Attitude to death in Buddhism - how to perceive it? – Buddhism (Lamaism) - Life after death Death from the point of view of Buddhism.
– Buddhism (Lamaism)
Buddhism is one of the three world religions. The most important position in Buddhism is the idea that represents a person’s entire life as a chain of continuous suffering. To live means to suffer.
After death, a living being is reborn again in the form of another living being. It could be a person, a plant or an animal. According to Buddhist teachings, any reincarnation is inevitable evil and suffering. And this chain of suffering will end only when the soul can achieve nirvana (non-existence). It is impossible to achieve nirvana immediately in the first rebirth, but a person must follow the path of salvation - and then he will be able to complete the chain of rebirths.
According to Buddhists, there are 4 noble truths. The first says that all existence is suffering. The second is that the cause of suffering lies in the person himself and is inherent in him from birth. This is the thirst for life, pleasure, power and wealth. The third truth declares that suffering can be stopped, but this requires freeing oneself from the thirst for life and suppressing all strong feelings and desires. The fourth truth points to the path by which salvation can be achieved. These are right view, right aspiration, right speech, right conduct, right living, right teaching, right contemplation and right absorption (meditation).
Buddhism teaches that a person creates his own destiny, and by becoming attached to this life, to living beings, a person thereby dooms himself to a chain of new painful rebirths that are filled with terrible evil. But if a person observes the 4 noble truths and strives to live righteously, then he can achieve the highest bliss. But before reaching nirvana, a person goes through a chain of rebirths (reincarnations). When a person’s soul has already left the dead body, but has not yet found refuge in a new body, it is in an intermediate state. At this time, the righteous soul is in the seven blessed heavens, and the sinful soul descends into one of the seven hells.
In the underworld, the soul awaits a meeting with the lord of hell, Yama. (In Japanese Buddhism, this is Emma O - the lord of the kingdom of the dead.) His two assistants read out all the righteous and unrighteous deeds of a person - and Yama prescribes punishment. Demons drag the soul into one of the seven hells, where the sinner is tormented until the time comes for him to be reborn.
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In each of the seven hells, the sinner suffers torment for his sins in life. The first hell is for those who do not give alms. The sinner must crawl on a thin rope over an abyss of flames. The further the sinner crawls, the thinner the rope, and the demon with a wolf's head and sharp horns remembers all the cases when a person refused alms. And with each new case, the rope becomes thinner, thinner than a human hair. When it finally breaks, the sinner falls into a fiery abyss. The fire burns through the soul, but the demon picks it up with its clawed paw - and everything repeats all over again.
The second hell is for those who during their lifetime loved to slander. The soul is chained to a pole - and a terrible demon with fiery black skin pulls out the person’s tongue. The tongue becomes larger and larger, and then the demon begins to hammer sharp bone sticks into it. There are as many of these sticks as the number of times a person spoke badly about someone.
In the third hell, those who violated an oath or bore false witness are tormented. A huge red-skinned demon uses a giant ax to cut the sinner's body into many pieces. And each part is pierced with a giant pike. Then the human body grows back together.
In the fourth hell, the souls of those who indulged in voluptuousness are punished. Here those who tempted others to sin are punished. In this hell, wicked monks are also tortured because they could not resist the call of the flesh.
In the fifth hell, a huge toad with claws and teeth rains down flames on thieves and robbers. She throws those who try to escape into the fire. In the sixth hell, a huge three-headed demon with fiery hair beats those who committed murders with a huge stick. In the seventh hell, those who did not respect their elders, did not say prayers, or seduced others from the true path experience torment. A horned demon with black-blue skin and fiery eyes whips them with a whip, tears out pieces of meat and drowns them in a hot lake.
But this torment does not last forever. Having gone through torment and purified in this way, the soul leaves hell to continue its life in a new body. If the soul continues to lead an unrighteous life in the new life, then after death it again appears before the ruler of the underworld.
One of the independent branches of Buddhism is Lamaism. According to Lamaist beliefs, the whole world is a round field. This sacred circle is called samsara. In the middle of the circle is the earth, or the real world in which people exist. In the upper sectors of the circle are the worlds of the celestials - the Assurians. And at the bottom of the circle is hell.
