..續本文上一頁s means that the middle ground is where true compassion can be exercised. The Buddha sets out some guidelines for this area in his definition of the ideal nurse. You”re qualified to tend to the sick if (1) you know how to prepare medicines; (2) you know what”s amenable to the patient”s cure, taking away whatever”s unamenable and providing things that are amenable; (3) you”re motivated by compassion and not by material gain; (4) you”re not squeamish about cleaning up urine, excrement, saliva, or vomit; and (5) you”re competent at encouraging the patient at the proper times with talk on Dharma. Of these five qualifications, the one most discussed in the Pali Canon is the fifth: What qualifies as a helpful and compassionate talk on Dharma to a person who is sick or dying

　　 What doesn”t

　　Here again, the don”ts mark off the territory for the do”s. The Vinaya cites cases where monks tell a sick person to focus his thoughts on dying, in the belief that death would be better than the miserable state of his life. The sick person does as they advise, he dies as a result, and the Buddha expels the monks from the monkhood. Thus, from the Buddha”s perspective, encouraging a sick person to relax her grip on life or to give up the will to live would not count as an act of compassion. Instead of trying to ease the patient”s transition to death, the Buddha focused on easing his or her insight into suffering and its end. This is because he regarded every moment of life as an opportunity to practice and benefit from the Dharma. It”s a well‐known principle in all meditation traditions that a moment”s insight into the pain of the present is far more beneficial than viewing the present moment with disgust and placing one”s hopes on a better future. This principle applies as much at the end of life as it does anywhere in the middle. In fact, the Buddha encouraged his monks to reflect constantly on the potential imminence of death at every moment, even when in ordinary health, so that they could bring a sense of urgency to their practice and give the present moment their full attention. If you learn to treat all moments as potentially your last, then when your last moment does come you will face it prepared.

　　Most often, though, a sick or dying person hasn”t been living with this sort of urgent alertness, so the first step in advising such a person is to aim at clearing away any emotional obstacles to learning from the present. The Pali texts note two such obstacles: worry over the responsibilities the person is leaving behind, and fear of death. In one poignant discourse, a man appears to be dying and his wife consoles him not to worry: She”ll be able to provide for herself and their children in his absence; she won”t go looking for another husband; and she”ll continue in her practice of the Dharma. With each reassurance she repeats the refrain, “So don”t be worried as you die. Death is painful for one who is worried. The Blessed One has warned against being worried at the time of death.” The man recovers unexpectedly and, while still frail, goes to visit the Buddha, telling him of his wife”s reassurances. The Buddha comments on how fortunate the man is to have such a wise and sympathetic wife.

　　As for fear of death, the Buddha notes that one of the primary reasons for this fear is the remembrance of hurtful or cruel things you”ve done in the past. Thus the Vinaya shows that monks would often console a fellow monk on his deathbed by asking him to call to mind something more positive—his highest meditative attainment—and to focus his thoughts there. In a similar vein, a common practice in Asian Buddhist countries is to remind a dying person of the acts of generosity or virtue he or she has performed in this life. Even if the person is unable to muster th…

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