Based on a talk given to the Sandpoint Meditation Group on November 6, 2021.  At the memorial for Rev. Master Jiyu that preceded this talk we recited the Sandōkai and The Most Excellent Mirror–Samādhi.

Oftentimes during a retreat, through the process of meditation and the kind of things that you’re sitting with in your kōan, there will be a teaching that comes out.  What came out of a retreat that I did recently was very simple.  It was the last line in the Sandōkai that says, “This I offer to the seeker of great Truth, do not waste time.”  As I’ve been turning this over, the first thing is that it’s easy to glide past the initial part of the sentence, “This I offer to the seeker of great Truth… .”  These words are quite important because they convey a sense of gentleness and kindness.  The Precepts, and all of the Teaching, is an offering.  Training is voluntary.  There’s no implication of being forced to do it by some outside agency; it’s not a command.  While the offering is kind, at the same time, “do not waste time” is clear and direct; the two balance each other.  Even as the words are understandable enough, it’s important to sit with them and ask yourself, “What am I doing with the time that I have?”  So it’s not just knowing what the words mean, it’s also digesting them, “How am I making use of the time that I have?”  None of us know how long that will be.

Many of you have seen a video and a book both entitled death is but a dream.  It’s notable that the title is uncapitalized.  The message I get: death is normal even as it is a grave event not to be ignored or avoided.  This video and book are very useful.  As Buddhists it’s important to pay careful attention to what they’re saying, and to who they are speaking to since they are not addressing a Buddhist audience, or speaking in Buddhist terms; further, they are speaking of people who are knowingly and unavoidably in the process of dying.  These people are in a hospice care center so they have already had time to come to terms with the fact that their lives are ending.  The nurses, social workers and doctors working with them have discovered that the majority of their patients have dreams or visions that give them peace as they are dying.  The dying people say that these are a different kind of dream than they would normally have, and that these dreams are as real to them as their presence in this life.  Through the video and book the caregivers are speaking to a public that is accustomed to a scientific, medical outlook that doesn’t usually believe that such dreams and visions have any value.  The message that they want to get across is, first, that these dreams do really help people at the time of dying, and, if their professionals will listen to them and take them seriously, these dying people are glad to talk about their dreams and visions.  The dreams not only help them, they also help those around them, including their families and caretakers.

For most of us, it’s important to remember that we are probably not in the same situation where we know that we have only a few months, or a few weeks, to live.  We don’t know; maybe that is the case, but maybe we have twenty, thirty, or more years.  It certainly doesn’t hurt to be aware that we don’t know how long we have; at the same time you can go too far in dwelling on death and constantly fearing that it’s right around the corner.  It’s much more important to simply get on with living your life, your practice.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the kind of dreams that most of these people relate are of family members or friends who have died—in one case, a young girl met her dog who had recently died—and these people and animals come to greet them, to assure them that they need not fear.  The sense is that death is a change, that it’s ok, and that there is that which goes on.  For sure, there is nothing wrong with this.  From a Buddhist point of view, experience of meeting family who have died may point to rebirth in a positive realm of existence that is not necessarily a matter of going fully to the Unborn, as our Exhortations for the Dying show that we can do.  So, in that regard, there may be a difference between what a good person who has little religious training may experience and what a person with a regular practice, and perhaps some religious experience, may find.  But I don’t want to lessen the value of what this video and book show. The brightness of these people in their last weeks is clearly evident, almost beyond what the caregivers and film makers talk about, and it’s a grounded brightness that these dying people gladly share.  It’s clear that some of them have serious issues to sort out before they die; in coming to terms with that, some of their dreams are initially nightmarish, and ultimately valuable.  For those who meditate, or who have a daily religious practice, there may be an opportunity to go deeper than what this film focuses on.  And for those of us who are not aware of being on the brink, it’s important to keep in mind that we don’t need to wait until we are dying to clean up our lives, find the Unborn and know this brightness.

When Sekitō says, “This I offer to the seeker of great Truth,” he’s speaking to each of us.  In a way, he’s speaking to everyone.  At heart, every living thing wants to know what is True, even if they’re not aware of it, and even if it may not be the first thing on their list.  So he’s making an offering, “do not waste time,” make the effort to pay attention to where you are now, don’t let your life go by unnoticed.  The whole Sandōkai is about the senses and learning how to be still within them without chasing after this, or avoiding that.  That’s how we find the Unborn here.  As it says in The Most Excellent Mirror-Samādhi, “A baby of this world is such as this, possessing all his five sense organs, yet goes not and neither comes, neither arises nor yet stays, has words and yet no words.”  We can find that uncomplicated outlook of a child and live from that center day to day.  That’s what it means not to waste time.

Take your practice seriously.  I encourage you to reflect on your training and see how you are using your time.  Each of us can ask ourselves this question looking in the mirror of meditation.

Finally, remember Rev. Master Jiyu today, she is the founder of our Order and of our meditation group.  This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of her PariNirvana.  She did go completely to the Unborn when she died.  And we can do that also. That’s what the Exhortations are about, going completely, wholeheartedly.

Notes

1. The video is death is but a dream: a film by J. J. Sicotte and Monica De La Torre, Lights Film LLC, 2021. The book death is but a dream: Finding Hope and Meaning at Life’s End by Christopher Kerr, MD, PhD with Carine Mardorossian, PhD, 2020. www.deathisbutadream.com.