Two sermons on death

Two meanings of 'sermon'. (1) A religious or moral speech, like the Buddha's sermon on death. (2) Informally, a long lecture of advice, like a parent's 'behave in front of the guests'. 'Oh, not again!' is how children sometimes react to the second kind. But parents have seen life, and they don't want you to repeat their mistakes.

'Death Is Nothing At All'. Henry Scott Holland (1847–1918), a priest at St Paul's Cathedral in London, spoke these words in a sermon in 1910. In them the dead person speaks to the family.

What the dead person asks. Think of me as gone only into the next room. Use the old name for me. Talk to me as easily as before. Laugh at the old jokes we shared. Don't change your voice to a sad, serious one. Not seeing me is no reason to forget me. I am waiting for you, close by. Everything is fine.

The Buddha's sermon. The Buddha teaches Kisa Gotami that death comes to everyone. Weeping cannot bring anyone back; it only hurts the one who weeps. Peace comes from accepting this and giving up selfish grief.

Alike and different. Both comfort people who have lost someone, and both say death cannot be escaped and weeping will not undo it. But Holland speaks as the dead person, saying the bond goes on; the Buddha speaks to the grieving mother, teaching her to accept death through a task (the mustard seed).