For my entire life I've been taught that death and dying are bad, and possibly the worst thing that can happen to a person. So when I learned how focused on death Buddhism is, it struck me as very pessimistic. First impressions can be deceiving though.
There exists the the idea that you die every moment, as each state of consciousness exists for only a moment, before it fades and dies. At first, this struck me as especially disheartening, why would someone want to believe that every moment, the worst thing that can happen to a person happens? Upon further inspection, I noticed that the fact that states of consciousness exist for only a moment allows us to let go of negative emotions, and not dwell on them forever. Like when that guy on the freeway cuts you off, you get angry for a moment or two, and then, if you are practiced in meditation and the Buddhist teachings, you just let it pass and move on with more positive emotions.
The large focus on death and suffering is meant as a wakeup call to us. We (all people) have become so complacent with worldly pleasures that we have become blinded to the truth. This First Noble Truth, the truth of duhkha, proclaims that life as ordinarily lived is dissatisfactory.(BI 47) Buddhist monks sometimes meditate in the cremation grounds when they become confused as to why they are trying to reach enlightenment. This shock treatment serves to remind the monk about the truth of life, and helps him remember that he is trying to find freedom from suffering.
An old adage goes something to the effect of If it isn't broke, don't fix it. Without this wake up call to alert us that life isn't as carefree and perfect as many seem to think, there would be no reason to follow the Buddhist teachings at all. The realization that everything isn't OK in life and that in actuality, to live is to suffer, is a hard realization to come to terms to for many people. As pessimistic as the thought is, nothing can be fixed without knowing that something is wrong. We are suffering even though we do not realize it, our minds have learned to filter out irritants and discomfort. This was proved in a study where both non Buddhist lay people, and Buddhist monks were put in a room, and a device was started that would make a small click every few seconds, and was left to run for a length of time. Eventually, the lay people unconsciously ignored the sound, it was as if they didn't even know it existed. The monks, on the other hand, heard every click as loud as the first click was. They had taught themselves to seeand hearthe truth, even when we would instinctively block it out.
Once we have realized that, in fact, we ARE suffering, the next step to a solution is to find the cause of the problem. In this case, we are searching for the reason that we are suffering continuously. The second noble truth that Buddha realizes is the source of the suffering. It is craving, which gives rise to repeated existence, is bound up with pleasure and list, and always seeks fresh enjoyment here and there; that is, sensual craving, craving for existence and craving for nonexistence (BH 62-63).
It is said that people hate change. There are many theories that try to explain why, or try to disprove this statement. I would argue that people like change, but they are afraid of losing control, so to speak. With change comes new experiences that are unfamiliar to them, and some may be uncomfortable at first. In fact, I believe a monk would argue that no matter how small the change, any new situation is a bit uncomfortable at first. This uncomfortability might stem from the fact that they don't know how to react when a new situation presents itself. In essence, they are clinging to their old selves, who knew what to do in a given situation. Their old selves were in control of the situations they were in. In actuality, their old selves wouldn't have been able to react to an unfamiliar situation any better than their current self. In fact, Buddhism goes one step farther and says that there is no self, because people are always changing, and to try to define something to be our self would be trying to assign permenance to something that has no static form to nail down.
This longing for permenance is but one kind of craving that is responsible for suffering. Some people (myself included) spend a lot of time thinking about how things could have been. For example, what would have happened if I had responded to this situation differently? Or it would have been nice if some event would have happened differently (one I hear a lot is people fantasizing about what they would do if they won the lottery). This kind of wishful thinking is sometimes helpful, but in the vast majority of cases, it only causes grief and indecision, and some people find themselves more interested in what doesn't exist or didn't happen than concentrating on what actually exists and happened. They serve as objects of attachment, an obstacle in the path to enlightenment.
As horrible as all this suffering sounds, the point of exploring it is to try to realize how to escape from it. The third noble truth is the answer to being free from suffering. That is, to completely stop all craving of all kinds, renouncing it, and distancing yourself from it. This is something that is easy to say, but hard to do. Luckily, the fourth noble truth explains a path to removing yourself from craving. It is the Eightfold path: Right Understanding, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration. These 8 concepts are often split into three groups: wisdom, morality, and concentration. Wisdom is the base way of thinking to best lead you along the road to enlightenment. Morality is the base morals of the Buddhists. Concentration is the way to purify ones spirit and mind to prepare for enlightenment.