Spiritual Practice Helps At The Time Of Death

Venerable Thubten Tarpa leads a body scan and breathing meditation before guiding a contemplation on what can help us at the time of death— not our material possessions, our relatives, or our body, but only our spiritual practice that can help us to calm our mind and move it in a beneficial direction.

Transcript

So we'll start with a little bit of breathing and then I'll lead you through a body scan and then we'll go into motivation and the meditation. To prepare ourselves, We first start with the body. So first, Feel the areas of contact with you in the chair or the floor or the cushion, Your hands in your lap, Your feet touching against and your legs touching against the floor. Just tune in to the physical sensations of the body where it makes contact. We want to unite the body and the mind to this present moment. So here I am. I feel myself sitting in this chair. I check my posture. I then try to tune into the body and to prepare the body, It's good to do what we call a body scan. So start with just paying attention to the physical sensations of your lower extremities, Your thighs, Your calves, Your feet. Tune in to your body experience. Do you feel any tension? What kind of sensations are you feeling? If you have any tension or pain, Gently breathe into, Through that area. Now do this with your belly. Prepare the abdomen falling and rising. Just breathe naturally. Just feel the physical sensations of that belly. Let go of any tension. Now place your tension on the chest, The arms, The back. Breathe into any areas of tension gently. Don't force anything. You may feel tension in your shoulders, So you can lift them up and then let them drop. And if you do that a few times, It will help to alleviate that tension. And now turn your attention to your face, Your scalp, Your neck, Your eyes, Your jaw. It's good to put a little half smile. Make a half smile to help all these muscles relax. If your heart's lifted up, Your neck will be in a good position naturally. You can just tuck your head down just slightly. Feel any sensations? Breathe and let those areas relax. Now turn your attention to the physical sensation of the breath. As it enters and exits your nose, You feel the area of the upper lip and the end of the nose, The nostrils. Or maybe you prefer, If you're having a lot of thoughts especially, To feel the rising and falling of your belly, The abdomen. It's a bigger target. Pick one of those two and stay with it and just watch and feel the sensations of breathing. If your attention wanders, Just gently bring it back to the physical sensation of the breath and know that that noticing of the wandering is part of the practice of learning to be mindful of the breath. Let your mind feel joyful, Just enjoying breathing. There's nothing else to be done. There's nothing else. By way of motivation, Let's take a moment to consider our excellent circumstances right now. Hearing the teachings of the Buddha, Having the mental and physical capacity to participate. We have all the conditions we need at this moment to work on our minds in a positive way. As we enter a meditation, Especially one on something like death, It's important to have like the background of experience meditating where you can bring your mind to a positive or at least a neutral place by reflecting on aspects of the Dharma that lift the mind. Things like appreciation, The kindness of others, The precious human life or Buddha nature or just the ability to calm the mind and by focusing on the breath or the body, Let go of discursive thoughts that are troubling you. Not to suppress them but just to set them aside temporarily so you can balance yourself. So as we do this meditation, We want to learn how to be like a doctor to our own mind. And we do this so that we can live our lives meaningfully, Have a sense of wonder and curiosity, Have an engagement with life and all that it brings without being overwhelmed and falling into mental states that aren't going to serve us or anyone else. And as we learn to do that, We'll be able to benefit ourselves and others and eventually we wish to be of the greatest benefit to all beings. So let's make that as our broad, Broad motivation here. So let's take some time to contemplate the points. We want to wrap our minds around this idea that only spiritual practice will be a benefit at the time of death. So we need to look at what we usually rely on and how it helps us and what its benefits and limitations are. So first, Those who you love, Your friends, Your family, Look at how they help you in your life now and see if that's going to be possible at the time of death. Make this very real. What would it look like? Bring up some scenarios. Give me a minute. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you're available physically, Mentally, Emotionally, Spiritually, You'll be moving on. And they won't be able to help you at that time. You'll be beyond their reach. So come to the conclusion that loved ones will be of no help at that moment, At that time. And now turn your attention to other things that we rely on, Things like our possessions, Our enjoyments, Our abilities, Things inside and outside. Look at the things you rely on now. How are you living your life now? What do you rely on? And how will it be able to help you at the time of death? And now turn your attention to other things that we rely on. How are you living your life now? And how will it be able to help you at the moment? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be lost. How can I help you then? You You You You You You You Positive qualities and we make these habits of mind day by day. This is what we'll have. It's not like we can get bummed out at the end of this meditation. Actually, It's quite joyful because we have something that's reliable. So take a moment to cultivate that. See where you got to on this meditation. If it didn't match up with the conclusion, Then you want to learn more, Study more, Ask questions. Find out. It's very interesting to find out what's in the way. If you get a strong feeling of yes, Only Dharma practice will be helpful at the time of death. Hold that thought without any more analysis. Just hold that thought and feeling. Concentrate on that. You.

Reviews

Beautiful, balanced between guidance and silence, so helpful, thank you 🙏

very supportive practise . thank you.