Buddhism and death

Why are ordinary Buddhists afraid of death?


Ordinary Buddhists are afraid of death primarily because they are afraid of rebirth, the involuntary birth that occurs “on impulse as part of a reactive cycle of action and its effects” into the lower realms of existence.  (Thurman, R.W. 88-89).  These lower realms, the                                                                                                                                                                                                                 realms of the hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals.  Gyatso describes in depth the sufferings of the lower realms.  In the hell realms, beings are tormented, such as in the Reviving Hell, where beings are forced to take up arms and kill each other (180).  The hungry ghost realm, the suffering is of intensity: heat, cold, hunger, thirst, fatigue, and fear (185).  Animals suffer from ignorance and stupidity, heat and cold, hunger and thirst, exploitation by humans, and being prey to one another (186).  However, one cannot begin to understand exactly why death is so feared without understanding the links of dependent-related phenomena.

Gyatso describes twelve links of dependent-related phenomena.  They are described as links because they are interrelated without any break, and they are what bind each sentient to samsara, or as Thondup explains, “the endless delusory cycle of life, death, and afterdeath” (5).  The first three of these links are directly related to the causes of rebirth.  It is blind and driven by karma, or the natural law of cause and effect whereby “every mental and physical action initiated by mental volition becomes a cause that precipitates an individual effect as the result” (Thondup 3).

According to Gyatso, the first of the dependent-related links is ignorance (350).  He describes dependent-related ignorance as ignorance that “grasps persons and phenomena to be inherently existent and that induces the development of throwing karma” (350-351).  For example, when a person thinks of themselves in terms of “I” or another person in terms of “you” or thinks of the chair as existing simply as a chair, they are acting in this specific type of ignorance.  It is the ignorance of self-grasping, or trying to consider all things as existing independent of each other, causing the indestructible drop, which Thurman describes as the most subtle consciousness, to develop karma,” (R.W. 94).  Gyatso adds that there are two types of dependent-related ignorance: “that which apprehends persons to be inherently existent and that which apprehends phenomena other than persons to be inherently existent” (351).  The first is ignorance in which a person thinks of themselves as existing separately from other sentient beings; the second is ignorance in which a person takes another type of phenomena, say snow, as existing independent of other phenomena and even beings.  Ignorance also means a lack of understanding and experiencing emptiness, which is emptiness of inherent existence (Williams 103).

The second link is dependent-related compositional actions, which Gyatso explains to be “throwing actions that are rooted in ignorance and cause us to take rebirth in samsara” (352).  They can be virtuous or not virtuous, but these are the karmic actions that will be recorded in the indestructible drop because they are happening as a result of ignorance.  Gyatso adds that these bring together all the causes for samsaric rebirth and therefore cause rebirth in the realms of samsara (352).

The third link is dependent-related consciousness, or the consciousness that “receives and carries the potentialities of compositional actions” (Gyatso 352).  This is also the indestructible drop, which every person has.  This records all volitional actions, which are the karmic actions.

These links are related; without ignorance, there would be none of the compositional actions (because they rise from ignorance); without the actions, there would be no consciousness (because it takes note of all the compositional actions).  Because a person is not aware of emptiness, they continue to cling to the idea of a self; their actions are recorded in the indestructible drop, and because it is the indestructible drop that is reborn, the rebirth is determined by karma.  

This is frightening to Buddhists because there is the possibility of being reborn into one of the lower realms.  If their actions were motivated by negativity, that has been stored in the indestructible drop.  If their actions were motivated by positive ness, those too have been stored.  When a person is reborn, the actions that had the most influence will determine which realm the being will be born into.  If they have not realized emptiness, they are still living in ignorance.  This is the first link, and until it has been broken, the other links will follow.  The prospect of being born into one of the lower realms is a terrifying thought, and Buddhists work to realize emptiness so that they will no longer be bound in samsara and risk being born into one of the lower realms.


Works Cited

Gyatso, Kelsang.  Joyful Path of Good Fortune.  Tharpa, 2000.

--- Heart of Wisdom.  Tharpa, 1996.

Mackenzie, Vickie.  Reborn in the West.  London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 1995.

Tulku Thondup.  Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth.  Shambhala, 2005.

Williams, Paul.  Mahayana Buddhism.  Routledge, 1989.