..續本文上一頁As a monk, I have attended more funerals than the flowers by a graveside. Many times I have listened to relatives and friends after the service talking about the one who has just died. It is remarkable that what they remember is not the deceased”s wealth, nor their property, nor their power. What is talked about after the funeral is the person”s goodness, their kindness and how charitable they were. It is as if they are all summing up the newly dead person”s whole life. And what counts, the only things that count, are things like charity, virtue and selfless love. Such qualities are, in accountancy terms, the "bottom line" of a person”s life. It is what their life meant and what gave it meaning. It is strange that only through a death can we realize the wisdom of the Buddha”s teachings on what constitutes living meaningfully.

　　~O~

　　For a person who has a profitable bottom line, who has lived their life meaningfully, then dying can be joyful. A Buddhist would understand that because they have performed much good karma, then they can legitimately look forward to a wonderful time after death. They know that they are simply exchanging a worn-out old body for something much better. It is like buying a new car, the vehicle changes but the driver carries on. Where is the tragedy in that

　　Moreover, living meaningfully, as explained so far, is a training in letting go. You let go of some of your wealth to perform charity. You let go of gross behaviour to keep precepts. You let go of concern for yourself to practise compassion. And you let go of desires to practise meditation. The Dharma is a complete training course in letting go.

　　So when it comes time to let go of your body and pass through the death experience, a person trained in the Dharma lets go gracefully. In my long experience dealing with the death of both Buddhists and non-Buddhists in Western countries, Buddhists die so much more peacefully and joyfully than anyone else.

　　Once, a close disciple rang me from hospital. The woman, in her early forties, had been diagnosed that morning with an untreatable cancer. She could expect only two or three months more to live. I visited her that same afternoon. From her bed in the cancer ward she was smiling and joking with me as she made plans for her death.

　　As I left the cancer unit, the head nurse of the ward asked to speak with me. She told me that she was extremely concerned that my disciple was in denial, not accepting the diagnosis of impending death. I had to reply quite firmly that my disciple was not in denial at all. In fact, she had been talking about her death with me for the past hour! You see, the experienced head nurse had never seen such a swift acceptance before. She had only seen terror and tears, anger and defiance. And she had mistaken the lack of such negativity to signify denial. She hadn”t seen a Buddhist die before, and she found it difficult to comprehend how they could face death so joyfully.

　　A few months later, at my disciple”s funeral, her Christian doctor said how impressed he was that Buddhists die so gracefully.

　　When you understand Dharma, and live that understanding, then there is nothing sad about dying. The only thing that makes me sad is when people do not live meaningfully and waste their precious life.

　　~O~

　　My own father died when I was only 16. I loved him very much and still do. Yet I never cried at his funeral, nor have I cried since. I didn”t feel like crying. It took me many years to understand how I felt at the time. Now I use that understanding as a guide on how to die, with joy. This is my understanding.

　　As a young man, I loved music. All types of music whether classical or rock, jazz or folk. I would spend many an evening in the concert halls and clubs of central London enjoying some of th…

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