A Buddhist Approach to the Dying Process

By Ven. Dr Thel Thong (October 2004)

Introduction

Death creates lots of problem for human beings. It is the central and most important issue preached by every religion. There are two main streams of religious thought about death. You are created by God to die and to be reunited with Him; and you are dying as a result of your own ‘confection’ or sankhara. Sankhara is the ‘builder’ or the confectioner according to the Buddha. I am not responsible because there is no such a Í’ or ‘self’ to be responsible for the death. In this essay, I consider death within the Theravada tradition. The content is composed of the following headings 1) what is death in Buddhism, 2) theoretical framework of death, 3) attending to the death of relatives and friends, 4) reasons supporting the fear of death, 5) issues for living relatives and the dying persons, 6) Buddhist approach to death within the Theravada traditions

What is death in Buddhism?

To understand death in Buddhism requires the consideration of Buddhist terminology in relation to death. There are terms for common usage as well as for Buddhist psychology such as:

1. marana - death as ending this visible existence, physical death, in a narrower meaning than kalakirya (Rhys Davids, 1972, p. 524)

2. kalakirya – death (not premature)…who has come to the end of her existence (Rhys Davids, 1972, p. 212)

3. cuti – vanishing, passing away, decease, shifting out of existence (Rhys Davids, 1972, p. 270)

4. cuti citta – death-consciousness, lit. departing consciousness (Nyanatiloka, 1991, p. 43)
This last term is used in the Abhidharma text or the Buddhist psychology, and it goes with another term, patisandhi – link to the next existence. Cuti and patisandhi are inseparable because all beings are in the ‘sea of samsara’. The only exception is for those who have reached ‘arahataship’. There is no death while someone is not yet released from the vicious cycle of life in the ‘samsara’ because death and birth are the beginning and end of the same string:
Birth and death are like two ends of the same string. You cannot remove one end while wishing to keep the other. The mystery of birth and death is very simple. The coming together of mind and matter – also known as the five aggregates – is called birth. The existence of these aggregates is called life. The dissolution of these aggregates is called death. And the recombination of these aggregates is called rebirth, and so that the cycle will go on repeatedly until such time as we attain the blissful state of Nibbana…. To Buddhists however, death is nothing more than a temporary end of this transient phenomenon. It is not the end of this so-called ‘being’ (Dhammananda, 1989, pp. 120-121).

Theoretical framework of death in Theravada Buddhism

Buddhist Abhidharma provides explanation of the operation of the mind at the last moment when people are facing death. To understand part of the process of dying, it is useful to reproduce the table explaining the seventeen moments of the operation of the mind or the thought-moment.

No	Thought-moment	Simile
1	Phavanga - stream-consciousness	The sleeping person
2	Phavanga - contact between the sense organ (the eye) and the sense-object (fruit)	Falling of the fruit (mango)
3	Phavanga - recollecting	Awaking with the sound of falling fruit
4	Cakhu viññana - eye-consciousness	Opening eyes and looking at the fruit
5	Sampaticchana - receiving consciousness	Taking the fruit
6	Santirana - investigating consciousness	Squeezing the fruit
7	Votthavana - determining consciousness	Smelling the fruit
8	Javana (or experiencing)	Eating the fruit
9
10
11
12
13
14
15	Tadalampana - registration consciousness	Swallowing the fruit with saliva
16
17	Phavanga - stream-consciousness exists again	Sleeping again

This diagramme is reproduced from An introduction to Theravada Abhidhamma by G. D. Sumanapala p. 137.

There are two important stages of the mind involved in the process of dying, the pre-death event and the actual event of dying.

The pre-death event

The pre-death event is when the mind is preparing for its momentum to let go off the existing entity. There are three venues for this activity. They are the Votthavana venue, the Javana venue, and the Tadalambana venue. These three venues are the places where all wholesome and unwholesome deeds are recollected prior to death. They work like a stable full of black and white bulls. One category of bulls, the strongest group, will be able to force out first through the gate. The effect of the karma is comparable to what the bulls in the stable do. It is the work of morana javana.

The actual event of dying

Recollection of wholesome and unwholesome deeds is followed by releasing from or letting go the existing entity – cuti citta, and the connection to the next life – patisandhi. Morana javana is the collection of all momentum like a caterpillar preparing to take leave of the leaf on which it is on. Cuti citta and patisandhi happen simultaneously like a caterpillar that has put his firm front-feet hold on the intended next leaf before it releases its rear feet.

Observation gained by attending to the death of relatives and friends

General observation

I have attended to the death of my two grandmothers when I was between ten and fourteen years old. There was little effect on my life, except an intensive regret for their loss because I was taken care by them during my childhood and teenage life. Their death meant that I would not be able to see them again.

