This is a reflection on this word because now, after so many years of contemplating conscious experience of a human being as a Buddhist monk, I wouldn't say life is the opposite of death. I would say that birth and death are the properly paired opposites because the Buddha emphasized the deathless. This realization is the realization of Nirvana; it's the realization that is possible for a human being before the death of their physical body through paying attention, through observing, through the awakened state of consciousness experience that we begin to realize the deathless, or the annata-dharma. For example, living in England, people would always want to know, "What is the Buddha's attitude toward death?" "What do you suppose happens when somebody dies?" "What is it that Buddhists believe?" There are lots of views on reincarnation and so forth, then there are arguments. There are groups that say, "Can you be reborn in a lower realm?" I remember meeting some theosophists who were very adamant, "It is impossible. Once you attain human birth, then you cannot be reborn as a toad or a worm; you can only go higher." They were having a quarrel with another theosophical group who believed that you could actually, if you weren't very good, be born in a lower realm. They were arguing and fracturing off from each other over this. In terms of reflective awareness, something that we can actually use without referring to any of the attitudes that people have around death is that, death is what we don't know because we haven't died as a physical experience.

This is a reflection. Physical death is something that we don't know; it lies in the future. There's no direct knowing of the future; the future is unknown. Since we don't know, we conceive ideas, possibilities. In terms of now, this moment, we're all sitting here in Daoyuan Hall of the Cityof Ten Thousand Buddhas--death is what? I don't know. I mean, there are certain views and theories, but in terms of direct knowing, I don't know Yesterday I was at Abhayagiri. What's that? Now sitting here in this Hall, it's a memory. So learning to contemplate even after sections of time in this way, we begin to recognize that the awakened moment is now. The Buddha was pointing to the state of attentive awareness in the present so we can see things as they are. We can know the reality that is present, that is now. How do you describe that? In English it's that all conditions are impermanent. Whatever you're experiencing, whether it's an emotion, a thought, physical body, what you're seeing, hearing, tasting, touching- it's all in the state of continuous, relentless change. That mutability is the way of conditioned phenomena; all conditions are impermanent. The realization and recognition of impermanence (not just an intellectual grasping of Buddhist principles or ideals, but to observe and know this law through your own direct observations) is direct knowing. Non-attached, you then let go. Through that non-attachment is the realization of Nirvana, realizing the deathless. Realization, to me, is another significant word.

~ To be continued