[shekharshan]

“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.

[wunderflix]

Sometimes, 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]

I’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]

I 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]

Reminded me of this: http://www.ashidakim.com/zenkoans/78realprosperity.html

[l_davis]

In 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.

[podgaj]

I 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/

[pegasus]

I 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.

[mtalantikite]

I generally agree with you that a lot of lineages, particularly the Theravada derived ones here in the west, might go overboard with body denial practices. The meditations from the Satipatthana sutra are great, but I feel like you can get caught in trying to prove everything is suffering if you don’t have enough grounding in other parts of Buddhist teachings because of them. Like all of the sutras it can point you in a direction, but we shouldn’t be caught up in them.

Personally, in my meditation practice, it was completely transformed and deepened when I began a dedicated asana practice and focused on giving my body what it needs to be strong and in touch with what it is saying.

[andreilys]

You are not your body nor your mind. That is a core tenant of most Buddhist philosophy.

[david-gpu]

Not everybody is a Buddhist. Convincing somebody who has different beliefs involves more than restating one's beliefs.

[andreilys]

You 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]

That'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.

[Smaug123]

You 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.

[_nalply]

Elliot 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.

[thrav]

You reminded me of the close of one of my favorite Philosophize This episodes on Authenticity: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GfkJEWnsNy4

[shekharshan]

Thank you so much! I have Shaila Katherine’s book “Focused and Fearless” but not completed the reading. She is an amazing teacher.

[50]

In similar vein, I recommend checking out The Bardo Thodol (AKA The Tibetan Book of the Dead) by Padmasambhava.

[JKCalhoun]

"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]

Sounds similar to how the stoics spend time contemplating the absolute worst thing they can imagine happening because then anything after that is an improvement.

[timwaagh]

Doesn't this practice and especially the choice of adjectives make light out of something very serious and infinitely sad?

[xeromal]

On 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.

[Icedcool]

Not at all. It encourages you to contemplate something that we will all face, and through contemplation, use the time you have, better now.