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Objectives for week 4:
- To consider death rituals as rites of passage;
- To reflect on concepts of spiritual reality and the progress of the soul, in relation to religious teachings on life after death;
- To meditate on these themes through the case of the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
The meaning of death
“There is only one really serious philosophical problem,” wrote Albert Camus, “and that is suicide. Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy. All other questions follow from that.”[1]
Indeed, thinking of the absurdity of existence, as Camus pointed out in the Myth of Sysiphus, we can’t stop asking ourselves if it’s even worth the trouble to live. But Camus considered that even that question is absurd – because, since there is no intrinsic meaning in the world, the question as to the purpose of existence can never be answered. No matter what we do, we will die, it will all end. Death has no more meaning than life. Instead, for Camus, we should accept the absurdity of our life, and live it to the fullest, in its complete absurdity. We should neither fall into despair, nor hope. Despair finds its ultimate expression in suicide, while hope tries to deny the absurdity of life by imagining some future religious afterlife, in which we find meaning in death, or after death. And so, says Camus, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. We must imagine Sisyphus happy,”[2] neither giving up his meaningless task, nor trying to give it some illusory significance – but simply living every moment of his task to the fullest. Love life, he said:
“The breeze is cool and the sky blue. I love this life with abandon and wish to speak of it boldly: it makes me proud of my human condition. Yet people have often told me: there’s nothing to be proud of. Yes, there is: this sun, this sea, my heart leaping with youth, the salt taste of my body and this vast landscape in which tenderness and glory merge in blue and yellow.”[3]
Camus especially rejected all religious conceptions of an afterlife, or of the immortality of the soul, which he considered as illusory escapes from the unavoidable absurdity of life and death. But, illusory or not, humans have been thinking about the meaning of death, and imagining an afterlife, since the earliest records of human life, which are often found in the form of tombs – humans have buried their dead, and placed objects in tombs, presumably for the dead to take along with them into the next world, for at least 100,000 years. The capacity to imagine people existing without their bodies, and continuing to live after their physical death in another place or dimension, is perhaps one of the key distinguishing features of human beings, in contrast to other species.
“Death” and our conception of “life after death” are, indeed, very important parts of any discussion of spirituality and religion. Facing death – the death of a loved one or the prospect of one’s own death – is also a very important moment when people start to think about spiritual questions.
A few months ago, our next-door neighbour was killed in a car accident. This is a beautiful family. One of her daughters also died in the car accident. My wife was a very good friend with our neighbour. My wife and she both love cooking and gardening; they would often send each other some dishes and cakes that they had cooked, and they always helped and supported each other. And my wife was the last person to speak with her on the phone, and then she left in her car, and three minutes later she died in her car with her daughter.
It was quite difficult for us and for the friends of the family. We were very perturbed by what had happened. It was so sudden, unexpected, strange, and also very unfair. So unfair! She was such a good woman. Why would she just be taken away? Why would she be killed in such a fashion? Why would she be killed with her daughter? Why would the two just go like that, leaving behind three other children and her husband? How terrible this is! It is just so hard to accept. One idea that often came to our mind is that it is so unfair for her to lose her life in that way.
But then another idea came to our mind, is that her death is so terrible from our perspective from this world, since we have lost her. And yet, another perspective, which we can find in many religious teachings, is that she was taken away from this world and brought into another world. From our world, we might feel it as something very painful; but from where she is now, maybe there was no pain involved at all; maybe she is in an even better condition than in this world.
In some religious sayings, our body is compared to a seed – as our soul grows, the husk of the seed – our body -- needs to break and fall off, and only then can the soul can grow into its fullest flourishing, like a flower growing out of its seed. Sometimes, the gardener will pull the small seedling out from one place and plant it in somewhere else. The seedling has disappeared from this garden, and it was a painful tearing away, but it has been planted into a more beautiful garden where it will fully grow and develop. So, maybe from the perspective of the dead person, there is no pain whatsoever, and in fact, maybe she went off to someplace better. The idea is that our basic nature and essence is the spiritual soul. The body imposes some constraint on the soul. Death implies moving on to another dimension, in which we are released from the body. All of our spiritual capacities can have greater development as we move into the next phase, after inhabiting and growing in this body.
Thus, the feeling of pain that we feel is only the perspective of the living. So what about the perspective of the dead themselves? In this reading we are going explore two parts: in the first part, I am going to talk about the perspective of the living through death rituals; in the second part, I am going to talk about what religion says about the perspective of the dead.
Of course, when we discuss the issue of life after death, we can only use our imagination. Even if there is such thing as life after death, it would be impossible for us to conceive of it. The material world is the world of space/time; beyond the material realm, can we speak of space and time? Without framing our vision in space and time, how can we imagine anything? So, even if life continues after death, our understanding of such a process can only be aided with our imagination, using images, symbols and metaphors that can only be derived from the images of this material world, and can never be more than an approximation of a reality that is beyond the mind’s ability to comprehend. And yet, think of the story of the frogs in the well, or of Plato’s cave. Will their lives be different if they have different imaginations of whether or not there is life after death?
