Ikeda: Confronting death enables us to see clearly what is most important. I heard the following account of a mother in the United States. She had suffered a cerebral apoplexy and spent several weeks in a coma. Just before dying, she suddenly opened her eyes and, smiling, reached out to something that was invisible to everyone else. With her gaze downward, she made a gesture with her arms as though cradling a baby. Her face at that moment shone with genuine joy and happiness. She then passed away. As a matter of fact, it turned out that her first child had died shortly after birth. She later gave birth to five children and raised them all into fine adults. Apparently she had never told them about the baby she had lost when she was quite young. Upon learning this, her surviving children were all convinced that at the moment of death, their mother had met that child and had died with that child in her arms.
Suda: That's very moving.
Ikeda: People who have had near-death experiences often report seeing their entire life flash before them in a succession of panoramic scenes. In terms of Buddhist doctrine, we could say that this is equivalent to all of one's karma (consisting of one's thoughts, words and deeds) that has been etched into the alaya consciousness - the eighth of the nine consciousnesses, which is likened to a storehouse - appearing before one's eyes in an instant. At any rate, the moment of death is a 'final settlement of accounts' for one's life.
Saito: I think there is deep significance in the Daishonin's conclusion that one should 'first learn about death, and then learn about other matters' (Gosho Zenshu, p. 1404).
Ikeda: Shakyamuni lost his mother shortly after he was born, and consequently turned his thoughts to death at a very early age. The Daishonin, too, thought about death from the time he was a child. He writes: From childhood, I, Nichiren, studied Buddhism with one thought in mind. Life as a human being is pathetically fleeting. An outgoing breath does not wait for an incoming one. Not even dewdrops on the verge of being blown oft by the wind suffice to describe this transience. No one, wise or foolish, young or old, can escape death. Therefore I thought that I should first learn about death, and then learn about other matters (Gosho Zenshu, p. 1404).
[2:22 PM, 6/30/2018] Kwee! Chang: The instant just before we die could perhaps be compared to the summit of a mountain. Having completed our climb of the mountain of life, it is from that vantage point that we can look back and for the first time take in our whole life. We can survey our accomplishments, what we are leaving behind, how much good or harm we caused, and whether we were kind to others or hurt them. And we can assess which of these was greaten We may also ask ourselves to what we attached the most importance in our life. Our mind is bombarded with such questions at that crucial moment. This is probably one aspect of the end of our lives.
Endo: While someone who is on the brink of death may be lying down serenely, a tumultuous drama may be unfolding in their heart. The only reason it does not appear externally is that they lack the physical vigour to express it.
Ikeda: Though there are of course instances where people die peacefully, one prisoner reports having had quite a different experience. Because he wanted to get transferred to the hospital ward within the prison, he swallowed a large amount of soap in order to make himself sick. His plan was successful, but he became a lot sicker than he would have liked. Writhing in excruciating pain, he saw his entire life spread out before his eyes in successive images. He said he relived in minute detail his long criminal career, and felt every pang of suffering he had inflicted upon others.
[2:25 PM, 6/30/2018] Kwee! Chang: Endo: It sounds like a frightening experience. This illustrates the strict principle of cause and effect.
Ikeda: People's opinions will vary as to how such experiences should be interpreted, but I believe that if we set aside all our preconceived ideas regarding life and death, and then closely examine the actual near-death experiences of people through surveys and research, we will learn that there are essential elements that simply cannot be explained by the current view that life ends with death. But research in this area has only just begun.
Near-death experiences have a universal content
Saito: Yes. Dating from ancient times, there have been a number of instances, in Japan, of people nearly dying and then regaining consciousness, who have reported various mysterious phenomena. These include seeing the River of Three Crossings, having an 'out-of-body' experience, and meeting their deceased parents. While there have been similar accounts from people in all parts of the world, it is only with the pioneering work of psychiatrist Elisabeth Kubler-Ross that this subject has become a focus of scholarly investigation.
In her 1969 work On Death and Dying, Dr Kubler-Ross details a number of actual examples of near-death experiences that she encountered in the course of providing spiritual care to the dying.
Endo: Dr Kubler-Ross herself had a near-death experience. Describing the incident, she recounts feeling the pain of death and immediately thereafter going through a kind of rebirth. She says that her second self watched as her body approached a light and became engulfed in it, and that the instant it became one with the light, she enjoyed a state of profound peace and tranquillity. When she opened her eyes, she says, she could sense the pulse of life in all living beings, and even in insentient things such as rocks. I was in total love and awe of all life around me. I was in love with every leaf, every cloud, every grass, every little creature. I felt the pulsation of the pebbles on the path and I literally walked above the pebbles, conveying to them, 'I cannot step on you. I cannot hurt you.'
Suda: After Dr Kubler-Ross had got the ball rolling, Dr Raymond Moody, a specialist in internal medicine, collected a number of accounts of people who had been declared clinically dead and then came back to life (which he published in 1976). This had a major impact, causing scholarly research to get under way in earnest.
Today interest has developed such that there is an international research body devoted to studying the issue.
Ikeda: Up until then, near-death experiences had been written off as simply dreams or fantasies. But as more data accumulated, the scientific community began to think that perhaps it could not be taken so lightly.
Saito: Yes. Near-death experiences have a number of features that seem to be universal, transcending any cultural and religious differences. Moreovei it seems there were quite a few cases in which people underwent something that directly contradicted religious beliefs they'd held for a lifetime.
