[	Tags	|	migraine, religion	]
[	mood	|	high	]
[	music	|	Something or another by M.I.A.	]

This may sound weird but there is morbidity in Buddhism. Buddhism is known for the practice of meditation, most popular is Zen meditation. But most people do not know that there is a meditation called “corpse meditation” or Asubha. This type of meditation is rarely practiced now because there are few charnel grounds, where corpses of varying degrees of decomposition can be meditated upon, nowadays because of
the difficulty of finding appropriate corpse (unless you meditate in a morgue). Corpse meditation is used to make the meditator realize that our physical bodies are made up of impurities, and that everything is
impermanent. This is also used to make the meditator not cling to the human body.

There have been many instances, mentioned in the Buddhist Canon (the Tipitaka/Tripitaka), when the Buddha recommended this kind of meditation to his disciples, especially to those who are overcome with lust and are obsessed with the body. And there have been many instances where people became enlightened or became Arhats by
meditating upon a corpse.

There is an instance when the Buddha had the decomposing body of a courtesan auctioned to the woman’s former clients. It served as a lesson to his disciples that the human body is impermanent and disgusting and not worth clinging to.

In any case, it was the body of a dead person, carried by mourning relatives to the cremation grounds, which was one of the “Four Signs” that made the Buddha renounce his princely life and seek enlightenment.

Anyway, corpse meditation is divided into ten categories (depending on the state of the corpse). I will mention the original Pali (language used by the Buddha and Theravada monks) word and the corresponding
English translation. The descriptions are taken from chapter VI of “Vissudhimagga” (The Path of Purification) by Bhadantâcariya Buddhaghosa, a 5th century monk.

1. Uddhumâtaka – the bloated: it is bloated because bloated by gradual dilation and swelling after the close of life, as a bellows is with wind.
2. Vinîlaka – the livid: this is a term for a corpse that is reddish-colored in places where flesh is prominent, whitish-colored in places where pus has collected, but mostly blue-black, as if draped with blue-
black cloth in the blue-black places.
3. Vipubbaka – the festering: what is trickling with pus in broken places is festering.
4. Vicchiddaka – the cut up: what has been opened up by cutting it in two is called cut up…. The cut up is found on a battle field or in a robbers’ forest or on a charnel ground where kings have robbers cut up
or in the jungle in a place where men are torn up by lions and tigers.
5. Vikkhâyitaka – the gnawed what has been chewed here and there in various ways by dogs, jackals, etc. is what is gnawed.
6. Vikkhittaka – the scattered: This is a term for a corpse that is strewn here and there in this way: ‘Here a hand, there a foot, there the head’.
7. Hatavikkhittaka – the hacked and scattered: this is a term for a corpse scattered in the way just described after it has been hacked with a knife in a crow’s-foot pattern on every limb.
8. Hitaka – the bleeding: it sprinkles, scatters blood, and it trickles here and there…. The bleeding is found at the time when blood is trickling from the opening of the wounds received on battle fields, etc., or from the openings of burst boils and abscesses when the hand and feet have been cut off.
9. Pulapaka – the worm-infested: this is a term for a corpse full of maggots… when at the end of two or three days a mass of maggots oozes out from the corpse’s nine orifices, and the mass lies there like a
heap of paddy or boiled rice as big as the body, whether the body is that of a dog, a jackal, a human being, an ox, a buffalo, an elephant, a horse, a python, or what you will.
10. Atthika – a skeleton: this is a term for both a single bone and a framework of bones.

Detailed instructions are described in that same book. The author has also warned not to go to the corpse, especially the bloated corpse, immediately, because the meditator might be attracted to the body, and
thus perform necrophilia instead of meditation. The meditator is also prohibited to touch and handle the corpse and body parts as it can remove the disgust for the human body.

There is a nice verse at the end:

This filthy body stinks outright
Like ordure, like a privy’s site;
This body men that have insight
Condemn, is object of a fool’s delight.

A tumor where nine holes abide
Wrapped in a coat of clammy hide
And trickling filth in every side,
Polluting the air with stenches far and wide.

If it perchance should come about
That what is inside it came out,
Surely a man would need a knout
With which to put the crows and dogs to rout.

I have heard of a Western monk who tried to do the corpse meditation. He didn’t last long.

It is said that this is one of the most difficult meditation practice. Aside from the danger from wild dogs, wolves other animals and men, there is a risk of having hallucinations during the meditation. The meditator would also have to deal with the stench from the corpses, and the swarm of flies and insects. For these reasons, too, that corpse meditation is rarely practiced.

I would like to suggest this kind of meditation for morbid lovers, but I’m telling you of the risks involved. If you want to try this, seek a teacher first. The teacher will know if you are ready for that kind of
meditation.

[	Tags	|	dance, links, performance, religion	]
[	mood	|	relaxed	]
[	music	|	Loreena McKennit - Santiago	]

They asked, “What is the indemnity that we should pay to Him?” They answered, “Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice, corresponding to the number of lords of the Philistines; for the same plague struck all of you and your lords. You shall make figures of your hemorrhoids and of the mice that are ravaging your land; thus you shall honor the God of Israel, and perhaps He will lighten the weight of His hand upon you and your gods and your land.

[	Tags	|	bio, religion	]
[	mood	|	pensive	]
[	music	|	A Perfect Circle - Counting Bodies Like Sheep...	]

When I was fourteen years old, I picked out and bought my first pretty dress. Now, I'd had dresses before then, of course, but being an established tomboy, was fond of none of them. But since I was a Jehovah's Witness (JW) kid, and JW girls have to wear dresses/skirts to the Kingdom Hall, I decided to pick out something I actually liked. The dress was bright lipstick-red cotton. It was daringly short (it actually showed my kneecaps when I sat down), and had a peekaboo back with lots of horizontal strapping. It was definitely the coolest dress I'd ever owned, and I was proud of it. For the first time, I actually felt pretty in a great dress instead of homely in ugly third-generation hand-me-downs.

I was never a popular kid, even at the Kingdom Hall. So when I wore the dress to the Kingdom Hall, and Marty, one of the boys my age, approached me and said, "That's a really nice dress," I was flattered by the attention. I may have even blushed when I thanked him. But before I could say anything else, he had left to hang out with the "cool" JW kids.

I tried following him over to the group to say hello, but was met with rolling eyes and then by turned backs. I went back to my seat and did my best to ignore the spurning. I still liked my dress, though, and relived the compliment a few times in my own mind.

Some time later, I went to a book study (a JW meeting held in a JW's home) wearing the red dress. By this time, the dress was no longer so brilliantly red, but I still liked it. The meeting was held in the basement of an elder's (ie. a pastor's) home. When the meeting was over, I ascended the stairs and began putting on my coat and boots. My father rushed up the stairs and hissed into my ear, "You're not being fair to young Mark."

Mark was the elder's son. He was about nineteen or twenty years old.

"What do you mean?"

"You're provoking him, standing up here like that. I want you to get rid of that dress. It's too short, and you're standing at the top of the stairs on purpose so he can see up your skirt."

Horrified, I wound the fabric tight around my legs. "I didn't do it on purpose," I said.

When I got home, ( I threw the red dress in the garbage. )