Covid-19 has brought home to everyone our unavoidable vulnerability and mortality. This is a central theme of Buddhist teachings, which we mark on Parinirvana Day, which commemorates the Buddha’s passing away
In a mid-winter chill we wake each day to frost or snow, and even as we hope for the pandemic’s end, we sadly count fresh infections and deaths. Many of us know someone who’s died from the virus or is struggling with its effects, and for the whole world, Covid-19 has been a reminder of our vulnerability and mortality.
These are the themes of the Buddhist Parinirvana Festival which falls this week, marking the Buddha’s final passing. He gained Enlightenment, spent 45 years teaching, and the Buddhist scriptures tell us that, even at 80, he still lived as a homeless wanderer, staying where he could find shelter and eating what he was given. Arriving at a village called Kusinara, now in Uttar Pradesh, he ate contaminated food, had a gastric reaction and passed away, surrounded by monks and villagers.
In the scriptural account, the Buddha isn’t a radiant, archetypal figure. Bent and wrinkled, he told his companion, Ananda: ‘My body’s like an old cart, just held together by a few old ropes.’ Ananda filled with sadness that his friend and teacher was passing away, but the Buddha reminded him: ‘I’ve often told you that we must be separated from all we hold dear. How could it be otherwise? Everything that comes into being must pass away.’ He’s depicted at this point in his life lying on his side and deeply at peace, embodying the possibility that we can face our mortality without fear.
That reflection on impermanence is the heart of Buddhism, and seems more relevant than ever. Parinirvana Day invites us to reflect on the people we know who’ve died; the shortness of our lives; and how death connects us all. The way to prepare for death, Buddhism suggests, is to live well, have a clear conscience and recollect our mortality. That’s realistic, not morbid, but it’s also hard; and in my experience it needs all the kindness we can muster, starting with ourselves.
There’s something else as well. Parinirvana doesn’t mean ‘death’, it means ‘complete or final Awakening’, and Buddhists don’t say that the Buddha died. We also don’t say that he became eternal, just that he’s mysterious; and a similar mystery surrounds death for all of us, as people down the millennia have always felt.
The Buddha’s last words were simple and direct. You can express them in English as: ‘All conditioned things are subject to decay. Be vigilant and find completion.’
