The Buddhists supposedly have a credo that goes as follows:

Let me respectfully remind you, life and death are of supreme importance. Time swiftly passes by and opportunity is lost. Each of us should strive to awaken. Awaken! Take heed. Do not squander your life.

Gee, I didn’t think that the Buddhists were in such a sweat about death. One of the things I always admired about disciples of the Buddha was their belief in reincarnation. I grew up in the Catholic faith, which like most Christian religions taught that we get only one chance at heaven. If we don’t cut the mustard in this life, there are no second chances. If the clock runs out on you with one unforgiven mortal sin on your slate, it’s off to hell with you. (As though life on earth isn’t hell enough).

For those of you who have experienced the more fundamentalist Protestant sects, it may come as a surprise to learn that the Roman Catholics are just as paranoid about the final judgment as any Calvinist. But they are. My guess is that they wish to discourage moral sloth. Rome knows from millenniums of experience that many if not most people are on the lookout for an angle. If the Church were to ease up on the moral rules a bit, someone with a sharp legal mind (or a good attorney) is surely going to misuse the system. So the Catholics keep the standards strict, so as to make sure that souls are not cast into hell because they didn’t understand the rules properly. In other words, the Pope doesn’t want to die and have St. Peter inform him that he has a class-action lawsuit pending against him on the part of the souls in hell who claim they were not properly informed.

The Buddhist doctrine in reincarnation would obviously be greatly abused by such shrewd counselors of moral law. The soul looking to justify live a life full of sinful power and pleasure without worry of eternal consequences would obviously say, what the heck, I’ll have my greedy pleasures in this life and get around to making up for it in some future go-round. Eventually I’ll get to heaven. No eternal flames to worry about, I’ll get as many chances as I want.

(Sidenote: George Bernard Shaw had an interesting take on the afterlife in Man and Superman / Don Juan In Hell. According to Shaw, Hell is a place where you can do whatever you like and have all the powers and sensual pleasures that you please, non-stop. There are no flames, no suffering, no rules, no curfews, and no one stopping you from leaving. Don Juan obviously winds up there, but after a while starts to get sick of it. In the end he walks away, looking for the real heaven. In other words, even a rogue like Don Juan can eventually find spiritual maturity and moral integrity.)

Personally, I like the reincarnation view. Most peoples’ lives just don’t seem long enough and rich enough to set them on the path to eternal wisdom. This world just doesn’t seem like a good place to realize a sense of true fulfillment. After a frustrating day at work, I often console myself by thinking, “maybe in another life …”

But once in a blue moon you do meet someone who seems close to the ultimate truth and who seems endowed with the power to achieve things that are humane, intelligent and truly worthwhile. (And of course you often run across those who are far from it; anyone who drives regularly in northern New Jersey will experience several of those souls on any given day). So it does seem as though people come into the world with varying amounts of pre-fixed spiritual wisdom, unspoken wisdom that guides the course and conduct of their life. That idea obviously is a totally subjective notion on my part; I couldn’t imagine any way to scientifically test it.

So it surprises me to find that Buddhists chant a prayer at their services that encourages them to worry about time running out. You’d think that they would instead cite the phrase that confirmed Arnold’s pop idol status: “I’ll Be Back”. Just imagine someone on his or her death bed after a life that went to waste, a total loser, didn’t accomplish anything significant, all their dreams and visions went up in smoke, everything was a crash and burn … and with their last breath and a defiant look in their eye … you get the picture. Didn’t Jesus of Nazareth say something like this? And in a way, wasn’t he right? (I don’t believe in the physical resurrection, of course, but through the history and spiritual longings of his successors, the life of Jesus of Nazareth continued and is still going strong).

Of course, many Buddhists would add another word to this line: “Unfortunately”. The Tibetian Book of the Dead is a set of prayers to be said on the death of someone, begging that the departed soul not come back but instead find its way to Nirvana. If it does come back, the Book prays in the alternative that the soul’s next earthly incarnation be the final run. The Buddhists supposedly don’t believe in God, but then again why would they sing out prayerful petitions upon the death of a loved one if they didn’t think that some transcendent entity was listening?

I guess I still don’t understand the Buddhists. Perhaps that’s as it should be. The Buddhists, for all their human faults, are a people close to mystery. And mystery obviously wouldn’t be mystery if it were understood.