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Death and Dying in Buddhism

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... or have been adapted from The Mirror of the Dhamma which can be found at www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh054.pdf Ghost Month (China) ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Death and Dying in Buddhism


1
Death and Dying in Buddhism
2
Death and Dying in Buddhism
  • Many of the central themes found within Buddhist
    thought can be clearly seen when looking at
    Buddhist attitudes towards death and dying.
    These include
  • Sa?sara
  • The three marks of existence
  • Karma
  • Also, looking at death within Buddhism can
    provide an insight into how modern Buddhists
    practice across the world.

3
Important Buddhist Doctrines
  • Sa?sara
  • All unenlightened beings are in a perpetual cycle
    of life death and rebirth known as sa?sara.
  • Sa?saric existence is conditioned by three marks
    impermanence (anitya/ anicca), not-Self (anatman/
    anatta), and dis-ease (du?kha/dukkha).
  • The teaching of anatman outlines that there is
    nothing that has a permanent Self, there is no
    underlying consciousness or sense of person that
    is carried from life to life.

4
Important Buddhist Doctrines
  • Karma
  • Karma is an system of cause and effect in which
    all intentional actions generate a karmic result.
  • Wholesome actions bring about good karmic results
    whereas unwholesome actions will bring about
    unpleasant karmic results.
  • Karmic results are not necessarily immediate,
    they can take several lifetimes to come into
    fruition.
  • The quality of an individuals death and rebirth
    is also influenced by their karma.

5
Important Buddhist Doctrines
  • Dependent Origination
  • Dependent Origination is a Buddhist doctrine of
    causality.
  • Everything within sa?sara is caused into
    existence, which in turn causes something else
    into existence.
  • This is useful in understanding how rebirth
    works. When a person is alive they accumulate
    good and bad deeds. The resulting karma does not
    simply disappear at death. Instead, due to the
    remaining karmic seeds a new being is caused into
    existence so that remaining karmic results may
    take place.

6
Dying Moments
  • In Buddhist cultures it is believed that a good
    death is one in which the individual is conscious
    and aware of what is happening to them.
  • The last moments of life can affect the nature of
    rebirth. The more calm and prepared a person is
    the better their rebirth is considered to be.
  • The last thoughts of an individual will shape
    their future rebirth, this moment itself being
    dictated by prior karma.
  • In most forms of Buddhism it is believed that
    death occurs after the last breath has been taken.

7
What Happens After Death?
  • What happens to an individual after they have
    died is not agreed upon within Buddhist thought.
  • In Tibetan Buddhism, after the last breath is
    taken, the individual is in an intermediate state
    between their previous life and their new life.
    This state, known as the bardo can last up to 49
    days.
  • In Theravada Buddhist doctrine rebirth is
    immediate. However, customs and rituals in
    Theravada countries such as Sri Lanka, Thailand,
    and Laos suggest that in practice most Buddhists
    believe in some forms of intermediate state of up
    to seven days.

8
Death Rituals
  • Within Buddhist practice there are no last rites
    that must be performed.
  • If the family choose to do so there are certain
    acts that are understood to help the deceased.
    Chanting texts, including pirit, will generate
    merit that can be transferred to the deceased.
  • A request for the refuges and precepts can be
    made. This can be done in Pali, the scriptural
    language of Theravada Buddhism, Tibetan, Chinese,
    Japanese or in English. There can be a homage
    paid to the Buddha, this would be repeated three
    times. There could be verses from Tibetan,
    Mahayana and Theravada literature depending upon
    the tradition of the deceased.

9
Rituals and Local Customs
  • Offering of cloth of the dead (mataka-vastra-puja)
  • This ritual is found within Theravada cultures.
    Before a funeral monks are offered a white cloth
    which is intended to be used to make monastic
    robes. This ritual is used to generate merit for
    the deceased. During this ceremony, the following
    from the Mahaparinibbana Sutta is recited
  • Formations truly they are transient,
  • It is their nature to arise and cease,
  • Having arisen, then they pass away,
  • Their calming and cessationhappiness.

10
  • This is a white cloth that was offered to monks
    as part of the mataka-vastra-puja at a funeral in
    Laos (2007).

11
Rituals and Local Customs
  • Water is then poured into an overflowing cup to
    represent the transfer of merit whilst the
    following is chanted
  • Just as water rained on high ground moves to the
    low land,
  • even so does what is given here benefit the
    dead.Just as the rivers full of water fill the
    ocean full,even so does what is given here
    benefit the dead.
  • The above verses have been translated for this
    document, or have been adapted from The Mirror
    of the Dhamma which can be found at
    www.bps.lk/olib/wh/wh054.pdf

12
Rituals and Local Customs
  • Ghost Month (China)
  • In China there are a number of rituals that are
    performed in memory of the dead during the course
    of the ghost month. During this period the
    spirits of the dead are invited to the Buddhist
    monasteries to participate. One of the most
    important aspects is the recitation of the name
    Amitabha or the scripture of the Bodhisattva
    Kshitigarbha. This generates merit which can then
    be transferred to the dead. Offerings of food and
    incense are made to the buddhas whilst lists of
    the dead are read by monks to ensure that they
    share in the merit. The climax of the Ghost Month
    rituals is the offering of food and vast amounts
    of paper money to the hungry ghosts and abandoned
    souls and the transfer of the resulting merit
    to the deceased.

13
  • At the start of the Chinese Ghost Month laypeople
    buy yellow paper slips, called lotus seats, to
    be displayed in a hall in the monastery
    temporarily known as the Hall of Rebirth.  The
    lotus seats state the name of the person who
    bought it and the name of the being to whom it is
    dedicated. At the end of the Ghost Month they are
    burned along with the paper money.

14
Rituals and Local Customs
  • Ghost Month (Laos)
  • In Laos there are two annual festivals for the
    deceased, both take place during the ninth lunar
    month.  The festival of rice packets decorating
    the earth is held on the first day of the new
    moon, and the festival of baskets drawn by lot
    takes place at full moon.  Both rituals are
    occasions for caring for deceased relatives,
    ghosts and agricultural divinities by
    transferring food and merit to them. In the
    former the lay people leave packets of rice
    wrapped in banana leaves around the temple as
    offerings to ghosts and the dead. The second
    festival is an occasion for remembering
    ancestors.  Laypeople prepare baskets filled with
    offerings, including food, plants and flowers,
    for their deceased relatives.  A paper slip on
    the basket states who it is from and who it is
    intended for.  The baskets are brought to the
    temple and assigned by lot to specific monks who
    then transfer the baskets to the deceased
    relatives.

15
  • People also make offerings to their ancestors at
    small shrines containing the relics of their
    bones collected after cremation.
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