary sentient being will be reborn. to. If bad karma overwhelmingly dominates, then the being will likely be reborn either in a hellish, ghost, or animal realm. If good karma overwhelmingly dominates, the being will be reborn in a heavenly realm. If good and bad karma are relatively balanced, then the being will be reborn in the human realm.

The period between one death and the next life is called the bardo in Tibetan Buddhism; Ch’an Buddhism calls it the intermediate body stage. After death, human beings do not necessarily go through an intermediate body stage. If one’s karma is overwhelmingly good, one will be go directly to a heavenly realm; and if one’s karma is overwhelmingly bad, one will go directly to a hellish realm. Karma that is relatively balanced will go through the intermediate body stage. Where and how this intermediate body will be reborn, no one knows. There are many types of parents creating new life. Depending on causes and conditions, an intermediate body could be born in the animal, the human, or certain heavenly realms. For these reasons, it is helpful for the living to perform services to help alleviate the karma of the intermediate body.

If people perform services ─ chant, recite sutras, make offerings ─ and transfer merit to the intermediate body, then the being will be helped. For example, if the being was to be reborn in a lower realm, performing services may cause it to be reborn in the human realm, and if it was to be reborn in poor conditions, then the transfer of merit may help it to be reborn in better conditions.
The intermediate body can do nothing on its own. It cannot practice and it cannot create new karma. It can only receive merit from living beings.

According to Chinese Buddhism, the intermediate body stage lasts, at most, forty-nine days. According to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, it can be longer. The time varies for different beings and depends upon causes and conditions. When causes and conditions ripen, a being will be reborn. According to Chinese Buddhism, if, after forty-nine days, the intermediate body does not proceed to the next life, then it will immediately become a hungry ghost or a deity.

If a being that does not proceed to the next life has weak karma, then its activity will be limited. It will appear only at certain times and in certain places. Such a being is called a hungry ghost (preta). If the being’s karma is stronger, then its activity will span a larger area and longer time. Such a being is called a deity (deva). However, nothing is eternal, and eventually these beings will be reborn in other realms. While they are ghosts or deities, these beings cannot practice. Like beings in the intermediate body stage, they can only receive the merits of living beings through services.

The second type of death involves saints. I sometimes speak of saints and sages. Saints are beings who have been liberated from samsara. Sages are sentient beings whose practice is much deeper than that of ordinary practitioners, but who have not yet attained liberation. Some of the patriarchs were sages. According to Hinayana Buddhism, a saint has reached at least the first fruit of arhatship. There are four levels of arhatship. After reaching the first level, the being will be reborn no more than seven additional times, before being forever liberated. For such an arhat, the stage after death is known as non-lingering nirvana. There is no lingering karma attached to the being, so it enters into nirvana.

According to Mahayana Buddhism, a being who is above the first bhumi level is a bodhisattva saint. For a bodhisattva, there is no such thing as birth and death. A bodhisattva, because of its great supernatural powers, can manifest in innumerable places and forms in the same instant.

Ch’an Buddhism accepts Buddhist scripture but it does not depend on it. Ch’an stresses that a practitioner must come to realize that there is no life or death, no good or bad, no internal or external, no future or past. Ch’an does away with dualities. It puts emphasis on sudden enlightenment. Ch’an requires that you adopt the attitude of non-discrimination and not be obsessed with anything. Only with such an attitude can you face death with equanimity. With such an attitude, there is no fear, and no clinging to life.

STUDENT:
If you practice for your entire life and do not get enlightened, will it have been a waste of time, or will something carry over into the next life?

SHIH-FU:
If you have the attitude I just described and practice diligently, whether you get enlightened in this life, and whether you practice in your next life does not matter. I am sure you are not satisfied with this answer. Objectively speaking, then, what happens? Serious Ch’an practitioners will not do bad things and create bad karma; therefore they will not be reborn in a lower realm. Even if they do something wrong, they will know it immediately and repent. After repenting, the consequences of the action will not be as bad.

Ch’an practitioners who have mastered their fear of death do not care if they go through the intermediate body stage; it does not matter what realm they are born in or what world they are born in. If the causes and conditions are conducive for practice, then they will practice in their next lives.

What carries over from one life to the next? There is no physical body, no true or eternal self. What determines the next life and what carries over to the next life is karma. There is karma with outflows and karma without outflows. Karma with outflows is created because of attachment to a self. It is governed by desire, anger and ignorance, and encompasses good, bad and neutral karma. Ordinary sentient beings create karma with outflows because they are attached to a self. Therefore, they will continuously experience karmic effects, life after life. Karmic seeds reside in the eighth, the alaya, consciousness. After death, karmic seeds continue to ripen, and the most powerful karmic seeds will influence where one is reborn. The being will be drawn to a set of parents like a magnet.

