....Intermediate Existence.... The time between Death and Rebirth Good afternoon everyone. Its good to see such a “well worn” group of happy faces here today. Today we are going to talk about what Buddhism defines as Intermediate Existence. The interval of time between death and rebirth. Oh, its nothing to be concerned about. Im not the grim-reaper or anything like that, so I dont want anyone passing out or having a heart attack, not today, during my presentation, anyway. Its a known fact that the best part about life is living it. Who would want to die before they have ever really lived. That would be sad indeed. Right? Well, to get started we need to mention something about birth, old age, sickness, and death. Then, well need to fit intermediate existence into the equation. The Buddha once asked the question, “What is the cause of aging and death? and answered it matter of factually Birth is the cause of aging and death.” Nice answer.... We sometimes speak of life lasting eternally which is hard to fathom for some people. There is an analogy that shows how our lifetimes are connected to one another in the same way as one day is connected to another. For Example: One rises in the morning and prepares for the days work. Through the work, he gains some results and becomes tired in the evening. At night, he feels sleepy and goes to bed. When one is sound asleep, he is unconscious and senseless. If he continues sleeping next morning, he appears to be dead. ....Rising in the morning , he will not realize how many hours he has slept, unless he sees a clock. Before knowing the time, he feels that he has slept for a long time and at the same time feels as if the night was but a moment. Whichever it is, he begins his activities in the morning. His life is the extension of the previous day. This should be expanded to the scale of a lifetime. One is born, reaches maturity, enters the prime of life, then becomes old, and dies. From one point of view, each day is new, but from another, today is an extension of yesterday --- tomorrow, that of today. A mans lifetime is the repetition of such a day. Likewise, he repeats birth and death eternally. The present existence of life is separated from the next existence by death, just as today is distinguished from tomorrow by sleep. As far as a persons body is concerned, it undergoes perpetual change --- what biology defines as metabolism. During a seven-year period the human body changes entirely --- from the eye-balls to the marrow of our bones. This is an important point because it shows that even during our lifetime we are completely renewed every seven years, but still possess our same characteristics or causes and conditions. In our intermediate existence phase, that is, the time between death and rebirth, our causes and conditions are stored in what the Kusha Ron Sutra calls our karma seeds which are stored in our alaya-consciousness, the eighth of the nine consciousnesss. The alaya-consciousness is regarded as that which undergoes the cycle of rebirth. Well talk more about this in a minute. President Ikeda says that it is his firm belief that facing the issue of death can help bring real stability, peace and depth to our lives. He also says Buddhism views the idea that our lives end with death as a serious delusion. Buddhism sees everything in the universe, everything that happens, as part of a vast living web of interconnection. ....The vibrant energy we call life which flows throughout the universe has no beginning and no end. Life is a continuous, dynamic process of change. Why then should human life be the one exception? Why should our existence be an arbitrary, one-shot deal, disconnected from the universal rhythms of life? That being said, we should now mention the Five Components which unite temporarily to form an individual living being. When life is approaching the state of biological death or cell death the psychosomatic energy hitherto manifest in the five components shifts towards latency, moving from the domain of the sixth consciousness and the mano-consciousness toward the realm of the alaya-consciousness. The alaya – or storehouse – consciousness, also called the karma repository, lies beneath the level of conscious awareness and stores the impressions of all mental, verbal and physical actions as latent causes having the potential to manifest corresponding effects in the future. Again, the alaya-consciousness is regarded as that which undergoes the cycle of rebirth. Is everyone still with me? Check your neighbor. Lets make sure. Okay.... We are now ready to enter Intermediate existence. This should be fun, not boring. So please, stay awake! Intermediate existence is one of four repeated phases in the cycle of rebirth: (consisting of) birth, continued existence (up to the moment of death), death itself, and intermediate existence (between death and rebirth). While in the intermediate existence phase the circumstances into which we will be reborn are already determined by our deeds in our former lives. For example, if while alive one has created the karma to be reborn a human being, that intermediate existence will find rebirth only in the human world, and not in hell or any other realm. After death, no power can alter its karmic