Today we will discuss another section. The original text is:
“Elder Sariputra, Mahamaudgalyayana, Mahakasyapa, Mahakatyayana, Mahakauṣṭhila, Revata, Suddhipanthaka, Nanda, Ananda, Rahula, Gavampati, Pindola Bharadvaja, Kalodayin, Mahakapphiṇa, Bakkula, Aniruddha, and others such as these Great disciples.”
There are sixteen Great disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha mentioned here. At that time, Shakyamuni Buddha was speaking the Amitabha Sutra to Sariputra, and Sariputra was the first among these sixteen disciples.
Why is his name Sariputra?
In India, there is a myna bird called Sari. Sariputra’s mother had eyes like those of this bird, she could see birds flying far away in the sky and fish swimming in the water. Sariputra’s mother was a very wise woman with great vision. When Sariputra was born, his name was equivalent to meaning Son of Sari, hence the name Sariputra.
I have talked about Sariputra’s story before. Sariputra was foremost in wisdom. His wisdom was the highest, most perfect, and most complete.
When Shakyamuni Buddha was about to pass away, Sariputra knew beforehand. He announced to all his fellow disciples that he was going to be the one to pave the way, preparing to go there first to welcome the Buddha. Thus he would leave first.
Sariputra returned to his dwelling, prepared a clean room, bathed, dressed, and meditated, passing away before Shakyamuni Buddha.
I’ve said before that this kind of death is “self-determination of life and death.”
I hope to achieve this myself in the future, and I hope everyone will cultivate themselves to the point of self-determination of life and death. Imagine a deity from heaven coming right in front of you one day and saying, “On the day 28th of June (tomorrow), prepare yourself.”
He tells you it will be exactly noon on the 28th of June. He tells you to be ready, as a Mercedes will come to pick you up.
If you all hear this news, you should be overjoyed, not sad and weep. This is quite a good way to die.
A heavenly deity informs you, he first sends you a telegram or makes a phone call, telling you when you should leave, and you should no longer linger in this world, no longer be attached to its pleasures! You should let go of all that!
If you were to kneel down and beg, “Let me live a few more years,” that would be too cowardly!
This is also a high-level way to die—a deity informs you when you should leave, you prepare yourself, and then you breathe your last, very good. However, this is still someone else informing you of when you must go. That means it is still one level short.
I know of a method that is the first level of death. This first level of death involves, when doing meditation oneself, first restricting the movement of all your flesh and bones, immobilizing them completely, binding them.
Then, using your own strength, you stop all blood circulation, halting the movement of blood in your veins, stopping all completely.
Next, you extinguish the “furnace” within your body, the source of heat.
Then, you close all your “windows,” stop your breathing, and let your remaining primal spirit, your sole remaining life force, fly out from the crown of your head.
This way, you can no longer drink alcohol, or do anything, or know anything anymore. This way you are finished!
Let me tell everyone, the process of death I just described is transcendence practice. The question is whether you can control your bones, flesh, furnace, blood, and breath—whether you can truly master them and allow your spirit to transcend.
If you can do this, completely controlling these elements of your body with your will, making them open doors and close doors, this is self-determination of life and death, the first level of death. Waiting for someone to inform you, being told by someone else, is the second level of death.
The third level of death is when the people of the netherworld come to take you away—your past relatives. They hold a celebration party, a happy birthday celebration, because you have just been born into their realm, so they say, “Happy birthday.”
However, when you see your relatives coming to take you, it’s definitely not rebirth in heaven, but rebirth in the netherworld.
The worst level of death is when those… come to seize you, you are taken away forcefully, not welcomed, not even with songs!
That’s going to hell.
Therefore! I hope our disciples all experience the first and second levels of death.
There is another type of death that is an elimination of karmic obstacles.
If you still have a lot of karmic debt to repay, you will suffer greatly in this world before dying. You will be sick, and this illness can last for two, three, four, five years, or even ten or twenty years.
Actually, when we see people die from illness, they are eliminating karmic obstacles because they have many karmic debts to repay. They suffer greatly, but this suffering helps to eliminate karmic debts and alleviate the karmic burden. This kind of death is a form of death that involves the elimination of karmic obstacles.
This kind of death is not very good. We hope to practice Dharma earlier to eliminate karmic obstacles so that we don’t have to suffer this kind of painful death. Ideally, a deity will appear and announce the time when they will come to take you away, that would be the best.
Therefore, practicing Dharma is extremely important. Practicing Dharma is equivalent to cultivating the mind.
Cultivating the mind means making the mind pure and eliminating all karmic obstacles.
Cultivating the mind means purifying our thoughts and making our hearts bright.
So we must constantly sweep the floor, constantly sweeping away the dust from our bodies. Once we have swept it clean, we will not have to suffer from this kind of karmic illness! At the very least the deities inform us, but if we can know our own death timing, that is the best.
Om mani padme hum