Whoopee! We’re all gonna die.
Theravada Buddhism Is The Shit
My Brush With Vipassana
I went to a ten day Theravada Buddhist retreat back in the mid ’90′s, in Western Massachusetts. 16 hours a day of intense meditation. It was amazing. It was wild. No guru, no mantra, nothing but focus on the sensation of the air entering, and leaving my nostrils.
To my shame, I cracked on day 3, or 4, and bailed. That’s a good 48 hours of motionless focus. If you know me, you will be very impressed. I got all worked up about money, rent, etc., and split. It was all bullshit of course, my ego railing against its annihilation. It’s exactly what you work through, and come out the other side. None of that lovey dovey compassion that you get with Amida Buddhism, just the straight up realization that there is nothing, not even you. Poof.
I saw this picture on /b/ and it reminded me of my last flickering sparkle of life as any kind of yogi. I drove home and got drunk and high, if I recall properly. And it’s been Jacob’s Ladder ever since. Not really, but damn, sometimes it feels like it.
This is the post that brought me here. I googled head of the hair, hair of the body, nails, teeth, skin. I was listening to http://www.amaravati.org/teachings/audio/ a dharma talk on death and dying while running and that is one of the things he talked about. Don’t worry if you got scared away, keep coming back to it, your capacity for facing the inevitable will increase. Impermanence is more real than gravity, but we are not wired to realize it right away. Remember, it is about facing reality and not backing down, or coming back after we have done so, which is something like music, that gets better with practice.
Thank you, Francesco. I appreciate your reply. I imagine that I will return. I will contemplate what you’ve said. Impermanence is more real than gravity. That’s a point to ponder, for sure.