destiny. The exception is the power of prayers offered for the deceased, which will be discussed later.... The Gosho titled “Juo Santan Sho” (In praise of the Ten Kings), an early writing of Nichiren Daishonin, describes the journey through intermediate existence with reference to ten kings of the other world, who were said to pass judgment on the dead. The description begins with the scene of a deceased person walking alone through a vast and dark plain. This is called the journey through intermediate existence. Lets take that journey with them.... - - - - - - - If the deceased tries to proceed along the road, he can find no provisions to take with him; if he attempts to stop midway, he can find no place to remain. Though he may wish to go forward, no supplies are to be had; though he may wish to halt, there is no place to stay. Moreover, the darkness is said to be like the dead of night. ....He sees only the light of the stars, and because his journey lies in darkness, before and behind, to the right and the left, all is obscured. Not a single person can bear him company, and there is no one to inquire after his welfare. When we imagine how it is for him at that time, we feel sad and forlorn. Though he sees his beloved wife and children in the saha world, there is no road by which to return, and he moves farther and farther away from them. Because he does not know where he is bound, there is no path that he can discern. Whatever he may do, his only company is his own tears of grief. - - - - - - - Trudging alone over a vast plain, the dead person gradually approaches the mountains of death. They are described as high and treacherous, with crags as sharp as swords. ....Nichiren refers to these mountains in a letter to Lord Yagenta, which states, “Nam-myoho-renge-kyo will be your unbreakable staff to take you safely over the mountains of death” (MW-1, 124). Having crossed these steep mountains, on the seventh day following his death, the dead person is said to reach the dwelling of the first of the ten kings, who is called King Shinko. Although he undergoes judgment at the court of this king, the relative weight of his good and evil deeds is not yet determined, and before the place of his next rebirth is decided, - that is, into which of the six paths he will be reborn – he is sent on to the second of the ten kings, King Shoko. En route, he arrives at the famous “river of three crossings.” Concerning the reason for this name, the “Juo Santan Sho” reads: “On the road to see this king, the deceased arrives at a great river, called the river of three crossings. It is also called the river of hell. This river can be traversed at three places; therefore it is called the river of three crossings.” upper/shallow lower/swift-fierce waves middle/bridge Our good or bad deeds will determine where we cross. On the far bank of the river stands a large tree, in whose shade waits a pair of demons, male and female. They strip the dead of their clothing, down to the last robe, and hang it from the branches of the tree. The branches are said to bend down according to the weight of the offenses that the deceased have committed. In this connection, Nichiren Daishonin writes in the “Letter to Jakunichi-bo”: “Advance on the Lotus Sutra’s path to enlightenment, bearing in mind the time when devils, demons and the guards of hell will strip you of your clothing on the bank of the river of three crossings. The Lotus Sutra is the robe which will keep you from disgrace after this life”(MW-1, 237). Having traversed the river of three crossings, the dead person is said to present himself at the court of King Shoko on the fourteenth day following his death. Here, too, an inquiry is conducted into the good and evil deeds he performed while he was alive, but before a verdict is reached, he is sent on to the next king. In this manner, he is said to go in turn to the ten kings. So every seventh day, up to the 49thday, the common mortal could be sent to one king after another receiving some form of judgment, both good and bad, depending on their karmic seeds. The term of Intermediate Existence could last up to two years, but in very rare cases only. The most important day by far is the 35thday when memorial prayers for the deceased are most important. Heres a quick recap, the ten kings are said to judge the good and evil deeds of the deceased from the seventh day following his death and in some cases ....could last until its second anniversary. They perform the role of deciding the circumstances of his rebirth, in accordance with his past good and evil deeds. The ten kings are all really Buddhas and bodhisattvas. However, in order to awaken the deceased to the wrong he committed while alive and enable him to repent of it, they conceal their great compassion and outwardly manifest a fierce and wrathful aspect. On the thirty-fifth day following his death, the deceased person arrives at the palace of King Emma. King Emma is said to silence the dead person’s objections about unfair treatment. The meaning of King Emmas name is (stilling protest). King Emma’s palace is said to have four gates, to the north, south, east and west. To the right and left of each gate is a pole, as though for a banner, on top of which perches a