Death is a journey into the unknown, but like any journey it goes better if you’re prepared. Andrew Holecek offers meditations and teachings from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition to help you prepare for the end of life—and what comes next. Death is one of the most precious experiences in life. It is literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The karma that brought us into [...]
Advice for Someone Who is Dying
Ajahn Chah's simple, profound advice to an aging student approaching her death. Today I have brought nothing material of any substance to offer you, only Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha. Listen well. You should understand that even the Buddha himself, with his great store of accumulated virtue, could not avoid physical death. When he reached old age, he relinquished [...]
Thank You, Michael
Carina Stone on the tragic death of her husband, the Buddhist teacher Michael Stone, the challenges he faced, and the gifts he gave. I arrived at Michael’s emergency room bedside in the dark early hours of July 14. As he lay in a coma, the first words I could find were Thank you. Too much brain damage. Too much swelling. Heart in shock. I studied him, looking for the [...]
Conversations With My Son
Mushim Patricia Ikeda traces her path as a parent through some of the humorous, poignant and penetrating conversations she's had over the years with her young son, Joshua. To be a mother is sweet, And a father. It is sweet to live arduously, And to master yourself. O how sweet it is to enjoy life, Living in honesty and strength! —The Dhammapada One summer morning in [...]
Review: “A Ghost Story” contemplates impermanence and eternity
A Ghost Story, a new indie film starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, is a tender meditation on themes common to Buddhism, like impermanence and the bardo. Jennifer Keishin Armstrong reports. A Ghost Story, a new indie film starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, is a tender meditation on themes common to Buddhism, like impermanence and the bardo. Jennifer Keishin [...]
The Supreme Meditation
"Aging, illness, and death are treasures for those who understand them. They’re Noble Truths, Noble Treasures. If they were people, I’d bow down to their feet every day." —Ajaan Lee In my early thirties, I met a teacher who was to have a profound influence on my study of aging and death awareness, primarily because of one central experience. I have never identified this [...]
A Path Beyond Death
Because of its emphasis on impermanence, people often think that Buddhism's view of death is that it doesn’t matter and we should just accept it. But that, says Lama Shenpen Hookham, is a crucial misunderstanding. The prospect of death nearly always comes as a shock: we are suddenly faced, at the worst possible moment, with all the fundamental questions about what life is, [...]
Facing Death, Mindfully
Bhante Henepola Gunaratana — affectionately known as "Bhante G." — had a moment of coming face-to-face with death while on a flight. Here's what he told an audience at Cittaviveka, a Buddhist monastery in the UK, about it. I had received word of my mother's final illness. On the way to Sri Lanka from Washington, DC, I changed planes to a jumbo jet in Hawaii. An hour or two [...]
Awakening My Heart: On Retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh
Andrea Miller attends a transformational six-day retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh. The War Memorial Gym is a sea of eight hundred prone people. When I finally find an empty patch of floor, I unfurl my yoga mat. Then I lie down on top of it, covering myself with the itchy yellow blanket I carted here from my dorm room. This is the evening of the first full day of Thich Nhat [...]
The Failure of War
Whether it’s in diplomacy, politics, or economics, the warfare model no longer works for the modern world, says Wendell Berry in this 1999 article from our archives. In modern war, everyone is defeated. If you know even as little history as I do, it is hard not to doubt the efficacy of modern war as a solution to any problem except that of retribution—the “justice” of [...]