Finding Nirvana

The cabin in the woods had been abandoned for years, but one night, a candle burned in the window. Outside the cabin, a pair of Buddhist monks carrying wooden staffs waited patiently for those inside to complete the tasks set for them. Another monk, dressed in the robes of a Guru, stood on the small porch outside the entry door.

I'm not sure whether you could really regard this story as 'horror', primarily because it is, at least in part, a true story; and it has a happy ending, of sorts! I cannot say exactly when it happened, only that it was at least half a century ago in a time when people throughout the world were searching for a higher state of being … a transcendental state, their 'Nirvana'. Some even found that state, albeit in less than pre-meditated circumstances.

A middle-aged Buddhist monk in Northern India sought Nirvana by isolating himself in this abandoned cabin deep in the rugged forest. He entered the cabin with 3 female attendants. They carefully placed a jug of water, a small bowl, and a few pieces of fruit on the floor in the center of the room and, beside them, carefully unrolled and laid out his woven mat upon which to sit, along with a small supportive cushion at his back. Everything was meticulously positioned and made clean for the monk to enter. The monk took his position sitting cross-legged in the center of the mat, adjusting his legs into a lotus position. He took a long drink of water and then told his attendants that he will remain there for one full lunar cycle from New Moon to New moon and that they must not return for a period of 30 days. The attendants bowed politely and left as the monk broke open and took a bite from a pomegranate left for him.

After a short while, the monk allowed his eyelids to close out the world, and slowly raised his hands making the Uttarabodhi Mudra gesture, to connect with the universal oneness of all that 'is', before serenely lowering them to his thighs in the Dhyan Mudra yogic gesture. His breathing slowed, getting increasingly shallow until it was virtually imperceptible that he was even breathing at all. He had learned to slow his heart rate as well, and gradually synchronized his breathing and heart rate as one; 6 breathes per minute and 6 beats per minute in complete unison. All senses closed down, offering no distractions of sight, sound, smell, or even feeling. Likewise, he cleared his mind of all thought in a state of no-mind, yet also a state of lucid and receptive mindfulness. There were no words flowing through the mind, only the no-mind that exists in a state of Oneness with the entire universe, and all that truly 'IS'.

So, in this state of lucid bliss, the monk could not possibly have been aware of the rat nibbling at his toes. Nor of the other rats milling around him, sniffing the air and, eventually, joining the first rat nibbling away. At a heart rate of only 6 BPM, there was little blood, only warm, fresh, and inviting flesh for the obviously thin and under-nourished rats to feed upon. It was on the 5th day of the waxing crescent moon that the monk parted his eyelids for just a moment … long enough to notice that all his toes and lower half of his foot were now bare of flesh. In a fleeting gesture, he shooed the rats away, and, being so close to his ultimate state of perfection, simply chose to return to his meditative state knowing that all else is just an illusion.

On the 12th day, his eyelids parted again. Most of the flesh from his lower legs, feet, and toes was now gone and the once thin rats appeared large and fully-fed. Again, he went to lift his arm to shoo them away once more, only to find that his fingers, hands and forearms had also been stripped to the bone. Upon seeing this, feelings of fear encroached upon his lucid state. His heart began to race and his breathing became erratic. Words entered his mind: “I cannot leave, I cannot run, I cannot even gesture the rats away … I yell out BOO, but they just ignore my call, knowing that there is no-thing left to fear from me. I am simply ... food.” So, once again, he calmed himself, relaxing into his inevitable fate, and returned once more to his lucid, meditative state.

Day 20: This time, his eyes parted to see that his legs, hands, and arms were now completely bare of all flesh to past the elbows. There was a squabble between a couple of rats beneath his robes, fighting over the soft, fleshy areas between his legs. There was no fear anymore, only acceptance at the realization that he no longer had his genitalia and that the rats would soon be entering his torso. There were now some 20 or 30 rats feeding on his body, occasionally squabbling amongst each other and establishing a hierarchical 'pecking order'; 2, maybe 3 had climbed up on his shoulders and chewed on his ears before one of them stretched out over his face to his nose.

The monk could do nothing but watch, and, strangely, even come to appreciate the strange spectacle of being eaten alive. Then his eyes closed for one more time.

Day 30: Today was the day that the monks' attendants returned, and, to their shock, his body was all but gone. Only part of his upper torso and head (minus ears, nose, and eyes) remained, the rest was just bones, completely stripped of all flesh. As they stood there, frozen in horror, what was left of the monks' lips somehow twitched and a single word was uttered

“... Nir-va-na”.