On Life...and Death

I know this is kind of a morbid way to start your day. But I found this article on the net, and it was interesting. Otherwise, I wouldn't post it anyway...haha Well, I never thought about death really. I knew I was afraid of it...but it just never dawned on me what Death really is.

On Life: the Way of Birth and Death

The Buddhist scriptures divide death into four main types: 1) death due to age, 2) death due to the exhaustion of blessings, 3) death due to accident, and 4) death beyond the cycle of birth and death. Death is neither extinction nor slumber. It is not like the dispersal of ashes and smoke, nor is it without feelings or consciousness. It is an exit from one world and an entrance to another, the transmigration from one world into another. Through death, people may ascend to a bright spiritual world. It is for this reason that many positive metaphors are applied to death in the Buddhist scriptures.

For example:

1) Death is like release from jail. According to the Treatise on the Perfection of Great Wisdom, ¡§The sufferings are like hell.¡¨ Bodily existence, the suffering of so many afflictions, can be likened to being imprisoned. Death is like being freed from jail. One will be free and no longer subject to any restraints.
2) Death is like being reborn. Death is a new beginning, not an end. The Sutra Requested by Visesacinta Brahma Deva [Visesacintabrahmapariprccha Sutra] remarks, ¡§It is like oil being extracted from sesame seeds or butter being churned from milk.¡¨
3) Death is like graduation. The Great Nirvana Sutra [Parinirvana Sutra] states, ¡§The teachings passed down eliminate all sorts of ignorance, making a success of study.¡¨ Life is analogous to going to school, and death is graduation. One¡¦s grades and performance in the past influence one¡¦s rebirth.
4) Death is like moving. Every living thing is subject to death. Death is nothing more than moving the body out of this broken-down, old, and corrupt house and returning to one¡¦s profound and pervasive spiritual home. As the Sutra of Illuminating Light describes it, ¡§The deer returns to the wilds and the bird to the skies; doctrines are realized and the enlightened enters nirvana.¡¨
5) Death is like changing clothes. Death is like removing old worn-out garments and putting on new ones. As the Lankavatara Sutra tells us, ¡§Even as vast as the world of ten directions, in the mind of the Tathagata, it is no more than a small cloud in the boundless sky.¡¨ Life in this world of dust and all its experiences are like clouds passing before the eyes. It all amounts to nothing more than a garment.
6) Death is like the new replacing the old. The new is always replacing the old in our bodies. Only after old cells die do new ones replace them. The Gradual Discourses of the Buddha states, ¡§Superseding makes change easy; there is no end or dissolution.¡¨ Samsara is like new cells replacing old ones. The fact that the old is always being replaced by the new makes life all the more precious.
Buddhism often calls death ¡§rebirth¡¨; it is like going on a trip or moving. This being the case, is not death also a joyful event? Therefore, death is a transformational stage, when one life is reborn in another life. For this reason, death is not something to be feared. One must be calm in the face of death and let nature take its course.
People fear death because life can be conceptualized, but death cannot. That is why the end of life seems so sad. Actually, life is like water in a cup. When the cup is broken, it is broken. The water runs over the table and onto the ground, but it can be sponged up and put into another cup. Although the cup is broken, the water of life is not diminished by as much as even one drop.

source: http://www.hsilai.org/english/e_hsilai/merittimes/home.asp