Toward New Understandings of Death:- Death is perhaps the most urgent topic of all philosophical speculation, yet it is a topic we tend to avoid since it threatens our very existence and challenges our assumptions about an eternal, solid self. Sophisticated modern societies have become especially adept at denying death and hiding it behind a façade of youth, vitality, and beauty. At one point, it seemed that death had replaced sex as a social taboo. In recent years, however, the nuclear and biological dangers that threaten life and the advances in medical technology that prolong life have made a reexamination of death imperative. Death will inevitably come to all living beings, therefore holds great significance for the living. Death is a paradox, because it is both a personal concern and a social. It is especially painful because when a loved one dies, the personal realm and the external social spheres collide, such that our innermost feelings frequently become the object of public scrutiny. Death is a further paradox it is at once universal and culture-specific. It is for this reason that cross-cultural perspectives on death hold the potential to enrich our common human understanding. But what is death, and what is it that dies? From a Buddhist perspective, personal identity is constructed in dependence on various physical and psychological components and death is the dissolution of those components. If death were merely the disintegration of the physical body, human beings should feel no greater sadness at a person’s death than they feel at the loss of any other material item. The fact that the death of a human being or on animal can cause a far greater sense of loss than of a material thing raises important questions about the psychological components of personal identity and what becomes of them at time of death. Why Death is Important:- Paradoxically, although death is the end of all life’s achievements and pleasures, it also serves as a catalyst for understanding life’s ultimate value. Why does death acquire such importance and how does the finality of death affect the way we live our lives? How can human being meaningfully prepare for death when they have no firsthand knowledge of it? What about death is culturally specific and what is universal to all living beings, bridging cultural differences? How do our understandings of death and personal identity inform the ethical choices we make? Life Beyond Death: A Persistent Claim:- The contention that human beings are solely material entities of flesh, bone, liquid, and air has major implications for how we live our lives and how we die. If there is no soul or afterlife, then death is simply the end of a biological and psychological process—the inverse of life and a simple negative. The view that living beings’ physical components are recycled may be some consolation, but does not satisfy the human mind’s quest for meaning. While it may be true that death is as valuable as life itself, that notion may not give as much solace at the death of a loved one, or in facing our own death. Understanding Death & Impermanence:-One day in june 1963, Quang Duc, a highly respected Vietnamese Buddhist monk, sat outside the Cambodian Embassy on a noisy thoroughfare in Saigon to protest the oppression of Buddhists by the United States-backed regime of the Catholic dictator Ngo Dinh Diem. Dressed in traditional orange Buddhists robes and surrounded by a chanting circle of devoted supporters, the monl quietly doused himself with petrol and, seated in the lotus position, was soon engulfed in flames. This powerful image of a Buddhist monk’s self-immolation is deeply ingrained in the historical consciousness of American social activists, the Vietnamese people, and ordinary television viewers around the world. His action, often cited as a turning point in toppling Diem’s corrupt and autocratic regime, eventually led to the withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam and an end to a vicious, protracted war. Along with a half-dozen other “human torches,” he is revered as a selfless bodhilsattva by Vietnamese Buddhists.1 His heart, seared by the blaze but still intact, is enshrined on the altar of Xa Loi Pagoda in Saigon. Philosophical Foundations:- Mahayana texts further elaborated the theory of no-self in terms of the two levels of truth, explaining the self as conventionally existent, but empty of any independent reality. This interpretation is consistent with the earliest Buddhist teaching about the absence of any soul or abiding identity, yet allows for the ripening of an individual’s karma over the course of many rebirths. Both the Madhyamaka and Yogacara brenches of Mahayana incorporate these fundamental understandings of Buddhist tenets. Understanding the Nature of Consciousness:- When Buddhists approach the topics of death and ethical decision making, their primary focus is not the body or soul, but consciousness. Consciousness is central to experience, because it is the means by which we know the world around us. There are many different Buddhist philosophical perspectives, but generally speaking, existing things belong to three mutually exclusive categories: matter, consciousness, and “non-associated factors” (things that are neither matter nor consciousness, like undifferentiated space). Phenomena—the things around us—exist insofar as they are objects of knowledge, established by valid cognition. The Buddha taught a path to liberation for all sentient beings, meaning beings with consciousness: human beings, animals, and many other life forms. All sentient beings are involved in the wheel of birth and death known as cyclic existence (samsara). Since the beginning of time (or beginningless time, as the Buddhists put it), countless beings have been migrating from one state of existence to another in accordance with the law of cause and effect or, as some texts put it, “at the mercy of karma and delusion. “Sentient beings continue to take birth again and again, sometimes in blissful states of existence and sometimes in truly miserable states of existence, depending on their previous actions. The goal for Buddhists is to free themselves from this repetitive, seemingly endless cycle of rebirths, thit is, to achieve liberation. The key to gaining liberation from the cycle of rebirth is to purify the mind of all affictions, such as greed, attachment, anger, hatred, and ignorance, and thereby avoid creating unwholesome deeds. To understand how living become caught up in cyclic existence and how they can become free from it, an understanding of the nature and functioning of consciousness is therefore essential. Contemplating Self & No-Self:- A favorite theme of Buddhist contemplation is: “What is the self?” The inquiry is intimately related to death, because the construction of personal identity and its dissolution at the time of death are intrinsically related. If the self is not a living thing, but merely a concept or an abstraction, then how can it be subject to death? The intimate link between death and identity is a persistent topic of reflection in Buddhist thought, a topic of engagement to both the intellectual and experiential levels. Foundations of Buddhist Ethics:- Buddhist texts from different places and periods present a variety of responses to questions about the nature of self, the nature of death, and what transpires in the process of a person’s dying. For Buddhist practitioners, there is also an active engagement with death in meditation. Formulas like “The only thing that separates us from death is one breath,” & “There is no guarantee which will come first, tomorrow to the next life,” are constant practitioners to live each moment as if it were their last. The breath, the gossamer link between life & death, is a favorite mnemonic in Buddhist mindfulness practice. The rising and falling of the breath mirrors the arising and perishing of each moment—a continual reminder that living begin dying the moment they are boen.