Contemplative Meditation

The Meditation Newsletter

Why would you want to imagine your body rotting in the ground?

The Buddhist "meditation on the corpse" involves imagining your death, burial of your body, and then it's decomposition. You are instructed to see even the worms feeding on your flesh, completing your body's return to the earth. Why would you contemplate such things?

Think of times when you don't want to face reality. You make a comment like "This isn't happening to me," when you're car breaks down, or you just buy things you really can't afford. Many principles at work in the world, and many aspects of reality, are easy to understand intellectually, and yet difficult to fully accept.

You can say reality has no intention of good or bad towards you, for example. Then in frustration you yell at the sky when you're on the roof in cold rain trying to stop a leak, after seeing water drip into, and destroy your television set. Haven't we all sometimes felt like "life" is being unfair to us?

We fight against reality sometimes, but there is no winning such a fight. It is a battle that can only make us suffer more. Fully accept your own eventual death, and you'll worry less about it, right? Truly understand the harm in some habit you have, and you'll change it now. Deeply "see" into the reality of good and evil in the world, and you'll be more at peace with the ugliness, and more appreciative of the beauty.

Contemplative Meditation : How To Do It

Contemplative meditation helps you gain a deeper understanding, or a deeper experience of some aspect of reality. The "meditation on the corpse," for example, helps you know and accept the reality of your coming death. Focus your meditation on the transitory nature of your own emotions and sensations, and as you more fully experience this truth, you'll suffer less from the onset of bad feelings, or the passing away of good ones. But how do you do it?

Start with a truth you want to fully integrate into your life. Maybe you know that every person is capable of good and evil, for example, but you're still surprised by bad acts of "good" people, and you can't see the goodness in "bad" people. If you truly "see" how absolutely "human" we all are, you can you have a love or respect for people that isn't dependent on illusions. You'll also suffer less from the disappointment that inevitably comes with seemingly pleasant illusions ( "She would never do that.").

Breath deeply, relax, and close your eyes. Imagine someone you love, and recall some bad things they have done. Think of a person you don't like, and see them lovingly playing with their children, or helping somebody. Remember your own times of goodness and badness, seeing clearly the specific instances. When you are done, let go of your thoughts and turn your attention to your breath for a few minutes. Repeat this contemplative meditation, and watch for how it changes your perspective.

Next Issue: Meditation On An Object: Is It For You?

Steve