Meditating in a graveyard

[ShaktiMama]

I don't do "self-sacrifice", that shit don't work or it doesn't work well. 16 million years of history

proved it...ask Green Tara. "Self-sacrifice" is a reductionary practice and even a death practice.

I DON'T DO THOSE PRACTICES.

 

I do far-seeing self-interest and even selfish self-interest if the circumstances don't suit me.

 

Death practices are what led to fucking up your teeth.

I can't blame you for it totally because it came

from bad guidance. Those practices lead to FUCKING UP

YOUR EARTH ELEMENT and even your water element.

 

You seem to have had a shift lately.

 

But these are your experiences you share and not the experiences of others.

s

[Bum Grasshopper]

A while back I started a thread about the feng shui of living next to a graveyard. The general consensus was that it was the worst place to live and I should avoid it at all costs.

 

Well, it's been over 2 months and nothing bad has happened at all. To the contrary, a lot of positive things have manifested including finding a good job nearby that I enjoy as well as renewed social contacts with family and friends.

 

I meditate and practice not 100' from the graves. I find the yin energy to balance out my yang nature.

 

And the neighbors don't complain when I have a loud party!

[lino]

What a great demonstration that was!!!!!

 

"Black and White" glasses? Well, if you could filter out all the Red, Green and Blue light reaching the eyes you would have Black and White (shades of gray as in the clip).

 

Yeah, we should always be careful when we are messing with our ego. Too much messing around and one can loose their self-identity (which would lead to the loss of a reason to live).

 

(I don't know what this has to do with meditating in a graveyard but it is interesting to talk about none-the-less. Hehehe.)

 

Peace & Love!

 

D00d

 

Forget about that ego shit. People who say that shit don't want

you to form your own conclusions.

[Marblehead]

D00d

 

Forget about that ego shit. People who say that shit don't want

you to form your own conclusions.

 

Oh, believe me Lino, there ain't many people alive or now dead that have been able to push a bunch of BS into my brain.

 

Regarding concepts of life my motto is: "Test and try before you buy."

 

But I still believe that meditating in a graveyard will help a person at least find many of their demons. We may not be able to throw them out or eliminate them but we will at least be able to identify many of them.

 

Peace & Love!

Edited July 21, 2010 by Marblehead

[lino]

Oh, believe me Lino, there ain't many people alive or now dead that have been able to push a bunch of BS into my brain.

 

Regarding concepts of life my motto is: "Test and try before you buy."

 

But I still believe that meditating in a graveyard will help a person at least find many of their demons. We may not be able to throw them out or eliminate them but we will at least be able to identify many of them.

 

Peace & Love!

 

We were forced to buy the second we were conceived. The price is

exorbitantly high and not worth it.

[Marblehead]

We were forced to buy the second we were conceived. The price is

exorbitantly high and not worth it.

 

You are absolutely correct. But I suggest that those things can be tossed out and/or unlearned.

 

No, it's not easy but it can be done.

 

Peace & Love!

[BaguaKicksAss]

Here I was trying to figure out how come some qigong folks purposefully practice in cemeteries.... and I found this thread . Interesting.

 

We are fortunate here, we have a very large cemetery which does regular public events to honour the dead. Mostly in October of course, but also the rest of the year. They also hold workshops about how to do proper offerings and such. They are also fine with someone sitting at a grave with a candle, in the middle of the night, during these times .

 

So anyways, I get the whole "yin energy, good" thing, but how come qigong in a cemetery?

 

I did do circle walking in a cemetery once, it was interesting, and I think the inhabitants looked at me funny, but nothing that much out of the ordinary from what I remember. I mean no more so than any parklike setting. It was a few years ago though, so I could be miss-remembering. I was more going for the park aspect than the cemetery aspect.

[joeblast]

The only cemetery I have practiced in is where my grandfather's grave is, I'll go meditate there every so often. Had an interesting visionexperience ~40...45 days after he passed on...

