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Meditation on Death

training the mind in the stages of the path of a person of initial scope

This has two parts:

1 Developing the aspiration to experience the happiness of higher states in future lives

2 The actual methods for gaining the happiness of higher states of existence in future lives

developing the aspiration to experience the happiness of higher states in future lives

This has two parts:

1 Meditating on death

2 Meditating on the sufferings of the lower realms

meditating on death

This has three parts:

1 Considering the dangers of forgetting about death

2 Considering the benefits of remaining mindful of death

3 The actual meditation on death

considering the dangers of forgetting about death

The dangers of forgetting about death are:

1 We will easily forget Dharma

2 Even if we do not forget Dharma we will not be likely to put it into practice

3 Even if we do not forget Dharma and we put it into practice, our practice will not be pure

4 Even if we do not forget Dharma and we put it into practice purely, we will lack persistent effort in our practice

5 We will continue to perform non-virtuous actions

6 We will die full of regret

we will easily forget dharma

If we do not remember death we will not have any wish to train our mind in Dharma, and so the door of Dharma will remain closed to us and we will not experience the good results of spiritual practice. Even though we may be fortunate enough to receive Dharma instructions, to us they will mean almost nothing. Forgetting about death we become completely engrossed in the concerns of this life alone and we devote all our energy to its welfare. When death comes we realize, too late, that all our activities have been futile.

If we remember death again and again we will overcome the habit of assuming that we are going to live in this world for ever, and we will begin to see ourself as a traveller bound for future lives. Thinking in this way reduces our anxieties, irritations and attachment to this life and all its pleasures, and it restrains us from committing actions solely for the sake of this one short life.

When a traveller stays a few nights in a luxurious hotel he does not develop strong attachment to its comforts because he knows he will soon be moving on. When he has to leave the hotel he does not feel miserable, because he has never regarded it as his real home. In the same way, if we cease to think of this life as our permanent home and begin to regard ourself as travellers bound for future worlds, we will be less attached to this life and we will naturally develop great interest in Dharma, for Dharma alone helps us in all our future lives.

even if we do not forget dharma we will not be likely to put it into practice

If we do not remember death, even if we do think about practising Dharma we will be inclined to put it off, thinking ‘I will practise Dharma properly when I have finished my work’ – but our life ends before our work is done. The tasks and activities of worldly life are endless.

If we stop to think we will see that almost all the time we are assuming ‘I will not die today.’ Day after day we have the same thought. Even on the day of their death many people continue to think ‘I will not die today.’ This complacency prevents us from being serious about our Dharma practice. When death actually comes and destroys our complacency we feel great regret, and it seems to us that this precious human life has become completely worthless. We are like someone who has visited a treasure island and, knowing that his family is in poverty, nevertheless returns home empty-handed. If we do not use this precious human life for practising Dharma we are even more foolish than this careless voyager, for what could be more foolish than to arrive at death empty-handed?

even if we do not forget dharma and we put it into practice, our practice will not be pure

If we have already been practising Dharma for some time but we have not experienced perfect results the reason is that we have not yet developed mindfulness of death. Although we may be practising Dharma, if we do not remember death our practice will not be pure and we will not be able to gain realizations.

What is pure Dharma practice? It has been explained by Teachers such as Dromtonpa that if we have renounced attachment to the comforts of this life our Dharma practice will be pure. However, if we have not renounced attachment to the comforts of this life, even if we engage in the advanced practices of Secret Mantra our practice will not be pure. To develop detachment to the pleasures of this life we do not need to abandon our wealth and possessions, our friends and family. Simply being poor and alone does not mean that we have no attachment to the good things of this life; many poor and lonely people are strongly attached to this world and its pleasures.

To renounce attachment to the comforts of this life means to be free from eight worldly attitudes:

(1) Being pleased when receiving resources and respect

(2) Being displeased when not receiving resources and respect

(3) Being pleased when experiencing pleasure

(4) Being displeased when not experiencing pleasure

(5) Being pleased when enjoying a good reputation

(6) Being displeased when not enjoying a good reputation

(7) Being pleased when receiving praise

(8) Being displeased when not receiving praise

While we remain attached to resources and respect, pleasure, a good reputation and praise, our mind is unbalanced and we are inclined to become overexcited when we possess them and dejected when we lose them. We remain unstable, vulnerable and emotionally dependent upon these things. Most of our energy goes into securing them and guarding against their loss. When we practise Dharma our motivation is strongly influenced by our attachment and so our practice, like all our other activities, is in the interests of this life alone and aimed at obtaining its enjoyments.

To overcome attachment to the welfare of this life we meditate:

It makes no difference whether or not I receive respect, a good reputation or praise. I do not receive any great benefit from these and when I lose them I am not greatly harmed. Words of blame cannot hurt me. Wealth is easily lost, and the pleasures of this life are transient. I do not need to be so interested in these things or overly concerned about them.

