When we all die, where do we go?

Thay (pronounced "Thai") is Thich Nhat Hanh, here explaining a candle flame. Where will it go?

When we all fall asleep, where do we go?

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Ananda (Dharma Buddhist Meditation), Wisdom Quarterly in reply to the implicit question in Billie Eilish's "Bury a Friend": Where do we all go when we die? Where does a flame go when it dies?

• And when the flame goes out, where does it go?
• That's a nonsense question.
• No, it must go somewhere!
• Well, where do you suppose -- up, down, sideways?
• Well, no, nothing like that. I don't know where it goes.
• It isn't there like you think (assume), so it does not "go" anywhere after it is said to "go out." Failing to gain new fuel (and four other factors, heat, oxygen, wick, and process-of-combustion), it fails to "come back in" for the next moment of its appearance. This sounds strange because it goes against our assumptions, but it's very true: In one instance, all five factors (aggregates) gather and manifest as "flame." Failing to get all five in the next moment, no flame/fire appears. This teaches us that what we call "flame" or "fire" is utterly dependent on supporting conditions (these five aggregates or factors) and without them, it is not. However, if it is utterly dependent, then how can it ever be said to have an independent existence? Ultimately speaking, it cannot. But in normal usage, in conventional speech, of course we say, "The flame came into being and then went out of being after some time." This is nice. This seems true. But it was never ultimately true. So there is no confusion. And maybe no one cares about a flame or fire. But if the same thing could be said of us, me and you the individuals, what then?
• How could that ever be said of us? We are here now. And when we die or "go out," we reappear somewhere else -- like in heaven, hell, another human life, or a life in another realm in the 31 Planes of Existence.
• Conventionally, this is exactly what happens. Unfortunately, ultimately speaking, it is completely wrong. Not only do "we" not go anywhere, what we are calling "we" is completely dependently arisen. Our being, our existence, completely depends on the Five Aggregates clung to as self.
• What, we're flames?
• No, flames depend on the five factors I mentioned above. "We" depend on the Five Aggregates clung to as self mentioned in the Heart Sutra: form; feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and process of consciousness, the khandhas or skandhas in Sanskrit.
• So there is no reappearance?
• Oh, there's reappearance (rebirth) all right, but it isn't the rearising of some unchanging "soul," "self," jiva, gandhabba, "ego," "personality," or "I." We are clinging to what is not ours, and we suffer for it.
• Aha! You said "we" suffer for it! Who's the "we" that suffers?!
• That "we" is the Five Aggregates clung to as self. "We" are not that. "We" do not control that, in an ultimate sense. In a conventional sense, of course, that's all "we" are, and "we" have a great deal of control to develop calm and insight to breakthrough to wisdom and liberate "ourselves" from this samsaric mess. But that, ultimately speaking, is not really what's happening. And it can be proven. The aggregates can be refined, purified, stilled and be seen for what they are. Then clinging stops. And liberation occurs. It's as if the fearful dream lets go of the dreamer. The monstrous illusion loses its power to deceive and make frightened, suffering victims of the aggregates clinging to the aggregates as if they were "self."
• (OWN) Thich Nhat Hanh on "deep listening," compassionate listening with Oprah Winfrey | SuperSoul Sunday | Oprah Winfrey Network

Let go of fear [and delusion]

(Plum Village App) Practicing Non Fear | Teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh

Why we need wise reflection

SuttaCentral.net (edited by Wisdom Quarterly)

When I first encountered Buddhism in the U.S. in the 1990s, it was all about "insight meditation" (vipassana) with some voices shouting that the value of the jhanas (meditative absorptions) was being mistakenly overlooked as a regular practice.

 

Wise Reflection: Its Importance

Years later, I came across BPS Wheel 463 (Buddhist Publication Society), which states that the value of “wise reflection” (yoniso manasikara) was being mistakenly overlooked as a regular practice.

This weekend I decided to go back and take another look at Wise Reflection (BPS Wheel 463) with the amazing benefits provided by suttacentral.net's because of its multiple translations per each discourse (Pali sutta) and translator Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu’s errant translations on dhammatalks.org.

• Wisdom Quarterly prefers American scholar-monk Bhikkhu Bodhi's translations in all cases over idiosyncratic and ridiculous Thanissaro Bhikkhu's efforts.

It was a very powerful refresher course (lesson) in the difficulties of translation and the value of reading multiple [English] translations and the value of [the ancient] commentaries.

