Tag Archives: Death

Daily Buddhism, Meditation, Video

Impermanence – Not Even the Mountains?

Impermanence – Not Even the Mountains?

A reader wrote:

I’m a big fan of your Daily Buddhism blog and thought that you’d be interested in seeing this 8-minute film that I recently made about impermanence, “Mountains Made of Chalk, Fall into the Sea, Eventually.”

The synergy of creative collaboration can result in magic beyond our imagining.  Witnessing Genna Panzarella paint this 8×10′ mural of Mt. Tamalpais as it was when it was whole, literally inside of what used to be the mountaintop, is akin to stealing a peek through the kimono of mystery… the misty mystery of impermanence.

The project bears a great resemblance to the process of making a Sand Painting.

You are welcome to link to it in your blog if you feel that it would be a worthy addition to it.

https://vimeo.com/119016971

Mountains Made of Chalk, Fall into the Sea, Eventually. from Gary Yost on Vimeo.

My Response:

Well, there it is, up there in the link. Take a minute (or eight) to watch the movie. As you point out, it is similar in many ways to the monks who do sand mandalas [Link to 2009 Mandala Post].

The reasons (mostly Tibetan) monks spend hours or days creating intricate mandalas made of sand seems to be an exercise in patience and concentration. It’s another form of concentration/meditation. When they are finished, they sweep up all that sand and destroy the beautiful work of art they have been working on, one grain of sand at a time, for days. Why? In many ways, the destruction of the mandala is the most important part of the process.

This erasing of the art demonstrates and exemplifies the Buddhist idea of impermanence. The Pali word for this kind of impermanence is anicca. This lack of permanence extends to everything. Your mood today. Your job. The personal problem you are dealing with this week. Your life. The mountain the artist in the movie is on. The planet Earth itself. None of these things are permanent; some will go away quickly, some take decades, some may take millions of years, but nothing is forever. The knowledge that nothing lasts and that change is the only thing that is inevitable is a big part of the Buddhist’s conception of suffering (dukkha).

How do we get past this idea that everything is temporary? As the mandala-making monks and the chalk artist in the movie above have learned, the best way to deal with it is to embrace change.

Does anyone have an experience or story they’d like to share that demonstrates something you have learned about impermanence? Post in the comments!

 

Daily Buddhism, Ethics

Is Death a Reset Button?

3 Comments

A reader writes:

Message: Hey Brian, really enjoy all the podcasts and this site. I have been studying Buddhism now for almost two years and my life gets better on a daily basis.

My question is : it seems that our purpose is to fully awaken and be free of attachment. Well it seems that no matter how conscious or aware we become living in a form world we will most likely be attached to something at our time of death. That being so and we get sent back for another round at life here. Do we lose the level of awareness that we left before? I know when we are born we are not conditioned and we are totally conscious. Is our destiny dependent on the whole society being more evolved towards awakening?? Because if not we could have a thousand more lifetimes here.  Am I making any sense? If so what’s your take on it.

My Response:

Do we lose the level of awareness that we left before? Is our existence “Reset” every time around? Consciously? Yes. Karmically? No. You don’t know how enlightened or ignorant you were in your previous lives. Your karma, however, stays with you. If you were near-enlightened before, you should have come back in a (karmic at least) condition that will let you continue that growth. It’s up to you whether you continue forward or take steps backwards.

Are we dependent on our society awakening? Partially. It’ not an individual requirement, but as society evolves, and the overall enlightenment of people rises, I would think it should become easier in general. “A rising tide lifts all boats.”  That being said, awakening or Enlightenment is in internal, individual thing, and even if everyone else on Earth were Enlightened, you would still have to make some effort to join them.

One of the most popular posts on this site was Rebirth and Karma, and it explains death and rebirth using an analogy of “waves.” It’s pretty good if I do say so myself. Link

Readers, what say you?

Daily Buddhism

Rebirth, Death, Heaven and Nirvana

4 Comments

Question:

I recently lost my grandmother, and now have no grandparents left. I’m comforted with the belief that my grandparents went to Heaven and are with God and each other. My question is sort of a two-sided one: How do Buddhists handle death, and what do they believe about life after death? I’ve heard about reincarnation, but I’m not sure if I fully understand how that works. Another way to phrase part of my question: I, like every other person in this world, am afraid to die. What does Buddhism teach in terms of calming that fear and preparing one for the unknown? If this is a question you’ve covered already, I apologize. It was on my mind and I had to ask.

Answer:

You ask two VERY big questions, but I’ll try to give you as short an answer as possible. Remember, that I’m simplifying things heavily.

Buddhists believe in the cycle of samsara, which is also called rebirth. It’s not exactly reincarnation as we usually understand it in America, but it’s pretty close. As we live our lives, we accumulate karma, which is something like a “point system” for the good and bad things we do. There is not a god watching us and assigning these points, it’s just the way the universe works. If you build up lots of good karma, you come back in a better life, if you build up bad karma, you move down the scale.

Unlike Christianity, there is no praying for forgiveness; if you do something bad, you will pay for it eventually. If you are good, you will receive your reward. This is why people say that Buddhism really emphasizes personal responsibility. Your build-up of karma does not necessarily have an effect on you in the present life. That’s why sometimes bad things happen to good people and vice-versa.

