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Death Meditation (Maranasati)

GlowGlow Veteran
edited October 2010 in Meditation
For the past two weeks, I've been doing a intensive meditation on death. This is probably the most uncomfortable meditation I have ever done. The first week and a half was truly disturbing, but over the last few days, I have felt a powerful sense of peace. This is a meditation that forces you to let go of everything but what is most vital to you. It's hugely freeing. I find myself letting go of anger ("Those who realize we must die put to rest their quarrels...") and the needless, self-imposed hostility I found myself unable to shake off in the past.

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of meditation? How did it make you feel? What changes did you find transferred into your everyday life?

Comments

  • kennykenny Explorer
    edited June 2009
    Glow wrote: »
    For the past two weeks, I've been doing a intensive meditation on death. This is probably the most uncomfortable meditation I have ever done. The first week and a half was truly disturbing, but over the last few days, I have felt a powerful sense of peace. This is a meditation that forces you to let go of everything but what is most vital to you. It's hugely freeing. I find myself letting go of anger ("Those who realize we must die put to rest their quarrels...") and the needless, self-imposed hostility I found myself unable to shake off in the past.

    Does anyone have any experience with this sort of meditation? How did it make you feel? What changes did you find transferred into your everyday life?

    I to have performed this meditation in the past and still do it maybe once a week to put things in perspective when I might lose my awareness or even motivation to practice.

    When I started my meditation I started with making myself aware that life isn’t guaranteed, many die when born and many that are perfectly healthy and this made me realize I could go at any moment. While the knowledge of this has always been there the true awareness of it has not been. My heart started racing and I could feel fear and panic rise up in myself. Next I meditated on how this body is not mine and was never made to last forever and how my fear was a result of the delusions of self and attachment. My fear and panic was slowly replaced by a sense of peace and calmness due to renunciation of my delusions I had become aware of.

    I later pushed my meditation on death even further. I once read a discourse from the Pali where Buddha told the monks to visualize themselves being savagely sawed apart. I wondered what the possible purpose of this really could be so decided to perform this meditation. I truly visualized it, all of it, and tried to imagine the feeling of the saw. The fear started to come back again. But I returned to my previous meditation on how this fear was based purely on delusions and nothing more. How pain is a sensation just like any other and that it truly doesn’t affect the mind once we can learn to distinguish the mind from the brain (if that’s how you wish to see it).

    The end result has been a more diligent and sincere practice because as it has been said we do not know how much time is left for ourselves. And a great sense of relief from removing a good amount of attachments and delusions.

    I’m very happy you’re making progress for yourself and I hope it continues. The best of luck to you!

    (It’s nice to see you again if indeed this is Glow from Buddha Chat from so long ago.)
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited June 2009
    Glow wrote: »
    The first week and a half was truly disturbing, but over the last few days, I have felt a powerful sense of peace. This is a meditation that forces you to let go of everything but what is most vital to you. It's hugely freeing. I find myself letting go of anger ("Those who realize we must die put to rest their quarrels...") and the needless, self-imposed hostility I found myself unable to shake off in the past.

    Does anyone have any experience with this sort of meditation? How did it make you feel? What changes did you find transferred into your everyday life?
    Dear Glow

    Meditation on death is not for everyone but it is regarded as a powerful meditation. The results you have received are the results that are expected. This is why the Buddha praised Maranassati greatly.
    The Blessed One said, "Mindfulness of death, when developed & pursued, is of great fruit & great benefit. It gains a footing in the Deathless [Nibbana], has the Deathless as its final end. Therefore you should develop mindfulness of death."
    Meditation on death is a very efficient short-cut on the path. When the impermanence is full realised, fully experienced, then one has no choice but to let go. This life is 'not-self', it is 'not mine', it does not belong to me. It is merely nature, just natural elements, merely the elements of form, feeling, perception, mental formations and consciousness.

    If one has comprehended with their heart, the meaning of verse 6 of the Dhammapada, one has practised meditation on death well.

    With metta,

    DDhatu

    :)
  • GlowGlow Veteran
    edited June 2009
    Thanks so much for the very thoughtful response, kenny! Yes, this is the same Glow from Buddha Chat. It's very interesting to hear the different approaches people take to contemplating death. The meditation on the being sawed apart sounds very intense. Right now, I am using situations I hear about in the news; just recently, there was a train accident in here in D.C. where nine people lost their lives. I take that train almost daily during the Spring and Fall, and might have been one of them. I imagine myself losing my life in such a sudden way, simply going about my day, like those people on the train that day.