The translations of yoniso manasikara (not quite those two words as found in the Pali canon) from the Sabbāsava Sutta (MN 2) are diverse!

The same goes for samvara [the things we should make an effort to avoid] translated as: "defilements," "taints or cankers," ["shackles or fetters"], and "effluents"!

EXCERPT: Venerable Walpola Rahula (from BPS Wheel 463), in quoting the Buddha, translates yoniso manasikāra as "wise reflection":

“I say that the getting rid of anxieties and troubles [1] is possible for one who knows and sees, not for one who does not know and see. What must one know and see in order to get rid of anxieties and troubles? Wise reflection and unwise reflection... More

All the good girls go to hell, Billie?

When did you join the Illuminati, Pirate? Did Phineas induct you?

• SuttaCentral.net, The Many Faces of Wise Reflection (yoniso manasikara) - translations - discuss and discover edited by Wisdom Quarterly

When Everything Falls Apart: Insight

When Everything Falls Apart – Seeing clearly through Buddhist wisdom on suffering

Drone filming off the pier

(Buddhism Podcast) Sept. 23, 2025: Buddhism Explained. What do we do when everything falls apart? This Buddhist podcast explores suffering (unsatisfactoriness, not being able to derive fulfillment from anything), radical impermanence, and healing through simple, clear insights from the Buddha's teachings. No fluff, no escape — just honest reflection, grounded wisdom, and gentle English for all listeners.

• 00:00 - When life breaks in our hands
• 03:25 - The First Truth: Suffering that arises from within
• 06:50 - Impermanence: the nature of everything
• 10:03 - Clear Seeing: a mind that no longer clings
• 13:17 - Healing isn’t pretending: It’s practice
• 16:43 - WHAT REMAINS?
• (FailArmy) Best Fails of the Year | Try Not To Laugh

Vipassana literally means "clear seeing"

The historical Buddha's goal was clearly seeing nirvana in this very life. Theravada follows this.

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Buddhism goes beyond mind to mysticism.

Vipassanā (Sanskrit vipaśyanā विपश्यना, Sinhalese විදර්ශනා) literally means "special, super (vi-), seeing (-passanā)" [3] and is generally referred to as "insight."

Samatha means "calm" [1], "serenity" [2], "tranquility of awareness" [Web 1]. They are two qualities of mind cultivated in tandem in Buddhist practice, with profound calm coupled with mindfulness (dispassionate awareness) serving as the basis for insight knowledges.

In the Pāli language canon and the Āgama, these qualities are not specific practices but elements of "a single path." They are "fulfilled" with the development (bhāvanā, "cultivation") of mindfulness (sati) and meditation (jhānas, lit. the meditative "absorptions") and other path-factors [4][5].

While absorption (jhāna) has a central role in the Buddhist path, vipassanā is rarely mentioned separately. It is usually described along with samatha [4][5] because they are steps towards one goal: liberating wisdom (panna, Sanskrit prajna). More: samatha-vipassanā

(DemocracyNow.org) Top U.S./World Headlines — Sept. 26, 2025

#BuddhistWisdom #Impermanence #WhenThingsFallApart #Suffering #Mindfulness

• FailArmy Best of the Year; Buddhism Podcast, 9/23/25; Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly Wiki edit

Poem: Death, be not proud; Buddhism

Why Death is NOT the end – The Buddha’s Wisdom on Dying and Beyond
(Buddhism Podcast) Sept. 11, 2025: Buddhism Explained. Discover the historical Buddha’s timeless wisdom on life, death, and what lies beyond [rebirth in endless samsara]. In Buddhism, death is not the end—it is a transition in the endless cycle of rebirth. This video explores key teachings such as

• mindfulness of death (maraṇasati),
• the Five Remembrances, and
• the Path to Nirvana (Nibbana)—the ultimate freedom beyond rebirth and death.

Through the story of the mother Kisagotami, the Buddha’s “Three Knowledges,” and profound insights into impermanence, we learn how to transform fear into understanding and live with clarity, compassion, and purpose. Let Death become a teacher, not something to fear.

• 00:00 - Death in Buddhism: Teachings from the Awakened One
• 06:56 - Why the Buddha understood Death so deeply
• 13:08 - From doubt to understanding, from understanding to liberation
• 19:03 - Living with this understanding.

Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud

By John Donne

Death, be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so;

For those whom thou think'st thou dost overthrow

Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and soul's delivery.

Thou art slave to fate, chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppy or charms can make us sleep as well

And better than thy stroke; why swell'st thou then?

One short sleep past, we wake eternally

And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die.

• "Death Be Not Proud," Wikipedia:

Mara's daughters: Craving, Lust, and Surfeit

"Sonnet X" is also known by its opening words as "Death Be Not Proud." It is a 14-line poem, a sonnet, by English poet John Donne (1572–1631), one of the leading figures in the metaphysical poets group of 17th-century English literature.

Written between February and August 1609, it was first published posthumously in 1633. The poem is included as one of the 19 sonnets that comprise Donne's Holy Sonnets or Divine Meditations, among his best-known works.

Most editions number the poem as the tenth in the sonnet sequence, which follows the order of poems in the Westmoreland Manuscript (c. 1620), the most complete arrangement of the cycle, discovered in the late 19th century.

However, two editions published shortly after Donne's death include the sonnets in a different order, where this poem appears as 11th in the Songs and Sonnets (published 1633) and sixth in Divine Meditations (published 1635).

What is it about?

What I meant was... (John Donne)

"Death Be Not Proud" presents an argument against the power of death. Addressing Death as a person, the speaker warns Death against pride in his power.

Such power is merely an illusion, and the end Death thinks it brings to men and women is in fact a rest from world-weariness for its alleged "victims."

The poet criticizes Death as a slave to other forces: fate, chance, kings, and desperate men. Death is not in control, for a variety of other powers exercise their volition in taking lives.

Even in the rest it brings, Death is inferior to drugs. Finally, the speaker predicts the end of Death itself, stating, "Death, thou shalt die." More

• Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud | The Poetry Foundation

Why practice Recollection of Death?

I didn't have to suffer? Robert Redford lost both sons: The darkest days of his life

BREAKING: Hollywood legend Robert Redford dead at age 89

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I am become Death (on TV)

"Recollection of death" (maranānussati) is one of the ten recollections treated in detail in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII):

The Buddha taught: ''Recollection of death, developed and frequently practiced, yields great reward, great blessing, has deathlessness (amata) as its goal and objective. But how may such recollection be developed?

"As soon as the day declines, as the night vanishes and the day is breaking, the meditator reflects:

I'm indestructible and strong.

One reflects, "Truly, there are many possibilities for me to die: I may be bitten by a serpent or be stung by a scorpion or a centipede, and thereby I may lose this life. This would be an obstacle for me. Or I may stumble and fall to the ground, or the food I eat may not agree with my health. Or [the humors] bile, phlegm, and piercing gases [bodily winds] may become disturbed. Humans or ghosts may attack me, and I may lose my life. This would be an obstacle for me."

Then a meditator considers thus: "Are there still to be found in me unsubdued unskillful, unwholesome things which, if I should die today or tonight, might lead me to greater suffering?"

Now, if one understands that this is the case, one should use one's utmost resolution, determination, energy (viriya), effort, endeavor, steadfastness, attentiveness, and clear-mindedness (sati-sampajanna) in order to overcome these harmful, unwholesome things" (A VIII, 74).

What does the Path of Purification advise?

Redford's children die tragically

In the Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII) it is said: "One who wishes to develop this meditation should retreat to solitude [a private, quiet place], and while living secluded one should wisely reflect: 'Death will come to me! The vital energy will be cut off!' Or [recall,] 'Death! Death!'

"To one who does not wisely reflect, sorrow may arise by thinking about [recalling] the death of a loved one, just as it does to a mother while thinking of the death of a beloved child.

"Again, by reflecting on the death of a disliked person, joy [schadenfreude] may arise -- just as enemies while thinking about the death of their enemies.

"Through thinking about the death of a neutral (indifferent) person, however, no emotion will arise, just as none arises in a worker whose work consists of cremating dead bodies at the sight of a dead body.

"By reflecting on one's own death fright may arise...just as at the sight of a murderer with drawn sword one becomes filled with terror.

Death, be not proud.

"Therefore, whenever seeing here or there slain or other dead [formerly living] beings, one should reflect on the death of such deceased persons who once lived in happiness.

One should rouse one's attentiveness, emotion, and knowledge and consider thus: 'Death will come, and so on.