god with the form of a human head. These gods are sometimes called the “heavenly messengers,” and are generally equated with Dosho (“same birth”) and Domyo (“same name”), gods said to accompany a person from the time of his birth and keep track of his good and evil deeds. When King Emma pronounces judgment, he informs the deceased: “these heavenly messengers were born at the same time as yourself, and since then they have accompanied you as a shadow follows the body, never separating themselves from your person even for a single moment. ....Since they have noted down all your deeds on their tablets, there cannot be even a hair’s breadth of error.” Moreover, in King Emma’s court, there is a separate hall, called the Hall of Light-Brilliance. ....In this hall hangs the “johari mirror,” also known as the mirror of karma. When the deceased arrives at Emma’s court, the king relentlessly interrogates him. He points out that while in the saha world, the deceased behaved with licentiousness and cruelty, lacking compassion. Emma continues grilling the deceased demanding to know if the wealth he hoarded so greedily helped to provide for him on the journey of death? ....And, will the children he loved so fondly while alive change places with him in his present state? And he continues to grill the deceased in this fashion. Then King Emma reads to the deceased the content of the iron tablets on which the heavenly messengers have recorded his deeds. On hearing it, the deceased protests that, while he may recall a few of the wrongs that have just been read to him, the rest are surely an error on the part of the heavenly messengers. On hearing this King Emma questions with raised eyebrow, “Even here in the afterworld, ....will you still compound your offenses by telling lies?” “We have added not a single sin to your record. You are simply receiving the effect of your own actions.” In this way, he reproaches the deceased person. Moreover, in order to show the person that the record kept by the heavenly messengers contains no error, he has that person look into the johari mirror, where all the actions of his lifetime are reflected. In modern terms, it might be something like watching a video replay or maybe a near death experience where someone sees their life flashing before them. At this, the deceased person ceases to expostulate with King Emma. All he hopes for then, it is said, is the prayers of his surviving wife, children and retainers for his enlightenment. The “Juo Santan Sho” states: - - - - - - - In the end, what determines whether the deceased person shall rise or fall is whether or not prayers are offered for his sake. Contemplating these principles urges one to deepen faith himself and to offer prayers for his six kinds of relatives. Of particular importance are memorial prayers offered ON THE THIRTY-FIFTH DAY, when the deceased undergoes great suffering at the court of King Emma. If one performs the virtue [of offering memorial prayers] at this juncture, then when everything is reflected in the mirror, King Emma and all his officials will rejoice. ....And the joy of the offender, on receiving these prayers, Will Know No Bounds. - - - - - - - That is to say, even if the deceased should otherwise be destined to fall into hell, if memorial prayers are offered for his sake, then, according to the amount and depth of the benefit accruing from those prayers, ....he may either attain Buddhahood at once, ....be reborn in the human or heavenly realms, ....or be sent on to the next king with his sentence deferred. As is shown symbolically in the “Juo Santan Sho” by the images of King Emma and his court, the circumstances of the deceased person’s rebirth are determined solely by the good and evil actions he himself performed while alive. That is to say, the deceased person in effect chooses for himself a rebirth corresponding to the karmic seeds in his alaya-consciousness, in accordance with the law of karmic causality, the principle that one reaps the rewards of his own actions.... The symbolic role of the ten kings is to judge whether the deceased person has genuinely acknowledged his misdeeds, ....and whether or not the law of karmic causality is being correctly carried out. In other words, the judgment of the ten kings described in the “Juo Santan Sho” and other texts appears to be an image ....received by a life in the intermediate-existence phase, ....symbolizing the strictness of the causal law which can admit of no exception. The implements which King Emma uses in passing sentence are the iron tablets on which the heavenly messengers record the deceaseds good and evil deeds, and the johari mirror, ....also called the mirror of karma. The heavenly messengers symbolize the function by which all one’s thoughts, words and deeds are without exception registered in the alaya-consciousness. ....The johari mirror may be said to be an accurate reflection of the karma stored in the alaya-consciousness. The great compassion of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is again shown by the transfer of blessings from the living – that is, their prayers for the deceased – that are the sole power that can affect a change in the dead persons karma and even alter his destined circumstances of