Another Take on God and Tsunamis
For Buddhist monks in Thailand, the tsunamis are just another reminder of the transitory nature of life, something they focus on contunually, using photos of decomposing bodies as a "study aid."
A fascinating account of this appeared in an article by Richard S. Erlich in today's WashTimes. It's worth reading the entire story; but here's a lengthy exerpt:
Years of special "corpse meditation" have helped each monk, or "bhikkhu," deal with the nightmarish tasks [of cremating the bodies of tsunami victims].
"Corpse contemplation, or corpse meditation, would be just literally [meditating on] a picture of a dead body, or a body at one of the actual stages of decomposition," said Siripanyo Bhikkhu, 34.
The macabre photographs, which many monks keep among their personal possessions, are publicly sold in religious shops throughout Thailand. They include news photos of people killed in accidents, suicides and fires, as well as pictures of corpses being dissected during autopsies. Some photos show the grisly progression of decomposition of the human body.
The purpose of this traditional form of meditation is "simply to hold in your mind, very clearly, that when you look at a [living] person, you're seeing only the external aspect of that physical person."
"We just sort of live in denial of the fact that we have all these organs and bones and liquids and fluids," Siripanyo Bhikkhu said. "We are obsessed with the externals. No one wants to see the internals. But we try to see them in an equal light, neither delighting nor being repelled by the attractive or the unattractive signs of the external or the internal," he said.
"It is very common with us to have [corpse meditation] pictures with us, to use them, or just to have in your hut, or have with you when you are eating, or just to look at and to contemplate," he said. "It sounds incredibly gruesome and almost bizarre. But it is totally, totally normal and understood in Thailand," continued the monk, who sat cross-legged on the grass at Phuket City Hall, which has become a disaster-relief center.
"That's what monasteries are for: They remind us of the true nature of life, which is this impermanence and transitory nature."
Many Christians need to be reminded of the same thing. The more we focus on material things, on the here-and-now aspects of our physical beings, the more we miss the point. Fortunately for us, the true nature of life isn't impermanence, but eternity.
A fascinating account of this appeared in an article by Richard S. Erlich in today's WashTimes. It's worth reading the entire story; but here's a lengthy exerpt:
Years of special "corpse meditation" have helped each monk, or "bhikkhu," deal with the nightmarish tasks [of cremating the bodies of tsunami victims].
"Corpse contemplation, or corpse meditation, would be just literally [meditating on] a picture of a dead body, or a body at one of the actual stages of decomposition," said Siripanyo Bhikkhu, 34.
The macabre photographs, which many monks keep among their personal possessions, are publicly sold in religious shops throughout Thailand. They include news photos of people killed in accidents, suicides and fires, as well as pictures of corpses being dissected during autopsies. Some photos show the grisly progression of decomposition of the human body.
The purpose of this traditional form of meditation is "simply to hold in your mind, very clearly, that when you look at a [living] person, you're seeing only the external aspect of that physical person."
"We just sort of live in denial of the fact that we have all these organs and bones and liquids and fluids," Siripanyo Bhikkhu said. "We are obsessed with the externals. No one wants to see the internals. But we try to see them in an equal light, neither delighting nor being repelled by the attractive or the unattractive signs of the external or the internal," he said.
"It is very common with us to have [corpse meditation] pictures with us, to use them, or just to have in your hut, or have with you when you are eating, or just to look at and to contemplate," he said. "It sounds incredibly gruesome and almost bizarre. But it is totally, totally normal and understood in Thailand," continued the monk, who sat cross-legged on the grass at Phuket City Hall, which has become a disaster-relief center.
"That's what monasteries are for: They remind us of the true nature of life, which is this impermanence and transitory nature."
Many Christians need to be reminded of the same thing. The more we focus on material things, on the here-and-now aspects of our physical beings, the more we miss the point. Fortunately for us, the true nature of life isn't impermanence, but eternity.
posted by Laer at 5:34 PM
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