Only in one who considers in this way, will the Five Hindrances (nīvarana) be repressed. Through the idea of death, attention becomes steadfast, and the exercise reaches [meditative] neighborhood-concentration (upacāra-samādhi).

According to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII), one may also reflect on death in the following various ways:

• One may think of Death [personified] as a murderer with a drawn sword standing in front of oneself;
• or one may bear in mind that all happiness ends in death;
• or that even the mightiest beings on this earth are subject to death;
• or that we must share this body with all innumerable worms and other tiny beings [microbes] residing throughout the intestines and tissues;
• or that life is something dependent on in-and-out breathing, and bound up with it; or that life continues only as long as the elements, food, breath, etc. are properly performing their functions; or that nobody knows when, where, and under what circumstances, death will take place, and what kind of fate we have to expect after death; or, that life is very short and limited. As it is said: 'Short, indeed, is this life of men, limited, fleeting, full or woe and torment; it is just like a dewdrop that vanishes as soon as the sun rises; like a water-bubble; like a furrow drawn in the water; like a torrent dragging everything along and never standing still; like cattle for slaughter that every moment look death in the face" (A. VII, 74).

Path of Purification (Nyanamoli)

The meditator devoted to this recollection of death is at all times indefatigable and gains the realization of disgust with regard to all forms [31 planes] of existence, gives up delight in [samsara, endless rebirth], detests evil [that traps one in experiencing the results of miserable karma], does not hoard up things, is free from stinginess with regard to the necessities of life.

1. And the realization of [radical] impermanence (anicca) becomes familiar.
2. And through pursuing it, the idea of disappointment (dukkha).
3. And the impersonal (anattā) nature of all things becomes present to one....

Free from fear and bewilderment will one pass away at death. And should that person not yet realize the Deathless State [full enlightenment, nirvana, arahantship] in this lifetime, one will at the dissolution of the body attain to a happy course of existence (Vis.M. VIII).

• See Buddhist Reflections on Death by V. F. Gunaratna (Wheel 102/103)
• Buddhism and Death by M.Q.C. Walshe (Wheel 260)
• Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary, maranānussati based on Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII), edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Why do people keep DYING, Fred Willard?

Fred Willard (Jimmy Kimmel Live!); reflections on life from the Editors, Wisdom Quarterly

Mara has a funny way of sneaking on you.

It's funny to ask, "Why do people keep dying?" And why ask funny Fred Willard? Of course they keep dying! We're all about death. That's what life is here in this short lived human plane (manusya loka). But it's not always this way; it lengthens and shortens through an aeon (kalpa).

According to Buddhist lore (as well as that of Hindu, Jain, Christianity, Judaism, and probably Islam, since it's Abrahamic and, some say, dreamt up by the Vatican), human life was previously much longer, and it will be again in the next Golden Age. Average lifespan is cyclical through the ages (yugas) of an aeon (kalpa). How short does it get? As brief as ten years. How long could it get? That's the mind blowing part. It can stretch out as long as 80,000 years.

That's no reason to be happy because it's all relative; compared to the average lifespan of the devas, 80 thousand years is not very long, and the pleasures the devas (the Greek type "gods") enjoy are far superior to human pleasures, and they are all mixed up with the same kind of nonsense we have here. But who believes the ancient sutras anyways?

In one very beautiful one, the Buddha tells of a time in the long gone by when there was a teacher, a kind of guru who taught his students, "Human life is short." Then he gave many beautiful analogies like dropping a sizzling piece of flesh on a red hot griddle or drawing a line on the surface of water with a reed or the morning dew evaporating off the grass. Human life is like that, very brief. Only thing is, that teacher lived long ago.

And at that time that he was teaching this very true fact, life was much longer than it is now. It helped the Buddha's listeners realize a sense of spiritual urgency (samvega) and to practice insight to realized the nature of radical-impermanence (anicca). It seems modern people always think they're so smart. But we constantly miss the point. The Buddha was not saying something so simplistic and banal as, "Things are impermanent.

See that hut over there? It's falling apart, and in a few years it'll be a heap of dust on the ground." Why would he waste anybody's time saying that? He was saying something far deeper that they couldn't fathom, know, or see. He was saying that at every moment things were collapsing, hurtling toward destruction, falling apart.

Now thanks to science we can see or at least intellectually appreciate that this is true: At an atomic level, everything moves so fast and changes, is constantly altering and vibrating and breaking bonds and reforming only to fall apart again that NOW we can see what he was talking about.