I realize that your grandparents believed in the Christian version of Heaven and Hell, and it sounds like you do as well, and that’s fine. Buddhists believe that karma works for non-Buddhists as well, and good actions will still bear the rewards!

The second half of your question, how do Buddhists prepare for death, is a bit more complicated.

Buddhists look forward to escaping this cycle of birth and rebirth, and believe that they can reach “Nirvana” where they no longer have to come back endure life and its associated pains. Nirvana is not a “place” like Heaven, but more of an individual state of being. Still, it’s the ultimate goal, so thinking of it as a form of heaven isn’t too far out.

The physical body here on Earth is just a shell, and we all know that this body will age and die. This is unavoidable, and Buddhists work hard to learn to accept that. There are even meditation practices that focus on mentally imagining decomposing corpses; as one thinks that process through, it loses its repulsiveness and one stops fearing the inevitable.

We have looked at these topics on the site in the past, so here are a couple of links that might help a bit:

Christians and Karma? http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/133
Past Lives: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/858
The 40 Meditation Themes: http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/229

Feel free to ask if you need clarification on anything!

Daily Buddhism

Life and Death

1 Comment

If you have been reading for a while, you’ll remember that I have done reviews of two books from Master Sheng Yen, and he was quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Well, last week Master Sheng Yen died at age 80. I didn’t have much information, so I didn’t want to make a special post about it here, but I did make mention of it on Twitter. Someone read one of those postings and emailed me with:

Question:

I am following your messages on Twitter. Yesterday you wrote about life and death and how the reality of death must be accepted. But isn’t death something that is impossible to actually experience? As long as we are alive, we obviously can’t experience death. So in our mind, we are alive – until we actually die, but then we can’t experience it anymore. Therefore, death is real, but our own death will never be real for us. What do you think?

Answer:

You are right– you cannot really experience what it means to be dead. At least not to the point where you can remember death. But that’s not really what the quote was getting at. Here’s the full quote I posted from Sheng Yen:

Master Sheng Yen once said, “Where there is life, there must be death. If one cannot face this reality it will become one’s greatest barrier in life, if one can regard death merely as a fraction within the eternal time and space then death is not an end to life but the beginning of the next.”

But you CAN experience death… in your mind. Buddhists often do a thing called “meditation on a corpse,” which involves visualizing your own decomposing corpse. By visualizing this, one can explore the idea of death and by becoming more and more familiar with it, you are supposed to lose your fear. It’s a natural thing that must be accepted, and by understanding all aspects of death, you find it’s nothing to fear.

Check out http://www.dailybuddhism.com/archives/229 for more on this style of meditation. It sounds disgusting, but people have been doing it for thousands of years.

More about Master Sheng Yen of Dharma Drum Monastery: Link

Daily Buddhism, Reviews

DVD Review: Zen Noir

Movie: Zen Noir
Director: Marc Rosenbush
Reviewed by Brian Schell
English, 71 Minutes
Amazon Link

I saw the trailers for this movie last winter, and it looked hilarious, so when I finally had a chance to watch the film, I jumped at it. Zen humor is not something you see everyday, and this was obviously advertised as a comedy.

The movie is narrated in the first person by a 30’s hard-boiled detective type, clearly a Mike Hammer parody, complete with tough-guy monologues and beard stubble. The action starts out with a chuckle, as an old Zen monk sits in a room with other monks meditating. He keels over and dies, but the others are so into their meditation they don’t even notice. When the detective arrives and starts asking questions about the murder‚Ķ Well, you know what kind of answers you get when you ask a question in Zen.

The first 25 minutes or so were rough. The back and forth rapid-fire questions and non-answers got old fast, and the overuse of Noir and Zen cliches got to the point of silliness, which was probably intentional, but still wasn’t very funny. By around the 20-minute mark, I was ready to declare this the “stupidest movie ever.” Then the silliness slowed down and the Zen took over.

There was still the occasional funny line, such as when the detective asks the Master,
“What happens when we, you know‚ die?”
“Don’t know.”
“Why not?”
“Not dead yet!” OK, so humor of that sort is in the delivery.

There are dozens of images of oranges and glimpses of oranges In different scenes and positions flashing onscreen throughout the drama. Once the meaning of the orange is explained, many things become clear, both in the movie and in real Zen itself. There really is a lot of Zen in the movie, and it was obviously very cleverly written.

Yet, I still have to ask myself, is it entertaining? The problem is that even after watching the movie, I cannot answer that one. This is definitely one of those love-it or hate-it movies, and I suspect most audiences are going to be split down the middle. If someone is fairly knowledgeable about basic Zen ideas, then there is a message in the ending; however, for the person who isn’t very familiar with Zen ideas, this is going to be a seriously boring movie that makes no sense whatsoever.

I’m going to give this one a 3/5 since I really just don’t know what to think‚Ķ Or maybe I should give it a 5/5 for the same reason.

Sigh. Zen makes me crazy sometimes.

Purchase it from Amazon