The no-enlightenment thread

[bax44]

8 hours ago, johndoe2012 said:

 

Stop torturing yourself.

 

This is religious non-sense.

 

Glad someone finally said it.

[morning dew]

I'm not sure I'm that much the wiser having read this, but here it is anyway:

 

 

Quote

 

Why have people practiced self-mummification?

The most famous practitioners of self-mummification to modern readers are the sokushinbutsu—the Buddhas in the flesh—whose bodies have been found in Japan, primarily in Yamagata Prefecture. Some 24 individuals, mainly practitioners of Shingon Buddhism, have been found successfully self-mummified, their deaths dating between the 12th and early 20th centuries AD. However, the practice of self-mummification goes back further than that. In Science and Civilisation in China: Volume Five, the contributors speculate that self-mummification was originally a Taoist practice, and notes that, while the Japanese monks are the most famous self-mummifiers, cases of deliberate self-mummification have been recorded in China and India as well.

The practice of self-mummification among the monks of Yamagata came to light in the 1960s, after Kosei Ando and a team of researchers at Niigata University published Nihon no miira, an account of Japan's mummies, and Matsumoto Akira helped form the Japanese Mummy Research Group.

Mummies (miira) are not uncommon in Japan, but the far rarer practice of self-mummification, as you might imagine, is an extremely unpleasant one, attempted only by the most devoted of ascetics. So why go through all that trouble just to turn yourself into a particularly well preserved corpse? In Living Buddhas: The Self-Mummified Monks of Yamagata, Japan, Ken Jeremiah points out that many religions, including Christianity, have viewed the incorruptibility of the corpse as a sign of special grace or supernatural ability. There are many accounts (many of them likely apocryphal) of highly spiritual individuals dying during prayer or meditation and failing to decay after several days. Where sokushinbutsuwas concerned, a successful act of self-mummification meant the successful execution of a final spiritual practice. If, after an attempt at self-mummification, the attempted practitioner was found decayed, it was taken as a sign that the spiritual goal had not been achieved.

So what was that spiritual goal? Jeremiah notes that the idea of preserving the body runs contrary to much of Buddhist scripture, which is less concerned with the physical body than with the spiritual component. However, it's important to remember that the sokushinbutsu of Yamagata were members of the issei gyonin sect of Shingon Buddhism, which married esoteric Buddhism with indigenous spiritual practices, and utilized aspects of Daoism and Hinduism. They were practitioners of shugendō, a spiritual practice closely linked with mountain dwellers, known as shugenja, who believed they attained special powers through ascetic acts. The biographies of successful sokushinbutsu (the ones that have known biographies; some information on the lives of sokushinbutsu have been lost or destroyed over time) include tales of everything from meditating under waterfalls and in caves to gouging out their own eyes.

Taoist practitioners of self-mummification saw the practice not as suicide, but as a path to immortality, and similarly, the sokushinbutsu saw the process as transcendance rather than death. Kosei Ando linked the practice to the bodhisattva Maitreya—the future Buddha who, in the meantime resides in Tuṣita Heaven —suggesting that sokushinbutsu employed their practice to aid Maitreya. They would remain in their mummified state, which was viewed as a death-like trance, for 5.67 billion years until they would be called upon to assist Maitreya for the benefit of all humankind. However, in the essay "In Search of a New Interpretation of Ascetic Experiences" from the book Rethinking Japan, Massimo Raveri seems to prefer the interpretation of Miyata Noboru, who sees a sense of optimism in the worship of the sokushinbutsu, whom it is said, will wake to "acclaim the new reincarnation of the Buddha in the world" and perhaps are the bodhisattva themselves. Whatever the specifics of their spiritual quest, the sokushinbutsu would have undertaken self-mummification as a form of spiritual transformation for the benefit of others.

 

 

 

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-gruesome-and-excruciating-practice-of-mummifying-yo-1515905564

 

[C T]

acts of penance are quite a universal religious theme, but I know for sure its not part of the Dharma that Buddha taught, although I can understand why some *Buddhist adepts will deviate from the concept of renunciation which is central to the teachings. 

Edited December 8, 2017 by C T
late edit *

[Gerard]

3. R.E.L.A.X.

 

I think we all meditators, lay and monastics, should tattoo this word on our forearms as a constant reminder.

 

The more you seek the further it will go away from you. Like a yabbie hiding at the bottom of a waterhole which you are trying to catch with your empty hands. But if you place your hands in the water calmly and quietly in one spot the yabby curiously will come and rest on your hand. Magic will happen that way!

 

Another real problem for advanced meditators is – they WANT IT too much.

 

This might be even bigger than the previous stumbling block.

Wanting = attachment, which = failure. Failure to go forward.

 

Meditation requires letting go of all resistance, fluff, experiences, and attachment in the mind.

 

Unfortunately, the vast majority of meditators across the globe first read many books and then find a group and teacher to help teach them meditation. It’s my opinion that if you do that – you’re going about meditation the wrong way.

 

If your entire goal, and all efforts, all thoughts, all knowledge you accumulate – is to get to first Jhana… you’re going to have a really difficult time of it.

 

Ask the hundreds of thousands of monks in Thailand and across Asia. There are very, very few that have even experienced Jhana. Fewer still who experience it regularly.

 

Why is that?

 

Monks want it worse than any other meditators.

 

Instead of going about meditation like that – where you have a goal to reach Jhana or some other experience… revise your goal and give yourself half a chance.

 

Revise your goal to…

I’m going to meditate to find relaxation.

 

If you find relaxation, then you’re already winning… the goal is yours. Continue on doing it.

 

http://www.jhana8.com/category/meditation-tips/

 

4. And above all FORGET ALL ABOUT ENLIGHTENMENT. It will naturally happen when you are ready, like the elusive yabbie that suddenly popped up on top of your palms. 

 

Happy practice and blessings!

 

 

Edited December 20, 2017 by Gerard