Death can be Cheated?

[Benny]

There is no cheating death, personally i do not believe that the practice was meant to achieve that. It is in my opinion that this  tradition of the Thai Buddhist was method used as a purification practice or a practice to remind themselves about death and impermanence . Maybe to remind them how precious human life is and to put their life to good use and not to commit negative actions.

So , indirectly these belief does indeed has its effectiveness because whichever person who has gone through that process would most likely become more mindful of Death. As such they would most likely do more good deeds and avoid negative ones, and in the process these people manage to prolong their life. For , example liberating animals that are bound for slaughter.

[Aurore]

This is a probably a method how Thais practice death meditation which became a superstitious believe over time or as a method to "cheat" people to engage in this act by promoting as a life prolonging method.

Here's an excerpt from Dalai Lama's book "Becoming Enlightened" about death meditation:-
----------
To make us mindful of death, the Buddha taught meditation on death. If you are mindful of death, you will be drawn into thinking of many things, particularly whether there is life after death. Even if you suspect that there is, you will take interest in the quality of that life — what it might be like.

This will lead you to think about Karma, the cause and effect of action, thereby drawing you away from choosing activities of harmful nature and encouraging you to engage in activities that are beneficial. This itself will lend your life a positive purpose.

If you try to avoid even the mention of death, then on the day when death comes, you may be frightened. However, if you contemplate the fact that death happens naturally to all living beings, this can make a big difference. When you become familiar with death, you can make preparations for dying, and decide what you should do with your mind at that time. On that day your preparation will have its effect; you will think “Ah, death has come,” and you will act as you had planned, free from fright.
-----

Once realisation kicks in, one may do meritorious work and positive deeds. This act itself can perhaps prolong one's life.

"The sooner a person begins to meditate on the meaning of death, the sooner a person begins to truly live."

[Dondrup Shugden]

While everything is impermanent, death is inevitable.  No cheating of death and the other point to know is we never know when it will come.

The practice in Thailand to lie in a coffin is not to cheat death nor to void of bad luck, a friend of mine practised this under the supervision of a Buddhist teacher and the lesson is to accept death and do good with your life so that this precious human life is not wasted. Living your life along the Buddhist philosophy of benefitting others will enable a better rebirth but at most level we do not even remember our past lives.  So having been exposed to the Dharma, it is important to at least ensure that we may be reborn in a realm whereby our Buddhist practice can continue.

Even if we do have a great desire to prolong our lives, let it be lived in true meaning and be in the Dharma to benefit all sentient beings. 

[MoMo]

This practice of lying in a coffin to my belief is equivalent to Tibetan death meditation  or monks meditate in front of skeleton to accelerate and familiar oneself with mortality or impermanence of all phenomena that all these will cease to be one day but the most bizarre things that happened here was akin to the games we played of whispering a simple message down the line in a long queue of participants . The final message that the last person perceived was totally obscured from the original ! The claimed purpose of it will prolong one’s life could came out from some reporters or writers interviewing some villagers that have no basic understanding of Buddhism practice  or trying to write an article  to increase viewership due to of its obscure or bizarre nature. It could also be true that someone  could take steps to improve their health and valuing his human existence  more when they realized how vulnerable  life could be  by experiencing mock death.

[Jason Statham]

I wouldn't say that death can be cheated, I would much rather to say that death is depended or rather judged by our karma. Some people throughout their lives, they might have some incidents, they were close to death and they might think that they cheated death or something but in reality it is just our karma. Sometimes we fully suffer the whole consequences is because of our merits as well. Karma and good merits are depended whether if they are open or not. We have to always cherish our lives and hold it well because it is extremely extremely difficult to be reborn as a human. So practice the dharma, do not let this precious life slip away, once it slips away, it will be very hard to regain it.
 

