Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambudhasa
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambudhasa
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambudhasa
Sabbhe Sankhara Anijja Sabbhe Sankhara Dukkha Sabbhe Dharma Dukkha Anantati
In Buddhism when one mentions ‘going to a funeral' it means that he is joining many other friends and relatives to pay their last respect to the one who has passed away. There are four stages in our life – to be born, to get old, to get sick and to pass away, which is the final stage in our life.
When someone is born in this world, every kind of Rupa Nama whether it has a soul (Vinyana) or no soul like trees and so on would suffer the same fate. The question is ‘WHEN' – Only time will tell.
Our life is like a fruit, once a fruit tree has fruits, whether small or large, when the time comes, they will be ripe. Then they will be picked, eaten by birds and insects and finally would fell off the tree as per their natural state- code of karma.
There exists two karma – Light karma and Heavy karma. Heavy Karma generally goes first and then followed by the Light ones. For example, when throwing a stick onto a fruit tree, let assume that we hit both some fruits and some leaves. Those leaves and fruits would fall to the ground. Which one would reach the ground first? Fruit or Leave? It has to be the fruits as they are heavier and as for the leaves some of them might get stuck within some branches as they are lighter.
Rupa Khandho, Vedana Khandho, Sanyana Khandho, Sankhara Khandho, Vinyana Khandho are all alike, but Rupa khandho will follow soon because Vinyana Khandho would go first. Then Vedana Khandho, Sanyana Khandho and Sankhara Khandho would follow.
There will be nothing left behind whatsoever as they have come to this world together and when one of them goes the remains Khandho would follow. This is similar to a group of people boarding a plane and when the plane crashes, all of us are if the same situation.
In a life of a human being, the word ‘going to a funeral' means that we come to pay our last respect to the deceased one. Respect, in our life, there are three types of respect.
A Buddhist funeral means quite a lot. We come to a cemetery or crematorium to send the deceased's soul away as the soul has been in the world for a long time and it might get lost somewhere and might not be abde to get back to where at originally came from. When a soul leaves a body, only a corpse remains. This means we accompany a corpse to its final destination.
This is like in a Pali saying mentioned earlier ‘Sabbe Sankhara Anijja' which means all the Sankhara are suffering and impermanent because all Sankhara have been created and all would disintegrate.
This is similar to a cook who fills a cooking pot with what he has cooked. At the end he removes all the food from the pot and leaves the pot empty . This applies to our life – when a life (soul) is taken away there will be nothing left in the body. This is like a Pali saying ‘Sabbe Sankhara Dukkha' which means all Sankhara are suffering because they have been born and once born they endure all Dukkha (sufferings). They suffer because they have to make a living. They suffer they have to acquire food for consumption. They suffer because they have to acquire wealth to maintain their Sankhara.
Lord Buddha has taught all his disciples that they must not cling to the Sankhara as they are impermanent. All Sanchara evolve within their code of karma.
If anyone cling to these Sankhara, they will suffer as one day will see that they will have grey hair, they will lose their hearing, they will lose their eyesight.
All elements in our Sankhara is impermanent because they have been born and once born they endure Dukkha - Suffer because of pain, Suffer because of getting old, Suffer because of dying. All of these have been created by the Sankhara and that is why they all endure suffering. This is also like a Pali saying ‘Sabbe Dharma Annatta' which means all Dharma are Anatta – it has no body – it cannot be seen by a human eyes, but it can be seen by an eye of an Arhant. This is like a Pali saying ‘Cakksu Samphatso Ahitdho' which means when the eyes can see, feel; it happens and knows because of the Cakksu Jhana.
When this is so, all of us who are together at a funeral, including close relatives of the deceased, should not be too sorrowful, as on the one hand, this may cause personal injuries or sickness, and on the other hand, it might delay the departure of the deceased's soul. I pray for all of you to commit yourself to do good karma as much as you possibly can. When we are still alive it looks as if we are similar to a herd of cows in a farm, it is not known when they will be taken to an abattoir for slaughtering for meat. Therefore, when we are sill alive we should accumulate all the merits as we possibly can as per our Sankhara. This is like a Pali saying ‘Punyancekalya Puriso Pinabphunang Tanhang Bhavori' which means we must observe the Dharma Precepts, and accumulate as much as merits as we possable can for use in future till we depart this world one day.
In conclusion, I would like to pray on the power of the Phra Sri Rattanatraya to be with us in this life and the life beyond and I pray for the happiness of all Buddhamamaka to be happy, healthy and prosperity Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu Sukkhi Attanang Pariharantu Sukkhi Sukkhi.
Whatever merits I have gained from writing this book, I would like to dedicate to the flourishing existence of Buddhism in this wgrld so that all beings can find ways of liberating themselves from all Dukkha. Sadhu Sadhu Sadhu Anumodhami.