Who are we?

The Cycle of Life and Death

This is a question we will eventually ask ourselves. Understanding what is life is the single most important thing in our journey through life for that is that gives our existence meaning. And the understanding of life cannot be complete without trying to figure out death too.

There are many different thoughts on death. There are those who believe that life is ultimately random chemical reactions and death is the termination of life. However, such understanding of life seems lacking as it does not consider the mystical nature of life but only its manifestation. On the other extreme, there are many who see life as consisting an eternal soul and a temporary physical body. But this is also incomplete as it does not explain how or why the souls have to manifest as physical reality.

Life, when we get down to it, behaves somewhat like energy. Advances in natural sciences have allowed us to be familiar with the workings of energy. One of the main characteristics of energy is that it cannot be created or destroyed. Rather, it constantly shifts from state to state. Our lives also constantly change from state to state. From anger to hell, from hunger to rapture, from beastly instincts to eerie calm. We are in a constant flux. Factor death into this observation and we have a continuous shift from life to death then to life and then death again. Just like a pendulum moving from potential energy to kinetic energy to potential energy to kinetic energy and so on and so forth.

I was just a child of about 5 years old when I witnessed a funeral at the void deck of a HDB flat. As a curious child, I venture to examine the decease and wondered why people have to die. I remembered asking a few adults around then and none could give me a clear answer. Soon, I got my hands on a set of “Charlie Brown Encyclopedia” which explains simple science to children. I remembered pondering hard on the fact that electrons orbits about the protons and neutrons just like how the planets orbit around the Sun and how the moons revolves around the planets. And then I learnt about the water cycle, the life cycle, the weather cycle, etc. It became crystal clear to me. Life and Death is a cycle. All lives observed goes through the process of birth, mature, decay, death and then rebirth. It is so from tiny bugs to towering trees, from the heavenly bodies to even the galaxies. Having said that, does that means that Earth will die one day? Actually I believe it will. But that would be billions of kalpas later maybe. Is it a bad thing? Actually, Buddhism taught that the idea of death as the end of life is a serious delusion. Death is necessary for life to continue as I will investigate later in this essay.

The Nature of Life and Death

One way of understanding Nichiren Buddhism view of life is to see the entire cosmos as a single living entity. This entity is Nam-myoho-renge-kyo. Although each of our individual life appears to be independent, we are actually closely linked together based on the concept of dependent origination. Just like our hearts, lungs, livers and kidneys may appear to be independent living organs; they cannot function without one another. Therefore, to live our lives without compassion is to be detached from the true nature of our life. We are in fact living like a cancer cell, hurting this macro-life of which we are part of.

Nichiren Daishonin described our lives as phenomenon. What it means is that the fact that we are alive is as nature as the Sun rising from the east and setting in the west. So is death. Imagine the ocean and then the waves. We can see that each wave as it rises from the surface of the ocean when the wind blows. But is the wave not of the same nature as the ocean. They are all water, no? We can imagine the truth of life as that like the ocean. And when the right conditions of karma, acting like the wind blowing on the ocean, finds a match of karmic relations in our parents, our individual lives are manifested. Seen in this way, our lives are phenomenon – an act of nature.

And if life is natural, so is death. The difference is that when we are in the state of life, we can change our destiny while death is a static state where we lay in wait for the right conditions to be reborn again.

Sensei explained that those who worked hard for the happiness of others by teaching this Buddhism to others and giving hope, will be quickly reborn after they die to join the forces of the Buddha again. What exactly does this mean? Our perception of time is relative. I am sure we can all agree that time flies quickly when we are having a good time and crawls slowly when we are feeling miserable. So that means that when we live well and attain a high life-condition by the time we die, we continue to enjoy that high life-condition in death. Therefore, time seems really short before we are born again. The inverse is also true. That is why the important thing about Life and Death is that we have to live well, so that we may die well. And enjoy our deaths.

Changing our Life and Death

Now the question turns to how we can actually enjoy our deaths?

The practice of Buddhism is to continuously strive to change our lives for the better. In Soka Gakkai, we call this proactive determination as Human Revolution. What we really do is to refresh our lives. And we refresh our lives on many various levels. Since at the most fundamental level, we are all one with the life of the Buddha, refreshing our deepest level is to reveal the Buddha Nature within us and imbuing us with wisdom, courage and compassion.

The first level of change is to change our behaviors. The way we carry ourselves, see, hear, smell and speak. These changes correspond to refreshing our first five consciousnesses.

The second level of change is to change our mind and perception. This is done by meditating, positive thinking and sleeping. This corresponds to refreshing the sixth consciousness.

The third level of change is to change our self identity. This happens when we die and then be born again. This corresponds to refreshing the seventh consciousness.

The fourth level of change is to change our karma. This happens when we chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and perceive the Buddha Nature within us. This corresponds to refreshing the eighth consciousness.

And finally, the most profound change is when we change the “honzon” (The Object of Devotion) of our life. When we dedicate our lives to the Gohonzon or the Buddhahood of the interconnectedness of all lives and perform the Bodhisattva Way, we refresh the ninth consciousness and manifest our Buddhahood.

When we refresh our ninth consciousness, we are revealing the fact that we are one with the Mystic Law of Life. That the essence of this single individual wave is the same essence of the entire ocean. In light of the eternity of life of the cosmos, this fusion transcends life and death. This is what Shakyamuni means when he teaches that enlightenment is to be free from the sufferings of the cycle of life and death.

This means that the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and teaching this Buddhism to others can change our lives at a level so fundamental that not even death can achieve. Problems that not even death can solve, the chanting of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo can. This is the conviction of Nichiren Daishonin. This is also my conviction as a disciple of the Daishonin and Sensei.