According to Lamaist ideas, a person is born with a load of karma and goes through a chain of rebirths. If a person fulfills the sacred commandments and covenants of the Buddha, then he can improve his karma and rise higher and higher in the chain of rebirths until he finds himself among the Assuryans.
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But if a person increases the burden of his karma and commits bad deeds, then during subsequent rebirths he will experience more and more suffering. When the cup of sins overflows, a person goes to hell. And then unbearable suffering awaits the sinner’s soul. At great depths lies the kingdom of Erlik Khan (Buddhist Yima or Sanskrit Yam). He sits on a throne, and in his hand he holds a magic mirror in which 999 worlds and 999 lives of 999 million people are reflected.
When Erlik Khan looks in the mirror, he sees in it a reflection of all the deeds that the soul that arrived in hell has done. Together with the soul, two geniuses descend to hell, who stay with a person throughout his entire life path and take into account all his good and bad deeds. They open their bags in front of Erlik Khan and pour out black and white pebbles. Black stones are evil deeds, white stones are good deeds.
Erlik Khan looks at the number of black and white stones and assigns punishment to the soul. Whatever bad deeds the soul committed in earthly life, such punishment it will bear. To the right of Erlik Khan's throne are the hot sections of hell, and to the left are the cold sections. 8 hot sections await sinners and 8 cold ones. The soul of the sinner becomes afraid, she begins to beg Erlik Khan to let her go, but the owner of hell is inexorable, with an imperious gesture he orders the soul to accept its punishment.
Each section of hell has its own name. In each, the sinner's soul is subjected to its own torture.
Hot Hell
1st stage – constantly healing. Demons pierce sinners with their spears, and sinners suffer from the wounds inflicted on them. But these wounds quickly heal, and the spirits begin to torment helpless souls again.
2nd stage – hell of black lines. Demons saw sinners along the black lines marked on their bodies. Sinners experience unbearable suffering, but their bodies grow together again, and the torture is repeated again.
3rd stage – hell of sharp swords. Sinners run along the edges of swords stuck in the ground and constantly injure themselves. But their wounds heal, and again they have to flee, because they are constantly driven on by the blows of the demons.
Stage 4 – hell of boiling water. In this hell, boiling water is continuously poured on sinners. The skin becomes covered with blisters, which cause unbearable suffering. But the blisters quickly heal, and the torment repeats again.
The 5th stage is the hell of a poisonous sting. Sinners are pierced by a poisonous sting. From the poison, fire runs throughout the body and burns the sinner from the inside.
6th stage – hell of fiery arrows. Thousands of fiery arrows rain down on a person and pierce his body, leaving terrible wounds. The flow of arrows never ends, just as wounds never heal.
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Stage 7 – hell of heavy stones. The evil spirits of the mangus, the assistants of the ruler of the underworld, cover the sinner who finds himself in this hell with huge heavy stones. It is unbearable for the sinner to lie under this terrible burden, and he tries to free himself. But as soon as he gets out from under the stones, the terrible mongooses with huge fangs again fill him with stones.
Stage 8 is a terrible hell in which there is no peace. This is a continuous sea of fire in which the souls of sinners burn, but cannot be burned. Cold Hell
Stage 1 – the hell of skin acne. The entire sinner is covered with terrible skin pimples, which cause him unbearable suffering, and there is no relief from them.
Stage 2 – the hell of bursting skin pimples. A sinner who finds himself in this hell is covered with huge purple pimples, which constantly burst, and foul-smelling pus flows out of them. In place of some pimples, new ones appear, and so the torment of sinners continues endlessly.
Stage 3 – the hell of screaming “ta-tay”. In this hell, sinners are beaten with soaked sticks, forcing them to shout “ta-tay.” From the terrible scream, blood begins to ooze from the ears of the sinners, but the evil demons do not let them go, but continue the torment.