A serious blow happened to me when my father passed away on my first year of my job as official of the Weather Department in the Ministry of Public Works. I was then twenty-two years of age. I attended to the death of my father, aged fifty years old. He tried to communicate with me but he failed because the phlegm moved up to his throat and he was unable to talk to me. It was followed by a state of coma for thirty minutes. At the last moment, I heard a crispy sound like someone tossing a coin on a metallic plate, and it followed by a hissing sound like a flat tyre. I attended to the death of my mother in-law in 1965, and recently my mother who passed away last Monday, 27th September 2004. I have noticed the same thing and same sound as the previous two cases. I attended to the death of my friend who passed away last year in Australia. It was nearly four hours that he was in the state of coma. He was so painful that even the injection of morphine was not helpful at all. His physical and psychological anguish is quite obvious by his physical expression. This friend had two unresolved problems. First, he wished that his youngest son would marry before his death but it did not occur for some reasons. Second, he tried to resolve the family feud between children of the first and second marriage. His death was marked by the same sound but at a very low pitch because he was very exhausted at the time of his last breath.

Buddhism explained the way people have to go through the dying processes. The unwholesome effect prolongs the suffering while the wholesome one hastens and smoothens the dying process. In my community here in Australia, there are people who are chronically ill for so long, and some of them for more than four years up to now. There was one special case; he was and old friend of mine who died at the age of ninety-six years old. He had been a Buddhist monk for half of his life before he got married and lived as layman. He passed away in 2002. At 02.00am, on the day, which he passed away, he walked to the toilet to pass the water; and he returned to his bed as usual. At 05.00am of the same day, he woke up and told his son that he had difficulty in breathing. In less than fifteen minutes, before the ambulance arrived, he passed away. The whole community expected that and admired the way he passed away so smooth and so quick.

Closing down of the six sense organs of consciousness

Dying process involves the non-voluntary physical preparation. I have the following examples from my observation. In all cases, dying processes are composed of two main events, physical and spiritual moments. The physical moment can be observed, and it consists of closing the five sense organs through, eyes, ears, nose, tongue and body. It is very hard and even impossible to know which sense organ is closing first. Eye-consciousness and body movement can be observed during the dying process. It is a matter life and limb. Most of people can move their hands prior to the last breath. The closing of the eye-consciousness is characterised by the pulling up of both pupils of the eyes while his eyes are widely open. It happens during coma. An old female friend having diabetes lost her sight first but she could communicate. She could recognise the voices of relatives and friends. My mother has lost her speech two hours prior to her death, and her hands movement one hour prior to her last breath. The sixth sense organ of consciousness is the heart-consciousness or mind-consciousness. I believe that this last sense organ is disconnected when the events of cuti and patisandhi occur. In Buddhism, it is not a real death or end of life, but just a mere transition between old and new existences. I hope that with sophisticated medical equipments they may be able to monitor the closing of the six sense organs of consciousness. The closing down of the mind-consciousness is a spiritual moment of the dying process.

Reasons supporting the fear of death

Following are some reasons, which serve as causes leading to a fear of death:

1. thinking that there is an “I, my, me, or an ego” to enjoy life, to make love, to satisfy the five sense-organs, to suffer and to die after old age,

2. regretting the loss of loved ones, important and very dear and expensive assets, benefit of all kinds, highest honour, conditions of good health and invaluable praise and memories,

3. fearing the approach of death, people are overwhelmed by unresolved issues,

4. feeling and understanding that the process of dying is accompanied by intense physical pain and mental anguish,

5. having a sense of hopelessness after realizing that death is eminent and unavoidable,

6. not understanding and accepting that birth and death are the two faces of the same coin,

7. lacking a constant mindfulness of birth and death,

8. giving too much importance to mundane life up to the point of denying that life does not have an end,

9. denying that life which is constituted and supported by physical body is in constant state of decay,

10. having sceptical views: what happens to me after death; will I be reborn if so where and how

11. attaching so much to oneself, others and the accustomed environment (Upadana)

12. frightening feeling of being burned and left alone unattended after death (Thong, 2003, pp. 28-29)

The list can go on and on without end owing to attachment to oneself which is resulted from the belief of the existence of a self.

Issues for living relatives and the dying persons

Significant issues for the dying persons : story of Nakulapita

This story was related in a Buddhist sutta. It is helpful for relatives, especially a living married-couple, to reassure the dying person of the fate of his/her living partner. This assurance has a beneficial moral and psychological effect for the spirit of the dying person. Nakulamata reassured her husband who was at one time close to death. She told him:
My dear, do not die with any regret or attachment to anything. Our Lord, the Buddha, has said that it is unwise to die in such manner…. My dear, you might think that when you are gone, I will not be able to support the children or keep the family together. But think not so; for I am deft at spinning cotton and carding wool. I can support the children and keep the family together. Therefore be at peace…
And she reassured her husband that she would remain virtuous and practise the Dhamma until she attained enlightenment (Visuddhacara, 1993, p. 87).
After hearing this reassurance from his wife, instead of dying, Nakulapita had fully recovered from his illness. The couple went to see the Buddha who addressed them in these terms: “You are very fortunate to have Nakulamata who had such love and compassion for you, who desire your happiness and who can counsel you in times of crisis” (Unit Reader BPS1104, p. 22 in Visuddhacara, 1993, p. 87).

