As It Is ~ ANCIENT ROOTS
WE DO NOT KNOW ? and
probably we never can or will ? when or why men first
began to think about what, if anything, happens after
death, but we have inherited the process that began
with their first speculations, in a long, unbroken
string, and the same thing puzzles us.
Like us, of course, primitive man could
see that death is something final and irreversible
in terms of the body, and that no one awoke from it
and resumed their normal activities as after sleep;
the body, when dead, begins to putrefy and stink abominably;
if not cremated, or eaten by birds and beasts, it
will be consumed by maggots, until finally, only bones
remain. Beyond this, we know nothing for sure.
From the discovery of ancient graves, and
the artifacts found together with the bones therein,
there is reason to suppose that, many thousands of
years ago, some of our ancestors performed services
or ceremonies for their dead, or how else can we account
for things like weapons, jewelry, cooking utensils,
and foodstuffs that were buried with them? Surely,
primitive men were not so naive as to suppose that
dead bodies, which would soon be reduced to bones,
would be able to use these things; they must have
been included for use in a postulated 'afterlife.'
How, when, and why was the tremendous mental leap
made between the observable death and dissolution
of the body, and the unobservable, but imagined, survival
? in some form or another ? of something 'immaterial?'
And how long did it take for such a supposition to
become a widely accepted part of diverse cultures?
Several thousand years BC, the Egyptians
had developed a brilliant culture centered around
death and the after-life. Pharaohs and other high
ranking, rich and powerful people spent many years
of their lives thinking about and planning for their
own deaths, and we might conclude that the rest of
the people planned about it according to their lesser
means. The pyramids are the most visible and durable
forms of this death culture, and there still exist
many mummified bodies in museums around the world.
Nor were only people mummified, in hope of resurrection
(which was an old, old concept long before Jesus was
born), but animals and birds, too. Life in this world
was regarded as a period to prepare for death and
the after-life.
Now, throughout recorded history, people
have reported seeing ghosts, and this has continued
until the present, in spite of our increased learning
and scientific knowledge, and we haven't been able
to adequately explain this. There is no reason to
suppose that primitive men didn't also see ghosts
or apparitions, although they probably understood
even less about them than we do, and were proportionately
more scared. Like us, they most likely would have
thought of them as 'non-material' entities, and probably
concluded that life doesn't end with the body's death,
and that something remained. Fear of ghosts, combined
with a dim hope of surviving death, was probably one
of the main factors in the beginning of religion,
together with the propitiation of imaginary spirits
or gods (at this stage, it would not have included
a moral code, which would come much later, as a means
of bringing some semblance of order into society).
When men had evolved further, and had entered
the stage of cultivating their own food, instead of
hunting and gathering it wherever they could find
it they would have been deeply struck by the regular
rotation of the seasons, and seed time and harvest,
noting how seeds planted in the ground must 'die'
in order for new life to spring up therefrom. Many
nature- and fertility-cults developed out of such
observations, for men were very close to, and dependent
upon the soil in those days (unlike we of today, who
are still dependent, but not close to the soil).
Surrounded by such cults of death and resurrection,
it is not surprising to find this and other 'pagan'
beliefs central to Christianity; the followers of
Jesus turned his ignominious death on the cross to
their advantage by the use of this popular concept,
taking him beyond the sphere of death and the power
of his enemies to harm him; thus, he became more effective
in death than in life, and the belief of his followers
magnified and distorted him out of all proportion,
when he was no longer around to discourage or prevent
this inevitable tendency.
The major religions all have concepts about
life after death, and most of them place great significance
on the state of the mind at the moment of death. Catholics
call in a priest to administer 'the last rites' to
someone who is about to die, who will be urged to
confess his sins and make his peace with God, so that
his mind will be unburdened for passing on. Buddhists
invite monks to chant at the bed-side and/or preach
Dharma to the dying person, as a means to help him/her
focus his/her mind on something positive; it is considered
very important to let go and die with as peaceful
a mind as possible, in line with the teachings that
the last thought moment of the present life will determine
the first thought moment of the next life, for the
one flows into the other in an unbroken continuum.
It is believed that a positive state of mind at death
will carry one to a positive next life; whereas, if
a negative or unwholesome state of mind prevails at
death, the subsequent rebirth will not be very good.
In 1991, when I visited the Vietnamese Refugee
Camp at Sungei Besi, Malaysia, someone told me of
a refugee who had been there for several years, pining
and hoping that his application for resettlement in
another country would be approved. One morning, he
was called to the office of the UNHCR, and informed
that he had been accepted for resettlement in the
U.S. We can imagine his joy, can we not?