Stage 4 – the hell of teeth gnashing. Sinners' terrible demons-mongus twist their arms and pull out their tendons. The sinners begin to grind their teeth in pain, but only for a moment they release the suffering soul, only to begin their torture again a moment later.
Stage 5 – the hell of driven nails. Huge nails are driven into sinners, crushing every bone. But as soon as the nails are pulled out, the bones grow together again, and the mangus begin to torment the sinner again.
Stage 6 – the hell of a torn body. With their sharp fangs, the demons tear the sinner's body into pieces. The poisonous saliva causes unbearable pain, but as soon as the sinner’s mongooses are released, his body becomes the same and the torment continues.
Stage 7 – hell for those sitting on stakes. In this hell, sinners are impaled and lashed by mongooses. And so they must suffer for an eternity.
Stage 8 – hell of “iron” water. This is the very last section of cold hell. In it, sinners are whipped, and then driven into ice water to freeze, and they begin to be whipped again.
Sinners must endure all this suffering if they have committed “ten black sins” during their lifetime.
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Death is an integral part of life, Buddhists believe. They prepare for it from birth, hoping to achieve nirvana through righteous deeds and choosing the path of awareness.
“Death is like a change of clothes. Clothes become dirty and old and it's time to change them. It’s the same with the human body,” says the 14th Dalai Lama.
The soul spins in samsara - the cycle of birth and death, striving to achieve nirvana. Coming out of samsara means enlightenment and the end of the suffering associated with life.
According to Buddhist beliefs, a constantly changing stream of ultra-subtle consciousness passes from life to life. This flow, after the death of the previous “owner”, can pass into both a person and another form of life.
Before death
The mood of the dying person, his state of mind is very important before death. If he is in a positive mood and dies in a calm environment, then this contributes to a good rebirth.
A good state of mind helps even those who have accumulated a lot of negative karma. The moment of death is an extremely powerful opportunity to clear karma. To do this, the dying person can resort, for example, to prayers or meditation.
Relatives of a dying person can read the Tibetan Book of the Dead to him. The purpose of the book is to prepare the dying person for the journey into the “bardo” (the intermediate state between life and death) that awaits him. The texts are devoted to how to correctly relate to what is happening and what to pay attention to.
Quote from the Tibetan Book of the Dead: “O son of a noble family, what is called death has come. It’s not only you who are leaving this world, this happens to everyone – so don’t feel desires and longing for this life. Even if longing and desires overwhelm you, you cannot stay, you can only wander in samsara. Don’t desire, don’t yearn.”
Texts from the “Book of the Dead” are aimed at awareness and acceptance of death.
Death
After death, a person’s consciousness is in an intermediate state called “bardo” (literally translated “between two”). If consciousness does not find a new place to be born within 7 days, then it experiences a “little death” and is reborn in another intermediate state. In total, consciousness can remain in the “bardo” for 49 days, after which it must be reborn. Those who were unable to find a new place to live become spirits.
Rebirth
Numerous rebirths after death are needed to achieve enlightenment. According to Buddhists, this state cannot be achieved in one life.
After death, consciousness can take one of five forms:
- inhabitants of hell;
- animals;
- perfume;
- People;
- celestials.
Moreover, the form of appearance in the next life is determined by karma and desire. The state of nirvana can only be achieved by being a human being, since only he can make a conscious decision.
Buddha's death was not an ordinary death because he was not an ordinary person. Even during the life of the Buddha, his closest disciples were sometimes perplexed by the question of the nature of the Buddha. Who is Buddha? What kind of creature is he? And what will happen to him after death? For some reason unknown to us, during the Buddha's lifetime this question was of great interest to many of his disciples, as well as many other people. It seems that this question has occupied so many people that a traditional form of asking it has even emerged. People came to Buddha and asked:
Sir, does the Tathagata (i.e., Buddha) exist after death or not, or both, or neither?
