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Student of the Path : Mindfulness of Death Series, aka "Run Away! Run Away!"
So we come to the fourth article for this series. I’ve decided to make this a five part series like metta or else this article would have been too long, so next week will be the final piece. Before that final piece I wanted to discuss two suttas from the Aṇguttara Nikāya 6.19 & 6.20, Maranassati Sutta: Mindfulness of Death (1 & 2). I want to put these in here to emphasize the importance the Buddha put on this practice.
AN 6.19:
“The Blessed One said, "Mindfulness of death, when developed & pursued, is of great fruit & great benefit. It gains a footing in the Deathless, has the Deathless as its final end. Therefore you should develop mindfulness of death."
When this was said, a certain monk addressed the Blessed One, "I already develop mindfulness of death.And how do you develop mindfulness of death?"
"I think, 'O, that I might live for a day & night, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal.' This is how I develop mindfulness of death."
Then another monk addressed the Blessed One, "I, too, already develop mindfulness of death……"I think, 'O, that I might live for a day…..
Then another monk addressed the Blessed One….."I think, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to eat a meal…..
Then another monk addressed the Blessed One……”I think, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up four morsels of food……
Then another monk addressed the Blessed One, "…… "I think, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food…..
Then another monk addressed the Blessed One, "…... "I think, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal.' This is how I develop mindfulness of death."
When this was said, the Blessed One addressed the monks. "Whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for a day & night... for a day... for the interval that it takes to eat a meal... for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up four morsels of food, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedlessly.
"But whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food... for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedfully. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents.
"Therefore you should train yourselves: 'We will dwell heedfully. We will develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents.' That is how you should train yourselves."
So the Buddha called even those who dwell in mindfulness of death for the length of time it takes to chew some morsels “heedless”, now that’s rough! Having mindfulness of death in every breath is a lofty goal but one we can work towards. The breath is a wonderful tool because it shows us the life cycle. The breath comes in, it arises, is born. It fills the lungs and comes to a climax, a point where you cannot get any higher, the lungs are full to capacity. This is like a person who is born and then is in the prime of life.
That’s not the end though is it, all things being impermanent. From that high peak there begins a decline, a decay, the breath slowly exits the body until it is no more, that is where we can see death, until the arising of new life with the intake of yet another breath, and the cycle continues on and on. This cycle can be seen in the very small (cells) and the very large (galaxies), it permeates existence.
When we are heedful, then we are fully aware of this cycle, of birth, life, and death, and its sway over us begins to lessen. Mindfulness of death helps us move towards equanimity of our situation, a situation that we are utterly powerless to change, no matter how hard we try.
There are those in the scientific community who are currently working on ways to stop the aging process. Even if we became near immortal beings who expanded into the cosmos, one day trillions of years from now the universe itself will be a dead empty hulk, unable to support life, or it will collapse in on itself, either way we will die with it. With a cycle that not even the universe itself can escape, I don’t hold out any hopes that humanity can succeed in its quest, nor frankly would I want to live forever, better to live mindful and heedful here for as long as we have, this is the way of peace.
Moving on to the next Sutta:
AN 6.20
"Monks, mindfulness of death — when developed & pursued — is of great fruit & great benefit. It gains a footing in the Deathless, has the Deathless as its final end. And how is mindfulness of death developed & pursued so that it is of great fruit & great benefit, gains a footing in the Deathless, and has the Deathless as its final end?
"There is the case where a monk, as day departs and night returns, reflects: 'Many are the [possible] causes of my death. A snake might bite me, a scorpion might sting me, a centipede might bite me. That would be how my death would come about. That would be an obstruction for me. Stumbling, I might fall; my food, digested, might trouble me; my bile might be provoked, my phlegm... piercing wind forces [in the body] might be provoked. That would be how my death would come about. That would be an obstruction for me.' Then the monk should investigate: 'Are there any evil, unskillful mental qualities unabandoned by me that would be an obstruction for me were I to die in the night?' If, on reflecting, he realizes that there are evil, unskillful mental qualities unabandoned by him that would be an obstruction for him were he to die in the night, then he should put forth extra desire, effort, diligence, endeavor, undivided mindfulness, & alertness for the abandoning of those very same evil, unskillful qualities. Just as when a person whose turban or head was on fire would put forth extra desire, effort, diligence, endeavor, undivided mindfulness, & alertness to put out the fire on his turban or head, in the same way the monk should put forth extra desire, effort, diligence, endeavor, undivided mindfulness, & alertness for the abandoning of those very same evil, unskillful qualities. But if, on reflecting, he realizes that there are no evil, unskillful mental qualities unabandoned by him that would be an obstruction for him were he to die in the night, then for that very reason he should dwell in joy & rapture, training himself day & night in skillful qualities.
