Falling Leaves

Death is very hard to accept for some people, especially those who have lost the young beloved ones who should not die young. When they lost them, the question arose in their mind ‘why?’ I have to answer the “why” question again and again. Some seem to understand, but some don’t. Almost every time, I answer the “why” question, I never forget to tell them the story of Kisagotami who lost her new born baby. The death of her son drove her crazy, but when she met the Buddha, the Buddha helped her out of her suffering. He told her to find a handful of mustard seeds from a family where nobody had died. With hope, she went to seek for the mustard seeds. To seek for the seeds was easy for her as every house had them, but the most difficult thing was to find a family where nobody had died. So she understood that every one must die, young or old, when she was informed of the deaths from house to house. She came back to the Buddha with right understanding and cremated her son. With the realisation of reality, she requested the Buddha to let her join the Sangha. Then the Buddha told her to go to join the Female Sangha, after she became a female monk, she worked hard learning and practising Buddhism. With right effort of learning and practising, she became enlightened and helped others who had experienced grief from the loss of their beloved ones.

Life is very fragile and without guarantees or certain prediction. It is really like the leaf of a tree which can fall down seasonally or when it is blown off by a strong wind. The leaf starts in spring and falls down in the fall; this is according to the season, but some leaves fall before the right time when they are affected by storm or wind. It is the same with life; it starts with birth and ends in death. Sometimes when life is affected by an accident, it can end earlier. Nothing should be blamed; it is just the nature of life. No one can hide himself from death as the Buddha said, “Nowhere on earth can living beings hide from death”. It is true though, everything that was born must die. This should be understood easily, but if there is still the “why” question. It depends on cause and effect like the young leaves which fall down from the tree because of the strong wind. Does it make sense? What do you think?