Indeed, thinking of the absurdity of existence, as Camus pointed out in the Myth of Sysiphus, we can’t stop asking ourselves if it’s even worth the trouble to live. But Camus considered that even that question is absurd – because, since there is no intrinsic meaning in the world, the question as to the purpose of existence can never be answered. No matter what we do, we will die, it will all end. Death has no more meaning than life. Instead, for Camus, we should accept the absurdity of our life, and live it to the fullest, in its complete absurdity. We should neither fall into despair, nor hope. Despair finds its ultimate expression in suicide, while hope tries to deny the absurdity of life by imagining some future religious afterlife, in which we find meaning in death, or after death. And so, says Camus, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. We must imagine Sisyphus happy,”[2] neither giving up his meaningless task, nor trying to give it some illusory significance – but simply living every moment of his task to the fullest. Love life, he said:
“The breeze is cool and the sky blue. I love this life with abandon and wish to speak of it boldly: it makes me proud of my human condition. Yet people have often told me: there’s nothing to be proud of. Yes, there is: this sun, this sea, my heart leaping with youth, the salt taste of my body and this vast landscape in which tenderness and glory merge in blue and yellow.”[3]
Camus especially rejected all religious conceptions of an afterlife, or of the immortality of the soul, which he considered as illusory escapes from the unavoidable absurdity of life and death. But, illusory or not, humans have been thinking about the meaning of death, and imagining an afterlife, since the earliest records of human life, which are often found in the form of tombs – humans have buried their dead, and placed objects in tombs, presumably for the dead to take along with them into the next world, for at least 100,000 years. The capacity to imagine people existing without their bodies, and continuing to live after their physical death in another place or dimension, is perhaps one of the key distinguishing features of human beings, in contrast to other species.
“Death” and our conception of “life after death” are, indeed, very important parts of any discussion of spirituality and religion. Facing death – the death of a loved one or the prospect of one’s own death – is also a very important moment when people start to think about spiritual questions.
A few months ago, our next-door neighbour was killed in a car accident. This is a beautiful family. One of her daughters also died in the car accident. My wife was a very good friend with our neighbour. My wife and she both love cooking and gardening; they would often send each other some dishes and cakes that they had cooked, and they always helped and supported each other. And my wife was the last person to speak with her on the phone, and then she left in her car, and three minutes later she died in her car with her daughter.
It was quite difficult for us and for the friends of the family. We were very perturbed by what had happened. It was so sudden, unexpected, strange, and also very unfair. So unfair! She was such a good woman. Why would she just be taken away? Why would she be killed in such a fashion? Why would she be killed with her daughter? Why would the two just go like that, leaving behind three other children and her husband? How terrible this is! It is just so hard to accept. One idea that often came to our mind is that it is so unfair for her to lose her life in that way.
But then another idea came to our mind, is that her death is so terrible from our perspective from this world, since we have lost her. And yet, another perspective, which we can find in many religious teachings, is that she was taken away from this world and brought into another world. From our world, we might feel it as something very painful; but from where she is now, maybe there was no pain involved at all; maybe she is in an even better condition than in this world.
In some religious sayings, our body is compared to a seed – as our soul grows, the husk of the seed – our body -- needs to break and fall off, and only then can the soul can grow into its fullest flourishing, like a flower growing out of its seed. Sometimes, the gardener will pull the small seedling out from one place and plant it in somewhere else. The seedling has disappeared from this garden, and it was a painful tearing away, but it has been planted into a more beautiful garden where it will fully grow and develop. So, maybe from the perspective of the dead person, there is no pain whatsoever, and in fact, maybe she went off to someplace better. The idea is that our basic nature and essence is the spiritual soul. The body imposes some constraint on the soul. Death implies moving on to another dimension, in which we are released from the body. All of our spiritual capacities can have greater development as we move into the next phase, after inhabiting and growing in this body.
Thus, the feeling of pain that we feel is only the perspective of the living. So what about the perspective of the dead themselves? In this reading we are going explore two parts: in the first part, I am going to talk about the perspective of the living through death rituals; in the second part, I am going to talk about what religion says about the perspective of the dead.
Of course, when we discuss the issue of life after death, we can only use our imagination. Even if there is such thing as life after death, it would be impossible for us to conceive of it. The material world is the world of space/time; beyond the material realm, can we speak of space and time? Without framing our vision in space and time, how can we imagine anything? So, even if life continues after death, our understanding of such a process can only be aided with our imagination, using images, symbols and metaphors that can only be derived from the images of this material world, and can never be more than an approximation of a reality that is beyond the mind’s ability to comprehend. And yet, think of the story of the frogs in the well, or of Plato’s cave. Will their lives be different if they have different imaginations of whether or not there is life after death?
Funerals as Rites of Passage
I just mentioned the idea that this woman left this dimension and moved to another dimension. Or in other words, this is a passage from one state to another state. This makes me think of the anthropological concept of “rite of passage.” The idea of “rite of passage” is that in life, we go through some important changes. These passages are not only something that we undergo as an individual; indeed, they are social passages. In each of these passages, we usually have some kind of ritual or ceremony. Actually, the first big change that we undergo in life is when we are born: we pass out from the mother’s womb and we come into this world. That is our first big passage.
Another passage is that, in different cultures and religions, we have initiations or rites of passage in youth. For example, we have baptism and high school graduation. When you are eighteen years old, you attend high school graduation. High school graduation is often the passage from being a child to being an adult. Your social status changes from being a child to an adult. You move from playing the games of children to the role-plays of adults. Another rite of passage is marriage: you change your status from being single to married. From this moment, you will start playing the role of wife or husband, in the role-play of family relations. So, what is the rite of passage for the moment that we die? A funeral. The final rite of passage is death: you pass from the state of being alive to being dead, or from living in this world to living in the next world, or from being a living person to being an ancestor. We have a funeral ceremony for that passage.
