Fear of Death

The mortality rate for Covid-19 is quite low, but it is still a crap shoot. Certain factors make people more likely to die from the virus, but there is no guarantee that anyone who gets it will survive.

Given the pressure on hospitals of treating huge numbers of Covid patients, getting the vaccine, including the booster, which dramatically reduces the likelihood of hospital admission, and of death, is still a good idea.

Lots of people are expressing their fear of death as a result of the pandemic right now.

But fear of death is the core problem, in some sense, from the Buddhist perspective, or the core result. After he awakened, the Buddha had no fear of death because he saw the end of that lifetime as the fruition of his many preceding lifetimes and he knew he would never die again because he would never be born again.

In 1981, Rangjung Dorje, the 16th Karmapa, or spiritual leader of the Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, died at a hospital in Illinois. There is a fascinating account of how confused the medical personnel felt in trying to treat him. Most people in his situation suffer terrible pain, but the Karmapa never reported any. His amazing presence and lovingkindness towards the staff made a huge impression on everyone.

He finally died of a heart attack, after the doctor tried to resuscitate him much longer than he usually would. He finally gave up and pronounced the Karmapa dead, only to have his pulse and blood pressure return to normal a few minutes later.