Dying peacefully from old age as a lay person meditation.
In this meditation we will be imagining dying one of those rare peaceful deaths where one feels contented with the life lived,
Yet tired and ready to move on,
And so gently slips away.
We begin as usual by establishing some mindfulness and collectedness through body sweeping and breath meditation.
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.
Feeling 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.
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.
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.
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,
Which means clearly knowing.
As you breathe in mentally note Bhutto and as you breathe out note Do.
Bhutto.
Aware of each in-breath Bhutto and aware of each out-breath Do.
Bhutto.
Bhutto.
As this meditation will be a contemplation of death and impermanence,
You can also practice noting the word Maranang,
Which means death or dying.
Breathing in Maranang.
Breathing out Maranang.
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.
And 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.
Bhutto and Maranang,
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.
As the following death meditation involves a contemplation of old age as well as dying,
We will introduce another mental noting word.
Jharang is a Pali word which means aging or old age.
Breathing in,
Jharang.
Breathing out,
Jharang.
Knowing aging,
Knowing old age.
We will now commence the visualizing and reflecting component of the meditation.
It's morning time,
An hour or two after dawn,
And you are seated at the kitchen table.
The carer helped you from the bedroom to the kitchen.
A daily ritual,
Because she knows that you like to look out of the window,
At the trees,
The birds,
The clouds,
And the empty expanse of sky.
Jharang,
Jharang,
Jharang.
It is so very kind of her to come before work each day,
To lift you up out of bed,
To help you to wash and toilet,
And then dress,
And then assist you onto your favorite seat,
With a small breakfast placed in front of you.
Another kind friend will come with lunch in a few hours.
And so it does seem a little bit of a shame,
You think,
That you have no interest in food of late.
Your carers look concerned,
And gently scold you,
When they see the food untouched.
But you are touched,
Deeply touched,
By their care.
Jharang,
Jharang.
But what to do?
There is no denying that this body is fading,
It simply doesn't want food anymore.
But perhaps just a little tea.
You slowly,
Carefully raise the cup to your lips.
Jharang.
As you extend your arm to return the cup,
You notice the skinny,
Shaking fingers,
The tiredness and the weakness of the arm,
And then the clatter of the cup on the saucer.
How strange this body seems.
Ah,
But this is the way that it is.
Maranang,
Maranang.
Looking out the window,
At the soft,
Warm,
Beautiful,
Golden light of morning,
Reflecting on the swaying leaves,
And the pigeons and sparrows,
Which come and sing and then go.
You love the morning light,
And you have grown to love these silent,
Private hours,
This precious meditation time.
You have not been able to sit on the floor for years now,
But this chair with its pillow does just fine.
Maranang,
Maranang.
Maranang,
Maranang.
And now you are gazing into blue sky.
Unending,
Empty,
Blue space,
Serene space.
It is strange,
As the years have gone by,
How you have grown to appreciate space.
Even your mind seems to have absorbed some of this space over time.
You used to think so much,
And worry about the slightest thing.
And then,
When your memory became less reliable,
You would fret about that too.
But now,
The long spaces between thoughts have become so lovely.
You have grown to trust this awareness of silence,
More than you trust your thoughts.
Trust this breathing,
One breath at a time.
Rise and fall,
And the silence.
In your mind,
There is a sense of light,
Of openness,
Of space.
Maranang,
Maranang.
You remember that you have not always felt so peaceful,
And so you feel grateful to that wonderful being called Buddha,
And to that endless line of meditators and teachers,
Those who taught you,
And those who taught them.
Such wisdom,
Such kindness,
So many kind people.
But lately,
Your meditation has changed.
Your mind is not collecting like before.
It is quite still and present,
But strangely open.
It is a strange thing to say.
You don't know how you could possibly know such a thing,
And yet you do know that very soon this body will die.
Maranang,
Maranang.
Last night,
There was a dream,
A strange dream.
In the dream,
You were looking at your favorite tree.
When a large black crow landed on a branch noisily,
And faced you directly,
It let out one loud squawk,
And then promptly flew away.
Next,
After a few silent moments,
A white dove,
Flying gracefully,
Landed on the very same branch.
It also looked at you,
And sung a long and sweet song,
And then flew silently and effortlessly into the empty expanse of sky.
Maranang,
Maranang.
When you awoke,
You knew instantly what this meant.
Very soon,
You will die,
And you should not be afraid.
Maranang,
Maranang.
Maranang,
Maranang.
Sitting at this familiar table,
Looking at the leaves on that tree now,
You notice that some have black spots,
And some are turning yellow and brown,
But most of them are quite green,
Bright and alive.
Your life was like that.
There were some problems,
Difficulties,
And there were some mistakes made,
But there was so much that was good,
Especially later on.
When you had learned to be wiser and kinder.
Maranang,
Maranang.
You can leave this life,
You think to yourself.
It was a good enough life.
Slowly,
You reach for and lift up the cup,
And place it to your lips,
Taking another little sip of sweet,
Cold tea.
Carefully,
Very carefully,
You put the cup down,
And once again,
Gaze mindfully into space.
Maranang,
Maranang.
Closing your eyes now,
You feel the gentle,
Shallow,
Light breath.
The spaces between seem longer.
That breath seems a long,
Long,
Long way away,
So far away,
Yet your mind feels bright,
Spacious,
Content.
Maranang,
Maranang.
There is a feeling of pressure,
And tingling,
At the top of your head.
You don't know what it is.
You are still aware of your body,
But it feels further and further away.
And then the heart beats two or three softer,
Fainter beats.
And then,
It simply stops.
There is one final,
Shallow in-breath,
And one weak,
But long out-breath,
And a sense of letting go.
Maranang,
Maranang.
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 by 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,
Put-do,
Put-do,
Put-do,
Put-do.
We understand that in reflective death meditations,
We are using al-sanjah 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.
If you have time 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.
May all beings be well.
