"God"

Dear Dr Wong

Do you have explanation for this?
"You find God the moment you realize that you don't need to seek God." ~Eckhart Tolle

Metta
Heng

Dear Bro,

the problem is the word "God"!

The God-Being

The cultural association is when this word is used, it refers to some Old Man who looks like Zeus staring down from the sky. If you did not know, the image of Zeus was the prototype 'model' for many2 paintings.

So the word in popular thinking refers to a Being, a Person with a Personality who can be pleased, happy, angry, vengeful or simply bored.

So if you are to go around looking for such a Being, then depending on your culture and religious background, you will find him in that particular context.

The Impersonal World of Physics

Then there is the "God" that Einstein referred to when he said that "God does not play dice";

That almost sounds like Einstein is attributing the laws of the universe to a god of some sort. But what type of god? A personal deity or some impersonal force?

To a Colorado banker who wrote and asked him the God question, Einstein responded:

“I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals or would sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. My religiosity consists of a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we can comprehend about the knowable world. That deeply emotional conviction of the presence of a superior reasoning power, which is revealed in the incomprehensible universe, forms my idea of God.”

The most famous Einstein pronouncement on God came in the form of a telegram, in which he was asked to answer the question in 50 words or less. He did it in 32:

“I believe in Spinoza’s God, who reveals himself in the lawful harmony of all that exists, but not in a God who concerns himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”
this is NOT a person or a being but the impersonal way that nature works that exists above time constraints.

In a letter, dated June 14, 1945, sent from the USS Bougainville in the Pacific Ocean, a Navy staff Raner recounts a conversation he had on the ship with a Jesuit-educated Catholic officer who claimed that Einstein converted from atheism to theism when he was confronted by a Jesuit priest with three irrefutable syllogisms: “The syllogisms were: A design demands a designer; The universe is a design; therefore there must have been a designer.”

Raner countered the Catholic officer by noting that cosmology and evolutionary theory adequately explain most apparent design in the world, “but even if there was a ‘designer,’ that would give only a re-arranger, not a creator; and again assuming a designer, you are back where you started by being forced to admit a designer of the designer etc. etc. Same as the account of the earth resting on an elephant’s back — elephant standing on a giant turtle; turtle on turtle on turtle, etc.”

At this point in his life Einstein was world-famous and routinely received hundreds of such letters, many from prominent scholars and scientists, so for him to write a lowly ensign aboard a ship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean reveals how much this story got his goat. On July 2, 1945, Einstein fired back:

"I received your letter of June 10th. I have never talked to a Jesuit priest in my life and I am astonished by the audacity to tell such lies about me. From the viewpoint of a Jesuit priest I am, of course, and have always been an atheist. Your counter-arguments seem to me very correct and could hardly be better formulated. It is always misleading to use anthropomorphical concepts in dealing with things outside the human sphere — childish analogies. We have to admire in humility and beautiful harmony of the structure of this world — as far as we can grasp it. And that is all".

Four years later, in 1949, Raner wrote Einstein again, asking for clarification: “Some people might interpret (your letter) to mean that to a Jesuit priest, anyone not a Roman Catholic is an atheist, and that you are in fact an orthodox Jew, or a Deist, or something else. Did you mean to leave room for such an interpretation, or are you from the viewpoint of the dictionary an atheist; i.e., ‘one who disbelieves in the existence of a God, or a Supreme Being?’”
Einstein responded on September 28, 1949:

"I have repeatedly said that in my opinion the idea of a personal God is a childlike one. You may call me an agnostic, but I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth. I prefer an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being".


let us now reflect on a lesson by Buddhadasa Bhikkhu

..the word "Buddha" in everyday language refers to the historical Enlightened Being, Gotama Buddha.


... in terms of Dhamma language, however, the word "Buddha" refers to the Truth which the historical Buddha realized and taught,
namely the Dhamma itself.

The Buddha said
"One who sees the Dhamma sees the Tathagatha. One who sees the Tathagatha sees the Dhamma.
One who sees not the Dhamma, though grasping at the robe of the Tathagatha, cannot be said to have seen the Tathagatha. "


..so in Dhamma language, the Buddha is the one and the same as that Truth by virtue of which He became the Buddha, and anyone who sees that Truth can be said to have seen the true Buddha .

