Impermanence...

One's shelter after death...

"This world is swept away by AGEING, by ILLNESS, by DEATH."

"With the world thus swept away by aging, illness, & death, any restraint of body, speech, & mind(intellect) practiced here will be one's shelter, cave, island, & refuge after death in the world beyond."

Dvejana Sutta: Two People (1)
translated from the Pali by
Thanissaro Bhikkhu

The body is a nest of...

Fully worn out is this body, a nest of disease, and fragile. This foul mass breaks up, for death is the end of life.
-Dhammapada

Hidden treasures of this city...

A city made of bones,
plastered over with flesh & blood,
whose hidden treasures are:
pride & contempt,
aging & death.

-Dhammapada

For one who is born there is no freedom from death

"'Just as a river flowing down from the mountains, going far, its current swift, carrying everything with it, so that there is not a moment, an instant, a second where it stands still, but instead it goes & rushes & flows, in the same way, brahmans, the life of human beings is like a river flowing down from the mountains — limited, trifling, of much stress & many despairs. One should touch this [truth] like a sage, do what is skillful, follow the holy life. For one who is born there is no freedom from death.

Arakenanusasani Sutta

Araka's Teaching

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an07/an07.070.than.html#river

Aging and death are rolling in...

"What do you think, great king? Suppose a man, trustworthy and reliable, were to come to you from the east and on arrival would say: 'If it please your majesty, you should know that I come from the east. There I saw a great mountain, as high as the clouds, coming this way, crushing all living beings [in its path]. Do whatever you think should be done.' Then a second man were to come to you from the west... Then a third man were to come to you from the north... Then a fourth man were to come to you from the south and on arrival would say: 'If it please your majesty, you should know that I come from the south. There I saw a great mountain, as high as the clouds, coming this way, crushing all living beings. Do whatever you think should be done.' If, great king, such a great peril should arise, such a terrible destruction of human life — the human state being so hard to obtain — what should be done?"

"If, lord, such a great peril should arise, such a terrible destruction of human life — the human state being so hard to obtain — what else should be done but Dhamma-conduct, right conduct, skillful deeds, meritorious deeds?"

"I inform you, great king, I announce to you, great king: aging and death are rolling in on you. When aging and death are rolling in on you, great king, what should be done?"

"As aging and death are rolling in on me, lord, what else should be done but Dhamma-conduct, right conduct, skillful deeds, meritorious deeds?

Pabbatopama Sutta
The Simile of the Mountains

Stream-winner is fearless at death

A well-instructed disciple of the noble ones, when endowed with these four qualities* [the factors of stream-entry]:

1. Has no terror

2. No trepidation

3. No fear at death with regard to the next life

— SN 55.27

Then there is the case of the person who has no doubt or perplexity, who has arrived at certainty with regard to the True Dhamma. Then he comes down with a serious disease. As he comes down with a serious disease, the thought occurs to him:

I have no doubt or perplexity.

I have arrived at certainty with regard to the True Dhamma.

He doesn't grieve, isn't tormented; doesn't weep, beat his breast, or grow delirious.

This, too, is a person who, subject to death, is not afraid or in terror of death.

— AN 4.184

* See lables: Stream-winner

The constant danger is death

Like ripe fruits whose downfall,
whose danger is falling,
so for mortals, once born,
the constant danger is death

Salla Sutta -The Arrow

Life heads to death

As a potter's clay vessels large & small fired & unfired

All end up broken, so too life heads to death

Young & old

Wise & foolish

Rich & poor

Salla Sutta -The Arrow

"Like a useless scrap of wood"

All too soon, this body
will lie on the ground
cast off,
bereft of consciousness,
like a useless scrap
of wood.

-Dhammapada

"Dying without regret...mindfulness till the last breath"

Yesterday he said good bye to his family, his friends and to all the dear ones around him. He was still smiling at the time of his death. He lived and died without regret. He taught everybody that there is a another way. He showed us how to not cling to worldly pleasures, at the time of death. How to "let go" with ease.

This is about a personal journey I had with my friend who was a true noble disciple of the Buddha. He used to discuss Dhamma with me every time I met him in the past few years. He had practiced, loving kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity (The Four Sublime States), even before I got to know him ten years ago. His wife once told me that when his house was robbed and she was devastated, he had taught her Dhamma, explaining the impermanent nature of material things. When he was told that he had lung cancer by the oncologist, he joked with him so that everybody would laugh and that would ease the tension around them.

