Death in the Village
This week has been very sad for our village as an elder has died. A man I always knew as Crazy Uncle was found dead by some local travellers. He lived in a cave outside our village for many years and no one has laid eyes on him for decades. Only the very elderly people in our community have ever seen Crazy Uncle and they have been telling many stories about when he used to walk around the town in his younger days. No one is sure how old Crazy Uncle is but he must be very elderly because he was old even when our elders saw him decades ago. His incredible age at his time of death has started rumours that Crazy Uncle was a practitioner of Tantric Yoga and that he preformed rituals and mediations to cheat death allowing him to live for such a long time. Nobody knows if this is true. I am not sure who found him dead in the cave or what they found with him in the cave but I’m sure that as the days go on we well find out. Small towns like ours have a tendency to spread rumours, good or bad, very quickly and this is how we learned about Crazy Uncle’s death.
There are many rumours circulating about Crazy Uncle for instance that he was a highly realized lama, that he was simply a recluse or that he truly was crazy and was doing something strange in that cave for all these years. Despite all of these different ideas I do believe that Crazy Uncle was a serious Buddhist practitioner. I heard a rumour that they found Crazy Uncle dead in a pose of meditation so he must have been proficient in meditation. What else could he have been doing in that cave for all these years? In Tibet most of us practice Vajrayana Buddhism and I assume Crazy Uncle did as well if he was not a Tantric practitioner. If this was true Crazy Uncle should be given a Sky Burial. In Vajrayana Buddhism we believe that after death the body is simply an empty vessel and there is no use in preserving it as the person has gone on to bardo and their next rebirth. Nowadays many people in our village get cremated as modern technology and modern moral values about how to correctly dispose of bodies has crept in to our isolated town. I believe that Crazy Uncle was a devout practitioner and would want his body to be used for the benefit of other living beings in a sky burial. The sky burial may seem very brutal to an outside observer but in fact it if extremely generous and reflects the Buddhist beliefs in the impermanence of life.
Often, important lamas from our village and from the surrounding areas of the Tibetan Plateau will be taken to Drigung Monastery in Tibet for a sky burial. I do not believe that Crazy Uncle will be taken there as he has no family to transport him or to pay for this and no one truly knows the extent of his practices while in the cave. Wherever this burial is done, Crazy Uncle will be placed on a large flat rock which is higher than the surrounding landscape. His body will be placed there at dawn. The Jahtor is a procedure which is generally done for Buddhists being buried in this way. Monks will preform ceremonial actions around the body such as chanting or burning incense. After this the body will be disassembled. For an important lama temples and stupas will be built around the site of the Sky Burial. I do not believe any of these practices will be done for Crazy Uncle as he has no family that I know of in the village, nor any close friends to ensure he is provided with a special burial. I hope that Crazy Uncle gets the burial which he deserves but ultimately I know that it does not matter because his spirit has already left and the body is simply an empty vessel with no significance.
Many people have told me that Crazy Uncle was a Tantric practitioner. Maybe they believe this is true because of his extreme old age when he died or perhaps for some other reason, I have heard so many different things. Tantric practitioners use various practices to cheat death and live for as long as possible, maybe Crazy Uncle had ben practising these successfully and that would account for his extreme old age. Perhaps Crazy Uncle had taken bodhisattva vows? Tantric practitioners believe in subtle physiology and a subtle body which is a reflection of the greater cosmos. If Crazy Uncle was a tantric practitioner he would have spent some of his time in the cave meditating on the deities of the internal sun and moon and visualizing his inner cosmos including his internal sun. He would be visualizing his body in terms of the cosmos and doing practices to ensure that everything was working as he wanted it to. Tantric practitioners pay close attention to the zodiac signs and how to sun and moon move through the zodiac signs, he will time his meditations and breathing exercises to these occurrences in the sky. By observing and keeping track of all of the goings on in the cosmos, Crazy Uncle would have been able to protect and shape his consciousness while practising in the cave. Tantric texts outline many occurrences in the body which are signs of death and the tantric practitioner can observe these. These signs are an indication but sometimes mistakes are made and an unexpected death occurs, perhaps this is what happened to Crazy Uncle? There are a multitude of physical signs that death is imminent such as a twitch in the far left side of the cheek, it seems to be that these signs are incredibly subtle and could be easily missed. For some of these possible death signs there are practices which can prevent this possible death from happening. Tantric practitioners believe there is an inner wind blowing inside of them. This wind can be a sign of an upcoming death if it blows in a certain way or at a certain time. For instance, if the wind blows for a certain number of hours in one part of the body death may be coming in three days. The inner wind can only be felt by the practitioner who it blows inside. Crazy Uncle may have sensed one of these signs but perhaps he didn’t know the remedy or he didn’t do it effectively which resulted in his death.
By becoming a recluse and most likely practising meditation for many years Crazy Uncle would have distanced himself from death, this is why I believe he lived for such a long time inside of his cave. In Tantric Buddhism there are many practices which one can use to cheat death, Crazy Uncle probably practised these and was able to live for a very long time. For example, one could make fire offerings or offerings of mandalas to distance oneself from death. I heard a rumour that there was a nearly finished mandala in Crazy Uncle’s cave when he was found dead. If there was one mandala, it is likely that Crazy Uncle made many others which he destroyed. Perhaps making mandalas was one of the practices that Crazy Uncle did to cheat death. In all of these practices, having faith is the most important component. One must fully devote themselves to the practices for them to be effective in cheating death. I can only imagine what Crazy Uncle’s life was like inside the cave as we will never really know but I would assume it was very stark. He probably ate just enough food to survive and spoke very little, only when reciting spells or mantras. Crazy Uncle probably spent all of his time meditating except when making offerings such as the half-finished mandala found in the cave. Living like a recluse in a cave frees the practitioner from all distractions except their own mind. A practice of counting breaths is another way of cheating death. By being mindful and counting each inhalation and exhalation death will not remain in the body. If a tantric practitioner strays from his practice and is no longer faithful, devoted and true he is susceptible to death. Maybe this is what happened to Crazy Uncle. A single distraction is all it takes. Maybe some travelers were near his cave and distracted him from his meditations, I know a lot of villagers have been going on pilgrimages lately. By meditating on the fact that the mind has created all suffering and the self is an illusion, the practitioner is not afraid of death. The practitioner wishes to remain in this life as long as possible to meditate, make offerings and do good deeds. Death yoga is practised by tantric practitioners which helps to prepare the practitioner for what is expected at the time of death so he/she can be open to enlightenment at the time of death, during Bardo or at the time of rebirth. Although I never knew him I will pray for Crazy Uncle’s spirit to find enlightenment during the period of bardo which he is in now so he can be in nirvana.