The anthropologists Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner have conceptualised rites of passage as having three stages:[4]
There are also two aspects of a rite of passage. First of all, when I go through a rite of passage, I myself as an individual go through that change of roles; but secondly, the group also undergoes a change.
For example, thirty days after the birth of a baby, in some cultures, there is a naming party or ceremony. What is the point of having the naming ceremony? One reason, of course, is to celebrate the birth and the survival of the baby after 30 days. The rite of passage and the rituals often require a lot of preparation, which is supported by the participants and the members of the community. So there is a social dimension. People who come will support and encourage the event. And by inviting them to the ceremony, whether it’s a birth ceremony, a marriage ceremony, or a graduation or a funeral ceremony, everybody becomes aware of and accepts the fact that you have undergone a major change. They now know your new status: they now know and recognise and accept that you are a newborn member of the family, or that you are an adult; they now know and accept that you are married; they now know and accept that you are dead. As you have invited them to your marriage and they are part of this ceremony, everybody now gets used to and publicly accepts the idea that you are not single anymore and you are married, and will now be playing different roles. In the birth ceremony, they know that you are no longer parents without children and now that you have a child. Everyone will come and they accept, acknowledge, and encourage it.
This is an important point for funerals as a rite of passage. Funerals help the family and friends to collectively accept the fact that one of their own members is no longer there. There is nobody to play that role anymore. They have to acknowledge and become aware of the fact that he or she has gone. These changes alter all the family relationships. When the baby comes in, when one of the family members get married, or when one member dies, the family relationships, the role-plays will be changed. In a rite of passage, everybody comes together, acknowledges the changes, and accepts that the relationships are changing. The rite of passage is thus a social thing.
Another passage is that, in different cultures and religions, we have initiations or rites of passage in youth. For example, we have baptism and high school graduation. When you are eighteen years old, you attend high school graduation. High school graduation is often the passage from being a child to being an adult. Your social status changes from being a child to an adult. You move from playing the games of children to the role-plays of adults. Another rite of passage is marriage: you change your status from being single to married. From this moment, you will start playing the role of wife or husband, in the role-play of family relations. So, what is the rite of passage for the moment that we die? A funeral. The final rite of passage is death: you pass from the state of being alive to being dead, or from living in this world to living in the next world, or from being a living person to being an ancestor. We have a funeral ceremony for that passage.
The anthropologists Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner have conceptualised rites of passage as having three stages:[4]
- The separation stage: in this stage, the participants leave their previous state or roles;
- The transition, or liminal stage, in which the participants are “betwixt and between”;[5] they are no longer what they used to be, but they have not yet acquired their new roles.
- The reincorporation stage, in which the participants have acquired their new roles, or return to their normal roles.
There are also two aspects of a rite of passage. First of all, when I go through a rite of passage, I myself as an individual go through that change of roles; but secondly, the group also undergoes a change.
For example, thirty days after the birth of a baby, in some cultures, there is a naming party or ceremony. What is the point of having the naming ceremony? One reason, of course, is to celebrate the birth and the survival of the baby after 30 days. The rite of passage and the rituals often require a lot of preparation, which is supported by the participants and the members of the community. So there is a social dimension. People who come will support and encourage the event. And by inviting them to the ceremony, whether it’s a birth ceremony, a marriage ceremony, or a graduation or a funeral ceremony, everybody becomes aware of and accepts the fact that you have undergone a major change. They now know your new status: they now know and recognise and accept that you are a newborn member of the family, or that you are an adult; they now know and accept that you are married; they now know and accept that you are dead. As you have invited them to your marriage and they are part of this ceremony, everybody now gets used to and publicly accepts the idea that you are not single anymore and you are married, and will now be playing different roles. In the birth ceremony, they know that you are no longer parents without children and now that you have a child. Everyone will come and they accept, acknowledge, and encourage it.
This is an important point for funerals as a rite of passage. Funerals help the family and friends to collectively accept the fact that one of their own members is no longer there. There is nobody to play that role anymore. They have to acknowledge and become aware of the fact that he or she has gone. These changes alter all the family relationships. When the baby comes in, when one of the family members get married, or when one member dies, the family relationships, the role-plays will be changed. In a rite of passage, everybody comes together, acknowledges the changes, and accepts that the relationships are changing. The rite of passage is thus a social thing.
Death in Traditional Chinese Culture
In traditional Chinese culture, the dead may move on in one sense, but in another sense, they don’t move on, and they stay with us. We give them a certain role among the living, for example, as ancestors. Some of you may have shrines to your ancestors in your home.
In Chinese culture, we have the cosmology of yin and yang (陰陽)” which are correlated with “Heaven and Earth” (tian di 天地). There are two different kinds of souls: one is the hun (魂) and the other is the po (魄). In some Chinese sayings, we have “three hun and seven po.” The hun is yang and goes up towards Heaven, and the po is yin and goes down towards the Earth. The hun is associated with spirits and the po will become ghosts.
