Posted by deborah

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I’m reading Body of Work: Meditations on Mortality from the Human Anatomy Lab and feel nauseous at times. I know why I did not become a doctor.

One time, I was given the responsibility to change someone’s dressing. The person had had abdominal surgery. The nurse stood to my left with white — oh-so-white — bandages and peeled back the bandages hiding the open wound.

I woke up in the ER with someone wanting to check my head. I’d fainted.

They decided I would not be the one to change the person’s dressing. Thank goodness.

Flash forward. A friend starts telling me about her abdominal surgery to remove a tumor. I have to sit down.

I’m reading a memoir about a medical student’s experience of dissecting a corpse. Why? First, I had no idea it would be this graphic. If I lie down in bed while reading, I should be okay.

Second, reading this book turned out to worth it for the following Buddhist nugget alone…(which proves you find what you need when you need it).

Thich Nhat Hanh says:

“We must look death in the face, recognize and accept it, just as we look at and accept life.

“The Buddhist Sutra on Mindfulness speaks about the meditation on the corpse: meditate
on the decomposition of the body, how the body bloats and turns violet, how it is eaten by worms until only bits of blood and flesh still cling to the bones, meditate up to teh point where only white bones remain, which in turn are slowly worn away and turn into dust. Meditate like that, knowing that your own body will undergo the same process. Meditate on the corpse until you are calm and at peace, until your mind and heart are light and tranquil and a smile appears on your face. Thus, by overcoming revulsion and fear, life will be seen as infinitely precious, every second of it worth living. And it is not just our own lives that are recognize as precious but the lives of every other person, every other person, every other being, every other reality…We see that life and death are but two face of Life and that without both, Life is not possible, just as two sides of a coin are needed for the coin to exist.