From:  Tep Sastri <tepsastri@y...>"
              Date:  Sun Jan 12, 2003  1:22 pm
              Subject:  marananussati

 [...]  When one tries to establish mindfulness by developing understanding of arammanas (objects of consciousness) according to the Maha Satipatthana Sutta, the objects can be either internal (ajjhatta), or external (bahiddha), or both.

An external object can be, for example, "a corpse cast away in a charnel ground -- one day, two days, three days dead -- bloated, livid, & festering..."

[Maha-satipatthana Sutta: The Great Frames of Reference, Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu].

Using the point of view of a Paramattha-dhamma student, a concern then arises whether such a rupa is real, not a pannatti, and if it can be used as an object of consciousness. I also doubt that this corpse is a thought (because I am not looking at a real one in front of me) and therefore, is not a reality (i.e. "not real"). Further if I had to seek a real corpse somewhere and used it as the object of consciousness, then it would not "arise and fall away rapidly" either, nor would it be "infinitesimal". If it does not arise and fall away then, according to the Paramattha concepts, I cannot develop right understanding from it.

But how can a corpse be a wrong object if the Buddha recommended it? Indeed the Sutta clearly shows how one may use such an external rupa as an object of Satipatthana and how to experience its tilakkhana of impermanence (it disintegrates slowly into the basic elements), dukkha, and not-self. Right understanding can be developed because one can see the true characteristics as they really are.

I wish you could reconcile the differences between the two methods [...]

As I see it, the Buddha always taught us not to be over confident ['mai pramahd' in Thai] and have awareness of death; There are three kinds of maranas or deaths:
The khanika-marana the falling away of all sankhara-dhamma at each instant.
The sammati-marana the death of each lifetime.
The samuccheda-marana the parinibbana, the death of the arahant; after which there is no more rebirth.

We can have knowledge of khanika marana when panna has developed to a level of nana, but the other two remain pannattis for us at the moment, although we have all experienced sammati-marana countless times in samsara. No life, not even that of the highest brahma, with the incalculably long life span, can escape death, in fact once we are born we are heading towards death, and it is good to be aware that we never know when we might die and therefore benefit from our present lifetime as best we can, realizing dangers of samsara like a person who has fire burning on his head. Towards that end, any reminder is good.

The concept of death can also be arammana for samatha practice, it can bring peace [absence of lobha, dosa and moha] to the level of upacara samadhi. The samadhi can then be basis for the panna to attain levels of vipassana, according to conditions. For khanika samadhi as well, the tranquility that arises from the panna of the contemplation level studying the concept of a corpse, [according to the person's accumulations,] can condition sati to arise and be aware of the characteristics of the nama or rupa appearing at the time, whether the seeing, the visible object, the smelling, the odor, or the thinking, in a moment of satipatthana.

Not that one has to search for a corpse, in one of the suttas a bhikkhu was on his alms round, if memory serves, when a woman laughed at him, and he turned to see her teeth, which reminded him of asubha and he attained arahantship right there in the streets. Of course his accumulations must have reached plenitude just at that moment, but the fact that even the whiteness of someone's teeth can condition marananussati to arise and study realities as they truly are, and realize the tilakkhana of whatever is appearing, as khanika marana as a nana level, as well as asubha.

Again, when one develops samatha, the ekaggata and the passadhi cetasikas are developed; while in the development of satipatthana, panna, vitakka, viriya, sati and samadhi; in fact all the eight cetasikas of the eightfold path, except the three virati cetasikas that only arise together exclusively with the magga cittas, are developed simultaneously, along with other kusala cetasikas, through each moment of sati and panna. And sati can arise at any time, right now, there are realities arising through the eyes, visible objects that are light and colors, for example, that we take for messages from friends. In fact the colors are exactly what they are, different from sounds, from thoughts about them. This panna can accumulate until the nanas arise to confirm that all are indeed only namas and rupas.