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Most other people are so totally overawed and frightened by such brilliant experiences that they turn away from them and shelter in mind's shadows. Through familiarity, they will welcome the experience of these beings of light coming to receive them into their paradises. People used to meditation on specific Buddhas and bodhisattvas - and in particular on Buddha Amitabha and bodhisattva Avalokitesvara - will find special support at the time of death. The good karma this creates and the wholesome, virtuous mental reflexes it develops will become one's best friends at the time of dying and in the after-death experiences, when spontaneous reactions and the mighty drive of karma prevail. In one way, the finest and most thorough training is simply to lead a good and virtuous life - physically, verbally and mentally. On a deeper level, death is not only a physical reality but also a powerful metaphor for the psychological death of ego which must occur before the mind is liberated into limitless wisdom.īuddhists prepare for death in many ways, depending upon how well they have learnt to master their own minds, through meditation. Each hour, each day, becomes a fresh opportunity for working for the long-term spiritual weal rather than inconsequential material pleasure. Most importantly, awareness of death leads to a awakened appreciation of every precious moment of life. Observing this ephemeral fragility of life can sow the seeds of great compassion for those who cling to it as though it would never end. This almost endless, age-old journey will involve staying in hundreds, thousands, of such temporary residences until liberating truths finally release the weary traveller. Believing in reincarnation, he or she sees the biological shell as a guest-house in which the travelling consciousness sojourns but briefly, soon to go to another, quite different, place. The meditator, calmly observing the waxen, inanimate corpses deposited daily in charnel grounds, takes only days or weeks to understand the point: the vital distinction between the body and the mind which animates it. Many people have to wait decades - until parents or spouses die - to go through the unique learning cycle afforded by observing death at close hand. This may seem macabre and gruesome at first, to a modern Western mind, but for monks it is an invaluable and time-saving device. Since Buddhism's earliest days, Buddhist monks have gone to funeral grounds to observe bodies left there to be eaten by wild animals and insects. It led to many natural questions and was a constant reminder of the Buddha's teachings on impermanence. People were confronted with mortality as a real and recurring feature of daily life. It is helpful to recall that most Buddhist cultures, even well into this century, were made up of integral, extended families in which ageing and dying happened in the home and not in external institutions such as old peoples' homes and hospitals. The Buddha himself described death as the 'the greatest of all teachers', 'the sickness' and 'the most important manifestation of impermanence'.
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Buddhism, in contrast to most other faiths, deals with it head-on, in a very frank and quite detailed way, both in theory and in practical preparation. Religions' vagueness and mystery surrounding this subject is reinforced by death being a taboo topic in many cultures. THE ROLE OF ROKPA TRUST – Guidelines and PoliciesĪlthough most religions have rites of passage for the dead, their teachings about death itself (and what follows it) are few and far between. The Samye Ling Victory Stupa for World Peace His Holiness the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorjeĭharma Study and Practice in Kagyu Samye Lingīuddhist Funeral Advice in the Tibetan Tradition