Opening To Ageing, Ill Health And Death

Ageing, sickness, and death are aspects of life we are biologically and socially primed to ignore and avoid. This ignorance causes unnecessary stress in body-heart-mind. When we turn towards the unavoidable realities of our human existence we begin to release that stress. Amazingly, this acceptance supports a profound intimacy with life here and now. Tuning us back into the loving resonance of wellbeing that is our birthright.

Transcript

Finding your posture for this meditation practice balancing uprightness and ease in the body as you adjust the posture to be supportive and stable letting the body feel steady aligned restful and as you do this you can bring the awareness to the sensations of contact of the body with the seat with the ground letting the awareness be established be settled in the body space letting the awareness spread through the body from these sensations in the contact areas and through the body space just opening out the awareness letting it expand through the whole body through the whole body from the rootedness the groundedness and the contacts as the sensations spreading out and filling up the whole body alive sensitive caring awareness expanded and spread through the your whole body right now opening to notice if there's any degree of well-being that comes with that sense of a live sensitivity spread through the whole body and if you can tune into that as a way of grounding the awareness more fully in the body and also expanding it more fully through the whole body space a sense of the whole body space wide awareness open awareness permeated with care with tenderness with kindness the frequencies that ripple through it and from that within that field of awareness wide open tender opening to feel the breath flowing through that space being known and welcomed into that space moving through sensations of the breath flowing through the space of awareness in the body arising and passing there may be other sensations that flow through the body space also let them also be known and received in awareness in this way moving through we're emphasizing the care and compassion in awareness and we're also emphasizing the fluidity the flow the movement of phenomena in experience the sensations flowing through the space of the body being known by awareness without being held tightly in any way just flowing through awareness we can also include sound in that sounds arising passing through awareness being known awareness wide and open you might need to come back to opening it out it can or has a tendency to shrink around a particular appearance particular phenomena in our experience and we just keep opening it back like if we're sitting back lying back receiving in this wide open awareness you receiving sound receiving the breathing receiving body sensations all being known within awareness held within awareness so we're very much resting in a wide awareness resting into this flow of the arising and passing the coming and going of phenomena so we're aware of our own experience in this way and we can open out to the presence of other beings around us other human beings other animals life forms I'm gonna offer a reflection in a moment and invite you to see what happens when I drop in this reflection into your awareness staying wide staying compassionate staying connected to this experience of the flow of arising and passing phenomena so I'd like to welcome you to welcome all of us practicing this greeting dear brothers and sisters in aging in ill health and death what happens when you hear this when you allow it into the space of awareness noticing your response without judgment can you meet your response whatever it is with compassion and tenderness you dear sisters dear brothers in aging in ill health in death whatever the response can you hold it in compassion and care you might notice that there is a contraction in response to this greeting and response to this reflection on aging on our health and on death if you notice the contraction any contraction in the body space what happens if you invite it to relax just invite don't order invite it to relax may you relax you can invite the whole body to relax gently opening the awareness out to fill the whole body as you do that or you can specifically invite relaxation into the area around the contraction see what's appropriate see what works for you holding experience with care kindness bringing an interest what can I learn from this what can I learn you dear brothers and sisters dear sisters and brothers in aging ill health death wide-body awareness compassion and tenderness of using the whole body and suffusing awareness does anything open up when you contemplate aging ill health and death in this way held in tenderness and compassion met with interest what possibilities can you glimpse you everyone else around you in the next room out on the street up in the sky out on the water everyone else around you sharing this meeting this each of us in ourselves and all of us together brothers and sisters sisters and brothers in aging ill health and death true for each of us true for all of us brothers and sisters sisters and brothers shared experience shared experience of aging ill health and death what happens when we meet these truths of our human condition and relax the sense of me or mine around them can bring the gentle noting this is not me it's not just mine this is ours this is ours when you're ready gently letting go of this contemplation staying tender and caring opening out the awareness once more to rest into the flow of the coming and going of phenomena and awareness sounds arising and passing body sensations arising being known changing the breath flowing in and out every moment of life arising and passing coming together through the arising and passing of conditions this breath arising and passing physicality of the body the materiality of the body arising and passing this emotional and mental life to arising and passing all of it in flux and in flow not separate not just mine not separate not just mine resting into that flow into that flux everything arising and passing in its time if any sense of beauty of release of gratitude arises staying with it drinking and absorbing it in drinking and absorbing it in let yourself be nourished you

Reviews

Beautiful and simple. Relaxing ("opening") the body helped me sit with my grief and let go of anger and judgement.

Thank you for this beautiful practice. Can you please share the context of the "brothers and sisters in aging..." phrases? Thanks!

A very kind and caring teacher

Very thoughtful journey through one’s own feelings about ageing to a connection with the shared human condition.