{"id":745,"date":"2016-03-04T16:13:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-04T16:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/new-wp\/?p=745"},"modified":"2016-03-04T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2016-03-04T16:23:16","slug":"a-guided-meditation-on-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/?p=745","title":{"rendered":"A guided meditation on death"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

\"Yao<\/a>
Yao Xin of Knoxville<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Heidegger once described apprehension of death as the realization of the possibility of impossibility<\/em>\u2014since we no longer obtain as subjects, we can\u2019t predicate states: can\u2019t feel, see, think, become angry, eat cake, get bored, or mow the lawn. (See Being and Time;<\/em> page: too lazy to look up; not that you were going to, anyway.) The mind recoils at the idea, we become anxious and fearful; we grasp about trying to distract ourselves with something frivolous. It soon works. We\u2019d rather think about anything\u2014anything<\/em>\u2014than death: abstractly thinking \u201cabout\u201d death (as a phenomenon occurring in nature) has little to do with dwelling on the certainty of our own; it\u2019s the latter that causes convulsions of the soul; the former is just another disinterested fact among disinterested facts: like a pound of fat\u2019s being 3,500 calories, or the boiling point of water\u2019s being 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Not so with the apprehension of our own<\/em> death.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Another wise Westerner, Epicurus, felt confident in our having nothing to fear of death. For as long as we are, death is not; and when death is, we are no more. I agree with Epicurus, in principle, and abstractly; but when I have a close call on the interstate, there fear is again, like an old and malicious friend, waiting in the bushes (and helpfully keeping me alive); he means well, he just spooks you (in this case, out of concern); but there are times when the fear of death comes unannounced and is persistent, at times when we\u2019re in no real present danger, and it shakes us to our bones. In times like these, meditation can be helpful. In fact, it\u2019s my pretension that I\u2019ve invented one of my own (a meditative technique, that is), though it may be the case that others have had the idea in the past; but if this is so, I\u2019m not aware of it.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Meditation consists of keeping to a theme\u2014unbroken attention; or, if it breaks, bringing it back again\u2014and again, and again, and again\u2014like a child that has a tendency to go astray. There\u2019s no mandate from heaven stating that meditation must be done seated. It can be done anywhere; and the number of objects that can be concentrated upon too might be limitless. But in this case, we\u2019re thinking of death. But from a different angle than you\u2019ve likely ever done before. The effect isn\u2019t fearful: it\u2019s just the opposite, and if anything, it\u2019s quizzical, and tends to evoke a feeling of, \u201cWhy did I never think of that before?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To effect it, it\u2019s necessary to engage in a train of thinking, which begins with a simple thought; two, in fact: bring to bear in mind the sensations of having a limb asleep, and also the sensation of fainting. Consider your experiences over the years of these events: maybe you crossed your legs too long sitting at work the other day, and when you went to stand, your leg was completely numb underneath you. You might also remember your last dental appointment and the numbing shot you received. Or a surgery you had where the anesthesiologist put you to sleep before the procedure. Or a time when you just stood too quickly from a seated position, felt light-headed, as though you were suddenly falling asleep, and had to brace yourself against a wall. You might think of the sensation of falling asleep, generally: especially those times when you catch yourself falling asleep and suddenly awaken and enliven yourself. Keep these thoughts and similar thoughts in mind. Refresh your memories of them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After a suitable period, then, sit down in a quiet place. Before you begin the meditation on death, meditate on your breath for a bit\u2014five or ten minutes will do: just enough to calm the mind and temporarily shelve the day\u2019s concerns. A simple method is to pick a spot of the body\u2014e.g., the tip of the nose, the palate, or the abdomen\u2014where you feel the body\u2019s machinations of breathing palpably. Focus your attention on this spot. If your thoughts are distracting, you can use a two-syllable meditation word to block out the distracting thoughts. A traditional one in Theravada Buddhism is \u201cBud-dho\u201d: \u201cBud-\u201d on the in-breath, \u201c-dho\u201d on the out, kept to the length of the breath, so that the ending of the one syllable directly feeds into the beginning of the next, just as the ending of our out-breaths feed into the beginnings of our in-breaths.