Charnal Ground Meditation

This guided meditation upon death and impermanence is for experienced meditators. There is a brief introductory talk followed by the meditation.

Transcript

Channel Ground Contemplation Meditation This guided meditation is based upon a practice which is described in the ancient commentarial text the Visuddhimagga,

The path of purification.

This is one of the longest meditations presented here in this series,

And as this practice requires some qualification,

I will take a few minutes now to say a few things about it.

So first of all,

I need to say that I would not recommend that any new or inexperienced meditators do this particular meditation just yet.

I would only recommend this practice for long-term Buddhist meditators,

Those who have listened to many teachings,

Spent some time in monasteries or attended some retreats,

And who have also done a lot of personal practice at home.

Why?

The Channel Ground Contemplation is a potent and powerful practice,

A type of very strong medicine in a manner of speaking.

And of course before taking any course of strong medicine,

It is important to know why we are taking the medicine,

How to take the medicine,

And what the correct dose is,

Etc.

And this is why I would only recommend this meditation for people with considerable experience and a solid foundation in wisdom teachings.

I have included the meditation here in this collection because for the right person,

At the right time,

These types of skillful means can be truly beneficial,

And naturally,

If sincere meditators are diligent with their death meditation practice,

There will come a day when this meditation would be appropriate and useful.

As Buddhist practice deepens in Western countries,

It is also quite important that some people do begin to teach these methods,

Because there is also some risk that these less popular skillful means may simply fall away from the ancient Buddhist practice traditions.

And now about the actual meditation.

In this meditation,

The meditator is asked to visualize his or her body already dead,

Lying as a corpse in front of one.

The meditator visualizes this corpse in several different stages of degeneration,

Progressively,

Until only scattered,

Sun-bleached bones remain.

Traditionally,

This type of meditation would be included in the asuba,

Or loathsomeness of the body,

Category of practice.

These practices are a powerful antidote to excessive infatuation with and attachment to the physical body.

I've included the meditation in this collection because it does also tie in very well with the theme of contemplating death and impermanence.

And so having heard this much,

If you do not feel ready for this kind of practice yet,

Then never mind.

It's fine to leave it aside for now.

For people who are interested in doing the meditation,

For the purpose of gaining a little background understanding as to how this practice came to be,

We might first of all ask,

What exactly is a charnel ground?

In traditional Asia,

A charnel ground was a place where the bodies of the recently deceased were taken to.

Depending upon the wealth or status of a person,

And also upon the way that a person had died,

Different procedures would occur once the dead body had been taken to the charnel ground.

Sometimes bodies were buried.

Frequently they were burned,

And at other times they were simply placed somewhere in the charnel ground and left exposed to the elements to decompose.

Often these places were in a forest,

Or on the edge of a forest,

Where wood could easily be found.

During his lifetime,

The Lord Buddha actively encouraged monks and nuns to visit,

Meditate,

And even to live for periods of time in these isolated places,

Precisely because it was so helpful in the process of weakening delusion and attachment,

And for developing and stabilizing insight.

Naturally,

When dwelling in such a place,

A meditator would frequently come across real corpses,

Or parts of corpses,

In various stages of decomposition.

One could then train in diligently recollecting these images within the intensified focus of formal meditation practice,

Allowing the mind to be deeply informed by the message of impermanence and not self that these images conveyed.

By doing this,

In a sincere and disciplined way,

Ignorance and delusion would naturally fall away.

In praise of the practice of dwelling and meditating in a charnel ground,

The Visuddhimagas states some of the benefits for one who undertakes this practice.

One acquires mindfulness of death.

One lives diligently.

Greed for sensual desires is removed.

One constantly sees the body's true nature.

One has a great sense of urgency.

One vanquishes fear and dread.

And non-human beings respect and honor one.

And so as we can see,

If looked at superficially,

This practice can seem unnecessarily gruesome.

But when it is undertaken sincerely,

The potential benefits are enormous.

In more recent times,

Meditating in similar places in Thailand was an important stage in the development of Ajahn Chah's own practice,

And in the practice of some of his senior disciples such as Ajahn Anan.

Even to this day,

All throughout northeast Thailand,

Monks and nuns and devout laypeople too attend open air cremations in the traditional forest monasteries and charnel grounds that still remain,

Dedicating the merit of their contemplations to the recently deceased.

Although most of us do not have the opportunity to live in a charnel ground these days,

We can still derive some benefit by training to meditate in ways which support a similar growth in insight.

The meditation practice of the ten charnel ground contemplations is one such practice that can help us to develop concentration and wisdom.

And it is with this intention that I will now present this traditional meditation.

As per usual,

We will begin by establishing a present moment body-based awareness with some body sweeping and breath meditation.

