Savasana: Opening to Death and Dying

Savasana (or corpse pose) is often called the practice of dying. To practice dying is also embrace living.

Transcript

This practice is called Shavasana or corpse pose which can also be translated as the practice of dying. Many teachers consider this to be the most difficult meditation practice. To be still, To let go, And to really enter a space of deep release. To practice dying is also to embrace living. To practice letting go is to practice a deeper engagement with our lives now. Unlike the other meditation practices on this CD, This practice should be done lying down in a comfortable position. You you you In this meditation you can lie down on your back with both shoulder blades flat on the floor, The legs falling symmetrically away from one another the palms turning up toward the ceiling and the middle knuckles of the hands drawing towards the floor. Let the palms be empty, Empty-handed. Feel the way the center of the palm becomes hollow. Feel the way the roof of the mouth becomes hollow as well. Allow the lower jaw to release as you exhale softly, And then feel that exhale draw all the way down to the heels. Let the gums soften around the teeth. Let the heels become heavy. The legs receive gravity. Feel how gravity wants the legs. Gravity receives the legs, The arms, The base of the skull, The torso. Let the breath become natural. In the belly, Feel the incoming and outgoing winds of the breath. On the inhalation, Relax your effort so that the belly breathes itself. And let the whole body receive the inhale and the exhale. Notice what the tongue is doing, And continually give the tongue space. Let the eyeballs drop deep into their sockets as the breath is released. Let the eyeballs drop deep into their sockets as the base of the skull widens across the floor, And the skin of the forehead goes smooth. Let all the distant places the mind can wander across that distant places, And gather your awareness inward, Feeling how the breath becomes finer and softer, And more and more natural. At first, There can be some anxiety when we let go of controlling the breath. Notice how the breath is used to manipulating the breath, Sculpting the breath. Let the body breathe without sculpting it. Let the legs experience themselves. Allow the arms to experience themselves, Giving space patiently for the elaboration of silence, The elaboration of life, Allowing life to happen through this body without clinging. As the breath begins to settle in the belly, Bring your attention now from the quiet movement of the breath in the belly to the feeling of the breath in the nostrils. Feel the coolness of the inhale and the warmth of the exhale in both the left and the right nostril. The inhale is cool and the exhale is warm. You may notice that one nostril is dominant, More open than the other, And this is okay. Simply feel the movement of the breath and the temperature of the breath in the nostrils. Feel the movement of the breath and the temperature of the breath in the nostrils. If you become distracted, Come back to the feeling of the breath in the nostrils as the breath becomes finer and more subtle. If you're tired, Come back to the feeling of the breath in the nostrils as the breath becomes finer and more subtle. If you're tired, Watch tiredness from the place in you that is not tired, Staying awake to each breath and the breath in the nostrils. And the exhale. And the exhale. As you focus on the breath in the nostrils, Let the breath become shallower and quieter, Feeling both the inhale and the exhale. When you are born, You are born on an inhale. And when you die, You die on an exhale. And watch as the body and nervous system relax, How naturally the exhale becomes longer. Thank you for watching! Feeling exhaling without clinging to ideas, To the world out there, Or motivating memory. Let there be space around the exhale. And imagine that these are the last 10 minutes of your life. Imagine if you could choose how you wanted to die. Imagine if you could decide what your last exhale will be like. And exhale as if this is your last exhale. You can explore the exhale, Not by controlling the exhale, But by feeling the space around the exhale, By letting go during the exhale, Or by infusing the space around the exhale with generosity, Generously giving your body away. Exhale as if this is your last exhale. How would you want to exhale if this was your last exhale? Thank you for watching! As the breath comes and goes, Imagine your death as a practice of generosity, Giving it all away. Usually we think of death as taking away, As taking life. See if you can feel through your exhaling how death is taking away your life. See if you can feel through your exhaling how death is a giving away, A deep surrender. It's as easy as listening. Through the exhale, The body is listening to itself letting go. Listening, Breathing, Simply letting go, Receiving the body's stillness until all that's left is the breath. The body is just the natural world, Breathing, Feeling, Being. Thank you for watching! You you you you you you you you you you you you you Let your skin be open to the room. Feel how gravity receives the body, And the body receives gravity. Allow your ears to be open to sound, The sounds in the body and the sounds of the environment. Letting the senses be open as the breath sweeps the mind. The body settled. The spine like a collection of flowers resting on the earth. Motionless hands and arms like quiet grasses breathing. Now begin to feel the breath in the belly again. And as you lie here, Let the eyes begin to open and lie here feeling the breath in the belly again. Waking up the toes. Waking up the feet and ankles and begin to explore all the ways a foot can move. Wake up the fingers, The hands and wrists, And explore all the ways the wrists and hands can move. Coming back to life. Back from corpse pose. Reach your right arm overhead. As you bend the knees, Lean over onto one side, Allowing your head to rest on your arm. Then with the opposite palm and with your head coming last, Press all the way up into a comfortable sitting position. Feeling how lucky we are to be alive. Now it's possible to enter the world again, But with a little bit less clinging. We practice dying and coming back to life again. Now your heart is exactly the size of your body.

Reviews

Calm and comforting meditation on death. Meditating on death as a gift to life is comforting. In gratitude

Brilliant. Amazing to welcome death and come back into life again refreshed. Letting go in a way of giving and being without doing or needing. Powerful and poetic. You have a beautiful and elegant way with words and a soothing voice. Thank you so much.

Thank you Michael!
Good daily life practice to help deeply integrate "death is certain, time of death is unknown".
Particularly poignant now knowing Michael died in 2017.
May all beings realise and abide in their awakened state.

Interesting perspective on life, from the end of life. Thank you!

So powerful thank-you ❤❤❤