Preparing for Death Reduces Our Fears
Understanding death and preparing for it will be helpful when you know that the day of your death is near. With proper preparation, you will be ready for the next life without being frightened or remorseful about leaving this world.
If we understand death beforehand, we can be well prepared, like a soldier who is trained in advance to be ready for the battlefield. However, most worldly people make no preparation for death and the next life. The moment they know they are about to die, their mind becomes filled with terrible fear.
A while ago in China, a 96-old man was told by his doctor that his life was likely to end soon. He was so outraged that he whacked the doctor. He said, “Don’t say such inauspicious things to me!” In fact, from the Buddhist point of view, everyone is bound to die. Yet death is not an end; instead it is the beginning of the next life. That’s what we believe. So we discuss death and happiness in Buddhism. That’s what people should really care about. We are not saying that death brings unhappiness or happiness. That is not the issue.
