Okay.
This guided meditation will be putting it all together.
So we begin as always by setting our body up in a comfortable,
Stable posture.
Start from the feet moving upwards to the body.
Setting your posture up.
Maintaining your awareness of the body as you do so.
Remember to check the balance of your upper body.
And when you have completed setting up your body in this comfortable,
Stable position,
Begin by taking three deep breaths.
As always,
We then let the breath go.
And place our awareness on this cycle of the breath.
Following the breath in,
The breath out.
Observing the characteristics of this breath.
What can you see?
What can you feel?
What can you feel?
Whenever you're distracted away,
Acknowledge that you have been.
Understand that there is this thought that has arisen.
And then let it go as it came.
No need for aversion or attachment.
If an itch arises.
Let the itch be.
If an itch or a pain is so strong that it takes you away from your breath.
Then use that feeling as an object of meditation.
Bring your awareness to that itch.
What can you see?
What do you feel?
What thoughts arise in your mind related to that itch or pain?
Examine your experience.
See if you can see impermanence.
What can you see?
What can you feel?
What can you feel?
What can you feel?
You may die at any time.
I may die today.
I may die tonight.
I may die at any time.
Because life is uncertain,
But death is certain.
I who may die at any time,
I am subject to old age and decay.
I am not exempt from old age and decay.
Remember to visualize yourself much,
Much older than you are now.
With graying,
Lost hair,
Wrinkled skin,
Needing the aid of a cane or a walker to move around.
The youth has left you.
I who may die at any time,
I am subject to illness and dis-ease.
Visualize yourself on a hospital bed.
Sick with any kind of illness,
Malady.
It is the nature of this body that there will be sickness.
I am subject to illness.
I am subject to death.
I am not exempt from death.
Visualize as you wish,
Yourself,
This body in a coffin or gravestone.
Funeral pyre.
However you wish.
It is the nature of this body and this existence.
I will be separated from all that I hold dear.
People,
Places,
Experiences.
All is ever-changing.
All is in flux.
Flowing in and out of our lives.
This is the nature of this existence.
Nothing stays the same forever.
Nor can we hope to hold fast those that we hold dear.
Keep them the same forever.
This is unobtainable by any being,
Anywhere.
We arise for a time,
Persist for a time.
Then we decay and cease.
I am the owner of my actions,
Heir of my actions.
Whatever I do,
Skillful and unskillful,
To that I shall fall heir.
Our actions matter.
To ourselves and those around us.
Whether we act skillfully or unskillfully,
The choices we make affect our future.
It behooves us to take responsibility for these choices and live skillfully for the benefit of yourself and others.
I am subject to these five truths because I have clung to this body.
This body,
Which while pleasant on the outside,
Is not so pleasant when viewed at from the inside.
Just as other people's bodies may be pleasant and attractive on the outside.
But when viewed at from the inside,
Are not so pleasant.
This body when viewed with equanimity is merely a biological machine made up of various components,
Created from various elements.
Many,
Many thousands of parts are in this body.
All functioning together.
There's head hair,
Hair that we beautify and make soft,
Hair that we are attracted to.
But if a hair falls into our food,
Then we're not so attracted to it anymore.
Body hair,
Nails,
Teeth,
And wrapped all in skin.
Underneath the skin we find a skeleton of hundreds of bones that provide the framework for this body.
Attached to these bones by sinews,
Our muscles.
This body has many systems,
Such as the nervous system,
A network of nerves throughout the body that attach to the spinal cord and then the brain.
The circulatory system that brings our blood all throughout the body.
We have many organs that provide various functions.
Such as the heart,
Lungs,
Liver,
Kidney.
There's many types of liquid in this body.
Water,
Blood,
Pus,
Urine.
All performing and providing biological functions.
We go about our daily business without even a second thought to all of this activity in this body.
This body that shows us impermanence if we only look.
One day this body will lie bereft of life.
Like a useless tree stump.
And as is its nature,
It will begin to decay.
This corpse contemplation was taught by the Buddha for us to understand the nature of this body and death.
While we are alive,
We beautify the body.
Try to cover up any scents that come from the body we dislike.
Cover up old age and sickness.
Once the body has died,
It begins its decay.
Liquid begins to seep from all the organs.
Bloating up the body.
The millions of little beings whose niche in the environment is to help decompose these bodies.
Begin to come to the body.
And do their job.
After some time,
The liquids begin to seep out of the body.
And some animals may come to have dinner.
Nothing goes to waste in nature.
Everything has a niche.
This body was composed of various elements.
And it shall return to these elements.
We only inhabit this body.
We're renting it for a time.
It's not ours.
Nor can we hold on to it forever.
As the body decays further,
The organs have eroded.
The skin becomes tight.
All that's left is skin and bones.
The bones still brown-reddish from blood.
After further time,
All that's left is a skeleton.
The bones still connected by sinews.
But beginning to break down.
When we think of skeletons,
We think of Halloween,
Horror movies,
Death.
We rarely think of the fact that we are all inhabiting a skeleton right now.
While this skeleton makes us strong,
It does not last forever.
As the body continues to decay,
These sinews break.
The bones that were once a strong unit break apart.
A hand bone there.
A shin bone there.
A skull over there.
Over time,
The bones,
Bleach white,
Continue to scatter.
Over long periods,
These bones turn to dust and are covered by the sands of time.
Then whatever you thought was you is completely gone and forgotten.
Everything that we worried about,
Fought over,
Fretted over,
Long gone,
Covered over by the sands of time.
This is the nature of the body.
Our body will be like this as well.
Deep down we know this.
This is why we try to make water and air proof coffins to preserve the body.
Go to all these steps,
Putting large chunks of metal in the ground.
Just to hold a heap of earth that we once clung to.
So just as we,
Our bodies are subject to this fate,
So too are all beings subject to this fate.
It is enough when seen and understood for us to desire developing goodwill for all beings.
Start to develop meta for yourself as a limited being.
We wish for ourselves,
Using the words of meta,
Not as a mantra,
Not as something to be repeated quickly,
But an honest sincere wish.
May I find happiness.
May I find peace.
May I live in friendship with all beings.
May I find release from suffering.
Spread your sphere out,
Encompassing an ever larger area.
All beings within that sphere,
All subject to death,
All ending in death.
May all beings in this city find happiness.
May all beings find peace.
May all of us live in friendship with each other.
May all of us find release from suffering.
Spread your sphere out to encompass the entirety of this country.
May all beings in this country,
All of us,
Find happiness.
May all of us find peace.
May all of us live in friendship with each other.
May all of us find release from suffering.
Spreading your sphere to encompass the entirety of this planet earth.
May all of us on this planet earth find happiness.
May all of us find peace.
May all of us live in friendship with each other.
May all of us find release from suffering.
Spreading your sphere to encompass the entirety of the Milky Way galaxy.
May all of us find happiness.
May all of us find peace.
May all of us live in friendship with each other.
May all of us find release from suffering.
Spreading your sphere to encompass the entirety of this universe and beyond.
All existence.
Meta is limitless goodwill.
If there are beings in existence anywhere,
We encompass them in our meta.
May all of us everywhere,
All subject to old age,
Sickness and death,
Find happiness.
May all of us find peace.
May all of us live in friendship with each other.
May all of us find release from suffering.
There are those who do not realize that one day we must die.
Those who understand this,
Settle their quarrels.
