Questions tagged [death]
The death tag has no usage guidance.
2
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6answers
127 views
Happiness, rebirth, and the death of an arahant
I am new to Buddhism and have a question I am hoping someone can answer.
My understanding is that realizing enlightenment is universally desirable. In other words, it is considered “better” to ...
1
vote
5answers
133 views
Someone has an illness which is inevitably going to kill them. Why?
Imagine following situation: A person who thinks of themself as a good person, meaning they are mostly nice to people and act and think almost always morally. Said person is diagnosed with an illness ...
2
votes
2answers
140 views
Buddhadasa and the continuity of suffering beyond physical death, without rebirth
I read "Anatta and Rebirth" by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu (let's call this explanation B) and I also read similar explanations by Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu from this answer, this comment and this answer (let's call ...
0
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1answer
107 views
Various types of death
In this answer, Yuttadhammo Bhikkhu wrote about various types of death (quoted below).
Where can I find references to and more info on the various types of death that is mentioned - khaṇika-maraṇa, ...
1
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4answers
281 views
What is the ultimate goal of Buddhism? Is it nirvana?
What is the ultimate goal of Buddhism? Why should a person practice Buddhism, what will it provide to him? Various religions have various goals. For example, the ultimate goal in Christianity is ...
2
votes
1answer
46 views
Tirokudda Kanda: Do the dead really benefit from the gift given by the living?
Tirokudda Kanda briefly out line the benefits the dead receive from the gifts given by the living.. and there are many more injection in the Pali Cannon with similar tone. My question is are we to ...
2
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2answers
44 views
Getting out of a rut when your sick and dying
What are the teachings and books that are good for inspiring the sick and soon to be dying? If your brain is getting eaten away, what are the best practices for that? Anyone know of any Doctors who ...
-6
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6answers
156 views
If Buddhists believe that life is just suffering why don't they just kill themselves?
Can anyone give me a clear answer? What does the Buddha say?
2
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4answers
212 views
Does any real existent or genuine person end with parinibbana?
Does modern Theravada accept that no real person ends with the break up of the body of a realized one? That the moment after the break up of the body of a realized one is the same as the moment before?...
10
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8answers
4k views
What do you do to prepare for death?
There are probably a lot of ways to prepare for death. I myself can't come up with more than:
Reflecting on ones own death on a daily basis;
Don't buy stuff that's useless so that it's easier for ...
-2
votes
4answers
257 views
Do arhats exist after death?
I was just looking at the connected discousres (Bhikkhu Bodhi) and it said
Sorry for the rushed question, but I wondered if arhats can be said to exist or not after death? Does the Buddha say the ...
2
votes
4answers
181 views
Have Buddhas escaped samsara?
Have Buddhas escaped samsara? Obviously there is the mainly Chinese term "non-abiding in nirvana". I'm interested in an answer from any tradition at all, and for enlightened non-Buddhas, too.
To be ...
2
votes
1answer
56 views
Meditate about friend's death
Someone I know is dying. If its death doesn't affect me much
(Sadness, remorse...), I feel meditating about its condition as my own could be very beneficial.
But if its not taking advantage of him, ...
5
votes
9answers
453 views
Is meat eating a possibility?
I have been vegan (no animal products) for over 5 years but recently have encountered many health issues (unable to digest many plant protein, leaving no viable protein to eat), including some meat in ...
3
votes
5answers
178 views
Vajrayana VS theravada - after death theories - do they contradict each other?
As far as i understand the having opposing views about what happens between after you die until you are reborn again right ? or do they "sit together" some how ?
1
vote
1answer
125 views
Buddhism practices on decease
I have a couple of questions due to a recent unfortunate event that had happened, happy if you guys could share your view base on your practices.
1) How does a Buddhist cope with grief and loss? Is ...
0
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2answers
84 views
Are the clinging aggregates the cause of clinging after death?
There are five clinging aggregates.
Here it states that one's self clings to the five aggregates. To quote:
"It's just as when a dog is tied by a leash to a post or stake: If it
walks, it walks ...