    Thanks for the helpful link Dhamma Dhatu! I haven't seen that sutta before. I particularly like the call of the Buddha to be grateful for every moment. This is a practice that truly wakes one up out of the trance of daily life.
  • edited July 2009
    Hi - glad to join in on this one - have tried to kill myself five times ( I think)

    The big question to ask is - oblivion or consciousness?

    If the answer is oblivion then the act is fine - no worries, apart from the karma it can bring on one from the hurt visited on friends and family but then if friends and family had been a bit more insightful, would the suicidee have done it?

    If the answer is karma - on whom? The people who pushed the victim to do it? The family who never bothered? The colleagues who just pushed past on the way to the water machine?

    Maybe the answer is - this life was dealt out to a player who couldn't cope, couldn't play, re-deal, re-shuffle and see how it works next time?
  • edited July 2009
    How do you meditate on death? What do you do and think?
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited July 2009
    Do do meditation on death, I think to have some grounding in concentration is useful.

    For me, the mind ideally should have some experience of letting go and familiarity with a mind empty of 'self thinking'.

    The mind to have at least some of this is good.
  • edited July 2009
    How to meditate on death? There are several ways. The Buddha advised monks to go to charnel grounds and examine human bodies in various states of decay and to examine them in great detail, for example. There's a distinct lack of rotting human corpses available to me here, so instead I meditate on the death of what is conventionally designated as 'me/myself'. I visualize this body getting older and weaker until its systems eventually disorganize and the stuff that composed it dissipates. Alternatively, I may visualize a more violent or gruesome event that forcefully scrambles the systems. Then I contemplate whether or not anything came into existence when 'I' was born, and whether anything will cease to exist when this body decomposes. If so, what? Only the conventional self, of course, which is a mental fabrication. It exists, but only conventionally, and it's not a static thing in any respect.

    From this practice, dukkha, anicca and anatta become clear. That clarity of vision leads to dispassion towards being and becoming (I, me, my, etc) and eventually the end of tanha, if you keep with it. Or so I'm told. ^^

    Of course, I assume there are other ways of doing this meditation that are equally effective, if not more so. I'd suggest experimenting with a few and finding out what produces the best results in terms of dispassion and detachment.
  • fivebellsfivebells Veteran
    edited July 2009
    Dear KnitWitch,

    Reading of your struggles with suicidal intent brings me great pain. I hope you find peace.

    Your profile says you're in France. Presumably they have suicide hotlines over there, too. Have you ever used one, during these struggles? If you can't find one in France, you can call one in the US, using skype. It's a big help to a lot of people.

    Incidentally, it's a bit of a paradox, but the death meditation alluded to here can really help to bring an end to suicidal thoughts.
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited July 2009
    I wish they had charnel grounds in the west. They are excellent places to practice. When I was in college I worked as an orderly in a hospital and then as a diener (autopsy assistant). It was an excellent practice as I got to see suffering and death in many often horrifying forms. I think it in many ways laid the groundwork for my later interest in Buddhism.

    Palzang
  • edited August 2009
    When I was a student I was able to have a good look around the medical school at uni and this was a memorable and useful experience. Lots of bodies on slabs, some partially dissected, heads and body parts in jars and so on, including very diseased organs and body parts.
    I've also seen dying animals and humans on numerous occasions which has also been very useful, because death tends to be very sanitised in the west. Bodies made up with cosmetics and so on in their coffins to make the dead appear to be 'just sleeping' don't actually help people with seeing the reality.
    In my last job I also used to take my lunch to the large nearby cemetery whenever possible. Not exactly a charnel ground - but a few moments of sheer peaceful bliss after a lunch duty on the secondary school playing field !:)

    .
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited August 2009
    How to meditate on death? There are several ways. The Buddha advised monks to go to charnel grounds and examine human bodies in various states of decay and to examine them in great detail, for example. There's a distinct lack of rotting human corpses available to me here, so instead I meditate on the death of what is conventionally designated as 'me/myself'. I visualize this body getting older and weaker until its systems eventually disorganize and the stuff that composed it dissipates. Alternatively, I may visualize a more violent or gruesome event that forcefully scrambles the systems. Then I contemplate whether or not anything came into existence when 'I' was born, and whether anything will cease to exist when this body decomposes. If so, what? Only the conventional self, of course, which is a mental fabrication. It exists, but only conventionally, and it's not a static thing in any respect.

