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Talk: 19990616-Larry_Rosenberg-UNK-shining_the_light_of_death_on_life_part_8-43040 Leandra Tejedor.json Start_time: 01:09:26 Display_question: In Vipassana practice, do you suggest that one should bring the practice of contemplation in every day, or in addition to the breath? Keyword_search: vipassana, contemplations, infatuation, body, decomposition, energy, nine contemplations, skeleton, vipassana, death awareness, corpse Question_content: Questioner (inaudible) In Vipassana practice that you do practice every day, and they do watch the breath, do you suggest that one should bring into the practice of contemplation every day, or in addition to? Larry: Yes, I understand what you… Questioner: I am trying to get a practical idea of how use this… Larry: Yes. Okay. That's a complicated question. No, it is simple. It's complicated in this sense, that the answer would be different for each person in this room. For example, if somebody has a fierce infatuation with their body, I mean, an incredibly strong identification with their body. Next week I'll go into some where you contemplate the decomposition of the body, which may sound awful, and also even in the ancient times, but it's done today, too. Part of my training. I did it. You actually can see a corpse to help you understand a corpse, at a certain stage of decomposition, to help you understand that this is what happens to this body. If you're totally fixated on the body, and devote all of your energy to clothing it, washing it, oiling it massaging it vitamining it, mineralizing, endlessly, et cetera. And then you can't hold on to it. You can't freeze dry it, and make it be what you want to be. It's a losing game. It's exhausting. It's unfulfilling. You can get Bermuda shorts when you’re 95. It still isn't going to be so much fun. So that might be useful for someone to help them. Let go a little bit. Break_line: Someone else may not need these… quite they may be other…. in terms of the practice, your question, here are a number of ways in which you can use it. And a lot of it would have to do with your affinity. Like if you're drawn to it, that's why really it requires an individual interview. It's not something to just put in a loudspeaker to everyone, and now go, and do it. Not at all. If you're drawn to it. Let's say we have nine contemplations. You may find that one of them is very rich. Like, I did some things contemplating the parts of the body, in my own practice, and for some reason, I don't know why, bones were very, very rich skeleton, always have been. Since childhood I've been intrigued by skeletons. I don't know why. And so that part of the practice, it's just one part of a body, became very fertile for me. You can just at the beginning of a sitting, you have to learn how to use this. Maybe spend two or three minutes just catching a glimpse of one. I'm of the nature to die. I'm not exempt from that lawfulness. And that can perhaps arouse some energy. Break_line: So that then your practice, the regular of the Vipassana practice, has some oomph, sort of you prime the pump a little bit. I use death awareness on my own retreats, when I'm getting sleepy. So, if I get sleepy, all I have to do, is contemplate my own death. And I have ways of doing that, some of which you're learning now, and I wouldn't say always, but about 80% of the time, perks me right up, when I see that. And it works better than fast walking, or blinking my eyes, or so many of the antidotes, to sloth and topper, that you read about in the book. Break_line: Other ways of practicing with it are to go through all nine. You can go through it, take one, and go for a whole week with it. Then you can go two, then three, then gradually take them all on. You can feature one, and at the end of a session, skim just the remaining. To put it all in context, because they're really all kind of saying the same thing. You may drop the whole thing altogether and say, this isn't for me. Maybe you have a fierce yearning to understand, or to be free. That may give you all the energy you need. You don't need this. Break_line: So, it would be very, quite individual. And there are definitely times, and for certain people, at a certain state condition their life, where it's not a good practice, if you have a lot of ups and downs, if you've had a lot of losses, if you don't have a strong practice yet, it might be counterproductive. So, it's not something I would play with, because there's real energy involved. If you take it seriously. Sometimes it's intuitive. All of a sudden, I'll just find myself doing it. End_time: 01:14:18