Bringing your attention to your sitting posture.

Simply being aware that now you are sitting with a straight,

Yet relaxed posture.

At first,

Simply feeling the physical feelings of the buttocks pressing against the mat,

Or the cushion,

Or chair on which you are sitting.

Grounding awareness in this present moment.

Allow a broad,

Natural awareness to embrace your whole body for the next few moments.

And now I suggest taking three slow and deep in and out breaths.

Releasing any tension you may be feeling,

Particularly with the out breath.

Breathing slowly and deeply in,

All the way into the abdomen.

And then out,

Letting go,

Putting things down.

And once again,

Breathing in,

And breathing out.

Relaxing,

Bringing a fresh awareness,

A sense of being present into each new moment.

And one more deep in and out breath at your own pace.

Now allow the breathing to become relaxed and natural.

Breathing easily,

Ordinarily,

At your own pace.

Just taking small,

Relaxed,

Natural breaths.

Now with mindful awareness,

Try to feel the area around the top of the head.

Simply aware of the various feelings on the surface area of the skin,

Around the area of the top of the head.

Then include the face,

And the ears,

And the neck,

Front and back.

Now include the upper shoulder area.

Simply aware,

Knowing the various feelings on the surface of the skin in the shoulder area.

Becoming more aware,

And at the same time,

Relaxing.

Now include the chest in this awareness.

And then moving down,

Include the stomach area.

Then bring this gentle,

Knowing awareness to include all of your back.

Now include your arms,

Embracing the whole upper area of the body with gentle awareness.

Not judging,

Not discriminating.

Accepting the body as it is,

With an alert and gentle knowing.

Now include the lower abdomen,

The groin,

And then the buttocks.

Feel your bottom pressing against the harder surface underneath.

Present,

In the moment,

Grounded.

Now slowly include the legs and the feet in your awareness as well.

Feel the whole body simply sitting,

Knowing the sitting posture.

Now bring your awareness to your breathing,

Being very mindful of each in and out breath.

Simply being aware of the feelings involved with in and out breathing.

Try to be aware of the entire in-breath and the entire out-breath.

Knowing the sensations of the breath coming in at the nose,

And through the chest,

And into the abdomen,

And then as it leaves the abdomen,

And the chest,

And out the nose again.

Knowing the entire in-breath and the entire out-breath.

Each in-breath and each out-breath.

We are going to introduce a mental noting method now,

So as to assist our mindfulness in staying with the feelings of the in and out breath.

The main meditation object is awareness of the feelings of the breath,

And yet a gentle mental noting method can help us to stay with our meditation object,

Not letting the mind wander off into thinking about this or that.

So we will practice noting Bhutto at first.

Bhutto means knowing.

And so as you breathe in,

Mentally note Bhutto,

And as you breathe out,

Note Do.

Aware of each in-breath,

Bhutto,

And each out-breath,

Do.

Bhutto.

As this meditation will be a contemplation of death and impermanence,

We will practice this.

You can also practice noting with the word Maranang,

Which means death or dying.

Breathing in,

Maranang.

Breathing out,

Maranang.

Maranang.

Maranang.

As the remainder of this meditation entails using the visualizing,

Reflecting faculty of the mind,

It may not be possible to be aware of the breath in as much detail as when we take the breath itself as the primary meditation object.

And this is fine.

It is however very helpful to maintain a general awareness of the in and out breathing,

Even while doing visualizations.

So we can alternate between these two words,

Bhutto and Maranang,

In this way,

Using the noting as an aid to maintaining some awareness of each in-breath and each out-breath throughout this meditation session.

Simply hear the instructions and promptings,

And visualize the scenarios as best you can,

Practicing mindfulness of death and impermanence while maintaining awareness of the breath,

Especially in the silent spaces.

The channel ground contemplation.

Imagine yourself now to be in an open space in the wilderness,

Somewhere quiet and secluded from society,

And for the sake of developing insight and understanding into the truths of nature,

Picture before you now,

In your mind,

A dead human body.

You can imagine your own body as a corpse if you like.

You know how you look ordinarily.

See your body now,

Lying lifeless in front of you.

Simply imagine what your body would look like once all consciousness had departed.

It is okay to suppose that you died peacefully and happily and have gone to a happy destination if this is helpful.

What you are looking at now is what had been discarded,

Left behind.

You can also imagine the dead body of someone you don't know if you prefer.

See this lifeless human body laid neatly out on the ground before you,

In as much detail as you can.

At this stage,

The body has not been dead for very long,

Perhaps just one day.

Simply visualizing in front of you,

As best you can,

This still,

Peaceful,

Lifeless body.

