This is part of the first Satipatthana:
http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/....
One key cause of worry in life is death - of ourselves or others. How can one deal with any anxiety? By being mindful of it. But it can be disturbing to think about death, especially our own death. I described to Tenzin the Sattipathna mediation on death and asked if he thought it would be OK to try; he was keen and after we had run through the procedure shown once, I asked him how he felt. He said he enjoyed it! The right time needs to be chosen for any meditation, and I judged the time was fine for Tenzin and me.
Anxiety of death may revolve around the fear of loss of a continuing being or self; and it may involve disgust about what happens to dead bodies, including what will happen to one's own body. A Buddhist answer to the first point is to realize there is no continuing essence that remains identical over time that defines you as you; in that sense, there is no self to cease to exist. I tried to convey this concept to Tenzin with the analogy of characters in dreams (see first half of this video). We discussed this over many months and actually he did seem to stop worrying about death (a topic he expressed worry about before we started this meditation).
The second component of anxiety about death - the facts of what happens to bodies - is dealt with by the Buddhist practice of Marana sati, meditations on death, as part of the Sattipathna Sutta. Here we show use working through the practice as described in the sutta. My aim was to allow us to fully enjoy life - an embodied life - by accepting its reality as fully as we could.
Satipatthana involves mindfulness in four domains, the first being the body. The key set of mindfulness of body practices are:
1. Mindfulness of breathing. See the first quartet here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4xIX... and also here for being mindful of the breathing of others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL8qJ...
2. Mindfulness of walking (and other movements and postures). See the first quartet here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRI1S... and the first quartet here for being mindful of others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCnbd...
3. Body scan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9W9...
4. Mindfulness of death: This video. See pdf of images and sutta here: http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/...
After we have gone over the body meditations some more, Tenzin and I will move onto the next Satipatthana, mindfulness of feelings (now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di2vG...) .
One key cause of worry in life is death - of ourselves or others. How can one deal with any anxiety? By being mindful of it. But it can be disturbing to think about death, especially our own death. I described to Tenzin the Sattipathna mediation on death and asked if he thought it would be OK to try; he was keen and after we had run through the procedure shown once, I asked him how he felt. He said he enjoyed it! The right time needs to be chosen for any meditation, and I judged the time was fine for Tenzin and me.
Anxiety of death may revolve around the fear of loss of a continuing being or self; and it may involve disgust about what happens to dead bodies, including what will happen to one's own body. A Buddhist answer to the first point is to realize there is no continuing essence that remains identical over time that defines you as you; in that sense, there is no self to cease to exist. I tried to convey this concept to Tenzin with the analogy of characters in dreams (see first half of this video). We discussed this over many months and actually he did seem to stop worrying about death (a topic he expressed worry about before we started this meditation).
The second component of anxiety about death - the facts of what happens to bodies - is dealt with by the Buddhist practice of Marana sati, meditations on death, as part of the Sattipathna Sutta. Here we show use working through the practice as described in the sutta. My aim was to allow us to fully enjoy life - an embodied life - by accepting its reality as fully as we could.
Satipatthana involves mindfulness in four domains, the first being the body. The key set of mindfulness of body practices are:
1. Mindfulness of breathing. See the first quartet here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4xIX... and also here for being mindful of the breathing of others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL8qJ...
2. Mindfulness of walking (and other movements and postures). See the first quartet here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRI1S... and the first quartet here for being mindful of others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCnbd...
3. Body scan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wd9W9...
4. Mindfulness of death: This video. See pdf of images and sutta here: http://www.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/home/...
After we have gone over the body meditations some more, Tenzin and I will move onto the next Satipatthana, mindfulness of feelings (now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=di2vG...) .
Satipatthana marana sati for children (and adults) | |
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