Micheal Kush wrote:This is helpful thank you. Any more suggestions would be conducive.
With metta, mike
From the Satipatthana Sutta:
Whoever recorded the Satipatthana Sutta wrote:"And further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body dead, one, two, or three days: swollen, blue and festering, thrown into the charnel ground, he thinks of his own body thus: 'This body of mine too is of the same nature as that body, is going to be like that body and has not got past the condition of becoming like that body.'
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees, whilst it is being eaten by crows, hawks, vultures, dogs, jackals or by different kinds of worms, a body that had been thrown into the charnel ground, he thinks of his own body thus..
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body, thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to a skeleton together with (some) flesh and blood held in by the tendons, he thinks of his own body thus...
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to a blood-besmeared skeleton without flesh but held in by the tendons, he thinks of his own body thus...
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to a skeleton held in by the tendons but without flesh and not besmeared with blood, he thinks of his own body thus...
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to bones gone loose, scattered in all directions — a bone of the hand, a bone of the foot, a shin bone, a thigh bone, the pelvis, spine and skull, each in a different place — he thinks of his own body thus...
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to bones, white in color like a conch, he thinks of his own body thus...
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to bones more than a year old, heaped together, he thinks of his own body thus...
And, further, O bhikkhus, if a bhikkhu, in whatever way, sees a body thrown in the charnel ground and reduced to bones gone rotten and become dust, he thinks of his own body thus...
Do you do any 32 parts of the body meditation? Death meditation is easy to work in with the framework of impermanence/repulsiveness of the body meditation. Establish mindfulness and concentration on the body and move through your skeleton, flesh, hair, organs, and all other parts. At each point, remember the nine contemplations above. See them as what they are and then see them as what they will be - at the moment of death, a week after death, a year after death, etc.
Another possible approach is what a monk I knew always jokingly called "Metta meditation but backwards and with death." Start by reflecting how all beings die. Reflect on all beings' bondage to death and the inescapable decay that all beings face. Then go through classes of people - rich, poor, old, young, white, black, Buddhist, non-Buddhist, wise, wicked, and so on. Reflect mindfully on how they will all meet death on equal terms. Then move to perhaps your family and relatives, or friends and acquaintances, and again reflect on the death that awaits them. Finally move into yourself and see with dispassion and mindfulness the inevitability of your death.
Make sure to not do this in a gloomy, anxious or self-pitying way! The point of mindfulness of death meditation is not to depress you but to inspire dispassion and
samvega: a sense of urgency as well as repulsion towards heedless living.
Good luck!