Conclusion

We’ve begun many of our talks with stories about kings, so here’s another one with King Pasenadi. One day he came to see the Buddha in the middle of the day, and the Buddha asked him, “What have you been doing today, great king?”

Let me read you his answer:

“Just now, lord, I was engaged in the sort of royal affairs typical of head-anointed warrior kings intoxicated with the intoxication of sovereignty, obsessed by greed for sensuality, who have obtained stable control in their country and who rule having conquered a great sphere of territory on Earth.”

Can you image asking one of our present-day politicians this question and getting that same answer? “Mr. President, what have you been doing today?” “Oh, the typical things done by someone who’s intoxicated with power and obsessed with greed for sensuality.” You have to admire the king for being frank.

So the Buddha asked him, “Suppose a trustworthy man were to come from the east, saying that there’s a huge mountain moving in, crushing all living beings in its path. Another man would come from the south, again trustworthy, saying that there’s a mountain moving in from the south, crushing all living beings in its path.” Similarly the west and the north: altogether four mountains moving in from four directions.

Then the Buddha asked this question, “If, your majesty, such a great peril should arise, such a terrible destruction of human life—the human state being so hard to obtain—what should be done?” The king replied, “If, Lord, such a great peril should arise, such a terrible destruction of human life—the human state being so hard to obtain—what else should be done but Dhamma-conduct, right conduct, skillful deeds, meritorious deeds?”

Then the Buddha said, “I inform you, great king, I announce to you, great king: Aging and death are rolling in on you. When aging and death are rolling in on you, what should be done?” So the king replied, “When aging and death are rolling in on me, what else should be done but Dhamma-conduct, right conduct, skillful deeds, meritorious deeds?”

That, in a nutshell, is the Buddhist attitude toward death. And this is why it’s important to reflect on death often. We focus on what we can do in the present moment, not for its own sake, and not to escape thinking about the future. We focus on the present moment because we see danger in the future, and we must do what we can in the present moment to prepare for that danger so that we won’t have to suffer when aging, illness, and death come rolling in.

This attitude is based on two of the principles that the Buddha taught. One is the general principle of causality, which is that what we do now will have an impact now and on into the future. This means that what we experience now comes from a combination of past actions and present actions. We can prepare for the future now by doing things that will shape future circumstances, and also by developing skills that we will need to use when aging, illness, and death appear in the present moment.

The second principle is the Buddha’s analysis of what happens at death. Just as a fire burning one house moves to set fire to another house by clinging to the wind, a being moves from one body to another by clinging to craving. In line with this image, we prepare for future death by building good houses and by trying to gain some control over the wind. In other words, we do good actions that will create good conditions for a future birth, a birth where we can continue practicing the Dhamma, and we learn to gain some control over the hindrances so that they won’t slip in and hijack our cravings, taking us to places where the Dhamma practice will be hard.

Ideally, we want to develop the discernment that will enable us to put out the fire—in other words, overcome the attachments that make us into a being with narratives, traveling from one state of becoming to another, and instead, find total release from suffering. The image that the Buddha gives for total release is the ocean. Just as the ocean cannot be measured, there is no limit, no measure, for a being who’s been totally released. Beings, you may remember, are defined by their attachments, but an arahant, having no attachments, cannot be defined.

The first of the Buddha’s two principles—the principle of causality—is illustrated in the chant on the five reflections that we’ve been reciting every morning. This is repeated the whole world over in Theravada Buddhist communities. One: “I am subject to aging. Aging is unavoidable.” Two: “I am subject to illness. Illness is unavoidable.” Three: “I am subject to death. Death is unavoidable.” Four: “I will grow different, separate from all that is dear and appealing to me.” Five: “I’m the owner of my actions, heir to my actions, born of my actions, related through my actions, and live dependent on my actions. Whatever I do, for good or for evil, to that will I fall heir.”

The first four reflections remind us of the dangers facing us. If the chant stopped there, it would simply be telling us to accept these events as a fact of life. But the chant doesn’t stop there. It goes on to affirm the power of our actions. There is something we can do about these things. Remember the attitude of the young prince who became the Buddha. He didn’t just accept the facts of aging, illness, and death. His actual response was audacious and defiant. The story goes that his relatives kept saying, “Don’t try to go for the deathless. There is no such thing.” His reply was, “If there’s a possibility that it exists, I’ve got to find it.” His attitude was there must be a way not to suffer from these things.