"Further, there is the case where a monk, as night departs and day returns, reflects: ……
"This, monks, is how mindfulness of death is developed & pursued so that it is of great fruit & great benefit, gains a footing in the Deathless, and has the Deathless as its final end."
That is what the Blessed One said. Gratified, the monks delighted in the Blessed One's words.
The Buddha implores us twice a day, when the night comes, and when the morning comes, to be aware that you can die at any time for a variety of reasons. Because of this he implores us to look at our mind and see our unskillful, harmful qualities, and then to abandon them like your head is on fire! We don’t have enough time in this life to bother with a negative and aversive mind-states, it will do nothing but keep us mired in ill-will and hatred.
In the words of a famous internet meme a few years back “ain’t nobody got time for that”. As the sutta from part two tells us, aging and death are rolling in like mountains on all four sides, this human life is short and precious, don’t waste it.
The final article will return in two weeks, as next week I will be busy preparing for my ordination on 10-31-15. We will wrap it up and put it all together into a practice you can do in less than 10 minutes that will help your general practice and your life in the long run.
"But whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food... for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedfully. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents.
That is how long it takes to die - literally one inhalation and the final exhalation! That single moment is all it takes.
Student of the Path: Mindfulness of Death : Part 5 - Putting it All Together
So we come to the final article for this series. The final piece where we put it all together. Now we will put everything we’ve learned so far, and a few new things, into one coherent practice that can be done in 10 minutes or less.
You can do this anywhere, on the cushion or off. I began this practice a few years ago by standing in front of the skeleton by the meditation hall here at Bhavana, which I still do today. So let us begin:
We start out with a simple recollection. We remind ourselves “I may die today, I may die tomorrow, I may die at any time”. Bhante Seelananda here at Bhavana teaches at the mindfulness of death retreat to start from a future time period, 10 years for example, and to count down at intervals from “I may die in 10 years” to “I may die, in 1 second”. It may be helpful for some but I find compressing it to the statement above works better for me.
Once we have set the stage and reminded ourselves of our impending death, we continue to the next statement “because life is uncertain, but death is certain”, another phrase taught here at Bhavana. We can never be certain about anything in life, but the death of this body is always a certainty, even for awakened beings.
Now we come back to familiar territory, the 5 remembrances/subjects for contemplation from part 2. “I who may die at any time am subject to ageing and decay, I am not exempt from ageing and decay. I am subject to illness and disease, I am not exempt from illness and disease. I am subject to death, I am not exempt from death. All that is dear to me I will one day be separated from. I am the owner and heir of my actions.
Now you need to be careful when repeating this contemplation, for you may have a sneaky delusional mind like myself that wants to deny to the end that one day this being will die. In times of waning mindfulness I have actually heard my mind repeat “I am exempt from death” instead of “I am not exempt from death”, which brought my awareness back with a laugh at this poor deluded fellow.
Next we segue into 32 parts of the body contemplation(asubha). ”I am subject to these five remembrances because I have this body. This body which I find to be pleasant on the outside, but not so pleasant when viewed from inside. Other bodies are also pleasant to look upon from the outside, but not pleasant when viewed from the inside. When seen with equanimity, free of like and dislike, we see this body is a mere biological machine made up of various parts created with numerous (scientific) elements that were born in the heart of a dying star.
”This body is made up of head hair, body, hair, nails, teeth, skin( the five parts that can be seen on the outside). Fat , tissue, bones, bone marrow, muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, various organs, various systems(circulatory, neurological etc), various liquids, and miscellaneous parts. It helps me also to visualize all of this as I go through, like making an examination of the body. Downloading an anatomy app on a phone/tablet may be helpful for this.
This is the point where it helps to be in front of a skeleton. I often times will feel the various parts of the skeleton with one hand and the same part on my own body with the other. The cheek bone of the skeleton, my cheek bone. The collar bone of the skeleton, my collar bone. The pelvis of the skeleton, my pelvis. This practice really punches home the fact that you have this skeleton inside of you, as well as all the parts you have gone though. It helps to break through the fog we keep ourselves in and show us the reality.
From there we segue into corpse contemplation. “all these parts of the body are subject to decay, to illness, to death. One day this body will lie devoid of life, useless as a dead tree stump, and will decay according to it’s nature.”
Now we go through the various stages of decay from part three, with an added visualization. I was told about this visualization some years ago by someone who claimed they learned this from Bhikkhu Thanissaro, but I can’t confirm that, regardless it has been very helpful. I visualize a copy of myself in front of me, but it IS myself, like looking in a mirror. This copy then begins to rapidly age until it falls back, dies, and then begins the 9 stages of corpse decay from corpse contemplation. I was surprised the first time I did this as the visualized me “smiled” as he died, a smile of acceptance and being “ok” with death.
