Question:

We would all pass away someday in the future, but what is it like after we're dead?



Answer:

Death is part of our lives. When there is birth, there will be death. Everyone faces death someday. Some thinks that human beings only possess the physical body, when we're dead, we have nothing and everything turns into nothingness; some thinks that there's a life after death, some even believe that the is something as a "next life".

There's just so many different answers around us. Japanese tend to beautify death, resulting in the underrating of life and living by some of the people. As for Islamic religion, muslims believe that to sacrifice for a glorious war is proud, and that they'd return by the side of their god, Allah, after they're dead. But come to think of it, do we really get to meet the God by harming the others and destroying ourselves? If it is so, then how should Allah justify the incident to the victim's family, or even the family of the one who had sacrificed him/herself? Egyptians wished to live forever, and so they give a lot of effort to arrange the life after death. They've tried what they could to retain the physical body after someone died in order to use it again for the next life. But what's left was just a mummified body, left deep in the pyramid for as long as it could be, until someone's discovered them. Christianity teaches that we only live once, and those who followed God and do good, will be with God in heaven after death. However, researches done by scientists and psychologists have shown that we do not only live once. Buddhism is the one that teaches transmigration.

The Buddhism teaches: The physical body might die away, but the circle of life is continuous. Living is like being awake, whereas death is like a sleep. However, we'd wake up again after we slept. The physical body is a tool for us to "live". But when the body is old, or damaged, we'd go through death, then we change a new "body". Thus, life never ends. It's just like changing clothes when it's worn out, life just never ends. In the phase between death and reborn, life exist in the universe in a form like microwave, with no colour, no sound, no taste, no shape. When the time comes, life begins again with rebirth, and it keeps on going without an end.

Buddhism teaches us to face death positively, to understand death, cherish life, and live a big value and meaning out of life. Thus, we must also respect life as we live. Most of the people are afraid of death, thinking death as the end of life and everything else. Some of the people has an opinion that death is inauspicious, resulting in a fear, helpless and despair from death. Having such a view of life isn't appropriate. Try and think about it, if we treat death as a sorrow and unfortunate incident, we'd live with the fear of death. Those who think this way tend to have an opinion that, we could all die someday and this could all come to an end, why not enjoy it now?

But when we face death positively, we know that life is not about enjoying it now, but to carry up certain responsibility anytime. We pass away well when we lived well, and when we passed away well, we get to live well again in the next life. This is just like weather. When the red clouds drift by during sunset, we know it's going to be a good day tomorrow. Hence, we must all live well, and death, is just a phase for us to take a rest, in order to move on to the next life.


Shared by,
Chen Qiong Yan.

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