How do veteran buddhist monks calmly endure being burned alive?

[CreamCat]

Some buddhist monks calmly burn themselves alive to protest bad government policies. In other words, they calmly commit suicide in public spaces.

99.999% of people would dance crazily if they are being burned alive.

Is that what enlightened people are capable of? Awesome. I think they would make excellent warriors. They are warrior sages because they are sages and they are fit to be warriors.

I want to become a warrior sage for my life purpose, too.

Edited December 27, 2018 by CreamCat

[pluto]

The Enlightened One can disconnect at will.

Edited December 27, 2018 by pluto

[CreamCat]

2 minutes ago, pluto said:

The Enlightened One can disconnect from the illusion at will.

Do you think enlightened monks can turn off pain at will?

[Shadowraix]

7 minutes ago, CreamCat said:

Do you think enlightened monks can turn off pain at will?

I don't think they are necessarily turning off pain at will but they are reprogramming the perception of it. Think of like the sensation of having your back scratched. You could probably experience that and be ok with it for hours. The difference between that and pain? How the sensations are interpreted.

 

[pluto]

@CreamCat Its less about "turning off" and more about "disconnecting" from physicality completely. At least that's how i remember it.

[CreamCat]

@Joseph Maynor As far as I know, only enlightened monks were able to endure fire without dancing crazily.

[CreamCat]

23 minutes ago, pluto said:

@CreamCat Its less about "turning off" and more about "disconnecting" from physicality completely. At least that's how i remember it.

That sounds like god mode. God is a great warrior.

Edited December 27, 2018 by CreamCat

[CreamCat]

@Joseph Maynor I was not particularly talking about death. I was talking about enduring the pain of being burned alive without moving crazily. How can one do it while calmly sitting? Only enlightened ones can do it. The ones who can nonchalantly endure being burned alive are fit to be great warriors. Thus, they are warrior sages.

Enlightenment makes you an excellent warrior. I want to become a life purpose warrior.

I don't want to think about death too deeply until I nail down my execution and basic financial stability.

Edited December 28, 2018 by CreamCat

[Sahil Pandit]

12 hours ago, CreamCat said:

Do you think enlightened monks can turn off pain at will?

They know the relationship between pain and their True Self. 

[Rilles]

[CreamCat]

@Rilles That's similar to what leo told us about dealing with pain. He told us to experience pain fully without avoiding it.

[VioletFlame]

As unorthodox as this may sound to most people, you must learn to become somewhat excited for death, not suicidal but comfortable with the inevitable sudden invitation of death. Think of how exciting life is. Death is simply a part of life, so how can it not be just as exciting? Departure and arrival can be one and of the same. It's only an eternal extension to this adventure we are living and will be a great cosmic surprise in the end. And also remember the end can always mean the beginning.

If there were immortality, would there even be life, or would there be any purpose or effort to live at all? Would we see any value left in life or would we become stagnant, gray and monotonous?

Think about the beauty of death alone and the strength and motivation it gives us to live our life to the fullest during each moment.

As I do not promote or condone self-mutilation or any self-injury, I do believe training the mind to gain fortitude and enduring certain sensations is only preparing you for an unavoidable or inescapable experience that could reveal itself ahead of time, that can not be predicted, so it's best to equip yourself for the unexpected, which will ultimately reduce your fear of life and of death.

Thich Quang Duc

Edited December 28, 2018 by VioletFlame

[Elysian]

They've literally separated their consciousness from their physical body. Their consciousness isn't there to experience the pain. Something you learn how to do at higher levels of spirituality. There is no way to simply will the pain of burning alive away while experiencing it consciously, it's not possible, and anyone who's been severely burn would understand this.

 

[katykat]

@CreamCat I think it's more a matter of will than enlightenment. Without going into too much detail, a person in my neighborhood did this to herself and sat still. Perhaps the 99.99% of people you mentioned who would flail about wouldn't want to be burned unlike those who have an intention and motivation.