I still remember when I first went to see him at home after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. He told me "this body is not mine, I am only in it for the time being." He said "I now know this for sure." He said "I have no control of my body or my pain. He was talking about, non-self or Anatta. He said he was contemplating on the impermanence, suffering, and non-self nature of his ailing body. He said he was also practicing loving kindness meditation. He was then taken to the hospital and after investigations it was determined that he could not be treated. He had too many metastasis in the brain and all over his body and also was very weak. I think it must have been a very aggressive type of cancer for it to spread this fast in such a short time. He was only a palliative care patient at the hospital. I was told by his wife that he took this news with a smile on his face and the people around him were shocked and watched him in disbelief and shock and with so much sadness.

When I visited him at the hospital on the fist day he was smiling and looked so peaceful and serene. He was extremely happy to see me. We discussed some of the deep teachings of the Buddha. He said "what I learned and practiced before, I am experiencing right now. This is the true nature of Dhamma." He also talked about impermanent nature of the body to the social workers in the hospital who came to comfort him. He drew a picture with the art therapist which was very unique. It was a picture of four flowers and one flower was fading away with petals coming off. The other three flowers were his wife and two children who he left behind. The fading flower was him. He again wanted us to learn about impermanence through his painting. When I saw this picture I told his wife maybe he was teaching them a lesson about the true nature of life.

When I visited him again his body was very weak, but his mind was fully alert. It seemed to me as if all his energy had gone to his mind. He was still smiling and again we discussed the impermanent nature of the conditioned body. He advised my wife, saying that it is not too early to teach our kids about impermanence. When one of his old colleagues came to see him and asked him "how are you doing?" He replied saying, "my mind is fine but this body is just a pile of garbage." His visitor was shocked to hear this as he expected the patient to complain about the pain in his body. However I knew that his visitor had no clue about what he really meant or that he was trying to teach him about impermanence.

Meanwhile a number of Buddhist monks visited him from the three Buddhist monasteries in Toronto, almost daily, and taught him Dhamma and discussed Dhamma with him. They were very surprised to see how well he received all their teachings with complete mindfulness. The monks also said that they had discussed Anathapindikovada Sutta , one of main disclosures at the time of the Buddha. This was a disclosure done by one of the Buddha's chief disciples, Ven. Sariputta to Anathapindika. Anathapindika was one of the main lay supporters of Buddha and his disciples. At that time Anathapindika too was dying from a painful illness.

.

The last time I visited him it was just three days before his death. He was sleeping a lot and I felt that he was drowsy because of the heavy pain medications. He was hardly eating any food at that time. When he heard our voices he opened his eyes and signalled with one hand for us to come closer. He smiled again and was very happy to see us. I asked him " are you in pain?" He said, "no, not even a little." Then I asked him if he had any regrets and if he wanted to talk about it. He shook his head and implied there were no regrets. His voice was very weak and we could hardly hear him but still he was so happy and peaceful. When he realized that we could not hear him he started talking in "sign language." He pointed to his body and snapped his fingers implying the impermanent nature of the body. Then he pointed to his head and singled "thumbs up" saying that his mind was still very alert and clear."

That was the last time I saw him. This is a perfect example of a person "who lived by Dhamma , and was protected by the Dhamma", until his death. I have seen so many people dying in the past, but I have never seen a person who died with full mindfulness till his very last breath. He was a teacher to us all. He had the "medicine" ready, before he was ill. He just has to use it at the right time. This is the "medicine to the mind" (see the post below). He was fearless at death and died with dignity and without regret. I wish I could be like him one day, myself.

May he attain the eternal bliss of Nirvana.

A Real Test in Life - Mithra Wettimuny A discourse given by Mr. Mithra Wettimuny to a grief stricken wife of a dying patient ( who by profession was a Gynaecologist and referred to herein as ‘Doc’) on 3rdAugust 1997 (in the morning) at the Medical Intensive Care Unit of the General Hospital, Colombo, Sri Lanka (as minuted by a bystander, a Dhamma Student).

http://www.beyondthenet.net/thedway/dhamma_way.htm

Related Posts and suttas:

The Four Sublime States

Anathapindikovada Sutta-Advice to A Dying Man-(excerpt) Translated from the Pali by Andrew Olendzki

Anathapindikovada Sutta - Instructions to Anathapindika-Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Who will drink this medicine?