To see just His physical body would not be to see the Buddha at
all and would bring no real benefit.


Again, the Buddha said, "The Dhamma and the Vinaya .... shall be your teacher when I have passed away."

Thus the real "Buddha" has not passed away, has not ceased
to exist.
What ceased to exist was just the physical body, the outer shell..

The real teacher, that is the Dhamma-Vinaya is still with us.

......The Buddha of everyday language is the physical man,

the "Buddha" of Dhamma language is the Dhamma itself,

which made him Buddha.


...the word "Dhamma" was used to refer to all of the intricate and involved things that go to make up what we call "Nature".

The word embraces:

1. Nature itself
2. The Law of Nature
3. The duty of each human being to act in accordance with the Law of Nature
4. The benefits to be derived from acting in accordance with the Law of Nature

It does not simply refer to books .. or the voices of Preachers.

...........In everyday language, "God" refers to a celestial being
with various creative powers.

The "God" of Dhamma language is rather different.

It is a profound and hidden power, which is neither human being, nor celestial being, nor any other kind of being.


It has no individuality or self, and it is impersonal.
It is natural and intangible.
It is what we call the Law of Nature, for this Law is responsible
for creation and for the coming into existence of all beings..
Natural Law governs all things.
Natural Law has power over all things.

Hence in Dhamma language, the word "God" means among other things, the Law of Nature, what Buddhists call "Dhamma".

Dhamma, just that one single word, implies all of the Law of Nature.

So Dhamma is the Buddhist "God".


Extracted from "Two kinds of language: Everyday language and
Dhamma language "

a talk given on 8 Oct 1966

............................



So Bro Heng, when one stops looking for that Personal Big Brother "God", and opens one's mind, one will see the Truths of Nature ALL AROUND us; Impermanence, DisSatisfaction, NonSelf and Dependent Origination.

Stop seeking for a Being, Open one's Mind and Truth as in Dhamma, as in the Principles of Physics is ALL AROUND for us to see and know!

A Question of Personal Vs Universal Love

Dear Bro Koh,

I have over the years being asked this many2 a time, so the Question is Not new and my answer well rehearsed.

"I wonder how one justifies Prince Siddhartha abandoning his responsibility of love as a husband, father and prince to the different relationships he had in the love to seek the solution to end human's suffering and find the path to Enlightenment? Is there a higher good love that compels the sacrifice?"


The Buddha's wife: Yasodhara

Many people do not realise that this name is NOT even mentioned once in the Canon. The name is found in the later commentaries and biographies.


According to the biographies which were written much later, Yasodhara, his friend and cousin, was Siddhartha's wife of 13 years.

They married at 16, which was the caste custom among nobles in Kapilavastu and lived in luxury.

Siddhartha had dancing girls and female musicians and guards attending to his every whim. But ensconced in a saccharine life of sensual pleasures by his father, who was keeping him distracted from the real nature of life, the harsh realities of Aging, Sickness and Death came as a big eye opener to Siddhartha.

He was catapulted on a Quest to find an end to suffering not just for his wife, child, family, friends, BUT the entire world and all the realms of Gods, Ghosts and unseen beings (life not being limited to this tiny planet). His love for his family is great, but his love for ALL Beings is even greater.

Much of the stories of his life is based on the biographies when tended to make the story Dramatic for theatrical effect, we all think that Yasodhara was not consulted when he left home, that she was abandoned in haste. BUT Why would Siddhartha not consult his friend, spouse, lover, partner, cousin, and parents before setting off to fulfill his life's mission?

The story tales tell of him sneaking off in the middle of the night BUT this is NOT what the canon says! Tellingly, his last act in the palace was not of someone evading responsibility and definitely NOT of one who sneaked in and stared at his wife and newborn, who were sleeping soundly.

Many hastily assumed that Siddhartha coldly disappeared without telling anyone anything. This is completely mistaken. It is quite obvious that he did discuss his plans with his family on what he was doing. In the Majjhima Nikaya, the Buddha described in his own words that "Before my Awakening, when I was still an unawakened Bodhisatta, the thought occurred to me: 'Household life is confining, a dusty path. Life gone forth is the open air. It isn't easy, living in a home, to practice the holy life totally perfect, totally pure, a polished shell. What if I, having shaved off my hair & beard and putting on the ochre robe, were to go forth from the household life into homelessness?'

