Hello.
This meditation was originally given in an Insight Timer live session in which we were holding those losses that are recent,
Fresh,
Tender,
Even unreal feeling in this moment,
To honor them.
So if it feels right to you to hold this in mind for someone you have lost recently,
Or if you'd like to open up your heart for those who have had this kind of recent loss in their lives,
You could do that.
Or even just to let the words work in your consciousness with your relationship with death in general.
Thank you for being here.
Let's compose our bodies and our minds with an attitude of reverence and care.
Perhaps when we set up the stability of the base of the posture today,
Connecting with the seat,
The ground,
The earth,
We can imagine that we're making ourselves stable and strong for those that might want to lean on us in their grief.
And let's make an upright posture,
The head lifted,
A posture of presence,
To be truly here.
We also make our body relaxed and soft in its alertness so that it can hold those who need to be held,
Including ourselves,
So it can perceive and respond to need.
And we connect with the breath,
A direct physical representation of the ongoing life force in this physical realm,
Which holds some whispers of what moves beyond.
We connect with the energy of the breath,
The spirit,
Which is harnessed by the breathing and continues when breathing ceases.
Just settling in here,
Following each rising and each falling breath,
And filling the body with awareness,
Growing an awareness that holds the whole form in space,
That holds the mind space as well.
Just gradually becoming more still,
More settled,
Present,
At ease and alert.
Then Almitra spoke,
Saying,
We would ask now of death.
And he said,
You would know the secret of death,
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl,
Whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day,
Cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death,
Open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one,
Even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond.
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow,
Your heart dreams of spring.
Trust the dreams,
For in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king,
Whose hand is to be laid upon him in honor.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling,
That he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?
For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing but to free the breath from its restless tides,
That it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing,
And when you have reached the mountain-top then you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs,
Then shall you truly dance.
We can now once again bring to mind our recent losses and honor them,
Bring them into our hearts fully.
And let's also now reflect on those losses that maybe are not so fresh,
But still call for being honored,
Reflected upon.
And now the many who have passed in the years of our lives,
Honoring them,
Honoring the foundation they have laid.
And finally the many,
Many years,
The eons of earth,
The souls who have passed from this life,
And those who will pass in the eons to come.
And may these reflections lead us to lead our best lives,
Take care of each other,
And let the living of our lives inform and strengthen us in the face of death,
And let our understanding of death render our lives all the more beautiful.
.
