Foundation of All Good Qualities Verse Geshe Tenzin Zopa The meaning of life is to develop the compassionate heart. The best gift to oneself, parents, to loved ones, to enemies, is compassion. The most beneficial is the great compassion that is un-biased and wanting all sentient beings to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering (which are the delusions anger, attachment and ignorance). If one can live in compassion for one minute, it becomes so meaningful; if one can live with this attitude for one year, that whole year is meaningful; if one can do so for the rest of your life, one s whole life is meaningful. People are difficult sentient beings. We understand that compassion is good, attractive, brilliant and brings much happiness but we don t put effort to become compassionate persons. So, we need some kind of alarm, a reminder and that reminder is today s subject of death and impermanence. This is regarded as part of the supreme Dharma. Buddha taught many teachings and gave 84k teachings after he actualised enlightenment amongst the key teachings was on death and impermanence; at the end when he passed away, he taught again on death and impermanence. His teachings on compassion and high wisdom all revolved around death and impermanence. Death is the loudest alarm bell to us to practice Dharma. Why? Because Dharma is the only solution to free us from the entire aspect of suffering. V3 Foundation of All Good Qualities: The verse begins with This life is as impermanent as a water bubble. The example given is the water bubble you see it and almost immediately, it disappears. The nature of our life and our whole environment is in the nature of impermanence. Remember how quickly it decays and death comes not just outer objects and surroundings but our own lives are likewise short and impermanent; we believe that we will live up to tomorrow; up to the end of this session, don t we? In fact, all lie in the nature of impermanence maybe there is no chance of life beyond this moment or beyond this night. We conclude life, with death. After death, like a shadow following the body, only our karmic imprints will follow us on our journey from the present life to the next life. Even though there are people who do not believe that there is a next life, the fact remains that consciousness continues from this life to the next. As long as consciousness continues, karma will follow us, just like there is no separation between a body and it shadow. What is meant by the karma will follow? Negative and positive karma, good karma and bad karma; action which is the cause for suffering or the cause for happiness, will follow us through our consciousness. That way it determines our destination/the realm of rebirth. What karma brings happy rebirth? Good karma or merit. Bad karma refers to harmful actions, thoughts, harmful speech bring negative results of suffering rebirth in the lower realms. Why is the subject of death and impermanence important and urgent for us to understand? The thing is, whether we follow a religion or not, Buddhist or not, the plain fact is that everyone fears death. When we hear about someone dying, we feel uneasy. When we encounter any form of heavy sickness, we have some sense of fear that this might cause death. This is because we know we are no different from them. We start to think This might happen to me. Our fear may be obvious or hidden. There are those of us who have no
understanding of impermanence or momentary transitions and so, we cling to the permanence of life. Due to this mistaken idea of permanence, we establish many activities on the basis that one will live long life; we enter into relationships with the idea of it being forever; we start a business with the hope it will last and bring in only profit and no loss; we focus on our bodies and engage in activities with the idea that we can make this body always youthful and strong. We grasp onto these ideas which contain some concept of permanence. On top of that, we have the permanent idea that death is something distant, never thinking that death can come in the very next moment. Even if we don t think we will live forever, we do think that one will live a long time. Again, a kind of clinging to permanence. These are all completely mistaken thoughts. When changes come, then our suffering begins. We have a strong belief in health, so when even small sicknesses come, we suffer. Whereas if we think of impermanence and death as part of life, when those things happen, it doesn t injure our minds so much. When relationships fall apart, we suffer. We suffer because we have the idea of permanence. Hence, the teaching on impermanence is such a valuable instruction to free us from the frequent tortures of ordinary life and allows us to meet each day with appreciation and happiness. For non believers or those who have no idea of karma, they are scared of death because when death approaches, it brings the fear of separation from those permanent ideas and expectations; it brings the exhaustion of all that is familiar. So even non-believers fear death. Yet, they fear death in a meaningless, superstitious way. For Dharma practitioners, their fear of death is based on understanding how cause and effect works and this makes them practice harder. For non believers who don t have practice, they fear because they cannot face the separation from life, from relationships and from the world which they perceive with their gross senses and which is dependent on their physical body. So they cannot accept that after death, there is no longer any bodilysensation nor living in a mansion nor driving a nice car nor eating nasi lemak anymore. Non believers suffer the most when thinking about death. And when actual death comes, it brings intense suffering for them. Without knowledge about death, their minds becomes blank at death, as if entering into total darkness and hopelessness. That s a fact. For Buddhists and those followers of faiths who believe in next rebirth, in numberless rebirths, either in samsara or beyond samsara, they know that rebirth will occur. But you might say that spiritual practitioners also fear death. Yes, it s a natural feeling but the main difference is that there is a belief in the continuation of consciousness; that life goes on and on, which in turn is dependent on imprints from actions we commit. The practitioner fears death because he simply does not know where he will be reborn. This type of fear of death is useful because it helps us to prepare for death, which in turn means preparing for next rebirth. If we are well-prepared for death, we will be well-prepared for next rebirth. Wellprepared means accumulating all the good causes to ensure that death is a happy death, one without regret, a journey to be looked forward to and not dreaded. This happens when one has a lot of merit and virtuous imprints. However, that depends on the present and what we do. If we cultivate or engage in virtue, non-harmful actions and compassion, for sure our death will be a happy one because we know that we have created the causes for a better future rebirth and because of that we are so excited! Therefore, for Buddhist practitioner, fearing death based on reasons and logic, is good. We need to teach students to gain a sense of fear of death in order to encourage the student to cultivate virtue so as to ensure that death is a happy journey and next life is a happy rebirth. In order for us to appreciate