"So at a later time, when I was still young, black-haired, endowed with the blessings of youth in the first stage of life, having shaved off my hair & beard — though my parents wished otherwise and were grieving with tears on their faces — I put on the ochre robe and went forth from the home life into homelessness."
It is clear that his family were in full knowledge of his plans.

And Yasodhara was not left alone to live and raise their child. She had servants, friends, family, riches, entertainments, companions, and parents very interested in how Rahula their son -- now the heir to the kingdom -- was brought up.

Another point which is beyond the comprehension of most people is that from the records of the past lives of the Buddha, Yasodhara and he were together for aeons of time, from the very day when he made a vow to train to be a Fully Enlightened Being at the time of Dipankara Buddha (many3 Big Bangs and Big Bounces ago) to the present; she had been married to and a faithful companion of the Bodhisatta (the-Buddha-to-be) many times over unimaginably vast number of previous lives, she having vowed that she will support him no matter what the conditions are till he became a Buddha.

We may further not be able to understand it as we judge from our own culture and its values, but in India 2600 years ago one's spirituality trumps all other commitments and concerns. Far from encouraging selfishness, this position benefits oneself, others, and both (i.e., the community). Many also do Not realise that becoming a recluse to seek the truths of life at that time is NOT the manner of a few eccentric fellas BUT the way to further education akin to you and I leaving home to seek a university education. The ascetics were the Intellects of that era who learnt from Elders, debated and Questioned the establishment, and lived in small cohorts seeking the answers to life.

For anyone who ever thinks to misspeak and say,"The Buddha abandoned his wife!" I beg your indulgence to first see the reality of the situation 2600 years ago and not fall into the trap of popular folklore and hearsay. Also please note that as soon as Siddhartha accomplished his Quest -- which was not simply to wake up but to establish an Order that would perpetuate the liberating-truth of the path to enlightenment that we can all follow without being dependent on him -- he returned to teach his former wife Yasodhara and family members.

By no means am I an Emotional Cretin, but I hope that one day I will have the state of mind to look beyond I, Mine and My. I hope that one day I will be able to see Reality and live in wisdom, not creating Pain and suffering for anyone.


The world is a tough place, until we are able to see it all with an enlightened mind, it is the 4 sublime states of Love, Compassion, Joy and Equanimity which helps us cope with the daily interactions of life. The Buddha taught us to utilise these states in ALL Interactions. We are all travellers on a long journey, it is this same 4 sublime states which makes the journey tolerable.

Ultimately, we will realise that all human interactions that comes with love and joy also has an element of separation and pain; hence I always say pls make sure you choose wisely so that the pain is WORTH the pain! Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you;
you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.


Until we are enlightened we will still think in terms of you and me and a dog named Boo, separation, ego, me, mine; hence we will think of "I love you" or "You love me"

At higher levels of realisation, we will see that all these are only transient states, not ultimate reality. It is when you see the end of I, Me and Mine, that we will realise why this Person to Person, Being to Being classification is relative truth. But we all live in relative truth everyday, eg I "own" this land, house, car. Its just convention and social acceptance in truth. So we need the 4 sublime states as we need to function here and now.

Pls LOVE and Be LOVED! Until you reach a state when you Love not ONE, or a Clan or a nation BUT ALL because you know there is NOT ONE OR TWO or a clan or a creed!

"You" will then LOVE "ALL" which makes a "person to person" love meaningless as there is No ONE person in reality for you to love!! Then we will truly understand why the Mind can be in Objective and Calm detachment because All that we are attached to is merely a protoplasm in evolution that we conventionally classify as he, me, you, they, etc, but that we are all part of a whole.
..............................

Love (Metta)

Love, without desire to possess, knowing well that in the ultimate sense there is no possession and no possessor: this is the highest love.

Love, without speaking and thinking of "I," knowing well that this so-called "I" is a mere delusion.

Love, without selecting and excluding, knowing well that to do so means to create love's own contrasts: dislike, aversion and hatred.

Love, embracing all beings: small and great, far and near, be it on earth, in the water or in the air.

Love, embracing impartially all sentient beings, and not only those who are useful, pleasing or amusing to us.

