One of the things that people often wonder about in Buddhist teachings when, particularly, coming across Buddhism for the first time, or early on, there seems to be a great deal of emphasis on death (and) loss, and suffering. It can seem easily that Buddhism is really a kind of nihilistic, grumpy religion – sort of negative outlook on life…trying to build a religious path around being miserable about everything or seeing the grim side of life. But this is not the intention at all, even though it can seem quite shocking. Often, if we associate religion with qualities of the divine and infinite light, and beauty, and life, and so on and so forth, but why should one dwell upon, or bring up, so many rememberances, recollections of death and loss, and so on? Just like one of the verses that we often chant, the five objects for frequent recollection, these are; I am of the nature to age; I am of the nature to sicken; I am of the nature to die; all that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will be become otherwise, will be become separated from me; I am the owner of my Kamma (Karma), related to my Kamma, born of my Kamma; abide supported by my Kamma, whatever Kamma I shall do, for good or for ill, of that I will be the heir; thus we should frequently recollect. So, of all of those five only the fifth one is remotely level. The others are all immediately sort of shocking or painful to think of, painful to bring to mind. Just even saying the words; I am of the nature to age, I am of the nature to sicken, I am of the nature to die, and it’s hard on the heart. There’s a feeling of threat or being shaken. But the reason why in Buddhist practice the Buddha encouraged these kinds of recollections, or just in the chanting we do, at the beginning of the evening we did the Mattika chanting – the Matrix of Being – the chants that are customarily done at the time of someone’s death. Really there are two parts to that chanting; there are the verses that we recite for the person who has passed away and for those of us who remain behind. And all of the chanting for those of us who remain behind is (are) the reflections on impermanence, on the absolutely unavoidable nature of change. So the reason why we bring those to mind is often said, is not in order to make ourselves feel depressed, or remind ourselves of a sour look on life, but precisely because there are these extraordinarily strong habits and instincts of avoidance and denial of death, and that we have a very powerful ???????? instinct to shy away from situations that are threatening, that look as if they’ll bring about sickness or harm or death.
The Nature of Death
One of the things that people often wonder about in Buddhist teachings when, particularly, coming across Buddhism for the first time, or early on, there seems to be a great deal of emphasis on death (and) loss, and suffering. It can seem easily that Buddhism is really a kind of nihilistic, grumpy religion – sort of negative outlook on life…trying to build a religious path around being miserable about everything or seeing the grim side of life. But this is not the intention at all, even though it can seem quite shocking. Often, if we associate religion with qualities of the divine and infinite light, and beauty, and life, and so on and so forth, but why should one dwell upon, or bring up, so many rememberances, recollections of death and loss, and so on? Just like one of the verses that we often chant, the five objects for frequent recollection, these are; I am of the nature to age; I am of the nature to sicken; I am of the nature to die; all that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will be become otherwise, will be become separated from me; I am the owner of my Kamma (Karma), related to my Kamma, born of my Kamma; abide supported by my Kamma, whatever Kamma I shall do, for good or for ill, of that I will be the heir; thus we should frequently recollect. So, of all of those five only the fifth one is remotely level. The others are all immediately sort of shocking or painful to think of, painful to bring to mind. Just even saying the words; I am of the nature to age, I am of the nature to sicken, I am of the nature to die, and it’s hard on the heart. There’s a feeling of threat or being shaken. But the reason why in Buddhist practice the Buddha encouraged these kinds of recollections, or just in the chanting we do, at the beginning of the evening we did the Mattika chanting – the Matrix of Being – the chants that are customarily done at the time of someone’s death. Really there are two parts to that chanting; there are the verses that we recite for the person who has passed away and for those of us who remain behind. And all of the chanting for those of us who remain behind is (are) the reflections on impermanence, on the absolutely unavoidable nature of change. So the reason why we bring those to mind is often said, is not in order to make ourselves feel depressed, or remind ourselves of a sour look on life, but precisely because there are these extraordinarily strong habits and instincts of avoidance and denial of death, and that we have a very powerful ???????? instinct to shy away from situations that are threatening, that look as if they’ll bring about sickness or harm or death.