I don’t really often use words during this part as I go through the various stages of corpse decay, but if you wish you can verbalize it to go along with the visualization of the stages ”a corpse 3 days dead… skeleton with flesh and blood.. scattered and bleached bones” etc
This is the end of the mindfulness of death practice, but there is one final segue after this. ”Because I am subject to decay, illness, and death, so too are all other beings. Knowing this I should develop metta(limitless good-will) and karuna(compassion) for myself and all beings….(segue into metta practice) may all of us find happiness, may all of us find peace, may all of us live in friendship with each other, may all of us find release”.
So we end our mindfulness of death practice with the realization that we are all in the same boat, subject to the same nature, and when death is rolling from all directions like four mountains as tall as the sky, all there is to do is to practice dhamma, hence why I feel it appropriate to do metta practice right after mindfulness of death, a tandem pair as it were.
I will close with one final recommendation. There is a wonderful video, a dhamma talk, on death spoken by a monk who was dealing with cancer at the time. I’m not sure if he is still alive or not but I still watch this regularly as it is poignant and profound: “The Ultimate Test” -
I wish you all peace, happiness, and that your practice blossoms. Until next time friends.
@Jayantha said:
I wish you all peace, happiness, and that your practice blossoms. Until next time friends.
I am reminded of the humorous person who is VERY ill and distressed ... on their deathbed.
'How are you feeling?' a well meaning concerned visitor asks.
'It is only the hope of death that is keeping me alive,' they reply.
Comments
Part 4
http://jayantha.tumblr.com/post/131774942154/student-of-the-path-mindfulness-of-death-part-4
So we come to the fourth article for this series. I’ve decided to make this a five part series like metta or else this article would have been too long, so next week will be the final piece. Before that final piece I wanted to discuss two suttas from the Aṇguttara Nikāya 6.19 & 6.20, Maranassati Sutta: Mindfulness of Death (1 & 2). I want to put these in here to emphasize the importance the Buddha put on this practice.
So the Buddha called even those who dwell in mindfulness of death for the length of time it takes to chew some morsels “heedless”, now that’s rough! Having mindfulness of death in every breath is a lofty goal but one we can work towards. The breath is a wonderful tool because it shows us the life cycle. The breath comes in, it arises, is born. It fills the lungs and comes to a climax, a point where you cannot get any higher, the lungs are full to capacity. This is like a person who is born and then is in the prime of life.
That’s not the end though is it, all things being impermanent. From that high peak there begins a decline, a decay, the breath slowly exits the body until it is no more, that is where we can see death, until the arising of new life with the intake of yet another breath, and the cycle continues on and on. This cycle can be seen in the very small (cells) and the very large (galaxies), it permeates existence.
When we are heedful, then we are fully aware of this cycle, of birth, life, and death, and its sway over us begins to lessen. Mindfulness of death helps us move towards equanimity of our situation, a situation that we are utterly powerless to change, no matter how hard we try.
There are those in the scientific community who are currently working on ways to stop the aging process. Even if we became near immortal beings who expanded into the cosmos, one day trillions of years from now the universe itself will be a dead empty hulk, unable to support life, or it will collapse in on itself, either way we will die with it. With a cycle that not even the universe itself can escape, I don’t hold out any hopes that humanity can succeed in its quest, nor frankly would I want to live forever, better to live mindful and heedful here for as long as we have, this is the way of peace.
Moving on to the next Sutta:
The Buddha implores us twice a day, when the night comes, and when the morning comes, to be aware that you can die at any time for a variety of reasons. Because of this he implores us to look at our mind and see our unskillful, harmful qualities, and then to abandon them like your head is on fire! We don’t have enough time in this life to bother with a negative and aversive mind-states, it will do nothing but keep us mired in ill-will and hatred.
In the words of a famous internet meme a few years back “ain’t nobody got time for that”. As the sutta from part two tells us, aging and death are rolling in like mountains on all four sides, this human life is short and precious, don’t waste it.
The final article will return in two weeks, as next week I will be busy preparing for my ordination on 10-31-15. We will wrap it up and put it all together into a practice you can do in less than 10 minutes that will help your general practice and your life in the long run.
Thus ending a long journey to the start of your journey.
"But whoever develops mindfulness of death, thinking, 'O, that I might live for the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food... for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in, or to breathe in after breathing out, that I might attend to the Blessed One's instructions. I would have accomplished a great deal' — they are said to dwell heedfully. They develop mindfulness of death acutely for the sake of ending the effluents.
That is how long it takes to die - literally one inhalation and the final exhalation! That single moment is all it takes.
The 5th and final part of the Mindfulness of Death series is now up:
http://jayantha.tumblr.com/post/132693797451/student-of-the-path-mindfulness-of-death-part-5
Student of the Path: Mindfulness of Death : Part 5 - Putting it All Together
So we come to the final article for this series. The final piece where we put it all together. Now we will put everything we’ve learned so far, and a few new things, into one coherent practice that can be done in 10 minutes or less.
