Humanistic Buddhist View on Living and Dying

Question & Answer Session

by Ven. Yifa

conducted after the talk on August 5, 2003

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Question 1

Is there a difference between rebirth and reincarnation? Please define each of the word.

Venerable :

I think when we talk about er…I’m not really sure about this..maybe there were some discussion I heard, maybe you’d like to give more detail why you have this doubt. I think without rebirth you cannot talk about reincarnation. Can anyone who asked this question tell me more of where this question come from, from what aspect, why?

Response from a participant: My question: is the difference between the word reincarnation and the word rebirth. I have this question because I came across these two words which has been corrected..that rebirth is after death you come back into the world again as another being whereas reincarnation is coming back into the world again as the same person. Take for example Mohatma Gandhi, it’s a fact that he passed away but reincarnation is a word that …(Venerable responded with “ Oh.”.with an understanding nod of her head). Yes that is what I am explaining to you but I want your explanation actually.

(Venerable laughs) Thank you. I think you have already given a very good definition. I think I get what you mean. When we talk about reincarnation they were talking about some Dalai Lama or some masters who has reincarnation over his previous life. But reincarnation is used in a very general term …within these six realms, jumping around .. this is also reincarnation. Rebirth can also refer to the moment ..after you die, reborn as a human being or as an animal or reborn in a Pure Land. But you gave a good definition already.

Question 2

Where is Buddha right now? ( Venerable responded: I think I already told you, Thus Come Thus Go) Where is Gautama Buddha right now? Is he interested in the human world affair? Is he still concerned about human beings and our sufferings and problems? If yes what is he doing about it? If no, why not? Where is his compassion for human beings right now? Please explain.

Venerable:

I think I have already given a definition. It’s because when you ask where it’s because you are looking for a physical body. You know the physical body become older, you know relic it’s cremated. So when we ask about the Buddha we don’t look for the physical where he is right now. And some people say he is everywhere. So in order to help you to understand the bodhi and the dhamma. His teaching right now is considered the presence of the Buddha. And how about our suffering. Very important. We need to make a distinction between Christianity and Buddhism. In Christianity you have the salvation concept. It’s like we have Jesus coming and immediately liberate all the human beings but this is not in the Buddhist idea. Buddhism does not have this kind of universal salvation. Buddhist salvation is through the individual effort. So everyone have to liberate, depend on your effort or depend on your karma. Even during the time of the Buddha he teaches his disciples to attain liberation, individual by individual. Frankly in history even Jesus he never provide universal salvation to the human being as well. When you have a suffering you complain – why am I suffering? That’s Buddha’s fault - you didn’t help me. But frankly it’s your own fault. You have to take the responsibility. Even the Buddha has to take the responsibility of his own salvation. So we have to do by our own, right?

Question 3

Define Enlightenment precisely. Have you attained Enlightenment? (Venerable responded: NO ) How do you know if you have attained Enlightenment?

Venerable:

No I don’t think I’ve attained Enlightenment. Okay if you use enlightenment as nirvana, what does nirvana mean? Lots of people say nirvana means you die, and I think I already corrected that. Nirvana literally means blew out or blew off. And blew out what? Non life. You know you use the term extinguish, extinguish what? Non life but greed, hatred and egoism.- we call the three evil root. So this is called enlightenment. When Buddha attained enlightenment as well as his disciples but I’d like to tell you, some people mention the process, the realization and the enlightenment. Sometimes I like to use enlightenment and realization a little bit different. On the process when you attain enlightenment you also have the realization. I use to tell people there are four kinds of states, stages. Of course there are many stages , fifty-two in Buddhism before you become a Bodhisattva or a Buddha. But for the ordinary experience I always want to say, the first one in Chinese it make more sense – ‘cher tau’. When we study Buddhism we only come to know, we know it, know the way – cher tau. And a lot of people when we study Buddhism we just ‘cher tau’ But the second stage is ‘ oo tau’ You really realize it, especially from inside. For example, I know a lot of people know, I should not smoke , I should not gamble, I should not get drunk. Of course you ‘ cher tau’ – you ‘know’ it. But can you do it? No. Because you have not realized. Maybe until some day you are broken, you lose someone you love, then you say “ah, I shouldn’t have done it” and I realize I cannot do it again. That’s what we call the ‘ oo’ .from the inside , the power – you realize the way, the tau.But that’s not enough. In Buddhism ‘cher tau’ ‘oo tau’ you still have to ‘shure tau’ you still have to cultivate it- cultivation. That’s why when you ask me whether I am enlightened – please no, I am not yet. I cannot say I am. And also sometimes I feel it’s very hard to be on the stage to give a talk. I like to share because I know that’s my duty but sometimes frankly being someone always on the stage I can tell you about Buddhism but please don’t think I have cultivated. No it may not be. So sometimes I find it difficult. You realize, you understand but I hope even though I cannot do it, maybe you can, you can accomplish. So even though you realize it but you still need to cultivate it and then finally it’s called what? – ‘chern tau’ it’s the realization. So from ‘cher tau’ ‘oo tau’ ‘ shure tau’ and ‘chern tau’ And maybe at that moment it will be the realization. And if someone who has not attained enlightenment and claim that they have attained enlightenment, that in Buddhism is considered a Big Lie.

