-Nawang Chhoetso

Buddhism teaches us about living and dying in peace. And the main principle used is the theory of impermanence. How can knowing and believing that nothing is permanent help us live and die peacefully?
We as humans fear death, yet we don’t live peacefully. Why do we fear death? This question can be answered by another question .i.e. who are you and what is your identity?

The answer is normally our name ,our family ,our qualification or our occupation etc. We don’t have our own identity per se, rather it is defined by other factors. But once we die we leave all these things behind, so maybe that is why we fear death. We don’t want to die because in our whole life time we have only worked for material benefit. From birth till death we live with the desire for materialistic things and leave everything behind once we die. We neither live peacefully nor die in peace.

Buddhist teachings and practice can help us:
There are steps and theories linked with each other that help us understand how to live and die peacefully.

No independent existence
When we introduce ourselves we see that our identity and existence is dependent on the people around us. In the same way that we see a rainbow .Seen in one way, it seems to have a distinct identity. Seen in another way the rainbow itself doesn’t exist independently but appears because of the phenomenon resulting from water droplets and sunrays. Thus everything in this universe is somehow dependent on another for its survival.

 Us being responsible:
The theory of interdependence leads to another theory of us being responsible. Since we depend on each other for our survival, in the same way we are responsible for each other’s sorrow and happiness. For example, often when we see the recent floods that caused huge devastation in the affected areas, we tend to consider it an an Act of God. But if we see it in a broad way, floods are caused because of the climate change. Since the dawn of industrialisation the level of greenhouse gas emissions has increased tremendously,making the earth heat faster than ever, parameters exceeding historical bounds leading to floods in some areas and drought in others. The increase in the emission of greenhouse gases is because of our increasing demands. Because of our increased carbon footprint someone has lost their house and source of income. But ironically it’s the poor people who suffer the most despite of having lesser carbon footprint than the people taking a personal ride when it’s not even needed.

 Life after this one:
When we see that our actions can affect lives of other people we find that it is injustice to the people who suffer. This leads to the privileged class living their life with no personal responsibility and morality. Our deepest desire is to live and go on living but we believe that death is the end. What if there is life after death. Gautama Buddha devoted his whole life to find the truth behind life after death. Thousands of sages, Buddhist monks etc. have devoted their life to this truth. The realisation of this truth comes only after deep meditation and continuous practice. Sogyal Rinpoche, recognised as the incarnation of Lerab Lingpa Terton Sogyal,a teacher to 13th Dalai Lama said, “If people believe in life after this one ,their whole outlook on life will be different ,and they will have a distinct sense of personal responsibility and morality.”

 Karma
If there is a life after this one what is the connection between the two, what is it that we take with ourselves once we die.
We know that every materialistic thing that we earn in our life is left behind when we die. It is only the deeds be it good or bad that we take with ourselves. The way we live this life will give us fruit accordingly in our next life. Thus the hardship that we go through in our lives without doing anything wrong can be seen as the result of bad deeds that we did in our previous life. Similarly if we live our life with compassion for all beings this will pay off later in our next life.

 A Meaningful life
When one realises the truth of afterlife and karma. It becomes easier to accept death as we know that death is there but there is a life after death and death is not the end. This will helps us live our life without the fear of death. Since we know that it is only our deeds that we take with us after death, we will desire a meaningful life. And a meaningful life is a life where you treat all beings equally and with compassion, a life free from negative thoughts and emotions.

Thus to live and die in peace you must live a meaningful life, a life with a sense of responsibility and morality. A life with compassion for all beings and compassion comes with practice and realisation.

Source: The Tibetan book of living and dying by Sogyal Rinpoche.