Buddhist Beliefs and Traditions

A dead body was one of the four sights that a young prince named Siddhartha saw when he ventured outside the palace walls. Encountering sickness, old age, and death for the first time forced the prince to confront the sufferings and impermanence of life. The fourth encounter, the sight of a serene mendicant, pointed up an alternative path to untangle the mysteries of life and death. These experiences caused the young prince to abandon a life of comfort and luxury and to embark on a journey to seek the meaning of life. As legend has it, 6 years later he achieved a great awakening. He discovered that all sentient beings are afflicted by dukkha (suffering and dissatisfaction), that the causes of dukkha are discernible, that an end to dukkha is possible, and that there is a path to attain liberation from dukkha. Having awakened to these “four noble truths,” Siddhartha became a Buddha, an awakened one. Known as Buddha Sakyamuni, he is said to have given teachings for 45 years all over northern India to guide people out of suffering. At the age of 82, he died, starkly demonstrating the impermanence of the body. The physical death of the Awakened One was his final teaching: that all living beings are subject to disintegration.

Impermanence, Old Age, and Death

During the many years that he taught, the Buddha often returned to the themes of impermanence, old age, and death. He recommended contemplation at charnel grounds as a way to gain realization of these realities of life. Seeing the corpses of the dead leads to insight and renunciation. Bodies that were once lovely and vibrant are now bloated and grotesque. Everything that comes into being eventually disintegrates, be it molecules or entire world systems. Contemplation on the inevitability of death is a reminder of the fleeting nature of life and the limited time we each have left for achieving liberation from perpetual cycles of death and rebirth. It serves as an incentive to renounce frivolous worldly activities and strive to cultivate wholesome actions of body, speech, and mind. Reflecting on the reality that death is inescapable [Page 116]impels us to pay close attention to things “as they really are” and not get lulled into destructive, escapist, or meaningless activities. Coupled with an understanding of karma (“actions,” the law of cause and effect) and rebirth, reflection on death engenders insight into the illusory, transient nature of sense pleasures. Recollecting that death is certain but the time of death is uncertain became a central theme of Buddhist meditation.

The Buddha's teachings on death and impermanence are reminders of the brevity of the human life span and the value of living a meaningful life to create the conditions for liberation. No matter how rich, famous, or accomplished a person may be, death is the inevitable conclusion of life. A realization that death is unavoidable is especially significant within the framework of rebirth, a widespread South Asian belief. In this framework, sentient beings do not live just once, but take rebirth in a variety of life forms, in accordance with their own actions (karma). Throughout many lifetimes—as a god, demi-god, human being, animal, hungry ghost, and hell being—they experience numerous sufferings and dissatisfactions in seemingly endless cycles of birth and death (samsara). Rebirth in the human realm is regarded as a precious opportunity. In contrast to other states of existence, human beings experience both pleasure and pain and have the intelligence to understand that these experiences are the consequences of actions they created in previous lifetimes. Human beings are uniquely capable of understanding the transience of their lives and the benefit of using life wisely for mental cultivation. A realization of the nature of death and impermanence is therefore critical for inspiring the impulse and determination to freeing oneself from repeated suffering and rebirth. The goal of the Buddhist path and the purpose of life is to become free from the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth and achieve the state of liberation (nirvana), or “deathlessness.”

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