Question 4

Why majority, maybe 99 percent of people cannot remember their past life. If most of us cannot remember our past life is if fair that we are affected by our past kamma? Please explain.

Venerable:

You know what, frankly I don’t even remember last week. Things I said last week. Not to mention when I was young. I don’t know how many people have a good memory. So how can we really remember the previous life. But sometimes the ‘seed’, the past experience, the seed of past experience that is stored inside. Sometimes we come to the experience, the French they call deja-vu, something you feel familiar with. And also in your dream, when you want to talk about your previous life – our sixth consciousness. When we are asleep, our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, the touching, our body is put to sleep as well. It’s only sixth consciousness are active. And you dream of all kinds of things. And some come from your previous life. And sometimes dreams can also be a proof . And the second one is when people go through hypnosis, they also can tell about previous life. And for myself I don’t worry about my previous life. I also find it very interesting. If you don’t believe it it’s hard to convince you to believe – the previous life. So I will say I feel I am not bothered by that question.

Question 5

Why do some people have visitations, dreams from a loved one who has passed away long ago? Are they in Heaven to give us warnings when necessary? Where are they exactly?

Venerable:

You know, in Chinese society, we tend to think our ancestors, after they die they become ghosts – that’s why we do the ‘chau too’, remember? We go to the temple and we transfer the merit to our ancestors. It’s not necessary to always become the ghosts or spirit. Sometimes the ancestors can be in Heaven or human being, any kind as I mentioned to you – all in the six realms Why we still have that kind of connection? And as I mentioned mostly because it’s our ‘seed’ of experience manifest. For example you are with someone you love, an ancestor you love, and that experience is still stored inside and when the condition is there, the time is there and it will ripen and you kind of dream about it and there is a possibility Maybe there were certain connections, yes, do not deny that as well. For example if I meet you right now, the physical contact, but mind and mind can also transmit as well. You cannot deny that and that’s why in Buddhism we always have to do the merit transference. Just like the frequency. Even our cellular phone can do that kind of transfer. Someone call you – the wave. Remember our consciousness is like a wave, it’s like an energy, it’s very powerful. So when you have some kind of connection, correspondence with some one you love, not only with someone you love, I think it’s very important to enhance a positive wave to more people – our positive thinking to a lot of people, what you call a radar, a satellite, either to receive or to send it out, the message, the positive wave. So this is very important, the way we cultivate. You are in the temple or you are doing something good, you want to transfer merit to the people, the sentient beings, as many as you can.

Question 6

Good evening to you Venerable Yifa. As you mentioned earlier it is advisable not to touch a dead body, the person who is dead, within eight hours. In Buddhism we are encouraged to donate our organ. What will happen since most of our organs need to be dismantled off, someone in an emergency we need to help them. So what will happen to our consciousness actually.

Venerable:

You know what? If someone is really attached to their body, even though after eight hours they still get attached to their body because their bardo their ‘chung yin’ still hanging there. Maybe they will see someone touch my body. Yes this is a kind of dilemma for Buddhists. But we still encourage Buddhists to do organ donation. How can we do it? Just like, you know – give up the old house.and go away. Okay? For example most people have the experience. When you want to sell your house, even though you already got the money, but after you move out, you still want to go back and look , you know , that kind of attachment. If somebody changed the curtain you probably got so mad. Although you already sell the old car, even though you got the money, someone sit in your car, you say “Oh that’s my car!” The same kind of attachment. How about if in your mind you prepare yourself. That’s someone’s car now, that’s someone’s house – no matter if they knock it down Does it matter? Probably it does not matter. It doesn’t matter because you already give up. So this is really important to educate the people. For the Buddhists it is to abandon the body immediately, to train to abandon your body immediately after you die. Just like you abandon the old house. Because the dying process is very painful but if someone prolong this kind of attachment it will be even more painful. Just like parents, their children are going away, the departure is already making it difficult but because of your attachment you are making it even more difficult, or when I mentioned about the house , like you have attachment to the house you even make it more difficult. So we have to give that kind of education of people. We have to train ourselves to be detached from this physical body. So you still can donate your organ and just train yourself to be detached. It takes time.

