death desease and meditation

[kcgovil]

DEATH  DISEASE AND MEDITATION


Death is an absolute truth. Who so ever and what so ever takes birth dies. This is a law of nature. No one can alter it.
For human beings death remains a most fearful event and almost every one fears death and would want that though inevitable may come to others but he be spared. He would like to live as long it is possible , perhaps for ever.
Looking around one finds that broadly speaking there are five types of situations when a person progresses towards the end of his life.
First one is when death comes to a person through a violent  means like some one shooting another person , ending the life of the person either instantly or in a very short spell of time, or during the course of an accident or incident.
The second type of death is seen when a person dies very peacefully and very quickly when his heart stops functioning. Heart flutters for a few moments, and then this vital organ of his body stops beating. In medical terminology this is called death by massive heart failure.
Third type of death is when vital body organs gradually stop functioning normally and slowly the persons drifts to a stage when heart stops functioning. But he remains in control of his essential body functions like taking the food and liquid for his diminishing needs and discharging stool and urine mostly unaided.
Fourth type of death is when a person suffers one or more crippling diseases for a fairly long time and is not able to perform his necessary daily routine like taking requisite food and other liquids and going to the toilet unaided though his mental faculties remain sharp. His body functions deteriorate  and he needs constant help from others. The person slowly drifts towards his end, experiencing a very sad and painful end to his life journey.
Fifth type of death is where the person goes to coma, both body functions as well as mental functions deteriorate to the extent that the person just technically remains alive, as the heart keeps beating, breadth keeps coming in and out of the body, but for all other purposes the person is more like a vegetable state than any thing else.
The moot question which arises is as to why do persons become sick. Outwardly there could be very many reasons for a person to be sick, but if one looks to the reality of life, diseases and death , more dispassionately ,then it would become instantly clear that when a person does not live life according to the well established and eternal laws of nature, then the person become diseased in body. If the laws of nature are flouted in a temporary or transient way,  the effect on body is temporary and transient. Nature punishes a person but also rewards , if one lives life according to its eternal laws. But if the disregard of Nature’s laws is willful and prolonged then the punishment given by the nature is also severe and harsh. Such prolonged disregard of Natures laws stems from the disorder in person’s thought process  which results in disorder in his bodily actions. Thought comes first then comes action from the body. The mind was rendered bad, and thus the essential primary condition for bad actions gets created. When bad actions come they result in all the ills of the person
When a person gets unwell, he must pause and try and analyze as to where did he go wrong and violated the Nature. But quite often when a person gets unwell he rushes to a physician or a specialist in medical practices, and takes some medicines and other external aids to alleviate his suffering. As long as a person thinks that he can get rid of his physical ailment with the help of the physician, his own efforts or the efforts of his friends and family, his wealth, he never thinks of looking into his improper life style which are because of his improper thought process. Improper thought process leads to a improper life style, which in turn leads to his having inflated ego, greed hatred jealousy lying, killing, sexual excesses, selfishness and many other such things. He does not see any thing wrong with himself, always finding fault with others, and always trying to establish his superiority. Such a person suffers in his body also, as SICK MIND RESULTS IN SICK BODY AS MIND AND BODY ARE VERY CLOSELY INTER RELATED.
When a person’s mind is cleansed of all its defilements, his body will become healthy. The person will age gracefully, die gracefully and will pass away from the planet earth leaving behind good memories about his conduct, unselfish nature, complete honesty egoless ness, truth, tranquility and wisdom.
That is where MEDITATION comes in.  Meditation is a process which will help a person realize as to what is wrong with his thinking, and where all is he violating the Nature’s Laws.
Today there are various meditation practices being taught by various Gurus, It will be very useful to distinguish between developing very high degree of concentration and  INSIGHT MEDITATION. Basically concentration meditation are those which are developed by fixing the mind on any single object like ones breadth and holding the attention for very long time, not allowing the mind to waver from that object.
Insight meditation does not fix the mind on one spot in the body. Instead it allows the subconscious mind to roam freely inside the body which helps the meditator to probe the nature of mind body relationship. Insight meditation is practiced by developing bare attention, a quality of choice less observation without reacting to the sensations in the body and the thought process  by the roaming subconscious mind.. With Insight Meditation a person develops wisdom and gets to know what a person, one really is. Concentration meditation develops a high state of bliss and Tranquility and often certain powers. Certain defilements at the level of the  conscious mind  get eradicated but the defilements which are present at the sub conscious and the unconscious level just get suppressed .   Higher the development of concentration, deeper and deeper go his mental defilements if this is achived without getting rid of mental defilements. When such a state is reached, these mental defilements, which are present at the very deep levels of his subconscious  start taking a toll on the person’s body and his well being, and as his end comes near and nearer, the person becomes either invalid or goes to the stage of coma before his death.
Chronic diseases which a man suffers are Nature’s way of telling the person that he is violating the Nature’s laws,  his  thinking is not proper,  and he needs to urgently know what is wrong thus giving him a chance to correct his thought process and his life style, thus avoiding a very painful and undesirable end to his life.

[Crystal Palace]

kcgovil,

You seem to be a very advanced practitioner. If this is indeed your knowledge, would you mind sharing with us the meditative techniques that you practiced to gain such insights rather than the insights themselves?

CP

[chintan]

Dear kcgovil,

Very few of us practice meditation to get rid of physical ailments - though it is a welcome side effect. And if someone is severely ill suggesting meditation is fool hardy - I would always suggest Western medicine.

Living as per laws of nature - this also has so many interpretations but yes living according to Dhamma is what I try to do.

Welcome to the forum - we hope to learn from your experiences.