During the afternoon of that same day, however,
there was a thunderstorm over the Camp, and he was
struck by lightning, and killed outright. "How
unfortunate! How sad!", most people would say.
Yes, but there is another way of looking at it, particularly
if we accept the concept of Rebirth, and I propose
it here not because I am heartless, and feel no sorrow
at his abrupt death, but more out of a desire to extract
something useful from it, so that his death might
be illustrative of something to someone, and therefore
not in vain. It is possible, if not probable, that
the mind of that young man at the time of his sudden
and unexpected death was still infused with the joy
from the news of his acceptance, and so we might say
that he died happy, which is not something that anyone
can arrange or engineer. Had he gone to the U.S.,
as he expected to, and lived there for many years,
he would have been happy at times, no doubt, but at
other times, we can say with equal certainty, he would
have been unhappy and sad, from encountering the many
difficulties and problems, sicknesses and setbacks
that life holds for us all in varying amounts; and
the possibility of him dying with a happy mind would
be much less than 50%. Therefore, contrary to what
many or even most people would say, I maintain that
he was fortunate to die in the manner that he did.
Recently, while relating this incident to
a family who had been in the same Refugee Camp years
before, they told me of a similar case that took place
there. A man who was the sole survivor of his boat's
asylum seekers had just received the long awaited
news of his resettlement, and overjoyed, he went to
burn incense at the foot of a coconut tree in thanksgiving,
though why he chose a coconut tree, I don't know,
unless ? as it not uncommon in certain Asian countries
? there was a small shrine there. Whatever, as he
was doing so, he was struck on the head by a falling
coconut, and died instantly.
Christians believe ? as they are taught
so ? that our lives begin with the present life, but
go on into an infinity of either heavenly bliss or
infernal suffering; to them, there is no life prior
to this one. To believers in rebirth or reincarnation,
however (and this includes Buddhists, Hindus, Jains,
Sikhs, Theosophists, and even ? surprisingly ? some
Christians today), the present life is just one of
a long series of lives, which stretch out on either
side of this one like links in a chain; the present
life is not the first, and, in all probability, will
not be the last. Although I personally accept the
Buddhist concept of Rebirth, I cannot prove or demonstrate
it to anyone, so I prefer not to say much about it,
for if I did so, I would be in the same position as
those who claim this or that about things that cannot
be verified. Moreover, I feel that the present life
is the most important, as it's the only one we've
got (in fact, there is only and always the present
moment; the past and the future are unreal, and we
cannot even talk of the present, for it is not something
to be spoken of, but to be lived).
According to the concept of Rebirth, therefore,
the death of this body is merely one of a number of
such events in the long career of any individual,
and is by no means unique or unusual. Also, as we
can all see, we do not have to be old to die; death
does not respect youth, health, or strength, any more
than it respects wealth, rank, or power; when it comes
for us, swiftly or slowly, we cannot refuse its summons,
but must go.
Now, following what I've just said, it may
be that someone will think thus: "If it's so
important and fortunate to die with a happy mind,
I’ll wait until I'm very happy, and then blow
my brains out!" Ah, the cunning human mind, always
seeking to control and manipulate everything! Do you
think it would work that way? You might be able to
obtain a gun (in a world that is awash with weapons,
that would not be very difficult); you might wait
until you are very happy, and then raise the gun to
your head, but ... do you think that at the last moment,
when you are about to pull the trigger, your happiness
would hold? Could you be sure that your mind would
not shake, and your happiness flee?
"Well, in that case," you might
think, "I'll hire a hit-man to follow me around
until he sees me happy, and then blow me away."
Could we engineer our own death in such a way as to
be sure to die happy? I would not advocate trying
it, because although there are certain circumstances
under which I could understand suicide, I can see
plenty of reasons for wanting to live and work for
the betterment of the world we live in, even if, personally,
we make no further progress than what we've made so
far.
Yes, life is a struggle; why not? And if
we were taught so from the very beginning, instead
of being led to believe otherwise, we would be much
better equipped to deal with its ups and downs, pains,
sorrows and disappointments than we are. As it is,
our advances in science and technology, wonderful
though they are, have shielded us from some of the
blows of life, and given us the hope that we might
eventually be free from them all, and so life often
catches us with our pants down, unprepared.
"The gem cannot be polished
without friction,
nor man perfected without
trials."
(Chinese proverb)
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