ABSTRACT

This chapter presents the concept of death and the use of death imagery in Buddhism. An understanding of the Upanishadic concept of karma and transmigration of the soul is crucial to an understanding of the later Buddhist view of death. Mara is a powerful god whose kingdom includes the earth, hell, and the spheres of desire. The Buddhist doctrine of rebirth seems to conform faithfully to the theory propounded by the Upanishadic sages. The fierce wind that is karma propels the disincamate, intermediate being toward rebirth. There are allusions to postmortem punishment in the Rig–Veda, it is not until one reads the Atharva–Veda that one finds explicit descriptions of hell. The meditations on the corpses take place in a cemetery or cremation area, where one has access to corpses in different stages of decay. Death imagery has played a crucial role in the meditative tradition of Buddhism.