Mummified monk in Mongolia 'not dead', say Buddhists

Dont know is this is true or what but it certainly one of the stranger headlines recently.

A mummified monk found preserved in Mongolia last week has been baffling and astounding those who uncovered him. Senior Buddhists say the monk, found sitting in the lotus position, is in a deep meditative trance and not dead.

Forensic examinations are under way on the remains, found wrapped in cattle skins in north-central Mongolia. Scientists have yet to determine how the monk is so well-preserved, though some think Mongolia's cold weather could be the reason.

But Dr Barry Kerzin, a physician to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, told the Siberian Times that the monk was in a rare state of meditation called "tukdam".

www.bbc.co.uk...

The Buddhists that say that must own an insurance company and don't want to pay the life insurance of the guy because it seems pretty dry to me

a reply to: Indigent

He probably just needs some moisturiser and is good to go again.

originally posted by: BornAgainAlien
a reply to: Indigent

He probably just needs some moisturiser and is good to go again.

A deep moisturizer!

That is absolutely wild. Thanks for sharing it.

I don't know anything about this sort of thing. I guess (assume) that they supposedly stay in that state for eternity... Or maybe they do eventually die (according to them). I'm not really buying that these folks are just meditating, but it would be awesome if you could actually do that.

I wonder if the Buddhists would say that no sign of life whatsoever is normal and doesn't mean anything??

Again... I am fascinated by this for some reason. I will have to go digging and see if I can't find some answers as to their line of thinking on this.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

there is not enough Nivea in the world...

It's actually just a senior monk saying he is in a meditative state.

The guy is dead.

a reply to: BornAgainAlien

Or a rehydrator, like in Back To The Future II

Just pop him in, and in seconds, viola--A perfect monk again!

It appears that tukdam doesn't mean that the persons physical body isn't dead, it's just that they are enlightened enough to recognise the state of death and is able to embrace the tukdam instead of going through the traditional bardoes and eventual reincarnation.

Q: What does it mean when some lamas remain in tukdam?

R: Generally speaking, tukdam comes about when someone has rested evenly in luminous wakefulness during his life, usually called samadhi, and occurs to the same degree as his experience. When he then passes away, there is what we call 'the mingling of the mother and child luminosities,' which means that the ground luminosity and the luminosity of that person's practice mingle indivisibly.

At that moment, the experience of luminous wakefulness is very strong and one simply remains in its composure naturally, meaning that high lamas or someone with deep experience and realization will naturally dissolve into or expand into this state of samadhi. When the ground luminosity dawns by itself, they recognize it, and then remain in equanimity - that is what is called 'remaining in tukdam.'

No doubt an ordinary person also experiences the ground luminosity, but because of not having trained in it during their life, they don't recognize this ground luminosity, and failing to recognize, they are therefore unable to remain in tukdam. On the other hand, great masters naturally mingle the mother and child luminosities, - in the very moment the ground luminosity unfolds within their direct experience, they acknowledge this basic state and remain in samadhi ­ this is called 'remaining in tukdam.'

It is due to the strength of the samadhi that the body heat doesn't disappear completely, that the skin color doesn't fade, and that the body is able to remain in an upright sitting posture. Due to such visible signs, we are able to conclude that the person is in tukdam.

External Link

VI. Tukdam
Because of our lack of familiarity with these subtle aspects of mind (the dharmakaya and sambhogakaya), most people go unconscious at the end of the inner dissolution. They miss the bardo of dharmata, and regain consciousness in the bardo of becoming. We will return to these last two bardos later. A practitioner with some familiarity with the dharmakaya, however, enters meditative absorption. This is called tukdam (an honorific term for meditative practice), and it indicates some level of enlightenment.
Tukdam signals the union of the mother and child luminosities that we discussed earlier. If we recognize our primordial mother, we will dissolve into her embrace and attain enlightenment. If we don’t have recognition, or the recognition is partial, we will unwittingly leap out of her lap and begin the paradoxical search for her outside. This constitutes the leap from the bardo of dharmata into the bardo of becoming—and our next life. This metaphor becomes a literal description of our entry into samsara as we physically “leap” out of our mother’s lap during birth.

