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“All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will become otherwise and will become separated from me”— Siddhartha Gautama. As a Buddhist we do “contemplation of de
by shekharshan 6y ago
“All that is mine, beloved and pleasing, will become otherwise and will become separated from me”— Siddhartha Gautama.
As a Buddhist we do “contemplation of death” meditation on a regular basis. It involves imagining our last few hours on our deathbed. It is a wonderful exercise to help put things in context. It makes you behave differently towards people you meet, even strangers.
- podgaj 6y agoI have spent hours mediating in graveyards. Also helpful is the mediation on the 32 parts of the body to help you loosen your attachment. https://www.imsb.org/contemplating-the-32-parts-of-the-body/ https://www.imsb.org/contemplating-the-32-parts-of-the-body/
- shekharshan 6y agoThank you so much! I have Shaila Katherine’s book “Focused and Fearless” but not completed the reading. She is an amazing teacher.
- _nalply 6y agoElliot Dallen said: "Life is for enjoyment." True. In other words you shouldn't do the 32 body parts contemplation if you are not yet ready to drop attachment to life enjoyments.
- pegasus 6y agoI meditate regularly, but I think this type of exercise is misguided and betrays the body-denying/denigrating bias that can be often found in religious traditions world-wide. It encourages an ignorant attitude towards the body: instead of contemplating the miracles of the muscular system, see it as amorphous flesh. Amplify the spurious association of the skeleton with the malnourished body it resembles, instead of marveling at the ingenious way it serves it's (many) purposes, and so on.
- andreilys 6y agoYou are not your body nor your mind. That is a core tenant of most Buddhist philosophy.
- david-gpu 6y agoNot everybody is a Buddhist. Convincing somebody who has different beliefs involves more than restating one's beliefs.
- andreilys 6y agoYou can test it out for yourself. You don’t need to identify as a Buddhist to come to the conclusion that you are not your body.
- EamonnMR 6y agoThat's like saying you are not your car; while you're driving the distinction is less important than keeping between the lines and watching for pedestrians.
- podgaj 6y agoI am a Daoist like everyone else is a Gravitist. You all believe gravity because you feel it work and it was explained and named to you. You feel Daoism and Buddhism work as well but no one has explained to to you.
- Smaug123 6y agoYou made the stronger claim that I am not my mind either, though. You do have to identify as something in order to come to that conclusion.
- podgaj 6y agoHa! The identification is the delusion we are all afflicted with! If you were your body why can't you tell it to live forever?
- thrav 6y agoYou reminded me of the close of one of my favorite Philosophize This episodes on Authenticity: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GfkJEWnsNy4 https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GfkJEWnsNy4
- l_davis 6y agoIn my sect of Buddhism, we don't do "contemplation of death" meditation. What we are taught is to consider our last moment before death, so we can approach it (which is the beginning of our existence in death) in the proper way. And that, in my understanding, boils down to establishing the correct foundation during our life.
- timwaagh 6y agoDoesn't this practice and especially the choice of adjectives make light out of something very serious and infinitely sad?
- Icedcool 6y agoNot at all. It encourages you to contemplate something that we will all face, and through contemplation, use the time you have, better now.
- xeromal 6y agoOn the opposite, you'll appreciate those small moments more because this might be the last moment you have. Reminding yourself of death often keeps you from taking life for granted. I think Americans hide from death too much. We try to put boxes around it. I say this as one. I envy cultures where they're more open and public about it. I'l say that New Orleans does something right. They have parade parties when a loved one dies.
- wunderflix 6y agoSometimes, when I talk to my 4 year old son, I imagine how we will have our last goodbye talk on my death bed. How we will both know that this is the last moment together, how we both will be mourning. It makes me incredibly sad, and, at the same time it helps me to make better decisions in life. Choosing spending time with him instead of surfing the web for no reason for example.
- andreilys 6y agoI’d also invite you to contemplate the reverse: a last goodbye talk on his death bed. I find contemplating the absence of others to be much more powerful than my own return back to the void.
- ido 6y agoI think that's a great point and I'm absolutely not going to do that - I can't bring myself to imagine my children will die before me.
- stack_underflow 6y agoReminded me of this: http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/78realprosperity.html http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/78realprosperity.html
- 50 6y agoIn similar vein, I recommend checking out The Bardo Thodol (AKA The Tibetan Book of the Dead) by Padmasambhava.
- JKCalhoun 6y ago"And if I think everything belongs to me, How wrong I'll be, none of us have anything." — Broadcast Not trying to be a jackass. I think this short, sweet, spiritual song about the material world and after is poignant. All the more bittersweet considering the untimely death of the singer.
- noir_lord 6y agoSounds similar to how the stoics spend time contemplating the absolute worst thing they can imagine happening because then anything after that is an improvement.