Embracing Life, Death & Impermanence

This meditation is created for you to return to more frequently during the week. Listening several times a week can have a very soothing, relaxing, and clarifying effect. As we get more familiar with who we truly are, our relationship and understanding of death and dying will become clearer. By relaxing into listening to the sentences during this ‘groundwork meditation’, you may receive an insight that automatically brings more clarity. Don’t try to understand this with the thinking mind. Just relax and be peacefully open to receive the message underlying all the upcoming suggestions. After day one of this online course each day contains a story on life, impermanence, death, and dying. At the end of each story, there will be a guided meditation that is related to the end of life. Several ways of dying will be explored in a very warm and gentle way.

The story: In all six upcoming stories, the listener will be ‘travelling’ with Charmaine. In the first story, this will be explained and it will also be the start of the journey. Conversations about life and death are discussed whilst being on the road together. No unexpected things happen during this first story. All stories contain sounds and soundscapes. Guided meditation: A guided meditation follows at the end of the story. This introduces you, as a listener, to a broader 'non-personal' awareness. Source, The Loving Source, Consciousness, The Divine, Love, The Unchanging, The One, The Essence of existence - that which has no words. That which IS beyond the feeling of being a person. This introductory meditation is supported by words such as 'let go’, in order to deepen a greater relaxation whilst listening. 'Short Moments of Stillness' are also part of the meditation. Always connecting to that beautiful, unchanging, stable space: Source. In this first meditation, you are invited to examine your relationship to dying and death in a very gentle way. What would change in your life if you became a friend of death, as it were? The first guided meditation is a first introduction to a wider consciousness and provides an open and clear view of impermanence, life, dying, and death. It is recommended to listen to these meditations several times thus, the human form, the body-mind system, can slowly get used to the fact that death is a very normal part of life.

The story: This is a continuation of the journey and a conversation between you and Charmaine. There will be a few unexpected moments that clearly illustrate the transience and unexpected side of life. This story makes you contemplate the fragility of the human form. It will bring you into relaxation by frequently being aware of the possibility of letting go, whilst listening. Guided meditation: At the end of the story, you will say goodbye to a dear friend during a guided meditation. In a very gentle way, Charmaine will bring you to a wider 'non-personal awareness' that will create more understanding of the nature of this mysterious life. It may well be that loving tears will flow during this meditation. This clearly has a healing effect and is a wonderful part of this way of contemplating.

The story: This is a continuation of the journey and a conversation with Charmaine in the car about old age, life, and death. There are no unexpected twists. Guided meditation: At the end of the story, there is a visualization of the process of dying as a result of old age. Charmaine gently leads you toward the last breath. So much wonder and love! It's okay. You'll be able to experience that it's all so loving. Life and death, the transition - so much gratitude.

The story: During the story, you take a walk together in beautiful nature. After some time you unexpectedly come face to face with a poisonous snake. A sudden change. During this event, you will be guided in a very clear and gentle way. While unexpected and perhaps a little exciting, this is not a serious or dramatic event. Guided Meditation day 5: At the end of the story, we move on to the meditation. During this meditation, you visualise your own dying process when you are at home and die as a case of cancer. Again, a very gentle, warm, and loving guidance applies here.

The story: During this story, you notice that you are not feeling well and you choose to lie down in the grass. Soon you fall asleep and wake up after some time. As you wake up you notice that you don't immediately know where you are - this sense of 'Being Without Knowing Where' makes you feel curious. Still, with your eyes closed, you will be exploring, what it is like to Be, without location. This will be a beautiful experience because you curiously continue to ignore your emerging thoughts and will thereby stay in a spatial 'non-personal' experience. After some time you realize that you are lying on the grass and know where you are, yet you can experience deep relaxation and wide open space. It makes you lie with closed eyes. A guided meditation follows naturally. Words flood into your consciousness as you lie there on the grass. Words that refer you to the essence of life. Guided meditation: At the end of this fifth story, in which a large part has already been a guided meditation, another guided meditation starts about dying as a result of a bicycle accident. This story lets you experience that life can come to an end in a very unexpected way. That it is not always the case that you are lying in bed surrounded by your loved ones. This is a story full of wonder, connection with nature, wisdom, and surrender. Here, too, you are gently taken to your last moment in this life.

The story: During this last story, you take a walk after dinner at the campsite to see the sunset just in time. After some time, something unexpected happens. In the distance you see an elderly man standing next to a woman who recently collapsed as a result of a heart attack. She's dead on the ground. You approach the old man and the deceased woman. Other people also arrived. You enter into a miraculous conversation (without many words) with the older man. A wonderful connection is created. Emotion, wonder, and letting go. Love, pure love. The transience of life. Guided meditation: During this visualization at the end of the sixth story, your life ends with an unexpected heart attack. This may sound annoying or harsh if you read it this way, but it is expressed in a soft and understanding way. It makes you experience once again that life can take very unexpected turns. By going deeper into this, you will gain more understanding during your daily experiences for the experiences you encounter as a human being.