    From this practice, dukkha, anicca and anatta become clear. That clarity of vision leads to dispassion towards being and becoming (I, me, my, etc) and eventually the end of tanha, if you keep with it. Or so I'm told. ^^

    Of course, I assume there are other ways of doing this meditation that are equally effective, if not more so. I'd suggest experimenting with a few and finding out what produces the best results in terms of dispassion and detachment.
    Hi, Former. Welcome to the site. It's lovely to meet you.
    Thank you for posting this. It's a great help to me. This is one very specific area in which I need a lot of practice. My experience with death is terribly limited and I feel the urgent need to start working on it as soon as possible. Your description of meditating on the death of my 'self' is something I can start doing right now. And will. Thanks so much.
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited August 2009
    Dazzle wrote: »
    When I was a student I was able to have a good look around the medical school at uni and this was a memorable and useful experience. Lots of bodies on slabs, some partially dissected, heads and body parts in jars and so on, including very diseased organs and body parts.
    I've also seen dying animals and humans on numerous occasions which has also been very useful, because death tends to be very sanitised in the west. Bodies made up with cosmetics and so on in their coffins to make the dead appear to be 'just sleeping' don't actually help people with seeing the reality.
    In my last job I also used to take my lunch to the large nearby cemetery whenever possible. Not exactly a charnel ground - but a few moments of sheer peaceful bliss after a lunch duty on the secondary school playing field !:)

    .
    I really liked this post, Dazzle. I completely agree with you about the corpses made up to look like their sleeping. How does this help anybody? Unless one is prone to psychotic breaks when confronted by death, it's obviously more helpful for the survivors to face the reality of the death so they can let go. And I know many will disagree with me but I think this is especially helpful for children. I don't think we give enough credit to children and their ability to handle the nature and reality of death.

    I very much wish I'd had similar experiences with corpses and body parts like you and Palzang had. (I just reread that last line and thought how strange it must appear. It's true though.) I've got neuroses surrounding the ugliness of the physical body in sickness and death with its putrefaction and so on. See? I'm not even comfortable writing about it. :rolleyes: But I know that since it makes me so uncomfortable it's something that particularly needs to be addressed. So it shall be.

    This is a good thread.
  • edited August 2009
    Brigid,

    I'm not sure what part of Canada you are in but if you are near Ontario the Body Worlds exhibition is going to be at the Science Centre from October this year. The exhibits are all made from real bodies and it's an opportunity to see that the human body is a wonderfully complex machine of many parts that can break down and break apart as we age and change.

    Seeing the skin of a corpse positioned like a cloak and moving in the currents of air as people walk by is something that I particularly remember when I saw the exhibition in London a few years ago.
  • DhammaDhatuDhammaDhatu Veteran
    edited August 2009
    As this thread is getting serious, I ponder the sense bases ceasing to function and never functioning again. Like closing one's eyes and they never open again. Everything we know & experience, including the whole earth, ceases forever. In brief, consciousness & its objects end.

    :cool:
  • BrigidBrigid Veteran
    edited August 2009
    Camillus wrote: »
    Brigid,

    I'm not sure what part of Canada you are in but if you are near Ontario the Body Worlds exhibition is going to be at the Science Centre from October this year. The exhibits are all made from real bodies and it's an opportunity to see that the human body is a wonderfully complex machine of many parts that can break down and break apart as we age and change.

    Seeing the skin of a corpse positioned like a cloak and moving in the currents of air as people walk by is something that I particularly remember when I saw the exhibition in London a few years ago.
    Thanks, Camillus! I've been wanting to see that exhibition for so long. I'm definitely going to see it. I'll take a couple of days in Toronto. It'll be great! Toronto is about 5 hours from where I live and I can get there by train. Can't wait!
  • gracklegrackle Veteran
    edited August 2009
    Brigid,
    As a young man I worked the graveyard shift of a med school security dept. To keep awake I would explore. Thus became quite familiar with corpses, organs in formaldehyde and assorted surgical goodies. This really shows that beauty is only skin deep.
    Life and death are our constant companions. When I see a dead animal this always comes to mind. As you are I shall be. Dead bodies have never much bothered me.
    But the screaming and agony of the wounded did. Their fear and uncertainty. Nonetheless it was always amazing to me to see how well healing took place after the ministrations of a wise and humane surgeon.

    grackle
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    edited August 2009
    How do you meditate on death? What do you do and think?
    My understanding of meditation is that it necessitates not thinking. The object is to clear your mind of thought and unplug the senses.