The solution he found, after enormous effort and self-honesty, was two-fold. The first is how to experience aging, illness, and death without suffering from them. The second is how to find a dimension of experience where aging, illness, and death can no longer occur.

All Dhamma teachings can be seen as detailed instructions on how to accomplish this two-fold solution ourselves. It’s because of the Buddha’s defiance that we have the Dhamma. This is why his message has lasted to the present day: We’re not helpless in the face of aging, illness, and death, so we should adopt his defiant attitude ourselves.

This combination—the realization of the dangers but confidence that something can be done to avoid those dangers—is what makes heedfulness central to all of the skillful qualities the Buddha taught. If there were no dangers, there would be no need to be heedful. If nothing could be done to avoid those dangers, heedfulness would be useless. So the message is: There are dangers but here’s what can be done to avoid them.

In terms of the second principle, the Buddha’s analysis of what happens at death and his image of the fire moving from house to house, clinging to the wind: You can see that his two-fold solution requires understanding craving so that we can control it and ultimately let it go. This requires strength, the seven strengths we’ve been talking about during this retreat: conviction, shame, compunction, persistence, mindfulness, concentration, and discernment. All seven of these strengths help us with the preliminary lessons in two of the big issues that will face us at death: physical weakness and pain. We get preliminary lessons in these areas from aging and illness. Aging gives us lessons in weakness; illness gives us lessons in dealing with pain. We learn how not to identify with the weakness or the pain, and instead use our mental strengths to escape their power by understanding how we’ve been clinging to them and don’t have to.

To put this in terms of the Buddha’s image: We develop good houses ahead of time by developing four qualities of mind: conviction, virtue, generosity, and discernment.

As for getting some control over the wind and putting out the fire—the skills that need to be used at the time of death—we develop them by using mindfulness, concentration, and discernment to overcome the hindrances and to understand the processes that lead up to craving. We see these processes described in dependent co-arising and in the principle of this/that conditionality. The primary factor of dependent co-arising after ignorance, you may remember, is the three fabrications: bodily, verbal, and mental. Bodily fabrication is the in-and-out breath; verbal fabrication is the way you talk to yourself, which the Buddha calls directed thought and evaluation; and mental fabrications are perceptions and feelings. In our practice, we try to overcome the ignorance that causes these fabrications to lead to suffering by bringing knowledge to them instead: for example, by dealing with pain, by overcoming the hindrances, and by bringing the mind to concentration through the practice of mindfulness of breathing. In particular, we exercise discernment by using verbal and mental fabrications to overcome any attachments that would create obstacles at the time of death.

We do this in line with the five-step program that we’ve talked about many times in the course of the retreat. We look for the origination, in other words, what causes these attachments to arise, and particularly any causes coming from within the mind. We look for the passing away of these attachments. We look for their allure. We look for their drawbacks. And then when we see that the drawbacks outweigh the allure, that’s how we escape from the attachments through dispassion.

As you apply this program to more and more subtle attachments, it can take you far toward not suffering from aging, illness, and death. If you can use this program to clear away all attachments and then turn it in on itself to let go of attachment to discernment, it can lead you to total release.

The Buddha once said that the duty of a teacher to a student is to provide protection to the student. Now, this doesn’t mean he would go around with his shield and sword to fight off your enemies. Instead, he gives you the knowledge you can use to defend yourself, and particularly, to protect yourself from yourself. He finds us all in a situation where we’re bewildered by pain and we’re looking for a way to put an end to it. In our bewilderment, we often do things that make the suffering worse. His teaching protects us from our own bewilderment and also from people who might try to take advantage of our bewilderment and our desire to put an end to pain. And he shows us how we can protect ourselves ultimately from suffering from aging, illness, and death.

This is the highest form of protection that anyone can give. It puts us in a position where, no matter what happens in the world—even if the Alps start moving down from the east and the north, and the Pyrenees from the south and the west—we can make ourselves absolutely safe.