[Ish]

Depends on what you practice, but for me it's a bad place to practice - not the kind of yin energy I want

[9th]

A charnel ground (Devanagari: श्माशान; Romanized Sanskrit: śmāśāna; Tibetan pronunciation: durtrö; Tibetan: དུར་ཁྲོད, Wylie: dur khrod),^[1] in concrete terms, is an above-ground site for the putrefaction of bodies, generally human, where formerly living tissue is left to decompose uncovered. Although it may have demarcated locations within it functionally identified as burial grounds, cemeteries and crematoria, it is distinct from these as well as from crypts or burial vaults.

 

 

In a religious sense, it is also a very important location for sadhana and ritual activity for Indo-Tibetan traditions of Dharma particularly those traditions iterated by the Tantric view such as Kashmiri Shaivism, Kaula tradition, Esoteric Buddhism, Vajrayana, Mantrayana, Dzogchen, and the sadhana of Chöd, Phowa and Zhitro, etc. The charnel ground is also an archetypal liminality that figures prominently in the literature and liturgy and as an artistic motif in Dharmic Traditions and cultures iterated by the more antinomian and esoteric aspects of traditional Indian culture.

 

In the Pali Canon discourses, the Buddha frequently instructs his disciples to seek out a secluded dwelling (in a forest, under the shade of a tree, mountain, glen, hillside cave, charnel ground, jungle grove, in the open, or on a heap of straw).^[3] The Sutrayana tradition of the 'Nine Cemetery Contemplations' (Pali: nava sīvathikā-manasikāra) of the Satipatthana Sutta demonstrate that charnel ground meditations were part of Early Buddhism.

 

'Cemetery contemplations', as described in Mahasatipatthana Sutta (DN: 22) and the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta (MN: 10):

...have as their objects a corpse one or two or three days old, swollen up, blue-black in colour, full of corruption; a corpse eaten by crows, etc.; a framework of bones; flesh hanging from it, bespattered with blood, held together by the sinews; without flesh and blood, but still held together by the sinews; bones scattered in all direction; bleached and resembling shells; heaped together after the lapse of years; weathered and crumbled to dust.

At the end of each of these contemplations there follows the conclusion: "This body of mine also has this nature, has this destiny, cannot escape it.

Similar are the 10 objects of loathsomeness (asubha q.v.).

—

[4]

 

 

Beer (2003: p. 102) relates how the symbolism of the khatvanga that entered esoteric Buddhism (particularly from Padmasambhava) was a direct borrowing from the Shaivite Kapalikas who frequented places of austerity such as charnel grounds and cross roads etcetera as a form of 'left-handed path' (Sanskrit: vamamarga) 'spiritual practice' (Sanskrit: sadhana):

 

The form of the Buddhist

khatvanga

derived from the emblematic staff of the early Indian Shaivite

yogins

, known as

kapalikas

or 'skull-bearers'. The

kapalikas

were originally miscreants who had been sentenced to a twelve-year term of penance for the crime of inadvertently killing a Brahmin. The penitent was prescribed to dwell in a forest hut, at a desolate crossroads, in a charnel ground, or under a tree; to live by begging; to practice austerities; and to wear a loin-cloth of hemp, dog, or donkey-skin. They also had to carry the emblems of a human skull as an alms-bowl, and the skull of the Brahmin they had slain mounted upon a wooden staff as a banner.These Hindu

kapalika

ascetics soon evolved into an extreme outcaste sect of the 'left-hand' tantric path (Skt. vamamarg) of

shakti

or goddess worship. The early Buddhist tantric

yogins

and

yoginis

adopted the same goddess or

dakini

attributes of the

kapalikas

. These attributes consisted of; bone ornaments, an animal skin loincloth, marks of human ash, a skull-cup,

damaru

, flaying knife, thighbone trumpet, and the skull-topped tantric staff or

khatvanga

.

—

[13]

 

 

Dattatreya the avadhuta, to whom has been attributed the esteemed nondual medieval song, the Avadhuta Gita, was a sometime denizen of the charnel ground and a founding deity of the Aghor tradition according to Barrett (2008: p. 33):

 

...Lord Dattatreya, an antinomian form of Shiva closely associated with the cremation ground, who appeared to Baba Kina Ram atop Girnar Mountain in Gujarat. Considered to be the

adi guru

(ancient spiritual teacher) and founding deity of Aghor, Lord Dattatreya offered his own flesh to the young ascetic as

prasād

(a kind of blessing), conferring upon him the power of clairvoyance and establishing a guru-disciple relationship between them.

