In his book The Tibetan Art of Living & Dying, the author
Sogyal Rinpoche, relates an incident in 1976 when he was visiting New
York, with his teacher Dujom Rinpoche.
A middle aged American woman suffering from a terminal illness came to see them . She cried" My doctor has given me only a few months to live. Can you help me ? I am dying"
To her surprise, Lama Rinpoche began to chuckle. Then he said quietly:"You see, we are all dying . Its only a matter of time. Some of us just die sooner than others"
With these few words, he helped her to see the universality of death.... this eased her anxiety.
In my last blog I mentioned about the recent deaths in our immediate family . That gets you to start thinking about your mortality. Much as we hate to talk or think about it, the fact is that we are all going to die.
Most people fear death. I am not sure if that is because we worry that death might not come easy and that we might have to suffer for a long period or because it might come so sudden that we are not prepared for it. Or perhaps deep within us there is unspoken fear of the unknown. What happens when we die ? Will we go to heaven or hell ? Will we be reborn in another form ?
Different religions have differing views about what happens after death. With a view to ensuring that you live a good decent life in harmony with your friends, fellows, colleagues and strangers, most religions tend to pressure you. Some by the concept of heaven and hell. Others by telling you that you will be re-born, as a person, or some other living form until you live the life in which you do good deeds and which ultimately helps you escape the cycle.
While I understand the need for people to live harmoniously and in a broad sense follow the Ten Commandments or its equivalent in other religions, it is difficult to accept God as Big Brother or Santa Claus keeping an eye on you twenty four seven , to see if you have been good or bad ? Instead of not getting presents you get assigned to purgatory and continue to burn for eternity and have the devil sticking his pitchfork into you to turn you over to ensure that you are getting roasted evenly. The other alternative is for you is to be re-born again and again , sometimes in different forms and continue to suffer until you rack up all the x's and win the lottery ticket to enlightenment.
If these menu of choices of life after death are indeed true I can picture Stalin or Mao, or Hitler or Pol Pot and numerous others in history who were responsible for the death of hundreds of thousand if not millions of people, all meeting their just deserts. However in the case of some of these people, and some still presently living, life before and after death got reversed. Mao and Stalin died in bed. Hitler and Pol Pot are believed to have committed suicide. During their regime people did not have to die, they suffered hell on earth whereas these dictators all lived in luxury. The victims saw hell and their tormentors saw heaven on earth.
There is a television show Persons of Interest which I enjoy seeing, where a bank of computers through the various CCTV cameras scattered all over the country monitor the citizens. Its complex algorithms are able to predict whether a crime is about to be committed and the star of the show rushes to prevent it. Another variation of that was the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise. If in the future this comes true, as it has in some other science fiction stories, then hell is going to be a lonely place and heaven running out of space, because no crimes or by extension sins will be committed.
As a simple layman and not understanding complex theological thoughts, one wonders about the question of re-birth .Since most religions do not appear to accept the concept of evolution, I wonder how the re-birth theory works out with the ever increasing population. It should be a zero sum game.
Looking at increasing scientific discoveries being made in terms of cloning if the governments permitted, some scientist will eventually be able to clone human beings. If Dolly the sheep, why not John the human ? Difficult to understand how theological theory reconciles with science which is now in the early stages of growing human organs in laboratories. Presently organ transplant is restricted to taking donated organs replacing non-functioning organs including the human heart.How does re-birth work here ? In some religions it is the soul which is considered eternal not the physical body. Where does the soul reside ?
As is often been said and written about, no matter what you think about your role in life and even within your family, realistically you will be surprised to find out how quickly you are forgotten. The minute you stop breathing you are no longer a he or she, you become a it or the body.
From a personal point of view, if your death comes after a certain age, say over seventy five years, it should be a cause of celebration for two reasons. If your death is sudden and unexpected, what more can you ask for ?You have lived to a good old age of seventy five and you died without suffering. In my mind you are blessed. On the other hand if you die after a long illness, should the family not be relieved that the suffering has finally ended ?
"Ashes to ashes , dust to dust " from the Anglican Burial Service is a phrase I have read and seen in movie burial scenes. Having been to some cremations and the immersion of ashes, I am finally beginning to understand the phrase. I am perhaps taking it too literally, but reality hits you when you see a person who is active one day and next day he/she is reduced to a bag of ashes.
