A Buddhist Introduction to Death

Death in Buddhism is recognised as a natural process. In the scriptual language of Pali death (Mara) is also the tempter: the force/energy that keeps us bound into the human form. It is also a heavenly messenger, a chance for us us to awaken to the way things are. When a person dies in the Theravadin tradition monks chant the following:-

Transient are all compounded things;
To rise to fall, their nature is.
Having become, they pass away;
Their final rest is the highest bliss.

read more of the essay here (pdf)

You can read about Buddhist Rituals around death here

Some Buddhist reflection on death

Our Real Home - A Talk to an Aging Lay Disciple Approaching Death
by Ajahn Chah read more here

Aging and Dying - Bhikkhu Prayudh Payutto
Old age and death are natural phenomena. In accordance with the law of nature all conditioned things are impermanent and liable to change, being subject to causes and conditions. Everything that has a beginning must at last come to an end. The lives of all beings, after being born, must decay and die. Aging is just the decline of life and the decay of the faculties; and death is the passing-away, the termination of the time of life, the break-up of the aggregates and the casting off of the body.
read more here

Reflections given by Sister Medhanandi, at the Death and Dying Retreat,
Amaravati Buddhist Monastery; November 1996

In meditation we can go deeply into the mind, to investigate: who is it that we really are?
Who dies?... Because what dies is not who we are.
read more here


Listen to two talks by Ajahn Sumedho Welcoming Death and Death separation and grief

You can get a free CD with talks on about Buddhist death and dying from here

A Buddhist Guide to Death, Dying and Suffering - lots of information is here


and finally
headless ( a very good site) and/ or this book

http://www.deathclock.com/

http://www.near-death.com/

http://www.amitabhahospice.org/hospice/Buddhist_death.php