Death meditation is a Yoga technique. Bhagavan Das described in his autobiography himself being taught the fragility of life by meditating at the funeral pires in India where bodies are cremated. The mediator is covered by ash from the fires and drink from a scull cap. The actual top of a scull is their cup and dinner plate. As primitive and blunt as this appears to most it is a stark way of seeing the fragility of life and the distinction of mind from brain and body.
I think you can also achieve this when someone close to you dies and at least for me and my obsessive mind the survivor contemplates the horrible things your loved one went through in dying and what their body must be doing as the years go by. The practice of burial in a coffin with embalming is preposterous and polluting. The body is filed with chemicals to prevent decay and stuck in a very expensive box that won't decompose. So the body never gets to return to earth or nature. It's a superstitious practice. I'd rather return to ash. And if you contemplate for a spell what happens to the body in cremation you can't be attached either. However instead of meditation on death I feel the same result can be achieved by contemplating on the miraculous functioning of the body we inhabit. The visceral effect of being inside a machine such as the physical and being aware of its biology for me reminds me that I am not this body and that it's biology is finite in its functioning. It then becomes an invaluable and irreplaceable commodity that one has to care for and maintain the best one can while in possession of it. Just contemplating the chemistry of the sperm and it's miraculous journey to fertilize the egg that become the body reveals the fragility of our bodies and shows us how it takes biological matter that existed before we became conscious to create that which we call 'Our Body'. How did it become ours? Did we purchase it? No. It was a gift to us to care for and maintain while in possession of it. Or it's in possession of us. It needed an operating system to run it efficiently. The brAin the hard drive the OS is our consciousness.
This week I've been meditating on and teaching about the difference between the brain and the mind. The mind is our knowledge our self identity what we have learned in our life our family traits and heritage. Our Brain is an organ so to speak, tissue and matter controlling and regulating the functions of the body. It keeps the body in balance through chemistry. We need it to be healthy so we can enjoy a well functioning machine. It has to work optimally with the body and other organs. But it's not our ego mind which contains our thoughts learned behavior and intellect. So I've been working on staying out of my mind and focusing on the brains function and relationship with the rest of the body.
These ideas are why eating disorders are a mental illness. The brain doesn't want the body abused for if there is no body there is no brain. Learning the physical damage caused by starvation, dehydration or over eating is eye opening and sometimes irreversible. If we eat for healthy function of the brain and body we then lose unhealthy habits and learned behavior eating that may cause the body harm. Most all religions and higher practices suggest forms of abstaining from that which in excess can cause the body harm. Intoxicant distractions that potentially numb the mind but destroy the body. Just learning the chemical reaction and destruction drinking alcohol creates in the brain and body through oxygen depletion and the demand on the liver should make one not imbibe. We know we are destroying the bodies health and reducing its function thereby causing our life to become harder and potentially shorter. The act of smoking and the biological pandemonium it creates is a great tool for the difference of the mind and the brain organ. The brain and it's functional responsibility to the body would never ask that harm be done to it. However our learned mind and it's perceived reaction to handling stress makes us go for the easy out of chemical numbing irreguardless of the physical damage it causes. So the mind separate from the body grabs the smoke, drink or emotionally satisfying junk food.
Therefore it becomes only logical and the only conclusion that can be drawn is to identify the source of the reaction to stress perception and practice healthful ways to deal with the reaction for the health of our temporary body. The source is always the mind. Never the brain. Of course chemical and biological imbalances through injury and illness can create damage and harm to the very functions itself. Which only makes the case for the healthy individual to choose ways to prevent injury or illness. Yoga is the management of the distractions of the mind. If one becomes aware of the constant state of flux within the mind and it's perception one can practice management of the damage the mind can inflict. Through perception of the brain as separate from the mind we can see the brains innate desire for conditions that preserve its functions and thereby the health of the body we inhabit. When the minds choices are destructive to the brain and body leading to injury or illnesses the body suffers. The hangover hurts because the brain tissue was damaged and needs to shut the other functions of the body down to heal the brain. So what can we do? Try to make better choices both in the minds perception of life's stress and it's reaction to it. Or manage the mind. In doing so we create unity in the functions of the body and harmony with the events of life. However this is not an easy undertaking.
It is a Practice. So is Yoga. Doctors practice that way. They own a practice. They practice at health and healing. Helping bodies recover from often times self inflicted injury and illness. The body can turn on us and disease can create harm to the body and the Doctor practices helping us heal the body because it is only temporary and if ill will cease to function. We can be the Doctors of our mind and practice administering health to our brain and body within our powers. Practice managing the mind through Yoga, meditation, arts, sports, better choices. Remembering not to blame the mind when the practice becomes hard and we make poor choices is the productive way to practice. Watching or ways of behaving allows us see if we are inhabiting the mind or the body as the brain and body will never choose unhealthy options but the mind will.
The brain wishes to function optimally and wants the body to live. The mind knows the body will perish eventually. Therefore wouldn't it only make sense to want to create the environment of health and well being if we want to inhabit a healthy body and sustain it's life? Every breath becomes a meditation. Each heartbeat contains the creation of life. The healthy skin allows sensory experience in unique ways. Life becomes a constant gift and we practice taking care of each valuable temporary and fragile moment we are in the body. We practice healthy. Keep practicing.
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