—

[10]

[Seeker of Wisdom]

So anyways, I get the whole "yin energy, good" thing, but how come qigong in a cemetery?

To remind you of impermanence and mortality, so you detach from the body and senses leading to a more stable mind, contentment and a stronger drive to cultivate.

[tyler]

Why would you meditate in a graveyard? Do you just like having bones below you or what? Im sure you can find some woods to meditate in if you have a graveyard. Im still confused as to why you want to meditate in one???

[C T]

Why would you meditate in a graveyard? Do you just like having bones below you or what? Im sure you can find some woods to meditate in if you have a graveyard. Im still confused as to why you want to meditate in one???

The mind is a weird and wonderful playground....

 

Graveyard = yukkks!

 

Woods = serenity!

 

How would you know that there are no bones (or less) beneath the ground in the woods?

 

At least, in cemeteries, you kinda know who's buried there... in the woods, you don't know. One could easily offend and not know how or where to offer mitigation or pacification.

 

 

 

Haven't you heard of roaming entities?

 

Some people with low psychic shields can bump into such things while out in forests and parks, and then get quite ill after. Then offerings and such have to be made, but if one does not even know the source of where the offense took place, it becomes more complex to pacify the situation and resolve the matter.

[BaguaKicksAss]

Why would you meditate in a graveyard? Do you just like having bones below you or what? Im sure you can find some woods to meditate in if you have a graveyard. Im still confused as to why you want to meditate in one???

 

I don't think there is a place I have not meditated actually . I don't see any reason to not meditate in one, unless it is one with a lot of unquiet spirits.

 

However that wasn't the question, I am curious as to why some qigong folks purposefully practice qigong in them.

 

Btw, hi Teknix, missed you! .

[Isimsiz Biri]

Yeah so the thought came up awhile ago.. But in cases like doing qi gong or meditating during the full moon I was wondering if theres any do's and dont's.

 

Basically is it safe? Is there any benefit?

 

 

 

Thanks.

 

There are earth bound spirits, spirits who could not pass to Spatyom in the graveyards. If Satan captures these spirits, they become specters. That is the reason people tell that graveyards are uncanny. Since you do not know what to do with these spirits, you better stay away.

[BaguaKicksAss]

The mind is a weird and wonderful playground....

 

Graveyard = yukkks!

 

Woods = serenity!

 

How would you know that there are no bones (or less) beneath the ground in the woods?

 

At least, in cemeteries, you kinda know who's buried there... in the woods, you don't know. One could easily offend and not know how or where to offer mitigation or pacification.

 

 

 

Haven't you heard of roaming entities?

 

Some people with low psychic shields can bump into such things while out in forests and parks, and then get quite ill after. Then offerings and such have to be made, but if one does not even know the source of where the offense took place, it becomes more complex to pacify the situation and resolve the matter.

 

Hmmm, I wonder if it is only certain cultures which feel graveyards in a negative connotation? I remember when I was over in Haiti, the folks there felt the graveyards were very spiritual places, and would do much meditation and so forth there. Actually the graveyards always had many people in them. That is one extreme example, but it makes me wonder about other countries. We have such a negative view of death in the west.

 

Forests and mountains are by far my favorite places to meditate, and practice Bagua for that matter . Definitely a lot of interesting entities one can run into out there as well.

[Nungali]

.

The thread title made me think of the Chod Rite of Tibetan Buddhism.

 

But for that one might need a bead apron of human bones and a tunic of human skin ... and take off the top of the skull and cook up the guts in it and offer it to the demons there ... but that's for a reason.

 

{No, I haven't done that ... just the chanting, temple ceremony and visualisation of the Chod Rite under the guidance of Kagyu Kama Lamas (the MOST demonically oriented, kind, considerate, laid-back and compassionate people I have met ! ) but you visualise you are in a graveyard ... some maybe still do the whole thing in a graveyard? }

 

Go google Chod Rite .... on a good site that will explain why one might want to 'meditate in a graveyard'.

 

e.g.

