The nine contemplations of Atisha
Jeroen
Luminous beings are we, not this crude matterNetherlands Veteran
I’ve come across these several times, but I don’t think I’ve posted them here before. They’re insightful, and always bring me back to an appreciation of the current moment, so I thought it might be nice to share them. It’s basically a series of nine short points to contemplate, about the subject of death. They were thought up by the Indian teacher Atisha, who lived in Tibet during the eleventh century.
The contemplations
1. All of us will die sooner or later
2. Your life span is decreasing continuously
3. Death will come whether you are prepared or not
4. Your life span is not fixed
5. Death has many causes
6. Your body is fragile and vulnerable
7. Your loved ones cannot keep you from death
8. Your material possessions cannot help you when death comes
9. Your body cannot help you when death comes
The first three points are about the inevitability of death, the second three about the uncertainty of when it will arrive, and the third three about the fact that nothing can aid you when it does come. All in all it is a sobering meditation, which points you at the preciousness of your current human life and what you still want to do with it.
In Tibetan Buddhism there is a slightly modified version which is also called the ‘nine point meditation on death’. It emphasises more the fact that spiritual practice can help with death, and so uses the contemplation as a motivation. But I like to return to this form every so often because it has a certain purity.
Namasté 💀
Comments
Have I not often said that 'Every Breath is One Breath Less.'..?
Ooooo the old death contemplation....Ven Thubten Chodron has some good guided meditations on this if anyone is interested.
https://thubtenchodron.org/1991/08/important-awareness-death/
Try dying before you are dead ... as the dervishes do, instead of sitting around in a walking corpse ... wait I iz zombie?
... Must find brainz ... [lobster wanders into the sunset ...]
@Linc can we still post vimeo vids or is it youtube only - above pic should be video
I can see it and play it @lobster
Still good though, although I imagine back when Atisha wrote it the fragility of the body made things a lot more uncertain... these days a lot is understood about the body and most people will have a basic understanding of the organs, blood, breathing and how it all works.
I came across this longer explanation by Joan Halifax Roshi, which seems quite nice.
https://www.upaya.org/dox/Contemplations.pdf
Hi,
Thank you all for your suggestions. The main reason I posted this is regarding my quandary regarding how deep to go with this. I was on this site [https://positivepsychology.com/maranasati-meditation/] and watched two different guided meditations, near the bottom of the page. One was quite gentle, basically asking us to visualize the loss of everything dear to us. The second, by a monk named Analayo was quite graphic, asking us to imagine the different physical/mental experiences we (may) go through during death, followed by the deterioration of our body afterword. After reading these I wondered if it was necessary to take such a deep dive into the after death deterioration, feeling that it may be unnecessarily gruesome, since I will be dead by then, so what's the point. I should mention, that my reason for doing this, is to assuage my fear of death and dying.
Any thoughts are appreciated.
shinnen
Hi @Shinnen,
Probably the best approach to assuaging a fear of death and dying is to get familiar with the concepts of life after death. Reincarnation is traditionally the Buddhist approach, although stories of near-death experiences (NDEs) may also be helpful. Once you accept that death is not a meaningful end, it loses much of its ability to terrify.
The study of death deterioration is typically more useful with Asubha or not-beautiful meditation, which is the process of breaking down the body’s external image as beautiful.
Hi,
Yes indeed, she raises many very good points. Thanks for posting this.
shinnen
Hi Jeroen,
Yes, you're quite right, the fear of death would be much less daunting, if one embraces the belief that death is not the final page, so to speak. However, I've never been able to accept this belief, primarily because I don't see any evidence that's it's true. I see it as somewhat similar to the belief in heaven, a nice thought but ....
shinnen
Hi lobster,
I've never heard of this 'dying before you are dead' practice. How is that done?
shinnen
Quite true yes.
shinnen
@shinnen if you’re not able to believe Buddhist teachers when they talk about reincarnation, I suggest you go and watch some near-death experience videos. Many of those people had life changing periods of just a few minutes where everything they knew was upended.
@Shinnen
As mentioned it is a Sufi/dervish goal.
https://sufi-tavern.com/sufi-stories/sufi-healing/
At the moment, you think you are alive and cling to life (attachment)?
This is the drivel advice I got online...
" 1. Accept That It's Going to Happen by Meditating on Death
2. Focus on the Things You Can Control
3. Set a Worry Time Period
4. Live Every Day Like It's Your Last"
Personally, I would go and volunteer in a hospice, if worried excessively about death...
In Buddhism rebirth often isn't seen as a good thing. Paraphrasing Robert Thurman, "In Buddhism rebirth isn't a promise, its a threat". If we're fortunate enough to have the good karma for a rebirth in the upper realms our suffering will be light, but in Buddhist cosmology most of our lives are spent in the lower realms. Its why they emphasize the importance of taking advantage of the time we have now to practice.
That seems another very good option. Becoming familiar with death up close and personal really helps with the fear of it. Death brings many beautiful as wel as sad moments.