In traditional Chinese culture, the dead always stay with us and remain literally at the centre of the house. If you go into a traditional Chinese home in the countryside, you will often find the altar for the ancestors in the very central room of the house. As most of you know, the ancestors are represented by portraits and tablets. The tablets in some sense are considered to be “alive” and have some kind of spiritual energy linked to the spirits of the ancestors. Daily offerings, food, and incense are given to the ancestors. Why are these daily offerings given to the ancestors?
You may hope that they can live better in the afterlife. Or you may think that they did not enjoy life enough when they are alive. Or there is also the idea of burning money for them, to bribe the officials of the underworld, to ensure their safe passage to heaven or to a better reincarnation for the ancestors. The ghosts will go through the tribunal, a kind of court, where they have to undergo the tortures for all the sins that they have committed. They need to bribe the officials of Hell so as to pass on to Heaven.
When I lived in Chengdu, there was an underground nuclear shelter right downtown. In those days, there were a lot of underground passages in Chinese cities, which were nuclear bomb shelters. By the 1990s, the cold war had ended, and those underground tunnels and shelters were often converted into hotels, shopping centres and karaoke bars. One of the tunnels in Chengdu, which was 200 m long, was turned into a simulation of the “Buddhist Hell”. Sculptures depicted the tortures of the dead, gouging their eyes out and tearing their bodies apart. The dead were being punished for all their sins. And as you’ve passed all the way to the very end of the passage, you will be released to the heavenly world, the world of ultimate bliss (jile shijie 極樂世界). And just as in this world, sometimes the officials of hell are not so honest and you need to bribe them on the way.
We have these offerings for ancestors. This implies the idea that the dead have never really left us. We feed them as if we feed our family members – we include them. Especially in Chinese culture, if you don’t eat with somebody, this means that person is not really your friend or family member. The sense of belonging is demonstrated through the sharing of food and drinks. You offer food and drinks to the ancestors; you feed them. And in a sense, they continue to be a part of the family. The family includes not only the living, but also the dead. That’s why in the traditional Chinese culture, the tablets of the dead are placed right in the middle of the house.
According to the traditional Chinese worldview, what would happen if we do not give offerings to the ancestors? What would happen if you ignore them? You might dream of them asking you for something. They come to you and ask more. This may also mean that you don’t have filial piety so they won’t be happy about that. Just like grandma and grandpa will not be happy if you ignore them even here in this world.
We don’t have time to go into the stages of the funeral ritual, but we have to know an important point regarding funeral rites. In any culture and religion, a funeral is the rite of passage which changes the status of the people who have died. In the Chinese context, the funeral is the ritual separation of the hun and po -- the hun will become the ancestor and the po will go into the tomb. This is the ritual transformation of a person from life to death. In other cultures, for example in Christianity, there is the separation between the soul and the body – the soul will go on to Heaven and the body will be buried.
And also, the funeral involves the reorganization of social relations. Let’s say the grandfather died, who was the patriarch of the family. Who is going to be the next person in authority? Who is going to play that role? The grandfather was the head and authority of the family, and after his death, the descendants have to accept the eldest son who is now the one in charge. So, the social relations will be changed.
The point I would like to make here is the importance of the social dimension of funerals as a rite of passage for both the living and dead. Every culture has this important ceremony which ensures that the dead can properly move on to the next stage. When you have a high school or college graduation, you know that now you have the responsibility of being an adult; you are no longer a child. Similarly, through the funeral, the dead know that they are no longer alive and will move on to the next stage. Funerals are important for both the dead and the living.
In Chinese culture, we have the cosmology of yin and yang (陰陽)” which are correlated with “Heaven and Earth” (tian di 天地). There are two different kinds of souls: one is the hun (魂) and the other is the po (魄). In some Chinese sayings, we have “three hun and seven po.” The hun is yang and goes up towards Heaven, and the po is yin and goes down towards the Earth. The hun is associated with spirits and the po will become ghosts.
In traditional Chinese culture, the dead always stay with us and remain literally at the centre of the house. If you go into a traditional Chinese home in the countryside, you will often find the altar for the ancestors in the very central room of the house. As most of you know, the ancestors are represented by portraits and tablets. The tablets in some sense are considered to be “alive” and have some kind of spiritual energy linked to the spirits of the ancestors. Daily offerings, food, and incense are given to the ancestors. Why are these daily offerings given to the ancestors?
You may hope that they can live better in the afterlife. Or you may think that they did not enjoy life enough when they are alive. Or there is also the idea of burning money for them, to bribe the officials of the underworld, to ensure their safe passage to heaven or to a better reincarnation for the ancestors. The ghosts will go through the tribunal, a kind of court, where they have to undergo the tortures for all the sins that they have committed. They need to bribe the officials of Hell so as to pass on to Heaven.
When I lived in Chengdu, there was an underground nuclear shelter right downtown. In those days, there were a lot of underground passages in Chinese cities, which were nuclear bomb shelters. By the 1990s, the cold war had ended, and those underground tunnels and shelters were often converted into hotels, shopping centres and karaoke bars. One of the tunnels in Chengdu, which was 200 m long, was turned into a simulation of the “Buddhist Hell”. Sculptures depicted the tortures of the dead, gouging their eyes out and tearing their bodies apart. The dead were being punished for all their sins. And as you’ve passed all the way to the very end of the passage, you will be released to the heavenly world, the world of ultimate bliss (jile shijie 極樂世界). And just as in this world, sometimes the officials of hell are not so honest and you need to bribe them on the way.