To this the Buddha always answered the same way. He always said:
If you say that a buddha exists after death, it will not be true. If you say that a Buddha does not exist after death, it will not be true. If we say that after death a Buddha both exists (in one sense) and does not exist (in another sense), this will not be true. And if you say that after death a Buddha neither exists nor does not exist, this will also be incorrect. No matter how you say it, no matter how you describe it, all this is completely inapplicable to a Buddha. 24
From this it becomes clear that the death of the Buddha is not death at all in the ordinary sense. This is why in the Buddhist tradition the death of the Buddha is usually called parinirvana. Nirvana, of course, means “enlightenment”, and pari means “supreme”, that is, parinirvana means “supreme enlightenment”. What then is the difference between nirvana and parinirvana? In fact there is no difference. When a buddha achieves nirvana, it is traditionally called “nirvana with remainder” because the buddha still has a material body. Parinirvana is called “nirvana without remainder,” because after it the connection with the material body ceases. This is the only difference that matters only to other people, especially to the unenlightened disciples of the Buddha. Nirvana always remains nirvana. From the Buddha's point of view, there is no difference between these two states. Before or after death, this experience, completely incomprehensible and indescribable to us, is absolutely the same.
Perhaps for the Buddha himself, the achievement of parinirvana was not an event entailing special consequences, but for those who did not achieve enlightenment, it seems important. The Pali Canon describes the last days of the Buddha in more detail than any other period of his life after enlightenment. Apparently his followers believed that the manner in which he died said a lot about him, his teachings, and the nature of Buddhahood.
The fatal illness made itself felt with severe pain when the Buddha was in a village near the large city of Vaishali. Perhaps the reason was the sudden change in weather at the beginning of the rainy season. But through an effort of will, he managed to recover enough to undertake a grueling “farewell tour.” “My journey is coming to an end,” he told Ananda. - Just as an exhausted team can be made to move only with the help of a whip, so this body can be made to move only by whipping it up. But my mental and spiritual energy does not weaken” 25. His body, like everything conditioned, was subject to destruction, but his mind was not subject to birth and death.
After parting with his disciples in Vaishali, a city he loved very much, the Buddha set out on his final journey to visit other places and offer farewell words of encouragement. Despite constant physical pain and the awareness of impending death, he remained as open-minded, as always concerned with the needs of others. The texts also note that he, as before, paid tribute to the surrounding area, admiring the beauty of the places he passed and the groves, where he stopped to rest. He gave sermons in cities and villages, accepted new disciples and gave final instructions to the sangha. In a village called Pawa, he took his last meal, which was provided by a local blacksmith named Chunda.
After this he developed severe indigestion. With the last of his strength, he reached a place called Kushinagara, in northeastern India. On the way, while resting by the river, he asked Ananda to calm and encourage the blacksmith Chunda so that he would not worry about unintentionally giving the Buddha spoiled food. This did not deserve any blame; on the contrary, by giving the Buddha the last meal before parinirvana, he received great merit.
Buddha was born in the open air, under a tree, gained enlightenment in the open air, under a tree, and also achieved parinirvana in the open air, under a tree. Each of these places has temples and places of pilgrimage, and Kushinagar is home to the Parinirvana Temple. The texts clearly state that Kushinagara received such an honor not by chance. Buddha deliberately decided to die in this “pathetic provincial town consisting of mud huts” - this is how Ananda spoke rather contemptuously of Kushinagara. After all, Buddha was never a victim of circumstances - neither in death nor in any other event of his life.
On the outskirts of Kushinagara there was a grove of sal trees. There, local residents built a stone bench for the elders to sit on during village gatherings. Buddha lay down on this bench. He then gave instructions regarding the funeral: Ananda and the other disciples were told not to worry about anything and to simply continue their spiritual practice. The lay followers were to deal with his body as they should do with the remains of a great king.
Ananda could not bear this and left in tears. But the Buddha called him back and said: “Enough, Ananda. Don't be so sad. This is the nature of everything that is near and dear to us - sooner or later we have to part with everything. For a long time, Ananda, you have shown me unfailing and sincere love and kindness in deed, word and thought. Maintain your practice and you will definitely be freed from obscurations.” After this, the Buddha extolled the virtues of Ananda to the entire assembly of monks.
