DEATH AND IMPERMANENCE
Though we may not be able to watch dead bodies decay
as was possible during the Buddha's lifetime, we can use our imagination to
contemplate what happens to a body after death. Meditating on this subject is
not meant to encourage sadness or other negative emotions. Rather, it is the
most realistic way to develop mindfulness of the the body's impermanence.
However, meditation on the various stages of a corpse requires spiritual
maturity and emotional stability.
Once you have meditated thoroughly on the other
aspects of mindfulness of the body, you may be ready to practice cemetery
contemplation. First, imagine a dead body in the cemetery, one , two, or three
days after death. Then compare your living body with that body with thoughts
such as these :
This is the nature of my body. It will become like
this dead body. This result is unavoidable. Two, three, or four days after
death, m body is bloated, discolored, festered, stinky. It has no feelings,
perceptions, or thoughts. It rots. Animals eat it. The flesh disappears; the
blood dries out; sinews break down; the bones separate. Bones also decay. They
become porous and slowly are reduced to powder and dust. One day, when a big
gust of wind blows, even this dust will disappear.
"When vitality, heat, and consciousness depart
from this physical body, then it lies there cast away, food for others, without
volition."
"Before long this body will lie cast away upon
the ground, bereft of all consciousness, like a useless block of wood."
From : The Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Plain
English By Bhante Gunaratana.
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