1
vote
4answers
159 views
How does the craving or clinging to existence survive after death?
As per my understanding when a person dies his aggregates dissolve(his self dissolves) and if the dead person has any cravings,clinging left for the existence then he is reborn(aggregates reassemble).
...
1
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2answers
47 views
Dogen writings on reality and death
What is meant by body mind and the world is born simultaneously ...Buddha nature will never break apart. Do we die or is life eternal.
1
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3answers
288 views
Must Lay Arahants become Buddhist Monks?
A lay person who becomes an Arahant must become a monk or they will die?
Can anyone explain what this teaching means?
Do they have to become a Buddhist Monk?
Can they just leave the world and ...
1
vote
2answers
130 views
Life With Death
How can we earn money while we don't want to live for anything?
P.S.: I'm very wise and smart guy. I have high degrees in academical stuff. And I can say that I had satisfaction most of the emotions ...
1
vote
2answers
381 views
What does the Pali canon say about “death”?
I'm just clinging to this notion that the small death (of prthagjanas) is never reversible, and never incomplete.
Leaving aside the notion of "karma" and "rebirth" and "continuity", what does the ...
1
vote
2answers
95 views
Can / how do we know what death is?
This question may read a little philosophical, Buddhist, and personal.
I've been a little obsessed with death for a very long time, and feel like I have zen answer. Less interested in "the path" (I ...
2
votes
1answer
423 views
Buddha teaching regarding eating
Some one please tell me the story of Buddha said to some one how one should eat as if they are eating their own child having lost in a desert
5
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10answers
695 views
What is happening to Lord Buddha after “parinirvana”?
We all know that after Lord Buddha's parinirvana, he will never be born again. So my question is, if Lord Buddha does not have a rebirth after parinirvana, what is actually happening to him (after ...
1
vote
1answer
60 views
Did Lord Buddha gain enlightenment by inquiring into death?
I remember one just one of my treasured books 1955 copy of " the teachings of a compassionate Buddha" where I read that the Lord had a morbid fascination with death ..suffering etc and inquiring of ...
3
votes
4answers
164 views
How to do a long meditation of “death contemplation”?
because just thinking about it for a short time didnt have any effect on me - how should i do a long death contemplation meditation ? like half hour or an hour ?
should i repeat a mantra over and ...
6
votes
1answer
102 views
How to actually do death contemplation? [duplicate]
How to do death contemplation ? it seems i really dont care about dying that much
how long can i do it ? is there a formal technique to do it ? cause just thinking about it dosnt seem to have ...
5
votes
2answers
124 views
Doing “death contemplation” on others
I dont get much effect from death contemplation on myself - i wondered lately maybe contemplating the death of those close to me might work to install a sense of urgency
do you think its effective ?...
0
votes
1answer
45 views
Escaping “certain death” in the Mahayana tradition: does it occur in India?
I was struck, when reading on the history of Buddhism in China, by the stories of brave monks escaping certain death, often many times in one life.
I was curious is this was something Indian ...
2
votes
4answers
260 views
Death according to various schools of buddism
How is death perceived in various schools of Buddhism? Are they all same ? What is death according to Buddhist monk and lay Buddhist? Are there references / materials by monks on death bed about death?...
2
votes
5answers
2k views
Why do Buddhists cremate instead of burying?
A Buddhist, when dead, is most of the time cremated and not buried. Does this have to do with anything in the teachings of the Buddha? As far as I know, burying a body is more Eco-friendly than ...
2
votes
2answers
144 views
Is contemplation of death auto-suggestion?
Is doing contemplation of death auto-suggestion to meditate ? is it working on my subconsciousness ? maybe i should just do auto suggestion telling my self many times to meditate - maybe its more ...
7
votes
4answers
2k views
How do I do “contemplation of death” meditation? And is it dangerous?
How do I do "contemplation of death" meditation? And is it dangerous?
Because I read it might cause someone to commit suicide, so how do I make sure I won't reach that situation? And how exactly ...
