Living with Dying

I’ve been reviewing The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which I picked up several years ago, intrigued with a section on meditation that seems important to me just now:  “The art of dying begins with preparation for death.  As for any journey, there are innumerable preparations one can make.  The Book of Natural Liberation suggests at least five main types of preparation while still living:  informational, imaginational, ethical, meditational, and intellectual” (52).

My interest in taking up a more focused spiritual practice again is to experience some of these things listed as preparations for death.  The wisdom texts can help with that need.  I don’t want to be like the ostrich with its head in the sand; I believe in preparing for life’s various stages, being knowledgeable, ready.

That’s why meditation as an active practice attracts me again. I did it daily for many years before Michael and I met, when I was living alone.  The Tibetan Book of the Dead has a good section that gives an overview of the various meditations one can do, from the basic calming meditation of one-pointed attention, to using ordinary daily activities as opportunities for contemplation:

“This involves using sleep as a time for practice.  You can convert the process of falling asleep into a rehearsal of the death dissolutions, imagining yourself as sinking away from ordinary waking consciousness down through the eight stages into deep-sleep clear-light transparency.  And you can convert the dream state into a practice of the between-state, priming yourself to recognize yourself as dreaming when in the dream…. It is very important, for if you can become self-aware in the dream state by the practice of lucid dreaming, you have a much better chance of recognizing your situation in the between after death” (57).

I’ve had numerous lucid dreams over the years, but I hadn’t thought of them as vehicles for preparing for death!  But I’ve had fewer since I stopped practicing meditation regularly.

OM MANI PADME HUM works for me as a meditation, especially when I awaken in the night and have trouble getting back to sleep. I found it in The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and I like the idea that it evokes a universal good in all things, which can prevail even in times of misfortune.  Of course, you need to believe that there is a universal good in all things for this mantra to be effective; I guess I believe that. Or I would like to.

 

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