Because things are falling apart at that level, rubbing away constantly, on the macro level we eventually see change and transformation. But we do not only cling to the hut, we cling to every moment of this experience, this life, this identity when it's falling apart so fast that we could hardly keep it together to remember what we were in love with before we're onto something else.

The Buddha wasn't wasting time to say, "Don't cling to stuff (i.e., material things)." He was saying what do we really cling to most of all? The Five Aggregates: form (material stuff); feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, the software, the psychological, the things clung to as "self." That's falling apart, and if we saw that for even an instant, we'd let go and be free.

But instead we cling and laugh at the old time Indian gurus and Central Asian sages, like the Scythian (Shakyian) Shakyamuni. But never mind. Just keep being surprised that people die. Will i die, too? We'll miss Fred Willard. And Lil Dicky. The rapper? No, Little Richard the gay, flamboyant Father of Rock 'n Roll, "Lucille, Tutti Frutti, Good Golly Miss Molly," the guy who taught us all to dance.

Meditation: Mindfulness of Death (video)

Ven. Nyanatiloka (Anton Walther Florus Gueth, Buddhist Dictionary: Manual of Terms and Doctrines via palikanon.com; Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Mara (Death personified) has the power to shapeshift, like a yakkha or genie (djinn).

The best way to get the most out of this life is paradoxically to be mindful of death (SE).

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"Life" is so much more than we know.

Marana-ānussati or "mindfulness of death" is calling to mind, remembering, recollecting, contemplating the end of this run.

• [Due to the incessant cycling of rebirth in samsara, there are many more.]

It is one of the Ten Recollections treated in detail in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII):

''Recollection of death, frequently practiced and developed, yields great reward, great blessing, has deathlessness (nirvana) as its goal and object. How may such recollection be developed?

"As soon as the day declines, or as the night vanishes and the day is just breaking, the meditator reflects:

"Demons of Mara" palm leaf manuscript, Nalanda, Bihar

"'Truly, there are many possibilities for me to die: I may be bitten by a serpent or stung by a scorpion or centipede, and thereby I may lose my life [if I do not practice the protection against dying of snakebite]. And this would be an obstacle for me.

"'Or I may stumble and fall to the ground, or the food eaten by me may not agree with my health. Or bile, phlegm, and piercing bodily winds may become disturbing. Or humans or ghosts may attack me. Thus I may lose my life. And this would be an obstacle for me.'

"Then the meditator considers: 'Are there still to be found in me unsubdued defilements, unwholesome things which, if I should die this day or night, might lead me to suffering?'

"Now, if one understands that this is the case, one should use one's utmost resolution, energy, effort, endeavor, steadfastness, attentiveness, and clear-mindedness to overcome these unskillful, unwholesome things" (A VIII, 74).

The Path of [self-] Purification

Don't worry, Suze. Death is ulimtately unreal.

In the Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII) it says: "One who wishes to develop this meditation should retreat to solitude, and while living secluded should wisely reflect:

"'Death will come to me! The vital energy will be cut off!' or 'Death! Death!'

"To anyone who does not wisely reflect in this way, sorrow may arise by thinking about the death of a beloved person, just as happens for a mother thinking about the death of her beloved child.

"Again, by reflecting on the death of a disliked person, joy may arise, just as it does for enemies while thinking about the death of their enemies.

"By thinking about the death of an neutral (indifferent) person, however, no emotion arises, just as when a person whose work consists of cremating the dead has no feeling at the sight of a dead body.

I'll off myself slowly with this soda poison.

"But by reflecting on one's own death, fright may arise...just as at the sight of a murderer with drawn sword one becomes filled with horror.

"So whenever one sees a slain person or other dead beings, one should reflect on the death of such deceased persons who once lived in happiness. One rouses one's attentiveness, emotion, and knowledge and considers:

"'Death will come,' and so on.... Only in one who considers in this way, will the Five Hindrances (nīvarana) of mind be subdued. And through the idea of DEATH, attention becomes steadfast, and the exercise reaches neighborhood or access concentration (upacāra-samādhi)."