Love, embracing all beings, be they noble-minded or low-minded, good or evil. The noble and the good are embraced because love is flowing to them spontaneously. The low-minded and evil-minded are included because they are those who are most in need of love. In many of them the seed of goodness may have died merely because warmth was lacking for its growth, because it perished from cold in a loveless world.

Love, embracing all beings, knowing well that we all are fellow wayfarers through this round of existence — that we all are overcome by the same law of suffering.

Love, but not the sensuous fire that burns, scorches and tortures, that inflicts more wounds than it cures — flaring up now, at the next moment being extinguished, leaving behind more coldness and loneliness than was felt before.

Rather, love that lies like a soft but firm hand on the ailing beings, ever unchanged in its sympathy, without wavering, unconcerned with any response it meets. Love that is comforting coolness to those who burn with the fire of suffering and passion; that is life-giving warmth to those abandoned in the cold desert of loneliness, to those who are shivering in the frost of a loveless world; to those whose hearts have become as if empty and dry by the repeated calls for help, by deepest despair.

Love, that is a sublime nobility of heart and intellect which knows, understands and is ready to help.

Love, that is strength and gives strength: this is the highest love.

Love, which by the Enlightened One was named "the liberation of the heart," "the most sublime beauty": this is the highest love.

And what is the highest manifestation of love?

To show to the world the path leading to the end of suffering, the path pointed out, trodden, and realized to perfection by Him, the Exalted One, the Buddha.



The Four Sublime States
Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity
By Nyanaponika Thera © 1994–2011

Metta

Love (Metta) is ........

Love, without desire to possess, knowing well that in the ultimate sense there is no possession and no possessor: this is the highest love.

Love, without speaking and thinking of "I," knowing well that this so-called "I" is a mere delusion.

Love, without selecting and excluding, knowing well that to do so means to create love's own contrasts: dislike, aversion and hatred.

Love, embracing all beings: small and great, far and near, be it on earth, in the water or in the air.

Love, embracing impartially all sentient beings, and not only those who are useful, pleasing or amusing to us.

Love, embracing all beings, be they noble-minded or low-minded, good or evil. The noble and the good are embraced because love is flowing to them spontaneously. The low-minded and evil-minded are included because they are those who are most in need of love. In many of them the seed of goodness may have died merely because warmth was lacking for its growth, because it perished from cold in a loveless world.

Love, embracing all beings, knowing well that we all are fellow wayfarers through this round of existence — that we all are overcome by the same law of suffering.

Love, but not the sensuous fire that burns, scorches and tortures, that inflicts more wounds than it cures — flaring up now, at the next moment being extinguished, leaving behind more coldness and loneliness than was felt before.

Rather, love that lies like a soft but firm hand on the ailing beings, ever unchanged in its sympathy, without wavering, unconcerned with any response it meets. Love that is comforting coolness to those who burn with the fire of suffering and passion; that is life-giving warmth to those abandoned in the cold desert of loneliness, to those who are shivering in the frost of a loveless world; to those whose hearts have become as if empty and dry by the repeated calls for help, by deepest despair.

Love, that is a sublime nobility of heart and intellect which knows, understands and is ready to help.

Love, that is strength and gives strength: this is the highest love.

Love, which by the Enlightened One was named "the liberation of the heart," "the most sublime beauty": this is the highest love.

And what is the highest manifestation of love?

To show to the world the path leading to the end of suffering, the path pointed out, trodden, and realized to perfection by Him, the Exalted One, the Buddha.



The Four Sublime States
Contemplations on Love, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy and Equanimity
By Nyanaponika Thera © 1994–2011

Emptiness

Seeing impermanence (anicca) is the key that opens mind to see suffering,
and non-self!

The moment we understand this very clearly, our mind opens
to the fact that things change without leaving a trace behind to follow the
path that impermanence has taken. This is called voidness or signlessness...
This awareness evaporates the desire for anything that is impermanent!
It also evaporates all aversion growing from our disappointed expectations.
Then naturally, this clean mind becomes fully aware of not having any agent,
immovable mover, or controller, which sometimes is called "Self, I, Me, Ego"
or even "Soul" by some people. This element of Dhamma, this basic intrinsic
nature of all, this law of Dhamma is known in Buddhism as emptiness of self!