Question 7

Most of the Buddhists believe in assisted chanting when somebody is going to die. How about for those other non-Buddhists like Muslims and Catholics. Will it help if we do some assisted chanting to them or how do we help them to be reborn better.

Another question is : this month is the seventh lunar month whereby you do a lot of chanting activity- ‘chao too’. Will this help the non-Buddhists get the merit if we do the chanting activity for them?

Venerable:

Even for a non-Buddhist how can we assist them. I think it’s very important. I always like to make a distinction between a Religion and the Truth. A lot of times we are confused by the Religion and the Truth. The reality of the Truth is that there is no timing. But a Religion always have a time. Judaism – three thousand years. And Buddhism – two thousand five hundred years. Christianity – two thousand years, Muslim I think is about one thousand four hundred years – the history, what I mean is the History. But when we talk about the Truth, and I believe it’s not just because it was told by Buddhism but the whole Universe function by cause and effect. So when we talk about the Religion or when we talk about the Reality. When we talk about the Religion we must know about the history and also the teaching as a tool. Just like in Zen there is a metaphor if the Reality is the Moon then the religion is like the finger pointing at the moon. You want to hope you can look through the finger to the moon, don’t stick to the finger but look at the moon. So even for Buddhism don’t stick to Buddhism. He want you to find the truth, the reality. So if there is the Reality, no matter if it’s Buddhism or Judaism or Islam they all point to the Moon, just different ways. So of course if a Muslim, a non-Buddhist doing the way they do, to somehow to comfort the deceased, I think that is also a good way. We have to respect them, the Christian way or the Muslim way or Taoist way, whatever. So there can be many fingers pointing to the Moon, the Reality or the Truth. So this is the way we can help people.

For the second question. We are Buddhists, can we transfer the merit to the non-Buddhist? Of course. We have done that. Even every month, every occasion, the dhamma function ,we have to write the list , there are non-Buddhists, a lot of spirit, ghosts that nobody make an offering, that’s why in Buddhism we call ‘ poo too’ universal saviour, to help and there is no limit. Remember, when we talk about Buddhism, Buddha means what? Buddha means Enlightenment and Buddhism, we take B-U-D-D-H-A or Bodhi as a term so being a Buddhist is just a convenient term but I think what is really important is the nature, the enlightened nature, and that does not include only the Buddhists, - Christians, Muslims they all have the nature for being awakened.

Question 8

Just now you mentioned about rebirth has to do with the kamma and samsara of a person. However you mentioned that when a person dies, within the forty nine days, if somebody chant, if a monk or nun who do chanting, then rebirth can be born into a better place. So the question is , is it not fair, like cause and effect like somebody do bad and then they just pay the money and hire people to chant for forty nine days and then they are reborn into a better place. How to equate this fairness in terms of this reality, the truth?

Venerable:

You know, if they are really really bad even monks and nuns cannot help. Well look at it as a collective kamma. It is created with the help of monks and nuns – it is created, a better place for the deceased but as I mentioned even in the sutra, the Sitigavasutra, it is mentioned, when we do the chanting, the deceased, among the seven parts only receive one. So definitely it depends on your effort. The monks and nuns – it’s just effort. But it’s a collective effort. And you know what? It’s very important. Buddhism is talking about compassion, not the punishment.

Question 9

What I would like to know is: Was Buddha a vegetarian? And secondly: Are you a vegetarian? (Venerable responded with a positive Yes, that I can answer very quickly!) And Thirdly: Is it necessary to be a vegetarian to attain enlightenment?