According to the Path of Purification (Vis.M. VIII), one may also reflect on death in the following various ways: One may think of Death (Mara or marana)

• as a murderer with a drawn sword standing there,
• or one may bear in mind that all happiness ends in death,
• or that even the mightiest beings on this earth are subject to death,
• or that we must share this body with all those innumerable worms (protozoa, bacteria, parasites) and other tiny beings residing in it,
• or that life is something dependent on in-and-out breathing and intimately bound up with it,
• or that life continues only so long as the elements, food, breath, [karma], and so on are properly performing their functions,
• or that nobody knows when, where, and under what circumstances death will take place or what kind of fate we have to expect after death
• or that life is very short and limited.

Continued cycling of samsara: again rebirth

"For as it is said, 'Short, indeed, is this life of humans, limited, fleeting, full or woe and torment. It is just like a dewdrop that vanishes as soon as the sun rises, a water bubble, a line drawn on water, a torrent dragging everything along and never standing still, cattle for slaughter that every moment stare death in the face" (A. VII, 74).

"The meditator devoted to this recollection of death is at all times indefatigable and thereby gains the idea of disgust with regard to all forms of existence, lets go of delight about life, detests wrongdoing [harming], no longer hoards things, is free from stinginess with regard to the necessities of life.

"And the idea of impermanence (anicca) becomes familiar. By pursuing this idea, the idea of unavoidable-disappointment (dukkha) [misery, the inability to find fulfillment through things] and of the impersonal (anatta, selfless) nature of all things become apparent to one [who continues to reflect in this way]....

Peace of Mind: "I'm Afraid"

(Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo) LYRICS: Afraid of the dark/Afraid of the light/Don't walk in the park/Afraid of the night/Afraid to get stabbed/Or hit by a car/Afraid of the streets/Afraid to go far/Afraid of the sky/Don't like to be high/I don't want to fall/Afraid I might die/Afraid of my friends/Don't like to be seen/Afraid to be nice/Afraid to be mean/Afraid that the wind/Will knock over trees/Afraid of my dog/Afraid of his fleas//

Hey, come on, Monkey Baby, don't be dead.

[CHORUS:] Peace of mind/Peace of mind/Hard to keep/Hard to find/Look ahead/Look behind/Looking for/Peace of mind/Peace of mind/Can't relax/Can't unwind/Deep inside/Secret mind/Oh no!//

Afraid to be caught/Afraid to be free/Afraid to make love/Afraid of VD/Afraid of the rain/Don't make me get wet/Afraid to take drugs/They make me forget/Afraid that the air/Will make me get sick/Afraid that the girls/Will cut off my...OHHH!/Someone tell me how it happened/Why my head is so confused/Can it be my circuits finally blew a fuse?/Can a human being really change into a humanoid?/Or is my imagination paranoid?/All I need is peace and quiet/Maybe just a little time/Turn the channel!/Turn the channel!/Piece of mind/Peace of mind//

[Chorus]//Afraid of success/Afraid to grow old/Afraid that my brain/Is covered with mold/Afraid that I might/Be put on a shelf/But last but not least, oh!/Afraid of myself!

"Free from fear and bewilderment, one will pass away [peacefully] at death. And if one does not yet realize the Deathless State (nirvana) in this lifetime, one will at the dissolution of the body attain to a happy course of existence" (Vis.M. VIII).

• Buddhist Reflections on Death (V.F. Gunaratna, Wheel 102/103)
• Buddhism and Death (Maurice O'Connell Walshe, Wheel #260)

Worship of The Fart God (really)

Ashley Cowie (Ancient Origins); Pat Macpherson, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

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From Fart God to farting out one’s soul: The historic ritualization of flatulence

They command attention, bring silence into noisy environments, and have been associated with the utterances of gods for thousands of years. In fact, entire rituals have been designed around them. Farts. Who would believe it?

The spiritualization of farting was not restricted to northern latitudes. Specialist in the history of gastric wind Prof. Valerie Allen wrote the groundbreaking book On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages, in which we learn that most medieval theologians recorded farting as “the product of decomposition…the mark of death.”

Manichaeism was a mystical religion based on dualistic principals that at one time claimed to have had St. Augustine among its members. He believed farts were the act of "freeing divine light from the body” and St. Augustine also referred to people who could produce odorless “musical sounds” like “singing” from their behinds.

Pythagoras, Raphael School of Athens

The philosopher Pythagoras believed the soul (pneuma) was breath [spiritus, prana], and because a fart was a sort of breath, as he was struggling with the mechanics of trigonometry, he was also concerned that if a person pushed hard enough they might “fart out his or her soul.”

