How timely! Death and Dying from a Buddhist Perspective
http://www.times-standard.com/boomers/ci_26453301/death-and-dying-from-buddhist-perspective
What are the Four Noble Truths? What is the Eightfold Path? How can each of these sets of ideas help you even if you are not Buddhist?
Here are some other resources:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/ataglance/glance.shtml
Video of the monk Thich Naht Hahn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ9UtuWfs3U
Video of His Holiness (the monk) Dalai Lama
http://www.upworthy.com/the-dalai-lama-has-some-very-uplifting-and-wise-words-about-farting
I believe that this article does a great job in acknowledging the problems concerning death in the western culture. We don't want to talk about it or even think about it. The term "good death" makes the average person cringe when it should be something truly good and beautiful as they transition from earth. The statistic of 70% wanting to die at home while over 70% die in the hospital is a sad and ironic consequence of us not doing anything about this topic. These are the consequences when you simply ignore problems. To fix this problem we must educate ourselves and I think different cultural perspectives are essential, because lets face it our culture is lacking on the idea of philosophy of death. Also, we are so globally connected that we can choose to be eclectic. We can takes bits and pieces of what we like from each culture and form our own opinion about death that best fits us individually. This will increase awareness on death and help us avoid being another sad statistic.
ReplyDeleteBrent, I think you bring up an excellent point regarding the statistic about people wanting to die at home and ending up in the hospital. I agree with you that fear is the number one reason that death occurs in this fashion. I think a general lack of knowledge about hospice and other end of life options are the driving force behind so many people ending up in situations wheres its not a "good death" situation for anyone involved.
ReplyDeleteI thought this article was really interesting and brings up a lot of good points. Death is a huge part of life since everyone dies and being able to better accept and cope with the death of those close to you, as well as prepare yourself and your family for your own death (with end of life decisions etc.) is an excellent thing that needs to be talked about, as much as our culture tries to avoid it. It seems like talking about death more and being more open to such a discussion would definitely help alleviate the fear and anxiety commonly felt towards death.
ReplyDeleteIn respect to some of the Buddhist ideas discussed in class and in the text, I feel like they can be very beneficial to all people, of any religion or even those without religion. The Eightfold Path seems like a particularly universal code for living your life that could make our world a much better place if everyone lived by those ideals. I think the most important are the three under the concept of Ethical Conduct (Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood). These sound so intuitive but are something that I feel I could definitely try to work on and pay a bit more attention to when I am about to say or do something.
All in all, I really liked learning about Buddhism because we really never touched on it in high school and it seems to have a lot of good concepts and ideas that I like and that I really want to give some more thought to.
This video does a great job of addressing the elephant in the room that everyone wants to avoid-death. There is a sense of fear that talking about and planning for death necessarily means we are owning death prematurely in our lives. However, I like how this article points out that cross-culturally, there is a sense of relief and completion when one lines out how they want to spend the end of their life and how they wish to be treated when incapacitated and also after they pass away. We do not leave an enormous burden on our loved ones to make decisions in our place if we already have the decision in place. It was most interesting for me to see this struggle transcends beyond my small corner of the world to impact other peoples that are a lot like me when I read about them.
ReplyDeleteThis video does a great job of addressing the elephant in the room that everyone wants to avoid-death. There is a sense of fear that talking about and planning for death necessarily means we are owning death prematurely in our lives. However, I like how this article points out that cross-culturally, there is a sense of relief and completion when one lines out how they want to spend the end of their life and how they wish to be treated when incapacitated and also after they pass away. We do not leave an enormous burden on our loved ones to make decisions in our place if we already have the decision in place. It was most interesting for me to see this struggle transcends beyond my small corner of the world to impact other peoples that are a lot like me when I read about them.
ReplyDeleteThe four noble truths show the problem with life in the physical world and give a diagnoses for treatment of the problem. The prescription for the problem, then, is the 8-fold path. This helps in the context of the article in that death is often welcomed and feared simultaneously. I do not mean that death is celebrated when it happens to a loved one. What I am saying is that for those situations where the suffering in the physical body is great, death can be seen as an escape from turmoil. The eight-fold path sheds light on this. Even if you are not a Buddhist, the 8-fold path illuminates the idea that death, when properly prepared for, can be painful, yet smooth process if the right attitude and actions are taken to prepare for it.