On Dying & Death

In this 20 minute session, I take a first in a series look at dying and death. Using guided meditation; a body scan, folk poetry from Venezuela, and a song written in memory of my Grandmother, we look at the wonder of the body as a continuation of our ancestors.

Transcript

Hi there,

Welcome to this meditation recording.

My name is Joe Holtaway and the theme of this meditation is dying and death.

A very sensitive and not often touched contemplation.

Though many spiritual traditions have ways of approaching the subject,

As many cultures do through poetry and art.

Mine is going to draw on some traditions that have influenced me,

The Quaker tradition,

Which is an early radical Christian tradition and also Buddhism in particular,

The Plum Village tradition,

Founded by Thich Nhat Hanh.

So there's some practice,

Some bits of poetry,

Some quotes and then I'll sing you a song at the end.

The song at the end is actually a song that I wrote about my grandma,

Called So Around.

So I invite you to find a comfortable place to lie down and if sitting is more comfortable then please do that.

I'll play the guitar for a minute while you find your place to be for the meditation will be about 10-15 minutes.

Okay,

And when you get to that place,

Just take a moment to just check in with your body today,

To the weight and the shape of your body,

Where the contact points are.

And feel this moment now.

Here we are together.

Whatever time of day it is.

However you're feeling also.

So take a stop,

Take kind of inventory as it were of your internal feelings.

With the aim of just accepting your body and your mind as it is right now.

And then we're going to breathe in and breathe out three times.

And the intention there is to relax and allow any thoughts that you have been having,

Any body sensations to be there in a sense.

Allowing those to rest as well.

As you move into a space of rest,

Relaxation,

Meditation.

Not to say those thoughts will disappear or should be pushed away,

But just allow them to be there while you concentrate and allow yourself to be with the practice.

As I speak and offer you the guidance,

I'll move us through the body and also I'll be bringing in some different quotes and a song at the end.

There is other stuff happening presently which you're allowing your attention to be on.

And if other thoughts or feelings do come in,

Just acknowledge that they're there and that you will return to them when you're ready.

Okay so,

Take our first breath in and breathing out.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Breathing in and breathing out.

Okay so we're going to start at the soles of our feet.

The wonder of our feet.

33 bones in each foot.

Held in the tough skin of our feet.

Able to hold up our body and now just resting.

The toes,

The mid part of the heel and the ankle.

And then we move up to the lower part of the leg,

So we've got the tibia and fibula bones.

The magic here is the strength of the muscle and the strength of the bone and also the flexibility of the muscle.

The calf gastrocnemius which is behind the tibia and fibula.

Connection to the knee.

And then from there we move into the femur bones of the thighs with the quadricep muscles and the hamstrings in English.

So feeling where there's contact and just allowing them to rest into the cushy and the mat or the floor,

Wherever you're lying.

At any point please move.

There's no harm,

It's the opposite in moving if you need to.

Okay then we get up to the waist.

The hips and the pelvic bone,

The pelvic arch it's called.

We've got the buttocks behind the organs of that area.

The spine rises behind,

Directionally in the belly is rising and falling with the breath coming in.

We've got intestines in that area,

The belly,

The pancreas,

Kidneys behind.

The stomach.

And the lungs under the rib cage,

Liver to the right hand side and the heart to the left.

Some nice deep breaths.

You may remember from your science,

Education or self education.

The air's coming in with the oxygen transferred into the bloodstream.

That moves to the heart and the heart then pumps it round to nourish the organs.

Which is then passed back and on the out breath our exhale brings the carbon dioxide out.

And the trees are happy about that.

Breathing like this brings health to the body,

More oxygen,

Slowing things down.

Any stress is relieved by the slowing down.

So we're at the shoulders.

We'll go over the left shoulder down to the left elbow,

Past the two bones there.

Oh,

So into the two bones,

Past the one bone,

The humerus bone at the top like the femur of the legs down to the two bones at the bottom.

Like the tibia,

The tibia there of the lower leg.

And then there's the radius of the ulnus bones there in the forearm.

One stationary,

One able to move to give us that rotation in the arm.

Then into the wrist and the palm and the fingers.

