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Dear Lal,
Forgive me for shortening things. This series of post is about death awareness based on this link:
https://suttacentral.net/an6.19/en/thanissaro
When I said practicing “swallowing one morsel of food”, I meant keeping the thought that “I may live for just the interval of swallowing one morsel of food, that I might attend to the Blessed One’s instructions”. Similarly, “I may live for just the interval of breathing out without breathing in”, etc. At least that’s how I interpret the practice to be from the link above.
I did not mean being mindful of the act of swallowing, or of breathing. If my interpretation of the death awareness practice is correct, I’d really like to get your take on this question: Can this practice help remove defilements? Or does it just provide motivation for practice?
In responding to the original post in this series, I mentioned the story of the weaver’s daughter, and my impression was that death awareness practice does remove defilements.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/busc/busc13.htm
Best,
LangHi Akvan,
In thinking that mindfulness of death can lead to the sotapanna stage (according to this Dhamapada story), my thought process was like:
For three years, the girl did mindfulness of death as a “formal meditation”, and that made her mind ripe till the point where it took a “push” from the Buddha to the first magga phala. And that “push” from the Buddha (the 4 questions) was also related to death awareness. Of course, it must be assumed that she led a moral life in addition to her “formal meditation”.
Whether or not it leads to the first magga phala, I do believe this meditation can be greatly beneficial, and I’d like to try it. Has anyone here attempted to do this at the “granular” level prescribed here: “… the interval that it takes to swallow having chewed up one morsel of food … for the interval that it takes to breathe out after breathing in …”?
I can see that it’s possible to practice “swallowing one morsel of food” while eating, especially if I’m eating by myself.
For “the interval that it takes to breathe…”, it probably has to be during a formal sitting. Doing this throughout the day is a bit “disruptive” to the task at hand. Maybe we can “lengthen” the practice somewhat, such as:
If we have to read a lot in our work life, perhaps it can be “the interval it takes to finish this paragraph”. Or “the interval it takes to drive to work/home”, etc.
I’m grateful for any input from someone who does this practice regularly.
Best,
LangDear all,
I’d like to get your opinion on this question: Can practicing death mindfulness lead to the sotapanna stage?
I haven’t seen the subject of death mindfulness practice on the puredhamma.net pages, but of course I have not exhausted the site. Elsewhere, I read the story about the weaver’s daughter, and that story gave me the impression that keeping death awareness can take one to the sotapanna stage.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/busc/busc13.htm
Thank you.
On the Welcome page on puredhamma.net, I read that the three main misconceptions prevalent today could be responsible for rebirth in the apayas, not just blocking the path to Nibbana. That gave me the chill and led me to ask the question.
In my circle, Anicca, Dukkha, Anatta are interpreted the usual, “wrong” way; and anapanasati is taken as breath meditation; and nobody knows about the gandhabba.
I do not “teach” anybody. I do call myself Buddhist, and attend vipassana retreats; therefore, occasionally an average person asks me about “Buddhism”. I was concerned about consequences if I gave misinterpretations in what I say, as well as about the “teachers” in my group.
Thank you.
Sadhu! Thank you! That was a big help with the clarification of what cetana means.
I’d like to follow up with a speculation on the weight of kamma of this situation and ask for your comments on my thinking. Assessing this based on the 2 key factors, we have:
1) You pointed out that the dasa akusala involved is micca ditthi. In this case, the “teacher” harms himself because he’s staying in samsara longer until he has correct ditthi.
2) He teaches this to the general public. In his mind, he teaches Buddha Dhamma, or specifically bhavana; but he just calls it “mindfulness meditation” to make it sound neutral, i.e. not connected to a religion, which gives it a wider appeal. Most “students” may not even know the pali terms anapanasati or Kāyānupassanā (mindulness of bodily positions and movements as taught here).
The average student of this person gets a temporary calm from practicing this. So, using factor number 2, can we say that the kamma vipaka of his action, even with micca ditthi in it, is minimal or negligible? There’s no real harm to the student; in fact, some find this calm beneficial.
Respectfully,
Lang