Put-to,

Put-to,

Knowing,

Knowing.

Marnung,

Marnung,

Knowing,

Death.

Breathing in,

Marnung.

Breathing out,

Marnung.

And now we come to the second stage of the ten stages of this visualization.

It is important that you maintain a clear sense of the breath as it comes in and out of your body while visualizing this scene.

Maintaining a clear sense of centered,

Calm peacefulness.

Notice now that this same corpse has remained out in the open a few days longer.

It has become bloated and swollen.

Simply visualize and then observe this in your mind.

A corpse whose features have changed due to the beginning stages of the natural process of decomposition.

The corpse has become bloated to perhaps twice its original size.

Stay with this contemplation as best you can,

While still being aware of the in and out breath.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Knowing,

Death.

Breathing in,

Marnung,

Marnung.

And now we come to the third stage.

Imagine that this corpse has been lying out in the open some considerable time longer.

It is still bloated,

But has now also become discolored.

Mostly the skin has turned bluish-black.

There are some parts where blood has collected,

Which are reddish in color.

Other areas where pus has gathered are yellowish-white in color.

The entire decomposing corpse has a shiny moist sheen.

Hold this image in mind as best you can,

While still being aware of the breath.

Simply witnessing a natural process of disintegration.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Knowing death and impermanence.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Now we come to the fourth stage.

As time passes,

The process of disintegration and degeneration continues.

The corpse,

Bluish-black in color,

Has now split in many places.

It is festering,

Various liquids drain away from these many splits.

As the water element separates from,

And drains away from the body.

Hold this image in mind as best you can,

While still being aware of the breath.

While still being aware of each in and out breath.

Knowing impermanence.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Now we come to the fifth stage.

As this corpse has lay out in this wild open place for many days.

It has developed one large open split down the middle.

All of the various internal organs are now also decaying.

With various liquids dissolving into the earth.

Hold this image in mind.

Aware of change and transition.

Aware of degeneration and decomposition.

Aware of impermanence.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Aware of death.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Now we come to the sixth stage.

As the body has continued to disintegrate in this way.

Various scavenging animals and insects have come and consumed parts of it.

Wild dogs,

Birds,

Jackals have all played their natural role.

By consuming a large portion of what remained of the corpse.

So that parts of the skeleton are now exposed.

Hold this image in mind now.

Contemplating the ongoing process of the degeneration of this corpse.

While still being aware of each in and out breath.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Now we come to the seventh stage.

Over time as scavenging animals have continued to consume the remains of the corpse.

It has broken apart and become scattered.

What had been the head in one place,

In another place,

The foot,

The hand,

Etc.

Parts of the degenerating body scattered here and there.

Most of what remains of this dead body now is just dried skin and bones.

Some bones have parts of dried skin and sinews still attached to them.

In other places the exposed bones are stained with dry blood.

And in a few places the bones are beginning to turn white.

Hold this scene in mind.

Mindfully aware of death and impermanence.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Aware of transition and change.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Now we come to the eighth stage.

As time has continued to pass,

All of the flesh and skin has now been completely removed from the skeleton by scavenging insects.

So that all that remains now are bones.

The bones are still blood stained in many places.

Some are dark brown in color.

In some parts they are turning bright white.

Visualize and contemplate this image of scattered,

Blood stained bones for a minute or so now.

While still being aware of each in and out breath.

Knowing impermanence.

Marnung,

Marnung.

Ziye in parts are sign boy and pig.

Maranang Maranang Now we come to the ninth stage.

Over time,

As the sun and rain have continued to wash and bleach the bones,

The bones have now turned completely white.

Try to visualize these scattered white bones in your mind,

As clearly as you can.

Aware that all that remains of this corpse now is dry,

Scattered white bones.

Maranang Maranang Maranang Maranang Simply knowing bones.

And now we come to the last stage.

We are still in the same place,

The same scene.

Consider now that a very long time has passed.

The exposed bones,

Weakened by persistent sunlight and rain,

Have crumbled and disintegrated.

So that all that remains now is dust.

And now in your mind,

Sweep this white dust into one neat pile in front of you.

Contemplating deeply that all that remains of this corpse,

What was once a human body,

Is this small pile of white colored earth element.

Maranang Maranang Reviewing this natural process now.

The fire element departed the body at the time of death.

Maranang Maranang Then over time,

The water element simply evaporated and flowed away.

All that remains now is this small pile of earth element.

Maranang Maranang Now imagine that a strong wind picks up.

And begins to blow and scatter the dust.

Slowly the pile of dust in front of you is disappearing.

As the earth element is scattered to the four quarters.

Becoming indistinguishable from earth everywhere.