[Gabriel Antonio]

Yeap, it’s really impressive. They have highly developed equanimity. 

Equanimity (Latin: æquanimitas, having an even mind; aequus even; animusmind/soul) is a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind.

[CreamCat]

4 hours ago, katykat said:

@CreamCat I think it's more a matter of will than enlightenment. Without going into too much detail, a person in my neighborhood did this to herself and sat still. Perhaps the 99.99% of people you mentioned who would flail about wouldn't want to be burned unlike those who have an intention and motivation.

And, did she not scream at all?

[ValiantSalvatore]

 

@CreamCat No idea how they train, I've heard about the Marathon Monks from Mt. Hiei from an Audiobook. They were able to keep up their practice for 1000 of years solely because they had a knife and a rope, which both are symbols in their religion. When I recall correctly the rope is a symbol for infinity and they are both parts of a deity(s). It also gives reassurance that one is able to kill himself and apparently they have to after 101 days or finish their 1000 day challenge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaihōgyō. So, potentially death itself and being used to pain helps someone to do that, but no idea how they train.

[CreamCat]

@ValiantSalvatore So, they experience physical death without actually dying. TJ Reeves once said physical death is better than psychedelic death. Rear-naked choke is also a method for experiencing physical death without actually dying.

[ValiantSalvatore]

@CreamCat I can't tell, I can imagine. I don't know how much experience I have with psychedelics, because my body needs a lot more and I did test it and only two different environments, and still integrate insights and perceptions especially the outer world after I meditate. Sometimes the world becomes more vivid like psychedelic or more vibrant and clear. Yet, I after the last retreat I just went nuts it was like my intuition went overload and I interpreted every symbol to literally, instead of becoming one with all objects for instance. Like if I recall correctly, Leo has in his magic mushroom video, where he became one ( I did not watch the video in its entirety ) and loved all objects that he saw, even some dirt on the floor and the trashcan?  Etc.

Coming to the point... I do not know how an ego death feels like, I know that I went into becoming one with a sentient being instead of relying on my intuition to interpret reality, situations, thoughts of people, hidden intentions, good intentions etc. It was different than an amplified intuition of compassion and empathy which I had and I felt like I "loved" my friend during a psychedelic trip. He felt the total opposite saying he felt extremely different from me which was odd to me since I was so convinced that we were on the same page. 

So, I can't tell if there is a misconception about dying and becoming one with everything. Or if it is about enlightenment. I was listening to an audiobook and the teacher there talked about how each moment.. can be peppered with thousands of moments of pure bliss, god, (things I have not yet experienced), yet that one never fully sees God. Which was odd to me that someone of his age says that. 

About physical death and psychedelic death, I can relate in a way when for instance I do a do nothing meditation and I drop into a state of something which is "very" deep ( I talked about this with a teacher more competent than me), I lose consciousness, most likely because I am not ready, or not experienced enough. Anyway, it feels like you lose consciousness (in retrospect ), but at the same time, one goes deeper into consciousness IMO!  So, in a sense, it is like death but death would include some form of "duality" and there has to be a "somethingness" to it or a perceivable quality to death itself. This is just my opinion, with practice, this will change most likely. Also, this teacher talked about how torture could help with enlightenment since it would be trigger practice but he could not do it in some way. In regards to staying conscious while experiencing hellish agony. 

 

Edited December 30, 2018 by ValiantSalvatore

[CreamCat]

10 hours ago, ValiantSalvatore said:

I can relate in a way when for instance I do a do nothing meditation and I drop into a state of something which is "very" deep ( I talked about this with a teacher more competent than me), I lose consciousness, most likely because I am not ready, or not experienced enough. Anyway, it feels like you lose consciousness (in retrospect ), but at the same time, one goes deeper into consciousness IMO!

When I do "do nothing" meditation, I sometimes fall asleep and lose consciousness. Are you sure you didn't fall asleep?