Knowing any Appearance to be
as Total Terror!
The Ancient Elders
explained:
As one repeats the observation and contemplation of the unavoidable
dissolution
of all phenomena by their decay, gradual destruction, fall, breakup and
ultimate
ceasing, then all formations, all constructions, all kinds of becoming,
generation,
birth, life, destiny, station, or abode, appears as a great
dread of total terror!
When one sees how past phenomena have ceased, present ones are ceasing, and
those to be generated in any far future all inevitably also will cease, then
what is
called -knowledge of appearance as terror- arises in the meditating
disciple just
in the same way a mother gives up of all hope, when she see her 3 sons
beheaded
one after the other... When seeing the 2nd son axed she knows:
All 3 will die... !
The meditator's seeing & noting the ceasing of all past, & all present
phenomena,
is like the woman's seeing the eldest & the middle son's head being slashed
off...
His realizing the unavoidable ceasing of all future phenomena, by
comprehending:
All phenomena, whether mental or material, arising in any future will all
cease too!
is like her giving up hope for the youngest son, thinking: He
too will die
like them...
Visuddhimagga 645
On the
Advantages of noting & contemplating Dissolution:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Trap.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/V/The_Burning_Turban.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Noting_the_Breakup.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/The_Terror_of_Being.htm
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/drops/IV/Contemplating_Suffering_2.htm
