The PDF document I posted, “In the Mirror of Death” has the section, “Death in t
The PDF document I posted, “In the Mirror of Death” has the section, “Death in the Modern World.” In it, Sogyal Rinpoche gives his views of death in the modern and technically advanced west, juxtaposing that against the very traditional Buddhist upbringing he received in Tibet. As I was reading through that section, it brought me back to an earlier reading I had you do, specifically, the Erich Fromm reading about death in the Middle Ages. If you recall that reading, Fromm maintained that in the Middle Ages, although there was a lack of what we might call today, “individual freedom’ – this was not really perceived as a deficit because the individual as we understand the concept now simply did not exist then. Most of you rightly pointed out in that assignment that the Church in Medieval times was the dominant ideology of the day. This got me thinking about Sogyal Rinpoche’s experiences growing up as a monk in a Buddhist order in Tibet. Certainly Buddhism would have been his dominant ideology (as well as the dominant ideology of all those he interacted with). With that in mind it is not difficult to understand his shock in seeing the way western culture treats death. Your assignment here is to tell me – based upon the glimpse of Buddhism you have seen thus far – do you think Buddhism has any contribution to make to the west’s understanding of death and dying? Why / why not?
*I’m going to be evaluating these papers based upon your ability to use the actual materials I gave to you. Please do not use outside sources! You need to demonstrate that you have watched the movie, done the readings, and given careful consideration to the question. You should probably plan on writing about 2 pages.
*So you know: Your responses to this will almost assuredly necessitate our diving a bit deeper into Buddhism still.