Where Do You Go After You Die?

 

                People often ask “Where do you go after you die?”  Do we simply vanish into nothingness?   The Buddhist monk, author, and teacher Thich Nhat Hanh says "If you know where you are going in the present moment, you will suddenly know where you will go after you die."  Simple, yes?  But what does this actually mean?  Here is my understanding of it. 

I don’t normally see it, but in each moment of my existence, I am dying and being reborn, and this process takes place both internally and externally.

                At the internal level, cells in my body are constantly dying and being replaced by other cells. Thoughts, emotions, and sense perceptions arise and die and new thoughts, emotions, and perceptions are born to replace them.   

                The person that I was at the age of three does not exist anymore and has not existed for a very long time.  There have been many, many versions of Dale that have come and gone:  Dale at 3 years old, at 10 years old, at 21 years old, …at 79 years old.  The Dale at age 3 gave birth to the Dale of three years and one nanosecond.  That earlier Dale is one of my ancestors, as are all the other millions of Dale versions who have come and gone.  Dale at age three has “died,” he does not exist anymore, but he also gave birth to Dale at three plus one nanosecond.  And before Dale at birth, there were earlier ancestors such as Dale in the womb, and in my parents, and in a very long line of still earlier ancestors.  I am dying and being born in each nanosecond—physical changes, changes in beliefs and perceptions and emotional state. 

So when my heart stops beating and I am no longer breathing, have I ceased to exist and become nothing?  No.  I exist in the compost in the earth if I have had a natural burial with no embalming, or heat and light and carbon dioxide and water vapor that went out into the world as well as other products of combustion if my body is cremated.  These materials become parts of plants and animals and clouds and earth and soil. This is exactly like a cloud in the sky that “dies” when it is reborn and turns into rain.  Similarly, a tree which has fallen in the forest and decomposes is reborn in the form of other trees who root in its decayed wood and grow into new trees.  It’s called a nurse log (see above photo).

                If we become attached to any one of the millions of versions of ourselves, we will suffer.

              I am dying now in order for me to be born now.  Birth and death are happening in every moment.  That is the teaching of the Buddha, and you can only see this by practicing looking deeply to see the truth of this in each moment of your experience.

Externally, the process of dying and being reborn also goes on.  I exist in my children (if I have any), my friends, my students and interns, my readers, and in people that I have had a chance encounter with me at the supermarket.  A smile and a kind work may change a stranger and alter a life. All the people and other beings who have changed and absorbed something from me along the way in life have a little bit of me in them.  I exist in all these places. 

And this is true both of the kind and loving things I do, as well as the greedy or violent things.  Our behavior shapes in what form we continue to exist in other places:  as something beautiful and life enhancing or ugly and harming of life.  Every time I express a feeling, thought, or action, I am offering myself to you and to the rest of the world.  I must ask myself: “In what form do I want to continue to exist?”  When I live this way, I cannot help but act with greater wisdom. 

My existence and influence continues on even further via its ripple effects.  A compassionate deed that I have done goes into someone else.  And because it is in them, they treat other people with a bit more compassion, and I go into many generations of people that I have never even seen. 

It is, of course, possible to argue with all this intellectually—to “pick apart the argument”—and I have done this many times. The intellect says things like “Yes, there is continuation of something, but what continues is not me.  But on the other hand, it seems obvious that the person that I was in the past does not exist anymore, and no one seems to see that fact as a frightening state of affairs.  But then maybe we are overlooking the fact that…”   This sort of verbal analysis can go on forever, and when I do this sort of thing, I end up finding the Buddhist “argument” regarding death unconvincing. 

But when I am operating in this way, I am completely failing to remember that in Buddhist teachings, words are not intended to be understood as “arguments” or some kind of an intellectual effort to prove the truth of some belief.  The teachings of the Buddha are, rather, intended to help us to know the truth experientially, to see the truth in each moment of our own experience (the same way we see the truth of the central Buddhist teachings on impermanence in each moment of our experience). 

This is fundamental to understanding the teachings of the Buddha.  Knowing the truth of this teaching is not the product of arguments, explanations, or getting the words right.  As the Buddha stressed many times, the teachings are like a finger that points at the moon:  the teachings point to a reality that we can directly experience for ourselves.  The teachings on death are to point us toward seeing and experiencing directly the reality of our existing in a multiplicity of ways that continue long after the bodily changes that occur at what we call death.  This is what is called the practice of looking deeply, and without it we can never have a good understanding of Buddhist teachings on death. 

Sangha:  https://sites.google.com/view/ahimsa-acres-sangha/home

Website:  https://www.ahimsaacres.org/

 

Note:   My intention is to add new posts to the blog approximately every 2 to 3 weeks. If you would like to receive an e-mail notification each time a new blog post is made, please let me know and I will add you to the list of recipients. This notification will also include the title of the new post.  Some of the material that appears in this blog is copyrighted, but in keeping with the Buddha’s teaching that the dharma is not to be sold, the contents of this blog may be freely copied and given away, but not sold. 

            If you have questions, comments, or ideas for new Blog topics please contact Dale at ahimsaacres@gmail.com.