In Stillness Speaks, Eckhart Tolle writes that one of the most powerful spiritual practices is to meditate deeply on the mortality of physical forms, including your own. This is called “die before you die.”
Of course you know you’re going to die but that remains a mere future possibility until death enters your life through an accident, serious illness, or the passing away of a loved one. At that moment, you can turn away from it in fear, but if you gather enough courage to face the fact that your body is fleeting and could dissolve at any moment, there is some degree of disidentification, however slight, from your own physical and psychological form, the “me.”
When you see and accept the impermanent nature of all life forms, a strange sense of peace comes upon you. This is why in Theravada Buddhism, the monks regularly visit the charnel ground to sit and meditate among the dead bodies — a practice known as mindfulness of death. Its instructions speak of “comparing” your own body to the different stages of decay through which a corpse would go if it were left out in the open. Here’s how its described in an ancient scripture, included in the book Satipatthana Meditation: A Practice Guide by Bhikkhu Analayo:
As though one were to see a corpse thrown away in a charnel ground that is one, two, or three days dead, being bloated, livid, and oozing matter, and one compares this same body with it: “This body too is of the same nature, it will be like that, it is not exempt from that fate.”
Again as though one were to see a corpse thrown away in a charnel ground that is being devoured by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs, jackals, or various kinds of worms …
a corpse thrown away in a charnel ground, a skeleton with flesh and blood, held together by sinews …
a skeleton without flesh, smeared with blood and held together by the sinews …
a skeleton without flesh and blood, held together by the sinews …
disconnected bones scattered in the main and intermediate directions, here a hand bone, elsewhere a foot bone, elsewhere a shin bone, elsewhere a thigh bone, elsewhere a hip bone, elsewhere a back bone, and elsewhere a skull …
a corpse thrown away in a charnel ground, bones bleached white, the colour of shells …
bones heaped up, more than a year old …
bones rotten and crumbling to dust, and one compares this same body with it: “This body is too of the same nature, it will be like that, it is not exempt from that fate.”
In Buddhism, mindfulness of death is a part of Satipatthana Meditation that leads to Nirvana and is preceded by mindfulness of the four elements, mindfulness of anatomical parts, mindfulness of bodily activities, and mindfulness of bodily postures. Complement with Mother Teresa on the meaning of life and then revisit spiritual teacher Eknath Easwaran on why your life is your biggest message.
About the books’ authors:
Ven. Bhikkhu Analayo was born in 1962 in Germany, was ordained in 1995 in Sri Lanka, and completed his PhD on satipatthana at the University of Peradeniya in 2000. At present, he is mainly engaged in the practice of meditation, and among other things contributes to the Encyclopaedia of Buddhism. He has authored several books on Buddhist practice, including Satipatthana and Compassion and Emptiness in Early Buddhist Meditation.
Eckhart Tolle is a spiritual teacher who conveys simple wisdom that transcends any particular religion, doctrine, or guru. A native of Germany, Eckhart Tolle attended the University of London, and upon graduation went on to become a research scholar and supervisor at Cambridge University. At 29, a profound spiritual awakening virtually dissolved his personal identity and sparked a radical change in the course of his life. It marked the beginning of an intense inward journey and he devoted the next decade to understanding, deepening, and integrating that transformation. He’s the author of The Power of Now, Stillness Speaks, and A New Earth.
I’m a freelance writer and mindfulness advocate behind this blog. What you see here is the combination of my three favorite things: reading, writing, and mindfulness. While you’re here, subscribe to my blog updates and gain access to free mindfulness resources for stress relief.
