Obviously the scariest thing in life, which makes everything we do, say, and think meaningless... which we are all inevitably moving towards... is death.
One of the basic teachings of the Buddha is that there are three divine messengers: sickness, old age... and death.
Death - and the idea we can overcome it - is the reason we embark upon the holy life.
But: the question becomes, how does the holy life let us overcome death? And is it a true immortality we attain, or a fraud?
As it is, we are reborn each lifetime as a different being in the web of samsara. We inherit our former actions (karma), and we are especially impacted by our most recent lifetime prior to this one. That means our present situation, it could be said, is a kind of "immortality." But it could also be called somewhat of a cruel joke, because we forget everything we learn between deaths; make the same mistakes over and over again; & again and again experience the traumas of living, and then death itself.
Despite this process of rebirth, there is not a real continuity or a positive "selfhood" between lives (anatta).
But. It may be that there is an exception to this, and that continuity may exist. As if it could be said to exist for anyone, then it would be so for the four noble persons:
- Stream-winner - born again as a human (never a world lower than a human being), with some wisdom of the previous lifetimes retained (usually pertaining to the holy life?)
- Once-returner - born again as a human (with some genuine continuity of selfhood/consciousness?)
- Nonreturner - born again in immaterial domains (with some continuity of selfhood, or a remembrance of one's former life/lives?)
and finally, the true immortality of the:
- Arahant - in which one "neither exists nor does not exist."
Arahantship is the one which is quite hard to wrap one's head around... and it is also unsettling as someone who is not an arahant, to imagine the idea that, despite all the work gone through to become one, it still may not be possible to overcome death. Imagining arahantship as some lame, inconstruable, negative state, as the Buddha often puts it, rather than a true "positive" immortality in which we can still say "I EXIST," is awful.
However, I remember in the Mahaparinirvana Sutta the Buddha says...
3. And the Blessed One said: "Whosoever, Ánanda, has developed, practiced, employed, strengthened, maintained, scrutinized, and brought to perfection the four constituents of psychic power could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world-period or until the end of it. [21] The Tathágata, Ánanda, has done so. Therefore the Tathágata could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world-period or until the end of it."
4. But the Venerable Ánanda was unable to grasp the plain suggestion, the significant prompting, given by the Blessed One. As though his mind was influenced by Mara, [22] he did not beseech the Blessed One: "May the Blessed One remain, O Lord!. May the Happy One remain, O Lord, throughout the world-period, for the welfare and happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, well being, and happiness of gods and men!"
and later...
48. At these words the Venerable Ánanda spoke to the Blessed One, saying: "May the Blessed One remain, O Lord! May the Happy One remain, O Lord, throughout the world-period, for the welfare and happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, well being, and happiness of gods and men!"
49. And the Blessed One answered, saying: "Enough, Ánanda. Do not entreat the Tathágata, for the time is past, Ánanda, for such an entreaty."
50-51. But for a second and a third time, the Venerable Ánanda said to the Blessed One: "May the Blessed One remain, O Lord! May the Happy One remain, O Lord, throughout the world-period, for the welfare and happiness of the multitude, out of compassion for the world, for the benefit, well being, and happiness of gods and men!"
52. Then the Blessed One said: "Do you have faith, Ánanda, in the Enlightenment of the Tathágata?" And the Venerable Ánanda replied: "Yes, O Lord, I do." "Then how, Ánanda, can you persist against the Tathágata even up to the third time?"
53. Then the Venerable Ánanda said: "This, O Lord, I have heard and learned from the Blessed One himself when the Blessed One said to me: 'Whosoever, Ánanda, has developed, practiced, employed, strengthened, maintained, scrutinized, and brought to perfection the four constituents of psychic power could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world-period or until the end of it. The Tathágata, Ánanda, has done so. Therefore the Tathágata could, if he so desired, remain throughout a world-period or until the end of it.'"
54. "And did you believe it, Ánanda?" "Yes, O Lord, I did." "Then, Ánanda, the fault is yours. Herein have you failed, inasmuch as you were unable to grasp the plain suggestion, the significant prompting given by the Tathágata, and you did not then entreat the Tathágata to remain. For if you had done so, Ánanda, twice the Tathágata might have declined, but the third time he would have consented. Therefore, Ánanda, the fault is yours; herein have you failed.
Maybe you can help me understand this Jhananda.
So - at least until the world/universe implodes back into the Godhead, an arahant or full-on saint does, or can, maintain a positive immortality, in which he can still say "I exist."
Is this the power of a nonreturner, which an arahant keeps after becoming an arahant?
Are there some saintly people, like Christ or others, who maintain a "positive existence," while others have gone into Nirvana?