    To say that you "meditate on something" fundamentally makes no sense to me. I can see it being a quiet and focused contemplation of death, but calling it "meditation" seems to me to be a misnomer and generally adding to the confusion many westerners have about what meditation is. You can not be of no-mind while considering a subject.
  • jinzangjinzang Veteran
    edited August 2009
    There are different kinds of meditation. The Path of Purification describes forty. Some involve thinking and others do not. The standard definition of meditation is single pointed concentration on a virtuous object.
  • LincLinc Site owner Detroit Moderator
    edited August 2009
    Fair enough!
  • edited August 2010
    I got into the death meditation technique after learning and practising the five hindrances especially #1 sensual lust for which the technique is cemetary contemplation....very powerfully effective!:cool:. The visuals used are the decaying body in stages. I guess death meditation would be taking this idea to the next level.
  • edited August 2010
    Lincoln wrote: »
    My understanding of meditation is that it necessitates not thinking. The object is to clear your mind of thought and unplug the senses.

    That sounds really hard. If I tell myself to not think, I start thinking about whether or not my thoughts have ceased. I've kind of resigned my thoughts as something I can't control, much like the weather. Sometimes they're great, sometimes they suck, but they're still there whether I pay attention to them or not.

    Back to the original topic, I don't think I've ever tried death meditation, but sometimes I've done that thing where you suddenly lose all bearing of 'being' and it scares the shit out of me. If I stick with it, it can be really relaxing, and if I don't I usually end up feeling like I should have. Maybe that's what death feels like?

    I think it was Mark Twain who said something along the lines of 'I don't fear death at all. I was dead for billions of years before I was born, and it didn't bother me one bit'
  • edited August 2010
    Hi guys... I'm new to this forum... been mingling at the E-Sangha forum last time till it came down for one reason or another...

    Now on the topic of death meditation, I would say death contemplation is one of the most powerful ways (personally) to bring me back to reality and dissolve all my problems in an instant...

    I don't usually sit down and meditate on death, but I do contemplate it often throughout the day.

    From my experience, it's easy to keep thinking "My death is a sure thing"... "My death can come at any moment"... but yet not feel "awoken" by these thoughts...

    But...

    There are the times when you really visualize and contemplate deeply (it helps if you've a still mind) on death, and then the "click" happens.

    These are the times you'll feel yourself shaken at the level of being. Death suddenly becomes something VERY real to you, and everything you ever thought was important just falls away.

    If there's one advice to anyone of you struggling with death meditation... its this - Focus on the quality of your meditation, really visualize, really reflect on how transient life is... and let the wisdom penetrate your heart.

    Finally, I'd like to share my 2 favourite quotes, one from a poem by Thich Naht Hanh and one by Ajahn Chah.

    "Where will you be 300 years from now?"

    "If one doesn't understand death, life can be very confusing."

    Peace.
  • cazcaz Veteran United Kingdom Veteran
    edited August 2010
    Death brings understanding and perspective, This human life so precious decays and dies so very quickly after death come results of karma just like a shadow of a body, With this firm knowledge and rememberance bless me to strive sincerely to gain the bliss of perfect freedom !
  • PalzangPalzang Veteran
    edited August 2010
    I agree, JB. The contemplation on death (or rather impermanence) is one of the Four Thoughts that Turn the Mind to Dharma in our tradition. It is absolutely necessary to do in order to develop Right View. I heard of one lama, Chojji Rinpoche if I remember correctly, who would contemplate all the various ways of dying and how he would practice at the time, like if his head was cut off and he died instantly, how would he practice? Sounds morbid perhaps, but you know what? It happens every day to somebody. Could be you or could be me at any moment.