You can do this anywhere, on the cushion or off. I began this practice a few years ago by standing in front of the skeleton by the meditation hall here at Bhavana, which I still do today. So let us begin:
We start out with a simple recollection. We remind ourselves “I may die today, I may die tomorrow, I may die at any time”. Bhante Seelananda here at Bhavana teaches at the mindfulness of death retreat to start from a future time period, 10 years for example, and to count down at intervals from “I may die in 10 years” to “I may die, in 1 second”. It may be helpful for some but I find compressing it to the statement above works better for me.
Once we have set the stage and reminded ourselves of our impending death, we continue to the next statement “because life is uncertain, but death is certain”, another phrase taught here at Bhavana. We can never be certain about anything in life, but the death of this body is always a certainty, even for awakened beings.
Now we come back to familiar territory, the 5 remembrances/subjects for contemplation from part 2. “I who may die at any time am subject to ageing and decay, I am not exempt from ageing and decay. I am subject to illness and disease, I am not exempt from illness and disease. I am subject to death, I am not exempt from death. All that is dear to me I will one day be separated from. I am the owner and heir of my actions.
Now you need to be careful when repeating this contemplation, for you may have a sneaky delusional mind like myself that wants to deny to the end that one day this being will die. In times of waning mindfulness I have actually heard my mind repeat “I am exempt from death” instead of “I am not exempt from death”, which brought my awareness back with a laugh at this poor deluded fellow.
Next we segue into 32 parts of the body contemplation(asubha). ”I am subject to these five remembrances because I have this body. This body which I find to be pleasant on the outside, but not so pleasant when viewed from inside. Other bodies are also pleasant to look upon from the outside, but not pleasant when viewed from the inside. When seen with equanimity, free of like and dislike, we see this body is a mere biological machine made up of various parts created with numerous (scientific) elements that were born in the heart of a dying star.
”This body is made up of head hair, body, hair, nails, teeth, skin( the five parts that can be seen on the outside). Fat , tissue, bones, bone marrow, muscles, tendons, ligaments, joints, various organs, various systems(circulatory, neurological etc), various liquids, and miscellaneous parts. It helps me also to visualize all of this as I go through, like making an examination of the body. Downloading an anatomy app on a phone/tablet may be helpful for this.
This is the point where it helps to be in front of a skeleton. I often times will feel the various parts of the skeleton with one hand and the same part on my own body with the other. The cheek bone of the skeleton, my cheek bone. The collar bone of the skeleton, my collar bone. The pelvis of the skeleton, my pelvis. This practice really punches home the fact that you have this skeleton inside of you, as well as all the parts you have gone though. It helps to break through the fog we keep ourselves in and show us the reality.
From there we segue into corpse contemplation. “all these parts of the body are subject to decay, to illness, to death. One day this body will lie devoid of life, useless as a dead tree stump, and will decay according to it’s nature.”
Now we go through the various stages of decay from part three, with an added visualization. I was told about this visualization some years ago by someone who claimed they learned this from Bhikkhu Thanissaro, but I can’t confirm that, regardless it has been very helpful. I visualize a copy of myself in front of me, but it IS myself, like looking in a mirror. This copy then begins to rapidly age until it falls back, dies, and then begins the 9 stages of corpse decay from corpse contemplation. I was surprised the first time I did this as the visualized me “smiled” as he died, a smile of acceptance and being “ok” with death.
I don’t really often use words during this part as I go through the various stages of corpse decay, but if you wish you can verbalize it to go along with the visualization of the stages ”a corpse 3 days dead… skeleton with flesh and blood.. scattered and bleached bones” etc
This is the end of the mindfulness of death practice, but there is one final segue after this. ”Because I am subject to decay, illness, and death, so too are all other beings. Knowing this I should develop metta(limitless good-will) and karuna(compassion) for myself and all beings….(segue into metta practice) may all of us find happiness, may all of us find peace, may all of us live in friendship with each other, may all of us find release”.
So we end our mindfulness of death practice with the realization that we are all in the same boat, subject to the same nature, and when death is rolling from all directions like four mountains as tall as the sky, all there is to do is to practice dhamma, hence why I feel it appropriate to do metta practice right after mindfulness of death, a tandem pair as it were.
I will close with one final recommendation. There is a wonderful video, a dhamma talk, on death spoken by a monk who was dealing with cancer at the time. I’m not sure if he is still alive or not but I still watch this regularly as it is poignant and profound: “The Ultimate Test” -
I wish you all peace, happiness, and that your practice blossoms. Until next time friends.
I am reminded of the humorous person who is VERY ill and distressed ... on their deathbed.
'How are you feeling?' a well meaning concerned visitor asks.
'It is only the hope of death that is keeping me alive,' they reply.