that, in this moment, right now, we need to understand the impermanent nature of life, as illustrated by the process of life and death. The Buddha and Lama Tsongkhapa taught that death is certain, time of death is uncertain and at the time of death, nothing can help us except Dharma. When we first came into this world, we came alone and when we leave, we leave alone. What accompanies us is karma/imprints of actions of body, speech and mind. Some people study well but end up with bad jobs; some didn t study well at all but end up having good jobs; some put effort to being healthy and yet fall sick and the like. This is because karma follows us. It is all due to individual karma one commits and is not due to parents. If there were no karma operating, then 3 children from the same parents should be similar in many ways but we know this is not true. This is because of the karma committed by each one in the past. As we are responsible for our own karma, likewise our enlightenment is also dependent on ourselves; lower realm rebirth or higher realm rebirth is also dependent on ourselves. Human beings can be very difficult. Even though there are many examples of impermanence out there e.g. we know that Buddha came, Jesus came and many great saints came to this world all of them have passed away. This illustrates impermanence. Rich and powerful people with many guards, have all perished without any ability to sustain their lives. We will not be an exception, to be able to live forever. Death is certain. By knowing this, we need to put effort into cultivating Dharma and compassion to secure our future. Time of death is uncertain. A healthy person can suddenly pass away, whilst a very sick person continues to struggle and survive. Some ICU patients recover, whilst those on holiday can pass away suddenly. We believe that old age is nearer to death than the young ones. This is not the case. Many young people die before the old. Some babies die in the womb. There is no certainty in life. Being healthy today is not a guarantee of being alive tomorrow. Thinking that I m a Buddhist practitioner and protected, so I won t die tomorrow, that too is not a valid reason. Malaysia is safe, not like in Japan with earthquakes and tsunamis - that too is not valid reason to think that one will live till tomorrow. Rich people living in good houses might die before the beggar on the street. Some people while walking, just pass away; even while sleeping, some pass away. There is no valid basis to prove that one will live beyond the next moment. This shows that the nature of life is one of impermanence. We don t see the subtle degeneration occurring within us. We don t even notice how morning has become night. We are simply not aware of momentary changes. These are all examples of impermanence. We don t have such awareness and as such, our minds give rise to our assumptions of permanence, which will lead us to disappointment. Thus, it is more beneficial to cultivate the understanding of impermanence, rather than numb ourselves to the mistaken concept of permanence. As there is no certainty about life, health nor wealth, we should resolve to live meaningfully this present moment, every single moment. Then, even if one lives only 1 hour more, that 1 hour is rich with meaning. Perfect. Live every single present moment cultivating compassion, then when death comes, there is no regret and one will have peaceful death and a happy rebirth. By making every moment meaningful,
even if we happen to pass away 100 years later, that would be even better because we would have accumulated virtue over a long period of time. At the time of death, only Dharma can help. This statement is very true because no matter how much one may have accumulated in terms of possessions, without any training of mind, when sickness comes (not to mention death), one cannot accept it well and one suffers so much. Instead, when we are sick, we can make use of sickness to practice e.g. generating compassion for sentient beings or generate the thought that May my sickness be sufficient to exhaust all the suffering of sentient beings. When your mind is transformed that way, one suffers less. If you happen to live your life cultivating compassion, then when death comes, you won t mind death because you have the conviction that one s consciousness will continue and that as you have lived a meaningful life, you have the causes and confidence that you will have higher rebirth and born into good family, have good conditions to continue living in virtue. You will even have a smile on your face at death time. Good practitioners gain excitement as they approach death and face death with a sense of confidence and joy. As a minimum, one should aim to die without regret. If you live a life with compassion, there will definitely be no regrets at the end of one s life. Such confidence and contentment is very needed at the time of death. Otherwise, the suffering will be intense and one s mind filled with confusion and delusion there are many types - first will be the fear of separation from one s family or wealth. Some dying people don t worry about themselves but worry for their spouses like whether they will remarry and such irrelevant thoughts at death-time. It is not good to have such clinging when dying with attachment to wealth or people, the mind is in danger of coming back as a wandering spirit (they are one of the categories of preta beings). When a person dies, his consciousness enters the intermediate state (bardo) before taking rebirth. If a consciousness is destined for a preta rebirth and dies with strong clinging to a person or possessions, they can be swayed and become wandering spirits which return to once again be attached to the object of attachment. Sometimes, such spirits enter into animals. In Tibet, there was a master who was attached to the small collection of money that