Re: Shut Up, Sit Down and Play Dead

On May 16, 10:04=A0am, RaaN <raan2...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Okay so we have some focusing on one thing type meditation and then
> open receptive non-interactive awareness meditation. =A0

Technically calming (samatha) and insight (vipassana) are two
qualities that are developed in meditation, but these days meditation
teachers tend to teach them as being separate disciplines.  This is
OK, but it's im****tant to realize that they are complimentary.

> If I were to
> instruct you on how to pretend to be dead and to mimic death in every
> regard as long as possible both externally and internally how would I
> guide you? =A0Relax and slow breathing down to almost nothing. =A0Sit
> rather than lay to avoid sleep and snoring and movement etc since we
> are not trying to imitate sleep. =A0And sit in such a posture as to
> naturally not fall over with legs intertwined and locked the way one
> would a corpse one wishes to prop up. =A0If eyes are open they must
> remain focused on one point unmoving but not strained as the eyes of a
> corpse are directed at one thing but see nothing. =A0And all discomforts
> and sounds etc are to be ignored and not responded to. =A0To help one
> best achieve the outward illusion of death, one should try to be
> inwardly quiet the mind or failing that then to allow it to wander but
> not to interact with it as with even a corpse that may have some kind
> of chemical brain activity but no consciousness nor will. =A0And after
> long and arduous practice to enable you to relax to such a degree that
> no thoughts even arise and breathing so shallow as to be imperceptible
> and awareness so diffuse and non-responsive that you become dead even
> to your self, well honestly how is this to be distinguished from
> meditation other than that I have called it playing dead? =A0

Becase you're only describing the calming part, leaving out the
element of concentration.  If I'm not mistaken, corpses tend to have
very little if any concentration.

Furthermore the samatha (calming/concentration) part of the practice
is the preparation for the development of vipassana (insight).  There
are different opinions on whether one should develop more
concentration first, or do a little and go to insight, or not bother
with insight at all.  It depends on school, sect, teacher, and
inclination.

In traditional Buddhism there are lots of different objects for
insight, and you can find them by doing a search on vipassana
meditation.  In the zen tradition this is where koans or technically
used, or one may switch to ****kantaza (translated usually as "just
sitting") at this point.

I won't even begin to describe ****kantaza to you other than to say
that it is best done with a teacher who will do everything in their
power to keep one from lapsing in to corpse-ness or becoming
complacent.

> Doesn't it
> seem to be simply a total acceptance of death and a preparation for
> death so that one no longer has any fear of anxiety having gone
> willingly into the death state so often?

Sorry I don't have a reference, but I did once hear about a study that
said that regular meditators usually have a more healthy attitude
towards death, or tend to express less fear about it.  Part of the
fear of death is a fear of non-activity and meditators are much closer
to that on a regular basis.

If you read the Satipatthana Sutta that Evelyn quoted, there are
specific meditations on death.  One actually visualizes a corpose in
various stages of decay, reminding oneself that one's own body is
subject to the same sort of decay.

-DaveK