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When the mind feels calm and the body comfortable, change the theme of your meditation to the sensation of no-sensation in one of your limbs: pick your left leg, for instance (because, if you\u2019re in a half-lotus, and not used to the position, it may be going numb anyway); and, recollecting your previous experiences of senselessness in a limb, it being asleep, numb, picture it this way: and after settling into the experience, ask yourself if it\u2019s bad, if it\u2019s painful, if it\u2019s something to feel resentful over; ask if it\u2019s something to charge Nature or God against (i.e., it isn\u2019t an instance of the \u201cproblem of evil\u201d that sometimes we have a numb limb; we aren\u2019t resentful of it; it just is as it is; and we\u2019re largely indifferent to it; sometimes, even, amused). Are we suffering terribly just because we can\u2019t feel our leg? No. In fact we aren\u2019t even really concerned.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now spread the awareness of this non-awareness of your leg to other parts of your body: imagine your whole right arm being without sensation; imagine your back being without sensation; if you\u2019ve had your eyes closed, it\u2019s easy to imagine the eyes without sensation. Imagine also an absence of sound, an absence of taste, an absence of smells. Imagine no replacement to any of these sensations; imagine only their mere absence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There is nothing horrifying or fearful to any of this.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now extend your imaginings to include remembrances of fainting, of feeling light-headed, of falling asleep. Were any of these involved with any fear? Probably not in the preponderance of cases: especially those involving cessation of consciousness; but, when having the sensation of fainting, sometimes it\u2019s accompanied by a certain feeling of being perturbed, but even this is extinguished, because the capacity of feeling anything at all, too, is suddenly diminishing.<\/em> What\u2019s left is mere absence of anything\u2014which, strictly speaking, can\u2019t be accompanied by any feeling at all; but, when there\u2019s still a modicum of sensation left in the body and consciousness left in the mind, the phenomenological experience of it is so diminished that fear, anguish, and terror, are beyond its capacity. It hasn\u2019t the \u201cenergy\u201d for it; it\u2019s too great a load for its atrophied muscles.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The train of thinking when developed\u2014the meditative theme\u2014culminates in the awareness of our having nothing we can pinpoint, specifically, to fear in losing ourselves:<\/em> our phenomenological experience of body and mind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think this is what Epicurus had in mind with his statement that we have nothing to fear with death. While we are, it isn\u2019t; when it is, we aren\u2019t. The two can\u2019t occupy the same seat. It\u2019s a bit like the threat of being hanged when you\u2019re already dead: there\u2019s nothing to fear; you\u2019re dead. But you\u2019ll also be dead when death arrives, too, in the first instance; so no matter how ugly his face, you\u2019ll never see it; for your eyes have already been extinguished.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This may be a good time, too, to consider the etymology of Nirvana: a burning out, an extinguishing.\u2014Of what?\u2014Our meditative theme has given us the answer: We\u2019ve practiced at dying, so when the time comes, we\u2019ll be more \u201cskillful\u201d at it;\u2014at least it\u2019s possible we\u2019ll have fewer pre-game jitters, to use a sports analogy.<\/em>\u00a0 Practice makes perfect.<\/p>\n

\"Van<\/a>
Skull by Vincent Van Gogh – \u00a0Date: 1887\/1888 (Image is in the public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Death: It’s going to happen to you. At an inconvenient time. You’re probably afraid. But the more you think about it, the more difficult it is to pin down precisely what it is you’re afraid of. Contained herein is a guided meditation meant to alleviate anxiety when thinking about our impending ends, however soon or far off. The implication is that at least some of our fears are unfounded. And if the most frightening thing which ever occurs to people can be made a smidgen less frightening, that’s surely worth the while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":746,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[18],"class_list":["post-745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-essays"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Van-Gogh-Skull.jpeg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phd6fo-c1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=745"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":750,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/745\/revisions\/750"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zatma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}