Dear Yogis
This is the final exercise of the preparatory material for the Great Satipatthana Sutta. Next month we will begin moving through the Four Foundations of Mindfulness Sutta. I hope you have been diligent on this journey. Our next journey is even more important.
May you be well, happy and peaceful.
PREPARATION ASSIGNMENT
DEATH AND DYING
What Dying Means to You
DEAD FOR A DAY
What might it feel like to know that you are dead, but that you have the opportunity to participate in life for one more day? Sad? Joyful? A burden? A relief?
Choose one day – 24 hours – where you can pretend that you are dead. Imagine that you died but no one realizes it. You were granted one more day of life in your body, knowing that you are already dead. You cannot tell anyone about your experience or what is to occur.
Engage in a life review. What does it teach or show you?
Go about your day – getting dressed, possibly working, shopping, interacting with your family and friends, meditating, and generally living as you normally would to all outside appearances. Only you know that you are dead.
Are your interactions different? Are your reactions different? Are you saying and doing things in ways that are different, now that you know that you are already dead?
How is the way you are being, the way you are observing the world and the people in your life, the way you are participating in activities changed or altered?
If this contemplation is truly taken to heart, there is much that can be learned. In truth, there may only be 24 hours left to your life.
ONE YEAR TRAINING PREPARATION ASSIGNMENT #51.0
DEATH AND DYING #15
WHO DIES?
Death is nature’s way to urge us to discover our true nature, beyond the transience of this world and of our minds and bodies. The mystical view of all religions is that our real identity is beyond both birth and death. We are that which has existed before our bodies were born and we are that which will exist after they have died.
We are not only manifestations of ultimate truth. We are ultimate truth. Whether one refers to it as God, the Tao, Buddha Mind, Nirvana, the Ground of Being, , or any such designation, these words point to our inherent nature.
Who we are is beyond both existence and non-existence. When there is no longer any separation in our minds, when we have realized the non-dual reality that transcends all opposite and opposing mind constructions, we are living that truth. Enlightenment is simply waking from the dream of life that supports the illusion of a separate self.
The flight from death is a flight from the realization of our true nature. Only when death is fully accepted as the reality that occurs in each moment of existence, can we open to the ultimate reality and to our inherent freedom. It requires seeing through the illusion of control.
The following is a meditation by Stephen Levine on letting go of control. You may want to record it and play it back so you do not have to focus on reading it as you move through the process. You may want to practice this contemplation many times during the week.
LETTING GO
Let your attention come to the breath.
Not the thought of the breath but to the direct sensation of the breath as it comes and goes.
Let the awareness be soft and open making contact with each breath without the least interference.
Experience the natural tides of the breath as it comes and goes.
Don’t attempt to control it – just observe it.
Open to the changing sensations that accompany each breath.
Let the breath breathe itself. Without comment. Without any attempt to control it in any way. Allow the breath to be as it is. If it is slow, let it be slow. If it is deep, let it be deep. If it is shallow, let it be shallow.
Allow awareness and sensation to meet, moment to moment, with each inhalation, with each exhalation.
Let the breath be completely natural and free. In no way held by the mind.
Just the breath breathing itself.
Sensation arising, instant to instant, in the vast spaciousness of awareness.
If you notice the mind attempting to shape the breath, to control it in even the least way, just watch that tendency and let the breath float free. No holding. No control.
Completely let go of the breath. Let the body breathe itself. Don’t interfere with the subtle flow.
Just awareness. Vast as the sky. Spacious.
The sensations of the breath, arising and passing away within this openness. Nothing to hold to. Nothing to do. Just the breath as it is.
Each breath unique. Sensations changing, moment to moment.
From the body, other sensations arise and pass away within boundless awareness. Hands touching the legs. Buttocks touching the chair.
Each moment of sensation floating free. Each moment of experience just as it is. No need to label. No need to interrupt anything.
Not naming experience, just contacting it directly. Just being, experienced in the vastness of awareness.
Sensations of the breath. Sensations of the body. Floating free. Not holding to the breath. Not creating the body. Just moments of experience, appearing and disappearing within the vastness.
Notice how thoughts arise. Commenting. Remembering. Thinking. Each thought a bubble passing through the vast spaciousness of mind. Existing for an instant. Dissolving back into the flow. No need for control. Just the vast open flow of change. Just process unfolding moment to moment.
Thoughts think themselves. Nothing to condemn. Nothing to add. Let go of control even in the least way. Just let things be as they are, approaching and receding within the vastness of being.
Let go of the body. Let sensations float in vast space. Let go of the mind. Thoughts. Feelings. Arising and melting away. Nothing to hold on to.
Nothing to do but be. Soft. Open into the vast edgelessness of awareness.
There are no thoughts that you “own,” or are “responsible for.”
The mind seen as just more thought bubbles, floating through.
Thoughts of “me’ and “mine” arising and passing away. Instant to instant. Let them come. Let them go.
No one to be. Nothing to do. Nowhere to go. Just now. Just this much.
Let go of the body. Let go of the mind. Experience being unfolding all by itself. Without the least need of help or control. No judging. No interfering. Just being. Just Flow and Change.
Be silent and know.
Once and for all, completely relinquish control. Let go of fear and doubt. Let each thing float in its own nature.
Dissolve into the vast spaciousness of awareness. No body. No mind.
An instant of thought. Of hearing. Of remembering. Of fearing. Like waves, rising for an instant and dissolving back into the ocean of being. Into the vastness of your true nature.
No one to be. Nothing to do.
Let each instant unfold as it will.
No resistance anywhere. Let the wind blow right through you.
No one to be – just this much. This instant is enough.
Nowhere to go – just now. Just here.
Nothing to do – just be.