rebirth. In other words, the supreme good fortune inherent in the state of Buddhahood, offered by the living through their prayers, penetrates the deceased persons alaya-consciousness, and effects a change in that life at a very fundamental level. For example, even though a life may be undergoing the sufferings of the three evil paths in the intermediate-existence phase, ....if the great good fortune of the state of Buddhahood is sent to that life by the living, ....its suffering will at once change to pleasure, and it can embark upon a happier rebirth based on a life-condition filled with good fortune. Here our discussion of intermediate existence ends. But first, ....some good news.... There is one additional passage of importance from the “Juo Santan Sho,” concerning those who, after death, do not pass through the intermediate-existence phase. The passage states, “Apart from these, those who have performed either ultimate evil or ultimate good do not experience intermediate existence. Those who have performed supreme good immediately attain Buddhahood, while those who have committed supreme evil fall at once into the evil paths. ....Thus in cases of extreme good or evil, there is no intermediate existence.” Those who have performed the supreme good – that is, who, while alive, have chanted the daimoku and established the life-state of Buddhahood – having passed through the moment of death, are at once welcomed by Buddhas, bodhisattvas and benevolent deities, and can go immediately to the Pure Land of Eagle Peak. In a number of his writings, the Daishonin describes the “interior landscape” after death of one who, while alive, continually brought forth the state of Buddhahood by faith in the Mystic Law. For example, in the “Heritage of the Ultimate Law of Life” it reads: For one who summons up his faith and chants Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with the profound insight that now is the last moment of his life, the sutra proclaims, “After his death, a thousand Buddhas will extend their hands to free him from all fear and keep him from falling into the evil paths.” ....How can we possibly hold back our tears at the inexpressible joy of knowing that not just one or two, ....nor only one or two hundred, but as many as a thousand Buddhas will come to greet us with open arms!” Then in “The Fourteen Slanders” he says: “Continue your practice without wavering up until the final moment of your life, and when that time comes, look carefully! When you climb the mountain of wondrous enlightenment and gaze around you in all directions, then to your amazement you will see that the entire universe is the Land of Tranquil Light. The ground will be of lapis lazuli, and the eight paths will be set apart by golden ropes. Four kinds of flowers will fall from the heavens, and music will resound in the air. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas will be present in complete joy, caressed by the breezes of eternity, happiness, true self and purity. The time is fast approaching when we too will count ourselves among their number. But if we are weak in faith, we will never reach that wonderful place.” unquote.... ....Oh, that sounds so good. Hey, is everyone still with us? Check your neighbors. Just make sure they are still sleeping! Tickle them with a feather or something. Okay.... So we are done with intermediate existence for now. It seems that it can last for as little as a brief moment or in rare cases up to two years, with the 35thday being so important. Now lets talk about our own life. The one we are living today. How long does that last? ....Much longer than intermediate existence, thats for sure. All members of this Golden Stage Group are at least 60yrs old. Sixty years and counting. Congrats! Death! Phooey! What matters most is how you lived your life. What matters is our life condition when were alive. And at the time of our death, that we are happy. Whats tragic is people who die before they have ever lived. In other words, the spiritually dead. President Ikeda says, Quote....“An awareness of death enables us to live each day – each moment – filled with appreciation for the unique opportunity we have to create something of our time on Earth. ....I believe that in order to enjoy true happiness, we should live each moment as if it were our last. Today will never return. We may speak of the past or of the future, but the only reality we have is that of this present instant. And confronting the reality of death actually enables us to bring unlimited creativity, courage and joy into each instant of our lives.” Unquote The Daishonin says, “One day of life is worth more than all the treasures in the universe.” This clearly shows us how fortunate we are to be alive, ....still possessed with the capability to alter our causes and conditions. In conclusion, “Therell be two dates on our tombstone and all our friends will read em. But all thats gonna matter is that little DASH - between em. Thank you for “still” being here today..... and .... Always-be-Happy.... Thanks again.... take care .... and stay healthy ....we still got lots of living to do....
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 02:15:42 +0000
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