he had and had buried it in a hole near his retreat hut, fearing his attendant would steal it. He attendant didn t know about the hidden money in the hole behind the retreat hut. When this master died, the attendant went to check with another master about where his deceased master had been reborn. He thought his master would be reborn as a high reincarnation. However, it was revealed that his master was hanging around the retreat hut as a wandering spirit, which had entered into a frog to guard the small pouch of money buried there. The attendant wanted to find out more, so he went to check the area near the retreat hut and true enough, he saw a small dug-out hole that had been covered up. When he cleared this hole of soil, he saw a frog perched on the pouch of money inside this hole, guarding it. That frog was the deceased master s reincarnation. This was due to that master s clinging to his money at the time of death, so his consciousness went into a frog who proceeded to return to the pouch of money, as that was his object of attachment. I also remember that in my village, there was an old man who lived in a local temple. We used to see him chanting on his own. The moment he saw anyone, he would scold. He always recited the mantra but without compassion. He had lent a brass pot
to my father. My father forgot to return it. The old man passed away. After that my father started to get sick and there was no cure. The sickness seemed unusual as his sickness would manifest after sunset. He even went to Tibet to see a doctor but couldn t find the cause for the sickness. One day, he was so sick that he almost died and when his spiritual condition was declining, he would see images of people coming in through the door, calling him to join them. He was very weak but he could identify the names of those people, who were spirit forms wanting his life. Later, someone noticed the brass pot that belonged to the deceased old man. Because the old man didn t let go of the brass pot, came back to interfere with my father s life. While he was alive, the old man liked my father a lot but it is said that wandering spirits don t realise that by merely thinking about the living-person can cause them to fall ill. They don t realise the harmful effect they have on the living. When the puja was done, some calm returned and father improved but the cow died. In the end my father died. The point is that if one doesn t let go of attachments, if one doesn t detach the mind from them, one can become a wandering spirit. So it is very important for us to accept impermanence; accepting death and letting go. See how strong the mind is if you think of the pot, you become wandering spirit; if you think of Amitabha, you go to the Pureland. Hence it is so important to have a virtuous mind at death. When facing death, think of Dharma, think of Buddha, it will help so much. Even when we are sick, think of Buddha. When people are dying, likewise, think of Buddha, everything else will be taken care of. The mind can be so powerful. In my family, there were 6 children. My mother was a simple woman. My father was a trader. He even sold sewing needles to exchange for rice etc.. When he died, the youngest brother was born the same day and father died the day that baby was born. Father couldn t let go and would have died worrying about the family but from a spiritual point of view, it is harmful to cling in that manner. Even though the thoughts had concern, care and conventional love, that kind of love was mixed with attachment and thus, father became a spirit and returned home. All the children started to fall ill. The spirit doesn t know that he is harming them and returned to help in some way but instead, caused their illness. So there is a practice called Jangwa to purify the consciousness of a deceased by showing Dharma to it. My late master Geshe Lama Konchog knew all this was happening and came to my village, despite it being many days walk. I was then at the monastery but still very young. All my other siblings were likewise young. Geshe Lama Konchog walked day and night to reach my family home. He later revealed that he was able to see many spirits attached to their loved ones in the village or attached to their possessions and all the dogs in the village were barking and howling and seemingly wanting to bite invisible forms. Geshe Lama Konchog saw so many suffering dead people who couldn t let go and had mixed up true love with samsaric love and causing harm to their families. Next day, Geshe Lama Konchog asked whole village to bring the names of all the deceased and he performed Jangwa, based on compassion and gave Refuge and showing them the Dharma path. That night itself, the whole village went quiet. Geshe Lama Konchog then started to teach about the faults of attachment and encouraged everyone to to focus on Buddha. After that puja, mother recovered the very next morning.
The conclusion is that at the time of death, it is most crucial to be mindful of virtue and never cling to loved ones or one s millions of dollars or beautiful possessions. All have to be let go. Q: How to prepare for death? Ans: We have to make our life meaningful. Right now, our negative imprints are stronger than our virtues. If at the time of death, our virtuous imprints are weak, that will make death difficult and a good rebirth also difficult. Hence every day, one should cultivate good heart, emptiness mind, deity yoga mind. Q: Recently, someone below my condo unit committed suicide. I am now afraid and don t know what to do. Ans: Be like me, very stubborn. Go back home forget everything and only think of Buddha. First, I would make myself realise that there is no benefit of having fearful thoughts and resolve to set up a powerful positive mind (thinking of Buddha, Dharma etc). Regard the person who died as your object of your compassion by thinking, May all suffering beings be free from harmful thoughts and sufferings. By having this mind in you, no being can harm you. If you have karmic link with that deceased person, then even if you are far away like beyond the ocean, there may be karmic impact on you. But if you don t have any karmic relationship with that person, that person cannot cause any harm to you. So not much reason to be scared. Karmically, there is long distance between you and the person who passed away. Think of the person in this way You are object of compassion; I m not the object to receive any harm from you. Then you can chant some mantras, prayers. Think of the teachings since I ve not harmed that person, there is no cause for that person to harm me. Think May all living beings be free from sufferings and harmful thoughts.