The Cemetary Contemplations

Today we work with a practice in the First Foundation of Mindfulness, mindfulness of body. This meditation is traditionally called the cemetery contemplations and is colloquially referred to as a death meditation. This is a practice in recognizing the reality of the body, that it is of the nature to decay. As with other practices with the Four Foundations, we are investigating the Three Marks of Existence.

Transcript

Today we're going to do a little bit of a different practice,

Practicing with the first foundation of mindfulness and the impermanence of the body.

This practice is traditionally referred to as a cemetery contemplation and sometimes referred to as a death meditation.

As this meditation may be somewhat discomforting to some people,

I encourage you to be gentle with yourself,

Starting right now as you sit here,

Allowing the eyes to close.

Taking a few deep breaths and breathing in some kindness,

Some love,

Some joy.

It could be something as simple as letting go a little bit with the exhale,

Letting the shoulders drop,

Letting go of the day's problems or worries.

Just being here.

Being present.

We'll take a few minutes right here at the beginning just to focus on the breath.

This ever-changing breathing that the body does,

The inhale and exhale,

The pulling in and releasing of air,

Gives us life.

I'm just turning the attention towards somewhere in the body that you can feel the breath and resting it there.

We don't need to hold the attention down,

Just gently resting it there.

As we bring the focus to the body breathing and rest it here,

The mind wanders.

It latches on to thoughts,

Sensations.

We have non-volitional thoughts,

Thoughts that we don't want to think.

At times we don't want to think them.

It thinks the mind on its own.

Just sticking with the breath,

Returning over and over again,

Recognizing how skillful this is to come back to the breath when the mind wanders.

It's not an obstacle,

It's not a problem.

It's an opportunity,

It's a means to practice returning to the breath over and over again.

The inhale and exhale.

You you you and there's a few of these cemetery contemplations that the Buddha offers in the Satsipatthana Sutta,

Which is the discourse on establishing mindfulness,

Often referred to as the direct path to realization or awakening.

This is the Buddha's core instructions on how to establish mindfulness and many agree one of the most important suttas or discourses in Buddhism.

It starts with the first foundation of mindfulness,

Which is establishing mindfulness in the body.

There are many parts to this.

Mindfulness of the breath,

Practicing walking meditation,

Practicing with the four elements,

And one of these things is a cemetery contemplation in which we picture a body reflecting that our body too will become like the body we're seeing,

That our body too is subject to impermanence.

The first contemplation is reflecting on a body that's a few days dead.

The Satsipatthana Sutta says,

Sees a body one,

Two,

Or three days dead,

Swollen,

Blue,

And festering,

Thrown into the charnel ground.

We think of our own body thus.

This body of mine too is of the same nature.

It's going to be like that body and has not got past the condition of becoming like that body.

So bringing to mind a body a few days old,

Swollen,

Blue,

And festering,

And reflecting that the body you're in right now will too become like this body.

It's of the nature to die,

To grow old.

It's impermanent.

Now moving on,

Picturing that same body being eaten by all kinds of little animals.

The Sutta says eaten by crows,

Hawks,

Vultures,

Dogs,

Jackals,

Or worms.

And again reflecting that your body too is of this nature to die,

To be eaten by the animals around it.

Your body too is subject to impermanence.

This practice isn't just meant to bring you down.

It's a practice meant to wake us up to the reality,

To see things clearly as they are.

For many of us this comes as a slap in the face,

A reality check that maybe we'd rather not look at.

But that's what mindfulness is,

Is seeing things clearly,

Reflecting on them,

Knowing truth.

Moving on to the next stage,

The Sutta says a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to a skeleton held together with some flesh and blood held together by the tendons.

So a complete skeleton with little bits of skin,

Little bits of blood,

Beginning to decompose.

And again simply recognizing my body too is of this nature.

The body I'm currently sitting in is of the nature to decompose,

To become like a skeleton with bits of flesh and blood held together by tendons.

This is the bits of flesh that in the skeleton you see from my right foot at head down.

If you are still Buteheme doll or an IOO doll or an I'm an IOO doll pos says The next contemplation is of the same body without flesh with only slight blood smears held together by the tendons a complete skeleton.

In remembering the reflection in the sutta this body of mind too is of the same nature as that body is going to be like that body and has not got past the condition of becoming like that body the condition of impermanence of not self this truth reality that the body is of this nature to die and decompose.

The next contemplation is of the same body without flesh with only slight blood smears held together by the tendons a complete skeleton.

Now,

Picturing that same body as the tendons break the skeleton becomes scattered the sutta says scattered in all directions a bone of the hand a bone of the foot a shin bone a thigh bone the pelvis spine and skull each in a different place reflecting once again that our bodies are of the same nature.

The next contemplation is of the same body without flesh with only slight blood smears held together by the tendons a complete skeleton.

And now reflecting on these scattered bones bleached white by the sun as the sutta says white in color like a conch after they've been sitting there for some time left abandoned reflecting once again that my body is of the same nature to decompose to be left abandoned bleached white by the sun.

Now,

Picturing that same body as the tendons a bone of the hand a bone of the foot a shin bone the pelvis spine and skull each in a different place reflecting once again that And now reflecting on these same bones sitting there more than a year old,

Heaped together,

Just an abandoned pile of bones,

Reflecting once again that my body is of this nature.

I have not transcended these conditions of impermanence.

Or another way to put it is,

This is inevitable.

This too is going to happen to my body no matter what.

It's of the same nature.

Entire body,

These three same bones are nowhere else but in me.

This is something that I am inclined to and would believe in.

And finally,

Picturing that pile of bones after a few years disintegrating into the earth.

The discourse says the reduced bones gone rotten and becoming dust.

So old,

So long gone that they're reduced to dust.

Again,

Recognizing that our bodies too are of this exact same nature.

Reviews

This is a deeply fascinating meditation

Excellent. Enough Space. Nice.

Great meditation. Especially since both this app and the West in general tend to focus on fluffy feel good practices and avoid ones that actually explore the true nature of reality. I searched for 'asubha' in this app and got no results. Though I do get why siting by oneself contemplating death isn't gonna catch on! 😱

A very transcendent practice

Lots of quiet time to reflect. It struck a nice balance. Thank you for this

It is a good cemetery meditation. Thanks!

Perfect lesson of impermanence to appreciate the immediacy of the moment.

My bones are rich with potassium. Potassium promotes root growth. What a lovingly grounding reality.

Different and thought provoking. Something we avoid examining

Its fascinating all the rather complex modern ways we avoid the inevitability of our decomposing body.

This meditation will guide you through that uncomfortable thought. Face tne thought of your own mortality.

Very good. May be a bit intense for someone who fears death.

A powerful practice and one where it easy to stay in the practice and for once my thoughts didn't wander. It made me realise and aware of the life force that flows through all beings and we share when contemplating our shared impermanence. A good pace, voice and a meditation I shall return to. Thank you for teaching this.

Definitely a reality check! An important subject to tackle in a "sit". Well done with space to contemplate subject and a good voice. Thank you.

A traditional meditation on the impermanence of the body. This particular meditation on impermanence is well structured and the author does a good job guiding the listener through a challenging meditation.

Brilliantly lead contemplation! I am left with both the matter-of-fact nature of my body and the joy of the essence of the being/spirit of each person.