Hi Fellow Buddhists,.
I had a very unfortunate experience earlier this month. I was hit by a car while jogging. Luckily, I wasn't too badly hurt, just a broken toe and badly twisted knees. Nevertheless, I still had to go into hospital for an operation on one my knees (meniscus). And when you're in hospital, you certainly get to doing some serious thinking about life's deeper issues and also one's own meditation practice.
Firstly, and most obviously, the accident was a timely teaching on impermance, a reminder of just how precarious life is, how it can be suddenly taken from you at the blink of an eyelid, not necessarily through any fault of your own. Hence the importance of maintaining a regular and consistent pattern of practice regardless of circumstances.
However, for this blog I want to focus more on meditation practice in a hospitalised situation. I hope I die surrounded by nature, but, in fact, most of us will probably die in a hospital, so it's well worth thinking about how one might handle that situation. The first thing I noticed on being admitted was how quickly my ability to meditate disintegrated, largely due to being forced to be in a supine position. We normally meditate sitting crossed legged with the spine straight. Now, in hospital you probably won't have this luxury, particularly if you're attached to a drip. This, plus the fact that you're probably not going to be feeling too good either!
For me, spiritual practice has two main aspects, the cerebral or meditational side and the heart or devotional side, and to make serious progress I would consider that both need to be present. Either approach could lead to full Enlightenment, and if you look at all the major religions of the world, usually both are catered to. Buddhism, though, leans strongly towards the cerebral approach (in strong contrast to a religion like Christianity, in which prayer plays the leading role). However, the mind is usually unable to maintain the cerebral kind of focus for long periods of time. And, in my opinion, this is why the devotional aspect is so important, since it keeps us fully connected with the forces of Enlightenment, when not being able to engage properly from a meditational point of view. And hospital is just such a situation when this might be useful.
So what heart or devotional practices to do when lying prostrate? Of course, there are standard Buddhist practices like visualising the Buddha or reciting mantras, but they tend to all be rather "technique" orientated and it's not really about technique at this stage. It's about actually feeling and experiencing directly the live presence of the Dharmakaya. Christians would probably repeat something like "Praise the Lord", as this would bring them into direct communion with God. Actually, I see no reason why Buddhists can't do something similar, just substituting a word like Dharmakaya for God. In fact, someone with an eclectic view of religion might argue that they are one and the same thing. It's all a matter of how you interpret a word like "God". But the important thing is to completely and unconditionally lay oneself open to the ultimate reality, to really experience it as present and thereby merge with it. What words you use are a personal choice, whatever works for you.
I've tried experimenting with this type of practice, and I find it really establishes a strong field of devotion, into which you can just let yourself go. This, in my opinion, may well be the most useful approach when in hospital or on the operating table or even when death itself approaches. A man needs to be able to worship and pray as well as meditate! Otherwise meditation risks becoming just mental gymnastics.
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Has anybody else got any useful tips for the hospital scenario?
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E Ma Ho!
Robert
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