Many Buddhist meditations offer pleasant objects for contemplation or concentration. Many others offer neutral objects for mindfulness practice. It seems fitting that the Dharma also offers unpleasant objects for intentional awareness. Though not practiced as often as other subjects, mindfulness of death (maranasati) is an important part of the Buddha’s teachings.
One of the more famous stories from Buddhist scriptures is that of Kisa Gotami, a mother whose only child had passed. Overwhelmed with grief, she wandered her village with the corpse of her child, eventually finding herself in the presence of the Buddha. Understanding that Kisa Gotami was not of right mind, the Buddha offered her a practice that would alleviate her grief and help prevent its future arising.
In this talk, originally shared with the online sangha of the Boundless Freedom Project, I share my own experiences with death and the ways I have I come to use the Dharma with the practice of maranasati.
For those interested, the Boundless Freedom Project is an organization that focuses on sharing mindfulness and the Dharma with incarcerated people. In fact, the Boundless Freedom Project is the modern iteration of Buddhist Pathways Prison Project, the same organization that sent volunteers into Folsom State Prison, where I first sat in sangha and heard the story of the Buddha told. We meet online every Thursday evening at 6pm Pacific (here is the Zoom link).