"Stop worrying about your body so much...you are just renting it anyway" (Post on Anatta or Non-self)

Life is just like a "Morning Glory"- Mindfulness about life (Post on Impermanence)

Mindfulness About Life- "A Lesson From The Garden" (Post on Impermanence)

Can Mindfulness Help Cancer Patients ?

Life is just like a "Morning Glory"- Mindfulness about life

"With these flowers I venerate the Buddha,

By this merit may I gain liberation.

As these flowers fade and wither

So will this body be destroyed"




















Morning glory flowers at 8.30 in the morning in my garden.




















The Morning glory flowers at 6.30 in the evening, the same day!


This is a common stanza Buddhists recite mindfully when offering flowers to Buddha. Impermanence is one of the key teachings of the Buddha. Mindfulness of impermanence is fundamental to Buddhist insight meditation (Vipassana meditation). I will discuss this impermanence and how it can lead to wisdom in detail in a future post.

Buddha encouraged us to be always mindful about old age, sickness and death. He said "you can run but you can't hide from it". Sounds depressing? Well, that is the reality. We all know that we are going to get old, sick and die one day, but it is hard to realize "inside". It is almost like a realization through wisdom that comes within oneself. How to be mindful in aging and death is well explained by the Buddha, in the Sathipattana sutta in the mindfulness of the body section.


See other related posts:
The four Bases of Mindfulness

Mindfulness-About-Life-"A lesson-From The Garden"

Mindfulness About Life- "A Lesson From The Garden"

Have you ever wondered why some die young and some live for a long time? When a young person dies people have questions like.....why now ?...... why him?......... Isn't he too young to die? These questions have been bothering me for a while. So, I decided to explore some of these question from a Buddhist perspective.



Today I went to my vegetable garden in the backyard and I saw something that got me thinking.....Since I wanted to share it with you I took a picture of it (see the picture above). The previous day there was a bad storm and some of the tomatoes were on the ground. But when I examined them very closely I saw many old, rotting tomatoes on the ground. Among them was a baby tomato, perhaps only few days old (red circle), and one young tomato beginning to be ripe. On the tomato plant there were many baby, young and mature tomatoes. When I examined carefully to my surprise I found there were still very few old tomatoes hanging on to the plant (not shown in the picture).



This made me to contemplate about life. As a physician I see this all the time. Very young kids die as soon as they are born. Young children and teenagers die of illnesses and other causes like accidents. Some people go on to live long lives. To death, age is no barrier. Buddha said "life is like a dew drop on a blade of grass"seen in the morning. When the sun shines the dew drops disappears. Buddha repeatedly encouraged us to contemplate in the impermanence of life. This may sound depressive but in reality if you mindfully contemplate it helps you to understand the true nature of our existence. In fact it makes us stronger and makes it easier for us to cope when a disaster strikes our lives.



There is a classic story that came to my mind about death, that took place in Buddha's time. This is the story of Kisa Gothami. When her new born son died she did not know the baby was really dead. So she ran to Buddha asking him to cure her son as she had heard that Buddha was a very compassionate person with a lot of powers. Buddha at once knew that the baby was dead. But he wanted to teach Kisa Gothami a lesson about death. He asked Kisa Gothami to find a handful of mustard seeds from a household where there had been no death in the past. She went knocking on all the doors in the village but she could not find a single house without a death in the family. Soon she realized the lesson Buddha was trying to teach her that no family is spared the occurrence of death.

The question that will come to your mind at this time is why some people die young and others go on to have long lives? Who or what determines this? What is the Buddhist explanation to this? Buddha said this does not happen just by chance or by a will or an act of a omnipotent power like a "God". Buddha explained the Karmic factors linked to premature death and other differences we see in people. This is like a "cause and effect" law. These karmic factors may determine why some people are always sick and why some people are healthy, and why some people are born rich and some people are born poor etc. If you want to learn more about this please click the following links.


Culakammavibhanga Sutta
Vipaka Sutta

Also see related posts:
Life-is-just-like-morning-glory