Inter- Faiths Dialogue

The Man > Ego

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O nce, one of Jesus' apostles was preaching in a small town. The people asked him to perform a miracle, by raising the dead, as Jesus had done.
They went to the town cemetery and stopped before a grave. The apostle prayed to God to bring the dead back to life. The dead man rose from his grave, looked around him, and cried, "My donkey, where is my donkey?" In life, he had been a poor man whose most cherished possession was his donkey.
The same is true for you. Whatever you care about most will determine what happens to you at resurrection. You will be together in the Hereafter with the ones you love.

mosque

quote 2950 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.205

A fter this, he should close his eyes and think of himself as having died. They have stripped his corpse, laid it on the bench, washed it and wrapped it in the shroud, prayed over it, and put it to rest in the grave. He should reflect on each stage in this process, for this meditation, which we call recollecting death, is one of the practices of the Mystic Orders. To ponder one's death is not to cause it, but it is harmful to avoid the thought of death. For no one can or will escape the sure and destined end that comes sooner or later to every mortal being. This meditation is therefore an essential necessity for every lover of God.

mosque

quote 2946 | Sheikh Muzaffer
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.159

F or my funeral: Call the drummers, timbal beaters, and tambourine players. March toward my grave dancing thus, Happy, gay, intoxicated; with hands clapping, So that people would know that the friends of God Go happy and smiling toward the place of meeting.

mosque

quote 2938 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.256

W hen you see my funeral, don't say, "What a separation!" It is time for me to visit and meet the Beloved. Since you have seen my descent, then do see my rising. Why complain about the setting of the moon and the sun? Which seed that went under the earth failed to grow up again?

mosque

quote 2937 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.256

I died from minerality and became vegetable; And from vegetativeness I died and became animal. I died from animality and became human. Then why fear disappearance through death? Next time I shall die Bring forth wings and feathers like angels; After that, soaring higher than angels. What you cannot imagine I shall be that.

mosque

quote 2924 | Jalâl ud Dîn Rumi
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.96

N o one who possesses snow would find any hardship in exchanging it for jewels and pearls. This world is like snow exposed to sun, which continues to melt until it disappears altogether, while the next life is like a precious stone that never passes away.

mosque

quote 2872 | Ghazzali
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.53

R emember your contemporaries who have passed away, and were of your age.
Remember the honors and fame they earned, the high posts they held and the beautiful bodies they possessed, and today all of them are turned to dust.
How they have left orphans and widows behind them.
No sign of them is left today, and they lie in the dark holes underneath the earth.
Picture their faces before your mind's eye and ponder.
Do not fix hopes on your wealth and do not laugh away life.
Remember how they walked and now all their joints lie separated and the tongue with which they talked lightly is eaten away by the worms and their teeth are corroded. They were foolishly providing for twenty years when even a day of their lives was not left. They never expected that death shall come to them thus at an unexpected hour.

mosque

quote 2861 | Ghazzali
Essential Sufism, by James Fadiman & Robert Frager, Harper SanFrancisco, p.28

I t is written in the psalm: I shall not die, but live." In order really to live, man must first give himself to death. But when he has done so, he discovers that he is not to die, that he is to live.

synagogue

quote 2757 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.53

M an is always passing through two doors: out of the world and into the next, and out and in again.

synagogue

quote 2754 | Martin Buber
Martin Buber’s ten rungs, collected Hassidic saying, p.40

N ONE CAN DIE. None can be degraded forever. Life is but a playground, however gross the play may be. However we may receive blows and however knocked about we may be, the Soul is there and is never injured. We are that Infinite.

temple_hindu

quote 2695 | Vivekananda
"Vedanta: Voice of Freedom", Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 205 S. Skinker Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63105.

A nd what is Death? The parting and vanishing of beings out of this or that order of beings, their destruction, disappearance, death, the completion of their life-period, dissolution of the aggregates of existence, the discarding of the body: this is called death.

temple_buddhist

quote 2457 | Buddha Sakyamuni
Digha Nikaya, 22

O ne is qualified to discuss the nature of man when he realizes that death is not annihilation.

candle

quote 2361 | Chang Tsai
Chang Tsai, Cheng-meng, Ch.1, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 30

C huang Tzu's wife died and Hui Tzu went to offer his condolence. He found Chuang Tzu squatting on the ground and singing, beating on an earthen bowl. He said, "Someone has lived with you, raised children for you and now she has aged and died. Is it not enough that you should not shed any tear? But now you sing and beat the bowl. Is this not too much?"
. "No," replied Chuang Tzu. "When she died, how could I help being affected? But as I think the matter over, I realize that originally she had no life; and not only no life, she had no form; not only no form, she had no material force (ch'I). In the limbo of existence and non-existence, there was transformation and the material force was evolved. The material force was transformed to be form, form was transformed to become life, and now birth has transformed to become death. This is like the rotation of the four seasons, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Now she lies asleep in the great house (the universe). For me to go about weeping and wailing would be to show my ignorance of destiny. Therefore I desist."

quote 2263 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, ch. 18 (shool of Tchuang Tzu), NHCC, 6:31b-32a, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

M engsun does not know how life comes about and does not know how death comes about. He does not prefer the one or the other. He lets himself be transformed into whatever it may be, and waits for further transformations which are not yet known. Moreover, how can one in the midst of transformation know that he will not be transformed? And how can one not being transformed know that he has already been transformed? Perhaps you and I are dreaming and have not wakened. Moreover, to him there has been a change of physical form but no decline in the spirit. There has been a change of lodging but no real death.

quote 2245 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter VI, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

L ife and death, and existence and non-existence are one.

quote 2240 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter VI, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

B ut if the universe is hidden in the universe itself, then there can be no escape from it. This is the great truth of things in general. We possess our body by chance and we are already pleased with it. If our physical bodies went through ten thousand transformations without end, how incomparable would this joy be! Therefore the sage roams freely in the realm in which nothing can escape but all endures. Those who regard dying a premature death, getting old, and the beginning and end of life as equally good are followed by others. How much more is that to which all things belong and on which the whole process of transformation depends (that is, Tao)?

quote 2236 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter VI, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

S oon afterward Tzu-lai fell ill, was gasping for breath and was about to die. His wife and children surrounded him and wept. Tzu-li went to see him. "Go away," he said. "Don't disturb the transformation is that about to take place." Then, leaning against the door, he continued, “Great is the Creator! What will he make of you now? Where will he take you? Will he make you into a rat's liver? Will he make you into an insects leg?"

Tzu-lai said, "Wherever a parent tells a son to go, whether east, west, south or north, he has to obey. The yin and yang are like man's parents. If they pressed me to die and I disobeyed, I would be obstinate. What fault is theirs? For the universe gave me the body so I may be carried, my life so I may toil, my old age so I may repose, and my death so I may rest. Therefore to regard life as good is the way to regard death as good.

quote 2235 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter VI, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

L ife and death are due to fate (ming, destiny) and their constant succession like day and night is due to Nature, beyond the interference of man. They are the necessary character of things.

quote 2234 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter VI, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

H ow do I know that the love of life is not a delusion? And how do I know that the hate of death is not like a man who lost his home when young and does not know where his home is to return to? […] How do I know that the dead will not repent having previously craved for life?

quote 2226 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter II, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

P eople say there is no death. But what is the use? Not only does the physical form disintegrate; the mind also goes with it. Is that not very lamentable? Are men living in this world really so ignorant? Or am I alone ignorant while others are not?

quote 2218 | Tchuang Tzu
Chuang Tzu, chapter II, in Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 8.

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