If we can develop equanimity with regard to the concerns of this life we will overcome many of our daily anxieties and frustrations. We will find that we have more energy for our Dharma practice and that our practice becomes pure. By comparison with non-religious people, anyone who has developed equanimity with regard to worldly concerns has a high degree of spiritual attainment.

This balanced attitude is something that we need to cultivate because we do not have it naturally from the very beginning of our spiritual training. If we have been practising Dharma for some time but cannot feel any of its benefits, the reason is that we are not yet practising pure Dharma. Therefore, in the beginning, our immediate aspiration should not be to gain the perfect results of Dharma practice. Rather, it should be to practise purely. If we can accomplish this aim the results will come naturally in their own time. At the beginning of our training, if we are ambitious to experience results, this ambition itself will be an obstacle to our pure practice because it will be mixed with attachment and worldly concerns. However, the ambition to practise purely is the well-balanced attitude of a steady practitioner.

The seventh Dalai Lama, who possessed great wealth but was not attached to any of it, said:

All I feel belong to me are my vajra and bell and my yellow robes. For a while people are calling many other things the possessions of the Dalai Lama, but in reality these things belong to others. I cannot hold onto them and call them mine.

We need to cultivate the same attitude, thinking that the things we call our own are ours to use temporarily until we pass them on to others, just as others have passed them on to us. If we have no use for any of our possessions we can give them away now so that others can benefit from them.

We may worry that if we develop equanimity with regard to gain and loss, pleasure and displeasure, good and bad reputation, and praise and blame, we will be bound to experience poverty and deprivation in the future. In fact, equanimity causes us to have greater resources and fewer problems, and cannot be a cause of misfortune. No one has died or ever will die of starvation as a result of developing detachment. In his previous lives Buddha Shakyamuni created enough merit to take rebirth as a universal monarch sixty thousand times in succession. Instead of taking these rebirths he dedicated all the merit so that in degenerate times Dharma practitioners would never be without enough to eat. Because of this, up to now in this world no pure Dharma practitioner has ever died of hunger.

even if we do not forget dharma and we put it into practice purely, we will lack persistent effort in our practice

If we forget about death then even if we practise pure Dharma we will not be able to practise continuously. We will practise one week and then abandon our practice the next week, or we may keep up our efforts for a month or even a few years and then abandon them. The cure for this laziness is to remember death again and again.

Perhaps we will experience the fruits of our practice in a future life and perhaps we will experience them very soon. The time of fruition depends upon our accumulation of merit and the effort we apply in this life. Therefore we need to make a strong resolution: ‘Whether I experience the fruits of practice quickly or slowly, I will nevertheless practise continuously in this life and in all future lives until I attain my goal.’

If we want to cook food we need to leave the stove on continuously and not keep turning it on and off. If the heat is continuous, no matter whether it is high or low our food will eventually be cooked. Similarly, if we continuously apply effort, even if it is only a small effort, it is certain that we will eventually experience the fruits of our practice.

If we remember death again and again we will not only want to practise Dharma but we will actually find it hard to stop practising. Our usual mentality will be reversed. Instead of having so much time for worldly pursuits and so little time for spiritual practice, we will find we have more and more time for Dharma and less and less time for meaningless activities. We will become like the great meditator, Geshe Karagpa. Beside the entrance to this Geshe’s cave there was a thorn bush that scratched him every time he went in and out. Each time he would think ‘I must prune that bush’, but his practice was so intense that he never found time to prune it. He lived like this because he was continuously aware of death.

we will continue to perform non-virtuous actions

If we forget about death we will often act in harmful, deluded ways to promote or protect our own worldly interests, and we may even resort to violence, endangering ourself and others. Such actions create the cause for us to continue experiencing problems in the future, and they compel us to take rebirth in the three lower realms. Once we are born there it is extremely difficult for us to find our way back again to the happier realms of humans and gods.

we will die full of regret

If we do not keep death in mind throughout our life, when the time of our death comes we will suddenly discover that all our wealth and possessions, our friends and our relatives cannot help us. We will develop fear, anxiety and regret, but our tears will be too late. We will be just like the Tibetan man called Mondrol Chodak, who was greatly admired by all who knew him for his many skills and talents. He led a very full life travelling about from place to place and meeting many different people, but when the time of his death suddenly arrived he thought to himself: ‘I have done so much, engaged in so many business ventures, so many worldly activities, but not one of these will be of any use to me now. People say that I am very clever, but in fact I am incredibly stupid because I have completely neglected spiritual practice, which is the only thing that can help me at this time. I have wasted my whole life by doing things that are of no real benefit.’ He felt strong regret and wept. In this miserable state of mind he passed away.