Contemplating the Death of Oneself - Meditation

Here we consider ways that death could occur on any day, even today. Recognising this the mind becomes peaceful and we see our life with a wiser perspective.

Transcript

Uncertainty of the time of death for oneself.

Meditation In this meditation we will consider and contemplate the uncertainty of the time of our own death.

It could be a long way off yet,

Or it could be quite soon.

We do this to become more mindful of death and impermanence,

And also to become more present and awake in our lives.

We will start by establishing body-based mindfulness and awareness of breathing.

Bringing your attention to your sitting posture.

Being simply aware that you are now 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.

From 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.

Once again breathing in,

And breathing out.

Bringing a fresh awareness,

A sense of being present,

Into this 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.

Taking small,

Gentle,

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,

On 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,

Simply feeling.

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

Becoming more aware,

More alert,

More in the present moment,

And at the same time,

Relaxing into mindful awareness.

Now include the chest in this awareness.

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.

Now include the lower abdomen,

The groin,

And then the buttocks.

Feel your bottom pressing against the harder surface underneath,

Feeling present,

Grounded.

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

Feel the whole body,

Simply sitting.

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.

Feeling 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.

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 buddho at first,

Which means clearly knowing.

As you breathe in,

Mentally note budd,

And as you breathe out note do.

Buddho.

Aware of each in breath,

Budd,

And aware of each out breath,

Do.

Buddho.

Buddho.

Buddho.

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

You can also practice noting the word maranam,

Which means death or dying.

Breathing in,

Maranam.

Breathing out,

Maranam.

As the next stage 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.

This is fine.

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

Even while doing visualizations.

And so you can alternate between these two words if you like.

Buddho and maranam,

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

Simply hear the instructions and promptings and visualize the scenario as best you can while maintaining awareness of the breath,

Especially in the silent spaces.

So as a starting point in our contemplation,

Suppose now that you will definitely die at the age of 75 years.

If you are already 75 or over,

Suppose that you will die in another 10 years' time.

You are not sure what the exact cause will be,

But you will definitely die at 75.

Buddho,

Buddho,

Mindful of death,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam,

Maranam.

Let's start with the mind,

Just as we did with the mind,

Just as we did with the mind,

Just as we did with the mind.

Now suppose that for some reason a different karma is going to ripen.

Whoever you are,

Or however old you are,

You are now going to die in 10 years time.

As an exercise in meditation,

As a contemplation,

Try to truly believe this for now.

Bring this information deeply into your heart.

Maranang,

Maranang,

Maranang,

Maranang,

In recent years,

In certain circles,

It has become quite popular to suppose that one has just one more year to live.

In taking this as a tool for living more skillfully,

People believe this in order to truly focus in their lives.

There really are many ways to die.

In cars,

In an accident at home,

Or while traveling abroad.

Sometimes there are strange epidemics of flu.

At other times,

Something goes wrong in one's own body.

Sometimes these ailments are detected.

At other times,

They are completely unexpected and unannounced.

Maranang,

Maranang,

Considering these things,

It certainly is possible that you do have just one more year to live.

Butto,

Butto,

Mindful of Death,

Maranang,

Maranang,

Of course,

Given all the possible causes for a sudden death,

It is also quite possible that you will die before the year is over.

Considering this deeply,

Sincerely acknowledge the very real possibility.

Mindful of Death,

Maranang,

Maranang,

In fact,

It is quite possible that for any single one of these causes,

You might die today.

Maranang,

Maranang,

Mindful of Death and Dying.

At one time,

The Buddha was asking a group of monks how they practiced mindfulness of death.

One monk said,

Oh,

Were I to live for just a day and a night,

I would direct my mind on the Blessed One's teaching.

Much indeed,

Could then be done by me.

Mindful of Death,

Maranang,

Maranang,

Another monk said,

If I were to live for just a half a day,

I would direct my mind.

Maranang,

Maranang,

Another monk said,

If I lived for just the time it would take to eat one meal.

Maranang,

Maranang,

Finally,

One very diligent monk said,

Were I to live for just the time I breathe in after the out-breath,

Or breathe out after the in-breath,

I would direct my mind to the Blessed One's teachings.

Much indeed,

Could then be done by me.

Maranang,

Maranang,

The Lord Buddha praised the final monk for his diligence,

Saying,

Mindfulness of Death,

O monks,

If developed and cultivated,

Brings great fruit and benefit.

It merges in the Deathless,

Ends in the Deathless.

Therefore,

You should develop mindfulness of death.

Put-do,

Put-do,

Mindful of Death,

Maranang,

Maranang,

In about five more 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 and present in the body in this moment.

And then 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,

But-do,

But-do,

But-do.

We understand that in reflective death meditations,

We are using our sannyas 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!

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 or loving-kindness meditation.

Establishing a sense of well-being.

Breathing in wishing,

May I be well.

Genuinely directing metta towards yourself.

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

Breathing in wishing,

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,

Merit or positive potential.

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 meditation on your own.

Otherwise,

You could 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 be well.

May this person,

These people,

Be well.

Be safe.

Be happy.

Reviews

Phenomenal Guided Meditation 🧘‍♂️
Thank you Ajahn 🙏🏼

Masterful. 🤩
Beautiful 😍
Thank you. 🙏
May we all be well and safe and happy. ❤️

Excellent instruction. An ending bell would be helpful.

This was my first practice of death meditation. I experienced an expansive sense of peace and much improved mindfulness. I am grateful for this experience and will continue to include this is my meditation practice.

This was quietly inspirational for me at this moment. It leaves a sense of wellbeig and a sense of purpose with every breath. It brings a purpose of peace to oneself and for te life around , family, a friend your ,animal friends, I have a friend torn into despair for the sudden loss of a son, disappeared and never found. I dedicate the merit of this meditation to him to find peace and purpose in his days left on this planet in this dimension. I dedicate this to my mother, to my sister to my brother, to my son. It gives me a sense of purpose to continue with a dedication to someone every time. It inspires me to continue. Thankyou.

Great meditation to put things into perspective and to distinguish what and who really matters. Provides an understanding of what my death would mean to me and my family. Deeply grateful 🙏🏻

Peaceful! Helps towards the understanding of anicca

This was beautiful and a wonderful way to start my day. Thanks and many blessings to you and to everyone who is reading this.

What is needed. Thank you.

Ajan is the best teacher

Death meditation does help to know what to really focus on. I had not expected this. It is very helpful. Thank you Ajahn Achalo 🙏

great meditation highlighting mindfulness of death and impermanence. would recommend

As always the meditation is clear, instructive, teaching and optimistic. Thank you!

Achieving deep peace 🙏🏼

Very powerful meditation 🧘‍♀️.

Seeing impermanence and accepting death makes the moment more precious. Also it brought me to the middle way, not happy, not sad, just accepting. Thank you

Very good teacher. 🙏

A sobering and peaceful meditation. His voice is perfect for this type of contemplation.

🙏 thank you for guiding me skillfully in this practice

Thank you so much for this meditation. I needed that❣️🕉