Contemplating Death and Impermanence

This is a 23-minute meditation to guide people toward exploring life through the lens of impermanence. This meditation will connect you deeply with what matters to you and how precious this life is.

Transcript

Hello my name is Kimberly Johnson.

I am so honored you will be sitting with me today exploring your inner world and your outer world.

I have been meditating since 2007 and am currently under the mentorship of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brock.

My hope is leading you through meditations that give you access on the cushion and off the cushion to true peace,

True joy,

And true presence.

Today we will be exploring impermanence,

Pausing to reflect on our own mortality.

So we'll begin by you just taking a moment to get comfortable and letting yourself move the body in gentle small ways so that you can sit without much movement during the next 20 minutes or so.

And as your body gets comfortable maybe letting the eyes shut down and as you let the eyes gently shut down maybe imagine that you pick up your attention and you intentionally bring the attention to the place right where your sit bones are where your seat,

Your bum is touching the chair or the mat or the cushion and intentionally noticing how supported you are.

How without asking that the cushion or the chair holds you and then the floor holds that and the foundation of the building you're in holds that.

And even lower the earth holds the foundation for all things that exist and that in this moment you are held by the earth supported fully and just noticing that support and then slowly almost like gently dragging the awareness up the spine moving it up towards the heart and just for a moment pausing at the part where the spine connects to the heart between the shoulder blades and just connecting with your own heart for a moment.

And one of the ways we can do this is by thinking about somebody that we love,

Thinking about a place that we love or an animal that we love or thinking about our own deepest wishes for peace and happiness connecting to our own deepest desires to live a good life to be kind loving humans.

Then just connecting with your heart in whatever way feels best feeling the love that is innate within you.

And then gently bringing the awareness up even more right to the tip of the nostrils and just beginning to bring awareness to the breath.

Noticing the inhale.

Noticing the exhale.

And as you notice the breath gently letting the body and the muscles around the bone structure relax.

Relaxing the face relaxing your shoulders and upper back letting them gently melt toward the earth knowing that the earth will hold you.

Letting the belly relax and fall open able to receive.

Letting the hands and the hips and the legs relax as you follow a few more slow breaths right at the nostrils.

And from this connected present place begin imagining in your life that you have one year to live.

And just sense for a moment what would matter most to you.

What would you want to do?

What would you want to experience during this last year walking the earth?

And now you have a month left to live.

And you might sense what you would do in this last month.

What activities?

What are the things that you would really want to experience?

And what would matter most to your heart during this last month on the earth?

Keeping the body really relaxed knowing that it's okay if anything arises.

Maybe an emotion letting all be welcome as you really sense your last month of being alive.

And now you have a week,

One week left.

And let that be real for you.

See if you can actually put yourself in that like really one week left on the earth.

And really sensing what would I want to experience.

What is the deep calling in my heart?

And now you have one day.

Really sensing what you would want to do and what you would want to experience on this last day.

What is the longing in your heart?

What is the longing in your heart?

And now you have a few moments,

A few last moments and breaths.

And really sense what matters most to you in these last few moments right here.

What is it that your heart longs for?

What is it that you most want to experience or know or realize or trust in these last few breaths?

Feel it right here in your body,

In your heart.

What are you longing for?

And as you touch into it,

Let it get as big as it wants to be.

Let yourself fully be filled completely with it.

Let yourself be absorbed into what you are longing for,

Like a sponge completely surrendering into it.

Let it fill your entire world,

Becoming what you long for,

Becoming what you are longing for.

As you sit in this state,

This state of presence and connection to your life,

Really just getting as still and as silent as you can,

Just sitting in the experience and in whatever beautiful wisdom arose for you.

As you sit feeling your life right here,

I'm going to end with a Mary Oliver poem,

And then I'll ring the bell three times.

When death comes like the hungry bear in autumn,

When death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse to buy me and snaps the purse shut,

When death comes like the measles pox,

When death comes like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity,

Wondering what is it going to be like,

That cottage of darkness.

And therefore,

I look upon everything as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,

And I look upon time as no more than an idea,

And I consider eternity as another possibility.

And I think of each life as a flower,

As common as a field daisy and as singular,

And each name a comfortable music in the mouth,

Tending,

As all music does,

Toward silence,

And each body a lion of courage in something precious to the earth.

When it's over,

I want to say all my life I was a bride married to amazement.

I was the bridegroom taking the world into my arms.

When it's over,

I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.

As those words interact with your body and your mind and your heart,

Maybe pause before the bell rings and ask yourself,

If I walked this life inside of the longing in the matters of the heart that just arose during this meditation,

What might my everyday life look like?

If I put these values at the top of my priority list,

If I really remembered every day the fragility of life and walked with that knowledge always as a friend right beside me,

What might I do in my daily life?

What does it look like in my walking,

Waking life?

The small habits,

The small ways I talk to myself or others,

What does it actually look like to walk this earth the way you truly want to?

What does it actually look like to walk this earth day by day the way I actually want to?

The making of you slow breaths.

And before you just rush out of meditation,

Just checking in with yourself and how you feel in this moment.

Not looking for anything profound,

Just being curious of what's actually present now.

And then slowly maybe moving the body in yummy ways to come out of meditation.

And when you're ready,

Maybe blinking the eyes open and taking a few breaths to really look around and reacclimate to your space.

And knowing that at any time you can reconnect to the beautiful fragility of this life as an access to expansive perspective and thinking and as an access to your own heart and your own life.

Thank you so much for sitting with me.

May this meditation deeply touch your own heart so that you may touch the heart of others.

Reviews

Thank you teacher for this profoundly nourishing meditation! I am grateful for it. 🙏❤️🙏❗️

What superb guidance. I am very grateful for this meditation, it touched me deeply and was extremely helpful. I am bookmarking it for what I am sure will be many visits. Thank you kindly.

This helped me when I was having the kind of day when life was far from perfect . It did focus me back to questioning what my life really felt like on a granular level, what was actually here in that very moment and what I would like it to be hinged on going forward.

So beautiful and grounding..
And simultaneously heart expanding

Thank you so much 💕

That was a nice and gentle meditation where I felt safe and relaxed.

Profoundly beautiful meditation. Will continue to ponder the message. May need to do this again, and again.

Absolutely amazing, I’m so glad I had the opportunity to practice to your guided meditation. I can’t wait to check out your other meditations! So many tears were shed with this one. Boundless Metta to all 🙏🏼💗 P.S. I was very excited to hear who your teachers were!!!

Wonderful. Thank you so much 🙏🏼 I hope many will find this meditation.

Excellent reflection. Knowledge and accepting of death makes you appreciate this fragile life even more!

Truly deep and helpful. I will do it again because there's so much in there. Thank you very much!

Grateful for the next breath and thank you for your lead. They dont flock to meditation like this. But I read the Dalai Lama suggest it a couple of years ago. It makes every moment count.

Add: This should be a 5 star rating. No idea why sometimes it won't record the rating.

A stunning reminder to pay attention to this moment and what is important to you right now.