Link to Word Document

But Dr Barry Kerzin, a physician to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, told the Siberian Times that the monk was in a rare state of meditation called "tukdam".

"If the meditator can continue to stay in this meditative state, he can become a Buddha," Dr Kerzin said.

Wouldn't it be wild if the monk woke up and claimed to be the Maitreya Buddha, after having achieved the state of 'Buddha' as described by Dr Kerzin.

Impossible in both physical and Buddhist mythological terms, but it would be hilarious.

Just stick him in a hot tub for eight hours and it will rehydrate him. Then he might have to deal with a rash from all the chemicals in those hot tubs. So if he awakes, he will probably just go on meditating again and sleep for another four hundred years.

He kind of looks like one of those smoked dried sausage sticks.

originally posted by: daaskapital

But Dr Barry Kerzin, a physician to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, told the Siberian Times that the monk was in a rare state of meditation called "tukdam".

"If the meditator can continue to stay in this meditative state, he can become a Buddha," Dr Kerzin said.

Wouldn't it be wild if the monk woke up and claimed to be the Maitreya Buddha, after having achieved the state of 'Buddha' as described by Dr Kerzin.

Impossible in both physical and Buddhist mythological terms, but it would be hilarious.

The first zombie Maitreya Buddha

If they are concerned, maybe attach those things to his head to register brain activity...
wouldnt be wild if they DID find brain activity???
LOL

a reply to: EnigmaAgent
He's not dead...

He's getting better.


(And that's my very poorly executed Monty Python reference. Thank you, I'm here all night.)


Why do they seem to assume he died in this position as opposed to being placed on this position after death?

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

Wow. That is a well preserved but very much dead mummy!

He even still has his hair.

Amazing.

Thanks for the OP.

Imagine the courtroom if he was insured !
I'm sure he would be declared alive in America .
That would be funny .
Probably have to have the case in Florida tho .
Just saying

a reply to: EnigmaAgent

I truly wouldn't be blown away if this were true... I believe it's achievable if you can shut off all of your bodies operations - especially somewhere where it's hella cold; basically put himself in cryo the way I see it... If he's still kicking.

Reminds me of the kid in... Asia? Middle East? I'd have to look - but supposedly he sat and meditated for some 10 years or something without eating a bite. Supposedly. He was a tourist attraction for some time. I believe he either stopped or died though...

His brother claims that he would try and bring him food and he would simply turn it away.

*shrug*

Cool post; I'll be interested to find out what they come up with...



ETA: Well I just looked at his picture... Probably dead lol. Someone stick him with an IV for a couple days and then hit him with the paddles -- who knows. Worth a try I think lol

originally posted by: rickymouse
Just stick him in a hot tub for eight hours and it will rehydrate him. Then he might have to deal with a rash from all the chemicals in those hot tubs. So if he awakes, he will probably just go on meditating again and sleep for another four hundred years.

He kind of looks like one of those smoked dried sausage sticks.

I'm sure you could gnaw on the guy like beef jerky.

I'd seen the article about the preserved monk a while ago.

Scientifically you can't really pin the exact and full explanation of why he is so well preserved, but being that he is what he is it could be some sort of fantastic ethereal energy thing caused by the extreme circumstances that these people put themselves through much like how every few years we get a story about a skinny man lifting a car to free someone of the wreckage, so it's the same sort of thing induced by his beliefs and practices and powered by chemical changes within him that probably interact with his environment to draw more unexplainable conditional waves and frequencies and whatnot out of the atmosphere much in the way that Tesla proposed drawing electricity out of thin air. Sumthin like that.

Self mummification in Buddhism:

was achieved by the sophisticated practices of meditation, coupled with prolonged starvation and slow self-suffocation using a special belt that connected the neck with his knees in a lotus position.

Sokushinbutsu were Buddhist monks or priests who allegedly caused their own deaths in a way that resulted in their being mummified. For 1,000 days (a little less than three years) the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another thousand days and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it made the body too poisonous to be eaten by maggots. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed. After the tomb was sealed, the other monks in the temple would wait another 1,000 days, and open the tomb to see if the mummification was successful. If the monk had been successfully mummified, they were immediately seen as a Buddha and put in the temple for viewing.

www.tamqui.com...


So they suicide….