" The meaning of Chöd is offering our negative parts to demons and the positive things, like good virtues and good merit, for bodhisattvas and buddhas.

We're going to offer for the lowest realms because the beings in these realms need this the most.

During Chöd practice your mind reaches a higher mental level. You need to visualize that your mind is pure. It is necessary to destroy past life karma. We are in Samsara because we are not yet enlightened, and we have a lot of debt towards our parents and other people.

So during Chöd the mind resembles that of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is kind towards those who are suffering. To become a bodhisattva you need to wish that you can offer your body, good deeds, ignorance and everything. Chöd means that we cut the root of our ignorance. "

If you do this with good motivation, it's very powerful. If you do this thousand times, yet without any good motivation, then it is useless.

Chöd can be helpful if you have nightmares and fears. But during the Chöd, you must not show any fear, or else the demons cannot come because this fear would upset them. But if you're compassionate they will come to you, and they may even become your protectors if you're a really good person. That kind of protection is very special.

Chöd brings a lot of joy to your mental state. It also makes the mind smarter and brighter.

So visualize that you are offering your body, mind and speech to these beings. For the lower realms - offering everything that you have. They need it the most. Why? Because they are suffering. In previous lives they could've been our mothers and that is why we must help them. If we don't give that kindness back then they will continue to suffer. We must wish that they can become liberated . "

[BaguaKicksAss]

There are earth bound spirits, spirits who could not pass to Spatyom in the graveyards. If Satan captures these spirits, they become specters. That is the reason people tell that graveyards are uncanny. Since you do not know what to do with these spirits, you better stay away.

 

I have to call BS on this one (so those newer to stuff don't actually think this is how stuff works).

 

 

.

The thread title made me think of the Chod Rite of Tibetan Buddhism.

 

But for that one might need a bead apron of human bones and a tunic of human skin ... and take off the top of the skull and cook up the guts in it and offer it to the demons there ... but that's for a reason.

 

{No, I haven't done that ... just the chanting, temple ceremony and visualisation of the Chod Rite under the guidance of Kagyu Kama Lamas (the MOST demonically oriented, kind, considerate, laid-back and compassionate people I have met ! ) but you visualise you are in a graveyard ... some maybe still do the whole thing in a graveyard? }

 

Go google Chod Rite .... on a good site that will explain why one might want to 'meditate in a graveyard'.

 

e.g.

" The meaning of Chöd is offering our negative parts to demons and the positive things, like good virtues and good merit, for bodhisattvas and buddhas.

 

We're going to offer for the lowest realms because the beings in these realms need this the most.

 

During Chöd practice your mind reaches a higher mental level. You need to visualize that your mind is pure. It is necessary to destroy past life karma. We are in Samsara because we are not yet enlightened, and we have a lot of debt towards our parents and other people.

 

So during Chöd the mind resembles that of a bodhisattva. A bodhisattva is kind towards those who are suffering. To become a bodhisattva you need to wish that you can offer your body, good deeds, ignorance and everything. Chöd means that we cut the root of our ignorance. "

 

If you do this with good motivation, it's very powerful. If you do this thousand times, yet without any good motivation, then it is useless.

 

Chöd can be helpful if you have nightmares and fears. But during the Chöd, you must not show any fear, or else the demons cannot come because this fear would upset them. But if you're compassionate they will come to you, and they may even become your protectors if you're a really good person. That kind of protection is very special.

 

Chöd brings a lot of joy to your mental state. It also makes the mind smarter and brighter.

 

So visualize that you are offering your body, mind and speech to these beings. For the lower realms - offering everything that you have. They need it the most. Why? Because they are suffering. In previous lives they could've been our mothers and that is why we must help them. If we don't give that kindness back then they will continue to suffer. We must wish that they can become liberated . "

 

 

 

There is another awesome post or 2 on Chod in this thread .

 

Do you think such things work just as well in Western cemeteries (standard ones), compared to ones found in say India, Tibet and so forth?

 

May I ask what you mean exactly by demons in this case? The reason I ask is that you said they could have been our mothers in a previous life.

 

This is a very interesting perspective for me, since walking by cemeteries I'm sometimes thinking "hey I'm not free lunch guys". Hmmmm. Contemplations needed.

