Content / Description

Cremation: why can't we look at it? Why do we faint? Body contemplation: if anger comes up, it means we dig at the right spot. Seeing everything as skeletons: skeletons eating, making love etc. In the west, we keep sick people in the hospitals, old people in elderly homes and we bury dead people, so we don't see sickness, old age and death. It makes us uncomfortable to see them, but sooner or later, it will happen to us. Asubha: the Lord Buddha was teaching asubha (reference to the suttas) but we just want to hear that he taught the jhanas. Until the 17th or 18th century it was forbidden to open a corpse because of the Church in Europe. Sotappana: by entering the stream of Nibanna, we cannot go to the lower realms like hell any more. Style of teaching: Ajahn talks about a change in his own style of teaching. Teaching: we just hear words from the teacher but then with the experience we really understand what the teachers wanted to show us.