This week’s blog may for some be a little difficult to digest.
The Mahasatipatthana Sutra contains a charnel ground meditation.
Monks were encouraged to meditate in the Charnel Burial Grounds as part of their training, a
way to experience the impermanence of life.
The following is a condensed version of the above meditation. My body is bloated and blue
festering and infested with worms and flies.
After some time, all that is left of my body is a skeleton with some flesh and blood still clinging to
it. Later without any flesh remaining there is spotted blood, then no blood, held together with
tendons.
All that remains now is a collection of scattered bones that have scattered in different directions
and gradually become bleached and laying in a pile.
The bones themselves then decay and become dust.
In this space Hui Neng is often quoted as saying, “Not One Single Thing.” Every aspect of our
life on this planet is ever changing, imperfect and incomplete.
This last word “incomplete” needs a closer look. Even as practitioners, we all sort of expect that
our final moments will be a spiritual experience.
Actually, there is a strong chance that will not be the case. We may be alone and in great pain.
The important thing to realize is that when we truly absorb the Diamond Sutra ,
past mind is residue, future mind only a mental projection, we realize that as ominous as death
seems, it will just be another moment. So just relax.
The more we practice – sitting quietly and resolutely for extended periods daily will for sure
prepare us to face death in whatever way it will appear for us.
Just be present with things as they unfold.