Knowing Death Knowing Impermanence Buddha Buddha This brings us to the end of our contemplation.

In about seven minutes,

We will come to the end of this meditation.

Try to maintain a good,

Clear awareness of your breath for the remainder of this session.

If your mind is peaceful,

Simply maintain your awareness of breathing.

Allowing your mind to stay in its peaceful state until the end of the session.

Hear my voice as if it is in the distance.

If you think that it might be helpful,

You can now refresh the awareness of the body sitting.

Knowing the felt sense of the sitting posture.

Feel the weight of your body pressing against the mat or the chair.

Mindfully aware that you are sitting.

Feeling grounded,

Present,

In the body,

In this moment.

And now mindfully bring awareness to refocus on the breath.

Feeling the entire in-breath and the entire out-breath.

Taking one or two deep breaths can be helpful in re-establishing awareness of the physical feeling of the breath.

You can note the in and out breath as before with the syllables,

BUD-DO.

BUD-DO We understand that in reflective death meditations,

We are using alsanya,

Or perceptions,

To stimulate a heightened awareness of impermanence.

And the truth of the inevitability of death.

During the meditation,

We allow the mind to be affected by this exercise.

To be informed on a deep level.

But towards the end of the meditation,

It is good to remember that our visualization meditation was actually just an exercise involving thoughts,

And perceptions,

And feelings.

Arising and ceasing in awareness.

If your mind became peaceful through this exercise,

Wonderful.

And if it did not,

Never mind.

The important thing is that we become a little more aware of impermanence in our lives.

And a little less frightened of the very normal experience of death.

These kinds of meditations can be helpful in both training the mind to let go into peaceful awareness.

And also in preparing us to be able to be mindful when our eventual death does actually occur.

Sometimes it is good to end death meditations with a couple of minutes of metta,

Loving-kindness meditation.

Establishing a deep sense of well-being.

Breathing in,

Simply wishing,

May I be well.

Genuinely directing loving-kindness towards yourself.

Generating the warmth of positive goodwill in the area of your heart.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

Wishing,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be safe,

May I be free from danger.

Breathing out,

May I be well,

May I be happy.

Breathing in,

May I be well.

Breathing out,

May all beings be well.

Breathing in,

May I be happy.

Breathing out,

May all beings be happy.

The Buddha explained that consciously developing awareness of impermanence creates an enormous amount of good karma,

Or positive potential,

Merit.

Acknowledging that you have been contemplating impermanence and death,

In accordance with this ancient wisdom tradition,

You can feel joyful and confident.

In a minute or so,

This meditation session will be over.

If you have time,

You can continue with your own meditation.

Otherwise,

You can now consider sharing the merit of this meditation with all beings,

Or with someone in particular.

Bringing to mind the merit that was produced by this session of meditation,

Determine how you wish to dedicate the merit.

I dedicate the merit that arises from this session of meditation to,

May this person be well,

Be safe,

Be happy.

Reviews

This was so helpful in letting go of clinging. Joyful ending as well. Reaffirmed my desire for my body to be left to decompose naturally in a forest after I die.

Clear instructions and to the point commentary.
Sadhu Sadhu sadhu🙏🏽

A good introduction to the meditation. I've taken it from the second try. Thank you.

I appreciate the history and background. Helped me get into the right head space.

Mind, body and soul felt peaceful after doing this practice 🙏

The meditation indeed was, is for me. I vow to you for taking the time of walking humanity toward the true of what really are.

Profound and peaceful.

Found this very intense and deeply moving. Felt intense fear at one point which dissolved and by the end I felt deep calm, and my body was tingling and twitching like I was releasing something. Definitely not for beginners. Thank you! 🙏

Thank you, Ajahn. May you be well and happy.

was very relaxing and calming

I now truly know impermanence. There is no self🙏

Very helpful in disrupting my anxiety about daily stressors. Also helped me to expand my perspective. Thank you.

That was deeply satisfying on every level. I saw my impermanence, saw so many beings nourished by the body that had been mine, and eventually the earth herself was fed. And that which had been my body was utterly gone. Beautiful! Thank you. I am to have a natural burial in just a shroud when I die, and I love the idea of total dissolution into the earth.

Thankyou Ajahn for this exercise in impermanence 💫
With metta 💐🙏💐

I have been looking for this my entire life. I don't know how else to express this feeling. Thank you thank you.🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

Calming, Loving, Supporting meditation.

Very peaceful and thorough. Thank you for this offering.

Thank’s. It was just the perfect moment!

A Transformative experience!
Thank you!

Really well explained practice at the beginning and also going through. Fascinating and powerful. It wakes me up from the normality of my week and is a great help in my overall practice.