And then with our mindfulness,

With our eyes closed we're able to find the fingertips of the right hand into the right palm,

The thumb,

The wrist as we move in reverse order.

Just make your way back up slowly to the elbow.

And then to the shoulder,

Finding the collarbone and then coming to the middle of the body in line with the spine.

Feel those patterns of direction,

You've got the spine going up and down,

You've got the breath coming up and down,

In and out,

The line of the neck.

The corresponding lines there.

And we've got the tongue and the teeth and the mouth and the nose,

That jaw area,

Allowing the facial muscles to relax,

Closing and the eyes are closed.

Ears,

Top of the head and the back of the head.

And now allowing us to feel the whole body now that we've been through it.

So allow your attention just to move around the different parts of your body,

Especially if you've got any aches or pains,

Can you visit those areas?

Just reassure them that you're there,

Much like visiting someone who is ill,

In a hospital or at home,

Your presence,

No doubt,

You realise makes a big difference,

Bringing that relaxing energy to that part of the body.

So a body,

As we said,

That's one with the trees,

That has this unique place in life,

As unique as every other thing.

The American poet Mary Oliver encourages us to find our place in the family of things,

As special as everything else.

This meditation is about dying and being aware that this body is of the nature to pass away.

And as we breathe into the body and we know that,

Can we be in touch with the fact that the body has always been here in different forms,

It didn't appear from outer space,

Well,

The scientists will tell you that it is made of stardust,

But can we look at the body as something that's grown from another body and grown with the oxygen from the trees,

With the food,

From plants,

And it's grown emotionally from the love of other people.

I mentioned before about the Quaker tradition,

And one of the writings says that dying is nothing more than turning over the body from time to eternity.

Almost a sense I think in that of the body returning to eternity.

Something that comforts me is that life has no opposite.

Maybe you could juxtapose birth with death,

But life exists in between,

As a stream.

And with that said,

Can we cherish our body in this moment,

And in doing so,

Teach those we love and those around us to do the same,

And maybe not even in words,

But just in the way that we hold ourselves,

The way that we care for our body and our days and our actions and words.

There's another Quaker quote that says that as magical as the bodies are,

They're not the thing,

And the thing is love.

Love is what we grow.

The body allows us to do that.

Something I like.

And you may have your own words of comfort that bring a sense of non-fear into the process of living,

And one could say in the process of living beyond the body in its current form.

Translation of a Venezuelan poem says that we are trees growing in the footsteps of our ancestors.

So I sing you a song now called So Around,

Which is about my grandmother who loved three things,

Gardening,

Words and children,

And these three verses talk about that.

She passed away about 10 or 15 years ago now.

Forgive me,

My grandmother for not remembering exactly when,

But I don't think she would mind.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Seeds are softening shoot to stem the sapling from the ground Brides the bud and light the leaf will grow gracefully bound And we know that fruit from flower flourished,

Fallen so around All that came again remains and future form is found.

Thoughts and feelings forward weave their way into the world Gather words and rise as birds these feathered forms unfur And we know that all ideas settle and inspiration stays And then on wings with songs to sing together make their ways.

Breath to body born from all the hope that is alive Drawn in dreams and hearing streams go underneath the skies And we know it's less the years here as you and I we lived But more the love that's given and the things with it we did.

So seeds are softening shoot to stem the sapling from the ground Brides the bud and light the leaf will grow gracefully bound And we know that fruit from flower flourished,

Fallen so around All that came again remains and future form is found And we know that fruit from flower flourished,

Fallen so around And we know that fruit from flower flourished,

Fallen so around.

Okay so take some deep breaths into the body Nourish it with the oxygen and your loving attention Move over onto your side if it helps or begin to roll your shoulders So self touch can be nice a rub on the arm,

The face Remembering yourself as a living breathing part of life I wish you a good night's sleep or a good day if you've done this and there's still parts of the day left

Reviews

"We are trees growing in the footsteps of our ancestors". Beautiful. Thank you for this meditation, Joe. I feel very connected and grounded. 🙏🏽

Deep in my grief this was helpful and lovely. Thank you

So restful and I'm left with the beautiful idea that our bodies are here to grow love, and that loves endures after our bodies return to the earth, thank you 🙏💚