He then touched on one or two issues connected with monastic discipline. For example, he ordered an end to communication with his old charioteer Channa, who, although he had joined the community, continued to make deliberate errors in practice until he came to his senses, which Channa eventually did. Thus, until the very last moment, the Buddha was able to focus his mind on the welfare of individuals with clarity and compassion. Even in his last address to the monks, he urged anyone present who had any doubts about the teaching to express them right then and there while he was still alive and able to resolve them. When the crowd responded with silence, he spoke his final words: “Everything conditioned is inherent in destruction. Pursue your goal diligently.” 26 After this, he plunged into meditation and rested.
The power of this last scene, more than any other event in the life of the Buddha, is most expressively conveyed not so much by the words of the Pali canon as by the paintings of the great Chinese and Japanese artists of the Middle Ages. Against the background of a beautiful forest, the trunks of sal trees are visible, which, like straight, high columns, raise crowns of wide green leaves and large white flowers. The Buddha lies on his right side, and the trees drop white flower petals on him. He is surrounded by disciples - his closest ones, dressed in yellow robes, sit at the head of his head, and all the rest of the people crowd around him: brahmins, princes, advisers, ascetics, fire worshipers, merchants, peasants, merchants. And not only people - a variety of animals: elephants, goats, deer, horses, dogs, even mice and birds - gathered to see the Buddha for the last time. This cosmic deathbed scene is completed by gods and goddesses soaring in the clouds. Thus, looking at the best images of this scene, it becomes clear that this is not an ordinary end of life, but an event of universal significance, which all living things have gathered to witness.
The general mood, as one might expect, is sad. Even animals cry; the large tears flowing from the eyes of an elephant are especially striking. Only a few students sitting closest to the Buddha and the cat do not cry. The cat is indifferent because of the well-known cat indifference, and the closest disciples remain calm because they know how to see beyond the material body and know that the transition from nirvana to parinirvana does not change anything.
This is the scene immortalized by many great artists, which Buddhists remember every year on Parinirvana Day, celebrated on February 15th. This is, of course, a day of celebrations held in gratitude for the example and teaching left by the Buddha. However, the mood on this day is different than during other holidays, because this event is celebrated in order to focus the mind on death, not only of the Buddha, but also of one’s own. Therefore, the mood is sober - not sad, but thoughtful, meditative. We reflect on the fact that the fact of death is present not only one day a year, but every day of our lives and that remembering this should be an integral aspect of our daily spiritual practice. The Buddha's Parinirvana reminds us of the need to renew all spiritual practice in light of the ever-present reality of death. But in particular, it encourages us to engage in meditative practices specifically related to death.
The main goal in Buddhism is to free yourself from the chain of suffering and the illusion of rebirth and go into metaphysical non-existence - nirvana.
In the photo: A monk on the Thai island of Koh Samed (Samet) demonstrates the crematorium at a Buddhist monastery.
In most Indian religions, it is a common idea that after death a person's soul is reborn into a new body. Transmigration of souls, also known as reincarnation. Reincarnation: belief in the second, tenth, thousandth chance or metempsychosis, occurs at the will of a higher world order and does not depend entirely on the person. But he has the power to influence this order and improve the conditions of existence of the soul in the next life in a righteous way. These ideas come from totemism, and in a slightly modified form are characteristic of many other traditional religions - for example, the views of American Indians or African tribes.
In the photo: the crematorium of Samed Island (or Ko Samet as you like)
Unlike Hinduism or Jainism, Buddhism does not recognize the transmigration of souls as such. It only talks about the journey of various states of human consciousness through several worlds of samsara. And death in this sense is just a transition from one place to another, the outcome of which is influenced by deeds (karma). In Jainism, where the main thing is not to harm all living things, the maximum amount of good karma can even make a person a deva (deity) in the next life. 
After death, a person can expect three options for fate: instant rebirth (the so-called transmigration of souls, samsara), going to hell (before moving into a new body), going to nirvana.
The doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which existed in Brahmanism even before the Buddha, says that the human soul, according to the law of karma, goes through an endless series of transmigrations, and is embodied not only in people, but also in plants and animals. Some are given the opportunity to incarnate as kings, brahmanas and celestial beings.