Venerable:

Well I want to tell you , probably this is going to be a shock to you. The Buddha was not a vegetarian, this is shown in the Vinaya. Because at that time, the Vinaya – the Rules, it describe how the monks and nuns are living at that time. According to the Vinaya, the Buddha and the monks and nuns, they go out for alms. So basically they will eat whatever people give them to eat. However there was three kinds of meat monks and nuns should not eat. The first one is if the monks or nuns hear that this particular animal was killed or second, when the monk and nun see this particular animal was killed – one is hear, the other one is see it. The third one is they kill specifically to treat you. So under these three kinds of condition monks and nuns are prohibited to eat these kind of meat called three impure meat. But also monks and nuns are not supposed to eat certain kinds of meat, for example the animals in the forest, the tiger, bear, because the odor will attract that kind of animals to harm them, you know monks and nuns who meditate in the forest. And should not eat horse, because the horse is considered the right, the vehicle of the King. And should not eat elephant because that is also considered a holy animal. So there are more than ten kinds of animals listed in the Vinaya that monks and nuns should not eat. However, come to China, because in China can no longer depend on alms. If monks and nuns go out for alms people will think they are beggars and will never respect them and also from Emperor Wu, I think it’s around 4th to 5th Century he himself was also a very devoted Emperor, a Buddhist. So he also wrote an article, that prohibit from meat and wine. Of course to attain Enlightenment it is not necessary to be a vegetarian. Even being a Buddhist you don’t have to become a vegetarian from the very beginning. Only after you take the Bodhisattva precept because according to the Bodhisattva precept there is one condition : you should not eat the flesh of a sentient being. So if you will take the five precepts or you take the Three Refuge you don’t have to become a vegetarian. However I still think that in order to practice compassion it’s good not to take the life of a sentient being especially if you see the slaughter of an animal, if someone have the chance to visit those places to see how people prepare meat, you probably would not want to take their life, do not want to take their flesh. So I always used to tell the young , the youth group who want to do a barbecue. I tell them you can always do a vegetarian barbecue. I say why do you have to , for your own pleasure, your taste pleasure, by creating suffering on another sentient being. And also a lot of people think, oh you have become a vegetarian, nutrition not good enough. Not true. I’ve been a vegetarian for twenty four years. I never had any problem with nutrition. I’m small – that’s because before being a nun I was already small. Not because after I become a vegetarian. And also right now we have so much food, if you go to the market, it’s enough. So I myself would also advocate vegetarian but from the Vinaya yes you don’t have to be a vegetarian.

Question 10

Good evening everybody. In our present world everybody know that when we do something, like robbery or stealing, you will straight away go to jail. What of the kamma? Why do we have to wait for the next life - so nobody afraid of it.

Venerable:

I forgot to mention. Okay thank you for your question. When we talk about kamma, the ripening of the kamma, maybe there are three kinds. Just like a seed become sprout, or become ripen. Different kinds of plants blossom differently. There was a kind of plant, they call alfalfa, a sprout, in seven days they become sprout. And they also have a plant, every year four seasons, and some plants maybe many years then blossom one time. So our kamma just like those plants. So there are three kinds of ripening for the kamma. One is at the same time – this life. The second one is to ripen next time, next life. And the other third kind is to ripen many many life. So there are three kinds. So when we have done something wrong, something bad then we do not receive the retribution. It’s because the condition not there yet, not ripen. But remember, according to Buddhism, once there is a seed, once when the condition is there, it will always ripen. But however, then how come since we keep doing the bad kamma all the time, how can we get the chance to be liberated. How should we do with all the negative kamma. Sometimes negative kamma not necessarily disappear. However just like a cup of water, the salt water, very salty, but the salt will not disappear. So what are you going to do. This is salty water, how do you drink. What do you do? Dilute it. Put more water, put more water in order to drink. Sometimes there are bad seeds there. So you want to plant more good seeds so sometimes when there are times when there are bad kamma to ripen, but the effect will not devastate. So that is why it is important to keep doing the good kamma.
Especially after tonight’s lecture.

Question 11

My question is also pertaining to kamma also. Under certain circumstances if you deliberately choose not to act, even though you probably know by that inaction it will result in harm or negative effect on someone else. Will that be good or bad, negative or neutral kamma?

Venerable:

So you mean a kind of inactive harm. You know what - when Buddhism talk about kamma, very important is your motivation, not the action. It’s decided by the so called Volition. For example if you see a shadow and then you thought it’s a human being and then you just shot at that shadow but then you realized it’s just a shadow of a tree, of course legally you did not commit any murder. But according to Buddhism, because of your hatred, your volition, you create the negative kamma. Okay? And for example, when you are walking, there are a lot of insects there, you did step on those insects, but because you have no conscious intention to cause harm then you don’t create the bad kamma. So same like you say, inactive, in your mind you know, it’s going to harm. For example you know you need to save them but you don’t want to do. You can hire, maybe you can cheat other people but you can never cheat yourself. And that’s kamma.