We have these offerings for ancestors. This implies the idea that the dead have never really left us. We feed them as if we feed our family members – we include them. Especially in Chinese culture, if you don’t eat with somebody, this means that person is not really your friend or family member. The sense of belonging is demonstrated through the sharing of food and drinks. You offer food and drinks to the ancestors; you feed them. And in a sense, they continue to be a part of the family. The family includes not only the living, but also the dead. That’s why in the traditional Chinese culture, the tablets of the dead are placed right in the middle of the house.
According to the traditional Chinese worldview, what would happen if we do not give offerings to the ancestors? What would happen if you ignore them? You might dream of them asking you for something. They come to you and ask more. This may also mean that you don’t have filial piety so they won’t be happy about that. Just like grandma and grandpa will not be happy if you ignore them even here in this world.
We don’t have time to go into the stages of the funeral ritual, but we have to know an important point regarding funeral rites. In any culture and religion, a funeral is the rite of passage which changes the status of the people who have died. In the Chinese context, the funeral is the ritual separation of the hun and po -- the hun will become the ancestor and the po will go into the tomb. This is the ritual transformation of a person from life to death. In other cultures, for example in Christianity, there is the separation between the soul and the body – the soul will go on to Heaven and the body will be buried.
And also, the funeral involves the reorganization of social relations. Let’s say the grandfather died, who was the patriarch of the family. Who is going to be the next person in authority? Who is going to play that role? The grandfather was the head and authority of the family, and after his death, the descendants have to accept the eldest son who is now the one in charge. So, the social relations will be changed.
The point I would like to make here is the importance of the social dimension of funerals as a rite of passage for both the living and dead. Every culture has this important ceremony which ensures that the dead can properly move on to the next stage. When you have a high school or college graduation, you know that now you have the responsibility of being an adult; you are no longer a child. Similarly, through the funeral, the dead know that they are no longer alive and will move on to the next stage. Funerals are important for both the dead and the living.
Religious views on life after death
Now let’s look at the individual: how can we imagine the individual going through the process of death? Now I am going to talk about what some of the world religions have said about life after death. Let’s consider the views of immortality in the universal world religions.
Different religions have different kinds of imagination, conceptualization, symbolization, and rituals in relation to death. But there is something in common throughout all of them. First of all, all the world religions consider that beyond the visible material reality, there is another reality. Beyond this material reality which you observe with the senses or instruments, there is something else. This spiritual reality is described in many different ways. It’s described with a complex set of symbols, but it can be simplified in a certain way.
Different religions have different kinds of imagination, conceptualization, symbolization, and rituals in relation to death. But there is something in common throughout all of them. First of all, all the world religions consider that beyond the visible material reality, there is another reality. Beyond this material reality which you observe with the senses or instruments, there is something else. This spiritual reality is described in many different ways. It’s described with a complex set of symbols, but it can be simplified in a certain way.
Two Poles of Spiritual Reality
Most religions conceive of spiritual reality as extending between two poles. At one end, there is a state of bliss with absolute and perpetual joy; it is also a state of oneness, love, truth, clarity, pure consciousness, nearness to the Divine and reunion with God. All of these can be described as Pure Light or Heaven – this is the positive pole of the spiritual reality. And there is the opposite side of the spiritual reality. This is a state of deep spiritual suffering: confusion and separation, loneliness and isolation, ignorance and loss. This is described as Darkness or Hell.
Sometimes the spiritual reality is described as a physical place, and sometimes as a spiritual state. Heaven and Hell are metaphors for those states. If we take these terms literally, perhaps you could understand Heaven as a particular place, where, I suppose, you would fly to in an invisible rocket, flying up to some other place in the universe. Or you go underground to some big pit of fire in the centre of the planet, called Hell. These are literal understandings. On the other hand, symbolic or metaphorical interpretations take these terms such as “hell” or “fire” as metaphors for a spiritual reality that is beyond the material reality.
What underlies the spiritual reality is the ultimate reality. The ultimate reality is understood as some kind of creative force. In some religious traditions, it is called God (the supreme God with a capital G -- not minor deities that are called gods in English, with a small g and in the plural); in Buddhism, it is called Dharma; in Daoism, it is called Dao. It is understood in different ways, but there is always the notion of a transcendent spiritual force underlying the spiritual reality. This is the underlying spiritual reality of the universe.
Sometimes the spiritual reality is described as a physical place, and sometimes as a spiritual state. Heaven and Hell are metaphors for those states. If we take these terms literally, perhaps you could understand Heaven as a particular place, where, I suppose, you would fly to in an invisible rocket, flying up to some other place in the universe. Or you go underground to some big pit of fire in the centre of the planet, called Hell. These are literal understandings. On the other hand, symbolic or metaphorical interpretations take these terms such as “hell” or “fire” as metaphors for a spiritual reality that is beyond the material reality.
What underlies the spiritual reality is the ultimate reality. The ultimate reality is understood as some kind of creative force. In some religious traditions, it is called God (the supreme God with a capital G -- not minor deities that are called gods in English, with a small g and in the plural); in Buddhism, it is called Dharma; in Daoism, it is called Dao. It is understood in different ways, but there is always the notion of a transcendent spiritual force underlying the spiritual reality. This is the underlying spiritual reality of the universe.