    Palzang
  • fivebellsfivebells Veteran
    edited August 2010
    Lincoln wrote: »
    To say that you "meditate on something" fundamentally makes no sense to me. I can see it being a quiet and focused contemplation of death, but calling it "meditation" seems to me to be a misnomer and generally adding to the confusion many westerners have about what meditation is. You can not be of no-mind while considering a subject.
    What this means, as I've learned it, is bringing to mind some thought such as "I am going to die, and I have no idea when," and learning a spacious, open awareness in the midst of the disturbance that creates. There is no holding of the concept, just a return to it as the disturbance settles down.

    Ken's podcasts Death, Friend of Foe describe a series of such meditations.
  • mugzymugzy Veteran
    edited September 2010
    I recently found a pretty intense meditation on death from Thubten Chodron's website. I will provide the link, but please note that it is potentially triggering (especially if you have airplane anxiety).

    Making Our Life Meaningful By Remember Death
  • edited September 2010
    I like to imagine the sufferings of the hell realms and hungry ghosts once in a while to try and become open minded to beings other than animals and humans that suffer. I found a great movie on netflix called Food Inc. This is touching. There are worse things than death , Namely Birth. The Decent Into the Womb talks about lots of pain even related to birth. I read this today and thought. Wow no wonder alot of people are hurting, we have a disposition to excruciating pain.
  • shanyinshanyin Novice Yogin Sault Ontario Veteran
    edited September 2010
    Glow, could you point me towards the instruction you follow for this meditation so that in the future I could try this?

    Thank you.
  • edited October 2010
    It's great stuff, essentially the death meditation is no different than any other once it's taken to the point of completion. Once the process of realising the body is impermanent and empty of inherent existence, it's good to then turn back and see what the mind is without the sense bases. It all kinda links in together really. Different tools for different personalities.

    I love your mention Kenny:

    "I to have performed this meditation in the past and still do it maybe once a week to put things in perspective when I might lose my awareness or even motivation to practice."

    It's definitely a good tool for honing in on and destroying delusion of having time. hehe. I found that a very useful point. : ) This forum is awesome.
  • edited October 2010
    kenny wrote: »
    I once read a discourse from the Pali where Buddha told the monks to visualize themselves being savagely sawed apart.
    Wow, really? Maybe, start with needles first? I watch the needle go into me, whenever I donate blood. Got used to it. But frankly, needles are nothing, considered a medical luxury (much better than straw!).
    If one has comprehended with their heart, the meaning of verse 6 of the Dhammapada, one has practised meditation on death well.
    "Mere comprehension" doesn't work for me. :( I fully understand impermanence, inevitability of my death(s). But I still find myself often dreaming about going back into the past to change things in my family, prevent some deaths, etc.

    Do do meditation on death, I think to have some grounding in concentration is useful.

    For me, the mind ideally should have some experience of letting go and familiarity with a mind empty of 'self thinking'.
    I agree. I also focus on the fact that rebirth comes immediately after. In fact, I'm kinda afraid of Nirvana, simply because I'm not sure if it means "cessation of existence". (Buddha's description was "neither exist, nor not exist"). About the only reason I might opt for Nirvana will be the "push" factor in endless rebirths (teething pains, again??). I focus on Buddha's teaching on "non-nihilism". I also don't fear Nirvana as a "becoming a crude form of impersonal energy", because I wouldn't be subsequently attached (degraded) to yet another impermanent machinery (eg dog, cat, windmill, human, whatever).

    From the responses to this thread, it seems there are 2 separate fears: the fear of death (cessation of life), and the fear of pain (fatal pains before death).

    I don't think many people actually fear death. Why would we fear it, since we know we'll be reborn the split second after?

    The pain of death might be overcome by realizing that vedana (feeling) is "a course of nature, devoid of ownership". The pain "is not mine", it just "is". Pretty useful technique for overcoming pain, really. When I had excruciating pains from diarrhea, I found I can have 2 acutely different "perspectives": When I "own" the pain, I moan and beg for rescue and salvation. When I "disown" the pain, it became a mere curiosity which I observe. Of course, I knew I wasn't gonna die from diarrhea. But diarrhea is a great tool to use for training "disownership" of pain. Utterly debilitating, excruciating, robs you of sleep, of strength, of mindfulness, even to the point of passing out. No, wait, I think I meant food poisoning. Well, ya, we can die from it.

    Perhaps a "fear" of death might actually be a fear of the next rebirth. I've seen people who went mad just before dying (death-proximate karma?). Having recalled certain terrible deeds, a person could fear the next rebirth more than the current death itself.
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