Thank Buddha It’s Friday (TBIF) Lecture: Insights on Death and Dying

Ching Pan
August 2, 2024

On July 26, Fo Guang Shan Hsi Fang Temple hosted a hybrid lecture in English as part of the monthly “Thank Buddha It’s Friday” (TBIF) series. The event featured Venerable Long Yun, Abbess of the American Bodhi Sea Buddhist Association, who delivered an insightful talk on “The Buddhist Perspective on Death and Dying.” Addressing an audience of 40 participants both in-person and online from North America and Southeast Asia, Venerable Long Yun provided profound insights into approaching death with mindfulness and equanimity.

As the first foreign Buddhist to receive the advanced Board Certified Chaplain - Palliative Care and Hospice Advanced Certification (BCC-PCHAC) from the Association of Professional Chaplains in the U.S. and a professional spiritual care counselor at Stanford University Medical Center Venerable Long Yun utilized clinical case studies to support her discussion. She highlighted how people commonly view natural death in old age as a "good death" and the unexpected death of a young person as a "bad death." However, in Buddhism, the quality of death is determined by the state of mind at the moment of passing, underscoring the critical importance of mindfulness.

Venerable explained that before attaining enlightenment, Prince Siddhartha (later known as the Buddha) recognized the impermanence of life, which manifests through the cycles of birth, aging, illness, and death. This insight led him to seek liberation from rebirth and to identify "craving" as the root cause of suffering, with the Noble Eightfold Path as the remedy. Venerable likened death to moving houses, where the physical body is like a house being consumed by fire. "Craving" acts as both the fire and the wind that fuels it. By diligently practicing the Eightfold Path, one can extinguish this fire and end the cycle of rebirth.

"Are you prepared to face death?" Venerable asked, highlighting the importance of one's mental state and karmic actions. She explained that the karma accumulated from one's actions, speech, and thoughts, as well as the mindset at the time of death, determines one's future rebirth. Without regular spiritual practice and preparation, anxiety and fear are common reactions to death. Everyone has the power to decide "where" and "how" they will be reborn. Cultivating mindfulness and accumulating good karma through positive actions is crucial for preparing for the afterlife. Venerable also shared her research on how mindfulness meditation can help alleviate anxiety in clinical settings.

Quoting Venerable Master Hsing Yun, founder of Fo Guang Shan, from his book Between Ignorance and Enlightenment, "Life and death are not two separate things; they are one continuous process. Birth inevitably leads to death, and death inevitably leads to rebirth, in an endless cycle. Therefore, there is no need to rejoice over birth or to grieve over death." In closing, Venerable Long Yun encouraged the audience to approach death with mindfulness and to engage in diligent Dharma practice, cultivating a positive outlook on both life and death.