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Written by Bhante Subharo on 2024-12-07 at 12:42

Several monastics I know recently went to an Asubha event (viewing dead corpses), called "Silent Mentor" in Kuala Lumpur. Contemplating death is believed to be a good spiritual motivator, when you are a #Buddhist monk or nun.

I didn't attend, but on this topic of Asubha, I have a true story to share.

The night before I left for this current monastery, I went downstairs to get water. This involves briefly going outside. When I pulled the door shut behind me, entering a kitchen area, something was stuck in the door. I was about to pull on the door hard, to close it, but then thought - no, don't force it. I looked behind me and the largest House Gecko I've ever seen in my life, by far, was lodged between the door and the door frame. It was trying to get outside, which is very strange. Usually they only go in one direction - inside the building. Anyway, its rib-cage was squashed totally flat - reduced to about 2 millimeters. Half of his body was inside, and half outside the door. I opened the door, and the house gecko scurried about two steps down the door-frame with its front legs, to withdraw itself from harm's way. But it could scurry no further, because its spinal cord was severed, and its back legs wouldn't listen any longer. It looked straight at me with its 100% cold emotion-less lizard look, then wiggled like crazy from side to side, and I could see exactly how much spinal cord would still listen - about half total. Its front legs flailed in the air, side-to-side madly, but its hind legs clutched to the door frame in a death grip. Then it just gave up, clinging to the door frame, facing downward, unable to run any further downward. It wasn't bleeding, but I could see faint red stripes exactly where the scissor pinch had occurred across its chest. After about 30 seconds, it let go with its front legs, wanting only to fall to the floor. But its hind legs wouldn't give up on that death grip on the door frame. It just hung there, about 1.7 meters off the floor. I came back about 30 minutes later, and it had fallen to the floor, dead on the spot. Ants were starting to swarm onto the body (it was about 25cm long), so I swept it up and threw it over the fence into a sort of back alley. Had I given that door a firm closing pull at the start, I would have badly severed its body in half, with guts all over the place for sure. I'll never forget how it struggled and flapped the front of its body about desperately - with zero emotion on its face - in total shock, with its freshly-severed spinal nerves. This was super creepy, and right in my face, only about 30 cm away, with my flashlight shining right on it.

[#]Malaysia #wildlife #Buddhism

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