Our Spiritual Reality
But what is our own reality within this conception of the spiritual reality? Who are we? In this conception, we have a spiritual dimension: the human reality is not only the body, what we perceive with our senses, the things we own, or the words and labels by which we describe ourselves; there is something else. We have previously discussed the idea of our true self, the soul, the state of the “uncarved block”. What will happen if we strip away everything that we can see and describe? If we strip away the body? What remains, in the view of religions, is our spirit, or our soul. Different religious traditions have different names to designate the spiritual reality of the human being. For example, in Buddhism, it is sometimes said there is no soul; but Buddhism also states that all sentient beings have a spiritual nature, which is called the Buddha-nature or foxing (佛性). Other terms are our divine nature (shenxing 神性), our heavenly nature (tianxing 天性), our spiritual nature (xinxing 心性), and so on. No matter what the term is, and the variations in the nuances in the meanings of these terms, all major religions consider that the soul, or our spiritual nature, is the most essential aspect of the human being.
Religious teachings consider that our spirit is attracted to the heavenly state. It yearns for that state of bliss, consciousness, knowledge, and oneness. The life of the spirit is a journey towards that heavenly state, while trying to avoid the hellish state. The heavenly state is where the soul is true to itself – to its essential reality. This reality is also the divine reality. Indeed, the soul is something divine – created in the likeness of God, as stated in the Bible; partaking of the same nature of the Buddha, as stated in the Buddhist scriptures.
On the other hand, in the state of hell, the soul has forgotten what it really is; it has turned away from its own divine nature. It has been attracted to other kinds of things, to power, fame and wealth, which draw it away from its true nature, and lead it to ultimate suffering.
So, the soul is on a journey, attracted to the heavenly state, and seeking to avoid the hellish state. This is a journey in which there are causes and consequences. Different religions teach that pure motives and deeds will lead the soul closer to its own true nature and heavenly state. While, on the other hand, the soul will suffer from impure motives and deeds. This is the whole idea of the Chinese saying: goodness brings good rewards; and evil will bring evil rewards (shan you shanbao, e you ebao 善有善報,惡有惡報). Some people understand this in a material sense; they wonder why, sometimes, a good person suffers material infortunes, and why a bad person may enjoy material fortunes. But this “spiritual law” operates at the spiritual level: goodness brings spiritual benefit to the soul, and evil brings spiritual damage to the soul.
Religious teachings consider that our spirit is attracted to the heavenly state. It yearns for that state of bliss, consciousness, knowledge, and oneness. The life of the spirit is a journey towards that heavenly state, while trying to avoid the hellish state. The heavenly state is where the soul is true to itself – to its essential reality. This reality is also the divine reality. Indeed, the soul is something divine – created in the likeness of God, as stated in the Bible; partaking of the same nature of the Buddha, as stated in the Buddhist scriptures.
On the other hand, in the state of hell, the soul has forgotten what it really is; it has turned away from its own divine nature. It has been attracted to other kinds of things, to power, fame and wealth, which draw it away from its true nature, and lead it to ultimate suffering.
So, the soul is on a journey, attracted to the heavenly state, and seeking to avoid the hellish state. This is a journey in which there are causes and consequences. Different religions teach that pure motives and deeds will lead the soul closer to its own true nature and heavenly state. While, on the other hand, the soul will suffer from impure motives and deeds. This is the whole idea of the Chinese saying: goodness brings good rewards; and evil will bring evil rewards (shan you shanbao, e you ebao 善有善報,惡有惡報). Some people understand this in a material sense; they wonder why, sometimes, a good person suffers material infortunes, and why a bad person may enjoy material fortunes. But this “spiritual law” operates at the spiritual level: goodness brings spiritual benefit to the soul, and evil brings spiritual damage to the soul.
Three Factors that Influence Your Soul
In different religious traditions, there are teachings and concepts about how the soul transforms itself, and how it evolves and progresses. A number of factors are described. In different religions, these factors may vary, but they boil down to three main factors:
1. Through your own effort
Keep a pure heart; live a moral and virtuous life; try to be a better person; make an effort to have pure motivation and desires; be loving and compassionate. Your spiritual growth depends on your own effort to progress morally and spiritually.
2. Through the assistance of others
We can spiritually educate and nurture others, as well as pray for them while they are alive; we can also pray for them after they have passed away. In many religious teachings, prayers and rituals, we see the concept that the assistance of others assists the evolution and progression of one’s soul.
3. Through spiritual forces beyond one’s control
Your spiritual destiny is not up to you; it’s up to God. God will judge all souls. God, out of His own grace, leads souls to salvation or to progress spiritually. All you can do is to take refuge in God, and turn to Him in faith. Or in Buddhism, there are Karmic consequences: what you did in your past lives will influence your current and future state. You can't change that; all you can do is to try to progress from your current state.
There are a lot of debates, even within the same religious tradition, about which of these three factors plays the most important role. For example, in Christianity, there’s an endless debate about salvation through deeds (no. 1 above) or through faith (no. 3 above). But we can always find that these three aspects are discussed and put into practice, with different emphasis in different traditions. Overall, religions teach that the soul progresses through your own effort, through the assistance of others, and through divine grace.
1. Through your own effort
Keep a pure heart; live a moral and virtuous life; try to be a better person; make an effort to have pure motivation and desires; be loving and compassionate. Your spiritual growth depends on your own effort to progress morally and spiritually.