A person must strive to break the chain of migrations in order to merge with the creator god Brahma (in Brahmanism) and go to nirvana (in Buddhism). This can only be done by entering the “eightfold path” of righteous life. In the interval between death and a new incarnation, the souls of sinners will face severe punishments in the caves of hell. Among the torments prepared for them are swallowing a red-hot iron ball, frying, crushing, freezing, boiling ( Obviously, all this should be understood allegorically, since we are talking about the soul; this is confirmed by the fact that among the most important torments of sinners in hell, the fear of death is mentioned!) But even after serving its punishment in hell, the soul does not make life easier for itself, for new births - this is not deliverance from torment, but new suffering.
“I have gone through the samsara of many births, looking for the builder of the house, but not finding him,” says the Buddha. “Being born again and again is sorrowful.”
The Rig Veda, as well as the Buddhist scriptures, talks about how a person, “Born many times, came to suffering,” but in some translations the same phrase is interpreted as “Having a large offspring, came to suffering.” Nevertheless, in Hinduism (which has quite a lot of living traditions) there were and are absolutely ideas about reincarnation. One collection of sacred hymns describes how the soul enters the mother's womb only after traveling for a long time throughout the world. The eternal soul is reborn again and again - not only in the bodies of animals and people, but also in plants, water and everything that is created. Moreover, her choice of the physical body is determined by the desires of the soul.
The Buddha commented on the death of one of his disciples: “When the vital urges, stimulating forces (Triebkrafte) disappear, consciousness disappears; when consciousness disappears, the name and image disappear... part of the sense organs disappear... contact disappears.” Next comes a listing of what still disappears: sensation, perception, comprehension (mental), being, birth, old age, death, sorrows, suffering, despondency (Missmut). With the destruction of the body, it turns out that not only the non-existent whole perishes, but also those elements that make up its actual content disappear.
There is another passage of this kind, repeated in several books. A dark cloud hovered near the corpse of the monk Godgika. When the disciples asked the Buddha what it meant, he replied: “It is the evil Mara who seeks the knowledge [consciousness] of the noble Godgika... but the noble Godgika has entered nirvana, his knowledge does not reside anywhere.”
What kind of mysterious nirvana is this, where knowledge (consciousness) escapes after death? Why is it there if the soul is nothing? And what about the endless chain of deaths and births, to which, according to the teachings of Buddha, all living things are doomed?......
. One of the ancient Buddhist texts says the following:
“With His Divine Eye, absolutely clear and superior to human vision, the Bodhisattva saw how living beings died and were born again - in high and low castes, with prosperous and sorrowful destinies, acquiring high and low origins. He discerned how living beings are reborn according to their karma: “Alas! There are thinking beings who perform unskillful actions with their bodies, do not have command of speech and mind, and hold erroneous views. Under the influence of bad karma after death, when their bodies become unusable, they are born again - in poverty, with an unhappy fate and a weak body, in hell. But there are living beings who perform skillful actions with their bodies, have command of speech and mind, and hold correct views. Under the influence of good karma, after their bodies become unusable, they are born again - with a happy destiny, in the heavenly worlds.
Some materials on postmortem:
My memories of the twilight world.
Hello, curious readers!
Today we’ll talk about such a seemingly sad event in a person’s life as his death. The attitude towards death in Buddhism is more optimistic than that of followers of other religions. Because Buddhists believe that death is both the end of life and its beginning.
End of existence
What this next life will be like depends on how a person prepared for it in the previous incarnation. After death, the novice can have three options for the development of events:
- instant reincarnation in samsara,
- temporary stay in hell followed by entry into a new bodily shell,
- moving to nirvana (“extinction” from Sanskrit)
It should be noted that in earlier times the term “extinction” did not have the same meaning as the modern word, and extinction was understood as the continuation of existence in a way unknown to anyone.
A Buddhist is ready to face death at any moment and therefore diligently accumulates good merit to ensure a better rebirth.