The Blessed Buddha said: Sabbe Dhammā Anatta = All States are Selfless!
Seeing impermanence with wisdom is the key to detachment, calming, stilling,
ceasing, and releasing mental relinquishment. Joyous Freedom is the result!

The Daughters of Mara are Dancing

What makes the Buddha a "Buddha" is, as his name implies, his Knowledge and Wisdom.

He has to make great Effort to learn this Knowledge and acquire his vast wisdom; he was not born with it.

The Buddha is also "Jina" the conqueror, one who has conquered his defilements. We read of the 3 daughters of Mara appearing to him to tempt him; this allegorical story has their names as Desire, Unrest and Pleasure.

Today in the 21st century, the 3 daughters of Mara dance in front of us everyday the instant we switch on the internet! Countless emails sent to my Inbox daily tempt me with every pleasure of the flesh and mind, from "Do you want to be my friend?" to drugs promising miraculous enhancements of my bodily parts. Click on to the News sites and at the sides are small boxes offering to satisfy my every desire!

Mara's daughters no longer come and go, today they are here to stay within every step of the net.

Worse still are emails from good friends, their accounts obviously hacked, asking me to click on this and that site. I just called a sister a few minutes ago, she had from her account "sent" me an email asking me to visit some most unusual webpages! I called her to inform her that her email account has been compromised, perhaps she should change the password or consult some expert on the matter.

Metta Lodge Public, our eDhamma site used to be attacked on a daily basis with similar mail; this most inappropriate postings on a Dhamma site only stopped after I reset the settings to direct all mail to me first before it is allowed to be posted on the site. The site is saved BUT I AM not! For now all the mail comes to me!!

The struggle for Enlightenment is described vividly in the texts, we all similarly struggle. I certainly do. The daughters of Mara are ceaselessly dancing all around me and you; I do not know about you, but I certainly have to struggle to keep sane.

BTW if any one of you know how to prevent our accounts from being hacked and "interesting mail" canvassing the whole world forwarded from it, please let me know! And I will let the sister know!

Thanks!

Funeral

The early Buddhists followed the Indian custom of cremation. The Buddha’s body was cremated and this set the example for many Buddhists. 

When someone is dying in a Buddhist home, monks and laypeople come to comfort them by chanting verses for them, and sharing the Dhamma. It is hoped that if the last thoughts of the patient are directed to Buddha and the Dhamma, taking refuge in the Triple Gems and Precepts, and recalling a virtuous life keeping the precepts, then the fruit of this meritorious act will bring good to the deceased in his/her new existence. The dying person must be put at ease from pain, and given a serene and familiar place to have a composed and calm mind. He and the family must be reassured that the wholesome acts done in the past will assure a good rebirth. He/she and the family must be counseled that Death is a natural process and merely a door to a new existence. Birth and Death are but 2 sides of a coin. 

Anathapindika was once very ill, and at his request the Venerable Sariputta visited him (S.v,380). On being told that the pains are excruciating and increasing Sariputta delivered a discourse reminding Anathapindika of his own virtues. Sariputta explained that the uninstructed worldling who has no faith in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha and who has not cultivated virtuous moral habits goes to a state of woe on the destruction of the body. But Anathapindika has unshakable conviction in the Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha, and has cultivated noble moral habits.

Sariputta pointed out that uninstructed worldlings reach a state of woe on the disintegration of the body as they have not cultivated the Noble Eightfold Path. But on the contrary Anathapindika has cultivated the Noble Eightfold Path. 

We too must reassure our dying brethren on the above.

There is much material in the Pali Canon on counseling the terminally ill. Speaking about death to a terminally ill patient and his family is not avoided as an unpleasant topic. On the contrary, the reality of death and perhaps its imminence are accepted without any pretense and the patient and relatives are made to face the prospect of death with confidence and tranquillity.

The family must be counseled to let go and give permission for the dying to die without worries or insecurity. They and Dhamma brothers and sisters can radiate Metta continuously to the dying person.

(A.iii,295-98). Once Nakulapita was seriously ill and his wife Nakulamata noticed that he was anxious and worried. She advised him thus: 

"Please, sir, do not face death with anxiety. Painful is death for one who is anxious. The Buddha has looked down upon death with anxiety. 

It may be you are anxious that I will not be able to support the family after your death. Please do not think so. I am capable of spinning and weaving, and I will be able to bring up the children even if you are no more. 