2. Through the assistance of others
We can spiritually educate and nurture others, as well as pray for them while they are alive; we can also pray for them after they have passed away. In many religious teachings, prayers and rituals, we see the concept that the assistance of others assists the evolution and progression of one’s soul.
3. Through spiritual forces beyond one’s control
Your spiritual destiny is not up to you; it’s up to God. God will judge all souls. God, out of His own grace, leads souls to salvation or to progress spiritually. All you can do is to take refuge in God, and turn to Him in faith. Or in Buddhism, there are Karmic consequences: what you did in your past lives will influence your current and future state. You can't change that; all you can do is to try to progress from your current state.
There are a lot of debates, even within the same religious tradition, about which of these three factors plays the most important role. For example, in Christianity, there’s an endless debate about salvation through deeds (no. 1 above) or through faith (no. 3 above). But we can always find that these three aspects are discussed and put into practice, with different emphasis in different traditions. Overall, religions teach that the soul progresses through your own effort, through the assistance of others, and through divine grace.
Attachment and detachment
In different religious traditions, it is said that egoism and the attachment to the body will block the progress of the soul. These make us become more selfish. We want the things of this world and we become more attached to the world; and so, when we leave this world, we find ourselves in much pain, being torn away from those material things we are so attached to. But if we are more detached from this world, we will not be much affected when we leave, and leave behind our material possessions and social position. As the soul progresses spiritually, it becomes less attached to the ego and the material world; it becomes more conscious of the spiritual reality; it becomes more conscious of the interconnectedness of all things; it feels joy at the joy of others, and pain at the pain of others. It has a stronger urge to connect to the divine reality; it has a stronger urge to help and nurture suffering souls. This is the path of spirituality.
Along this journey, we go through the passage of death. This is an important stage in the life of the soul. One metaphor is that the soul loses its shell, just like you take the clothes off your body. If the soul is too attached to the ego and bodily life, it will feel an incomparable pain from being torn away from everything it loves in this world. But if the soul has progressed and has been attracted to the spiritual reality, it will continue to progress, leaving the material world behind and entering the purely spiritual reality. This soul will be liberated at the point of death and enter a blissful state.
Such is, in any case, how most religions imagine the life of the soul. For a vivid depiction of how it is depicted in a specific religious tradition, in this week’s class we will consider the case of Tibetan Buddhism.
Along this journey, we go through the passage of death. This is an important stage in the life of the soul. One metaphor is that the soul loses its shell, just like you take the clothes off your body. If the soul is too attached to the ego and bodily life, it will feel an incomparable pain from being torn away from everything it loves in this world. But if the soul has progressed and has been attracted to the spiritual reality, it will continue to progress, leaving the material world behind and entering the purely spiritual reality. This soul will be liberated at the point of death and enter a blissful state.
Such is, in any case, how most religions imagine the life of the soul. For a vivid depiction of how it is depicted in a specific religious tradition, in this week’s class we will consider the case of Tibetan Buddhism.
The Tibetan Book of the Dead
In class we will watch a documentary film about “The Tibetan Book of the Dead,” which is a Tibetan scripture, the Bardo Thodol, composed in the 8th century, which is recited by monks in Tibetan funerals. Among all the religious literature in the world, perhaps this scripture contains the most vivid and detailed description of what happens to the soul and consciousness after death. It talks about several stages in the evolution of consciousness that take place after death, depicting several transitional phases called bardo. The states described in the Tibetan Book of the Dead have much in common with "near-death experiences" (NDE) reported by people who have been declared clinically dead or almost dead, but were afterwards resuscitated.
In some ways, the film is very disturbing and strange. I think you should think about it at three levels:
In the film, the dead person, Tsering Tsonam, encounters many visions during the liminal state of his consciousness in bardo: A bright light, a penetrating blue light, which is “consciousness in its complete purity […] inseparable from your own heart”;[6] random images from his life – friends, etc. – which he wants to cling to; and emotional states that come to life in the form of deities. His desperate thoughts and lusts, appear as frightening monsters. Peaceful deities will also emanate from his heart; if he does not let go of his self-centredness, they will become wrathful deities, bringing terror and anger. “They are the sharpness of your own clarity, they are all in your own head.”[7] If you recognize them, you attain liberation. If you don’t recognize them, they become the lord of death, terrifying.
What this scripture is suggesting is a visualization of our mindscape. What if we were to lose our body? What if we had no longer any sense perceptions, and came face to face with all of our emotions, all the mental states that we have accumulated over the years of our life, and also, the pure light of our own soul? It suggests that most people do not recognize their own spiritual reality – the penetrating bright light and the “peaceful deities” that emanate from their own heart – that they turn away from their true selves, and prefer to seek to return to this material world.
The film contains many statements that help to understand the concept of life and death that the scripture conveys, followed below by some questions for reflection:
“Everything that has a shape will crumble away”.[8]
“We say "this is what I am" and we act accordingly. But these are just our masks, we forget that we are wearing them.”[9]
What are the things we typically define ourselves to be, saying “this is what I am”? In what way are these masks?
“Recognize your own nature. Do not resist, do not be afraid.”[10]
What is our true nature, if it is not the “masks” mentioned above? Why do people resist, why are they afraid of recognizing their nature?
