What are the Top Ten weird ways we treat the dead? What should a wise person do before s/he dies? The Buddha said most people foolishly wonder:
- Was I before?
- What was I before?
- Will I be in the future?
- What will I be in the future?
There is little profit in pondering such things. Instead, the four greatest things one can possibly ponder, if one would be free of all suffering, are:
- What is dukkha?
- What is the cause of dukkha?
- What is the end of dukkha?
- What is way to the end of dukkha?
(rkdm.com)
Wise Reflection
ThaiAsiaToday
Rosemary Weissman: Yes. When we begin to open to the truth we’ll see both sides of ourselves and also the dukkha (“unsatisfactoriness” or “suffering”) in the world. Some people can’t handle it. This is why we feel it is essential to have compassion as a foundation that guides our practice.
Compassion makes the process much gentler and healing, whereas resistance to the way things are only increases dukkha....The second factor of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path is “right thought or intention.” The Buddha describes “right thought” as:
- thoughts directed towards non-greed
- thoughts directed toward harmlessness
- free from ill-will and cruelty
How are we going to develop such wise thoughts? We need to develop unselfish emotions. One reflective-meditation is to reflect on the difficulties we and others experience as human beings.
Compassion can arise along with loving-kindness, a wish for peace and well-being. There’s also a specific Reflection on Death. In the Buddhist scriptures it’s called Maranasati, “mindfulness of death.” Another is to reflect on impermanence. In the Satipatthana Sutra -- the Fourfold Setting up of Mindfulness -- the Buddha teaches that whenever we see death or impermanence externally, it is wise to reflect internally:
“My body is of the same nature and will not escape this.” These are wise reflections that can help us develop “right thought” and “right view.” With more “right view” and “right thought,” we are able to have more “right speech,” “right action,” and the other factors of the Noble Eightfold Path -- which all similarly depend on one another and strengthen one another.
Steve Weissman: Typically, in the beginning people think that if they have enough concentration everything will become peaceful and everything will be fine. Concentration by itself is simply concentration by itself. The same is true for mindfulness. Mindfulness by itself is just mindfulness [by itself].
A great athlete in the Olympics has super concentration, super mindfulness. But it doesn’t mean he or she is wise. According to the scriptures, before becoming enlightened, the Buddha developed the highest levels of concentration possible [up to the Eighth Jhana], but he didn’t gain the wisdom necessary to purify the mind.
The night he became enlightened he was using yoniso manasikara, Pali for “wise reflection.” He was actually using that as he became enlightened. More>>
Rosemary (Australian) and Steve Weissman (American) living and teaching in Thailand (ThaiAisaToday)
Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal with the Dead
Heather Whipps (Live Science)
Dying is a fact of life, as is the disposal of a body after the fact. You know all about burial and cremation, but here are the other ways people, past and present, have dealt with the departed. From Tibetan "sky burial" to cremation in Bali to cryonics in America, humans have been remarkably creative in disposing of the remains.
(R. Eldar)Tibetan Sky Burial
Ever wanted to fly? In Tibet, you get to do just that, only after you're already dead. Instead of trying to bury bodies in the hard, rocky ground, some Tibetans send their loved ones to the top of a mountain and leave them to be eaten by the vultures. The disassembled corpses are even mixed with flour and milk for a tastier treat, to make sure every bit leaves the Earth for good. See a Sky Burial photographed and explained by R. Eldar. (It's similar to the Zorastrian practice of using Silent Towers in India; Tibetans also have Water Burial to feed the fish).
Neanderthal Cave Burials
Before they began interring their dead in the ground proper around 100,000 years ago, Neanderthals routinely left the deceased deep inside the caves of Europe and the Middle East. To Neanderthals, the dark, mysterious recesses of a cave may have seemed like a good place to transfer over to the otherworld, some archaeologists have argued.
Before they began interring their dead in the ground proper around 100,000 years ago, Neanderthals routinely left the deceased deep inside the caves of Europe and the Middle East. To Neanderthals, the dark, mysterious recesses of a cave may have seemed like a good place to transfer over to the otherworld, some archaeologists have argued.
Tree Burials
Indigenous tribes in many parts of the world discovered that the best way of disposing the dead was to put them up high, rather than down below. Groups in Australia, British Columbia, the American southwest and Siberia were known to practice tree burial, which involved wrapping the body in a shroud or cloth and placing it in a crook to decompose.
Plastination
Send your corpse on a tour of museums 'round the world with plastination, developed by German scientist Gunther von Hagens. His popular "Body Worlds" exhibits showcase the controversial preservation technique, which involves dissecting the body into bits, embalming it with a hardening fluid and reposing the body into various 'educational' positions.
Balinese Cremation
Contrary to the more somber western funerals, cremation ceremonies among the Hindus of Bali have an almost carnival-like atmosphere. Festive floats parade down local streets accompanying the body to a burning ground, where it is transferred into a ceremonial bull receptacle and set alight.
- See the entire Top 10 List
- Bhante G's Reflects on Death: UrbanDharma.org
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