From Basic Themes

　　IV. Mindfulness of Death: Insight Meditation

　　In other words, keep death in mind. This is where the mind advances to the development of liberating insight, taking death as its theme. ”Death” here refers to the death occurring in the present — physical sensations arising and passing away, mental acts arising and passing away, all in a moment of awareness. Only when you”re aware on this level can you be classed as being mindful of death.

　　Now that we”ve brought up the topic of death, we have to reflect on birth, seeing how many ways sensations are born and how many ways mental acts are born. This is something a person with a quiet mind can know.

　　A. Sensations have up to five levels of refinement —

　　1. Hina-rupa: coarse sensations, sensations of discomfort, aches and pains. When these arise, focus on what causes them until they disappear.

　　2. Panita-rupa: exquisite sensations that make the body feel pleasurable, light, and refined. Focus on what causes them until they disappear...

　　3. Sukhumala-rupa: delicate sensations, tender, yielding, and agile. When they arise, focus on what causes them until they disappear.

　　4. Olarika-rupa: physical sensations that give a sense of grandeur, exuberance, brightness, and exultation: ”Mukhavanno vipassidati.” When they arise, focus on finding out what causes them until they disappear...

　　All four of these sensations arise and disband by their very nature; and it”s possible to find out where they first appear.

　　5. ”Mano-bhava”: imagined circumstances that appear through the power of the mind. When they arise, focus on keeping track of them until they disappear. Once you”re able to know in this way, you enter the sphere of true mindfulness of death.

　　An explanation of this sort of sensation: When the mind is quiet and steadily concentrated, it has the power to create images in the imagination (inner sensations, or sensations within sensations). Whatever images it thinks of will then appear to it; and once they appear, the mind tends to enter into them and take up residence. (It can go great distances.) If the mind fastens onto these sensations, it is said to take birth — simply because it has no sense of death.

　　These sensations can appear in any of five ways: —

　　a. arising from the posture of the body, disappearing when the posture changes;

　　b. arising from thoughts imbued with greed, hatred, or delusion — arising, taking a stance, and then disbanding;

　　c. arising with an in-breath and disbanding with the following out-breath;

　　d. arising from the cleansing of the blood in the lungs — appearing and disbanding in a single instant;

　　e. arising from the heart”s pumping blood into the various parts of the body, the pressure of the blood causing sensations to arise that correspond to sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. Sensations of this sort are arising and disbanding every moment.

　　Another class of sensation is termed ”gocara-rupa” — sensations that circle around the physical body. There are five sorts — light, sound, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations — each having five levels. For instance, common light travels slowly; in the flash of an eye it runs for a league and then dies away. The second level, subtle light, goes further; and the third level goes further still. The fourth and fifth levels can travel the entire universe. The same holds true for sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations. The relationships between all the potentials in the universe are interacting at every moment, differing only as to whether they”re fast or slow. This is the inequality that has been termed ”anicca-lakkhana” — inherent inconstancy. Whoever is ignorant is bound to think that all this is impossible, but actually this is the way things already are by their nature. W…

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