“All of us feel sparks of anger, flickers of passion, twinges of jealousy -- small moments. But from these seeds we may grow to become a jealous person, an angry woman, a passionate man.”[11]
“People make hell-realms out of their anger.”[12]
What is the source of our anger or jealousy? How can we prevent these sparks from turning us into a jealous or angry person?
“When you are born, you cry, but the whole world is overjoyed. When you die, the whole world cries, but you may find the great liberation.”[13]
In some ways, the film is very disturbing and strange. I think you should think about it at three levels:
- We can watch it to gain information about Tibetan Buddhist teachings and practices related to death;
- The lights, deities and “lords of death” that appear can be seen as visualisations or imaginations of mental, emotional or spiritual states; what is imagined to appear to the mindscape if/when it were to continue after death;
- It can be seen as a reflection of our own spiritual state, using death as a metaphor to reflect on our spiritual state while we are alive in this world.
In the film, the dead person, Tsering Tsonam, encounters many visions during the liminal state of his consciousness in bardo: A bright light, a penetrating blue light, which is “consciousness in its complete purity […] inseparable from your own heart”;[6] random images from his life – friends, etc. – which he wants to cling to; and emotional states that come to life in the form of deities. His desperate thoughts and lusts, appear as frightening monsters. Peaceful deities will also emanate from his heart; if he does not let go of his self-centredness, they will become wrathful deities, bringing terror and anger. “They are the sharpness of your own clarity, they are all in your own head.”[7] If you recognize them, you attain liberation. If you don’t recognize them, they become the lord of death, terrifying.
What this scripture is suggesting is a visualization of our mindscape. What if we were to lose our body? What if we had no longer any sense perceptions, and came face to face with all of our emotions, all the mental states that we have accumulated over the years of our life, and also, the pure light of our own soul? It suggests that most people do not recognize their own spiritual reality – the penetrating bright light and the “peaceful deities” that emanate from their own heart – that they turn away from their true selves, and prefer to seek to return to this material world.
The film contains many statements that help to understand the concept of life and death that the scripture conveys, followed below by some questions for reflection:
“Everything that has a shape will crumble away”.[8]
“We say "this is what I am" and we act accordingly. But these are just our masks, we forget that we are wearing them.”[9]
What are the things we typically define ourselves to be, saying “this is what I am”? In what way are these masks?
“Recognize your own nature. Do not resist, do not be afraid.”[10]
What is our true nature, if it is not the “masks” mentioned above? Why do people resist, why are they afraid of recognizing their nature?
“All of us feel sparks of anger, flickers of passion, twinges of jealousy -- small moments. But from these seeds we may grow to become a jealous person, an angry woman, a passionate man.”[11]
“People make hell-realms out of their anger.”[12]
What is the source of our anger or jealousy? How can we prevent these sparks from turning us into a jealous or angry person?
“When you are born, you cry, but the whole world is overjoyed. When you die, the whole world cries, but you may find the great liberation.”[13]
[1] Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 3.
[2] Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 123.
[3] Camus, “Nuptials at Tipassa,” 69.
[4] Van Gennep, The Rites Of Passage; Turner, The Ritual Process.
[5] Turner, The Forest of Symbols, chap. 4.
[6] Phaengcharoen, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 22:43-22:45.
[7] Ibid., 29:12-29:14.
[8] Ibid., 2:25-2:27.
[9] Ibid., 28:50-28:52.
[10] Ibid., 13:12-13:15.
[11] Ibid., 28:21-28:34.
[12] Ibid., 34:48-34:56.
[13] Ibid., 43:25-43:38.
[2] Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, 123.
[3] Camus, “Nuptials at Tipassa,” 69.
[4] Van Gennep, The Rites Of Passage; Turner, The Ritual Process.
[5] Turner, The Forest of Symbols, chap. 4.
[6] Phaengcharoen, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, 22:43-22:45.
[7] Ibid., 29:12-29:14.
[8] Ibid., 2:25-2:27.
[9] Ibid., 28:50-28:52.
[10] Ibid., 13:12-13:15.
[11] Ibid., 28:21-28:34.
[12] Ibid., 34:48-34:56.
[13] Ibid., 43:25-43:38.
References
Aronson, Ronald, "Albert Camus", in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2017 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2017/entries/camus/>.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, New York: Alred A. Knopf, 1955.
Camus, Albert. “Nuptials at Tipasa”, in Lyrical and Critical Essays, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.
Evans-Wentz, W. Y., ed. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, London: Oxford University Press, 1965 [1927]
Phaengcharoen, Somchai. The Tibetan Book of the Dead - The Great Liberation, 1994. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEX5mBqa554.
Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. 1969. Reprint, Transaction Publishers, 1995.
Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Cornell University Press, 1967.
Van Gennep, A. The Rites Of Passage. 1909. Reprint, London: Routledge, 1960.
Camus, Albert. The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays, New York: Alred A. Knopf, 1955.
Camus, Albert. “Nuptials at Tipasa”, in Lyrical and Critical Essays, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1968.
Evans-Wentz, W. Y., ed. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, London: Oxford University Press, 1965 [1927]
Phaengcharoen, Somchai. The Tibetan Book of the Dead - The Great Liberation, 1994. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEX5mBqa554.
Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. 1969. Reprint, Transaction Publishers, 1995.
Turner, Victor. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Ndembu Ritual. Cornell University Press, 1967.
Van Gennep, A. The Rites Of Passage. 1909. Reprint, London: Routledge, 1960.