4
votes
4answers
165 views
What are the issues related to medical treatment that prolongs life of questionable quality?
While reading an answer to How to overcome the suffering of attachement to the body's continued existence (in Western modernity)?, I began to wonder about a related matter.
In the answer:
In ...
1
vote
2answers
133 views
Did Japanese Buddhists once use sky burial?
In the Chinese Wikipedia article on sky burial, there's a section saying that sky burial is illegal in Japan:
棄屍嫌疑
在某些地方，天葬的行為，可能觸犯遺棄屍體的罪行。
日本
刑法第190條（死体損壊罪）
Google translation:
...
4
votes
3answers
634 views
How to overcome the suffering of attachement to the body's continued existence (in Western modernity)?
An important part of the Path is overcoming the suffering of attachement to the body's continued existence. I don't know if that's desire for living or aversion to death - maybe a combination. ...
4
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2answers
420 views
Did the Buddha ever cure someone?
Perhaps you could say that by teaching his path he healed many people; but what I meant is more direct, physical healing: is there something written about that?
4
votes
5answers
452 views
live as if it was your last day?
So there is a lot of teaching out there focuses on meditating on death. A lot of it talks about living life as if it was your last day, week, month... in that this way, you don't take life for granted ...
7
votes
5answers
609 views
Stages of the Bardo
From the moment of death, to the moment of rebirth (or alternative outcomes)
How would you map the flowchart of the bardo?
or instead of a flowchart a tree map?
A list of stages would also be ...
1
vote
1answer
294 views
What's the Buddhist perspective on permanently eradicating bedbugs? (Extinction)
On one hand, killing...
On the other hand, if there are no bedbugs (extinct status) no one can be reborn as a bedbug. The species causes more suffering then good.
Perhaps it would be worth it to ...
9
votes
3answers
1k views
Metta for dead father
During a meditation I have practiced Metta, as I have learned it, I sent Metta to;
myself
a good friend
a "neutral" person
a difficult person
all four of the above equally
and then gradually the ...
2
votes
3answers
88 views
Can we program or pre-define our last thoughts?
I have heard the last thoughts of a person can define next life.
If so can we somehow define them through practice, so when the time comes they will be as we planned?
Or is there a practice that ...
7
votes
6answers
931 views
Near death experience and meditation
I have been trying to analyse NDE stories from a meditator's point of view. The way people change after a NDE is, in some cases, similar to the changes a person goes through after meditating for a ...
5
votes
4answers
4k views
Husband and wife for hundreds of times of consecutive rebirth. How?
In Theravada Buddhism, once a person dies he or she will be reborn immediately. Each person dies at a different time. How is it possible for a husband and a wife to meet again in the future ...
6
votes
2answers
116 views
How does the force of ones karma determine where the mind stream goes?
"On the other hand, superior Bodhisattvas, who have attained the path of seeing, are not reborn through the force of their karma and destructive emotions, but due to the power of their compassion for ...
3
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2answers
136 views
Which sutta is this excerpt about Buddha's death from?
An ordained Bhikkhu shared the following with me.
"You have done what is good and wholesome, you have made a shelter
from fear. You have not done anything to harm other. You have not been
...
7
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5answers
611 views
Is Nirvana redundant?
I'm confused over Buddhism's lack of afterlife, yet belief in rebirth.
If there is no soul, how can there be rebirth?
What happens to the five aggregates after death?
Consciousness in Nibbana
From ...
12
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1answer
1k views
Last thought before death?
I read somewhere (perhaps in an unreliable introduction to Tibetan beliefs) that rebirth is conditioned by the last thought before death (or perhaps affected by a thought or desire that you have after ...
1
vote
3answers
151 views
If a kind and generous Christian died 20 years ago, might their rebirth have resulted in there being a 19 year old person in the human realm now?
If a kind and generous Christian died 20 years ago today, 21July2015, might their rebirth have resulted in there being a 19 year old person in the human realm now? I want to assume that the kindness ...
