Attending a Death

Buddhist funeral rites vary widely between the countries and schools of the tradition, but they share a distinctive orientation: attention is directed less to the disposal of the body than to the mind and future rebirth of the one who has died, and to the state in which they leave this life. In Theravada lands monks are invited to chant, and the merit of offerings made in the dead person's name is transferred to them to aid a good rebirth; in Tibetan practice texts may be read to guide the consciousness through the intermediate state (bardo) after death, the material later popularised in the West as the Tibetan Book of the Dead; in East Asian Buddhism memorial services are held at set intervals over the weeks and years following death. Cremation is common, following the example of the Buddha's own funeral as described in the early texts, though customs differ. Beneath the variety runs the shared teaching of impermanence, the funeral serving as an occasion to confront the reality of death directly.