 

I'm wondering about something which confuses me a bit, if they are suffering and need it the most, wouldn't they need the good stuff too? How come only the Bodhisattvas and Buddhas get the good stuff? Also, is offering our crap a good thing for them? I can see why I might want to offer my good stuff only to beings which seem more positive , however this is all about helping those which we might normally neglect or avoid (I think anyways, from what I understand of this small bit I read). Or perhaps I'm just overthinking stuff .

 

 

" The meaning of Chöd is offering our negative parts to demons and the positive things, like good virtues and good merit, for bodhisattvas and buddhas.

We're going to offer for the lowest realms because the beings in these realms need this the most.

 

So visualize that you are offering your body, mind and speech to these beings. For the lower realms - offering everything that you have. They need it the most. Why? Because they are suffering.

 

 

 

I have performed previous rites offering up my entire self/body, but under a much different tradition/method. Definitely scary/interesting/enlightening :>.

[Isimsiz Biri]

I have to call BS on this one (so those newer to stuff don't actually think this is how stuff works).

 

You may call BS but it is truth

[C T]

You may call BS but it is truth

sometimes there is no difference, right?

 

but i agree with BKA, your scheme does stretch the imagination somewhat.

[nine tailed fox]

i dont know about western graveyards

 

but at least in india they burn the body and the ash of the dead body is considered very auspicious , specially for aghoras and left hand tantrics

 

currently watching Mahadeva and Lord shiva just said, the one who put ash on his body, his heart becomes pure

 

and graveyard is actually used to gain many siddhis in tantric path

[tyler]

The mind is a weird and wonderful playground....

 

Graveyard = yukkks!

 

Woods = serenity!

 

How would you know that there are no bones (or less) beneath the ground in the woods?

 

At least, in cemeteries, you kinda know who's buried there... in the woods, you don't know. One could easily offend and not know how or where to offer mitigation or pacification.

 

 

 

Haven't you heard of roaming entities?

 

Some people with low psychic shields can bump into such things while out in forests and parks, and then get quite ill after. Then offerings and such have to be made, but if one does not even know the source of where the offense took place, it becomes more complex to pacify the situation and resolve the matter.

I didnt say that graveyards=yukks. I asked him why he would want to be in a graveyard specifically to meditate. Now I am hoping you take this and the rest of the things I write and remember them the next time you comment because there is no excuse for this.

 

 

 

There most likely are bones beneath you in the woods. But a person doesnt specifically go to the woods to have skeletons around them. Thats what a graveyard is for. That is why I asked him if his reason for going was because he liked having the bodies beneath him.

 

 

 

The last part about entities is ridiculous. I am shocked that a person could say something so stupid. Your beliefs are your beliefs to be followed but to speak about them in such an invasive and "factual" way is insulting and pisses me off. Especially when its something so stupid- in my opinion at least.

[traveler]

First off, there is no such thing as a stupid comment. It does not exist.

 

A quote from Osho comes to mind about death:

 

The second chakra is svadisthan - that is the hara, the death centre. These two centres are very much damaged because man has been afraid of sex and man has been afraid of death. So death has been avoided: Don't talk about death! Just forget about it! It does not exist. Even if sometimes it exists, don't notice it, don't take any note of it. Go on thinking that you are going to live for ever - avoid death!

 

Tantra says: Don't avoid sex and don't avoid death. That's why Saraha went to the cremation ground to meditate - not to avoid death. And he went with the arrow smith woman to live a life of healthy, full sex, of optimum sex. On the cremation ground, living with a woman, these two centres had to be relaxed: death and sex. Once you accept death and you are not afraid of it, once you accept sex and you are not afraid of it, your two lower centres, are relaxed. (Osho)

 

When I was a teenager, I liked to take girls to the graveyard on dates. I liked the old tombstones. This was certainly a good test to see if the girl was going to be a good mate. I got turned down a few times but some girls liked the old stones as much as I did. They got asked out again to do something more conventional. I also liked taking dates on walks through the forest. I love nature. Again, I got some rejections and some yeses. I ended up marrying a girl who loved walking in the woods as much a s I did.