A middle aged American woman suffering from a terminal illness came to see them . She cried" My doctor has given me only a few months to live. Can you help me ? I am dying"
To her surprise, Lama Rinpoche began to chuckle. Then he said quietly:"You see, we are all dying . Its only a matter of time. Some of us just die sooner than others"
With these few words, he helped her to see the universality of death.... this eased her anxiety.
In my last blog I mentioned about the recent deaths in our immediate family . That gets you to start thinking about your mortality. Much as we hate to talk or think about it, the fact is that we are all going to die.
Most people fear death. I am not sure if that is because we worry that death might not come easy and that we might have to suffer for a long period or because it might come so sudden that we are not prepared for it. Or perhaps deep within us there is unspoken fear of the unknown. What happens when we die ? Will we go to heaven or hell ? Will we be reborn in another form ?
Different religions have differing views about what happens after death. With a view to ensuring that you live a good decent life in harmony with your friends, fellows, colleagues and strangers, most religions tend to pressure you. Some by the concept of heaven and hell. Others by telling you that you will be re-born, as a person, or some other living form until you live the life in which you do good deeds and which ultimately helps you escape the cycle.
While I understand the need for people to live harmoniously and in a broad sense follow the Ten Commandments or its equivalent in other religions, it is difficult to accept God as Big Brother or Santa Claus keeping an eye on you twenty four seven , to see if you have been good or bad ? Instead of not getting presents you get assigned to purgatory and continue to burn for eternity and have the devil sticking his pitchfork into you to turn you over to ensure that you are getting roasted evenly. The other alternative is for you is to be re-born again and again , sometimes in different forms and continue to suffer until you rack up all the x's and win the lottery ticket to enlightenment.
If these menu of choices of life after death are indeed true I can picture Stalin or Mao, or Hitler or Pol Pot and numerous others in history who were responsible for the death of hundreds of thousand if not millions of people, all meeting their just deserts. However in the case of some of these people, and some still presently living, life before and after death got reversed. Mao and Stalin died in bed. Hitler and Pol Pot are believed to have committed suicide. During their regime people did not have to die, they suffered hell on earth whereas these dictators all lived in luxury. The victims saw hell and their tormentors saw heaven on earth.
There is a television show Persons of Interest which I enjoy seeing, where a bank of computers through the various CCTV cameras scattered all over the country monitor the citizens. Its complex algorithms are able to predict whether a crime is about to be committed and the star of the show rushes to prevent it. Another variation of that was the movie Minority Report with Tom Cruise. If in the future this comes true, as it has in some other science fiction stories, then hell is going to be a lonely place and heaven running out of space, because no crimes or by extension sins will be committed.
As a simple layman and not understanding complex theological thoughts, one wonders about the question of re-birth .Since most religions do not appear to accept the concept of evolution, I wonder how the re-birth theory works out with the ever increasing population. It should be a zero sum game.
Looking at increasing scientific discoveries being made in terms of cloning if the governments permitted, some scientist will eventually be able to clone human beings. If Dolly the sheep, why not John the human ? Difficult to understand how theological theory reconciles with science which is now in the early stages of growing human organs in laboratories. Presently organ transplant is restricted to taking donated organs replacing non-functioning organs including the human heart.How does re-birth work here ? In some religions it is the soul which is considered eternal not the physical body. Where does the soul reside ?
As is often been said and written about, no matter what you think about your role in life and even within your family, realistically you will be surprised to find out how quickly you are forgotten. The minute you stop breathing you are no longer a he or she, you become a it or the body.
From a personal point of view, if your death comes after a certain age, say over seventy five years, it should be a cause of celebration for two reasons. If your death is sudden and unexpected, what more can you ask for ?You have lived to a good old age of seventy five and you died without suffering. In my mind you are blessed. On the other hand if you die after a long illness, should the family not be relieved that the suffering has finally ended ?
"Ashes to ashes , dust to dust " from the Anglican Burial Service is a phrase I have read and seen in movie burial scenes. Having been to some cremations and the immersion of ashes, I am finally beginning to understand the phrase. I am perhaps taking it too literally, but reality hits you when you see a person who is active one day and next day he/she is reduced to a bag of ashes.
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