Karma without outflows is created when there is no attachment to self. It is the power of wisdom, or prajna. Such karma is created by great practitioners, and the consequences of such karma are also without outflows. This karma will not be attached to a self; therefore it will not be attached to samsara. Such karma will not enter the eighth consciousness. Enlightened sages are not controlled by karma with outflows. What carries over from one life to the next is their power of wisdom. They are reborn because they respond to the needs of sentient beings.

On the other hand, one who clings to an illusory self will still be controlled by the power of karma. In fact, the illusory self is the power of karma. Therefore, one can say that the power of karma carries over from one life to the next. One can also say that the attachment to an illusory self carries over from one life to the next.

STUDENT:
What mental attitude should you maintain on your deathbed? If possible, should you meditate or recite Kuan-yin’s (Avalokitesvara) name, or recite sutras? You said that a Ch’an practitioner should realize that there is no life or death, but what about people who haven’t attained such realization? What mental attitude should they have?

SHIH-FU:
Many of these questions arise because one encounters different Buddhist traditions, and one is therefore lead to ask many questions relating to death. What I said earlier still holds. Ch’an practitioners should not be preoccupied with the question of death. It is not necessary to be enlightened in order to be fearless. Furthermore, there are no special preparations one needs to make before death. The important thing is to maintain a regular practice while alive.

If you do something for yourself when you are on your deathbed, such as meditating or repeating Kuan-yin’s name, that will be of some use, but the power is not that significant. The important influence comes from your practice while alive, the kinds of vows you made, as well as the sincerity of the vows.

People often ask what the attitude of a Ch’an practitioner should be in various situations because it seems the Ch’an attitude is different from that of other Buddhist traditions. But as always I must stress that, with one exception, Ch’an methods are not different from basic Buddhist concepts. The exception is that the basic Buddhist approach speaks of different levels of experience and a gradual process, whereas the Ch’an approach is direct, and it always emphasizes practice. Other than this, the attitude and beliefs of the Ch’an practitioner are in accord with traditional Buddhadharma.

If you are afraid of death or concerned about where you are going after death, and think there is something you should do, that is not the true Ch’an spirit. It is more likely the attitude of the Pure Land practitioner or the esoteric Buddhist; and as I said earlier, other Buddhist traditions speak of different levels and gradual practice. The true Ch’an way is to cultivate a fearless attitude to life and death regardless of your attainment, and this comes only from diligent practice.

From the Sung dynasty onward, Ch’an Buddhism absorbed some elements from other Buddhist traditions, especially the Pure Land. It was then that people became preoccupied with questions about death: “If you practice your whole life and die without getting enlightened, what happens?” Maybe these people should practice Pure Land Buddhism instead so that when they die Amitabha Buddha will take them to the Western Paradise. That is not the true Ch’an spirit, since it is driven by attachment and desire.

STUDENT:
Is it important to recite prayers or sutras for the deceased? What about the Chinese practice of the Ulabana Sutra?

SHIH-FU:
There really is no need to do anything for relations or friends after they pass away. Services are useful, but not that significant. Besides, to depend only on the help of other beings after death, whether they are relatives, bodhisattvas or Buddhas, is not in accordance with Buddhadharma. What is important is the power of one’s own karma and vows.

The customary Chinese services are not really Ch’an practices. They are considered expedient methods. The dead person may not have practiced much while alive, so his or her relations perform a service and make offerings to transfer the merit to his or her spirit. Is this useful? Of course It has certain benefit, but it is only a remedial method.

When we were in India a while back, I asked a Hindu practitioner, “Do Hindus believe that after a person dies his friends and relatives can perform a service that will send him to a better place?”
The person replied, “In general we do believe such things, but this is not really in accordance with the principle of karma.”

Many people need such ideas because they feel helpless in the face of death. Someone dear to them dies and they can’t do a thing; they may feel great sorrow and regret. To believe that some service can be of benefit to the deceased makes them feel better.

I asked this Hindu: “If your father or mother passed away, would you perform a service for them?”

He replied, “Yes, definitely. I choose to believe that it is useful.”

STUDENT:
It seems the services are more for the living than for the dead.

SHIH-FU:
To an extent you are right, but one cannot say that these service are completely useless. The power of the mind is indeed capable of helping the deceased. As I said earlier, if the people who perform services are sincere and their practice is strong, they may be able to improve the dead person’s rebirth. Also, when people chant or read sutras, deities, spirits and other beings will gather to listen and are benefited by the service. If they benefit, then the deceased will benefit indirectly. An analogy would be if someone were locked up in prison and his family did charitable work in his name. The person would not be freed, but he might be treated better.

