(Page 13-15 Achievement of Rainbow Light Body - volume seven)
Translated by Yuan Zheng Tang

As death signifies unluckiness, it is generally considered a taboo, although most Buddhists do not shun away from the topic.

Rev. Lian Chi , an accomplished monk always displayed the word "death" on his bed. Likewise Rev. Yin Guang, another accomplished monk would write it on a big piece of paper and asked his followers to recite the word aloud. He even told them that they will receive all kinds of benefit from doing so.

Why ? There are three reasons:

Firstly , our greed will be lessened if the word is imprinted in our mind. Whenever our greed, love and desire arise, death will extinguish them. Eventually all our desires will be snuffed out . In short, death can be the antidote of greed and desire.

Secondly, We will be even more altruistic , that is we would consider the well-being and happiness of others first. Because of impending death, we will do a lot more good deeds when we are alive to fulfill the Bodhisattva vow of helping others. Once the word death is imprinted in our mind, we will not be self-centered ; we will do kinds of good deeds. By so doing, we will become egoless in no time.

Thirdly, we will know the hard fact that we are approaching death. Most children and youngsters do not understand death. By middle age, we will have an inkling of what it is; and once we reach old age we can literally feel the proximity of death. When we are old, the word death will always appear in front of us and we will always wonder when we are going to leave this world. Such thoughts do not occur when we are young. The might of death is able to force us to learn Buddhism, to recite the names of Buddhas, to do spiritual cultivation as we do not want to be too late. Pressured by death, we will want to know what will happen to our life after we die. We are motivated do cultivation and hope to reap the spiritual fruit. Afraid of death, a lot of cultivators do repentance, learn Buddhism, follow the path of Buddha in order to solve their after life problems.

Buddhism can help those who are alive , more so for those who are dead, as Buddhadharma is supposed to solve the problem of death. It will show you a way to the six realms of existence, and the four saintly dharma realms. Thinking of the impending death, many old folks scurry to the faith of Buddhism. Youngsters are a different kettle altogether, why ? The word "death" never crosses their mind. They will only think of it when they are old. The word death will remind us that our days are numbered and we should learn Buddhism - to find a solution to our next life.

These must be the reasons why Rev.Yin Guan and Lian Chi wanted their followers to contemplate on death. Without the aspiration gained from contemplating death, we will not want to do our cultivation. Nor will we want to make a Bodhisattva vow, as a result our greed will not be totally eradicated.. The most important benefits we can glean from the word "death" are "greed eradication" and "making vow to walk the Buddha path."

Om Mani Padme Hum