This is a refresh of a brief 2021 thread where people shared resources on texts related to death.
At the end, Danny posted:
I revisted Bhikkhu Anālayo’s book briefly today. I was reminded of how often, in the pāli suttas, the Buddha speaks to the phases of sickness (and good health), decline, and the dying process. Aming Tu offers a moving postscript at the end of the book. Bhikkhu Anālayo:
As a professor of Buddhist informatics and a dedicated practitioner of Chan meditation, Aming Tu found the discourses on disease and death in the Chinese Āgamas to be an immense resource when having to live the gradual deterioration caused to his body by cancer.
Worth noting here that, same as eight years ago, I am struck by Bhikkhu Anālayo’s wording. It’s personal – clearly this happened to Aming Tu’s body – but it doesn’t afford the ultimate cause (cancer) any personalized or privileged status.
In the postscript, Aming Tu writes about the Ekottarika-āgama account of what precedes Anāthapiṇḍika’s passing away (with a parallel in the Anāthapiṇḍikovādasutta MN 143):
I was deeply moved when I came across this passage. It also made me think, “I have studied the Dharma for so many years. What really have I learned?”
Toward the end of his book, Bhikkhu Anālayo writes:
Facing one’s own death when still alive offers the best preparation for being able to live well the actual moment of death. The potential of such practice is that it enables one to live without the deadening effects of the fear of death. Only once death has become a natural part of life will it be possible to go beyond the influence of existential fear and thereby come fully alive to life as it unfolds in the present moment.
True, it can feel like the “medicalization” of death is becoming the norm these days as medical interventions keep some people living much longer. At the same time, there’s likely never been a better window into the “ten decades” which Ven. Dhammanando refers to – in particular, the Decline, Stooping, Bent, Dotage, and Prone decades (50s-90s).
When one participates with others in moving through this, is it dhamma that finds expression in a profound way? More and more, we are finding ways to do this in less institutional settings – or at least in ways that help soften preconceived notions about what it means to grow old or succumb to disease.
For example, when we hear the clanging of a metal walker against the floor, we become less interested in “what it means” – it means nothing except that someone now needs assistance with a walker. Full respect and dignity is still maintained.