A simple but revealing meditation

[Nikolai1]

Let's imagine that you are asleep and half-dreaming. Something happens that rouses you from the dream; now you are awake and lying in your bed as expected.

 

The same sound that woke you repeats. Like a sprinkling of gravel on the roof above you. Also it seems strangely dark. You raise your arms and they immediately strike a hard wooden surface directly above your nose. You realise in a flash that you and your bed have been placed in a large pine box, and are being buried under the ground. The sprinkling of the earth is getting more and more muffled.

 

You are moments from suffocation. How do you react?

 

Do you go into blind panic, banging on the box and screaming for help?

 

Do you realise the futility of panic and so quickly and expertly centre yourself in your own being?

 

Are you already centred and so able and ready to observe your own death?

 

I think this scenario can teach us a lot about our own spiritual progress. Some of us will read this and feel the panic, some will read and feel the bliss of impending death.

[Silent Answers]

If taken as individual events, death is the best part of life. Removing the false fear of death was essential for me in moving forward.

 

Still, I'd be banging on that lid until my last breath, just in case. You've got to go out fighting...there's still a lot more I plan to do with this life.

 

Do you think there's any difference in meditating on it with intention, and letting it arise spontaneously? How did it happen with you?

Edited April 20, 2015 by Silent Answers

[Ish]

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Edited July 26, 2016 by Ish

[Nikolai1]

Honestly it feels like on the inside I am ready to die, but the body carries on living, and I haven't the willpower or even the need to intervene.

[Ish]

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Edited July 26, 2016 by Ish

[Nikolai1]

Who was that heart for? Me I hope.

[Cheshire Cat]

After waking up in the morning, I find it very difficult to meditate or develop some wisdom.

I need to walk a little bit, maybe drink a tea, eat a biscuit or two... only then I can try to understand death with widsom.

[Astral Monk]

I would start intensive practice of one-inch punch until I run out of air or break through.

 

8)

[Aetherous]

How do you react?

 

Do you go into blind panic, banging on the box and screaming for help?

 

Do you realise the futility of panic and so quickly and expertly centre yourself in your own being?

 

Are you already centred and so able and ready to observe your own death?

 

I think this scenario can teach us a lot about our own spiritual progress. Some of us will read this and feel the panic, some will read and feel the bliss of impending death.

 

Perhaps it's a misunderstanding of spirituality to think that "feeling the bliss of your impending death" is an advanced stage of cultivation. What if spirituality was really about life and living, being of use...and what if feeling blissful at the thought of your own imminent death was actually a sign of a problem rather than an advanced state? I personally think it is.

 

As for myself, the honest answer is to make a ton of noise, because you can still hear the dirt being shoveled on top. It's not blind panic (at least when thinking about it happening, rather than it actually happening), but is a rational choice to stay alive based on what I want. I would rather not be stuck in a box doomed to fade out of existence after a number of excruciating hours...I'd rather be free and in the world, able to go places and do things. When you're locked in the box, is when you really start to appreciate what you had in life.

 

If they couldn't hear my noise, then there would come a point where I'd have to accept what's happening. I'm a realist, so that would happen quickly. I'd probably decide to spend the rest of my time imagining things, so as to detract from the misery of being stuck in there.

[Nikolai1]

This meditation is not about finding the correct response to the circumstance. It's moe about reflecting on which response you would personally make. I think that is quite revealing.

 

If reading and thinking about the scenario makes you anxious then that is a sure sign that you have much more work to do. Personally I think that in the general population, this would be the commonest response.

 

If the thought of death makes you feel a peace and you realise that you want that peace and would die for it, then you've made progress but there is more to be done. To purposefully seek out death shows a detachment from mortality but is still grasping and desirous.

 

If you don't care if you live or die, that is enlightenment. Perhaps you make a couple of tentative 'hellos', enough to be heard, but if there is nothing happening then so be it!

[Aetherous]

If you don't care if you live or die, that is enlightenment.

 

Says who?

[Seeker of Wisdom]

[...]If you don't care if you live or die, that is enlightenment[...]

Anything that rocks are naturally adept at isn't a sign of enlightenment in my opinion. Equanimity doesn't mean neutrality...

[Silent Answers]

It's not a blissful association with death, nor a profound advancement in spirituality. However, I do believe that everyone will, at some point, relearn the forgotten lesson. If you can chime in before the buzzer sounds, then you may have more time on the clock to answer the next question.