The ancient origins of “fart fearing” is better understood when we consider that several wars having been directly provoked by farts. In Book II Chapter XI of Josephus’ Wars of the Jews we are told it was a “randomly presented fart” that set off a chain of events that led to the revolt against the 6th century King Apries of Egypt.

He wrote “an irreverent Roman soldier lowered his pants, bent over,” and “spoke such words as you might expect upon such a posture.” A steely silence spread over Jerusalem and because the unforeseen incident took place shortly before the Passover, a riot broke out to capture the farter “that led to the deaths of over 10,000 people.”

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Hegassen scroll detail of a "Fart Battle," 1864, Japanese art (wikimedia)

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Zen of Farting (Reepah Gud Wan)

Interestingly, what is considered by many historians to be the oldest joke in the world is a fart joke. An ancient Sumerian proverb dated to about 1900 BC reads:

“Something which has never

occurred since time immemorial:

a young woman did not

fart in her husband’s lap.”

• [Modern Christian fart joke told in the style of a Confucian aphorism: “Man who fart in church sit in his own pew.”]

Historian Robert Bartlett in 2000 published England Under the Norman and Angevin Kings, 1075-1225, in which he told the story of Roland le Sarcere, also known as "Roland the Farter."

This court minstrel to King Henry II of England did a famous dance that ended with the execution of “a jump, a whistle, and a fart.”

For his anal accomplishments, Roland was gifted a manor house in Suffolk with 100 acres of land. Roland’s fart act was so beloved that subsequent chroniclers repeated his story and expanded his biography, “a process that inadvertently extended his lifespan to 120 years.”

Farting in the New World

Innu traders, Davis Inlet, Labrador, 1903.

For thousands of years, the ancestors of the Mushuau Innu (or Montagnais) people inhabited the northeastern portion of the present-day province of Quebec (above the state of Maine) and parts of the eastern portions of Labrador, known as Nitassinan (“Our Land”).

Scholar Marie Wadden, in her 1991 book The Innu Struggle to Reclaim Their Homeland tells us, “The people trapped moose, caribou, deer, and small game, and they also farmed and fished.”

The native Innu people
(DER) Slow genocide: Ruined life of First Nations people of Labrador, Canada, the Mushuau Innu

The Fart God Matshishkapeu

Matshishkapeu the legend (uncyc.org)

The Innu have an odd god. Their language is known as Innu-ainum, part of the "Cree" language group (Algonquian). Speakers of this language worship a range of hunting- and animal-gods [kami], while paying homage to animal spirits.

In 1987 American researcher Peter Armitage wrote "Religious Ideology Among the Innu of Eastern Quebec and Labrador.” In it he studied the Innu god Matshishkapeu ("The Farting God" or, lit., the "Fart Man") and commented on his “unusual omnipresence,” which makes him unique among mythological beings:

“He is everywhere, both inside the tent and outside; he is always with you no matter where you may travel.”

Ancient-Origins.net Magazine

Although Matshishkapeu existed everywhere, he was best known to the Innu as the “fart god,” and this “spirit of the anus [rectum or colon] conversed with the Innu with great frequency” especially while hunting, trapping, fishing, and gathering (Armitage, 1987).

Matshishkapeu was a humorous god, and his “popping up,” was an important source of laughter to the Innu while facing the life-threatening hunt, but he was also thought of as one of the most powerful spirits, able to control the “Caribou Master, as well as humans.”

Matshishkapeu was the most powerful spirit in the Innu world, and he often roared when “the Caribou Master refused to give the Innu caribou to eat.” Scholar B. C. Goddard wrote Rangifer and Man: An ancient relationship in 2003 and observed that within Innu myths, Matshishkapeu “cursed the Caribou Master with constipation and then cured him of his ailment.”

Iñupiat dance, Nome, 1900, offerings to fart god

Furthermore, Armitage noted in his 1987 paper that “Matshishkapeu’s utterances are usually cryptic,” according to what “an Innu hunter said.”

Legends and myths state “that you have to concentrate hard in order to understand what is being said,” but “every single fart,” no matter how glorious or humble was believed to be Matshishkapeu giving an important message.

A sudden unannounced rumble required immediate translation. And a surprise fart, delivered at an inappropriate time, interrupting the tranquility of camp life, called for a specialist interpreter who questioned all the witnesses and let everyone know what the fart was saying. More

(CBC) First Nations "Land and Sea: Mushuau Innu," circa 1970

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