Perhaps you are worried that I will remarry after your death. Please do not think so. We both led pure wholesome lives according to the noble conduct of householders. So do not entertain any anxiety on that account. 

It may be you are worried that I will neglect attending on the Buddha and the Sangha. Please do not think so. I will be more devoted to the Buddha and the Sangha after your death. 

Perhaps you are worried that I will neglect keeping to the precepts. Please do not have any doubts on that account. I am one of those who fully practice the moral habits declared for the laity, and if you wish please ask the Buddha about this matter. 

Perhaps you fear that I have not gained inner mental composure. Please do not think so. I am one of those who have gained inner mental composure as much as a householder could gain. If you have any doubts about this, the Buddha is at Bhesakalavana, ask him. 

Perhaps it occurs to you that I have not attained proficiency in the Buddha's dispensation, that I have not gone beyond doubt and perplexity without depending on another. If you wish to have these matters clarified ask the Buddha. But please do not face death with anxiety, for it is painful and censured by the Buddha." 

Sudden Deaths

Mahanama tells the Buddha that when he comes to the serene atmosphere of the monastery and associates with pious monks of noble qualities, he feels quite calm and self-possessed. But when he goes out into the streets of Kapilavatthu, busy with constant traffic, he feels frightened over the future birth that would await him should he meet with a violent death in a traffic accident. 

The Buddha assures him that a person who has cultivated moral virtues and led a righteous life need not entertain such fears. He explains the situation with the help of a simile. If a pot of ghee is broken after being submerged in water, the potsherds will sink to the riverbed, but the ghee will rise to the surface. Similarly, the body will disintegrate, but the cultured mind will rise up like the ghee.

After Death
After death, while the dead person is being prepared for the funeral, the monks and laypeople continue to chant to console the family and to help all recall the Dhamma. There will understandably be grieve and lamentation but calmness must be encouraged and maintained as such negative emotional states will help no-one. Wailing and emotional outbursts are discouraged as this will only create more attachments for both the dying, the dead and the relatives.The mind that arises at the time of death is usually the one that the person is most habituated to. People tend to die in character, although this is not always so. So it is emphasised strongly that the time to prepare for death is now, because if we develop and gain control over our mind now and create many positive causes we will have a calm and controlled mind at the time of death and be free of fear. In effect, our whole life is a preparation for death and it is said that the mark of a spiritual practitioner is to have no regrets at the time of death. "It's time we started swotting for the finals!"The Funeral serviceDon't fall victim to funeral scams. 

Firstly we must realise that there is NO prescribed Funeral rite that MUST be done; the only prescribed rites are in the Vinaya for the Sangha community only. Secondly, rites makes NO difference to the departed. The Buddha however did not stop anyone from acts of respect and love towards the departed. Wisdom tells us that a simple solemn dignified service showing respect to the dead is adequate; this allows a rite of passage for the relatives and loved ones who needs closure. Local traditions as long as it does not violate the precepts are allowed as it gives the friends and relatives a sense of doing "something" and to facilitate mourning.

In the pristine practice of Buddhism, It should be as simple as possible. Perhaps just a candle will do. Some may want to add incense or jossticks. Whatever that is done, is not taught by the Buddha. Whatever suits the tradition and culture of the diseased, it is all right, so long as it is done with dignity and without harm to any being.

What is discouraged is meaningless and wasteful practises based on superstition and abuse by priests and funeral directors. 

It is a basic teaching of Buddhism that existence is unsatisfactory and stressful, whether birth, daily living, old age or dying. This teaching is never in a stronger position than when death enters a home. To conduct the rites for the dead is one indispensable service rendered the community by the monks, lay Brothers and sisters and any Buddhist Temple or society. 

What can we do to help

When death occurs all the kammic forces that the dead person accumulated during the course of his or her lifetime become activated and set about determining the next rebirth. For the living, death is a powerful reminder of the Buddha's teaching on impermanence.

Over the basic mood of gloom is the feeling that meritorious acts can aid the condition of the departed. For this reason relatives do what they can to ameliorate the condition with the offering of Requisites to the Sangha on behalf of the deceased. In fact, the Sanghikadana and sharing of Merits is the most important part of the funeral service. In concluding the service, a jug full of water is gradually emptied into a bowl, while radiating thoughts of metta towards the departed one. This is a symbolic gesture in which the water in the jug represents the merits acquired by the friends and relatives by good deeds and metta, which are then shared with the departed by pouring the water into the bowl.

