July–September 2014, Volume 41
Features
Life After Death
What happens to us after we die? Various religions have described life after death as a spiritual realm, such as heaven and hell, the Pure Land, or transmigration. Many people’s views of life and death are based on one or more of these concepts.
Some people, however, who believe only what can be proved scientifically, regard those concepts as superstition. The renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, in dismissing the possibility of afterlife, said, “I think the brain is like a program in the mind, which is like a computer, so it’s theoretically possible to copy the brain on to a computer and so provide a form of life after death. However, this is way beyond our present capabilities. I think the conventional afterlife is a fairy tale for people afraid of the dark.”
On the other hand, belief in an afterlife helps some people cope with tragedy, helping them overcome sorrow, loss, and the fear of death. For people of faith, belief in an afterlife sustains them in their religious practice on the path to self-perfection or supreme enlightenment.
In Japan many people of faith, both clergy and lay people, helped relieve the victims of the massive earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Many of the victims lost loved ones. People whose religion teaches the meaning of death have a role to play in easing the suffering of disaster victims by listening to their accounts of losing loved ones.
Life after death is beyond the realm of science, and its existence is doubtful. It is a fact, however, that many people believe in and hope for an afterlife. Some also believe in ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. How do concepts of an afterlife influence our lives? Will traditional religious beliefs in an afterlife continue to influence our views on life and death?
Features
East Asian Buddhists and the Afterlife
by Miriam Levering
The implication of the notion of samsara is that this lifetime is the afterlife of a previous lifetime, indeed, of many previous lifetimes. Likewise, more lifetimes are to come, shaped by both the previous and the present lifetimes.
Modern Perspectives on Death and Afterlife
by Liz Wilson
These are exciting times for those with an interest in what might happen after death. One need not be a religious person to find some basis for believing that life can persist after the termination of our flesh-and-blood existence. Conversations about the possibilities of postmortem life are drawing atheists, agnostics, and scientists of all sorts to promising exchanges with religious people.
The Practice of Faith in This World and Belief in the Hereafter: The Afterlife in Islam
by Jiro Arimi
There are said to be eight gates to paradise and seven gates to hell in the hereafter, and the Qur’an contains numerous passages that joyously proclaim and warn that people will dwell in one or the other according to the results of their actions in this life.
“Life after Death” in Traditional Tibetan Buddhism
by Margaret Gouin
For a Tibetan Buddhist, death changes—or at least can change—everything, and it is because of this huge potential that death is by far the most significant life-cycle event. The importance of rebirth is a major influence on how Tibetan Buddhists approach dying and death and how they conduct the funerary rituals for a deceased loved one.
Exploring Traditional African Belief Systems and Their Relation to the Understanding of Death and Afterlife
by Nomfundo Walaza
I would like to suggest that perhaps what we can do to make our brief existence worthy is to ensure that we keenly observe our interactions with others and constantly take the time to ask ourselves if we have lived in a manner that displays compassion and honors interdependence and interconnectedness with fellow human beings.
Life in the Spirit: A Christian Outlook on Life beyond Death
by Juan Masiá
We should not think about eternal life as a continuation of life in this world. It is a new life beyond the limitations of space and time. It is a life within the hands of God. It is definitive life and a new creation. It is not an end but a new beginning, and a new way of relating to God and to the world.
Japan’s March 11, 2011, Disaster and the Strength of Buddhism: Living with an Awareness of Death and the Dead
by Susumu Shimazono
The boundaries between religions really need to be transcended in order to widen the scope for cooperation. Doing so would make it more apparent to people that religions occupy an important position in Japanese society and engage in correspondingly important relief and social action programs. It would also demonstrate that the religious spirit of Buddhism and other religions plays a serious role in Japanese society.
Niwano Peace Prize
The Call for a Deeper and More Inclusive Interreligious Engagement
by Dena Merriam
The Niwano Peace Foundation awarded the thirty-first Niwano Peace Prize on May 16 to Ms. Dena Merriam of the United States, for her leadership of the Global Peace Initiative of Women (GPIW). Ms. Merriam founded GPIW in 2002 to strengthen women religious leaders’ roles in reconciliation and problem solving. GPIW has conducted a leadership program for youth in collaboration with the United Nations. It also has tried to organize dialogues in areas of conflict and has recently promoted environmental protection as well. The following is her acceptance speech at the award ceremony in Tokyo.
Essay
Side by Side: Notes on the Twin Buddhas of the Lotus Sutra in the Stone Carver’s Art
by Hank Glassman
Here I explore some meanings behind . . . a small stone that depicts two buddhas sitting side by side in the lotus posture, sheltered beneath a heavy lintel. . . . These are old gravestones, their connections to families lost two or three centuries ago.