STUDENT:
Thank you, Shih-fu. You always answer from the standpoint that Ch’an is absolutely self-reliant. It’s clean, it’s pure, it’s not affixed to the supernatural. But at the same time, we are intelligent creatures, and if we direct our compassionate and well-intentioned minds and energies toward someone or something, it cannot harm but only help, and create good karma.

SHIH-FU:
Yes, you’re right. A Buddhist, including Ch’an Buddhists, should perform such services for relatives and friends who have died. I recite sutras for my parents, and I do it seriously, with sincerity.

STUDENT:
Suppose a Ch’an practitioner goes through a “near-death” experience, such as going “through a tunnel, ” or moving “toward a light, ” or having an out-of-body experience. What should a practitioner do in such a situation? Should he or she be attracted to images of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, or dead relatives, or should they be ignored?

SHIH-FU:
People who have had a near-death experience should not rely on or put total faith in anything they may have experienced. First of all, a person who “comes back to life” never really died in the first place. Some bodily functions may have temporarily ceased, but the brain did not die. If it were a case of brain death, the person would not be able to return to life.

As long as the brain is alive the person may still have some memory. During this near-death experience he or she may be in a dream-like state. The dreams may be strange and powerful, so when the person regains consciousness it seems as if he or she has returned from somewhere. The experiences ─ for example, seeing paradise ─ may seem real, but they are unreliable. One should not put much stock in them.

As religious experiences they are useful and powerful. We should not negate them. Even when healthy and meditating deeply, you may feel that you have traveled to an extremely beautiful place ─ heaven or the Pure Land ─ and you may be absolutely certain that the experience was real. These are your personal religious experiences. Nonetheless, to Ch’an they are unreliable, and we should not put too much faith in interpretations of them.

STUDENT:
What do you mean by religious experiences?

SHIH-FU:
Religious experiences are of great importance to one who experiences them; they help to build faith and confidence. They are usually spontaneous and not necessarily a result of practice. Such experiences can settle people and help them to become more peaceful. As such they are good illusions, but they are illusions all the same. Ch’an practice emphasizes seeing one’s own nature and illuminating one’s own mind, and leaving illusions behind.

STUDENT:
What do you mean by unreliable?

SHIH-FU:
They may or may not be real. Suppose you meet a dead relative during a near-death experience, or even in a dream. It might be your dead relative, but it might also be a deity, a ghost, or your own imagination. How can you be sure? One thing is clear: experiences like this are powerful. They fall under the category of religious experience. But if you put too much faith in such things, you might spend all your time waiting for it to happen again; you might grow attached to it; you might interpret the world through this experience. Yes, the phenomenon might be as you experienced it, but it might also be something that arose from your own consciousness.

When one dies, the first five sense consiousnesses stop working, so the person loses sensation and perception, but the sixth consciousness still exists and works, so the mind’s eye might experience something. But it’s all illusion. The experience may be blissful, light, pleasant. Well, the person no longer has the burden of a body and its pains. From the consciousness might rise beautiful scenery, sounds, paradise. On the other hand, the person may still cling to the suffering and pain the body experienced. Then one may experience something terrible or nightmarish ─ a hell. The explanation I have just given describes these phenomena as products of the sixth consciousness. I am not saying that this is the explanation for all near-death experiences, but it is one possible explanation. The fact that there are numerous interpretations makes the experience unreliable.

STUDENT:
Sometimes Ch’an teachings seem schizophrenic. Ch’an is very practical. It says you shouldn’t rely on anything, but in the next breath it talks about ghosts and deities, heavens and hells. These are not familiar sights.

Bodhisattvas are the hardest of all to believe in. Supposedly they are beings who can incarnate in innumerable forms in innumerable places in the same instant. It takes a stretch of the imagination to accept this. And then after all of this, Ch’an says everything is illusion.

SHIH-FU:
Everything you say is true. And you don’t have to “die” and come back to life to experience the supernatural. Even when one meditates one can experience things that are beyond the ordinary. For example, suppose you are meditating deeply and in your mind you see a beautiful picture; then you enter the picture and play around in the new world. This is also a function of the sixth consciousness.

Experiences can be objectively real, but they have to filter through the sixth consciousness. Therefore they are subjective and not entirely reliable. Indeed, the sixth consciousness itself is unreliable. Buddhism does not deny the existence of ghosts, deities, heavens, hells and bodhisattvas. However, as long as you perceive and interpret the world through the sixth consciousness, everything you experience will be illusory. This right now is illusory. If you want to experience the world clearly, directly, practice Ch’an.

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