Significant issues for living relatives

In Cambodian tradition, living relatives use to state that “it is far better for the deceased person because everything is finished for him or her, but it is worse for us, the living relatives because we have to face endless problems in life including the loss of dear one”. Buddhism provides a series of teaching to manage this kind of traumatic feeling, for example, the way Lord Buddha handled the problems of Kesa Gotamy and that of Badacara. They were both in the extreme case of Dukkha. The other reminder that is still in current usage is the chanting known as bangsukola. This chanting is performed on request and it is always chanted in funeral ceremony in Buddhist countries of Southeast Asia. It is for the living relatives, and its content is about ‘life is impermanent, dead body is like a rotten log lying on the ground and nobody wants it. The dead body will be disintegrated and become part of the earth. Human beings are flocked and whipped to funeral parlours in every moment of their life in the same way as a cowboy herds his cows to an abattoir. This chanting can keep reminding the living relatives of their unavoidable death of the future. It is a kind of soft reminder about mindfulness on death.

Buddhist approach to death within the Theravada traditions

Accepting the reality of death

We are born to die but not every of us have a chance to have or experience a peaceful death. Theravada Buddhist tradition has its own way to deal with death. To face death peacefully, people have to understand the processes of life and death. Dhammananda, 1989, p. 123 has provided a brief but meaningful explanation of these two processes:
When people see their own lives as being only a drop in an ever-flowing river, they will be moved to contribute their little part to the great stream of life. The wise know intuitively that to live they have to work for their liberation by avoiding evil, doing good and purifying their mind. People who understand life according to the teachings of the Buddha never worry about death.

Facing the death, the Buddhist ways

Attachment to the notion of self is one of the impediments which blocks the people’s mind to see and understand death differently. Three things are to be considered in this order to reduce or to rid oneself of the self.
Firstly, reduce the attachment to worldly senses of pleasure, craving and lust. Nothing wrong in being rich, famous, and the most highly venerated but don’t be attached to them and be slave of them because all these items are in the state of constant flux and erosion. They are called Loka Dharma in Buddhism, and they are of the nature of a state of transitory, impermanence and ephemerality. Secondly, reduce the attachment to self in order to have time to care for the non-self. Thirdly, abolition of the existence of self, which is the highest stage of Bliss (Thong, 2003, p. 31).

The most commonly approach to death recommended by the Buddha to dying persons and living relatives is to be mindful of the death – ‘morana sati’ - while we are living. ‘Morana sati’ can be compared to a state in which people are facing eminent dangers. To be fully aware and well prepared in advance is far better than facing them without knowing and unprepared. The content of the recollection is as follows:
1. I am of the nature to decay, I have not got beyond decay.
2. I am of the nature to be diseased, I have not got beyond disease.
3. I am of the nature to die, I have not got beyond death.
4. All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will change and vanish.
5. I am
a. the owner of my Karma,
b. heir to my Karma,
c. born of my Karma,
d. related to my Karma, and
e. supported by my Karma.
6. What ever Karma I shall do, whether good or evil, of that I shall be the heir.
(From Buddhist scriptures)

Conclusion

Death has to be understood from both outside and inside processes. Buddhism does not rely on outside force for help. People have to prepare his last moment while they are alive. Remedy or self-rescue is available from the teaching of the Buddha. There are three basic principles for that and they are open to everybody who is willing to engage in them. They are the five precepts, the ten virtuous acts – Dasa Kammabatha and the Eight Noble Fold Path. A Buddhist who observes these three principles means that he lives in accordance with the law of cause and effect. He will enjoy his life, have a peaceful and serene death, and a prosperous life in his next existence.

Bibliography

Dhammananda, K. 1989. How to live without fear and worry. Malaysia : Buddhist Missionary Society Publications.
Nyanatiloka, 1991. Buddhist dictionary : manual of Buddhist terms and doctrines. Singapore : Buddhist Meditation Centre.
Rhys Davids, T. W. and Stede, W. 1972. The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary. London and Boston : The Pali Text Society, London.
Galmangoda (Sumanapala), 1998. An introduction to Theravada Abhidhamma. Singapore : Buddhist Research Society.
Thong, T. 2003. Why people are afraid of death? Melbourne : Bilingual Dhamma booklet (Khmer and English) for free distribution published by living relatives of Mr Prak.
Visuddhacara, 1993. Loving and dying. Malaysia : Malaysian Buddhist Meditation Centre.