 

I have felt fear in many places, including the woods. Looking back, I think I brought the fear with me. It wasn't real. I've felt evil so thick it would stop my heart when entering some places and resorted to a magic spell to cast it out of me. This worked. But, that was a long time ago. I haven't felt this fear or evil anywhere for the longest time.

 

There was an exception about three years ago, in the fall of 2010, when I was entering a trail at dusk. I felt a strong warning telling me not to enter the woods there. It was a physical feeling, and emotional; it gripped me and shook me, telling me that this hike was not a good idea. I entered the woods anyways.

 

The feeling of not being wanted there continued to be very strong. I took a side trail to a picnic bench and sat down to enjoy the wonderful play of light at dusk over the verdant rain forest. Looking back at the main trail, I saw two very tall personages covered in long blond hair walking along the trail at a good speed. They were female I felt. Suddenly, a large black-haired male strode up to my bench. I stood on the bench to be eye to with him, but he was still taller. I said hello in my mind. His forearm was injured, I could tell since I was a healer; I reached out and touched his forearm to give him a healing. The hair was incredibly soft. Without warning, his hand shot out and entered my chest, tearing my heart from my body. I fell over dead, then came too as if emerging from a very life-like dream. No hairy personages in sight.

 

I left the woods after that; the instant I reached my car, the strong foreboding feeling of eminent danger left me. This occured a week or so before receiving my third Reiki degree. I don't think this was a daydream. I think I received psychic surgery on my heart which was in dire need of healing, emotional healing, at the time.

 

P'taah says, "We live in a safe universe".

[tyler]

First off, there is no such thing as a stupid comment. It does not exist.

 

A quote from Osho comes to mind about death:

 

 

When I was a teenager, I liked to take girls to the graveyard on dates. I liked the old tombstones. This was certainly a good test to see if the girl was going to be a good mate. I got turned down a few times but some girls liked the old stones as much as I did. They got asked out again to do something more conventional. I also liked taking dates on walks through the forest. I love nature. Again, I got some rejections and some yeses. I ended up marrying a girl who loved walking in the woods as much a s I did.

 

I have felt fear in many places, including the woods. Looking back, I think I brought the fear with me. It wasn't real. I've felt evil so thick it would stop my heart when entering some places and resorted to a magic spell to cast it out of me. This worked. But, that was a long time ago. I haven't felt this fear or evil anywhere for the longest time.

 

There was an exception about three years ago, in the fall of 2010, when I was entering a trail at dusk. I felt a strong warning telling me not to enter the woods there. It was a physical feeling, and emotional; it gripped me and shook me, telling me that this hike was not a good idea. I entered the woods anyways.

 

The feeling of not being wanted there continued to be very strong. I took a side trail to a picnic bench and sat down to enjoy the wonderful play of light at dusk over the verdant rain forest. Looking back at the main trail, I saw two very tall personages covered in long blond hair walking along the trail at a good speed. They were female I felt. Suddenly, a large black-haired male strode up to my bench. I stood on the bench to be eye to with him, but he was still taller. I said hello in my mind. His forearm was injured, I could tell since I was a healer; I reached out and touched his forearm to give him a healing. The hair was incredibly soft. Without warning, his hand shot out and entered my chest, tearing my heart from my body. I fell over dead, then came too as if emerging from a very life-like dream. No hairy personages in sight.

 

I left the woods after that; the instant I reached my car, the strong foreboding feeling of eminent danger left me. This occured a week or so before receiving my third Reiki degree. I don't think this was a daydream. I think I received psychic surgery on my heart which was in dire need of healing, emotional healing, at the time.

 

P'taah says, "We live in a safe universe".

 

 

To say that there is no such thing as a stupid comment is irresponsible and moronic. If you truly believe that then you have something you need to work on.

 

 

 

 

 

As for that story of yours, complete bullshit. Absolute bullshit and I dont believe it the slightest bit. Im not sure why you wanted to take the time to write that story as it had little to do with anything, but I know it was untrue and actually-hilariously-cringeworthy.

[BaguaKicksAss]

Tyler, it is NOT OK to call someone's personal experience bullshit, or trash on a fellow member. That is not how we do things around here. Remember those forum rules you read each time you joined the TTBs?