[yontenjamyang]

Death is the only sure thing in life. Yes perhaps we can "cheat" death some of the time but not all the time. Eventually it will come as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow.  Perhaps even more sure than that. And we do not know when. Hence, we must treat it that we have very little time and must be diligent it the practice of the Dharma by first taking refuge and by the practice of renunciation, boddhicitta and wisdom.

Ironically, the results of Dharma practice ie, Liberation and Enlightenment is the only sure fire way to "cheat" death and we call this "deathlessness".

[cookie]

I don't believe anyone can "cheat" death as per say. Very high practitioners e.g  High Lamas can control their time of death and time and location of rebirth etc. But they will still manifest close to the normal death situation with the exception of extra special conditions like Thukdam (death meditation), where the body resting in the state of the Ground Luminosity: There is still a certain color and glow in their face, the nose does not sink inward, the skin remains soft and flexible, the body does not become stiff, the eyes are said to keep a soft and compassionate glow, and there is still a warmth at the heart. Great care is taken that the master’s body is not touched, and silence is maintained until he or she has arisen from this state of meditation.

[Joo Won]

When I was young I heard about people talking "preparing coffin" in advance or during one's middle age as a way to pro-long one's life. The practice in Thailand mentioned by Jessie seems similiar to this.

I guess different culture has different perspective on death. I visited to a place named Troja in Indonesia few years back; and learned that the people there keep their departed loved one's body in the house, lay on the bed they use to sleep on and live together with the dead, until they manage to arrange a big big funeral. For them death is a big and important festival compare to birth.

However, you can never cheat King of Death...you can't buy time with mountain of money you have; nor can you bribe to delay your death. Only Dharma can help during the time of death. 

[eyesoftara]

The principal behind this practice is to "die" and hence complete the karma for this lifetime similar to purification practices. And the monk will then do prayers to invite a better "life" for the person wishing to do this. In that way, the luck of the person is change for the better.

I do not know if this work or not. Maybe it will have some effects similar to making wrathful offerings to the Yidams. Otherwise, logically, as all the aggregates (certainly) the form aggregate is the same, there is not much effective change expect perhaps some purification is performed.

[Midakpa]

This seems to be a superstitious practice but it might help the person to realise impermanence or to rid himself/herself of the fear of death.

In Buddhism, death is one of the four Maras and one's practice, in order to attain Buddhahood, is to overcome the four Maras or demons: the Mara of the delusions, the Mara of the contaminated aggregates, the Mara of death, and Devaputra Mara. "All four are called mara (obstacle) because they prevent the attainment of nirvana, the deathless state.” (Asanga, ?r?vakabh?mi). The Mara of death can be defined as "the factor that, due to actions and afflictions, terminates the life faculty against one’s will." This Mara causes the time of death for sentient beings among the types of sentient beings.

Here is what Lama Tsongkhapa said regarding the four Maras:

“The Mara of the afflictions (delusions) does not exist from the eighth stage (bhumi) on. Regarding the Mara of death, death due to actions and afflictions does not occur from the first stage on, but the transmigration (’chi ’pho ba) of mind and body is not overcome until the attainment of Buddhahood. Therefore, the Mara of death and the Mara of the aggregates exist until the attainment of Buddhahood. Since the deity Mara [Devaputra] impedes [the defeat] of the [other] three, it exists as long as those three continue to operate.” (Tsongkhapa, "Golden Rosary").

From the above description, it can be seen that there are the coarse as well as the subtle forms of the Mara of death. How does one destroy the Mara of death on the Hinayana and on the Mahayana paths? According to Tsongkhapa's disciple, Gyaltsab Je, "On the Hinayana path, one destroys the Mara of death when one becomes an arhat who is both fully liberated from the afflictive obstructions and is a master of meditative absorption. ... [On the Mahayana path] the Bodhisattva ... destroys the coarse Mara of death at the eighth stage because he abandons the Mara of death who causes death through coarse exertion." (Gyaltsab Dharma Rinchen, in Donald S. Lopez Jr., "The Heart Sutra Explained")