But the cherished desire of Buddhist believers is to achieve nirvana - a transcendental (which cannot be known, since it is beyond anyone's experience) state that provides a way out of samsara. In a state of nirvana, death lets go of a person forever; here it simply does not exist.
An adept of the teaching prepares for a worthy end of life, following the path called. Among its eight provisions is a vow not to harm the inhabitants of the living world, not to be the cause of their death. If necessary, an adherent of the teaching can give his life in order to protect others.
However, suicide, or any other extreme, is not welcomed in Buddhist teachings. It is pointless, since it will only lead to a faster rebirth of the novice, but this time in much worse conditions.
Repeated births and deaths are caused by three “poisons” that exist in the human mind: ignorance, anger and selfishness. They prevent you from comprehending the truth.
How to get rid of the fear of death
Buddhists invest their energy in spiritual improvement; they know that this life is not the last. They believe that their efforts determine what kind of body they will be born into next time and whether it will be as successful as they would like.
After all, there is no guarantee that a believer will acquire a human body in a new round of life. From a Buddhist point of view, there are several types of animate entities into which one can be reborn:
- happy rebirths: God in heaven, Asura (warrior god in heaven), man
- unwanted rebirths: animal, hungry ghost, sinner going to hell
Lower rebirths are not punishment, retribution or punishment, but are simply a consequence of the actions of this person.
To avoid fear of death, Buddhists take the following steps:
- condemn their erroneous actions and vow to abstain from committing them,
- instill faith in the way to get rid of suffering indicated by the Buddha
- follow this path, doing good deeds for the benefit of other people
And then meeting death is no longer scary, because the believer knows that he does not lose everything at this moment, but will continue to move towards enlightenment in the next life.
Some adherents of the doctrine conduct special practices to prepare for death. This is quite dangerous, and the teacher must guide the process. If carried out ineptly, such meditation will lead to a shortening of the adept’s life, so at the same time they meditate on longevity.
During visualization, Bardo Thodol imagine themselves at the moment of leaving. It is carried out daily, and as a result a calm attitude towards death is developed. The practitioner becomes aware of all the stages that a dying person goes through, and this no longer frightens him. After all, something unknown usually scares.
The onset of death
At the moment of death, rebirth occurs, so he is very responsible. If this did not work out the first time, then within 49 days seven times, that is, every week, the soul tries to be reborn.
At the end of this period, the soul is forcefully reborn into the form it deserves, if no one prays for it. And this also depends on the behavior of the person himself during his lifetime: what memory he left of himself, and whether others will have a desire to pray for him.
If a person engaged in cleansing practices during his lifetime, did many good deeds, if he is very calm, then he even has the opportunity to choose his next rebirth.
Usually the dying person is surrounded by spirits, his enemies, animals whose death he contributed to, and various consequences of his negative deeds. In such an environment it is very difficult for an unprepared person. He may not understand where he is.
In Buddhism, it is believed that it is good to die surrounded by your family and in a clear state of consciousness, so that you can make the right choices during the next 49 days. If death overtakes a person in a dream, he needs to be woken up for the same reason.
At the same time, the tears of others are not welcomed; they prevent the dying person from leaving peacefully. Their joint prayers will help the departing person. He himself should not worry that he does not see one of his relatives nearby. This way you can “bind” this relative, and he will also die.
It is necessary to allow the departing person to fully experience the sufferings that befell him before death, and not to alleviate them, so that they do not haunt him in the next life. All the gold must be removed from the dying person; it negatively affects the desired state of consciousness.
In Buddhism they believe that a good person begins to cool off from his feet, and a bad person from his head.
Contemplation of white light at the moment of departure marks one of the highest rebirths.
Conclusion
Any karma can be changed, there is always such a chance. Just by giving alms, you can cleanse yourself and hope for a better fate next time.
It is very important with what intention this is done. Striving to get clean is a low-level motivation.
The desire for enlightenment takes believers to a higher level. And at the highest level there are those people who, without thinking about themselves at all, dedicate all their good deeds to others.
On the night before attaining enlightenment, Buddha was tempted by the god of death Mara. Thus, enlightenment can be considered a victory over death, almostimmortality.
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