CUTTING OFF THE STREAM
CONTEMPLATION ON DEATH
CONTEMPLATION ON DEATH
Whenever you see a dead body, contemplate death immediately, or remember it and contemplate it later. One must be mindful and contemplate seriously to teach the mind until it becomes awed with death. Do not let the mind get used to death and see it as an ordinary event for anyone. Do not let defilement make you believe that you already know all about death, whereas in fact your mind is not truly afraid of death. Contemplation of death must be in detail, delving into it until the mind sees everything clearly as revealed by wisdom. If the mind does not 'see' it with wisdom, it is as useless as a blind man turning on a flash light. He may pretend as if he sees things, but they are from memories or prior knowledge, not by his own sight. As long as the mind does not 'see' what wisdom reveals, there is no way of 'knowing and seeing' the Truth. Even though one reads all the books of the tipitaka (the Three Divisions of the Buddhist Canon), the mind is still 'unchanged' by the read knowledge, which is merely theory. It is like learning how to cook by reading a cookbook. One does not know the taste of the food until one really cooks it.
Knowledge merely memorized is not deeply absorbed into the mind unless it is contemplated with wisdom. Even when one accepts the truth through reading, it is recorded as memory which cannot get rid of defilement and craving. To be free from them is the task of the wise mind. Wisdom is the light that lets the mind see the danger of defilement and craving and the harm of birth, aging, illness and death, and it is the mind that will hurriedly seek the way out of those dangerous things. Once birth is stopped, the other things: aging, sickncss and death which are consequences of birth are not problems any more. It is like a person sleeping among wild animals: tigers, elephants and poisonous snakes. When he wakes up and sees what surround him with his own eyes, the scary scene will force him to find the way out of that place as quickly as possible, even though he previously has been used to sleeping in that same place for a long time. Now our minds are asleep. They do not see the danger of birth, aging, illness and death, so they are satisfied with sleeping. When danger comes, it is usually too close to get away from it. In most cases, one does not want to age, but one does; one does not want to die, but one is dying; one does not want to be born again, but one will. This is because the 'fuel' for rebirth to start another cycle still exists.
Death awes everyone. Yet he is pleased with birth which must end in death. Can anyone get away from this fact of life? Of course no one can. It has been like this for so long. This is the world of birth, aging, illness and death which occurs in a cycle, and it will be like this, always.
To contemplate death often is to make the mind afraid of it, and when it is, it will find the way out. A man who sees a tiger will find for himself a way to save his life from the tiger. There is no such thing as loitering any more. Or it is like a gambler who sees a policeman; he will find the quickest exit for himself without asking anyone. In Dhamma practice, contemplation on death will often wake the mind up and make it aware of its danger The mind becomes weary of repetitive deaths, which gave no substance and no use.
Whenever you see a dead body, contemplate death and think about your own death. Think about the similarity of your own breathing body to the dead body. Before the person died, he had breathed just like you. His life was just like yours. His body consisted of the Four Elements, earth, water, fire, air, blended into a form with feeling, memory, perception and consciousness while he was alive just like yours. Now his breath is gone, and so will yours be. When he lived,he latched on to his body as self and was afraid of dying and did not want to die. He firmly believed that his possessions were really his. After death, can he bring anything with him? All acquired property belongs to the world and is used to ease one's life while one is alive. It is daily necessity until one is no longer breathing. After that, all property returns to the World to be used by those who are still alive.
Contemplation on death of other people must be done in detail and with reflection on your own death. Do not do it hastily. Do it slowly and keep your mind with wisdom all the time. Do it as often as possible, hundred or thousand times a day. Do it for animal deaths in the streets and everywhere as well, and each time refer it to yourself. Always contemplate until you see the Three Characteristics of each life. Contemplate other sufferings as well. For example, when you see handicapped people or animals, think that in some past life you were like them, and you may be like them again in future lives. When you see beggars or poor people, think that you were once like them and may be like them again if you do bad deeds. Contemplation with wisdom like this will reduce arrogance and warn the mind of the consequence of one's acts which one is receiving in one's present life.
Contemplation like this can be done in any posture: standing, walking, sitting or lying down. You can contemplate before or after concentration practice. To build up wisdom, one cannot rely on others too much. One must try to develop wisdom by oneself, otherwise what one thinks is wisdom may be only memory from others, not wisdom. To develop one's own wisdom, one needs a lot of practice in search of the Truth by oneself. One must contemplate as often as possible without counting the times. It is like felling a big tree; one does not need to count the number of times the axe hits the tree. Any part of the tree that is in the way is cut until the tree falls down. In contemplation, anything that one perceives through the eyes or the ears, that causes pleasure or pain, that brings about pain in the body and the mind, must be contemplated until one gets down to the cause of that feeling. Use wisdom to contemplate until it is clear and you become weary of the pain. Contemplate things based on the Truth. All imagination must be in line with the Truth. Keep in mind that any happening has a cause. It exists and disappears as a result of a cause also. Contemplation must dig into those causes and their effects. Suffering causes produce suffering effects. Impermanent causes produce impermanent effects. No-self causes produce selfless effects. Let the mind know that a specific-cause produces a specific result.
Phra Acariya Thoon Khippapanno