It is quite common to print for distribution books sharing the Dhamma. Such books are not only a tribute to the dead and a means of making merit but they have practical educational value as well. 

Offering of Food

In Janussoni Sutta (AN 10.177), a brahmin named Janussoni asked the Buddha, 

"Master Gotama, we brahmins give dana and do things in full faith, thinking, 'May this dana reach our departed relatives. May the departed relatives make use of this dana.' Master Gotama, can this dana reach our departed relatives? Can the departed relatives make use of the dana?" 

The Buddha's answer was: 

"If there is an opportunity, they can. If there is no opportunity, then they cannot." 

He then clarified thus:

~ conditions of non-opportunity:
o those who do evil and hold wrong views and are reborn as hell beings
o those who do evil and hold wrong views and are reborn as animals
o those who refrain from evil and hold right views and are reborn as humans
o those who refrain from evil and hold right views and are reborn as devas

~ condition of opportunity:
o those who do evil and hold wrong views and are reborn in the realm of ghosts.

It is clear here that food dana can only reach the deceased if he is reborn as a ghost.
In this sutta, we learn three important points:
o The dana given by the living to the deceased cannot reach him if he is born in hell, in the animal kingdom, in the human world or even in heaven.
o The dana can only reach the deceased if he is born in the realm of ghosts.
o Dana here has to specifically mean offering food and drinks to the departed relatives, since this dana cannot be received by a departed one reborn as a deva. 

It is not the transference of merit because this other type of dana can reach a departed relative born as a deva, who benefits by feeling honoured.

BUT It would be difficult to know where a departed relative had been reborn. There is still a chance that he or she could have been reborn in the realm of ghosts. In such a case, the departed relative could eat the offerings.

Even if the departed relative was not born there, other ghosts who were related to one in previous lives could eat the offerings.

Sharing Merits with Devas

In Pattakamma Sutta (AN 4.61) the Buddha said to Anathapindika that a noble disciple who acquired his income through righteous means should spend it by making five types of offerings. These are offerings to
o living relatives
o guests
o departed relatives
o the king (government)
o devas.

There is also a verse in Ratana Sutta (Khp 6) that urges deities to protect humans because they make offerings to them day and night.

The above references bring us to the following conclusion: a Buddhist is actually encouraged by the Buddha to make offerings to departed relatives as well as to devas.

Dedication of Offerings to Devas

In the story on the making of Pataliputta village found in Mahaparinibbana Sutta (DN. 16), the Buddha advised people to offer dana to virtuous monks and dedicate the offering to the devas there. These devas, being honoured and cherished, will honour and cherish the occupants of the house in return.

We can make two types of offerings: the direct offering of food and drinks to the departed ones, and the dana to the Sangha followed by sharing of merits. So, whether or not one’s offerings are appreciated or used by the recipient does not affect the validity of the wholesome kamma of doing puja.

Recall that

"Good health is simply the slowest way a human being can die."

1. Everyone must die...
2. The remainder of our life span is decreasing continually.
3. Death will come regardless of whether or not we have made time to practice the dharma.
4. Human life expectancy is uncertain.
5. There are many causes of death.
6. The human Body is very fragile.
7. Our wealth cannot help us.
8. Our loved ones cannot help.
9. Our body cannot help but grow old.It is our conjecture that yearning for life is greatest when the fear of death is greatest. The fear of death is greatest when one's sense of guilt is greatest, the fear that one has squandered the great opportunity of human life, an opportunity which could have been well utilized for spiritual growth. If, on the other hand, one has well utilized the opportunity of human life for spiritual growth, one can face the inevitability of death with relative calm, contentment and happy satisfaction.

It can also be very helpful to consider NOW how we would react if we were told, for example, that we only had 3 or 6 months to live, to ask ourselves questions like:

• am I ready to die?
• what unfinished business do I have?
• what do I want to do or achieve in the time I have left?
• will my priorities change?
• what can help me at the time of death?
• "Live each day as though it were your last and one day you'll be right!"

--
Always be mindful of the Kindness

and not the faults of others.

Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; 

you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.