The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.
12 November 2023
Question: At the moment before our last breath, is it important that we think of good deeds and about the Buddha because it will lead the soul to good realms?
Than Ajahn: This is a misunderstanding to think that you can direct your mind to think about anything you want because if right now you cannot direct your mind to think, how can you do that at the time of death? If you want to be able to direct your mind at the time of death, you must be able to direct your mind right now. Because death always comes now, not tomorrow or yesterday. Things always happen now. There is no tomorrow. There is no yesterday. So, if you want to be able to control your mind at the moment of death, then you have to be able to control your mind now.
- - - - - - -
Question: Is it true that when a person died, for the first 8 hours the family members cannot touch and move the deceased’s body because it is said that the consciousness is still in the body and if we touch it, it will be a hindrance for the soul to go to good realm?
Than Ajahn: Well, in the old-time, sometimes people could not decide whether death actually had happened. Sometimes, before the person died, he entered into unconsciousness first. So, if they go touch the body, they might bring the person back. This is what people do today, they do resuscitation. When somebody’s heart stops breathing, people think that maybe the person hasn’t died yet, so they will try to resuscitate him.
So, this (not touching the body) is the understanding from the ancient time. In the ancient time, people did not know how to handle it when a person entered into unconsciousness, so they’d say that the best thing was to leave that person’s body alone.
Maybe that person might return or he might pass away, and they did not want to disturb the process.
But nowadays, in the modern time, people tend to want to resuscitate him/her when somebody stops breathing. They’d start to resuscitate the person until they know that they could no longer bring the person back.
When Ajahn Mahā Boowa was still living, he said that should he become unconscious, no one should come and touch his body, and no one should whisper into his ears what to do. He said that he would be disturbed if someone did that. Because that’s the moment when he needed to be undisturbed, so that he could either leave the body or bring the body back.
There were still these two possibilities.
Sometimes, the body might stop functioning for a while. But if the mind is still stable and is still alert, maybe the body would come back. If the body can no longer resuscitate itself, then the mind would leave the body peacefully. So, if somebody came and disturbed this process, then it would disturb him directing his mind to be calm and peaceful.
So, he said that if he became unconscious, just leave him alone. Don’t touch his body. Don’t teach him or tell him what to do. Some people might want to whisper, ‘recite Buddho, Buddho, Buddho’ or chant.’ He said that there’s no need to tell him that. He’s looking after his mind at the last moment of his life so there’s no need to touch him or to help him or to do anything.
“Dhamma in English, Feb 25, 2019.”
By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
Latest Dhamma talks on Youtube:
No comments:
Post a Comment